“Congratulations lying is a vital survival skill… and a terrible habit”. The Doctor sounds very grand-fatherly, don’t you think?

Clara as a “leader” in training, who calls herself “Doctor” and wields the sonic – rather grand-daughterly, no?

This wasn’t one of my favourite episodes of the season, although the concept of two dimensional be…[Read more]

Nice discussion @Phaseshift and @JimtheFish and @Blenkinsopthebrave about the nature of soap as a genre and in its defence.

To that I would add that there is often an un-thought out response which labels “soap” as a derisory form when there is a gendered cultural history to that. Soap was created as drama aimed at women (paid for by soap m…[Read more]

I do wish Jenny and Vastra had been on the Orient Express in space – I feel they would have acquitted themselves admirably and no doubt Vastra would have wanted to eat Gus for breakfast – the rascally chuffing rapscallion.

Oh – jinx @JimtheFish – we said virtually the same thing in simultaneous posts – woooooo – through the fish pond looking glass 🙂

I liked your post @soundworld “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

I think Nu Who is more “mythic” in general than Old Who – the latter did often hold up science as a great truth. These days the Doctor rarely describes himself as a scientist (I did love his line about being a doctor of…[Read more]

@JimtheFish I really love Capaldi’s Doctor. He’s so accomplished an actor that the smallest of tics or gestures conveys so much.

If I had to rank the Nu Who Doctors in order of their places of affection in my heart, I’d have to say Smithy and Capaldi and Ecclestone all come in ahead of Tennant for me.  It’s a shame but I think Tennant got lost…[Read more]

@PhileasF I like the idea of Missy as Penelope but Missy refers to the Doctor as her “boyfriend” and I suspect if the Doctor’s children and grand-children are eventually part of the narrative (which I think they will be) then Moff (who is a bit of a traditionalist) would consider the Doctor had a wife once on Gallifrey (not a…[Read more]

@MTGradwell Thanks for the reverse engineering explanation. So GUS wanted to build more killer Mummies…

@Various

Interesting some people dislike Clara this season. I much prefer her. I remember when she first arrived as Oswin Dalek and I thought she was great, then she became a sort of blank canvas whose defining characteristic was fancying…[Read more]

@PhileasF  Regarding your (a) above, GUS says that:

“Your goal is to ascertain the Foretold’s true nature, probe for weaknesses, with a view to capture, after which we will reverse engineer its abilities!”

Of course, GUS might be lying about the true nature of the enterprise, but what would “reverse engineering” of the Foretold’s ability to…[Read more]

@Phaseshift You are sweet – cheering up a sick fish 🙂

I have to say that I find the mythological undercurrents in Moffat’s Who somewhat frustrating because whilst they are clearly there (and I love your sycamore tree catch) it wouldn’t take much, and needn’t disturb the waters of the casual viewer, to sew a more consistent thread…[Read more]

@Phaseshift  You know perfectly well Egyptology is @Juniperfish bait ! 🙂

We’ve talked about Clara as Isis before, because she puts the Doctor back together when she jumps into his time stream (and remember she was also wearing that winged brooch in the rings of Akhaten), the way Isis put the scattered body parts of Osiris back together. Osi…[Read more]

@Pedant We don’t have much to go on in terms of a Gus/ Missy relationship.

Except – both create virtual worlds.

Missy is nefariously “saving” people to one whilst Gus was nefariously slaughtering people “for science” in another.

Each of them seems to be “testing” the Doctor in some way – Missy by “saving” people who have died in the eddy of his…[Read more]

@ScaryB  Lol re the Doctor’s telephone number 🙂

@Bluesqueakpip I’d have to agree with @BadWulf that the Kill the Moon choice was presented to Clara and Courtney as between potentially mass deaths on earth due to flooding (hello climate change reference) and killing an innocent baby creature – no good choice there (from their perspective)…[Read more]

@ScaryB <waves> It was the Marcus Aurelius quote I was thinking of – his full name was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus.

I think a theme of the Time Lords as the Roman Empire of the galaxy is developing.

Perhaps “Gus” and Missy are rogue Time Lords. I like that idea @Devilishrobby

Hmmmn – well “Gus” is short for Augustus – first Roman emperor. Wasn’t there a quote about Augustus on the blackboard in Clara’s school in a previous episode? Anyone?

The question of “rule” is looming large, what with the Doctor identified as “officer class”, and saluted whether sarcastically by Danny or gratefully by the Mummy. What right do the…[Read more]

@Pedant – I agree – Clara thought Eleven was hot but she has a more complicated (and much more interesting) relationship with Twelve – a love-hate relationship. And the entire vibe is much more father-daughter, as you say. I’m not sure where @DanMartinUK is getting the sexual tension from!

Also, after last week’s episode, which passed the Bechdel test with flying colours, this one deliberately took the piss, with Clara and Maisie locked in the sarcophagus room decrying the fact that all they can talk about is a man, only to spend the time talking about just that.

Plus – I was very taken with the Doctor’s snazzy jelly baby case -…[Read more]

Well the mirroring of the War Doctor’s terrible choice in each of the narratives this season, which I’ve been banging on about, is made even more explicit in this episode.

Sometimes, there are no good choices but you have to make them anyway.

A war-weary soldier kept artificially alive by tech… so that’s how the Doctor is feeling about his n…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip and @Phaseshift

We will revisit the Doctor’s crib before Moffat is done however, I swear it.

And to be fair, Moff is fond of a pregnancy story – having them in both Doctor Who and Sherlock.

I think the reason why a baby (moon dragon) was the entity to be killed or not to be killed to potentially save many people on earth in Kill t…[Read more]

@Pedant

True! But not the same as facing them all, his Time Lord people, those who he killed in the previous time line, and receiving judgement and/ or forgiveness in person.

Clearly at the moment, Twelve feels he is not worthy of those new regenerations. And he is stuck, replaying or acting out the trauma of the War Doctor’s choice (or forcing…[Read more]