Harry Potter and the Warner Bros. Tour

 Hello!

How is everyone?

I've had a good month! It has been, as I observed to a friend the other day, essentially a month-long birthday celebration, which is a fun way to celebrate a milestone like 21.

Me with my cousins, Neve and Huw, at the Harry Potter studio tour last weekend. (Uncle Will arranged us specifically to be in height order!)

To start with, I went home for most of reading week, which meant I got to spend time with my dad and Pippin. Not my mum, as she was on a teaching course, or Karys, who's long since moved out. It was nice to spend time with my dad - I sometimes feel I don't see him often enough these days. (Which is highly ironic, as I have in fact seen him every weekend in November!)

I came back to Reading half-way through reading week, just in time to attend a social thrown by the Reading University CU. The social wasn't for my birthday, it was just for anyone who wanted to go. At the social, I got drunk for the first time, which is ironic. (Technically tipsy, rather than drunk. Which, frankly, says rather concerning things about going the whole way!) I...do not recommend it. The sensation of feeling out of control was not fun. Though personally, the worst part was laughing and grinning at things which weren't that funny - that was terrifying. (Also, my dazed and out-of-it behaviour made the others present worried that I was upset at something. So that was fun.)

Here is a peaceful Pippin

My birthday celebrations were quite fun. The day before my birthday, I went to a games night with several friends, which was very enjoyable. The games night also wasn't for my birthday, but it was good to hang out with friends. One of the games we played was a game where we sat in a circle and each chose an animal, and each animal had to have an associated noise (such as chicken - cluck). You pass the noise on, for instance, chicken to lion (cluck to roar), and if you mess up you get booted to the lowest position (worm). The idea was to move round until you reached the point you started at. It was a lot of fun, especially because it gives you nice insight into how people decide animals sound. (The worm, for instance, was just 'wiggle', while making a wiggling movement with your finger.) We also played this absolutely hilarious ad-libs game, where each person, going round the circle, made up a sentence of a story, and the next person had to continue it. By the end, we came out with a story about a llama who escaped a zoo and ate his friends...except it turned out it was all in the head of a mentally ill man...or something. It was very confusing.

On the day of my birthday, I went for a meal out with my parents, Karys, and one of my flatmates, Josh, who lived with me last year as well. It was very nice to see my family! It was also, if I remember correctly, the first time Josh properly met my parents, despite us living together last year. After lunch, we all went to my flat, where I opened my presents.

Josh got on very well with my family, which was very nice. Bizarrely, and annoyingly, Josh and Karys separately, but unanimously, decided to tidy my desk as a 'birthday present'. (It was rather messy, to be fair.)

Me on my birthday

I spent most of the week following my birthday working and writing. On the Friday, though, I travelled up to Huddersfield for an event run by a Christian charity which helps Christians in areas where Christianity is illegal. It runs a youth weekend away yearly. The journey north was long and rather dull - I travelled by train. I took a train from Reading to Manchester, then I had to transfer to a different train to get to Huddersfield. Annoyingly, thanks to delays, I missed the second train, and I had to wait half an hour...

The first session at the weekend away was a talk from a Christian who comes from one of those countries. It was fun, though I was so tired that I kept falling asleep. There were around 16 of us, including the leaders; most of the young people there were in their late twenties. I think I was probably one of the youngest!

Over the course of the weekend, we listened to a couple more talks from Christians from places where Christians are persecuted; we also did a prayer session, which was very nice. In our free time on Saturday, we walked to a local pub - it was a long, difficult walk, up and down steep hills, but it was fun! It was nice to get to know the others better. I found out that one of the others is from Cameroon - so we had a really fun chat about our lives. 

On Sunday, we only had one session, which was another talk, I think. After that, we cleared up. The session ended at half eleven; despite that, I didn't end up leaving until around 1. One of the leaders, Annelise, drove me down to Oxford, as we both live in the area.

When I got home, I found that Karys was also visiting; it was nice to see her. I had supper with the family, then got on a train back to Reading

A few of the group taking a late-morning selfie (I wasn't there for it)

An extremely foggy Sunday morning

Most of the group, en-route to the pub. The rest got distracted by a horse and then abandoned. (I know, because I was in that group!)

Me and my new friend, Franceska!

I had a meeting with my dissertation supervisor on Monday 14th: he reckons I'm ready to start writing it! It's been taking its time, though. I've started the introduction, but I'm only about 450 words into the dissertation.

I also had a meal with friends from church on the Monday. They're friends of my parents, and they were also in Africa at various points. I invited a uni friend to join me. It was very fun - we spent a lot of time discussing modern society and religion. Made me think a lot about how I engage with social media and technology.

On Wednesday, my dad turned fifty! He has now been alive for half a century. I, however, didn't celebrate with him, as I went drinking with university friends to celebrate my birthday. It wasn't exclusively alcoholic drinks, though I did have a beer. It was very nice to spend time with friends!

That is an amazing view.

