Llywela

Arya's direwolf was named after someone or something, though - either a dragon or a dragon rider. She told Tywin about it, way back when. I mean, she didn't tell him she had a direwolf called Nymeria, but they were talking...and it occurs to me that I have completely forgotten the context of that conversation, but Arya ended up telling a story about the early days of the Targaryens, when they came flying in on their dragons and conquered Westeros. There was a Nymeria in that story, I'm sure, I remember a moment of 'oh, so that's why the fancy name for the wolf'. There have been multiple names in the show before, often with some variation to make the distinction clear. Jon Snow and Jon Arryn. Robert Baratheon and Robb Stark (and Robin Arryn, come to that). Bran Stark named for Ned's dead brother Brandon. Possibly others that I forget. So it doesn't bother me too much that one of the Dorne warrior girls (thanks for the names, Anothermi! I won't remember them - and still couldn't pin the right name on the right girl) has the same name as a direwolf we haven't seen or heard of since season one. The girl who liked Bronn absolutely was part of Ellaria's coup - she killed the Martell prince's bodyguard to pave the way for Ellaria to assassinate the prince himself, while the other two were off killing Tristane (Trystane? I never spell these names right!). The four women are definitely all in it together, those two murders were carefully planned (three murders, let's not forget Myrcella).

That's true. But then again, Cersei and Jaime knew about Tristane's murder, so the ship stuck around long enough for the news to get ashore, and they talked about not being any nearer to finding the killers - killers plural, iirc, although only one blow was struck, which implies that they know it was those two who did it in cahoots and have been unable to apprehend them, which in turn implies that they don't believe the girls sailed away under cover of darkness, so...I don't even know where I'm going with this. The murders were so carefully coordinated - was that entire sub-plot really nothing more than a way of removing a few more players from the field? Or is there more to come from Ellaria and those interchangeable girls? It's been such an odd storyline from the start, the Dornish characters so thinly realised, I feel like I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop on that front. Although at this point, the very sparse screentime is definitely better spent on the major plot-bearing characters!

Sheesh. I had completely forgotten all of that. Definitely time we caught up with both Olenna and Littlefinger! Also, I can't help wondering who is actually running the country while all this is going on. We used to see Small Council meetings from time to time, giving a sense that affairs of state were going on in the midst of whatever else was happening, but most of that Small Council now seems to be either dead or exiled, the king is a frightened kid, the queen is in prison, the queen mother locked in a tower, so who is actually running the state? Which brings me to another point - the Iron Bank of Braavos. I'm starting to wonder how it maintains its wealth and reputation, since from what we've seen it mostly seems to give out enormous loans without ever getting any payment back. Case in point: Stannis, who persuaded the Bank to loan him enough money to buy an army...and ain't ever going to pay that money back! He doesn't have any heirs to repay the debt, either. And someone mentioned upthread that Olenna's son, the Lord of Highgarden whose name I've forgotten if I ever knew it, was last seen sailing off to Braavos to discuss the loans taken out by the Kingdom, which again seem unlikely to ever be paid back, given the givens. How long ago was that? Shouldn't he be back by now? Or is he being held in default of the loan? The story is so unwieldy, hardly surprising that details would start to fall through the cracks! It feels as if Show is really straining to contain itself at this point, skimming over each plot because there just isn't enough screentime to delve into anything in any depth. I'm also wondering what the point of all the Dorne shenanigans was, unless it was simply to make clear that Dorne is not about to become a major player in the Game of Thrones because it's too busy falling apart itself! But Tristane was in King's Landing when he died, right? On the boat that brought Jaime and dead Myrcella back - so does that mean there are two of Oberyn's murderous daughters running around King's Landing somewhere still? Maybe one of them will kill the High Sparrow and bring the Church Militant's reign to an end! More to the point, maybe I will finally learn one or both of their names. Also, did Bronn return to King's Landing with Jaime? We haven't seen him yet this season.

