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bringbacktentoo · 10 months

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“Rose is actually happy in a parallel universe with a half-human Doctor.” - Russell T. Davies

Hello, Whovians — we’re excited to announce the #BringBackTentoo movement!

Sign the petition

In July 2008, millions of viewers tuned in to watch ‘Journey’s End’; where the Doctor and Rose were left hand-in-hand on Bad Wolf Bay.

While fandom has remained active, continuing to generate endless works inspired by this iconic pairing, there's sadly been little official content from the people who launched the ship!

Nonetheless, our devotion remains unwavering. We persist, loving the OTP; ceaselessly spreading love and fan-made content worldwide!

The purpose of this movement is to show there is still an audience that is very interested in revisiting these two. One that would love to see the Doctor and Rose together again, on-screen or off, living their best lives in Pete’s World.

Regardless of whether it’s a spin-off, comics, audio adventures, or — and this, we believe, is crucial — anything at all, we would just love to have them back in some way. We’ve realized that perhaps there hasn’t been enough collective buzz to bring this into reality, which is why we’re looking to rally up as much support as we can.

Already with us? Sign the petition! Our petition will be emailed directly to the powers that be; including Russell T Davies, Big Finish, the BBC, and more.

Have questions? Doubts? Need a little more convincing? Then read on…

Why now?

Because there’s never been a more perfect time for it.

Already, Russell’s return has been bringing former fans back in droves. Everyone’s waiting with bated breath for RTD2 and the sixtieth anniversary; plus Ncuti, David, and Catherine. With so many fans dipping back into the Doctor Who world, why not strike while the iron’s hot?

At the fifteen-year mark, it might never be this “hot” again!

Plus… nostalgia is a massive market.

A return of Tentoo and Rose after all of these years would be the perfect cherry on top of all of it: closure for so many fans, as well as validation for the only happy ending a Doctor-and-companion pairing ever got in Doctor Who.

And don’t forget — fan campaigns work, especially in the social media age!

A spin-off — too much?

As much as we’d love to see David and Billie back on-screen together as the proper Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose, we understand that we already have David coming back in a big way, as well as Ncuti Gatwa — our brand new Doctor. It’s a big, BIG ask, trying to get a spin-off out of this. We recognize that.

However, as famished fans who are living off of little more than canonical crumbs and dreams, we will greedily devour anything we can get.

Such as:

More Big Finish audio adventures

Big Finish has done incredible work for Doctor Who, including one of the only official ‘glimpses’ we’ve gotten into Pete’s World: A couple of short audios featuring Tentoo and Jackie.

Big Finish understands and respects these characters, their relationships, and the overall source material. They’ve shown time and time again that they’re more than capable of doing justice to Doctor Who!

Audio adventures with a focus on the Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose Tyler would be fantastic. Anything from their adventures with Torchwood and/or UNIT, imaginings of their life with a TARDIS, etc — there are endless possibilities!

Comic book adventures

In 2021, Titan Comics published ‘Empire of the Wolf’, a lovely comic book that gifted us with the best glimpse we’ve ever had into the lives of the Doctor and Rose in Pete’s World:

It was a beautiful, if brief imagining of these two (and includes their daughter), but even so, the vast majority of the story involves Rose being trapped with the Eighth and Eleventh Doctors. We only get a few pages of Tentoo.

Comics would be an excellent way to dive into the parallel world again!

Novels

There are loads of Doctor Who novels with amazing stories about Rose and the Tenth Doctor (like 'The Stone Rose' by Jacqueline Rayner). But, here's the thing: there's just one official novel that dives into the whole Metacrisis and Rose relationship... And guess what? Fans are really craving content that stays true to RTD and Julie Gardner's original vision for this couple.

The good news is, there are tons of talented writers out there who would jump at the chance to create legit Meta-Crisis stories, and some would even do it for free!

An animated series

We recognize that this would be a tremendous undertaking, but imagine: You can do incredible things with animation that aren’t possible with film. It would appeal to fans of all ages, and Billie and David have more than proven themselves to be excellent voice actors. There are all sorts of stories that could be created in this medium.

But let’s say we went with the first choice…

A spin-off/miniseries

RTD has been very vocal about his plans for spin-offs. Billie and David are willing, and it hasn’t been so long that the pairing has lost relevance… Although, in Doctor Who, does anything ever really lose relevance? The show is known for bringing back old characters. Enemies, companions… Doctors:

It’s obvious that David seems to have no issue with playing the Doctor. Furthermore, even Billie Piper has recently expressed interest in a spin-off!

In 2019, she told Doctor Who magazine:

“I would like to see a one-off dark comedy about Rose and the Doctor in the parallel universe”.

Then, even more recently in December 2022, she told Buzzfeed [on returning to Doctor Who]:

“If it was like four episodes all shot in London, then yeah, I’d be like a rat-up-a-drainpipe for that.”

Four episodes of Tentoo and Rose in London? What could be more perfect than that?

Wouldn’t a spin-off overshadow Ncuti Gatwa?

It doesn’t have to! If a spin-off were to happen, it wouldn’t necessarily have to happen immediately — it can happen after Ncuti has been established as the Doctor, and after RTD has re-established himself as showrunner. We’d just like for it to be part of the conversation, and let those in charge know that people are interested.

So… What about the people who didn’t like the ending?

Yes, there are some naysayers out there. People who refuse to acknowledge Tentoo’s legitimacy as the Doctor; others who refuse to believe that Rose could ever be truly happy with him, and vice versa.

This, sadly, is willful ignorance. Not only has Russell T. Davies, the man who wrote Journey’s End — who created Tentoo and Rose — confirmed that they're happy; the Doctor himself, David Tennant, will be the first person to tell you that those two are blissfully shagging their lives away at all times. And god bless him for it.

We’ve come to find that a lot of people who aren’t on board with the ending just didn’t understand it, which is fine — what better way to understand this pairing than by seeing more of them?

On that note…

How can I help?

Sign the petition!

Petitions are old school, but they are proven to be effective at affecting change, even in today’s world. We can preach to the ends of the earth about how much we want to bring these two back, but without numbers to back it up, the prospect is null and void.

Don’t just like this post — please reblog!

This is a grassroots effort that is counting on the power of fans to help spread the word. Unlike most social media platforms, there is no algorithm on Tumblr. Likes do nothing for visibility, so please reblog to make sure as many people see this as possible!

Participate in Tentoo x Rose Month

This is a multi-medium fan event for creating content of the OTP throughout all of July! All works will be featured on the @tentoorosemonth2023 page, with certain works even shared on the BringBackTentoo Instagram.

Buy the already-existing content

If you haven’t already, buy the ‘Empire of the Wolf’ comic. Buy the Big Finish audios ‘The Siege of Big Ben’ and ‘Flight Into Hull!’. Show these fantastic creators that we will gladly consume any content about these two that we can get!

Spread the word

Know anyone who likes Doctor Who? Any former fandom friends who might’ve outgrown all of this, but would enjoy more Tentoo/Rose content? Or maybe even just a random IRL friend who supports your obsessions? Link them to the petition!

Join the movement by following this page and our Instagram (which is brand new, give it time to grow ♥️). Keep on creating content, using #BringBackTentoo to tag any of your fanart, well-wishes, or whatever you like across platforms — just please be sure to keep it positive!

Feel free to DM/ask if you have any other questions, concerns, or ideas that weren’t touched upon in this post.

And please, for goodness' sake, be kind. This is a labor of love inspired by passionate fans and creators who just want to see our OTP again. ♥️

#bringbacktentoo #doctor who #tentoo x rose #tentoo #rose tyler #metacrisis doctor #pete's world #rtd era #tenth doctor #tenrose #ten x rose #timepetals #doctor x rose #journey's end #big finish #titan comics #empire of the wolf

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shiningshenanigans · 4 months

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Finally watched all of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials! They were honestly some of the most enjoyable/cathartic things I've watched all year!

I've never considered myself a Whovian, but I did have a very brief, very intense hyper-fixation on David Tennant's era back in 2014-ish. I intentionally dipped out of the fandom because the end of Tennant's run just gutted me so much. I spot-watched a few episodes with Matt Smith after that, but I couldn't bring myself to get invested any further. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the show; it just seemed to repeat the same pattern of love and loss over and over again, and I wasn't in a place where I could emotionally handle consuming media like that. At some point I was just like, "Mmmm, nope, this show is too sad - too much content, not for me, not gonna get invested any further than this byeeeee"

(Side note: weirdly enough, if anyone's read this post about the reaction I had recently to the Loki season 2 finale, my reaction to Ten's last episode was actually really similar, so... these things came out at a really appropriate time).