I went back to Oxford (again) on Saturday, partly so I could celebrate my dad's birthday. In the afternoon, my parents and I went on a walk - though it took us about half an hour to start, because they kept bumping into friends on the way. When we got home, we chatted with the Festens online; it was very nice to see them. In the evening, we went to a Lebanese restaurant for a meal, which was very fun. The food was amazing!

On Sunday, I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour with my cousins, as a birthday treat. My dad dropped me off on the way into St Albans - his birthday treat was meeting up with his brother. 

This was my third time going on the tour; the first time was with Uncle Will, when I was 10, and the second was a school trip when I was about 15. I feel like not much about the exhibits had changed since the last time I went. The building as a whole seemed more modern, though. It was very fun! I particularly enjoyed seeing Neve and Huw have a good time - it reminded me of me and Karys. They did a fair amount of squabbling, however. At one point, they started squabbling over Neve's toy, for some reason! One of my highlights of the day was over lunch. Neve and Huw tried to guess how old I was. They settled on 86. Later, Aunt Hel tried to give Huw some practice with subtraction; after telling Huw my true age, she asked him to find the difference between his age (4) and mine. Somehow, Huw came up with 108. (In hindsight, I think he was adding my true age on to the age he said I was, and somewhere an extra integer sneaked in!)

Another highlight was going round the exhibits of the prosthetics that the goblin actors wore; Neve and Huw declared that the ugliest prosthetics were what Uncle Will looked like. Poor Uncle Will...

Though at the same time, a few of the exhibits were very scary for poor Neve. To make matters worse, the tour goes on a set linear path, which means you have to go through certain sections, like the dark Forbidden Forest, with lightning flashing and spiders crawling around. So small children are forced to go through very frightening areas. I wanted to buy Neve a cuddly toy to make up for it, but they were all very expensive.

After we finished the tour, we went to a chocolate cafe, where everything they sell is chocolate in some way. I had an ice cream, and so did Huw and Hel. It was very yummy! Neve had a milkshake, and I can't remember what Will had.

Me, Neve, Huw, and Uncle Will in front of the Hogwarts Express. (This was during the Teddy Dispute,
as you can see by how Neve's holding the toy.)

Me, Hel and Neve. Behind is Hogwarts itself. (Very small, isn't it?)

Me, Will and Huw, in the Great Hall. (My leg really ached after that photo!)

Neve and Huw going to Hogwarts...

Neve and Huw leaving Privet Drive

Me wielding the Sword of Gryffindor to grab Hufflepuff's Cup!

Neve, Huw, and most of Uncle Will

Neve, Huw, and Hel

I spent most of last week trying to work on my dissertation (and trying not to freak out at how much I have to write by the start of January!) I did do some nice things with friends, though. On Monday, I went out for a meal with a friend, and I went on a walk with Josh. It was nice to hang out with Josh; though we live together, we don't often do stuff together. The 21st of November is an...emotionally confusing date for me, for reasons I won't go into, so it was good to hang out with friends.

I also spent time with Josh on Wednesday; we watched a couple of episodes of a TV show called The Boys. It's a deconstruction of the superhero genre, wherein most of the people with the money and the power to be heroes...tend to just be really, really corrupt and self-interested. So there's a band of vigilantes, the Boys, who go round knocking Supers down a peg or two - except, most of them have personal vendettas against Supers, so they aren't much better. The show's good, but very gory, and there's quite a lot of references to sex (both consensual and...otherwise...)

I met up with a friend, Luke, on Thursday; we had a nice catch-up, though it had to be cut short, because he had a lecture. It was good to see him!

Last Tuesday was another friend's birthday! I baked cookies for her on the day, which she and her housemates really enjoyed. We also went out for lunch on Friday, which was a lot of fun. 

The Seven, the local equivalent to the Avengers or Justice League (left to right, Starlight, the Deep, Queen Maeve, Homelander, Black Noir, A-Train, Translucent). Anywhere else, they'd be the villains the heroes fight. Here...they are the heroes. (From a societal point of view. Narratively, the Boys are the heroes. And Starlight is genuinely heroic.)

This weekend, I came home again, to celebrate my birthday with my extended family (Will, Hel, Neve, Huw, Granny, and my great-aunt Sally). It's been fun! I came up on Friday, though everyone was expecting me on Saturday. On Friday, we mostly just hung out and chilled. On Saturday morning, we went for a walk with the dogs (Pippin, Tessa, and Pippa), and I had a pleasant and profound chat with great-aunt Sal about friendships and relationships. Will, Hel, Neve and Huw arrived in the evening, meaning that the house was packed past capacity. So Karys and I had to stay with a famous writer. (Nick Page, who's written a lot of books on Christianity, lives adjacent to us!)

During supper, Neve and Huw were very cheerful; they kept telling jokes. The jokes were things like 'What's orange and round?' (Though technically, I volunteered that one!) They also guessed Karys' age as well. Somehow, my sister, almost two years my junior, is actually twice as old as me (they guessed 161!) I also got to read them a bedtime story, which was very fun! The story in question was one that Granny read to me and Karys when we were younger.

