@devilishrobby

Do you think Zchib had a very very bad photocopy of Cartmel 2.0?

Andrew Cartmel was deeply unhappy with the way The Timeless Children was done. The creative decision, not the plot device. So, did he know what was in Cartmel 2.0?? As the (almost) saviour of Classic Who, I can’t believe RTD didn’t seek his opinion. Moff and RTD…[Read more]

@janetteb

The Timelords are generally unsympathetically portrayed… brutal imperialists, dupes, and effete Pythonesque bureaucrats. Mind you the Shobogan’s of the Invasion of Time were equally ludicrous. Maybe Leela sorted them out.

The Doctor’s foster mum and dad from Listen would be the holy grail. But a light touch required. Still, could their…[Read more]

@juniperfish

The relationship of the showrunners with The Timelords is weird. Can’t live with or without them. Let’s face it both RTD and Zchib thought they could do without. Moff seemed to enjoy having them around, like aged parents pottering around forever in a big crumbly house.

But even he kept them at arms’ length. After the magis…[Read more]

@fozzyb
you expressed an opinion as to how The Doctor should not behave… or how Doctor Who should not be written. It begged the question… how would you want this character, with all its history, to be presented? Kindly spell out what you would like to see. Bear in mind this series has been marked by two well publicised departures, and many peo…[Read more]

@juniperfish

Yes… I enjoyed the Willy Wonka stuff.

re 1813 and Jane Austen… big Clara connection there! As long as Jane doesn’t turn out to be a scotsman with a huge ginger beard (Blackadder 3; Dick and Dictionary… but don’t quote me)

@thane16

Well Ruby = Brendan… ish… that would make the foundling thing less of an imposed structure.

Brendan was the best thing Zchib did. I got quite excited. Then… meh.

8 eps? Who knows, maybe Parkinson’s Law may come into play and this will all turn out deliciously snappy and flavoursome. No more the labouring Utopia Trilogy or The Stolen…[Read more]

@thane16

the first one could equally be 10! The only definite sequential ones are PD and CB. I have previously wondered whether Ruth was really pre 1… we never actually SAW Troughton become Pertwee…

But, if the GI is all the Doctor’s timeline, can it really be tidied away?

I just speculate that GI managed to hijack one of The Doctor’s regener…[Read more]

@thane16

By Testimony I mean Lancashire Sass. Waiting to greet the corvid. She hangs out with another woman with attitude and a bad memory.

To tell the truth the 4th in the sequence looks more like ‘the other one’… not MJ.

Unless MJ = ‘the other’??? A distillation of dark??

Also… snowflakes??

What actually WAS the thing that apparently…[Read more]

@thane16

There I was going on about faces from Morbius and I missed it! Duh.

Could be an AI adjusted Phillip Hinchcliffe? Nothing like the others. And indeed were it he, where are the others?

You’re being coy… so 2 obvious thesp candidates

Obviously the er… tube map is all over the doctor’s time stream. Who knows where intelligence will ge…[Read more]

Sorry Mr Quill’s gas attack (with the black mouth make up) was of course NOT Web of Fear but Fury from the Deep.

Just so you know.

I am amazed that a screenplay depicting mutual physical attraction should somehow be more objectionable than say…

A man with blacked out teeth committing weird psychic… if not gaseous (??!) rape (Web of Fear)

voodoo dolls marching spookily to ultrasound (Terror of the Autons) to commit murder

Extreme violence committed by conscienceless cri…[Read more]

I can’t see why anyone should fulminate any more than at the same sex couples on Strictly. So, yes, they will steam and smoke.

Otherwise… The Family of Blood? Captain Jack by any other name? Aristo mayhem ala Fireplace Girl? Nice to see Doctor Ruth in the mug shot sequence… but no Camfield, Holmes, Harper… nor Brendan! Awww!

I think you would c…[Read more]

@scaryb @mudlark @janetteb

Hugging… I refer you again to Azimov’s ‘Elijah Bailey’ stories… especially the first two: ‘Caves of Steel’ and ‘The Naked Sun’. Both are relevant but especially ‘Sun’: the Spacer society has very very different ethics and expectations. Especially Solaria, the Idaho Panhandle of Space: no physical interaction except fo…[Read more]

@janetteb

It is interesting to have such an unsympathetic protagonist. Lindy was wonderfully horrible. This is new territory isn’t it? The closest previous example might be Love and Monsters, the hero of which was not unsympathetic exactly but conflicted and castigated for his peculiar choice of heavyside lover.

I liked it. Stefan Mohamed (Den o…[Read more]

Interesting… the story was originally offered to Moff by RTD for series 6 but the necessary effects were deemed too expensive.

And Stefan Mohamed thinks that Russ shouldn’t write about racism! Because that ’practically perfect in every way’ episode Rosa rightly depended on granddad on the bus, and not righteous anger at the lynching of Emmett…[Read more]

@janetteb

September, Sunday, Munday, Tuesday… not really sure. Obviously it means something, or nothing. That is, it’s part of an (extensive) anti spoiler strategy. Make noise! Drown the detail.

No. Not all of it can have meaning.

But…

September 1963: ‘She Loves You’ released in the US. Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed… no more atmosph…[Read more]

@whohar

The Trinity seems to have been an attempt to keep both monotheists and neoplatonists on board. Otherwise it would be 2 if not 1. Add Mary (to butter up the egyptians) and you have 4… doesn’t sound good in Cantonese though.

2 brothers crop up a lot: Romulus and Remus, Hengist and Horsa, Hrothgar (Hamlet) and Helgi. It’s an indo eur…[Read more]

@whohar

Rassilon, Omega and the Other is from the Cartmel Masterplan. Just giving canon examples of ‘triads’.

The problem is three is its own trope. It’s not one (creator) or two (sex); more elements invite redundancy. So there are many triads and there’s no reason why any should equate to another, apart from the act of story telling…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

The meta has it! 2005! Of course.

Actually, is this series shaping up a bit like The Long Game/Badwolf/Parting of the Ways? History distorted. People subsumed by the media. A big bad waiting in the wings…? What then takes the place of Dalek? S Twist? Mad Jack? Max Capricorn’s twinkly tooth?

But is the show itself, Rub…[Read more]

@juniperfish

The Power of Three.

Ashildr could have lost one child in the Black Death, then literally ripped decades from her memory. Could be grief.

But there were Three cradles. Powerful number. Not invoked at a whim (unless you’re CS Lewis).

Rassilon, Omega and The Other?

The Doctor, The Loon… and who?