Latest Posts by gentildonna - Page 2

Peacemaker is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the best New Series Adventures novels of the RTD1 era. I loved it immensely - and read it aloud (sitting in the kitchen at night, behind a tightly locked door, so as not to disturb anyone at home, and no one would disturb me!) The scene in the cave - if I remember the circumstances correctly - was quite powerful, to say the least.

The interesting thing is that the (for want of a better term) Martha run is pretty solid in quality of novels, compared to Rose’s and Donna’s. I can name three books off the top of my head that I consider to be top notch, at least in terms of characterisation - Peacemaker, Forever Autumn and Wishing Well (and The Frozen Wastes from the Doctor-lite The Story Of Martha is exquisite!).

I remember that from all the books with Rose as companion I found the sole Only Human (erm, it doesn’t sound as clever as I thought it would be) to be really great, and as for Donna… well, to be fair, there are only four novels with her. The Doctor Trap is fun (and a bit whumpy which is great, if you ask me), Ghosts Of India gets Donna’s character exactly right, which is no a mean feat, and In The Blood is rather patchy, but has some great moments (and whump too!).

Anyway, I think I'll give the role reading another try tonight, thanks, OP!

It's been months and I'm still recovering from this novel. It's what shifted me [quite violently] from "I enjoy TenMartha" to "Oh... I think I'm consumed with them now"

You can read it here for free if you like!

I've said this before, but being so late in the game, it feels like everyone has probably already experienced all of these things that are either new or semi-new to me... But perhaps you haven't; perhaps you're tragically unaware that such works exist, just as I was in the spring!

Warning: The story is graphically violent in ways I've never encountered in a DW novel. It's gorgeous for it, but I felt like I should say.

EXACTLY the kind of story we need, not only nowadays - but any day, actually.

Just finished the panel with Rich Keeble at Ineffable Con.

He told the most hilarious story about him, David, Michael and Jon Hamm all sitting around playing Wordle whilst waiting for their scenes.

David admitted he didn't get it that day, defeated, and went off to set, popping in his contacts on the way. The rest of them continued to sit there on their phones, brows furrowed in concentration as they try to solve it.

Jon Hamm gets it in four, then goes off to set, leaving Rich with Michael who is still frowning at his phone.

Then Michael suddenly jumps up and shouts victoriously, something along the lines of "YES!! Got it in THREE!! I've got to go and tell David... I'm sure he won't mind me interrupting his scene."

And David, deadpan, just sticks up his middle finger🖕

So basically we've learned that the version of themselves we saw in Staged is EXACTLY who they are 🤣

How much have we lost!

Specifically – a chance to see David Tennant in the role of "a cross-dressing, cocaine-snorting therapist", OMFG.

"Screenwriter Paula Milne, who wrote The Politician's Husband, says Tennant can convey "a kind of damaged humanity… although he may not have been that likeable you felt he had gone on a journey where he became that person".

"Sometimes when you write a very tough, muscular character the actor says, 'yes, but will they like me?' That is a question he never asked. He took it on and delivered it."

She previously discussed another project with Tennant, about a "cross-dressing, cocaine-snorting therapist". Despite his enthusiasm, it proved "too out there" for the BBC or Channel 4, Milne recalls. "He was up for it. He read it and said he would love to do it." Perhaps, in a parallel universe, he still will.”

If only I could go and get a glimpse into this parallel universe!

I love The Politician's Husband – it's definitely in my personal top of things DT has done for television. It provides a gripping and poignant insight into the psyche of an essentially decent human being, whose chain of decisions becomes a downhill slide that irrevocably ruins his life, his family, burns him out – and literally kills someone he loves. Heartbreaking stuff.  

BTW, I'm actually quite surprised that anything is really "too out there" for Channel 4. Reminds me of the scene from Life Of Mars where Sam Tyler, during the raid on the porn studio, casually remarks: "Hardcore? I've seen worse on Channel 4". And that was a decade earlier!

