The Wendy grew up speech

In Neverland Charley gives a fantastic speech about why she needs to go back and face the Time Lords. It’s known as the Wendy Grew Up speech. Transcribed below.

C=Charley, D=Doctor. Probably obvious, but just in case.

C: This is about me isn’t it? The break in the Web of Time caused by me surviving the crash of the R101. It’s nothing to do with the Nimon or the Daleks. It’s me and you know it.

D: I don’t know it Charley, but I’m very much afraid that that’s what the Time Lords might think.

C: You think they’ll put me back on the R101 don’t you?

D: I think that they might think that that was simplest option yes. But I won’t allow that to happen. I need to go to the Time Lords, talk to them, explain. I won’t let anyone hurt you Charley. Whatever it takes. Whatever the cost.

C: Happy Birthday he says. Happy Birthday Charley. Only it isn’t my birthday is it? It isn’t my birthday because I’m not supposed to have anymore birthdays. No more cake, no more candles, no more presents. Not now not ever. No more birthdays since–

D: Charley

C: Since I died. That’s right isn’t it Doctor? No more birthdays because I’m supposed to be dead. Dead and burned in the wreck of an airship. Born on the day the Titanic sank, died on the R101. Poor tragic little Charlotte Pollard. Her life snuffed out before it had even begun. That’s how it is isn’t it Doctor? And now you want to hide me away at some knees up at the end of the universe well you go and risk god knows what at the hands of the Time Lords on my behalf. Why’s that Doctor? Why? It’s not your problem. It’s me who wanted to see the world. It was me who stowed away on the R101. It was my choice Doctor. My own stupid fault. Should’ve stayed at home that day, but I didn’t and that’s that.

D: But-but what if it isn’t? What if it doesn’t have to be like that?

C: But it is like that. Oh you. You know who you remind me of? You’re Peter Pan. The little boy who never grew up. Who lived in Never Never Land and fought with pirates and pixes. Nana used to read me Peter Pan. I wanted to be Wendy. And now I am. Wendy Darling having adventures in fairy land with the boy who never grew old. But you see Wendy grew up in the end, that’s what so sad. And poor Peter, poor little Peter left all on his own.

D: He didn’t forget, Charley. He’d-he’d never forget. And he never left Wendy to face the crocodiles alone.

C: Your so sweet, so kind so caring. You’re too good to be true, like a dream. And all this is just a dream. These adventures had, these scrapes and japes in Neverland. With monsters and ray guns and magic. Oh they’ve been wonderful, better than my wildest dreams. But you can’t hide in dreams. Everyone wakes up in the end. It’s time to stop dreaming Doctor, time to grow up.

D: Charley I don’t know what. I-I-I won’t give up Charley. Not now, not after all this time. Please Charley, let me help you. Let me face this for you. Whatever it takes I’ll put it right and-

C: Doctor remember this switch? The one marked fast return. The one I used to get us out of the Nimon problem. If I remember your description correctly it sends the TARDIS back to it’s last spacio-tempral location.

D: Charley will you please just listen? Fast return? Don’t touch that. Charley no!

C: Sorry Doctor. It was my choice to get on board that airship. It’s been a fantastic ride, but now it’s time to get off. There is no alternative.

D: No! Can’t stop it! We’re going back!

C: (voice gradually slowing down) Back into the path of the time torpedoes. I’m gonna meet the Time Lords. Can’t wait to see Gallifrey.

D: (faint)NO.

Brave New Town

Autons! I love Autons. I love surprise Autons.

Starts off with a typical TARDIS didn’t go where it was supposed to go routine. The Doctor and Lucie wonder into an apparently abandoned town. Once there they discover that everyone things it’s September 1, 1991. Only the TARDIS says that it’s 2008. Bit of a difference no? The set up lead me to believe that they were going to do something with people being stuck in a timeloop or something like that. Instead there are Autons. Autons stuck awaiting orders after they stopped receiving them. Autons thinking they are human and British.

I just loved the set up and the execution of this one. I love that the Autons thought they were human, acted like they were human and really just wanted to go back to pretending to be human. It was the Nestene that made them go on their brief period of killing all humans. Once that was safely locked away they were perfectly content to go back to their old lives.

