@cathannabel and @juniperfish and @geoffers : I wasn’t online for the bow tie “bonkerising”, sounds like a mini adventure.

@cathannabel This is the first episode since the doctor returned to the Tardis.  So, cloning could be standard protocol; the outfits do get a lot of wear.  Maybe the outfit was duplicated with self-cleaning fabrics and som…[Read more]

I’ve just realised what my issue with the coda was.

I think it was absolutely necessary for the younger viewers – but it was played like a segment of a Blue Peter(1) broadcast. Now I would never dream of dissing Blue Peter, and I really think Whittaker earned her Silver Badge for that scene, and would have been an awesome presenter. But it didn’t…[Read more]

@juniperfish

I am deeply disappointed that you haven’t yet come up with an elaborate and metatextual theory as to why the Doctors top changed colour.

Are you even trying anymore 😉 ?

@pedant @kevinwho @lisa @missrori and @mudlark

Yes, I felt that as Krasko had admitted, with great amusement to killing 2000 people, and referred to African Americans as “mongrels,” I felt there was no real need to ‘explore’ this particular gentleman’s character further.

Within the dialogue we had all we needed. He lacked remorse; he wanted only…[Read more]

@JimtheFish and @Juniperfish

In a sense, the revelation that Krasko was a racist from the future wasn’t a big deal for me; I’ve read other SF where there’s still racism in the future.

But I think the big danger with racism is seeing it as an ‘alt-right’ thing, rather than an ‘othering’ and ‘stereotyping’ which can become toxic in pretty well…[Read more]

@JimTheFish

That was a very interesting take on the episode and thank you for drawing it to our attention. It is a point of view which I can understand but which is very personal and does not, I think, take into account the intention of those who created the show, to educate as well as entertain, or the basic premise that the past determines the…[Read more]

@juniperfish

I absolutely agree. I think that’s totally what Blackman was going for and managed it brilliantly. Here was my own take on the video:

I totally understand your sentiments but I do have a couple of reservations. On the Obama thing, I wasn’t crazy about the little coda either but I think it was there because the episode as a whole had…

[Read more]

@lisa – yes, massively off-topic and completely ignorant about what the EU is and how it operates. You have actually fallen, hook, like and sinker for the fascist version of history (I don’t use the term alt-right since I am not inclinded todo their PR for them), but that is your choice and off-topic.

Anyhoo, as @juniperfish notes, Krasko’s…[Read more]

@juniperfish

Not just the USA .   Hungary, Poland, Italy,  and its very active in Russia, look who is probably being

elected President in Brazil.    I’m reasonably active in politics.  I’ve been stumping for my local candidates.

In some local districts we have a excellent chance of removing  republican Trump supporting congressmen.

A few year…[Read more]

I’m LIKING this new run…

I totally love the new tardis… the blues and ocean colors and the organic shapes and the hands on fiddly bits, and surely you all caught the spinning translucent mini-tardis and the hourglass…

As for everyone “unprotected in space”…eh, couldn’t that be part of the weird alien teleporty thingie? Like, they’re…[Read more]

@juniperfish

Really loving the ensemble cast (apparently a throwback to the early early days)… it has worked in any number of superhero movies so , yeay! Also glad to get away from the romance/crushie stuff (well, it might rear its ugly head later) and into the idea that stories do not hinge on romance and women heroes carry their own…[Read more]

Okay, more random thoughts.

Re the one dimensional Krasko: There wasn’t a dramatic need to show us more about Krasko, as he was only technically the enemy. The real enemy was racism itself.

@miapatrick, @juniperfish, and others discussing previous stories dealing with racism: Interesting that Ryan was better able to control himself when e…[Read more]

@juniperfish … as a child who was definitely wired differently, I really wanted a hero to evoke that quality of “it’s OK to be your own wild self”. Sadly, it was the 50s and 60s, across the pond in the US and mostly we had westerns and cop shows. Well, then there was Star Trek… and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and other science fiction and…[Read more]

@misterf55 @dogboythecat

I’m circling you. Thinking better of it. Then not. I am well educated like a lot of people. I spent many months investigating speeches by people stronger, smarter, braver than me (some like 14 year old Emmett Till): MLK; Medgar Evers; Rosa Parks; Laura Nelson; Ida B. Wells-Barnett; Fannie Lou Hamer (“actresses,” some). As…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip and others suggesting an end-of-season villain pileup — I remember back when Series 8 was ongoing some reviewers were wondering if the Nethersphere scenes with Missy greeting the characters who died was setting up a big confrontation between them and the Doctor in the season finale, but it didn’t work out that way exactly……[Read more]

@miapatrick @juniperfish @pedant et al

Just on the Doc’s historical approach to racism, watched the first two episodes of Tomb of the Cybermen recently and it’s a story where it’s getting increasingly difficult not to ignore its racism, or just how little the Doctor seems to be troubled by it….

@Juniperfish

WhitDoc (I like it) is ready to take on that fight, not as that antithesis, the War Doctor, but, like Rosa as a grassroots resister, one small, important, action at a time.

You have expressed it perfectly. And just as small interventions by a time traveller could divert the course of history, we are shown, from the perspective of a…[Read more]

@juniperfish, snap! and quite, which is why my initial ‘you what’ about her ‘tread carefully, history is delicate’ comment turned to a little frustration that she hadn’t talked about important points in time. If she’d taken them out of the Tardis knowing when and where they were, knowing this was an important time event, it would have tied…[Read more]

@JimTheFish @Juniperfish

Worth noting the role of the cop in this. It wasn’t just a grace note . He tailed them and his in-story purpose was to lampshade that racism here wasn’t just a social attitude (as could be argued for Victorian London as witnessed by 12) but state policy in a democracy. Montgomery was a very dangerous place because the…[Read more]

@juniperfish

Obviously he got zapped back to the primordial soup and contributed his biochemistry to kick-starting evolution 😉

Ryan did say “as far back as it would go” – but a possible arc thread.