@wolfweed ah, but this is still all within Who world, did Eric Ritchie Jr (don’t know where I got the D from) have a reality outside Who?

@wolfweed has reminded me – anyone got any thoughts on Eric D Ritchie – Thoughts on a Clock?  I’d assume it’s just random except that there was no need to identify the author/source for a poem in a cracker, unless it was in some way significant.

Thanks @ScaryB and @Phase Shift, I’ve sent it over.  Hope it passes muster…  The DEM blog has set the bar pretty damn high!

@Tennantmarsters2013

when her nan was talking bout her grandad to me it sounded like she was describing the doctor…

You don’t think…  noooooo.  Surely not.  But …

In all the genealogical speculation when Clara first appeared, were we looking at the wrong generation?

OK, I have a bloggy thing about Frank Capra and Who.  I can get it to you by some means or other if you think you could use it (obviously you can read it before you decide anything – I won’t claim my Jammy Dodgers unless you feel it’s worth posting!).

Cheers

@Phase Shift  Jammy dodgers, eh?  How can I resist.  Just starting to jot a few thoughts down now.  Don’t tell my PhD supervisors – unless I can think of a way to weave some reference to W G Sebald’s oeuvre into this, I don’t think I can pass it off as part of my ‘real’ research…

Just a thought – the poem that was in the cracker, Eric D Ritchie’s Thoughts on a Clock.  My googling has only brought up quotes from and references to this episode – does anyone know if it was a real poem?

@Phase Shift – don’t tempt me!  I’m supposed to be writing a whole other thesis which sadly has no connections whatsoever to either Who or Capra. But if I have the odd moment …

Oh, and I can second the recommendation as well.   That book scared me half to death.  And whilst the film is great, it loses a lot of the tragedy in the novel, because Jack Nicholson makes Jack Torrance a raving psychopathic axe murderer from the start, who just hasn’t happened to actually axe murder anyone yet.  In the book, you see a per…[Read more]

Excellent call @PhaseShift, I hadn’t made the Shining connection, but I would be v v surprised if that wasn’t lurking somewhere in the background when the Angels were dreamed up.

I agree with @blenkinsopthebrave.  Not for the first time in NuWho, the themes of ageing, of loss, of choices made, and chances missed were so powerful here, and very moving.  I thought (as I often do) of the best film in the world, It’s a Wonderful Life, which I have always argued is not a film that the young will really appreciate (I read a c…[Read more]

Still a bit too emotional to analyse anything TBH but I’ll echo @Magnetite‘s ‘rather splendid’.

The Grauniad seems to assume that the Time Lords restarted the clock on the regenerations, making Capaldi no. 1 in a new sequence but was that explicit?  It makes sense, I hope that is it.  God, I’ll miss Matt though.

Apparently,  ‘Caves of An…[Read more]

Sorry if I’ve missed a thorough fettling of this particular issue, but the Osgood/Oswald thingie – it’s got to be more than coincidence, hasn’t it?  The Wiki entry for the episode refers to UNIT technician Osgood from The Dæmons, so she could have a link to Who history anyway, but the sister comment must be significant, or else it’s just rather g…[Read more]

@ScaryB et al.  Yes, very happy.  Hadn’t thought of Capaldi till the last few days when he seemed to suddenly be the One, but he’s a fan, he’s a fine actor, he has range, gravitas, humour.  If he gets even halfway […]

I was always going to watch it, with it being (a) French and (b) about zombies.  Except only the first was really accurate – we’re not in Walking Dead territory here.  I thought it was incredible – subtle and […]