BBC Approved Spoilers

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

Not strictly a BBC Approved spoiler, but a Digital Spy interview:

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

Synopsis from the TV on my BT box:

“The time traveller returns for a fresh set of adventures, beginning with a two-part story. When intelligence agents around the world come under attack from alien forces, MI6 turns to the only people who can help – a certain Doctor and her companions. As they travel the globe in pursuit of answers, threats arrive from all sides, leaving Earth’s security resting on the team’s shoulders. But where will this planet-threatening conspiracy lead them?”

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@pedant

Does this mean no U.N.I.T any more? (Dominic Cummings probably sacked them.)

Oh, well, I ‘m still looking forward to it.

 

[winston @winston]

Six more sleeps as my granddaughter measures time.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Cummings would need a TARDIS. UNIT were ‘suspended’ last New Years Day.

::pauses, thinks::

On the other hand, Dominic Cummings as The Master works really well…

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

New BBC trailer:

 

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@blenkinsopthebrave

That trailer gives me a slight tingle up the spine, so I hope that it lives up to its promise. It certainly makes me look forward to next Sunday’s episode with more optimism, because the Judoon don’t rank among my favourite alien monsters and I wasn’t very hopeful.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Looking at the trailer again, I was rather struck by the clip with Ryan and Yasmin, both looking gloomy, and Ryan says: “How long’s this going to last, Yaz?…Is this our lives?” (I think that’s what he said…I found it a little unclear.) Could it foreshadow a change of companions?

 

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I think a change of companions is definitely on the cards (tho I’m still holding out for some kind of Dark Yaz scenario).

I’m hearing speculation that the shifty bloke in the TARDIS which might be something for the hardcore spoiler section but would be very interesting if true….

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@jimthefish

I am up for something on the Spoilers page, if you want to elaborate…

[winston @winston]

@blenkinsopthebrave     It gave me the chills! I can’t wait.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@jimthefish

The number of ‘shocked and horrified’ shots Mandip Gill’s been getting, something is definitely on the cards for Yaz. Some kind of breakdown, maybe?

[BadWolfAlice @badwolfalice]

Interesting (and I use the word ‘interesting’ loosely here) to note that the seventh episode of last series, Kerblam!, was the first ever episode to have an exclamation mark in the title, and the seventh episode of this series, Can You Hear Me?, is the first one to have a question mark. Could this be foreshadowing some sort of punctuation-based story arc that will gradually unfold during the seventh episodes of each series? (No.)

[lisa @lisa]

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p084h11x

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p084ms7y

Ok, everything is being set up in a way that we are supposed to believe that Master is about to reveal the truth to a concerned and confused Doctor. But, I ask you, when has the Master ever told the truth?

 

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave

yes, it did occur to me that the most straightforward explanation for a lot of this year’s big twists is that it’s an elaborate hoax set up by the Master. The Doctor actually trapped in a Matrix-like hallucination?

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

I confess that part of me is still convinced that there is a Wizard of Oz vibe to all this…

 

[lisa @lisa]

I really hope its not Wizard of Oz or a simple Matrix program!

I’m sure there are many fans like me who would feel hoaxed and left

disappointed by being denied a real potential epic  Galfreyan arc.

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@lisa

Part of me agrees with you, but on the basis of what Chibnall has given us since taking over the reigns of “Who” I am not convinced that Chibnall has the capacity to deliver an epic Gallifreyan arc. But I will cheer along with you if he does deliver one.

 

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@blenkinsopthebrave and @jimthefish

I can’t help thinking we’re somehow missing the significance of the Master misquoting Shelley. Did he just think it was a good line? Does he know that Shelley was the Guardian for the Cyberium?

And in addition, he’s placed himself as Ozymandias. The one who boasts ‘look at my works, ye mighty’ and yet is now another fallen statue in a fallen Empire.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@bluesqueakpip

It’s true, the Master does say: “Look upon my work, Doctor, and despair.” And it’s also true that (perhaps to self-identify with Ozymandius) he initially calls himself “O”. But…

Do I believe the Master destroyed Gallifrey? Personally, no, I don’t. But I do believe he would claim to have done it.

