JohannesVIII's Doctor Who liveblogs archive: The Year of Intelligent Tigers

[Original blog post on Tumblr: April 21st, 2017]

~~Some~~ A shit ton of highlights of the last EDA I’ve read (The Year of Intelligent Tigers). Probably my longest post so far.

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

This book accomplished something unthinkable. It made me want to learn how to play music.

No. Really. That’s a big deal. See, my mother had won a synthetiser in a contest when I was like 7, didn’t care about it, and she decided I should learn the piano ; but the teacher was kind of an asshole and he kept hitting my fingers whenever I got something wrong, so I completely gave up and never tried music ever again. Like, ever. I barely know the notes’ names anymore.

Because of this book, I unearthed that synthetiser (outdated since the mid 90s) from its 18 years-old yellowish plastic sheet, and bought a method to learn how to play the piano. I’m still struggling with the names of the notes and I can barely play a simple four-notes chord without hurting my hands.

This book made me do that.

It’s about identity, cohabitation, difference, colors and music. It also has some of the best aliens in all of Doctor Who, some of the best worldbuilding ever put in the series, flashbacks to some bits of the Earth Arc which should have been in the Earth Arc, chapters ordered like an opera, great characters, top quality escapism - I can’t list everything.

I have a new favorite Eighth Doctor Adventure, and the fact that my previous one was from the same author only highlights how good this one is. 10/10

A little map! Look! It’s like the old adventure books when I was a kid!

Excuse me, what

What is this place? I like it.

Take me there, please.

Holy shit look at this description, it’s like the book blasted music in my face

You’re probably tired of reading this, but for the record, I would like to solemnly thank in person every single writer who shows the more alien side of the Doctor in these books and how his friends react to it.

A++ description

I would be completely lost on this planet since I don’t know anything about music apart from what it looks like to me. I feel you, Anji.

Here There Be Tigers

Look at these two idiots I love them

Hey, their new friend Karl has a slight speech impediment, that’s pretty rare on non-comical characters! I like that.

Hmmm cute? Not permitted? Thank you

Please enjoy this sweet little quiet moment of our favorite Team TARDIS resting under the sun in the grass and Fitz playing the guitar

This planet was made for him, hahaha

I keep saying that team deserves some vacations, so this book is exactly what I wanted, so far. Of course there’s gonna be a disruptive element any moment now, but let them enjoy this planet while they still can.

The more we know about this planet, the more I’m internally yelling PLEASE TAKE ME TO THIS PLANET

“who was full of interest”

Are you two living together & should Fitz be jealous

A wild trope appeared!

SORRY WHAT

IS KARL SADEGHI A SYNESTHETE TOO? OH MY GOD?!

[DOCTOR NYARLATHOTEP INTENSIFIES]

I laughed like an idiot, well played.

Interesting.

“The quest for vodka”

Ok now I want to draw Eight playing the violin

Stop being cute this instant

Also this tweet comes to mind:

Eight. No. Bad. What are you doing. Don’t steal the show.

What ended your last relationship: violin

HOLY SHIT DOCTOR

And now he’s sulking in his room haha, wow.

This whole situation is hilarious, adorable and sad, simultaneously.

There’s something a bit uncanny about these talking tigers, true, but the "Hullow" thing is way too cute to be creepy.

I’m laughing like an idiot too, thank you, book

Oh nooo he’s trying to talk to him through music

What.

SCREAMING

Wait what the f█ck why is there a flashback to 1935?

OH SHIT OH DAMN IT’S A FLASHBACK TO THE EARTH ARC AND TO THE EXACT PART I WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SINCE THE PREVIOUS BOOK??

Oooooh so that’s why he’s so passionate about music and violin in particular, it’s one of the first things he managed to remember besides his TARDIS!

Also, I can't believe I'm saying this considering how allergic I am to anything related to music theory, but – I kinda want to learn how to play music now. I'm serious. What is this book doing to me.

"Scared to stop in case he can’t ever start again"

That damn flashback nearly made me cry, but it’s over now. Crisis averted.

Geoffrey you’re a very nice tiger but you’re not making much sense

THE TIGERS WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY MUSIC OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS?!

OH NO I LOVE BIG

Doctor what the hell are you wearing

An opera of tigers sounds like a marvelous thing.

And the negociations failed. Obviously. Technically, the humans are the invaders here, not the tigers.