On Sunday, we went to church (except Karys); the service was on the start of Advent. It was an all-age service, and Neve got to take part! My parents led the service, and as an illustration of the story of baby Jesus being presented at the temple, they needed two volunteers to play Mary and Joseph. Neve got to play Mary! After church, we went out for a meal at a local pub. It was a very delicious meal - all the adults had roast beef (except my dad, who had roast pork.) Neve and Huw had fish and chips. They were well-behaved, though there were difficulties over the food (Huw seemed to be under the impression that he wouldn't get any!) As I observed to Hel, I got second-hand exhaustion from seeing Neve and Huw squabble. Overall, though, it was a lot of fun.

In the afternoon, before Will, Hel, Neve, and Huw left, we played hide-and seek, with Neve and Huw looking. They found me very easily... They also press-ganged the dogs into helping, using dog treats. Pippin did absolutely no work, but always looked hopeful at the end of a round. 

A picture taken this morning. Pictured is the exact moment Pippa got bored and went away, just as I took the photo, after about half a minute of standing still.

Overall, I've had a pretty good month. It's been a good first month of being 21! Ironically, I was having trouble thinking of what to do to celebrate my birthday - so it's fitting that I basically decided to do multiple things!

Random stats:

Friends dined with this month: Five (+16 for the others at the weekend away, I guess)

Teachers dined with this month: Five(!) (My parents are teachers, and I had a meal with them every weekend this month. And my church friends, and the uni friend I invited are, or will be, teachers, and I ate lunch with the same uni friend on Friday.)

Episodes of The Boys watched: Two

Dogs walked: Three (Pippa, Tessa, Pippin)

Trains ridden: Nine (One was the Hogwarts Express, though it didn't really go anywhere)

Words of dissertation written: 464

The Power of the Doctor: A Powerful Ending

 Hello!

Last June, I set out to review all the regeneration stories in Doctor Who. And Jodie Whittaker has just left the role. So, I decided I would review the latest regeneration episode.

Finally, finally, the Doctor regenerates without trashing something...

So, quick run-down of, basically, Thirteen's entire era up to Power of the Doctor: (hey, that title sounds familiar for some reason!) Series 11 just saw the Doctor and her fam globe-trotting the universe, though the New Year's Special saw the return of the Daleks. At the start of Series 12 the Master returned and revealed that he destroyed Gallifrey. Mid-way through Series 12, Captain Jack Harkness returned and warned the Doctor about the Lone Cyberman. At the tail end of the season, the Lone Cyberman, AKA Ashad, appeared...and the Doctor gave him what he wanted. (In fairness, he was going to destroy Earth in the 19th century, causing all sorts of nasty temporal anomalies, if she didn't comply

Travelling forward in time to a period where humanity was engaged in a fierce battle for survival against the Cybermen, the Doctor's confrontation with Ashad ultimately brought her to the ruins of Gallifrey, where she met the Master. The Master and Ashad teamed up; while the Master distracted the Doctor by telling her the truth about the Timeless Child, Ashad brought his troops to Gallifrey. The Master combined Cyberman technology with the corpses of the Time Lords he slaughtered to create Cyber Time Lords - capable of regeneration, and thus making them unstoppable! (Though the actual name for them is Cyber Masters - not nearly as cool as Cyber-Lords.)

He also killed Ashad and attempted to use his corpse to destroy Gallifrey (again!) The Doctor, her companions, and the Master all managed to escape, however.

The Doctor then got arrested by the Judoon; Captain Jack rescued her in the Christmas special, just in time to save the day from a Dalek invasion. Graham and Ryan also left at the end of the Christmas special. 

This is Ashad. He's meant to look like that. (Cyber-conversion gone wrong - not everyone's compatible.)

Series 13, 6 episodes in a serialised format, saw the universe on the brink of destruction by something called the Flux, and the Doctor running around trying to fix everything. It eventually turns out that the Flux was engineered by Tecteun (the Timeless Child's mum) and Division; they view the Doctor and her impacts on the universe as a rogue element, so they're trying to destroy the universe and move to a new one. Luckily, the Doctor saves the day, stops Division, and presumably reverses the Flux.

Series 13 also sees the introduction of new companion Dan Lewis, a plasterer from Liverpool.

There's also a New Years' special and an Easter special between Series 13 and the regeneration episode,  the former featuring the Daleks (again) and the latter featuring the return of the Sea Devils, a cousin species of the Silurians.

The Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz and Dan.

Power of the Doctor begins with the Cyber-Masters attacking an interstellar train, attempting to obtain a valuable cargo. The Doctor and friends land and attempt to save the day; they rescue the passengers, but fail to prevent the theft of the cargo. Also, Dan nearly gets sucked into space; the resulting brush with death leaves him deciding to leave Team TARDIS. 

When dropping Dan off, the Doctor receives a transmission from a traitorous Dalek, who reveals that it has information which can be used to destroy the Daleks. The rest of the genocidal pepper pots, meanwhile, are based in a volcano, planning to set off a chain reaction which will cause all volcanoes on Earth to erupt, wiping out life on Earth. (It's never explained just how a Dalek turned good.) However, before she can decide whether or not to trust the Dalek, she gets recalled by UNIT over a series of defaced paintings and missing seismologists. She also re-encounters Tegan Jovanka and Dorothy 'Ace' McShane, who travelled with the Fifth Doctor and the Seventh Doctor, respectively; they've been working together to investigate these occurrences themselves.

