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8 February 2018 at 19:17 #63111
@tardis123 @bluesqueakpip It’s either one or the other, which the Testimony specifically gives as a “present” to the Doctor. 🙂
4 February 2018 at 17:29 #63094Okay, thinking back on what people (here and elsewhere) were hoping/expecting to see in this one — I was glad this story didn’t turn out to be the First and Twelfth Doctor’s sides of “The Day of the Doctor”, but why wasn’t Susan Foreman brought back for a cameo? Apparently Peter Capaldi hoped his Doctor would meet her, and they did find a way for Twelve to encounter the Mondasian Cybermen, so…especially given how the Testimony works, why not give him and One that happiness?
Or, in five years, will Twelve get to meet Susan in the 60th anniversary show?…
29 December 2017 at 12:52 #62848@tardigrade The Doctor may have bought into it with the Library, but at this point he’s had experience with the Nethersphere too, so he has some reason to have doubts over whether such a concept works/is a good thing or not, I suppose.
Regarding the cue cards, I was okay with them, though I can see where some thought this overplayed Twelve’s can’t-see-the-trees-for-the-forest issues. Of course, they were Clara’s idea in-universe IIRC, as she was so frustrated with him — and she always was the bossy type…
The idea that Glass!Bill had “spoilers” snipped out is one I’ve seen broached elsewhere as a plausible explanation for why she doesn’t bring up her post-“Doctor Falls” experiences.
Weirdest theory I’ve seen about the First Doctor’s sexism as running gag — a commenter at The Mary Sue genre discussion site argued that it’s actually Moffat’s way of clandestinely expressing how much he hates women, couched as a joke.
28 December 2017 at 02:13 #62797@jimthefish The Moff has said that “The Doctor Falls” was supposed to be the regeneration but Chibnall didn’t want to introduce Thirteen for Christmas and the show wouldn’t get any more Christmas specials if they skipped a year, so Moff decided to go with the coda approach you mentioned to squeeze out one more story for Twelve. And yes, I did appreciate that Twelve wasn’t quite so alone in the end, choosing to be alone when he regenerated notwithstanding.
27 December 2017 at 16:45 #62784I notice that one question people have with this one is “Why bring back Rusty the Dalek, of all 12th Doctor-specific characters?” Here’s my theory:
It fits in with the episode’s larger war-and-peace, soldiers and Doctors motif. Rusty is sort of the bad counterpart to the good Captain, stuck in a situation he didn’t create. Thanks to the poor Doctor’s well-intentioned mindmeld bringing up his hatred of the creatures created solely to hate everyone else, Rusty ended up the one “good” Dalek and isolated from everyone. He marks how much the Twelfth Doctor evolved as a character regarding both his fraught relationship with the military/soldiers and his initial tendencies to see the forest but not the trees in situations (after all, “Into the Dalek” was his second story); he always cared about doing the right thing, but at first tended to ride roughshod over individuals’ emotions in a crisis. Twelve came to an understanding over time with those who serve while also promoting peace, even realizing he sometimes thinks more like a soldier than a doctor in “Empress of Mars”, but the character that most facilitated that development — Danny Pink — couldn’t have effectively been brought back (say, as another Glass Person) because his relationship with Danny was an entwined outgrowth of his relationship with Clara, whom he does not remember completely at the time. So, bringing back Rusty — who was introduced in the same episode that introduced Danny — is another way of marking how much Twelve grew as a person from his brusquer early days.
27 December 2017 at 16:28 #62783@nerys The article was written and posted before the Christmas special aired, and isn’t discussing it with regards to the endings of Clara and Bill. The author is just referring to their respective fates in “Hell Bent” and “The Doctor Falls” — both women die, at least in a metaphorical sense, and the Doctor isn’t able to do anything for them as much as he wants to. He can’t restore Clara to full life because her death is a fixed point, and he can’t de-Cyberize Bill because they don’t have access to the TARDIS on Floor 507 and saving the solar farmers is a bigger concern than saving their own hides. But both women are ultimately restored to a new kind of life that also grants them the freedom to explore all of time and space with a companion of their own, and for various reasons the Doctor cannot follow them (the Hybrid issue and that he’s been mind-wiped in Clara’s case, and because Bill believed him dead in hers). Some fans even have the headcanon that the bisexual Clara (who said she’d fight the Doctor for Me back when they first met her) and possibly-bi Me (who did refer to Clara as “beautiful”) become lovers, as Bill and Heather are!
