OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY: nu-Who season 8

hahahaha DJP

That would be a good plot idea Tuomas, had it not already been established (by the same writer) that foetuses travelling in TARDIS become Tiem Babbies and can regenerate and all kinds of shit. Plus because they're Tiem Babbies they're of special interest to time travelling alium species that nobody knows exists (and weren't defeated or anything, just had the "I don't need to show you what happened in the gap, go away and think" logic applied to them) who'll stop at nothing to kidnap and indoctrinate them because they're unique. Although of course they won't do that if The Doctor is in hiding and nobody in the entire universe knows he's alive.

Three months could well be pregnancy, but I took it more as her attempt to keep tabs on her own timeline... i.e. three months in Danny's time was when she went back to young Rupert's time. The Orson thing does suggest she's pregnant though.

I thought that only applied to kids *conceived* in the TARDIS? Which River was, but the potential child of Clara and Danny Pink presumably wasn't.

(xpost to Aldo)

I think that only applied to Amy Pond

I'd need to rewatch to check but pretty sure it was exposure to the vortex at the developmental stage. Pretty sure River was supposed to be conceived on their honeymoon.

pretty sure it was exposure to the vortex at the developmental stage

that's one hell of a deleted scene

Wiki sez conceived on their wedding night. Which they supposedly spent in TARDIS when I'm pretty sure they spent it at a party with Amy's newly resurrected parents.

maybe only babies conceived in front of their grandparents end up inheriting Time Lord powers

That's probably right.

Graeme Harper is directing tonight's Hollyoakes. How the mighty have fallen.

IIRC Amy explicitly said River was conceived in the TARDIS. It was certainly implied they had sex there.

Did the cervix turn red or blue?

Fairy nuff. Tiem Babbies are a bit like baking obviously, the magic happens at the point where you combine the ingredients and not afterwards.

There's probably a joke to be made about Rory being the one making the wheezing groaning noise.

Not totally a Tiem Babbie. Conceived in Tardis, then genetically engineered further by Madame Kovarian and Co.

Clara would've been rather callous not to tell Danny she's pregnant just before he sacrificed himself to save the world; so I'm guessing it's not that. Or maybe just that she doesn't know yet.

Anyway, the episode -- some of it was quite awful, and Capaldi was a a bit underused throughout, but then the final scene in the cafe (reminiscent of the scene with Bernard Cribbins, now I think of it) was just so heartbreaking and well done. And perhaps it's that mixture of awful and amazing that makes Doctor Who unique.

Re: Capaldi's age - I don't remember being that bothered by old lead actors, when I was a kid, but then again, when I was young, almost everyone on TV was a grey haired old white person, so I guess I didn't have much choice.

Shame about Oswald - I guess they needed a "no, the Master really is evil" moment, and someone slightly above the average redshirt for it to happen to - but it still felt like a waste.

(I mean Osgood)

The whole reason the finale of season five is called The Big Bang is because it alludes to the Ponds having sex in the TARDIS afterwards.

Willing to bet it was the Zygon Osgood that got vaporised.

chuck tatum otm

Osgood's death was the best bit!

I was disappointed with Osgood's death too, because I was kinda hoping she'd become the next companion, it would've been a nice change to have a female companion who looks and acts like a normal person... There hasn't really been one in nu-Who besides Donna.

Has there been any confirmation that Coleman will actually leave the show in the Christmas episode, though? Everyone seems to be assuming so, and last weeks episode certainly felt like her time as a companion will end, but I can't find anything on the internet that would confirm her leaving... There's just a Radio Times interview from September where she says she doesn't want to comment on the subject so future plot developments won't be spoiled. Which is fair enough, but I don't think it'd be much of a spoiler at this point anymore.

In what universe is Osgood a "normal person"

I meant "normal person" in the sense that she isn't necessarily super confident/brave/selfless/heroic, and that she doesn't look like a model.

