@juniperfish      I believe that the show has become much more about metaphor during Moffat’s tenure. This has come up repeatedly in discussions here that have referred to myth, story, and extra textual references that might be similar to what in nineteenth-century music was called “programmatic”. The Tarot narrative that was discovered running th…[Read more]

Thanks to @pedant‘s timely reminder, here is my favourite “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”.  Ho, ho, ho.

@pedant    I absolutely love your fascist take on Santa Claus. Brilliant!

And now thanks to your reminder, I must get me to the Music Thread and post a little Springsteen.  🙂

@puroandson     We sing this every year at least once. (Carol night tomorrow, yay! Wine, food, and song!)

@Whisht    That album is great accompaniment to a late evening glass of wine. It’s part of my “Christmas mellow” mix!  🙂

@winston    Frankly one of the things I like about DW is that very few of my favourite characters die.   Hear, hear! I have no objection to the sadness of goodbyes, but it is nice when characters can have some part of a happy ending, even if the Doctor has to lose them.

A couple of days ago, I had noted a few comments that I wanted to remember.

@tardigrade   freed from the expectation of what it could have been, I was free to appreciate it better for what it was.   This is really to the point, I think. Any time there is a big episode, as here when we have the wrap-up to a series’ worth of arcs, we have  a vision…[Read more]

@puroandson

I am well behind on this thread. I will have to go and get my iPad to listen to everything that people have been busy with as my laptop no longer likes video content (it gets very hot and randomly shuts down), but I prefer to be on my laptop to post, as I find it trickier on the i devices. But Mr. Arbutus sent me today’s Google Doodle…[Read more]

@puroandson   Puro Solo posted a lengthy and articulate discussion of the Doctor’s motivations re Clara and the hybrid, and I especially liked this: I presume the Doctor is now released from his increasingly heavy duty of care. This is significant. Therefore Missy has no power over him and other species who want the Doctor will not ‘read’ his me…[Read more]

Wow, you guys have been hard at it. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Confession Disc. Clara Faces the Raven due to a Conspiracy of Timelords. There has been much eloquence and many interesting ideas since last week. Several things that made me laugh (Satan’s fungus, @pedant?) I have just spent several hours following @CountScarlioni’s dictum to not…[Read more]

@morpho    I’m loving the names we’re calling Rassilon in here. First he was an old bastard, now he’s a douche. Don’t hold back, anyone.  🙂

@swordwhale  A 350 is more like it.  🙂  I live in the middle (almost literally) of the city, and some people insist on driving these big Fords around and parking them in parking spaces where they don’t fit, and so on. I can never understand why this is, as the weekend warriors that live around here wouldn’t actually need such a big truck, we’re…[Read more]

@mudlark    Many years ago, I knew a man who had an undergraduate degree in archaeology. This man was so excited when Raiders of the Lost Ark came out that we had to line up on opening night to see it (I can remember standing outside for about an hour). His view was along the lines of “Finally, some cred for archaeologists!”

@Morpho   Not that it…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

I too have been thinking about Rassilon. He comes across very differently in Hell Bent than when last we saw him. Like @Bluesqueakpip, I have always assumed that both the Master and Rassilon were flung back to Gallifrey, and as we now have a regenerated Missy as well, it’s reasonable to think that it might have happened then. The whole High C…[Read more]

Goodness, people have been busy around here!

@ichabod       This:   I wish the Doctor had wiped the Confession Dial and sent that with the old bastard.   gave me a good laugh. And then, later on, you wrote: TMA, Doctor: When do I *not* see you?  If you guys are right, that question has been answered: ever again.  And I wanted to cry, because rea…[Read more]

Not that I would ever have the cojones to take sides in a debate between that formidable pair, @bluesqueakpip and @pedant, but this:      the title of the first episode in Series 9 is ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ and then in the final episode of Series 9 we see Clara flying off in a Type 40 TARDIS (with dodgy chameleon circuit), on the run from t…[Read more]

@puroandson     It is a point that Clara has in fact done quite a lot of dying already!  🙂

I liked that line of Ohila’s when she asked the Doctor if he was being cruel, or cowardly. That whole conversation was good. I think Ohila is growing into a peripheral character who can have some moral authority over the Doctor, which is a rare thing.…[Read more]

Well, I’ve had my second viewing and really, that rocked. It just did.

Watching the opening scenes with the Doctor and Clara in the diner, it occurred to me how well both actors do stillness. It’s an expressive thing for them, and can contain a wealth of emotion. This was true at the end as well, in the soft, quiet moments when Clara was ess…[Read more]

@mudlark @ichabod    I think that the Doctor, by the very end, has realized that the woman in the diner was Clara. I don’t think that he remembers her, emotionally, any more than he had all along, but he has deduced, in his analytical way, that she fits the Clara-shaped hole in his memories. The painting on the TARDIS would have sealed the deal…[Read more]

@pedant    Right, I had forgotten that line. I should get a chance to rewatch later today and it will all become more fixed in my mind. But in any case, it’s still not complicated, which was my point in that post. People (in other places) seem to find it remarkably difficult to follow, which it has sometimes been, but I really didn’t think that m…[Read more]