@puroandson        My son also loves astronomy. He is currently taking Physics 12 and there is very little astrophysics there, mostly a lot of trigonometry to do with force and motion, which of course you need to know, but like Son of Puro, he yearns for the “good stuff”. Have you seen the any of the BBC series with Brian Cox? We’ve watched Wond…[Read more]

@ichabod    I agree absolutely about the Doctor’s motivations. I was thinking here of what the Time Lords were trying to achieve. But I have come round from thinking that they were trying to help him through, somehow, or there was some motive other than the obvious, and have now reverted back to the obvious– that they were trying to get info…[Read more]

@Ozitenor      Nice post!  I like your point about the first 7,000 years of the Doctor’s journey. Of course, he wouldn’t have to do everything exactly the same way each time, as long he made it back to the teleport room and completed the cycle there. That solves a lot of dilemmas. It is also borne out by the fact that the story he tells the Veil…[Read more]

Well, I have had my second viewing and I honestly think that I could watch this over and over. There were a few things that stood out this time around.

The idea of the cameras, showing what the Veil sees, was very interesting (and a deliberate connection to Sleep No More?). The Doctor said the cameras were there to scare him, but maybe they were…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip    🙂  I logged on specifically to leave you this message and found that you had already been here on the subject before me.

I just wanted to tell you how much I admire the approach you have taken to the Capaldi era. You have said before that you were taking awhile to warm up to Capaldi’s Doctor, and now we learn that in fact,…[Read more]

@ichabod     I like your thinking here. It is of course necessary that the Doctor move on from Clara. We cannot have another situation as we had with Ten, endlessly in mourning for his lost companion, no one else ever measuring up. But we’ve been presented a Companion with a very special relationship to the Doctor, and it would be wrong for him…[Read more]

@puroandson     Oh, no, it was fine. The “shock” was merely due to suddenly being presented with the reality of our boy cuddling on the sofa with a pretty girl whilst watching Casablanca, and showing no sign of wanting to be anywhere other than as close to her as possible. She’s a lovely girl, he met her in the choir and she is a dancer (of all…[Read more]

@puroandson     We don’t use handkerchiefs, but like @nerys, we do use cloth napkins, which I do iron. I taught Arbutus Jr. the washer and dryer a couple of years ago, and how to fold a dress shirt, but we haven’t tackled the ironing board yet. I guess that will be next. I’m still in shock over the girlfriend he brought to our house for dinner las…[Read more]

@nerys @puroandson   I also thought it was the same coat. How it got there the first time, however, is a bit puzzling. Maybe a second viewing will help me there.

@Miapatrick  A lot of people in t’other place claim an inconsistency that he took the long way and then confessed. I think in fact that is very doctor- assuming what he said when he got…[Read more]

@puroandson     Good morning to you, Puro. It’s well down the afternoon here, of course, and I’ve spent much of it reading all the comments on this board!

What lovely news all round! I think it’s fantastic that this young woman, who made a choice of repertoire that was probably a little “outside the box” for some, was so well rewarded with suc…[Read more]

Well, that reading took awhile!  🙂  So much to comment on and think about. First of all, some wonderfully eloquent writing about the heights and depths to which we were taken with this episode. Succinctly summed up by @PhaseShift:   I wish more TV could dare to be this different.   Yes, indeed. And yes, not only arc-heavy but mytho…[Read more]

Oh, yes.

I see there are a quite overwhelming number of comments to read through already. So I’ll just briefly say now that I loved this. I don’t know whether it will be universally loved or not, as it was so very different to anything we usually get. But I loved the slow build of tension and mystery, the little moments of sadness (“Which,…[Read more]

@puroandson      Oh, son of Ilion, don’t let my boy hear you disrespecting Fifa 16.  🙂  He’s pretty attached. He does say that it is designed for a PS4 so it doesn’t show to best advantage on his old PS3, but he very sensibly doesn’t feel the need to upgrade as it’s pretty much the only game he plays anymore.

People take iPads to church???? Wo…[Read more]

@janetteB      Goodness. That is frightening. And truly, as @puroandson says, a dreadful sign of the new times we are living in, along with drought in California and flooding of towns here on the prairies. In Vancouver we are never directly threatened by fire, but the forest is close enough that we have sometimes experienced smoke and smog in the…[Read more]

And now for something completely different! We often talk about the music of Doctor Who and what it brings to the show. Imagine, if you will, Doctor Who without Murray Gold? Or… Star Wars Minus Williams.

@jphamlore  @puroandson  @nerys

More and more, I think that death and it’s various opposites are an ongoing theme. There was the Fisher King stealing people’s deaths. There were all those abandoned Daleks that were apparently living on in some sort of undying agony. There is of course Ashildr, made immortal by the Doctor (and I wonder what h…[Read more]

@ichabod       I think that Rigsy’s concern came from the fact that the Doctor had never, ever called him by name before, and to do so now would indicate that something was very wrong. He preferred the dismissive nicknames to actual concern on the Doctor’s part.

I definitely agree that I wouldn’t want to see Clara’s ending undermined. But I do wo…[Read more]

I like the notion that we are being shown the series in the order that it occurred for Clara but not the order that it occurred for the Doctor. That would make a rather interesting arc, and a reminder of the timey-wimeyness of the Doctor’s life that we haven’t seen since the 50th.

@nerys     Regarding a companionless Doctor: For myself, I think i…[Read more]

I have read some interesting discussion here on the portrayal of Clara in this episode, and the suggestion that her fate suggests that the female companion can’t be too much like the male Doctor. Truly, this wasn’t my take at all. The Doctor said something like, “I’m less breakable than you”, and clearly it’s true. He is a Time Lord, Clara is hu…[Read more]

I never did get around to commenting on this episode, and I see that much of the conversation has now moved over to the spoilers thread, which I have been avoiding. But I liked the episode, and I found Clara’s death pretty moving. Like a few others, I wish that it had been a bit more meaningful (as in dying to save someone etc.), but it was p…[Read more]