@mudlark @janetteb @juniperfish @ps1l0v3y0u @blenkinsopthebrave @cathannabel

And still think music may be important.

and

the Doctor crying

Cry me a River….

@whohar @mudlark @janetteB @juniperfish @ps1l0v3y0u @blenkinsopthebrave @cathannabel

yes! I also think it’s an altered reality. I was rewatching Church on RR  & saw STRIAD (Tardis) -I’ve been slow on that front. Also an early episode actually mentioned the doctor’s granddaughter which I don’t think has happened in decades?

But on the issue of…[Read more]

@mudlark @juniperfish @janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave
@ps1l0v3y0u

would the crazy machine from Carnival of Monsters fit the bill??

I like this. Maybe Unit finds it behind an old filing cabinet buried under a pile of the 3rd Doc’s frilly shirts and capes? And next to a bi-generated Delgado Master. And Omega 🙂

I am increasingly convinced that what…[Read more]

@mudlark @juniperfish @janetteb @whohar @blenkinsopthebrave

Re the mysterious 3 Doctor tribute and the gaming pantheon, the hints about AI, alternate flawed realities and the rest…

would the crazy machine from Carnival of Monsters fit the bill??

As for Gallifrey… 15 did say to Ruby that the Loon’s TL genocide was universal in scope, didn’…[Read more]

@krathoon

I had a similar theory, namely that the entire season is in some kind of fictional world.

And, as I have also posted elsewhere, I am also offering up the return of Omega as the One Who Waits.

@mudlark

I’ve never thought your writing was old fashioned. Your postings on here have a mellifluous quality, and are always well considered.

@scaryb @mudlark @janetteb

Hugging… I refer you again to Azimov’s ‘Elijah Bailey’ stories… especially the first two: ‘Caves of Steel’ and ‘The Naked Sun’. Both are relevant but especially ‘Sun’: the Spacer society has very very different ethics and expectations. Especially Solaria, the Idaho Panhandle of Space: no physical interaction except fo…[Read more]

@Janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave @mudlark (and everyone) –

I think the hugging/not hugging in this is indicative of how isolated these kids are – socially and physically. It’s also a wee throwback to Capaldi’s Doc who hated hugging, and Ncuti’s fist appearance in the bigeneration where he hugs his previous self (“I’ve got you”). They’ve been…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@mudlark The “no hugging” I thought, reflects the growing tendency to view all tactile signs of affection as suspect. Teachers for instance cannot do anything but talk to a distressed child. Hugs however are natural and release positive endorphins that we need. Fear of paedophilia is blurring the distinction between positive and harmful contact.…[Read more]

Other thoughts…

The Doctor’s tears
@bunface thanks for the quote, that does make sense.
@juniperfish @miapatrick – the tears are noticeable, even when the rest of his face is still. Also reminded me of Bill’s puddle-person who can come back in a teardrop.

Also @juniperfish – I’m liking your 3 witches (or 3 fates?) theory 😉
I do also like the…[Read more]

@mudlark

a medieval hazel nut, one of several preserved with other organic finds in the waterlogged gunge filling an eleventh century cess pit.

Sounds somewhat more entertaining that a couple of the Indiana Jones movies.

I’ve written a screenplay with a lead who is a female antiquities expert. It’s currently been submitted in a couple of…[Read more]

@mudlark

Yes, dark skin and blue eyes are neither here nor there. Eurasian populations reveal Neanderthal ancestry. Other populations reveal interaction with Denisovans, for whom we have no distinguishing information apart from their DNA.

The question of why there is a 2-4% inheritance level is complicated. At some point somewhere this…[Read more]

I tend to think that @mudlark is right and Ruby cannot be her own Mum. However that does not discount the possibility that the woman who leaves baby Ruby on the church doorstep is not an older, alternative timeline Ruby who has gone back in time, rescued herself for some reason and left herself on the doorstop for the Doctor to find.

Having said…[Read more]

@mudlark

Sorry to be so boringly pedantic but trust me, I’m an archaeologist

Please tell me you’ve been chased from a temple by a giant boulder. 🙂

@juniperfish

On the other hand – parthenogenesis?

Virgin birth? That would be interesting territory for Who.

@mudlark

 If there was a hypothetical entry point in time when the sequence had a beginning, then I don’t see how Ruby-the-mother at that initial point could have been her own child

Although the idea has its attractions, I tend to agree about the paradox. But (there’s always a but), we are now in a realm of fantasy Who, so…magic. I will be di…[Read more]

@Mudlark

 …trust me, I’m an archaeologist

If I were an archeologist I would definitely have a sign/ bumper sticker somewhere with River’s immortal line from The Husbands of River Song, “I’m an archaologist from the future, I dug you up”.

As for Ruby giving birth to herself, she’d have to have boffed her own Dad to do it, and I really don’t se…[Read more]

@pufferfish <waves at fellow fish!>

@thane16 @blenkinsopthebrave @mudlark  – loving the speculation that Ruby could be her own mother.

However, whilst I can see someone being their own father as theoretically possible (Back to the Future gone full Oedipus) wouldn’t being your own mother create an immediate temporal paradox of the kind that, in…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

 before Moffat was cut off at the knees

Ooh, tell me more.

@mudlark

@janetteb

@blenkinsopthebrave

@ps1l0v3y0u

On the Ruby question, I tend to agree with Mudlark on this. Otherwise, why show the scan on screen – it must be for a reason. Obviously, there is plenty of scope for jiggery-pokery with Ruby’s species from what we’ve seen…[Read more]

@mudlark is probably correct here. I had forgotten about the DNA scan but there might we ways around it, some kind of scriptwriting jiggery pokery. Ruby might be a granddaughter and possibly the Doctor already has some human DNA, given that he is not of Gallifreyan origin after all. Had the Doctor ever scanned their own DNA? (I really need to make…[Read more]

@mudlark @janetteb

River had two human parents (assuming Vashtra wasn’t covering for 11); the third strand of the triple helix is apparently a vortex generated mutation.

Human dna might look radically different when sampled at different points over a long time span. Cheddar Gorge Man seems to have been really quite dark with blue eyes. You d…[Read more]