@wolfweed

I am always amazed how erudite show Who reviewers are (Philip Sandifer is another). Whether he’s right or not, it is a very interesting analysis, which would certainly change anyone’s view of this three story arc. He is right, the third part is the weakest. I think he’s a bit harsh on Toby. Moff certainly should have had the time to…[Read more]

@tardigrade

I think its impossible to say how old the Doctor is (eg http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Doctor%27s_age). If you use Matt Doctors age as stated there, then he can’t have been guarding Missy for very long at all. However, are we talking combined age or for each regeneration ? The stated combined ages for each regeneration don’t really…[Read more]

@missrori

An interesting analysis and some valid points I feel. However, whilst this

He might boast about himself in the heat of the moment but whenever all seems lost, he sees himself as the expendable one, the nobody, the one who was lost long ago and can’t be saved.  If there’s a chance a life can be saved, he will try to save it.  In his e…[Read more]

@missy @missrori @tardigrade

Perhaps he didn’t use his regenerative powers to cure his blindness, because he didn’t think it important enough to waste them?

But he did waste it on a silly test for Bill, who wasn’t even aware of regeneration (if she was, why would she have been concerned about the small explosion in Pyramid). This could just be…[Read more]

@thane15

Puro

Did you read Wolfweed’s post 58481 (the link at the bottom of the comment) on page 1 of this thread ?

If you choose to make this as being something more than a coincidence, it puts the comment you quoted into a different light. Since this speculation is based on an external fact it is spoilerish, even though it is still…[Read more]

@ichabod

I agree it does seem to be a bit strange to do this after the prolonged uncertainty in series 8, but I think there’s little doubt somethings gone wrong. Whether its extreme grief, Missy, a hidden regeneration or something else, I think there’s too much accumulated evidence of strange, non-Doctorish behaviour to ignore.

@missrori

I…[Read more]

@brewski

Absolutely agree with you there. We can take nothing for granted.

@brewski

It was explained that he had just come straight from Dellora (last year’s special) and (probably just after) the end of the 24 year long goodbye with River, before she goes to the Library (I’m not sure Death is quite the right word). That must have been a low point emotionally. An extended period of mourning can be inferred, giving rise…[Read more]

@brewski

That is an appealing theory. Certainly something is going on in his head, which is outside “normal” for him. One potential argument against this theory is that the incipient strangeness in his bevaviour has been there from at least Thin Ice (and is increasing).

@constance

The same idea, about Missy rubbing off on the Doctor has crossed my mind as well.

@missrori

On that point I can’t, although I do think the Doctor is slightly deranged (and getting more so) as we progress through series 10. A post River, pre-regeneration angst ridden 1,000 years spent in an attempt to redeem Missy.

@tardigrade @ichabod

He has shown he can summon regeneration energy to heal another in the past. This seemed to go further than that, though probably shy of actual regeneration. Conceivably it was just faked in some way anyway- he was planning for this after all. I didn’t think there was a suggestion he was actually injured – the soldiers wer…[Read more]

@glasgowboy @Ichabod

I may have misheard it, but I thought Missy said that the Monk’s werent aware that the link passed along to descendents, but thought that there control was maintained through more normal methods after the death of the original link.

@thane15

You are absolutely right than many stories (though not especially in this particular one) have shown that the events have had individual impacts.  I am nit picking. I agree. But to continually inflict mass death every year (almost) without any significant change in the fabric of society is really lazy, bad writing and poor conception.…[Read more]

@nerys

The fact that it wasn’t the first time, just makes it worse.

@wolfweed

Individually some, most of us even, put trauma behind us. For a significant number it destroys them. Most live with the consequences for all of their life or do something even worse. Does any one forget though ?

I was in Nice last year, my wife and I planned to go to the firework display on 14 July, but when it was time to leave we…[Read more]

@Thane15

Puro I respectfully disagree with you on that. For example, The Daleks were on the earth exterminating thousands (millions perhaps) of people in the Stolen Earth. There wasnt a reset in the story that undid any of those Deaths that I recall [I haven’t seen it since and memory may well be flawed on that]. Are you suggesting that on…[Read more]

@wolfweed

The problem with the ignore the evidence because its easier argument, is that it is just not what we do as a species. The opposite in fact.

However, I ultimately agree with you. After writing a present day global disaster, there has to be a reset and a mass forgetting. Its a narrative requirement in this fictional universe for the…[Read more]

@pedant @wolfweed @nerys

The people of this fictional earth will forget anything and everything the writer or show runner wants. That’s hardly a valid point.

I think you’d also have to distinguish between something quite isolated and local (or in the depths of History) which might well pass into folk law or government cover up and hence into the…[Read more]