I think there’s a difference between ‘we can afford to blow stuff up’ and ‘we can afford more than six episodes’. At the moment, the BBC are struggling to finance six, or maybe three specials every eighteen months.

Yeah, Disney are quite happy with the type of show where two moons collide one week and then a few weeks lat…[Read more]

Yes, but have you ever watched Disney Plus?

My experience with the Marvel shows is that while they have indeed given them a whacking great budget (for TV) their influence is mainly concerned with which characters to introduce from the comics, possible spin offs and which actors and directors to approach once they’ve decided o…[Read more]

Yes, some people stay looking the same as they age. Others don’t. Elizabeth Sladen did, but I think you might have problems recognising Mark Strickson unless you knew who he was. A very famous and successful actor might have work done to make sure their face stays recognisable; the rest of us just update our photos every few y…[Read more]

You think they should have chosen a different actor because the ageing process has changed their appearance?

That doesn’t really make sense – in this episode Janet Fielding is playing a former companion of the Doctor. This former companion is thoroughly annoyed that the Doctor has apparently forgotten about her for nearly f…[Read more]

I thought the way they removed Dan was good – it’s all fun and games until you see the hole in your helmet. I presumed that removing him that early in the episode and rep…[Read more]

Given that Rose Tyler is p…[Read more]

It was Karl from Whittaker’s very first episode – at least, the credits named the character as Karl and he was played by the same actor (Johnny Dixon).

The question is, was it a little joke, or is it significant?

@devilishrobby yeah, Whittaker seems to be joining Davison as someone who only relaxed into the role when she knew she was leaving it.

It’s completely impossible that a Corporal in 1967 could be a Colonel in 1968, so there’s definitely something ‘off’ about it. However, the…[Read more]

I agree that I quite liked the Doctor as ‘John Smith from Gallifrey’. But one thing I did manage to mention before they shut the Graun thread; Chibbers is making the Doctor’s origin story that of an abused child. A very abused child.

Which is terrific, fairytale or not, because being an abused child is too often the villain’s…[Read more]

I genuinely don’t know. Given how easy it would have been to call that episode ‘The Timeless Child’, I’m pretty sure the plural has some significance. Right the way back in Chibnall’s second episode, The Ghost Monument, the Doctor herself is the Timeless Child, singular.

One of the things I did pick up this episode is that…[Read more]

Definitely meant ‘knowingly’. This is Chapter 2 – if a Deus Ex Machina turns up in Chapter 2, I expect to find out why by the end of the story. 😀

Dan’s parents 1) turn up without being mentioned previously. 2) Have the precise skills needed to save Dan as well as the precise information he needs and finally (this is the…[Read more]

It probably didn’t help that I have to watch the current series on time-shift, which means that if I get bored I can pause rather than having to carry on watching. But it’s a bad sign when I really do wander off to make a cup…[Read more]

A clear link made to Victorian industrial revolution Britain, and the poor being worked to the bone in the mines (digging for what, if not coal?).

Ah, that’s the interesting thing. Williamson was clearly harking back to previous villains like the Great Intelligence, but he and his tunnels are part of…[Read more]

My guess is (agree with you, @devilishrobby) that the problem is still the Doctor’s Memory Wiped Past and we are now in Act Three of that story. That’s why the Inciting Incident is…[Read more]

So sorry to hear of your loss.

I can’t think of any quotes, but the whole ethos of Who is that every second of time is eternal. Whatever memory you can think of, whatever event, the people we love will always be still living, there, in that moment.

We can’t meet them there again, because we don’t have a TARDIS, but that perio…[Read more]

Well – I wasn’t expecting that, but definitely great news. He brings the best out in other writers (as well as being a bloody good writer himself).

They could easily have fixed it by dating the telegram ‘1943’ instead of ‘1940’ though whether that would have fitted with them evacuating from London, I’m not sure.

My favourite reply to the ‘but you used an artefact from the wrong period’ was from the producer of the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice. In response to e…[Read more]

UK senior politicians are called ‘Secretary of State for xxx’ just as in the U.S. The terms date from the same period. However, the UK has a practice of calling any Secretary of State who is also in the Cabinet ‘Minister’.

So, unlike the US, ‘Secretary’ is often a signal that you aren’t in one of the really important…[Read more]

We see the Dalek from Resolution being driven away, there is a stop at the side of the road, the truck is driven away, there is huddled discussion between Robertson and the scientist, there is a demonstration of the Dalek to the corrupt politician…

Yup. It was a long slow burn of a set up. That is, the plot proceeded m…[Read more]

Martin Belam, who wrote this year’s recap over at T’Other Place, made a very good point. He was watching this with his kids, aged seven and ten. The bits he found clunky were also the bits where the seven-year-old was going ‘aha!’

The Verhoeven film was brilliant. It was also rated 18 in the UK. It was not aimed squarel…[Read more]

From a production point of view, I think the neon was to give us an easy way of telling the two Dalek factions apart. From a story point of view, the jazzy light show was to demonstrate that these were human designed Daleks. Face it, we do tend to think everything robotic looks better with flashing lights.

