@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]

@Bluesqueskpip, @scaryB fair point over the machina and I hang my head- to be fair a lot of it was foregrounded- she thought of stories and worried that it would make things happen, she made weird puppets, there was a projection of an illusion. I suppose I was as confused as the baddie was, (and in my defence, it’s not my tec!

thing is I did…[Read more]

@Phaseshift

Oh yes! Who else gave a drunken cheer at “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow”?

Haha yes, that was very funny.

Some other random likes –

Premonition is “remembering in the wrong direction”

Hybrids – Davros referred to a hybrid of “2 of the most warrior races in the universe” – Humans and Mire perhaps…? (And not as both the…[Read more]

@Phaseshift

Good thinking Batman.

Being hybridised with a species as war-hungry as the Mire doesn’t seem like a good idea at all.

The Doctor pondering hybrids made me wonder, again, about Clara’s parentage. River was a hybrid, as being conceived in the TARDIS added some Time Lord to her DNA.

I realise I will not let go of this 🙂 The truth is…[Read more]

@Phaseshift @JimtheFish

Absolutely agree re your analysis of Dr Who threats reflecting real world fears. In the 50s and 60s threats were presented as much more black and white (pun intended), with the good guys being heroes without flaws and the baddies irredeemably evil.   But that’s a bit of dead end after a while as far as storytelling goes;…[Read more]

@phaseshift I overlooked the Autons completely. But I think you’ve put your finger on their cachet exactly. They lived in Uncanny Valley. I agree with the rest of your comments.

@whisht Horror monsters/tropes work when they’re a metaphorical codification of real fears or social tensions that we cannot address directly. So yes, sexual…[Read more]

Just realised Orphan Black‘s back!! Series 3 🙂  @Phaseshift – why didn’t you tell me?!!! (Anyone watched? Is it any good? Just downloading from iplayer – trying not to get too excited!!)

@arbutus

As a Time Lord, even one with better than average instincts, he might have had a very different notion than we would of what a good man is

I think @PhaseShift would probably be better at this one than I am – but I don’t think the dominant culture of the Time Lords is portrayed as a good one, or one that is likely to produce good…[Read more]

This series has so far struck me as one of the strongest of the AG run. Second in my book to s5 and if it keeps up like this then it’ll probably surpass it by the end. It’s very much been taking its cues from BG series in a way that the show has shied away from before. Apprentice/Familiar was very much an unofficial sequel to Genesis of the Daleks…[Read more]

@phaseshift Thank you for your observations. If Holmes had been in the British army, he’d probably be well acquainted with the bull-necked old dogs and lifers that you’ll see in there. So yes, it fits. I’m glad that the Sontarans fit better when viewed as a whole.

@pedant      Putting our guesses out there before we know if we are right, that’s gutsy. Bragging rights when we nail it, that’s the prize.   🙂

@Craig    Perhaps those who always threatened to never watch again have actually decided to never watch again.     This made me laugh. Would that it were true.

@PhaseShift     Yes, I forgot to incl…[Read more]

I’m going to be honest, this wasn’t my favourite episode, I much preferred the first part. There was far too much breaking the fourth wall and far too little Fisher King action for my liking.
There were some great touches though, I loved the bit with Cass and Moran, I guarantee that it will have had many children hiding, and at the same time it…[Read more]

@Craig– re guardian comments- I had noticed they were a bit better (and, sadly this seems to be connected, fewer) but that could partly be because some of the constant complains have been addressed- we now have lots of two partners, actual aliens, people running down corridors- its all quite old who. So most of the moaners who have ay streak of…[Read more]

@craig  Perhaps those who always threatened to never watch again have actually decided to never watch again.

Nope.  Positives led, but by page 4 it declines back into interminable “look how clever I am!” whining.  Yuck.

@bluesqueskpip  Where did Clara come from? She is a bootstrap paradox. 

Exactly.  And given that she’s a bootstrap parad…[Read more]

@Phaseshift <waves>

Ah well, I’m sure @kharis can say more, but Jesse Weston in her book From Ritual to Romance apparently made a link between the myth of the Fisher King and the Tarot.

This book influenced T.S. Eliot, who used the Fisher King theme and Tarot images in The Wasteland (his own notes to the poem explicated somewhat) in the passage…[Read more]

@phaseshift

Ah ok, thanks for clearing it up! 🙂

Overall I really enjoyed this episode, just not sure about the fourth wall breaking, I generally don’t like that in any media.

@phaseshift What’s a hybrid two parter format?

(Sorry, probably a stupid question.)

@phaseshift

Astute comments and very interesting. I am wrestling with legacy. I mean, with Daleks, for instance, it’s really impossible to separate them from their legacy. For all the great monsters, there’s a body of appearances which span decades or multiple Doctors, there’s a continuous wrestling of new writers with ‘what do these guys…[Read more]

@phaseshift Oh yes the Tommy screening. Obviously the film itself was great (actually seeing it on a big screen made me love it as I had been on the fence about it before) The Q and A with Daltry afterward was also good, he told some interesting stories. Apparently he is absolutely useless at pinball in real life.

I agree about Bowie also,…[Read more]

@phaseshift love David Bowie