@ichabod That’s a fascinating way of looking at the matter!  <3

@Nick  @ichabod   Oops. On travel, and working off a crummy wifi link so I at first missed Nick’s later posting on Bell with the correction that the second Doctor claimed he’d studied under Joseph Lister. Maybe the Doctor studied under both; certainly the 10th Doctor claimed he’d studied under Bell (the Bell, I think we are meant to understand).

@ichabod  @janetteB @Nick  @Redlemons

Companion seems to me the most exact term for those who travel with the Doctor because to me it denotes above all a close relationship based on something shared: companion, from the Latin roots cum (with) panis (bread), so someone with whom you break bread; hence a companion on the road, a companion in adv…[Read more]

@ichabod

I’d say that I’m his carer = keeper, is a recent invention courtesy of the Moff, not one that has very much history. I’d also say that “we can be back before the kettle boils” is also relatively new (mostly came in with Amy/Rory I think) as a convenient way of having the companion have a non-Doctor back story/life. In season 2, Rose had…[Read more]

@Nick @ichabod @janetteB

When I was doing my undergrad work we went to a teeny tiny village in Gloucestershire to do “retrospective interviews” – essentially, having a copy of the 1938 electoral register and finding the oldest people we could to see if they could remember those on the list.

Everyone we spoke to was sharp as a button. Lovely…[Read more]

@janetteB @ichabod

But “Companion” can imply a sexual relationship ( a mistress who travels with her – usually richer – male lover) and can imply a difference in the status in the relationship (the obvious is a sort of nurse who travels with her wealthy patient or a usually poorer women who travels with her wealthy patron).

Whilst we might not…[Read more]

@ichabod I agree with you that even though the first few episodes have been a bit lighter than we’ve come to expect from the Capaldi tenure, it’s probably building up to something big, perhaps sooner than we think.  At about this point in Series 9, we’d had the character drama of the Davros 2-parter and the base-under-siege horror fare of the…[Read more]

@ichabod

urchins with a business sense

A very apt definition of a mudlark 😀   though I have to admit that as regard the business sense the moniker doesn’t really suit me

@ichabod:  Agreed — Moffat is fully capable of catching us up in a vortex of emotional arcs and call-backs, closing out with a lion’s  roar (“Take THAT!”); which would be, for me, more satisfying still.  Meantime, I’m not going anywhere — as long as I can watch PC and Bill, I’m in for the ride to the — bitter?  Uplifting?  Rip-roaring?  Sad…[Read more]

@ichabod

I knew I had something wrong. It was Joseph Lister. More famous at the time, I’m sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister

@ichabod

Clara only became a character (as opposed to a cut-out of one) from series 8 onwards in my opinion. A lot of people on line seems to post with little thought and a lot of anger and have lost any ability to see there is more than one answer/opinion to most questions. South Park’s Troll story line sums it up for me.

@pedant

I wonder what he is teaching – pretty sure it’s not PPE.

Life, the Universe and Everything, of course, from an entirely unorthodox perspective 🙂 (and I’ll bet that the answer isn’t 42)

The Doctor says, ‘I am your teacher’, and I see him in his relationship with Bill as mentor and guide; not fatherly, grandfatherly or avuncular, but a te…[Read more]

@jimthefish; How rude of me!  Thank you so much for the info about the After show, I shall have a look.

@ichabod: No, I’m pretty sure it was fro Clara, because he heard her voice.

@winston: You took the words right out of my mouth. Yes I would like to hug him and I felt it even more so in Thin Ice.Thing is, it’s making it harder to say goodbye…[Read more]

@ichabod

Yes, the design of the diving suits is quite elegant – for a diving suit of that type – but, as I said,  it is a bit advanced for the period – much closer to the kind that was developed towards the end of the 19th century.*

@janetteB

I don’t know if Bill’s clothes were right for the exact year, but if the details were a year or so out t…

[Read more]

@janetteb @missy and @ichabod   I liked the tank and the guitar and the “idea” of the sonic glasses but I love PC’s expressive eyes which tell so much of the story that I don’t like them covered up. Anyone else think the Doctor is just a little more soft and fuzzy this series? I want to give him a cuddle.

@thane15: No, by all means, it’s a fair comment.

@tardigrade: Thanks for that, but even that information almost lost me. *blushes*

@ichabod: Ads? Humbug! I record everything we want to watch, and if I miss anything I watch iView.

I’ve heard a lot about Netflix and watched Abominable Bride on Stan. It seems to me, that everything is beconming so…[Read more]

@ichabod:   If liking the guitar, the sunglasses and the tank are a hallmark of a lack of standards then, like you and puro, I am similarly lacking

Count me in too. A  favourite  clip of mine is when he spots Clara (Magicians Apprentice) and plays the first bars of “Pretty Woman.” Pure magic.

Missy

@ichabod

Though I think he’d play some quieter, more meditative work too, in those quieter times.  But we’ll never see those . . .

Perhaps we did, though – in that final scene of The Woman Who Lived when we saw him in meditative mood, alone  and playing his guitar in the lighted interior of the Tardis, framed by the star-sprinkled blackness of spa…[Read more]

@ichabod I get the feeling that Moffat is throwing everything at this last series because he really does love writing for Dr Who and he is having as much fun as possible before he leaves. His love for the series and the “lore” has really shone through these past eight years. It is just a shame that those impossible to please fans who want…[Read more]

Hi @pedant.  Thanks!  I know PC has said he really wants to see Susan brought back.  Well, he’s getting his wish with the Mondasian cybermen, so who knows?! :O

Thanks @ichabod. Lily POND.  Melody Pond’s daughter.  Lol…  I wouldn’t be me without the word play…

Of course, I think I also read that Shoshona could also mean Rose.  So where d…[Read more]