As for Pearl Mackie’s presence in “Twice Upon a Time”, Moffat says that Bill wasn’t in early drafts of that episode because he figured the Captain was a sufficient “companion” figure for the audience to relate to, but he later decided the story needed more “fun” and wrote in Bill.
26 December 2017 at 11:36 #62746@bluesqueakpip I wouldn’t say the Doctors were being villainous for not wanting to regenerate — One doesn’t know what the future holds and is just scared (and gets even more scared when he finds out that sorrows await him), while Twelve was just tired and probably feeling like a failure who might as well stop trying to help others, based on the circumstances of his partings from Missy, Bill, and Nardole. I do think the Capaldi-Moffat era works, but it is true that it focused more on the downsides of being the Doctor than the upsides. So this story hinging on both One and Twelve seeing the good that they do and can still do, which ultimately pushes each one of them to regenerate, makes some sense.
I enjoyed this episode a lot. On the one hand, I do understand the complaints about “nothing happening” in the story; there aren’t any radical revisions to the canon and there isn’t a lot of action. And those fans who were hoping this story would turn out to be One and Twelve’s sides of “The Day of the Doctor” must be frustrated! (One really does wonder — will Gallifrey and the other Time Lords ever be revisited at this rate?) Ditto for those hoping for a Susan appearance. Rusty the Dalek was a really out-of-left-field choice for a cameo!
The Captain was a nice character; his situation was an interesting counterpart to the Doctors’, but he didn’t get much to do. I know that the Moff didn’t add Bill Potts to the story until later drafts (he wanted to add more “fun”); touching as her situation here was, it would have been interesting to have just had the Captain be the one muggle in the bunch and give him a more proactive role. And having him turn out to be the Brig’s ancestor was the least interesting reveal they could have made about his identity. Ditto for the Christmas Truce playing into the plot (I remember first seeing that theory broached here, when I was wondering out loud what exactly WWI could do to be an inspiring setting!) as the way to get the episode to somehow reference Christmastime. But having that effectively be Twelve’s last heroic deed, and perhaps the most heroic of all by being the push One needs to accept the fearful future and allow his later selves and their good deeds to exist, DID work dramatically.
The Testimony turning out to be the benevolent version of the Nethersphere was a lovely full-circle conceit, and the idea of people being the sum of their memories (and a Time Lord even more so) was as good a way as any to work in Clara without having to bring back Me. And given that a lot of fans suspected/predicted Clara would be worked in, it was nice that they didn’t forget Nardole. I would have really liked to have a last-moment reveal that Missy was in the Testimony too, which would have wrapped up the one part of Twelve’s “myth arc” that was always around, but I guess that means she didn’t die for good on Floor 507 after all. 😉
There were a lot of directions this one could have gone in, but I think this was as good an approach as any, and the final scenes in the TARDIS were lovely. I know Twelve’s last speech owed much to earlier barnstorming speeches he’s made, but it was still moving, especially how it worked in Capaldi’s idea of what the Doctor’s real name is.
25 December 2017 at 16:56 #62728Check out this retrospective piece and let me know what you all think:
24 December 2017 at 18:35 #62719Early reviews for “Twice Upon a Time” have been very positive from the Radio Times to Den of Geek to Who-specific sites like DoctorWhoTV.co.uk and blogtorwho.com . I’ll leave other forum members to look them up, as the reviews have varying degrees of teases and such that can be seen as spoilers. Anyway:
- The performances are all excellent
- It’s more character-focused than the previous revival-era Doctor finales have been
- NO reviewers have seen Thirteen’s first scene; all pre-air screeners cut off at the regeneration itself
24 December 2017 at 18:27 #62718I do hope that the Twelfth Doctor is given a reason to keep on living that’s more than just “the universe needs the Doctor”. To quote Homer Simpson, “Can’t somebody else do it?” 😉 The universe hasn’t given this Doctor enough back; I can’t blame him — given what he’s just gone through — for wanting to embrace eternal rest if that’s the cost of not changing. We’ll just have to see.
I won’t be seeing “Twice Upon a Time” until Tuesday morning at the earliest, so I’ll get back here then.
21 December 2017 at 18:57 #626708 December 2017 at 17:04 #62595Along with the TV trailer that dropped today, here’s a Radio Times set visit article with some authorized teasers! And they’re very interesting ones.
