@BadWulf

I disagree

Which means we have a fundamental disagreement about the basis of our respective moralities. 😉

Organisations such as NICE are not making the decision made in Kill The Moon. They’re not even making the same type of decision (at least I hope they’re not, because if they’re wandering around NHS hospitals shooting people on…[Read more]

@BadWulf

Rationally, and based on the available evidence

Which is why rationality is a terrible way to make life or death moral decisions. Moffat’s been extremely consistent on this one: ‘rational’ is the greatest good of the greatest number. But in Moffat’s world view (and mine) deciding that the death of one innocent is worth it, compared to…[Read more]

@BadWulf– I know, that’s why I put the inverted coma’s in!

inevitably, on the day I finally get around to paying the damn bt bill it starts blinking so I just lost a whole post, but I think what I said was:

the doctor, when he returned, made a few arguments from his considerable experience as to why the crisis was probably going to turn out ok.…[Read more]

@Badwulf yeah, I kept thinking of abortion arguments and it did nag at me a little. Particularly because, to make it a pregnancy metaphor, it’s the whole world that is pretty much equally late stages pregnant with something that might or might not kill them all. And then the choice is made by a person who has the best chance pretty much in the…[Read more]

@BadWulf – don’t worry, it left me cold as well. Again, horses for courses – I quite like spiders.

I agree that the performances were excellent; the script is probably best read as ‘allegorical fantasy’ rather than SF.

@BadWulf did you accidentally click the post button mid-sentence.

@BadWulf   Yes, yes, me! I know it’s supposed to immerse you in the action, but for me it has the opposite effect, of reminding me continually that I’m reading a book. I struggled with the otherwise excellent Wolf Hall for exactly that reason. I love a well done historical novel, and it was great in so many ways, but I couldn’t stay engaged…[Read more]

@badwulf   The title of the story is ‘The Discovered Country’, and it is included in the latest ‘Years Best’ anthology (Gardner Dozois ed.).  According to the acknowledgements it was published first in Asimov’s Science Fiction in September last year.  It is, though, another one of McDonald’s narrated in the historic present. For my part I don’…[Read more]

@BadWulf – I agree that The Five Doctors is underrated. The best BG Doctor Who writer, Robert Holmes, had a crack at writing a 20th anniversary special that brought back all the characters it was supposed to bring back, and he couldn’t. That Terrance Dicks could bring them all together in a story that’s fun, makes sense, and also contributes some…[Read more]

@Juniperfish    Moffat bingo???  Is that a thing? I can imagine the cards…  🙂

@BadWulf     Our subway/skytrain has had several big outages recently where whole lines have been shut down for hours. Today the spokesperson suggested that next time, people should take the opportunity to go have a coffee! You can imagine how that advice went over.…[Read more]

@BadWulf

I guess you’re not stuck on a miserable commuter train out of London in the clammy drizzle then!

Nope – I’ve always felt that London is a fine city, demanding a lot of admiration, which also goes for the fine citizens who commute in and out of it.

To really admire it I’ve found it beneficial to stop a safe distance away from it. Yor…[Read more]

@BadWulf – I always take the latest understanding in cosmology with a grain of salt, as it’s prone to change as new discoveries are made. Given the massive unknowns (dark matter, dark energy) that seem to make up much of what’s going on in the universe, and all the unknown unknowns that we don’t even know we don’t know about yet, I think the fate…[Read more]

@BadWulf – a very old joke I’m quite sure is much cleaner than @Rob‘s:

Engineers know that equations only approximate the real world.
Physicists believe that the real world is an approximation to the equations.

But mathematicians don’t see the connection.

I finally managed to watch the episode last night. It felt very much like an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures, whether that was because of the writer, location, ‘monster’ or the fact of watching sci-fi on a school night! This is a long post (which is becoming a habit of mine here), please let me know if you want me to be a little more…[Read more]

@BadWulf

Instead we will have a long slow drawn out winding-down of everything, until there is pretty much nothing left happening except proton decay, until the eventual heat-death of everything.

Well, that’s physicists for you. If you want anything practical doing about the heat-death of everything, you’ll need to ask an engineer. 😉

Finally caught up with it in the wilds of Ontario, courtesy of iPlayer.

Well, I agree entirely with @Arbutus, this was a 10/10 for me. I loved every minute of it, and every line of dialogue. Indeed, I am sort of surprised by some of the criticism (too much ‘soap’). This was classic Who, and not just in the way it returned to Coal Hill and set up…[Read more]

@CathAnnabel Your son’s ears are good enough for me! Well until I came across @Rob‘s comment – Auton otters indeed – I like 🙂

(And sympathies about your lack of wifi Rob – are you away playing in mud again…?!  Hope you at least have a surfeit of caffeine )

@Badwulf – haha – I like your Missy is Rassilon theory (unless she’s @Handles‘…[Read more]

First batch of replies!  I hadn’t made the connection to The Lodger. One of my favourite episodes for Eleven.

@Marconi     I disagree that this story doesn’t fit into the arc, it very much fit in. If the only “arc” issue you are concerned about is Missy, then some episodes have had less to do with that than this one. But that’s not the only arc…[Read more]

@BadWulf

My wife was a little put off, as she said that she found the attitude to Clara, dialogue between Clara and Danny at the end, to be rather sexist, as if she was some trophy to be handed from Space Dad to Soldier Son.

I confess to being baffled as to where this came from. Danny came across as a weary soldier seeing a familiar pattern and…[Read more]

@nick1235    The slow-mo of when they’re getting in to the bank is VERY VERY SEXY.     I completely agree, I loved this bit, it was pretty stylish!

@BadWulf    The guy who got “souped” was a bystander, but clearly not innocent (except of trying to break into the bank!).

@Bluesqueakpip    Interesting point about Clara’s guilt. I wonder if i…[Read more]