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/14/david-tennant-profile 

But of course the Master would buy pears! Not because he likes them, oh no, just to goad/irk/grate on the Doctor's nerves. Because that's how they are. Love that detail - and the Gallifreyan swirls above their heads, indicating that they speak (think?) in their native tongue.

Retired Timelords 😃

Normally I'm not into Human AUs, but this one definitely made me reconsider. A delicious take, intriguing and (unconventionally, thrown-off-balance but somehow still) perfectly in-character.

high school tensimm au except they’re both unbearable losers.

ten is a science geek that spends 23 hours a day in a laboratory, sucks at every subject that isn’t a scientific one but somehow manages to pass the classes, teachers and students hate him because he’s just always raising his hand to say shit and sometimes he doesn’t even do that, he just says stuff out loud when someone else is supposed to answer AND ITS NOT EVEN ALWAYS CORRECT. he chainsmokes cigarettes when he’s working, he wears glasses even though he doesn’t need them because he thinks they give him a hot look but he looks even more nerdy than before, he wears a suit to school and cmon who does that?! yet somehow all the girls seem to fall for him, at least to flirt and kiss him, just to get dumped after the first month of dating.

the master is just the rich petty kid you have in your class that somehow manages to get good grades even if he’s subtly insulting the teachers in their faces, there is no subject he’s not good at. he looks down on people for dressing badly (although he mostly wears a black sweatshirt to school too), he thinks his family name opens the door to everything in his life, he tries to do everything to get extra credits, he insults people who aren’t good at subjects he redeems as “easy”. he fucks people when he’s bored, he drinks alcohol right after school and calls it a “pre-party” for the evening, he likes the feeling of getting beat up, he has a thing for trying to make pathetic older men submit to him.

and together they just make the most insufferable couple. they spend a day literally sucking each other’s face off in class and then the next day they avoid each other like the plague - just to make out against a wall in the garden at the end of the school day both with a black eye and a few more scars. they skip classes together and fuck in the janitors closet, they smoke in the bathroom and blame other kids if the alarm goes off, the master sometimes puts ounces of vodka in the doctor’s water bottle so he microdoses for like two weeks before the master takes it off and leaves him feeling odd for a month, the master seems completely aware of the doctor’s past stories with other girls but makes comments that have people thinking he’s going to murder them soon, the doctor once went on a full hour rant at a party about how he is the only one the master will ever need and he’ll fix him up by curing him and making him a sane person with his infinite care (and then threw up on the ground). they’re just silly.

I rewatched Blackpool a couple of months ago, replaying many scenes over and over again, and thought I was being very, very observant... I even noticed a poster for an obscure Russian film (starring Mayakovsky, of all people) on Steve's bedroom wall!

But how could I have possibly missed THIS?!

Blackpool (2004) - Episode 3

Just the sheer matter-of-factness of this. So beautiful. Raw and honest. It's a rare gift to write them like that. Love it.

(Not a shipper, I said? Well...)

Thoschei kiss without a motive :O

(hands to u my first writing of the morning) have some weird little guys

He’s getting used to breathing again.

Funny thing about coming back from the dead in a body that resists it, that would rather burn than focus on the beating of its own hearts: it was hard to remember he needed air. Hunger came much easier.

This body is alive now. A little radiation can be good for you, under the right circumstances. Even better with a taste of fate derailed and a glimpse of the Doctor’s wide-eyed shock, as if he was the only one who got to break the rules of time.

Hunger lingers. Hunger transforms. He’s growing restless inside the TARDIS’s walls. Not a prisoner — the Doctor has never been able to keep what he loves in a cage, always sets it free and doesn’t dare hope it loves him enough to return. Not free — where would he go? And besides, the Doctor can barely fly the TARDIS on his own. What if he went and crashed into a moon and forgot to regenerate because the whole ordeal was so humiliating? The Master can’t leave him.

The Doctor can’t look at him, most days. Others, he can’t look away. He’s bad for conversation whether he’s guilty or enraptured.

