Traumatic Experiences

Challenge #14

In your own space, create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom

I wasn't sure what to do with this at first, I talked about my love for the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films earlier during the snowflake challenge and I've made primers for other things I love for previous challenges, see Dead Boy Detectives and Sherlock & Daughter, so I decided to do something slightly different and try and convince Doctor Who fans to watch the Twelfth Doctor's run, specially his last season.

I've heard many Doctor Who fans say that they bounced right off of Twelve's first season, which I understand, because it was a little rough at first. Plus I know not everyone was a fan of Clara. So, they stopped watching or they skipped it. This is my way of trying to convince you to watch Twelve's last season (series 10).

Title: Doctor Who

Media: Television series

Approx length: 12 episodes plus one special, approx 13 hours (Optional: the two specials before this season "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", they are both fun, and if you like River Song you might want to check out "The Husbands of River Song" as it is River Song's send-off, at least for now).

What is it, in summary?: The Doctor finds himself acting as a Professor at St Luke's University, where he meets Bill, a cafeteria worker who sneaks in to listen to his lectures. All while the Doctor keeps a secret locked in a vault under the university. Bill is the main companion of the season, along with occasionally Nardole, a cyborg who is the Doctor's manservant/keeper.

What do you love about it?: First off, I love Bill, the Doctor and her have a great dynamic. She is impressed by the Doctor, but not in awe of him, and she's not afraid to ask questions, but rarely in a cruel way. At one point Bill pretends that he's her grandfather, which kind of fits. Bill's a lesbian, so there is no romantic tension, none of that, they're just friends.
Nardole is mostly there for comic relief. He is not impressed by the Doctor in the slightest, and he tries his best to keep the Doctor focused and following certain rules, with very little success.
Last, but not least, the third component to this season, that I love so much, is Missy, Missy, Missy! For those who don't know, Missy is the female incarnation of The Master. She was introduced near the end of Twelve's first season, but I don't think you necessarily need that context, you only need to know that this is the Master, and if you know Who at all you know something of their history. One sub-theme in this season is "Can the Master be rehabilitated?"

Content warnings: this kind of depends on the episode, but death, non-consensual body modification, injury, violence

Who do I ship?: First off, I kind of ship Doctor/Master a little bit in any form, but Twelve/Missy above all others. There is all this history and tension between them, but also this softness that neither one of them quite wants to admit to. There is also this yearning for a relationship from them both, but they can't quite trust each other enough to let it happen. There's a real tragedy about it. (Also, the chemistry between Capaldi and Gomez is great.)

I did like Clara, but I do wish that her time on the show had been a little shorter, or that Capaldi had agreed to do a fourth season, because I would have loved to have Bill for longer, and I wanted more time for Twelve and Missy's dynamic to develop, to see if they could build a better relationship between them.

I'm not saying every episode is great, some are much better than others, but I think it deserves so much more love than it gets.

Lastly, let me persuade with some gifs:

Bill:


Twelve, Bill, and Nardole


Missy:


Twelve and Missy (like look at the chemistry!)