Umm…where is everybody?

By and large, I really enjoyed it. Read somewhere else that it had been planned as 8 or 9 episodes and Covid meant they had to make rapid changes. If true, I understand why some things felt rushed or unresolved. A lot to process, so will return after sleeping on it, but a couple of thoughts:

Of all the characters, the one who seemed to exhibit…[Read more]

@cosmo Welcome! I find that the Radio Times is a good source for what’s happening in the world of Doctor Who.

https://www.radiotimes.com

@janetteb Yes, it was a lovely interview. It was something about the humility that I responded to.

So, some questions that I really hope are resolved tomorrow.

1. Who, if anybody, is the Grand Serpent connected to? He can travel in time, so…a Time Lord? But he does not seem to be connected to either Swarm/Azure or to Tecteun. In fact, who is the Grand Serpent and why is he doing what he is doing?

2. If the universe is being destroyed in a…[Read more]

Not sure if this has been pointed out here, but just rewatched it again last night, and this is only a minor point (I think) but during the scene set in UNIT in 1967, as Farquah and Prentice are walking down the stairs we hear the sound of Lethbridge-Stewart coming from behind a door. Farquah says: “That’s our new corporal. A bit of a shouter…”…[Read more]

News from the Radio Times

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-bad-wolf-sony-newsupdate/

I keep going back to a question @bluesqueakpip asked ages ago. If Chibnall presented the Doctor as the timeless child, why was that story called The Timeless Children? Do they refer to the many children that were studied/sacrificed? by Tecteun? Or…?

@bluesqueakpip What are your current thoughts?

@jimthefish

An interesting, if vague, read.

You’re right. I must make my posts more focussed…

You make a good point about the extent of creative control, but I wonder just how much creative control the BBC actually exercised. They certainly allowed RTD, Moffat and Chibnall to do things in their own radically different ways. If anything, I might…[Read more]

Was just reading (from a source quoting The Times) that when RTD takes over the reigns in 2023 and control of Who shifts from the BBC to Bad Wolf it could have significant financial implications. Apparently in the vicinity of up to £40M in commercial revenue lost over the course of ten episodes.

This series in particular looks utterly fabulous.…[Read more]

@juniperfish, That is an awesome interpretation. It makes total sense, and, along with the serpent motifs, it also feels like a mobius strip, where the universe, the Doctor, and Doctor Who the show meet themselves in a never ending way.

@miapatrick, Also love the idea that Chibnall might also be attempting to fold the 8th Doctor into this…[Read more]

No, another final thought…

In the previous episode with the Weeping Angels little Peggy witnesses the death of her awful Great Uncle (“he was never nice to me”). It struck me in this episode how it was replicated by Awsok’s attitude to the Doctor.

Oh…final thought: what about the little girl Peggy? What happened to her? She was an incredibly interesting character in the previous episode, and her story deserves (at least) an episode of its own (if not more).

Really liked it.

Yaz, Dan, the professor–Indiana Jones. What’s not to like?

UNIT’s history compromised by the serpent. Yes, it makes sense.

Awsok–everything about that was perfect. Barbara Flynn, the dynamic between her and the Doctor. It was brilliant. But perhaps less impressed by her death, which seemed…too easy.

Anyway, just liked the…[Read more]

@scaryB, @mudlark Yes, you are, of course, right about the Brendon story. I confess I have shuffled that one to the back of my mind, but, in light of what you say, I should revisit it.

@mudlark

Unless maybe, the Tardis, being unconstrained by any concept of linear time, was remembering forwards.

Oooh, I like that!

Oh, and the sonic.

Doctor Ruth clearly does not know about the sonic, and is contemptuous of it. And as we know, the sonic is not introduced until Troughton.

That’s it…bedtime.

@scaryb You’re back! How fantastic! Just tonight Mrs Blenkinsop and I rewatched  this and over a post-viewing glass of wine with Mrs Blenkinsop, the following bonkers theory came to me.

This whole series is about Division. What is it and why doesn’t the Doctor know about it? Well, if we go back to the Judoon episode, where Doctor Ruth is…[Read more]

We just re-watched this fabulous episode. It was really great on a second (or third?) viewing. I have had a constant complaint about the Whittaker Doctor lacking authority, but in this episode I realise that she really has the authority that the Doctor should possess. And then I wondered: was it the writer, Maxime Alderton, who also co-wrote the…[Read more]

@craig I like your ideas for where to go with James Bond. At the moment, most people seem to be thinking about how to address issues of gender and sexuality. But I like that you want to bring it back to the Englishness of Bond and shoot it all in the UK.

I would suggest one step further–to address the fact that Bond represents not just the UK,…[Read more]

1. @mudlark, @jimthefish Yes, I agree with you both. It sounds a bit like a version of the Cartmel Masterplan at the end of McCoy’s tenure, which was stopped in its tracks when the show was cancelled. Chibnall even references it with brief shot of what appears to be Lungbarrow at the beginning of the Halloween Apocalypse. I thought the Cartmel…

[Read more]