@dentarthurdent I’m sorry you had to go through the experience of a panic attack. It sounds awful.

But I like your theory of how Ruby’s “old” self (yes, I think that’s who her follower was) could induce that state in those she came in direct contact with. Their reactions seemed to be ones of abject terror.

@dentarthurdent @nerys

Goblin King… NOT the Jagrafess??

Music… it was a thing. Then it went away. It’s as if Russ wasn’t really interested. Contractural obligation? Exhibiting to the Head of Drama the error of his ways? Like it will make a difference.

@nerys @dentarthurdent @ps1l0v3y0u

do you have a source or is it rude to ask?

I don’t unfortunately. Just observations. I’ve been wrong on the finale pretty much every time, so the law of averages suggest I’d get something correct eventually.

Apparently, there was a source on Reddit who was leaking information about the last series. So uncannily…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Overall, I didn’t hate the ep, didn’t love it, there was enough to keep me watching.

Same here. I just felt they were trying to cram too much into one episode. Getting to know this Doctor a bit better, introducing Ruby and her family situation, plus explaining the goblins and the King Goblin … who did look an awful lot lik…[Read more]

@nerys @whohar @dentarthurdent

@whohar… that prescience got you at least one other returning classic Who villain… do you have a source or is it rude to ask? btw if you do, and the 2026 special looks precarious, then it IS bad news for bonkerising of all kind.

But you might want to think about Oct 5th. Boom wasn’t broadcast on that date. 3 and 3…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

I’ll bet that when RTD invented the Villengard arms factories (in The Doctor Dances) he had no inkling of where the Moff would go with it.

Moffat wrote that. It’s all him.

@nerys @dentarthurdent

The nature of the attack on human culture by an ‘implosion’ of the musical instinct was undersold… Both those two early eps had great potential and maybe in a full season ‘chord’ could have been a two parter… because the idea is worth exploring, maybe with more than one musical number? Would have loved a Sharks vs Jets pas…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Every long-running series does a song and dance number, just as they all do a Western. Eventually.

Fair enough. I still found it jarring. Good question about the strings. I had the same thought. If I give the benefit of the doubt, it’s that people who heard Ruby’s piano playing added the strings in their imagination. It’s the…[Read more]

@whohar @nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb

design by committee? More dictact in my opinion, and contrary to the spirit of the show at that. I’ve probably said too much already.

The question is, with so much (supposed? imagined?) interference, why HAVE the main parties been so diplomatic? Well Andrew Cartmel wasn’t. Moffat has made the odd sal…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

@nerys

@dentarthurdent

@janetteb

I think the reason Chibz gets a ‘free pass’ from other showrunners is just politeness or ‘professional courtesy’.   You don’t badmouth your fellow workers even if you think they’re crap.

Absolutely understand this. What I don’t understand is why RTD doubled down on it in the latest two series. He co…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u @whohar @janetteb @dentarthurdent I do agree with you about disliking what Chibnall did to the canon, especially with Gallifrey. But then, I was disappointed with how Gallifrey was handled after the 50th anniversary special. Here we had the Doctor’s jubilation at setting out to find it, and then we got little joy (I mean that in the…[Read more]

@janetteb @whohar @dentarthurdent

Final word.

My initial thought re Chib was that the undoubted mess revealed a degree of incompetence and that was it. BUT I was also aware of criticism of Moff, suspicious about incongruities in his story lines (though I suppose that could also be the way Moff rolls); also a little surprised that the Being Human…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

@nerys

@dentarthurdent

@janetteb

Moff’s legacy:

Timelords rehabilitated

The Doctor gets a new regeneration cycle

1 is 1, he turns the cylindrical uncamouflaged Tardis into a police box.

All three are trashed in TTC

This is why I am surprised Chibnall gets such a free pass from the previous showrunners. He must have known what t…[Read more]

@nerys @dentarthurdent
TTC… Russ at least was at pains to point out that TTC was as sound an idea as anything in Who. Of course Missy is shown as being heavily invested in Cybermen. In The Doctor Falls, The Doctor makes Gallifreyans ‘upgradeable’. Dunno what the significance of Ashad is. Anyway, that plot line COULD have been a slow burner…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @translatorcircuit @janetteb

Sea Devil music was of course all by the Radiophonic workshop… KC’s The Devil’s Triangle features in Mind of Evil.

Tsk gonna have to watch that now.

@dentarthurdent

What do you mean, “of course Midnight was total crap”? Where did the ‘of course’ come from? Your opinion does not constitute a universal truth. And for my money, the ‘Timeless Child’ storyline was just Chibs crapping all over continuity, it certainly didn’t revitalise Who. But that’s just my opinion.

Yup, I agree on both points.…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @nerys

I still maintain Church, Babies and Devil were coming from the right place… but the execution is unaccountably off.

Also… song and dance went away after Devil. Came back a bit for Lux. Actually I don’t mind it. Though it’s not very well done.

So… was it Disney’s brief? ‘Ok’, says Russ ‘but two eps only.’

As for th…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit @dentarthurdent

Small episode: NOT… ‘the end of time itself!!!’ Not a Reality Bomb. T’bloody Floox. Entropy (what yer gonna do about it?) Sutekh’s gift of Death. Maybe the paradox machine was just about acceptable. And the Fendahl was ok. Generally small threats. To companions, the hero, maybe the odd civilisat…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent What’s your definition of a “small episode”? Of course, “Midnight” was total crap, mainly people repeating what someone else was saying. “Vincent and The Doctor” was great, while “Fugitive of The Judoon” was part of the amazing Timeless Child storyline which revitalised Doctor Who.  “The Wire” was also fantastic, while “Dinosaurs…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @nerys

Mitchell and Webb: Many favourites. The post apocalyptic game show, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar… most all ‘Get Me Hennimore’… just a bog standard parody of 70’s sitcoms and then one week they utterly subverted it… something to do with the Klan… I can’t remember now. It’s up there with the Shaun The Sheep when Shirley ate the I…[Read more]