@peter @wolfweed  I certainly took what the Doctor said to mean that he had expanded the definition of what constituted a human to include people with two hearts, not redefined it.

For that matter, the people on the ship are Mondasians, so are terrestrial humans sufficiently similar, anatomically and genetically to appear the same to the…[Read more]

The question of the loss of 17 seconds on Floor 1056 remains open, but if anyone prefers not to see it as a continuity error, Missy and the Simm Master were not only together on the ship but touched several times – the last time fatally – and that alone could have caused a time distortion according to canon lore.

First impressions, though I feel a need to watch that again a s a p.

This may not have been quite as good, technically speaking, as World Enough and Time, but in many ways I found it more emotionally gripping. Perhaps that response was coloured by the knowledge that this was Moffat’s and Capaldi’s penultimate episode, but I don’t think that was…[Read more]

@Whisht

You really shouldn’t stroke my ego; it encourages a vanity which is quite inappropriate in one of my years – or any years for that matter.

But I would never be so ungracious as to spurn a compliment – so *glow*

@Craig

That is truly heart-warming, and testimony to the fact that social media are not dominated by the mean-minded, even if…[Read more]

@Nick  Yes, he’s bright and, though he’s not a physicist exactly, he is like me interested in physics, quantum mechanics and cosmology, albeit much better qualified to follow the maths.

@Whisht  I’ve never held with the notion of living fast and dying young. On the whole I have always maintained it is better to live slow and retain at least so…[Read more]

Since we have been tangentially discussing Einsteins General and Special theories of Relativity on the World Enough and Time thread, I thought the following might offer an interesting sidelight.  It was formulated by my brother some years ago while observing an Air India flight.  I hope that he would not object to my offering it here for your co…[Read more]

@pedant

And we haven’t even considered spaghettification…

Yes, I did wonder why there was no mention of spaghettification.  How close to the event horizon does one need to be before that becomes a factor?

Maybe the ship was originally shorter and fatter 😕

@thane15 – Puro

Bill shouldn’t  be aware of the 5 years passing?

She most certainly would experience every minute of the time passing on Level 1056 while she waited for the Doctor,  just as people on earth would experience the 100 years or so which elapsed while the astronauts travelling close to the speed of sound would experience and age only a…[Read more]

@thane15

It has taken a while, and I’m not sure that anything I have to say at this late stage can add much to the discussion, but I have now had time to view the episode twice and at least to skim through the comments so far; so, in answer to your call-out above, what did I make of it?

I’m not sure that I would go as far as Dan Martin in…[Read more]

There is a great deal of catching up for me to do and it is probably a bit late in the day for me to be commenting on this thread, but I got to watch World Enough and Time only yesterday evening and need to collect my thoughts and, for preference, read the comments on that before contributing my ha’p’orth, so I may as well start here.

Given the…[Read more]

.@Blenkinsopthebrave  @thane15 (puro)  @JimTheFish  @Nick

Thanks for the good wishes.  It was a rather disconcerting attack of tachycardia – for no apparent reason my heart rate went through the roof and stayed in the stratosphere for the better part of an hour, which to say the least felt weird. After things had settled down again the med…[Read more]

The best laid plans ….

This afternoon I had intended to spend two or three hours gardening before perhaps posting a comment on The Empress of Mars.  Instead there was an interlude involving an ambulance and several hours in A & E at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. All I did was call 111 for some advice and they promptly summoned the…[Read more]

@thane15

I meant to send you my thoughts on the R & J question yesterday but other matters intervened. I have now sent a PM with some suggestions, for whatever they are worth and assuming that it is not now too late for them to be of use.

@Missy

As I wrote on Friday, Boris Johnson would jump at the chance to be PM and would probably be first to…[Read more]

@pedant

I was putting myself in the hubristic head of May.

Yeeeuch!  Brain  bleach, stat!

@pedant

watch out for another hubristic snap election when the Universities are on break.

But if the students are registered in the constituency where the university is situated they have the option of a postal vote, even if they are elsewhere at the time. I hope that I am not too optimistic in thinking that, given the motivation and a targeted…[Read more]

@Nick

Who could replace May?  If the choices on offer following Cameron’s resignation are anything to go by, it’s a very shallow pool from which to choose. I haven’t made a study of the Tory party, but while I suppose that it is always possible there is a light somewhere under a bushel in the lower ranks and back benches, I rather doubt it.  BoJ…[Read more]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond we have Trump: the Opera   https://youtu.be/Hz7SfkhJe74

@thane15  et al

An interesting night!  I’d been feeling a bit under the weather since the weekend and, although much better yesterday, was feeling a bit dozy and exhausted by the time the polls closed at 10 pm, so was intending to stay up only long enough to see the exit poll results and perhaps half an hour of the initial discussion and s…[Read more]

@Missy   Moffat would have to have been very precocious indeed to have written An Unearthly Child, since he was only two years old when it was broadcast in November 1963 🙂  You appear to be confusing that, the first ever Hartnell episode, with The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.   Apologies for being pedantic, but I wouldn’t want @Abaath to be c…[Read more]

@Miapatrick

Likewise, congratulations!  A drink is most definitely in order, so have one of your choice (virtually speaking) on me.