@Katharine
Ha ha, I knew I was on thin ice the second I clicked on Wikipedia 🙂

No Gretchen character in Marlowe then? And no question about Faustus’ ultimate damnation? … Hmmm. Don’t think I’ve got any way out of this. Seems I’m (quite unambiguously) wrong. (Sorry everyone!)

Still. Onwards and upwards… Could still be a Faust theme going…[Read more]

Just to add: Dr Who will always be non-committal where religion is concerned. So definitely no way that this is about any sort of Life Everlasting. Whatever Missy is, she’s not the Devil, and whatever her Nether Regions are, they’re secular, not spiritual. And they’re scientifically possible (even if it’s in a nonsense wonsensey way).
x

@bluesqueakpip @timeloop
Re: whether the choice of the name “Gretchen” implies ambiguity about where she goes when she (apparently) dies…

It feels a bit of a stretch to assume that Moffat knows and cares about the contrasting fates of Gretchen in Goethe’s earlier and later versions of Faust.

However, it’s not too much of a stretch to think…[Read more]

@ timeloop

I think he changed it to heavenbound to underline that ones actions can always influence the future.

Never occurred to me. I really like that. It’s never too late 🙂
x

@spider when you wrote “who knows” I saw Tom Baker speaking to Matt Smith: “Who knows, eh? (taps nose) WHO knows.” What an incredible scene that was. (Also “The Trousers of Iron”? This simply has to happen)

@arbutus I know, the Mr Men reviews are brilliant aren’t they? If I’d written them, that would be my entire life’s work done… Also, is it…[Read more]

Meh. I suppose for me, when Yes seemed a real possibility, it would undoubtedly have impacted negatively on my day-to-day life. But I had a real sense that people (just regular, normal people) can make huge changes if they get together.
I hope that feeling doesn’t go away.

Who will fight Scotland’s corner do you think? Do you think people have the will and the capacity to organise and influence policy, without recourse to politicians? That would be amazing.

Not trying to stir up any trouble, but I’m very conflicted about Scotland’s “no” vote. (Can we go there?)
As a very left-leaning English woman, I was kind of hoping that Scotland would stay put, so I’m glad about the outcome : The Tories can’t get too comfortable in Westminster.
But I was also kind of rooting for Scotland to be a proper,…[Read more]

@spider

Ha ha, that’s ok then. When I arrive dishevelled and unprepared for work tomorrow, I’ll simply explain that I was very, very busy “conferring meaning that wasn’t there”

And she’ll say “We’ve all been conferring meaning that wasn’t there, but some of us found time to iron our trousers.”

And that will be true on a frightening number of…[Read more]

@oblique (again)
I like what you said about pace, and am interested in your thoughts. I don’t watch much TV, but when I do, I feel like there’s some unwritten rule that scenes can’t last more than ten seconds, and I often find it offputting.
I think this Dr Who series is slower-paced and I like that a lot. Much as I adored Matt Smith, I’m…[Read more]

@oblique
Hee hee, I was banging on about the cleverness of Dr Who the other day, and my friend sent me this link to some overly-academic Mr Men reviews. His point is well-made 🙂
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1SM813W6H36YA/ref=cm_pdp_rev_all?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview

Is that what we’re doing, in your view? Over-analysing…[Read more]

Just sitting down to respond, but my dog has other ideas. Very quickly though: Unlike Goethe’s world, the Whoniverse cannot and will never offer an unambiguous position as far as metaphysics is concerned. Goethe’s world has a God, a heaven and a hell. Dr Who has an eternally vast universe ruled by laws of (all be it wibbly wobbly) time and (if you…[Read more]

@oblique
I’d be interested to know your thoughts about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Are they both just children’s books written only for children with the sole purpose of commercial gain? Or can they be read at a number of levels? Are they in fact a bit clever?
x

Going back to @purofilion and the whole Gretchenfrage from ages ago. It’s been swishing around at the back of my head. I studied German and loved Goethe, so I’m probably grasping, but…

… Perhaps a point of interest (alternatively a point of boredom) is that in Faust, Gretchen is saved. She is explicitly and noticeably saved, in that when she…[Read more]

@rickgreen
For a bonkers theoriser you seem incredibly sure of yourself. I am instantly suspicious. You could be a disgruntled BBC employee. Or perhaps an un(der)-paid intern blowing the whistle?? In any case, if you turn out to be right, I will immediately suspect you of foul play, and try to forget everything you just said…

And if you turn…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip (again)

Hmm… it seems to be played as when she looks into people’s eyes. And in Deep Breath the Half Faced Man took someone’s eyes, and in Into The Dalek, they went in through the eyestalk.

What’s that old saying? The eyes are the windows to the soul.

Definitely an eye-related visual theme: Dalek antibodies look like eyes; s…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip – yes, that makes a lot more sense. I didn’t think of it that way. He’s not competing for her, but for her attention – and for everybody’s attention really… It puts in a new light the intial “take a punt” conversation. She asks for Robin Hood, but he offers her Ice Warriors on Mars – or the Other-People-in-the-Other-Place. Places…[Read more]

Very, very, very late to the party (I’ve brought wine though)

Usually by the time I get online after reading a thread, I realise I’ve passed the point where I could have said something relevant, so don’t say anything at all.

But sod it…

For what it’s worth, I thought this was a very well-timed bit of fun, after a couple of quite intense e…[Read more]

Hello!
I’ve had to wait absolutely ages (well, two days but it felt a lot longer) to watch Deep Breath.
Finally had a chance to watch it though, and then immediately came to read everybody’s posts on the Doctor Who Forum (obviously). I forgot what a friendly, interesting and really rather clever corner of the internet this is!
I’m a big Ben Whea…[Read more]