Of course, the person responsible is none other than the Master. Half his plots seem to be purely to get the Doctor's attention! (This was actually confirmed by Missy at one point - it's basically the Master's way of texting.) The Doctor tracks him down to Naples, and UNIT effortlessly arrests him...perhaps too effortlessly...

The Master before he steals the Doctor's body and outfit.

The Doctor and Yaz track down the Cyber-Masters' cargo, which turns out to be something called a Qurunx - sentient energy. The Qurunx has been plugged into a cyber-converted planet (or moon), which has been parked next to 1916 Earth. Also plugged into the planet is the Master's own TARDIS, deliberately styled off the Doctor's TARDIS. Back at UNIT, meanwhile, the Master reveals his master plan - smuggle a dimensionally-transcendent shrunk-down Ashad into UNIT, by anonymously sending it to Tegan (who thought it was a taunting message from the Doctor - ouch). Ashad returns to full size and opens up, unleashing an army of Cybermen, as well as a clone of Ashad himself. The Cybermen then start converting the UNIT soldiers, in preparation for converting the Earth. They also free the Master, who vanishes.

Ace escapes the building, by jumping off the roof, while Kate distracts the Cybermen and Tegan goes to the basement to destroy the Cyber-conversion machinery.

Ace (left) and Tegan (right) 30-40ish years on. (Behind them, you can see an anxious/curious Doctor!)

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Yaz follow up with the traitor Dalek. Only, it turns out to be a trap. That is, the rest of the Daleks knew there was a traitor in the ranks, and deliberately allowed said traitor to contact the Doctor so they could capture the Doctor. Tragically for our heroes, the plan goes off without a hitch, and the Doctor is taken to Siberia, in 1916, to meet with Rasputin. Rasputin is, of course, the Master, having grown out a long beard. His Master's Dalek Plan is to force the Doctor to regenerate (using the cyber-planet powered by the Qurunx); during this process, the Doctor will regenerate...into the Master! (This unique regeneration has the bizarre side effect of transferring the Master's soul into the Doctor's body...never explained how.)

After the plan succeeds, the Doctor-Master, adopting Yaz as his companion, decides to slander the Doctor's name by claiming responsibility for a bunch of atrocities (many of which the Master prepared ahead of time.) Unfortunately for him, Yaz kicks him out of the TARDIS and ditches him at his first stop. She then encounters an AI hologram of the Doctor, which the Doctor has been devising for thousands of years, in case they're put out of commission and the world/universe needs them. (Where was the AI in The Christmas Invasion, when the Doctor was comatose, or Turn Left, when the Doctor was dead?) The Doctor, in the meantime, finds herself in a sort of between-place, which all incarnations apparently pass through; there, she meets her past lives (First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth), who agree that letting the Master become the Doctor is unthinkable. However, if Thirteen stays put (rather than moving on), it would be possible to reverse the regeneration; for that, though, they need external help.

Behold...the Doctor-Master...(Marvel at the reveal that the Master's fashion tastes are even more eclectic than the Doctor's!)

Assisted by the AI, Yaz returns to the cyber-planet, where she picks up a fellow called Iston Vee-Vinder. He was a prominent character in Series 13; he's an inter-galactic space ranger, and he's on the hunt for the captive Qurunx. Yaz and Vinder return to UNIT, just in time to catch Ace as she plummets. They take Ace to the volcano, so she can take out the Daleks; when she gets there, she meets Graham O'Brien, who's been investigating the threat independently.

Ace also gets closure with the Seventh Doctor; earlier, when the Doctor greeted her, she sonicked(!) a microchip into Ace (and Tegan and Yaz), which allows the AI to find them and talk to them. The AI Doctor takes the form of Seven, and they discuss an apparent falling-out Seven and Ace had, making peace with one another.

Tegan, similarly, has a discussion with the AI version of the Fifth Doctor, who empathises with her apprehension about facing the Cybermen (Adric died because of the Cybermen in a Fifth Doctor serial.)

Tegan, Graham, and Ace successfully destabilise the Cyber and Dalek operations - in the former case, narrowly saving Kate from getting upgraded. However, in the process of destroying the Daleks (again...), the volcano blows its top and sets off that chain reaction.

The Eighth, Seventh, Sixth, Fifth, and First Doctors (as well as Thirteen).