How much time has passed since last season? Time is so fluid on this show - was Sansa really locked up at Winterfell for Walda's entire pregnancy? I'm wondering if Olenna even knows about Loras and Margery. It's not as if they have the option of writing to her for help. But if they are normally in regular communication, the sudden cessation of that should have tipped her off. You'd think there'd be plenty of Kingsguard left in King's Landing still, though, so...it's actually fascinating to see how the Sparrows have so neatly taken control of the city, a bloodless coup, in effect. They seized control of the royal family, which gives them control of the city. And perhaps there are plenty of Kingsguard around still - there certainly seemed to be a sizeable detachment sent to keep Cersei away from Myrcella's funeral - so perhaps the point is that there simply isn't anyone left among the Lannister crew with enough nouse to plan a counter-coup. Cersei isn't as clever as she thinks she is, and is currently too busy licking her wounds to think her way out of this. She's used to getting her own way through a show of force - I'm remembering now her little demonstration of 'power', way back in season one, I think. She ordered, and the Kingsguard obeyed. And I think they still would, if she and Tommen were truly united and worked together to de-fang the Sparrows, but a simple show of force wouldn't be enough, it needs to be planned carefully. They're on the right path now, having reconciled, and have Jaime back to support them - he made a good start, standing up to the High Sparrow (who, for such a seemingly meek and mild man has achieved all this absolutely masterfully). But Jaime was alone and outnumbered, in a vulnerable position, standing at the centre of the Sept. What they need is someone capable of planning a way of getting the Sparrows into such a vulnerable position, so they can corral them and then take them down - heck, they need Tyrion! Tyrion could do it!

Jon! Oh, Show. We knew you couldn't have positioned Melisandre at Castle Black for nothing. Sansa is now the only Stark child with any intel whatsoever on her scattered siblings. She's not much closer to being reunited with any of them, but she's the only one who knows that most of them are still alive. And maybe we'll get to see her reunite with Jon soon? Maybe? I think Theon is not long for this world, though, at this point. And I think he knows it. Helping Sansa escape from Winterfell was his redemption and now he's going home to die. He'll be reunited with his sister, they'll band together to confront whatever the heck is going on at Pyke, and then he'll be killed and be returned to the sea, finally at peace. Poor Walda and her baby, that was horrible. :( Since Roose was the only Bolton with any sense, twisted though that sense was, I hope Ramsay now attempts to march on Castle Black, as he said he wanted, and gets slaughtered by an army of Wildlings. Bran! My, how that boy has grown. I'm intrigued now to know if Hodor will ever regain his speech, or if it's gone for good. Also, what happened that left him mute in the first place? Will we get to see Sam or Rickon at all this season, I wonder?

Yes, demographics are definitely involved. It is also about providing a female lead, given that the Doctor himself is male - a solo male companion would leave the show without a female lead. The obvious solution to that, of course, is to have more than one companion, but New Who has always tended toward the solo female companion model, only rarely diverging from that pattern (with the female companion always remaining the primary - just look at how many lists of New Who companions completely ignore the existence of Jack, Mickey and Rory). New Who is also pretty stuck in a rut of requiring the companion to be someone from the present (or near present), both because they are felt to be more 'relatable' for the audience, and also because they are easier to write! Clara, for instance, was originally going to come from the Victorian era, but was changed to become yet another modern woman simply because the production team weren't prepared to commit to the kind of character writing essential for a historical person plunged into a high tech world. The Classic era tended to be a bit more diverse with regard to background and numbers of companions; although there were periods where the Doctor travelled with a solo female companion, over the 26 years of the old show he was far more likely to travel with 2-3 companions, who came from all across space and time: people from people from the 18th and 19th centuries, people from the distant future, people from future Earth colonies, aliens from other worlds, and even robots! It made for great variety of group dynamics aboard the TARDIS, some of which are just crying out for a more modern development, if only the show would go there. Yeah, I would love to see multiple companions again, preferably sooner rather than later. Overlapping companions - not a female companion and a guy she already knows, but individuals picked up at different times, from different places, who come from different eras, different cultures - maybe even different planets. Multiple companions who come aboard on an equal footing, who must get to know one another at the same time as getting to know the Doctor, who each have something to teach the other based on their different backgrounds and ideology so that they are learning and growing at the same time as forming a friendship. Plus, I always love it when companions overlap, so that someone we saw come aboard as a newbie is suddenly the old hand teaching the new newbie the ropes. They wouldn’t even need to be a girl and a guy - heck, have two girls with wildly different personalities and give us some awesome girl power female bonding adventures! Yeah, multiple companions would be great to see again sometime soon.

The Pearl Mackie thread.

