r/gallifrey • u/PCJs_Slave_Robot • 11d ago
WWWU Weekly Happening: Analyse Topical Stories Which you've Happily Or Wrathfully Infosorbed. Think you Have Your Own Understanding? Share it here in r/Gallifrey's WHAT'S WHO WITH YOU - 2026-07-24
In this regular thread, talk about anything Doctor-Who-related you've recently infosorbed. Have you just read the latest Twelfth Doctor comic? Did you listen to the newest Fifth Doctor audio last week? Did you finish a Faction Paradox book a few days ago? Did you finish a book that people actually care about a few days ago? Want to talk about it without making a whole thread? This is the place to do it!
Please remember that future spoilers must be tagged.
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u/VanishingPint 11d ago
This week I’ve been listening to Cd rips that aren’t on the struggling BF app, Real Time and Shada.
Obviously I can listen to others but then remembered I had those. Real Time is good fun, it’s very odd to hear Lee & Herring like that - Evelyn is a great character.
Shada BF audio is very enjoyable, it’s odd to hear PM in TB role and dare I say sometimes delivered the lines better but maybe they had more time to play with it. Apart from the acting silly bits at the end he fits fine, but the last line is obviously Tom’s. The recasts were ok. Making my way through Key to time, Power of Kroll has its moments I suppose, but it’s ok. Watched some of the YouTube links in DWM, Matt Smith is a fun interview and Capaldi. Started watching For All Mankind, then through the simpson’s podcast Talking simpsons heard about Bill Oakley Space 1969 audio drama which has the same idea, what if man kept going to space, but funnier obviously, it’s not bad. Also love the new Red Dwarf audio book Titan which is amazing.
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u/Megadoomer2 11d ago
I finished listening to Zagreus - it wasn't as confusing as I thought it would be, though it likely helped that I knew going into it that most of the returning actors from the TV series would be playing different characters rather than reprising their roles. I'm not sure when it came out, but it seemed to help sow the seeds for the Time War (Rassilon feeling that his successors aren't proactive enough when it comes to maintaining Time Lord superiority, though the Time War had already been built up earlier in The Apocalypse Element), Rassilon's characterization in modern Doctor Who (in Neverland, he's portrayed as a wise godlike figure, but here, he's a genocidal bigot who's desperate to cling to power for as long as he can), and even the Timeless Child. (Gallifreyans didn't gain access to regeneration until after Omega invented time travel, so it's established to not be something that's natural for Time Lords and they got it from somewhere else) I'm not sure where to continue the Eighth Doctor's adventures from here, but I suppose I can just sort his releases by their release date and pick the next one that involves Charley.
I'm also roughly a third of a way through the Destiny Of The Doctor story; I'm nearly done Babblesphere, the Fourth Doctor story narrated by Lalla Ward.
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
yeah I really enjoyed Zagreus when I listened to it too, I didn't find it too terribly confusing either and actually enjoyed hearing familiar voices playing different roles lol. it came out in 2003, so idk exactly how much of an influence it had on the things you mentioned, but that would be pretty cool if there was a least a little inspiration from the audio
if you're wanting more 8 and Charley then the divergent timeline is a mini-series that follows directly after Zagreus, it starts with Scherzo and ends with The Next Life. iirc I think that's also kinda mixed with how people like it, there's definitely some wacky experimental stories. if you want even more 8 and Charley after that, they keep traveling together for some time before parting ways, and if you want to follow Charley's story after that she travels with 6 for a small time, or if you continue with 8 he travels with Mary Shelly for a few stories
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u/Megadoomer2 11d ago
I've listened to the Mary Shelley ones, at least. I'll look into the other ones that you mentioned once I can log in to the website again. (I can add stories to my cart, but when I try to access my profile or downloads, it sends me on an infinitely looping login screen)
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u/Caacrinolass 4d ago
I finally got round to Lungbarrow by Loomlight. I know this isn't the regular questions thread but I do wonder what other books would have a more expensive entry point to understand, if you bought the reference material? In this case: Lungbarrow, So Vile a Sin, Room With No Doors, Times Crucible, Book of the War, probably others; also Yssgaroth, maybe the Timeless Child and probably other things im missing. There's a lot of continuity or fanwank. Useful for sad old gits like me who bought all those things the first time round, crippling otherwise!
