Invasion of Time liveblog (parts 4-6)

Also thinking about the way Andred grabs Leela's arm and she doesn't even try to pull away at first. She just stands there talking, and how much is she learning about him through that touch? The callouses on his hand, the strength of his grip (and how best to break that grip), the coldness of his skin, the beats of his hearts. And with skin to skin contact, he can see her vulnerable non-telepathic mind. Of course he wouldn't be vulgar enough to break in despite how easy it would be, but what does he read from her without even trying? It's not as if she's a closed book. He can feel her irritation, her eagerness to understand, her tactical calculations always going on under the surface. That's the moment they realize they're fascinated by each other. The savage with a startlingly sharp mind, unfazed by the wonders of Gallifrey, and the lordling with a warrior's hand, unashamed to talk to her as an equal.

One thing about the apocalypse element that I can’t stop thinking about is how it shows just how much power/respect a time lord president is given. Romana just escaped from twenty years of dalek slavery, she has to look absolutely awful, she’s probably still in the same robes she was captured in, she’s visibly malnourished, she’s almost certainly filthy, and she keeps fainting, yet no one questions her orders, no one tells her she needs to go lie down and let other people handle it. She may be incredibly weak physically, but she is still very clearly the most powerful person on gallifrey

Invasion of Time Part 4!!

When K9 stuns Andred and he falls to the floor in a perfect line…….. what is this boy made of on a molecular level

More absolutely incredible acting from the lil red helmet boys. They don’t make ’em like that anymore, thankfully.

“You have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe!” // “I do talk to myself sometimes, yes.”

Second best friend after who Doctor 😭😭😭 after who 😭😭😭😭😭😭

It’s extremely distracting that my laptop screen keeps intermittently tinging everything blue. This isn’t plot relevant, right? This is just my laptop being maybe about to blow up?

Andred is cute actually.

TIN FOIL MAN SITTING ON A CHAIR EVEN FUNNIER THAN EVER.

“You’re going to have to concentrate. Can you do that?” “Yes.” (Beat) “What?” I love him, Lord President

everything is going wibble wibble!

Rodan is in vastly different clothes now but it just occurred to me she would be fun to cosplay, I liked her original outfit

K9 just closing down to ‘conserve resources’ when he doesn’t know the answer to a question is iconic

Also iconic: him draped in all the Things of Rassilon

What does proficient mean? It means you’re a babe Leela ily

Bammmmm Sontarans! And also I’m caught up. See you tomorrow if I remember to watch episode 5!

I think despite being in what we would consider a straight relationship, Andred is, by the standards of his own people, incredibly queer.

Romance and partnership isn't really a thing with Time Lords, so Andred paring with Leela is highly unusual. But even beyond that he spends most of the story in underdressed. He's over there taking his gloves off frequently!

What is a time lord but a weird dog tally: Invasion of Time

My real goal with making these figurines

Invasion of Time, Part 5!

The Doctor and Commander Stor having a little bit of “yes it is understood, please?” out here

Leela picking teams when the group splits up 💜 keeps her gal with her 💜

Close up of Borusa’s Super Scary Gun!

Can’t take the Sontarans’ voices seriously. I’m so sorry guys.

All those Gaudy Claire’s Items of Rassilon and his Great Key is just……….. a key?

Rodan being a Clever Sausage :)

Oh, that’s finished already? Not enough Leela. Not enough Andred, come to that. In 25 minutes I’m supposed to accept that she chooses him over the Doctor? 👀

there's something truly horrendous about the Doctor's treatment of Romana in The Apocalypse Element. While he is somewhat concerned at first, he just keeps pushing her to do things, to run, to save the universe. And while, yes, obviously saving the universe is important, he doesn't take a moment to take care of her. At least not a second longer than he absolutely has to. He carries her away from the Daleks, remarking how horribly light she is and then immediately hands her off to the President. And yet, he constantly asks whether Evelyn is alright! He pushes her to collapse two times, even thought those may have been necessary. He dismisses her worrying suicidality and trauma, as does everyone around her. And while I think there's something to be said for getting right back into action after trauma for some people, for reclaiming some of Romana's power by fighting the Daleks, to me this reads as a horror story. Romana has to save herself, and bordering on collapse, has to save the universe with a man who doesn't even look at her. And at the end, he leaves her, Romana of all people, to rebuild Gallifrey and the universe. And meanwhile he? He goes to have a sit-down with Evelyn.

mentally unwell but that ain't stopping the grind ig

[ID: art of the Zagreus poem. It reads "Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed, And eats you when you're sleeping. Zagreus at the end of days, Zagreus lies all other ways, Zagreus comes when time's a maze, And all of history is weeping. Zagreus taking time apart, Zagreus fears the hero heart, Zagreus seeks the final part, The reward that he is reaping. Zagreus sings when all is lost, Zagreus takes all those he's crossed, Zagreus wins and all it cost, The hero's hearts he's keeping. Zagreus seeks the hero's ship, Zagreus needs the web to rip, Zagreus sucks time at a drip, And life aside, he's sweeping." /end ID]

i can't not fuck him.

Classic Who Watch | The Invasion of Time

[ID: six gifs from The Invasion of Time. The first has the Doctor and Leela in black and white, with Leela announcing she is staying on Gallifrey and the Doctor asking why. It is followed by four gifs in colour, depicting Leela and Rodan together, often holding hands. The last gif has the doctor in black and white, saying "Ah... I see"./end ID]

tardigradetardis:

Okay so one, I followed you because really cool blog and also URL IS WONDERFUL YES GOOD (see, this is what happens when you send me random asks. I get bored and go follow you.)

