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@Ichabod  @Miapatrick  @janetteB  @Arbutus

Doctor Who was not around when I was a child, but I am pretty sure that if I had been a child in 1963, or at any time since up to the present day,  I would have relished it in all its phases, including the darker toned recent episodes.  I suspect, in fact, that I would have found Face the Raven riveti…[Read more]

@puroandson   Like everyone else here I’m delighted, with added sugar, to see you back with us, puro.  Son/Ilion  greetings and welcome to this haven of bonkersdom and all things Who, and all good wishes for your forthcoming birthday.

Keep laughing as and whenever you can.  I find it a good way of getting through life, whatever it throws at you.

@lisa  @ichabod   Re the subject of the tattoo-like markings around Ashildr/Mayor Me’s neck:

Most people who have commented on the markings seem to have seen them as snake-like, but when I saw them in the trailer and subsequently in this episode they reminded me of plant tendrils – the tendrils of vines and clematis which wind around the stems of…[Read more]

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@jphamlore.  You are correct and my memory was at fault. I was making the same mistake as the Doctor and forgetting that she had corrected him.

The character of the hidden enclave would, however, still be constant with the date of construction of the original station in 1848, assuming that was what Ashildr meant.  At that time of rapid ex…[Read more]

Dearest puro,

The messages to you from Arbutus and the others here convey my feelings exactly, and I can add little more than to say that the Forum will be very much the poorer without your active presence.  My thoughts are with you and your family always.

With love and gratitude for your warmth and friendship,  Mudlark

@Juniperfish

How far is the Doctor responsible for Ashildr? I think – very – especially as she was a child when he gave her the immortality chip.

I agree, and I pretty sure that he is very much conscious of that fact.

As Lady Me in the 17th century she told him that she was going to protect the universe from him, or words to that effect – a ret…[Read more]

@lewis97   That is a very interesting observation, and you could well be right about its significance.  All the signs seem to point to there something being more to Clara’s exit from the story than we saw.  It seemed odd to me that, unless I missed something, the Doctor, having witnessed her death, went straight back inside to face Ash…[Read more]

That was stunning, almost literally, because I am in no shape as yet to comment very coherently and will need to watch it again asap.  Capaldi’s face can express more than a page-full of dialogue, and I don’t think Jenna as Clara has ever been better.

Perhaps Clara is truly dead, and if so it was a worthy and fitting end, but I did notice one t…[Read more]

@Arbutus  @purofilion  @janetteB   Thank you!  *blushes*

In the cold light of morning I began to worry that it would come across as  pretentious (I may not have been 100% sober when I wrote it),  but I hope it conveyed my true sentiments.

@Craig

The flag is a ‘hug’ for the people of France. All the tolerant people of France

Agreed and seconded.  Flags can be used for nationalistic purposes by governments and ideologues, but they also stand for the myriad people of the nations they symbolically represent. Over the past couple of days my thoughts have not been with …[Read more]

@PhaseShift   I meant to say before now that yesterday, for once, I ventured BTL  on the Guardian blog and so saw, read (and applauded) your splendid post there. It well deserved that OOOOOOH! from @danmartinuk .  Let us hope it has the desired effect and lures a few more interested and interesting contributors to join us.

One incident in particular which struck me, among the many clues in the trail that the Doctor followed, was when he commented that the station had the appearance of having been dead for a long while, before blowing the dust from an adjacent surface and then staring intently, directly into the viewpoint of the dust which was recording him, as if he…[Read more]

‘The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters’; and what could be more unreasonable than to interfere with the sleep function?  As the Doctor says concerning the importance of sleep ‘…we wake up, rub the sleep from our eyes, and that keeps us safe – safe from the monsters inside’.  Prolonged lack of sleep makes people first disorientated, ev…[Read more]

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@Purofilion   I must have expressed my thoughts very poorly if I gave the impression that I was confused.  When I wrote the original post on the subject, my understanding of events, and of who knew what and why, was exactly as @Miapatrick and you have subsequently outlined them.  Those who made the agreement intended or assumed at the time that…[Read more]