@pedant Thank you for that reflection on your own experience, providing more info on Crohn’s and updating us on Melissa’s state of mind. It sounds like the side-effects from her medication are dreadful. Depression is a monster, eroding self-perception and stealing optimism and belief in one’s own good. I hope that she will come to realize and…[Read more]

Ouch, I haven’t even had my morning coffee yet, LOL!

@fatmaninabox

I haven’t given too much thought to the order of episodes from The Doctor’s point of view but I suspect that The Girl Who Died took/takes place after the events in the final episode.

Except that in “Face the Raven” Clara remembers meeting Ashildr (which happened in “The Girl Who Died”). So that doesn’t make sense to me.

@drben

As for the question of why the Doctor didn’t offer to take the quantum shade, my interpretation of “The Rules” was that the obligation could only be given away once, not passed around like a hot potato.  Just a thought.

I agree. Also, the sense I got was that there’s a set chronology in which things can happen:

1. Ashildr/Mayor Me can remove…

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@mersey Thanks for that link to the Radio Times interview! Reading it, I’m amazed the 50th anniversary special turned out so spectacularly well. Not because of the talent involved; there’s no question there. But because it all seemed to come together at rather the last moment. I figured this had been in the works for years!

@sirclockface Thanks for these video links! I confess that I worry we are looking toward a time when the Doctor travels without a companion. I have no idea if that’s the case, but if it is, then those tend to be my lest-favorite episodes. I enjoy it when the Doctor’s personality bounces off that of his human companions. We’ll just have to wait and…[Read more]

Just spotted this video (non-spoilery for future events, but spoilery for anyone who hasn’t yet watched this episode) on the Tube, in which Moffat explains the inevitability of Clara’s death: Death & Consequences – Face The Raven – Doctor Who Series 9

@jphamlore You make some very good points about Clara missing what the Doctor truly needed from her. But I think there are two distinct elements to Clara, as we know her, which may have kept her from fully understanding this:

1. She and the Claricles (or maybe she too is Claricle; dunno) were meant to save the Doctor. Surely this must have…

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@jphamlore One could also argue that traveling with the Doctor for such a long time, longer than any of the other companions, damaged Clara irrevocably. The traveling process had eroded her sense of what it means to be human and to live, and then Danny’s death snapped that tether altogether. The Doctor, as Clara noted, gave her a reason for being.…[Read more]

Capaldi’s Doctor seems more alien, less human-like than his new-era predecessors. He reminds me somewhat of Eccleston’s Doctor, but without the spontaneous bursts of joie de vivre that he, and also the Tennant and Smith Doctors, exhibited. So, even with nearly two seasons under our collective belt, I do still find it difficult to get a firm grasp…[Read more]

@ichabod

In fact, if he accepts Clara’s “order” that he not take revenge on whoever set this up, that leaves him no one to take revenge on but himself.  She should have thought of that, but under the circumstances . . .

I think she did think of that. When he asked her what the point of being a Doctor was, if he couldn’t heal her, Clara replie…[Read more]

Dearest Puro/Melissa,

Thank you for this explanation and apology to Geronimo/Daphne. Heartbroken for you is all I can say. How I will miss your eloquent observations and reflections on the Doctor’s not-so-aimless wanderings. Through you and others here I have learned so much about this beloved show … but even more importantly about humankind.…[Read more]

It’s funny. I loved Eccleston and Tennant as the Doctor, and really couldn’t imagine anyone topping Tennant. So I stayed away from Matt Smith’s Doctor for his first entire season. Then, at some point I started watching again, and was kicking myself for missing out because I really enjoyed his uniquely manic take on the Doctor every bit as much as…[Read more]

@countscarlioni

Also when the raven entered Clara’s body, there was an intense light. There was no such light when the street person died.

Thanks to your pointing this out, I made a point of looking for this on tonight’s rewatch and saw it, as well. I’m hoping it’s significant … much like the blue light was significant before Missy was s…[Read more]

@iusedtobethedoctor I don’t think Ashildr is meant to be likable. She was so young when the Doctor made her immortal that she hadn’t yet developed the emotional maturity of an adult. I think that shows in the choices she has made. She has enough certitude that she is right, that she is willing to be judge, jury and executioner of her little street…[Read more]

That’s a very plausible idea, @brewski!

You know, I had forgotten this little detail of it being set in 2016. At the time, I didn’t think much of it … but then, I didn’t know what was going to happen to Danny. Then again, do we know what year we’re supposed to be in currently? I’m never sure if we’re to consider this “present time” or not. This is a time-traveling Doctor, after all. I…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

Something my husband worked out, which I didn’t, is that Clara figures out how to open the Morpheus pod. She does a hand gesture to her face, indicating to the Doctor (we think) that’ she’s not just a pretty face. There’s a brain up there, too. (Then there’s a distraction before she is pulled into the pod.) Nice bit of humor in this episode!