Doctor Who

[vegetables]

Without wanting to sound like a moaning Minnie, why did they bring back the actress from the end of the last series? It was really distracting; I kept waiting to see if it had any meaning to it, if she'd come back in some way to have revenge against the Doctor for taking Yana from her. They've re-used actors a few times, right? Aren't there many actors who'll work in Cardiff or something?

I genuinely didn't notice it was the same actress, perhaps because I'm a hopeless simpleton. Next week Gwen comes back, so you can have this feeling times a thousand as the Doctor met her makeupless and looking exactly the same as someone else in Victorian Cardiff. I hope this won't be mentioned in-show at all, but it probably will be.

EDIT

I never did understand why the Master would name himself You Are Not Alone. Was there ever any explanation for it?

I think it's pretty much "because it made the reveal really cool". Beyond that we're into wild fan speculation, really.

[NEG]

Bit of a 'meh' episode I thought.

Next weeks looks quite good, though.

[Made of Ghosts]

Without wanting to sound like a moaning Minnie, why did they bring back the actress from the end of the last series? It was really distracting; I kept waiting to see if it had any meaning to it, if she'd come back in some way to have revenge against the Doctor for taking Yana from her. They've re-used actors a few times, right? Aren't there many actors who'll work in Cardiff or something?

She was a humanoid bug thing last time, what are the odds that it's the same character? How did you even recognise her?

[JPickford]

That was astoundingly brilliant. I'm stunned and amazed.

This is one of the best episodes ever I reckon. Just wonderful from start to finish. RTD at his best.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I hope he can keep it up for the final two episodes.

There hasn't been a Doctor Who finale I've enjoyed since Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways. Let's hope this breaks the (developing) trend.

[JPickford]

Has anyone figured out the signifcance of Peter Capaldi going on about Scarabs in the Roman episode? The thing on her back was mentioned in ths same ep and it turned out to be a beetle so presumably there's a link but I can't quite join the dots.

[SeanR]

She was a humanoid bug thing last time, what are the odds that it's the same character? How did you even recognise her?

He watched Doctor Who Confidential?

[Made of Ghosts]

He watched Doctor Who Confidential?

And was then retroactively distracted by her in the preceding episode?

[Campfire_Burning]

He watched Doctor Who Confidential?

I recognised her as soon as she turned up on the screen, actually. She looked the same and sounded the same. Why shouldn't I have recognised her?

[Rudi von Starnberg]

I didn't recognise her.

[JohnC]

I never did understand why the Master would name himself You Are Not Alone. Was there ever any explanation for it?

The Doctor thought he was alone, the last of the Time Lords. This was just a little message or a little joke from The Master that he wasn't actually alone.

[Campfire_Burning]

The Doctor thought he was alone, the last of the Time Lords. This was just a little message or a little joke from The Master that he wasn't actually alone.

So he did it on the off-chance they bumped into each other? And he knew the Doctor would be told he wasn't alone by the face of Boe? Hmm.

[JPickford]

And was then retroactively distracted by her in the preceding episode?

It's that timey wimey stuff.

[Mortis]

Has anyone figured out the signifcance of Peter Capaldi going on about Scarabs in the Roman episode? The thing on her back was mentioned in ths same ep and it turned out to be a beetle so presumably there's a link but I can't quite join the dots.

The scarab is seen as a symbol of rebirth in Egyptian mythology AFAIK so it would tie in with the theme of the episode in a way

From Wikipedia

The image of the scarab, conveying ideas of transformation, renewal, and resurrection, is ubiquitous in ancient Egyptian religious and funerary art.

[DoctorK]

I'm watching Parting of the Ways now and Jack looks really odd.

He does doesn't he? I liked it when the Doctor sees his in the last series and says "Have you had some work done?". John Barrowman is the poster child for botox, the fellas face just doesn't move.

[BigShimmeryWall]

I never did understand why the Master would name himself You Are Not Alone. Was there ever any explanation for it?

He's a big Michael Jackson fan.

[JPickford]

The scarab is seen as a symbol of rebirth in Egyptian mythology AFAIK so it would tie in with the theme of the episode in a way

From Wikipedia

The image of the scarab, conveying ideas of transformation, renewal, and resurrection, is ubiquitous in ancient Egyptian religious and funerary art.

Yeah, makes sense I suppose. I was wondering if there was a specific reason\clue for Peter Capaldi mentioning it. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I thought it was significant at the time so I've been looking out for a beetle\scarab. I was a bit thrown by fake spoilers suggesting the thing on her back was a spider so I didn't see the beetle coming.

