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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

200 Comments

  1. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 5:58 pm

    None whatsoever.

    Quite a lot of hate, actually.

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  2. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 5:59 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:01 pm

    She referred to herself as a Time Lady, and changed her name to better reflect feminine identity.

    And I don't know that she's adjusting. She seems to have been in this body since Deep Breath.

    And it seemed like she was just being sadistic. The Master was nice to Chang in the TV Movie. And gave him a hug, and a smile. Right before snapping his neck.

    She's always been so changeable.

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  4. mimhoff
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:14 pm

    We are still waiting on Phil's interpretation of Silence in the Library, and Bells of St John. And now we have a third Moffat story about having your consciousness uploaded…

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  5. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:17 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Jarl
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:18 pm

    She's a fun seeming character, but it's hard to sit through Mark and Time and come out with any good feelings about anything, let's be honest.

    Hell, I've still never managed to watch Mark, and I've not all the way through Time.

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  7. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:22 pm

    I was referring specifically to the idea of the "adjusting to female biochemistry" bit which strikes me as gender-essentialist/sex-essentialist bullshit.

    The Master has always been capable of being very nice to someone right before killing them horribly. And has frequently exercised that capability.

    …And it seems just as probable that it's the Master once again being a misogynist. Because, I mean. The Master has been. Frequently. As Ainley, as Jacobi and definitely as Simm.

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  8. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:24 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:27 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:28 pm

    It is, kinda, but there are people who identify within it?

    And Missy has called herself a Time Lady? Yes, Missy was making a statement there.

    And she did decide that she wants to be referred to as the Mistress now. She expressed that.

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  11. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:29 pm

    …You're essentialist.

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  12. Jarl
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:31 pm

    The Time Lords (especially the Master, who is pompous and full of himself and very much invested in the idea of Time Lord-ness) are definitely traditional and "bygone" when it comes to titles. The Mistress would of course want to call herself by a name (or, at least, a renegade name) befitting her stature as a fully entitled and landed Time Lady. The elaborate victorian outfit and feminine title is just this incarnation's version of the black jacket and dastardly whiplash facial hair.

    As for sex/gender confusion, I've always figured that such a thing is completely meaningless to a race that can change physical form freely (more or less).

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  13. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:32 pm

    Not just physical form given the frequent personality changes, or the fact that getting different incarnations in the same room tends to involve lots of insults.

    Changing every cell would include the brain.

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  14. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:35 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  15. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:35 pm

    I mean. There's a part of me that takes a little personal offense to her being "evil" just because she wants to do science?

    And almost all of what was good about her was Kate O'Mara's performance.

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  16. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:35 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  17. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:38 pm

    Not necessarily, because the Doctor might not make that choice.

    I mean. Three, Six and Ten were kinda misogynistic. Sometimes. And wow were One and Four racist sometimes. Most of the time in One's case.

    But ignoring that.

    …I mean, "Mistress" is a word in the dictionary that can mean 'female form of "Master"'.

    K9 called the Doctor 'Master' and Romana and Sarah Jane 'Mistress'.

    'Doctor' doesn't have a gendered equivalent. Even an obsolete one.

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  18. Jarl
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:39 pm

    I love the revolving shot of Clara sitting in the chair after hanging up on Danny and then turning to face the Cyberman. Earlier there's a vertical variation when Danny looks out at the Nethersphere.

    I just really like the Nethersphere in general. It's such a great, great visual, and the sounds that fill it are even better. I really like what they did with it.

    I'm a little unclear as to when this story is taking place, admittedly. It at first seems like it must be the future and the 3W society was a public service. Yet, they've been picking people up for a good long while, and people obviously don't know about it. I still think it's a scam, but the exact nature of it I'm still shaky on. Probably it's via the Mistress's TARDIS, hence how they can get people all throughout time.

    Oh wow, I just got that: the dead minds are being kept in the Matrix, which the Mistress is, ahem, a master at manipulating and programming. Of course the Mistress would use the Matrix.

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  19. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:40 pm

    Like, the Master once said 'Killed by an insect. A girl. How inappropriate.'

    And 'It's always the women.' And his wife at the time was frequently covered in bruises.

    The idea of the Master becoming female and applying some outdated notions of gender to herself is not far-fetched.

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  20. quislibet
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:41 pm

    Fellow Rhode-Islander here. I was at Colin Baker's panel today, which was delightful, and if it was shut down, it was done in a very stealthy manner that was not obvious to any of us in attendance. Someone did come in near the end and give the moderator a silent signal that time was up, but it didn't seem premature, and we all milled around inside and snapped photos and so forth. There was no sense that anyone was meant urgently to depart.

    The main problem with the panel was all of the con announcements (none actually about the fire-marshall issue) that kept cutting in when Baker was trying to talk, but these were of the "keep an eye out for a child separated from his family" variety, so they were at least forgiveable.

    Now, I understand it was an utter mess at the doors of the con for a few hours this afternoon until they started letting people in again, and I know of some people who missed attending Baker's panel because they were stuck outside the convention center. Maybe that's the origin of "the panel was shut down"?

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  21. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:43 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  22. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

    I mean. I think there's probably a problematic aspect to Missy choosing to identify this way. But I'm irritated that you immediately thought that it's the writer's fault and not, y'know, the character that's been kind of a misogynistic shitstain for the better part of thirty years.

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  23. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:46 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:47 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  25. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:48 pm

    I'm sorry I can't psychically detect your intent through the internet.

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  26. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  27. BerserkRL
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:50 pm

    Also I notice Sean Williams (below) made the same point before I did.

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  28. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:52 pm

    I think everyone is sexist.

    When you have an infinite number of targets, it behooves you to be mindful of what you shoot at.

    Quoting our host because it's actually a pretty good quote.

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  29. Leslie Lozada
    November 1, 2014 @ 6:55 pm

    As a person who does speak Spanish, it's about the same leaver of weirdness.

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  30. Saxon Brenton
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:02 pm

    Danny's meeting with the boy that he had killed suggests that he (and by implication, probably all the other dead) were manipulated into emotionally painful situations where they were likely to take the choice to delete their emotions (if not consciously chosing to become cybermen). You're right that this pushes them towards being villains, but it simultaneously marks them as being victims. In a way that continues the wonderfully dark and nuanced handling of the cybermen from 'Doomsday', where alt-Pete makes the comment about how people feeling sorry for the cybermen allowed the cybermen the slack to restart a new world domination scheme.

    And conceptually – and perhaps more interestingly – it pushes the cybermen back from being the Borg-like predators who conquere and assimilate their victims, to more like the people in 'The Tenth Planet' and the Big Finish 'Spare Parts' who find their situation unbearable and choose to give up some of themselves in favour of survival.

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  31. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:05 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. arcbeatle
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:05 pm

    People transitioning from one gender to the other have the right to chose to be called what they like to be. I like that Missy even made a note to correct the Doctor and be called a "Time Lady" because that was what made her comfortable in her identity.

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  33. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:07 pm

    …God I hate that "political correctness" is even a thing that people say.

