I can state quite categorically that Last Christmas is by far my favourite of the Xmas special episodes – definitely a 5-star story.

It is fascinating to see all the theories regarding the…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave I could go on about this for some time, but quite frankly, I had to fight so many battles over this that were so toxic over so many years, that I think that is all I really want to say on this topic.

Oops! Apologies – I only read this after I had just posted. I hope that this has not become toxic – I find it an interesting…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip And the ‘glasnost’ then happening in the old Soviet Union meant that it was a good time to remind people that the Soviets were our allies in WW2.

And yet so many nowadays also forget that the Soviets were one of the parties that started the Second World War for their own territorial gain. This is something that seems to always be o…[Read more]

The Master’s introduction was surprisingly low-key – it certainly didn’t indicate that this character would become the single most iconic individual foe for the Doctor, a character who would keep returning for more…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave it was pretty ropey. The two evacuee girls as possessed vampires was high school acting at best.

Too true, particularly the delivery of the line “You should of come into va wawtah wiv usss.” Cockney urchin Gollum, as channelled by 1980s teenagers.

 the 80′s relativist attitude (all combatants are equally guilty) rankles with me< …

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Aye

Strong Whorfianism be damned

The in-Whoniverse reason is: The Cult of Skaro (Sec, Thay, Caan and Clyde) were hiding in the Void, in a voidship that was also housing a Timelord prison…[Read more]

I’ve not seen any X-men movies since the second one – I was beginning to get serious superhero fatigue. I knew I was out of step with the trend when I found the first Raimi Spiderman movie to be a snorefest, and I haven’t bothered with the…[Read more]

I haven’t seen The Time Monster yet – so I’m trying to stay spoiler free! (luckily, I skim-read the post, so I am still spoiler-free)

I have a rational hatred of spoilers – ever since I […]

@thekrynoidman  Now Attack of the Clones, that’s an awful film.

My favorite track from Star Wars is the end credits music from Empire

Ah, the Empire Strikes Back: my favourite film and favourite soundtrack of all time. I bought the CD in 1997 when it was the soundtrack was issued in full for the first time (following the Special Editions being re…[Read more]

@Mudlark As for the Russians, presumably they were allies by the time the events of this story take place – but even after Germany broke the non-aggression pact the basis of the ensuing alliance was essentially a matter of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’.  I don’t think the mutual trust extended all that far, and the idea of a clandestine…

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@Bluesqueakpip I agree that casting for the tone and audience of the work, as well as the skill set of the performer, is critical to the success of the work.

With regard to the Sixth Doctor, I believe that it was the tone that the writers and production…[Read more]

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the character!

@Mudlark @purofilion  I agree that the acting of the two girls did leave something to be desired, but the acting in BG Who strikes me as often pretty variable and, by comparison with the acting on television now, can sometimes seem mannered or a bit exaggerated.  When I watch these episodes now I tend to allow for this and it does not bother me mu…

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The Phantom Menace is a great film – I prefer it to Return of the Jedi. It certainly has its flaws, but it has a particular charm of its own.

My favourite part of the soundtrack comes at about 1:25 into this clip (the Droid Invasion):

@lisa @purofilion -lol but wait there’s more – they also had a flashback to dalek caan in this episode!
why that particular flashback? It’s feeling to me like we are heading for lots more great and
grand deceptions

Wasn’t that a flashback to Rusty from Into the Dalek?

@bfinch I agree that Clara has the most realistic relationship with 12 that probably has ever been portrayed in a Doctor companion relationship but that doesn’t mean I have to like or support that character.

One doesn’t have to like or support a character to find them highly entertaining to watch, that is true as well. What tends to sustain my i…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip It was the Doctor’s speech, I swear. Tennant did his best, but anyone facing the prospect of more of those sanctimonious speeches would have pleaded for death. I always felt that the Master was […]

@JimTheFish Just to add that I’ve always thought it a shame that we’ve never seen a multiple Master story, the way we’ve several multi-Doctor ones. Obviously it’s never really been possible although maybe it’s […]

My least favourite of the BG versions of the theme – the best thing about it is that it has the middle eight prominently featured. The rest of it is too ’80s synthesizer-ish for my taste. I’m not too fond of the intro sequence either, although…[Read more]

@nerys I thought that was Dr. Skarosa’s Cyberman who was housed in Dr. Chang’s office, then emerged to confront Clara. My sense was that maybe that had originally been Dr. Skarosa’s office, which Dr. Chang took over.