7 December 2017 at 16:56 #62590So, I have to ask/bonkers-theorize — which classic villain do you think is the mastermind of these glass people? Come on, Moffat wouldn’t just have glass people as the villains of Twelve’s final adventure. Just push ’em over! 😉 No, there has to be something more powerful behind them. Maybe the Time Lords are into glassworking and we didn’t know it? 😀
More seriously, if they’re enchanted glass people as the offical synopsis puts it, who enchanted them? Maybe they’re finally bringing back the Celestial Toymaker? 🙂
6 December 2017 at 14:26 #62589Official promo gallery! Not all that spoilery if you’ve seen any previous promotional materials; still no hint as to what the glass people look like or if there are any other characters of note besides the two Doctors, Bill, Ben, Polly, and Captain Needs-a-name. 😉 Either they decided to do a “bottle episode” with this one, or there’s a lot that they’re still keeping under wraps.
30 November 2017 at 12:49 #62535Now that we know a little bit more about the special — namely, who’s responsible for Time freezing over — I’ve been chewing over various theories and predictions still flying about elsewhere as to what will happen for Christmas. 😉
It’s been pointed out that if these Glass People (only one of whom has a speaking role, which may or may not be a significant detail) are the antagonists, this might just be the first revival-era regeneration story in which the Last Great Time War and/or the Daleks are not involved in any way, shape, or form. Which would make sense — Gallifrey hasn’t been so much as mentioned since “Hell Bent” (end of Series 9) and the Daleks have had only cameos since “The Witch’s Familiar” (top of Series 9), even though both stories left loose ends that could be picked up somewhere down the line yet have gone untouched so far — Twelve’s relationship with his people, the prickly relationship he had with Ohila, what became of Time Lord-energy boosted Davros and the Daleks (did some survive Skaro’s collapse?), etc.
But at least as long as rumors that One and Twelve would be teaming up for this special have been around, there have been rumors that the story would involve their respective hands in the events of “The Day of the Doctor”, finally tying off the long-standing question of when Twelve pulled that lever — a question I would argue is more pertinent after the endgame of Series 9.
I can see him sealing off the deal before they imprisoned him in the dial and tortured him, but afterward? I’d be sorely tempted to let ’em rot instead. Yes, he would still have to do it to keep the Web of Time on an even keel and insure his own existence, but — especially if he remembers Clara now, as the end of “The Doctor Falls” suggests — wouldn’t he have a moment of doubt? Frankly, seeing him hesitate over the decision before doing what’s right, remembering he’s doing it more for Gallifrey’s innocents than the Time Lords themselves, would be more dramatic than treating it as a formality, if it turns out that he helped save Gallifrey at the end of his life. (Wouldn’t Clara remember if he’d done it when they were traveling together, and maybe brought it up in “Hell Bent”? By comparison Bill and even Nardole don’t seem to know much about the Time Lords in general, so if he did it while traveling with them, well, they’d just think it was “a thing” he was doing.)
Frankly, at only an hour long I think trying to bring in “The Day of the Doctor”‘s events might be overstuffing the story, since there’s already an all-new alien race to establish as a genuine giant, time-quaking threat that needs two Doctors to fix, followed by what will have to be a somewhat lengthy denouement — getting the Captain back to WWI and revealing his final fate (and actual identity if it isn’t established earlier — we still don’t know his given name), said Doctors parting, (possibly) One’s regeneration, Twelve saying goodbye to Bill, a “proper” sendoff for the Twelfth Doctor as a character, his regeneration, and finally Thirteen’s first scene.
And all that is assuming that the special isn’t bringing in any other companions or villains — and we already have heard rumors of Clara and the diner TARDIS showing up at some point, along with tons of fan requests for Susan to make an appearance. And if we’re getting Bill, what about Heather? If we’re getting Clara, what about Me?
And sure, everybody says that Missy is NOT in this special, but if the Moff lies…
I suppose the Glass People could turn out to be pawns of the Daleks and/or Time Lords, especially the latter given their abilities sound similar to time extraction tech, but is that what we really want? Comments are welcome! 😉
28 November 2017 at 13:26 #62514Hmm, we finally have some hints as to the antagonists. Moffat did say “new monsters”, and I can’t think of a previously-established Who race that fits the official description.
I noted in the last thread that a friend of mine suspects Moffat’s going to bookend his tenure on the revival with one last Everybody Lives story. Perhaps these aliens have a sympathetic motivation for their kidnappings — their abilities do sound like the Time Lords’ extraction technology, and poor Twelve had a sympathetic reason to pluck Clara from time in “Hell Bent”. If so, perhaps the Doctors will redeem them, which would fit in with the Moff saying that redemption is a theme of this story. Gloriously happy triumph for everyone!