So the Master takes up sneaking into his room while he’s asleep. The Doctor would at least lock his door if he didn’t want it to happen, not that any lock would keep the Master out for long. The Doctor sleeps in awkward bursts, a familiar pattern that he’s never grown out of and the Master has always had to deal with. At least he manages to get into his own bed these days before passing out.

The Master perches over him. He watches the Doctor breathe and matches him. He doesn’t make a sound.

He’s bold enough to touch when the Doctor is deeply unconscious. He slides a hand over the Doctor’s chest and feels one heart, then the other, so slow and peaceful. Not like the humans he plays around with their jabbering single heartbeats, too fast and too loud.

He raises his hand to the Doctor’s throat. He likes this body’s neck. His hand fits so well around it. It would have been a shame to let the Doctor regenerate into someone that the Master’s hands might not belong on. His lazy pulse beats below the Master’s fingers, and his breaths echo from the Master’s own lips.

Up again, to his mouth, to feel the air pass back and forth.

He doesn’t think. He takes.

The Doctor’s mouth is slack and warm.

And then, his hand is in the Master’s hair before he can react, keeping him still and close.

When he’s allowed to pull back, the Doctor is watching him. He doesn’t move, doesn’t panic, as comfortable as before. The Master wonders how many times the Doctor’s been playing at sleep to lure him in.

“I thought you came in here to kill me, the first time,” the Doctor says calmly. “I prefer this.”

Incredible! This literally empty face, these "cracked" words. Stained glass style nailed immaculately - and at the same time it's so telling.

Yes, I'm a bit obsessed with the TLV at the moment.

“Two almighty civilizations burning. Tell me… how did that feel? You must have been like God…”

imagine: you get your memories back after years of amnesia to find out your whole species is dead and earth doesn’t exist anymore. that the only thing left of your culture is your weird ex and his busted honda civic that barely even works that he stole from the government when he was 13. And he’s been taking members of an alien species for trips in his honda civic and they’re all like “woah it’s so cool” and you get upset because it’s NOT COOL it’s a honda civic, the turn signals don’t even work “wow it can go up hills” yeah OF COURSE IT CAN GO UP HILLS EVERY CAR COULD DO THAT. but they’ve never seen a car before so everything it does is the coolest thing ever. And your ex’s only tool is a fucking screwdriver which is somehow also cool to this dumbass alien species even though it’s a fucking screwdriver so you just look like an idiot screaming about how none of this is even cool it’s actually really shitty but your whole planet is gone so you can’t even prove it but also you’ve had a constant drumming sounding in your head since you were 10 slowly driving you insane. I would become evil too.

Don't get me wrong, but Spies Of Warsaw was THE handsomest DT ever looked (before the 60th specials, that is). And un-fucking-believably dashing, too. And a healthy dose of whump never hurts (as opposed to clumsy puns). Rewatch is due.

This DT edit is my Roman empire

really love how throughout a lot of smith and jones martha is really skeptical and apprehensive towards ten (+ one of my favorite exchanges between them - "what, people call you 'the doctor'?" "yeah?" "well, i'm not. far as i'm concerned, you've got to earn that title."), not taking everything he says at face value, even doubting the fact he's an alien until over halfway through the episode.. And like. i really truly think the thing that wins her over isn't him kissing her or any of the other insane mixed messages he manages to send, it's this scene here, where he /earns that title/ in her eyes:

(+ david's bit in the commentary, where he says: "[the doctor] has actually sacrificed himself, and - i would say, that that final act of selflessness is what finally, eventually, welds martha to him. [...] and she now returns it. she returns that act of selflessness.")

