Fridge / Doctor Who – Chris Chibnall Era

Get back to the main page here.

---

Series 11 (Thirteenth Doctor / Yaz, Ryan & Graham) Fridge

Fridge Brilliance — Series 11

• At first, it seems a bit unusual that UNIT isn't informed during "The Woman Who Fell to Earth" of the weird, obviously alien artefact, as they were in such stories as "Planet of the Dead". "Resolution" provides the answer — they've been disbanded.
• One of the first things Thirteen says after crashing into the train is, "Okay, you don't like questions. More the private type, I get that" when the tentacled thing that she asked for the identity of doesn't answer and attacks instead. It's played off as a joke, but as made especially evident in series 12, for all her extraversion and surface-level friendliness, Thirteen proves to be one of the most private regenerations since Nine, withholding as much information about herself as possible and reacting poorly to personal questions. She dosen't change much until the events of Flux, where Character Development hits and she brings Yaz into the loop after an apology for being closed off.
• Thirteen's quip about it having been a long time since she shopped for women's clothing makes perfect sense, because the last woman Twelve spent much time with, or might've bought stuff for, was River ... who got her outfits out of a spray bottle.
• The new TARDIS console room has the police box shell as a kind of "foyer"... which mostly relieves the showrunners of the responsibility of having to try and hide the inside of the police box prop when characters are entering or exiting, because with this specific console room, it's not a blooper.
• Krasko has a tattoo indicating that he used to be an inmate of Stormcage, but River Song never did. Why? Simple: River was released from Stormcage after the Doctor erased evidence of himself from history, making it seem that she was being held for a crime she never committed (and which she had never really committed anyways). Krasko was released with a Restraining Bolt implanted in his head because the prison believed, correctly, that he wasn't truly reformed from crimes they had clear evidence of him committing.
  • Another possibility is that Stormcage's practices changed over time. River's time in Stormcage was during the 52nd century, while Krasko is said to be from the 79th century. It's also possible River may have had a tattoo, but not in a place that would be obvious.
  • It's also possible, even likely, that River's repeated escapes gave Stormcage such a terrible reputation as a Cardboard Prison that later prison wardens had to institute tattooing and restraining implants to restore its image as an effective super-max.
• Krasko's motives would be garden-variety white supremacist (or separatist) views today, but are Insane Troll Logic in an era where humans are not only out in space, but have a species hat of being xenophiles. The brilliance is that there is a subculture that prized being "pure humans" (Lady Cassandra O'Brien). Krasko may have been an extremist of that movement, and upon ending up in the past, found that he not only liked it better than his native era, but concluded that humanity's willingness to "dance" with other species in the future came about because of racial integration movements in human history. By preventing racial integration in the past, he would prevent human xenophilia in his era. Then again, the idea that bigots would give up hating people of colour just because there's aliens around now instead of just adding another group to hate to the list is perhaps too optimistic.
• Adding to the Tear Jerker. Not only is Graham an unwilling participant in a bigoted incident, which indirectly disrespects his wife (Grace's reaction when he said he was a bus driver was to make a crack that he had better not be the driver who told Rosa to give up her seat. He ends up being a passenger instead — which is no better), but given his surname and his age? The Irish may be considered "white" in America today, but 1955 is not that far removed from the era of "No Irish Need Apply." Hell, it was still in use in the early 50's. Add that he's old enough to have lived through The Troubles, and he may have been on the receiving end of some unwarranted ill treatment himself, just not to the extent Ryan and Yaz have.
• In "Rosa", the titular character never finds out about the Doctor and her companions being time travellers, nor does she find out about their battle with Krasko to keep the timeline in check. This is for the better, because if Rosa did know what was going on, it would have cheapened her famous act of civil disobedience; Rosa would have refused to give up her seat because she would have known it would kickstart the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement, not because she was voluntarily protesting an unjust law.
  • It's also what makes the moment, when it comes, all the more awesome (albeit tearjerking at the same time). Thirteen, Ryan, Graham, and Yaz were the ones who fought Krasko to preserve the timeline and ensured Rosa would be in the right time and place, but ultimately, Rosa was the one who chose to refuse to give up her seat to stand up (metaphorically) against something that was wrong, and she did it without knowing how much her actions would help change the world for the better.
• Thirteen instantly pegs Yaz's choice of a number between 1 and 100 (51) as a pentagonal number. "Recreational mathematics" was one of the Doctor's favourite "sports" at school.
