@spider

I think Fugitive of the Judoon, while not explaining the mind-wipe as such, may explain why the producers needed to include a mind-wipe somewhere.

@psymon

Maybe on early pre-Hartnell Gallifrey it was assumed to be impossible?

That’s what I’d go for. The Martin Doctor and Gat are from Gallifrey’s past. Which past isn’t what the Doctor thinks, maybe. Or maybe it’s her own and the Master’s past?

The thing about the alternate timeline – where are the clues? The only clue I could possibly…[Read more]

Okay, that was exciting.

@Jimthefish – remember last week that I said Doctor Who had no compunction about using stuff from the New Adventures? And this week, guess what? A reprise of Human Nature.

@miapatrick I’m with @devilishrobby – I’m really not convinced this is an alternate timeline Doctor. Now admittedly, as far as we know the Doctor…[Read more]

@jimthefish

Chibs seems to be going out of his way to retcon Moff’s vision of Gallifrey out of existence, so I wouldn’t put anything past him at the moment.

Possibly. The way Moffatt left Gallifrey, I wouldn’t have been terribly surprised to return and find it was in the middle of a full scale civil war, so ‘smoking wreck, again‘ isn’t too dis…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@Jimthefish

I’d point out that the AG series has had no scruples in using any good ideas from the New Adventure series. ‘The Other’ is the thing that came into my mind when The Timeless Child was first mentioned.

The Looms as depicted have been thoroughly dumped, I think by the discovery that the Time Lords have billions of kids on the planet.…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I don’t think that would worry the Master. I don’t think even the discovery that the Time Lords nicked time travel from the Daleks would worry him that much. As Missy said, killing Daleks is kind of Time Lord golf, so having cunningly stolen time travel from them would just be another point in the endless (or timeless)…[Read more]

@thane16

Basically, the problem is that you keep going into ‘you are talking in platitude/sacred belief’ and I’m going ‘uh, no, I’m talking about something that’s been happening in the US and UK in the past three years.’ Which is why I’m suggesting moving this to the pub.

The academic term is ‘epistocracy’.

Glad to hear that it hasn’t reached…[Read more]

@thane16

No-one is claiming they are more important, more significant or better able to argue.

Okay, if you wish to continue this argument, you need to move it to the pub. Because we’re moving outside this particular episode, and I can’t attempt to refute your belief that I’m talking in ‘platitudes’ without moving outside this episode.

@Jimthefish

Yeah, I’m not sure I buy that personally.

In a moral sense, I don’t think I do. I seem to recall mentioning in the Skyfall episode discussion that Ada’s mindwipe was played in a distinctly disturbing way, very reminiscent of Donna’s. It’s just that I would argue there’s a possible distinction between the effect on the futures b…[Read more]

@Jimthefish

Dr. Fish –

they wanted to gloss over Tesla’s support for eugenics and compulsory sterilisation of the criminal and insane

Ah Ha! I didn’t know that!

Okay, so that’s now two stories (Skyfall and this one) where eugenics – not just the murder of the ‘unfit’, but the breeding of the ‘fit’ – is in the backstory. Skyfall with the N…[Read more]

@juniperfish

And also, glaring incongruity – why did Lovelace have to get her memory wiped, but Tesla (who saw the inside of the TARDIS) didn’t?

I just answered that very question on T’Other Place. Ada Gordon and Noor Khan were both technically trained and had seen the future of their own planet. Tesla and Edison are both technically tra…[Read more]

@jomomentor

I thought she reckoned they might eat the bread instead of them. Anything’s worth a go when you’re being chased by giant scorpions.

@badwolfalice

Yeah, I think one possibility is that we’ll look back on the Chibnall era as the new golden age for the historicals. Some of them really have been a masterclass in ‘how to do a Who historical’.

Okay. Interesting. Is it my imagination, or does everyone seem so much more comfortable doing the historicals?

I’d rate this one as good, solid Who. Nice monster – and a possible series arc joke. We’ve been complaining about Chibbers seemingly stealing plots; now we have an alien race who have stolen all their stuff. Theft, taking stuff that…[Read more]

@thane16

To cast the debate about whether self -funded retirees have the right to protest about Oxygen RN is a compromise block attitude leading to a discussion about limitations of government & whether everyone really deserves it & how dare people protest who have paid tax all their life & who’ll fund every single thing they’ll ever need & the…

[Read more]

@thane16

I’m not actually saying you shouldn’t protest – heck, with the recent devastating fires which were (very high probability) aggravated by an inadequate response to climate change, you should! But what I am arguing about is an assumption that the most important thing to you will necessarily be a) the most important thing to someone else…[Read more]

@whisht
[hands Whisht a teddy bear]

@phaseshift

If we have an arc about the basis of Timelord lies and make reference to a story where they actually lied, that may make sense.

You know what, Phaseshift? I think you might be on to something there. Because I seem to recall that when the Doctor said she’d realised Orphan 55 was Earth only a…[Read more]

Just like to direct people to the following reports by the IPCC (these are both links to pdfs): A pdf Global Warming of 1.5 degrees C: a summary for teachers and Summary for policy makers.

The teacher one is far more readable if you don’t have a science background.

Me, I find them optimistic – in the sense that there are indeed things we can do…[Read more]

@thane16

Well, I hope there’s nothing wrong with preaching because I have an actual licence to do just that.

Okay, let’s preach it, brothers and sisters!:)

Protesting meant doing so outside large corporate palaces where salary earners (not wage earners) were ignoring problems.

And did you check that the people who maintain, clean and do the…[Read more]