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@devilishrobby Susan as Anita’s boss, I like that. Overall, the thought that keeps buzzing around in my head is, is the Reality War really over? I was so perturbed by the Doc and Belinda’s behaviour around Poppy and Ruby, oblivious to the latter’s discomfort, massively unrealistic about the whole notion of taking a baby on their travels, and generally not being their normal selves, more like their personae in the Wish World. And then the Doc regenerates and things are as they should be – or are they? Belinda seems different again, which I suppose is fair enough if it turns out she’s a single mum juggling work and childcare, rather than the person we met in her first episode. I think things are still off kilter though. Where that leaves us in terms of the Billie Doc I have absolutely no idea…

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Hi @ps1l0v3y0u. Re Anita’s keen interest in Rogue and the Doctor, I read it that she had rather fallen for the Doc (well, who wouldn’t) and only realised when she saw him in the face that she’d known, dancing with Rogue, that she really wasn’t his type? The way her face fell as she watched them… But the thing about her Boss is definitely intriguing.

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How the what the why and why am I crying a bit and laughing like a loon? I really, really didn’t want Ncuti to go, I’ve loved it when the Doctor was him, and I had been dismissing the rumours as just the usual nonsense and hoping for a twist for whole last part of that. Some of you get on here and talk some sense, asap, please… (oh, wait a minute, that’s not in our remit. OK, give us some bonkers theories that make sense of what just happened). And I’m going to have to cry for Ncuti a bit more, I’m afraid. I was so not ready.

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@ps1l0v3y0u

You sum up my feelings about C S Lewis very well. I read the Narnia books when I was very young, and as I was brought up in a strongly Christian household accepted the Aslan = Jesus etc allegorical elements without really questioning them. But for the most part they stand without that, as I realised when I read them to my children long after I’d lost my religious faith. There are stone-cold brilliant bits in all of the books, things that I can recall so vividly after all these years, and that fuelled my imagination and prompted my reading throughout my life. And then there are the bits that punch you right out of that mindset with the sexism (Susan in The Last Battle but also earlier ‘Battles are ugly when women fight’, as Aslan says of Susan and Lucy) and racism – the descriptions of the Calormene in The Last Battle are awful. We censored these bits and some others when we read them to the kids! Same with the SF trilogy – there are bits in Voyage to Venus/Perelandra particularly that are etched into my memory because they’re so vivid and brilliantly imagined. But then That Hideous Strength… I always liked The Silver Chair in particular, I think, because of the bit in the underworld when the witch/snake/queen is trying to enchant them into believing that their world above ground is merely their imagination constructing a wished for brighter/better place. Absolutely formative reading, even if I strongly reject some bits – and so I disagree with Philip Pullman, who I admire enormously as a writer, but who regards the Narnia books as pernicious per se.

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I do remember The Last Battle! The dwarves were so determined not to be taken in that they couldn’t be taken out of their barn/prison into the eternal version of Narnia which was actually all around them. A good call.

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Indeed – it’s quite alarming that Ruby’s nan seems to have done more internet sleuthing about Conrad than UNIT did… Not to mention the man on the inside. I was wondering about the podcast that Conrad initially interviews Ruby for. Do we assume this went out live, or that he used the material in one of his exposés?

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I’m pretty sure that the rules about who and wasn’t included in the ‘non-white’ category were made at state level or even more locally, but also interpreted ad hoc by police officers, bus drivers, diner owners and so on. Someone on the other site complained that Logan would not at that time and in that place have called the Doctor ‘sir’ – it would certainly be unusual, but Who often reminds us that even in dark times and places there are people who can rise above the bigotry and hatred and I like to think that a few years later, Logan is getting involved in civil rights protests, and perhaps remembering his encounter with the Doc…

Oh, and I loved this episode.

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@whohar These two points chime with what I’ve been thinking.

1. The hooded figure is Ruby’s guardian in the literal sense (i.e. not her mother) and maybe a higher-order being.

It makes no sense for the hooded figure to be Louise, as many have pointed out (and not just because of the pointing out). Are we sure the figure is female? I’d have to look again.

2. Alien Life Form Garnet(t) aka Ruby’s father, is the extraordinary one.

Indeed, because after all, we only know half of Ruby’s origin story. Who knows whether Garnet(t) is ALF, or somehow extraordinary?

 

 

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@miapatrick Exactly! He couldn’t see her, therefore he feared her, as a potential ‘rogue’ element that could sabotage his plan. So he was thwarted by his lack of understanding of the species he was about to destroy, to whom ordinariness can be extraordinary.

