@whohar @janetteb @translstorcircuit

The Big Spoof? As you say, surely not. The only explanation must be the slow motion car crash. This was coming since RTD finished series 4 with The Parting of The Ways.

At some point the special was planned and The BBC then decided they couldn’t back it. It’s not the same institution that brought the show bac…[Read more]

@whohar @janetteb @translatorcircuit

The cliff-hanger, as Belam says, does seem to be the key, almost a taunt. ‘You want a show based on continuity but without continuity? Try THIS.’ This suggests both sides knew what was coming.

I am actually very annoyed, mainly with the BBC. I’m afraid for The Corporation too; it’s been in right wing’s…[Read more]

@whohar @jeanetteb

The bbc are not holding the purse strings without creative control. But if someone else holds the purse strings and annoys the telegraphed mailfist, that’s not our fault.

yours faithfully PW

Well, I did say I’d be quite annoyed.

The ratings were an insurmountable problem.

BBC funding issues and allergy to continuity writing win out.

@janetteb

the food. I can’t speak from experience, just observe that somethings were available in the 60’s are not available now. Funny you mention ‘boiling’… until the early 70’s you might still observe people with boils, plaster or no. Urrhhh!!!

But, in the late 70’s I was taken to Italy and my tastebuds were reeducated. Thank you.

Thereaf…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Are you revisiting Robot Revolution too?

Lux was enjoyable but maybe slightly empty. Like a cartoon. Need to go back to it. Especially the fourth wall moment.

There were better stories in the season. Maybe NOT Revolution nor Reality War.

The celluloid fire was both telegraphed and suspect. I have a feeling RTD (and Chib) rather…[Read more]

@janetteb @whohar

hmm lots of desperate sounds from the sheep pen.

i and The Independent basically reprinted the ‘no actor will do it’ story and blamed it on The Sun.

There was a ‘fans’ questionnaire: who was Rose at end of Reality War? Who should the next Doctor be? Will The Abzorbaloff return?

Then someone spectaculated that the special…[Read more]

@whohar @janetteb

so same old, same old?

If this ‘new doc’ rumour is anything more than disgraceful anti-Piper/anti-Badwolf briefing, I am going to get quite annoyed.

@janetteb @whohar

… or have ‘the rooms’ only just woken up to all the Virtual Reality/Alternate Universe clues? Mavity, V’linx, REG, song and dance, unDoctor-like reactions… we were even shown another ‘fake’ VR/AU within the one that’s been there since… NOT WBY but The Star Beast… ‘The Boss’ remember?

Why can’t The Doctor sort out the world…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>@whohar</p>
I believe a lot of Moff Specials filmed as late as October of the year of broadcast. But no, there hasn’t been much news… I thought it might be because I dumped a lot of rubbish off my feed.

The constant anti-Piper briefing might qualify as ‘rubbish’; Tennant’s involvement isn’t critical is it?

@janetteb @nerys @dentarthurdent

well, you all seem to be taking The Darkness at The Edge of Moff in good heart.

In the words of Graham Chapman, ‘lucky we didn’t say anything about the dirty knife…’

@dentarthurdent

And THEN Moff turns the horror UP!

Another ‘patient’ is apparently saying ‘Kill Me’. He’s lurching up behind Bill when Razor brains him.

Then, just in case we did’n’t get it, another candidate for full conversion announces, ‘Me Die, Me Die…’!

There are so many ideas there. I’m still not sure if the Saxon/Missy pay off w…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

yes, rec = recommendation.

I’m fairly sure Peter told Steven Moffat that the Mondasian Cybermen were the scariest thing he remembered. Moff thought they were rubbish but went away and thought about it. What a feat of imagination to imagine the Cyber factory as a terrifying Bakelite hospital and set it on a time dilated s…[Read more]

@winston

The detailed instructions he gave Ollie Reeder on where he should insert his I-pod and how Malcolm would then change the playlist…

Roger Allam was as (genuinely) classy as ever as Peter Mannion.

@nerys

Malcolm Tucker and The Thick of It was revolutionary here. And Peter owned that hostility and vulnerability… which it seemed Moffat deliberately airlifted into Who. Not so much swearing.

Just had/having an online argument with a Big Finish fan for whom Moff is antichrist. Truly Who is broad church. But not for Chib maybe.

@nerys

It seemed to be very much about Peter being a fan, his devotion to the classic show… and adjusting to overwhelming public recognition.

What he had to say about The Thick of It and Armando Iannucci using improv was interesting, because it seems to me a lot of that spilled over into 12. But then, to judge from what we saw of the r…[Read more]

@nerys

I looked up black turnstones because I’d never heard the ‘ruddy’ prefix. They’re eastern Pacific I think: so never seen one.
London has a large population of Raptors now: Peregrines, kestrels, and a sparrowhawk made a kill in the garden last year. You now often see Buzzards and Red Kites out of town.
Best spot this year was a Ring Ouzel m…[Read more]

@nerys

we are unfamiliar with the black turnstone here, and so neglect to name the Eurasian/atlantic species ‘Ruddy.’ The former slipways from pier… a mile off the town… are sheltered from the breeze and people so that’s a favoured roost. They are very cute and partial to crumbs.

@dentarthurdent

I daresay I reached for the M word too soon. But then you look at Meta and think uh-uh. It’s rage bait I know but surely, if you want to understand the ridiculous reaction to post Chib Who, it’s there.

Have we really moved on from the “Liz Shaw is a scientist/give us a screamer” dichotomy? (Ooh long word)

The Moment is somethin…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Camp: a heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration. So Cassandra plays on the audience’s assumed (and evidenced) attraction to David/Billie. Whilst very much dressing as lamb.

Who has always flirted with humour and camp… possibly something the show runners had to accept from Hartnell’s mangling of some of his lin…[Read more]