watching Aliens of London knowing that ✨Dr. Sato✨ was in fact not a doctor at all and had no idea what she was doing makes it so much funnier

because like, the doctor thinks she knows a lot about medicine but nothing about aliens when really she deals with aliens daily but has little to no idea what a pig’s brain is actually supposed to look like

also just the fact that she found the doctor before jack did. like i know that version of the doctor couldn’t’ve helped him because he hadn’t met jack yet but still it’s funny

ianto was also at the very least in the same building as the doctor at one point (canary wharf), and that version of the doctor absolutely did know what was wrong with jack, which means that two of his employees encountered the doctor before jack did

gwen didn’t meet him until after exit wounds, but her family still came into contact with him before jack did

it also means that the only torchwood employee that didn’t meet the doctor was owen and that makes me sad

Rose Tyler's mobile phone

"doctor who has gone woke! and gay!" yeaah uh this is the first five minutes of s1ep4

I’m rewatching Aliens of London, and all I can think about is how rough it’d have been for Owen to have to have the day Tosh had that day all while supremely hungover. Just imagine him with the worst hangover imaginable, trying not to vomit while chasing an augmented pig down a hallway, and tell me it doesn’t make you laugh.

So maybe this is it! First contact! The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay! Now you can expand!

DOCTOR WHO EPISODES ALIENS OF LONDON (1.04)

"Ask me anything" huh? Can I ask you to rant about stuff you love about Doctor Who for a handful of paragraphs, with the additional requirement that you cannot use correct grammar NOR can your statements be fully coherent?

Doctor Who is like 50% fun nonsense and I think commentaries on it should reflect that. No elaborate and precise statements, just pure joy unhindered by foolish concepts such as "making perfect sense".

I was waiting until I was close to going to bed to answer this because this really needs my half-asleep brain to answer properly. (Or improperly, in this case.) Now, onto as grammatically improperly as I can make this (hopefully I pulled this off. like to think I did!):

you know what i love about doctor who? i love that this show covers every single genre in the universe. that it is horror and comedy and historical fiction and sci fi and alternate history and dystopian and myths and steampunk and biopunk and murder mystery and western and fairytale because genre doesn't apply, because the doctor is a mad man in a box telling the story, except that they're not, the doctor's not the one telling the story, because this is really a story about the companions of the doctor, the people who are reflections of them, the people who become the doctor, the people who were doctors all along, the people who were kind and brave and traumatized and curious and above all, wanted to see the stars, because this is a story about the stars, about the grand expanse of space and time, about everything that ever was and ever will be, but the thing is, the mechanics of the show and how seasons are shot and that no actor can ever stay young forever, because the show is made with real people, everyone has to move on, and that's the beauty of it, isn't it? that people have to move on.

writers and actors always have to move on but with doctor who, because some genius (affectionate) in the 60s decided that regeneration would get to be a mechanic in the show we get to have an eternal canon, we get to have renewal, we get to have companions reflect back on the doctor in an infinite number of batshit insane and unhinged ways, we get to see hope and grief and a bottomless fall and an infinite rise because the doctor cannot die even though everyone around them can BUT ALSO because this show is about travelling, about running, about having the entirety of everything that has ever existed or will exist or can't exist or might exist at our fingertips.

as a result you can have episodes like midnight and partners in crime in the same season and no one will bat an eye, you can have the farting calcium invasion-of-the-body-snatchers be the monsters that propel two of the best character pieces i've ever seen in my entire life, you can have capitalism critiques involving fish poop under the thames, you can have them visit the greatest people that will ever live and the worst, you can have them inspire artists and scientists before they die and that's just as important as the aliens or saving the world, you see, because at the end of the day doctor who is about love, it's about the small moments as well as the big saves, it's about wilfred staring at the stars and amy demanding her imaginary friend show up to her wedding and harriet jones worrying about her mother and about danny admiring the fact that a student said please and about ryan and graham learning to ride a bike together and about jackie being the last person that mickey said goodbye to in journey's end, it's about love and character development and charles dickens and vincent van gogh getting to smile and laugh before they die, it's about the love, you see?

doctor who is about running as far and as fast as you can because even though you're more afraid than anyone who has ever existed you have to see them all, you have to love them all, because you have so much love you can't contain it in one heart, that's why you have two hearts, because you love so much, too much, and you will never find peace, you will never find an ending, but right here, right now, you can have this. and that will never be enough, it can't be enough, but it still matters.

because the love was there.