Although once again I’m left disturbed by what could be the events following the Doctor and Lucie leaving. Here it looks as though the local government is going to turn them into spys and soldiers. Whether they want to be turned into these things or not. Not as disturbing as what happened to Red Rocket Rising (still confused as to whether I was supposed to find that funny or not, cause I didn’t), but not really all that comfortable of an ending. Which may have been what they were going for.

I like these Autons. Created by an experimenting government that found bits of the Nestene that fell to Earth. They walk, they talk, they complain about the music. *hugs Autons*

In conclusion: This is how re-imagining an old enemy should be.

Times that Big Finish really made me love the audio medium

I’ve been thinking lately about how much I love Big Finish. I can thank Big Finish for really catapulting me into Old Who. Cause I listened to the One Doctor and had no clue what the hell was going on, but I knew I liked it. I knew I wanted to know who the hell these people were any why they were so fantastic. So I listened to Seasons of Fear which did nothing to relieve my confusion. It did inspire me to get more dedicated in my Who viewing though. And my wiki reading.

But there are a couple of audios that made me sit up and go wow. There are audios that made me realize just how fantastic the audio medium can be. These are those audios. They may not be my favorites (although some of them are) but they all made quite good use of the fact that they only way I was interacting with the story was with my ears.

In release order:

03: Whispers of Terror

I wasn’t sure whether or not to include Whispers of Terror or not. It’s a pretty forgettable story. Overall it’s not that great. What it did though was have the enemy be sound. The Doctor (Six) and Peri end up in the Museum of Aural Antiquities. A museum of sound. The enemy is the ultimate earwig and they have to stop it. Like I said not a very good story, but a really interesting enemy. This was made all the more effective because I was listening to it.

35: …ish

…ish is once again with the Sixth Doctor and Peri. It’s a celebration of language. They arrive at a conference for lexicographers and find the Doctor’s old friend dead. While discovering the murder there is a pure joy in the use of language. The murder is a word. The Ish. They defeat it with words. Like Whispers of Terror this one probably could have been done just as well on tv, a bit less well in a book, but was quite good as an audio. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for something to get them into the Sixth Doctor. I just find the use of language as it was in …ish to be particularly suited to the audio medium.

39: Bang-bang-a-boom!

Bang-bang-a-boom! gets included because it a) takes place on Deep Space 8 (yes that is a bit of a parody of both Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9) which is hosting the Intergalactic Song Contest. As a result parts of the story are told via the announcer for the contest during his segments and other parts are told with personal log entries from the Chief Medical Officer. Both of which are purely audio mediums as the announcer is doing his job via radio. Which is just a cleaver use of the audio medium to convey a story. Also it is damn funny and has the Seventh Doctor and Mel being awesome.

52: Scherzo

Sherzo has the Eighth Doctor and Charley in almost complete sensory deprivation. The only sense they have available to them through most of the audio is their hearing. Big Finish did a fantastic job of conveying that through the story. This is the first audio that Big Finish did that just would not work as a tv episode. It just wouldn’t. Book form could work, but do to the nature of the story it would never work on tv. They have no sight and part of the brilliance of the audio is that you can go along with them on that part of the journey.

54: The Natural History of Fear

The Natural History of Fear is pure audio joy. The most I will say about this (to avoid spoiling it) is that it simply would not work in any other medium. Not one bit. So go buy it. Find a download because for some reason Big Finish isn’t offering a download. Just listen to it.

74: Live 34

Live 34 is the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Hex. It’s the next step up from Bang-bang-a-boom! in that the story is told entirely from a radio show, Live 34. Everything that happens is being broadcast from the show. The entire story is told there. It’s brilliant and fantastic and one of the best uses of the audio medium. It’s the story of a revolution as it’s happening from the perspective of a radio announcer. Brilliance.

94.5: Urgent Calls

Urgent Calls is one part story that comes with ID. It’s the Sixth Doctor making a series of phone calls. It’s way better then the premise sounds. Honest. But it’s a story told through a series of phone calls and how awesome is that? It’s pretty awesome.

