@scaryb

Back to Boom – interesting image from the first scene, which is at the head of this page – a blinded (and blindfolded) soldier stumbling around with a big gun. Very metaphorical. It also reminds me of something but I can’t think what yet… It does put me in mind of the art from 1980s 2000 AD – particularly Ezquerra, Brian Bolland. E…

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@scaryb @juniperfish

Is there another race… that can regenerate?

What exactly do Mire ‘genetic sticking plasters’ do? When does healing become regeneration? What did it do when combined with the human dna of genius.

I don’t think ‘Splice’, as a name, can possibly be any kind of accident.

Has anyone come any closer to ‘the moon and the Presi…[Read more]

@ScaryB – Good thought on the resonance of Larkin to the story arc via his most famous “they f- you up” poem on the difficult relationship between parents and children:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse

I agree “Splice” is a very odd name for a kid, and I wonder if her name is also meant to resonate with the…[Read more]

@scaryb

Killer roombas, I like it! I recall an animated show “Love “Death and Robots” on Netflix and an episode called “Automated Customer Service” which has such a device. It’s adult animation with a mix of horror, sci-fi and comedy, and they explore some interesting themes. I’d recommend.

 I like the idea that the “enemy” doesn’t exist

I had th…[Read more]

@scaryb

a blinded (and blindfolded) soldier

I’ve been (over) thinking about this… how did he get injured? Presumably on the battlefield, but a battlefield with no enemies? Shrapnel from another mine perhaps.

Also were the mines invisible until stepped on? If so, that raises another question – at some point there was the Doc (already primed),…[Read more]

@Craig a bottle episode, indeed, and this is something I have noticed in the new RTD Who. Bigger budgets, but yet, I don’t think it’s affected the contents. And this is a big example of it, it could easily have just been filmed in the BBC sci-fi quarry without making any real difference. And this I think is a good thing – the effects budget is…[Read more]

@ScaryB

Re The Skye Boat Song – that’s also a call back to the Troughton era (the Yeti in London (recently rediscovered and revitalised)) – Troughton plays it on his flute.

Someone on T’Other place mentioned that the Great Intelligence (whom we meet for the first time in that Troughtn story) is associated with snow. so there’s a possible link t…[Read more]

Cor, it’s lovely to read everyone’s wonderful ideas and memories of past episodes: the doctor’s ditty “the moon and the President’s wife.” I KNEW I recognised it from time past….

thank you to @juniperfish and to @scaryB @blenkinsopthebrave @mudlark and @craig

So much to read and ponder on and respond to! whee-hay!!
Puro.

@whohar  @scaryB

P.S.  As regards the perennial moaners, and the ARSE brigade, I sometimes get the impression that they have this Platonic ideal of Doctor Who in their minds which no episode can ever live up to.

Wow Gatwa is excellent, isn’t he! And Gibson held her own beautifully.

Those tense exchanges as the Doctor balances on the landmine – the fear, the stress, the emotion and the thinking calculation arising from the depths of our very old Gallifreyan friend, as he deals with his very young Earth companion in this deeply dangerous spot he’s got them…[Read more]

@scaryb Nothing to be sorry about 🙂

The ending works for me too. I just think, if I was giving notes, The Doctor should have somehow reprogrammed the AI John to attack your recurring friend Susan Twist. It would have given The Doctor more agency.

By the way, is Susan Twist real? I haven’t Googled her. I’m not sure I want to.

@miapatrick @scaryb

I do wonder if all these little apparent errors and anachronisms are deliberate. Maybe the world we are watching is not our world but another. And not in an alternative universe type way. I am thinking back to what @janetteb said on one of the other forums in a discussion about the 2nd Doc ep The Mind Robber.

In that ep the…[Read more]

@scaryb

All I said was there was a brief thaw in late Jan. Yes, Jan was apparently record-breakingly cold. Then the snow returned with high winds and blizzards in Feb.

I have been told (many times – I don’t remember) there was lying snow in the south east until march. London does have its own microclimate: lots of chimneys and in 63 very i…[Read more]

@scaryB

Having just reread the whole thread I realise that I had overlooked your comment about the poor CGI rendering of the snot monster. In the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ feature on the episode, which I have now watched, it showed how it was done, and it wasn’t CGI at all, just the traditional man in a costume covered with layer upon layer of gunk…[Read more]

@scaryB

Re the babies not developing physically, I think that was explained but I need to go back to pick up on it exactly.

The transcript of the episode is now up so I have just checked. The nearest thing to an explanation is the Doctor saying, ‘The crew went home. They abandoned ship and left you guys behind. I don’t know why, but they left the…[Read more]

@thane16 Hi. Nice to see you here..

@scaryB I wonder if RTD had that song in mind when he wrote the script. He might have looked into getting rights to it and as that wasn’t viable went with the twist song instead. Possibly the reference at the end, which is the basis of so much of our theorising, is simply a reference to this song.

Cheers

Janette

@ps1l0v3y0u  I wonder if SLC stands for the material the 45s and LPs are available on? Perhaps it is short for “shellac” which was of course the material records were made of before vinyl.

As vinyl replaced shellac from the 1940s, perhaps this is another sign that we are in alternative time-line/ universe, one in which vinyl has not been…[Read more]

@Bunface @Craig @ScaryB – loving the Chris Waites and the Carollers spot and Easter egg pointing to Susan again.

@Blenkinsopthebrave

I seem to recall the Doctor telling Ruby that they are in London at the same time as The Hartnell Doctor and Susan. (Or words to that effect.) And at some point a bit later he stares wistfully across at where his…

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@ScaryB

I’m also a huge fan of the fishes in this Forum!

Awww, right back at ya, Scary.

@Miapatrick

Yes to your point about the episode’s commentary on reproductive rights, parenting and refugee rights. And all perfectly in keeping with Doctor Who’s long tradition of being political science fiction, from the Daleks-as-Nazis-metaphor to the c…[Read more]

@scaryb and @jimthefish

Thanks for those excellent links. Love it when Ian points out that Aubrey Waites’ original stage name was John Smith. And, well, of course…

I will watch again, but I seem to recall the Doctor telling Ruby that they are in London at the same time as The Hartnell Doctor and Susan. (Or words to that effect.) And at some…[Read more]