• Graham obviously loves Ryan, making it a point to call him "grandson" and not bothering with the "step" part. It was obvious even before Grace died. Marrying her meant Ryan came with the deal. Now Ryan's the only direct connection Graham has to Grace, and Ryan's got a deadbeat Jerkass for a biological father. The motivation for Graham to step up and be a proper father figure just keeps piling on. Ryan, for his part, knows Graham means well, but Graham's obvious differences in background mean there are some things Graham won't understand, even with the best intentions. It adds to the heartwarming in "It Takes You Away" when Ryan finally calls Graham "granddad". Someone (likely Yaz) let Ryan know that Graham backed away from the illusion of Grace to try and come to his aid, cementing to Ryan that Graham cares for Ryan for his own sake, and not just because he was a package deal with Grace. Plus, given Ryan's deadbeat dad, that may have been the first time a male family member stepped up and delivered for Ryan.
• Before "Rosa", Ryan tries to get Graham to refer to him as a "step-grandson" instead of his grandson, but after "Rosa", Ryan doesn't really try to correct him, even if it takes him a few more episodes for him to call Graham "granddad". Graham calling Ryan his grandson during "Rosa" was his way of standing with Ryan during the racist setting of 1950s Montgomery, even though it made him an outcast himself, so Ryan didn't correct him as much afterward out of gratitude for that support. Also, Graham could have distanced himself from Ryan to protect himself from also being hassled by bigots or specified they weren't related by blood, but he introduced himself as Ryan's grandfather instead no matter what harm it could have brought him. It's likely this episode helped Ryan realize that if Graham was willing to defend him like that, Graham really did care about Ryan outside of him being Grace's grandson.
• Some seriously Meta Fridge Brilliance; Whittaker's Doctor has been likened to a cross of Davison's and McGann's with her sunny personality, being loopy even by Doctor standards, the mercy shown to foes, the larger than usual contingent of Companions (with an I Just Want to Have Friends motive), and rotten luck (including a dead would-be Companion). Five plus Eight equals Thirteen.
• Of course the Doctor loves Hamilton.
  • Among other things, the show discusses themes such as time, the race against it, and efforts to save/change the world. Plus, its cast are comprised of actors of various ethnicities playing white historical figures, and there’s no enforced Original Cast Precedent, which means the characters' "faces" would change with every cast member change, from show to show, night to night.
  • Thirteen hates guns. All deaths depicted onstage in Hamilton were by gunshot.
• In "The Tsuranga Conundrum", in contrast to other episodes with similar situations, the Doctor takes longer to recover from an injury than her companions. You might wonder why, since they were all close to the sonic mine when it went off, but there are a couple good possibilities:
  • The sonic mine was designed or set a certain way that happened to affect Time Lords more than humans, so it took the Doctor longer to heal. Given that it's sometimes implied the Doctor's hearing is better than that of a human, this would make a lot of sense.
  • The medics' likely unfamiliarity with Time Lords led to a case of Anatomically Ignorant Healing. Time Lords aren't exactly the most common species to meet wandering the cosmos, after all, and Astos and Mabli had probably never seen one before, much less had one as a patient. It's also worth noting that when the Doctor is woken up, Astos is quite insistent about asking for her medical history, although the question never gets answered. The medics did their best, but since they didn't have quite the right equipment, the Doctor's recovery from the mine was longer than the companions'.
• The end of "Rosa", where Thirteen takes her companions to see the asteroid named for Mrs. Parks. While it's a bit of an Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking for the audience in that there are a lot of asteroids and some are named for silly things (including, IRL, one named for the TARDIS), there's likely some Deliberate Values Dissonance at play. It may not be as big of a deal on Earth... but to a time-and-space-faring civilization like Gallifrey, having a celestial body permanently named for you is likely a very high honour. Even better, having one named for you in your species' home solar system is bound to become a very high and exclusive honour, indeed, once your species has colonized multiple galaxies and millions of star systems. Indeed, for all we know, Asteroid Rosa Parks may become the capital of the asteroid belt within the next few centuries.
• How can the Doctor be shocked at learning she's a woman? She's seen her new face reflected in a TARDIS screen and heard her voice out loud. Except... human genetics and physical characteristics sometimes have zilch to do with a person's gender — in trans and nonbinary people, for example. She doesn't know her features are coded "human female" until told so.
  • In addition, when she sees her reflection at the end of "Twice Upon a Time", it's noticeably very blurry, and thus vague enough that it doesn't automatically register to her that she has a female face. Especially since, as far as we know, it may be impossible for individual Time Lord incarnations to be non-binary or trans.