And those are the Big Finish stories that I think made the best use of the audio medium. They range from clever use of enemies to pure perfection on the use of the audio medium. I just thought I’d share. Please feel free to share your favorite uses of the audio medium.

Oh and I kept this with the main Doctor Who line, but if you wanna discuss something else feel free.

Scherzo and why I love it, in 1673 words.

I’ve been saying for ages that I was going to sit down and write all the reasons I love Scherzo. It’s on my top ten list of Doctor Who stories. I adore this story. I would like to preface this with several things:

1. I’m a bit batshit about Charley. I know and acknowledge this so hopefully I don’t let the crazy out too bad.

2. Well I like Charley/Eight I’m not batshit about it. If given the choice between two stories, one Eight/Charley and one something else I really like (Peri/Erimem, Six/Evelyn, Ace/Hex, etc) based only on the pairing and told I could only read one I would probably choose the other one.

3. If given the choice between a Charley story and someone else I would choose the Charley story.

4. I think Scherzo is the third part of a trilogy started with Neverland and then going to Zagreus.

I think these are important things to consider before discussing Scherzo.

I think the first thing to mention when talking about Scherzo is the fact that Charley stowed away on the TARDIS to go with Eight. He didn’t want her to go with him into the Divergent Universe, something he had to do. He wanted Charley to stay safe in our universe and had asked Romana to look after her. Now the question is why did she stow away?

I think there are several factors involved. The most obvious being that Neverland and Zegreus had both Charley and Eight telling each other that they loved the other. And in the romantic in-love sense not the friendship sense. So we have that. Scherzo is in one sense the cumulation of the Eight/Charley relationship. They do just about everything you can ask for in a relationship in this audio and after Scherzo they go into a weird just friends place. I think this is because the Big Finish writers wrote themselves into a corner here and couldn’t find a way out so they just pretended that it hadn’t happened. Which makes for some weird dynamic later, but for the purpose of Scherzo there is a brilliance in the Eight/Charley relationship.

The next thing to consider about Charley choosing to go with Eight is that she has no one else in the universe. Literally. By the end of Neverland Charley understands, as much as anyone who’s not a Time Lord can, the importance of the Web of Time as well as how fragile it is. This means that she knows she can never go back to her time. She can never see her family again. Not without putting the Web of Time in danger and Charley knows that she can’t do that. She had a very eloquent and passionate speech about just that in Neverland.

Charley is an adventurer. Unlike a lot of people that the Doctor picks up Charley was already on the search for adventure when she runs across the Doctor. She’s on a journey as Charlotte Pollard, Edwardian Adventuress. She loves the danger and the excitement and the discovery of new things. If she could have lived without meeting the Doctor and had done so she would have been traveling Earth in search of adventure. It’s what she was wanted to do.

At the end of Zagreus Charley is sitting with Leela discussing going with the Doctor to the Divergent Universe and she tells Leela, “The choosing is easy. It’s the leaving that’s hard.” I think this means that choosing to leave was easy, she loves him and he needs someone at that point in time. The leaving is hard because it’s leaving behind everything she knows. But she’s already done that, she can never go home again. And going to another universe is about the biggest adventure you can have. So Charley leaves.

Now the beginning of Scherzo. They have entered the Div!Universe and the Doctor is still unaware that Charley is there. He has gone a bit insane at this point. He never quite regains his sanity throughout the Div!arch, but it’s at it’s most pronounced here. He’s ready to give up and die and it’s Charley who saves him. She’s the one that drags him out of the TARDIS before they can die and they enter into their first world of a new universe. And then Eight does one of the best things ever.

He yells at Charley. He screams at her. For a period of time he refuses to believe that she’s really Charley (see: insanity). Because Charley wouldn’t have betrayed him like that. Everything he did in Neverland and Zagreus was to keep Charley safe and she wouldn’t have betrayed him like that. He is pissed at her. And they have a huge fight over it. Charley argues that she had the right to choose to come with him, she loves him and he loves her and he needed her. And she’s young and still a bit naive so those are good enough reasons to her. Eight is still vastly annoyed with her and he stays annoyed with her until the end of Scherzo. I love that there was this consequence for her actions. She wasn’t patted on the head and greated with a smile. She was yelled at and forced to justify her actions. I love it.

