@premonition

Does the Doctor now have existential angst not knowing how many regenerations he has left, I wonder? Or has he now got all the regeneration energy of all Time Lords no longer around, and is effectively immortal…

If anything the angst appears to stem from not knowing how much more change he can go through, rather than a more c…[Read more]

@premonition Welcome to the forum. Perhaps you missed the events around the regeneration of the 11th Doctor? It turned out he was on his last regeneration then, and the Time Lords granted him more regeneration energy, and an unknown additional number of regenerations. So that issue was dealt with then.

@rorysmith @nerys It would be fun to see the Doctor regenerate and see her much more interested in her new hair colour than her changed gender, just based on comments from earlier Doctors. As long as that’s made clear that it’s not a preoccupation based on her new gender.

I really think it’s quite a small group who’ve had the inevitable kne…[Read more]

@nerys

So I think this is why Missy clasps the Doctor’s hand as they part ways near the end. Without words, just this gesture, she is reassuring him that she is on his side.

When they clasp hands, earlier in this episode and previously, it clearly affects Missy emotionally. She actually rejects an attempt by the Doctor to clasp both her hands w…[Read more]

@Nick

In fact if you act on the basis of any expectation for reward or recognition (in this life anyway) you can’t claim any moral basis for your action, whatever it is.

I really don’t see that the phrase “(in this life anyway)” is particularly relevant ethically- the expectation of personal gain is still present, even if that comes later on. And…[Read more]

@ichabod

But there was a long beat, holding on that hand-clasp, so *something* was sure going on.

There have been several points, including earlier in this episode where holding hands affected Missy, so I don’t think that something beyond it likely being the last time they’d do it was necessarily implied.

Somehow I find it difficult to imagine…[Read more]

@jimthefish In reality, I don’t expect that a Valeyard storyline is planned, or would work. Even if you regard it as something in the Doctor’s future, that can be pushed out indefinitely.

And I think the War Doctor can fully be regarded as the Doctor- by retrofitting him into the timeline it was just tricky to number him- I think he deserves more…[Read more]

I haven’t got involved in the speculation about the identity of a new Doctor in the past, and I won’t get carried away now (I’m too uninformed about British actors for that to be fruitful in any case – inevitably many potential candidates are unknown, or mostly so, to me). However, the line “We can hope” does gently hint that a female Doctor might…[Read more]

To those commenting on the reasons for the Doctor to be resisting regenerating, the experience of a TL regeneration is hard for me to imagine as a personal experience. And I imagine individual approaches and attitudes to that would vary between TLs. From what we’ve seen, most TLs don’t appear to be overly fazed by the experience, but the Doctor…[Read more]

Like most it seems, I enjoyed this one and thought it a fitting end to the series.

We did get the answer to the question “Missy, would it kill you to be kind for once?”. That answer appears to be yes :). It wasn’t only Bill who was unwilling to live if she couldn’t be herself. It seems the Master felt the same and didn’t want to become what M…[Read more]

@thane15

I never REALLY understand the diff between the specific theory of Relativity versus the general theory

As a mnemonic, remember G for General and also for Gravity. It’s the general theory that incorporates gravity.

@thane15 et al – yes, by continuity, I didn’t mean the long-term show continuity, just what is traditionally called a continuity error- a production error in having things change inconsistently between shots- perhaps someone was meant to set the left clock in the second shot to 10:46:00 rather than 10:45:00 and that escaped notice in editing. I…[Read more]

@missrori Thanks for the detailed explanation of the canonicity of the expanded universe materials. That’s pretty much how I thought it would be, but the added details are very informative.

On your comment that the story has a theme of privilege, at least in the eyes of some- I’ve heard similar comments before, and I’m always a bit wary that an…[Read more]

@ichabod @thane15 @wolfweed On the Level 1 clock going backwards, general relativity means that the rate of the passage of time differs, not the direction. So the clock can’t go backwards from relativistic effects. The direction of time shouldn’t be different at the two levels, unless something in addition to relativity is in play- it is Doc…[Read more]

@missrori

Now the Master’s taken poor Bill’s body and ultimately turned it into a near-helpless robot slave….
But the Doctor can find a way to fix her like he fixed up Nardole.  It wouldn’t be quite the same, it wouldn’t be perfect, but she could be happy again as a cyborg or otherwise.

You’ve given me an image of the Doctor taking off Nardole…[Read more]

@thane15 I’ve interpreted that to mean that TLs tend to recognise each other when directly talking to each other- a skill that would be handy when friends can regenerate into completely new bodies, and I think that is the context in which that particular skill was introduced. I don’t take that as meaning they have a Jedi-like sense of other TLs in…[Read more]

@nerys I didn’t notice the explanation by @geoffers, but it’s not simply time perception, it is the actual passage of time, measured by any means, that is affected. The really short explanation is high gravity = slow time. The difference of hundred of kilometres from the top to the bottom of the ship affects the relative gravity felt at the two…[Read more]

@lisa @nerys Yes- why Saxon is on the ship, and has no recollection as Missy of ever having been there previously, is obviously a key question. The suggestion of the TLs (well Rassilon) being involved is an interesting one, and may explain Missy not remembering it, if Saxon’s memory was wiped, or he was pulled out of his timeline for this mission.…[Read more]

A bit late to put together my thoughts on this one and read through comments, so I’ll try not to cover too much old ground.

I thought this was an excellent episode and the pick of the season for me.

Mr Razor was a character I was enjoying a lot, even without the revelation as to his identity, which I didn’t pick at all before the final mom…[Read more]

Another well put together standalone episode (with a nice sequence with Missy added on the end). I won’t comment on the historic elements, since others clearly know much more about than I do. @soundworld Agreed that this felt a little longer than usual- the pace wasn’t rushed as the story didn’t demand too much to be completed.

I know it’s tra…[Read more]