Certainly works for Smile and Oxygen; probably Thin Ice; maybe for Knock Knock; not sure about The Pilot.

So, time to start unwrapping some good old Marxist theories about alienation? Doctor as Vanguard?

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but in Midnight the Doctor makes a very explicit promise, almost a contract, with the entity that appears to have possessed Mrs. Silvestry.

He says, ‘Whatever you want, if it’s life, or…[Read more]

@purofilion Cheers! Your thoughts and kind words are much appreciated. The more I…[Read more]

First, I’m puzzled why the TARDIS couldn’t translate them. Secondly,…[Read more]

On the ‘nethersphere’: this is all very confusing, and I’m not sure that anything I had thought before now makes sense. But one thought that struck me is that Chris Addison’s character is called ‘Seb’. Could that be short for Sebastian, which would…[Read more]

I would think it should be on at about 7pm

I know these days are long gone, but for me the proper time for Doctor Who will always be 5:40 on a Saturday afternoon…

Isn’t it? Wasn’t it? Small boys in the…[Read more]

So much to think about, and will need to watch again, but one thing that struck me very powerfully was…[Read more]

Thanks for the info on the etymology of robot. Still fits, I think, with a general oppressed working class idea, since we have had an awful lot of robots — and self-improving assertive robots too, heading for the ‘promised land’ — in the show. I’m not saying it’s…[Read more]

@wolfweed mentions the link to The Time Warrior. Maybe I’m seeing things, but I felt that there was an unusual number of possible references to old Who. We also got the miniscope from…[Read more]

a) As has been noted with the Aristotle reference, this might mean good as in an excellent example of the type. So, a ‘good man’ is the man who excels in the proper…[Read more]

Assuming that Missy is who has brought Clara and the Doctor together, perhaps she is the Celestial Toymaker, an ‘egomaniacal, needy…[Read more]

Beware of any future character called ‘Stream’

Maybe the Twostreams facility from The Girl Who Waited (which seems to have some kind of link to Missy) = Two Masters?

Anyway, I take your point @Arkleseizure I too have worried about the fact that the Cybermen leave an army on a ship that’s basically a flying missile. I suppose it comes down to how much plot holes matter, compared with other things that make you love a story. For example:

The early…[Read more]

On the other hand, why do you say Earthshock gets worse on repeat viewings? It stands up for me. Who doesn’t like a well-prepared meal?

That final scene in Glasgow almost became a scene from a Richard Curtis movie.

I so agree. When I heard the Doctor say, ‘I’m standing in front of you’, my mind immediately went to Notting Hill: ‘I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.’ Glad they didn’t go there, by the way, and personally I liked the way it…[Read more]

I think The Moment is a kind of ‘TARDIS of mass destruction’. We know it was of Gallifreyan origin (‘the final act of the ancients of Gallifrey’), and, like the TARDIS, it is a kind of object that has gained its own…[Read more]

@ABXY Yes, I also thought this might…[Read more]

First, when the Doctor is going to sleep, and seems to be translating what the dinosaur is saying, at the end he says, ‘Can’t see me’. As Clara points out, the doesn’t seem to apply to the…[Read more]

If you’re suggesting Clara is a plant, there is of course…[Read more]