finalgwen.bsky.social
Transfemme enby bisexual disaster, writ large in neon. (She/They). 34. Into Theatre, Jim Steinman, D&D, Wrestling, Horror, Dr Who, and more! Frequently nsfw. Too much is never enough! (Avatar by NeonJess)
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I was quite surprised to find out Muriel was actually one of the first characters to cross mediums, as one of the UNIT soldiers in Aliens Of London! Quite nice crossover for one of the first bits of EU material I got my hands on as a kid. Got my copy signed by Sylv, Sophie and Nick Courtney!
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The comic has a lot of really cool imagery, the Helix's influence warping the TARDIS and fusing it with late 90s Earth, the Doctor and Ace running along a corridor straight into Muriel Frost of UNIT from the story's sideplot on Earth, investigating 'Mandrake', a drug that strips people of purpose.
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Funnily enough, the comic has the idea that a fragment of a villain from the Tom Baker/Lis Sladen years has hidden unseen aboard the TARDIS for lifetimes since it was last defeated, gathering power. Wonder if it was any influence on Empire Of Death...
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Overall, 6/10, a fun jaunt. I'm also going to jump forward in time, as while this is the first time I've seen Masque, one of my first stories as a kid was The Mark Of Mandragora, the comic sequel nicely set up by this story's conclusion pointing to the 20th century!
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The Portmeiron location filming also worked great, gave the story a very different feel setting wise. Also loved the early sequences of them exploring the labyrinthine TARDIS corridors. Is this the first time we've seen this done in the show?
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Louis Marks is good with the eldritch feel, and even if this didn't hit quite as hard as Planet Of Evil, the Helix still feels suitably alien for how low-fi the effects are, the early scenes of the Doctor and Sarah stepping out into the Helix feel surreal in a way we don't often get.
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AO3's probably the safest bet.
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Seemed quite shocked how long I'd been waiting for a first appointment through the GIC, and how much private prescriptions are while waiting for that. Also hadn't heard about the BMA recommending a pause on implementing Cass until they've finished their findings. So hopefully it made a difference!
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Gorgeous, congrats to you and @lavender.pet !
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True, true!
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But really this is just a mode of Doctor Who I don't enjoy, feels like the worst excesses of the 80s but without the camp to break it up. And what a sad whimper of an end to UNIT, who barely needed to be in this story. 3/10
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I'll give it points for a few things - the Krynoid's a decently effective monster, Scorby's well played by John Challis showing some depth, Amelia Ducat breaks up the tone a bit with an eccentric performance, and I do love the line "Have you met Miss Smith? She's my best friend."
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With the additional levels of violence and brutality, and one of the central characters being an amoral gun-toting mercenary, the whole thing just feels overly macho in a way that doesn't fit Doctor Who. A young Eric Saward takes more notes.
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The violence is also upped here (oddly the thing everyone points to is the Doctor apparently breaking someone's neck, even though 5 seconds later he's fine and goes on to be a major character for the rest of the story), but the ground-into-compost deaths of two character are unnecessarily brutal.
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It feels like Doctor Who in action movie mode, but without the tight pacing that format usually entails. The central body horror of the Krynoid works, but we wind up seeing the whole thing play out twice, to say nothing off the Doctor and Sarah escaping and being captured several times over.
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Next up was The Seeds Of Doom, and I feel like I'd have nicer things to say about it if it weren't six parts. And also if I didn't have to watch it in slightly scuffed quality on Dailymotion thanks to the writer's estate taking it off of iPlayer.
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Also on the brutality note, it's interesting that here the Doctor kills a villain with cyanide, a rather nasty way to die. A young Eric Saward takes notes.
Think I'd give this one an 8/10, it's brimming with creativity despite the obvious inspiration, and gave future stories a lot to work with.
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The most violent moment of the story - the rather brutal shooting of Condo, blood squibs and all after an era of 'bullets can't stop it' - is contrasted with the comedy of the titular brain falling out of its jar and flopping on the floor in a pool of goo.
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It moves by briskly even if a lot of the plot feels like the Doctor ping-ponging between Solon's castle and the Sisterhood, but the characters all work, the sets look great, and it's willing enough to play with the show's history to make the stakes feel quite epic even when mundane things happen.
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Gotta feed our own cake somehow.
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I may have gone through a phase of eating too much cheesecake. (Or exactly the right amount of cheesecake, depending on your viewpoint.)
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Gotta support the big naturals.
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That's just sensible planning.
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If I could reason when I was an egg, would have figured things out so much quicker.
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This is possibly the coolest a human being* has ever looked.
*or adjacent canine equivalents
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Oh noooo, going off the SSRIs is never fun, hope you'll be ok.