@Brewski

I am wondering, too, why the Doctor didn’t retrieve the sonic when he went back.

Perhaps because Davros, had kept it and many centuries later shown it to him as proof that he remembered their original encounter.  To have retrieved it after that would have been to create a small, but possibly significant glitch in the space-time co…[Read more]

@ichabod

I’m in the camp of seeing that intimate little conversation + shared laughter as absolutely authentic — these are the tiny points of light still extant in Davros the survival of which make his treachery not just awful but sort of tragic

I meant to respond to this earlier, but ran out of time.

Up to a point I agree.  This was a perso…[Read more]

@Serahni   Prophecies are tricky things, and even if they are taken seriously, it comes down in the end to how they are interpreted.  There have been hints in the past that the Time Lords have some means of accurate prognostication (other their ability to take sneak peeks at the future?), but Davros here was probably relying on rumour and he…[Read more]

@DenValdron  @purofilion  @Arbutus

Another reason why Clara failed to exhibit her usual quick thinking and resourcefulness on this occasion might be that from the moment they meet in The Magicians Apprentice, Missy has been doing all she can to undermine her confidence and put her off her stride.  When Clara arrives for the meeting in the squa…[Read more]

@Serahni

when the hybrid was first mentioned, I immediately thought it was a misdirection to make us assume it was Timelord and Dalek when, in fact, it is really human and Dalek.

I very much doubt it. Davros was quite specific  “Is that what you ran from, Doctor?  Your part in the coming of the hybrid, half Dalek, half Time Lord?” 

When Davros sa…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I am reminded of the Groucho Marx line: “This thing is so simple, a six-year old child could do it. Someone run out and get me a six-year old child”.

Oh, yes!  Those (not least certain trolls who infest the Guardian CiF comments) who dismiss Doctor Who as ‘just a kids’ show’ in a derogatory manner, clearly have very little co…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  This is beginning to get confusing. You posted #43624 before I had finished mine above.

So, to continue, the Doctor may have been able to make an informed guess as to what Davros might want of him, and no doubt his preparations included exhaustive research into all things Skaroene, including the sewers, but I still don’t thin…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave   Well, presumably the Doctor didn’t know beforehand what Davros wanted; he was simply reading and second-guessing him as the game played out, and when it comes to the crunch he can reason and calculate at far more than light speed. So he seized on the cues and clues that Davros was giving him, taking each of them a step furt…[Read more]

@Kharis  I apologise if I gave the impression that I thought you were expressing approval of the ‘tough love’ approach. What I meant was that, whereas un-empathic teachers or parents may bully and coerce the children in their care, and think that criticising their achievements is giving them an incentive to do better (which is appalling in it…[Read more]

@Kharis   If we were judging solely by the way that Missy prodded and goaded Clara early on in the episode into reaching an understanding of why the Doctor always survived, then yes, it might just about be interpreted as an example of the kind of ‘tough love’ you describe, though I think that even that can be very damaging if practiced wi…[Read more]

A few further thoughts prompted by reading posts made earlier by others, then I will go away to sit quietly in my corner.

@Juniperfish  you wondered whether Missy’s line about Clara representing an enemy inside a friend or a friend inside an enemy might be an oblique kind of joke, providing further evidence that Clara is in some degree de…[Read more]

I have been mulling over Davros’s words concerning   ‘… a hybrid creature. Two great warrior races forced together to create a warrior greater than either’.  He refers to it as a prophecy on Gallifrey, rather than a story or a legend, but then goes on to ask, ‘Was that what you ran from, Doctor? Your part in creating the hybrid, half Dalek, hal…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave   Yes, ‘Your sewers are revolting’ .  A line no Doctor or, for that matter, any schoolchild (of my generation, at least) could possibly resist in the circumstances.  One might almost suspect Moffat of having devised the whole denouement in order to provide a pretext for it   😈

That was stunning, and the final twist was wonderful. The Doctor does indeed go back in time to change the past, but it is to make a very subtle change whose ultimate effects he has already observed – a perfect loop!  Even after a second watch this morning my mind is still buzzing.

Davros and the Doctor, adversaries who by now know one another v…[Read more]

@TheKrynoidMan   Thanks for the reminder.  I came across that amazing session a few years ago when it was featured on, I think, the Sky Arts channel.  There can seldom, if ever, have been such a backing line-up, and The Boss, in particular, was clearly having a ball!

@ichabod   I agree that when the Doctor hugs Clara it seems to be about more than the feelings of guilt and shame which she detects in him.  There were too many hints last season that he knew what was in store for her and that her time might be short.  Maybe this is what he foresaw, but I doubt it.

I am also with you in feeling that Danny never…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  I had a feeling that someone had already suggested that idea, but could not at the time of writing remember who. My apologies.  As the typos might suggest, I was posting in a hurry.

I should also have acknowledged @JimboMcMaster for the Schroedinger’s cat reference but, again, I had a temporary lapse of memory.

@idiotsavon   Welcome back!

When both Missy and Clara were zapped they became translucent and their skeletons showed in silhouette, which has traditionally been the effect when Daleks shoot people.  In the old days the glow faded and their was a body, but I can’t recall whether that has been the case more recently.  I have a feeling that in Into t…[Read more]

@lisa

Thanks for the link.  I hadn’t come across the article in Archaeology, but I was aware of the project.  Norfolk and Suffolk were my professional stamping ground before I retired, and I am familiar with quite a few of the churches.  Norfolk in particular is a good place for investigating the incidence of such graffiti, if only because of th…[Read more]

@ScaryB

Aww, thank you! (shuffles feet, blushing profusely)