18 November 2017 at 19:04 #62438@jimthefish I liked the clip too.
The same day I was listening to the fan podcast Verity! and they were discussing the Twelfth Doctor’s tenure and how he was very rarely seen happy onscreen (save for the final five minutes of THORS), culminating in the ending of “The Doctor Falls”. The women were discussing how they would like this Doctor to have a proper happy ending in “Twice Upon a Time”, something like the ending of “The Big Bang”.
Do you guys think this will be an Everybody Lives adventure after Moffat chose not to make “The Doctor Falls” one (and he certainly could have)? I’m worried because this is supposed to only be an hour long, and I would think that to have a proper wrapup they’ll need to give over about 5-10 minutes of the story to Twelve’s gloriously happy ending. Could the storytelling here end up rushed, as happened with “Time of the Doctor”?
14 November 2017 at 13:08 #62421Another thing bugging me about the boxset — why did they decide to bring it out now instead of after Christmas along with “Twice Upon a Time”?
Could it be that “Twice Upon a Time” is a surprise feature-length or two-part episode? 🙂
11 November 2017 at 17:33 #62405@bluesqueakpip Heh, I visited Good News Network before I read your message. I’m not as moved by animal-based stories as others, but even so. 😉 Didn’t know the BBC was committed to good news. Good for them.
I know about bias — if it bleeds it leads — but when even entertainment news is mostly about who’s pressing charges it’s especially grim. Sad to say I’m not surprised/skeptical about some of the guys getting in trouble now, either. They didn’t have great reputations as it was and were well known just for being jerks. Even late night shows are having trouble poking fun at these scandals because the hosts are running out of guests, some of whom have been colleagues for years.
Combine that with a poor year for hit movies and whatnot and there’s not much else to discuss. No one cares about the DW Xmas show on the chat shows! 😉 Anyway I’ll try to keep your advice in mind. Thank you.
11 November 2017 at 10:45 #62401It’s been yet another rough week for the news in my country; even entertainment reporting has gone gruesome. It’s really hard to find positive stories worth taking heart in. Having no one to talk to offline about all this, I’m not sure how to cope; it’s hard to just count blessings when you know others don’t have ‘em. Any help out there? 🙁
10 November 2017 at 14:44 #62384@jimthefish — I don’t quite follow how Twelve can be shown how his life/lives are/were worth all the trouble if there are no characters besides Bill and maybe Clara returning. Could you elaborate? 🙂
Also, as someone who is frustrated by how Twelve wasn’t as popular as Ten and Eleven with “the masses”, I can’t help but fear that the BBC went cheap for his finale and that’s why all the recent news has been about looking ahead to Thirteen. 😀 I really thought that by now we’d hear about other cast members, the villain, the runtime (movie-length or not?), etc.
9 November 2017 at 17:36 #62365A friend of mine pointed out that Thirteen’s outfit, minus the coat (because Doctors need coats!), wouldn’t be out of place on Bill — Twelve’s final companion. If that was intentional then well-played.
9 November 2017 at 13:21 #62358This is an intriguing look. Take away the coat, and it wouldn’t be out of place as an outfit for a female companion, especially so soon after Bill’s tenure. But Doctors need coats! 😉 It’s clearly an outfit for action, especially the boots. I’d bet a pack of trading cards that there are little TARDISes on those socks! 😀
9 November 2017 at 13:16 #62357@missy Unfortunately the soundtrack releases stopped after Series 8 so no “Heaven Sent” music for you… 🙁 Just another example of how poorly the Twelfth Doctor’s era was served….
7 November 2017 at 14:12 #62345As per usual, next week’s Children in Need telethon will feature a scene from “Twice Upon a Time”. I would have preferred an original short like some of the earlier Christmas shows received, especially since Twelve had so few supplementary shorts, but what can you do? 😉
Doctor Who Christmas special scene to be unveiled…
(Remember, no discussion of the clip except under BBC Approved Spoilers) 🙂
6 November 2017 at 16:25 #62341@jimthefish Hmmm, I missed that tweet, but I have hardly ever been part of the Tweet-o-Sphere anyway. Good to know. 😉
6 November 2017 at 14:50 #62339I was just thinking — remember how some of us were theorizing that “Twice Upon a Time” might be the Twelfth Doctor’s version of It’s a Wonderful Life? How does that work if there aren’t any returning characters aside from One, his last companions, and Bill? Guess that theory was wrong… 😉
6 November 2017 at 14:25 #62338This looks to have just broken this morning:
6 November 2017 at 12:36 #62337@missy @thane15 Thanks for trying to help. Since I last wrote there’s been another mass shooting in my country. It’s pretty clear that the powers-that-be would rather bodies be stacked up like cordwood instead of trying to undo the power of the gun lobby. I’ve signed petitions, sent postcards to my representatives, and nothing gets done.