    And especially recently I keep hearing it in David Tennant's voice.

    If you know anything about me you'd know that's not a good thing.

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  34. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:10 pm

    …I think you might have accidentally responded to the wrong comment-chain. But yeah, what you said.

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  35. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:12 pm

    Yes she definitely should.

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  36. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:13 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  37. arcbeatle
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:17 pm

    uhhh… whoops. That's embarrassing. But I still stand by what I said in the wrong place!

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  38. unnoun
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:20 pm

    …I mean. The Rani's not that bad.

    I got my very own guest post about the Worst Doctor though.

    My treat.

    Or I guess you can try one of my best friends doing a much better job I guess.

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  39. BerserkRL
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:23 pm

    No one's commented on this, so: did anyone notice the last face we see? It's not Danny.

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  40. arcbeatle
    November 1, 2014 @ 7:47 pm

    I posted this in the wrong place earlier (whoops) but still feel I should add it here:

    "People transitioning from one gender to the other have the right to chose to be called what they like to be. I like that Missy even made a note to correct the Doctor and be called a "Time Lady" because that was what made her comfortable in her identity. "

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  41. jane
    November 1, 2014 @ 8:10 pm

    I'm just glad all my harping on near-death experiences hasn't gone for naught.

    giggle

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  42. Jesse
    November 1, 2014 @ 8:28 pm

    the "Time Lady you abandoned" line did momentarily make me think it might be either Romana or Susan

    I thought of River.

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  43. jonathan inge
    November 1, 2014 @ 8:39 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  44. The Lord of Ábrocen Landmearca
    November 1, 2014 @ 8:57 pm

    I loved it until that final reveal. It's not that Missy being the Master is /bad/, it's just… the most obvious choice. Oh, a Timelord has come back? What are the odds its the only Timelord who has ever come back in the new series (at least, what, twice now? The Time Lord High Council doesn't count here, because they're just a bunch of 'randos' and Timothy-Dalton-As-A-Guy-Named-Rassilon.) It's a bit disappointing is all. It's easy.

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  45. Whittso
    November 1, 2014 @ 8:57 pm

    Normally I don't get to watch the episode till Sunday or Monday. I actually saw this one live and am on tenterhooks for Phil's review.

    I loved it, but I've pretty much loved everything this series except Robot of Sherwood (which I quite liked). Having said that it did seem a bit… Run of the mill? A return to RTD? Compared to all the more experimental approaches we've had recently. I'm sure others /next episode may well prove me wrong though.

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  46. jack
    November 1, 2014 @ 9:24 pm

    I don't think the Doctor / Missy thing is heteronormative. I think it's basically immune to heteronormative at this point. I mean, a species that is inherently genderfluid like Time Lords are would have no concept of something static like ''heterosexual''. it's not like she's suddenly attracted to him because she's in a female body, either– she's acknowledging all the previous Ho Yay and saying yes, that was me absolutely in love with you.

    And you can't put that back in the bag. if she chooses to regenerate into a male body, the attraction is not going to disappear. The show is saying that it's there REGARDLESS of their gender identity… pretty much the opposite of heteronormative.

    Also, I believe Missy said something about being ''old fashioned'' at some point? Which is clever, because it acknowledges the otherwise potentially troubling cissexist / heterosexist implications and places the fault squarely on the character's own worldview. Love that.

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  47. Whittso
    November 1, 2014 @ 9:26 pm

    And the page reloads and this looks a bit silly. Ah well…

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  48. jack
    November 1, 2014 @ 9:40 pm

    I thought of Shalka as well, and Time of the Doctor when he talks about building a robot boyfriend.

    And all the times River said she'd dated androids. Apparently Time Lords in general have an android fetish.

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  49. jack
    November 1, 2014 @ 9:43 pm

    ''Doctor/Master is retroactively more canonical than it's ever been'' Yessss. That's a much more succinct way of explaining what I was trying to get at in my first comment, haha.

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  50. Rebecca
    November 1, 2014 @ 9:49 pm

    jack, I liked your comment and I think it was a good explanation of how the Master being interested in the Doctor regardless of the body either of them has is fairly queer as these things go.

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  51. David Anderson
    November 1, 2014 @ 10:03 pm

    Yes. I would guess that's a directorial 'this is what Danny is thinking about' choice. Though no doubt we will find out if it's anything else next week.

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  52. dm
    November 1, 2014 @ 10:49 pm

    But what did Jill think of it?

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  53. Anton B
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:09 pm

    I'm just intrigued as to what the traditional Moffat heel-turn narrative collapse/substitution will be next week. I can't help but feel that we've been well and truly set up all through this series and it's going to be an immense 'everything you know is wrong'. That would definitely make up for the bit of a damp squib of the Missy/Master reveal. It's all about the woman in the shop isn't it? She chose Clara to call the Doctor. If it was Missy ("Clara, my Clara I did choose well") Why? What does she need the Doctor for if not merely to gloat and flirt, though that's often been motive enough for the Master.

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  54. Herms
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:11 pm

    Loved it to bits. So many things to discuss, but I think I'll go for the blandest and just say that since we now know Missy has set up shop in (what's apparently) modern London, the scenes in previous episodes where she watched the Doctor on a tablet don't seem so jarring now. Especially with the "we've got Steve Jobs" joke.

    On the flipside, how did Missy collect the soul of that woman from Into the Dalek? Since presumably that was from hundreds of years in the future. Oh well, I guess with Time Lord technology it's no biggie. I guess the bigger mystery is how the android from Deep Breath ended up in the nethersphere. Apart from the apparent time travel, I'm not sure how the clockwork android would fit into the Cyberman setup seen here. Is his metal skeleton sitting in one of those watery tombs somewhere?

    On that note, I guess we still don't know how all those robots seeking the Promised Land fits into Missy's scheme. Or how and why Missy "chose" Clara, whatever that means. And of course there's still that "Clara Oswald never existed" line from the trailer, which will presumably be in next episode.

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  55. Herms
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:46 pm

    Another thought: last episode, with Missy nonchalantly watching the solar flare head for Earth, and going "well, that was unexpected" when the trees save the day. If she's been running this whole evil operation on modern Earth all along, shouldn't she have…reacted differently? Somehow? I wonder if this is going to get clarified by whatever revelations are in store next episode, or if it's going to turn into one of those loose threads you get when you have a story arc running through different episodes by different writers.

    Also, the Doctor ordering Clara to throw the keys into the lava was a nice callback to Clara's "just go ahead and kill me" gambit from Deep Breath.

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  56. Nyq Only
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:50 pm

    My daughter had decided that Missy was the master before the episode started. I was betting that it was Mercy Thingywhatsit from "The Next Doctor" – we have just done a mini-marathon watching of the David Tennant Specials. So my daughter was practically jumping up and down when Missy revealed she was a timelord and my son and I were trying to think of alternatives: Susan, the Rani, Jenny, River…

    Anyway – wow.
    I didn't want it to be the Master because he got such a good ending to his story in the End of Time but…wow.
    Yes the 2nd part will be vaguely disappointing – how could it not be? – but that was brilliant television.
    Stuff it – rankings:
    1. Dark Water
    2. Listen/The Caretaker
    3. Kill the Moon
    4. Mummy on the Orient Express
    5. Deep Breath
    6. Time Heist
    7. Into the Dalek
    8. Flatline
    9. In the forest of the night
    10. Robots of Sherwood

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  57. Nyq Only
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:53 pm

    "Did enjoy "He was an idiot?" though."