    • That would, however, seriously undercut/contradict her delighted reaction of "Ah, brilliant!" when she saw that she'd become a woman for the first time, as well as her "Oh, I remember!" on the train. And on the flip side of your second comment, we don't have any indication Time Lords can't be non-binary or trans, either.
    • It's possible that the "Oh Briliant" wasn't in fact to do with her gender at all, the Doctor may have been reacting to the fact that she liked this face, or that unlike 12 no specific, if long buried, memories were being triggered by her new face and she wouldn't have to spend years trying to figure out what point she was making with this particular face again.
  • As for her voice, have you ever found listening to a recording of your own voice weird? When you hear the sound of your own voice, it's always lower-pitched than it sounds to others, because it's being conducted to your ears through bone instead of air. She may not realize, again, that it's too high-pitched for an average male voice.
  • Addendum from OP: While Eleven initially thought he was a girl, perhaps Earth's gender norms were something Thirteen had forgotten in her post-regeneration amnesia.
  • Her initial reaction to hearing it ("I remember! Sorry, half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.") suggests that she might have forgotten she regenerated.
• In "Demons of the Punjab", the Doctor initially thinks that the Thijarians are there to assassinate someone, steals what she thinks is a weapon, and mouths off at them when they tell her she's desecrated something holy, making a declaration that she knows what they do and that she's there to stop it, and then disables their transmats around the area to keep them away. When the transmats re-engage, they immediately transport to her and take her to their ship, where they explain that they are no longer assassins, and the thing she took is the last remnants of their homeworld. The Thijarians must have recognised, from the Doctor's reaction to them, that she knew them by reputation and was scared they were up to foul play (even believing after they take her that they'd come there to assassinate her). So, instead of lashing out at her stealing something precious to them, they set the record straight to help her understand what they're really there for. The Doctor's immediate apologetic reaction when she does understand, and mimicking the Thijarians' gesture of mourning for their homeworld, shows that, while Gallifrey didn't really fall, she still knows and feels that pain and empathises with them.
• In "Arachnids in the UK", the Doctor calls Yaz from outside the hotel and asks to be let in instead of just opening the doors with the sonic. Why? Because she doesn't want to get Yaz's mum in trouble at her new job!
• "It Takes You Away":
  • Hanne is able to tell immediately that the Trine in the Solitract isn't her real mother. How? It's because that Trine is how Erik remembers her; she's only accurate from his perspective, anyone else who knew her is going to pick up the dissonance. A similar thing happens with the Grace there; while she convinces Graham, Yaz notes the disparity between the real Grace and this one, because she doesn't line up with Grace as Yaz knew her.
  • Yaz hasn't lost any friends or relatives that we know of (other than her step-grandfather, who died well before she was even born, so she doesn't have anyone the Solitract could use to try and trick her. Therefore, the Solitract all but ignores her the entire time.
  • Of course the frog wasn't terribly convincing. The only point of reference the Solitract had for what a frog even was is the necklace Graham wore.
  • The Solitract was never going to manifest as someone the Doctor knew. Costs of bringing back an actor for one scene, that it was already confirmed no old characters would appear and the inevitable backlash at whoever did get brought in for that scene when some would have felt another one would be more appropriate/important to the Doctor aside, at that stage, the Solitract wasn't trying to lure the Doctor to stay. The lure was for Erik and Graham, but the Doctor offered to stay in Erik's place. The Solitract had no reason for deception after that. The Solitract also seeks companionship, so taking a form that it finds delightful instead of A Form You Are Comfortable With allows it to be more genuine in forging its friendship with the Doctor. And finally, as shown in "Twice Upon a Time", the Doctor reacts poorly when someone imitates people they care about. If the Solitract had appeared as River, or Rose, or Clara or Susan or whoever else, the Doctor would've just gotten angry with it.
  • The cheesy look of the episode, complete with Special Effects Failure, is probably a deliberate ploy from the Solitract; the whole setup is something like the Doctor would have had in their earlier incarnations and seemed very familiar, even comforting, despite the dangerous aspect (which would be just as familiar to the Doctor, really). If it were all too easy or not cheesy, it would have been less effective as Doctor-bait.
  • Also, by the time the frog appears, the Doctor is both fully conscious of what the Solitract is and willingly agreed to stay. The Solitract doesn't have to put a bait anymore, but rather to entertain her (as you would with an important guest).
• For the whole Chibnall era: Yaz having lost her grandfather before she was even born adds another layer of heartwarming to her friendships with Graham and Dan. They're the grandfather/uncle figures she never had!