I still can't quite believe they are leaving Jon dead. Edd's grief really hit me - with Sam having gone off to learn Maestering (yes? did I remember that right?), Edd is now the last man standing of their little gang of friends. Davos seems to be in the right place at the right time to take command of those last few stalwart Jon supporters - and what odds will anyone give me that Edd has gone to enlist support from the Wildlings? I can't think of anyone else in the vicinity who'd owe their lives to Jon and be willing to make a stand for him. Also - how long before corpse burning becomes essential? If Jon was going to be resurrected, that's the cut-off, right? There'd be no coming back from ash. But the whole point of burning is to prevent zombification, so...how long before that kicks in? Or is south of the Wall safe for now? Was Jon just taking no chances when he burned all those other corpses? So many questions! I will admit it warmed the cockles of my heart to see Sansa and Theon hug - that's the first truly comforting, caring, meaningful human contact either has had in such a long time now. And now they've hooked up with Brienne and Pod...well, they still aren't safe, but they now have loyal allies, which again is as safe as either has experienced in such a long time. And Brienne! How much it meant to her to fulfill her vow to Catelyn at long last. This is the second season of Sand Snakes (or whatever those warrior girls of Dorne like to call themselves) and I still couldn't put a name to any of them. Bye-bye, Alexander Siddig. I'm not sure I see the point yet of Dany's new story other than a delaying tactic - just when she'd finally started to connect with the main Westerosi storylines having been joined by Tyrion and Varys, she's sent right back to square one: along among the Dothraki. I'm also very glad that the Daario actor was changed (I'd forgotten his name until you said it, Anothermi) - I really disliked the first actor. But having said that, I didn't much take to the new actor until I watched Orphan Black between seasons, and having seen him in that, I have a new appreciation for him! So Arya's blindness is just another stage of her Faceless Man training, then? That makes sense - well, it fits with what we've seen of their training programme so far, at least! Oh, and stuff happened in King's Landing, too, I guess. I'd forgotten about those religious nutters that somehow got control of everything there. Welcome back, Show!

And let's not forget that Helena was pregnant for the whole of season 3 and hadn't even started to show - again, that whole season only took place over a few weeks in the lives of the characters.

Ditto. I'm in the UK and won't get to see the episodes anything like live - I'll get hold of them when I can.

She makes her debut in season 10 - there's no companion in the Christmas special. I think this will be the first time we've ever had back-to-back Christmas specials with no other episodes in between! Even 2009 had the other specials in between Christmas episodes.

Once upon a time, willingness to drop everything to run off with the Doctor wasn't a character requirement for his companions, because they joined him for other reasons. Tegan wanted nothing more than to get back to the career she'd dreamed of since she was a child, but she got caught up in a sequence of events that kept her aboard for a string of adventures before the Doctor could even think about taking her home, and then his dodgy piloting skills kept her aboard a little longer, and by then she'd grown attached and become invested. Steven Taylor was a space pilot who'd fought in an interstellar war and crash-landed on a deserted planet – for him, joining the TARDIS was salvation, even though the Doctor at the time couldn't steer and was unable to take him home. Harry Sullivan was a professional, a doctor and UNIT's MO, and would never have knowingly consented to an extended TARDIS tour, but the Doctor tricked him into going aboard as a joke, and then the sequence of events conspired to keep him travelling through time and space for the entire season, with going straight back home simply not an option. Nyssa was a highly skilled scientist, but her homeworld was destroyed, leaving her nowhere else to go. Having a companion who comes aboard without deliberately choosing to abandon their entire life to go travelling makes for a different dynamic – they can become just as emotionally attached to the Doctor, but that attachment itself then becomes a source of conflict: should they stay or should they go? It adds what for New Who would be a fresh dynamic - only Rory has been a reluctant traveller so far. Pearl Mackie is in her late 20s, but only time will tell how old Bill is supposed to be and how she ends up joining the TARDIS. I desperately long for something fresh - but I also remember vividly that Steven Moffat has stated in interviews that when planning a new companion his first question is: what sort of person would want to travel with the Doctor? I really hope he's remembered this time that you can device circumstances in which a companion isn't actually the sort of person who would want to travel with the Doctor, but ends up there anyway.

:D Don't worry, I don't mean it really - but as a local who walks past it regularly, it's embarrassing! It's been years already! I want the bare wall back - and the window into the teeny location dressed as the Torchwood hub, no longer visible 'cause of all the stuff stuck all over it. ETA - back on topic, the Beeb has a little feature on the website, offering us the chance to 'sculpt our own soundtrack' for Hinterland! (Disclaimer: not sure if it'll work outside the UK)

Her costume and hair suggest she may be from the 80s, perhaps, which makes her the first historical companion of the New Who era - but near past isn't exactly pushing the boat out in terms of creativity! I had hoped for more originality of background and personality, but I always knew it was a faint hope. Well. Congratulations to Pearl Mackie, and we'll just have to wait for the actual series to air to find out more about the character and who she really is. I'm just really weary of the house style of generic sassy backchat and the general sitcom styling of this era - I knew it wasn't likely to change for Moffat's last year, but that clip really drove the point home all over again.