Something in my heart clicked back into place when I finished that third episode, like an old wound that I forgot I had was finally healed. Seeing the Doctor sitting at a table, surrounded by people he loves, enjoying a meal, perfectly at peace, finally getting a moment to breath and enjoy "the one adventure he can never have"… wow. What delightful way to wrap up Tennant's brief return, especially when you compare it to how he went out the last time.

I just think it's so awesome how tragic stories always right themselves eventually, even if it takes 10-20 years. We just can't seem to leave them alone until we're sure that everything is healed and made right in the end. It's almost like we're built for restoration (lol, I say almost, like I don't know--we are built for restoration, that's it, no doubt about it). Russel T Davies, thank you for writing a little bit of comfort into this weary world for the people who enjoyed your work back in the day! These episodes were a gift!

#doctor who #tenth doctor #fourteenth doctor #david tennant #russle t davies #doctor who 60th anniversary

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crinkle-eyed-boo · 1 year

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When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass it on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love! 🩷

ILYSM, Marshmallow. Thank YOU for the part you played in all of these <3

Own the Scars - My first baby. Looking back, I can't believe the audacity I had dropping a 145K slow-burn fic where Louis went through rehab as my very first fic in this fandom when I didn't know anyone. 2018 me was BRAVE.

There's Such a Lot of World to See - Claiming a prompt from a fic fest where the admins disappeared into the ether turning into the definition of the whole "write the fic YOU want to read" trope. Doctor!Louis MAY be my fave Louis I've written. (This fic absolutely wouldn't have worked without Maggie's beta work as a non Whovian who was actually VERY GOOD at Doctor Who!)

Let Our Hearts Collide - I'll always be sad this one suffered a bit in the wake of the fandom brouhaha that surrounded that year's Big Bang. I'd wanted to adapt While You Were Sleeping from the moment I got into Larry fic and I'm so proud of how it came out. I think this is my favorite Harry I've written and I loved being able to really dig deeper in regards to his journey.

No Bunny But You - A silly little idea that was inspired by a smoke break outside of my office that both helped me break out of writer's block AND proved to me that despite my initial protestations, I can write something angst free when I put my mind to it.

Mine Would Be You - My entire heart and soul on the page. My love letter to New York City and a rumination and reflection on my 20s. Harry and Louis handing me gift-wrapped material in the form of Fine Line and Walls. Sometimes it still feels like I'm recovering from it, even three years later.

#My fic #28th Appreciation

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doccywhomst · 1 year

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hello! i have a whovian in my life and i am trying to figure out what to get them as a gift. what kinds of doctor who stuff would you want to receive? open to any suggestions or links 🙂

great question!!! here's a list of gifts that most whovians would get a kick out of:

this mini light-up tardis: a cute and inexpensive desk accessory :)

nuwho/general tardis key: a bit pricier at $23 USD, but something that I'd wear every day (as a huge fan of the show)

classic who tardis key: much less expensive at $7 USD, but a prop from the classic era that might not interest nuwho fans

high-quality sonic screwdriver pen: this pen kicks so much ass, but it'll run you about $30 USD, not including shipping. still, an extremely cool and practical gift!

pins and patches: if your recipient is someone who wears a patch jacket/enamel pins, you could get them a nice, quality addition to their collection! i own this metal seal of rassilon pin and this question mark pin and both are lovely, subtle fandom accessories

if anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to put them in the tags or notes! ❤❤

#:)))#doctor who #classic who

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mizgnomer · 3 years

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Behind the Scenes of Planet of the Dead - Part 15

Excerpt from Doctor Who - The Complete History

David Tennant started making a video diary of his final days as the Doctor on Wednesday 14 January, as he returned to his Cardiff flat. “The beginning of the end for me as Doctor Who,” he ruminated as he prepared to leave London. “It’s a slightly odd feeling today heading off to start that. It’s been a mad old four years...”

Arriving at the readthrough at St. David’s Hotel later that day, David introduced himself as “Matt Smith”, and then chatted on camera to Julie Gardner, Russell T. Davies, and guest-star Michelle Ryan. “It’s a relief to be back because I’m coming home,” he commented. In the months since he had recorded Music of the Spheres (the short produced especially for Doctor Who at the Proms), David discovered that he had to remind himself of the voice he had used as the Doctor, by re-watching DVDs of his early episodes. “I found it quite tricky to get into the mindset again,” he admitted to Doctor Who Magazine.

Link to [ Part One ] of this set, or click the #whoBtsPotD tag for all parts. A link to all behind-the-scenes sets can be found [ here ] .

#david tennant #michelle ryan #doctor who #rtdedit #planet of the dead #the first episode in the 'specials season'#I'm amused that the Complete History books #are essentially transcribing david's video diaries here #bless david and those video diaries #a gift to whovian fandom #stuff i posted #whoBts #whoBtsPotD

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leomitchellart · 3 years

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Christmas prezzie for @frozen-himbo, as part of our Discord’s ‘Secret Santa’. Looking at his list of likes, I couldn’t resist drawing Markiplier as the 10th Doctor, all bathed in his favourite colours! Hope you like it!

Please REBLOG but do not repost

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captainjackspoilers · 4 years

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13 oil painting now available on redbubble! (Keep an eye out for sales leading up to the holidays- anything from Redbubble (wink wink- from my shop-) makes a really cool present! Currently 25% off with code MORTY25)

#doctor who #13th doctor #jodie whittaker #oil painting #find your thing #redbubble #gift ideas #whovian #geek #nerd #dw fandom #dw fanart #dw

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pictsies-crivens · 5 years

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The Tattoo Post

It's been a couple of weeks in coming, but, it is time I gathered my thoughts together and wrote about the tattoos I got 2.5 weeks ago, and the reasoning behind them. I'll cross-post on Twitter at some point. Apologies, it's a long one.

Here they are:

The explanation: a sad tale of the end of a marriage, now ten entire years ago. The original tattoo, on my upper arm, a birthday gift from my spouse to match their own. I won't go in to details, but we shall say the events surrounding The End caused an episode of extreme depression, and the thoughts that will inevitably accompany such episodes.

I found myself one afternoon soon after The End, sitting on the floor of the new house I had rented with my teenaged children, setting up the television service. I saw Alex Kingston, who caught my eye, as we have the exact same hair (I call her my hair twin). She was standing in the midst of a group of soldiers, with a lovely young redhead, and a young fellow in tweed. The young fellow said, "I’m about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump." (Note: Whovians can probably guess I'm talking about Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.) I remember being confused, as my dad watched Doctor Who when it aired on PBS and the Doctor guy certainly didn't look LIKE THAT. I finished watching the episode, then saw Smith and Jones (a Tennant one). Welp, I was hooked. I fell more and more for this quirky crazed show, finding other Whovians online and in the graduate classes I was enrolled in. If you notice the silhouette inside the TARDIS door, you'll discover who my Doctor is. Step the first to distracting my broken mind from it's singular focus on the dark.

I know, gentle reader, you're probably thinking, shut up, what about Crowley? Well, I'm getting there.

Step the second: I've randomly engaged with the work of Neil Gaiman through the years, starting with Sandman. I became a fan in earnest after watching Stardust (maybe 2 to 3 years after its initial release). It was in the quicksand slow-sink of my after-divorce that I found Good Omens. Gods, it was like taking in a lungfull of clear air after the near drowning in sorrow I was doing every day. I genuinely laughed, probably the first time since, well, you know, reading the paintball incident. Those ineffable idiots bring me such joy. I found Sir Terry Pratchett, DiscWorld, and the delirious giddiness his writing brings my soul.

I decided, a few years back, to cover up my tattoo that shares a similar pattern with the one on my former spouse. With what? Had to be something I loved, something that had brought me joy, one of those things that had been my life raft. The decision was easy. Doctor Who (space scene and the TARDIS, maybe Starry Night?) for the cover up, and the book cover image of Crowley (who, I had decided, was the greatest character ever conceived of in fiction). This perfectly imperfect and adorable thing right here, if you were wondering which book cover:

Well, I gathered the funds, and researched artists. I found the quite talented and cool as all get out David Cox (https://www.instagram.com/davidcoxtattoos/) and was all set to go, I was thinking, yes, this summer.

