Lara S. Ramblings (The S Stands for Silly)
@larasramblings.bsky.social
Film, TV and literature critic. Mostly the latter. Also mortal enemy of Tuesdays. A small fish in the Caspian Sea of media criticism. She/her.
I *do* have ideas for pieces/reviews that I will likely keep behind a paywall indefinitely as a sort of Ko-fi/Patreon exclusive thing, but being disabled is exhausting, so I don't know when those will make their way out of my head and onto the page and don't want to make any concrete promises.
January 19, 2026 at 11:50 AM
I *do* have ideas for pieces/reviews that I will likely keep behind a paywall indefinitely as a sort of Ko-fi/Patreon exclusive thing, but being disabled is exhausting, so I don't know when those will make their way out of my head and onto the page and don't want to make any concrete promises.
Anyway, pretty much the same concept as the Ko-fi, you can sign up for a monthly membership for just $5, or pay for individual posts if there's a piece you really can't wait to see - at present, for the record, the plan is to recommence regular reviews going public with the AnniVARsary on March 4th.
January 19, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Anyway, pretty much the same concept as the Ko-fi, you can sign up for a monthly membership for just $5, or pay for individual posts if there's a piece you really can't wait to see - at present, for the record, the plan is to recommence regular reviews going public with the AnniVARsary on March 4th.
Also, for the first time, you can read this post, along with the other six currently paywalled reviews, on the new Lara's Ramblings Patreon. Because I just needed to double the awkward feeling I get whenever I ask anyone to give me any money for this stuff, I guess.
www.patreon.com/posts/bbc-ei...
www.patreon.com/posts/bbc-ei...
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Janus Conjunction by Trevor Baxendale (or, "A Link Between Worlds") | Lara's Ramblings
Get more from Lara's Ramblings on Patreon
www.patreon.com
January 19, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Also, for the first time, you can read this post, along with the other six currently paywalled reviews, on the new Lara's Ramblings Patreon. Because I just needed to double the awkward feeling I get whenever I ask anyone to give me any money for this stuff, I guess.
www.patreon.com/posts/bbc-ei...
www.patreon.com/posts/bbc-ei...
If I don't see you until 2026, thanks again for eight wonderful years of making this strange little blog far more successful than I could have ever dreamed. That's all on you, I just write the thing.
December 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
If I don't see you until 2026, thanks again for eight wonderful years of making this strange little blog far more successful than I could have ever dreamed. That's all on you, I just write the thing.
Thank you for your support regardless, more posts should be coming soon, I'll try and squeeze something in before the end of the year but I can't 100% promise that, being busy with holidays and all.
December 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Thank you for your support regardless, more posts should be coming soon, I'll try and squeeze something in before the end of the year but I can't 100% promise that, being busy with holidays and all.
Money is obviously tight this time of year, I never want to make anyone feel obligated.
But again, if you want to make two unemployed trans lesbians very happy, and you think you can spare the money, well *gestures at rest of thread*.
But again, if you want to make two unemployed trans lesbians very happy, and you think you can spare the money, well *gestures at rest of thread*.
December 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Money is obviously tight this time of year, I never want to make anyone feel obligated.
But again, if you want to make two unemployed trans lesbians very happy, and you think you can spare the money, well *gestures at rest of thread*.
But again, if you want to make two unemployed trans lesbians very happy, and you think you can spare the money, well *gestures at rest of thread*.
Thankfully we both still have a reasonably robust safety net to fall back on, we're not in a place where we'd have to exclusively rely on the blog for income (nor am I really considering that), but we are both disabled and unemployed, so... I mean it doesn't hurt, put it like that.
December 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Thankfully we both still have a reasonably robust safety net to fall back on, we're not in a place where we'd have to exclusively rely on the blog for income (nor am I really considering that), but we are both disabled and unemployed, so... I mean it doesn't hurt, put it like that.
Also, I never know the protocol for asking for donations, but since it's kind of changed my circumstances, I figured I'd mention I do have a partner now.
December 13, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Also, I never know the protocol for asking for donations, but since it's kind of changed my circumstances, I figured I'd mention I do have a partner now.
And on top of all of that, I've just put up my review of Chris Boucher's not-so-triumphant return to Doctor Who after twenty years with Last Man Running, which asks the question: Did you like The Face of Evil? Well, you probably won't after this.
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
Past Doctor Adventures: Last Man Running by Chris Boucher
Lara's Ramblings published a supporter-only post on Ko-fi!
ko-fi.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:35 PM
And on top of all of that, I've just put up my review of Chris Boucher's not-so-triumphant return to Doctor Who after twenty years with Last Man Running, which asks the question: Did you like The Face of Evil? Well, you probably won't after this.
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
But the big ticket item is undoubtedly Paul Magrs' full-length novel debut in The Scarlet Empress. I'm pretty happy with all these posts, but I'm especially enamoured with this one. Taking in everything from postmodernism and queerness to Buddhist philosophy.
ko-fi.com/post/Eighth-...
ko-fi.com/post/Eighth-...
Eighth Doctor Adventures Reviews: The Scarlet Empress by Paul Magrs
Lara's Ramblings published a supporter-only post on Ko-fi!
ko-fi.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:48 AM
But the big ticket item is undoubtedly Paul Magrs' full-length novel debut in The Scarlet Empress. I'm pretty happy with all these posts, but I'm especially enamoured with this one. Taking in everything from postmodernism and queerness to Buddhist philosophy.
ko-fi.com/post/Eighth-...
ko-fi.com/post/Eighth-...
Justin Richards returned to the PDAs for the first time in two years with Dreams of Empire, or as I like to call it, "Notes For Later Use in The Clockwise Man."
