SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

There are so many lovely little moments in this!

The Doctor and Ruby on the rooftop of Abbey Road (as the Beatles would/will be in about 6 years time), but also the doctor looking wistfully over to Shoreditch (and Totter’s lane). Is his old/younger self there yet? Susan was at school there for a while so maybe they are. (Haha – the Doctor’s been…[Read more]

Some more thoughts on the episode itself…

As @Mudlark said – the Doctor’s and Ruby’s costumes are slightly out of time – which could either be down to an alternate timeline, or the TARDIS wardrobe doesn’t have an accurate dating system – or BBC wardrobe dept doesn’t either! or they (all) just thought these looked cool! (Which they do).

Been…[Read more]

@mudlark

This morning I skimmed the BTL comments on Martin Belam’s recap in the Guardian (depressingly negative as ever)

I, too, have ventured into that nether realm, and it is full of significantly more comments that don’t like the eps than those that do. A few “it’s all woke crap” remarks but not as many as I would have thought. Some decent p…[Read more]

@mudlark

Apparently there was a brief thaw on the 25th Jan. Then it got colder again with high winds in Feb but maybe not quite as cold as it had been before.

Clearly Russ hoped no-one would think of that.

Lots of snow in The Tardis of course.

@mudlark

I guess RTD just thought ‘talking babies running a space station would be a cute idea for an episode’, and wasn’t bothered about the rationale

I am afraid that is probably correct. It is something that always annoys me. A throwaway line is not enough. One has to at least work out how a plot device is possible even if that doesn’t fully…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u  I wonder if SLC stands for the material the 45s and LPs are available on? Perhaps it is short for “shellac” which was of course the material records were made of before vinyl.

As vinyl replaced shellac from the 1940s, perhaps this is another sign that we are in alternative time-line/ universe, one in which vinyl has not been…[Read more]

@juniperfish — that’s really interesting about the Xena episode. I never knew about that at all. Must check it out. I think @mudlark is spot on that OMWF (and presumably the Xena episode) have their songs deeply integrated into the narrative. Not sure The Devil’s Chord manages that — The Twist at the End number could and really should have…[Read more]

@mudlark and @ps1l0v3y0u Yes I realised after I posted that the Margaret Lockwood reference was probably a link to the bandit character she played, ie Me. Probably just a nod for fans but may hint that she knows “things” about the Doctor.

cheers

Janette

@mudlark @janetteb

Run the Margaret Lockwood thing past me again? Of course, I have my own theories about Me, aka The Knightmare…

Also, just because the Giggle and Maestro both first manifested in ‘25 doesn’t mean they were particularly active at that point. The Toymaker takes the best part of a century to go to town. Music may not have been…[Read more]

@juniperfish @mudlark

re guff powered spaceships, I still maintain the issue is the initial burn, otherwise you’ll just spin gently. Once you’re there, it’s parabola (oops missed) or ellipse (orbit). A new burn may be required but by then more methane fuel will have been ‘manufactured’.

The problem at DuPlushie World or wherever might be the ex…[Read more]

@ScaryB

I’m also a huge fan of the fishes in this Forum!

Awww, right back at ya, Scary.

@Miapatrick

Yes to your point about the episode’s commentary on reproductive rights, parenting and refugee rights. And all perfectly in keeping with Doctor Who’s long tradition of being political science fiction, from the Daleks-as-Nazis-metaphor to the c…[Read more]

@mudlark Agree the babies were creepy. I don’t think the cgi on the faces worked. I would have preferred if they talked a kind of baby language that only the Doctor could understand, given he speaks baby. I didn’t hate the bogeyman as much as I thought I would.

@vickymallard. Bill also panicked about stepping on butterflies so that was a nice…[Read more]

@Mudlark

Re the babies not developing physically, I think that was explained but I need to go back to pick up on it exactly. They grew mentally but more slowly physically

@mudlark

It seems that RTD has answered the question of @ Maestro/Master connection:

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/doctor-boss-addresses-master-return-084200272.html

And yet, in spite of what RTD says, we know that somebody picked up the Toymaker’s gold tooth.

@mudlark thanks for sharing that.  Always excited about any scrap of information. I don’t recall just who Sethu’s character was in Andor. All these Star Wars spin offs tend to blur into each other though Andor was the stand out of the pack.

Cheers

Janette.

@mudlark

Good point about Jinkx Monsoon’s character being named Maestro.

Hmmm. I would have thought that the Master requires someone who can communicate real threat. The little I have seen of Jinkx Monsoon seems to evoke silly rather than sinister.

But who knows.

@mudlark Thanks! That’s quite a good rationalisation and I always like it if a loose end can be neatly tied up. That also takes care of the minor issue of where they got them (i.e. did they rent them? steal them? buy them?) and when did Bill learn to use a diving suit (I don’t think they’re just ‘put on and hop in the water’). Obviously…[Read more]

@mudlark @winston I had a slightly alarming subterranean experience. I visited a little old sewage pumping station, built in the 1920’s. Auckland City had done things properly, with a little control building at ground level, and little underground pump room maybe 20 feet below it. So as I entered the control building and switched all the…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent and @mudlark    Your talk of scary cellars and viaducts reminded me of our spooky cellar when I was  child. We lived in a very old log home built in the 1880s that had a very dark cellar with a dirt floor. I was about 8 yrs old and had a very active imagination and was convinced that people or pets were buried down there.For mon…[Read more]