Were we ever given any convincing proof that Dr Skarosa was a genuine person, and not just a name made up by Missy to be intrig…[Read more]

• The TARDIS revealing that is is more than just a mode of transportation
• The Doctor’s speech being the first *really* Doctorish thing he has done
• The first “Inside the TARDIS” story

I really enjoyed it – the direction was…[Read more]

@Apopheniac Late last night, I watched The Tenth Planet (so now I have three First Doctor stories under my belt so to speak, having also seen An Unearthly Child).  It was interesting to see the Cybermen in their original outing (please someone correct me if that wasn’t the first Cyberman story), and compare them to what we’ve recently seen in Da…

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It definitely does place The Daleks in its specific era – it is very peculiar to me to see how Barbara seems to automatically defer to Ian, and how Ian sends his fellow teacher and  a female alien away when dealing with the dying mutant inside the travel machine, just…[Read more]

@Barnable I wish Jacobi got more time as the Master

Jacobi has my all time favourite master line , whispered by the Watch before he gets his memories back:

“Open the light and summon me and receive my […]

It’s a shame that you find Clara shallow – I’ve found her much more enjoyable as time has gone on. Her appearance as the soufflé-girl Claricle in Asylum of the Daleks I found very smug and irritating, but as ClaraPrime she has grown a lot…[Read more]

I can really see why it made an impact on beople back in 1963, and why Dalekmania became such a phenomenon – the design of the Daleks themselves, and the Dalek city, and really the rest of Skaro (particularly the petrified forest and the swamp) came together to…[Read more]

@PhaseShift Gosh – what a coup. Jacobi has dabbled in the world of the Whoniverse in audio, but it was a delight to have that reveal on TV, and see the cosy charm of Yana gave way to the hollow, bitter, megalomaniac who’d quite happily kill the lovely alien who’d been helping him. Because he didn’t like her.

The Yana Master is, for me, the one…[Read more]

@Rob Well in the eternal triangle of Bucks, Oxon and Northamptonshire  where the winds blow, the rain cascsdes and the earth slowly liquifies into a soul sapping gelatinous ooze….

Does it continue to ooze all the way down the M40 to coagulate on the M25? This would explain a lot…

On a philosophical note … why was it so important that the person themself press the Delete button?  Why wasn’t that something Seb (or Missy) could just do themselves?  Since 2005, Cyberman creation hasn’t required that the person delete their own emotions – quite the opposite in fact.

Is this another one of the holes in The Master’s…

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Hmm – is the photo in my post above not showing?

Well – I went down to St Paul’s this morning:

And there is definitely no red telephone box there!

I would say we have proof that the telephone box was Missy’s TARDIS! (unless there was a perception filter on an ordinary phone box to render it invisible, for some reason)

Still, given the Master’s TARDIS has always had a functioning chameleon circuit, then minor…[Read more]

@lisa Also, I think she has the red telephone box as a tardis now

This seems very likely, because:

1) Missy appears outside the one on Peter’s Hill (just down from St. Pauls) before the Doctor has had time to run down from the door of the cathedral

2) In real life, there *isn’t* a red telephone box there!

Just to note – the telephone boxes…[Read more]

I suppose having an army of silver cyborgs pop up out of the ground will do that to the public!

• The teaser opening – Clara’s announcement that she was the Doctor was hilarious, especially when it showed her eyes durin…

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To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if the recursion problem has been forgotten by the production team, or even just conveniently ignored. It would be the best thing to do if it interfered with the story they want to tell.

If the Master’s TARDIS is the mausoleum, then the Doctor’s TARDIS has materialised inside it, which would cause a recursion problem, which doesn’t appear to have occured in this instance.

As Steven watches helplessly, Sara ages and dies, her remains aging to dust.

@geoffers or, the most probable thing: the tardis took clara and the doctor back in time a bit, to the mausoleum, at the very instant that danny woke up in the nethersphere…

That would seem to be the sensible theory to go with in a show about time travel, but the Doctor’s words to Clara when instructing her to use the telepathic circuits were…[Read more]