Jodie Whittaker is talking about Series 12 – the quote which is flying round the Internet is: “I really can’t wait to step back in and get to work again.”

Hollywood Reporter, who took the interview, is headlining it as a confirmed return for the Whittaker Doctor.

In other news, ratings are in for the BBC America showings – the average for…[Read more]

@kevinwho

What makes a character major or minor isn’t screen time, it’s their centrality to the plot. I once played a maid who had a huge amount of screen time – but I was basically ‘mobile furniture’ with a couple of lines. 🙂

So I’d agree with everyone who’s said Billy Shipton was central to the plot of Blink. He’s the guy Sally Sparrow should…[Read more]

@KevinWho

That’s why, in the opening scene, one tries to whang Sally Sparrow with a thrown rock or something.

We don’t know who threw the rock. Might have been an angel, might have been some local kid who then found themselves figuring out how to survive in 1950’s Britain. There’s no paradox about the ‘Duck’, though. Sally wrote it down in h…[Read more]

@miapatrick and @kevinwho

Yeah. I think the desire of the creative team for a new direction could explain why we’ve had an entire series without any old favourites at all – but if the Doctor has made an emotional clean slate and the production team want to hide it, then that would also explain it.

Having no fear of the Daleks, for example, would…[Read more]

@KevinWho

After ten seasons sprinkled or more with those kinds of stories, isn’t it reasonable that the creative team wants a different direction?

Exactly.

Okay, bonkers theory (TM) coming up:

The few hints that we have about the creative process for the Whittaker Doctor are that a) she discussed it with Chris Chibnall and b) she didn’t r…[Read more]

@swankycriminal

I think you might also like @phaseshift‘s Time and The Doctor.
My blog on timeywimeyness in the Smith Doctor’s tenure is: The Day of The Doctor – a time structure analysis. My more general one on time in the Whoniverse is Wibbley Wobbly, Timey Wimey.

The SIDRAT section of the blogs are well worth looking at if you like the…[Read more]

@Tardigrade

If I’d been directing, I suspect I would have been shooting an additional scene with Grace as the Solitract’s embodiment, in case the frog didn’t work out. I think the idea of the frog is OK, but it didn’t quite work for me in practise.

In a world where Doctor Who has enough time and enough money, I’m sure they would have done th…[Read more]

So, another one I wanted to watch again. I wasn’t looking forward to this episode that much – all the advance notice seemed to talk about ‘Scandi-noir’, and I was thinking, ‘Oh, please, not the North Sea Depression’*.

But instead of the inheritors of Ibsen, we got the inheritors of Norwegian fairy tales. I loved it.

@arbutus – I agree that this…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

I just want to point out that I’m not railing against some kind of BBC amphibian agenda here. Just at seeing a quite promising Stranger Things/Solaris fusion squandering its potential in such a spectacular fashion….

See, this is what happens when people are coming at an episode from different directions. The only version of Sol…[Read more]

@KevinWho

Genetically engineered sheep?

Actually, I think it’s the writer having a bit of fun with the contemporary insult ‘sheeple’. 😀

Also liked the frog.

We do have to be careful to distinguish between a concept (talking frogs are a popular staple of fairy tales, and the Solitract is from a Gallifreyan fairy tale) and execution.…[Read more]

@paul

I was a little disappointed at the lack of historical accuracy in this episode. In reality, there were as many men were persecuted for witchcraft as women,

Probably best not to start your critique of historical accuracy with a stonking great goof. We know how many people of either sex were persecuted for witchcraft, because they were…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

Trigger warning: Frogs play a starring role in the final part of Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy.

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@thane16

Happy Birthday! 🎈 🎂

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@Thane16

Yup, ‘we’re more than our clothes’ might be the message. I’m firmly in the ‘there’s a reason for not changing the costumes’ camp – I just don’t know what the reason is.

But then, isn’t that what we’re all here for? The only problem with ‘hologram costumes which didn’t work on King James (VI and I)’ is that it’s a bit too tame for our…[Read more]

@Tardigrade

The psychic paper works on me too. When I look at it, I see the words “Plot Device” printed in bold lettering. I find it a bit clunky.

That’s because it IS a plot device. It’s just as much a plot device as the Star Trek transporter, which was created to save the writers having to take the Away Team down to each new planet by shu…[Read more]

@pedant
Good point. I think the answer is that he may have made it an issue with the line about Team TARDIS meaning to turn up at the coronation of Elizabeth I. Because the line really wasn’t necessary, and points up that the team should be in period costume.

I suppose it could be an accidental leftover from the original script, put in to explain…[Read more]

@mudlark

I just found it hard to accept that her extremely irregular actions would have escaped official notice for so long, even in darkest Lancashire.

Except that they hadn’t, because the King himself had turned up. 🙂

I do get what you’re saying, because I’ve had times when a lack of accuracy has ruined a book or programme for me – but in…[Read more]