Some initial thoughts on a first viewing…

Have we had two examples this series of a variation of a base under attack? In Smile and Knock, Knock it was the base that did the attacking.

David Suchet would have made a marvellous Master!

Bill called the Doctor “grandad.” The Doctor insisted on “grandfather.” I think @thane15 and @blenkinsopthebrav…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave @JanetteB

Yes, very sad about the death of Moray Watson. One of those character actors who always seemed to turn up in things I’d be drawn to. Such a long career as well, all the way back to The Quatermass Experiment in ‘53.

We did indeed look back on Black Orchid during our last major series of retrospectives.

@blenkinsopthebrave Moray Watson played a wonderfully sarcastic Mr Bennett in the 1982 Pride and Prejudice which is the role I most associate him with. Another fine old British actor gone.

I agree with you regarding revisiting some BG Who. We have been watching old stories sometimes of a week night. (mostly when painting miniatures but haven’t…[Read more]

Watched the episode last night and have just caught up with the posts, though no doubt a few more have been added while I have been reading. It was a delight. A short, light story but with deeper layers of meaning. It was as @Blenkinsopthebrave pointed out, very political which earns it my approval. The visuals were lovely. Enjoyed reading @mudlark…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I agree of course. My point was that addressing this sort of issue, really takes time and effort. The counter argument is that raising them superficially is better than not mentioning them at all.

But then what age group is this series of Who aimed at ? I would suspect not the 5 to 10 year old group (when I started watching…[Read more]

@jimthefish

I sort of agree with you as well. If you were to rewrite The 10th Planet today, you might not change the story (which is very simple invasion concentrating the action at a base under siege) that much, but you would add an episodes worth of character discussion into the pro’s/cons of Cybernisation as an acceptable method for global…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

And that is why we see so many black characters on the streets and on the ice–to draw our attention to the whole question of slavery … It is not supposed to be a documentary on the actual demographics of London in 1814.

The theme of slavery in one form or another was certainly a thread in the narrative, but the setting was…[Read more]

@nick—

As adventure stories, they could be dealt with in 20 minutes. What’s made them enjoyable has been all of the character development and the production values

I kind of get what you mean and agree that the stories are not what you’d call complex but I think the above has actually been the show’s mission statement pretty much from Rose o…[Read more]

Hi @blenkinsopthebrave!  And thanks!

Oh!  Great thinking on the “I shall come back” vow.  That’s one I think most of us would like to see kept.

Hi @jimthefish.  Nice to be back and see everyone theorizing away! 🙂  I would be shocked if any idea I come up with actually panned out.  Hasn’t happened yet.  Why break a perfect record. :p

For…[Read more]

@mersey In my experience commercial = rule by accountants with a “profit first” mentality. Quality is invariably the first victim.

@blenkinsopthebrave I too think that the promise the Doctor made to Susan is going to be significant this series. One of the themes of Pilot was promises, those that must be kept and those that are best broken,…[Read more]

@mdlark  Stories in which every meaning is dictated, every t crossed and every i dotted, and in which nothing is left to the imagination of the reader or viewer are seldom very satisfying.

When an artist says (or thinks) “I hope my work survives for a decade or two after I’m gone”, he or she is usually talking about hoping that the work has…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave:  Fortunately I’ve never lost a post, but unfortunately I did lose my password? Craig sorted it out for me.

@thane15:  I know that TM has a good reputation as an interviewer, and wasn’t knocking that, just his part in Whovians. Refreshing to hear that I’m not alone in my opinion. 🙂

Missy

I’m just loving this series so far. As others have pointed out, the plot of this episode wasn’t exactly ground-breaking, but was interesting and effectively done. Nice visuals. As with last week’s, I’m enjoying the calmer pace. @JimTheFish mentioned Tom Baker. I felt that connection in many ways from the start of Capaldi’s run (despite the wardr…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  Still waiting for my own copy of DW Magazine to make it here (also in Canada but not such a remote part I suspect) but Dan Martin quoted a section of the interview in his Guardian review of the episode. Here it is: “I love watching what happens with emojis, how people use them for different things, and the change of meaning…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave — also think you’re take on the episode being at least partially about language is spot on. Though I don’t seem to mind emoji as much you or @ pedant 😉

@mudlark and @wolfweed — the Van Gogh painting is striking, but I think the chances are it’s a striking similarity. I suspect the cornfields were chosen because its a…[Read more]

Agree with the various up-thread comments on the `old school’ feel to this one. Aberdeen clearly plays on the Doctor’s mind. And was that a bust of Nefertiti in the Erewhon?

Like @craig, I thought Smile was much stronger than Cottrell-Boyce’s In The Forest Of The Night. Overall, the episode struck me as very good with Bill stellar again, but my o…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I think you are on to something. In fact, thinking about it, wasn’t there a crack about no other civilisation using them?

@blenkinsopthebrave  The vault is in the basement, isn’t it?  They went outside the building with the Doctor’s office in it to reach the vault.  Universities in the States sometimes have whole mazes of service tunnels beneath the buildings on their campuses, which maintenance staff use to deal with plumbing, ventilation, heating, and cooling sy…[Read more]