Fridge Horror — Series 11

• At the start of "The Witchfinders", Yaz innocently asks if it's Halloween in the village they've landed in. Considering they've arrived in Witch Hunt central, that's an extremely dangerous holiday to show too much interest in...
• In "Resolution", archaeologist Lin winds up the Meat Puppet of a Dalek recon scout, and while under its control, kills four people. As she survives the episode, she's likely to wind up in some trouble with the authorities, since no one except for UNIT, which was suspended pending a budgetary review, is going to believe the truth that she was possessed by a genocidal alien, and there's evidence, in the form of her car and possible security camera footage, of her presence.
• In "The Ghost Monument", the Remnants say "they see deeper though... further back..." Come the series 12 finale, you have to wonder how far back they were seeing....

Series 12 (Thirteenth Doctor / Yaz, Ryan & Graham) Fridge

Fridge Brilliance — Series 12

• "Spyfall":
  • "O" mentions that he was never very good at sprinting, which the Doctor calls out as a lie. However, The Tenth Doctor once said that those who looked into the Untempered Schism would "be inspired, run away, or go mad". The Master didn't run away, so he was technically telling the truth.
  • Also, the Master destroying Gallifrey makes a brutal kind of sense — aside from anything else, he's always been the Doctor's Evil Counterpart and essentially an avatar of chaos and destruction. As discussed in various other places, he always wants to equal, if not surpass, the Doctor, as well as being jealous of the Doctor's destroying the Time Lords in "The Sound of Drums".
  • The Doctor never even mentions Missy's attempts at redemption. Well of course she doesn't: she has no way of knowing that Missy actually intended to take Twelve's offer and was lying in order to get Saxon out of the way. She's probably concluded that the Master is likely irredeemable by now.
  • It's also no surprise that the Doctor never wonders how the Master is alive: unlike previous instances of the Master being (apparently) Killed Off for Real onscreen, the Doctor did not witness Missy's death. The last time the Doctor saw Missy, she had turned down an offer of redemption and walked off with Saxon. Not knowing of Missy and Saxon's Mutual Kill, the Doctor has every reason to think that she left the colony ship with him and went straight back to villainy before regenerating normally.
  • The inclusion of more historical women and the growing occurrences of morale speeches actually makes sense when you think about how women were treated before the creation of feminism and equal rights. The 13th Doctor will have trouble finding male allies because they would speak to her with a condescending attitude and a woman would be one of her firm allies in the past due to empathy. While some may say the political correctness in the series may be overzealous and somewhat preachy; in context, it's necessary that the women allies receive a rallying speech about how life will get better for them and how they'll be treated as equals in the future.
  • The Doctor's response of "I've had an upgrade" after Graham was mistaken for the Doctor may seem like virtue signalling and a bit derogatory towards the male audience. In context, the Doctor does have an understandable reason to have a chip on her shoulder when you consider the amount of sexism in the past. To the Doctor; her response may just be a reflex action over a trivial mistake. This quote also serves as Double Meaning because Missy said the same thing after revealing her identity as the Master.
    • Another reason they likely mistook Graham is because UNIT and Torchwood have been shuttered by Brexit. Thirteen hasn't checked in with their usual human allies, so of course their information is badly out of date. It wouldn't also be past the Master to troll their best frenemy and any humans in range by feeding them bad intel.
    • It's also worth remembering that the incarnation of the Doctor that spend the most time with the military was also an older white man like Graham.
  • C mistaking Graham for the Thirteenth Doctor makes more sense considering the most recent Doctor at the time. Twelve was an older, grey-haired white man with a Scottish accent, and out of the group, Graham is the only white man, is in his sixties, is grey-haired, and hasn't spoken enough to detect an accent, so C would obviously assume Graham to be the Doctor. Plus, with the Doctor's habit of wiping records pertaining to them, C's slight surprise at the Doctor being real, and UNIT and Torchwood's likely chaotic closure, it's very easy to assume that C only has word-of-mouth to go by and no photos, and he probably wouldn't have access to any records that suggest Time Lords can have cross-sex regenerations either.
