Tag: dw meta

my ideal version of new who canon goes something like:

the doctor never regrets ending the time war the way it did. not once. sure they’re remorseful, often guilty that they were the one who had to do it, definitely survivor’s guilt and a lot of the time they wish they could have been blown up right there with Gallifrey and the rest of the time lords. but given the chance to have a do over, they’d do it again. and again. they did what had to be done, and that’s the only way they cope with it.

(part of this might be informed by what happened to jamie and zoe, and the doctor never being able to forgive them for it)

the doctor never meddles with the time war, never even thinks about bringing Gallifrey back. eventually they come back anyway, which leads to Heaven Sent, which leads nicely into the doctor blowing up Gallifrey to hell all over again. There’s no part 2 to my favourite episode, no bargaining to bring Clara back from the dead, no weird power games with Rassilon, and absolutely no reveal about the Hybrid, no awfully long conversations with ashildr at the end of time, no memory wipe games. The Doctor just blows it the fuck away, which, tbh, is the only way season 9 should have ended. that finale is such a goddamn asspull. it’s like they expected everyone to forget that bringing the time lords back was 10’s worst fear, and the entire climax to their era was very literally Sending Them Back To Hell.

abossycontrolfreak:

I’ve been seeing a lot of political-based explorations and critiques of that episode, which are obviously very important and necessary. However, that’s meant the character-based analysis has slipped to the side a bit. It’s also probably due to the fact that no-one seems to be 100% certain on Bill’s character yet, but I figured I’d start off a discussion by throwing some of my ideas out there and seeing if anyone else has been thinking the same thing.

– Bill’s very open with her emotions, not just with feeling them, but with showing them. Definitely a lot of that is from Pearl Mackie’s incredible face, but I know Bill’s character was informed by Pearl’s acting strengths, so I think that’s a pretty credible thread. And that kind of makes Bill vs Cybermen both an obvious and powerful match up. Of course, I only really like this if Bill wins in the end, but if definitely looks like she hasn’t lost all her emotions yet, so she’s winning that fight. 

– Another note of Bill’s character is that she seems to resign herself to the fact that shitty things happen to her. She doesn’t like it, and she’ll argue a bit, but she doesn’t seem to expect that to make a huge difference? It’s really sad, and it’s been something I’ve really been wanting to see Bill triumph over, see her say “no I don’t deserve this and I’m not going to take it”. She’s been getting better at that throughout the series – insisting on her way to the Doctor as she gets more comfortable, but we haven’t yet seen a direct mirror of the threatened mind wipe from the Pilot. A Cybermen emotions wipe though, that is a thematic repeat, which gives Bill a huge opportunity to show her growth and evolution during this series.

Both of these are very much based on Bill not just surviving but also defeating the Cybermen on a very personal level, resisting and escaping conversion, and saving herself. But given that the thematic threads of this series seem to be very much pointed towards that ending, I’m 99% sure that’s where it’s headed.

I have absolutely no clue how it’s going to happen practically, but thematically I just can’t see another option.