@mirime  ‘Timeless Child’ is interesting. I’m torn between wanting to know more and thinking it should just be left as a mystery. There’s such a risk of disappointment and I’m not confident in Chibnall’s abilities yet.

Me too; I’d love to see that bloom into something gripping, something to help anchor this Doctor to her own deep past maybe,…[Read more]

@cathannabel:  We’re on this Forum because we care about Doctor Who.  Some of us are feminists, SJWs even, some aren’t.  Surely all of us want  the show to be successful, to continue to capture the imaginations of children and adults, to retain the loyalties of long-standing fans (I’m one of those, I go back to the Troughton era) and to attract n…[Read more]

@mirime:  I think @missy and I feel similarly about the Twelfth Doctor – and I also don’t feel the need to have everything wrapped up neatly with a bow on top, nothing wrong with loose ends!

Agreed. Also I have many friends who watch DW but aren’t fans, they also feel that a female Doctor is a mistake.

Time will tell of cour…[Read more]

@tardigrade:   However, I actually think it may be a good time to ditch the Time Lord/Lady terminology altogether, as it’s not just the gender of the term that’s the issue. The modern connotations of “Lord” don’t sit well with the Doctor’s character. I don’t think that “Lady” is much better in that respect- it makes me think of “tea lady”, which d…[Read more]

Everywhere I go at the moment there is discussion about Dr Who. People who have not talked about it before or watched it for years are excited by the news. That can only be a good thing and if people do only tune on at Christmas because they want to see a woman take that role that is still good. Some may not bother again but plenty of others will…[Read more]

@Conchobarre and @mirime  – You sound as if you have both done a great job explaining the change from male-presenting to female-presenting Doctor to your young sons. I look forward to hearing their reactions to the new 13th Doctor in action.

@Wolfweed – Thanks for the Barrowman clip. I love him and I love him for wearing his TARDIS glittery…[Read more]

@mirime: Why can’t boys want to be a female character, admire and identify with a woman?

In order for that to happen, there first have to be such characters presented, and there has been a dearth of them.

@pstrong seconding @mirime here.

I do get it when people are saying what made the Doctor a great male role model ‘kind, non violent and somewhat unconventional’ is rather well put. He didn’t fall into the category of many male hero roles. He’s a professor, he uses his words not his muscles and so forth. It’s a good version of what being a man…[Read more]

@mirime I like your attitude with toys!  🙂  Yes, the concept of the pink and blue aisles is a relatively recent creation, dating back to the 1980s.  Like you I also played with boy toys as a kid, though I had to borrow them from my brother.

Also, as far as the Doctor having to explain her new form, she can just say “A thing happened” too.  W…[Read more]

@mirime – For all we know Gallifreyan has gender neutral terms and the Tardis just translates as appropriate to make sense to us. Bill points out that they still call themselves Time Lords despite the Doctor saying that they’re way beyond us on gender, but perhaps subtleties get lost in translation

Well, it’s certainly true in-universe that th…[Read more]

@mirime I want to get away from the connotation that “girly” equals weak, ie “pink is a weak girly colour”. Pink is not necessarily weak, depends upon shade and Vikings almost certainly wore pink. (an argument long ago on another forum) I want girls to able to favour whatever colour they please, pink, purple, puce green, (not sure that is actually…[Read more]

@juniperfish – That would be fun.  A lot of “my dear girl” and so on.  I have also missed Vastra and Jenny — I still very much want a “Paternoster Gang” spin-off series.  Clara and Ashildr could show up in their Diner-TARDIS for the occasional cameo.

@mirime – I suspect we’ve seen the last of Missy (in that form, at least) but boy would that be…[Read more]

@wolfweed  @pedant  @jimthefish @juniperfish  Great!  Love yous, for the jokes!  And confirmation that we’ll get enough of the new Doctor for Rachal Talalay to direct.  Oh, this is going to be good.

@mirime  Good point about your mum.  I’m within uncomfortably more than squinting distance of 80, myself, and the more I think about it, the more I…[Read more]

@missrori  @mirime  YES, with you on that — the only way to follow Capaldi was with something as cool in its own way as the wild-haired Scotsman with the hearts of two lions (well, a lion and a lioness, clearly).  And this woman looks up to the job, though I know nothing about her.

For those cut to their own hearts by this choice, here’s an op…[Read more]

@premonition

Does the Doctor now have existential angst not knowing how many regenerations he has left, I wonder? Or has he now got all the regeneration energy of all Time Lords no longer around, and is effectively immortal…

If anything the angst appears to stem from not knowing how much more change he can go through, rather than a more c…[Read more]

@thane15 — great post. Well said.

@exfan — love the name change. Hope your faith in the future is justified. (Actually, I’m sure it will be.) And yes, the wait is going to be excruciating. Not sure I agree about Capaldi being the ‘worst Doctor’. Like @mirime I’d count him as one of the best.

@frostfair — I think I’d love to see Bill back and…[Read more]

@mirime @serahni I’ve actually missed 80% of Capaldi for various reasons, which has rather put a crimp in my understanding of the current Doctor mythos. It’s why I’m glad that the few of the latest season I did catch seemed to have less of an overarching storyline (or I just didn’t know enough to recognise the hooks). I might have to start hinting…[Read more]

@glasgowboy:  I second that. What a flippin; disaster!

<span class=”useratname”>@jimthefish: </span>Well, he Kris marshall, isn’t to blame for bad choices is he. The role (apart from PC) was made for him. Unlucky 13 mayhap?

@exfan: Now that’s where we part. Peter Capaldi was the best, and I’m certainly not an EX fan.

@mirime: I did see her in B…[Read more]

@mirime I feel like you do — Capaldi was so special a more conventional pick wouldn’t have excited me.  But this opens up fresh possibilities and potential, and it soothes the transition.

@mirime and @missy I also support Bill’s happy ending!  Besides, it was shot through with bittersweetness, since she doesn’t know the Doctor’s okay and vice versa.

@mirime So you’re going to be reading the Twelfth Doctor novels?  They are good, especially this year’s batch.  🙂