@janetteb

@ps1l0v3y0u

Also too much YouTube for me; it burns through my writing time so I really should stop…

Some interesting suggestions here. Big thumbs up for the 5th Element. I’ve watched it several times and always enjoy it. Incidentally there’s a Discworld book called The Fifth Elephant but that may be coincidence.

Re…[Read more]

@miapatrick he looked in pain when Ruby left – but was he crying? I’m not sure there were tears.

I feel certain I saw a tear stain streaked on the Doctor’s face after he turned away from Ruby in the TARDIS … but I’m too lazy to pop the DVD back in to check. Like you, I was thinking, “Has he cried yet in this episode?” And then I saw tha…[Read more]

I agree with @ps1l0v3y0u that the middle of the series was stronger than the start/end. But then, as far as endings go, RTD has a habit of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it. I don’t think that works particularly well with Doctor Who, it tends to distract us with the minutiae of UNIT which…[Read more]

Because there’s a canon explanation right there, Rose has been exposed to the Tardis energy, which the Doctor has then taken on, and he’s just used his own regeneration energy to manipulate the time vortex.

I like this very much. Well done.

Moviemaster

Slitheen Woman

And Rose… I think we know which one was preferred by the Blue Box. So was Rose…[Read more]

Agree with your analysis, I think that is exactly what’s happened.

@miapatrick <hello, welcome back> @blenkinsopthebrave

I suggested in an earlier post that Piper might be another version of Idris from The Doctor’s Wife, so similar to your Tardis idea.  I hope this is what pans out on screen as it’s the most palatable option, for me…[Read more]

could Piper be the Tardis?

That is an inspired idea! I opens up all sorts of possibilities for how the new Doctor deals with their new found appearance, character, etc.

Champion bonkerizing!

I like that idea: Rose as Tardis. People have speculated that there’s something in the way she says “hello.” She’s thrilled and intrigued rather than freaked out. Nor is she in any pain- as we’ve seen in most regens? I was just rewatching 11th Hour and that particular regen had a lot of yelling!

See above

Apologies to anyone I’ve missed off the list.

As to what’s goi…[Read more]

in this light of this I do have a first Pratchett recommendation: going postal. It’s very much on this theme.

I’ve just finished reading this. Most excellent, and I’m now going to go onto Making Money and then Raising Steam. I went on t’interwebs and discovered a whole Discworld Reading Order “map”. It’s a whole new world I tells ya! A…[Read more]

 I do have a first Pratchett recommendation: going postal.

Much obliged.

@miapatrick. Absolutely. I wholeheartedly concur. & I think that RTD explained, somewhere, that the hooded woman was “shadowed by time……[Read more]

I think it was @bunface who suggested the possibility that the woman in the hooded cloak might not have been Ruby’s mother, and that chimes with the direction of my thinking over the past 24 hours or more. It’s a question of assumptions, led in our case by the way the observed facts were presented.

The Doctor, who was the only external…[Read more]

Thanks for the tips. So basically anywhere, as long as you pick a series. But Night Watch, I’ll start there.

@ps1l0v3y0u

Mabinogion

Ah yes. Thanks. I’ll check it out. Probably some crossover with Irish tales, of which I have a reference text.

And I saw your comment on the other thread:

Alf Garnett. Alien Life Form Garnett?…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u
Another writer! I liked Jackson’s LOTR but hated The Hobbit. But even the Hobbit is genius when placed next to that Amazon atrocity.

And, yeah, agree that Who has never…[Read more]

see Spoilers for my comment re Mr Garnett.

More science… in general ‘smaller’ is better. Mainly in terms of threat. But science too. If you decide to go with speculative theoretical physics ok. But make it tight. Black Hole Information Paradox: show me what it means! Your challenge for next season Russ!

Even the maligned ‘Babi…[Read more]

… it was Ruby’s mother who he couldn’t see

Yes, now that you point it out. I suppose my mind was wandering down another path and interpreting ‘see’ in a much wider sense. But why, among all the other mothers who have abandoned their babies or given them up for adoption and whose children have since tried and failed to find them, was…[Read more]

He couldn’t see her, therefore he feared her, as a potential ‘rogue’ element that could sabotage his plan.

True, but in the population of Earth, let alone in the universe as a whole, how many people are mysteries to themselves and others, so why was it Ruby alone whom Sutekh couldn’t see?  Was it the additional fact that s…[Read more]

Many orphans, like the Doctor, and those who don’t know their parents, have taken this story to heart (Still, I understand you registered just to complain  😀). The series is strong and has been this way…[Read more]

Niiice.

I really, really would’ve liked the carol to have been used a little more. But overall, I can see why RTD has gone down this particular path. We’ve had reality bombs, the most important woman in the universe, the end of the world. And the death of…[Read more]

Mrs Flood is Susan, who had been chameleon arced till the Christmas episode.

Yessss!  Wonderful suggestion – it fits perfectly with what we know, and if I were given to betting I might even stake a modest sum on the likelihood of it turning out to be true.

