Well, that was interesting. It looked great and had a real kinetic forward momentum in the direction. And this was the first time that Jodie was really clicking for me as the Doc too. Plus I even liked the Judoon, who I thought were pretty rubbish in Smith and Jones.

Plus the other Doc’s TARDIS looks great. Why can’t we have that one instead of…[Read more]

@juniperfish oh quite – a kind of retcon spin for one of the issues with season 11.

@juniperfish I’m not convinced this was an alternate timeline Doctor.

Given we now know Timelords can have more than 1 set of regenerations, I.e. Mattdoc being ‘granted’ a new cycle to become Capdoc. I am now on wondering if all timelords have had any number regeneration cycles but under normal circumstances their memory of previous cycles wiped…[Read more]

@juniperfish I really get the feeling with this Doctor she was trying a new start, new gender, shake off all the baggage approach, and might have believed in it. And then she finds out this new mate she’s been whatsapping is her oldest friend/enemy. That Gallifrey is destroyed. That there’s a horrible Time Lord secret. And how much she cared. She…[Read more]

@juniperfish I’m delighted too. Let the theories commence.

@juniperfish

How much would Davros crow if it turned out the Doctor’s own people were guilty of similar genetic “enhancement”.

This will be very interesting if it goes into this kind of territory. But are we veering dangerously close to Looms and such things?

I agree with all who say this episode is a vast improvement over the last. “Orphan 55” seemed to be a bit of a throwaway, by-the-numbers Doctor Who episode. With a bit of tweaking, it could’ve been good … but wasn’t. This episode had all the characters well drawn out and engaging, especially Tesla, of whom I knew almost nothing. Hubby’s…[Read more]

@JimTheFish  @juniperfish  @Bluesqueakpip

Yes, mindwiping is a hugely problematic concept because it is an assault on the person at a very fundamental level, and the Doctor, as a moral being with high ideals, should be above that. But how many assaults on individuals or societies as a collective have been perpetrated ‘for your own good’ or ‘for t…[Read more]

@juniperfish

Not to mention a pioneer PC operating system dubbed QDOS, bought for a song, which became the foundation of a multi-billion software empire 😉

@juniperfish

A scavenger race like the Scythra are a bit of a puzzle, because surely, they’re intelligent, so why not tinker about the high-tech stuff they filch and figure some of it out? The tech they had which could disguise them as re-eyed humans was particularly impressive.

But who’s to say whether that technology was not also ‘borrowed’ ?…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Yeah, I’m not sure I buy that personally. Especially as Tesla’s own tech got given a Doctor boost in a potentially highly destructive way. But to me it highlights the fundamental issue at stake — the Doctor shouldn’t get to choose, particularly not on a set of murky and possibly shifting criteria of her own devising….

(I’m…[Read more]

@juniperfish, @blenkinsopthebrave @miapatrick

Many thanks for the congratulations. (And @miapatrick, yes this forum makes a nice little refuge which is necessary sometimes)

@juniperfish

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

I just answered that very question on T’Other Place. Ada Gordon and Noor Khan were both technically trained and had seen the future of their own planet. Tesla and Edison are both technically tra…[Read more]

A huge improvement on last week and if I’m honest the episode from the Chibs period that I’ve most enjoyed so far. Certaintly, Nina Metivier has a stronger grasp of putting together a Who story than many of the writers of recent years and possibly even the showrunner himself.

That said, it kind of flags in the middle and feels a bit SJA at points…[Read more]

@juniperfish yes- I think one thing we noticed last season was the Doctor as inventor – twelve was very much the professor. We saw thirteen at her beginning jerry rigging a transporter, making a sonic. The choices of Lovelace and Tesla make perfect sense with her.

The show tends to focus on the positives of historical figures, unless they’re…[Read more]

My thoughts on this are pretty much the same as @juniperfish‘s. So far the Chibnall era’s greatest accomplishment in my eyes is making me actively enjoy the historical episodes. I’ve never disliked them but in the past I’ve generally been fairly indifferent to them, as they often (in New Who at least) tended to focus more on the alien of the week…[Read more]

@jimthefish

Allow me to join @miapatrick and @juniperfish in congratulating you on the award of your doctorate! I had somehow missed that when reading the posts. Given the erudite argumentation of your posts over the years, it all makes sense. While you will, not doubt, continue to be known on these boards as @jimthefish, I will, inevitably, like…[Read more]

@juniperfish     I think we’ve gotten used to After Gap DW, in which the Doctor’s connection to his companions has been much deeper than in the past. So far, at least, Thirteen has a warm but less intense relationship with her “fam”. I was never altogether comfortable with the angsty aspect of the Doctor/Companion dynamic that took over the After…[Read more]

@phaseshift There’s absolutely a dysfunctional families thing going on this season.  The Master destroying Gallifrey is another manifestation of it, the fabled “sins of the fathers” thing.  And I think the Doctor’s fam will end up strained too over the course of the season, but come back together by the end.

@bluesqueakpip I’m in sort of that p…[Read more]

I actually watched this on Monday night, and then spent a while thinking how I could engage meaningfully with this episode. Then I come in and see so many of you have given it a thorough kicking, and I needn’t have worried. 😉 And @whisht deserves a good star for that post. Marvellous!

And @bluesqueakpip is on the money here. I don’t mind made…[Read more]