@missy @arbutus Just to butt in on the whole Martha thing, yeah I struggled with her too. As you’ve mentioned RTD was always too concerned with making Ten wear his heart on his sleeve, and having him fall in love at the drop of a hat. To be honest I find RTD’s characters overly emotional in pretty much everything he writes. That’s not to say that…[Read more]

I was mulling over the presence of the Matrix in this episode the other day, and it occurred to me that it just serves to underline the fact Ten essentially gave River about the closest thing to a Time Lord funeral by uploading her to the Library as he possibly could given the circumstances. I have no idea if that was intentional on Moffat’s part…[Read more]

@kbranagh Hi guys, i loved the episode but i have a question about the continuity that bother me.
The mercy line, the doctor and boy-davros…all of this is always happen from the beginning right?
So Davros should remember that the Doctor have save his life! But when the doctor said “i left you to die in that field” why Davros don’t tell anything…[Read more]

If we do have a female doctor, it’ll hinge entirely on the casting and the writing gelling with the actress as to whether or not it’ll work. I’m not against it at all, but I reckon whoever they cast would have to have nerves of steel and a strong aversion to reading the comments section in the Daily Mail, because there will be a backlash. In all…[Read more]

@pedant S10 will be interesting but I hope, if Gallifrey features at all, it will be sparingly and with a tightly focussed narrative purpose – exactly like it was in Hell Bent. The moment Doctor Who starts getting bogged down in its own lore is the moment it starts to spiral.

Yup, totally understand what you mean here, BUT I’m itching for Moffat t…[Read more]

@pedant Didn’t Moffat think he’d be leaving at the end of S9 for quite some time, but the BBC offered him another contract? The Christmas Special could have played out quite well as his swan song, especially with that dialogue between Twelve and River in front of the Singing Towers. In fact it had him saying goodbye written all over it.

Season 10…[Read more]

@ichabod @winston @jimthefish It’s funny because I think this whole thing about not being able to please everybody is probably going to force the show online eventually, and that’s what we’re seeing the start of with them possibly rolling out their own streaming platform for the US. That way pleasing certain demos won’t matter at all. They’ll just…[Read more]

@ob-wan @puroandson Capaldi isn’t any less popular than Smith really and with Smith the show finally took off in a huge way globally, admittedly after the BBC finally pumped the kind of money into it that they needed to to make just such in roads. I’ve seen people suggest that the ratings are an indication of him being unpopular and, well, it…[Read more]

From what I can gather they haven’t even cast the new companion yet, so we might not hear about a New Doc for a while yet. Suspect we’ll have a companion-less Christmas Special at the very least.  I will be absolutely gutted if Capaldi goes with Moffat, primarily because it took me so long to warm to him and then I fell hard for his Doc in Series…[Read more]

So many reservations about Chibnall, but I sure as hell won’t be declaring him the anti-Christ just because he’s not Moffat. A lot of the hate the Moff got was irrationally directed at him because RTD and Tennant had the ‘audacity’ to leave, and he dared to take the show in a different direction. It was nauseating. So if Chibs isn’t my cup of tea,…[Read more]

@jimthefish No, I believe they’re going to try and spread HDM out to at least 5 series, depending on how well it’s received. A lot will depend on how well they do coming out of the long hiatus, and then obviously if Chibnall can keep the ratings fairly decent. You could be right about them downgrading it, rather than canning it altogether, but my…[Read more]

I really hope I’m wrong about this, but does anybody else think that the BBC are cooling on the show? I suspect that it’ll move permanently to Spring and their prime Saturday night family fantasy slot in the Autumn/Winter is going to go to ‘His Dark Materials’, which they are apparently throwing loads of money at. They’ll allow that to get…[Read more]

@pedant Only the Christmas Special. Kinda sucks, but I get the rationale.

@countscarlioni I was wondering the same thing. I really hope he doesn’t because it feels like he’s only just warming up, but he might want to leave Chibnall a clean slate. I hope this extended time off makes him miss it enough to want to stick around for at least S11.

Very, very mixed feelings about this news. I knew Moffat’s time was coming to an end. I even think the hiatus is probably a good idea, because this year the BBC just didn’t give the show the right slot it needed and there’d be no chance of it getting that against the Euros and the Olympics. The problem for me is Chibnall. I wasn’t a huge fan of…[Read more]

@ob-wan @mccottonthedoctorfan For me, I don’t think it’s about the status they have, it’s the function they have in the narrative. Generally, the companion(s) are the ones who learn from The Doctor, but who also act as a means of us finding out more about him. In effect he/she are a proxy for the audience. I’m not sure River, specifically, has…[Read more]

@mccottonthedoctorfan Obviously this question wasn’t directed at me, but I thought I’d jump in anyway. I believe someone asked about River being his companion at a Q&A and Alex Kingston jumped in and declared her character was a wife not a companion. I’d agree with that to be honest. It chimes with what Moffat says about their interplay being…[Read more]

@pedant Oh yeah, I know that the ‘hybrid’ was ultimately a combo of The Doctor and Clara, but my speculation has stemmed from the ambivalent way that Twelve denied that he was half human, which I thought was deliberate. Thanks for clearing up the 8th Doctor thing though.

@Missy Capaldi’s doctor is an odd mix of being the most stand-offish and the most accessible, which therefore makes him the most complex and three-dimensional. I think he’s so likeable because of his flaws, and because of the depth the man who plays him brings to the party. He’s what I like to call ‘The Doctor that Stopped Running’ too. Huge…[Read more]

@ob-wan Yeah, as others have pointed out, you’re confusing the script with the actor. I’m not even sure the tank thing is the best example. It was meant to be over the top and was a deliberate anachronism. My point about Capaldi is that he can do more in one look than most can, even when the writing is letting him down.

@puroandson Thanks for the…[Read more]