@arch I get what you say about Sci-Fi. As @bluesqueakpip has pointed out, it’s a very fairy tale take on sci-fi in this episode. Proper fairy tales, and the solitrect is of a particular take of fairies, that is, sometimes they’re evil, sometimes they’re just powerful and wistful, and want to play but don’t understand and are dangerous.

The show…[Read more]

@pedant @bluesqueakpip @miapatrick

Yeah, this doesn’t contradict anything that was coming out of the rumour mill. Whittaker and Chibbers were always going to on board for s12, as far as I know.

Not sure about spurious though. A single source so far but I’ve seen no denials of a delay or a split season. I wouldn’t be massively surprised if either…[Read more]

@miapatrick @bluesqueakpip

I think the rumour was more two seasons and then both leave (along with the spurious rumour about delay until 2020).

@kevinwho

Ha! Yes – entirely my bad not yours. That’ll teach me to wander off for a while before replying. Crosses wires.

So what @bluesqueakpip says.

As to what is minor or not I would say:

Moving furniture – extra;

Moving furniture with a couple of lines, probably just imparting info to pro/antagonist – minor character (take a bow…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip thanks for posting this, rumours she was only doing one series were everywhere and I honestly think that would be a terrible outcome. Not just because I like what she’s doing as the Doctor.

@magickirin the original members (including @bluesqueakpip) can only be amused at someone using the word snowflake in that manner of insult here. This forum was created out of the dying embers of a comment thread for The Snowmen.

It was also created as a place to discuss Doctor Who – including disagreeing, strongly, about episodes and eras of…[Read more]

@miapatrick @bluesqueakpip Agreed.

“You could argue cracks were showing, and that he was becoming dangerous…”

I found 12 in his night-shirt quite distressing. Walking around London searching for the lost dinosaur? Bleating on the top of buildings? It was almost undignified! People complaining (and I get it, I really do) that the current Doctor…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip @kevinwho – something to do with the ‘Timeless Child’, something buried in her memories?

@bluesqueakpip I completely agree, and I can see a good reason for this, because I can see a good reason why the number of regenerations was capped at 12. It could simply be a fact that huge and powerful as Time Lord brains are, the memory of so many personalities, with all their loves still locked inside you, carrying on all those emotions is a…[Read more]

I must refer you to @bluesqueakpip who has excellent blogs on the timey whimey nature of the 11th Doctor.

Puro.

aww @Arbutus – I’m gonna listen to the Herbie Hancock in my morning (they’re great great tunes and I’ve not heard the live versions).

But they’ll make me want to get up and for me as I type its nighttime.

So – here is a(nother) song for It Takes You Away.
@Bluesqueakpip has explained better than I how much of a fairytale this episode is (and for…[Read more]

@thane16  But to me, the baddie was the solitract: luring people with promises of “forever.”  Or not even the solitract, but the refusal to accept reality, let go of the past, and let the dead rest.

@bluesqueakpip  Just for a couple of seconds, as if the Solitract had thought it might try taking the Doctor back to the barn and becoming someon…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip @tardigrade

True. That’s a good point. But I liked the frog -I think it’s very ‘Daniel’ from Rectify. It wouldn’t be that would it @cathannabel? Except there was no actual frog – just mentioned by Daniel and Tawnee. I’ll ‘ogle it 🙂

I was concerned it would be a real ominous talking person, all ‘received pronunication’ and filled…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Producing a good talking frog was the responsibility of the special effects people, not the writer or the producer.

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 w…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip @rob  great analysis.

brilliant: The Monsters Four.

somebody needs to write a choon to that.

@bluesqueakpip That was my take, as well.  I was actively looking for the troll, and other fairytale characters.  Even the rope, or bread crumbs, to get you back home!

I also think this ep is foreshadowing for Ryan’s dad to make an appearance.

I’d forgotten about Solaris. I’ve only ever seen the 2002 film, which I loved. I subsequently read the book, which I didn’t care for. The book was dry, focusing more on science, less on mystery, and (at least for me) it lacked the emotional resonance of the film, which captured love and loss so perfectly.

This episode didn’t go all the way down…[Read more]

@mudlark @bluesqueakpip

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….

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@rob me too! Last week and lost the whole hog. Luckily, a mate had brought me a new (very small, mind) coffee plunger with a sweet bean. I had just come home and fancied a good brew. So, rob it calmed me down. We have merlo coffee here? And if you purchase a large tin of it (as I did about 3 months ago) they give you a free coffee AND a $5 voucher…[Read more]