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Still processing, and will re-watch. But did anyone else think Infinity Wars when people started crumbling to dust? And Endgame when those deaths were overturned?

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I am, as always, in awe of the bonkers theorising that goes on here, so erudite and so detailed! I can contribute nothing on that level but what’s preoccupying me at the moment is the importance of music and how that will play out (ha!) in the finale. I keep thinking about Stranger Things and how music was so vital to the last series, both the Kate Bush track, and Metallica’s Master of Puppets – it didn’t save them, not quite, but it was a source of strength and part of the armoury against the forces of darkness. Given that Maestro robbed music of its power to uplift, inspire and bring joy, I think it’s on our side. And the Carol of the Bells may have more of a role, who knows? Well, we all will know more in a couple of days…

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Oh, @juniperfish, that line hit me straight in the gut…

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Re the Doctor’s tears, I recalled just now several episodes when Amy shed tears without knowing that she was doing so, let alone why (can’t remember exactly at what point this was, but it includes the Van Gogh ep). So rather than the Doctor turning the tears on, for whatever purpose (cf @bunface), could they be an involuntary response to something he knows but doesn’t know he knows (presumably relating to the Toymaker and his machinations)? I’ve not fully thought this through as it only just occurred to me whilst reading these comments.

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I think obviously there is satire on and critique of social media here, but I don’t think that’s all – these young people have had a world created for them, and have been encouraged to live in their bubble. But whereas the criticism of ‘young people today’ is so often that they prefer the on-line to the real world, choosing vacuous Tik-tokery over engagement with what’s going on around them (a criticism that is absolutely not borne out by the young people I know), these young people only have the social media world, and would have to have a very vigorous spirit of enquiry to look beyond it. That’s not to let them off the hook – Rickey is anomalous because he spends time every day outside the bubble, reading and learning, which would presumably have been an option for any of them.

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@miapatrick I do wonder if even Rickey September would have been entirely immune – though given the level of self-education, decency and courage that he showed, one hopes that he would have fought against his indoctrination.  As the song says, ‘you’ve got to be carefully taught’, but he’s been exploring other aspects of the society and its history, so may have been questioning its values in a way that the others haven’t and couldn’t.

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Re the mystery of what Old Witchy Ruby says to everyone, that’s one of the elements that speaks to me of magic. There isn’t anything that I can imagine that would have that effect, in any remotely rational way, on Ruby’s adoptive Mum, or on Kate – the behaviour of each of the people who speak to OWR is more or less identical and suggests that they fear Ruby, and that they don’t really know why (if asked, they just say ‘ask her’, i.e. OWR). Some kind of a curse that makes them hate and fear Ruby. That’s what was so scary about it – you couldn’t argue with it or reason it away.

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Hello all – I’ve been lurking but not posting for a looong time, and had to call on help from Craig to get me back in here as my password didn’t work… Lovely to see familiar names back here.

I’m more excited about Who than I have been for ages – which makes me sad that Whitaker got such a raw deal with both the quality of scripts and stories, and the pandemic disrupting her run. But Ncuti is so very much the Doctor, and is being given really good stuff to work with.  This is the most interesting episode so far – I’ve enjoyed all of them, but this made me think, and I had to go back and re-watch it to see how the ground was prepared for the twist at the end. Very cleverly done – as it happens I’m currently reading Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste, which is all about how race in the US, caste in India and anti-Jewish law in Nazi Germany relate to one another, and the idea of caste seems very strong in this episode. At the end, the would-be leader tells the women to turn away from the Doctor to avoid ‘contamination’ – a significant concept in a lot of Jim Crow legislation, as well as Nuremberg laws and the treatment of Untouchables. And the idea that it must be his duty to save her chimes with that too. It’s not quite the idea of racism that we have here, it’s as if that basic notion of ‘the  other’ has been codified and formalised rather than just being a visceral prejudice. I’d love to know if RTD has read that book! Watching it second time around that gut punch at the end was just as devastating.

I’m fascinated by the speculation about Mrs Flood, Susan Twist, etc, but will await developments…

Cath

 

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I haven’t seen Gatwa in anything and will enjoy encountering him as The Doctor without any preconceptions I think – I have high hopes given the return of RTD. Relieved that it’s not an (over) familiar face, that we haven’t reset to straight white male. Looking forward to Whitaker’s finale, and then, yes, allons-y to 14(ish)!

