@FatManInABox   Lovely photo of the Botanical Gardens.  I lived in Brum for a couple of years in the 1970s, but have no recollection of ever visiting them – which is odd, because my flat was little more than a mile away.  I have clear memories of visits to the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and Belfast when I lived in those cities, so maybe it is…[Read more]

@lisa – as Alice says “ooh that was lovely!”
but Dave Thomas – that was excellent! Really really lovely! the most lyrical thing I’ve heard without words in ages!
thank you for that – its something I would never have come across without you.

And as for your music listening skills.. pleasepleasepleaseplease never defer to me (or anyone)!!
I’m a…[Read more]

@Lisa Could I please read out your description at this weeks writing group? Our homework prompt was “chain link fence” which confused all; of us as it is clearly not an Australian term. After some research was done we discovered that it referred to what we know of as “wire mesh fencing.” Your description of your garden is lovely and I was quite…[Read more]

I owe a couple of people a reply {shameface}

@Arbutus – lovely lovely Creedence!
Without thinking too hard I thought of a Little Richard album I have and so here’s a link:

pin-pong! ;¬)

@Lisa – thanks for the coldplay.
that track won’t play for me in my region but – even though i’m a massive muso…[Read more]

@lisa  — well, you’re onto something there (Scary Poppins the nanny), but couldn’t it also be that MissMaster is framing herself as Clara’s stronger, smarter, more connected-to-the-TL-Doctor rival for his regard?  Too soon to tell, I think.

@lisa and others — I agree that the Mary Poppins persona of the Mixmaster and Clara’s previous occupation are no coincidence. It did make me wonder in a more fanciful moment if this Claricle isn’t going to turn out to be a chamaelon-arched future Missy. But that’s probably too much.

@arbutus — I’ve wondered many of the same things about…[Read more]

@JimTheFish (I think)  re Osgood’s death: “. . . it was a significant character beat for both the Doctor and the Master. It emphasised that for all her whackiness, Missy is dangerous, lethal even. And it showed the Doctor that by not taking Missy seriously enough, he ended up getting someone killed. Of course, his battles with the Master lead to…[Read more]

@lisa   Is Clara how she sees her very younger self when she may have been the Doctors sidekick companion?

@purofilion made this comment about Missy and Osgood: Did her spontaneous reaction to Osgood come from a certain measure of envy? Possibly. I’m sure many 2nd year post modern, linguistic and psychological papers could be written analy…[Read more]

@lisa  I like your take on the Missy question (well, probably because it lines up with my own!).  MissMaster is playing — playing a satirical cartoon of the femme fatale, playing the seductress, playing for power.  Being female doesn’t seem to me to have anything to do with it.  Being a *real* control freak (who is incidentally and for the tim…[Read more]

@Whisht   I’ve always been irrationally fond of Sweet Home Alabama! Not sure why as I’m not an especially big fan of southern rock. Except for Creedence.   🙂

Or maybe something more country? Or Fogerty’s solo hit, Centrefield (because, well, baseball).

@lisa    I think fondly of Viva la Vida becaus…[Read more]

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@lisa  Oh, she *absolutely* is, I’m sure of it!  The whole costume and noting but the costume, a vital part of playing the role!  And your no more bananas than anybody else around here . . . “bonkers” is just another word for “bananas”, isn’t it?

@lisa and @ichabod I don’t think a direct Missy link was intended but the story was a precursor to the Missy story. Anabel returning from the dead establishes the idea that the dead can return, that they can be stored somewhere, their consciousness preserved and downloaded again. Assuming that is what happened to the sister. We cannot be entirely…[Read more]

@lisa —  Well, the tree thingies might have persuaded Anabel to join them so that she could help them tune their broadcast “ideas” better to Maebh, the more receptive sister.  Maebh, in her broadcast to the world, doesn’t ask the tree thing to return her sister, but asks her sister to come home, which her sister does.  Maebh is certainly “s…[Read more]

@lisa

the sister returned in place of the hydrangea shrub? did anybody else think that strange?

That did give me, personally, a very definite ‘returned from the dead’ vibe, yeah. But I hadn’t connected Missy’s comment about a ‘surprise’ with the sister – and you’re right, it works very well indeed.

@Lisa and @ichabod

Yes, it suggests that Missy may possibly have been successfully zapped by the Brig – but it won’t do a darn bit of good, because she was simply able to reconstruct her self- including body – using Gallifreyan matrix technology.

Basically, her ability to travel between the Nethersphere and the real world is a form of…[Read more]