this is what their relationship is built on. it isn't about martha being the second-best replacement to rose or a rebound or whatever. bc it isn't really about rose. it's about doctor-in-training martha meeting someone (quite literally, "the doctor") whose ideals she aspires to, and doing her best to be the same person to him as he is to everyone else. it's about ten in return admiring her intelligence and inquisitiveness and how she cares for human life, recovering his compassion, letting himself lean on her for support - and then remembering at the most inopportune moments that he's supposed to not need anyone and be on his own forever. And around in their little nightmare loop they go where they save each other over and over until one of them breaks

i've seen ppl look at martha and go "why she does she admire/why is she so in love with ten if he acts like that to her?" or something along those lines and like. it's not just the fact she's in love with him (in fact i'd argue she actively tries to push it aside post-gridlock). it's the fact that she knows he's the kind of person to put everyone else's lives/well-being over his own. she trusts him to save her when she's in trouble even though it's been like two days at most that they've known one another bc she recognizes that same "deep all-encompassing drive to help others" in him. and she also recognizes, much much earlier than him, that he needs someone to save him, especially when he's unwilling to save himself. and yeah for a bit she thinks he returns her feelings and is just playing hard-to-get, but she realizes pretty early on that this probably isn't the case, and i think that realization fully solidifies here:

(this is when she's listening to ten talk abt gallifrey). And idk it might just be me but i think this expression isn't just her empathizing with his loss. it's also guilt, for wanting something from him that he's clearly unable to give when he's wracked with so much grief. (and you see it in the next episode, where tallulah asks if they're together and martha says for certain that they're not, and that he doesn't know about her feelings for him. she keeps everything to herself bc she now knows that when he shut her flirting down at the end of 3x01 it was the genuine reaction of someone who a) isn't interested and b) is scared of getting close with someone else again)

freema described their dynamic as "she's keener than him" and i think about this all the time. martha doesn't really take what ten throws at her. what she does instead is constantly poke holes in his already-failing front of "i will show someone the wonders of the universe so i can ignore what is wrong with me". what she does is stand up and fight him when he tries to go off on his own. what she does is put aside her well-being in favor of helping someone - just like what she saw him do for the people in the hospital when they first met. tldr, that's the doctor and his doctor and rip martha you would've loved who's gonna save u now by rina sawayama

So shapely, innit?

I feel like a Victorian man seeing an ankle…

All praise to DT – the patron saint and/or totemic being of us all, Who Cannot Sit Normally. 

I, for one, find this exact arrangement of lower extremities quite comfortable. Years of reading crouched in various crooks and nannies + breaststroke swimming have got my joints used to being put in positions that are not conventionally normal for the average human. Having knees that do… well, turn outwards, I guess is the right way to put it –  is pretty useful. 

Full credit for tag furniture_abuse goes to the incredible @mizgnomer, of course. (I'm awfully sorry if I'm breaching the Tumblr etiquette there, tagging non-mutual, but that blog is a bona fide treasure trove of all things DT-related, especially visual stuff.  It was the reason I came to Tumblr at all, for what it's worth.)

sadboy

What a shame we haven't seen him in full Clan McDonald gear since 2014, when the cast were promoting What We Did On Our Holiday (I think?). DT looks magnificent in a kilt.

David Tennant and Kelly Macdonald

HANDS. And a well made point about the distinction between the TV and Film BAFTAs. But mostly HANDS.

This proves my point......

I need to make a comment(ary) about this ABSOLUTELY LOVELY photo.

One of David's promo shots for the BAFTAS

Okay, so here's the comment(ary).

I want you to take notice of DT's hands - his thumbs, knuckles, and loooooong fingers (as if you hadn't already, I know, but I'm just making sure!)

