@MissRori  That’s an interesting take on the title, though it’s stretching the meaning of ‘apprentice’ to the point where I’m not sure it really applies.  At first, after fleeing the scene of their brief and accidental encounter, the Doctor clearly did think that he might have been at least partly responsible for what Davros became, but since foll…[Read more]

@MissRori

As a general note, we have a section for fanfic. This isn’t it.

@missrori  Thanks for the fanfic; it does illustrate your opinion, and in an imaginative and moving way.  As commentary, let me pull back a bit to a different perspective, a writer’s perspective, a story-teller’s (and eager reader’s and viewer’s) perspective.  The impulse to make it up to the Doctor for all he’s gone through and all he’s lost by…[Read more]

@missrori  the Twelfth Doctor is in need of an overarching story for his tenure.

Good question; I’ve wanted for a long time to see him seriously set about using time travel to return to the scenes of some of his uncorrected “mistakes”, and try to “make amends” for what he can’t fix (which is probably an awful lot, come to think of it).

What…[Read more]

@MissRori

I wouldn’t say the Doctor forfeited any sympathy from the General and Ohila in his actions.  It is not inherently wrong, after all, to fight injustice and evil and the cold hand of the grave

From their point of view, though, he was very wrong. It wasn’t so much that his actions against the High Council, though warranted on several levels…[Read more]

@ichabod

I agree entirely that he needed time alone to adjust and come fully to terms to what had happened, and I suspect that by now he is old enough and wise enough to decide such things for himself.  I’m pretty sure, though, that he would not trust, let alone rely on Karma, Fate or an impersonal universe, grateful or otherwise, to deliver wha…[Read more]

@ichabod

Thanks for the compliment 🙂

I have just re-watched the ending of Hell Bent to check that particular detail.  As the Doctor is losing consciousness he asks Clara to smile for him. ‘How could I smile” says Clara and he replies, ‘It’s OK, don’t you worry. I’ll remember.’ When he wakes we see the face of the man from his viewpoint and f…[Read more]

@mudlark  Oh, that’s a good summary of the Doctor/Clara dilemma and its resolution!  Concise, too, which I have to admire.

for a split second the man’s face becomes that of Clara as he would have seen her just before he lost consciousness in the stolen tardis.

I saw that, and assumed it was a momentary flash of what had just happened to him bef…[Read more]

@thane15   You seem to have a good grip on the uphill battle that is life. We have to live for the flashes of joy we get or we would be mired in sadness. I also agree with @missrori that the world we live in is a cold hard place sometimes and could use a lot more compassion. The Doctor is compassionate and empathetic and he always tries to be f…[Read more]

@thane15

The Trials and Time of Steven Moffat -or something

I wouldn’t dare 😮

he HAD those adventures with her even though he cant remember them.

I’m not sure it is entirely the case that he can’t remember them; after all, he remembered enough about the events on Gallifrey to be able to recount the story to Clara in the diner and, as I pointed…[Read more]

@MissRori

Further to my post above:  You ask why the Doctor doesn’t just stop caring and travel the universe enjoying life and looking out for himself alone.  Yes, caring often entails pain along the way, it comes with the territory, but anybody who possesses even an ounce of empathy cannot help but care. People who don’t or can’t care, who th…[Read more]

@MissRori

Why was it wrong for the Doctor to want Clara back? @pedant said it: because it exposed Clara to danger both from others and from himself and, as he had observed more than once, he had a duty of care. To hang on to her in these circumstances would have been selfish on his part. Everything he did, even when pushed to his mental and e…[Read more]

Hi @Arbutus – eclectic? I think I’m more erratic but thanks!

That is a gorgeous bit of Haden. Maybe its because I’m listening on crappy headphones, but I could do without Metheny’s more angular plucking (at least early in the track) and just listen to Haden’s really warm, sensual playing.

Now, I think it was @Missrori who wrote an elegant post…[Read more]

@missrori Re your last point, ‘why was he stuck in the dial so long?’ – I assumed that the time that passed for the Doctor in the dial was quite separate to the time that was passing for others outside it, so to all intents and purposes he might have just popped out for a moment, even whilst for him all of those millennia were passing.  I don’t…[Read more]

@MissRori

 could make at the end of “Hell Bent” was to keep traveling the universe, but stop caring

No. He knows that a person called Clara, who meant a great deal to him, but who he can now not recognised when she is in front of him, told him to go and “be a Doctor”. And that means caring.

why was it wrong for him to want Clara back?…

[Read more]

@Missrori

Others have beaten me to it and have covered almost all there is to say.  As @Arbutus has said in different words, the Doctor is the Doctor because he can do no other; in essence that is who he is – or who he has become over the centuries.  Sometimes he yields to the force of circumstance and lapses – which is why he does not ackno…[Read more]

@missrori  Nobody’s there for him in his dark time in the confession dial. Ergo, nobody truly loves him.  

At that moment, nobody’s there to show him love, but remember those 24 yrs on Derillium (or however the heck you spell it) with River?  There are moments of love and gratitude all through the Doctor’s saga, and maybe more importantly, mome…[Read more]

@thane15 @MissRori

You realise that new handle is going to get really confusing on your 16th right? 😉

We actually know – because we have been shown in text, many times – that he is both appreciated and loved. The ordinary people of Gallifrey stood between him and many guns; and many other worlds have legends of The Doctor (a Gallifreyan…[Read more]

@MissRori

The thing is, I don’t actually believe that we are “owed” happiness, and I don’t think that the Doctor would believe that, either. I think we have to earn happiness, and we do that, not be doing good things and being rewarded, but by choosing to be happy. We have to choose happiness, regardless of whatever we are dealt that might not…[Read more]

@MissRori

In any case…after he gives up his chance at happiness and lets Clara go….why does he choose to keep being the Doctor in the end?  What he goes through in this story arc goes to show that nobody appreciates his work.  Nobody gives him a miracle when he needs it.

The thing with good people is that they are good whether they are appreci…[Read more]