    Oh yes – brilliant. I loved it – having the Doctor build up the possibility of an afterlife to Clara, then having him express his obvious disbelief was very well done and funny

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  58. Nyq Only
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:57 pm

    It is also a coda to the Doctor's 'no' earlier. Clara threatens X if they say Y, so they say Y.

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  59. Anton B
    November 1, 2014 @ 11:58 pm

    They say the eyes are the window to the soul so it seems the Cybermen do have a sense of humour with their choice of window designs. Actually people looking at their own reflection in windows and mirrors has been a theme this season. As has Eyes, Death, Robots and Lying.

    The volcano scene was extraordinary. Not only a Dante-esque vision of hell after last weeks Blakean vision of an arboreal heaven but also a canny reminder of series four's Fires of Pompei ("where have I seen this face before?").

    Clara's capacity for selfish entitlement issues was dialled up to 11 here but I felt the scene was more than mere blackmail. By removing the TARDIS keys, cutting the Doctor off from the one thing he truly loves, (The Doctor's Wife) she was trying to make the Doctor feel her own loss.

    I love that one of the keys was hidden within the pages of Audrey Niffeneger's book The Time Traveller's Wife.

    I hope everyone who's been snarking about Missy' s iPad enjoyed the "we've got Steve Jobs' pay-off.

    Michelle Gomez is extraordinary. I particularly enjoyed her delivery of

    It's only a matter of time now. Someone call Joanna Lumley.

    The Cybermen have now been firmly retro-fitted into Moffat's hand-wavium pseudo-science (what do they need skeletons for?) and can take their rightful place as the body horror nightmares they were always intended as.

    The finale's going to be mad isn't it?

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  60. Anton B
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:00 am

    *Michelle Gomez is extraordinary. I particularly enjoyed her delivery of

    "DOCTOR CHANG!!"

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  61. Thomas Lawrence
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:04 am

    Given that the new series has to work for people who never watched the Classic, how would any other Time Lord possibly have worked as a reveal?

    I mean, I guess you could have cooked one together about it being some meaningful Time Lord, the Doctor's daughter or mother or some such. But having it be the Rani or Romana would necessitate, at the very least, a bunch of explanation for the more recent viewer which would blunt the impact of the reveal.

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  62. Aylwin
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:04 am

    One guess is that she wants a companion (in an "it seems to work for the Doctor" kind of way), and has head-hunted Clara. Putting her together with the Doctor has been a way of preparing her, drawing out her talents and her susceptibility to the thrill of power and the feeling of superiority to the little people, using the Doctor as a gateway drug to get her ready for the offer of the hardcore stuff. Setting up the Doctor to inadvertantly corrupt someone into suitability for her purposes would be a gratifying mind-game from a Masterish point of view. And yes, it would be a contorted and implausible sort of scheme, but this is the Master we're talking about.

    Mind you, I'm not sure how "Clara Oswald never existed" would fit in with that, so I'm probably barking up the wrong tree.

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  63. Nyq Only
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:11 am

    The premise, while not even new for Doctor Who, of a virtual afterlife made me think of Phillip K Dick's Ubik.

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  64. mimhoff
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:11 am

    Only the Master has the old-fashioned villainy required to not reveal your plan for world domination until the Doctor stumbles across it.

    It just raises more questions about "choosing" Clara though. Did she predict this would happen?

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  65. Aylwin
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:14 am

    Small note: that was presumably a war memorial that Danny passed at the start of the episode. Another touch to the whole "season with a theme about soldiers in the centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War with the last episode broadcast on the eve of Remembrance Sunday" thing.

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  66. tom jones
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:24 am

    I've only seen it once so far, but I'm pretty sure it was the boy he shot

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  67. mimhoff
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:27 am

    I agree. I like these Cybermen who are true believers, that know that being a Cyberman is an improvement on humanity and who genuinely think they are doing you a favour…

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  68. tom jones
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:28 am

    "There’s not been enough talk about Murray Gold this season. He’s really been learning to hold himself back."

    Yeah, I've really been loving some of his work this season. As a lover of soundtrack albums, this is one I'll definitely be getting.

    Incidentally, am I really the only one who picked up on the name of the scientist who recorded the voices from the afterlife? Dr Skarosa!

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  69. Richard Pugree
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:30 am

    Yes she something along the lines of: "Time Lady, please. I'm old fashioned like that". I thought it was very cleverly done.

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  70. ferret
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:45 am

    A time-traveller, from the past!

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  71. Richard Pugree
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:46 am

    I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet, so, do we think we're going to get something about it being the Doctor's fault that Missy is back, as a result of what happens in Time of the Doctor?

    I'm thinking that it was the Timelords opening the crack to send 11 his new set of regenerations that allowed Simm or Gomez or whatever regeneration he was in to escape? Piggybacking on the Doctor's regeneration energy or something? Might they now be physically linked in some way as a result of that? Does Missy now have a potentially infinite set of regenerations like the Doctor? Or in fact, given that presumably it Simm defeated Rassilon in some way when they got sent back into the TimeLock, that it was actually Simm or a recently regenerated Gomez (or an interim Master), that responded to Clara through the crack and sent the Doctor the regenerations in the first place. Making Missy's suggestion that she 'chose' Capaldi's accent literal – that she actually was behind the regeneration coming out as it did.

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  72. Aylwin
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:47 am

    I was incredibly slow to pick up on the Cyberman-eye-logo thing. Mind you, I think that was because I had already latched onto the version in the picture on Seb's wall, which had it as two separate circles, and interpreted those as representing the world of the living and the much large Nethersphere, so making the link with the "the dead outnumber the living" idea.

    So yes, this is a comment that starts with me admitting obtuseness with disarming frankness, and ends with me asking for a biscuit.

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  73. Aylwin
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:56 am

    it did seem a bit… Run of the mill? A return to RTD?

    The latter part, yes. Mind you, the secret-base-in-a-major-London-landmark thing (though presumably secret only in its true character, not its presence, and hence near-future rather than present) is such a flagrant RTD shoutout that there has to be intent behind it. Hence I am hoping for some kind of hairpin-bend twist on it next week.

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  74. Herms
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:11 am

    Yeah, as much as I would have gotten a kick out of Missy turning out to be Evil Romana or some such thing, it'd be hard to pull that off without alienating the general audience. Admittedly, the Matrix played a central role in this episode's evil scheme, which is a bit obscure for anyone who isn't an old school Who fan, but it's also quickly explained as being Time Lord technology, and the concept of a virtual reality afterlife is easy enough to grasp. Doing a similar quickie Cliff Notes explanation of Romana for the lay audience would probably just make her sound like a River Song knock-off, and doing one for the Rani would just make her sound like a Master knock-off.

