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@mudlark – ahh, Sylvester McCoy on the spoons!  Here he is in Time and the Rani

(rather less of hitting himself on the back of the head with one in Robot of Sherwood, though)

Im quite intrigued by the amount of past Doctor mannerisms / manners / thingymajigs that Capaldi is incorporating into his 12th Doctor.  I hope that viewers who have joined since 2005 are entertained enough, even without the glimpses of so-called “classic Doctors” that the crew feel the need to seed the current Doctor with and which sail serenely past the heads of newer viewers.

It would be even funnier to me if Twelve hadnt proffered the spoon as an hommage to Seven, but instead to the Private Eye “Me and My Spoon” regular feature.  But that is just me.

 

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I think it more likely that being a teacher who has had to learn to control a roomful of teenagers, spot troubled pupils etc, AND who knocks around with an eccentric,  she has simply become rather good at reading people.

[found the quote feature.  Im learning  🙂 ]

Hello @IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant (the wonders of hovering and taskbar looking)

Yes, but its also a major contrast from the Doctor so far in these 3 eps who is blatantly not able to read people, or at least can’t read people in a way to improve his situation.  I said I liked the “eyes are the windows of the soul” concept, but its equally valid that Claras character is being set up to explicitly fill the bits where the Doctor is lacking.  Its a bit zipperish if so.  A companion should complement the Doctor but this is a tad heavy handed.  Oooh, hes so ASD he doesnt see why its wrong to keep telling a creature (human or not) that hes just diagnosed 6 months til death, and heres Clara able to read the underlying sadness behind a groups incessant laughter.

Totally off topic, but I didn’t see anywhere in the Into The Dalek thread that anyone thought the antibodies looked like the Toclaphane [spelling?] from The Sound of Drums.  There was talk about a resemblance to the eyes on Clara’s shirt but their movement and size were very Toclish to me.

(apologies for apostrophisation or lack thereof.  an explanation is on the Sofa thread in my multiple introductions  🙂 )

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How long does that “edit” feature work?

I wanted to amend my earlier re-introduction because I forgot the fragrant Sarah Jane Smith as a favourite companion.  Ive only seen two of her stories in DW but Ive seen all of the CBBC programmes. (I’m only a wee bit older than the demographic, honest)

… [edit / add]

hooyah!  An apostrophe showed up.

Hello @whisht

Rorshachs are so last century.  Im into the really retro pastime of cloud patterns.  Just today I saw a giant snail eating a fox.  The clouds were moving slowly and the snails head actually smothered the foxs ear.

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Hello @bluesqueakpip (thats hard to type, had to do it several times!  Thank goodness I found the edit feature.)

Thats another example though where it can plausibly be said that Claras not mind-reading, she interprets the excessive laughing as a cover for general sadness.  I like “windows to the soul” and the eyestalk entry reference.  Perhaps we are all being sent on a wild goose chase about mind-reading (or Claras psychic connection to someone who can feed her the correct feelings / words) when its really all about looking at someones soul through their eyes?

… [edit / add]

However, I just looked at Into The Dalek starting about 7:30 when Claras talking to Danny.  Shes looking directly into his eyes for the whole conversation up until 7:38 when she looks down at her paperwork for the entire line “Ah, you shoot people then cry about it afterwards” and only after that line does she look up into his eyes again.  Curious.

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Hello @fivefaces

Robot is from the root verb “to work” in both Czech and Russian.

Im not sure about a socialist bent to the series so far.  Moffat is milking Scottish independence though, and thats being written about as a more left-leaning ideal north of the border.

 

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Hello @whisht

I said “Seemingly” Random.  😉  And I like the “Theories more insane than whats actually happening” on the front page.

Hello @saraoswald101

I wonder if theres an archive of introductions.  Yours is very well done.  I wish I could erase mine and start over.

Im someone who was on the verge of giving up with DW sites because I dont want to know anything in advance.  But I dont mind discussing each weeks ep in detail and I learn a lot from other peoples musing.  I hope its the same here.  But without the boring comments “I hate this, how can you watch it, its for kids, grow up, its been terrible since the 1980s” etc.

I speak English as a native language but my apostrophe key is broken.  The @ works but using that key without shift does nothing most of the time.  I have no idea why.  I automatically type it and 99% of the time it doesnt show up.  Must-get-new-computer.

I started watching DW in the middle of Tenants reign.  After a year or so I starting watching earlier Doctors.  I don’t know if I have a favourite, but I really dont like Colin Baker.  Each other Doctor has interesting quirks.  What little Ive seen has made me study Peter Capaldis interpretation closely, it looks like hes incorporating tics of many previous Doctors in his acting.  For example, he was very Matt Smith-y in Deep Breath but that faded by the end of that ep.  Id like him to get over his rudeness (Hartnell) and imperiosity (Pertwee) and lean a bit toward the avuncular (Troughton), with a bit of madcap glee (Tom Baker, who could also be rude and imperious).

