@geoffers That’s a neat idea.  Michelle Gomez’s latest io9 interview today noted that she’s the kind of craven person who’d do anything to escape the Vault and save her own skin.  But this supposedly false Doctor is doing too good a job at being the real one then.  And it would severely diminish the Doctor and Bill’s relationship if most of the se…[Read more]

@morpho: He wasn’t doing any such thing, at least, not to me he wasn’t.

@geoffers: i also haven’t seen anyone reference this aspect of the episode, but i loved the misdirection in the beginning, where we are led to believe that the doctor is the one who has been sentenced to death (and missy the executioner). the whole time, i was wondering if c…[Read more]

@geoffers I mean, what do you keep locked away, anyway? a treasure, a weapon, a prisoner… a madman/madwoman? (or all of the above?)

I’ve been wondering about that. In the Doomsday vault in Svalbard they keep seeds from around the world, ready for armageddon. Could the Doctor be protecting/preserving a person/people for similar reasons? Someone w…[Read more]

@geoffers  if bill lost all her friends like that, she may not have wanted to continue on with traveling with the doctor. she was already a bit leery of his “can’t save everyone” attitude last week… 

Agreed. I thought it was dramatically a bit weak for all of them to escape.

@mudlark The same applies to Susan so I would be equally surprised…[Read more]

@geoffers another “not supposed to ask” question: how did mere humans put those enormous chains on that giant creature at the bottom of the thames?

I wondered the same thing. Then I decided, “Think pyramids!”

Loved this episode. For me, it had the right level of creepiness, with a poignant ending between mother and son. I’m glad @mirime rem…[Read more]

as for how did they survive? perhaps being absorbed into the wood is just the first stage, and victims are held for a short while, before the inevitable “digestion?”

@geoffers

I initially rolled my eyes at the most recent lot being brought back, but I recently read a book called ‘Uprooted’ by Naomi Novik which had people being absorbed by tre…[Read more]

@Geoffers

That photo of Bill’s mum reminds me very much of Clara; it looks like a face merge between Jenna Coleman and a model. I’m pretty sure we’re looking at a production joke, though.

But what if one of the Claricles was black? The Claricles we know of were all utterly identical to Jenna Coleman (for obvious reasons), but did they have to…[Read more]

No, @thane15 , I think @tardigrade has called this one pretty well, because I came in to make the some of the same points. I hope @tardigrade won’t mind if I post what I wrote last night as it reiterates certain points. Fair warning – @tardisgrade was kinder than I am.

—–

So, third rewatch and Smile still baffles me slightly. I like a lot o…[Read more]

@missy—

Last week I thought the presenter was rather silly and not a true DW fan. He was just doing a job. That was my impression anyway

Think that’s a bit unfair. Christel Dee is a long-term YouTuber with serious Who tendencies and was doing really rather good fan vlogs for quite some time now. That the BBC has taken on her show as the…[Read more]

@thane15

They were built to do what they did. They weren’t slaves or Oods. So if they weren’t intelligent or conscious then the technological hubris was connected to the Humans -and so the Doctor mediated between the Humans and those ‘creations’ that the humans built or sent ahead. In other words, the re-boot makes the best sense of all. They we…

[Read more]

@geoffers:  I didn’t think that for a moment, it’s obvious that you admire PC as a n actor. 🙂  I cannot agree about Steven Moffat however, but that is what this forum is for, listening to others opinions, even if/when we don’t agree.

@thane15: What is next indeed – exciting innit!

Missy

@geoffers:

A member (sorry can’t remember who) said that they thought that PC tried to hard, at least to start with. I don’t agree, he was right into the part from the very first moment you met him, he just clicked. Although I liked MS ( I liked all of them) it was he, in my opinion, who was trying too hard at first. I was astonished that you…[Read more]

@Mudlark @geoffers

It’s The Raft of the Medusa, painted by Gericault in 1818/19 currently in the Louvre.  A bit tricky to make out at first, because it’s been stood on its side and there are various objects in the way, but identifiable if you pause the screen and tilt your head to the left.

The cyberman special edition, from the Under Gallery, perhaps.

@geoffers

do any of our resident eagle-eyed art people know what the huge wall painting is, in the very furthest background

It’s The Raft of the Medusa, painted by Gericault in 1818/19 currently in the Louvre.  A bit tricky to make out at first, because it’s been stood on its side and there are various objects in the way, but identifiable if you…[Read more]

@thane15

Also for putting up with me writing the word ‘certainly’ to @geoffers three times in as many sentences. I blame youtube! *-_-*

i certainly didn’t even notice that! 😛

@Craig

56386 (and if you browse the Pilot there’s at least one more from @geoffers, iirc) – see 56333 which refers to 56324 vanishing).

@geoffers but he does remember donna, quite well, and the moment when he decides not to mind-wipe her memories was a call back to that, methinks…

I think it’s also in direct response to Bill’s remark to him, about how he would feel if someone did that to him. Which, of course, is exactly what happened. Somehow he feels that resonance, the e…[Read more]

@RorySmith

He leaves broken time lines and plot holes everywhere

Plotholes shmotholes – examples or this is just empty whinging.

@geoffers

lol, i’m genuinely headed into fanfiction/shipper territory!

Shoot yourself now! It’s for your own good.

wouldn’t the bloody tardis be the safest bloody place to stash (bloody) whatever is inside?

Unless it…[Read more]

@geoffers

he still doesn’t technically remember clara, i’m guessing, but he does remember donna, quite well, and the moment when he decides not to mind-wipe her memories was a call back to that, methinks…

Well, in the moment when the Doctor hesitates as he reaches out to wipe Bill’s memory, the music which we hear is Clara’s theme 🙂

As I have…[Read more]

@nerys  @redlemons  I never cared much to re-watching DW — until the Moffat/Capaldi team took over.  That was the point at which I began suggesting to the people who were uncomfortable with or unable to connect with or understand S8-9 that they wait a bit, and then watch again.  That stuff was layered as fine cake (dark; probably bittersweet cho…[Read more]