@BadWulf

He turned up as soon as the button was pressed. He was monitoring. Or waiting till the end of the countdown. (Quick trip round the moon, kill some time 😉 , head back )

Makes me think that it was intended to be a suicide mission. No way they could expect to set the bombs, launch the shuttle and get clear in time.  (There again there t…[Read more]

@Badwulf – ah, now Jabba would certainly fit the bill.

@BadWulf

It was always the Doctor’s intention to come back for the humans as soon as they’d made the decision. He just didn’t explain that was the plan. The same as he didn’t explain in Deep Breath.  But if they’d made Choice 1 (Nuke the moon) then there may not have been much of an  earth to take them back to. Choice 2 (save he creature) e…[Read more]

@Badwulf @Bluepipsqueak thanks for introducing me to the Trolley problem. Having read up on it it seems the biggest problem with it, or at least its variants, is that it seriously overestimates how fat a person can be.

I feel some people are over-egging the gravity of the plot so firstly (along with those awful puns) I present the origin of the moon-egg 😉

Here is some useful official BBC content that helps clear up a lot too
Quiz The Moon – bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59bhtcgMnFZrnRF4xzPdvS7/kill-the-moon-the-quiz
(I got 8/10)

Fact File bbc.co.uk/programm…[Read more]

@BadWulf   Thanks very much for the link to the YouTube video; it sums up the problem beautifully.  Science fantasy is fine in its own way, but not when contaminated by the misuse of current scientific terms.  Anyone who understands the meaning of those terms is likely to have great difficulty in hanging on to the thread, wire or cable from whic…[Read more]

Does 12 lie?

Like @Handles I think  he possibly does the “lie of omission” more than outright falsehoods – when pushed, like in the Caretaker, he’ll say a bit more –

eg “Are the children safe?”

“no-one’s safe*… but they will be soon if you let me get on!”

Looking at this series so far it’s Clara who has been persistently lying/hiding things…[Read more]

Haven’t seen Kill The Moon yet (hopefully tonight) so I’ll keep the conversation on here for now!

I had a new(?) idea about Missy. I think we are focusing a lot on who she is rather than her motives. I think the Doctor may have trapped her in the Nethersphere. She is the only living being in the Promised Land which gives her a level of authority.…[Read more]

Though not my favorite of this season (Listen still takes the cake), I did think this was a very solid episode. Though I still don’t like how much the show seems to focus on the Doctor’s followers. So far it all feels sort of like Chris Eccleston’s run (with most of the story revolving around Rose Tyler). I didn’t dislike that season at all,…[Read more]

@BadWulf    I agree that I wasn’t quite sure about the point of letting humanity vote and then overriding the decision. As a few people have pointed out, they could only see half the planet, for one thing. And frankly, it was predictable that the majority would say “kill it”. I probably would too, if this were real life. It might have been bet…[Read more]

Wow. So many great and interesting comments, I’m not sure how to go about responding to all of them. And as usual, because I’m a bit late in joining, some of my initial responses are rendered irrelevant by what comes later. But I’ll have a go.

@BadWulf, I was going ask you to explain your problems with the science, not being “sciency” myself, b…[Read more]

@BadWulf

Cockies. Not exactly relevant to this thread, but to answer your question with light and sound, here is a clip. I have lived in a number of locations in Australia, and this can be just what it is like outside your bedroom window (usually on a Sunday morning, when you are trying to sleep…[Read more]

@BadWulf, Racous birds which screech really early in the morning.

@purofilion The holiday was great thanks and just to keep it on topic we did not see any spiders, but lots of skippies and a leech which feasted on our friend’s ankle and we did indeed hear the “ooooo-eh bird”.

And before a mod gives me a Clara-slap for going off topic, I will…[Read more]

@badwulf    I realised on first waking this morning that through some mental aberration I had misnamed the author of ‘The Discovered Country’.  It is Ian R McCleod,  (of ‘The Light Ages’ and ‘The House of Storms’), not Ian McDonald (‘River of Gods’ etc.).  But the story is written in the historic present.  As I said, I have no problem with thi…[Read more]

@BadWulf

for some reason it abandoned any pretence of scientific knowledge, and replaced it with “fantastical scientism”

I think there’s probably a reason behind that – namely that there’s a current tendency to pronounce definitively on things we don’t really know. We announce something is ‘scientifically impossible’ and forget to add the kic…[Read more]

Oh I had  to laugh when I saw  the Telegraphs article  about  doctor who having perhaps becoming too frightening. I  remember classic who being more  frightening at times. It has always been historically a program that younger children find frightening and thrilling in almost equal measures. Now I know this will properly not mean anything to non B…[Read more]

@BadWulf

I’m not entirely sure how intentional the pro-life angle was on the part of the production team.

I think it’s pretty clear that they noticed it – they made sure all three characters making the decision were played by female actors.

But I think it was simply a side effect of the central problem; if the Moon’s an egg, you’ve got to m…[Read more]

@purofilion   It’s not too late here to talk about tense- only around 6:30, and I don’t get my next episode until Sunday morning.  🙁  I must restate that I thought Wolf Hall was brilliant in many ways, fabulous characterization and believable dialogue. As a history geek, it annoys me when the conversation is either anachronistic or too preciou…[Read more]

@BadWulf

Oh yes – definitely politics – I forgot about the votes of Africa, Asia and Australasia not counting because it is daytime there.

I can’t speak for the rest of Australasia but we Australians are a hardy breed.  After centuries of crocodile wrestling, spider farming and kangaroo riding, not to mention being locked in an eternal war with…[Read more]

@BadWulf That sounds about right . Included the a Doctor line about being perfectly entitled to exist, just not a as huge space thingy (I am paraphrasing a tad).