THE HAUNTING OF VILLA DIODATI, Gallifrey Gals Get Wibbly Wobbly! S12ep8
Added 2022-10-06 17:01:01 +0000 UTCPeriod piece? Frankenstein? Mary Shelley? The fam in period appropriate clothing? Could Paula really ask for anymore?! Oh wait... Cybermen!
https://vimeo.com/753701871/4f8dac8970
PAULA DEMING (She/Her)
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KATRINA ALYSHA (They/She)
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Gallifrey Gals Theme Song by: NoAnie Music
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Comments
Christmas invasion reaction was never released, the file got corrupted and lost. back then they did a short recap explaining this and their thoughs about the episode, but is seems it was not included in the post of their old reactions
tal goren
2022-10-07 19:36:58 +0000 UTCI KNOW, RIGHT? Soooo out of character for him! 😆
Nicole Mazza
2022-10-06 23:30:04 +0000 UTCAnd yeah, I think Polidori was into Mary or even Claire (which is why I don't think Claire would've even cared so much about Byron flirting with the Doctor IRL, as she was sleeping with Percy, Mary's man -- but again , that was modern literary license, much like her standing up to Byron in the end, which was SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH -- she desperately clung on to him til the end, but Byron tossed her out when she got pregnant with his child and he refused to see her again. Later he sent for their daughter, Allegra, to live with him, but it was on condition Claire kept her distance from him/them. Allegra died at age 5. Claire would later say that Byron gave her 'only a few minutes of pleasure, but a lifetime of trouble'). But yeah, they were ALL sleeping together (as they were into what we would later call 'free love' and definitely either queer or 'heteroflexible') -- Bryon slept with Mary, Percy slept with Claire, Bryon slept with Percy, etc etc. Which I personally dig, but then I'm polyamorous, so...
Nicole Mazza
2022-10-06 22:09:26 +0000 UTCCybeef Borginon. That is all.
Bill
2022-10-06 21:47:38 +0000 UTCYes, Mary and Percy Shelley had a baby before they were married. In fact, the 21-year-old Percy was already married (and his wife Harriet was pregnant) when he met and fell in love with then 16 YEAR OLD Mary Godwin (later Shelley) and they ran off/eloped together to Europe, with Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont in tow (the one obsessed with Byron in this story). Mary became pregnant twice during this time, before they were married (as Shelley was still technically married to Harriet). The first baby (a girl) died at a few months old (part of the inspiration for Frankenstein, as I mentioned above), but their son William lived and is the baby in this story. When the couple later returned to England a few years later, they were finally able to marry -- but sadly it was after Shelley's legal wife, Harriet, committed suicide (drowned herself in grief of so thoroughly losing Shelley), soon after their return. It was all very scandalous and very sad.
Nicole Mazza
2022-10-06 21:29:25 +0000 UTCDrunken debauchery? With BYRON present??? I may get the vapors... 😉
Firefly24601
2022-10-06 20:58:57 +0000 UTCOh, and yes, aside from the usual boredom of the time period, as I mentioned above, because of the constant rain and darkness at Lake Geneva that Summer, they were perpetually stuck inside too, so they were EVEN MORE BORED (so much drinking, drug-taking, and other debauchery ensued because of that, but that was skipped for a family show, of course -- LOL). But thankfully, in the end, all that boredom led to the story competitions though, so every (rain) cloud has a silver lining? 😉
Nicole Mazza
2022-10-06 20:49:28 +0000 UTCReally really loved this episode. I don't really know Byron, Shelley et. al. , I.e just the stuff everyone knows. But I became a fan of Maxine Alderton after this and hope she gets to write more episodes in the future. The use of this to celebrate the cybermen was great given Frankenstein was the original inspiration of the characters. Such great acting, loved this especially the spooky elements. P.s. I'm fully onboard for 'spicy' Jodie Doctor. I wish we see more more more of that
Sufyaan Kazi
2022-10-06 20:37:43 +0000 UTCThis was my long reaction from back when I watched it, so I thought I'd share -- especially as I'm such a HUGE NERD for Villa Diodati stories (shoutout to the 1986 movie 'Gothic' -- WOOP!). It's pretty long: Here are some thoughts about the 'Haunting of Villa Diodati' episode, especially as I feel that it was DEFINITELY a story for lovers of Literature and History like me. In fact, this is right up there with one of my OWN big personal wish list stories. And yes, I know it's been done in Big Finish before with the Eighth Doctor, but I was still really happy to see it on TV too! So, some of you may be wondering why it's important that they chose this particular moment in history anyway? And, for me, I think it's several things. For one, there's the tie-in with the literary concept of the 'Byronic Hero' – which is not only a stock character in Romantic-era fiction, but also in fiction to this day. Now, I've personally always thought the Doctor THEMSELVES was a Byronic Hero of sorts and so this story is a bit of a tip of the hat to