Awesome news everyone!  Rachel Talalay has been confirmed as directing this year’s Christmas special in addition to the season finale “World Enough and Time”/”The Doctor Falls”!

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

Looking elsewhere, this episode looks likely to go down as the “Kill the Moon” of Series 10 in the fandom — a seriously contrived storyline with a lot of bad science, and then Bill Potts had to go and do that thing.  Yeah, she’s plummeting in the companion popularity polls already.

(sigh)  I think the intent with her choice was akin to the D…[Read more]

(weep)  Poor, poor Doctor.  His pride went before a fall — but as in “Oxygen”, he was willing to accept the consequences.

But Bill couldn’t, and as the AVClub review points out, she made a “never give up” decision by saving the Doctor’s life despite the terrible fate that will be revealed in next week’s episode.  That Next Time trailer…(sob)

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

(bounce bounce bounce) I want to jump ahead to part two already and I haven’t even seen it yet!  The forum will be hot tonight!  😀

But, um, why didn’t anybody mention World War III was looming in the previous episodes?  I wouldn’t be worrying about moving into my own place at a time like that Bill!  🙂  And surely Nardole would have remin…[Read more]

@missy @countscarlioni The Daleks would be an interesting reveal, but so far I get the sense these creatures are either working on their own or for some other greater force.  Perhaps Missy’s found a way to escape the Vault?  Or the Great Intelligence is back?  It once employed human monks to do its dirty work.  I don’t think Time Lords are com…[Read more]

@arbutus  @thane15 Timey-wimey?  Perhaps….

Sim-Doctor said that using the special device only would grant him eyesight for a little while and come at the cost of later regenerations — at worst he might not able to regenerate ever again.  So assuming real-Doctor has a similar device, he doesn’t intend to use it unless a really really big pro…[Read more]

Spoiler-free advance reviews are starting to come in for “The Pyramid at the End of the World”!

From the sounds of it, this has many similarities to the Series 9 Zygon story’s first half as the Doctor and co. investigate an extremely clever enemy and war looms.  Not surprising, since this is from the same writers (Peter Harness and Steven…[Read more]

@ichabod and the story of the frog and scorpion:

Are we here to learn to be heroes — ethical, empathic, reasonable, and kind — by simply refusing to be scorpions?  Without hope, without recognition or reward and often without even success, to reach always toward the good because we choose to?

Well, the moral of the story I and others have comm…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

@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]

@thane15 Ah, that does clear things up on my forgiveness question.  Thank you Thane!  🙂

Yes, the Doctor has much to teach us.  How well has Bill learned, I wonder?  😉

@thane15  Sorry about that Thane.  I’ll try to be better in the future.  🙂

@ichabod  Glad to hear from you!  Yes, I was actually thinking about “The Scorpion and the Frog” earlier tonight/today (this is a day off from work, and I work odd hours).  Between this gloomy unfolding storyline — so much to anticipate and dread in the coming weeks…[Read more]

@whisht  I agree that an episode that turns out to involve a Freaky Friday-style swap for the Doctor and Missy would be fun, but from the synopses of the remaining episodes this season I doubt that’s going to happen — first the Monks storyline has to be wrapped up with the next two episodes, then there’s the Ice Warriors episode, then an ep…[Read more]

Oops — I meant “without witness” in that last quote.  Virtue looks to be the only thing the Doctor has left in the end!  😀

And another thing!  😉

Let’s face it…the Doctor can’t trust Missy as far as he can throw her.  Letting her live could be seen as at least as big a threat to the space-time continuum as saving Clara from her death in “Hell Bent” was, thinking about it.

I understand the idea that the Doctor’s decision to spare her stems from his most virtuous, c…[Read more]

Also, regarding the Monks’ simulations and abilities…if the prospect of a world war is central to the pyramid episode next week, why didn’t anybody bring this up earlier in the season?  You’d think the President of Earth would read the papers…  😉

@tardigrade I agree, especially regarding the blindness issue — he can’t voluntarily regenerate just to solve that.  And if it’s cured before he regenerates, it will probably be a happy side effect of something else.  He lost his sight because he acted too rashly, yet nobly and heroically.  What would be the counterpart to regain it?…

Yes, this disaster is another heartbreaker — it’s suspected of being an attack, and if it is, they were targeting preteens and teens…(weep). And then there’s the online reactions– ugly and cruel ones — on top of that. It’s so hard to see hope for the world these days.  I’ve sent up a Lord’s Prayer.