@pufferfish  human beings who live the normal three score-and-ten are said to use only 10 per cent of the brain’s capacity (possibly 20 per cent, can’t remember exactly) but there are LOADS of stories that suggest immortality unlocks the unused portion (eg. Heroes).

Heroes is fiction, though; and new studies refute the theory of huge unused port…[Read more]

@sirclockface  She could infact imagine all of this because it has happened to her. She was walking down a corridor while not being able to do something once

Valiant try, but a stretch too far for me I’m afraid.  Still, who knows?

I’m honestly surprised with season 9, it has been consistently excellent and entertaining.

Well, Moffat kept pro…[Read more]

@missy  I’d say she’s still too immature (emotionally?  Psychologically?) to have much range, but she did well enough in Part Two.  I’ve seen her in GoT, where she’s been pretty okay, but I see nothing of inspiration there, of shining talent, and without any of that, she’s an apprentice technician, in my view, at least for the time being.  F…[Read more]

@missy  I enjoyed this one, except for the actress playing Ashildr.  Is it only me, or do some of you think she can’t act? I thought she was awful

I thought she was pretty dull in Part One, but really came to life in Part Two.  She was an insecure child in Part One, but in Part Two there was so much more — loved the way she sashayed around in h…[Read more]

@jphamlore  I think that Missy and Ashildr’s plan is to put Clara into hell, the Nethersphere, and dare the Doctor to try and get her back, possibly at the cost of his life.

@sirclockface  We never see Clara leave the dalek in S9E2 but we see Capaldi say “I’m sorry” exactly like how Tennant would say it before someone would die. We see her at th…[Read more]

@arbutus  I don’t know about any of the other “posters of a certain age” around here, but I’ve grown hugely more sentimental as I’ve gotten older.

I know what you mean, though I prefer to think of it as growing more thoughtful about things (and a little less impatient and dismissive), and possibly a little kinder.  I hope.

the internet pr…[Read more]

@ramzeppilin  So to end this posting….I am sad to see Doctor Who become a vehicle for liberalism

I’m not, or wouldn’t be if it were, Mr. Underbridge.  This is certainly not the kind of place you’re looking for, so do kindly bugger off and take your non-agenda with you, there’s a good chap.

@nerys  Me/Ashildr is something of a modern woman, I ag…[Read more]

@purofilion  Oh no, we can’t have “excessive emotion” ? Of course, and we must. We’ve had it and it’s worked.

I think I just answered this on the episode thread instead of here — ?? But this is great stuff, so, yeah!  I can’t, personally, imagine traveling with the Doctor, particularly #12 (I’m only 18 yrs older than PC), without becoming ve…[Read more]

@winston  After a while you think that the pain is not worth it and you decide “no more pets” I think this is how the Doctor and Me and all immortals must feel once in awhile. Shoud they take the risk and enjoy their companions lives ,however fleeting ,or give up and go it alone.

Yes, it’s a feeling very familiar to pet owners.  Most of us give…[Read more]

@craig  Thanks for that, you’re very kind; and I appreciate it.  As for your desk, well — alas, you’re on your own!  Though I’d love to visit London again . . . maybe sometime before flying just becomes too much of a hassle.  Next time there’s a big SF con there, I hope to attend; missed the last one, for the obvious reasons.  And I’m sorry you…[Read more]

Is a “suicide moon” a whole moon that somebody slings into a planet or space habitat to destroy same?  That wasn’t actually my first thought; my first thought was, oh, like “Gloomy Sunday” . . . ugh!

@mersey  Clara certainly doesn’t spend much time (that we see) mourning or even thinking about her mother in S8-S9 so far.  That’s why I forgot . . . and I bet I’m not the only one!  I think the idea that her mother’s early death drives Clara is a good one and could make better sense of some aspects of her character — but that hasn’t been su…[Read more]

@mersey  @bluesqeakpip

S8 and S9 so far have, I think, neglected that early maternal loss, which I’d forgotten by this time to tell the truth.  When you add it back in as pip has done here, Clara’s intensity around the prospects (and facts) of death and loss is  strengthened and connected up with her current story-line much more effectively.  I…[Read more]

@jphamlore  I think it was Clara — I recall her saying to somebody, as an explanation, I think, “He speaks dinosaur” so why wouldn’t he speak baby?  Can’t stop to check it out — dinner with friends tonight.

@purofilion  Ah, wonderful music!  Thanks again.

@purofilion  Thanks for your good wishes!

@arbutus  It occurs to me to wonder how people can dismiss Doctor Who as “just a kid’s show” when it can inspire a conversation like this one! From plot points to “what is art” in a few posts. Nice.

The dismissors are crying down something that they themselves only understand on a surface level (if that) because knowing that there *are* conv…[Read more]

@brewski  The fact is, sophisticated baby poetry SHOULD be hard to accept. But dammit, it was done so beautifully I’m totally buying into it. My own tolerance for believable is quite variable.

And the performance of that poetry was so beautiful (by an actor whose own mother died only a year and a half ago, as I recall, which may have added de…[Read more]

@arbutus  What is and isn’t art? Can of soup, can of worms… a question that is almost impossible to answer without sounding unbearably snooty at times. But as you say, I think it is still right to ask the question. Just not to assume that there is ever only one answer! 

Yep.  There’s a frontier/border edge in all the arts, I think, at which…[Read more]

@brewski  (That is the sound of Brewski eating his words. )

Don’t eat ’em, they’re fine — it’s a matter of proportion.  If the art is good, it captures the emotion, meanwhile eliminating or changing things that don’t add to the perception of the emotion.  A photograph also eliminates (and sometimes contains re-arranged elements, choices by th…[Read more]