I’d like to apologize to all members for my absence. Dysfunctional kidneys seems a poor response, but there you go. I hope to touch on why I think Chibnallls first series is small “c” conservative, Dracula is brilliant, and why Worzel Gummidge could be the saviour of humankind;-) in forthcoming posts. I’m catching up!

And please @pedant.

Don’t bother @craig with yet another complaint about me. Yeah, we know, you’re ‘special’. He’ll get the gist. As a wise man once said (it may have been @whisht) “go fuck yourself”.

No m’dear @blenkinsopthebrave. He’s a massive bellend with no sense of when he has gone too far. I have awakened and any further infractions will be deleted.

@pedant

Reviewing your conduct towards other members has made me reach for the mind bleech. You really are an objectionable tit of the most massive proportions. I will take pleasure in…[Read more]

Hello, and seasons greetings to one and all.

Just dashing through to post a word of thanks to @wolfweed and post a question about a question.

Wolfweed posted a link a while ago about pre-screenings of Twice Upon A Time up here in t’frozen North. MrsPhaseshift seized the opportunity to apply for tickets and only bloody did it! We go today to…[Read more]

@whisht

I’ve just got back from the NE and was surprised by the number of spoiler thread comments myself. I’ll be back to post some thoughts on the last couple of episodes tomorrow, but I’m currently laughing at the notion that Theresa May may have just ‘won’ a hung Parliament. Delightful (but being realistic, unlikely).

Anyways, a while back…[Read more]

@pufferfish

interjecting with a possible Bowie ref for this episode:
On the day of execution/only women kneel and smile

Hi! Now that is a good catch. I have to admit I’ve listened to Black star (the album) once and found it difficult listening at the time (just after his death). I’ve just listened to the track with the video for the first tim…[Read more]

@steffstaff @miapatrick

The origin and purpose of The Veritas in the simulation is quite interesting.

We’re told the book is thousands of years old and somehow came to be in the possession of The Vatican – locked in their library of heresy that was established by The Naughty Female Pope With The Castanets, shortly after she met the Doctor. D…[Read more]

Some slightly befuddled thoughts because I’ve got that jet lag feeling. I thought production on this was superb. The ‘inevitable confluence of events’ witnessed by the Monks starting with Erika’s journey to work reminded me of the last season of Sherlock – not only the filming style, zooming to specific points or clues, but the idea that with en…[Read more]

Hey, I’m getting better. It’s only three days later and I’m reviewing Extremis!

I’d find this difficult to rate as a standalone, but felt we were getting a little bit more for our time as the ‘setup’ phase was out the way. It’s interesting that the trend to echo the past is still strong though. Silence in the Library comes to mind, not only for…[Read more]

@wolfweed

Hilarious isn’t it? I wonder if she knows that the comparison with Supreme Commander Servalan that a lot of people are riffing on now originates with Doctor Who performers and writers like Nicholas Pegg? (Click on the pic as it probably won’t show it all)

It’s uncanny. pic.twitter.com/Y4xBaYEkOl

— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) March 15, 2017

I’m not on twitt…[Read more]

Intertextuality Alert!
Do not continue if specultion on intertextuality disturbs you, brings you out in hives, etc! Skip this one and make a calming cup of camomile tea instead.

Yes, Veritas – the Goddess of Truth. That most elusive of beings and concepts. She was often thought to hide in a well, according to myth.

When Sherlock went seeking the…[Read more]

@frobisher

I like pushing the Bowie envelope a bit, so:

It was ‘The Passenger’ that sent us on the Bowie frenzy, believe it or not. The version I posted can be found here (easy to miss as the music thread can take some time to load)

+ @cathannabel & @whisht

I was really surprised noone selected this. The enemy in space – lower pressure. The…[Read more]

I’ve only just watched Oxygen, and pretty much loved it. It’s strange to say, perhaps, but can anyone think of an episode of Doctor Who in recent times being this ‘hard sci-fi’ in approach?

I think there are an astonishing number of references to other works (including Who history) in this but, unlike Smile a few weeks ago, I thought it produce…[Read more]

Oooh – An early entry on choose-a-choon from @wolfweed .

I’m afraid my choice is a little more predictable. Yes, it’s Knock on Wood.

Possibly not the one you were expecting though. 😉

I don’t really know Mike Bartlett, as Doctor Foster passed me by. That was a nice little self-contained house of horror story though, and the general feel of it, with the rumbling thunder and lightning in the background, was just right.

Again, there were a couple of notes in Capaldi’s performance that I think I want to rewatch. I don’t know if…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

My commiserations on your workload. I find myself in a similar position as you can probably guess. It’s frustrating as I would have liked more time to talk through Moffat s last full series as showrunner.

& @nick

Thanks both for the comments, and I agree. One of the things I was going to mention was that the stories s…[Read more]

Late last week also saw the news of the passing of a true great in comics and illustration, Leo Baxendale. There is a fine & comprehensive tribute to the man by the Guardian’s political cartoonist Steve Bell, here.

From my point of view growing up as a nipper in the 1970s, some of his biggest achievements were in the past. He was responsible for…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave @JanetteB

Yes, very sad about the death of Moray Watson. One of those character actors who always seemed to turn up in things I’d be drawn to. Such a long career as well, all the way back to The Quatermass Experiment in ‘53.

We did indeed look back on Black Orchid during our last major series of retrospectives.

So Thin Ice. Generally loved the look and feel of this one. After Smile, which seemed almost a two-hander for the majority of it’s run time, this one seemed bursting with life with the kids, revellers, performers a moustache twirler of villain and assorted henchmen.

I think the relatively simple story with so many repeated aspects does allow a g…[Read more]

@mersey @jimthefish @juniperfish @mudlark @bluesqueakpip

Just as a contribution on the tricky question of clues and our interpretation of them, my own particular take on them is this:

A lot of what we talk about is invariably a construct we propose and then test. The one thing I’ve always liked about this forum and the group of people who p…[Read more]