Once again on my worshipping Harriet Jones propaganda. Best minor character in all of the whoniverse. Deserved far more than the Doctor ever gave her, and saved the entire world. We know who you are, and we are forever in your debt.

I find it kinda hilarious how the Doctor goes from “900 years of time and space, and I’ve never been slapped by someone’s mother” (9, “Aliens of London”) to “Always the mothers!  Every time” (10, “The Lazarus Experiment”).  I mean, I know that the latter was probably just a callback to 9 that accidentally implied that he’d been slapped repeatedly and not just by Jackie, but I kinda love the idea that his travels in the TARDIS regularly put him on the bad side of various mothers across the universe.

when i remember the doctor met tosh before he met jack —

Nooo don't skip 9, you'll miss out on this scene

Ultimate Doctor Who Poll Round 2 - Matchup 25

Episode Summaries under the cut

15: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead - Season 4, Episodes 8 & 9: After getting a message on his psychic paper, the Doctor takes Donna to The Library, a whole library planet, but it is completely deserted. They run into a group of archaeologists investigating the disappearance of over 4,000 people in the library 100 years before. One of the archaeologists, River Song, knows the Doctor's future self, has a diary that looks like the TARDIS of all their adventures, and has her own sonic screwdriver. Upon finding out that the Doctor doesn't recognize her and it's his first time meeting her, she is heartbroken.

The Doctor discovers an infestation of a species called Vashta Nerada, tiny bacteria-like creatures that hunt by hiding in shadows and almost instantly stripping the flesh of anything that steps inside the darkness. The Vashta Nerada begin hunting the crew, filling their spacesuits and using them to get around and communicate.

By talking with them, The Doctor finds that the Library was the home planet of the Vashta Nerada, a vast forest that was cut down and turned into the books of the library. 100 years ago, the Vashta Nerada attacked and the library teleported everybody out, but with no safe place to send them saved them to it's hard drive. The Doctor negotiates with them to give them 24 hours to get all the people saved off the planet and return it to the Vashta Nerada.

The operating system is revealed to be run by the mind of a child, a digital copy to preserve the dying daughter of the Library's creator. The 4,000 minds saved to the hard drive have driven her insane. In a temper tantrum, she sets the planet to explode. The Doctor tries to plug his brain in to help the process, but River is worried it will kill him and mean that their adventures together in their future never happened. She knocks him out and takes his place, lamenting that this means he's always known how she would die. She dies as the 4,000 people are teleported to safety.

Realizing that his future self would have had time to think how to save her, he finds a hidden compartment in River's sonic that stored a copy of her brain scan, which he uploads into the Library's data base so she can live on in virtual reality.

114: Aliens of London/World War Three - Season 1, Episodes 4 & 5: The Doctor takes Rose back home, but discovers that he's a year late and Rose was considered missing. While dealing with the fallout, an alien spaceship crashes into Big Ben. While investigating, the Doctor and Rose are taken to Downing Street to consult with alien experts, which is a trap by the alien Slitheen family, who faked the crash to kill the alien experts. They plan to goad the Earth into giving them access to every countries nuclear weapons to fight off an imaginary alien ship, then use the weapons to destroy the Earth and sell the radioactive rubble for money. The Doctor launches a regular missile at Downing Street, with him and Rose surviving in a panic room, while the Slitheen are killed and the Earth saved.

(Beat #143: In the Forest of the Night in Round 1)

My Mum Rates New Who:

Aliens of London/World War Three:

I don’t mind this episode. The Slitheen are not one of my favourite aliens. I don’t have a problem skipping this episode. I prefer World War Three a little more than Aliens of London, but that’s it.

(So my mum wanted to join in... She started watching Doctor Who when she was little; her favourite Doctor is 7 - Anyways, enjoy)

eight watches doctor who for the first time: season 1 episodes 4&5 (aliens of london/world war three)

@latin-8-o-clock-my-room

Day in Fandom History: April 16…

Rose returns home in England where a spaceship crashes through Big Ben and the Prime Minister missing, putting The Doctor on investigation mode when something in Parliament is not all that it seems. “Aliens of London” premiered on this day, 19 Years Ago.

Aliens of London is so much funnier when you know who Toshiko is, that she's faking being clueless, and that she's probably cursing Owen in her head the entire time.