• "Orphan 55": The TARDIS’ coffee machine dispensed the coupons that sent everyone to a planet that needed help: The TARDIS is still sending the Doctor to where she’s needed, even if it’s not actually flying her there.
• In "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror," the Doctor incorrectly identifies the Silurian gun as "alien." Possibly a Series Continuity Error, or possibly just faster and simpler than saying "non-human-other-species-that-used-to-be-from-Earth." Not like there's anyone else around who's ever met them to correct her.
• Why hasn't the Doctor told the companions about Gallifrey yet? Simple. Shell shock. With the Time War raging on, the War Doctor understood this was the final decision. While Nine, Ten and Eleven never liked to talk about it, they at least acknowledged the planet was seemingly destroyed because they themselves remembered it. Thirteen has no such luxury and is still in disbelief such a thing could happen again.
  • There's also the fact that when the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey the first time, the Doctor could frame it to themself as a heroic sacrifice, wiping out the Time Lords in order to end the Daleks as well and stop the War. Then, in Day of the Doctor, the Doctor was able to atone for their biggest mistake. Now, it feels like that was all for nothing, and this time, Gallifrey's been destroyed for no good reason.
  • On top of that: How often has the Doctor saved the Master's life? How often did the Doctor leave them in a "death trap" they knew the Master would get out of? Maybe she's regretting not being a little more callous—if she had, Gallifrey would still stand.
• "Fugitive of the Judoon": It's well established that when two of the same Time Lord meet, only the older incarnation remembers the events. So Thirteen not remembering ever having been "Ruth" is a early indicator of "Ruth" being a younger incarnation of the Doctor, as she would've forgotten meeting her otherwise.
  • The TARDIS patiently waiting for Ruth is very heartwarming, though it's also worth bearing in mind that she was probably only buried for a few decades, at most. Considering that she was a museum piece when the Doctor was young, a few decades probably isn't all that long for her.
  • Considerably Heartwarming in Hindight if you think the Doctor subconsciously chooses their next body. for at least twelve of the Doctor's lives, the Doctor took the form of a Caucasian male. "Ruth" was married to a Caucasian male for some time while in hiding. A Caucasian male who knew of Ruth's true identity. While Lee Clayton may or may not be human, Lee Clayton was someone that certainly had the most influence on the Doctor after the Doctor regenerated from her body. Lee Clayton may have been the inidividual that the Doctor loved the most and decided to look similar enough to Lee Clayton for at least twelve incarnations in a row. How the Doctor loved Lee Clayton is up to us to decide. Perhaps part of the reason why the Thirteenth Doctor is a woman now is because she loved a woman or perhaps several women more than Lee Clayton. Which woman was it? Who knows? Maybe River Song, their wife. Maybe Clara Oswald, the impossible girl who saved them throughout their past twelve incarnations. Maybe Rose Tyler, the first friend he made after the time war.
• There was some controversy over the ending of "Can You Hear Me?" and Thirteen's perceived insensitivity towards Graham's confession of his fears, to the point where the Beeb needed to issue a statement about the whole thing. However, why are we surprised? People skills has never been Doc's strong suit. This was the same entity who introduced Clara as "his carer — she cares so I don't have to", kept flashcards with pre-written apologies, trapped Martha in a demeaning role as a maid (albeit that the Doctor didn't know it was going to happen that way), and who utterly destroyed his Companion/apprentice as part of a gambit to take out an enemy. The only reasons we'd expect any difference is due to the positive discrimination of women being more compassionate. Just because the Doctor is female these days doesn't make them any less alien.
