No timely whimey I was trying to write.

Given what the doctor said about concepts of the afterlife, however, it’s still possible that she was the papal mainframe. Remember the line ‘the relivent afterlife have been informed’?

I’ve always liked S.M.’s finale, but in the beginning mostly for the style, the emotional logic and River Song. This is the second time in a row where- it really, really makes sense.

Missy was genuinely creepy at points. And I loved the moment when she thought back through that she ‘chose Clara because she could make the doctor do anything.’…[Read more]

@Apopheniac– yes, ‘twas me and thank you- after being so very wrong about Missy (although she could still, in theory, be the papal mainframe, I’m stepping back from that theory) I’d love it if this hunch was true. The post it notes, her attitude seemed so important, I just think it has to mean something more than ‘what she was doing when he died…[Read more]

Yes- and (from the slevenotes again) there is an attraction between him and death. and death’s assistant and his wife… could be very interesting. going to watch it this week, I was going to wait till I got a decent DVD player, but I’ve got a laptop…

@Mudlark– I was literally just thinking that today- my mother gave me a copy of ‘Orphee’ by Cocteau, and it reminded me (only read the sleeve notes of the DVD though) about the whole journey to the world of the dead for the one you love trope…

I just want to virtually shake the hand of every missy-master theorist. Bloody Moffatt double bluff really, it’ what he loves to do.

My boyfriend said halfway through, there a=was a Sebastian or Seb was someone who knew and hated the eighth doctor, so I spent some time tonight thinking that Missy was a bluff, and it was Seb all along. Until the…[Read more]

@lisa– re medication, I think you have a point. Though if anything what bugged me with this episode was the idea of a child that age, whose sister had disappeared would be given those kinds of meds. No clear evidence of a chemical problem.

one thing- from my experience as a caregiver- is that sometimes people take medication for reasons that…[Read more]

@Spider– I have very similar dreams. A while ago I was on a hilltop surveying the spread of the apocalypse (it had begun as a game of monopoly when I was at school) thinking ‘we’ll it does rather take the pressure off, but I’ll never discover what was the deal with Clara.

@beancounter, in fact, it seems you don’t. The line is: people are apes. Men are monkeys, spoken by a woman who’s own wife refers to as a lizard. People being apes, as @Badwulf points out, is accurate. Men being monkeys is affectionate.

@janetteB– that’s fantastic as well.

I am wondering though, if the reason why the Doctor didn’t recognise Danny after seeing Orson (assuming he really didn’t) isn’t because he looks different when the Doctor sees him and when Clara sees him?

@DrBen– nice! Maybe she got the number from the woman who ran the bank in time hiest?

@janetteB– agree to disagree, I think you put your thoughts down very  well.

What surprises me is that I like this episode less than I’ve liked any episode this series, and yet it raises for me more topics for discussion than most of the rest. I’ve said that I think the focus on Danny and Clara might have detracted from it, but it does in…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave– great idea, perfect time to do this.

I’m going with: Missy is CAL is the Papal Mainframe.

Missy also has some kind of control over Clara, some way of meddling with her. The doctor has noticed this in much the way eleven noticed that Amy was a ganger.

Although part of me is hovering over the idea that missy is Clara in one…[Read more]

@Blenkinsopthebrave and @Bluesqueakpip– it does feel as though we are supposed to be focusing on Danny and Clara with this episode, I’m tempted to think much of the weaknesses of it are caused by this focus.

The set up for his episode is amazing, it must have looked fantastic on the page. And, quite a few times, on the screen it did. But surely…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip– it is rather odd with Clara and Danny. Danny himself in this episode was rather sweet, I thought. Disappointed at missing a people watching session with Clara, and, I think, not being a complete idiot, he worked out where she was (in a manner of speaking.) His ‘where are you, and are you in trouble’ was completely calm, with just a…[Read more]

@BadWulf– re Clara staying because Danny said he was fine with it. I thought that was odd, because she wasn’t leaving because Danny didn’t like it. She was leaving because she was pissed off with him, that was her ‘wobble’. That whole scene seemed wrong to me. hopefully, almost certainly, deliberate?

@Apopheniac– both do work, don’t they…

@PhaseShift– I don’t know if you’ve read ‘The Neverending Story’, especially the second half, the seeming miracle o the resurrection of a world and the price that is always paid for it…

the more I think about it, the fact that Missy is at least calling her wherever the afterlife etc, and the doctor has…[Read more]

@PhaseShift– I do agree about the lifespan. I think I’ve said before that possibly the regeneration limit was to do with the number of personalities a Time Lord mind is capable of dealing with- and yes, the kind of lifespan. 11 lived a very long time too.

@Bluesqueakpip– I wasn’t thinking of the day of the doctor, good point. I’m also remembering…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip– it actually reminds me of one thing in Buffy- before she died, she was willing to risk the end of the world rather than let her sister die. After she died she admitted to (or reassured) Giles that she probably wouldn’t make that choice. but she never made the other one.

I personally do think it was the right choice, partly because…[Read more]

@BadWulf– I know, that’s why I put the inverted coma’s in!

inevitably, on the day I finally get around to paying the damn bt bill it starts blinking so I just lost a whole post, but I think what I said was:

the doctor, when he returned, made a few arguments from his considerable experience as to why the crisis was probably going to turn out ok.…[Read more]