Then there is the setting. A featureless (as far as we can tell) landscape with a light so bright it blinds them. So throughout this they are forced to hold hands with each other to keep from getting lost. It’s almost complete sensory deprivation. All they have is sound. Accept for those occasions where the light dims and feeling returns and they get to eat. So they walk along this landscape (later revealed to be a circular tube in a laboratory) holding hands and eventually sussing out their relationship. Such as it is.

There is also a noise creature in this strange new world. It’s important later.

Eventually Eight accepts Charley’s reasons for coming with him, he’s not happy about them but he accepts them. They spend a lot of time in this place. They don’t know how long as they lose all track of time. At one point in time Charley becomes complacent in this new life they have. She talks about how it’s not so bad. It could be worse and really all things considered it’s not bad. Eight then has a lovely little piece of dialog about how she can never forget that they are in a prison. Her mind is tricking her into thinking the way she is and she should never not be angry that they are stuck there. Later Eight has a moment of false hope, thinking he’s found a way out, and it’s Charley that pulls him back and makes him face reality. It’s brilliant. They save each other. Neither one could have survived without the other one there. And I love that. I really do.

Now back to Mister Sound Creature. He is in a weird way their child. He came into existence because of them and they fed him and kinda cared for him in a weird way. Only now he needs to kill them in order to live. So in order to fight Mister Sound Creature Eight and Charley merge into one person. Literally. It’s kinda creepy, but it works. Now MSC has to convince Charley and the Doctor to agree to die for him. Charley says no. Eight says yes. There is convulted troll logic used here.

So what does Charley do? She bursts in and tells Eight that because he can’t say no she’s going to do it for him. So she saves him once again. So the finale battle to fight their weird child thing is won because of Charley. I like any story where the Companion saves the Doctor and the day. One where the Companion does so while merged together with him to destroy their weird child thing? Wins.

And then we have the Doctor asking Charley to stay merged with him. To stay locked together forever. And Charley again says no. She’s the one that tells him they can’t do that. She’s the one that backs away. Again win.

So by the end of Scherzo we have what could be seen as an entire relationship between Charley and Eight. They make up, again admit to loving each other, have a child and then break up. I love that aspect of this story. As I said the writers had backed themselves into a corner with the Eight/Charley story. They didn’t want to(couldn’t?) go forward and they’d gone too far to go back. So the writers essentially did what could be seen as a relationship in all it’s forms in one story. So as far as the Eight/Charley arc goes it was the best conclusion we were ever going to see for it.

Then we have Charley saving Eight. I love that. I love that she saves him as much as he saves her.

Eight being bloody well pissed at Charley for sneaking aboard the TARDIS. Yay for consequences!

Charley being Charley and following her heart and her sense of adventure.

Really there is nothing about Scherzo that I don’t like. Hopefully I conveyed that well in this little essay.

First season of the Lucie’n'Eight Adventures (not real name)

So I listened to the Eight’n'Lucie audios. Out of order by accident. Not sure if that helped me or hindered me. When I started listening to them I was determined that I’d like Lucie.

I didn’t like her at first. She’s very reminiscent of Tegan. Without a lot of Tegan’s good points really. At least at first. I did end up liking her. I think if the quality of the audios had been a bit better I would really like her. But there was just some bad writing in there and thus my liking of it all was lowered. Perhaps with the next season? Anyways onwards and upwards in their proper order and not the order I listened to them in.

Blood of the Daleks (1&2)

I think having the Time Lords dump Lucie on him was an interesting idea as a way to get a companion introduced that wasn’t played very well. Lucie seemed far too accepting of her circumstances despite everything. I just find it hard to believe that anyone would take things as well as she did. There were a million ways to make the Doctor more accepting of Lucie that I can’t help but feel the lack of. The Time Lords would have at least tried something, because a cooperative Doctor is much better than a sulky Doctor. Well known fact of the universe.

The story in and of itself just kinda falls flat. Again I liked the idea in theory, but there just seemed to be too many attempts at humor that just fell flat. Not the least of which was to have Red Rocket Rising survive Daleks to be converted by the Cybermen. I didn’t find that funny, though I think I was supposed to. Other than that the storyline just seemed like your stock Cybermen storyline replaced with Daleks. Thus is didn’t really work nearly as well. I mean really if Hex worked on Red Rocket Rising it could have been The Harvest.

