Kite

I really hope they address this! I think they will, although probably not in depth. It sounds like from the way things were created backstage (like writers assuming male Dr until last minute) that they're not focusing too heavily on that aspect (I'm fine with just a bit). Hopefully though the Doctor gets some specifically sexist treatment at some stage, because it's a reality for people who ding the "woman shaped" alert no matter what they think like or feel like inside, and apart from that shitty "just walk around like you own the place, I always do" advice from an apparently white dude to a black woman in Shakespearean England, the show of late has sometimes acknowledged (rather than ignored, or silently been complicit in accepting) that it might be difficult for some companions more than others to get around by dint of identity. The trailer for next week has a line where Ryan is having to take a few deep breaths, eeeep. I guess my only fear is that sometimes pseudo-feminism (known as exceptionalism/level playing field wrt to race, class) puts all the responsibility for being oppressed into women's hands, such as if we get the Doctor written to tell the audience: "well if you just act coded male, that's always enough to get respect!" ("Walk around like you own the place!") Usually it isn't enough at all, though for the purposes of the stories, it's going to have to be somewhat; I doubt she gonna do drag.

I heard a rumour about this?! I don't think we need to see them again. Their arcs are done. I can do without seeing the Stenza again, since Tim Shaw seemed like such a one-off villain, but seems we might get that too. His Chibs might have claimed there'd be no arc but this is the dude who wrote mystery crime drama Broadchurch, and modern television generally demands an arc, soooo... we'll probably get things coming back. I actually really like arcs, but I just don't care enough about the aforementioned players. Make me care, show. EDIT: I watched this episode again in a much better mood and loved it this time. Yippeeee I am one of the blessed!! EDIT 2: And OMG I am loving the theme tune / visuals SO MUCH from a nostalgia point of view; when I was a kid in the early 80s I was so hungry for electronic visuals and music and dark eerieness in general and there just wasn't much around and it made me love this show even more at the time. This new opening & credits has it in spades, and is a lovely contrast to the (so far) friendly effervescence of the show and Doctor this series. It's eternally alien and weird and harks back to the central mystery of who the Doctor is and I love it.

Sounds like the prize money was EXTREMELY large, they'll be fine. They won't be stuck together at all, they'll split it and get as far away as possible from each other, Angstrom back to her people, Enzo to be rich and cynical. I kind of liked the abrupt ending, because I thought their (sort of) happy endings were implied, POOF, they're sorted, the end. The threat to the grandmaster dude just didn't work though. Maybe he could have been written as just a little more swayed by persuasion than he was, tricky when he's also very powerful. I think I would have written it as him being visibly a bit amused by the idea "oh okay fine, have it your way" kind of deal. I would have liked a throwaway line or two about a vast audience watching, since the whole thing felt like a big famous deal. The Timeless Child could be...................................................... the Doctor's lost granddaughter Susan, since we already have a grandparent theme going on and themes of family loss, but would Chibnall really go there, delve waaaay back into the show's past in an era where he's looking to the future? I'm really not sure about that, sounds like fans' wishful thinking. (Including mine.)

The other day my young son took over my watching of the Honest Trailers does Doctor Who on YT and then autoplay on related content. Yesterday I talked to him about not hitting his brother, and how it was better to use his words, and he nodded earnestly and said he was trying to remember, he learnt that Doctor Who said "fight with your words not your fists". (I don't know if it was DW or some other show but whatever). The point is, he was impressed. He's constantly bludgeoned over the head with messages that violence solves problems (and I see the visceral effect that shows have on him) so if Doctor Who (which has always had this message) wants to take it up a notch on toxic masculinity, yay for them. I KNOW these PSAs but not everyone watching does, it's a family show in Britain. Besides, the sheer number of fans who thought that the Doctor's "you had no right to do that" displayed a totally bizarre alien morality shows that "eye for an eye" is pretty prevalent amongst adults too. Yeah exactly, Doctor Who is my favourite show, but I do need to make mental adjustments sometimes, remembering that it remains at its heart a kids show, the age I was when I fell in love with it. It's my inner kid that likes it and stops me from getting too pedantic about it, I can go watch far angstier grittier shows if I want to get my adult on. That said, I wasn't sure about this week's episode, but I was also really REALLY tired and grumpy, and it was definitely my head over my feels in operation (I should have gone & watched some Black Mirror or something), so I'll go back later with a lighter heart and see if I'm feeling it.

