To See This Representation On A Show I Have Loved For So Long Means More Than Ill Ever Be Able To Express.

To see this representation on a show I have loved for so long means more than I’ll ever be able to express. I often wondered if I was crazy for believing something like this could happen on a show as established as Doctor Who, but 2022 has felt like a dream I never want to wake up from. As a result, 2018 me will be crying until further notice.

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To those who don’t know about Gallifrey’s past, this is The Ancient House of Lungbarrow; ancestral home of the Time Lord, The Doctor. Grown from a seed halfway up the slope of Mount Lung, in southern Gallifrey, over looking the Cadonflood river. One of the first Houses grown during the Intuitive Revelation, a once respected Old Blood house, seat to generations of Time Lords, Lungbarrow fell into obscurity and disgrace and only produced servants and petty clerks before it’s initial death after the Doctor’s long awaited return home. 

The Lungbarrow estate, perched on Mount Lung overlooking the barn, a three day walk from Rassilon’s Rampart, near the border of the South Gallifrey wilderness.

it’s really funny actually that The Doctor, who is often characterized by their desire to be accepted by humans and tries very hard to not be too alien (multiple times basing their entire presentation upon seeming happier and younger so as to not come off as an unpalpable time god) literally does not care whatsoever about their companions seeing them act sweet and vaguely romantic towards the TARDIS. 

They go out of their way to avoid mentioning regeneration, anything about their species, the number of hearts they have, other companions, etc. unless directly asked (and even then tend to dodge the question) but they’re always shamelessly one step away from making out with that box and everyone just has to play it off as if it’s not the most ??? thing about the Doctor.

Graham/Ryan/Yaz are introduced to the TARDIS when the Doctor runs up and starts stroking the door and whispering to it. The third Doctor compliments the TARDIS’s intelligence and Mike goes “you make it sound like it’s alive” and he’s like “yep” and then promptly leaves forever without clarifying anything. Romana sees him kiss the console within 5 minutes of meeting him. Amy witnesses him calling it “dear” right off the bat. Mel’s like “yeah, not sure what’s going on but they’re basically an old married couple” in one. 

I mean, Bill has to ponder this conversation all the way to the wardrobe:

the way companions have to put up with how defensive he gets over the TARDIS’s feelings

 "Well, that’s the best I can do.“ He patted the console. “The rest is up to you, old girl!“  Ace could never quite get used to the way the Doctor treated the TARDIS like an intelligent living being. “You’re letting the TARDIS decide where we go?“  “Not entirely. I’m using the time-path indicator to lead us into the right spatio-temporal segment, and leaving the TARDIS to do the fine tuning.“  “How will it - “  “She!” whispered the Doctor. “If you hurt her feelings she’ll sulk.“  Ace gave him a look. "How will she know?" 

(Timewyrm: Exodus)

The Doctor spread his arms out across the restored console, pressing his cheek against the warm metal. ‘I was worried about you for a while,’ he whispered.  ‘It worries me when you talk to the ship,’ Jamie said. ‘Sssh, you’ll hurt her feelings.’

(The Nameless City)

Evelyn (and certainly many others) even has to listen to him go on about how much he loves his TARDIS and is at the eye rolling stage over it

EVELYN: Doctor, what are you doing? DOCTOR: Tinkering. EVELYN: Tinkering? DOCTOR: That is what I am doing. You just can’t beat the satisfying sound of metal on metal. EVELYN: You’re quite the busy preoccupied bee. DOCTOR: Really focuses the mind. Besides, she likes it, don’t you, old girl. There, you see? I swear she understands every word I say. EVELYN: Good heaven, you talk of her as though she’s your favourite pet dog or something. DOCTOR: More like a constant hand to hold. She’s always been the woman to me. EVELYN: Oh, thank you very much. DOCTOR: Oh, come now, Evelyn. I didn’t know you cared. EVELYN: Doctor, behave yourself. (Both laugh.) EVELYN: Well, I just mean to say, how’s a girl supposed to feel when a rickety old blue box holds more attraction? DOCTOR: This rickety old blue box, as you call her, has been the only fixed point in my ever-changing world. Even my own people have let me down. You, my dear Evelyn, will let me down one day. Oh, not in a drastic way, perhaps, but you will find your own path to walk, and you will walk it without me. EVELYN: Oh, here we go. DOCTOR: Companions come and go. Some leave deeper imprints on my hearts than others. But you all go eventually. But not my old girl. She’s the only one that shares all my memories.

(Medicinal Purposes)

The important part is that the Doctor never explains shit about this. There’s never a “oh by the way the TARDIS is alive and sentient and that’s why I keep talking to her like that” (possibly because everyone is too bewildered to even try to figure out how to ask why they keep whispering to their ship so it never occurs to the dr to say anything). All of this is just a one hit KO for anyone who knows them, every time it happens, which is pretty much all the time, until they either realize she’s alive or just settle into some form of acceptance that this guy sometimes calls the spaceship “sexy”. 

The five stages of realizing your alien friend is actually for real in love with their time machine (… which the viewers go through as well)

im fine with this.

so you’re a doctor who fan? that means you’ve got strong opinions, right? tell me them i’ll assign you an underrated companion.

doctor who + text posts part 2

part 1