I’m trying to be like the Doctor and be kind, and it doesn’t work… 🙁
5 November 2017 at 17:23 #62332Hello out there!
I’ve been really troubled by the U.S.-North Korea situation of late. I don’t relish the possibility of nuclear war, but no one in the papers, etc. seems especially optimistic that this situation can be solved without bloodshed. Why is this? Why would there be a war so sadistic and destructive? No one could live with themselves afterwards, after all.
Can someone give me some encouraging thoughts to keep in mind right now? 🙂
3 November 2017 at 13:24 #62329@bluesqueakpip I read your column on what the Moff may have in mind for the Doctor’s acceptance of change (that One recognizing Twelve will help, and Twelve will accept the idea of not always being a white guy, etc.). I think you may be on to something. But how do the other confirmed characters fit into this, and how can humanity’s resilience help the Doctor come to terms with something they don’t have to endure (and if they do it usually isn’t good)? We will have to see! 🙂
3 November 2017 at 10:40 #62325As a note, the Doctor not getting superpowers with this regeneration is not a deal-breaker for me but the ratings aren’t what they used to be and they’re shaking things up anyway… 😉
3 November 2017 at 10:31 #62323I’m still pondering how the Twelfth Doctor will be convinced to accept his transformation — especially when he finds out Bill got her old body back in a new-and-improved form. If Bill didn’t have to accept becoming a Cyberman and find a way to make that work for her, Twelve shouldn’t have to accept losing his identity and form and find a way to make it work for the thirteenth time in his lives. Neither person wanted to change, they were great people just as they were, but it was pushed on them nonetheless and they had to change to keep on living anyway. Going by that parallel, Twelve should either die or become a new-and-improved version of what he is now — same personality, same looks, new awesome flying powers and laser eyes. 😀
Of course, Bill is human and Twelve is a Time Lord, but the Doctor is far more human than others of his kind and doesn’t see regeneration the way they do anymore…he’s too aware of what he loses. And where Eleven came to his end on the surprise heels of a huge triumph with a beloved companion at his side, Twelve is…not so lucky. He’s undergone a lot of sorrow and loss, probably believing all that effort of redeeming Missy was for naught. So the glass is half-empty for him while it was half-full for Eleven.
But I can think of lots of ways the episode can make Twelve’s change a happy occasion.
- As I previously suggested, Bill chooses to become The Good Cyberman again as a show of support to the Doctor and this encourages him to embrace change at last too.
- The regeneration takes place…but along with the first ever gender-flip for the Doctor, this regeneration is the first one that does not alter their personality at all, because Twelve really is too good to lose. Thirteen has the same personality as Twelve so she can go into her adventures feet first, without all that soul searching Twelve had to do.
- Twelve realizes he’ll get awesome new powers as Thirteen, which would parallel Bill getting new abilities as a pilot like Heather. This turns Bill’s unhappy Cyberman tenure into growing pains towards a positive end, like Twelve’s identity crisis in Series 8 was for him. And Thirteen thus has flying abilities and laser eyes. 😉
- Missy comes back — or her next self, who is still good — and the Doctor is thus reminded just how good change can be.
I’m pretty sure the Moff has something different planned to get to the happy ending, but don’t you want flying abilities and laser eyes? 😀
2 November 2017 at 17:15 #62314@thane15 I think it’s not so much an obsession with Ohila but with the idea of making amends. 🙂 The Doctor adds to his credo at the end of “Hell Bent” that if one is ever cruel or cowardly, “always make amends”. Between that and the Doctor’s discussion of the value of forgiveness in “The Zygon Inversion”, it’s odd that we never saw the Doctor head back to Gallifrey, or at least Karn, to rebuild the bridges with Time Lords and/or Ohila once his head was on straight again. It would have been a wonderful summation of the Doctor’s compassion in Series 9 — he extends the olive branch of forgiveness, and is himself compassionately forgiven, whereupon he moves on.
