@pedant and @ichabod

There is literally nothing in canon that supports the idea that the Doctor would remain contained,

Um. There’s The Wedding of River Song, where he’s regarded as a crazy Soothsayer and it’s Amy who rescues him.

I think the better argument would be that the Doctor is rather frequently contained, but that if it’s for longer…[Read more]

@wibblywobblytimeywimeystuff

I think we might find out next week if there’s any problems with the Sonic/TARDIS interfacing – but I’ve always presumed that the Doctor is the original designer of the Sonic Screwdriver, but the TARDIS manufactures them. I think that fits best with our seeing the TARDIS produce new Sonics, while the Doctor…[Read more]

@shinymcshine

What @pedant is gently trying to hint is that this particular discussion site includes posters who are also professional writers and actors. We migrated over here from the Guardian, which is the paper-of-choice for UK arts professionals.

It’s not that your treatment isn’t good, it’s just that episode forums are the places to…[Read more]

@Ichabod and @shinymcshine

But it is a video game. It’s made clear it’s a video game. It’s just that this particular video game has real live people taking part.

But the mention of bonuses and race and prize makes it clear that this is a *game* for Art Malik’s character. That’s why he warns them not to touch the water – no fun in it if the…[Read more]

@Ichabod

Not sure that there’s nothing more to know about the Whittaker Doctor than we’ve seen. I liked her better in this episode than I did in the first one, so it may simply be that she’s a ‘slow grower’ for a lot of us.

But that sudden collapse into ‘I’ve failed’ was definitely a bit odd – and if the ‘Timeless Child’ is her (and that could…[Read more]

@nearlysane

Or the guns are self-aiming. And the sniper robots were designed to be an obstacle to the race, rather than slaughtering all the remaining contestants.

Because they definitely had attended the Stormtrooper School of Sniper Training, and their weapons were rather low powered. 🙂

@pedant and @thane16

Indeed. But also read up on the various ways that the legal profession and historians (to name two of the areas that use eye witness accounts) have developed to cross check such accounts.

A few thoughts about Graham and Grace:

Graham is supposed to be in remission from cancer, yet he recovers from the exposure to vacuum more quickly than either Ryan or Yaz. It should be the other way round: the younger, fitter companions should be the one out of the medipod first.

Graham makes a joke about ‘will people stop sticking stuff inside…[Read more]

@Mudlark

I’ll have to check on a rewatch, but I’m fairly sure that there was a mention of a medipod for Yaz, at least, and Ryan also looked like he was waking up in something that could have been a medical unit.

Certainly that was my default assumption, since the humans definitely would have needed medical attention. Gallifreyans like the…[Read more]

@Mudlark

Setting aside the question of the Doctor and the other three surviving unprotected in space for even the second or two before they were scooped up,

They had at least ninety seconds before permanent damage, and maybe as long as four minutes – for obvious reasons, NASA has done a fair amount of experimentation on it. For equally obvious…[Read more]

@CathAnnabel

Ha!
I admit my first thought when people commented on the incredibly long train journey was that there’s really nothing unusual about it … 🙂

… though it would be funny if Ryan were the Doctor’s son, because that would mean he was complaining about his Dad not turning up when his Dad couldn’t – and his now-Mum was standing right beside him. 😈

@JanetteB

I agree that there’s something significant beyond not wanting to book an actor. 🙂 What did strike me, upon reflection, is how very like the Doctor Ryan’s Dad sounds.

I don’t mean in a ‘Ryan’s the Doctor’s son’ sort of way; just the unreliable/bottles funerals/possibly travels around a lot part – yet in this new regeneration, the…[Read more]

@troygorsline and @toinfinityandbepond

Both the ER and UNIT, I’d guess. Maybe, in her confused state, the TARDIS as well.

The Seventh Doctor regenerated into the Eighth when an ER doctor called Grace presumed his double heart beat was fibrillation.

I also took it as a ‘we’re not going near UNIT this series’ quip. Whether she’s also ‘not going…[Read more]

@CathAnnabel

The train was located quite precisely – it was between Hathersage and Grindleford, en route to Sheffield, when the Gathering Coil attacked.

I missed the train stations! I think I’m so used to ‘fake place names’ that I missed the point that they were real names.

Sorry to hear about your kid brother – it can be tough when f…[Read more]

@teak

No, they’re not holes.
1. The bike is in a tree. Ryan knows perfectly well where it is, but can’t retrieve it. Chibnall may be basing this bit on a rather well known incident on the A6, where it was a car that came off the road where the edge is a bit on the vertical side – and went straight into the top of a tree.

Stayed there for…[Read more]

Okay, what did I think of the episode as a whole?

The good points: Sheffield came across as a real place, rather than a backdrop. Likewise, Chibnall wrote to his strengths, with a lot of vivid characterisation. Salad Guy was especially brilliant, but Graham getting location data on the alien from his old mates on the buses was a very nice touch.…[Read more]

@Tempusfugit and @kharis

I liked Segun Akinola’s music, so there you are. And, much as I loved Murray Gold’s music (I own the CDs), by the end of Peter Capaldi’s run I really was feeling as if he’d said what he had to say for Doctor Who.

I’m with @Thane16 and @Pedant – it’s going to take more than one episode for the new composer to find his…[Read more]

@Rob
Well, Chibbers also said that the stories were all standalone and single episode – and we’ve just gone into Episode Two with everyone stranded in vacuum and a still-missing TARDIS. So he’s clearly absorbed Rule Zero: The Showrunner Always Lies. 🙂

What he may mean is that you don’t need to know why the Gang are hanging about in space if you…[Read more]

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