  • However, unlike previous incarnations, Thirteen explicitly does not act like a dick at this moment - she does not know how to respond, but she is not dismissive of Graham nor does she ignore his problem - she still listens to him and she is very direct in responding that she does not know how to respond but also tells Graham that she will keep thinking about it until she does think of what she should have said. Which is in itself an understandable response, it is not uncommon to be in a situation where you do not know what to say in response to reassure or help someone. She is aware that she is socially awkward and tells Graham that she does not really know how to respond, which is not acting like a dick, and indicates that her seeming lack of empathy stems more from her lack of social skills this time around than anything else.
  • It can't be emphasised enough that she did listen to his problem and her perceived insensitivity is the actual result of not knowing what to say that could give him closure or at least reassure his fears of his cancer returning. She couldn't tell him his actual fate (if she could) since it could change his actual fate and make him far more stressed and anxious. She also can't say anything other than "It will get better" or "I'm sure it won't" because whatever answer she can give him won't be satisfying or conclusive. It's just one of those conversations where you can only listen to someone and support them, not throw answers at them and see what sticks. How can the Doctor^* as well as anyone else explain a question like that to Graham, let alone provide a conclusive, satisfying answer?
    • And it is worth noting that Graham seemed appreciative of her straight-forwardness, not really saying anything at all. Just the Doctor being the Doctor helped him move past his fear, which is the point of the episode. Like with Yaz, some concerns are best handled by just moving on past them, rather than ruminating on them.
  • The issue is that she didn't even try. In Under The Lake, whilst it did take some prompting, the Twelfth Doctor understood that he had said something wrong, and took steps to correct it. There's also another moment in the two parter where he brought up his concerns to Clara about her increasing recklessness; even though it didn't work out and was somewhat played for laughs, an attempt was still made to be their for his friend. In Can You Hear Me?, Thirteen doesn't do any of that; instead of sitting down and thinking of what to say, or even trying to give Graham a hug, she just brushes him off. Graham was worried about having to relive a traumatic experience, a feeling the Doctor is very familiar with, but Thirteen didn't make the effort to relate to and comfort him.
• In "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" there are several bits of brilliance.
  • Big Finish fans will remember that Mary Shelley is an ex-Companion. Attacking a present or former Companion, either directly or indirectly will piss the Doctor off, but if push comes to shove, the Doctor will let a world burn rather than sacrifice them or people close to them. That Lone Cyberman was very smart.
  • The next bit of brilliance. Mary being an ex-Companion probably accounts for why the psychic paper did absolutely nothing.
  • The Doctor seems to keep her distance from Mary (keeping her with the "fam") and be very careful not to say too much; probably a good thing considering how things went with Eight, and probably using the change in gender presentation and bodies to try and keep Mary from putting together that, yes, this is the same entity she was running about with only a few months ago (by her personal timeline).
• During the Haunting-Ascension-Timeless Children trilogy of episodes, the Doctor seems exceptionally angry with the Cybermen, when before it's been more of a quiet dread and/or pity. And equally, she seems terrified of losing her companions to them (not just killed, but converted). This makes perfect sense considering what happened just prior to her last regeneration, the last time she fought the Cybermen, very recently... she lost Bill Potts.
• "The Timeless Children" is the fulfillment of the Hybrid prophecy:
  • "The Hybrid is a creature thought to be crossbred from two warrior races.": The Master had merged with the Cyberium.
  • "It will unravel the Web of Time...": The Master had hacked into the Matrix.
  • "...and destroy a billion billion hearts to heal its own.": the Master had also slaughtered the Time Lords after he became distraught at learning the truth of their origins.
• As we now know that the Doctor isn't biologically a Time Lord and that the Master massacred all the others, the title of the Series 3 finale "Last of the Time Lords" takes on a whole new meaning. Now, it's the Master who's the Last of His Kind!