They didn’t so much as mention him ever getting around to those things in Series 10, so the Xmas show is the last chance for that to happen, and it’s just something I’d like to see — certainly would be happy!
Of course, it can be argued that the Doctor was just talking about being a Doctor in general and he did nothing to apologize for in “Hell Bent”. Who wants to be part of a “jerky club for jerks”, as Homer Simpson might put it? 😉
31 October 2017 at 16:24 #62303@thane15 I understand what you’re saying that a relative lack of characters could be to the benefit of Twelve’s finale, but as @bluesqueakpip pointed out at least “Time of the Doctor” worked in a bunch of villain cameos, plus the Time Lords just offscreen. 😉 And the story had a grand scale, with some huge time jumps and significant plot developments, culminating in the Doctor getting a new lease on life/lives and making short work of the Daleks. It wasn’t huge the way “The End of Time” was, granted.
“Twice Upon a Time” doesn’t seem to have much going for it plotwise. Time standing still? That’s no big whoop for a single Doctor much less two. Hardly Twelve’s “darkest frozen moment”. And not giving any hints to the villain of the story suggests to me that either the BBC doesn’t find whoever it is exciting enough to hype (“Oh, Cybermen again?”), given their tendency to give away big spoilers of late, or there isn’t an antagonist at all and time freezing is more of a “clerical error”, as Twelve might put it. 😀
That said a minimalist story might be what’s needed to solve the key dilemma of Twelve not wanting to regenerate. Looking at things from his perspective, he’s got no reason to change; he’s happy to be who he is, a good man, and he went through a lot to get to that point. If he dies for good, well, at least it’s on his own terms. As of the end of “The Doctor Falls” he has no companions (and believed his most recent one to have died a Cyberman), no best frienemy, no confidante (this would be a great excuse to bring back someone like Ohila — to mend the fences), no wife. He scored a moral victory and took down a troop of Cybermen, but as we see in the real world, that only goes so far to keep up one’s spirits. It’s tough to keep fighting a good fight sometimes. 😉 Maybe that will be plot enough. If they could get “Heaven Sent” to work…
I am looking forward to the show in any case, but it’s been such a rough year for all of us my expectations are higher than usual for something uplifting. 😉
30 October 2017 at 09:16 #62298@thane15 Hi Thane. I would be able to scrounge up money for music therapy, I think. But with Mom around that’s just not an option if it has to be face to face. Dad is a good man, but he does tend to defer to her in matters like this, and like her he doesn’t understand why I am not wholly on board with The Way We Live Now. He is much kinder about it, however. 😉
One of the key reasons I go to conventions upstate (about 3 times a year at this point, if you’re wondering — only so much time I can take off from work) is socializing. While it’s hard to make lasting connections at those things I have baited my hook and made a few friends this way, and we keep that up in the online world. I’m not hurting for FB friends and pen pals; I’ve had one snail mail pen pal for 20 years now. 😀
The downside is that Mom believes it’s talking with people online that’s brainwashed me into not supporting Trump and company. Her attitude has really become poisonous, and it’s a shame. If I could figure out a way to fix that, a lot of stuff would follow…but until then I just have to avoid her as much as possible. 😉 Thank you for checking in.
29 October 2017 at 16:08 #62293@bluesqueakpip Well, PCap already got to face off with the Mondasian Cybermen and other classic monsters in his tenure. And having a Doctor be the “big” villain would be kind of grim for what’s intended as a fun story after “The Doctor Falls”. Maybe they’re playing the Valeyard or Rassilon for comedy, which would be cool. 🙂
29 October 2017 at 14:51 #62291It might be fun to try NaNoWriMo again, but November is going to be busy for me, and not just because of the Chicago TARDIS convention on Thanksgiving weekend! It feels like my life is just the downtime between conventions these days… 😉
In case anyone is wondering, I did find there are some music therapists in my area, but I don’t know how to get to and from without my parents, and they do not think my concerns are valid enough to seek therapy. And for some reason there aren’t any online-only arrangements I could do from home. I’ve also checked up on activities at the local library, but none of them pique my interest, and I had an unhappy experience trying a book club a few years ago. (It’s no fun for a conversation to take a turn into getting lectured as to why the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII was a good thing…)
According to my mother, I am too naive and too unwilling to see the truth about the world; as she sees it being kind is often more trouble than it’s worth, and this I think is what drives the wedge between us. As she sees it, good people in power are being unfairly maligned by the sore losers and layabouts of the world, who are all too sensitive about every little thing. I don’t know how to shift her way of thinking, but how can I shift mine to at least not mind what she says so much?