On May 31, the show dropped, and I saw a living, breathing Crowley. And my precious, impossible, enough of a bastard to be worth liking/knowing Aziraphale. (Yes, I'll probably tattoo something of him, though Michael Sheen is forever inked upon my heart now). The dam in my head with ten years of writer's block collapsed, leaving floods of words and stories in its wake. I'm writing again; I've found my (Ineffable) Muses. Searching out for my fellows in fandom here on Tumblr, I saw an art piece by the insanely talented @retrouvel.

I sent a message after a couple days thought, and asked if I could base our Crowley design off their idea. And bless them infinitely, they said yes. A bit of a change, because I wanted WINGS, and a more traditional tattoo look, but at heart, it was inspired by the amazing Retrouvel, and I can't thank them enough. Do note, he's still sideways, though not exactly sauntering. That's why I have flame haired Crowley. Apologies to Master Gaiman for the use of his fantastic line from Sandman #6 and the capitalisation of a letter that is not so in its original form. It is a favorite phrase of mine, for all its infinite possible connotations.

I'll end with this: Friends, when you're drowning as I was, find something, anything to cling to. I had my now adult offspring (hi kids didn't forget you), a lovely therapist called Misty, my Doctors😉 and my Gaiman and Pratchett; to them I still cling so very tightly. Remember, there's someone, probably more than just one someone, that wants you to stay. I'm one of them. Find your buoy, your life jacket, anything that floats in your ocean of tears and doubt (tell Rose to bunch over, there's room on that door) and bloody cling to it. Just call for it, send up a flare, rescue will come.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #anthony janthony crowley #goodomens #gnu terry pratchett #peter capaldi #doctor who #tattoos #neil gaiman #apologies to neil gaiman #Retrouvel #hi nick frost i still love you the tattoo about you is coming soon #sandman #hi guys if you need help the trevor project is awesome #if youre looking for a place to donate money trevor project

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melyaliz · 4 years

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Canary 17

Canary Masterlist

Fandom: Marvel

Summary: Sometimes all you can do is sleep away a broken heart.

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Notes: Thank you to everyone for being so patient with me! Honestly, I don’t deserve you lovely people and all the wonderful comments, reblogs, and likes. I know this chapter is a bit angsty but I promise the next one will be better.

All Masterlists @melyalizarchive

Connect with me! AO3 / Instagram / Pinterest

DONATE or REQUEST

------------------------------

The first time I realized I had powers it was like the most exciting yet natural thing that had ever happened to me. As if I had held on to them all along. It was like taking your first steps. Wobbly at first but soon you are running as fast as you can toward nowhere.

My powers are like another extension of who I am. They come to be as easy as my sight. Seeing sounds around me, the way they float and sink. How some are sharp and some are gentle.

It is strange how something so unnatural to everyone else is just so natural to me.

Not like love.

Love is hard.

Love makes no sense.

Love is confusing.

And as I watched the only man I think I may have truly loved leave me I didn’t know how to react. He had come into my life so quickly and left in the same manner.

Loud, brash, silent, and mischevious.

It was like he could see me when no one else. Like he could hear me. He knew things no one else did without anyone telling me. He just seemed to know them.

It was as if our souls just looked at each other and knew they would have an impact on each other. Even before we did.

The whole ordeal was exhausting.

And thinking about it made me sick.

So walking back into my bedroom I curled up in my bed trying to ignore the fact that my sheets smelled like him. Surrounded by a million memories that were so bittersweet I could taste them on my tongue. I could feel them all around me, deep in my bones.

I slept and slept. Every time I woke I just didn’t have the will to pull myself up. So I laid there. Watching the sun’s rays cast a million different hues through my room. Bright warm noon sun turning into soft orange rays casting deep shadows across my room. Pitching it into the darkness like the deep black that seemed to fill my brain. And then the sun rose again, spilling warm light pooling into my room reminding me of a new world out there.

A world I wasn’t really interested in at the moment.

After all, I did just vanquish an Ogre king and break up with a God.

I deserved to stay here.

New world be damned.

After all, I was safe here in my warm sheets. My pillows held me, took me in their warm embrace. They understood.

They would never leave me.

I was about to drift off back into sleep when a soft knock caressed my door.

“Yeah?”

“Hey Y/N can I come in? ?”

Steve’s voice was just as soft as his knock as he slowly creaked the door open. His words floating across the room to my cocoon of fluff I had made for myself. My fortress away from the heartache of the world.

“I’m not feeling like training today.”

“I mean I didn’t expect it after yesterday but…” his steps were heavy as he crossed the room, the bed dipping slightly as he sat at the edge of it. “I wanted to see if you were ok?”

I glanced up my gaze meeting his. Arms folded in his lap as he studied me. Those soft blue eyes probably seeing more than I would like. Damn him and his daddy steve leader whatever bullshit magic those eyes held.

“Yeah. Just want to be lazy”

“Are you sure you’re lazy day doesn't have anything to do with a certain… Asgardian?”

“I’m fine…” My words sharp, harsher than I had meant for them to be. No filter. Steve raised an eyebrow clearly not buying it. “Ok, so maybe I’m a little… hurt. Rejected. But he said he was a god and I’m a mortal so if he wants to think of me that way then why should I bother?”

“You are better than he is.” Steve said, “You are better than most of us.”

“Coming from you that means a lot,” I muttered feeling my heart heavy in your chest. It felt like a sponge, wet and heavy. Part of me just wanted to squeeze out all this sadness. Make it light again. Make you dry. “And I know I should but… I just want to be sad for a little bit.”

“You are allowed to feel things Y/N” Steve said, my name dancing gracefully across the room as he patting the bottom of the bed where my feet were, frowning he pulled his hand up, a small necklace between his fingers. It’s delicate stone caught the light glistening

“Here, when are want to come back to us, wash up put on a nice dress and some jewelry and we can all go dancing.”

I took the necklace confused where had he been hiding that? Had he really gotten me a breakup gift, “I… thank you, Steve.”

“Any time.”

“And… how did you know Saphire’s were my favorite?”

“Huh?”

His expression matched mine as I held up the necklace, “this stone,” I said.

“That was just at the end of your bed.”

“Oh… well, unthank you then... For the necklace. Thank you for the offer to go dancing. I’ll take you up on that.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.”

As he left I twisted the necklace around in my fingers the silver strands shone in the morning light. While very delicate it felt strong, almost unbreakable. The beautiful sapphire stone was a dark blue that looked like the night sky after the sun had set. Brilliant and blue with a deepness that seemed so vast it could swallow you up.

Where had this come from?

Then it hit me Loki’s space mistress had said something about a necklace.

Loki

Letting out a grow I threw it across the room before pulling the blankets over my head. If this really was that necklace I hope it catches fire and burns. I don’t think I would EVER understand that man.

God

Whatever.

-----

“My Son,” Frigga said taking his hands in her own. Loki glanced up at his mother from his seat in the middle of the courtyard where he was sitting. A book in his lap as he lounged on a large couch. A small girl braiding flowers into his long black hair.

“My Mother” Loki muttered rather dejectedly. The small child looked up at Frigga smiling up at the queen.

“My Lady, he was sad so I’m making him pretty.”

“I’m NOT sad!” Loki snapped trying to pull his head away from the small girl only to have her pull him back into place with slightly unearthly strength. Letting out a sigh Loki resigned himself to his plight opening his book again. This child had just come upon him and forced her services. Normally he would have brushed her aside but lately… he just didn’t have the energy.

Although normally small children didn’t just come up to him and offer to make him flower crowns.

His reputation had been ruined.

Gently the queen mother pushed down the book from her son’s face. Her smile said it all. Soft and caring as if she knew. Of course, she knew. She was Frigga. No matter what Loki tried to do he could not hide anything from her.

“Have you once again ruined something beautiful? Thor has his hammer and brashness but you are a destruction that is so swift you don’t even see it coming until the wounds have healed into scars.”

Loki rolled his eyes trying to fight back the flood of emotions even the memories of his “swift destruction” had caused. “Mother she was nothing but a mortal.”

Frigga looked over the small girl who was just adding the final touches to her masterpiece in Loki’s dark hair. This hadn’t been the first of their people to reach out toward the moody prince. Many servants and subjects alike had seemed much more comfortable around the brooding prince. He accepted them with his same bark but showed much less teeth until slowly he had let them in. Her son was a different man. Everyone saw it yet no one but the queen herself knew why.

“If she has made my son the man he is now she must be a goddess.”