Fridge Horror — Series 12

• "Spyfall":
  • The Doctor was asked by the Moment in "The Day of the Doctor" whether he'd ever counted all the children who died when he destroyed Gallifrey. His tenth incarnation admits "one dark night" he did. Now all of those children, or at least the current generation's equivalent, have been wiped out by the Master. Everything the Doctor did to save Gallifrey from the Time War has been undone.
    • It's possible, however, that the Master only killed the Time Lords, not the non-Time Lord Gallifreyans. We only see the ruins of the Citadel of the Time Lords, not anywhere else on Gallifrey.
    • Alternately, it's possible that after they learned that their homeworld wasn't the invulnerable sanctuary they'd always assumed it to be — and once Rassilon was no longer Time Lording it over them and forbidding them from leaving — a substantial part of the population decamped for some other world, safely off the giant Get-Your-Revenge-Here bulls-eye that the Time War's atrocities had placed on Gallifrey.
  • The Doctor had to erase Ada's memory of her, with Ada begging her not to, pleading that she wanted to keep those memories, just like Donna Noble did. No wonder she was in such a melancholy mood when considering whether to check on Gallifrey!
  • After Missy raised the Doctor's hopes of having found Gallifrey in "Death in Heaven" and then he discovered she'd lied, he was so traumatized he pounded on the TARDIS console until it was seriously damaged. It must have been a terrible inner battle whether to believe the Master this time, when he told her that Gallifrey was "nuked." This time, she would have been hoping he'd lied; when it turns out he told her the truth, her reaction this time is to fling the disc the message was carried on across the room, then to withdraw into herself.
  • For so long, the Doctor carried the guilt of Gallifrey's destruction at her own hands in the wake of the Time War. Then she's given the chance to undo it, to restore her homeworld and all the people on it... only to find out the Master slaughtered them all. The Master, who the Doctor saved from being executed for their crimes. All of the Doctor's old wounds have been reopened by this event, and she's clearly not the same from this point on.
  • O is caught by the Nazis in Paris. In the present he says, "Have you any idea how hard it is to live through the 20th century? The places I've escaped from..." Presumably one of those places was a concentration camp.
  • A plot hole that contains Fridge Horror and a degree of sexism not seen since the bottom barrel of the Classic Series. Okay, "Spyfall Part 2" has Thirteen doing a memory wipe of Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Kahn to "protect the timeline," even as Ada is horrified and begging Thirteen not to Mind Rape her! The Doctor has run with historical figures before and didn't bother to wipe their memories. Hell, Eleven and Amy took Vincent Van Gogh on a tour of his paintings in a present-day museum! Furthermore, the Doctor didn't bother to pull this Mind Rape on Tesla and Edison two episodes later. Gee, how many Unfortunate Implications can we count here?
    • Probably just circumstances; usually when the Doctor meets a historical figure they don't take them time-travelling with them for fear of messing up the timestream if they see something in the future that would influence them. Van Gogh was an exception as he was taken on purpose (and he didn't have a lot of friends he could talk to who would believe him), Tesla and Edison had a run-in with aliens but the entire adventure happened in their own time period. It's specifically knowledge of the future that caused the Doctor to mind-wipe them. Particularly knowledge of future technology directly depending on Ada's own work, which is nothing but a paradox waiting to happen.
    • Also, Ada is very early in her personal timeline, so even a small change would have decades to propagate. Van Gogh was much later in his career and close to his death — as was Dickens when the Doctor and Amy met him. It would be much more problematic to imply that Ada Lovelace didn't really make any of the advances on her own, only copied what she'd seen in the future. Better to keep her legacy intact unsullied.
  • The Doctor spent decades, if not centuries, trying to rehabilitate Missy. One of the biggest signs it was working was that Missy began remembering all the people she'd killed, and facts about them like their names, strongly enough to weep for them. She went from cold and uncaring (or delighting in evil) to feeling again — just in time for whatever it is the Master discovered about Gallifrey to really hurt, in a way it never would have before. If the Doctor hadn't unfrozen the Master's hearts, maybe he wouldn't have reacted quite so badly.
  • The Doctor has saved the Master's life multiple times. The Master repaid her by destroying Gallifrey and, essentially, making the events of Day of the Doctor seem like they were all for nothing. Which means that, indirectly, the Doctor is responsible for Gallifrey being destroyed. Again. No wonder she's so shell-shocked!
  • We know what happened to Bill (the cyber-conversion) affected Thirteen, that's why she's always putting herself between enemies and companions. People were disappointed by her mind-wiping Ada and Noor, but it's easy to think that the Doctor might wish they had mind-wiped Bill just so she would be safer.
  • The Master spent about seventy years running around Earth while on The Slow Path. How much trouble did he cause while larking about?
  • The Australian Secret Service agents Seesay and Browning were assigned to protect O from the Kassavin, and died to do their duty. With the reveal that O was the Master and working with the Kassavin all along, the agents basically died for nothing.
• "Praxeus": How's Gabriela going to explain the death of her vlogging partner? The situation looks bleak for her: she heads off camping with Jamila, who disappears, and there's no-one to back up her story. Whoever quarantined the body may be able to ensure the police exonerate her — or to frame her, as part of a coverup. And if she is cleared by the police, the mystery would keep Internet conspiracy theorists going for years.
• The revelation that the Doctor is the originator of the Regeneration and has been able to regenerate many times over, since even before they became the First, it explains why the other Time Lords had to tell the Doctor they've been granted a new Cycle when they were on their "13th and final life"... They can't give what's already been had.
• 12 was suicidal and 13 still has a death wish, he finally convinced himself one more life, but we don't actually know how regeneration works so he might not have had a choice in the matter.
• Obviously some shots in the montage are just there to show monsters, but the TARDIS wiki identified every scene in there and there’s plenty of angst (like literally Ten’s section is from Angst episodes), so it’s fun to see what the Doctor at this point in her life finds important. We already know Missy’s thought betrayal is weighing on her mind, but Saxon is there as taking off the mask to Bill, and Missy that loaded ending in Empress Of Mars. There’s still complicated Clara feelings, from Dark Water and one of 11’s scenes being Bells Of St John, and River’s obviously from The Reveal of A Good Man Goes To War.

