Coming this Christmas!

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

Orange. Have you noticed how prominent the colour is in the clothing of both the Doctor and Ruby? Is it just an art director’s choice (and it is a great colour) or something else?

I would love to have a complicated theory, but I suppose I will just have to accept that it is just a cool colour.

@scaryb That is really sad news. He was wonderful in the early Hartnell episodes, and a wonderful companion in the context of the early 1960s. When I first started watching the show at the age of 12 when the show began I always felt he was the type of school teacher I wish I had.

RIP

@janetteB

@ps1l0v3y0u

on the question of Susan Twist, everyone is focussing on the name Susan, but there is a very famous tale of an abandoned baby by Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist.

He is not abandoned in the same way as Ruby (as he is born in a workhouse, and his mother dies giving birth). But his identity (or evidence of his mother’s…[Read more]

Random thoughts about who or what Ruby is, as we make our way to the two-parter in a couple of weeks.

What do we know? It is clear that when the Doctor arrives at the pub where Ruby is playing in the band that he is there to find her. There is nothing random about their first meeting–he is there to find her. Why? We can (I think) assume she is…[Read more]

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On the suggestion voiced above that the horrid inhabitants of Finetime might be the Space Babies grown up, I would say no for two reasons: the Space Babies were racially diverse, and they were sympathetic to the suffering of the bogeyman, which this appalling lot would never be.

Giving it more thought, the other movie (besides Truffaut’s version of “Fahrenheit 451” that I mentioned earlier) that this story reminded me of would have to be George Pal’s excellent version of HG Wells’ “The Time Machine” from 1960. I am thinking in particular of the scene shortly after Rod Taylor’s time traveller arrives in the future to…[Read more]

Actually, the other thought that just came to me was my memory  of the Francois Truffaut version of “Fahrenheit 451” where Julie Christie has all her humanity drained from her by participating in the interactive TV soap operas.

Okay, that was both both powerful and utterly depressing.

Not sure what else to say at the moment.

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@whohar

To what end?

To save herself.

I am not sure why I said that, but it somehow just seemed right.

@janetteb Well, I am still stubbornly clinging to my idea that the “mystery woman who left her at the church” is Ruby.

@thane16, @mudlark, Was thinking about the point you both discuss–ie, could Ruby give birth to herself.

If Ruby, at some point does give birth to a girl, could we imagine a scenario where Ruby herself, with the aid of the TARDIS or another time machine, takes the new-born back in time and leaves the child in front of the church. In other words,…[Read more]

@devilishrobby

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Second viewing, second thoughts.

Perhaps some of the most important words are spoken in the pub early on, by the Sian Phillips character when Ruby reveals that her friend (ie, the Doctor) accidentally stepped on the circle of thread and Ruby read the messages aloud. The Sian Phillips character points out that the spot that is being described by…[Read more]

@mudlark You make excellent points about the importance of abandonment in relation to Ruby. I am starting to wonder if the Doctor doesn’t just appear in the dance hall and strike up a conversation with Ruby in The Church on Ruby Road but rather seeks her out precisely because he knows all about her and the centrality of abandonment to her. Indeed,…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>For the first time, Ruby feels she recognizes the hiker played by Susan Twist. “Haven’t I seen you before?” or words to that effect. That also acknowledges that Ruby has previously seen Susan Twist’s face. (I know that it has been argued that while we, the audience, have seen the same face multiple times, that Ruby was…[Read more]

@thane16 Yes, Sian Phillips! For me, the indelible memory is her as Smiley’s wife in the 1970s version of “Tinker, Tailor…” Given a choice between watching space babies and Sian Phillips anytime, anywhere, Sian Phillips wins out hands down.

And while I thought the episode was excellent, I confess I did at one point (after Ruby has had no luck…[Read more]