[Comrade]

Hmm. I just read somewhere that it looks like the final episode might be the mother of all

reset buttons, essentially wiping out everything from New Who

.

That can't be true - we know they're carrying on with Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures, and they're both built directly on New Who stuff.

[BigShimmeryWall]

So is Bad Wolf as a phrase a reference (other than it referencing all of Ecclecake's series, obviously) to Fenrir and Ragnarök or is it just:

"WHO's afraid of the big BAD WOLF" do you see? DO YOU SEE?

?

I can't really remember a decent explanation from the first series other than it all being a bit paradoxy.

[CarloOos]

There's only one thing that repeatedly annoys me about new-skool Doctor Who, and that's their total lack of imagination when it comes to the majority of the aliens. So far we've had: space beetles, space cats, space rhinos, space fish, space pigs, space bees and space crabs. It's like part of some cbbc competition where all the designs have been sent in by children. Put some fucking effort in!

Next time on Doctor Who, we have a choice between an alien zebra that's human-sized and walks upright in a space suit, or another giant insect.

[SeanR]

There's only one thing that repeatedly annoys me about new-skool Doctor Who, and that's their total lack of imagination when it comes to the majority of the aliens. So far we've had: space beetles, space cats, space rhinos, space fish, space pigs, space bees and space crabs. It's like part of some cbbc competition where all the designs have been sent in by children. Put some fucking effort in!

Next time on Doctor Who, we have a choice between an alien zebra that's human-sized and walks upright in a space suit, or another giant insect.

on DWC they were saying that nature provides the best designs, rather than spending money on ideas, just rip it off.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

To be fair, the space crabs were merely a rubbish shoe-horned Old Who baddie rather than a rubbish New Who baddie.

[CarloOos]

The obvious side-effect being that the 'future' looks like a giant furry convention.

[kensei]

I never did understand why the Master would name himself You Are Not Alone. Was there ever any explanation for it?

I thought it was just the Face of Bo being a clever dick.

That was decent, actually. Not exactly an unknown concept but well done. I'd didn't like the "too fast for him to regenerate" thing, though. He's technically properly "died" before?

Why isn't Rose telling anyone her name?

Does this "Bad Wolf" tie into the other Bad Wolf? That had a circular explanation, kinda?

Also the fortune telling woman at the end to Donna -- What will you become? What will you become?

[Campfire_Burning]

It's like part of some cbbc competition where all the designs have been sent in by children.

They actually did that and we ended up with the Asorbalov.

[BigShimmeryWall]

It's like part of some cbbc competition where all the designs have been sent in by children.

They did that though- that's where the Abzorbaloff from Love & Monsters came from.

Edit: Bah, just beaten!

[CarloOos]

I did know about that, and to be fair it was fucking terrible. That said at least it displayed more imagination than the space-cats, or a moderately over-sized plastic beetle for that matter.

The space rhinos being a galactic police-force was a great idea, but the fact they were actually fucking space rhinos was just rubbish. They could have done something far more interesting with that.

I think that's the most annoying thing, the animals that inspire these designs have nothing to do with the aliens themselves or their roles in the story. They're all totally interchangeable. If there was a reason the space cats were cats or whatever, something that played off their origins, then fair enough. As is stands you could switch any of them with a horse or something with no consequence, as if they just write the episode first and then pick a random animal for the alien afterwards.

Zygons they aint.

[vegetables]

on DWC they were saying that nature provides the best designs, rather than spending money on ideas, just rip it off.

Hmm. None of the most iconic monsters in DW history look especially like things from nature, though. I'm not really convinced by this. Even in the new series- the Empty Child is probably the most iconic new monster, or maybe the Weeping Angels, and they're both not naturally inspired.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Hmm. None of the most iconic monsters in DW history look especially like things from nature, though. I'm not really convinced by this. Even in the new series- the Empty Child is probably the most iconic new monster, or maybe the Weeping Angels, and they're both not naturally inspired.

I also liked the shape-shifting monsters in School Reunion (as much for the fact that they moved like Giger's Aliens with wings as anything else) and would quite like to see them return.

[vegetables]

I also liked the shape-shifting monsters in School Reunion (as much for the fact that they moved like Giger's Aliens with wings as anything else) and would quite like to see them return.

If there is ever a Doctor Who musical, I think they'd be the best monsters to use, just because they could shapeshift into all the other ones for the purposes of a single song, and one of them is Anthony Head.