I long to sneak down by cover of dark and attack that shrine with a pair of bolt cutters! I remember being down the Bay a few days after that episode aired and being surprised to see that a few tributes had been left - little did I know what it would turn into! The council leaves it because tourism - we still get hardcore fans making pilgrimages all the time. Ahem. Hinterland. Right. Yes. Cliffhanger ending all right - I don't recall hearing anything about another series, but it's made by S4C, which tends to fly under the radar a bit. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for it - too much unresolved story to leave it there, surely.

Pearl Mackie as Bill, eh. Well, I like that they've gone with a WOC this time, but oh my god, the dialogue in that scene - awful. She might look different than Clara and Amy, but putting the same sort of generic 'house'-style comedy dialogue in her mouth just makes her sound like every other character in this era of the show, and she's clearly either from the present day or the not-too-distant past, so they aren't exactly mixing it up. I'm sure the actress is great, and wish her all the best - but the writing of this clip is not promising in terms of background and characterisation.

I'm glad you've enjoyed the series, Captanne - the end of season two made me want to re-watch season one to pick up on all the little hints and clues I'd missed! Must get back to that re-watch, actually... Ah, Torchwood, filmed right here in my hometown. We still have that bloody stupid Ianto shrine down the Bay as a permanent reminder! Fabulous location-spotting - shame about the show. I fall over Doctor Who location shoots on a regular basis. I've never watched Vera, but Brenda Blethyn is always marvellous. I still can't comment on the supposedly designer coats, since to me they just look like bog-standard Primark puffer jackets! I have no eye for these things whatsoever.

Two out of three episodes down, I'm enjoying the mini-series so far - everyone's lives have moved a step or three forward, as they should given the passage of time. Rachel having spent time away in London was the perfect vehicle for showing those changes, as she returns to a new position and everyone must figure out how to get to grips with the new status quo. Fitting that a new, over-keen and slightly mawkish but nonetheless bright and dedicated young female detective has been brought in to make up numbers on the team, following Gill's retirement - and also only too believable that budget cuts are making themselves felt, with Gill herself not directly replaced.

I know - although that was Moffat's own choice, rather than the writers under him. It was his decision as showrunner that a historical companion would require too much of an actual character story to be bothered with, since said character story would take screentime from the plot arcs he is more interested in. Still, for as long as there was no announcement there was always an outside chance he'd choose differently this time - after all, he only has one season left to play with. Ah well, we'll find out for sure soon enough.

Well, those shoes and the clothes on those running legs looks depressingly modern.

Yes. Season one aired on a Sunday night at 9pm - the programme makers had been told to expect an 8pm slot and pitched the content accordingly. For season two they knew they'd be airing after the watershed, so altered the content to suit the slightly later timeslot...but although it did still air at 9pm, it was moved from Sunday to Friday, for no clear reason. And now season three has been put back until who knows when! Awful treatment by the Beeb - and such a fun little show, it really deserved better.

That doesn't necessarily follow - they've made quite a fanfare about all their recent castings, many of whom weren't well known at all. They are just trying to generate a bit of buzz for the show, since it has been in something of a slump lately. It'll be interesting to see who they've gone for, though - I'd like to hope for someone a bit different than the usual type, but the show has been fairly consistent up till now. Maybe Moffat might be brave enough to break the mould in his last year, though, who knows?

So maybe Jon's stabbing is the ideal opportunity for Mel to prove she's got more going for her than parlour tricks and get with the kind of Lazarus programme that Thoros had going on. I don't recall that they exchanged methodology, though, so she may not know how. But it can't be coincidence that she's at Castle Black just when a major plot-bearing character is in need of a miracle, surely? Show hasn't shied from killing off major characters before, but...Jon seems so integral to the plot in that part of the world. Who else is going to pick up the banner and march with it? Oh, I think I remember why Davos is at Castle Black. Didn't Stannis send him in a desperate bid for reinforcements, when it was looking like his army was about to lose, but before the last-ditch daughter-burning? I feel I'm still hazy on a whole bunch of characters and key plot points. I daresay it'll all come flooding back once the theme tune kicks in!

I like your way of thinking, Pallas. We know that resurrection is possible in this world - what's-his-name did it for thingummybob. Wow, I really have forgotten all the names! Thoros of Mir! I think that was him. Right? And I have vague memories that Melisandre met him - when she acquired Gendry? Did she know that he'd raised the dead? Because that would have taught her that resurrecting the dead is possible - might inspire her to give it a try? Maybe? She did seem taken by Jon, as I recall. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to even watch the show live this year - I'm not sure I have the channel any more. I must investigate!

Well, you're at least as prepared as I am! I daresay all the other grim little details we've blotted from our memories will slowly but surely be impressed upon us once more when the new season starts...