@pedant

I assume you mean as a “cover story” for a gay relationship ? I’m not going to assume that all co-habitating older ladies (or men) (spinster another terms that I’m happy to say is past its sell by date) were in a a gay relationship, but many must have been.

@janetteb

I do spend time there, but to be honest there is so much absolute rubbish written that you could spend days is pointless argument. I skip most of it and try to limit myself to more factual points or to point out that the actual world is capable of supporting more than one point of view on a topic and both sides have positive and…[Read more]

@janetteb @missrori

I agree with you why is just or more important than who is in their. I assume that the ship and the bio-liquid that was ‘released” from it is ep 1 will also have a part in the answer.

I really like the idea that the promise (I would take an oath to be something more formal and beyond a promise) was made to River to be a…[Read more]

@janetteB @ichabod

But “Companion” can imply a sexual relationship ( a mistress who travels with her – usually richer – male lover) and can imply a difference in the status in the relationship (the obvious is a sort of nurse who travels with her wealthy patient or a usually poorer women who travels with her wealthy patron).

Whilst we might not…[Read more]

@Thane 15

Hi Thane.

Personally I try not to get upset with the creative choices that the production team make. I always like Jenna and the way she played Clara. In series 7, Im sure it was different, because she was playing a different part in every story, which must be hard to act as a single character and the Impossible Girl concept made her…[Read more]

@ichabod

I knew I had something wrong. It was Joseph Lister. More famous at the time, I’m sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lister

@Jimthefish

re assistants and companions

I wouldn’t like to analyse very much of what some people post on the basis that there may not be any thought given except to wind (some supposedly PC) people up.

That said, can we not try to find a new descriptive term as I don’t feel either should be used any more. How about “Friend” ?

Jo Grant was…[Read more]

@ichabod

Clara only became a character (as opposed to a cut-out of one) from series 8 onwards in my opinion. A lot of people on line seems to post with little thought and a lot of anger and have lost any ability to see there is more than one answer/opinion to most questions. South Park’s Troll story line sums it up for me.

<span class=”useratname”>@countscarlioni</span>

I think the reference to Studying Medicine under Bell goes back to Pat Troughton. I’m probably wrong, but I think it was the “Moonbase” story.

@Jimthefish

Oh I’d agree 100%.  I also agree that AG Who seems to work best with 75 minute episodes. It’s a shame they aren’t making many of those. I guess its a scheduling issue more than episode cost.

Did you ever watch Nathan Barley (written by Charlie Booker and Chris Morris) ? Truly loathsome character. Nicholas Burns is a way underused…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I agree of course. My point was that addressing this sort of issue, really takes time and effort. The counter argument is that raising them superficially is better than not mentioning them at all.

But then what age group is this series of Who aimed at ? I would suspect not the 5 to 10 year old group (when I started watching…[Read more]

@mudlark @thane15

Having grown up in industrial Cheshire (Macclesfield) “et” for ate was common speech at the time. Dropping the “H” was also pretty normal (eg ow’s that).

Proper rural Cheshire accents were pretty rare when I grew up. I cant remember the guy’s name, but BBC North West often interviewed a local farmer who had the real thing. I…[Read more]

@jimthefish

I sort of agree with you as well. If you were to rewrite The 10th Planet today, you might not change the story (which is very simple invasion concentrating the action at a base under siege) that much, but you would add an episodes worth of character discussion into the pro’s/cons of Cybernisation as an acceptable method for global…[Read more]

@thane15

Yes, BG Who often had more than 4 episodes. In the 1970’s this was driven by budgetary reasons (it’s much cheaper to use the sets for 6 parts than 4) in a 24 episode series. Given the 5.25 pm (or was it 5.15) time slot after Grandstand (an all Saturday afternoon multi-sports programme) the stories and format didn’t allow for much…[Read more]

@Morpho

The frenetic pacing of some stories has always been something I disliked. I think, at least sometimes, this was caused by having to fit an awful lot of things into episodes in an attempt to close off plot items. It also seemed to suit Matt’s character style (and doesn’t Capaldi’s).

The other thing is that quick cuts and pacing was fairly…[Read more]

@thane15 @jimthefish @pedant

Hi there

Just the clarify, I said the stories were lame, not the episodes. If you take out the introducing Bill and Bill/Doctor relationship building parts of episodes 1 and 3 (especially), you’re left with poor largely unmemorable stories. As adventure stories, they could be dealt with in 20 minutes. What’s made…[Read more]

@mudlark

Hi there.

I don’t think I’d disagree with you that much. If you watched the first three episodes back to back (and for all I know the next and remaining episodes of this series) I think you can argue that we have watched the definitive introduction of a new Companion running through all of the intellectual and emotional questions that…[Read more]

Continuing the run of what have been, overall,  a series of good stories. Peter and Pearl continue to be excellent with some very nice speeches from both of them. I’m not so sure about the quality of the story, even though the story telling itself has been good.

one last observation. The Keeper of Traken also reworks the central premise of this story, with the Master (the Snake/Satan) corrupting a different paradise by introducing (or reinforcing rather) using pride and avarice to corrupt certain leading members of society (one unable to cope with it) at a critical junction for his own ends.