@ichabod   Memory can work in odd ways.  As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have watched DW on and off since the beginning, though only sporadically during the Hartnell era, since at that time I was at university and did not have regular access to a TV.  When Patrick Troughton was the Doctor I was able to start watching on a fairly regular bas…[Read more]

@ScaryB  The Librarian would be offended; he is an orang-utan which, when you think about it, is a form far better adapted for clambering around the library stacks 🙂

Yes, it’s jennylve1 again.  Another ‘message’ has just arrived in my inbox, also.

@Ichabod  Just realised that I should have acknowledged you as well as ScaryB when making reference to the Doctor/baby analogy.  My apologies.

@purofilion

I got an impression PC dives into the role straightaway.

That is how I saw it too; and the ‘see me’ moment was the point at which I felt he had nailed it.

What we saw in the following eleven episodes did not strike me as a continuation of the post-regeneration crisis, but as a process of self (re)discovery. In Time of the Doctor he h…[Read more]

@janetteB   I second (or is it third?) the recommendation of Prachett’s Discworld novels.  They are wonderfully imaginative, gloriously, laugh-out-loud funny, and with an underlying stratum of solid insight and wisdom.  And if your boys are of an age to read them, then I would judge that so are you 🙂

The character of the successive novels chan…[Read more]

@ichabod  @pedant   Yes, ‘Timescape’ is good on so many levels, the themes still relevant, and the time travel premise, if questionable according to modern theory, was entirely plausible when it was first published (but then it was written by a physicist).  It is more than 30 years since I read it – my copy is a paperback edition of 1982 – but it…[Read more]

@arbutus   The Master as Wile E Coyote  –  absolutely spot on! Brilliant 🙂

@elbalk-kev   There is not much I can add to what has already been said in response to your post; I pretty much endorse the views expressed by @JimThe Fish, @arbutus and @pedant.  The only authority I can bring to bear on the subject is that of someone who was (at least…[Read more]

@purofilion  You certainly did not offend me in any way, and I’m very sorry if I gave that impression in my response.  It looks like a classic case of crossed wires;  easy enough on an internet forum – even one as polite and forgiving as this one 🙂

When I used the term ‘epic’ I was thinking in particular of the Christmas Specials and fin…[Read more]

@BarbaraLefty   Glad it wasn’t just me!

Which does get us back to, that house ain’t real…

Well, it struck me from the first as a bit unreal, particularly as we had last seen Clara in a flat in a multi-storey block; and once it became clear that this was a dream scenario the matter was settled as far as I was concerned: it was part of the dream,…[Read more]

I suspect that it is distinctly bad form to bring your own drink to the pub, but I seem to have this glass of champagne already in my hand, so I will raise it to drink a toast to The Doctor Who Forum and to wish everybody h…[Read more]

Postscript:  Did anyone else spot, among the throw away lines and little jokes, that Santa, having just entered the polar base, turned  towards Rudolf, visible and fidgeting in the open doorway, to quiet him. He pointed,  there was a beep and Rudolf’s nosed flashed and went dark. The logic of a dream!

And on the subject of dreamscapes, was my i…[Read more]

At last, five days later and very late to the party, I find myself with time to sit down and analyse, or try to analyse, why I found Last Christmas so very enjoyable and all-round satisfying.  Although I have read through all the comments to date, it has been at snatched intervals and at speed. I jotted down a few notes, but I apologise in a…[Read more]

@purofilion    In the event I was permitted to watch it on Christmas Day, though I received some funny looks.  Unfortunately circumstances made it difficult to concentrate, so I wasn’t able to appreciate it properly at the time.  It might have been the distraction of a puppy with very large paws bouncing round the room, or the small cat curled…[Read more]

Just looking in to wish everybody a Happy Christmas, with or without tangerines.  I have a goodly supply in readiness, having found some in Sainsbury’s, lurking among the acres of clementines and satsumas.

Now I’m off, laden with goodies, to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my brother and sister-in-law in darkest Suffolk.  If we watch…[Read more]

@pedant et al.   10/10 for me too, though my knowledge of the philosophers in question is entirely superficial.

@purofilion

Commiserations on the flood and the pest of an insurance agent. Have another brandy or fortifying beverage of your choice from me.

Also, belatedly, my good wishes for Mr Ilion’s op.

@Stormy72   ‘Tomorrow’s Worlds’ is a four part series on the history and significance of Science Fiction, shown on BBC 2.  The first part was broadcast yesterday evening and, naturally enough, focussed chiefly on Science Fiction on film and on television rather than novels and short stories.

@FatManInABox  That ‘tears in the rain’ speech alwa…[Read more]

@ScaryB   If, as @Craig has pointed out, cross dressing is de rigeur, then I am disqualified from representing River.  And I really cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, see myself as any of the Doctors – unless you want a hypothetical future Doctor who is vertically challenged (5′ 1″ and shrinking), with longish, straight hair which, if not…[Read more]