@geoffers Yes @HTPBDET took the long view and his loving critique was definitely an inspiration. Let’s toast him for the New Year!

@ScaryB Ah ha – well my theory is that perhaps the Doctor’s Mother (whom we saw in The End of Time) and a coterie of Time Lords sympathetic to the Doctor somehow created Tasha Lem.

Not all Time Lords agreed with the…[Read more]

Just some additional thoughts on the Tasha Lem / River Song connection.

The actress who plays Tasha, Orla Brady, said in a pre-air BBC interview that she meant to ask Moffat if her name was a reference to the writer Stanislaw Lem, the famous Polish sci-fi author who wrote Solaris.

In that most famous of his works, a sentient planet recreates a d…[Read more]

@Phaseshift  re “brilliant and bonkers” <laughs fishily> 🙂 Well, we have to live up to our by-line, right?

@Purofilion and @ScaryB glad you enjoyed it!

What some of our dear participants seem to be missing, is that fan speculation is a form of play. And play is such an important part of being fully alive, whatever age you are. The Doctor w…[Read more]

But can anyone identify the paintings that surround Tasha Lem’s altar/ bed?

I’m wondering whether they are from Michael Angelo’s Last Judgement (Sistene Chapel) which would be neat!

If Tasha Lem is River, it would be a fitting role reversal at the end.

On Trenzalore the Doctor is, effectively, in prison (certainly for a time traveller, being…[Read more]

Right <hastily swallows a Christmas fish-biscuit> back to Trenzalore and Tasha Lem.

The most interesting parts of Moffat’s Who sometimes do seem to happen off-screen in the under-realms of speculation.

Did I mention I am still The Grinch when it comes to Who Christmas episodes? 🙂

I’ve been thinking about Trenza Lore – trenza means “braid” in…[Read more]

Oops double post! Happy the Doc’s name is the key to the TL return!

Happy Christmas all!

Im not a fan of the Who Christmas episodes as a rule - they often add too much saccharine, and I cant really say this was an exception unfortunately. Harumph!

A town called Christmas filled with Victorian literature type folk ? Nooo – just why?

I wasn’t keen on the ‘you’re my boyfriend / ding dong’ Woody Allen in space…[Read more]

Hey all,

I’m still betting on doppleganger Elevens – one “light side”, one “dark side” – with Eleven “dark side” as The Valeyard (he being the version of Eleven from the time-stream where Gallifrey did fall).

Hoping River makes an appearance!

@ScaryB Sorry for getting glitter in your fur and for getting you into trouble with our new overlord @FatManInABox – heh – but not that sorry – glitter is immutable 🙂 

@CraigNixon I miss Oswin Dalek myself – definitely my favourite Claricle. A gift to fan fiction at any rate.

<sprinkles glittery seasonal space-dust all over the sofa>

Oops! I know glitter is very hard to get out of things and everyone’s jammy dodgers will now be gold-flecked for weeks…

<swims off, cackling with dubious fishy shadow-double>

@Blenkinsopthebrave Glad you and Mrs. Blenkinsop had an enjoyable sniffly watch together.

I’m really fascinated by the way in which this show about time travel has travelled in time! A fictionalised origins drama by a grown-up child fan to mark the 50th, wrought in an inevitably tinted-by-today vision of the ’60s, yet all about age and time!

Apparently (according to the Doctor Who official Twitter feed), Sarah Jane Smith made her first appearance today forty years ago – more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006v18m/profiles/sarah-jane-smith

I know SFX is full on industry guff , but they’ve got a rather nice interview with Moffat about the departure of Smithy and the arrival of Capaldi this month. Preview of it here: 

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/12/09/peters-quite-vital-steven-moffat-talks-twelfth-doctor-peter-capaldi/

The Resonance show sounds great @Wolfweed  – thanks for pointing i…[Read more]

@Phaseshift I am going to be the Christmas goose with the golden plug, I can see 🙂

@Craig – Trailers are always the grey area between Spoilers and Speculation threads – the third time-stream!

I vacillate as to whether I engage with them – wibbley-wobbley and unhelpful I know.

Why not have a trailers thread, as it’s Christmas 🙂

@ardaraith The Doctor’s cot is certainly prominent… I’m calling it – “Dr. Who and the Storks of Time”.

@Wolfweed “What if it turns out Matt Smith’s tenure was all a dream & he wakes up in the shower with Tennant”

Get thee and thy fan fiction to the Fan Creativity thread! What do you mean, it’s me?

That scenario would make a lot of fans happ…[Read more]

Thanks @Phaseshift for the @DanMartinUK alert – swam fishily over there to post in the other time-stream before returning mysteriously sans fez.