@mersey Bill wasn’t completely unaffected though, difference being that the child was a child, the guy with a tattoo was a thug who was going to let her and the Doctor die and a lot more people were going to die if they didn’t do something.

@nick Castrovalva for me, I was four and a half. Anything before that I don’t remember any stories just the…[Read more]

@mersey

So far this season lacks characters, interesting and memorable people whom Doctor meet, who help him or quite the opposite, who oppose him. It’s two or three characters show right now

Well, there’s a clear and deliberate decision to keep the focus on the Doctor and Bill for these early episodes, presumably to strengthen and firmly e…[Read more]

@mudlark The accents weren’t confused, it was the disagreement over ‘book’ and ‘buck’. My husbands pronunciation is clearly confused.

I have no ear for accents anyway, unless they’re very strong.

@bluesqueakpip there is absolutely nothing wrong with a fez! Though mine is nicer than the one the Doctor had and I don’t wear it outside or anything…[Read more]

@nick

on the question of the one episode, one story format, sure, a 6 part story on property, theft and slavery might be great, but the reality is that viewing habits have changed over the years. They did a brilliant multiple episode story on religion and human sacrifice back in the Hartnell years–The Aztecs.

But that was the mid 60s. They…[Read more]

@Mirime @Nick

This is straying a long way of topic, but no, I find it hard to believe that anyone could mistake a Welsh accent for that of Lincolnshire 🙂  Nor, for that matter, is the Norfolk accent, rural or urban, anything like the Cheshire accent.  The fact that I seem to have inherited traces of the latter is entirely down to my mother an…[Read more]

@nick—

As adventure stories, they could be dealt with in 20 minutes. What’s made them enjoyable has been all of the character development and the production values

I kind of get what you mean and agree that the stories are not what you’d call complex but I think the above has actually been the show’s mission statement pretty much from Rose o…[Read more]

Well, that was another nice solid episode. (Sorry, @nick, can’t agree with the ‘lame’ description.) I’m thinking this series is shaping up to be the strongest since s5. But I’d agree that SM has called it right in taking the time to develop Bill, and her relationship with the Doctor, with such care and grace. If the finale rumours are true, this…[Read more]

@Mudlark

then promptly decks Lord Sutcliffe for insulting her

Apparently some corners of the internet (or Twitter anyway), favoured by the more simian tendency(1), are very upset at a) a reasonably accurate portrayal of the demographic make up of what was, already, one of the most important trading centres in the world and b) black Jesus.

Which…[Read more]

@Nick

I agree that the story was relatively slight, if pared down to the discovery and subsequent resolution of the threat to London. It was, though, a sufficiently substantial and sturdy frame to support what I saw as the real substance of the episode; the widening of Bill’s horizons, with the Doctor as her sometimes unreliable guide and…[Read more]

@Mersey

They don’t remember that they saved it. I did do a blog a couple of years back, which puts forward the alternative timeline theory; but it’s stated in the script of Day of the Doctor that memories can’t be retained if the time-lines are out of synch.

In other words, you can’t remember changing your own past if remembering changing it…[Read more]

@TheBrainofMoffat

I’d be interested to know your ideas – if you want to take a quick look, I’ve done a couple of blogs on the topic myself and so has @Nick.

The first blog (by me) is appropriately called ‘Wibbley Wobbly, Timey Wimey’.

The next one discussed Day of the Doctor – I gave my view first, and then Nick gave his view.

The idea I came…[Read more]

@nick @jimthefish @lisa @purofilion

Ha! Many thanks for the kind words on the Gallifrey theory. I’m guessing this is an undercurrent of SMs arc about where Gallifrey is, and I do like the thought.

@nick – especially glad to see you about. Hope you have resolved the medical issues.

@JimtheFish – Oh, I agree an explanation isn’t really…[Read more]

@Nick — yeah, that sounds about right. Good to see you back, by the way.

@ichabod — I’m sure the Crow Road thread will be along shortly when @Craig has a chance to take a look at it.

@ScaryB

As a trier but fail-er at ‘being the best we can be’ I agree

@Nick

Gordon Browns speech was a very powerful Better Together item showing positive concept of the Union

Sorry am going to have to agree with IAmAFishNotIAmAFreeMan and with @Pedant ( 😛 ) politicians have to be rode hard to make them answer a question and flesh it out,…[Read more]

@Nick

 If they want to give there take or personal analysis, it becomes a comment piece and not news.

True, but in the much discussed example here, Nick Robinson is not employed as a news reporter: he is political editor (just as Peston is Economics Editor, Frank Gardner is Security Correspondent etc etc ). They are not employed as news…[Read more]

@JimTheFish – you seem to have inadvertently disabled your account. Get one of the mods to  push the Magic Button of Fixing.

@Nick

 journalist seem to have decided its their job to put politicians on the spot to try and force a straight answer.

This is known in journalism as “doing one’s job”.

@TheBrainofMoffat

Oh, well done, young sir, in infecting the whole family. It’s actually pretty unusual to find the route of infection going from young to old as it’s so often the parants who introduce the children. Nicely played. 🙂

Has anyone written one giant document trying to make sense of it yet? I’d be extremely interested in reading s…

[Read more]

@Nick @janetteB I agree about Jenny’s self assertiveness. What’s surprising me is so many people seeing her as submissive. She seems perfectly prepared to call her wife out when she thinks she says something out of line.  In a way I’m reminded of Jane Eyre. Originally she is more comfortable as Rochester’s employee, he is her employer but outside…[Read more]