The extraction chamber is an overpowered plot device unless it has limits, and we’re given no indication that there are any.

Agreed. I also had much the same issue with the teleporter spitting out an infinite sequence of Doctors in Heaven Sent. The explanation given there likened it to a copy being 3D-printed from a template o…[Read more]

Further things that have sprung to mind in the meantime/more thoughts I’ve had…

I like the way last year had Clara betraying the Doctor over Danny’s death while this year had…[Read more]

It occurs to me that it is not at all clear that Clara can leave the Diner!Tardis with get the “dum” bit of her last “ba dum” (and one could reasonably infer, from The Doctor making her stay inside at the end of the universe, that she can’t).

That could cramp her style a little.

A deus ex machina.

Sends lightning bolt in your direction.

No, it’s not a deus ex machina. Clara being ever so slightly dead may be a seemingly unsolvable problem, but one and a half episodes is not a sudden and abrupt resolution. The Doctor may be concealing the resolution from the Time Lords, and therefore from the audience,…[Read more]

And then there’s Gallifrey, which is, somehow, back in our universe. Frozen in time, but then not, by the machinations of the people frozen in time?!

The subject of how it returned was raised, but skated over by the Doctor. I would have to check his actual words, but I got the impression that though the Time Lords thought that th…[Read more]

You may be right – it was from memory, but I thought the idea was interesting.

When Me says “Do you think a Cyberman fears a merciful death?” I think she may have picked just one of the species in her street to use as an example. I think we are not meant to know the actual species of the executed(?) man and his wife, and instead simply empathise with them and their situation. It is the same…[Read more]

@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]

I’d be interested to know your ideas – if you want to take a quick look, I’ve done a couple of blogs on the topic myself and so has @Nick.

The first blog (by me) is appropriately called ‘Wibbley Wobbly, Timey Wimey’.

The next one discussed Day of the Doctor – I gave my view first, and then Nick gave his view.

The idea I came…[Read more]

Yes, you’re right  (re “on” rather than “in”) the tomb.

That doesn’t disrupt the narrative parallel though – the Doctor is positioned in the place of the Fisher King.

There is no reason for calling the warrior-beastie “The Fisher King” other than the (Arthurian) resonances it has a mirror/ parallel for the Doctor.

@thebrainofmoffat…[Read more]

@geoffers or, the most probable thing: the tardis took clara and the doctor back in time a bit, to the mausoleum, at the very instant that danny woke up in the nethersphere…

That would seem to be the sensible theory to go with in a show about time travel, but the Doctor’s words to Clara when instructing her to use the telepathic circuits were…[Read more]

If there has been enough time for a memorial to be built, why is Danny only just now being inducted into the nethersphere?

I was also wondering that…. I figure it’s just a true plot hole, and will never be referred to or resolved.

danny’s consciousness has been lifted from his brain at the instant of death, and tra…[Read more]

@Lisa and others – Post-it notes

Well obviously Clara has stumbled into Steven Moffat’s workroom by mistake and is faced with massive spoilers of her own life, predestination paradoxes and a sneaky paranoia that she is being watched. And possibly controlled by an unseen presence! 😉

For…[Read more]

@zeitgeis   I’m not sure that we have really learned anything that we didn’t alr…[Read more]

Here is some useful official BBC content that helps clear up a lot too
Quiz The Moon – bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/59bhtcgMnFZrnRF4xzPdvS7/kill-the-moon-the-quiz
(I got 8/10)

Fact File bbc.co.uk/programm…[Read more]

He says the Moon’s been tagging along with our planet for 100 million years. So it can still be billions of years old, but it only…[Read more]

@TheBrainofMoffat Spiders everywhere – you’re too right! A monster one just scuttled across my kitchen floor!

@TheBrainOfMoffat – Auton or otter – I heard auton, my son definitely went with otter, and his hearing is likely to be better than mine what with being young and all.

@phileasf – The parents’ evening comment – I didn’t register it at the time, but (and without…[Read more]

@Serahni    Wow, that’s a workload! Hope the performances went well. Yes, it’s true that some fans have a harder time letting…[Read more]

Oh, well done, young sir, in infecting the whole family. It’s actually pretty unusual to find the route of infection going from young to old as it’s so often the parants who introduce the children. Nicely played. 🙂

Has anyone written one giant document trying to make sense of it yet? I’d be extremely interested in reading s…

[Read more]

@Arbutus Yes I did think it odd that after advocating Mark of the Rani so eloquently he did not comment on it. I do hope he is well.

Cheers

Janette

— when and how did it get to the box

I don’t think the Doctor was thinking it through. Clara was trying to tell him that she got distracted, he didn’t want to hear it. If he was so uberfocused on his plan as to ignore her statement that she had never been to this place, he certainly wasn’t taking the time to think logically about what he…[Read more]