that. Oh, and by the way, as a short description for those unfamiliar, Byronic Heroes are usually described as: usually an exile or outlaw, moody, rebellious – especially against social institutions and norms, intelligent, mysterious, charismatic, etc. And so yeah, I really think that describes the Doctor – more so with some regenerations than others, but still! And so, yeah, I think that alone was a great reason to have Bryon in the story – seeing as he's the obvious creator of said relevant type of literary figure. But also, it's not just Byron who's important to literary history here – there's also Mary Godwin – soon to be Mary Shelley – and Dr John Polidori. Now the latter isn't AS FAMOUS, of course, but both were on the cusp of creating works of fiction that GREATLY influenced the fantasy, Sci-Fi, and horror genres – all genres that particularly play a VASTLY important role in Doctor Who ITSELF! I mean, of course you have Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' being started at the Villa, but also at the same time, a story called 'The Vampyre' by Polidori, which is often cited as the beginning of the modern vampire genre (especially in the gothic horror sense). It was honestly like a Literary-Bomb exploded in that Villa -- with all of those genius writers stuck together in the house because of the bad weather, while ABSOLUTELY stoned out of their minds (something skipped in the episode, of course!), and basically just creating those pivotal works, all while trying to impress one another with their literary prowess. Well, mostly just trying to impress Byron, but still. Plus, we specifically have the actual creation of Sci-Fi itself there – and by a woman, Mary Shelley. And to me that ties in with all the 'first women' historical stories we've been having recently – like with Ada Lovelace as the first computer programmer or Noor Khan as both the first female wireless operator behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France AND Britain's first Muslin war hero. And so perhaps that's a clue about why we also have the Ruth Doctor this year, because in this season we've also had two first female Doctors – one as the first televised one with Jodie, and one as the first black Doctor and maybe even first female regeneration of the Doctor ever (we'll see) with the Ruth Doctor. And so maybe that's all purposely thematically tied together this season? A year of female firsts! WHO KNOWS! But anyway, I mostly loved this story -- especially all the Villa Diodati moments. As I said, it was not only one of the biggest literary events in history, but also happened during one of the weirdest summers in history, weather-wise. Like, yes, in the episode "it was a dark and stormy night," as the cliché says, but that wasn't the half of it! It took place during what's now called the 'Year Without a Summer', as there was a massive 'volcanic winter' event caused by the largest eruption in over 1300 years from a volcano over in Indonesia. And it had global effects – not just in Europe -- causing lots of storms and unseasonably cold weather in Geneva, in particular -- which in turn, of course, caused Byron, the Shelleys, Claire, and Polidori to mostly stay indoors for much of their holiday there. (I mean, yeah, it was pretty bad. Supposedly sometimes even during the day, it'd be so dark you'd have to do everything by candlelight. And sources even said Lake Geneva was lit up almost constantly by all the lightening from the storms. So, yeah, people were pretty freaked out.) But it was definitely perfect creepy weather for writing horror stories and further, definitely a great creepy setting for a Doctor Who story – but then I've always been a sucker for the gothic horror side of Doctor Who! #HINCHCLIFFEERALOVE. Anyway, I also just think it's fun to have this particular motley crew of guest characters – all who were quite young at the time, by the way – with Byron at 28, Mary and Claire at 18, Percy at 23, and Polidori at 20 – and all considered SO SCANADLOUS. I mean, seriously the hotel across the lake rented telescopes so that people could spy on them as there was just so much gossip about them at the time – like who was sleeping with who or what sort of partying was going on. But so yeah, I just think this particular group played really well into the mythos of Doctor Who – or at least definitely brought in a lot of color. Oh, and I think that most of the characters were portrayed accurately too – at least as we know them from history. Bryon was a bit of a proto-rock star and…well I'll just say F-boy, to be polite. He didn't treat Claire very well, but to be fair, she was basically a star-struck fangirl that followed him around everywhere, even when he'd outright reject her. She was pretty obsessed to say the least, and so the bit with her rejecting Byron at the end of the story was NOT like reality, as she mostly still clung onto him at the time -- at least until she announced that she was having his baby and that was the end of that. Anyway, Mary was portrayed as intelligent for her years – which by all accounts she was -- and so that was good. Polidori was a bit over the top in the episode, but he was basically Byron's whipping-boy in real life, so it makes some sense that he was also that for the plot