My favourite companion was Donna Noble.  Zoe in the earlier series (the few eps Ive seen) was know-it-all and annoying and I saw one story with Mel and that was enough.  Clara seems sort of like an improvement on Peri, theyre both pretty but modern writing sensibilities give Clara more to do and be.  Perhaps a bit more like Ace, but older and wiser too.

Im hoping Danny Pink is more than an ex-soldier here to teach the Doctor that military training isnt something totally useless in how he saves the world.  And more than a love interest for Clara.

Well done anyone who made it this far!

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Clara is reading minds a lot so far.  But its always portrayed as something that can be read as something else, like with Robin Hood she knows the story very well, with Danny Pink she was joking that a moral dimension to soldiering means crying after killing people.  (Did she do a mind-reading in Deep Breath?)  Theres the psychic link to River Song which may (or may not) still be open, is Clara getting nudges from someone to say the right thing in a situation?

Hello @ultimatecompanion (Im learning this @ thing!).  I was thinking about the sonic screwdriver too.  But I skip the Coming Next Time bits at the ends of eps so I didnt know it shows up next week.  Yes it was great that the sonic was removed from the plot but it might as well not have been.  Maid Marion got the Doctor out of his chains with a key but where did she get the key from?  That was kind of DeM like the sonic can be.

Is there a reason why theres a landline telephone receiver on the blackboard in the beginning, going from the circles to the quadrant that the Doctor is filling in as he talks to Clara?  To me it means communication, that wherever Clara wants to go she will still be in touch. (with who?)

Hello @arbutus  Hello @fivefaces

Its nice for me (in UK) that Derby & Lincoln were named.  We know how ridiculous the Sherrifs nefarious world domination plans are by the Midlandish towns named.  Does this translate to America / Australia / Europe?

One last question, is The Promised Land Gallifrey?  We know this Doctor is looking for the rest of the Time Lords now.  We know that Half Face Man and the Sherwood robots are both looking for it, HFM from the distant past of Earth (but he got there presumedly from the future somewhere else) and Sherwood robots are from interstellar future, 29th century.  (There was a lot of 51st century in 10s storylines, is 29 the new 51?)

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wolfweed, thanks for your welcome earlier.  Thanks for posting the Extra here too (just saw it on iplayer).

That door thing was bothering me so I rewatched the beginning.  It goes like this:

At 3:00 in the Tardis is shown with the door open.  Its closed at 3:09 even tho the Doctor only took the arrow out but isnt shown closing the door.

Then the doors open again at 3:13.  At 3:18 in a different angle, it’s still open but just barely.  3:22, and we have the same camera shot as at 3:13 and the door is back to being more open.

Then Clara comes out the open door at 3:40 or so and closes the door after her.

DW, hire me for continuity pls.  🙂

I wondered why there was no Missy (Miss-E?  Miss-C?) coda.  The robots were looking for The Promised Land.  But they didnt sacrifice themselves for the Doctor so maybe thats the clue.  But 3 eps in and we have an arc I guess for this series.

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That will be worth seeing again.  I saw a continuity problem near the beginning with the Tardis door open then shut, I expected that to be meaningful (something got into the Tardis?).  I also thought there wouldnt be a decapitation due to recent world events, but there still was even tho it was a robot.

I thought the Tardis held back hordes of Mongol warriors and could withstand radiation and everything else, but Robins arrow pierced the side (even if the hole fixed itself).

It was certainly funny and the lines were good as said above.  I also liked Robin telling the Doctor that as a Scot he should eat more vegetables.

Theres definitly a theme of hero worship and whether its better to be remembered by history as a flawed man or an impossibly perfect legend.

Off to watch the DWE segment.

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Hello.  Im Apopheniac (see apophenia), seemed OK for a Dr Who forum name.

I hate spoilers and too many sites tell all about whats coming up in this series.  This site layout seems to solve that.  I know tonights ep is about Robin Hood and I didnt want to know that, but boo hoo its out there everywhere.  I hope I can watch each new ep with a clean slate and discuss them with people who like to find the patterns and connections in seemingly random things.  🙂

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Hello.  There are a lot of posts, which I read thru quickly.  Did anyone else see the similarity of sliding down into muck in this ep with The Beast Below?

Regarding Slapgate I think arguments for and against have merit.  But DV is in the press more & more lateley and there should be other ways to show someone theyre wrong (even tho it wasnt “domestic” in this scenario).  Punching or slapping someone to get attention these days leaves a bad taste if it isnt done strictly for slapstick humor.  There are better ways to write that moment.  Thats just my opinion tho.

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