-GET TAGGED!-

Forever tag: @royslittleharper @the-shadow-of-atlantis @coffee-randomness @0hmydeku @xx3fsxx @daisyboobear @ @jason-redhood @hello-i-lovespiderman-blr @ocelysium @pinkwitch21 @tomhncharliep @cdwmtjb8

Loki: @wayward-hell @winterssoldierrs

Canary: @baybay123455 @rizanendoza808 @dragonrosegardens @6-daughter-of-a-witch-6 @califorina-grown @2s0uls @oh-no-a-whovian @it-jinxed-us @pixiehex1985 @bolontiku

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sheliesshattered · 4 years

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woah i have a tardis necklace i wear everyday too!! where’d yours come from?

Mine was a gift several years back, so I don’t know specifically where my husband bought it from, but I’m pretty sure it was from someone on Etsy who hand-casts them. I love my little TARDIS so much. I also like that it’s subtle enough that most people don’t realize that it’s a fandom thing when I’m out in public, but when someone does recognize it, they tend to be a pretty devoted Whovian as well, so it’s a great shared fan moment. ❤️

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elizadoolittlethings · 5 years

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Cyberons, sexy Zygons and Mark Gatiss: the bizarre world of the unofficial Doctor Who spin-offs

An oral history of the franchise's unlicensed spin-offs with Sylvester McCoy, Nick Briggs and those at the heart of Who's fan-made films

By Thomas Ling

Tuesday, 27th November 2018 at 1:19 pm

Colin Baker, the man who played The Sixth and arguably proudest Doctor, was next to naked. But he didn’t seem bothered by the bare front peeking through his limp dressing gown. And nor by the vision of a dying Peter Davison that had caused him to collapse while presenting a live TV weather report moments earlier.

Instead, in this semi-stripped moment, his focus belonged solely to Nicola Bryant, the actor who had played Doctor Who companion Peri – and the woman currently planting kisses down his exposed chest.

The 7 biggest contradictions in Doctor Who canon

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A surprising turn, many would think, but Baker seemed completely at ease. Yet soon there would be things he couldn’t ignore.

Soon he’d unearth a plot to replace humans with a synthetic race that could survive a poisoned atmosphere. Soon he would encounter a mysterious Michael Moore-style filmmaker who took the appearance of Sylvester McCoy. And, perhaps most worrying of all, soon he’d witness an apparition of Jon Pertwee that would vanish as unexplained as it had appeared.

Of all the directions Doctor Who could have taken, few could have predicted this. Yet the above is exactly how many fans celebrated the show’s 30th anniversary in 1993: watching a half-naked Colin Baker in The Airzone Solution, a fan-made straight-to-video multi-Doctor story.

Except this wasn’t actually a Doctor Who story. Not officially, anyway. But while Baker, Davidson, McCoy and Pertwee weren’t actually playing Time Lords, The Airzone Solution was Doctor Who in all but name. As McCoy explains to us, the film was “a kind of shadow of Who. Something different with major Whovian influences.”

And although not a licenced Doctor Who production, The Airzone Solution had more of a standing in the fandom than anything the BBC had gifted Whovians since putting the show on hiatus four years earlier in 1989.

While the amateur filmmakers behind Airzone managed to reunite four Doctors for an hour-long special, the BBC’s planned anniversary extravaganza The Dark Dimension collapsed completely mid-production. From its wreckage the Beeb merely marked three decades of the most influential British sci-fi creation with a Doctor Who/EastEnders crossover introduced by Noel Edmonds.

True, this Children in Need short saw the Tardis back on BBC1, but Romana riffing with the Mitchell brothers and the Fifth Doctor crossing paths with Pat Butcher was hardly the glorious return of the Time Lords many had imagined.

So, with fans’ appetites unsatisfied, thousands fed their hunger for Who with The Airzone Solution and the string of 24 other spin-offs films that emerged in the show’s wilderness years – the decade and a half without a regular Doctor Who TV series.

They weren’t official BBC stories, but they did heavily borrow from Doctor Who mythology and featured a mix of past actors, characters and suspiciously familiar monsters (no points for guessing what the ‘Cyberons’ were based on).

More importantly, though, these films nurtured Who’s biggest stars of the revived series. Writer and actor Mark Gatiss, voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs and writer Robert Shearman, alongside the likes of Alan Cumming and Reece Shearsmith: all cut their teeth on these films.

And while many of these stars might look back at them with a blush, the spin-offs may well be the reason they ended up working on the revival show.

Despite their shaky CGI, shoestring Sontarans and nymphomaniac Zygons (more on that below), these films actually silently shaped the Doctor Who we know today…

The first, the unoriginal, you might say

It all started in Wartime. All 25 spin-offs were sparked by this 35-minute one-off, a fan-made story that centred on Whovian favourite Sergeant Benton. Although not a household name for modern Who viewers, Benton was a stalwart soldier of the Pertwee era of the show, a key UNIT officer who battled against Cybermen, Daleks and even dinosaurs on Britain’s streets.

Yet it’s not the return of original actor John Levene as Benton, the character’s surreal confrontation with his soon-to-be-widowed mother or even the fantastically 1980s CGI skull that stands out about Wartime. It’s the release date: 1987, two years before Who was pulled off air.

In other words, Wartime wasn’t made in response to the cancellation, but for a very different reason.

“We made Wartime because we weren’t happy with the way that Doctor Who was going and we thought we could do better,” says Wartime producer Keith Barnfather, one of the founding members of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and former BBC and Channel 4 employee.

“That was an absolute joke considering the funds available. The only reason that [Wartime] got made was that everyone who did it did it virtually for nothing.”

With borrowed costumes, a minuscule budget of only a few thousand pounds and a filming location they had never visited beforehand, Barnfather and his newly-formed production company ReelTime Pictures got Wartime in the can in just three days – about a fifth of the time it takes to film a modern Who episode.

The result: a creaky-looking drama with questionable effects and an enthusiastic but ultimately forced performance from Levene. But all these glaring flaws weren’t important. All that mattered was it had got made. A group of fans had actually put together a real self-contained show set in the world of Doctor Who.

“I was happy – it was the first time we did anything and we actually finished it!” says Barnfather. “It’s not a bad little drama. Even today I can watch it and not cringe.”

Most importantly, however, Wartime proved that independent spin-offs were possible. It showed that Doctor Who stories didn’t require Doctor Who on BBC1. Because when the show was finally cancelled two years later in 1989, other also looked to put their own Who adventures on camera.

And this time the Doctors themselves would want in…

The Time Lords materialise

Determined, brilliant, completely barking mad: there are many ways to describe Who filmmaker Bill Baggs. Indeed, some labelled him all three after he founded BBV Pictures in 1991, kick-starting projects with some truly out-of-this-world ambitions.

Why? Although only a young video editor at BBC Nottingham, the aspiring director/actor aimed to do more than tell Doctor Who stories about background UNIT soldiers. Baggs wanted the Doctors – and plenty of them.

Staggeringly, he got one in his first film. After a script was cobbled together for short drama Summoned by Shadows, Baggs approached Colin Baker to play a lead character known simply as The Stranger, a mysterious and eccentric unnamed traveller who roams time and space with a younger companion. Nothing like The Doctor, of course.

And despite not actually playing a Time Lord, or knowing virtually anything about the film, or having met the man behind it, Baker signed up.

“I could not believe it. I was wetting myself with excitement!” remembers Baggs. “As a Doctor Who fan you have little fantasies about this, but you never expect them to pan out! I was blown away and deeply honoured.”

Although we can’t be sure of Baker’s motives for coming on board – he declined to speak to us about the spin-offs – Baggs puts forward one theory: “I think from Colin’s point of view, he was doing a lot of theatre work after Doctor Who, so why not give up a few days and potentially invest in me, fool that he was,” he says with a laugh.

“From his point of view, I had no profile. He didn’t know me from Adam, apart from being this potentially up-and-coming director. But if you show passion and desire then often people will support you.”

Whatever the reason, Baker did join the project. And despite Baggs becoming cripplingly star-struck after meeting him at rehearsals (“I asked him for a cup of tea and disappeared down the corridor!”), filming soon started in true Doctor Who style: in an empty quarry – the same one, in fact, where Baker had filmed Attack of the Cybermen years earlier.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xanrcw

Like Wartime, this drama had a minuscule budget (just £3000 in total) and, as with the majority of Doctor Who’s 1980s episodes, it hasn’t aged well. Baker’s wonderfully understated performance, however, still shines through. He’s quiet and thoughtful throughout, showing fans exactly what his widely-criticised Doctor could have been.

As Mark Gatiss later told Doctor Who magazine (issue 332) about the films: “I remember watching them and thinking they didn’t look very flashy, but in terms of trying to portray real characters they were a massive improvement on Doctor Who!”