    Evil Susan might just about work, since she's been mentioned a few times in the revived series, and even without that, "the Doctor's long-lost granddaughter" is a straightforward idea. Of course, you'd have to ditch Missy's "my boyfriend" comment in Deep Breath and much of her behavior in this episode, unless you want to take the story into a pretty weird place. Also, Evil Susan overall just strikes me as a stupid idea, even though I find the idea of Evil Romana funny. For some reason.

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  75. Aylwin
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:19 am

    Pedantic and beside the point, but does traditional Ainu culture count as "Eastern"? I mean, in the sense that (as the quoted passage observes) it doesn't belong to the Indo-Chinese complex/es to which people tend to apply that term. In the same sense that it would highly dubious to class pre-Christian northern European cultures as "Western", in the sense of belonging to the Judaeo-Hellenic cultural complex emanating from the Middle East and Mediterranean to which (or rather, to one strand of which, these categories being ones that originate within that strand, and people tending to be over-discriminating in categorising what is close and under-discriminating in categorising what is far away) that term is usually applied.

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  76. Herms
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:19 am

    I had pretty much the exact same experience: I originally thought the logo was representing the Earth and moon (a callback to Kill the Moon?), or some other astronomical meaning, and only made the Cybermen connection when the Doctor goes "I must be missing something obvious" and they finally show two eye symbols side-by-side. So it's not just you.

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  77. John Peacock
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:26 am

    Thanks to the presence of a "Hyperscape Body-Swap Ticket" on Clara's post-it shelf , this BBC Proms tie-in movie is now canon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv2IG12XVJw

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  78. mimhoff
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:35 am

    Okay, after reading the other Cybermen articles here, here's my guess for next week:

    Following the talk of good Daleks, good soliders, good men, and good Doctors, the story is about a good alien invasion. The Cybermen are back to their origins: they're us without our flaws, and they want to help. And they've figured out that we don't like them converting living humans by force, so they are being good to us by only converting the dead, voluntarily!

    Missy is helping out primarily to mess with the Doctor and UNIT's heads.

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  79. Matt Bogen
    November 2, 2014 @ 2:13 am

    This is extremely unlikely, but why do we assume that Gomez-Mistress is a regenerated Simm-Master? The Mistress says "you left me for dead," but the last time we saw the character, it was the Master doing the leaving, pushing Rassilon and Gallifrey back into the time lock. Is there a point in the old series where the Doctor left the Master for dead, and that is this point in the character's timeline?

    I don't think this is likely, but given Moffat's love of the wobbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, it's fun to think about.

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  80. Anglocat
    November 2, 2014 @ 2:20 am

    There is-"Planet of Fire" would serve admirably for that purpose. That said, I suspect she's the regenerated Simm Master–and Gomez does a hell of a job with it so far. Hope the new series fad of killing the recurring villain in every appearance doesn't happen this time; I'd like to see her return after next week. She's givinbg a strong, mad performance that's different from all of her predecessors

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  81. ant
    November 2, 2014 @ 2:32 am

    Hmm, so in the Master's timeline, this story occurs after Survival? That's an interesting spin on it!

    Reply

  82. Richard Pugree
    November 2, 2014 @ 2:44 am

    From the way Moffat was talking about her performance on this week's Extra I got the impression that there's a good possibility of this being a longer term recurring role for her…

    Reply

  83. Leslie Lozada
    November 2, 2014 @ 3:46 am

    Well, I really wanted her to be Death, but at points I wanted her to me the Master.

    Actually, one of my friends from California, who's taking screen writing classes, saw this from the very beginning. She's brilliant in that way.

    Reply

  84. Pen Name Pending
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:05 am

    Steve Jobs is now a Cyberman

    Reply

  85. ScarvesandCelery
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:32 am

    Yeah, I was just as slow with the logo – I'm always rubbish at predicting an episode's events, I didn't twig what the Cybermen's exact plan was until the tombs started to drain 😛

    Reply

  86. ScarvesandCelery
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:36 am

    Excellent episode, here's hoping "Death in Heaven" follows through on the promise of the setup. Rankings seem pointless today, so instead I'll make my undoubtedly wrong predictions.

    1. The Master was the person who sent the Doctor his new regeneration cycle.
    2. The woman in the shop is not Missy, who was just an elaborate feint, but Clara (perhaps in disguise) ensuring that her travels with the Doctor do indeed happen. That's a moffaty approach to her story that I can see playing out

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  87. ScarvesandCelery
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:41 am

    Actually, I'm willing to bet the "Clara Oswald never existed" is her bluffing in order to avoid being killed by the Cyberman from the cliffhanger. Might be wrong, but that line did seem to be a major misdirect in the trailer

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  88. The Lord of Ábrocen Landmearca
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:49 am

    If Sarah Jane Adventures can bring back Jo Grant without a hell of a lot of narrative fuss, I think the series can bring back whomever the heck it wants so long as the scene is written well. Plus with School Reunion and Utopia – it's already proven it can do it.

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  89. Leslie Lozada
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:53 am

    Or explain it all away from regeneration memory loss

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  90. Thomas Lawrence
    November 2, 2014 @ 5:35 am

    The Lord: I think this ignores the role that paratext has to play in a reveal of this kind. Before Utopia it was already in the broader culture that: 1. The Master was a thing that existed – part of the "folk knowledge" that people with hazy or even no direct memories of the classic series would have had and 2. That the Master was heavily rumoured to be coming back this series anyway. Given that this episode, like Utopia, is structured around a shock reveal that needs to have blunt force impact, I think you need that paratextual support. School Reunion doesn't do a shock reveal and so can afford to introduce the concepts more slowly. Whereas there's no way to do "Missy is actually ROMANA/THE RANI!" and have people who never knew Romana/The Rani be able to parse it absent the paratextual support, which isn't there for either of them. (You could have built up to it over the season somehow, but we clearly didn't. Given the season as it was, the Master is the only reveal that makes sense AS a reveal.)

    I never saw the SJA episode with Jo Grant, so I can't speak to how that one worked out or was explained.

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  91. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 6:35 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  92. jack
    November 2, 2014 @ 7:08 am

    Oh good, I'm not the only one who thought that!!

    He totally has a crush on her, doesn't he?

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  93. jack
    November 2, 2014 @ 7:10 am

    Well thank you!

    Reply

  94. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 7:18 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  95. John
    November 2, 2014 @ 7:40 am

    You're coming at it the wrong way round. The question isn't "who is the most interesting person for Missy to be?" It's "what is the best way to bring back the Master?" And part of that obviously has to involve some character secretly being the Master, because that's how the Master always gets introduced to stories.

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  96. John
    November 2, 2014 @ 7:44 am

    Clara Oswald never existed is pretty obviously a gigantic red herring. Clara's apparently saying it to the Cybermen. Occam's Razor suggests the explanation is "she's lying, for some reason that will make sense in context."

