BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

After a very nice bottle of Shiraz from the cellar, I am not sure I am any closer to a more detailed explanation of why Chibnall is drawing on RTD, but the more I think about it the more I am convinced that Chibnall is using RTD as his template and completely ignoring the Moffat years. Everything I have said about pacing, for example, I think was…[Read more]

Latest idea about where all this is going. It is a re-working of RTD’s 3 linked episodes”Utopia”, “The Sound of Drums”, and “The Last of the Time Lords”. Remember back to when the Doctor sent a message to the Master back in “Spyfall part 2” which she stated was not Morse code but something personal that the Master would know…the sound of two…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip, @jimthefish

I thought you might enjoy this Irish perspective on the episode:

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/doctor-who-landed-in-1950s-rural-ireland-last-night-the-fiddles-never-stopped-1.4183190

Just did a rewatch. If others have already referred to what I am about to say upstream, apologies. Anyway, Brendon. Why was his story set in Ireland? Perhaps because the police force is called the Guarda. He is asked at his job interview why he wants to be a guard. He replies: “I want to make a difference.” Now think of the English meaning of…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Thanks for that. I suppose I was thinking of the Master’s Tardis taking the form of a clock in “The Deadly Assassin” (particularly since it was a Gallifrey/TimeLord story). But in reality, I think I am just clutching at straws in trying to find meaning in what we were presented with.

Is there anyone out there who has the capacity to read the writing (if there is any) or the symbols on the retirement carriage clock? It might not be important, of course, but the aging Blenkinsop eyes are not up to the task.

@nerys

Yama was the Professor, played by Derek Jacobi, who turns into the Simm Master back in “Utopia”. (I think the spelling was Yama.) He says at one point in the episode that he was found as a baby.

@cathannabel

Yes, everything you point out do seem like troubling inconsistencies. When Brendon  falls off the cliff, we are led to believe he has also been shot. Yet the newspaper headline makes no reference of that part of his miraculous recovery. When his police superior finds him at the bottom of the cliff he seems genuinely surprised when…[Read more]

One final thought before bedtime…I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Graham ends up going off with Julie Graham’s character at the end of the next episode. Why? Perhaps a Blenkinsop predicliction for middle-age infatuations.

On this one, I find myself agreeing with both @psymon and @whisht.

In order to explain why, I would compare what we just watched with “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang”. When Moffat did that resolution to his first season, he had seeded the entire season with indicators and references that would pay off in the conclusion–the crack in the…[Read more]

Well, have now watched the last two episodes of “Dracula” and confess to feeling that it did not live up to the promise of the first episode. The last episode in particular, where Gatiss was given primary credit for the writing, was, I feel, a letdown. Every decision to change the novel was a poor decision. The characterization of Lucy, in…[Read more]

Another excellent episode of “Picard”. I find the way they can weave the old NG memories into the darker reality of “Picard” stunning.  Even “Voyager”, which is amazing…This episode in particular, where everything you think you know about the characters (from the past or from the present) is turned upside down, is really effective. OK, here is…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@bluesqueakpip, @mudlark

More reflections on pacing. If you compare what Moffat could do with an episode like “Heaven Sent” to all of the Chibnall present/future episodes, there is simply no comparison. “Heaven Sent” was paced in a very slow way…and it was hypnotically riveting.  To be honest, I think Chibnall would be incapable of that. But it…[Read more]