Fitz’s natural response to this situation is "I’m gonna build an anti-tiger armor". Bless him.

"DO I LOOK TIGERPROOF"

YES GOOD 10/10

The anti-tiger armor saga continues.

Ouch. Ouch, ouch ouch.

And this was the end of the anti-tiger armor saga. Long live the anti-tiger armor.

Doctor where the hell are you going, come back here this instant you major alien diva

I love how the "tigers" are only looking superficially like tigers but are something completely different inside, closer to lizards. And they have two opposable thumbs on each paw too. This is so cool.

Is… is Eight going to sulk among the tigers?

I love this so much.

Bounce is so curious and I love her okay

Eight you idiot please try to concentrate

Well I love this too & now I have to draw it too. Damn you, book.

I don’t even know what to say anymore. I love this book. I love this.

Dramatic haircut!

“Neat and soft as clean fur”, oh nooo that’s cute

I… I just realised.

The Tigers look like tigers but aren’t tigers. The Doctor looks human but isn’t human.

I feel like an idiot for not noticing the parallel sooner.

I’m picturing a Tiger sipping coffee and that’s a wonderful mental picture.

Stop it Fitz

OH NOOOOO CUTE

Eight sounds like he’s doing that thing my cat does when he doesn’t want to be picked up and moved somewhere else.

And to think I was admiring how alien Eight was in the previous book.

Talking seems to work better with Tigers than humans in this case anyway.

I love this damn planet and everything on it including the plants.

I also love Chew You the old yellow tiger.

It’s also really strange and I hope we’ll get an explanation for that.

Guys this is cute and I like you both very much, but you do realise there’s simpler roads to reconciliation than "being kidnapped by tigers who want to play the violin and meeting again in the middle of nowhere and play some dramatic music", right?

My list of things I need to draw is getting longer by the minute.

I just like that tiny detail of worldbuilding okay

YES GOOD I WANT TO KNOW TOO

This shouldn’t make me so sad, but it does.

Okay then.~~Chapters New Who~~

This planet is still very intriguing and I hope we’ll get some answers.

I’m going to be very disappointed if this is true.

Interesting.

Probably, and I’d love to hear them.

The amount of scenes I want to draw in this book is getting alarmingly important

I WANT TO KNOW

We desesperately need the Tigers’ point of view of this part of the story. What happened. Why.

Woah.

I’m torn between wanting to hug Anji and wanting to laugh at Eight’s look.

Not okay.

Also my mp3 player decided to play Palladio, so I’m gonna make an improvised playlist and I will listen to it for the rest of this book.

Sadness intensifies

I’ve said it already but I love this book’s worldbuilding.

Another entry on our "Fitz CAN have good ideas sometimes" list!

No no go on, it really was a good idea.

Even if we already know for a fact that Fitz can’t sustain this level of awesomeness for more than half an hour, I’m still happy for him.

It’s a song he wrote for Sam oh nooooo

Can I hug Fitz

Look at him he’s so happy

Of course something happened right in the middle of his moment of glory. Of course it did.

Wait, what the f█ck

No Anji asdfghjk stop we still don’t know what that place does

Ohhhh that’s so cool!

I have way too many feelings about Eight trying to be a Tiger okay

So… the Tigers used to be more intelligent? Then something happened, and they built this place to keep their culture safe? I love this oh my god

You don’t realise how long it took to make this liveblog readable because of the sheer amount of reactions boiling down to "I love this" or rows of exclamation marks.

It’s an ark. It’s a damn ark, containing all the culture of their ancestors. Why. What happened. Why am I getting so emotional about talking tigers that lay eggs. WHY.

Okay, that’s it

Breaking news: Year of Intelligent Tigers is officially the third EDA which actually made me cry. And it did it with TALKING TIGERS.

CENTURIES

AN ANCIENT CIVILISATION OF ALIEN TIGERS

Still crying by the way

Once again I’m struggling to not post row after row of exclamation points

Yes yes good I want to see the other rooms

OOOHH. So HE’S responsible for the sudden appearance of the nodes all over the city!

Well, now I’m sad again.

HOLY SHIT

Have I told you how well this book is constructed yet? There’s parts where you follow the whole cast, then individual "solo" chapters, then the whole cast again. There’s references to music even in the construction of the chapters. It’s wonderful.

No Karl no what are you doing

Not really, no

He’s just trying to help, Longbody, don’t be so suspicious.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Port Any was built on top of the ancient Tigers city!

