@arbutus and @JimTheFish

I’m quite sure his missus will try. She tried valiantly with that bloody fez; hopeless.

Sometimes you just can’t pry the prop away from the performer. 🙂

@JimTheFish     Oh, that would be really fun. It wouldn’t surprise me if Moffat were saving them especially for that fate!

@jimthefish

There are some video clips that never disappoint.

@pedant    Thanks for the Ashildr/Arya meta pointers.  🙂

@DrBen     You make a lot of really good points, particularly the one regarding Maisie Williams. I hadn’t thought of it, but you’re absolutely right, that she is really deliberately playing two different characters in this, and in that respect, she pulls it off. I agree that I also found…[Read more]

@jimthefish – You are correct that that never gets old!  It’s funny – when Capaldi was announced, I thought I would never be able to unsee Malcolm Tucker.  Now that he’s been the Doctor for over a year, I’m having trouble the other way!  Why is the Doctor in a suit swearing at people?

@kharis – The (K)Nightmare Child thing is tantalizing.  I can…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

As Robert Heinlein had a character say in one of his novels: the best way to lie is to tell the truth and nothing but the truth – but not the whole truth.

Moffat’s done that before, when he announced he was done, finished with the Master. 🙂

And while lauding @kharis‘s excellent spot, I’m also a bit sceptical that she’s going to turn out to be Clara’s mother.

@jimthefish I agree, but would say the clothing looked out of place – I did spot that. And somebody over on the Guardian is very upset about the hats the highwaymen were wearing. Of course dressing a few decades out of fashion…[Read more]

@jimthefish @purofilion @FatManInABox @blenkinsopthebrave

Oh, now we have hayness with added racism!

(I must admit I thought hayness was just the feeling of having an allergic reaction to grass pollen, as in “Every spring I feel really hayness, and it last for weeks.”

@JimTheFish

A simple statement of opinion. The writing IS the worst

Well, at least this one is funny…

@JimTheFish, I enjoyed the episode quite a bit, but I agree that it wasn’t a patch on the preceding episode, and it was mostly the arc-related aspects that were memorable.

@winston   It’s a good point about the notion of “pets”. We automatically take that as a belittlement, and of course it is in a sense. But having just lost a cat that lived wit…[Read more]

@starla I also enjoyed the Captain Jack reference and the line about him finding her sooner or later.Oh that Jack!
@jimthefish I’m sorry you didn’t care for this episode the first time around.Maybe it will grow on you.Maybe because I really enjoyed Tennant Doc I also enjoyed this episode.
@vrooom I enjoyed your review quite a bit.It was funny but…[Read more]

@JimTheFish re the horned helmets and electric eels being deliberate. I thought so too, and also thought this may have been happening last season too.

@JanetteB

Thank you for that. One of life’s little mysteries is why on earth I find myself arguing most firmly on the episodes I don’t like. 😉

Though truthfully, I think it’s because people often pick up on what I’d see as non-faults. The faults that the scriptwriters weren’t worried about because they’re things that can be made to work. Those…[Read more]

Reading all the wonderful discussion here is every bit as good as watching the actual episode and certainly makes rewatching so much more rewarding.

I made notes, rather a lot of notes so here goes;

@lisa I agree re’ Ashildr and Arya from GoT being very similar, something that irritated me a little as the time though I also agree with @Ichabod…[Read more]

@jimthefish  On which note, I for one am very glad that she didn’t turn out to be Susan, or Jenny, or Romana or whoever.

Me too.  Too much backstory, better to move on to something new, IMO.  @denvaldron  Thanks for the Viking overview — densely packed and concise; only what, exactly, does kaput mean in this context?  A swift and somewhat catast…[Read more]

@Phaseshift @JimtheFish

Absolutely agree re your analysis of Dr Who threats reflecting real world fears. In the 50s and 60s threats were presented as much more black and white (pun intended), with the good guys being heroes without flaws and the baddies irredeemably evil.   But that’s a bit of dead end after a while as far as storytelling goes;…[Read more]

@whisht @scaryb @jimthefish @denvaldron

Yes, great comments. I’d particularly point to Jim’s point that 80s who lost some currency because those touchstone references became too distant.

When you look at the first appearance by the Daleks, they not only refer to the war Holmes, Dicks and Nation lived through, but the ultimate war to come. A…[Read more]

@Juniperfish and @Ichabod

I think the Doctor’s occasional sexual attraction to humans was almost certainly a side effect of being ‘last of his kind’. There are, after all, other examples of Gallifreyan/Human relationships, and other cross-species relationships in the TV stories. But to be truthful, I always took the ‘really tight skirt’ as purely…[Read more]

@supernumerary   I think the rock theme more came down to “wouldn’t this be cool, guys!”, and having Capaldi’s guitar right before the theme provided a nice excuse.

Sounds good enough to me!

@jimthefish  . . . despite the comprehensive embracing of the BG show in these episodes, the troll-brigade on t’other place are still baying for cancella…[Read more]

@JimTheFish    There seem to be two types of whiner on the other site. There are those who have liked no Doctor Who since RTD, and there are those who have liked no DW since 1989. I suspect that the majority of those complaining now still prefer the RTD era show, which to be fair had quite a different feel than Moffat’s less blockbuster, more time…[Read more]