Having re-watched A Matter of Life and Death this has now become Blenkinsop’s idee fixe in relation to what is happening. @PhileasF – excellent call on The Red Shoes, btw, as the relationship between Clara, Danny and the Doctor does seem to replicate the relationship between Moira Shearer’s Vicky, Marius Goring’s Julian and Anton Walbrook’s…[Read more]

@PhileasF

Of the AG Doctor’s regular companions we have: Rose – exiled into an alternate universe. Where, okay, she ended up pretty happy. But still – exile.

Martha – had her family captured and tortured by the Master.

Donna – memory wiped.

At this point the Doctor (unsurprisingly) gave up on regular companions for a while, but found it…[Read more]

@Whisht    When he said it, I thought that there was no actual “thing”. Danny thought Clara was about to cancel on him, and he was beating her to the punch. Except that, then, he came back to the school to spy on the caretaker. So that was probably the thing.

@PhileasF   I noticed that too, with Courtney’s parents. But I thought they meant “you…[Read more]

btw have loved all the insights, thoughts and bonkerising on this thread and Deep Breath.
Hate to pick any names out as I’ll forget people but if I haven’t said ‘hello’ to @idiotsavant and @PhileasF already, then I should have!

I think (hope!) I’ve said hello to others I like (and generally I like everyone’s stuff, but really like learning new…[Read more]

Only just watched it, and just the once, so lacking in any terribly coherent thoughts.

@TheBrainOfMoffat – Auton or otter – I heard auton, my son definitely went with otter, and his hearing is likely to be better than mine what with being young and all.

@phileasf – The parents’ evening comment – I didn’t register it at the time, but (and without…[Read more]

I’ve been away and haven’t yet had time to catch up on all the your thoughts on the episodes. But I’ve managed at least to catch up on your post reg. Time Heist.

First of all I am in need of a rewatch, but still I wanted to share some of the mummbels inside my head. I liked the episode, although I think it’s not the strongest so far this season.…[Read more]

@thommck – spot on!

I’m perfectly ok with closed loops (or acausal loops as @PhileasF so eloquently puts it) because I assume the Doctor has a more nuanced view of time and paradoxes than I do, and if creating one’s own time loop doesn’t bother him, it won’t bother me either.

When I feel close to head-asplode time, I just think back to this…[Read more]

@mudlark    I had completely forgotten the plot of The Abduction from the Seraglio, so all I can say is “wow”. I wonder what they thought the odds were that anyone would pick up on that?

@thommck   Nice diagram, but no red arrows?  🙂

@PhileasF   That bit of physics is fascinating! The world of physics is really so much deeper than what I was…[Read more]

@PhileasF

acausal loops

Fabulous post. It is posts like that this make this site the brilliant place it is.

Not much in the way of coherent thoughts from me yet–having only recently been released from the cellar, the light is still a bit overwhelming. But some reflections (albeit, not quite as brilliant as @PhileasF) soon. Hopefully.

Oh well,…[Read more]

Thanks @PhileasF, some really deep insight there.

I’m downloading that ebook as we speak 😀 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/760

@PhileasF   I’m not sure how much I like the idea that the Doctor is methodically rescuing people, although @janetteB‘s inclusion of the “why that face” issue would support it. And certainly your list of motivating factors is quite believable. But it seems, somehow, well… boring. But it could well be the case, and in a way, it would explain M…[Read more]

@PhileasF I like you idea that it is the Doctor that is rescuing people on the point of death. It ties into the “why that face’ question. The Doctor is now wearing the face of someone he once saved from imminent death. It would be very like Moffat to derive inspiration from circumstance. If it is the case that he is saving people I doubt very much…[Read more]

@PhileasF – I thought that was a ridiculous theory at first “Everybody Lives!” but the more I read what you said the more possible it could be. Especially as the whole Time Heist episode was basically the Doctor getting his past self to do something

@juniperfish, Listen didn’t prove there was a family link, it just implied that perhaps, Clara and…[Read more]

@PhileasF I  like your theory. But not sure our-time Doctor knows that people aren’t dying – only his upstream self.

And if that’s what’s happening then I predict a fall – someone is going to really die for really real and break his hearts down the line.

“Listen” revealed that Clara and Mr. Pink have kids and that she also has a deep fam…[Read more]

Now for my replies…

@idiotsavon congrats on the “Don’t Think” prediction. It seems like we are being asked to go against our human nature a lot this series.

@bluesqueakpip Was the teleport really the same effect as Gretchen’s? I didn’t recognise it as such. Are you saying that from memory or did you go back and double check!?

@ScaryB – Doctor…[Read more]

@PhaseShift   I has been suggested before that the Doctor doesn’t like himself, with the whole “Dream Lord” character. It has also been said that the Doctor isn’t always fond of his own past incarnations. And there’s the “I’ve made many mistakes” line. I think in two thousand years of time travel, and several hundred of being the last of the Time…[Read more]

@PhileasF: I really like your point the Doctor’s self-loathing being the key that allows him to figure out who the Architect is. There was a similar resolution in Amy’s Choice, where Matt Smith was able to figure out who the Dream Lord was because “There’s only one person in this universe who hates me as much as you do”.

I also like your…[Read more]

OK

Little bit clearer today, I think.  @PhileasF your post made it a lot clearer. Of course they have to be able to mask their thoughts from the Teller. The Doctor could transfer in via the TARDIS before the solar storm, but couldn’t get through to the final part of the vault as the final lock needed the solar storm before it could be hacked…[Read more]

@Bluesqueakpip – good answer! 🙂

but, i thought all the calculations were done by the sonic, in the 400 years between the war doctor and eleven? i had been thinking the chalkboard stuff is twelve’s way of trying to find a way to bring gallifrey back into the regular universe, till i got hung up on this question of when did he pop off to aid in…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip    I love the idea that the chalkboard is for him to work out those calculations for his appearance in DotD. I wonder if, at some point, he will just stop doing it, and then we will know it has been done!

@PhileasF   Great spot on the extra chair/Rupert/Orson bit. And those are some very powerful childhood fears. Mine (as I thin…[Read more]