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I love a time loop. And the device of having the time reducing by a minute each time added a lot more tension (I didn’t time it myself to make sure they weren’t cheating, mind you!). It reminded me of a Star Trek NG episode where (if my memory serves me well) each time the loop recurred, the space had contracted (i.e. more of the ship had disappeared). I teared up when Yaz acknowledged her feelings for the Doc – no surprise, but it felt like a powerful moment to have it recognised. And why not – 10 had Rose, so why should 13 not have Yaz? Of course, that will be complicated by an imminent regeneration but let’s see… I also had a sense that the dude watching the fireworks was significant and maybe familiar but couldn’t place him.

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@craig What @blenkinsopthebrave said! Don’t go. Many of us are the ones who never quite gave up on Who, through multiple regenerations, through multiple writers and showrunners, through the glorious, the pedestrian and the downright rubbish stories. We’ve probably all fallen out of love with the show at certain times.

I am actually enjoying this series so far – perhaps through a desire to just get lost in a story, to let myself be blindsided repeatedly, without needing to understand where it’s all going. That may be partly down to where I am right now, still shell-shocked and bewildered about my life and my future, and taking refuge in a narrative that is arguably even more confused than I am. Or maybe I’m taking comfort in a show that has been a constant in my life from way way back (Troughton), and in my life with my husband (from Pertwee through to Whitaker).

But we all continue to watch for our own reasons, and we differ on the relative merits of specific Doctors, writers, showrunners, soundtrack composers or whatever, but we are still here. And that means a lot. And if you need to take a back seat for a bit, that’s fine, you’ve done something fantastic with this site, something we all value, something you should be very proud of. But don’t actually go, you know?

 

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Thank you all, for your kind words, your Who quotes, and your warmth & love. I have always believed that the internet has the potential to be a place of safety and comfort, where complete strangers can connect with each other in ways that help and heal. I have seen and felt that in the last few days. It is real and it does help. Love, Cath

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Hello, fellow Whovians. I haven’t said much here for quite a while, for a host of reasons. I wanted to tell you, though, that my lovely husband, with whom I shared my own passion for Who since our teens, died very suddenly (I know it’s always sudden…) on Saturday morning, completely unexpectedly and we are devastated and shell shocked. We are beginning to plan the funeral (it will be a humanist, music-focused event) and were thinking about a secular equivalent of the traditional Bible readings – if any of you can suggest suitable Who quotes, that would be lovely. He won’t be wearing a suit – a King Crimson t-shirt, we think, possibly with the v v long Fourth Doctor scarf that my Mum knitted him so very many years ago. I’m so sad, amongst all of the desperately sad things, that he won’t see the next series, or the new Doctor…

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I wasn’t expecting that! Yes, definitely good news. I feel a bit sad that we won’t get RTD working with Jodie’s Doctor, but nonetheless, worth raising a glass to!

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Just checking in briefly to wish you all the best Christmas possible in these difficult circs! Stay safe and well. The Doctor will be here soon…

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I can’t be the only one here whose fandom stretches from Who to Marvel. And thus who woke the other day to the news that Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had died at only 43 years old, having evidently been a cancer patient through the entirety of his work on four Marvel films, alongside his other work. I haven’t seen his non-Marvel films, but the importance of Black Panther can’t be over-estimated – it goes way beyond whether you’re into super hero movies.  I wrote this about my response to the movie. (It was in a blog/talk about seeing women on the screen, doing stuff and making a difference, and how inspiring that was.)

And just to make the point, that I don’t, I really don’t, want to see nothing but white middle-aged middle-class short bespectacled women when I go to the movies, I had the same emotional response to Black Panther as I did to Wonder Woman. I wanted to weep, and to punch the air. Because ultimately, it’s not Me me I want to see there. It’s all of us. The human race in all its wild and ridiculous and glorious diversity. And if some straight white guys have to hutch up a bit to make room, well, Time’s Up, dudes.

If it was exhilarating for me, I can only imagine what that must have felt like to people of colour, those who’ve seen movie after movie where they are absent, or peripheral, or victimised, or expendable. And we all need black heroes, now especially.  RIP Chadwick Boseman. Wakanda Forever.

