@Thommck – not necessarily. Thoughts of Danny distracted her and she went to Danny’s timeline, thoughts of the Doctor distracted her (when he gasped) and she went to the Doctor’s timeline.

Playing Devil’s Advocate here, because I did think – when the Doctor joked about wanting to know Danny’s prospects – that he was acting very like Clara’s…[Read more]

@Thommck
The NEW infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey searching Wikipedia for an infinite amount of time whilst watching Dr Who will almost surely discover the secrets of the series arc…..

@thommck
Here you go (click thru for full size):

Very late to this – lots of good posts (of course!). Not a lot to add, except that I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.  Good series pacing I think, light before next week’s very dark-looking story.

@thommck – I thought the robo-knights were pretty scary, and agree with you about the holy cross death rays. I thought they were a crusades…[Read more]

ScaryB

love the QE I as Missy theory – you nearly have me convinced

Lol, thanks! 🙂 When it comes to findings parallels, I love going for the absurd. I almost went with “Missy is Adric” again, but decided calling her Miss A was too much. 😉

Something else occurred to me: Now that there are leaked scripts floating around out there, the awful thing…[Read more]

@thommck thank you.

That is 1 possibility that I was thinking of with journey blue, another was that it’s a moffhint to her being a possible future companion (main or side companion), my third theory I can’t remember with all the posts I read (and it was the 1 I favoured most).

That would be amazing for it to happen with hartdoc, they could have…[Read more]

@thommck lol, ok I’ll buy that.  Though I still think they would have been pretty crusty.  :p

The Master’s screw driver aged the doctor enough to shrivel him up.  In the classic episodes he had a tissue compression device that shrunk people,  but as a way of killing them.

@midnyt – ah, I see – you were referring to Clara merely being a plot-point who saves the Doctor, instead of a rounded person? I get your point about the slap showing her as a real person, albeit one with flaws. I know we all have them, but – bearing in mind the ‘look’ on  @thommck ‘s kids’ faces – there’s an issue somewhere here about role…[Read more]

Slapgate – really interesting discussion

I suspect a generational/cultural thing going on. Those of us growing up with eg Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin, 3 Stooges, Tom and Jerry etc were used to a culture of “slapstick” (literally slap and/or a stick) where physical contact (especially weaker on stronger, which is where the slap gets its comic power)…[Read more]

Bit late I know, but I was on holiday (for a change).

I really like Capaldi’s characterization of this immediate post-regeneration Doctor, who is, I think best characterized as relearning just who and what the Doctor is (as opposed to the TimeLord called the Doctor) @Bluesqueakpip‘s character explanation feels right to me, so far. The character…[Read more]

@Devilishrobby @purofilion @thommck

When I was about 11-ish, during a game of playground football, I jostled Debbie Galloway (who was minding her own business with some friends). The result was a full, straight-armed slap across my face. Debbie was a tad fiery and could have taken most of the boys in a fight despite being a good three inches s…[Read more]

@Devilishrobby    Honestly, if I had to guess, I don’t think the writers probably gave it a second thought. They were likely just thinking, “Clara upset with Doctor’s attitude, after he endangers all their lives only to prove that Daleks can’t be good, slaps Doctor, accompanied by mildly funny reply to question about What’s that look for?” In…[Read more]

Had my rewatch. Here are a few things I noticed the second time around.

I really like the pacing of this episode. There’s just the right amount of story and action for the running time, it never feels slow, nor too frantic.

I love how the Doctor is so soft spoken, almost gentle in his whole interaction with the military in the opening scenes: “…[Read more]

@thommck – Soldiers: I think the rejection of Journey Blue and the Doctors antipathy towards soldiers actually makes good sense with Peter Capaldi. Soldiers are trained to use logic and reason – and not to let their emotions get in the way of making decisions. Could you imagine Peter’s Doctor traveling with a companion who thought that way? he…[Read more]

@thommck

(So many great things in your post)

We didn’t actually see Gretchen get lasered into oblivion the same way we saw it happen to Ross…

As to what the others saw – Who knows? I personally would’ve looked away…

I wonder what exactly the Doctor will do in her name?

@thommck

The slap – It seems most people find it amusing when Clara slapped the Doctor accross his face but all of my family, my wife in particular, thought it was actually quite abusive and not jokey at all. Can you imagine the uproar if the Doctor had slapped Clara that hard? Nothing excuses domestic violence like that IMHO

I find this type of…[Read more]

@thommck

Danny Pink: The assumption is that Danny Pink started at Coal Hill in the January term. Moffat, remember, has been a school teacher, so is aware that teachers can be away on training courses for a few days. So I’m guessing it’s Clara’s first term day back, and he’s only been at the school a couple of days.

That would explain the…[Read more]

@purofilion  I hope you start to feel better soon!

@thommck  I tend to agree, since I don’t think of the Claricles as being particularly well-formed individuals.  (Still on the fence myself about Missy being Clara.  That doesn’t somehow feel right.)  Each exists to rescue The Doctor and, as you mentioned, every incarnation we were shown was roug…[Read more]

@thommck
In 1842 James Orchard Halliwell published a collected version as;

Humpty Dumpty lay in a beck.
With all his sinews around his neck;
Forty Doctors and forty wrights
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty to rights!

The Dr Who Universe is set in a parallel dimension to our own (That’s why we don’t remember a giant dinosaur…).

Even in the c…[Read more]

@purofilian @thommck – I addressed your replies above but it wouldn’t ‘tag’ properly…