There’s something in my eyes again, dammit

Another line of exclamation points I’m trying to suppress.

If it’s right in the middle of the city, that’s going to be a problem.

COULD YOU ALL STOP BEING SO ADORABLE

EXCUSE ME THIS IS STILL WAY TOO CUTE PLEASE TONE IT DOWN

The Tigers already have a form of music of their own. Every time I think this book can’t get better, it finds a way to do so.

Oh my f█cking god

In a book full of wonderful scenes, I think this one might be my favorite so far. Karl and Eight trying to explain Beethoven to the Tigers. I’m so happy.

Also "sorry, I was watching a bug".

Oh shit oh f█ck oh damn, thank god Longbody was listening

The Tigers are surprisingly reasonable considering what the humans are planning to do.

I still hope this story will end well, though.

Please no

"They were all surrounding a problem, ready to pounce on it and kill it"

Next on my improvised playlist is Beyond the Stars by Cristian Onofreiciuc and I'm overdosing a little bit on beautiful imagery at this point, my head is full of colors

"There were no other Tigers"

I'm so sad and also so happy, this book is doing weird things to my head.

So he still wants to save everyone, not just the Tigers. Of course he does.

GOOD

GOOD²

The bomb got struck by lightning. What. How. What the hell did he do.

I have to admit it's really strange.

Despite all the music and the cultural differences and the environmental message and the anti-colonialist message, the main theme of this book seems to be identity, and I'm always a sucker for that.

Are you telling me we could have had a book in that setting instead of Endgame??

Well I'm sad again now.

Uh. So after remembering how to play the violin, he remembered one particular tune.

Imagine having a song stuck in your head for decades and not being able to recognise it. That's both funny and horrific.

CUTENESS OVERLOAD

Oh nooo they forgot he was more fragile than a Tiger and he's hurt

THIS BOOK NEEDS TO STOP MAKING ME CRY

Also, in its own weird metaphorical way, this book hits way too close to home

Fitz trying to look casual after the whole "the Doctor tried to be a Tiger" thing

Just so you know, the song currently playing in my improvised playlist for this book is The March by Lights and Motion, and this playlist was a terrible idea because it makes everything more intense and the book is already intense enough on its own.

Another thing on my endless list of things I should draw

Would somebody please stop Quick before he does something incredibly stupid again

Thank you Doctor.

Also I'm getting strong Twelve vibes from this bit.

I laughed so hard

Why is every silly little detail in this book making me so sad and so happy at the same time

Not everything has to be about you and your concerto, Karl

Fitz, stop making me laugh, this is supposed to be a tense scene.

KARL WHAT THE F█CK WHY DID YOU DO THAT

ASFGHJJKLMKGJ F█CK YOU KARL WHY

WAIT THAT'S BOUNCE

NO NOT BOUNCE

F█CK NOW I'M CRYING AGAIN TOO

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW BOOK ARE YOU F█CKING HAPPY

So they rediscover their civilisation every two centuries, and then they lose it again, that's some sort of perpetual tragedy and I'm still not okay.

THEY WERE ALWAYS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE TIGERS THANKS TO THE TARDIS BUT THEIR BRAINS DIDN'T ASSUME THE TIGERS HAD A LANGUAGE SO IT DIDN'T WORK AT FIRST, THIS IS SO COOL

YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE ALREADY, KARL, STAY WHERE YOU ARE

Fitz, that pun was atrocious

Also RIP Longbody

Okay we're nearly at the end, I need some kind of epic music for this, something very over the top and ridiculous

As it turns out, Creation of Earth by Thomas Bergersen was an excELLENT CHOICE -HOLY SHIT DOCTOR WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE WEATHER, I mean yeah this is epic but I'm also concerned okay

DON'T ADD EVEN MORE COLOR TO THIS SCENE THERE'S ALREADY A TON OF IT AND BETWEEN THIS AND THE MUSIC I'M KINDA OVERDOSING

THANK YOU THAT WAS AMAZING

WAIT IT'S NOT OVER

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED

YOU DO, HOLY SHIT

Oh my god I just remembered something.

That's exactly what I.M.Foreman told him in Interference. With the riddle involving a baby goose you have to free from a bottle without breaking the bottle yourself. You feed the bird until it's strong enough to break it itself. That's exactly what he's trying to do here. He can't remember that conversation since it happened long before the Earth Arc, but I believe it had an impact on him anyway.