That said, I’m beginning to miss some of the timey-wimey bonkers elements of previous incarnations (har) of the show, as well as hints of larger (series arc) plot points.  I recognize that that’s not Chibbers’ style, and that he is clearly g…[Read more]

@jimthefish I’ll have to respectfully disagree. This season does have a completely different feel from prior seasons, for a multitude of reasons, but Thirteen is undoubtedly the Doctor in my opinion. A bit more unsure and sentimental, perhaps (like some early E…[Read more]

Whittaker is undoubtedly the Doctor. I could have heard the line, “Didn’t I tell you? I’m *reall…[Read more]

All in all a good start and I can’t wait fo…[Read more]

I do think the writing during his era has been a tad inconsistent, although, as @jimthefish notes above, not nearly the number of stinkers as in the early RTD era.  For me, the writing was more consistently good during Matt Smith’s…[Read more]

Well, it’s certainly true in-universe that th…[Read more]

@jimthefish – I think it’s such a difficult balance between fan service and innovation.  I am certainly one of the first to get excited at a call-back to something I know (“Sontarans perverting the course of human history!”), but you are a…[Read more]

I just love Yorkshire though.  Would love for her to refer to the TARDIS as “luv.”

Is she going to get to keep that wonderful Yorkshire accent?

@mirime – I suspect we’ve seen the last of Missy (in that form, at least) but boy would that be…[Read more]

Capital idea!  OK, here goes:

• The S11 premiere will have to deal with the elephant in the room.  The difficulty, however, is that the Doctor is now thoroughly alone with no one to say “you’ve changed!” — no Bill, no Nardole, no Missy, etc.  She can’t go immed…

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“This concerns the changing of a character that has been formed over 50 years.”

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but Doctor Who is a television show about a character who LITERALLY CHANGES into a new person every few seasons.

As for the conversation about the Doctor’s (apparent) age, yes of course all explanations are after-the-fact j…[Read more]

New Doctors have always struggled with the “who am I?” question and, with the right writing, that could be so much more interesting in this case.

Yes yes yes.

Honestly, I didn’t think the Beeb had the guts to do it, but I’m so glad it decided to take a risk. The best part of DW is that it’s a show that constantly reinvents itself while also respecting its own history. I think this is exactly the sort of kick in the pants the show needs now.  (I mean, if Tilda Swinton was…[Read more]

— A mid-episode regeneration (next week, not at Xmas) that results in a completely unexpected Thirteenth Doctor, and THEN, through bonkers plot necessity, the new Doctor has to go back in time…[Read more]

I think this finale was wonderful.  It was not perfect — a fair amount of the story was unfocused, making it difficult to…[Read more]

@nerys – Yup!

If (as it now appears), Ashildr is in league with the Time Lords (how else could the trap involve the TARDIS key?), it could very well be that it is the Time Lords who create and deploy the Nightmare Child.

As for the question of why the Doctor didn’t offer to take the quantum shade, my interpretation of “The Rules” was…[Read more]

I loved this one, pretty much start to finish.  I fully disagree with those who say that Clara’s death was pointless or unnecessary.  Rather, Clara’s had a death wish since Danny died — that’s why she’s been acting so rashly, being so over-confident, taking so m…[Read more]

This brings up a good point.  And thank you to everyone (@purofilion in particular) for all of your comments, which have forced me to rethink my opinion of this episode.  I still didn’t care for it, but I think now my rea…[Read more]

— Rasmussen creates Morpheus Mk. 2 machines.  Something about the machines causes your eye boogers to evolve into Sandman creatures who want to eat people.

— Rasmussen is somehow under psychic control by these m…[Read more]

Part of my disappointment was that I was predicting something along the lines of what you mentioned.  The Morpheus pods reminded me of the sleeping drugs Soma in Brave New World and Somec in …[Read more]

Anyway, I didn’t *hate* this episode (the only DW episode I actually hated was “Fear Her”), but I didn’t love it either.  I know Gatiss is capable of better.  I…[Read more]

And really, can someone explain to me what the hell happened?  Rassmussen faked the whole thing in order to create a Blair Witch-style horror m…[Read more]

I think we can say Bonnie/Osgood is “good” because of the choices she chooses to m…[Read more]

Something else I forgot to mention earlier.  The Doctor’s throwaway line of “that’s what you said the first 14 ti…[Read more]

Peter Capaldi has brought so much to this character, and his acting is revelatory.  As fond as I am of Ten and Eleven, neither could have pulled off that tour-de-force speech at the end of this episode.  Their Doctors were cagier, more used to hiding behind artifice, speechifying for its o…[Read more]

However, now that there are all these hints about the bootstrappiness of Clara’s existence and whether or not other characters may or may not be related to her (or be her), what do we think about the similarity…[Read more]

I actually found this scene very funny, in the way that it flipped expectations.  I expected the Doctor to be mistaken, and to look like a…[Read more]

I agree with those who say that the message and symbolism were laid on a bit thick.  Not because I disagree with the message, or because I think such political issues are inappropriate for DW, but rather because I found myself being pulled out of the drama and instead playing a game of…[Read more]

Oh Master Blenkinsop, what a beautiful thought.  For the Doctor to be in a position (yet again) to save Clara’s life, and for Ashildr, with her (by then) 1100 or so years of l…[Read more]

@kharis – The (K)Nightmare Child thing is tantalizing.  I can…[Read more]

Tangent: @pedant taking someone to task for misspelling his name is, as they say over at Metafilter, “eponysterical”. 🙂

Presumably the X-rated Doctor Who outtake would also include Capaldi employing some of the language that…[Read more]

— @missy – I disagree.  I think her acting was quite good.  She shows a tremendous self-possession for such a…[Read more]

I’m not @jphamlore but shall answer nonetheless.

I am 90% convinced at this point (although I would welcome being surprised) that Moffat has no intention of answering the remaining questions he asked in “Listen”.  I think this is not sloppy writing, but rather fits in com…[Read more]

Here, a bigger difference was that he was d…[Read more]

And oh what a reveal a…[Read more]