I say this because those hands are so uniquely his, especially the way he bends his thumbs...the length from the tip of his thumb to the first knuckle, specifically. Hell, all the joints of his thumbs. Most people don't have that length between their joints. Nor do they usually bend BOTH those joints, as DT does. I bring this up because in my analysis of the obscure short film One-Eyed Jacques - and specifically about whether or not David was in this film, and why I think he was, and my evidence for why I think he was - this photo highlights the "uniquely weird DT hands and fingers that help us recognize him even when we can't see his face." Because in that film, his fingers are the only things we see! So thank you, BAFTAs, for providing me with wonderful photographic evidence supporting my theory. And oh, yes.... Before all of this blows up with regards to "OMG David's never been nominated and how dare they ask him to host!" - keep in mind the BAFTA film awards they've asked him to host are separate from their TV awards. David's films have notoriously been so-so, so it's no surprise he hasn't been nominated for any of them. It would be sillier if they'd asked him to present the BAFTAs for television, since it is his TV projects (like Broadchurch, Des, and Litvinenko) that really should’ve been nominated.

fourteen and the toymaker making out sloppy style but fourteen is actually kissing tooth!master

😌❤️

Now we’ve had this bi-generation I just think we should go full unhinged and have gold tooth turn into Simm Master. Have a full ‘why has this face returned?’ parallel. Shove him into retired life with Tennant’s doctor. Scale down their enmity to absolutely microscopic proportions. From cosmic scale to just domestic life. Have the Nobles stuck in the front row watching them sort their shit out.

I want them trying to survive Sylvia Noble together. I want them at war with their neighbours. I want them battling with the chaos of Evri deliveries - ‘not even the TARDIS can locate the safe place they’ve apparently left it in’. Have them arguing in Tesco over whether it really matters whether eggs are free range. They can make up by getting their own chickens which The Master can regularly threaten to roast much to Rose’s horror (but he won’t because he named them after the Teletubbies and The Doctor knows he’d never hurt Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa or Po… and he just enjoys having dominion over lesser creatures or something 🙄)

I want aliens turning up for their regularly scheduled fuck with London at Christmas time moment only to be faced with the two of them in their matching Noble family Christmas jumpers (and they will be wearing them because have you met Donna?) And no, The Master hasn’t gone soft, he doesn’t care about Earth in general, but the Strictly final is on and he’s a little invested in that.

I want Donna, in her new UNIT job, explaining this to her new colleagues. Because they know The Doctor and The Master, they’ve seen the files, and they just…live in her garden now.

I think there's actually something really profound in Donna's 'missing everything' gag. Like, yes, it's objectively funny that this woman has somehow missed every alien invasion in the entirety of her time on Earth.

But there's more to it than that. She's the most compassionate companion, the most down to Earth as the saying goes. She sees things that others don't. Like the missing sick records, the way others are treated, Martha's ring. Sees the inside of the Tardis before she sees the outside. And perhaps most importantly, she doesn't see The Time Lord - that big otherworldly figure. She just sees the Doctor. Sees his need for true companionship, his need for guidance, his need for someone to carry a burden he is being crushed under.

She misses the big things, yes, but in exchange she is so wholly, beautifully immersed in the small things no one else sees.

There was also an incredibly cool pair with the Who logo (the band, that is). Being a huge fan of them myself, I was gutted to find out that they were out of stock before I could get my hands on a pair. Someone was luckier (or more smart and quick to act)!

(photo from the 2012 Summer TCA TOUR, "The Spies of Warsaw" discussion panel)

David’s Colorful Converse Collection

Question:  Did you get to decide what you wore <on Doctor Who> David:  It was certainly kind of based on ideas that I’d had, yeah.  I was very keen to have some soft shoes.  I thought I’m in them for 9 months, I’ve got to do a lot of running up and down corridors, I don’t want a big pair of clumpy boots.                              – Totally Doctor Who

—-

He’d been wearing his favorite plimsolls all summer and suggested he wear those instead.  Louise’s only reservation about them was what would happen when it came to December and it was cold and snowing on location?  His feet would freeze and he’d regret his decision then.  David promised her he wouldn’t.  “We did use his own shoes for The Christmas Invasion and then I bought another five identical pairs.  I’ve got about nine now, but we used his own initially because they were already very broken down, very distressed, ripped and torn.  David liked the idea that the Doctor’s shoes were worn in.  He didn’t want him being this neat, perfect character.”                              – Louise Page in Doctor Who - The Inside Story

I knew that! Flipping conspiracy!!

end of time secret ending (the bbc wont tell you about this one)

Please please please please please please!🤞

So, everyone has pointed out how funny it is that fifteen claimed to have gone through therapy and be fine now only to immediately act just like his old traumatised self and it is but like…

Has anyone considered fifteen was lying?