The ten month mistake also proved to have dramatic point, as it was…[Read more]

Merry Christmas

Pip

I’ll start by saying I don’t really know any more than anyone else on this one, but while Bradley and Tosin are ‘strongly rumoured’ to be leaving as regular characters (other work commitments, basically) – there are equally strong rumours that they’re not.

One solution to these conflicting rumours would be that they…[Read more]

The not-always-good Captain is front and centre in one of the BBC publicity photos, so it’s now as official as it gets.

My Mum lives back in North Wales and they’…[Read more]

I classed the archive as handwavium – the Master showed he can hack the Matrix more than once, so I’d expect him to be able to copy the interesting bits. But we’ll see.

I think the definite ‘unreliable narrator’ bit for me is where Brendan in the cover story is deliberately shot by a criminal, but the Master is oddly insiste…[Read more]

He actually hasn’t ignored everything that’s gone before, any more than, say, RTD ignored everything we knew about the Master when he decided to make him a) driven insane by the Time Vortex and then b) driven insane by a homing signal sent through the Time Vortex by Rassillon. In a very similar way, Chibnall has given us inf…[Read more]

Ah, yes, the mad queues at the supermarket. Currently I’m in Lockdown 2, the sequel and supermarkets here are a lot calmer. Apart from toilet paper. Why there was panic buying of toilet paper at the beginning of both English lockdowns is one of life’s little mysteries, especially since the UK not only manufactures toilet paper, it exp…[Read more]

To be honest, the reason given for the original rumour (police box is to be changed because of the way the police are perceived by the public) sounds like something someone’s made up for its click bait value.

The whole reason the BBC still has the trademark was because the Metropolitan Police lost their case that t…[Read more]

The BBC owns the trademark for the TARDIS. Furthermore, the TARDIS has changed its outward appearance before – Baker2 and Capaldi – but only for a short period each time.

Basically, I can imagine the BBC signing off again on a temporary change to their highly valuable trademarked property, but not on anything permanent.…[Read more]

I suspect it MAY be connected with the Fugitive Doctor/Timeless Child storyline. The Judoon still have that millennia old arrest warrant and a very, very annoyed officer who had his horn removed. So it may be that the Doctor realises that the appearance of a Police Box results in a squad or more of Judoon appearing – and TEMPORARILY…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Sorry, do you mean there isn’t a giant glowing eye in the middle of New Zealand?

So sorry to hear about your father and I hope the Remdesvir treatment goes well.

Even if you were living close by, the hospital very likely wouldn’t let you visit. That’s the worst of it – quite a few people I know have had COVID and you just have to hope and pray each time that they’re one of the lucky ones. I hope your Dad is too.…[Read more]

Terrible news. Forty one is far too young. He was a real enthusiast who helped make his Guardian blog a lovely place to be – one of the few above-the-line commentators who’d join in below-the-line and (sometimes) argue it out with posters. You could tell he saw himself as a fellow fan, not simply a critic.

Only one TV appearance, yes. There was a name check in the Moffat era – Twice Upon A Time?

No,I wouldn’t bother with the Valeyard episodes, Janette. It was very much ‘what the heck is going on here?’ but not in a good way. Good actors and crew slogging their way through as scriptwriters died, script edito…[Read more]

Why the Doctor is so different (he/she is…[Read more]

So who do we get to replace Chibnall for the next season? This is tough. truly tough.

Especially tough because he’s already confirmed for the next series. Or season. So is Jodie Whittaker. Sorry about that.

If your internal conception of the Doctor is an authority figure, then the Whittaker Doctor isn’t going to be your cup of tea -…[Read more]

Good to know.

I suspect the reason I’m liking Discovery better than Picard (apart from one being straight-up action adventure and the other aspiring to drama) is that Discovery stuck to the episodic style and Picard seems to be designed for a binge-watch. Since I don’t binge-watch, the current downward curve seems blinkin’ endless.

I suspect the videos have been carefully selected – at least, in my part of London people are generally being very careful and keeping apart. However I could, if I wanted to, find a large group to film, (teenage boys, usually) all suffering from ‘it can’t happen to me’ syndrome. The Thames Path last weekend was also extremely…[Read more]

So – I notice a lot of people on here liked Picard, but I’m currently on Episode 5 and feel as if the writers have mislaid their Prozac. Does it get any more cheerful? Any slight hint of optimism? At the moment I’m half expecting Picard to return home to discover the chateau has been…[Read more]

I think this two-parter would have a much higher reputation if it hadn’t come immediately before Blink. Three really excellent episodes in a row.

I’d agree that most of the humour in this episode comes from the villains – because this is a classic tragedy for everyone. Latimer (and Hutchinson) at least have their tragedy…[Read more]

I’m wondering whether racial integration was really so smooth in 1929.

Not one of my historical areas, so I wouldn’t know about Central Park Hooverville specifically – but Wikipedia says that the St Louis Hooverville was well known for being completely integrated. Given that, I’d say that whether or not it’s historically true, it’s a…[Read more]