@mudlark – Nail on the head. Good call!

after she has made her offer to the Daleks, she says  ‘Or would you rather just kill me?’ and poses, much in the same manner as she did in ‘Death in Heaven’ just before the cyber-Brig shot her, and even though she hasn’t bothered to explain how she escaped on that occasion, we can assume that she probably us…

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A delayed response to say the least, but…

@ichabod

Yes, it’s challenging to keep up, now that we have the new series.  Nice Goethe shoehorn, by the way; do keep ’em coming!

Thanks for the encouragement. I haven’t done a great job of keeping up with recent episodes, let alone staying up to date with comments and forcing foreign literatu…[Read more]

@brewski   Here’s Missy being zapped.

And here she’s very nearly disappeared. There’s still a light where her ankle was.

Hi @lisa 🙂 Thanks for that. I remember the dalek antibodies vaporising people – but don’t remember the daleks managing it. (Mind you, I don’t remember what I had for breakfast most days.)

@Brewski    I took a couple of screenshots, but don’t think I’m registered with a photo-sharing website, so can’t show you. If I can register somewhere w…[Read more]

Hi everyone.
Blimey, I’ll try not to be so late next time – there’s such a lot to read! And it’s all so good – I can’t take it all in!
Here’s a question I don’t think has cropped up yet: Does exterminating people make them disappear? Don’t they just light up a bit and then fall down? We got a close-up of the dalek that “exterminat…[Read more]

Just a quick hello and I hope all is well!

I’ve been out of the loop (away from home with next to no internet) so have 3 episodes to watch, and 3 episodes’ worth of comments to read.

I feel a bit like a child on Christmas Eve 🙂

See you all on the other side…

x

@purofilion

Agreed. I hadn’t thought of it, but now you mention it it rings very true: We really know this Doctor.

If there is, perhaps, more distance than there was with Matt Smith or David Tennant, it’s because there’s a lot more thinking and a lot less running 🙂

It’s also perhaps partly because this Capaldi incarnation is pretty…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip I thought the most interesting comment about the lying was when Clara asked (and she was sonicking the earpiece at the time, so was perhaps just speaking to herself) “Does it even still count as lying if you’re doing it for someone’s own good?” I got the impression from this that she is not trying to hide her “addiction”, but…[Read more]

@phaseshift That’s incredible about Battlestar Galactica at the UN. Thanks for the link!

So I think I’ve got to admit I’m wrong (again) 🙂

@lisa – thanks for the references. It’s really fascinating. So many aspects of the “monomyth” that ring true for recent (and past) episodes.

x

I loved this episode. Lots of really good dialogue. The tiny Tardis was fab, and Clara as the Doctor’s representative on earth was brilliant. A really good way to explore the Doctor’s perspective. His manipulation of people, his lies, and his (recently rather jarring) lack of sentimentality about the recently dead: All exhibited by Clara this…[Read more]

On a completely different topic, I came to the Rose & Crown in the hope of Scampi Fries – but they’re all out.

I wouldn’t mind, but it’s an entirely fictional pub. In theory I could have pork scratchings made out of moonbeams -yet I haven’t even managed to get a single bog standard Scampi Fry.

Believe you me, I shall be writing a very snotty…[Read more]

@janetteb

I somehow missed that line when I read your post.

hee hee – it wasn’t complete nonsense then 🙂

I agree with you – honestly I do! 🙂 But I don’t think it’s just down to viewing numbers. I think it’s about distance. I think distance is in the very nature of sci-fi and fantasy. That’s both the good and the bad thing about it. It…[Read more]

@ Lisa

I am starting to think that the “belief” you’re onto is a belief in heroes.

I was taken with the Faust idea, as you know (Good man/Bad man; Saved/Not-saved) and I thought (and am still not entirely dissuaded) that the Doctor’s new regeneration cycle carries a Faustian price (“Everything has a price tag, I think you’ll find” – as Miss…[Read more]

@lisa

Personally I think I probably agree with you. Although perhaps not entirely? I’m not sure.

From childhood, I’ve probably always liked people I found “real” – but I only really cared for them when they were put into impossible situations. From Charlie Bucket in the chocolate factory to the dressing-gowned Arthur Dent.

Willy Wonka was a…[Read more]

@Lisa

Back on-topic, I think the “belief” theme you pointed out several episodes ago seems to be playing itself out in lots of very interesting ways.

This episode, the mummy was a legend that the Doctor did not initially believe in. However he was later persuaded (persuaded himself?) that it was real.

When the first victim (Mrs Pitt) and the…[Read more]

@janetteb @lisa Possibly I was getting a bit off topic – definitely wasn’t talking about Mummy on the Orient Express! 🙂

I’m just mulling really. I’m definitely not saying that “unrealistic” (sci-fi, fantasy) things don’t have anything to say about real life. Quite the opposite.

I read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books as a biting satire about…[Read more]

@janetteb @lisa (pub? yes no? I think they have Scampi Fries there 🙂 )

@lisa

Ha ha yes, you’re right 🙂

I got a bit carried away wondering whether/why/why not “soap opera” was a good thing, a bad thing or even a thing.

I’ll take my questions to the pub/sofa 🙂

x

@lisa

I sort of disagree with my own comment – but can’t explain why! 🙂

What is it about Star Trek that had such an effect on society, do you think?

For example, how did watching it affect or change you? Or more generally, what is it about such sci-fi shows that gives them such a wide impact, in your view? And why do the “bad” ones fail?

Do…[Read more]

@phaseshift

Absolutely love your post about soap opera. A bit like you, my mum has always followed the soaps.
I grew up with telly as a background noise (when we got unexpected visitors, my folks would turn the volume down – but the the telly stayed on 🙂 )

At their very best, I think that soaps open up debates – within families and between…[Read more]