    Reply

  97. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:10 am

    There's a long tradition of thinking of western culture as the combining of three strands: Judaic, Greco-Roman, and Celto-Germanic.

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  98. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:17 am

    I don't think it's just what he's thinking about (he's more likely to be thinking about Clara at that point); I think the boy came back, and his coming back will prevent Danny from hitting "delete."

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  99. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:22 am

    I'd like to see Susan brought back as an antagonist, but more as "Angry Susan" than strictly "Evil Susan." Her motivation could be rather like Khan's: you overrode my right to make my own decisions by dumping me here with a boyfriend who died soon thereafter and I've been trapped here ever since, waiting for you to keep your promise to come back.

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  100. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:28 am

    Clara seems a better choice for Master's companion than his previous ones (Chang Lee, Lucy Saxon) in terms of drive and competence; though for just those reasons a more dangerous choice too.

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  101. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:31 am

    Yeah, why not Mondasa?

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  102. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:32 am

    Might they now be physically linked in some way as a result of that?

    Maybe that's how we'll get the Valeyard?

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  103. BerserkRL
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:41 am

    Nah, the woman in the shop is a vengeful, resurrected Katarina. She's been pulling the strings behind all the big bads since 1966. The title of the Christmas Special is "The Discarded Trojan."

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  104. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:46 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  105. liminal fruitbat
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:48 am

    My guess: the robots seeking the Promised Land are Cyber-descendants who have a vague memory of the Nethersphere and are trying to join up with their people.

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  106. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:54 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  107. James V
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:04 am

    I do think this story is the best possible thing to follow up the Master's "death" with. You send the Master to the afterlife, of course she then takes over the afterlife!

    Reply

  108. TheSmilingStallionInn
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:15 am

    "If you love him, and you should, help him." And maybe the Master was the one saying "Doctor Who"…

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  109. Prandeamus
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:15 am

    Skarosa, why that's an anagram of … hang on, I'll get in a moment, no, I usualy get theses … I'll come back later…

    Reply

  110. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:24 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  111. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:25 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  112. TheSmilingStallionInn
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:25 am

    The 3W, the three words, are not "Don't cremate me." They are "I love you." The three hardest words for some people to say in their lifetimes.

    Clara managed to say it to Danny and told him that she would not say those words to anyone else before he died, and Danny said those words in an attempt to save her and stop her. They are important in this episode, and maybe in the finale as well.

    And maybe important because the Doctor is one of the few characters who cannot say, "I love you." He literally cannot say those three words to anyone. They stopped Ten from saying those words to Rose and Ten-Two could only whisper those words to Rose. Eleven certainly couldn't say those words to River Song, even when he married. He couldn't say it to the TARDIS, or Amy, or Clara, no incarnation of the Doctor has ever said those words to anyone, have they?

    The Mistress kissed the Doctor and claims that he is her boyfriend, but maybe she regards the 3W, the three words, as a joke, because she cannot love anyone. Probably a controversial idea here, but what do you think about it?

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  113. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 9:31 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  114. Jesse
    November 2, 2014 @ 10:10 am

    From a poster on Gallifrey Base, an irrefutable argument that Time Lords can't switch genders:

    "certainly any people who knew they could change sex at will would not choose a name like Susan for their child"

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  115. breadzone
    November 2, 2014 @ 10:41 am

    The one saying "Doctor Who" was Ken Bones's Time Lord general, who appeared on Gallifrey in the previous episode.

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  116. Jarl
    November 2, 2014 @ 11:05 am

    I always liked the theory that the Question was being broadcast as a response to the emergency beacon River was broadcasting in The Wedding of River Song:

    "The Doctor is dying. Please help."
    "Doctor Who?"

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  117. Jarl
    November 2, 2014 @ 11:06 am

    Johnny Cash would have words with this poster.

    Reply

  118. 5tephe
    November 2, 2014 @ 11:14 am

    Nice point! I'd missed that.

    Reply

  119. Aaron
    November 2, 2014 @ 11:22 am

    The Mistress has always been one of my favourite characters, and I think the most exciting moment in all of Doctor Who for me was in Utopia when I realised for sure that the Mistress was back. I'm excited to see more of the Gomez Mistress in action- too much of this episode, she's not doing a lot. I'm curious to see what she's like in comparison to other Mistresses- certainly, she proves that the Simms Mistress's off the wall goofiness has become a defining personality trait of the Mistress now, something that was absent most of the time in the classic who characterisation of the Mistress.

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  120. David Anderson
    November 2, 2014 @ 12:52 pm

    I think almost anyone watching the Sarah Jane Adventures can immediately grasp the idea of a past companion whose role was almost but not exactly like that of Sarah Jane. Nothing of the impact of Sarah Jane interacting with Jo Grant dependss on the details of The Green Death. Whereas it would be difficult to give much emotional impact to Romana turning evil, without describing where the Doctor and Romana's relationship was when they last met, which would mean talking about E-Space and Tharils. It's hard enough to explain Warriors Gate in four twenty-five minute episodes.

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  121. Elizabeth Sandifer
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:00 pm

    I think there's a difference between what concepts you can get away with bringing back and what concepts you can get away with using as a big reveal.

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  122. eternaly relyneat
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:05 pm

    Forgive me if I just missed it, but i'm surprised there no discussion of THE CITY OF THE SAVED in this ep.

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  123. Prandeamus
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:19 pm

    When I eight or nine, the Master really was the villain who scared the pants off me. The Daleks not being in the programme's toybox in 1971, obviously.

    It's quite interesting seeing this clip on the BBC website when Pertwee's doctor meets the Master for the first time… http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bc2ny (Terror of Autons part 4) Of course with adult sensibilities I can see the comedy, and the comments about him being vicious and overcomplicated.

    If this plays out in full-blown Pertwee mode, the Cybermen will betray Missy about 20 minutes into next week's episode.

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  124. David Anderson
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:20 pm

    I think that if the answer to 'who is the most interesting person for Missy to be?' isn't 'the Master' then the answer to 'what is the best way to bring back the Master?' is 'why?'
    That said, speaking as someone who has too many memories of tired Anthony Ainley stories, Moffat and Gomez have me eager to see where they're going to do with the character.

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  125. 5tephe
    November 2, 2014 @ 1:52 pm

    Best line to give Canonicity (?) to all the Doctor/Master shipping had to be:

    "Who looks after your heart?"

    "The Doctor."

    Although we couldn't see the capital letter.

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  126. Anton B
    November 2, 2014 @ 3:04 pm

    His name is Susan and you should respect his life choices

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  127. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 3:26 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  128. Adam Riggio
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

    I actually think Michelle Gomez and Moffat's evil scheme for The Master has breathed some new life into the character. As memorable as John Simm was in the role, Davies had him play out simply the most intense and epic version of the OTT evil scheme of old.

    This episode's plan plays on the most primal fear of everything alive, our deaths, and if Danny's storyline is any indication, The Master and her staff encourage them to download their minds to her storage unit by manipulating them to their most profoundly lowest point. She's taken one of the most profound ideas in humanity's religious engagement with the divine and twisted it into an evil scheme of world conquest.

