Does this series have a theme of how the exploited come to understand their condition, and develop their consciousness to transcend it?

Certainly works for Smile and Oxygen; probably Thin Ice; maybe for Knock Knock; not sure about The Pilot.

So, time to start unwrapping some good old Marxist theories about alienation? Doctor as Vanguard?

Just wanted to follow up on the reference to Midnight by @tommo @Thane15 @countscarlioni and probably many others.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but in Midnight the Doctor makes a very explicit promise, almost a contract, with the entity that appears to have possessed Mrs. Silvestry.

He says, ‘Whatever you want, if it’s life, or…[Read more]

@mudlark @jphamlore @craig Er yes, that’s rather a lot of examples of the Doctor going back to check on things happening before the current story started. Point taken! I’m rather annoyed at myself for not thinking of City of Death, since that is one of my faves.

@purofilion Cheers! Your thoughts and kind words are much appreciated. The more I…[Read more]

Also, is it OK for the Doctor just to go back in time within a story line to see what happened earlier on, in order to figure out what is going on now? I had always thought of that as sort of taboo.

I had no idea this was the first of a two-parter, so the ending was an amazing shock. Loved it! The Arthurian themes that many are talking about here are intriguing, and very enjoyable to think about, but I’m still struggling with ‘The Dark, The Sword, The Forsaken, The Temple’.

First, I’m puzzled why the TARDIS couldn’t translate them. Secondly,…[Read more]

@geoffers Thanks for pointing that out: feel a bit of a fool for missing it now! I wonder if this is the same poster that appears in Let’s Kill Hitler, during the early scenes where Mels keeps getting into trouble at the school? (I don’t have that episode on video to check.)

Just following on from the ‘Missy is a Carrionite’ idea: maybe what they are collecting in the Nethersphere is not souls but stories. The policeman was ‘downgraded’ to being met by a functionary, rather than Missy herself, because his story just isn’t very interesting. (‘I proceeded into the room, and saw a robot. Then I was blown up.’) Whereas…[Read more]

@geoffers Was there a ‘Break the Silence’ poster in this one as well? I missed it, if there was.

On the ‘nethersphere’: this is all very confusing, and I’m not sure that anything I had thought before now makes sense. But one thought that struck me is that Chris Addison’s character is called ‘Seb’. Could that be short for Sebastian, which would…[Read more]

@purofilion I don’t envy you your 4am alarm call: mine at least have the grace to leave it until 6 (but then it’s darker over here, of course).

I would think it should be on at about 7pm

I know these days are long gone, but for me the proper time for Doctor Who will always be 5:40 on a Saturday afternoon…

Isn’t it? Wasn’t it? Small boys in the…[Read more]

I just read in The Guardian that Doctor Who is going to move later in the month to an 8:30 start time (ending at 9:15). I wonder what others think of this, but I think it’s a shame. OK, it’s not a school night, but at the youngest end this is really going to stretch things. 8:30 strikes me as very late for a family show like this.

A coincidence just struck me: on the Sunday after Listen was broadcast on TV, BBC Radio 4 Extra repeated one of the 8th Doctor’s radio adventures, Nevermore, which draws heavily from Edgar Allan Poe’s works, most obviously ‘The Raven’. This poem has a couple of echoes with the plot of Listen. First, there is a mysterious tapping at the door: when…[Read more]

@fletchthe2nd and @Arbutus But it really doesn’t look like his handwriting. It’s written in an extremely odd manner, that made me wonder if it’s meant to be viewed in a mirror (or maybe a spoon?) to reveal a hidden message. Since ‘listen’ is an anagram of ‘silent’ maybe that is who wrote it. They would be pretty well evolved to be perfect hiders.

One small thing that struck me is that the ‘LISTEN’ that is written on the blackboard in the TARDIS really doesn’t look like the Doctor’s handwriting to me. Who wrote it?

@geoffers I’m caught the breaking glass sound just as Clara called Danny ‘Rupert’. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, and my bet is that we are going to revisit that date scene later in a time-wimey sort of way, where someone is watching Danny and Clara, and drops their glass at that precise moment in shock (but cannot figure out why someone…[Read more]

@ABXY @mattie @chickenelly I’m another who was reminded of Midnight. I felt that there were some unresolved questions from that episode, and for a moment I was excited by the thought that they might be answered; but maybe that was a red herring?

So much to think about, and will need to watch again, but one thing that struck me very powerfully was…[Read more]

Hello @Apopheniac (your’s isn’t so easy to type either! Hope I’ve got it right.)

Thanks for the info on the etymology of robot. Still fits, I think, with a general oppressed working class idea, since we have had an awful lot of robots — and self-improving assertive robots too, heading for the ‘promised land’ — in the show. I’m not saying it’s…[Read more]

@janetteB and @Whisht (and @others?) The idea of the ‘promised land’ as a robot heaven is very interesting, especially bearing in mind that the original notion of a ‘robot’ in SF literature is rooted in socialist thought: I may have this wrong, but I remember that robot was a Czech word to do with land rent, or something? – must google. Anyway,…[Read more]

@Arbutus Sorry, I think we posted at the same time. And yes, I agree my absolute favourite was ‘After Nottingham, Derby’. I thought Ben Miller did that line brilliantly.

@purofilion Yes, ‘All property is theft’ is Proudhon. And we had the idea of the ‘opiate of the masses’ from Marx. Perhaps the ‘Promised Land’ is a reference to utopian socialists like Robert Owen. I like the idea of using Doctor Who as a forum for carrying on old debates on the left. Maybe the grand finale will be a rehearsal of the…[Read more]

One point that struck me as rather unpleasant amidst all the fun was the Doctor’s rather unkind and repeated references to the fact that one of the Merry Men only had six months to live. Perhaps he was so convinced that they were fictional creations that he didn’t feel the need to care; or maybe this is just a touch of the Doctor’s more cynical…[Read more]