Meanwhile, Yaz, Vinder, and the AI Doctor 'rescue' the Doctor-Master from where Yaz stranded him and return him to Siberia; there, they shut him in the forced-regeneration machine. The AI, now wearing the face of the Fugitive Doctor, tricks the Master's Cyber-Master honour guard into shooting each other down, whereupon the regenerative energy from the Cyber-Masters' regenerations is used to fuel the Doctor-Master's regeneration back into the Doctor. (Though the Fugitive Doctor's appearance indicates that the Doctor's been working on this for at least that long...which raises a lot of questions.) The Doctor returns to UNIIT and the volcano, rescuing Kate, Tegan, Graham, and Ace; then, she returns to the cyber-planet to free the Qurunx, move the planet, and fix Vinder's shuttle (which crashed on arrival.) With the help of her companions and two TARDISes, the Doctor moves the planet forward in time to stop the volcanic eruptions; she then sets the Qurunx free. Then, the Master hobbles out of his TARDIS, having teleported back to it after the Doctor left. The aborted regeneration is killing the Master; as a last act of spite, he declares that if he can't be the Doctor, then neither can the Doctor, and he tricks the Qurunx (now destroying its prison) into zapping the Doctor. Yaz rescues the Doctor before she can come to more harm, then drops off the other companions at home; she then waits for the Doctor to wake up. When the Doctor does wake, she finds that she's starting to regenerate. The Doctor and Yaz share one last view (ice-cream on top of the TARDIS in orbit around Earth), then Yaz is dropped off at home. Once home, she finds Graham and Dan bickering on their way to a companion support session; after his latest adventure, Graham decided to get in touch with other companions of the Doctor, so they could share their stories. Gathered at the meeting are Graham, Dan and Yaz (Thirteen), Kate (Twelve and Thirteen), Ace (Seven), Tegan (Five), Ian Chesterton (One), Jo Grant (Three), and Melanie Bush (also Seven, appeared in Time and the Rani), with an extra chair laid out, maybe for Sarah-Jane Smith. The Doctor, meanwhile, takes one last trip to Durdle Door and steps out of the TARDIS to regenerate while watching one last sunset. Upon the end of the regeneration, he finds that he's got a very, very familiar face.

Passing the baton on...

...to a previous contestant! What? What?? What???

(Fittingly, the next time trailer ends with Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor, who was originally announced to be the next Doctor, saying 'Excuse me, will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?' Rather an appropriate reaction to getting shafted...)

Overall, I really enjoyed Power of the Doctor. In all honesty, I enjoyed it more than I thought it would - between the characterisation and the Timeless Child arc, the era as a whole has been slightly disappointing to me.

In fact, I think the reason why I liked Power of the Doctor so much is because those elements weren't there. With the exception of the Fugitive Doctor, and one throw-away line from the Master, the Timeless Child arc is entirely ignored. (Poor Child - once again forgotten and abandoned...) And the Doctor and the narrative don't forget her companions this time. The episode sees the Doctor reunite - eagerly - with Ace and Tegan, and the Doctor is quite obviously very happy to see them again. Additionally, Tegan and Ace get their closure with their Doctors - both of whom confirm that they never forgot Tegan or Ace, or any of their companions. The narrative similarly acknowledges the companions - after the Doctor's dropped Yaz off at home, it's revealed that Graham created a companion support group - a means for the Doctor's companions to share all the amazing, wonderful, and often terrifying things they've seen while travelling with the Doctor. Present at the support group are companions from across the Doctor's lives - such as Ian, from the First Doctor's era, and Mel, from the Seventh. Additionally, there's an empty chair laid out in the circle - it's a subtle, silent acknowledgement of the companions who are now dead, including Sarah-Jane and Adric.

Moreover, the companions meeting and discussing the Doctor switches to the Doctor in the TARDIS, preparing to regenerate; as she tells the TARDIS to look after the next Doctor, Yaz assures the gathered companions that the Doctor is OK - of course she's OK. It's a reflection of how the Doctor has shaped the companions; the fact that they are thinking of her as she regenerates reflects also how they've shaped the Doctor. The First Doctor, a crotchety old man with a heart of gold, rejected the idea of regeneration - he refused a perfectly natural biological process, because he was scared of what he'd become. The Thirteenth Doctor, a cheerful young woman with hair of gold, calmly accepts the change, merely requesting that the TARDIS look after her next incarnation. And this change was partly wrought through her companions - many of whom have been willing to face permanent death when necessary. Indeed, perhaps Tegan, Kate and Ace's willingness to face death in this very episode inspired the Doctor to be similarly accepting of her demise. In fact, there's also a change from the Tenth Doctor's regeneration - the Tenth Doctor, to put it bluntly, throws a tantrum; his last words, on the verge of crying, are 'I don't want to go!' The Thirteenth Doctor, meanwhile, laments briefly, but makes the best of the situation. She spends some more time with Yaz, then regenerates watching a sunset, cheerily and quippily saying 'Right, then. Doctor Whoever-I'm-about-to-be. Tag, you're it.' Indeed, the Tenth Doctor's last episode is sombre and melancholy, while the Thirteenth Doctor's is unabashedly cheerful.

