the context of the last post is that the dr.who expanded universe has a berenstain problem. for years we’d all known that the six chapters were the prydonians, the arcalians, the ceruleans, the dromeians, the patrexes (hi), and the scendles.
but it’s actually, apparently, when you check the source text, “scendeles”. we’d all just misremembered it for the last nearly 20 years.
of course, what we know about the scend(e)les is that they’ve been bankrupt ever since funding their section of the capitoline panopticon (i propose it was because they really went all out on the plastic alien plants), despite the fact that gallifrey is a hive planet and as far as we can tell hasn’t used money in millions of years.
there have been jokes about this for ages. their robes are boring off-white because they buy cast-offs in bulk from the other chapters and bleach them, they’re deeply involved in a gallifreyan black market, etc etc. one obvious joke, when we thought they were scendles, is that they sold off the singular form of their name for pocket change.
the cool thing about dr.who canon? it’s super malleable. officially it’s never been defined. it’s this kind of descriptivist disaster of the widely-agreed-on, for the most part. and that means its completely reasonable for me to say that the scendles were indeed once the scendeles, and there once was such a concept of a singular scendel.
I know it’s popular to portray Doctor Nyarlathotep as making every human around them slightly uneasy; as having a fundamental creepy quality that comes from their inhumanity and power. A chilling aura that even those who love them best can never truly escape from. And that’s a valid reading which can certainly lead to interesting stories and interactions.
But what if it’s the opposite? What if one of their alien qualities is an intense, almost supernatural charm? I mean, we know that Time Lords have psychic abilities. The Master has no qualms about dominating the will of anyone who might prove useful, and while The Doctor never does this, I’ve always gotten the impression that they could.
But maybe something like that can’t help but happen anyway. Think of all the situations where The Doctor bluffs their way into a position of trust when, strictly speaking, they probably shouldn’t be able to. Maybe they’re thinking “Please trust me, I need you to trust me, maybe if you like me you’ll trust me.” so hard that that just…winds up happening.
Maybe they don’t know about this effect.
Maybe they do.
Maybe they can’t turn it off.
Maybe they don’t want to.
Much like actual Nyarlathotep in that way.
Into the lands of
civilisation came Nyarlathotep, swarthy, slender, and sinister, always buying strange instruments
of glass and metal and combining them into instruments yet stranger. He spoke much of the sciences—of
electricity and psychology—and gave exhibitions of power which sent his spectators away
speechless, yet which swelled his fame to exceeding magnitude. Men advised one another to see
Nyarlathotep, and shuddered.
I remember when Nyarlathotep came to my city—the great, the old, the
terrible city of unnumbered crimes. My friend had told me of him, and of the impelling fascination
and allurement of his revelations, and I burned with eagerness to explore his uttermost mysteries.
I mean, the first priority of Time Lord fashion is to create personal space. Is the robe and the collar/hat voluminous enough to act as a force field, and compel everyone to stand 4-10 feet away from you at all times, to discourage any inadvertent to*ching or advertent h*nd h*lding? Welp, better make it bigger, just in case!
The second priority is maximum plumage and aesthetic ridiculousness, because while they don’t want anyone to to*ch, they DEFINITELY want everyone to LOOK. Big dumb collars, big dumb hats, shiny dumb skullcaps, and glittery robes – they bedazzle the shit out of EVERYTHING. I mean, even the CIA robes – which are supposedly some of the simplest, least fussy robes on the whole planet – are made of sparkly, glittery fabric that puts Twilight vampires to shame. Look at this disco situation:
I think they’re wearing shirts and trousers under there because then they can unfasten the front of their robes and let them billow out behind them like a long coat and look really cool while still technically being decent and not naked
It’s both!!!!!!!! I consider it a political character drama. Since it’s such a big and long-running series it sometimes leans way more into one or the other, and sometimes the writers’ excursions turn out meh or the politics aren’t as detailed as they could have been, but for the most part it’s a really interesting look at Gallifrey all-around. For example, series 4 is probably the most character driven; it almost completely gets rid of the political intrigue plots in favor of alternate realities and character exploration. In contrast, there are also definitely episodes that are heavily about political machinations (there’s literally a courtroom drama episode) or are almost more like sci-fi adventures (like Narvin’s undercover mission to Earth or the episode where they just fight Daleks). There’s not a lot to compare it to accurately because it’s so unique genre-wise??? I’ve seen it described as like,,,, imagine The West Wing but it’s a sci-fi series with alternate realities and time terrorists and regeneration zombies. Expect the average Gallifrey episode to be a political intrigue plot with character drama and sci-fi action going on in between. It is a very character-driven series but a lot of it is about how these people develop and interact within plots of Gallifreyan politics, and it’s kind of developed into basically showing what happened in history from Zagreus up until the Time War, but from the perspective of the main characters and their development and relationships. It’s definitely more Time Lord politics than Gallifreyan culture, but since almost the entire thing is set on Gallifrey you do still get a taste of what living there in general is like. Basically what you get is a series about a strong cast of characters having to deal with the convoluted political shenanigans and wild sci-fi disasters that are constantly thrown at them. It has one of the strongest ensemble casts and some of the most tightly woven, gripping plot work I’ve ever seen. Even when it’s imperfect (which of course it is, nothing is without flaws), the plot, setting, and characters are still addicting.
seriously underrated Doctor Who Comedy Moment™: when the Doctor explains to Donna that the Tardis is translating her words to Latin for their visit to Pompeii and her immediate thought is what would happen if she spoke actual Latin to someone so she goes up to some dude and says “Veni, Vidi, Vici” and he tells her he doesn’t speak Welsh
Every single episode with Donna was a seriously underrated Doctor Who Comedy Moment
PTA archive 