I liked Lucie and the Doctor’s interactions more towards the end of the story, but they still just weren’t clicking for me. I think a lot of it had to do with my dislike of the story itself.

Horror of Glam Rock

Yet another interesting idea that just didn’t seem to work. Aliens communicating through music should be a really neat concept. Lucie running into her aunt when her aunt was a twenty-something should be neat. Yet it wasn’t. I kept waiting for the story to be good and for Lucie to do something and it never happened. I don’t even remember much of the story and I listened to it a few days ago. That’s how little of an impression it left. Yeah.

Immortal Beloved

This one I liked. It was an interesting concept that was played with well. It showed Lucie in a positive light and not just as a nagging person the Doctor has to take around with him. I liked the idea of the planet where people had set themselves up as the Greek Gods. I liked the cloning and Lucie’s horror at it. This was really the episode that gave Lucie a few more dimensions. So that was good. I liked that Lucie wasn’t above being really shallow about a pretty boy. Of course in retrospect this one could have been good simply because the others were so very bad. Hmmm…

Phobos

Again they managed to make something of an interesting concept. Which is a win for the writers. Lucie seems to be a bit too free about saying she’s a time traveler though. That annoyed me a bit. Discretion girl. I just finished this one and I’m really kinda angry that they didn’t just go ahead with the Drew/Hayd stuff instead of chickening out with it. It’s annoying.

But I liked the idea. I liked that the Doctor scared the fear creator with what he’s seen. I liked Lucie doing the companion thing and talking and making friends with people. I liked her experiencing things. I’m just annoyed about the Drew/Hayd thing at the end. Do it or don’t do it but don’t fucking go halfway.

No More Lies

This one won me over due to Lucie driving. Just because I can see her telling the Doctor in no uncertain terms that she doesn’t want to be stuck in space dependent on his driving so he damn well better teach her how to drive the TARDIS thank you very much. Or else she’s not getting back on at the next stop. Because she would do that. I think Lucie has been moved to the head of the Companion Most Likely to Nick the TARDIS list.

I really liked that this episode finally highlighted that Lucie is an intelligent person even if she’s a mouth on legs to use Tegan’s self description. She figured stuff out and almost saved the day till the Doctor buggered it up.

Bonus points for referencing Ramsey. I like Vortisores and now apparently the other being that live in the Vortex. I hope we see more of them.

Human Resources

This one suffered from a lot of the same problem as BotD did. It wasn’t funny when it was trying to be and an interesting idea just somehow wasn’t written well. Also there was randomness that didn’t make sense. Like when did the Doctor get a cell phone? Hmmm? That confused me. I can see Lucie making him get one, but unless I fell asleep for that part we never had a scene where she gave him one or anything. He just suddenly had a cell phone.

Also I find it hard to think that Eight wouldn’t find out who they were fighting before sabotaging things. Maybe I’m wrong there but that’s the way I see it. Also after everything else and Lucie freaks out because she should have been a dictator? Really? I’m so glad it wasn’t her in the end cause that was just stupid. Why the hell would the CIA care about a human becoming a dictator on Earth? If it went against the Web of Time then they’d be able to fix it no worries from anyone else. Otherwise why the hell would they care? I haven’t listened to the Gallifrey stuff so maybe it’s explained there.

Anyways the plot was thin at best and the characterization overall seemed off. And for all the build up with the headhunter it was a rather small pay off yes?

Overall the series suffered from a number of similar problems. Good ideas not properly written. Bad ideas as to what is funny or should be funny. Shoddy character development and plot arc payoff. I did end up liking Lucie in the end, but I think I’d have liked her a lot more if her stories had been good.

Absolution

They killed him. Killed him dead. I am sitting here listening to the cast and crew interviews with tears streaming down my face because they killed him. They killed my lovable little psychopath. The killed C’rizz and the Doctor didn’t care. My favorite Doctor didn’t care that C’rizz was killed. I really hope The Girl Who Never Was has a scene that shows that he actually cares that C’rizz is dead.

