Also…isn’t the Doctor culpable for many, if not all, of the people imprisoned and/or executed by the Monks, given that he was broadcasting propaganda on their behalf encouraging them to be turned in for dissension, albeit as part of his cover?  And shouldn’t Bill have called him out on that?  (I saw this brought up at Tumblr from a major fan o…[Read more]

@nick  I agree, this three-parter needed some more time in development (and we already know that “Pyramid” wasn’t able to get that due to Moffat’s mother’s illness/death).  I see it as a delicious, rich soup course followed by a steak that needed some more time on the grill followed by a dessert that didn’t completely satisfy but gave a nice su…[Read more]

Hoo boy, my feelings are mixed about this one…

On the one hand, I liked it more than “The Pyramid at the End of the World” but it was no “Extremis”.  The acting was great — I understand why Mackie’s getting the lion’s share of praise, but Capaldi was amazing.  This is Twelve’s equivalent to Four’s “The Invasion of Time”.  I felt like thi…[Read more]

(phew)  My mind has been preoccupied by all these cliffhangers lately.  I’m ready for a little closure!  😉

@serahni  I wish I could binge-watch it too!  I have been preoccupied with this three-parter and need to get back to one-shot stories!  😉

@thane15  That is an excellent point — “The Magician’s Apprentice”/”The Witch’s Familiar” does get a lot of material packed into its two parts by way of setting up all of the season’s major themes and plot devices and juggling a bunch of familiar characters about along the way, in some fresh combinations at that.  I just see Missy and Clara as s…[Read more]

@serahni  I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy Series 9 all that much.  It was the Capaldi era that brought me back to Who, and I haven’t caught up with the final run of Smith’s tenure and the “Impossible Girl” arc, but I never did become a big Clara Oswald fan — although I was moved by her actual relationship with the Doctor, her romance arc in Se…[Read more]

Here’s a cool theory I found at TVTropes: The Doctor did try to tell Bill he was blind twice but he ended up distracted both times — first when the pyramid “activated”, second when he had a moment of inspiration as to what the “real” threat to humanity was.  That easily could have been the Monks stepping in to make sure the Doctor wouldn’t tell…[Read more]

@missy Could be in both places.  Also, with the Doctor agreeing to the attack, besides all the other plausible reasons provided, it might have been an issue of his own fear of what these Monks were capable of (signalling to Bill and Nardole that this is really serious stuff compared to what’s come before).

Also, @countscarlioni, it is a running gag in the Who reviews at AVClub.com that mysterious unidentified character X in any given arc could be either the Valeyard or the Rani.  😀

@missy I am currently reading a 12th Doctor novel, Diamond Dogs, and an early scene has him outwitting some security robots by effectively taking a very anxious Bill hostage.  As he’s explaining why they’re not going to harm him or her to the human authorities, he says:

“Now, do you think that if she’s my friend, I’m really going to shoot her?  N…

[Read more]

@tardigrade  You have a point.  I think a better term for “spoiler-free preview”, or “advance review”,  would be as — in the case of Who anyway — a “BBC Approved review”, ala one of the other threads here (and I will keep this in mind in the future).  The reviewer can describe things in the episode that were covered in the promotional mater…[Read more]

My apologies then @pedant and @thane15.

@thane15  Yeah, I do think it’s odd Bill didn’t catch on sooner to the Doctor’s blindness.  Besides his repeatedly asking others to describe what they see, she does realize he’s acting oddly in general and correctly guesses that he has something to tell her that he’s having a hard time getting out. It doesn’t seem like that much time has pass…[Read more]

Okay, Den of Geek and DoctorWhoTV.co.uk have spoiler-free reviews up for “The Lie of the Land” and I took a look…

Both reviews feel that, while it’s worth a look, this is not the smashing ending to the Monks Trilogy that the previous two episodes set up.  On the one hand it has a strong, dark, even topical first half exploring what has become…[Read more]

About whether the munks might be Time Lords — perhaps they are out of regenerations!  I read an article on that theory a little while ago.  It pointed out though that the Time Lords are proud and haughty and tend not to travel in packs.  😉

Oh wow, that’s horrible and explains so much.  Poor Moffat.  It really is a shame they couldn’t have moved things to later in the season — and here I thought that this storyline was moved back because it was so flawed at the script stage. 🙁  Well, what’s done is done.  Hopefully the wrap up salvages the arc, because “Extremis” was such a goo…[Read more]

@abaath  Hello!  I’m 39 myself.

@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]

@brewski Some folks at TVTropes did, pointing out that the show never has explained what happened to the Master’s TARDIS…  😉