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]

@bunface and @brewski and @mudlark

@bunface – hmmm your avatar has recalled Stooky Sue from The Giggle for me, in relation to all three of your speculations about the return of the Doctor’s granddaughter.

Stooky Sue = Susan foreshadowing?

Stooky Sue had three Stooky babbies – so it seems the Doctor’s progeny is definitely a thread to pull on.

@ScaryB – Good thought on the resonance of Larkin to the story arc via his most famous “they f- you up” poem on the difficult relationship between parents and children:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse

I agree “Splice” is a very odd name for a kid, and I wonder if her name is also meant to resonate with the…[Read more]

@Blenkinsopthebrave

Yes re the ambiguity of the last lines of the poem:

Our almost-instinct almost true: 
What will survive of us is love

And I’m back to thinking about the Master and the Doctor and their relationship.

We’ve got the Chekhov’s gun of finding out in The Giggle that the Master was imprisoned inside a gold tooth by The Toymaker…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

Is Ruby human or Timelord? River only became a Timelady because she was exposed in vivo to The Vortex.

Well Rory believed/chose to accept that.

Well I snorted at that – poor faithful old Rory – but of course if what you imply were the alternative, the Doctor would, in marrying River, have actually married his own daughter so……[Read more]

Apologies for the double-post above folks – @craig please do delete one of them – not sure why it duplicated?

I went back for a rewatch and am thinking about the “hidden song deep inside her soul” that Maestro discovers with some shock that Ruby has inside her, Carol of the Bells, the song that was playing the night she was born.

“How can a song have so much power, and power like him… the oldest one… he can’t have been there… the night of her…[Read more]

@ScaryB

Re The Skye Boat Song – that’s also a call back to the Troughton era (the Yeti in London (recently rediscovered and revitalised)) – Troughton plays it on his flute.

Someone on T’Other place mentioned that the Great Intelligence (whom we meet for the first time in that Troughtn story) is associated with snow. so there’s a possible link t…[Read more]

@Blenkinsopthebrave Yes, and the Doctor quotes Philip Larkin at the end of the episode; “What will survive of us is love” which is from the poem An Arundel Tomb:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47594/an-arundel-tomb

which is about a lovers’ tomb and contains a reference to snow:

“Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths
Of time.…[Read more]

And there is singing in this episode again – the Doctor sings the Skye Boat Song.

Obviously that’s a nod to Gatwa’s Scottish self. It’s also a song about an exile (Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Stuart would-be King) and one who tries to return home, but cannot, and must ultimately live the rest of his life in exile. So perhaps that song resonated…[Read more]

Wow Gatwa is excellent, isn’t he! And Gibson held her own beautifully.

Those tense exchanges as the Doctor balances on the landmine – the fear, the stress, the emotion and the thinking calculation arising from the depths of our very old Gallifreyan friend, as he deals with his very young Earth companion in this deeply dangerous spot he’s got them…[Read more]

@Whohar – Addendum – I think this was the interview Gatwa did with the gay magazine Attitude which caused ire in certain quarters:

https://www.attitude.co.uk/culture/ncuti-gatwa-attitude-interview-464142/