What if he hasn’t actually experienced that domestic bliss that fourteen got to enjoy or have fourteens memories following their split at all?What if he just told fourteen he did to convince him to stay on earth and be happy so fourteen could have a chance at happiness that fifteen believes he will never have and doesn’t deserve and his seemingly incredibly upbeat personality is just a facade?

I mean this sounds incredibly in character for the doctor to me tbh

SFX Magazine Issue 372 - Designing Good Omens ❤ 😊

PRODUCTION DESIGNER MICHAEL RALPH REVEALS HOW THE SHOW’S CENTREPIECE SET, WHICKBER STREET, WAS GIVEN A DEVILISHLY CLEVER UPGRADE FOR THE SECOND SEASON

WORDS: DAVE GOLDER

Invisible Columns And Thin Walls “The new studio is Pyramid Studios in Bathgate – it used to be a furniture warehouse. And unfortunately – or fortunately, because I accept these things as not challenges but gifts – right down the middle of that studio are a series of upright columns. But you’ll never spot them on screen. I had to build them in and integrate them into the walls and still get the streets between them. And it worked.

“There’s all sorts of cheeky design values to those sets. Normally a set like this is double-skin. In other words, you do an interior wall and an exterior wall, with an airspace in between. But really, the only time a viewer notices that there’s that width is at the doors and the windows. So I cheated all that. I ended up with single walls everywhere. So the exterior wall is the interior wall, just painted. All I did was make the sash windows and entrances wider to give it some depth as you walked in.”

GOOD OMENS HAD A CHANGE of location for its second season, but hopefully you didn’t notice. Because Whickber Street in Soho upped sticks from an airfield in Hertfordshire to a furniture warehouse in Bathgate, Edinburgh. It’s the kind of nonsensical geographical shenanigans that could only make sense in the crazy world of film and TV, and production designer Michael Ralph was the man in charge of rebuilding and expanding the show’s vast central set. “I wish we could have built more in season one than we did,” says Ralph, whose previous work has included Primeval and Dickensian. “We built the ground floor of everything and the facades of all the shops. But we didn’t build anything higher than that, because we were out on an airfield in a very, very difficult terrain and weather conditions, so we really couldn’t go much higher. Visual effects created the upper levels.”

But with season two the set has gone to a whole other level… literally. “What happened was that the rest of the street became integrated into the series’s storyline,” explains Ralph. “So we needed a record shop, we needed a coffee shop that actually had an inside, we needed a magic shop, we needed the pub. To introduce those meant we had to change the street with a layout that works from a storylines point of view. In other words, things like someone standing at the counter in the record shop had to be able to eyeball somebody standing at the counter in the coffee shop. They had to be able to eyeball Aziraphale sitting in his office in the window of the bookshop. But the rest of it was a pleasure to do inside, because we could expand it and I could go up two storeys.”

For most of the set, which is around 80 metres long and 60 metres wide, the two storeys only applied to the shop frontages, but in the case of Aziraphale’s bookshop, it allowed Ralph to build the mezzanine level for real this time. According to Ralph it became one of the cast and crews’ favourite places to hang out during down time.

But while AZ Fell & Co has grown in height, it actually has a slightly smaller footprint because of the logistics of adapting it to the new studio.

“Everybody swore to me that no one would notice,” says Ralph wryly. “I walked onto it and instinctively knew there was a difference immediately, and they hated me for that. I have this innate sense about spatial awareness and an eye like a spirit level.