More importantly, the poem is about hubris–the hubris of mankind in building great empires. Yet, I would argue it is the Master who is the one who is (always) guilty of hubris, and by identifying with Ozymandius he has both mis-read Shelley and revealed his own shortcomings. Even in the realm of literary interpretation, the Master only scores a D-.

 

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@blenkinsopthebrave and @bluesqueakpip

This is probably a sad admission but nothing would give me more squee than a Who arc based around Shelley’s work. I am wondering myself whether Gallifrey is as destroyed as the Master is making out. Apart from anything, it would be the first time Who history that he’s actually ever really achieved anything. I’m at the stage of wanting to know the how as much as the why.

On a side note, the Doc releases the Cyberiad (sorry, that’s what I’m calling it) at Diodati and then zips forward into the future to undo the consequences, that’s right yes? Why does she wait till after a devastating war that’s nearly wiped out all humans before she gets involved. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get in there before the war’s actually started?

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@jimthefish

My (admittedly faltering) memory is that the Doctor relinquishes the Cyberium/Cyberiad to the Lone Cyberman at Diodata and it is he who zaps it forward ??? (Perhaps this is the time for one of @bluesqueakpip‘s graphic charts). As for the Master,

It would be the first time in Who history that he has actually achieved anything.

Exactly. Which is why I am highly skeptical that he has.

I hesitate to add this final observation, but if we are taking about Shelley’s poetry, and hubris and illusion and Ozymandius, but I cannot but observe the spelling of Ozymandius…i.e., OZymandius…

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Yet, I would argue it is the Master who is the one who is (always) guilty of hubris, and by identifying with Ozymandius he has both mis-read Shelley and revealed his own shortcomings

But has he?

I agree that the Master’s tendency to misread human creative works is legendary, but if this incarnation is post-Missy, I’d argue that it’s entirely possible for him to have read that poem and thought ‘F*ck, I’m Ozymandias. Complete with giant statues to myself that always get pulled down.’ Missy, at least at the end of her incarnation, was self-aware enough for that.

The other alternative is that in misquoting Shelley, the Master is identifying himself with the Time Lords and their attitude to other races. ‘Look at my works, ye mighty and despair.’ Well, look at them now (which line was, I think, applied to Brendan).

@jimthefish
Yeah, I’m wondering what was so important that the Doctor turns up after the massive devastating war has done all its devastating? Had the Cyberium or Cyberiad, or Cyber-wotsit only just been sent back after the final big battles? So she couldn’t get there any earlier, as that would change the events that sent her forward in the first place?

Incidentally, Blenkinsop, I hadn’t actually connected the Master’s nom de guerre of ‘O’ with ‘Ozymandias’. That’s interesting. Maybe Jim is going to get his squee after all.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@bluesquakpip

If this incarnation is post-Missy

If so, perhaps. But I have had the feeling that since Chibnall took over, and particularly this season, there seems to be a much stronger continuity from RTD to Chibnall than Moffat to Chibnall. And even if he is not trying to avoid Moffat, it could also be true that the Master may be pre-Missy. Until we see see the episode, we don’t know even if Gallifrey is destroyed at all. It might all be an illusion. As the synopsis for the episode says, in part, “lies are exposed”

[geoffers @geoffers]

so, my facebook feed just spoiled the return of captain jack (again!), if anyone was having any doubts about his return, for the special coming up…

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

And since it has been released by BBC America, I suppose it is OK to put it here as well

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

OK, having viewed it a few times, some thoughts:

I am assuming that the ethically challenged Robertson from Arachnids in the UK has been awarded the franchise to manufacture home-grown purely mechanical Daleks  by the ethically challenged Prime Minister. But since there is a shot of a Dalek spaceship (which I do not think the British manufacturing sector post-Brexit could whip up) I am assuming that real Daleks will turn up at some point. If so, sounds like fun.

However, I do hope the Doctor also gets out of gaol before the end, as I am not a fan Chibnall’s focus on the enhanced agency of the companions and diminished agency of the Doctor.

Anyway, bring on the New Year.

[winston @winston]

@blenkinsopthebrave   It looks good!  Daleks and Jack, both great for the holidays. It does look like it might be Doctor “lite” but I hope not because I need as much Doctor as I can get.

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