    I've finally written up my own account of why this is so horrifying, and thanks again Phil for an excellent entry to get it moving.

    http://adamwriteseverything.blogspot.ca/2014/11/the-lure-of-afterlife-doctor-who-dark.html

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  129. Chris
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:28 pm

    I made a diePad joke and almost missed the Steve Jobs line.

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  130. jane
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:32 pm

    It was almost a Circle in the Square. But with an extra little blib in it. Not-quite integration.

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  131. Froborr
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:33 pm

    Of course there are three much, much worse words that Clara's afraid of. Those are the three words driving her: "It's your fault." After all, she was talking to him when he was hit by the car, distracting him… for a self-described control freak like her? She must be drowning in guilt.

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  132. jane
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:43 pm

    It's a subversion of the Chair Ascension motif. "Dark Water" is a "dark mirror" — a mirror that subverts, undermines, shows the dark side of a concept.

    Also, the Chairs must be "organic" in some fashion to be seen in that stuff.

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  133. jane
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:45 pm

    I'm not sure they're entirely qlippothic in this story. It's not like we've got people clinging to the material substrate of life, mistaking the light bulb for the light. They're husks, yes, but defined more by a desire to avoid pain than to avoid death itself.

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  134. jane
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:47 pm

    So is it fair to say that Missy is transsexual? Or simply that she's transsexed, which sidesteps the implication of gender dysphoria?

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  135. Chris
    November 2, 2014 @ 4:56 pm

    "Heaven doesn't want me, and Hell's afraid I'll take over."

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  136. Matthew Blanchette
    November 2, 2014 @ 5:23 pm

    Yeah; I misunderstood hearing it from someone else. Sorry. 🙁

    Reply

  137. Matthew Blanchette
    November 2, 2014 @ 6:00 pm

    All "Death in Heaven" needs to complete it are some poppies, then, don't you think?

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  138. Ben
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:06 pm

    Going on Gallifrey Base a few years back and seeing all the people who were dead set against a female Doctor further convinced me that it would be a great idea.

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  139. jonathan inge
    November 2, 2014 @ 8:42 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  140. ferret
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:04 am

    I thought perhaps Missy's Cyberman technology is based on learnings from the Half-faced Man and other cyborgs that made it to the Nethersphere – her Cybermen being unrelated to Mondosan/Petes World/Cyberiad ones except in visual design and underlying concept.

    The Master was always a peverter of exisiting technology rather than a scientist/creator such as the Rani – certainly Missy seems to have hijacked Dr Skarosa and Dr Chang's work to her own ends, along with what is apparently pre-existing Timelord Tech.

    On a side note I'm slightly disappointed we (seemingly) won't be seeing any more of the Half-faced Man, he was a fascinating character well acted – was looking forward to his return with perhaps an interestingly evolved worldview after so many decades with Missy in Paradise.

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  141. ferret
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:14 am

    In those teasing moments after Dr Chaaaaaaang!s death, I was thinking it was going to be an entirely new character, just not entirely new to the Doctor: his long forgotten wife. To my mind that would work better (than the Rani, Romana or Susan) as there's no continuity/stories to bring back exactly. There would still have to be a revealing conversation – presumably an accusational/denial one – but could be covered swiftly and interestingly.

    I'm not exactly amped to have the Master back, but if we must have the Master back then having Michelle Gomez in the role certainly makes it worthwhile!

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  142. elvwood
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:37 am

    Jonathan, I'm sorry you felt you had to remove so many of your posts. Some, perhaps, weren't showing you at your best; but there were others that I felt were definitely worth engaging with. Your one about Ainu myth, for instance, was one I hoped to come back to and think about later – I wish I could come up with that sort of analysis/analogy myself! Anyway, all the best – please do stick around!

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  143. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:38 am

    More from Jill please!

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  144. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:41 am

    My first thought was that Missy could be Romana (Mistress?), but then I hoped that she would be the Master. I actually didn't think she would be as it seemed then that she may have been someone else. So being surprised that my hopes were right was wonderful and I grinned with glee when the reveal came!

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  145. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:44 am

    Yeah great Romana fakeout – for a moment I did think that my wildest thoughts were right. Good tease. Nice call on the Shalka Master too.

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  146. Seeing_I
    November 3, 2014 @ 4:28 am

    My friends and I repeated that line all evening. 🙂

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  147. Seeing_I
    November 3, 2014 @ 4:29 am

    Parts of this made me think it was the Cybermen finally taking "Revelation of the Daleks" back from the pepperpots, since it's so obviously more in the Cybermen's wheelhouse.

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  148. arcbeatle
    November 3, 2014 @ 4:55 am

    Well, she has clearly transitioned. I'd say Timelords are probably (mostly) genderfluid. Though I know of some Trans people very happy to adopt her transition as a symbol and example of their own, so simply because of that I'm willing to accept her as being transexual regardless of the narrative details within the universe.

    All sci-fi analogies aren't 100%, and I think this one is close enough to be fair to call her trans.

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  149. arcbeatle
    November 3, 2014 @ 5:02 am

    I did not notice, but I admit I have only read your Star Wars Novels (which are sitting proudly on my shelf though, mind you, I loved them quite a bit! Still very miffed there won't be a third Force Unleashed Novel… grumbles). I'll add the Crooked Letter to my reading list!

    Of course, the afterlife as a giant expansive city also reminds me of Philip Purser-Houser's "The City of the Saved" and one can't help but wonder if it was intentional that way since it was a Doctor Who tie in.

    That bit with Danny was very clever, and it goes along with the theme we've had through the season of people teaching other people to trick by example. The Doctor teaches Clara, which comes to a head here in this episode, and finally Danny does it to Clara. For her own good…. But so was the intention for any of them.

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  150. Seeing_I
    November 3, 2014 @ 5:29 am

    I think Moffat has been a real clever-clogs and found a way to have his cake and eat it too on several levels.

    Bring back the Master with a twist – check.
    Answer calls for a gender-swapped Doctor with a gender-swapped Master one – check.
    Answer calls for The Rani to return by filling the slot with a different fabulously evil Time Lady – check.
    Fill the "flirty mature female character with a history of putting the Doctor on the wrong foot" slot, recently vacated by River – check.
    Provide fodder for all the Doctor/Master shippers – check.

    I just hope that the transgender community doesn't go nuts complaining that "of course the EVIL character is the one who's transitioned."

    I must admit I twigged to the "Master / Mistress" thing immediately when the character name was mentioned, and the slow reveal that she was allied with dodgy aliens in an Earth-invasion plot where UNIT was involved clinched it. But I will say I was holding out a bit of hope for Evil Romana, just so we could also have gotten Evil K9!

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  151. Nicholas Tosoni
    November 3, 2014 @ 7:17 am

    dies

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  152. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 8:12 am

    "Which is fair, though I see it more as further evidence of Time Lord genderfluidity, so ymmv."