Gatiss wasn’t the only one taken with Summoned by Shadows and what would become ‘The Stranger series’ – thousands bought the films on VHS by post and at conventions.

Demand became too high, in fact. “I had to set up three VHS machines in my bedroom and I was duplicating videos through the night,” says Baggs, recalling how he had to call on his parents to help his videotaping “mini-factory”.

Above: a clip from The Stranger: More than a Messiah

So many copies would be sold, in fact, that by 1993 Baggs had the confidence to embark on a project bigger than anything he done before: a one-off special for Who’s 30th Birthday, The Airzone Solution, the film that would eventually feature a scantily-clad Colin Baker.

Fortunately, that scene doesn’t represent most of the film. Penned by the emerging Nicholas Briggs, Airzone was an environmental thriller set in a near-future Britain where pollution forces the government to build giant filtration plants to clean the dying planet.

And in true Doctor Who style, these centres actually serve a much more sinister agenda: kidnapping and experimenting on innocents to create a new species of human.

Baker once again signed onto the project and Baggs convinced Peter Davison to jump aboard (“that was another moment of punching the air!” Baggs recalls). This was soon followed by McCoy, a monumental achievement considering he was technically still Who’s incumbent Doctor.

Like previous spin-offs, this was by no means a major project with BBC1 exposure and a large pay-packet. But, for McCoy at least, it was a way of keeping the fandom thriving.

“We wanted to feed a hunger that was alive at that time for more Doctor Who,” he says. “I knew the BBC had made a huge mistake by putting Doctor Who into hiatus. I also knew the fans loved [the spin-offs]. For the fans I thought ‘yeah I’ll do this!’”

Bring back the Doctor Who pre-credits scene!

Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston threatened to sue the BBC after quitting show

Furthermore, with a TV revival appearing absurdly unlikely in 1993, McCoy considered the project the only way Who could survive on screen.

“You might find this hard to believe, but I don’t really have a Tardis. I couldn’t really travel back in time and tell everyone ‘we’re going to make a TV film and then they’re going to bring it back again!’” he chuckles.

With these three star signings, others followed suit. Actors including Nicola Bryant, original Davros star Michael Wisher and the then-relatively-unknown Alan Cumming all joined the film.

But then someone even the omni-ambitious Baggs thought too unattainable got in touch: Jon Pertwee, The Third Doctor. “Sylvester came to me one day and he said ‘I’ve been speaking to Jon Pertwee and he’s been asking why he’s not in it. He might get in touch!’” Baggs remembers.

Sure enough, the call came, with Baggs happily at the former Doctor’s mercy. “It was very charming to actually have an actor so connected to the show call and say ‘I’m in it, whether you like it or not!’”

Pertwee may have been completely unfamiliar with the script when he turned up to set the next day – Peter Davidson actually had to hold up cue cards for him during scenes – but in it he was. And for two days, four Doctor Who leads were brought together for some good old-fashioned low-budget sci-fi.

“It obviously didn’t have quite the financial support that the BBC gave Doctor Who. But it was great because the fans were so involved,” recalls McCoy “We were treated very well. We all had a great time!”

McCoy’s recollections of the shoot are all positive, whether teasing Baker “for taking his job”, filming a chase scene that would fail any modern risk assessment (“I took my glasses off and would be driving around half blind!”), or simply spending time with his Doctor Who co-stars.

“I remember filming and just sharing the day with Colin, Peter and the glorious Jon Pertwee. It was great because it was still alive. When the BBC stopped it, you thought ‘well, that’s it, goodbye’. Doctor Who is one of the great jobs,” he says.

“And although this wasn’t Doctor Who, it was very like Doctor Who.”

The Pandorica opens

As suddenly as the Tardis surfacing from the time vortex, a whole series of Doctor Who spin-offs materialised after The Airzone Solution. Some good. Some bad. All brilliantly weird.

For ReelTime, the makers of Wartime, the next Who project entailed a team-up between Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith and The Brigadier (a role reprised by original actor Nicholas Courtney) in a story called Downtime featuring the Great Intelligence and some gloriously low-budget Yeti monsters.

This was followed up by adventures featuring Sontarans, a Shakespeare-loving Draconian and even former Doctor Who companion Sophie Aldred, this time playing an unnamed character with, completely coincidently, the same direct way with words as Ace.

But while these characters were typically used with the BBC’s permission, other spin-offs – mostly those created by maverick Bill Baggs under BBV Pictures – simply gave a heavy nod to Who, such as the murderous robotic machines featured in Cyberon or the aforementioned interstellar traveller The Stranger.

But despite the glaring similarities, there seemed to be little fear of the BBC shutting down production. “We didn’t care!” laughs McCoy, who starred in many of Baggs’s later spin-offs. “They deserved to get annoyed because they abandoned it and the fans!”

On other occasions the dramas blended the show’s characters and actors in ways that, simply put, just didn’t make a lot of sense – even by Doctor Who’s timey-wimey standards.

Take the Torchwood-esque PROBE series, directed by Baggs and penned by future Who and Sherlock stalwart Mark Gatiss, a writer slowly gaining success with The League of Gentlemen at the time.

This mid-1990s series centred on the Preternatural Research Bureau, a paranormal investigations unit led by classic Doctor Who companion Liz Shaw, a character Baggs had got permission to use. Original actor Caroline John even reprised the role, a casting that appeared to ground the drama firmly within the world of Who.

However, for rights reasons PROBE wasn’t permitted to mention The Doctor or most events surrounding the show – a restriction that meant Liz was forced not to recognise a non-Time Lord character played by John Pertwee, an actor she had shared adventures with during his tenure as The Doctor.

Mostly, however, the spin-offs followed new characters battling old Doctor Who baddies as they wreaked havoc over the planet. Most notable of which were the Auton films.

Featuring the likes of Reece Shearsmith and CGI that rivalled that seen in the 2005 revival show, the first two of BBV’s ‘Auton Trilogy’ of the late nineties are widely considered the best independent Who spin-offs.

“They are by no means perfect, in fact they’re horribly flawed. But I wrote and directed both of them under fairly impossible budgetary and time constraints, with a lovely team of actors,” says Nicholas Briggs. “I think we managed to create something that worked pretty well.”

However, Auton’s biggest impact on the Who fandom came just before the revival of the main show. Just as the BBC had to reach a deal with the Terry Nation estate to use the Daleks in the show (negotiations that fell through at one point overallegations the broadcaster wanted to make a ‘gay Dalek’ cartoon), they had to consult Bill Baggs, who still held the rights to the Autons thanks to an agreement with the estate of creator Robert Holmes.

“Before it restarted, the BBC phoned me up and asked me if was okay for me to do an Auton show,” laughs Baggs.

“I told this to my wife thinking she wouldn’t say anything, but it happened to be the weekend she was at the Gallifrey convention. And a bit later I got a phone call saying ‘why does the whole universe know that the first episode is an Auton one?!’ I had to apologise humbly.”

Furthermore, some have said characters created for these fan-made spin-offs may have actually inspired those that appear in the main show. Foremost of which: Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT commander and daughter of the Brigadier.

Kate appeared in Chris Chibnall’s The Power of Three in 2012 and the 50thanniversary special The Day of the Doctor – but a character with the same name, background and blonde hair first featured in fan-made film Downtime 17 years earlier.

“Let’s just say we came to an accommodation,” says Downtime producer Barnfather on his subsequent chats with the BBC around their use of the character. “I would never do anything that would hurt the programme or bring it into disrepute.”

Yet Kate Stewart aside, can we say these fan-made spin-offs really gave more to Doctor Who than they took? Did they really inspire the plots of modern Who? Considering the stories the show has produced since its 2005 revival: absolutely not.

However, what if you judge the impact of the spin-offs by the talent they gifted to the main show years later? Well, that’s when things get a lot more interesting…

Stars are born

However flawed these films were, they’re where the Who writers of today learned their craft. They didn’t just make talent like Mark Gatiss and Big Finish head Nick Briggs known amongst dedicated fans, they also gave them a platform to jump to the main show. And, even more importantly, they nurtured the creativity needed for their later projects.

Briggs is the prime example here. Through his extensive work in the world of unlicensed Who he perfected performing Dalek voices, mastering the equipment and vocal tics needed to make a convincing tinpot terror. And this meant when the BBC announced the Doctor Who revival, Russell T Davies was quick to get Briggs on board.

