Oh and I forgot to mention @bluesqueakpip and @ScaryB who have both been doing sterling work over on the Guardian taking on the ARSE commenters.

Cheers

Janette

@starla    This might account (potentially) for why the Doctor couldn’t use the Mire’s healing device on her – maybe it’s not compatible with dalek tech?  . . . I’m still hearing the occasional oddity from Clara that makes me think of Daleks – e.g the very start of this episode when she says ‘Explain’ on a fairly curt voice to the Doctor.

Oh, v…[Read more]

Great points and thoughts here as always. Some replies.

@Juniperfish    Yes, it did seem as though the Doctor might have known or guessed what would happen to Ashildr, and I was waiting for Clara to call him out on it. As far as Clara wondering why he wouldn’t give her the chip (especially in light of their earlier conversation), he clearly does…[Read more]

@pedant

My bad. The pedantry crown is still yours!

@ScaryB – oh, I did not twig the music quotes in the baby speak until you mentioned it – nice.

@DenValdron Maybe the electric eels was another music gag?

There was a punk-ish band called the Electric Eels with a Viking connection! This (from the Wikipedia page):

“Eventually the electric eels…[Read more]

@jphamlore  In last season’s Time Heist we have seen there is a thriving market in all sorts of tech. So how exactly would the knowledge of this immortality chip be kept secret?

That was definitely done too hastily, but my impression is that this was tech held by the Mire exclusively, and that as they’re such fearsome warriors, nobody had yet da…[Read more]

@ScaryB

No worries 🙂 Great minds and all that…

I loved your thought that we are watching Who episodes because the Doctor (or maybe one of his companions) has uploaded their live recordings of his adventures to the “Galactic Hub”. Maybe that’s why this Doc breaks the fourth wall and talks “to camera”! Very meta indeed.

@Ozitenor

Missy…

[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]

@ScaryB: The episode goes out of its way to show the Mire’s technology is nothing special relative to other space-faring races.  It also says their reputation for being the deadliest warriors is simply part of their story.

I can’t believe I glossed over the Ghosts idea for the last couple of weeks @whisht and @scaryb

Love this track. And I’ll give some serious drinking thinking time to the monsters idea @whisht.

@whisht @scaryb @jimthefish @denvaldron

Yes, great comments. I’d particularly point to Jim’s point that 80s who lost some currency because those touchstone references became too distant.

When you look at the first appearance by the Daleks, they not only refer to the war Holmes, Dicks and Nation lived through, but the ultimate war to come. A…[Read more]

@scaryb   Nice portrait!  LvB looks very young there . . . how old was he when the deafness set in, do we know?  The death of O’Donnell is a kind of hark-back to MotOE, isn’t it — in this 2-parter, there’s a mystery to solve and no energy spared (by the Doctor) in mourning the already-lost or enormous efforts to keep the rest alive.  This is pre…[Read more]

@lisa     Lots of theories are good. It increases the odds of one of them being right. Then, as discussed yesterday, you get bragging rights.  🙂

@Jphamlore    @ScaryB    The question of the ghosts and when they showed up is a good one. I’m adding it my list of things to think about as I watch through both episodes with fresh eyes. There’s a…[Read more]

@scaryB Forgive me for being imprecise. I thought I had made it very clear that the Tivoli shuttlecraft was not Fisher King tech, but the tech of the Tivoli culture – it’s basically mechanical, titanium and fusion, cast structure, bricks and mortar. The Fisher Kings are much more esoteric.

As to the muppet itself, I thought the Fisher KIng…[Read more]

Hello fellow theorizers,

Thank you for the warm welcome @ScaryB @Spider @Arbutus, I’m happy to be back too. Sorry I couldn’t answer sooner – I also felt like nothing I could say would bring anything new to the discussion.

In retrospect and on a second watching – especially with this new episode the 3 week long party for himself was fun.

@Spider…[Read more]

@ScaryB

BBC website have posted pics of the artwork, including

Heh – and clicking through reveals the his amp to be made by Magpie electricals.

I had Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” playing in my head as Davros and the Doctor got the giggles together (really loved that part). Then Davro’s line “Am I a good man?” held up a mirror, re the Doctor’s own line to Clara last series and the chill was back.

If Who ever does a musical episode (oh go on, please) Davros and the Do…[Read more]

@scaryb

Snap with you and @juniperfish on the creepiness of the Asylum take.

Haha.
Assuming Missy’s telling the truth of course.

Maisie Williams Pond, Missy’s daughter! Let’s kick off a speculation trend!

@Phaseshift – I completely agree with you. With Sonic Youth I always feel like I *should* like them (more than I usually do) though for every album there’s usually one or two fantastic tracks.
Same with Beastie Boys – at first I thought how dumb/crude (VW signs on neck chains etc etc). Then….. well the more I heard the more I liked. And they…[Read more]

@whisht @scaryb @purofilion

Funnily enough Nick Cave is a Doctor Who fan. He took his family (including the son that died earlier this year) to the Science Museum premiere of Voyage of the Damned after old friend Kylie got them on the guest list. As we all know, Australia has a history with the show second only to the UK. I hope the use of his…[Read more]

@ScaryB

Aww, thank you! (shuffles feet, blushing profusely)