@badwolfalice

“I haven’t seen much of pre-2005 Doctor Who yet so there’s a lot of those that I don’t recognise, but I know #11 is a Dreg from Orphan 55, #12 is clearly Gallifrey but I’m not sure what the shapes in the foreground are, and #19 is the Pting from The Tsuranga Conundrum. I recognise #15 but can’t think who she is. I’ve seen…[Read more]

28/ 12th Doctor standing proudly
29/ 12th Doctor holding a weapon
30/ 12th Doctor standing in front of bright sky
31/ 11th Doctor standing
32/ 11th Doctor standing in close up
33/ 11th Doctor in the TARDIS doorway
34/ 10th Doctor crying … is he holding the Master?
35/ 10th Doctor yelling
36/ 10th Doctor in front of a circle of bright dots
37/…[Read more]

I tried to post a list of the images shown when The Doctor was trying to blow up the Matrix but I think that post kind of blew up the Matrix, so I’ll break it up a bit.

So here are the images that are shown before The Doctor blows up the Matrix. I counted 89 images, it runs for about 10 seconds, so it’s about 3 frames per image, average. It’s a…[Read more]

Previous mentions of the Shobogans on-screen:

In “The Deadly Assassin”
SPANDRELL: Just the kind of hooliganism we’re always running the Shobogans in for.

In “Hell Bent”:
DOCTOR: The last I heard, he stole the moon and the President’s wife.
CLARA: Was she, er, Was she nice, the President’s wife?
DOCTOR: Ah, well, that was a lie put about by…[Read more]

Interesting that The Doc’s coded memory, then, shows Brendan being shot by a criminal before falling off a cliff. Perhaps this implies that what really happened to the Timeless Child on Gallifrey with the other kid wasn’t an accident.

BTW, The Master paraphrases Ozymandias (“Look upon my works, Doctor, and despair”) which is by Shelley, tying back to episode 8.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. I did not suspect that the Ireland scenes were a screen for what was happening to the Doctor as an agent on Gallifrey: not for a second. Great work by intense Whittaker and manic Dhawan. Cyber Time Lords really is an unnerving idea, so that part of the plot was nice enough in itself. Beautiful callbacks to The…[Read more]

I’ll tell you something else for free: when Brendan falls off the cliff, right after he opens his eyes there is a moment when he is covered in freckles. In every other shot he has clear skin.

@cathannabel
“@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….”

I don’t see how that’s possible. They look completely different.

Maybe what we’re seeing through the gate is not the Citadel destroyed, but the Citadel being built.

BTW do you know the name of the actor who plays old Brendan? Often when DW doesn’t include someone in the credits, it is significant.

This is the kind of ep I like. Mystery, WTF, action, pathos.

I suppose you all have covered all the possibilities. The connection between Jack’s condition and Brendan’s is an obvious thought but I don’t think it is hereditary. Sadly we know that Jack’s descendants can be killed…

Are Bren’s guardians Time Lords? Is the master stocking Gallifrey…[Read more]

(Rewatching all of post-gap Who with my 11 year old son, continued: 1×11 to 1×13)

Boom Town is not among my favourite episodes, and the Slitheen aren’t my favourite aliens… but this episode does some important setting up. We’re re-introduced to the importance of the Rift mentioned in The Unquiet Dead, we’re shown some of the power of looking i…[Read more]

Hi, @beemartha. I was a fan as a very young lad in the late 1970s. The Pertwee and Tom Baker episodes were on regular repeat where I grew up, even into the early 1980s. (The Hartnell and Troughton era episodes were not shown during that time, presumably because no one wanted to watch black and white any more.) In my teenage years we got Davison,…[Read more]

(Rewatching all of post-gap Who with my 11 year old son, continued: 1×09 to 1×10)

I forgot to mention the nice choice of background radio music in Father’s Day: “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Never Can Say Goodbye”.

Fair to say that The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances are my favourite Series 1 episodes, and also those of my boy. The concept is g…[Read more]

Chibnall wrote all of Broadchurch. The man knows how to write pieces set in the modern era…

Getting the tone right for Doctor Who must be a bit of a balancing act.

@blenkinsopthebrave Are you suggesting Graham’s bladder is bigger on the inside?

@unclewalter
Theta Sigma appears to have been a college nickname for the Doctor.

(Rewatching all of post-gap Who with my 11 year old son, continued: 1×06 to 1×08)

There is something of a thematic continuity between “Dalek” and “The Long Game”. In the first, Henry van Statten owns the Internet and controls the world. In the second, Jagrafress has controlled the news for 90 years, holding humanity back. The message in “The Long…[Read more]

Some responses to the comments of others:

“Doctors”: is this show good? It seems as though every second Doctor Who cast member has been on it.

@psymon
“they are annoyingly inconsistent this season about fixed points, multi-verse theory, cause and effect, butterfly effects”

Mmm. Although the new Who has not strictly stuck to a plan, several…[Read more]

This season has had its ups and downs but I loved this episode.

The portrayals of Byron, the Shelleys and Polidori were lovely: a little harsh on Byron but he was reputed to be quite vain. The little tie-in with Spyfall Part 2 was serendipitous but pleasing.

The presentation of The Doctor was spot on: personalities change but the reality of…[Read more]

I just posted in the On The Sofa (10) thread: it doesn’t appear in the General Forum list (whereas On The Sofa (9) and On The Sofa (8) do). Perhaps this is a fault, or perhaps I’m doing something wrong.