I wasn't expecting Osgood to become a new companion, but I did like the idea of her character being a recurring one. So hopefully it was the Zygon. There have been less believable ways of bringing characters back.

yeah surprised the ditched her before she had a chance to bring back some other doctor outfits. maybe she'll be back.

I do think this second parter was a big letdown from dark water, which is almost typically the case with two parters on who.

Maybe the Zygon Osgood will be the recurring character.

Zygons revert to type if the human they're copying is killed. So the dead Osgood has to be Zygon Osgood if we're to get moar Ingrid Oliver.

Osgood is so transparently fan-service/audience proxy/surrogate cynical TV shite creation that it's impossible to take her as more than a nod. No real character, just glasses/bow tie pandering, the eager-beaver selfless nerd archetype from every SF in the last decade.

tbh I was surprised she didn't get killed in the anniversary special

The character is kinda one-note - thought the actress had presence, though (even if her comedy show is unfortunately kind of awful).

The fact she's called Osgood is (not only imo) a crack-handed tribute to the socially-stunted but electronically talented UNIT soldier of the same name in The Daemons.

He also had glasses and clothes that didn't fit 'properly'.

Quite liked the musical, ahem, tribute to the James Bond theme during the skydive.

I thought she (and Kate for that matter) had more potential than the Victorian gang, who really have run their course now and I was pretty happy not to see them past the first episode.

Is this the first time the show has murdered a recurring good-guy character since Jack Harkness?

With Jack, surely you mean recurringly murdered?

Actually Rory is after Jack

Harriet Jones, former prime minister, did die, didn't she? She wasn't always a "good guy", but she certainly was that in her last appearance.

Tennant destroyed her career with 6 words after she had the retreating Christmas invading ship blown up which he saw as murder, last time I saw her. So does she recover?

I'm rewatching the Tennant episodes after having watched most complete stuff up to there. So have seen pretty much everything once already just can't remember her later appearance offhand. She certainly starts out nice so hopefully is redeemed, though her justification at the time would work for a lot of people.

I was a little sad that Danny wasn't saved. Maybe that will be resolved later? Anyway is the same actor now appearing in the supermarket sitcom Trollied? I saw somebody that looked a lot like him in a trailer. Well an actor has to make a living I guess.

Harriet Jones reappears in Rusty's Action Figure Showtime Extravaganza, where it turns out she still secretly controls the "sub-wave" (which is what, a flat line?) frequency comms network. She gets killed by some daleks after they have said her hilarious catchphrase - at the time there were many fan theories she was actually the Emperor Dalek and/or Davros at this point, because the viewer couldn't see her legs and for revenge because EmoWub Doctor destroyed her career.

Yeah coming back to me now. I'll probably see the episode over next few days unless my folder of Tennant era ends before then. It is his era isn't it?

Also been watching Torchwood which I had on the same hard drive.
But not been cross referencing timeline. The hand in the case seen throughout season 1 is the one chopped off Tenant in the Christmas Invasion isn't it? & Captain Jack is taken away by the Tardis for the Master story at the end of that series isn't he?
Also is the first mention of Torchwood in Dr Who from Harriet Jones in the war room in Christmas Invasion?

Yes is the answer to all those questions

Actually Torchwood gets a mention in Bad Wolf, 2 eps before The Christmas Invasion.

soda otm, I always thought Osgood was such an all round cringeworthy creation. The thought of her ever becoming a companion is/was horrifying.

season ranked:

Flatline
Listen
The Caretaker
Deep Water
Into the Dalek
Time Heist
Death in Heaven
Mummy on the Orient Express
Deep Breath
Robot of Sherwood
Kill the Moon
In the Forest of the Night

I would rank Forest as a 6/10 story, to give you a sense of how I felt about the season overall.

Listen
Into the Dalek
Kill the Moon
The Caretaker
Death on the Orient Express
Robot of Sherwood
In the Forest of the Night
Deep Water
Flatline
Time Heist
Deep Breath
Death in Heaven

I'd rank Death in H as a five out of ten and Listen as 10. everything down to Deep Water an 8.