@midnyt    Not sure that Clara’s ending was meant as “leaving it open for her to come back”, more as something that Moffat saw as a reasonably positive and convincing end to Clara’s character arc. As you didn’t like the character then it might not matter as much to you, but for someone who did like Clara, it was really a very uplifting fi…[Read more]

@gothamcelt @delta

I am sorry to hear that you guys didn’t enjoy the episode.  This episode is a bit metaphorical.  I believe the very key part is the Doctor enters room 12 and remembers all of his previous encounters.  The Doctor wants to give up and asks Clara why he has to continue like this.  Yet, in the end, he still stands to his prin…[Read more]

@lisa  @GothamCelt   Does anyone know why the groups of black birds might be given such interesting names (Conspiracy of Ravens, Murder of Crows)? There must be a reason, historically, presumably something to do with the negative image of those birds. But it would be interesting to know more about how it came about.

@Mirime     Yes, same here…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip and @GothamCelt Sorry! – I got @ compromised again 🙁
and the previous posts were @ both of you

@DrBen      Not least of which because I thought the voice sounded like Russell T. Davies, and had a moment’s (bonkers) thought that they were going full meta, and RTD would burst through the doors of the TARDIS, bitching about what a sad mess Moffat has made of his show.

That would have been brilliant! Not because I don’t like Moffat’s work, bu…[Read more]

@Juniperfish – oh I think the Doctor/Master/Missy history is open to a wide range of interpretations, ship away my fishy friend 😉

@Purofilion – re the Doctor’s shrinking hair – have you made a list of where it suddenly changes? 🙂 And could you possibly throw in when he wears the black sparkly jumper and when it’s a shirt please…? And check…[Read more]

@GothamCelt – When Missy was sitting on the steps outside St Paul’s , did anyone else start singing ‘Feed the birds, tuppence a bag’?

nope, but i did think, “how the hell did she get so far ahead of the doctor, to be casually sitting there like that?” 🙂

@PhileasF – liked your idea that Missy was watching Clara from the same hacking device as the Doctor but then what can that tell us?

Someone made the observation that Missy refers to “my Clara and my Boyfriend” {sorry cant find it again}

The writer likes to use trains in his episodes

There have been a lot of ‘conversions” from one thing to…[Read more]

@soundworld (hope your recuperation is going well)

Good spot on the Edwin Abbott Abbott connection. That’s why Rigsy’s estate is the Abbott Estate ( blog from writer Jamie Mathieson explaining the background to the episode Also includes the drawing he pitched it with)

@Bluesqueakpip Fair enough point re Clara going to the bad being another…[Read more]

@gothamcelt — let me be clear. I was not lumping you in with the faux-offence, usually Daily Heil-reading ‘down with this sort of thing’ crowd that I was referring to in my last post. However, I do still think you’re overreacting a bit.

@wordmuse — as @scaryb says, you don’t need to worry RE. ratings. The show is doing as brilliantly now in terms of audience than ever. And as SM has pointed out, the show is now a global brand. It’s kind of pointless to just focus on UK overnights (which don’t take account of things like time-shifted viewing, iPlayer etc). The final viewing…[Read more]

@GothamCelt

I’d rather be more impressed by the flounce if you had made a previous issue of the kiss. You never have. I’d see this as creating a problem for effect, because you didn’t like my comment to you earlier.

Feel free to do whatsoever you wish.

@GothamCelt — but probably accurate in the context in which it was used…

@PhaseShift — great post and an excellent analysis of British soap. I think I’m probably more forgiving of British soaps of the 80s than some and the fact is I think that they often produced some of the best writing British telly has ever produced. Jimmy McGovern, Tony…[Read more]

@Mudlark

Yes – that move to a more frequent weekly showing certainly saw a desperate shift in tactics from what I understand. My mum (who was Lancashire born), and her fellows in the “Mum Mafia” in our street used to amaze me by standing in the street discussing last nights events in the 70s and actually talking about characters as if they were…[Read more]

I absolutely loved the episode.

I continue to have extreme reservations re Danny – his character just doesn’t seem to fit, to me.  Whenever Danny and Clara are together, something inside is going ‘noooooooo!’

@GothamCelt (and others) Is Missy perhaps attempting to reverse-engineer Time Lord abilities? Perhaps too the idea of being in-phase is…[Read more]

Just watched it again and one thing stood out; anyone notice that Clara outlasted everyone when the cabin decompressed?  What is it with her and her impressive lung capacity!

@GothamCelt  Nobody’s speaking for you, PhaseShift quoted the one thing he was responding to, which was your attempting to assert what Capaldi should be doing.  The rest of…[Read more]

@GothamCelt

Capaldi needs to put his foot down and say ‘this isn’t good enough’

Putting aside your own displeasure for the moment, can you possibly live with the fact that you can’t speak for Capaldi? He looks like he’s having a whale of a time. He was a big fan of Matt Smith’s era He likes the type of storytelling that SM is doing. He’s living…[Read more]

@GothamCelt – my mind is also running along the lines of ‘Danny isn’t what he seems’.

I don’t think he is Jenny (the Doctor’s daughter), but that spectacular somersault reminded me more than a little of Jenny’s equally spectacular display of gymnastic ability.

Time Heist also reminded us about clones. Then there’s Journey’s brother. Are we…[Read more]

Now for my replies…

@idiotsavon congrats on the “Don’t Think” prediction. It seems like we are being asked to go against our human nature a lot this series.

@bluesqueakpip Was the teleport really the same effect as Gretchen’s? I didn’t recognise it as such. Are you saying that from memory or did you go back and double check!?

@ScaryB – Doctor…[Read more]

@GothamCelt    @Bluesqueakpip      a shape shifting mutant, a bomb, a computer specialist and a massive solar storm      Not to mention a time traveler.   🙂