@craig  I’ll join with @cathannabel and @blenkinsopthebrave and @mudlark and @winston in thanking you so much for everything you’ve done for us in keeping this forum going.

I know it’s taken plenty of your time and energy (and some money too). It’s your gift, so if you’re weary, you should look after yourself first. We appreciate you.

But, I…[Read more]

Blimey, well that was a bit of a head-spinner.

This episode One, Upon Time perhaps takes us back, by allusion, to the episode in which Capaldi regenerated into Whit-Doc – as that episode was titled Twice Upon a Time.

As we are meeting Jo Martin’s “Fugitive Doctor” again, it seems confirmed she’s a previous incarnation whose existence has been…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip  – I love the idea that Dan is the Master (maybe chamelion-arched?).

@whereami62 – the credits described blue crystal-face dude as “Swarm”.

But there’s a lot we don’t know. Swarm the blue entity seems to consume life-force in a similar way to the space-cloud called the Flux. So, are they they same entity, say, at different stages…[Read more]

Merry meet everyone!

Thanks to @Craig for keeping the Forum going.

I’m excited for a serial story, as I much prefer a contiguous narrative thread to pull on, Minotaur style.

There WAS a lot going on and I feel I need a re-watch – bit of a Halloween smorgasbord of aliens, with Sontarans, dog-aliens, whoever blue-crystal-face (Swarm) is, Weeping…[Read more]

Hey everyone <waves> Came here too when I saw the news on Twitter this morning.

Absolutely gutted about Dan. Without his Doctor Who exhuberance and the extensive space provided back then below the line of his recaps on The Graun, we wouldn’t have this lovely place. I’ll always think fondly of the Moffat/ Guardian “golden years” on his blog.

LGBT…[Read more]

@Jimthefish He’s there for the benefit of a bit of fan service rather than being narratively necessary.

Except, Jack is only one of a handful of the Doctor’s previous companions who can time-travel independently. And we do seem to be getting gratifyingly timey-wimey. Maybe the Jack who the “Fam” just met came from further up the present ti…[Read more]

@Jimthefish Oh I’m pretty confident the “cyberman” clue will pay off in a future story.

The Captain isn’t for everyone, I know that. But I personally love his swashbuckling, piratical, big bisexual energy 🙂

In a way, it was a smart writers’ move not to have Jack and WhitDoc meet, because I kind of think this version of the Doctor might get on…[Read more]

@Miapatrick Yes,  in terms of the distance WhitDoc has been keeping from her companions, from a character point of view, we can argue it make makes sense, particularly after all the trauma of the Time War and its aftermath and losing River and then Clara and Bill, all in upsetting ways.

Although, that’s also, perhaps, a little generous to the…[Read more]

Wow, well Vinay Patel is officially my favourite writer on Chibnall’s team.

That was the first time I’ve felt really gripped with the excitement that is Doctor Who at its best since the start of the Chibnall era.

Loved seeing Captain Jack again – always a fave Nu Who character for me, and he came bearing a cyberman mystery too. And (and this is…[Read more]

@mudlark I like your idea that the Scythra (I know it’s officially Skithra, but I like my spelling better) are a hive species.

@bluesqueakpip Yes, I can buy your distinction in terms of the Spyfall mind-wipe for tech-whizz Lovelace (as she’d seen the future) vs the lack of mind-wipe for tech-whizz Tesla. But, as you and @jimthefish and @mudlark…[Read more]

@Mudlark Yes – the origins of Elon Musk’s own Tesla company are more complex than the “genius inventor founder” mythology:

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-the-origin-story-2014-10?r=US&IR=T

@miapatrick Yes, I wish we’d spent more time with Lovelace. She deserved a whole episode of her own.

And also, glaring incongruity – why did Lovelace have to get her memory wiped, but Tesla (who saw the inside of the TARDIS) didn’t?

Just to re-ignite the ethics of the mind-wipe debate @Jimthefish was having earlier!

BTW, I don’t think the…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip Good thinking about a Scythra scavenger parallel to the Time Lords.

If we put that together with the genetic mutation focus of the last two episodes, I think we might guess the answer is that the Time Lords scavenged genetics and then (dark, but great story) undertook genetic experiments on their kids, perhaps to make them “time sensitive”?

Well, it seems the Chibnall era is going to be remembered best for its historical episodes.

I enjoyed this one.

The Scythra (Skithra?) Queen was a gorgeous scorpion-alien, with all those talons and teeth and head protuberances. A little similar to the Empress of Racnoss, perhaps.

Tesla’s story had that nice sense of time-travel poignancy to it,…[Read more]

I just realised, that Sacha Dhawan was also in Sherlock, in The Six Thatchers, as Ajay (one of Mary’s old assasin gang) as well as being in Dracula and now Doctor Who,

In S4 of Sherlock, things were definitely not what they seemed, especially because of Culverton and his mind-wipe/ alteration drug TD-12.

In Dracula Part 2, as I said before,…[Read more]

@Jimthefish I’m not massively keen on Gallifrey’s re-destruction personally. It all depends how it plays out, of course

I’m not massively keen on it either. I LOVE Gallifreyan stories, but it feels a bit odd, after the long and wondrous arc of the Time War across Doctors Ecclestone to the War Doctor (and then Capaldi Doc’s search for the Gall…[Read more]

@jimthefish Congrats Dr. Fish!

@mudlark – I got the impression Lucy was self-medicating with (illegal) drugs and drink, so that enabled her to party “vivaciously” whilst being depressed inside. But, I am not a clinician, likewise.

Either way, we can perhaps agree, she was “in love with death” because she was unhappy, on some deep level, with herself.

@Craig you are indeed Emperor 🙂 And Tim Minchin is fab.

@missrori @jimthefish

Essentially, the whole of Nu Who, up until the “fix it” of The Name of the Doctor, has the Doctor as having committed genocide against his own people. In The Satan Pit, the Beast refers to Tennant Doc as “the killer of his own kind” and we eventually find out what…[Read more]

P.S @jimthefish and @missrori I’d like to continue the discussions about the Doctor’s morality, as I think it’s a really interesting topic (and personally I don’t think WhitDoc is more morally dubious than previous Nu Who Docs) but this is a General Open Thread for TV shows other than Dr. Who so we need to take it somewhere else on the forum!…[Read more]