“[Davies] had me in mind from the moment he’d decided he was bringing the Daleks back – not just because he thought I was good at doing Dalek voices, but because he was aware that I had the technical know-how to recreate them,” Briggs explains. “In the absence of a BBC Radiophonic Workshop, I was the sort of total solution. Very lucky for me.”

However, the spin-offs did much more than offer Briggs a route onto the main show. “Any ‘turn around the block’ creating something, no matter how flawed, is invaluable experience for a writer or director or any kind of creative person,” he says.

“It’s one thing to dream, but it’s quite another thing to get the practical experience of actually creating and finishing something.

“[The spin-offs] gave us a real ‘go’ at bringing a dream to life, and helped us realise that we could not only create something, but create something worthy of an audience.

“Actually making things engenders a feeling of permission to create. That’s a big hurdle for any creative person. Do I have the right to create, to communicate, to entertain? Having practice at making something helps to give you that feeling of permission.”

Mark Gatiss echoed a similar sentiment in a League of Gentlemen blog, explaining that although he didn’t want it to be released on DVD, he had gained valuable experience writing The Zero Imperative, his first ever TV script.

“Christ, for all I knew, they were the only things I would ever get to make,” he said. “And I learned a frightening amount from working on them.”

And one of the lessons Gatiss appears to have learned is how to work with some tricky characters. Namely, Bill Baggs.

“I’m a constant meddler when it comes to the scripts,” recalls Baggs. “But Mark tolerated that really well. I remember we would sit together and improvise scenes, which I loved. I’d like to get hold of his writing sometimes and give it a tweak and an edit, but I take my hat off to him. He’s been so successful. There’s nobody else who deserves more and having that experience with him is fantastic.

“But Mark probably wouldn’t have his career in Doctor Who without BBV.”

So, why didn’t Baggs end up working on Doctor Who like Gatiss? Why is it that the man at the heart of the unofficial fandom spent, as he puts it, “a lot of time wondering when the phone was going to ring”?

Rather than being asked to direct an episode, why did Baggs fail to break through to the show, instead funnelling his energy into an alternative medicine, Emotional Energy Healing, and becoming an ‘Akki energetics practitioner’?

Despite Baggs’s assertion that he could work on the main show if he wanted to but simply chooses not to, there could be another reason behind his absence. As Gatiss once told Doctor Who magazine, although he had a “great time”, Baggs “had some very strange ideas as a producer.”

And although Gatiss was referring to Baggs’s tendency to swap scenes around “arbitrarily”, this isn’t one of the strange ideas that fans eventually knew him for.

The misadventures of Doctor Screw

We should say this up front: Bill Baggs wasn’t the first to bring sex into the Whoniverse. During the show’s hiatus years, characters such as Bernice Summerfield (written as a companion of Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor) were often portrayed enjoying some, shall we say, advanced docking maneuverers on the Tardis. Summerfield even apparently had a fumble with The Eighth Doctor himself in book The Dying Days.

However, while ReelTime Pictures kept their films PG and in a similar style and ilk to the main show, stablemate BBV and Bill Baggs became ever more proactive in bringing the saucier side of Who to screen.

That image of a naked Colin Baker we brought up before? The one where he romped with Nicola Bryant, who played Peri in Who? That was thanks to Baggs, who directed the unscripted scene (from under the bed – “I had to! There was no space in that room!”) against the wishes of writer Nicholas Briggs.

“I’m credited as the writer of The Airzone Solution, but I did not write that scene,” Briggs says adamantly. “It was irrelevant to the plot. [Baggs] seemed to agree with me. But I later found out that he just gave up arguing because he could see I wouldn’t change my mind. Then he deliberately deceived me and wrote the scene in any way.”

Baggs, however, stands by it. “Everyone had an opinion about it,” he says. “People got grossed out by it and some found no problem at all.”

But that scene was nothing compared to 2008’s Zygon: When Being You Just Isn’t Enough, dubbed by one reviewer as “the only Zygon-based soft-porn film ever to have been made”. And that’s not an exaggeration. Fortunately, it doesn’t feature the red starfish-like aliens making use of their suckers, but the 18-rated film does see the Zygons at the centre of some very NSFW activities in human form.

Although billed as a serious drama, Baggs openly says it was initially envisioned as something more titillating. “I met a guy at a convention who was into soft porn and he convinced me there was a market for it – not that I had a massive desire to produce a soft porn film, but you’re always interested as a director/producer what markets there were.”

But looking back now, Baggs concedes the project was a misstep. “It was my mistake and nobody else’s,” he adds, before quickly adding: “I’m glad I tried it, though. It was a massive learning experience.”

Zygon wasn’t quite the end of Baggs’s spin-off ideas, with BBV releasing When to Die, a PROBE drama in memory of Liz Shaw star Caroline John in 2012.

However, since then Baggs has been focused on producing theatre dramas, and although he and McCoy still enjoy times together at conventions, the sun has set on the golden time (and space) of BBV films.

A fandom regenerates

26th March 2005, 7pm. For fans across the world, this was the moment the ‘real’ Doctor Who returned to screens. After over 15 years of waiting, the universe’s foremost Time Lord returned in a regular series, captivating a whole new generation of Whovians.

But for the makers of the spin-off films, it was a bittersweet moment. Producers like Bill Baggs had spent years trying to cater for fans with nowhere else to go, fuelling the fandom with films made possible by pure passion for Who. And now it was over: the fans just didn’t need BBV.

As Baggs says, “It was frustrating on one hand and utterly delighting on the other.

“Before they announced they were reviving Who, Alan Cumming and I were actually going to do a special drama, an anniversary special for BBC South with Alan Cumming as The Doctor,” he laments. “But we ended up getting a call from a Who producer telling us we had to stop because the show was coming back – that’s when I first found out.”

Today BBV only operates a small web business and while Barnfather and ReelTime Pictures still film an occasional Who spin-off, they mostly specialise in the likes of archaeological videos in the Greek world (“We’ve got quite the reputation in Cyprus”).

Yet some still claim that fans owe a great debt to Barnfather and Baggs. “Thereason why we’ve got Doctor Who now on television is thanks to those fans who did it way back then,” says McCoy. “The fans of today should be thankful to him because he helped keep alive Doctor Who.”

But is it really true that without their work keeping the fandom alive, the BBC would have never recommissioned the show? Not everyone is convinced.

“That’s absolutely rubbish,” says Barnfather. “The programme would have come back – it’s a franchise that will never die! Even if the Doctor Who fandom didn’t exist, the BBC would have brought it back.”

“The facts just don’t support it,” agrees Briggs. “The people who made the decision to bring back Doctor Who to television had no idea that any of these things existed.”

Yet while it may not be the reason for Doctor Who’s revival, it’s undeniable that these films fostered talent that would change the Tardis forever.

Perhaps more than anything, the films represent how the fandom and the series are forever intertwined. These 25 forgotten spin-offs demonstrate that the line between dedicated fans and the show is beautifully permeable, ideas and talent forever travelling between the two.

And that’s still true to this day. Remember WhoLock, the viral video that imagined two of TV’s greatest characters together? Or the perfect fan-made trailer for Peter Capaldi’s first series? The editor of these films, who goes by the pseudonym John Smith, actually went on to work as a VFX artist for Doctor Who.

This is the real beauty of Who: its fans are constantly creating, inventing new ideas that could make their way on screen in years to come. It’s a collaboration that makes Who and its lead Time Lord arguably stronger than any other sci-fi fandom.

And sure, this symbiotic relationship might bring to light some of the stranger facets of the fandom, or a nymphomaniac Zygon or two. But, just like the Tardis, these spin-offs have often taken The Doctor where he didn’t want to go, but precisely where he needed to.

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ericdrawsart · 6 years

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Dr. Who Tardis Commission. 10 hrs. I enjoyed exploring the Gallifreyan language. Contact me if you’re looking for a special gift for the holidays! ... ... #drwho #tardis #galaxy #universe #gallifreyan #badwolf #watercolor #watercolorart #commission #painting #custom #whovian #art #artfun #artflow #artist #artistsofinstagram #instaart #instaartist #artnerd #fandom (at Cambridge, Massachusetts) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpb2NpJhGLu/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lqjbwxkthqob

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sunnydaleherald · 3 years

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, January 21

Gachnar: “I am the dark lord of nightmares! (Buffy tries not to laugh) The bringer of terror! Tremble before me. Fear me!” Willow, laughing: “He – he’s so cute!” Gachnar: “Tremble!” Xander bends down: “Who’s a little fear demon? Come on! Who’s a little fear demon!” Giles: “Don’t taunt the fear demon.” Xander: “Why, can he hurt me?” Giles: “No, it’s just – tacky.”

