@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]

@jimthefish <waves at old fishy comrade> I also loved the BBC’s Dicken’s adaptation. I thought it was beautifully shot – amazing use of light and shadow. Guy Pearce was excellent and it was great to see Vinette Robinson again (who played Rosa Parks in Rosa last season of Doctor Who).  Bringing some of the darker Victorian issues (around abuse) to…[Read more]

@missrori I absolutely love Nausicaa and I totally agree – it wasn’t the Dregs’ fault that they were the way they were – a broken eco-system had resulted in their genetic mutation, so it’s a shame the Doctor couldn’t communicate with them more as a species.

I agree with you @Rob , it wasn’t clear what level of sentience they had. Were they…[Read more]

@Spider Yes, the, “Bat’s aren’t real part” was definitely funny – I enjoyed that.

@Mudlark and @Miapatrick – Perhaps it was a combo of nuclear and environmental catastrophe, as you say. The nuclear element might better explain the genetic mutation of humans into Dregs, which did, you’re right, somewhat resemble the Alien (also an apex…[Read more]

Well, that was a kind of Planet of the Apes AU wasn’t it – only this time it’s environmental apocalypse rather than nuclear apocalypse which is (very much) on our minds.

I quite liked the Doctor’s blunt speech about humanity needing to change, and it being up to us. I wish she’d completely broken the fourth wall and just looked straight to…[Read more]

@Phaseshift Sounds like a good book 🙂

I haven’t seen Moffat’s Jekyll and now feel compelled to get hold of it, as there’s obviously quite a trilogy going on there – Jekyll, Dracula and Sherlock. 

Did you see Penny Dreadful (UK TV series for Showtime a few years ago)?  That was a really interesting mash-up of a number of Victorian gothic n…[Read more]

@Mudlark I think Lucy was depicted as both self-absorbed, as you say, and depressed. She was obsessed with being “pretty” but she also recognised that people reacted to her superficially because of her looks, so her sense of self-worth was actually quite disturbed, which, sadly, led her to be attracted to death, as an escape.

Really the poor…[Read more]

@Craig Thanks – and yes it was my fault – I was trying to copy and paste too much Wikipedia about DNA separating techniques!

@claire54 My overall take is, now that we have a female doctor, the writers don’t know what to do with her.

Yes, unfortunately I do not think Chibnall has been equal to the task.

Elements which I’ve found jarring in the w…[Read more]

@lisa and @bluesqueakpip

Ahhhh – thanks re the fish!

I just Googled “CO fish” (combining “C” and “O” code-names) and found this on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-FISH#CO-FISH_(chromosome_orientation-FISH)

<b>”Fluorescence <i>in situ</i> hybridization </b>(<b>FISH</b>) is a molecular cytogenetic technique that uses…[Read more]

OK I’ll have to try and say this in a different way!

@lisa and @bluesqueakpip

Many thanks re the fish!

I just Googled “CO fish” (combining “C” and “O” code-names) and found this on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-FISH#CO-FISH_(chromosome_orientation-FISH)

Perhaps there is a DNA “joke” going on here on the Master’s…[Read more]

@craig I’m having trouble posting as the website thinks I’ve ghost-posted already?!

@miapatrick  I felt as though the 7% not human DNA was a big part of Barton’s coldness here.

Yes, true. But there was a bit of an odd discrepancy there, as Barton seemed fully intellectually functioning with his 7% alien DNA (if not morally) but others “infected” with the alien DNA became simply “shells” and “memory sticks”, like his poor old M…[Read more]

@spider haha I loved your dalek riff.

@craig and @mudlark – dammit, now I fancy a G n T too!

Well, Spyfall was a romp I grant you, and I wish I didn’t feel this way, but it left me kind of cold, sadly.

I felt Chibnall chucked the kitchen sink at it, from cameo Stephen Fry, to new Master, but that I couldn’t find the emotional beats, the pulse o…[Read more]