Oh yes, me too, I love the dialogue with the audience and the fans especially. I think there’s been a lot of it and now (see my puppet post) I believe it’s actually crucial to the whole ending!

We’ll see! I think now I’m gonna stop overthinking and just wait for Saturday, like in the old days! 🙃

Early in the comments you were discussing the newly and overtly empathic and emotional face of the Doctor. For what its’s worth, I’ve been seeing this as a result of the bi-generation.  What was left of the accumulated trauma and guilt carried over from the Time War and other events and losses, together with all th…[Read more]

Puro.

and yes: blind or vain, b…[Read more]

@scaryb @devilishrobby @dentarthurdent @krathoon @miapatrick @cookgroom @bunface @orionhunt @fozzyb @bobbyfatv2 @spacedmunkee @Craig

Thought I’d do a recap ahead of the two-part finale.

What needs clearing up:

1. Who is Ruby’s mother / mysterious woman wh…

[Read more]

He promises to take Rogue to Gallifrey. Does that mean that Gallfirey still exists?

Yes I noticed that and I was happy, as I was not a fan of the re-genociding of Gallifrey by the Dhawan Master. It detracted IMHO from the fact that the War Doctor was responsible/ the 9th and 10th and 11th Doctors believed he was responsible for the…[Read more]

“queering” of the Doctor. (Not delved into the nether regions of Twitter tho, or BTL comments). But this old school DW veteran is very happy.

Me too – I’m delighted. I may have let out an undignified squeal once Gatwa Doc starting getting his flirt on with Rogue.

@Miapatrick I feel the need for a rainbow TARDIS mug with Gatwa-Doc lea…[Read more]

@miapatrick

I get what you are saying bun, and to an extent I agree with it but for me it’s like Superman asking Lois to save Metropolis or Batman to ask Robin to be the hero. Not sure many people,  I might be wrong,  are tuning in to see Ruby be the main saviour as she has been in the Maestro ep and whatever ep 4 was meant to b…[Read more]

Yes, you’re right, and the race issue bound up with the Doctor as saviour is also made explicit in this episode because he actually offers to save them all/save the world, but as he’s not a white saviour he isn’t eligible.

All we can say is hooray that the dwindling group that only puts their faith in white saviours is doomed!

The Doctor’s tears
@bunface thanks for the quote, that does make sense.
@juniperfish @miapatrick – the tears are noticeable, even when the rest of his face is still. Also reminded me of Bill’s puddle-person who can come back in a teardrop.

Also @juniperfish – I’m liking your 3 witches (or 3 fates?) theory 😉
I do also like the…[Read more]

First of all, just to say I really liked this one as well. And interesting that again, the real baddies are the humans. I kept waiting for Lindy to see the light, and then wham! Not one, but two sucker punches at the end that showed that she was…[Read more]

Legal next of kin is generally decided by closest generic relative – or spouse/civil partner – but in cases of adoption, it’s adoptive family

True in our present day earth, and I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. But this is the whoniverse in the far future and on a distant planet, so the writer is free to make up the rules as serves the plot 😉

Evil of the Daleks was supposed to be Terry Nation’s last Dalek story before he found an American buyer for the pepperpots.

How meta can you go?

Evil of the Daleks was supposed to be Terry Nation’s last Dalek story before he found an American buyer for the pepperpots.

How meta can you go?

It’s happened before. Evil of The Daleks, doc 2, 1967. The Daleks get imbued with ‘the human factor’, start questioning orders and become very childlike.

‘Why?’

’Dizzy Daleks.’

Bigger budgets, but yet, I don’t think it’s affected the contents

In a recent interview Moffat talked about budgetary constraints for this season, so it seems the writers’ ideas are outstripping the accountants’ ability to pay for them. As it ever was.

Interestingly, the first Doctor story The Edge of Destruction was a bottle ep, onl…[Read more]

The inability of the ambulance AI to identify Ruby’s next of kin was clearly supposed to be significant, and not simply down to the fact that she had just arrived on the planet and the information was lacking in their records. In fact, since the ambulance  was  able to identify her date of birth and calculate the years th…[Read more]

I do wonder if all these little apparent errors and anachronisms are deliberate. Maybe the world we are watching is not our world but another. And not in an alternative universe type way. I am thinking back to what @janetteb said on one of the other forums in a discussion about the 2nd Doc ep The Mind Robber.

In that ep the…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u I wasn’t having a go at you, your comment just brought back vivid memories of how snowy that year was. (Maybe it’s the alternate…[Read more]

I’m also a huge fan of the fishes in this Forum!

Awww, right back at ya, Scary.

@Miapatrick

Yes to your point about the episode’s commentary on reproductive rights, parenting and refugee rights. And all perfectly in keeping with Doctor Who’s long tradition of being political science fiction, from the Daleks-as-Nazis-metaphor to the c…[Read more]

@gotthejam there are oh so many places on the internet for you to rant about ‘woke crap’ and make weird comments about consequences and impressions from drag queens. This just isn’t one of them.

wow @miapatrick, well said, well said.