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
BBC Past Doctor Adventures: Dreams of Empire by Justin Richards
Lara's Ramblings published a supporter-only post on Ko-fi!
ko-fi.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Justin Richards returned to the PDAs for the first time in two years with Dreams of Empire, or as I like to call it, "Notes For Later Use in The Clockwise Man."
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Pas...
There's *another* Christopher Bulis novel in the form of Vanderdeken's Children, with Bulis becoming the first Wilderness Years writer to pen a novel for all eight then-extant Doctors.
Seems to be one of his better-regarded works, but what did I make of it?
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Eig...
Seems to be one of his better-regarded works, but what did I make of it?
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Eig...
BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures Reviews: Vanderdeken's Children
Lara's Ramblings published a supporter-only post on Ko-fi!
ko-fi.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:48 AM
There's *another* Christopher Bulis novel in the form of Vanderdeken's Children, with Bulis becoming the first Wilderness Years writer to pen a novel for all eight then-extant Doctors.
Seems to be one of his better-regarded works, but what did I make of it?
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Eig...
Seems to be one of his better-regarded works, but what did I make of it?
ko-fi.com/post/BBC-Eig...
Firstly, we've got the retooling of the New Adventures in Martin Day and Len Beech's Another Girl, Another Planet. A weird little number that's not really one of my favourites, but was still interesting to pick through.
ko-fi.com/post/Virgin-...
ko-fi.com/post/Virgin-...
Virgin New Adventures Reviews: Another Girl, Another Planet
Lara's Ramblings published a supporter-only post on Ko-fi!
ko-fi.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Firstly, we've got the retooling of the New Adventures in Martin Day and Len Beech's Another Girl, Another Planet. A weird little number that's not really one of my favourites, but was still interesting to pick through.
ko-fi.com/post/Virgin-...
ko-fi.com/post/Virgin-...
Like I say, not how I expected it would turn out, but I'm not too horribly cut up about it.
December 6, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Like I say, not how I expected it would turn out, but I'm not too horribly cut up about it.
Thanks!
Honestly I'd kind of completely failed to think that there might still be some people unaware of it, having talked about it pretty extensively on my Tumblr. But yeah, 2025 has been a strange and interesting year by any stretch of the imagination.
Honestly I'd kind of completely failed to think that there might still be some people unaware of it, having talked about it pretty extensively on my Tumblr. But yeah, 2025 has been a strange and interesting year by any stretch of the imagination.
December 6, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Thanks!
Honestly I'd kind of completely failed to think that there might still be some people unaware of it, having talked about it pretty extensively on my Tumblr. But yeah, 2025 has been a strange and interesting year by any stretch of the imagination.
Honestly I'd kind of completely failed to think that there might still be some people unaware of it, having talked about it pretty extensively on my Tumblr. But yeah, 2025 has been a strange and interesting year by any stretch of the imagination.
Because, to put it simply, I never felt anything less than 100% confident that the last eight years have seen me build up an audience of people for whom transphobia and fuckwittery are totally anathema.
(You can put that one on your tombstones, by the way, free of charge.)
(You can put that one on your tombstones, by the way, free of charge.)
December 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Because, to put it simply, I never felt anything less than 100% confident that the last eight years have seen me build up an audience of people for whom transphobia and fuckwittery are totally anathema.
(You can put that one on your tombstones, by the way, free of charge.)
(You can put that one on your tombstones, by the way, free of charge.)
Otherwise, thank you all for your continued support, even beyond the purely monetary.
I think it says a lot that not once in my hemming and hawing over whether I should change the blog's name did I ever question whether my readers would be annoying, transphobic fuckwits about it.
I think it says a lot that not once in my hemming and hawing over whether I should change the blog's name did I ever question whether my readers would be annoying, transphobic fuckwits about it.
December 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Otherwise, thank you all for your continued support, even beyond the purely monetary.
I think it says a lot that not once in my hemming and hawing over whether I should change the blog's name did I ever question whether my readers would be annoying, transphobic fuckwits about it.
I think it says a lot that not once in my hemming and hawing over whether I should change the blog's name did I ever question whether my readers would be annoying, transphobic fuckwits about it.
Anyway, if you're not keeping up with the Ko-fi, there's three whole pieces up there that you can read several months early for as little as $5. I don't really want this thread to become another self-promo thing, so I won't harp on about it, but there's that.
December 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Anyway, if you're not keeping up with the Ko-fi, there's three whole pieces up there that you can read several months early for as little as $5. I don't really want this thread to become another self-promo thing, so I won't harp on about it, but there's that.
(It also helped in allowing me to be more measured in my writing, which probably upped the quality a little further too.)
December 6, 2025 at 3:39 PM
(It also helped in allowing me to be more measured in my writing, which probably upped the quality a little further too.)
and I think my reviews have become sharper as a result.
There were, of course, less of them, but with everything going on I very much needed to slow things down a bit if I was going to remain sane.
There were, of course, less of them, but with everything going on I very much needed to slow things down a bit if I was going to remain sane.
December 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
and I think my reviews have become sharper as a result.
There were, of course, less of them, but with everything going on I very much needed to slow things down a bit if I was going to remain sane.
There were, of course, less of them, but with everything going on I very much needed to slow things down a bit if I was going to remain sane.
I think, on the whole, the pieces I've written this year have been among my favourites. Some of the 1997 reviews were perhaps a bit overlong even by my standards, but I think the absolutely dismal quality of most of the 1998 books really forced me to pare things back a bit...
December 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I think, on the whole, the pieces I've written this year have been among my favourites. Some of the 1997 reviews were perhaps a bit overlong even by my standards, but I think the absolutely dismal quality of most of the 1998 books really forced me to pare things back a bit...