“It’s not a lot, though – I think we’ve lost maybe two and a half feet on the front wall internally. I think that there’s a couple of other smaller areas, but only I’d notice. So I can be really annoying to my guys, but only on those levels. Not on any other. They actually quite like me…”

Populating The Bookshop “The props in the new bookshop set were a flawless reproduction from the set decorator Bronwyn Franklin [who is also Ralph’s wife]. It was really the worst-case scenario after season one. She works off the concept art that I produce, but what she does is she adds so much more to the character of the set. She doesn’t buy anything she doesn’t love, or doesn’t fit the character.

“But the things she put a lot of work into finding for season one, they were pretty much one-offs. When we burnt the set down in the sixth episode, we lost a lot of props, many of which had been spotted and appreciated by the fans. So Bronwyn had to discover a new set decorating technique: forensic buying.

“She found it all – duplicates and replicas. It took ages. In that respect, the Covid delay was very helpful for Bron. There’s 7,000 books in there and there’s not one fake book. That’s mainly because… it’s a weird thing to say, but we wanted it to smell and feel like a bookshop to everybody that was in it, all the time.

“It affects everybody subliminally; it affects everybody’s performance – actors and crew – it raises the bar 15 to 20%. And the detail, you know… We love a lot of detail.”

(look at the description under this, they called him 'Azi' hehehehe :D <3)

Aziraphale’s Inspirational Correspondence “There’s not one single scrap of paper on Aziraphale’s desk that isn’t written specifically for Aziraphale. Every single piece is not just fodder that’s been shoved there, it has a purpose; it’s a letter of thanks, or an enquiry about a book or something.

“Michael Sheen is so submerged in his character he would get lost sitting at his own desk, reading his own correspondence between takes. I believe wholeheartedly that if you put that much care into every single piece of detail, on that desk and in that room, that everybody feels it, including the crew, and then they give that set the same respect it deserves.

“They also lift their game because they believe that they’re doing something of so much care and value. Really, it’s a domino effect of passion and care for what you’re producing.”

Alternative Music “My daughter Mickey is lead graphic designer [two of Ralph’s sons worked on the series too, one as a concept artist, the other in props]. They’re the ones that produced all of that handwritten work on the desk. She’s the one that took on the record shop and made up 80 band names so that we didn’t have to get copyright clearance from real bands. Then she produced records and sleeves that spanned 50, 60 years of their recordings, and all of the graphics on the walls.

“I remember Michael and Neil [Gaiman] getting lost following one band’s history on the wall, looking at their posters and albums desperately trying to find out whether they survived that emo period.”

It’s A Kind Of Magic One of the new shops in Whickber Street for season two was Will Goldstone’s Magic Shop, which is full of as many Easter eggs as off-the-shelf conjuring tricks, including a Matt Smith Doctor Who-style fez and a toy orang-utan that’s a nod to Discworld’s The Librarian. Ralph says that while the series is full of references to Gaiman, Pratchett and Doctor Who, Michael Sheen never complained about a lack of Masters Of Sex in-jokes. “He’d be the last person to make that sort of comment!”

Ralph also reveals that the magic shop counter was another one of his wife’s purchases, bought at a Glasgow reclamation yard.

The Anansi Boys Connection Ralph reveals that Good Omens season two used the state-of-the-art special effects tech Volume (famous for its use in The Mandalorian to create virtual backdrops) for just one sequence, but he will be using it extensively elsewhere on another Gaiman TV series being made for Prime Video.

“We used Volume on the opening sequence to create the creation of the universe. I was designing Anansi Boys in duality with this project, which seems an outrageously suicidal thing to do. But it was fantastic and Anansi Boys was all on Volume. So I designed for Volume on one show and not Volume on the other. The complexities and the psychology of both is different.”

Ninth doctor: I’ve gone through hell, but I’m trying to find joy in living again. I’ve been inexorably changed, but I’m trying to learn how to cope.

Tenth doctor: i’m normal i’m normal i’m normal i’m normal (<— lying)

an angel and a timelord walk into a bar……..

Amazing how uncannily fitting are the words of that song.

When I first heard about this story, I thought - wow, EVEN Patti Smith herself isn't immune!

