@puroandson @bluesqueakpip

Well, I am very fond of Barthes’ “La Morte de L’Auteur” (the death of the author) and it’s a perspective especially applicable to television, as the title was a pun on Malory’s Morte d’Arthur which, Barthes convincingly argues, is likely a multi-authored text, transitioning over time. So, to pin its “ultimate” truths…[Read more]

@lisa  “his duty of care” to Clara could continue with out end

because now she’s immortal as TLs are (long-lived but not invulnerable to accidents, extreme events, etc., so ending in death one way or another but probably a long way off)?  Well, that would be a rather daunting prospect for him, I agree.  It can work.

But I’ll stick with the ti…[Read more]

@mudlark

Oh, I missed @pedant ‘s link to the script upstream, but, absolutely, an author’s perspective on their work is a very interesting perspective, but it’s never the b all and end all of interpretation. Television texts are multi-authored texts in any event – the script-writer, the director, the actors, the set-dressing folks and…[Read more]

@lisa  I’ve been wondering about whether the Clara ‘thing’ will bleed into season 10? In fact, to my mind it might continue to be an influence until this Doctor regenerates.

My question, too.  I think probably yes, but only in a harkening back to CapDoc as he was in S8 — he might well revert to being more prickly, more guarded, more aloof, as…[Read more]

@lisa

I remember in some forum both SM and Capdoc were asked which companion they would bring back and both of them simultaneously said Clara.

Which is exactly why they might have a definite break. 😉 Especially since Clara has been Peter Capaldi’s only companion.

Though it wouldn’t surprise me terribly if Jenna Coleman has a guest spot…[Read more]

@Lisa

The only experience that we have to go on is Steven Moffat’s treatment of Amy and Rory. Yes, the after effects were felt (deeply) in The Snowmen. But the actors were gone, and stayed gone.

The characters have been referenced occasionally. But there seems to be a firm distinction between the semi-regular continuing characters (River Song,…[Read more]

@lisa

It seems to me Missy gets something out of this more than just a tortured Doctor. She wouldn’t just hand the Dial over without compensation. The regeneration was part of some other ‘trade deal’ so I wonder what she asked for?

I speculated that her freedom might have been part of it, plus maybe getting rid of the drum. Plus she might have…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@lisa

She didn’t lie to the Doctor about where Galifrey was except for timeframe. So how did she know?

The Simm Master was last seen shooting regeneration energy bolts at Rassillon, as the link between Earth and Gallifrey closed and the Council were drawn back to Gallifrey. Since we next see a weak, aged Rassillon on Gallifrey, I think we can b…[Read more]

@lisa

Conspiracy theory after watching HB tonight
The Doctor left the sonic glasses on the console on purpose knowing Clara
would watch on the screen, He also left the mind wiper there. He set it up?
He figured out that he had to part from Clara. So was he making it easier for
her? Seems to me that he really didn’t loose a lot of his memory. I r…

[Read more]

@lisa

Don’t forget that the coordinates Missy gave the Doctor were correct in space. Just not in time.
She didn’t lie to the Doctor about where Galifrey was except for timeframe. So how did she know?
To me this implies collusion with the TL’s and Rassilon too.

Missed that, so that’s another connection. And of course the Doctor sent Missy his c…[Read more]

@rob

Also during Rasillon’s visit to the barn he stated…..

How many regenerations did we give you, I’ve got all day

Strongly suggesting a more than just another full set

Or possibly less. The terminology used at the time was giving him a new cycle of regenerations, from which you’d initially think 12. But if you remember the circums…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Ah. So the message you want Moffat to send to millions of small viewers is to not aspire?

That is a message that exists only in your imagination. There is a world of a difference between “bad luck” and “an accident waiting to happen”. Believing your are something you are not does not make it so and creates all-too-foreseeable…[Read more]

@mudlark  This: . . .  all the oblique and coded references in their conversation and their body language left me with a strong feeling, if not certainty, that the Doctor and Clara had reached a mutual, if unspoken understanding. When they parted he knew perfectly well who she was, even though she was no longer ‘in his mind’ and his memori…[Read more]

@midnyt @lisa @mudlark

I don’t think the Doctor deliberately left the sonic glasses on the tardis panel.  He sort of throw them out of anger and despair.

I think the Doctor intended to use it on Clara up to the point which Ashildr and Clara change his mind.  There is a long pause before the line of “better than a coin toss”. This is the point th…[Read more]

@lisa @Mudlark @ichabod

Nah. I works more strongly as the text showed. All the Doctor had was a hole, and the song seeded by Clara (no coincidence that he was playing it in blues style).

Of course the wildcard is River.

@lisa  @ichabod

The Doctor lies. Again.

Exactly!  Or, if not lying outright, he has been a bit economical with the truth.  If he intended the neural block for himself all along, it probably wasn’t programmed for a full erasure.  He said that once Clara was in your head she never left, and perhaps it was only this Clara-in-the-head he meant to rem…[Read more]

@bluesqueskpip  Love your post #48897, above — great.  This:  it’s the Doctor who thinks he’s playing the starring role in a tragedy. However, the universe – in the person of the current producer – knows he’s playing the starring role in a comedy.

And this:  When we see Face The Raven in hindsight, as the ‘regeneration’ story of Clara into Doc…[Read more]

My observations and questions to the hive-mind:

1. Sunglasses: Clara gives them back to the Doctor who, later in the diner puts them on the countertop to connect his electric guitar to the speaker system. BUT, the diner and the furniture in it are all part of Clara’s shiny new TARDIS, so when she dematerialises to leave the Doctor alone in the…[Read more]

@lisa 

I wonder if just maybe there is a small chance that Me was going by the pseudonym Penelope Gates during her life in the Victorian era?

I think I heard that name a few days ago, if you’re saying what I think you’re saying that is one hell of a theory and I’d love it to be right!