@mirime  I don’t think the Doctor has a smartphone

That would have saved me a lot of screaming. 😉

@mirime  Well, as I noted above, the Doctor is indispensable to Earth.  If the Monks have been able to follow all of Earth’s history with their glow-y thread-y things, I’m sure they could spare a few to track down the Doctor.  But yes, they should know about Missy by now, whether they were following the Doctor’s movements specifically or not.  O…[Read more]

@mirime  Oh, I agree that Bill felt some (unneeded) guilt over the Doctor’s blindness.  And yes, there’s some sense to figuring he was the last best hope for Earth, though the last line and the Next Time trailer suggest she’ll be disappointed.

But that brings up a big problem with the Monks — because they’re so powerful and all-seeing, the D…[Read more]

@craig

OMG!!! MY EYES!!! MY EYES!!!!

@mirime

Farm cats might – and within a few generations they would be indistinguishable from the African Wildcats they are descended from. Bengals might because they are only 2 generatiosn removed from the Asian Leopard Cats they were bred from.

But your average domestic moggie and fancy breeds? They would…[Read more]

@mirime, I’ve read a good theory on this, but I’m afraid that’s under the Spoiler thread.  🙂

@morpho, There is something substantial to this story — it’s confirming and expanding upon the most important element of the Twelfth Doctor’s character in this season, perhaps his whole run.

At heart, this is about his determination and willingness to…[Read more]

(Puro). Stop trying to blind me with science!  *huge grin*

Gin and tonic, my favourite tipple, well, that and Champagne – or what passes as same. You? Hide behind the sofa? Never!

@pedant: The ‘blue object’ mentioned by me, is in the flippin’ trailer. How can it be a spoiler? Or do you mean that I shouldn’t mention it anyway? Sounds a bit…[Read more]

@mirime

Why did the book exist? Where did it come from? Was it a bug in the programming or deliberately placed?

It is a checksum. If too many sprites start suiciding, then it will alert the aliens that the sim his found the upper decile of human intelligence and insight.

What exactly was Missy being executed for?

Being Missy.

Why did the Doctor…

[Read more]

@mirime:  Heh, heh, so did I once, but then I discovered actors whom I preferred, Peter Capaldi amongst them.

Missy

@mirime: and @Thane

Not as ridiculous as you think.

In one episode, you may remember a cat escaping from a house in the rain, and the team had to use a hair dryer on it? That really happened. A fair while ago I was talking to a woman who had worked for M15 in the distant past, she told me that story was true. A lot of  Spooks was reasonably aut…[Read more]

@mirime I agree that simply fixing the Doctor’s sight at the end of the episode would have been too easy and reduced the impact of what happens so sad though it is I was glad that the writers didn’t take that option. Sometimes there have to be serious consequences. The Doctor can’t be killed, we all know that or the series would not continue but…[Read more]

@geoffers another “not supposed to ask” question: how did mere humans put those enormous chains on that giant creature at the bottom of the thames?

I wondered the same thing. Then I decided, “Think pyramids!”

Loved this episode. For me, it had the right level of creepiness, with a poignant ending between mother and son. I’m glad @mirime rem…[Read more]

@Mirime

Didn’t the landlord say something to the Doctor along the lines of ‘you’re old, you have less energy so you won’t last long’, the implication being it wasn’t an instant death.

Yes. The implication was that the life-energy of the people taken into the woodwork was absorbed very slowly; hence it was necessary to find a new set of tenants onl…[Read more]

@jimthefish @mirime @idiotsavon @thane15

I think we have here two stylistics mixed, the first is drama with all this conversations and speeches about morality, killing and moving on, and the second is comic-book in which bad guys get what they deserve and an urchin becomes an heir (after what had happened with Ashildr, Doctor should be very…[Read more]

@morpho    I liked the Doctor’s explanation that the butterfly effect happens anyway, even without time travel.

*Loved* that; a quick and easy way of dispensing with a long, depressing disquisition on why Time travel into the past is bound to change the future to *some* extent, but you’d probably never know (who says it has to change in ways you…[Read more]

@Jimthefish

Oh I’d agree 100%.  I also agree that AG Who seems to work best with 75 minute episodes. It’s a shame they aren’t making many of those. I guess its a scheduling issue more than episode cost.

Did you ever watch Nathan Barley (written by Charlie Booker and Chris Morris) ? Truly loathsome character. Nicholas Burns is a way underused…[Read more]

@Mirime @Nick

This is straying a long way of topic, but no, I find it hard to believe that anyone could mistake a Welsh accent for that of Lincolnshire 🙂  Nor, for that matter, is the Norfolk accent, rural or urban, anything like the Cheshire accent.  The fact that I seem to have inherited traces of the latter is entirely down to my mother an…[Read more]

@Mirime

The Zygon Osgoods were a little bit different for me.  I saw them as a total blending

if you will of the Human Osgood.   The Doctor is the Doctor and can’t assimilate Clara.

@Avaris     BBC can really do a Paternoster Gang and Clara Who Spinoff.  It will be quite (a-hem) interesting character relation between Vastra, Jenny, Clara and Ashildr. This will be just very weird. But I bet every episode will pass the Bechdel Test for sure.     Throw in River Song! How anyone can say that Moffat doesn’t write strong fema…[Read more]

There have been a lot of interesting ideas about the virtual vs. physical reality of events in the episode and it’s all wonderful. I’m inclined to lean toward the “subjective” rather than “objective” interpretation, although not strongly in support of any one description of exactly how/why that works. Lots of people have had very creative th…[Read more]

@countscarlioni  on the hybrid: It appears the Doctor truly believes he is the hybrid, but that does not necessarily mean that he’s right. Or perhaps there can be more than one hybrid. It might not be either/or.

Excellent point — he’s been wrong before, after all.

@jphamlore  Not only that but for just this one episode, that the Doctor’s pocke…[Read more]