@jphamlore  Is it possible that Moffat has throughout the season been portraying the Doctor as a victim of PTSD

Interesting; it would be no surprise if the Doctor *were* subject to PTSD for a long succession of highly traumatic events, but some core elements seem not to apply (suicidal thoughts and impulses?  Flashbacks?  Uncontrollable ou…[Read more]

@jphamlore  if you put on a soldier’s uniform, with the possible exception of someone who is a Gallifreyan foot soldier, the Doctor is almost going to go out of his way to make sure you die for your country for your sin. 

Oh, hardly; he didn’t blow up the plane or insist on a military patrol to go to the church.  But he seems to feel that if you…[Read more]

@jphamlore  Wow, that’s a great hunk of background — if I ever knew it, I’ve forgotten it completely, and that’s *without* a neural blocker, mind!  Well, what you’re describing seems to be the War Doctor.  CapDoc, in our time, has shown great distaste for soldiering and soldiers (despite having hung in there for quite a bit of it on Wh…[Read more]

@jphamlore Yes, but Clara didn’t have that ability (so far as we know, being a human) when she took on the similar role in Trap Street.  They both took on a dangerous ‘countdown to death’.  I’m just pointing it out as the Mummy incident was referenced in Hell Bent. (Cue joke: are you my Mummy? – Oh! Perhaps that ties into the bonkers theory a…[Read more]

Well!

I’m a bit late to the party and don’t think I can add anything new to what all of you have so eloquently expressed.

I was a day late watching, by which time you were up to page 4, time has been very limited so a rewatch late last night – and now you’re on page 7!!

Its great to rewatch bearing in mind all the wonderful comments, theories…[Read more]

@Jphamlore

Yes, but Clara’s wasn’t the only death in Face the Raven. Her complete faith in the Doctor’s ability to get them out of anything died too. The whole point of the ending is that she’s now making her own decisions; getting yourself killed is a particularly brutal way to discover that you might not always make the right ones.

That’s the…[Read more]

@notime You’re welcome!

@pedant  All of the times I thought the Doctor knew something, those sideways furrowed-brow glances (leading to the whole “Are the episodes in the right order?” debate) can now be more easily and more realistically interpreted as becoming increasingly concerned: the difference between “bad luck” and “an accident waiting to…[Read more]

@Jphamlore

Except the episode has taught Clara there are some things that simply cannot be done, that would endanger time and space itself.

Ummm… yes?

I’m really not sure what you’re trying to say here. Apparently Ashildr is going to be so focussed on limits, that Clara will give up?

Or that Clara will have to choose to return to Trap…[Read more]

@jphamlore

Frankly, given Clara’s success in getting the Doctor, Bonnie, Ice Warrior Field Marshals and assorted other aliens to think more like Clara, I suspect she’s considerably more likely to Clara-ise Ashildr rather than the other way round.

Ashildr may have lived over several billions of years, but it’s been stated quite firmly that she…[Read more]

On the third page! 🙂

@Morpho
It sounds as if, having agreed to treat the Eighth Doctor’s audio adventures as canon, Moffat’s going full tilt for the audio canon explanation of the Sisterhood – which is that the Sisterhood aren’t just neighbours of Gallifrey, they’re exiled Gallifreyans. Rassillon didn’t like their religion, so they had to do a…[Read more]

@rorysmith – you’re bang on with the Ashildr/doctor theorising scene. i totally imagine moffatt reading this very forum in prep for a scene like that. i think all those theories they bandied were posited on here at some point. it reminded me of that scene in Sherlock (series3) when he’s discussing how he escaped his jump from the hospital roof…[Read more]

@bluesqueskpip  Love your post #48897, above — great.  This:  it’s the Doctor who thinks he’s playing the starring role in a tragedy. However, the universe – in the person of the current producer – knows he’s playing the starring role in a comedy.

And this:  When we see Face The Raven in hindsight, as the ‘regeneration’ story of Clara into Doc…[Read more]

@morpho

The General’s regeneration seemed pretty toned down. We may have come in at the tail end, but there were no signs of damage. New regeneration style, or perhaps on Gallifrey these things can be tempered somewhat?

Regenerations might go more smoothly on Gallifrey- the environment does appear to have some impact? It does seem though that t…[Read more]

@JimTheFish      But opening with Skaro and ending with Gallifrey and with more than a few serious Who highpoints in between, that was, in my view, one of the most accomplished series of Who, either BG or AG.   Oh, I definitely agree with this. I loved Series 8 but this was better. At the moment, I can’t think of a misstep, and the whole thing…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@lisa

Sorry if bits of  this is preaching in large parts to the choir ande been aired on this sites lots of times before, but anyway….It seems to me that in BG Who, there was a strong emphasis on tight stories. In AG Who, there is far less concern for tight stories and much more emphasis on the dramatic flourish or the `thing’ (I wish I’d come…[Read more]

@jphamlore

I made four attempts to watch Andriej Tarkowski’s Solaris and I failed every time. I can’t agree with his vision of the future.

@countscarlioni  on the hybrid: It appears the Doctor truly believes he is the hybrid, but that does not necessarily mean that he’s right. Or perhaps there can be more than one hybrid. It might not be either/or.

Excellent point — he’s been wrong before, after all.

@jphamlore  Not only that but for just this one episode, that the Doctor’s pocke…[Read more]

Having rewatched without the drawback of being on large amounts of painkillers, I have to say it’s been upgraded to magnificent and I now get the missing flagstone and where it went  – which should have been obvious, but I wasn’t at my best on Saturday.

@jphamlore like the ideas about the dial