Valeyard… Villengard (and therefor their ‘Shell Company’ Harmony Shoal?) Vlinx:

We have limited knowledge of The Valeyard incarnation… basically he’s incarnation 12+

We have limited knowledge of The Master’s incarnations because Who Narrative follows The Doctor’s timeline. So:

? > Delgado > ?

? > Dar…[Read more]

On yours and @Whohar ‘s mention of “hasty rewrites” – yes, when you think about the first Gatwa series and how much it focussed on the Doctor and Ruby both being abandoned and adopted children, I wonder if Poppy was planned out, at the…[Read more]

My theory about Billie is that she may be a temporary interim Doctor till the future becomes clearer.

I make that 3 theories now:

1. @jimthefish ‘s Interface theory

2. Your interim Doc theory

3. My she’s The Moment theory.

To which I’d add something I briefly saw online:

4. She’s a version of Bad Wolf.

and another thought:

5. She’s…[Read more]

that’s a great question & an interesting set of ideas, Janette.  I felt the same.

For me, the brilliant colourising of the set & cinematography didn’t leave me with a feeling of disquiet?  Had this world of doubt, created by Conrad’s Wish, used a different tone where everything was still 2025 but without the ‘50s particular co…[Read more]

Welcome back.

The return of Billie P. Think it’s probably a given that she’s almost certainly not the next Doctor

I tend to agree, although all bets are off. If she’s not the next Doctor, then what else? As you say maybe an interface between 15 and 16 (RuthDoc? She was again seen in the montage).

The vibes I got off Piper’s, very sho…[Read more]

Lovely summing up of the 3rd Doctor’s iteration. Thanks @JimtheFish.

Like @Mudlark I had intermittent access to TV after ’73 when I left home for the unstable student life* (also in […]

I hope all goes well.

It just so happened that I was watching “Inferno” where the Pertwee Doctor is transported to an alternative fascist Britain. It seemed like science fiction back in the ’70s. I really hope tolerance wins the day tomorrow.

‘No religion or politics in Ulster pubs.’ Sounds like sound advice.

My political philosophy probably doesn’t bear writing down but it’s probably something along the lines of ‘if you poke someone long enough about religion or politics long enough, they’ll probably tell you to get lost.’ (That’s the…[Read more]

As my mother used to say

Never quote your parents

No, wait. It was

When you’re in the pub never talk religion or politics

But, she had Northern Irish heritage and we know how sensitive both those topics were in that region. The point being,  I think, that you are unlikely to change anyone’s mind on…[Read more]

Maybe UNIT got hold of the other doctor. They know him. He also has a Tardis. That’s handy. Two Tardises!

I imagine a MAGA Tardis may well be Republican Red. And it would undoubtedly be significantly less good than the one inhabited by Sexyidris. I do fear the outcome of November, but while an ‘evil’ Tardis could…[Read more]

Nah, it is an evil TARDIS, designed with evil intent by an evil deity, who turns out to be the progenitor of Maga…

Not only do the recruitment  practises of UNIT leave something to be desired, but when the Doctor arrives and asks them to find S. Triad because her name is an anagram of TARDIS, they all roll their eyes:…[Read more]

UNIT recruitment?

Philby, Burgess, McLean and Bill Haydon???

And I know I missed the reason for Shirley’s absence… at CERN (possibly)?? Salt and Shake Singularity anyone…?

… but has anyone yet explained The Vlinx? V? Link?

Bringing my Susan/Flood musings from the Boom pages, to get things in their proper place.

Not sure about Mrs Flood (…) but I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up just being an indomitable elderly side character a la Wilf. (Unless, of course, she is the series 1 main villain — in which case, she might be Bad Wilf. Arf.…[Read more]

The moon and the president’s wife. As @juniperfish noted above, this references something that Missy said in The Magicians Apprentice, when she was telling Clara how long she had known the Doctor, ‘… since he stole the moon and the President’s wife …’  I seem to remember that the Doctor later disputed this, saying that he didn’t…[Read more]

oh, and never mind the methane, the sheer incandescent rage of the NMD broflakes on Twitter/YouTube could probably propel a space station on a five-year voyage….

Yes it makes one suspect that one of the trickster’s brigade has been unleashed on earth and is wrecking havoc and we don’t have the Doctor to save us.

Cheers

Janette

@Blenkinsopthebrave

I seem to recall the Doctor telling Ruby that they are in London at the same time as The Hartnell Doctor and Susan. (Or words to that effect.) And at some point a bit later he stares wistfully across at where his…

[Read more]

Thanks for those excellent links. Love it when Ian points out that Aubrey Waites’ original stage name was John Smith. And, well, of course…

I will watch again, but I seem to recall the Doctor telling Ruby that they are in London at the same time as The Hartnell Doctor and Susan. (Or words to that effect.) And at some…[Read more]

Cheers

Janette

I was put in mind of Oxygen too, and The Almost People – where people are expendible, and profit is priority.

@Juniperfish

I am a huge fan of RTD’s full-chest Doctor Woke.

I read in an interview with RTD (around the time of It’s A Sin) that he’d got to a point in life and career where he doesn’t intend to pull his punches. Fart jok…[Read more]

”What are you doing? Do you usually grab rope ladders descending from the sky?” (I may not have that word for word)

Reality of the situation… quite correct

Get the Doc to say it… and it has been said. No going back now. Cut!

He saved the show twice. And he’s gett…[Read more]

If what I have read is correct, I doubt we need spend time fretting about this Doctor’s costume. It will be like the British weather; if we don’t care much for what he is wearing this week, just wait a while and it will change.