29 October 2017 at 14:38 #62289@bluesqueakpip You’re right of course not to give up hope for surprise appearances, but lately the BBC has been awfully blabby on big developments in their promotional materials. 😉 And why haven’t there been rumors about all those other characters who could show up?
29 October 2017 at 14:15 #62287@bluesqueakpip Good luck on NaNoWriMo. I tried it 10 years ago. Finished it, though the work wasn’t any good. 😉
29 October 2017 at 14:09 #62286(hmmm) Since it doesn’t appear that the Thirteenth Doctor’s companions will be introduced in “Twice Upon a Time” and we now know that the Captain isn’t one of those, the Christmas show is looking awfully bare. No Missy/Master, no Clara, and what look to be only minor roles for Ben and Polly.
No villains, even! 😀 If a fan-favorite baddie were being brought back, I think the BBC would be trumpeting it because that’s what they do; if it were an all-new threat…well, the Xmas shows aren’t much for coming up with original villains, so perhaps we don’t want that.
On the one hand, this was a last-minute special in a sense and it could well be made from a place of hunger, but is a minimalist episode with only four significant characters for the bulk of the story (two of whom are the same person) really what Twelve’s era should go out on when his previous selves got grandiose send-offs? It’s hardly “magical” as promised. Where’s Missy or her next self, Clara, the Paternoster Gang, Ohila, River Song, the General, the other Time Lords, Susan Foreman, etc.?
I really don’t want poor Twelve to die alone. How about having Idris return for a few moments? 😉
20 October 2017 at 08:55 #62199I was talking with an online friend elsewhere about the Doctor’s hope for stars when he nearly expired, and she agrees with me that it would be disappointing not to pick up on that in this special — to have him see stars as he regenerates. But who can provide them for him? She suggested either Bill or the TARDIS, but how would they know what he wants?
Also…could it be that the Captain is actually the next companion? If Bill isn’t coming back after this (at least not for some time), that would mean she and the Doctor part by the end of this special, and while several previous selves have regenerated alone, that just doesn’t seem like a fair shake for Twelve after all his trials. 😉 And having an absolute surprise companion, one not revealed as such until the episode airs, would make even more media headlines!
Alternatively, maybe the Captain isn’t the companion but we’ll get a surprise anyway — that in the course of the story Thirteen’s companion is introduced. This special seems awfully bare-bones casting-wise, so surely there are significant characters yet to be revealed. I still wonder who the antagonist is going to be; it would be a huge letdown to just keep using Cybermen — they need a Big Bad this time if that’s going to be the case.
In addition/alternately 😉 we will see the reformed Missy. Sure, everybody’s said she is not appearing, but they said that about Clara after “Face the Raven” and look what happened! 😀
14 October 2017 at 20:31 #62168Also…the Twelfth Doctor hoped for stars when he (almost) died. So logically he at least needs to get his stars when he regenerates, but then he can’t be inside the Tardis for that because he can’t see stars from in there. So where might he become she instead? Something to think about!
14 October 2017 at 19:48 #62167@thane15 No problem Thane. 🙂 I like considering what you have to say. But I’m not sure Who couldn’t survive without the Master as an arch enemy. I know there are fans who would appreciate older enemies like the Valeyard returning…maybe somebody like that could take over for a few seasons? 😀
14 October 2017 at 11:33 #62156Also, another theory about Christmas — Michelle Gomez confirmed that Missy won’t appear in this special, but that statement doesn’t rule out the next Master appearing. So, perhaps they will appear, and to the Twelfth Doctor’s joy and rapture they are a good guy or girl now thanks to his efforts! What a wonderful way to remind him that change can be embraced and good. What do you think?
14 October 2017 at 11:10 #62155Okay, so — still no word on who the villain in this story is? At this point, it has to be
- A really big deal recurring villain (Daleks with or without Davros, next incarnation of the Master, Time Lords etc.)
