Re: the debate of “dumbing down” Clara for the sake of the script, I wonder if it might be something far simpler than what we have discussed. Maybe she was feeling an emotional resonance, a memory buried deep down but still there, of her Oswin incarnation who was permanently trapped inside a Dalek. Wouldn’t that induce a state of shock? After all,…[Read more]

@Arbutus I think that the Daleks will be far more interesting as a species with the potential for things other than xenophobia and slaughter. Moffat or future writers could take this in interesting directions.

This was one of the things I’d long been tiring of with the Daleks. They were pretty much a one-note foe, seemingly brought back for…[Read more]

I’m reading through everyone’s posts and gaining even more understanding of the episode. I really can’t add to the wonderful insights everyone has posted. I found Clara being trapped inside a Dalek (echoes of her Oswin incarnation) absolutely chilling. I feared that, as this was where we first met Jenna Coleman, this might be our parting of ways.…[Read more]

@Mudlark I noticed the same thing you did, that for both Missy and Clara, their vaporized “skeletons” appeared when they were shot. So I think they were either killed, or Davros has created some sort of illusion for the Doctor to witness. Either way, I’m thinking his plan is to coerce the Doctor to travel back in time and make a different decision…[Read more]

Sorry, it appears that I have set off something of a firestorm. The news was all over my Facebook page, and elsewhere, so as others have said, since it was that widespread, I didn’t consider it a spoiler. But I will think more carefully about that in the future. Again, my apologies.

Hopefully I am posting this in the correct thread. I saw this in my Facebook newsfeed today:

Jenna Coleman ‘leaving’ Doctor Who

@Arbutus It’s true that Courtney barely knew the Doctor. Yet (and correct me if I’m misremembering this) wasn’t she spying on him? I’m not sure how long that had been going on, but as I recall she was keeping tabs on his comings and goings. And then, to have the Tardis revealed to her, and to get a sense of what the Doctor was capable of … well,…[Read more]

@Arbutus I do agree that Clara’s reaction was an overreaction. But I also think her overreaction was justified. She was absolutely terrified at having that kind of power. Strange, too, since she’s a self- and other-described control freak. Yet I think she didn’t realize how terrifying it is to have the Doctor’s peculiar destiny-changing power. She…[Read more]

@purofilion I so agree with you. I have enjoyed the pacing of Doctor Who episodes this season. As much as I loved the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith Doctors, I felt that the action and pacing were ramped up with each subsequent season, especially during the Matt Smith era. The Doctor seemed to becoming more and more an action hero. I appreciate how…[Read more]

@purofilion You nailed it exactly with the film version of Sherlock. The editing was machine gun-style, but the scenes didn’t carry any power because, as you point out, none of the scenes were sustained, so there was no emotional heft to any of it. It was almost as if the editing were done on some sort of autopilot function: set an editing “tempo”…[Read more]

@purofilion Ships crossing, and all that.

And I agree with you about the (film) version of Sherlock. We saw it in the cinema, and I recall our reaction being one of ennui: “Well … it wasn’t awful.” But maybe your assessment is more accurate.

I enjoy your analysis of this episode. I think I’ll watch it with a printout of your post, and maybe…[Read more]

@janetteB I now agree with you about the kids. Watching the episode, uninterrupted by commercial breaks, I was able to get into the flow of the story far better than I was first time around. As a result, the children didn’t bother me nearly as much. On first viewing, they struck me as needless distractions, but I noticed much the same thing you…[Read more]

I loved this two-parter and remember being quite taken with it on first viewing. I always thought Rose being smitten with Captain Jack was meant to say, “Look, folks, she’s not smitten with the Doctor. That’s a whole different thing.” IMO Rose and Eccleston’s Doctor had an intense friendship. But I agree that it took a very different turn with…[Read more]

@purofilion Thanks for the welcome back! We watch on the Space channel in Canada … which we recently upgraded to HD, hooray! That’s another difference; before we were watching current episodes in low-def (on cable), plus catching up on old eps in high-def (on Netflix). High definition is certainly a vast improvement over that slightly blurry…[Read more]

Hubby and I are rewatching this season on Netflix. I’m finding I like the few episodes I thought I didn’t like so well … and I think a big part of that is having no commercial interruptions. Even when we record a program and can fast-forward, that’s still an interruption. Things come together for me better without it.

Anyway, in this episode,…[Read more]

I’m not sure where this news story about John Hurt should go, so I apologize if I have posted it in the wrong place. Mods, feel free to move it to the correct one, if necessary: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33151261

@ichabod Thank you for that clarification! I was starting to worry I was having a Doctor Who “blackout”! Glad to know that’s not the case. You are correct, I never got around to watching Torchwood. That’s what annoys me about crossover episodes or interlinked stories. They’re fine as long as viewers are keeping up with both series. But it’s very…[Read more]

@ichabod That one’s easy, though: Clara asked to go visit an active volcano (so she could use lava to melt the Tardis keys).

True enough, it was Clara’s prompt which set that in motion. I still like the potential allegory with Vesuvius … but maybe that’s just me wanting to read more into the scene than what was there.

@ichabod That’s an interesting way to look at it — as if we’re seeing Danny through the Doctor’s prejudiced eyes all along (even when the Doctor isn’t actually present on-scene), and only come to recognize his inner goodness and courage when it’s too late . . . I like it.  Myself, I kept waiting for a few moments between Danny and the Doctor alone…

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@ichabod Thing about Pompeii — *did* he do the right thing?  Isn’t Lobus’s descendant John Frobisher, who is forced to make deals with devilish aliens and who then kills his family and himself, thereby “righting” an imbalance created by Lobus and *his* family having been rescued by the Doctor in Pompeii?  It’s a crude equivalency — Lobus must have…

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