READY TO SEE THAT DEAD MAN DANCE?

leo • nineteen • a doctor who and torchwood sideblog hazmat torchwood accomplice • shitty torchwood books connoisseur • sometimes i make gifs main is @photoelectrics • icon by @shanheling • spoilers for the big finish content & audiobooks are under #audio spoilers

[toshsatos]

Guide to the Additional Torchwood Content

I’ve seen a few posts with people wondering how to get started with the extra content, especially the Big Finish audios. Since I remember how confusing it was for me (there’s so much of it) and organising makes me happier than it should, I made an ongoing Google slide with all the content I could think of, including books, audios, short stories, etc. 

Hope it will be useful to somebody!

[twdiscoursebot]

diversity loss! ianto is dead

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[docorwho]

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S 

[pyrofleurs]

im losing my entire mind

[cunked]

when you capture the doctor and turn her into one of your colleagues #girl

[akajustmerry]

nope sorry, can’t not talk about it. chris chibnall is so obsessed with having 13 Not Know Things and it really effects immersement. It’s one thing to give the Doctor a problem to solve, but it’s another to have them CONSTANTLY seem out of the loop.

the Doctor is literally the protagonist of a mystery solving show, and it’s their job as a character to be competent. It’s the number one rule of mystery writing, from crime shows to scifi, that your character can be flawed but not incompetent because the audience needs to TRUST that the mystery can be solved by them. It’s the first thing I teach in creative writing classes when it comes to writing characters. what’s the character really good at? what’s the one thing they know they can do even when the chips are down? for the doctor, it’s being clever, more specifically, knowledgeable because of how much they’ve seen and done.

the most egregious crime chris chibnall continues to commit is having whole episodes where the Doctor is incompetent, whole episodes where she’s completely out of the loop, completely unknowing and why? I do think a small part of it is sexism, but I also think that chris chibnall has no clue what he’s doing and hopes by making the Doctor like that too, it absolves him of having to commit to improving. I can’t believe I watched almost an hour of Doctor Who and the Doctor knew NOTHING the whole time.

Even in episodes like the Stolen Earth when the Doctor was frightened and didn’t know shit, you still saw him COMPETENTLY problem solve by going to the shadow proclamation, self-reflecting on info he’d gathered, talking over ideas with donna, etc.

By comparison, 13 won’t even talk to Yaz so we as the audience aren’t even communicated the Doctor’s thinking process which is the basic purpose of a companion. What’s more, chibnall constantly plays with the Doctor’s memory so she can’t self reflect or refer to her own fucking knowledge in a show founded on the premise of the Doctor being A KNOWLEDGEABLE PROBLEM SOLVING ALIEN.

This affects the immersion of the show because the basic structure of any Doctor Who episode is lead by the Doctor’s problem solving process. But 13 is constantly isolated from her own ability because Chris Chibnall can’t or won’t allow her to be confident in communicating her knowledge. He literally rewrote the Doctor’s whole personal mythology to make sure of it.

I’m tired I’m so so fucking tired of this man’s era this show. It’s all quippy references with zero substance and even less competence. He’s so bad at his job it’s unreal

[thirddoctor]

My own opinions aren’t as harsh as this (and I enjoyed Sunday’s episode) but this has been a problem I’ve had with Thirteen’s characterisation for awhile now. It really clicked for me when I started rewatching Matt Smith’s era last year.

Eleven and Thirteen share quite a few personality traits imo - they have a similar socially awkward, quirky energy - but a key difference is that Eleven is still allowed to be confident and swaggery and Thirteen almost never is.

I don’t necessarily mind Thirteen not always having the answers. My issue is that the majority of the time she seems to be caught just as off-guard by everything that happens as her companions, and particularly that she shows it.

It would be one thing if, internally, she had no idea what’s going on. But a very consistent trait of the Doctor’s across their regenerations is to act more knowledgeable and in control than they really are. It’s a front to keep their companions calm, a show of strength in the face of their foes, and a lie they tell themself to maintain their own confidence. They hardly ever admit when they’re out of their depth.

The times when the Doctor does appear to bumble along nervously are usually when they know exactly what they’re doing and don’t want their enemies to catch on. Two, for example, was usually at his most dangerous when he was playing the clown.

But Thirteen’s perpetual confusion appears to be genuine. She comes across as a very reactive Doctor, someone who primarily has things happen to her.

There are exceptions to this, of course, and the moments where she does get to be properly confident and in control are great. That’s when she’s at her best imo. So why don’t they allow her that more often?

I’m hesitant to throw out accusations of sexism (I certainly don’t think it’s a case of deliberate sexism), because it’s possible this is just how Chris Chibnall wants to write the Doctor and if Thirteen had been a man he would’ve handled them the exact same way, but it is very frustrating that the first female Doctor isn’t allowed the swagger and bravado of her predecessors.

[usermeggy]

What’s that in the mirror, or the corner of your eye? What’s that footstep following, but never passing by? Perhaps they’re all just waiting, perhaps when we’re all dead, out they’ll come a-slithering from underneath the bed. DOCTOR WHO (8.04 Listen)

[poreyneel]

Welcome to Torchwood

[itsatorchwoodthing]

15 YEARS TODAY!