@janetteB @winston @blenkinsopthebrave

Sad indeed.  I always enjoyed ichabod’s posts and insights, and when the forum comes fully to life again, as I trust it will when the show returns in the autumn, her contributions will be greatly missed.

Thanks, janette, for relaying the news; I had missed it in January and have just been reading some of…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Your views on Moffat’s writing coincide pretty much exactly with mine. I, too, love the ‘puzzle boxes’ and the densely layered plots which repay multiple re-viewings – so much more satisfying than simple narratives, though I concede that the latter can be very entertaining. As for the accusations of misogyny, I, born in 1942 and…[Read more]

For the record, there is an interview with Steven Moffat in today’s Guardian in which, among other things, he discusses with good humour some of the more negative responses to his take on Doctor Who and Sherlock.

@blenkinsopthebrave

Thanks for that link.  The ingredients could, in theory, add up to an exciting send-off for the thirteenth Doctor…[Read more]

Re. the above. I meant to include a link to the aforementioned report

@dentarthurdent

Like you, I tend to prefer science fiction/fantasy stories set in an imagined future to those with a historical setting, but not for the reasons you cite. For me, as an archaeologist and historian, it is the inaccuracies which are jarring, and there generally are at least a few inaccuracies or anachronisms.

That said, I thought…[Read more]

Children are good at joining the dots.

Today’s Observer/Guardian has a report on an eight year old Ukrainian boy who, with his family, has just been evacuated from their village near Kharkov after living in a basement since the start of the war. He spent much of the time there drawing, and there is a photo of him and one of his drawings – of what…[Read more]

@janetteB

We don’t get dust storms as such, but occasionally, if there is a dust storm in the Sahara and the wind is in our direction, the fine particles which get lofted into the upper atmosphere get carried here. If it then rains it brings these particles down to leave a fine deposit of pink or orange powder over everything. If it doesn’t rain,…[Read more]

@janetteB  @dentarthurdent et al 

Just checking in to say that I, too, am still alive and kicking, gradually emerging from my winter dormouse torpor, though I can’t say that I’ve been in a particularly cheerful or optimistic mood, given the current disastrous and distressing state of affairs in eastern Europe.

As far as possible I’ve been d…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

This episode was for me a very effective introduction to this new chapter in the Doctor’s lives and to Bill – so much so that Bill became almost immediately one of my favourite companions among all who have accompanied him in his adventures. With hindsight we know why he chose to spend so long teaching at a university and, judging…[Read more]

@janetteB  Hello (waves)

Sympathetic vibes over you no-good/horrible evening. In my opinion committee meetings are a pain at the best of times even when the chair is efficient at keeping trouble makers in check – and not themself the problem – which is why I have always tried to avoid any situation requiring committee work, and preferred to…[Read more]

@thane16 (alias syzygy) puro

A reciprocal, though belated halloo. It is good to see you here again; you have been missed.

I guess you are right that the Doctor used his sonic/wearable technology and/or psychic paper to obtain money. On the face of it that would be fraud, but if, as Kate once said, he is ‘on the [UNIT] payroll’, maybe it would…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

I remember getting a fair amount of stick for my opinions on what was or was not remembered, but it still seems to me obvious that the the neural block  was just that; a block and not an erasure of memory such as poor Donna suffered, who retained no recollection at all of either the Doctor or her adventures with in his company.…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

It was me, not Miapatrick, who remembers living in a house with no electricity 🙂 .  I suppose that for most people now it is hard to imagine, but at that time there were still many houses in remote rural areas in Britain which were not yet connected to the grid or even to a gas supply. I was born in 1942, in the middle of the…[Read more]

@scaryb @miapatrick

I’ve been pondering the notion that Bel and Vinder are the Doctor’s birth parents and it would certainly work. I’m not sure that the Flux itself could be the operative factor in transforming the hypothetical Doctor embryo, because  Awsok stated that it – and presumably its effects – were spatial, not temporal. Swarm and…[Read more]

@janetteb

‘Twasn’t me who likened university studies to banging my head against a brick wall. In fact, as I said, I mostly enjoyed my time there as an undergraduate. Post graduate research was a different matter. I enjoyed the research itself, but for the most part I was working in isolation with no-one to bounce ideas off, apart from my brief…[Read more]

Once again we are jumping back and forth between multiple narrative threads – six in this case, but now that we have a firmer idea of what is going on and where everyone fits in it isn’t so much of a problem and I enjoyed this episode, even if it wasn’t up to the standard of last week. And visually it was gorgeous.

Of the various threads, that of…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @scaryb

I know that dream all too well. I’m at school or university and I’m about to sit an exam but realise that I haven’t attended any of the classes in that subject and I’m going to have to wing it somehow.

I certainly enjoyed my time as a university student in Edinburgh, both work and play, and the only classes I skipped were…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Here is the bonkers theory: what if Doctor Ruth was the immediate predecessor to Hartnell, and, as part of escaping from Division, somehow managed to regenerate (into Hartnell) while simultaneously escaping, but in a way that denied Hartnell the knowledge of Division.

I agree with you that Ruth Doctor is probably the immediate…[Read more]

I’ve just been re-reading some of the comments on the previous three chapters and was reminded of this evilly bonkers theory proposed by @devilishrobby in the discussion of The Halloween Apocalypse

What if it turns out the Doctor as the timeless child is in fact not only the progenitor of the Timelord race as the current past story seem indicate,…

[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Returning to the subject of Awsok, I’ve been looking again at what she actually said in that brief interlude. After saying in effect  that this universe is ending and there is nothing that the Doctor can do about it, so she might as well give up trying, she goes on to say, The Flux was not an accident. It wasn’t a naturally…[Read more]