There was a joke going around Tumblr that the Doctor popped into Claires to get a few sweet piercings first. I like to think she found the jewellery in the op shop and casually shoved it through her ears. I ADORE that the outfit came from a charity shop. I mean, so fricking funny, because it looks it and she's so cheerful about it. She didn't HAVE to buy "women's" clothes though. The show just assumed that was necessary. I mean, lots of "men's" clothes fit ME fine, and they bloody suit me too. The actor actually suggested to the show-runner that she should chop all the hair off so it didn't flop in the Doctor's face when she ran around, but he wanted to keep it longer. (Colour me not surprised by that, we have an attractive youngish blonde feminine woman as a show lead for Chibnall's new "higher ratings or bust" era.)

I like some self-contained stories for a refreshing change, but sue me, I really like the Time Lords and wish they'd pop out eventually and continue to give the Doctor all sorts of grief like they used to!

So, so, SO pumped for this new series of the show. Really like Whittaker already, can buy her as the Doctor straight away, really curious to see more. I do like what appears to be a kinder, more empathetic version of the Doctor though am a bit cynical how it's the first female incarnation we get this for. I hope we get more of Thirteen fucking up and getting grumpy and too full of hubris sometimes, seeing as a) I love that about the Doctor, and b) we so VERY rarely get that in a female hero. (From an audience perspective, the Doctor is "a female hero" now.) I felt Grace's death was too on the nose for me. Forced. It just didn't sit right. The theme tune at the end was WONDERFULLLLLLL, though a lot of it is childhood nostalgia for me, but spooky and weird is A++++ for me. I'm excited that one of the guest stars in the montage at the end has got a dashing masculine look to her. Representation, thankyou. The script didn't have quite as many delightful funny quips and mad turns as Moffat's I don't think, but although I think "Heaven Sent" was the heavenly zenith of all he could accomplish, I was pretty sick of the twisty-twist plots on the whole. Great characterisation, sweeping alien vistas and horrible scares, and biting commentary on power is what I'll take for this era, please and thanks. It's pretty much built into the DNA of the show, the Doctor always seems to turn up in the right place at the right time. I just go with it, personally. Yeah, wasn't Four killed by a big fall? The Doctor is clearly more robust than humans though. Ten fell quite a distance in the End of Time and was pretty battered but okay. The roof broke his fall and probably the train did here too. My headcanon is that if the newly regenerating Ten can regrow a hand, then the newly regenerating Thirteen can heal from a huge fall. The police officer who you dismiss as a "teenage girl" was very active throughout the episode I saw, which seems to be the same one you were watching. Although being Australian I did watch 8 or 9 minutes more than was apparently in the first BBCA broadcast. I loved the Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough combo, myself. And Rose, Mickey and Captain Jack, all too briefly. But regardless, isn't it time to try it again in 50 years before dismissing it from the outset? The show has explored the Doctor's idealistic/lofty morality vs pragmatic/emotive human moralities before, this is very much in line with this. Viewers would be split as to who they sympathise with more, and I adore it when a show does that.

Who in Westeros doesn't know about the twincest? That's easy, Tommen and Myrcella. I agree that Dany has been written with some sexism, in that she falls under one of the limited "powerful woman" tropes somewhat. I'm actually confused by whether we are supposed to root for Dany. To me she comes off as an imperious dictator, though with noble intentions, but then I don't really like monarchies or absolute power. Anyway, she's sure pretty to look at and has kickass fashion and dragons. The moral of the story to me seems to be sometimes that "power corrupts" just like in the real world but other times we have storybook heroics and heroes to relieve us from the grimdark realism. Stories have to have some plot satisfaction unlike most of reality, but the reeeeaaalllliisssmmm can get in the way of that, so it becomes its own shocking point. GoT ends up a bit confused about what it's trying to say. I liked that Dany held Missandei's hand. A rare moment where women have some affection and solidarity with each other. I had assumed that Shireen wouldn't die because she had some special properties endowed to her by mysteriously surviving the magical grey scale illness, and her story wasn't done yet. Also she may have been impervious to fire. Apparently not. Josie and the Pussysnakes lol, I've found the way they've been written on the show as extremely sexist - silly ridiculous rebellious teenage girl trope to a T. With bonus sex! Assume Jon wanted the Wildlings to meet the Night's Watch and be assured of the truth of a truce, and also as a display to the Night's Watch. Selyse - agree that she did not really care for Shireen, was prepared to let her die, but the visceralness of seeing the one she once cradled and breastfed was a shock and calling at the moment of truth. People liked Stannis? To me he was always the man without charisma or true wisdom, an end justifies the means kinda guy with a huge stick up his arse. "Stannis" always made me think of "stannous" ie tin, ie tinny, metallic, the Tin Man without a heart. Burning his daughter just seems so sad, so very very Shakespearean. Maaaaan, security sucked at that stadium. Seemed like storytelling convenience for me, considering the terrorist threat they knew they faced.

