Now that I have had time for a second watch and to gather my thoughts a bit more …

To return, first of all, to the theme of Orpheus and Eurydice which I mentioned yesterday evening; apart from the very powerful and realistic portrayal of numbed grief, this was the thing that struck me most forcibly during the opening sequences.  Even the…[Read more]

@Miapatrick  Yes! Cocteau’s ‘Orphee’; very appropriate.  And in that, if I remember rightly, isn’t Death represented by a woman?

Just one further thought, before I finish my glass of Sauvignon Blanc and call it a day:  for the classicists out there, this is set up to Orpheus and Eurydice (in reverse), but perhaps with a different outcome 😕

This was so richly layered that I would not dare attempt an analysis after only the first watch, and it will in any case be a while before I am fully coherent, so for now I will confine myself to the observation that it was utterly riveting, ranging from gut-wrenching to laugh-aloud funny and back again.  Even the reveal of Missy’s identity, th…[Read more]

Erratum for any pedants out there:

In my post # 34152 above, for Poetic Edda, read Prose Edda  (the  Elder Edda and the Poetic Edda are alternative names for the same book)

@purofilion

I think that our way of writing, our very language and our immersion in language causes us to create scenery close to the modern, classical heart .

Our language then creates a studied art, a subdued world, free of diabolical agencies and spontaneity.

I think that I understand what you mean, but I am not sure that I agree.  Language, a…[Read more]

Sadly, this episode left me overall with a slight feeling of disappointment, even though it included some very good elements.   The ‘scientific’ explanation could be ignored, because this was purely and explicitly fairy-tale, albeit with a strong ecological message, with many standard ingredients and specific references to The Sleep…[Read more]

@thommck

Perhaps she has been miniaturised into a cyberman (just like the Doctor in Into the Dalek)

M-m-m ..  I like that.  And perhaps she is using miniaturised devices – nanobots (or nanodrones, if you like) – to stalk or ‘bug’ the Doctor and Clara, which would account for his sense of being watched, of being not alone in Listen.  I was neve…[Read more]

@thommck

PerhapsI am imagining things, but in that last scene with Missy does the window/opening/symbol or whatever it is on the right resemble the shape of a cyberman’s eyehole.  Furthermore, in the circular opening to the left there is a slightly fuzzy small circular glowing thing – sun? planet? moon?

On another topic, the reference to the w…[Read more]

@janetteB

  Stamps foot. I was going to say that

😀 .  That is my reaction most weeks.  By the time I have the opportunity to post my thoughts on an episode there are already two or three pages of comments and all the points I had intended to make have been discussed by others.  So I mooch off muttering to myself and trying to think of some…[Read more]

@lisa and @RobertDaller brought up the idea that Missy was the Woman in the Shop, and after this latest glimpse of Missy and her ‘My Clara …I have chosen well‘, I agree that it looks as if we are being pointed in that direction!  Certainly Missy or someone acting as her agent would fit the part, according to what we know so far.  In fact I …[Read more]

@ScaryB   Oddly enough, that speech to the monsters at the end –  the equivalent of the  ‘I’m the Doctor.  Basically, run’ line of his preceding  incarnations – was one the bit that jarred for me. It seems to me that, although this Doctor is every bit as, if not more arrogant than Tennant or Smith’s Doctors, his arrogance is much more containe…[Read more]

Well, I loved that: seriously sinister and creepy monsters, sense of threat, pace, energy, and some rather dark implications for Clara and her future well being.  And the sceptical and obstructive jobsworth was a nice touch.

The Doctor channelling Mae West  – ‘Goodness had nothing to do with it’, but clearly he didn’t mean what she mean…[Read more]

@barnable

Re GUS :  I was seeing him/it (assuming that he/it is an Artificial Intelligence or, alternatively, an entity ‘saved’ to a computer) more as a disembodied criminal master-mind – a kind of Blofeld of the far future, with monocle but minus the white cat – moving his chosen pieces round the metaphorical chess board.  He does so in order to…[Read more]

@JimtheFish

look at how character development in cop shows has changed in roughly the same time period

You may be too young to remember Z Cars (says granny), but the first episode of that caused seismic shock waves throughout the nation. Policemen with personal problems, whose job cause difficulties in their private lives and vice versa.  There…[Read more]

@PhaseShift    Like you, I am no fan of soap operas in general, but the term covers such a broad range in kind and quality that it seems at the very least misguided to use it as a blanket term of criticism, let alone condemnation.  And I find it hard to sympathise with objections to any attempt to flesh out the characters of companions and prov…[Read more]

@handles

Gus/Executive might be ………………….. a needy game player.

This was pretty much my understanding of GUS – as a manipulator and game player, and that this was his/its usual modus operandi as a kind of disembodied criminal mastermind.  We know from the documents which Clara found in the strong room that a similar scenario had be…[Read more]

Early on there was an exchange between the Doctor and Clara which seems highly significant.  He says  ‘You smile, but you’re sad; it’s confusing, it’s like two emotions at once, it’s like you’re malfunctioning’.   So despite his seemingly obtuse remarks about her appearance in previous episodes, and whether or not he is capable of true empathy wit…[Read more]