@ps1l0v3y0u     The Toymaker’s pseudo-German was really annoying at first.   I think he dropped it later in the episode (thankfully).      What made the Toymaker so hard to combat, I think, was that he didn’t have plans for world domination or any particular motive, he was just having malicious fun.

Mitchell & Webb had some classics, my favouri…[Read more]

@janetteb    I thoroughly agree about the ‘small’ episodes being some of the best.   (Blink, Moonlight, Listen, the Van Gogh one, The Doctor’s Wife, Boom, even Fugitive of the Judoon).   There were many ho-hum small episodes too, of course (The Wire, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship).   But I think being small gives more opportunity to make the characte…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u   Did you get to re-watch this as you threatened?   🙂

I just managed it.   Not a lot of comments.   The Toymaker is so annoying I want to slap him.

The Vlinx is absurd, a Disney creature?   Never satisfactorily explained.

The Toymaker talked of doubling the Doctor again and again.   Reminds me of a Farscape ep where the villain-of-…[Read more]

@janetteb When I was six or seven I used to walk a mile to school, half of it on a path across a ‘common’ – a patch of uncultivated land covered in bushes and trees. (I went back last year and it’s all still there). From about ten I used to bike across a different common to the station to catch the school train. Once I rode to Salisbury – about 30…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u   That Winter Palace / 1916 scenario could have been developed into quite a good episode all on its own.   They certainly spent enough on the impressive and elegant set ( /CGI?)    But as it turned out, it was just a convenient location for the Doctor’s involvement to happen.   None of the (historical) events of 1916 even got a mentio…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit    I tend to agree with you that goblins and babies are better left to fantasy.

But ’73 yards’?   Lighten up.  I assume you’re in the UK (correct me if I’m wrong) but don’t they still use Miles?   I’m in New Zealand, we went metric 40 years ago but I’m still bilingual (or should that be binumeral?).   The US and Canada st…[Read more]

@camdudetenger2018    Yeah, see the link in Translatorcircuit’s post.

@translatorcircuit  @ps1l0v3y0u  @whohar

“However, Kate Phillips, chief content officer at the BBC, previously said the show will continue on the BBC “with or without” Disney.   She said at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival: “Any Whovians out there, rest assured – Doctor W…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u   I know Chris Boucher mainly from Blakes 7.   I remember that series mainly for quarries, sets that were reasonably convincing, weapons that weren’t, and some delightful dialogue, often featuring Avon.   But the line I best remember is down to Servalan:   “And, I want a gun.”  Avon:  “We only have one gun.”  Servalan (patiently…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u     Still a bizarre selection of venues.   Shrewsbury, Dorking, Crawley and Winchester.   (I had to look up where Crawley was, I had an idea it was somewhere near Woking  🙂    Maybe it’s where theatres can be hired at a reasonable price.

Umm, Crawley.   Name rings a bell.   He was the demon in Neil Gaiman’s ‘Good Omens’, played…[Read more]

Well, I just rewatched it.   Didn’t make notes this time, just enjoyed the episode.

The ship was absolutely beautiful (I know I said that before, but it still is awesome, even on repeat viewing).   CGI well done, and very convincing.   Nice contrast with the rusty old robot.   Don’t know why it had to reconfigure, maybe to maximise the self-de…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u    @janetteb   @whohar

Yes I did wonder about the Daily Star.   Would it be unkind to compare it to those well-known organs the Weekly World News and the Onion?

I did wonder a bit about performing a ‘radio play’ on stage, maybe it was some sort of misquote and the play is about three actors voicing a radio play?   And I also wondered…[Read more]

@janetteb  @whohar  @ps1l0v3y0u    Just what is the relevance of Peter Purves?   (Aside from being a ‘Doctor Who legend’ according to the article).   The world is full of guys who worked on [something]   x decades ago, who would love to cash in on their past association.       Here’s the link Radio Times gave, by the way:

https://ww…[Read more]

Oh well, here I am, back again in the age of RTD2.

And here we go, retconning Donna. I guess if we can retcon Rose, we can retcon Donna. Way back when I watched ‘Xena’, it was a standing joke that nobody ever stayed dead in that series. I guess modern Who is pretty much the same. I don’t mind.

I guess Donna was never actually dead, just lost her…[Read more]

Looking at the next ep – Power of the Doctor – the Daleks were going to flood the Earth with lava, and even more improbable scenario.   They had a big drill in a volcano and were going to let the lava out   🙂     Of course, if they *had* managed to cause a few massive volcanic eruptions, it’s possible the dust clouds in the atmosphere might h…[Read more]

@whohar   World Enough and Time was a genius move from Moff as far as Cybermen went.  As far as I was concerned , the earliest Cybermen (way back in old Who) were the lamest most unconvincing monsters ever – all too painfully obviously just extras in suits.   It took Moff’s genius to turn that liability into a horrific ‘reality’ – that the earl…[Read more]

@whohar   @janetteb    Acutely observed, Whohar.   Usually the Tardis has just been transport to where (or when!)  the story is going to happen.   It’s a lot simpler to write that way.   (More conventional stories occasionally have ‘flashbacks’ to show us what happened previously, but of course the characters in ‘then’ have no foreknowled…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u      Just noticed your comment in the  ‘Sea Devils’ thread, re Larry and Sally.   I think their relationship was handled very well and subtly.   It was obvious they got on well together, there was a good chance they were a couple, but that’s all it needed.   I can quite happily imagine a romantic attraction there without needing it…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Well, the story has so many plot holes it would sink faster than a rowing boat in a hurricane.   (And yes I’d picked up on the magnetic poles thing.   The Earth has had the poles flip within recent (geological) times, and I don’t think there’s any geological evidence of the entire Earth being flooded.   Why am I more tolerant…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Of course!   Billy got her phone number when he was young and cheeky.   Calling her ‘Gorgeous girl’ evidently worked.    As he said, “It was raining when I met you” and she said “It’s the same rain.”  (And she was quite literally correct).

For some reason I always choke up when I hear that line.

@nerys   You’re probably right about the Doctor saving Caecilius.   My memory of that episode isn’t precise.   It was not a terribly convincing reason, but I suppose Moff needed something to explain why Capaldi reappeared.

I don’t think Karen Gillan’s reappearance was ever ‘explained’, though.

Freema Agyeman’s cousin was in UNIT (?) in ?Doom…[Read more]