@pedant important point, really, (and not to downplay the historical racism in this country) in this country the fight was against people and businesses being allowed to discriminate against people of different ethnicity. Historically, legal restrictions I think only applied to people who didn’t belong to the church of England, that referred to…[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 good point about the segregation – Capaldi gave Bill a whole speech about keeping calm in the face of racism etc, then punched the racist in the face. What was interesting in this episode was a sense of the white characters facing moments of going along with the racism. Graham in the bar with the bus driver, both of them on the bus. I…[Read more]

So, Cranzo, are we seeing him again at another point in time? I’m tempted to think so, mostly because I’d think if The Doctor knew Ryan could have sent him back somewhere it would mean instant death, she’d have made a comment about what he did. But he said ‘as far back as I could’ I think, and she’d probably know when that is.

@rob, I was convinced that Graham would be driving the bus, and The Doctor would have to demand her seat.

I was quite please, with Ryan, to see other indicators of dyspraxia – he’s clearly intelligent, but jumbling facts learned in history at school and getting confused with the Doctor’s introduction of a flow of new words (but also being able to understand how to operate the back in time thingy).

This was a perfect setting for some lovely callbacks…[Read more]

I might be reading too much into it, but I noticed when 13 said it had taken nine tries so far, and Graham said it was fourteen – and this is the fourteenth Doctor, if we include the War Doctor…

resisting the urge to point out how this site and Doctor Who in general differ from an airport, mostly because I respect that you don’t seem to be about to stick around just to bitch about every single episode, I’ll just say to you what I said to myself before this series began:

It’s the nature of Doctor Who to change with the show runner/main…[Read more]

@ichabod ah but if we divorce it from the real world and plant it squarely in the Who world, we’re back to the fact she has two hearts, and people know about aliens and many people know about The Doctor. We’d also have the problem of a BBC program showing such a negative version of the mental health system which would be incredibly irresponsible.…[Read more]

@ichabod I was concerned to read that on the lead up to the Doctor, just for the fact of officially having less focus on the Doctor at the moment the Doctor turns female, and also surprised since a hefty chunk of the complaint about Who recently have been on the focus on the companion. I then thought these people might not complain so much about…[Read more]

@ichabod the psychiatric ward is an interesting concept, done very well in Buffy, but doesn’t entirely hold up with The Doctor. There would be a physical examination, the two hearts would be noticed. There would have to be a reason, someone at the hospital suppressing the information, in order for her to be incarcerated, and, frankly, someone…[Read more]

@shinymcshine I thought the landing was just fine. Grace and Graham (and Carl) trapped on a train, chased by a weird alien thingy, the Doctor crashes through the roof, and despite the fall and her regeneration confusion, gets straight to work. I find her landing in a crisis situation a little more interesting than a build up including careful…[Read more]

@thane16 re chocolate, your mother has a point, as white  chocolate isn’t chocolate, it contains no coco, but then the same could be said about most milk chocolate…

@thane16: ‘Mum is coming up the stairs. She has a heavy tread’ now, there’s your dramatic tension!

@pedant: to be fair that’s closer than I’d get to her surname without pausing my comment to look it up… but yeah.

@thane16 ummm….

@shinymcshine while that is an excellent story I think the BBC would hesitate to present a story that initially plays out as a young girl suicidal at being dumped then running back after a text because ‘he still loves me’, and I’m not sure I like that interpretation of our Sexy. I mean, she stole a timelord and ran away to explore the universe.…[Read more]

@ichabod – don’t know about the characterisation. He’s set up a situation with two male companions linked by someone they both loved who is dead. Possibly my favourite line was when Graham was with Ryan as he woke up and says ‘come on, we’ll sort this out’. How Graham? You’ve just been accidentally teleported into space and stopped up by a…[Read more]

@ichabod oh I think it’s the right strategy. And character work might be the focus of this version of Who. I think Jaz’s turn might well be next week. When there’s a bigger team, giving everyone equal time ends up a bit like those bands where everyone sings a line in turn. This week, the Doctor was dealing with accidentally abducting and nearly…[Read more]

@mudlark yes, custard creams just taste generically of… biscuit. I’m not too keen on sweet things that aren’t sour. Apart from Hob Nobs.

re: Tardis interior, I seem to recall when Bill first stepped in there was a similar effect?