    I must say that I feel very happy with the Master/Mistress change and the genderfluid nature of the Timelords/Ladies being underlined. I feel that this really has always been there (though not implicitly maybe) and as a man who has always experienced an inner fluidity as far as gender goes, really pleased to see this happen. It reminds me of the Culture in the Iain M Banks novels where gender can be explored and altered according to choice – that's what I enjoyed seeing, the choice of a new gender being made by the Master. What fun as new possibilities are opened up!

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  153. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 8:19 am

    Or maybe the Master has always been the Mistress and she has only recently realised.

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  154. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 8:24 am

    But the Moon is an egg.

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  155. brownstudy
    November 3, 2014 @ 9:18 am

    I saw Missy's old-fashioned dress as a sort of reflection of the Doctor's whimsically old-fashioned dress sense, esp. Hartnell and Troughton, and Smith, to a degree.

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  156. Pôl Jackson
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:10 am

    I was thinking the same thing when I was watching it. It's not the first time I've seen concepts from the New Adventures & Faction Paradox pop into Moffat's scripts.

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  157. encyclops
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:51 am

    "Malokeh, I rather love you," says Eleven in "Cold Blood." (Barf.)

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  158. encyclops
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:06 pm

    I assumed she chose the name "Susan," presumably because there weren't any Ford Prefects around yet.

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  159. encyclops
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:16 pm

    I'm late to the party as usual, having forced myself to watch twice and then write my own post first, but I think I agreed with just about everything Philip said above, especially regarding Murray Gold, the effectiveness of the episode even spoiled, and the power of the more dramatic scenes. My heart was in my throat for pretty much everything after "that's Time Lord technology" up through "I could hardly keep calling myself 'Master.'" Part of that was because for a moment I was thinking she really would turn out to be the Rani, not because I thought it would be a good idea, but just because it was a prospect I hadn't taken seriously and it suddenly seemed to fit so well.

    About my only major disagreement with Philip this time is that it's too early to rank this. It's possible that "Death in Heaven" will retroactively ruin this for me, but I have a hard time figuring out how, and Moffat's record with two-parters is very good. Earlier this week I figured out my rankings for the season (rationales here, if you're interested: http://encyclops.com/season-8-pre-finale-rankings/) and this effortlessly King Kongs its way to the top spot:

    1. Dark Water
    2. The Caretaker
    3. Flatline
    4. Listen
    5. Mummy on the Orient Express
    6. In the Forest of the Night
    7. Deep Breath
    8. Into the Dalek
    9. Robot of Sherwood
    10. Kill the Moon
    11. Time Heist

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  160. Aylwin
    November 3, 2014 @ 12:41 pm

    Si causam non praeficiendum requiris, circumspice.

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  161. Sean Case
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:23 pm

    She will realise the implications about ten seconds into the next episode, I'd guess.

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  162. BerserkRL
    November 3, 2014 @ 3:39 pm

    Oh my god. The horse is the Doctor's granddaughter. Everything makes sense now.

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  163. BerserkRL
    November 3, 2014 @ 4:05 pm

    The Master's very first appearance featured a somewhat organic chair.

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  164. Seeing_I
    November 3, 2014 @ 6:43 pm

    They are doing "The Invasion," yes, but it strikes me they are also remaking "Revelation of the Daleks" for the Cybermen, who were always a better fit for that story anyway, with Missy as the Great Healer and Kara drolled in one.

    Seems that my prior comments were eaten by Google, so – Moffat has performed something of a hat-trick here. He's managed to write a flirty madwoman to lead the Doctor a merry chase, thus filling the River / Tasha vacancy. He's brought the Master back with a twist, and at the same time pre-empted any need for the Rani. Meanwhile he gives a huge boost to the notion of a female Doctor, even after pooh-poohing it on Capaldi's introductory special. It's pretty, well, great.

    And while I am not at all enthusiastic about the change from Lord to Lady seemingly mandating a sudden flurry of kisses, which seems as out of character for the Mastress as it did for the TARDIdris, I can't help but notice he might have filled the Iris Wildthyme slot as well. Which is really a shame cause if anybody should be snogging Peter Capaldi, it's Katy Manning.

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  165. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 10:33 pm

    Yes Jane, there is something of the climax of the 8th Doctor DWM comic Flood in this, where the Cybermen trick humanity to want become like them so they can numb the intensity of emotion which they have been manipulated to feel.

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  166. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 10:43 pm

    Absolutely Adam and mimhoff. This is also (as I suggested above) a playing out perhaps of the ideas behind the Cybeymen in the DWM comic The Floood, where humanity's emotions are manipulated to make the want conversion. Look forwards to reading your post Adam.

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  167. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 10:55 pm

    I am simply so excited to be seeing Michelle Gomez in a major role. I discovered her first in the surreal hospital comedy The Green Wing where she plays a beautifully unhinged Administrator – really worth a watch if you can find it. I really hope that she is in for the long term and ends up not being a flash in the pan and being regenerated off.

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  168. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 10:59 pm

    "a species that is inherently genderfluid like Time Lords are would have no concept of something static like 'heterosexual' "

    I really agree jack. Whatever way the regenerations go for both the Doctor and the Mistress/Master this is really explicit now.

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  169. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:16 pm

    Very interesting ideas Richard!

    There has to be something linking them as I do think it's significant they are both Scottish.

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  170. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:25 pm

    mmm… I missed the significance of the logo too, and also interpreted it as the world of the dead outgrowing the size of the living world. I even started to imagine a Mandlebrot set style relationship between other worlds. But what a lovely use of the eyes for the logo. Beautiful design.

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  171. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:26 pm

    Oh I sooo want Gomez to be recurring too – will be criminal if she isn't. Sounds very hopeful though!

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  172. Daru
    November 3, 2014 @ 11:33 pm

    Really late commenting (had my birthday this weekend which I share with my parter and wee had a long weekend of celebrations) and don't have too much more to say that has not been said (though am ruminating so more may come) – but I absolutely loved this episode so much! I feel very hopeful for the finale as I somehow don't think that Moffat will be approaching his final episode of two in the same way as before. I believe he has had time to think his approaches through and we may well be delivered something quite new.

    Reply

  173. Anton B
    November 4, 2014 @ 2:39 am

    A couple of stray thoughts
    As the Cybermen were so heavilly trailed and spoilered and the main reason for Missy's presence is the revelation of her true identity can we expect another surprise monster reveal in the finale? Weeping Angels maybe?

    Who is Seb? I've a feeling something is being hidden in plain sight here but I can't quite put my finger on it.

    Will the Clara in the "Clara Oswald has never existed" scene reveal herself to be Saibre the shape shifter from Time Heist ?

    Reply

  174. Anton B
    November 4, 2014 @ 2:44 am

    @BerserkRL. That's been my (only slightly non-serious) head-canon for some time now 😉

    Reply

  175. Anton B
    November 4, 2014 @ 3:14 am

    @Daru. Totally agree on Michelle Gomez. She's a fantastic physical actor. Her character in the Green Wing is to The Mistress what Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker is to the Twelfth Doctor.

