@craig   . . . the show (Supergirl) may seem like fluff, but that’s a writer making a point. I inwardly cheered. After the Doctor’s experience in ‘Oxygen’ this week I felt worlds colliding.

Feelings have been running pretty damned high around here, with messages of resistance to oppression popping up in all kinds of places — a very good thing, IMO.

@pedant  We also saw him lose his screwdriver.

But the Tardis, as we saw in Hell Bent, can make him another, right?  Trouble is, how can he use it effectively if he can’t see?

@janetteb   I wonder how much Nardole really knows about the Doctor.

And v.v..

@countscarlioni  Chris is sticking with a team he’s got used to working with on Broad…[Read more]

@missrori  Of course it’s sad but beautiful. That’s practically a theme of Capaldi’s tenure…

Mmm, yes!

And what will Bill do if/when she finds out he’s still blind because he saved her?

Ow, yes!  That’s got to be a tough one for her.  He, of course, will make light of it (sorry, sorry . . . .)!

@missrori   So true — it’s the *trying*, it’s the not passing by on the other side . . .

@alexwho  Suchet is excellent; always a pleasure to see him at work!

@missrori    Twelve isn’t nice to all those poor souls who end up in the Nethersphere, but Missy is. “Nice” can easily fill a hole where “good” would otherwise be.

Spot-on.  The Doctor’s focus is on doing good; he rarely seems concerned at all with “being nice”, which makes a great deal of sense since there’s often not time or space for niceness…[Read more]

@thane15  Puro — I respect Mr Suchet, immensely, however. I think this story was important for its dialogue during prologue and epilogue.

Ha.  Time for a re-watch (I haven’t done that yet.  Bugs . . . I’m relieved, though to have them out of the way now, so I don’t have to worry about a heart attack now that they’ve arrived and done their thi…[Read more]

@kharis  So, enjoy my latest craziest “person in the vault playing Fur Elise” theory and please come up theories even more insane then this one.

Trying, really trying, but — love it just the way you put it!  Ah, there we are — Alan Moore!

@arbutus  . . . villains who aren’t really villains. I confess it’s a theme that resonates with me.

M…[Read more]

@wolfweed  Always read the small print! Did nobody scrutinise that contract? I’d love to see the actual wording.

I was surprised that the Doctor didn’t have a look at that contract!

@frobisher . . . the twist was unexpected. There is definitely a theme of release going on, imo.

Loved Suchet — and yes, liberation . . . will that be this Doc…[Read more]

@missy  Oohh — Somehow I read your last line as “It will be interesting to see who comes out of the closet.”  Good grief; how late is it here?

@countscarlioni  The power of SM’s conception of Clara for me was that we in a way got to see at times perhaps not two Doctors in the Tardis but maybe a Doctor and a half.

And — how ultimately there’s only “room” for one Doctor in the Tardis, as CapDoc said in S8.  We can have an uneasy and demanding team of (more or less) two Docs for a bit…[Read more]

Ooops — it’s the Bad-tempered Schism, right?  There’s a vortex lying around somewhere too, but they’re not the same thing?  Brain on strike . . . !

@missrori  Thanks; it’s been on my mind since that line of Missy’s, because “the puppy” rang true for that aspect of the Doctor/companion relationship, right on the mark about this niggling un…[Read more]

@craig  Not quite sure what that says about the meaning of “companion” but I’m not sure it’s completely complimentary now. Especially as the Doctor may not see humans quite the same as himself.

Missy: “You’re the puppy.”  She wasn’t lying; she was telling it as she understood it.  I’ve always seen a touch of this — species condescent…[Read more]

@nick  Do people even have companions today ? I can’t recall it being used in real life speech.

I think it faded out when it became associated with closeted gay men living together (Liberace and his long-time companion, Rock Hudson and his long-time companion, etc).  I think it still works in DW because it’s always carried the sense of “tr…[Read more]

@nick — Gosh, yes, and rightly so.  Revolutionary medicine . . .

@pedant  Ah, thanks for that!  Love it.  For me, music that connects does this magical thing; it doesn’t only connect you with other people who hear it and love it, and the people who compose and play it — it also connects your everyday, busy, preoccupied self with yourself — your basic emotions, whether or not you remember what first made yo…[Read more]

@nick  The Doctor studied under Dr. Bell?  Bell, the model Conan Doyle used for Sherlock Holmes?!  OMG, what a gas!

Companion v. assistant v. — ?  I like “companion” because it’s nice and broad and allows for variation.  Suppose Missy traveled with him for a season?  She’s not exactly a friend, and would die rather than be thought of as an assis…[Read more]

@jimthefish  (of Clara hate) . . . individuals who I strongly suspect hate any deviation from patrician, superior Doc and a breathless, deferential companion. (In other words they prefer ‘assistants’ to ‘companions’.) During Clara’s run these oafs became more and more vocal (witness all the ‘it’s more like The Clara Show now’ drivelish). And t…[Read more]

@missrori  . . . they’re all, effectively, set free in the end. Freed of chains, of programming, of…oaths…or promises…don’t mind me, I’m just overthinking things again.

Oh, please, indulge — Well, drat, I just overthought of something: the Doctor, end of S9, set himself and Clara “free” of each other.  Is he now going about committing oth…[Read more]

@winston   I like to see his eyes, too, and actually prefer the sunglasses as something he gets to play around with as a prop.  And yes, he’s softened and warmed, but reassuringly calm and confident about the downside — people dying.  Not happy about it, mind; but not demoralized by guilt and remorse, either.  Good; he’s earned some inner pea…[Read more]