too? We didn't get much of Percy, aside from the look into how he was going to die later on from drowning – which was true -- but he mostly seemed pretty accurately portrayed too. Now, I do have some mixed feelings about the plot's conceit that the run-in with the Cyberman might be what actually inspires Mary to write 'Frankenstein'. In reality, it was the contemporary scientific debates about galvanizing corpses with electricity, but was also related to the grief from the loss of her first child not long before and her wanting to beat death – which I think is important. Plus, really, in some ways it's the Cybermen that are somewhat inspired by Frankenstein, not the other way around. Though even that isn't TOTALLY accurate – as the creature in Frankenstein was made from animating dead human parts into a living being, not taking already-alive humans and basically killing them to make them machines. Also, it's very important to note that, unlike what some movies might show to the contrary, the creature in the book is not a villain or baddie AT ALL – especially not like the Lone Cyberman is. BUT ANYWAY. Tying things up: my favorite scene and lines are the same for this one. And that's when Bryon is reading from his poem 'Darkness' at the end. It was written about his time at the Villa and I think it also really tied in nicely to his experience with the Doctor and Team TARDIS too. An honorable mention goes to the scene with Yaz's conversation with Claire, where it seems like it's about the Doctor. As a Thasmin shipper, I'm definitely choosing to take the romantic interpretation of that, of course! Anyway so, I think my rating would be a 4.75 out of 5.00 It does have a few things that didn't work for me, but as a whole I loved it. And yes, that's probably because I'M TOTALLY THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR THIS STORY, and so it's hard for me to be too critical of it. Anyway, thank you for coming to my rambly Ted-Talk.
Nicole Mazza
2022-10-06 20:00:47 +0000 UTCIt also messed with the translation implants. We see Graham not understand what that one woman is saying and actually hear French.
RPGsus Plays
2022-10-06 19:28:47 +0000 UTCLook, I don't mean to start anything but I find Jo Martin to be extremely important. She matters just as much as any other Doctor. Saying she doesn't count is hurtful. 14 will be the first black Doctor with his own series, as someone said but Jo Martin is just as impactful.
RPGsus Plays
2022-10-06 19:04:18 +0000 UTCAlso love that foreshadowing of the Cyberium using a perception filter with it overwriting the perception filter of the psychic papers in the beginning. Chibnalls era may have some bad episodes, but the writing is really clever. People saying writing in Chibnalls era being bad are not knowing what they're talking about. The writing is really good.
Red Claw
2022-10-06 19:00:40 +0000 UTCBeen so excited for this episode! The callback to Ada in Spyfall Pt2 and Bill when the Cyberman comes are favorites of mine. We've been seeing what the master told 13 affect her. She's tried to keep it together but now the cracks in her armor are fully visible to her fam. Also, an important thing I'll bring up down the line of 13 being compared to the universe happened at the end. We got Yaz referring to the Doctor as "her person" which is great. I won't talk to much about Thasmin until after Flux because I find it difficult to say everything I love about Yaz, 13, and the way their themes and arcs weave together, as their relationship grows, without every piece of the puzzle
RPGsus Plays
2022-10-06 18:54:29 +0000 UTC"just as much "The Doctor" as the war doctor was considered "The Doctor"? Well that's clear as mud.
Bob Hughes
2022-10-06 18:52:41 +0000 UTCThanks for the links to your first 3 seasons - I wondering if you ever went back and rewatched any of them, esp that first season? Seeing Paula's reactions/puzzlement at Dalek was a lot fun. (Christmas Invasion wasnt included- would like to revisit that one too.) Love you guys!
Mark Ten
2022-10-06 18:08:49 +0000 UTCSydney Newman suggested casting a female doctor back in 1986 when Michael Grade asked his advice on how to revitalise the show. Only took them another three decades to catch up with that idea!
Paul Flux
2022-10-06 17:52:51 +0000 UTCWell, what's uncontroversial is that he'll be the first black Doctor to have his own series. I loved Jo Martin's representation of the Doctor, but she's not the protagonist of her episode, Jodie is.
Eytan
2022-10-06 17:34:08 +0000 UTCI'm honestly excited for the next doctor since it is the first black version of the doctor and before anyone fucking stops me and says there already is a black doctor she doesn't count in my eyes. She may technically be The Doctor but to me she is just as much "The Doctor" as the war doctor was considered "The Doctor". And to be clear this isn't me shitting all over her character, I honestly enjoyed what her character brought to Doctor Who and I'm really interested to see where her character leads. Anyways my point is saying the newest doctor isn't the first black doctor is like saying Jodie isn't the first female doctor lol okay there is my doctor who rant lol
William Green
2022-10-06 17:24:56 +0000 UTC
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