Oh dear, I think I’ve confused some of you! I’m not in any way married to the brain-capacity idea as being correct; I only sought to point out that it’s an option in fiction that wasn’t taken here. Fiction. Made-up. And let me reiterate that the full-brain/memory-loss concept is a lot more interesting to me, especially where this story is concerned.

@ichabod There are different brain-capacity paths in fiction about immortality (eg the Heroes brain or the Ashildr brain), just as there are different approaches to how ageing works (or doesn’t) in same. I thought the forgetting was a more interesting choice, and tied in well with how people whose timelines cross the Doctor’s experience a change i…[Read more]

Then again, human beings who live the normal three score-and-ten are said to use only 10 per cent of the brain’s capacity (possibly 20 per cent, can’t remember exactly) but there are LOADS of stories that suggest immortality unlocks the unused portion (eg. Heroes).

Ashildr is dressed very appropriately for a teenager in London’s Trendy Shoreditch – stonewashed denim jackets from Su Pollard’s ’80s are a hipster-girl thing – but I don’t think hipsters have otherwise reached the Shoreditch of Coal Hill.

@kharis Welcome back, and thanks for the Tarot updates and the most brilliant wardrobe spot.

I want the Ellie Ravenwood = Ashildr thing to be true, but Clara’s 101 places book from series 7 has ‘Ellie Ravenwood, age 11’ inscribed on the inside leaf. Possibly misdirection, or…?

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Hello, all! Enjoying the new episodes a lot. And for once I have a bonkers addendum.

If there’s a mute helper of Nimueh, why couldn’t that be Cass? Also, Cassandra is an oracle in mythology – faultless at predictions, but doomed to be disbelieved.

Nomination for the Fitzroy Tavern?

Hi all, I think I might’ve cracked it.

Everyone suggesting Perkins is not what he seems and has tinkered with the Tardis is on to something. This episode and the next are by the same writer, so maybe there’s some continuity between potential tinkering and its effects on the Tardis in the next episode? Perkins could even be GUS (or some kind of…[Read more]

Hi all, I’ve been lurking and trying to come up with some bonkersness worthy of a theory, but none are forthcoming.

However… I’m pretty sure pregnant people who know they’re pregnant don’t come home and pour themselves out a big glass of wine (Pond drank some red at the picnic at lake Silencio, but *ganger* so…) and stand there with the…[Read more]

I really loved that. Generally I don’t re-watch until tomorrow so it will be interesting which things start stacking up following the application of 20/20 hindsight.

Because she doesn’t think of herself as a person who lies, Clara’s guilty about the range of evasions and lies she’s had to make/tell to carry on travelling with the Doctor, and…[Read more]

Can I just say how moved I’ve been by reading all your Referendum opinions?

Throughout the whole process I decided to do a very not-American thing, which was to stand back and let others speak up aye or nay, hoping that a few nuggets of truth might emerge by accident. My initial concern about this particular government setting up a referendum was…[Read more]

Another maddening earworm:

@geoffers It’s also obvious from the Orson Pink news footage that he was embarking on a solo mission – otherwise two names would have been on that Bon Voyage sign.

Really enjoyed that – sitting cross-legged in the armchair, naturally. Thankful that anything living under my bed would get confused amongst all the shoes.

Hmm, I thought the path of the toy gunless soldier went like so:

Box in care home->Clara putting it under Rupert’s bed, when it’s named Dan Dan the Soldier Man->Eventually inherited by Orson…[Read more]

I *could not* get this (very Scottish) single out of my head on Saturday:

To the Dalek’s body, the medical team inside it are basically bacteria. As any fule kno, bacteria can be sensed as friendly or hostile by the host body, depending on how the bacteria behave.

Ross shot the floor of the channel the group was in, not caring or realising that it was a living part of the Dalek. The Dalek antibodies identified him as…[Read more]