BUT TWO

CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT LEELA AND RODAN

ACTUALLY

LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT RODAN

(Not that Leela isn’t awesome. Because she is. But really, there’s very little in that serial that Leela did that she wouldn’t also have done on her own. Which is all well and good and Leela is a fucking BAMF and I love her, but hardly conducive to shipping.)

RODAN

RODAN WHO HAS NEVER LEFT THE CAPITOL

RODAN WHO LETS A STRANGE NOT-TIME LORD INTO HER ROOM FOR NO APPARENT REASON she thought Leela was pretty

RODAN WHO SUPPORTED BATSHIT INSANE DOCTOR BECAUSE LEELA DID

RODAN WHO FUCKING LEFT THE CAPITOLBECAUSE LEELA DID

RODAN WHO ABANDONED EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE SHE EVER KNEW TO FOLLOW A “SAVAGE” AND RISKED EVERYTHING

RODAN WHO IS, TO ALL INTENTS AND APPEARANCES, A PERFECTLY NORMAL TIME LADY UNTIL SHE DECIDED TO RUN AWAY BECAUSE A HUMANLEANED AGAINST HER TRANSDUCTION BARRIER

MY SHIP DIDN’T START SAILING WHEN RODAN PUT THE BARRIER DOWN

IT STARTED SAILING WHEN RODAN ACKNOWLEDGED THE PRESENCE OF A LESSER  BEING AND TREATED HER LIKE AN EQUAL

(Sorry I have a lot of feels about this ship)

Sorry, had to make it rebloggable because now I’m really excited to find somebody else who ships this, and I talk too much for asks and replies…

The thing that I found really impressive about Rodan is that she was about as normal a Time Lord as you can get. She wasn’t restless or rebellious, she had no agenda for power or need to get out of her situation in life. All she did was her job,lived fairly contently (although seemingly a bit bored), and listened to her superiors without question. I think Leela was someone noticeable at first just because she was so unusual and different from Rodan’s everyday life. When this random “fugitive” human shows up at her door-probably the most exciting thing that’s ever really happened to her since she became a Time Lord-she lets her in after a minute of conversation with complete trust, displaying a certain amount of curiousness and want for a friend.

And then, everything goes to hell and the Doctor is being all evil-dictator-y. Had it been only the day before, I am positive Rodan would have just stayed in her room and ran absolutely no risk of banishment, but now she follows Leela, this non-Gallifreyan that she somehow has come to love and very much trust in such a short amount of time and they flee. Rodan totally steps outside her comfort zone by leaving the capitol and obviously doesn’t like being out in the wilderness (and is fairly afraid, it can be seen), but she still trusts this human savage to no end and winds up saving the day and holding hands with Leela as they race through the TARDIS. By the end of the series, you see more affection between the two of them than can even be touched by Leela/Andred (although I love him too). How can you not ship them, for goodness sake.

Incidentally, Leela ends up living for a gazillion years because of Time Lord tech (she’s practically immortal as long as she doesn’t leave) and having the first baby to be actually born of Gallifrey in a million years She is BFFs with Romana and (actually secret wife to) Rodan. Andred dies in the Gallifreyan civil war (Gallifreyan Audio spin-off stuff), and Leela herself becomes blind, but there is no mention ever of Rodan dying. There is still hope yet for our ship post-civil-war in the time she was working with Romana, so who knows…

Thanks for the follow, by the way! You are one of my favorite blogs. Such brilliant meta and quantities of Classic Who stuff (something I really wish more people posted…) Cheers! :D

I KNOW

It’s like - Pretty much every other Time Lord we ever meet ever is either a rebellious little sod, power mad, or both. (The Doctor, the Master, Romana, Brax…) But Rodan is a NORMAL Time Lady. Normal and boring and reasonably successful but not interested in moving any higher up -

And Leela completely shakes that and their relationship is just wonderful. Because it’s one of the only ones that even has a chance at equality, given that Leela isn’t actually stupid, just ignorant, and sort of immortal-ish. And they’re both willing to give up everything for each other - Rodan just by leaving the Capitol, Leela by leaving the Doctor (what do you mean she left because of Andred that never actually happened)

AND TIME LORDS ARE TOUCH TELEPATHS AND EVEN THOUGH THEIR SKIN NEVER ACTUALLY TOUCHES RODAN INSTIGATES SOME AND I CANNOT OVER EMPHASIZE HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS IT’S LIKE KISSING WITH ADDITIONAL “HERE’S THE INSIDE OF MY HEAD BE NICE WITH IT”

Yeah, I haven’t listened to Gallifrey yet, though it is on the list (it’s money and I’ve already bought a bunch of stuff from BF so I may give it a few more weeks to let my conscience settle before i go and get all five seasons and binge-listen to be caught up in time for Gallifrey VI) but I sort of know what happens because I keep getting distracted while on the wiki and also AO3.

he was standing like this during the wardrobe scene???

[ID: a shot of Andred from Doctor Who, showing only his legs. He is posed flamboyantly. /end ID]

debuting my new alignment chart for tracking Gallifrey characters. Invasion of Time version. blank version under the cut

and i also like that gallifrey's answer to the apocalypse element is that romana is unrepentantly suicidal and never for a moment stops being suicidal, because she's traumatised to an almost unprecedented degree - certainly in comparison to literally every other character in gallifrey, she is leagues more traumatised. there's not really a moment when she comes to the realisation that, actually, killing herself is a bad idea, or even just the wrong idea, because she is, again, utterly traumatised to a level it's hard to wrap your head around. what does twenty years of unimaginable suffering do to someone, even someone as long-lived as a time lord? well, it makes her do the unthinkable by time lord standards: she wants to end her lives. and she never stops being like that. she can get better, and she can get worse, but she never escapes that baseline of pure and unadulterated suicidal misery