@denvaldron  I think that the Tivoli dressing as a Victorian undertaker is a bad, weak choice.

In terms of sense, yes; in terms of the visual effect, wonderful, particularly the sly suggestion of that sort of Dickensian hypocrisy and general deceptiveness in the interests of genteel appearances.  Loved it!

@blenkinsopthebrave  the Doctor was wi…[Read more]

@denvaldron  Thank you — that analysis gives lots to think about.

@arbutus  I feel the same way about this casual tossing out of possible future companions — and of perfectly inoffensive DW fans!  What gives, here?  A weird hostility vibe, or what?

Great to see you @rob and I agree with what you (and @whisht) say here. I think that’s a huge point that the relative success of the monsters first outing usually touches on some wider fear or issue.

@denvaldron

The reason that I mentioned the Sontarans specifically is that I watched the Bred for war boxset of all four Sontaran BG stories…[Read more]

Interesting thoughts @denvaldron
And @rob I’d forgotten about that dogs of war thing. I’m on a train so can’t find it but can kinda remember trying to come up with a monster that even its creators would be ashamed of (riffing on the creation of soldiers who become ‘awkward’ for civilians when they return from war and who realise they’ve brutalised…[Read more]

@denvaldron

I am not sure I would agree that the Borg were an imitation of the BG Who. If anything, I think the AG Who Cybermen were, and are increasingly, an imitation of the Borg.

Your point about the new Cybermen is correct–they want to convert you; in other words, the Borg. But beyond this, I am not sure what AG Who wants to do with…[Read more]

@denvaldron

I’m struggling with this a little, because you seem to ne taking what makes a monster, and then mixing it with some hugely subjective stuff about legacy. How about we concentrate on first or early appearances?

Because if a monster reappeared, it was a success. What made it the success? What is our first impression of the Sontarans, say?

@denvaldron Excellent analysis of both the Daleks and the Cybermen. Your point about the consistency of the Daleks (hate) compared to the changing character of the Cybermen is spot on. For me, part of the problem with the Cybermen in AG Who is that they have been turned into a variation on a type of Sci-Fi monster that emerged during the gap…[Read more]

@DenValdron

Like you, I think the Doctor as ‘Merlin’ ties into the Cartmel Masterplan insofar as it represented the Doctor as somehow more than he seemed.

If I’m remembering the story of Battlefield correctly (@Phaseshift??), while everyone recognised that the Doctor was the Merlin they knew, people kept saying that his face had changed. So,…[Read more]

@Feanor

Yes, ‘projections’ would certainly explain how we could have a Doctor-ghost without the Doctor genuinely dying.

@Juniperfish – what I think they may be harking back to is a purely Whovian reference. Battlefield, where the ‘Lady in the Lake’ was Ace. ‘Merlin’ was quite specifically referenced as the Doctor – this was the Cartmel…[Read more]

@Whisht @Denvaldron and @Purofilion

I think the scariest “monster” ever in Dr Who were the vashta nerada from Silence in the Library, completely silent, absolutely deadly and hiding in books. They could not be fought and they could not be reasoned with. It was years before our eldest would watch that two parter and I understand why. Overexposure…[Read more]

Hi @Denvaldron and @Purofilion – In terms of ‘monsters’ (though ‘villains’ is subtly different) I remember having fun with @Rob in coming up with new ones.

I think (without thinking deeply) what makes a good villain or monster is a fear that children and adults share – because the fears of the adults were the same ones they had as kids.

So -…[Read more]

@Papermoon

Yes, I like your thoughts on the Doctor broadcasting re Clara as a warning to Missy to keep her safe as much as to the Daleks. As for the Doctor without hope… “He’ll burn us all”, I just got my copy of the Day of the Doctor and watched if for the first time since the anniversary. Capaldi Doctor’s face appears in there, from the…[Read more]

@mudlark  @denvaldron  @lisa   Colony Sarf is just Colony Sarf, not “Colony Sarf #1” or “Colony Sarf pal of Davros”, which suggests that maybe CS is in fact unique in its sarf-ness.  Perhaps there are similar “colonies” of other animal forms out there somewhere — ?  Then “Colony Rat” (what’s Welsh for “bat”?) might decide to avenge the rubb…[Read more]

@DenValdron I also prefer the notion of Doctor as rebel. Thanks for the concise history.
It’s nice to go back over it again.
It seems to me that there have been lots of little hints in new Who about the Doctor as
a hybrid rebel. But there are also a few I recall in other places. For instance 1 I like
from Lungbarrow about the Doctor having…[Read more]

@DenValdron: Wonderful analysis, thank you.

About the Hand of Omega in Remembrance of the Daleks, what is most interesting to me is I do believe, but I might be wrong, that Davros wanted control of it specifically to turn the Daleks into the new masters of space and time with powers equal to that of the Time Lords. I think the story clearly…[Read more]

@DenValdron

Sorry, was going to wander off until the next ep, but just saw this quoted by @Ichabod :

 the charge I level at Moffat. He’s taken a character with the potential for life-like depth and flexibility, for fallibility and humanity, and he’s reduced her to a plot pawn to perform a prescribed story function. 

This is just about the most…[Read more]

@denvaldron   If I was a Dalek, that’s probably where I’d stash my porn.

@arbutus  I would have thought it was obvious. Davros keeps his beer down there. 

Too tough to get to — he keeps his medical records there.  Must be a lot of them, and they’re no damn use anyway.  Or really old telephone directories, for ballast and also for heft when you…[Read more]

@DenValdron    I would have thought it was obvious. Davros keeps his beer down there.

@Mudlark    You have expressed my view exactly, and both eloquently and succinctly. This is just why I saw a  Davros/Missy parallel. When Missy tells Clara, scornfully, to try for a moment to consider friendship, that was clearly a moment of absolute sincer…[Read more]

@Icahabod @Denvaldron You know guys I was thinking the same thing about Davros
having half a body as was I can imagine everyone else. So at a point I thought that
Davros probably still had legs. How they became separated from the rest of him
‘who nose’. They say amputees still can sometimes feel their missing parts.
Maybe Davros still…[Read more]

@denvaldron   Davros lives in a chair designed for him and him alone, and he’s got no legs or lower torso? So what exactly is the Doctor squeezing into?

Well, one shudders to think, doesn’t one?  Do the squiddy Daleks have legs?  People do keep getting into the Dalek suits, so I guess by this time we’re not supposed to be asking that ques…[Read more]