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Thanks @thane16 – have been meaning to check in here and see how everyone is doing. We’re ok here – v lucky really. We’re in good health, retired so our income is unaffected, and live near beautiful countryside so we can go for our government-sanctioned daily walk to do our legs, lungs, and souls good. The hard thing, and it is really hard, is not seeing the kids other than via Zoom/Messenger, and not seeing wider family, especially so soon after my brother’s death when we would have all wanted to be spending more time together rather than less. Social media is obviously a huge blessing – I cannot imagine what this would have been like even ten years ago. Lots of talk now about relaxing the constraints, which makes me anxious. My husband has underlying health conditions (asthma, type 2 diabetes) which will mean that even if the lockdown is lifted, until there’s a vaccine he’s going to want to stay relatively isolated, and therefore so must I, which may mean it’s a long time before I can meet up with friends/go to concerts or theatre/go and see family. So I try not to think any further ahead than the next week or so, or the anxiety starts to ramp up and I feel despondent and weepy. Reading a lot, listening to music, watching crime dramas, writing a bit – all ways of pushing those thoughts and anxieties to the side, at least temporarily. We are very conscious indeed of how fortunate we are not to have bigger worries or face worse things! I know many of you have major health issues either personally or in your immediate family, and you’re in my heart. I’ve found the Doctor’s messages so very uplifting and comforting – I know it’s just a story, but we here know just how important and powerful stories are. Stories can make us fly. Stay safe, stay well, and remember, darkness never prevails.

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@davros I read somewhere – probably on the Other Place, and whether it was info or speculation I know not – that the same actor played Old Brendan and Ko Sharmus….

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Are people thinking that Brendan is the lone Cyberman? I can’t quite see that. I saw somewhere (possibly on The Other Place) that the same actor plays old Brendan and Ko Sharmas (sp?) but IMDB doesn’t give the actor for the former (it defo wasn’t a prostheticised Evan McCabe). Whoever he is though, who are his adoptive dad and the Garda officer really? There’s no clue in the first few scenes that they are anything other than what they present at – the first unease comes with the dad giving him a very odd look at the dinner table after he’s survived the shooting and the fall (a la Captain Jack, as others have said). But then when we see old Brendan getting his retirement gift, they haven’t aged, and he has. The other thing that’s puzzling me (well, OK, one of the other things…) is what Lone Cyberman was doing to the cybermen he woke up (or some of them at least) – was he turning off whatever suppresses their pain and other human responses, and if so, why? Because wasn’t that what the Doctor wanted to do, with one of her shortlived bits of tech? OK, I have no idea what’s going on. All will, possibly, be revealed next week…

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@thane16 Thank you so much for the Floyd – such a beautiful and moving track. I know it was posted with me in mind – my kid brother died almost a week ago. Expected, as he’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer the summer before last but still. Always sudden. We’re all doing OK, in the circs, but a lot of the time it just doesn’t feel real, so life goes on until you’re ambushed by the realisation. Taking solace, as always, in music and also in Who.

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@pedant OK will need to re-view Army of Ghosts. Even so, what about the ‘we chose this form to take the p***’?

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Well, we thoroughly enjoyed this. Didn’t expect the Master, no idea what his parting words mean… but we’ve another ep on Sunday so not long to wait for at least some of the mysteries to be resolved. I’m not convinced that the aliens are Cybermen, but they aren’t behaving like Cybermen ever have done (OK, the rules are flexible, but still…). But didn’t the alien they ‘captured’ in the cabin say that they’d chosen the form they had to mock the Doctor/earth people/whoever? In which case we should presumably not draw any conclusions from the shape of their heads/helmets?

On another matter, I hope we can hold the line of ignoring the SJW shouter. He’s breezed in here, where we’ve all been talking Who for years, largely amicably if occasionally acerbically, and told us to go and play elsewhere, so I think we read that as license to ignore him unless his rhetoric becomes so toxic that he needs booting out. It’s just so very tedious and predictable (a fair bit of it on the Other Place too, inevitably).

Great cameos from Fry and Henry – and delighted that Dhawan isn’t just a cameo! Had totally forgotten he played Waris Hussein in Adventure in Space & Time (have seen him in loads of things and he’s always good value). Yaz getting more of a role – hope that’s a sign of things to come this season.

So, a long wait, but we feel rewarded, and v excited for Part 2.

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Wishing you all a good New Year’s Eve. I know I’m not alone in going into 2020 with a heavy heart, whether for personal reasons or because of the state of the world, but we have Who, and that’s unequivocally a Good Thing. Will see you on the other side, looking forward to hearing what you think of the new episode (whenever and wherever you get a chance to watch it). Hang on in there. Keep on keeping on. Love to all.