Someone here doesn't have a problem with the idea of absolute power in one person's hands, as long as they didn't abuse it and worked for the good of all in the most optimum way. Yeah. I thought the people of Westeros and Essos were human like us, right? Apart from Aemon being a Targaryen not Baratheon, yeah, he's way too old. Not a sacrifice. You need a sacrifice, and the young are the most sacrifice-worthy. Presumably a young, innocent daughter dear to the dude it's in benefit of would be the best blood-magic of all.

I have the feeling Shireen won't be the puppy that gets kicked here. Even GoT is a bit selective about which puppies it kicks, especially children. Something interesting about the way she survived the disease will turn up, plus Stannis is surely eventually doomed anyway through his own character traits. Uh yeah, agree that the ostensible rationalisation for the boobs scene was not meant to be the main takeaway from it. Why is GRRM "colour-blind" about religion? Dude stated he's a "lapsed Catholic", so I presume he understands faith extremely well. Oh and thankyou to the person who pointed out that despite the self-conscious positioning of the audience as modern moral judges, we're still supposed to applaud "good kings". It squicked me about LotR and it squicks me here, and I agree that it says something about our society(s).

Can't seem to be too overjoyed about Cersei's downfall. Guess I'm just too creeped out by the religious nutters, and I get where her "sins" came from. Still, girl had it coming to her. The Sansa thing was pretty bloody gratuitous. And why does it have to always be beautiful young women suffering oh so beautifully? If it's realism you want, little children, men, old women, get/got raped plenty too. "Vikings" the show as a gritty historical analogue seems to be missing the reality that men were routinely raped by victors in battle, as well as male slaves by their masters, for instance, but that's not sexy stuff. Not entertaining. Definitely excited to see Tyrion meet Danaerys. Fina-bloody-lly! That storyline has been a very pretty exotic set piece giving us sunshine and dark skinned savages relieving us from northern Irish clouds and pale skinned savages, and now we can link em up a bit. Tyrion is a perfect foil for Dany. WTF was that boobs scene? Must have been one of the most gratuitous of the show, or what. Still, she had rather nice breasts which made the scene fun, cannot deny, but that scene is so much more pointless for those who can't appreciate, which is most women, who routinely get deprioritised by creators. Exhibit one, male gaze. I've heard the Sand Snakes are pretty awesome in the books, but they seem pretty stripped of menace on the show, more like rebellious teenage girls who think they can play with the big boys.

Well, that was a pretty dark ride. I enjoyed it however. Yeah, there was a few clunky bits but it kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat, that's all I ask really. I'm assuming Dash absorbed some of the spells due to its taint and them being summoned back, and like Ingrid feared, really sent him over the edge. Totally assuming that Freya will see Killian's soul isn't there eventually. Also, Killian in Dash's body should find a way to make a phone call to Freya and say, we've been swapped, you may not believe me, but magic happens, just look at your lover closely, ask him some questions, do a spell to double-check. But that might be too simple (though maybe Freya would never take a call from Dash; maybe he should text her). I liked how Killian's actor managed to imitate Dash's creepy grin at the end. So the witches are totally derived from Norse gods right, and Helena is obviously Hel, and Freya obviously Freya, and Frederick obviously Freyr, but grandfather finally gets named Nikolaus not Odin? And c'mon, Dash is totally Loki but gets called Bastian? Is this a show thing removing obvious references to Norse myth cos I didn't think it was a book thing. The death to witches thing seemed a bit stupid to me, but hey, we get another mystery for next season should it be renewed. If it doesn't, I'm finally reading the books. Gawd, so much rapeyness and implied rapeyness in the finale. I feel kinda dirty watching that.