~~Fear, Itself~~

The Sunnydale Herald is still looking for a couple of new editors! If you like what we do, consider lending us a hand! Contact Rahirah on Livejournal or Dreamwidth, or drop us an ask on Tumblr!

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Touching Toes (Xander, Xander's parents, not rated - worksafe) by sparrow2000

Taking care of a traitor (Andrew, T) by Aragorn_II_Elessar

Kennedy and the Itsy, Bitsy Spider (crossover with Spider-Man, Kennedy, G) by Bl4ckHunter

Shared Minds and Shared Souls (Spike/Reader, not rated) by inkandpen22

[Chaptered Fiction]

GTFO, Chapter 8 (Giles&Spike, Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Girlytek

Soul Swap, Chapter 14 (Spike/Buffy, R) by ZombieRed

The Demon, The Witch and The Warlock, Chapter 15-18 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by AlloSpoike

Mortal Allies Series, Episode 3: Postcards From the Edge, Chapter 6 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

Reordering the Universe, Chapter 14 (Spike/Buffy, Adult Only) by Touchstoneaf

Pretty Petals, Chapter 11 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Dusty

Xander Doo, Chapter 4 (crossover with Scooby Doo, Xander, FR13) by TheaZara

Strange Land, Chapter 19 (Spike/Buffy, 13+) by Zab Jade

[Images, Audio & Video]

Crochet puppet photo: Happy birthday, Buffy (Buffy, worksafe) by joantheslayer

Artwork: Crochet Spuffy (worksafe) by joantheslayer

Artwork: The Gift edit (Buffy, worksafe) by theslayervest

Artwork: s6 Willow edit (worksafe) by theslayervest

Video: Tonight Alive – The Edge (Dark Willow) by Антон Амбросьев

Video: Drivers Licence (Faith/Buffy) by Laura Winchester

Video: The Heart Wants What It Wants (Buffy/Angel) by Lizzy Peer

Video: Duncan Laurence - Arcade (Buffy/Angel) by Disaster

Video: never let go (Buffy) by Whovians Videos

Video: "Hush" trailer by Jamie Thompson

Music: BtVS theme cover (all instruments) by Dan Parkinson

Music: Close Your Eyes - piano cover by XM PIANO

Music: New Musical Underscoring for a scene from BtVS ["Killed by Death"] by Jeffrey Reid Baker

Video: Buffy cosplay and multiple other cosplay videos uploaded by Daisey McCall

Digital painting: Helpless (Buffy, worksafe) by haghasarrived

Sketches: Buffy (worksafe) by kitty_fantastic

[Reviews & Recaps]

Thoughts from my Buffy rewatch 3x16 by yesitsterriblysimple

Welcome to the Hellmouth by The Golden Adonis

Date Night: Welcome to the Hellmouth by Drive Home Reviews

Date Night: The Harvest by Drive Home Reviews

Teacher's Pet by My Girlfriend Made Me Watch

Ted by LexChats

I Only Have Eyes for You by Flunking the Written

Season 3 Q&A by alley box.

Season 3 Review by Joseph Ari

Favorite Part of “The Body” by Scaredshoeless and others

S03x06 Band Candy by thief90k and others

PODCAST: Still Pretty 142. Hell’s Bells (S6.16)

[Recs]

More Links Than a Bag of Sausages by petzipellepingo

Buffy/Riley fanvid by starryeyesxx1 recced by roselightfairy

Rec request: AUs of season 4 and onward if Angel had stayed in Sunnydale? by anon and Buffy/Angel AU recs by gracenm

[Community Announcements]

seasonal_spuffy will run in May and November from now on

BuffyForums has a new URL

Nominations for the 2021 Headline Red Carpet Gala are now closed, and voting opens on January 22 at Headline Awards

[Fandom Discussions]

What is the one episode you would show to convince someone that they should watch Buffy? hosted by kylizzle1019

Comedic episodes in the BuffyVerse that always lift up your mood by jdpm1991

Giles [if my teenage daughter was hanging around with her male librarian an awful lot...] by pishposh12 and others

Most improved actor/actress in the Buffyverse? by Willdon231 and others

Which Character did you change perception on when rewatching? hosted by Dism4l

How to share Buffy with someone by Rebeanca

Is there anything in the show that makes you angry that you don't think was supposed to? by TypicalPsychology6

Question: Are Buffy comics good? by Cocoa-sun

Ranking every relationship on BtVS by Girly Gore

Ranking the Big Bads of BtVS by Girly Gore

Buffy was wrong and Spike was right in Dead Things about accidental death by The Storm Is Coming

Buffy – All Powers from BtVS S1 by All Powers Explained

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Doctor Who Holiday Gift Guide: A Holiday in Who-ville

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The Doctor is in, and it’s about time. Although, it should be noted that the Doctor is also in a maximum-security prison, and time is running short for Earth with the return of the Daleks. Thankfully the Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, has her Companions, as well as the newly returned Captain Jack Harkness, on hero duty on our little planet.

That is all happening on New Year’s Day in the Doctor Who holiday special, “Revolution of the Daleks.” Debuting on BBC-America at 8 p.m. ET, the January 1 episode picks up from the action following the twelfth season of the revived 56-year-old series, which aired this year from January to March.

Just to recap, that canon-shaking season brought The Master back, regenerated once more as a male human; traveled to Gallifrey, reduced to ruins (again); introduced Time Lord Cybermen, aka CyberMasters. The season ended with the whopper that the Doctor is the Timeless Child from another realm – with a lot more regenerations than previously confirmed — and that she is a being from whence all Time Lords emerged, thanks to DNA splicing. And all that happened before the cliffhanger of the Doctor being imprisoned for life by those intergalactic rent-a-cops the Judoon.

So yeah, a lot happened, and that doesn’t even cover the epic decade in the making surprise return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, who is back again for the holiday special.

With so much happening in the world of Doctor Who, it seems like a great time for a themed holiday gift guide, a season in Who-ville, if you will. The items that follow are perfect goodies to wrap up, and stuff in a TARDIS-sized gift bag (bigger on the inside, of course) for all the Whovians in your life. And if you shop for something for yourself, that’s ok; just say you got it for one of your other regenerations.

David Tennant Does A Podcast With … Jodie Whittaker (Free)

You don’t need to spend money to let the Whovian in your life know you’re thinking of them this holiday season. And trust me, if they don’t already know about David Tennant’s podcast, they’ll be thanking you. Tennant, aka the Tenth Doctor, is a delightful human being, and a genuinely engaging conversationalist. And in his podcast – which just wrapped a second season – he converses with famous friends, costars, and newsmakers, such as Neil Gaiman, Ian McKellen, Billie Piper, and Stacey Abrams. His episode with Jodie Whittaker in February 2019, following her first full season as the Doctor, is a special treat. The two discuss getting to know one another on Broadchurch, but also discuss the unique role on Doctor Who – and what it was like for her to be the first woman to step into the part.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

Thirteenth Doctor Mug ($8.95)

Blue shirt, rainbow stripes, and suspenders. If the Whovian in your life is like me, occasionally you want your fandom served up simple along with a cup of coffee. This orb-like mug captures the essence of the Thirteenth Doctor’s outfit with a few basic elements immediately recognizable to other fans. And it looks like it holds a lot of coffee, which is a perk.

Buy the Thirteenth Doctor Mug on Amazon.

Big Finish Audio Plays ($9+)

“I don’t want to go.” These last words of the Tenth Doctor are relatable for most Who fans when they see a character depart from the show, but thankfully there is Big Finish Productions. For more than 20 years, the company has produced Doctor Who audio plays starring cast from the show, including six of the nine living actors to have played the Doctor (with Christopher Eccleston set to reprise his role as the Ninth Doctor in stories to be released in 2021). In addition getting more adventures from favorite characters, Big Finish also has characters collide who never met on screen — such as Missy and River Song, played again by Michelle Gomez and Alex Kingston, in The Diary of River Song. And while Captain Jack Harkness may only be returning to Doctor Who for the holiday special, John Barrowman voices the character in more than two dozen Big Finish dramas.

Listen to the audio plays here.