Series 13 - Flux (Thirteenth Doctor / Yaz & Dan) Fridge

Fridge Brilliance — Series 13 (Flux)

• In "The Vanquishers", it becomes officially canon that Time itself has a mind of its own, and it does not approve of forces that wantonly act against it or try to defy it. This can explain why some events in time are malleable without consequences and others are not. It's not just Timey-Wimey Ball, but something more- Time literally enforces the outcomes that it wants to preserve order, and some events Time leaves alone and flexible because it allows the Doctor to work toward a good resolution and learn from experience to uphold the laws and welfare of Time. If the Doctor starts to go off the rails, Time will beat a hard lesson into the Doctor to show who is boss. The only way to truly force a chain of events to happen is a Time Lock, though even that can be bypassed.
  • Swarm deduces that the Doctor's greatest fear is destruction. That means the Eleventh Doctor's greatest fear wasn't just a crack in the universe- it was a testament to the impending destruction of the universe. It also explains why the Eighth Doctor dodged the Time War as long as he could, because it was the most destructive event of all time, and why becoming the War Doctor was so appalling to him: it meant he became the epicenter of destruction, and almost wiped out his own fellow Time Lords.
  • It's also a nice Continuity Nod to "The Mind of Evil," where the Doctor's greatest fear was shown to be all-consuming, all-devouring fire.

Fridge Horror

• After surviving the Flux and putting an end to it, it had already rampaged through most of the universe. The Doctor has yet to survey the full extent of the damage, but from what was seen, it may have rivaled the Master causing a third of the known universe to vanish by eliminating the Logopolitans who were using Block Transfer Computations to hold back the entrophy, and much in the same way, most of the Mouri who preserved the sanctity of time are gone, leaving Normal Space (N-Space, the prime universe) with even less protection.
• Tectuen remarks that her eyes stay about the same with each regeneration. In other words, her countenance never changes. When Clara observed the War Doctor, she noted his eyes looked younger, because the later incarnations had looks of guilt from being haunted by the double genocide they unleashed (which Eleven later remembered was not true; the real outcome was actually saving their world without the loss of innocent lives). This means Tecteun has always been The Unfettered about her amoral behavior (a Well-Intentioned Extremist) and the creation of Division, while the Doctor remained The Fettered and confronted his/her enemies personally unless he or she got pissed off and took the darker path to victory, which they likely learned from their mother figure Tecteun.
• It's briefly touched on how difficult it is for Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho to be stuck in 1904, especially with their future knowledge. However, this becomes ten times worse when you remember that Jericho mentioned that he helped liberate Bergen-Belsen. Now imagine, having seen the horror of the concentration camps first-hand, and knowing you can do nothing to stop it from happening.

2022 Specials (Thirteenth Doctor / Yaz & Dan) Fridge

Fridge Brilliance - 2022 Specials

• The previous Doctors appearing in 13's mindscape:
  • It makes sense that the First Doctor compliments 13 on her refusal to regenerate; he did the same thing.
  • 8's refusal to wear a ceremonial Gallifreyan robe goes deeper than his generally rebellious nature; as the Doctor who was present for the start of the Time War, he wouldn't want to be reminded of the monsters his people became. In addition, his attire (from the ship crash on Karn) plays into his guilt complex via constantly reminding himself of the people he failed to save.
  • Also each one connects to the episode in some way:
    • 5 and 7: Most obviously, they are the Doctors most associated with Tegan and Ace, who appear prominently in the episode.
    • 1 and 6: Foreshadowing to the appearance of Ian and Mel, who traveled with those respective Doctors.
    • It also makes sense that 6 is alsothe most insistent that they get their body back; he has experience with a similar situation.
    • 8: The Master's Grand Theft Me Plan evokes his plan from the TV movie.
• Thirteen's last words are "Doctor Whoever-I'm-About-To-Be: tag, you're it." You play tag against a group of people you know, and it is likely that the tagger becomes the tagged themselves, so it's not surprising that her next face is a familiar one.

Fridge Horror

---