Patti Smith and Her Dedication To David

On this day in 2014, the iconic rock-n-roll queen Patti Smith (who's celebrating her 77th birthday today, by the way) dedicated her song "Distant Fingers" to David Tennant. Which makes me even happier when the first thing he said to me when I told him my name and spelled it so he could sign an autograph, he asked me, "Oh, like Patti Smith?" Yes, sir, exactly like that! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, let me elaborate. I don't know how often she did it on her 2014 tour, but I know that on 29 December 2014 at New York's Webster Hall, she had a talk with her audience (watch at the link) before singing her song "Pumping (My Heart)," and described how David first caught her attention for his role as Alec Hardy in Broadchurch. Then, after catching him by accident in Doctor Who, she ended up watching his entire run as the Tenth Doctor, and - predictably, because DUH! - fell head over heels for him.

The following night, again at Webster Hall, was her birthday. That night she dedicated another of her songs, "Distant Fingers" - from her 1976 album, Radio Ethiopia - to David. You can watch that here - and I'd advise you to watch it in its entirety, as she begins to riff at the end of the song and talks about David:

And oh, just in case you're having difficulty understanding her words, or English isn't your first language, here are some of the lyrics to the song:

When, when will you be landing? When, when will you return? Feel, feel my heart expanding You and your alien arms

All my earthly dreams are shattered I'm so tired, I quit Take me forever, it doesn't matter Deep inside of your ship

La, la, la, la, la, la, landing Please, oh, oh, won't you return? Feel, see your blue lights are flashing You and your alien arms

Deep in the forest I whirl like I did as a little girl Let my eyes rise in the sky looking for you Oh, you know, I would go anywhere at all 'Cause no star is too far with you, with you....

Keeping in mind she wrote this song in 1976, the lyrics fit David's turn as the Tenth Doctor with eerie clairvoyance!

And because she is the queen she is, she adds a sly little comment: "So come for me, David. I know I'm an older woman, but I know so many things."

One wonders what David thought about this. I've no doubt someone in his circle alerted him to Patti's dedication, because how could they not? And as an aside - his interaction with me about Patti Smith was about nine months before she did this dedication to him. So not only was he aware of her as the music connoisseur he is, the fact her name sprung immediately to his mind when speaking to me has always made me think he's a fan.

He probably blushed. Deeply. Well played, Patti. Well played.

I'm so jealous of David Tennant, like 1/3 of me is just attracted to him and the other percentage just wants to be him... gender? Either; whenever you want. Hair? Fucking fabulous. Teeth? So nice and fangs to boot.

Jelly

Now we’ve had this bi-generation I just think we should go full unhinged and have gold tooth turn into Simm Master. Have a full ‘why has this face returned?’ parallel. Shove him into retired life with Tennant’s doctor. Scale down their enmity to absolutely microscopic proportions. From cosmic scale to just domestic life. Have the Nobles stuck in the front row watching them sort their shit out.

I want them trying to survive Sylvia Noble together. I want them at war with their neighbours. I want them battling with the chaos of Evri deliveries - ‘not even the TARDIS can locate the safe place they’ve apparently left it in’. Have them arguing in Tesco over whether it really matters whether eggs are free range. They can make up by getting their own chickens which The Master can regularly threaten to roast much to Rose’s horror (but he won’t because he named them after the Teletubbies and The Doctor knows he’d never hurt Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa or Po… and he just enjoys having dominion over lesser creatures or something 🙄)

I want aliens turning up for their regularly scheduled fuck with London at Christmas time moment only to be faced with the two of them in their matching Noble family Christmas jumpers (and they will be wearing them because have you met Donna?) And no, The Master hasn’t gone soft, he doesn’t care about Earth in general, but the Strictly final is on and he’s a little invested in that.

I want Donna, in her new UNIT job, explaining this to her new colleagues. Because they know The Doctor and The Master, they’ve seen the files, and they just…live in her garden now.