Doctor Who Face Mask ($12)

Bowties, fezzes, Stetsons; the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) was especially known for his pursuit of the cool fashion – and a lot of hats — and 13 seems to be keeping the pattern going (see the tuxedo and ear cuff listings below). But if it’s one thing that’s cool in 2020, it’s face coverings, and it would not at all be a surprise for the Doctor to exclaim, “I wear a mask now. Masks are cool.” So this item from Liesl Schulz of Sewn by Liesl on Etsy is a timely entry for the Whovian on your gift list. They can also feel like a Time Lord out to protect humanity and can do so with the most minimal of effort by sporting a TARDIS-blue mask emblazoned with 12’s quote.

Buy the Doctor Who Face Mask here.

Thirteenth Doctor Action Figure with Red Top ($13)

I remember the moment we were all treated to the first look of Jodie Whittaker as the doctor in her cool coat, and that blue shirt with rainbow stripes. But by the third episode of Season 11, “Rosa,” the Doctor had switched things up with a red shirt. Even though this wardrobe change is a bold choice — considering red shirts are just bad luck in other sci-fi universes – I’m more partial to Jodie’s crimson shade. As such, this 5.5-inch Doctor action figure with bum bag and sonic screwdriver is a cool collectible for Whovian fans who like a different color on 13. (Although you can get the figure in blue as well, and a TARDIS playset she can fit in.)

Buy the Thirteenth Doctor action figure on Amazon.

Doctor Who Psychology: A Madman with a Box ($15)

What makes an ancient time-and-space traveler tick? How does an immortal deal with death? And why did he once say she “got on very well” with Freud? This book edited by Travis Langley, Ph.D., the fifth in the psychology professor’s “Popular Culture Psychology” series, explores the minds of the Doctor, her Companions, and villains. And while you may not think the Whovian in your life has a lot in common with a Time Lord, Madman delves into what Doctor Who says about human nature, and humanity. Full disclosure: I am a contributor to the book, which contains my interviews with Matt Smith, and David Tennant.

Buy Doctor Who Psychology on Amazon.

Thirteenth Doctor TARDIS Distressed Rainbow T-Shirt ($16+)

Combine the Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS, her signature rainbow (which doubles as a symbol for pride and acceptance), with a distressed design, and you have this happy, colorful shirt from Hot Topic. It feels like a retro design out of the 1970s (back when some older Whovians were watching the show on PBS) but celebrates the new Who. Just looking at it puts me in a better mood.

Buy the TARDIS Distressed Rainbow T-Shirt here.

Doctor Who 13th Doctor 3 Piece Gift Set – Journal, Mug & Superbitz Plush ($16.99)

This officially licensed trio of goodies packs a lot of holiday cheer for less than $20. The Thirteenth Doctor Superbitz plushy collectible is incredibly cute, while the 16-page lined journal features a rainbow striped hard cover with the phrase “The Future Is Not Written.” Meanwhile the “13 Is My Lucky Number” sporting a golden TARDIS graphic rounds out this happy little set.

Buy the 13th Doctor 3-Piece Gift Set on Amazon.

Doctor Who Friends and Foes of the 13th Doctor Set B ($25)

Nearly as soon as the Doctor regenerated into 13, she began gathering a family of four with Bradley Walsh’s Graham, Tosin Cole’s Ryan, and Mandip Gill’s Yaz. Yet, in a November interview with the BBC, Jodie Whittaker revealed “the fam as a four is no more,” and that Walsh and Cole would be leaving Doctor Who after the holiday special. But just because Graham and Ryan’s adventure on the show is coming to an end doesn’t mean their characters have to leave the world of your Doctor Who fan. Instead, if you picked up the Doctor 5.5-inch action figure above, you might as well couple it with this “Friends and Foes” set with all three of 13’s original companions.

Buy the Friends and Foes of the 13th Doctor Set B on Amazon.

Ian Leino Doctor Whoville T-shirt ($25)

Artist Ian Leino’s Doctor Whoville tee has been an evolving work for several years now. His Seussian design of all the regenerations of our favorite Time Lord gathered around a holiday TARDIS initially ended with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. But over time, he has included John Hurt’s War Doctor, Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, and now Jodie Whittaker joins the Whos for a snowy celebration. Full disclosure: Ian has become a friend because I love this nerdy mash-up design so much, printed on a high-quality Bella + Canvas shirt. The design is likewise available on a hoodie, and holiday greeting cards.

Buy the Doctor Whoville T-Shirt here.

Hero Within TARDIS Woven Shirt ($45)

Across the globe, the TARDIS is more recognizable as the Doctor’s ultimate companion more than the police call box it’s disguised as. It is iconic and serves as a great inspiration for creative fans. Enter Hero Within, the apparel company that has been killing it with officially licensed, and well-made, nerdy fashion. Currently celebrating its new Doctor Who license, Hero Within has recently unveiled this woven TARDIS button-up shirt that calls to mind a work shirt while unmistakably inspired by the best ship in the universe.

Buy the Hero Within TARDIS Shirt here.

John Barrowman Cameo ($125)

There are few entertainment spectacles quite like a John Barrowman panel at a comic con. The man is a showman, and truly one of the funniest people to encounter at an event. Unfortunately comic cons are on hold at the moment, and the Doctor Who fan in your life might be craving the con experience — and jonesing for John. Thankfully, Barrowman is on Cameo, where he delivers pep talks, sends well wishes, and even sings a tune. And a custom message from Captain Jack Harkness himself is a great way to prepare for the New Year’s Day Special.

Subscribe to John Barrowman on Cameo.

Doctor Who Galaxy Single Ear Cuff ($150)

Jodie Whittaker is not only the first woman to play the Doctor, she is also the first to wear an earring. And what a great earring she debuted with! Designed by Alex Monroe, and available for purchase, the Galaxy Single Ear Cuff is a sterling silver piece that begins on top with a cluster of shooting stars, connected to a 22ct gold plated hand grasping another in harmony. The elegant design conveys much about the Doctor’s philosophy, but this jewelry is striking even absent any knowledge of the show. Monroe likewise created a Doctor Who Companion single stud earring of clasping hands, and a Galaxy necklace to complement the other pieces.

Buy the Doctor Who Galaxy Single Ear Cuff here.

The Thirteenth Doctor’s Tuxedo ($247+)

When Doctor Who returned for its twelfth season earlier this year, the Doctor sported a tuxedo that evoked the wardrobe of her previous generations, and basically had fandom freaking out with excitement. The outfit was likewise a nod to James Bond for the “Spyfall” espionage episodes. Well, Tamsin Hartnell of the “The Ultimate Guide to the Fashion of Doctor Who” has done an impressive job assembling the items for the Doctor’s tux for those who might want to recreate it. The Doctor’s double-breasted opera coat by Paul Smith runs for about $1450 alone (if you can find it). However, Tamsin helpfully suggests alternatives to creating an everyday cosplay of the outfit starting around $160, with the official black and gold bowtie by Blue Eyes Bowtie costing about $87. This will take some work to put the look together, but it’s time well spent. Also, take a look around the Ultimate Guide blog as it is chockful of interesting Doctor Who fashion info.

Assemble the Thirteenth Doctor’s look with this guide.

GeekOrthodoxArt TARDIS Stained Glass ($750)

For a thousand years the art medium of stained glass has been used to honor iconic figures and commemorate grand moments of historic and religious significance. And in the 21st Century, pop culture institutions can hold near religious importance, and are worthy of representation in this art form. So why not take your giftee’s Doctor Who fandom to the next level? This custom-made TARDIS stained glass artwork uses the medium’s traditional copper foil method and is composed from over 75 pieces of hand-cut glass. Crafted by GeekOrthodoxArt, the piece measures 12″ x 24″. The stained-glass design is likewise available as a $20 high-resolution professional grade vinyl window cling. (Also, if you want to make this gift even cooler for your Who fan, you can let them know that John Barrowman loved it so much, he bought one at the Pensacon event in 2018.)

Buy the TARDIS Stained Glass here.

TARDIS ($5800+)

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Much to this writer’s dismay, there is no pre-owned time machine lot to buy a working TARDIS for the Whovian on your gift list. But you can get pretty close. Iconic Studio Creations can build a custom, officially licensed, full-size TARDIS replica (well, technically, it’s a replica of the TARDIS in the guise of a police call box, thanks to the craft’s chameleon circuit). While not bigger on the inside, this is as close to the real deal as you can get, and ISC has worked with the BBC in building these babies. Sure, it’s a little expensive, but you can’t put a price tag on love – or time traveling ships. Iconic also creates replicas of Daleks, and a remote-controlled K-9, who would fit nicely in a new TARDIS. And if you prefer your time machine to have more practical applications, you can always get a DeLorean for your giftee.

Visit Iconic Studio Creations here.

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