- A generic one-off villain because Moffat and co. want to focus on the Doctors, following on from the general tradition of the Christmas shows (i.e. the Sycorax, the Racnoss, Max Capricorn, Mercy Hartigan, the Dream Crabs, King Hydroflax…)
- No villain at all and the Doctors are just trying to fix the frozen time problem, which perhaps turns out to be caused by regeneration reluctance
I think 3 would actually be the best for this particular concept, especially if it’s only an hour long, but that doesn’t fit with the synopsis bringing up “humanity’s resilience” or “darkest frozen moment” (which is rich to bring up after “Heaven Sent”, when nobody in the whole darned universe loved the Doctor enough to help him).
Between that, the “Have you no emotions, sir?” line, the Moff discussing how evil can be logical, and the story taking place during/after Cybermen encounters depending on which Doctor’s perspective is looked at, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were also a Cyberman story. However, just having Twelve defeat them again doesn’t really add anything to his story, so there must be something more to the threat — maybe a new character collaborating with them?
Also, about the “embracing change” theme — I also brought this up over on the “The Doctor Falls” thread, but I think there’s a big thematic hole with regards to Bill. Thanks to unhappy circumstance she had to become Cyber!Bill at some point to keep on living, but didn’t want to keep living if she couldn’t be herself and in the end she was restored to a better form of her old self. But the Twelfth Doctor doesn’t want to keep living if he can’t be himself, yet the whole point of this special is getting him to embrace an unwanted, painful change that results in identity loss, to see the good in it. This sounds like a thoughtless double standard.
So…perhaps Bill will decide to become Cyber!Bill again in this special and choose to make the most of it as a good Cyberman, one free of the hive mind? Realizing that she and the Doctor have been silly to resist change instead of embracing it. And this example helps encourage Twelve to make his own scary change. Who likes this idea? 🙂
12 October 2017 at 16:51 #62136(sigh) With all the sad news in the world right now of man’s inhumanity to man, I’m tempted to put extra impetus on the Christmas special to make things up for this crummy year.
For me, at this point I won’t be fully satisfied unless everybody who ever cared for Twelve appears (including Clara and River and Missy, so he knows he redeemed her), he gets to have 1,000 more years before regenerating, the Time Lords and Ohila come grovelling back to him begging for forgiveness, and he gets a day of glorious universe-saving triumph as his predecessors did. (Technically of course, he got that in “Hell Bent” but wasn’t acknowledged for saving it.) 😉
12 October 2017 at 16:46 #62135There’s been some pretty alarming news coming out of Puerto Rico — people are drinking water from contaminated sites, the USS Comfort is just offshore ready to house patients but isn’t receiving any, they’re short millions of meals, and the President is complaining that FEMA, et.al. can’t be expected to stay there forever even though it’s only been three weeks.
“Why not just be kind?” indeed… 🙁
12 October 2017 at 11:58 #62131@thane15 @missy @janetteb Hello again!
I honestly don’t think I have what it takes to cut ties with my family yet, financially or otherwise. The part of the Midwest I live in has taken economic malaise pretty hard — and Puro, I have seen over the years the problems with taking the risky choice firsthand. My two younger brothers have had some real ups and downs trying to leave the nest. I find it hard to keep track of their current jobs anymore!
Also, while it is trying to deal with my mother these days, my father is a mellow, kind, good man, conservative though he is. I’d hate to leave him over something I could find another way(s) to deal with. And in ten, even five years we might all be making major changes to our lives that would bring me to a place of greater independence. For now, I’d rather work on saving for retirement and possible assisted living later on than consider moving out, tempting though it may be. 😉 The main frustration is not being able to talk with and connect with my parents as much as I would like to, but right now we just don’t have much in common to avoid stumbling into traps. Biting on one’s tongue all day is difficult.
Thanks for all the comments and kindness. 🙂
11 October 2017 at 12:25 #62108@missy Who would tell the Doctor about Missy’s change of heart? Remember, it was without witness! 😉
Also, regarding the Doctor not wanting to change…it does seem rather unfair that Twelve must become Thirteen when he doesn’t want to when Bill got to be restored to a human shape, if not yet form. If she had stayed a Cyberman yet made it work it would have been more thematically appropriate for what’s about to happen to Twelve. Maybe she’ll decide she wants to be a Cyberman again in the Christmas show, accepting the change that was forced upon her the way it is being forced upon Twelve?
But then this double standard has turned up before with Twelve; the Doctor wasn’t allowed to enjoy the wiggle room with Clara but was forced to move on and accept her death, but Clara chose to enjoy what the Doctor’s suffering granted her instead of doing the honorable thing and going back to her death. If someone else suffered so for me, I would either enjoy the new time with him or we would both have to suffer. But then she was always selfish that way… 😉
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