That’s all I can think of right now. C’rizz is gone. Later I’ll think on the comment about Charley being mostly human. Right now C’rizz is dead and I’m not okay with that.

Neverland

How much do I love this audio? I love it so much that I can’t even describe it. This is really the audio that made me sit up and go I LOVE CHARLEY!!!ELEVEN!!! in my head. Yes, there were capslock.

She just has these two amazing speeches, one at the beginning and one at the end. And they’re both about doing the right thing, even if the right thing isn’t what you necessarily personally want and will lead to her death.

The first one where she makes the decision to go back and face the Time Lords is just brilliant. I love that she calls the Doctor Peter Pan and refers to herself as Wendy. And how Wendy eventually had to leave Neverland and go back to the real world and grow up and leave Peter Pan behind. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be alive and that her being alive was causing problems to time and so she went back to face the Time Lords and accept her fate. Because she had all those months of life that she wasn’t supposed to have and they were wonderful but it was time to grow up and accept the consequences of what happened on the R101.

The second one is at the end when the NeverPeople are going to use her to get back to Gallifrey and destroy the Eye of Harmony and the Web of Time. She’s begging the Doctor to kill her because the thought of those things being destroyed is worse then her dying and if she died then they wouldn’t be destroyed. If she hadn’t been tied to that chair she would have done it herself. And her horror when the Doctor doesn’t kill her, because everything will cease to exist in any meaningful way. No past, no future.

And there are clearly other things I like about this audio, but I’m a bit stuckbatshit about Charley. And December will be here soon and The Girl Who Never Was will be release and she will be GONE! Gone! And the title of the audio just doesn’t make me in anyway happy about her exit. Hopefully it’s not as horrible as it sounds. Cause the matrix fixed the paradox of her existence so I’m really hoping that they write her out good. Give her a beautiful exit and don’t make me cry.

And and umm…CHARLEY!

Yeah, that was really just a bunch of squee about Charley. One day I will be able to write up stuff about Neverland without squeeing. Today is not that day.

Shada

And why did I take so long to listen to this? Shada was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Didn’t quite make it into the list of audios I probably shouldn’t listen to in public as people look at you funny when you burst out laughing, but it came close. Eight and Romana are so fantastic together. Things to love about them:

Eight begging Romana to come with him.
Eight calling Romana a genius, several times.
Witty banter!
Just everything good about the Doctor and Romana being in the same room together. The stuff that there even when Six and Romana are being awkward with each other and not knowing quite how to act. That stuff.

Also K-9 was fantastic. And the stupid bike thing. And one of the worst criminals in Gallifrey’s history turning into a forgetful Cambridge professor. Love.

I really liked Shada.

Memory Lane

I didn’t hate it. Wasn’t wowed by it either. I like the aliens. I liked the idea of a race that has a hard time remembering things. It amuses me. I like that they’ve kept Tom in a prison so that they can watch the first contact with an alien race over and over again. And then because of their memories it’s like the first time every time. Poor Tom, but good humor. Tom was kinda annoying anyway.

Mainly this one left me even more worried about C’rizz. I think it’s clear that something horrible is going to happen with him. What with his belief that killing people=saving them. And the Dalek living in his head, that just can’t be good. Also Big Finish lists him in the next audio, but not the one after that. So I’m worried about C’rizz.

I like C’rizz, I think he’s a fun character, but his time has always been limited. More so than most characters on Doctor Who. Something horrible is going to happen to make the Doctor either leave him or end in C’rizz being dead. Bah.

Anyway back to Memory Lane. I can still talk about C’rizz though. I loved his bitchiness. He hated the lady astronaut (who’s name I can’t be bothered to remember) and didn’t feel like he should have to deny it. Also I love the way he wasn’t polite to anyone. Such a contrast to Eight, who always tries to be polite. Really about the only memorable part of this one was C’rizz and the aliens.

Oh and the fact that the Doctor’s fantasy about saving the day envolves Charley and C’rizz telling him how brilliant he is. That caused me to laugh out loud, which isn’t a good thing on the bus (people look at you funny and carefully edge away…so maybe it is a good thing).

Yeah, that’s all I’ve got.