Another aspect of change, for me, is Yasmin Khan. She started off as a...somewhat flat character, and stayed that way, to a degree (sorry Yaz). But she does have an arc in the era. She starts off travelling with the Doctor because she's the most amazing person Yaz has ever met; over time, Yaz starts trying to emulate the Doctor. One example of this is in the Series 12 episode Praxeus, where Yaz recklessly runs back into a dangerous situation to gain more information about the current threat, rather like the Doctor has done on numerous occasions. This reaches its climax when the Doctor gets separated from Yaz and Dan during Series 13, and Yaz and Dan have to figure out how to save the universe without the Doctor - Yaz becomes, in effect, a stand-in for the Doctor, to the point where Dan's more her companion than the Doctor's companion. (Thanks to various shenanigans, the Doctor does rejoin with the others eventually, though.) And here, Yaz's parallels with the Doctor continue. With the Doctor again out of commission, Yaz steps up to the role - she's the one to gather the companions, she defeats the Master, she even pilots the TARDIS by herself. Additionally, there's an inversion of the usual relationship between the Doctor and their companions; when the Doctor is mortally wounded, Yaz is the one to save her from further harm. Later, the Doctor waking up parallels a scene in The Parting of the Ways, where Rose wakes up and sees the Doctor at the console; here, the Doctor wakes up and sees Yaz at the console. Furthermore, the Doctor views her as an equal (in contrast to back in Series 12...). When the Doctor's hand starts glowing, Yaz knows what it means - meaning that the Doctor did tell her at least some private details about herself. In addition, it is apparent that the Doctor and Yaz have discussed regeneration considerably; there is an implicit understanding between the two that, for Yaz, travelling with any other Doctor wouldn't be the same as travelling with Thirteen. And on a more humorous note, Yaz becoming the Doctor extends even to her navigational skills. She's capable of perfectly flying the TARDIS, including in mid-air in time to catch Ace...but she's also terrible at getting the companions to where they need to go. At the end, she drops off the others in Croydon, rather than their actual homes - the Doctor once did the same thing to Sarah Jane. In the same place, no less! 

Returning to a previous point, the Doctor's optimism on regeneration is something which, I feel, characterises the era and the Thirteenth Doctor. The Thirteenth Doctor came to in a wrecked console room, and, heedless of the damage to the TARDIS, joyfully realised that she was embarking on a brand new adventure - that of being a woman for the first time. It's therefore fitting that she went out calmly lamenting the fact that she had to go, but eager to see what happened next. When the Twelfth Doctor regenerated into the Thirteenth, in 2018, I was going through a very difficult time. I won't go into more detail - I've done plenty of that in previous blogs. But the Twelfth Doctor's last words stuck with me. 'Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise.' 'Never be cruel, never be cowardly.' 'Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind.' Looking back, the Thirteenth Doctor's optimism has also stuck with me. Being optimistic, even in hard times, even when things look dire - that's a powerful ability. It's something I needed very much in 2018, and I suspect it's something we've all needed over the past few years. And I'm moving on into the unknown - I'm (hopefully) graduating from university in June, and I don't know what comes next. I do think, however, that the Doctor's attitude as she regenerates is something to emulate.

The Thirteenth Doctor came into being when I was going through a difficult time. Throughout the last four years of change, her relentless cheer and optimism has been a consistent part of my life, and many other peoples' lives. Now, I'd like to think I'm in a pretty good place, and it's time for a new Doctor. It may not be because of the Doctor that I'm where I am now, but I do think that how I approach the future can be inspired by the Thirteenth Doctor's attitude - optimism and acceptance. Another aspect of this optimism is the fact that Thirteen also hasn't had a 100% brilliant time. She's once more become one of the only Time Lords in existence, and it was her former best friend, whom she tried so hard to redeem,  who did it. She's learned that she's apparently not even Gallifreyan in truth, and the original Time Lords experimented on and used her for untold thousands of lives. She spent decades in practically solitary confinement, and two of her best friends stopped travelling with her shortly thereafter. She's had to watch the universe she loves so much fall apart, destroyed by something even the TARDIS can't fight, and she's come face-to-face with her abusive foster mother, only to see said mother killed right in front of her. To top it off, when Thirteen regenerates, she's only been around for a few decades - she's a relatively short-lived incarnation. Despite all this, however, she's cheerful to the end, optimistic that whatever comes next will be worth continuing on. That's something to remember when everything seems dark - there's almost always something worth living for.

Overall, I'd rate The Power of the Doctor at 7.5/10.

Random observations

-Power of the Doctor has several rather neat parallels to the Second Doctor's era. The first, of course, is the title itself - not very different to Power of the Daleks. The second is the concept of forced regeneration - forced regeneration is how the Second Doctor met his end. 

-I won't pretend the episode is perfect - it does have inconsistencies and plot holes, like where clean-shaven Master goes after escaping UNIT. At the same time, it's still a fun episode. And I feel like, if an episode or movie is enjoyable, then plot holes aren't so bad (unless they break the plot.)

-In fact, a great way to summarise the problems with the episode is to say that the writers were optimistic about their ability to juggle three plotlines (any one of which would make a good finale). Unfortunately, their optimism was slightly misplaced, resulting in a somewhat messy and chaotic episode. 

-One does wonder where all the Revival era companions were for the support meeting. Presumably they couldn't make it. 