On another tack, is the name Flood significant? It has reminded me that when I was aged around 11-12, way…[Read more]

coming back to alternatives to Chibnall who may have been contention in the mid 2010’s, and my speculation about a Whithouse/Matthieson partnership, isn’t it cur […]

One of the main frustrations for me was that – it seemed – that Chibnall mentally went “female Doctor, CHECK”, and then did nothing with it, when there was plenty of opportunity to […]

stay safe

Perhaps earlier drafts of Last Christmas had a companion hand over. Jenna Coleman changed her mind about staying quite late apparently, and of course she was the one with a double dream crab escape […]

just to add my thoughts on the sad loss of Ian Gibson.
And to echo Jim’s plea that we put Mick McMahon into some sort of protective space.

(but not an iso cube)

Gibson’s flowing lyrical lines were so powerful for me when I saw them in 2000AD.
It created an environment and characterisation that couldn’t…[Read more]

That’s a really interesting, informative, and well written piece. Thanks.

Lots of gems of info in there; the Jasper Carrott – Doctor Who link seems like it should be an obscure pub quiz question (or perhaps a Q in T’Other place’s Thursday Quiz – run, if you weren’t aware, by the G’s #1 Doctor Who fan Martin Belam.)

The point you…[Read more]

The story was written in the first year of Doctor Who Weekly in 1980. Very different times. I was 10 for a start! Living in the industrial Midlands in a mining town.

Obviously @jimthefish has talked enthusiastically about the production transition from comic to screen and I share his awe. 10 year old me would have been…[Read more]

Really enjoyed reading your Cathode Rave article.

And yet, it would be wrong to say that the Baker era, for all its metatextual playfulness is wholly apolitical. The lack of seriousness in the Fourth Doctor is a political play in itself and, like his predecessor, there is always an edge of mocking disdain in any of the Doctor’s d…

[Read more]

Gutted to hear that myself. If anyone doesn’t know about the impact Halo Jones had on Andrew Cartmel’s run on Doctor Who can I post this link to the blog on 2000AD I wrote back when we were doing retrospectives?

2000AD Doctor Who (Gridlock edition)

That is indeed very sad news. I was a little bit in love with Halo Jones when I was young. He also did fine work on other characters – making Judge Dredd a skinny boy is bold but he pulled it off (and something I appreciate, being a skinny boy).

I just grabbed this off my shelf – think I’ll read it again tonight.

@jimthefish – If you thought the trailer screamed Harry Potter, this screams pure and utter fantasy. I will try and reserve judgement until Christmas.

I know there are a good few Ballad of Halo Jones and 2000 AD fans in our little group, and I just wanted to mark the sad news today of the passing of artist Ian Gibson, after a long battle with cancer. Pat Mills tweeted it out earlier, but it’s now been…[Read more]

The only thing I really want to see is Tennant saying ‘I want to go’,

Allons-y is close enough I guess….

Something that occurs to me is that when Chibs took over it didn’t seem like viable alternatives were exactly queuing up to take over as Who showrunner. I get the feeling […]

A “pet Tennant” 😀 Who wouldn’t want one of those?!

That’s interesting @Phaseshift about the bi-generation reverberating back through all the incarnations. I think Ncuti-Doc says something about he can only go on unencumbered by the PTSD if Tennant-Doc takes his retirement/rehabilitation seriously, so…[Read more]

are you suggesting that there’s a link between the Fendahl and the Great Vampires — maybe relates species or sub-species? Cos I like that idea a lot.

Yes, although I blame Steven Moffat who had Missy musing that maybe all lifeforms may hit a technological point that they think “let’s give cybermen a go! What could go wro…[Read more]

Just wow.

Not the episode. I enjoyed it, was happy to see Tennant and Tate again and sparring off each other.

But wow – it’s great to hear/see so many people being… erudite and bonkers and engaged again.
And that includes (newer) people saying “who the hell are you and do you mean me?”
:¬)

@juniperfish – there’s an entire comment of…[Read more]

* But if I failed to notice on first viewing that Nathaniel Curtis’s skin tone and facial features differed slightly from the North European norm, maybe my powers of observation are not particularly reliable

Ha! Me too 😉

But I think you’re spot on with the class thing (which @Jimthefish pointed out in a blog post many moons ago, and i…[Read more]

On the subject of The Celestial Toymaker which came up in the discussion of The Wild Blue Yonder, it has been confirmed that animated versions of the lost episodes are to be made.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-the-celestial-toymaker-animation-confirmed-newsupdate

I guess regeneration is plastic only within core Shobogan DNA variations.

That’s exactly on point, I think. If Time Lords were capable of taking on on the appearance of any and every  life form they encountered they would be only a few steps removed from zygons, whose ability to morph has a very different biological b…[Read more]

I think what I am anxious about is summed up in a word: Marvel

I love both of those ideas – “the imprinting” in particular.

Body-snatcher wise, you might wonder why the Time Lords only pick humanoids to copy, with the whole of time and space and alien forms to choose from. But I guess regeneration is plastic only within core Shobogan DNA variations.

The revivification of the Timeless Child is…[Read more]

Why do I feel more nervous than exhilarated about that announcement?

I would hope that’s not true, and would be a bit shocked if it were. Hopefully next time they will get it right. It would be nice to see Louisa Harland (Orla from Derry Girls) in the TARDIS…

But I’m getting off-topic. Any further Chibnall rambling by me will go under @JimTheFish Chibnall retrospective blog.

Not your standard Hollywood fare…

I’ll search out the DVD version for the extras. Thanks