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Thank you @missy,@thane16, @whisht, @pedant, @blenkinsopthebrave, @miapatrick. And to Missy, yes, one compartmentalises as best one can and does what one must and you have my deepest sympathy. One clings on to good things, and this place is a Good Thing and I will come here whenever I can even if I can’t muster bonkers theories about Who, because I know there will be kindness and understanding here. Thanks for that.

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Hello all. Have been an exceedingly occasional presence on here over the last largely Wholess year, but am looking forward with excitement mingled with trepidation to the NYD episode and the new series. Trepidation because I so so so so want/need it to be good. Of course I always want/need Who to live up to the place I’ve given it in my life, and all the more so when the Doctor is apparently despised/dismissed by some simply because she’s not a he at the moment. But, even putting aside the whole Brexit/Tory nightmare, life is tough just now, as my youngest brother (our kid, aged 57) who was diagnosed with terminal cancer about 18 months ago, has now been told that the chemo isn’t working and their remaining options are limited in terms of availability and likelihood of buying extra time, and/or problematic in terms of side effects. So, maybe 3-4 months. So if I don’t show up to contribute, that’s probably why. I will if I can – when life’s a bastard, Who can be a source somehow of hope and comfort. Sounds daft to many people, I’m sure, but I think on here I can say that without fear of ridicule. Thanks for being here.

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Oh wow, Noor Inyat Khan – I’ve been borderline obsessed with her since reading stuff about the women of SOE. I ran a history taster session on the French Resistance and Occupied France with a group of Year 10s a couple of years back and when I talked about her, you could see the reaction from (esp.) the girls in the room. Quite extraordinary. Not that there was any question of me not looking forward to the next series, but now I’m just that bit more excited for it!

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@missy I’m so very sorry to hear that. Cancer is an evil bastard and has no regard, ever, for fairness and justice. I hope that you get the support you need, medically and in other respects too, to get through this.

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I know this is hardly an obscure Woodstock moment, but I have to interject with some Hendrix.  Was he ever more beautiful?

 

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@syzygy  I love your description!  Am working on the relationship between text and music at the moment for my thesis (specifically literary fugues…) so it rings lots of bells. Great clip too!

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Just re-read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it being.  And then I read La Belle Sauvage – first in the new Book of Dust trilogy, which I also highly recommend!  Part 2 is due out in October.

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@whisht @blenkinsopthebrave yes, yes, yes to Arrival.  A truly beautiful film.  I really didn’t want the lights to go on in the cinema when it finished as I was still sobbing.  Thoughtful and subtle and unexpected.  Soundtrack is brilliant – by the late Johann Johannsonn who died far too young but left us some wonderful work.  I will track down the story the film is based on – thanks for the tip!

 

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Seconding @pedant ‘s praise for First Man.  Gripping, claustrophobic, intense – and a remarkable amount of suspense given that we all knew that they would make it there and back again!

Also seconding commiserations & best to @missy – hope things start to improve soon.

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Hello all, have been AWOL for a while but prompted to post re a couple of TV things.  First off, Years and Years, highly recommended. Very RTD (in both its virtues and its flaws).  Managed to be funny and heartbreaking and provocative – not perfect by any means (I won’t be too specific about my quibbles for those who haven’t seen it yet) but brilliant performances and quite terrifying in terms of the plausibility of this particular dystopian vision of the future.  Secondly, Series 2 of Trust Me.  The first series starred our JW, and was an enjoyable if not credible hospital based thriller in which she played someone pretending to be a doctor, oddly enough.  Series 2 was denied JW since she had become a real Doctor by then and so was an entirely separate enjoyable if not credible hospital based thriller – but if you watch it, there are some lovely Who nods in the first couple of episodes!  Chernobyl we haven’t seen yet but since everyone we know has recommended it, will have to catch up with it soon!

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Good to see lots of love for Jimi here!  His musical legacy is extraordinary – who knows what he might have achieved if he’d lived a bit longer…

Also now immersed in retrospectives for Andre Previn – obviously one has to reference the Morecambe & Wise sketch, which is of course utter brilliance, but hope to listen to some of his jazz piano recordings, some movie soundtracks, and am also interested in checking out some of his work as a conductor on British 20th century music, esp. Vaughan Williams.

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@winston @thane16 @pedant Many thanks.  And @pedant – that Buffy quote has come to mind so often lately, it just sums up the experience of losing someone, at whatever stage of life and in whatever circumstances.  It’s always sudden.