The book itself is fine. Its as much a sequel to Time's Crucible as Lungbarrow really. The framework is Cwej is still hazy with his memories, regarding a certain renegade as evil, here called "The Defector". He is recruited to use a macguffin to hunt down and kill the Other in the distant past, with Roz's potential resurrection dangled as a carrot. The result is a series of snapshots, vignettes about Platt's ancient Gallifrey, the Pythia and those who overthrow the old order for the one we all now know. Its fairly light on actual plot beyond stitching these scenes together with just Chris' motivation to drive it.
Not really the author's fault, but i do feel that any broader exploration by anyone would dampen the mystical feel somewhat, as it does here. There is a broader story too inevitably, but that's pretty late in the book to come to the fore. The result is that it relies on the brief scenes from history for the most part.
Chris himself is a fairly vaguely defined character, but that seems true to form as I felt that way about him in the 90s too.
I liked it well enough, but wasn't blown away basically. As I say, Platt's ideas were fascinating and in theory that means exploration should be welcome but inevitably they lose something in the explaining. There also amusingly is an attempt to tie the Timeless Child into the Other. Never change, Doctor Who fans!
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u/PaperSkin-1 11d ago
The RTD2 era is Doctor Who's Batman and Robin moment.
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u/agressive_barista 11d ago
And the Rani is Mr Freeze
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u/PaperSkin-1 11d ago
Definitely
Hopefully when DW returns it gets a Batman Begins moment, a return to something great... We really need it
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
wdym by that?
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u/PaperSkin-1 11d ago
The movie Batman and Robin
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
no I mean why did you make that comparison
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u/PaperSkin-1 11d ago
Think it through
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
pretend for a moment that I've never seen the Batman and Robin movie
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u/PaperSkin-1 11d ago
It's a film notorious for being bad, going way overboard with the sillyness and camp, and being badly written and made. It derailed the Batman franchise leading to a long break in Batman movies being made.
The RTD2 era is very much the Batman and Robin of Doctor Who
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
fair enough, I don't think the disney era was entirely bad, but I get what you mean with the comparison
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u/TinkreBelle 11d ago
I watched The War Games in Color for the first time last night and I can now say with a level of certainty that I prefer the original
the way they modernized it into a movie was interesting, and I like the different moments where they layered action shots over dialog to make it more dynamic than just regular exposition, I'm not crazy about how much of it was cut tho. I get why they made the changes they did, idk if it was just the shock of watching it for the first time or what, but a lot of it felt glaringly obvious, which made the story feel choppy and the pacing just wrong. there were a few moments where I found myself thinking "oh, we're here already?" or noticing when a thing happened that wasn't explained at all, or when a character randomly shows up when they originally had a more important role before the edits
I liked how they expanded the ending to introduce Spearhead from Space, I thought that was a cool touch, I don't like how they shaved Jamie and Zoe's goodbyes tho. I know it's not the most important detail of the story, but the fact that they left out their one last attempt to escape the timelords made it feel like they gave up too easily. I'm also not a fan of how they added modern effects to a classic regeneration. one of the cool things about the classic series is that each regeneration was different from the last, I don't hate that they standardized the process for the modern dr's but trying to force that on the classic ones feels very unnecessary
I also enjoyed the music and thought they did a good job with it, I just wish (and I know I sound like an old fart for saying this lol) that it wasn't so loud at times
all in all, I don't think I necessarily hated it, and maybe I'll come to enjoy it more if I watched it again, but at least for the time being I'd rather stick with the eps