@countscarlioni   if he gives her the chip, Clara too has the potential to become another destructive tidal wave. The Doctor, as he shouts at the end of The Girl Who Died, can do anything, but here he grasps, after Ashildr has hugely sharpened his understanding of this, he shouldn’t save Clara. No wonder the Doctor has to go off by hi…[Read more]

@whisht Thanks! ☺

Loved all the great retro stuff that has been put up here lately, ghosts, witches, and villains. @purofilion, I loved your story about sneaking in a bit of Bowie (or trying to) and your dad lying in wait for you behind the door!

@Whisht    I am compelled to point out that Feist is not the name of a band, but a person, a Canadian si…[Read more]

And thanks to @Whisht for the Shirley Bassey round-up. Nothing wrong with a great chanteuse 🙂

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.

@phaseshift I overlooked the Autons completely. But I think you’ve put your finger on their cachet exactly. They lived in Uncanny Valley. I agree with the rest of your comments.

@whisht Horror monsters/tropes work when they’re a metaphorical codification of real fears or social tensions that we cannot address directly. So yes, sexual…[Read more]

@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]

@Whisht — a nice summing up with which I entirely concur. Villains have plans/schemes stratagems. Monsters have appetites and instincts. Possibly worth pointing out that Villains are essentially evil (although their motivations can often by sympathetic) but monsters can be good guys. Erato, Kroll, Aggedor probably have to count as ‘monsters’ but…[Read more]

@Whisht

Nice analysis Mr Freud 😉 Zombies also have a lot of the “living death” thing going on – shuffling around to someone else’s tune, going through the motions of life without a thought passing through their heads. Middle class conformity.

For me the scariest monsters in DW (apart from the Daleks which had me from their first appearance -…[Read more]

@Mirime @Ichabod

Thanks for these comments –

I absolutely love Capaldi as the Doctor . . . I never felt that he was cold, callous, uncaring etc. or un-Doctorlike . . . I think he might really be the Doctor

Somebody over at — doctorwhotv, maybe — posted (more or less) this about Capaldi a little while ago: “Somehow they got confused, looki…

[Read more]

@Whisht

Thanks for the Radiohead link, nice.

I was browsing through YouTube (as you do 🙂 ) and this jumped out at me –  Scottish indie band Deer Lake, now sadly defunct (or at least “parked”!).  Song’s called Like Ghosts (which seemed at least thematically relevant, and a good excuse to post)

Great to see you @rob and I agree with what you (and @whisht) say here. I think that’s a huge point that the relative success of the monsters first outing usually touches on some wider fear or issue.

@denvaldron

The reason that I mentioned the Sontarans specifically is that I watched the Bred for war boxset of all four Sontaran BG stories…[Read more]

@whisht  Villains have schemes and plans.  Monsters are simply acting out their own nature.

Sounds like a good rule of thumb to me, though all sorts of other considerations would of course blur the distinctions into each other (like, a monster that has *become* a villain or once was a villain, and v.v., etc).

Interesting discussion, my thoughts on what makes a great monster would be two fold.

1/. The initial concept.

No need to revisit earlier posts as to why so successful but suffice to say Daleks, Cybermen, Sea Devils (Yes the Sea Devils) and Weeping Angels etc

That initial impact for a variety of reasons could be reflections of current/past…[Read more]

@whisht @purofilion

Dame Shirley is mentioned. In a who episode. We discuss the past to unlock the potential future?

Well, it’s all a little bit of history repeating…..

@purofilion   “no socks or badgers until they were invented.”  That’s what I thought he said, too!  

and Or …the Doctor believes there’s a traitor on board and he wants people to think ‘ghosts’ -the Doctor lies to protect others, to protect a great secret….By saying ‘ghosts’ they (the crew) are all thinking exactly the same thing -like an earworm…[Read more]

@pedant @devilishrobby @whisht @bluesqueakpip Many thanks, and I’ll definitely look into Wordfence. The cost isn’t a problem at the mo and I would really rather cut down on server load and have a fast site than throw money at the problem. It’s an interesting, technical challenge to speed the site up and it’ll also benefit everyone. I’m working on…[Read more]

@Whisht @Denvaldron and @Purofilion

I think the scariest “monster” ever in Dr Who were the vashta nerada from Silence in the Library, completely silent, absolutely deadly and hiding in books. They could not be fought and they could not be reasoned with. It was years before our eldest would watch that two parter and I understand why. Overexposure…[Read more]

@whisht …the secret of Clara.
I’ve now read through these posts and I may be wrong but so far we’ve theorised that:
Clara is CAL (bloody hell I’ll have nightmares about those anagrams again);
a previous regeneration of the Master (I like this – Clara regenerates into Missy, exits stage left as Missy and Missy enters stage right); she is Susan (hm)…[Read more]

<span class=”useratname”>@phaseshift
Faith No More! Thanks for that vid, good to be reminded of that song. </span>

@whisht
Love that track!
I like old music traditions, both folk and elite ones – and I really enjoy it when they fuse with rock (and metal). I’m especially drawn towards Inner and East Asian, Celtic, and Slavic music.
You might…[Read more]