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@thane16  Thanks for the thoughts!  It seems appropriate to talk about my mum-in-law (who died just before New Year) on this particular forum (she’s had a mention or two elsewhere, mainly in relation to the challenge of watching the Christmas special with her after the dementia set in and her attention span was somewhat erratic), as she was a musician, taught piano to generations of children and adults in the village where she lived for most of her life.  And the church was full of former pupils and fellow musicians on the day of her funeral.  We gave a lot of thought, obviously, to the music.  The entrance music was one of her favourite pieces of Chopin, the Fantasie Impromptu, played by John Ogdon who had the same piano teacher (Nellie Housley) as her.  And we went out to a setting of Byron’s poem ‘She walks in Beauty’ sung by the Newstead Abbey Singers, which she was a member of for many years (Newstead Abbey is in the village, and was Byron’s family home).  We also played another recording of the Chopin, performed by Kathryn Stott, who shared a different piano teacher (Kendall Taylor) at a later stage in Mum’s career, and a Debussy Reverie also played by KS, which we know she loved.  It’s been good to remember who she was, as we’d been so immersed in caring for her through this last few years, as her mobility had diminished and the dementia was eating away at her memory, her personality, everything that made her her.  We’d kind of forgotten the person that her friends, pupils and others were reminiscing about at the funeral – forthright, funny, stubborn (actually that was intact right to the end), independent, talented and interested in so many things (including Who).

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@thane16 @geoffers @whisht Just been enjoying some Snarky Puppy on BBC Radio 3’s Saturday jazz prog, J to Z, which we listen to religiously.  I was thinking, now where have I heard that name before, and suddenly realised it was in this lovely place!

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We have a couple of posts, in German, from two different individuals (supposedly) on forums relating to BG Who (The Daemons pt 1 and The Awakening Pt 2).  I don’t speak German so can’t comment on the content but both include links to the same something or other (obv I haven’t clicked on anything!).  Probably safest if they’re deactivated!  Cheers

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I resist Christmas for as long as possible.  The point I give in is when I put Its A Wonderful Life on the DVD player, and settle down to have a long weep.  I’ve blogged here and on my own blog site  about this film, and why it is both heartwarming and devastating.  Not sure when I’ll watch it this year – either tomorrow pm or Xmas Eve once we’ve visited mother-in-law and I’ve made the stuffing for the Xmas dinner… Once I ‘ve watched it, it’s proper Christmas.

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@rtdfan  I’m not sure what you see as being a problem here.  Looking at the responses to your posts, I see debate and discussion, and civil disagreement, not hostility.  You say:

I didn’t start this thread to get people swapping ideas on morals

but you raised the issue of whether the current series is heavy-handed in its treatment of moral issues, amongst other points, and people have responded to that, with two main areas of discussion – whether there is genuinely more ‘moralising’ in the current series, and whether the way in which it is currently treating moral issues is or is not heavy-handed.  That’s what happens here if you make a point – some will agree with you, others won’t, and we do swap ideas on morals and all sorts of things.  That’s kind of what we are about!

You also say that you think Whittaker could be a great Doctor but

let’s not start a huge debate as to whether she is or not

Again, we’re a forum, and huge debates are what we do, and thoroughly enjoy doing, on that question as on so many others.  For the most part we do this with mutual respect, though it can get lively, and people may express themselves forthrightly – that’s fine (in my view) as long as we’re not slagging each other off.

The silly posts which say that ‘I don’t like this series/the new showrunner/the new Doctor/the companions/the music and that therefore all concerned should be fired and the series cancelled’ will be called out as silly.  And posts which are offensive – sexist, racist, homophobic etc – most certainly will be called out.  That’s about respect.

If what you post is thoughtful and based on love for and knowledge of Who, your comments will meet with both endorsement and civil disagreement, and may well trigger all kinds of debate.  That seems like a good thing to me!

[Cath Annabel @replies]

OK so the big festive question to which I am now putting my mind is which previous Xmas special to line up for a watch on Xmas Day, since we don’t have a new one.  I’m currently favouring last year’s, because of the whole Armistice centenary thing (and I recently saw an amazing contemporary opera about the Xmas truce in the trenches), but the discussion elsewhere about The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe has reminded me how much I loved that one and it would be nice to spend some time with SmithDoc again.  Last year we rewatched the Capaldi specials so I’ll want to go back to previous Docs.  Any thoughts?

@thane16 Fantastic post.  I wanted to applaud but the family would think I was rather odd.  Mind you, they KNOW I’m rather odd so what the heck.

Festive greetings, everyone.

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