-The Master is brilliant in this episode - he flips between childish and deathly serious with alarming regularity. Two particularly great scenes are when the Doctor catches up to him at the start and matches his childishness blow-for-blow, and the entire scene where he taunts the Doctor, Ace, Tegan, and UNIT, culminating in the Master whooping as he gets taken to his prison cell. Conversely, his interactions with Yaz as the Doctor-Master are chilling - he's initially jovial and cheerful, then as soon as Yaz defies him, he's shouting and screaming, threatening to kill her if she disobeys. Indeed, the Doctor-Master's combination of the Master's ruthless, domineering attitude and the Doctor's friendly, cheery attitude is rather unsettling, but also strangely touching. There's a raw vulnerability in the Doctor-Master's nicer behaviour towards Yaz - deep down (very deep down), part of him wants friendship and companionship as much as the Doctor does.

-The scene where Yaz saves the Doctor is one of my favourite scenes - she slow-walks into the TARDIS, carrying the Doctor in a bridal carry, while a laser tears apart the planet behind her. Seriously epic. 

-Of course, immediately after that scene, you see the TARDIS fly away from the wreckage...and you see something else flying away as well. My bet is that the Master isn't quite dead. 

-Tegan's mildly snitty attitude towards the Doctor is very funny (and quintessentially Tegan!) The bit where she angrily declares that she definitely wants to go in the TARDIS, and the Doctor looks at her thinking 'Did I do something?' is especially funny. 

-Another great Tegan moment comes when Kate tries to persuade her to bail out of UNIT headquarters with Ace, and Tegan declares that she's faced coups and monsters, travelled all round the world, survived two failed marriages and a son who doesn't want to talk to her, and worst of all, was an air stewardess in the 1980s - she can handle Cybermen. Says a lot that being an air stewardess tops the list... 

-Nyssa never gets a mention, though she marries Tegan at some point prior to Sarah Jane's death. Maybe they haven't married yet? 

-In Fugitive of the Judoon, Jack's actor dyed his hair brown, despite the referential opportunities posed by having him be grey. Here, it's the opposite problem - despite the fact that it makes no sense for any of the Doctors except One to be elderly, there was no effort to de-age any of them. 

-My dad used to predict that I'd end up playing the Fifteenth Doctor. Well, depending on how you count it, the Fifteenth Doctor is either Thirteen (total number of incarnations up till Power of the Doctor), the incumbent Doctor (if you count the Master-Doctor as an incarnation), or the Ncuti Gatwa Doctor (if you don't.) And, well, I am neither a woman nor non-white, and I'm certainly not an actor. So, sadly, my dad's dream did not come true.

-The entire point of the 'pose as Rasputin' part of the Master's plan seems to be so he can (badly) dance to Rasputin by Boney M. The reactions of everyone involved (including the Daleks and the Cybermen, two practically emotionless races) is, as one would expect, priceless confusion. 

-The Master also refers to his plan as 'The Master's Dalek Plan', a reference to a First Doctor serial called The Daleks' Master Plan. (Said master plan involved using a time bomb to accelerate entropy. Lovely!) 

-Ryan Sinclair doesn't appear - he just gets an off-hand reference as being in Patagonia, which is disappointing. He's not even at the companion support group at the end, even though his grandad is the one who set it up.

-Regeneration count - forced to regenerate (Thirteenth Doctor to Master-Doctor). Fifteenth regeneration, third of new cycle, but later reversed, so may not count. Later blasted by a destructive laser - presumably causing massive internal damage (Thirteenth to Fourteenth Doctor). Assuming that the forced regeneration didn't count, second fifteenth regeneration, third of the new cycle. (I'm gonna assume the forced regeneration didn't count, for my peace of mind...)

Summer 2022: A Summary

 Hello!

I hope you are all well. I certainly am! I've now started my final year of university (...coming up to a month and a half ago...)

I had a reasonably busy summer - two Christian summer camps!

Also, this post is dedicated to a family friend who died recently. She was very kind and funny, and she was rather like an honorary third grandma to me. She used to send me and Karys chocolates when we were in Africa. She always liked my blogs, and she was waiting very patiently for the next one. So here it is, and I'm sorry it's late.

A family foto in Sheringham.

June

I spent a lot of time shuttling between Reading and my parents' in June. First, we had a family friend's 18th birthday; it was a lot of fun! I then spent a few weeks in Reading, hanging out with my housemates before we moved out. We also did a lot of house-cleaning. At one point, the broomstick broke and the nearest shop I could find which sold replacements was an hour's walk away. It was a fun walk, though.

During the final week of my tenancy, I helped out at a Wycliffe Bible Translators' event for children who grew up overseas, which was good.

I ended up moving out two days before the contract ended. (To my remaining housemate's consternation, I left a bunch of food in the freezer...) I also went to a friend's birthday party. The party had initially been slated for March 2020; naturally, it got postponed. And postponed...and postponed...until it finally got to happen, two years later. The party was well worth the wait, though, with lots of dancing. I'm not good at dancing, but I do enjoy it. After all, as a friend said recently, if you're giving it your all, the quality doesn't matter!

