I feel like we haven’t talked about Rogue’s line about loss – sometimes the simplest dialogue is the best:

“We travelled together, we had fun, and then one day a day came along, and at the end of that day, I lost them.”

I love that line – it captures the shock and the banality, the unexpected finality of loss. We know death is coming,…[Read more]

@JanetteB

He promises to take Rogue to Gallifrey. Does that mean that Gallfirey still exists?

Yes I noticed that and I was happy, as I was not a fan of the re-genociding of Gallifrey by the Dhawan Master. It detracted IMHO from the fact that the War Doctor was responsible/ the 9th and 10th and 11th Doctors believed he was responsible for the…[Read more]

I realise with a smile that RTD2 set this episode in Bath in 1813 – that’s the year Pride and Prejudice was published.

Not only that, but Austen lived in Bath for a bit, and at an address in Gay Street no less. Two of her novels were set there too, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

Rogue is certainly about pride and prejudice, given the Doctor’s…[Read more]

@bunface

Noticed second time that Varma’s bird form entered the room to announce the wedding saying ‘wilkommen, bienvenue’ like the Emcee in Cabaret. A film all about masquerade and queerness in the face of a very dark threat.

Ooh – I missed that – more masquerade – love it… I am forever a fan of Alan Cumming’s version of Cabaret.

The bird-headed shape-shifters kept ringing a bell in my head and I’ve now twigged what they put me in mind of…

Has anyone read John Fowles’ The Magus? I read it when I was far too young, which is of course, exactly the right age (my parents had excellent inappropriate bookshelves in the hallways) and as such it was absolutely…[Read more]

@ScaryB

“queering” of the Doctor. (Not delved into the nether regions of Twitter tho, or BTL comments). But this old school DW veteran is very happy.

Me too – I’m delighted. I may have let out an undignified squeal once Gatwa Doc starting getting his flirt on with Rogue.

@Miapatrick I feel the need for a rainbow TARDIS mug with Gatwa-Doc lea…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u  I actually saw a fun tongue-in-cheek theory on Twitter suggesting the Doctor got banished to the Barbie universe (presumably to eternal dance-offs with the other Kens) when he broke the faerie ring and released Mad Jack (I enjoyed Barbie incidentally, to be honest a lot more than Oppenheimer – biopics are almost always too…[Read more]

@bunface

so maybe the fact Ruby Sunday (I mean, the name!) is so very reminiscent of Rose/Amy/Clara is because she’s full on alien, even in the world of Who. That is, she isn’t just alien, she’s a supernatural/fairy tale/Disney character.

Which makes me wonder, is she even real to the Doctor, only he doesn’t know it yet?

Yessssss – and therefor…[Read more]

Hello @cathannabel

which makes me sad that Whitaker got such a raw deal with both the quality of scripts and stories, and the pandemic disrupting her run

Yes a discussion for another thread, but heartily agree (I think there were some banger one-off scripts but a timidity about the first female Doctor when there should have been a swagger – if…[Read more]

@coockgroom

re mrs flood being Ruby, someone mentioned a few weeks ago, that mrs Flood didn’t recognise the Tardis when it appeared, but realised it was a type of tardis when it dematerialised.

Hmmm – perhaps in the time-line Mrs. Flood (as a version of Old Ruby) is from, the Doctor’s TARDIS never got stuck as a 1960s Earth Police Box? &…[Read more]

Having some more thoughts about Susan Twist…

Ruby has been followed around time and space by three old women now:

1) Mrs. Flood, posing as her next door neighbour in The Church on Ruby Road who knows what a TARDIS is, and prompts her to get on board;

2) Old Witchy Ruby in 73 Yards  who haunts her younger self in order to, eventually, prompt…[Read more]

Well, that was a savage satire on our times, and I loved it.

Dot and bubble – the dot-com bubble – a metaphor for the way ‘civilisations’ fall through myopia, and the how the rich, despite their supremacist fantasy beliefs, simply cannot insulate themselves from such civilisational collapse.

It immediately put me in mind of Douglas Rushkof…[Read more]

@Mudlark

 …trust me, I’m an archaeologist

If I were an archeologist I would definitely have a sign/ bumper sticker somewhere with River’s immortal line from The Husbands of River Song, “I’m an archaologist from the future, I dug you up”.

As for Ruby giving birth to herself, she’d have to have boffed her own Dad to do it, and I really don’t se…[Read more]

@pufferfish <waves at fellow fish!>

@thane16 @blenkinsopthebrave @mudlark  – loving the speculation that Ruby could be her own mother.

However, whilst I can see someone being their own father as theoretically possible (Back to the Future gone full Oedipus) wouldn’t being your own mother create an immediate temporal paradox of the kind that, in…[Read more]

@devilishrobby That must have been very scary, but I’m very glad to hear you’re being looked after in hospital – sorry about the crap wifi though!

@mudlark I love your several generations of women ring.

Your suggestion that Old Witchy Ruby is “our” timeline Ruby from the future is a good one.

But my head still hurts, because young Ruby at the…[Read more]

@Craig – thanks so much for posting Old Witchy Ruby’s fingers showing the ring (and noted re how to link to pictures for the future – many thanks – will attempt it).

I always get my left and right mixed up – bit dyspraxic!

I remember you posting your wife’s picture before, but just to say again how lovely she looks. Russell T Davies gave an…[Read more]

@WhoHar

…the older Ruby appeared no older than younger Ruby. I assume this was deliberate, rather than lazy makeup choices.

Yes, I’ve been thinking about that – an indication of additional genetic longevity linked to Ruby’s mysterious parentage?

Something else I noticed is that Old Witchy Ruby is wearing a wedding ring in the final shot from…[Read more]

@cookgroom

Wasn’t sure if I missed something about Marti?… why was she scared of him (and why did she stay?)

I think the implication is that ap Gwillam sexually coerced/ abused Marti Bridges. He creepily insisted she (a mere volunteer in the hierarchy – so a massive power gap between them) be invited to his celebration party (but no other “low lev…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

Glyngatwg means “Valley of the Cat” apparently:

https://x.com/DoctorWhoPN/status/1792615329429917783

I wonder if the pub name, Y Pren Marw, which means “The Dead Wood” according to Martin Bellam on T’Other Place, together with “The Valley of the Cat” are both tributes to stories by that master of weird folk horror Algernon…[Read more]

Well that was excellent and has added to the arc in a couple of interesting ways:

Firstly, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart confirms that we are in a universe where fantasy is bleeding into reality, when she says: to Ruby; “We’re the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, created to investigate the extraterrestrial and, more and more, the supernatural. Things…[Read more]