    Reply

  176. Daru
    November 4, 2014 @ 3:20 am

    Oh yeah Anton she so is isn't she! Interesting that she has appeared to be very choosy about her film and TV work, makes me wonder if she has also been doing a lot of theatre. Great physicality and superb control of facial expression.

    Reply

  177. Seeing_I
    November 4, 2014 @ 3:22 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  178. Seeing_I
    November 4, 2014 @ 3:24 am

    Whoa. This is weird. I logged in today and saw that my comments have disappeared. So I posted a new comment saying, weird, my comments have disappeared. I posted, then saw my comments WERE here, so I deleted my comment – and all the others disappeared, as well. What's up, Google???

    Reply

  179. Daru
    November 4, 2014 @ 3:34 am

    They're in the Nethersphere.

    Reply

  180. quislibet
    November 4, 2014 @ 4:48 am

    Heteronormative or not, it does have the advantage of sidestepping (at least in the present incarnation) the "gay villain" trope.

    Reply

  181. Seeing_I
    November 4, 2014 @ 5:43 am

    Google commenting is being extra-weird. I logged in today & all my comments were gone. I posted a thing saying "hey my posts are gone" and then once i did that, they re-appeared. So i deleted that post … and they disappeared again!

    And no, Google…I am not a robot!

    Reply

  182. Elizabeth Sandifer
    November 4, 2014 @ 5:46 am

    Are you falling victim to the "load more comments" issue, whereby Google's link telling you that it's not displaying all the comments because there's too many is too small and easy to miss?

    Reply

  183. UrsulaL
    November 4, 2014 @ 6:27 am

    Danny is dead, or at least believes he is dead.

    For Clara to join him, he's afraid she would have to be dead, too.

    He isn't afraid she'll put herself in danger investigating. He's afraid she'll kill herself to join him. Particularly when she says she'll do anything to join him.

    So he's afraid to say anything to confirm that it is really him. He believes Clara has her life ahead of her, and he doesn't want her to throw it away.

    In the immediate moment, he's afraid she'll kill herself. But if he's thought about it, he'll realize that if she's able to keep coming back and talking to him, she won't get over his loss, won't move on with her life.

    So he needs to end the call, even though it means he may not be able to talk to her again, either.

    Reply

  184. adampsb
    November 4, 2014 @ 6:45 am

    Actually given how much of a misogynist the Master was I think it is highly unlikely that he would change into a woman. Just a case of pandering to the why can't the Doctor be a woman crowd. What's next a female James Bond, Jason Bourne and John McLane. It's silly and the Master should have stayed as just that. THE MASTER

    Reply

  185. Daru
    November 4, 2014 @ 8:17 am

    Yes that's a good save isn't it? Good to see that not happening.

    Reply

  186. elvwood
    November 4, 2014 @ 9:21 am

    I did like the nod to Malcolm Tucker in this episode – the "another government inspection: what's with all the swearing?" bit. I can't believe I missed it first time around.

    I suppose the bit by the volcano could have been a nod to Caecilius, but that's not so clear.

    Reply

  187. Anton B
    November 4, 2014 @ 10:01 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  188. Anton B
    November 4, 2014 @ 10:10 am

    Just spoilered myself with the official BBC trailer for Death in Heaven. Actually there's nothing too spoilery in it, mostly UNIT fighting Cybermen. (Which makes me think even more that there's going to be a twist we haven't seen coming) There's also a scene that manages to homage both a classic Hartnell and a famous Twilight Zone episode which is so effective I'm surprised they waste it in the trailer. If you don't want to ruin a really good fright moment avoid this trailer.

    Reply

  189. Jarl
    November 4, 2014 @ 10:15 am

    If we're to take the implications over the years that James Bond is a cover identity seriously, a female James Bond would work fine enough. "Jamie Bond" doesn't quite work for that, but with how historical trends go, James will probably be a unisex name in a few decades anyways.

    Reply

  190. Jarl
    November 4, 2014 @ 10:18 am

    They actually landed in Mercy in the early 1900s before traveling to 1960s London, and Susan named herself after the horse.

    Reply

  191. Seeing_I
    November 4, 2014 @ 11:26 am

    Yes, I am a victim of that. Like Sally who spent all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin, I demand reparations!

    Reply

  192. Prandeamus
    November 4, 2014 @ 11:52 am

    Yes. We have always been at war with Eastasia.

    Reply

  193. encyclops
    November 4, 2014 @ 1:08 pm

    It's entirely plausible to me — though I don't necessarily want or choose to believe that this is what happened — that the Master's regeneration was, like the Doctor's, not controlled and deliberate, and that once he realized he was not only female but that he enjoyed it, any misogyny he might have felt toward himself vanished.

    Moreover, we know that personalities change from regeneration to regeneration. Above, unnoun suggests that not every incarnation of the Doctor is equally misogynist or racist, and there's no reason to think this might not be true of the Master as well. Certainly my recollection is that he sometimes seemed more respectful of Jo Grant than the Doctor himself, for example.

    Reply

  194. encyclops
    November 4, 2014 @ 1:10 pm

    Personally I'd rather see a gay/bi villain than no gay/bi characters at all, but I have no problem at all with this direction. Nothing that happens to the Master/Mistress has ever been permanent, so even those who do have a problem with it won't have to wait forever for it to change.

    Reply

  195. Sean Case
    November 4, 2014 @ 6:20 pm

    But she has to be expecting the betrayal, right? So what's her plan for it?

    Reply

  196. Daru
    November 5, 2014 @ 12:45 am

    Danny is Handles!

    Reply

  197. John Peacock
    November 5, 2014 @ 4:03 am

    "Helping you … to help me … to help you."

    Reply

  198. brownstudy
    November 7, 2014 @ 3:12 am

    Just rewatched the first third of the episode last night and marvelled at how the whole season has built to this. Pardon me if this has been pointed out before, but Clara's bargaining scene with the Doctor in the volcano is a dark mirror of the bargaining scene between Clara and the Half-Face Man in "Deep Breath."

    In DB, Half-face man starts out with his worst threat but doesn't back it up, and Clara calls him on it. In DW, Clara doesn't start negotiations with the Doctor in reasonable conversation. Instead, she starts with her worst threat and she knows she needs to back it up. And boy, does she. She even sacrifices her own safety to manipulate the Doctor.

    And their banter at the volcano uses that keyword "control." The Doctor maintains he's in control of the situation, while Clara basically tells him he doesn't know who he's dealing with. It's a great scene that really brought a lot of strands together.

    And of course, in both stories, the Doctor proves he has her back when she's in deep trouble.

    Reply

  199. Anton B
    November 7, 2014 @ 5:12 am

    In that case I demand a Danny Handles and Oswin Dalek spin-off series. They could investigate space crimes perhaps with a comedy Judoon sidekick.

    Reply

  200. Daru
    November 7, 2014 @ 5:17 am

    Your'e on! And you have to have some stories involving Rusty Dalek.

    Reply

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