A napping kitten (this was actually taken in July)

July

At the start of July, my family went to Budapest for the weekend; it was a lot of fun. Have I ever mentioned the time I ate a pig's knuckle? In any case, Eastern Europeans have absolutely the right idea when it comes to cuisine. One thing they do well is pig knuckle or pork knuckle - a great big chunk of meat, about the size of a football. A few years ago, I went to Prague with my dad, where I ate pork knuckle - it was literally the largest chunk of meat I'd ever seen, and I couldn't even finish it. Well, in Budapest, I was able to repeat the experience - though this time, the knuckle was smaller, so I could actually finish it. (I also tried goulash in Budapest - it was amazing!) I went to a circus performance - it was fun, though I found after that I might have inherited my grandad Bob's tendency to suffer headaches around flickering lights. Another thing that happened was that my old youth group threw a social, to commemorate the departure of our main youth leader, Olly Shaw. It was fun; I enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with other alumni who were also in attendance. (Watching the younger ones partake in a water fight was also rather fun!) Later in July, I went to a Wycliffe Bible Translators summer camp called Experience. Experience was a 10-day long retreat, for learning about the process of Bible translation and the way it works, for people in their twenties. There were only seven of us; most were university freshers going into their second year, a couple were graduates, and there were three in their thirties who lost out on a previous opportunity to go thanks to Covid. Experience was very good, though there was a heatwave in the middle. One of my highlights was learning Sango in the evenings with Will and Judith Sawers, colleagues of my parents. I liked getting to say 'I eat the monkey', purely to torment Judith, who has a 'pet' monkey toy called Wriothesley. She got her own back, though - one evening, I taught everyone some Mpyemo (the language my parents translated), and Judith declared that it just sounded like I'd made it up! (The Mpyemo word for 'How are you?' sounds like 'Oh 'ello'.)

My parents went to Keswick, though I couldn't go, as it overlapped with Experience. So I got to dog-sit Pippin, who was a good boy as ever.

Night in Budapest

August

In August, Rio came to stay again! Karys went on holiday, so we looked after him. It was nice to see him again. We also visited family friends - one of those was the friend who's just died, and her husband. I'm glad I went - otherwise, the last time I would ever have seen her would have been March. I also went down to Devon for a big family reunion! In truth...the majority of the people there were people I'd never actually met, from my granny's side of the family. It was still a fun event. (Also, apparently, the Wigram lineage dates back to one minor lord in the 1700s who had around twenty children!) In other family news, my cousin, Christi, had her second child! Apparently, the birth was an unassisted one, with the baby arriving before the midwife could get there!

Additionally, I went to Forum, a Christian Union camp, which was five days long. It was a lot of fun, though I felt very out of place there, as most people there (in my CU and in others) were involved in leadership roles of some sort, while I was not. Forum involved lots of main meetings and seminars on stuff like CU leadership and making newcomers feel welcome.

Right after Forum, I went on holiday with my family to Sheringham (where we went last summer as well!) It was very fun; we spent a lot of time at the beach, and a lot of time playing games. Pippin, who came with us, was very energetic that week - more energetic than he's been in a while!

Oreo having a bath

September

In September (well, late  August) we took in some Ukrainian refugees; three children, aged one, six and nine, plus their parents. This meant I couldn't sleep in my room, as the top portion of the house was for the refugee family. Luckily, the house wasn't uber-crowded for long - I moved back to Reading around the 16th of September. My new flat-mates are nice - there's about 11 of us. This does mean that the kitchen is very crowded at supper time! Also in September, two of my friends from home got married - so I rushed home for the wedding. It was really nice to see them finally get married. (Another two friends, from uni, got engaged - very exciting!) 

Term started as well - it's going well!

A foggy day on campus

October

In October, one of my friends got baptised, which was very exciting! It was very nice to see him officially join the Church. Though I did feel a bit under the weather later on.

I've spent most of October doing work and hanging out with friends. I also went to my cousin Huw's fourth birthday, which was very fun. It was very enjoyable to see Huw opening his presents - I also had a good time helping him break in the new toys! (My favourite was a remote-controlled robot which fires darts - it looks very similar to an Action Man figure that my dad passed down to me!) Poor Huw came down with a cough, and he was quite poorly the next day.

Additionally, last weekend, I went to a CU event called SEBWA (South-East Big Weekend Away). It was very fun, and it was nice to get to know my CU better! My personal highlight was the dance party that the assembled CUs threw before the Saturday evening main meeting - dancing is fun! I am now home for reading week and looking forward to my 21st birthday.

Reading Uni CU gathered after lunch on Saturday! (Well, those of us that came...)

This summer and the start of term has had some ups and some downs. Some really great stuff has happened, like my friends from home getting married, or seeing one of my other friends get baptised. Some sad stuff has happened, like my family friend dying, or needing to reset my phone and losing a lot of memories in the process. I've been very stressed about what comes after university, and if I'll be able to stay in contact with friends. I've been in a bad place mentally lately. But I have friends, and those friends have been incredibly supportive and wonderful. There's always beauty in this world, and it's worth fighting for, even if you can't see it.