@jimthefish  @wolfweed   Yes, that speech is the iconic moment, to me.  It’s where he’s come to, the penultimate self-realization — and gives him a stake in *not* regenerating [this is me, the kind of good man I am — I’m not giving me up now I’m found!].  Ground laid for Xmas story.

I also like @hiker saying that maybe more than 12 reg…[Read more]

@janetteb    . . . the Doctor calling himself Timelord when he rejects the elitism of Gallifreyan society. It does grate and I liked Danny making a point about that.

I appreciate the title as a character point: yes, the Doctor is a rebel, but he’s also a bit arrogant — and probably also a bit insecure, since he didn’t do well at the Academy, d…[Read more]

@jimthefish  But am I the only one surprised at how low Capaldi’s salary was?

I thought it sounded pretty good, until I saw comparisons with all the other New Who Doctors.  What the heck?  I am glad, though, that JW will have this level of parity.

I do find complaints of gender insult and unfairness regarding the casting of a female Doctor to b…[Read more]

@lisa  So I’d very much like to see her as a sort of “Orlando”. Throw in some episodes where the Doctor meets some historic figures. I like those particular episodes very much! Oh- and give her a very Bloombury outfit and a visit to meet Virginia and Vita 🙂

Oooh, you really have it in for the haters, Lisa!  You want their heads to *expLODE*…[Read more]

@missrori  I think the defining characteristic of Twelve is his rawness of emotion, even when it’s concealed

Steven Moffat said so early on — that this Doctor is “an exposed nerve” of emotion — and Capaldi played that beautifully.  It helps to have a face that reads like a contour map of the Highlands, of course.

@hiker  Each episode adva…[Read more]

Thanks everybody, for (pre?) ComiCon clips — I was away for the weekend and out of touch.  Can’t say I’m surprised that PC says he plans to just “vanish” for a while.  I think he’s got a lot to think about from this experience of getting his dearest wish from childhood, and having to deal with the many realities of actually doing it — it’s n…[Read more]

The Hair — that early, short look went with the stripped down, peeled raw character who began S8 — a soul that’s been through the thresher and is staggering around trying to patch together its true nature again, which was *supposed* to have died with Eleven: “Here’s a crisis — what do I do in a crisis like this?  What *should* I do?  Why?” k…[Read more]

@serahni  . . . What I’m actually hoping for, after all this outcry, is that The Doctor asserts the identity he’s always had and demands to be considered male, despite appearances.

I think I’d rather have JW’s Doctor casually accept both pronouns, him and her, because now it’s established that TLs (including Doctors) can regenerate across gend…[Read more]

@wolfweed  @pedant  @jimthefish @juniperfish  Great!  Love yous, for the jokes!  And confirmation that we’ll get enough of the new Doctor for Rachal Talalay to direct.  Oh, this is going to be good.

@mirime  Good point about your mum.  I’m within uncomfortably more than squinting distance of 80, myself, and the more I think about it, the more I…[Read more]

@gwladys24  My only issue is whether this development is consistent with the Doctor’s backstory, as far as we think we know it.

As we know it, though, has been expanded to include possibilities not previously made explicit: when CapDoc tells Bill about the Master as his “man crush”, he added that he might have been female then, can’t remember; an…[Read more]

@cathannabel ” . . . the Doctor should never be a figure for sexual fantasy, to which the response from a woman was ‘Mate, I’ve got terrible news for you…’

Ah, what laugh!  Thanks for that.  Isn’t it strange, when some men still think that not only is sexual fantasy their exclusive playground, but that TV exists only to cater to the boys in th…[Read more]

@missrori  @mirime  YES, with you on that — the only way to follow Capaldi was with something as cool in its own way as the wild-haired Scotsman with the hearts of two lions (well, a lion and a lioness, clearly).  And this woman looks up to the job, though I know nothing about her.

For those cut to their own hearts by this choice, here’s an op…[Read more]

All — I was in Boston over the weekend for a convention snoozing and going to SF panels, and only found out today, when I opened the papers this morning on the way to the airport.  I wasn’t sure how I really felt about the possibility of a female #13 — apart from a somewhat distanced, probably stuffy approval on gender politics grounds, before,…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@serahni  Here, have some nice grapes.  I can’t stand the damn bleating either, so I’m in your small minority (which I doubt is that small any more).  Too much romantic goo for me with Rose and Ten.  I think Moffat has done much better with the Twelve/Clara story (full of difficulties, and ultimately destroyed by its own success, as excess of att…[Read more]

@nerys  Yes, that’s the beauty of it — she “played” the “two minds” she was in, one physically, the other verbally, at the same moment.  So good . . . (and bad).  Being “of two minds” about it is a neat marker of just how far along the Vault experience has brought her, when you compare that line with Simm’s “I will NEVER stand with the Do…[Read more]

@tardigrade  Somehow I find it difficult to imagine Missy preparing a confession dial, but perhaps she may have, in the lonely hours in the vault, particularly towards the end, when she began to feel that she had something to confess.

Great point — A Simm Master Confession Dial would have nothing but snarks and boasts, and I don’t think Missy…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  Oh, bravo!  I’d forgotten that the Doctor called the Master “that jackanapes!”  How delightful.

@winston   I am wondering if Missy gave the Doctor her confession dial when she held his hand?

Great idea — a whiff of true feeling between them from the past — but I think the dial design is too big not to have been seen.  But there was a long beat, holding on that hand-clasp, so *something* was sure going on.

If Master Simm does achieve r…[Read more]

@miapatrick  I’ve wondered before if the twelve regenerations limit is for psychological reasons? We now know that more regenerations can be granted, why is the limit set at twelve? What is the effect of carrying so many sets of memories in your head?

For us, destruction.  For a TL, maybe not so much — big mind.  But it’s an interesting ques…[Read more]