@ichabod    Maybe Capaldi’s work has such conviction and focus that we just believe he’s found that through-line, so trust him enough to find our own versions of it.       It seems to me that with Capaldi’s and Moffat’s take on the character, we have returned to an older style of Doctor, where we were left with more blanks to fill in regarding hi…[Read more]

bluesqueakpip        I reserve the right to be completely wrong about Baby Moon Dragons if Europa suddenly bursts open and a dragon flies out – but I’m fairly sure the Moon isn’t an egg.

“Fairly sure” represents a nicely open mind that the true scientist ought to appreciate.  🙂

@purofilion    Yay, Meatloaf!!   🙂

Seriously, I’ve been fo…[Read more]

The best bit of this for me was inclusion of “Whatever Gets You Through the Night”, a great song that I had forgotten, that I really liked back in the day. The main problem with this is that it doesn’t seem to know what kind of film it wants to be. It purports to be John and Yoko’s story, but at times it really feels more like a checklist of key…[Read more]

I loved this film when it first came out, absolutely loved it. The fabulous scenery and the quirky characters, so many absolutely hilarious lines that just don’t translate when you try to repeat out of context– you simply can’t explain why things are funny. And I loved the metamorphosis Mac undergoes as he walks along that lovely shoreline eve…[Read more]

@purofilion   I’m so sorry! Hang in there, get well, and get home soon.   xo

@Burrunjor  The thing is, I don’t remember having much sense that the Doctor cared at all for the Master or his survival, prior to his AG return in the Tennant era. And at that point, it was clearly a case of “Gallifrey is gone and we are the only ones left”. The Doctor wept for the loss of another of his people, not for the Master as such. In the…[Read more]

Nice tracks from everyone. @lisa, I have to agree with @Whisht that the Dave Thomas piece is amazing. I have tried the accordion and simply can’t do it (too opposing actions at once, just couldn’t coordinate it), so the notion of playing accordion and something else simultaneously is mind blowing.

@TheKrynoidMan   Congratulations, enjoy your s…[Read more]

@Mudlark   @todeledo

I guess “invasive species” would be a more correct term. It does die back in the winter even when it doesn’t freeze, but it comes back and spreads massively in both wet and dry weather. And the one that has taken over where I live (in Vancouver, Canada) is a white flowered one that isn’t especially pretty, and if you dare g…[Read more]

@janetteB    Why oh why is it that no matter how horrible the weather, and how detrimental it is to everything we are trying to grow, it never stops the weeds? The nightmarish morning glory is rampant in my neighbourhood too, and grows up over everything the minute my back is turned. Queen Anne’s Lace is another one that shoots up in every av…[Read more]

And to all the congenial hangers on of the Cloven Hoof, I had to share this: Now, that’s a pub.  🙂

@FatManInABox

Congratulations, Horticulturist! I smiled when you referred to “cute, fluffy garden pests”. In my garden, the pests are rarely that… although, I guess squirrels count, and since they ate up every one of my grapes last fall before I could get them harvested, that’s not just a pest but a Public Enemy. But Public Enemy Number One are…[Read more]

@PhaseShift     Great post. I couldn’t agree more with Letts and Dicks that the “brothers” relationship would have been so boring. I read about that backstory for the Eighth Doctor movie long ago, and like you was relieved that it remained only a backstory, because while I didn’t love everything about the movie, what we got was better than that s…[Read more]

@ichabod     Buddhism is definitely one of those belief systems that has the unfortunate fate of having been picked apart by those “spiritual but not religious” people (see @purofilion’s post from awhile back). We have loads of them on the west coast, and they tend to take all the bits that appeal from different faiths, and mash them together…[Read more]

@purofilion (and others)  Of course, there are good real-life reasons for why the Doctor isn’t constantly harking back to old companions (the legal discussion has been quite interesting!). But even if we stay in-story, I think the idea can be supported that the Doctor changes enough during regeneration that the nature of previous relationships mi…[Read more]

And @purofilion, I would guess that Moffat already knew at the time of Osgood’s death that she wasn’t gone for good. He seems to play the long game most of the time. So my hope is that her return will be both convincing and cool!

@purofilion

My theory about Time Lords, regeneration, and love, is that the extent of regeneration, the depth of it, would make long term relationships like marriage fairly difficult. We’ve never (to my knowledge, anyway) seen a depiction of marriage on Gallifrey (someone correct me if I’m wrong, there!). I suspect that intimate relationships are…[Read more]

A further thought on the Master/Missy that has just occurred to me: I realize that I am not altogether seeing the character as female, but more as a Time Lord who is currently female. In much the same way, I never really saw Eleven as a highly strung, energetic young man, but as the Doctor currently dressed in the body of one. This brings back the…[Read more]

@lisa   Is Clara how she sees her very younger self when she may have been the Doctors sidekick companion?

@purofilion made this comment about Missy and Osgood: Did her spontaneous reaction to Osgood come from a certain measure of envy? Possibly. I’m sure many 2nd year post modern, linguistic and psychological papers could be written analy…[Read more]

This issue of canon seems to come up repeatedly, not only here. The challenge with an entity like Doctor Who (and really, is there any other entity quite like DW?) is that it is so massive and has travelled in many directions over the years. It’s a little bit like asking what is canonical in Batman. I’m not sure that they ever have this arg…[Read more]