This is skating very close to what I was worried would happen last week. The whole idea that Davros only survived and created the Daleks because the Doctor saved him from the hand mines completely flies in the face of the firmly established concept last year that the 12th Doctor never existed at any point in the timestream at all until the events of Trenzalore were altered.

I can live with it on the basis that, before the 12th Doctor existed, Davros must have escaped some other way. Or, possibly, something else the 12 Doctor did or will do is the reason he ended up in the hand mine field in the first place. What would not work with established continuity is the idea that this interaction with the 12th Doctor and young Davros was in any way responsible for any of the events we have already seen involving Davros in previous episodes.

But surely the 12th Doctor turning up to help save Gallifrey already did that back in 2013?

Yeah I wasn't too keen on that idea. I do hope they aren't retiring the screwdriver permanently.




I agree. I was longing for some kind of reference to Oswin. Even if it was just a "This feels famliliar" comment or something.


I do think it's a shame they never pursued that plot point. She clearly had the memories from her fragments at one point and I think it's a cool idea. I like to think she still does, even if they don't mention it that often.



To be fair, last week was the one that wasn't consistent. This week is back to normal!





The way I see it, Clara being a genius has nothing to do with the computer knowledge downloaded in Bell's of St. John. That was just knowledge, not intelligence. Clara is a genius because she's a genius.

I do think that she retained the knowledge and I do think that that knowledge went with her when she splintered and is what allowed her to hack the Dalek network.

While each splinter lived a full life, at some point the actual consciousness and memories of Clara have to reassert themselves, otherwise, how would she know to keep close to the Doctor and be there to save him?



I did wonder what the deal is with all these different Dalek types together at once? Did the time-travelling Daleks go back in time and gather up reinforcements? Are we in the past and the modern ones time-travelled back? Even if that's the case, why couldn't they just build modern casings for all the Daleks? Why hang onto the antiquated ones?

The timeline was already altered by then. I have a theory in which there were several cycles (I mentioned it before in various threads last year). First time round, Gallifrey was saved but the 12th wasn't involved and the Doctor still died on Trenzalore. Second time round, which was the version we saw, the 12th Doctor had already manifested in the timeline because events were now in motion in which Clara would be able to successfully persuade the Timelords to save him.

Clara went from working out how to find the Doctor in The Magician's Apprentice to being totally outflanked by Missy in The Witch's Familiar. But let's be kind and suggest that being transported by the vortex manipulator twice (primitive technology according to Missy) temporarily scrambled her brain. Or it could be because she was hung upside down by Missy so all the blood would have rushed to her head.

Of course, Clara was also totally outmanoeuvred by the Doctor when she tried to drug him in Dark Water so maybe she's just susceptible to time lords..

First paragraph: Really? Wouldn't that mean the Doctor can read everybody's mind. So he'd always know what the baddies were planning and be able to anticipate their every move (so, for a start, he would have known exactly what Davros was up to from the moment he landed on Skaro. Or even from the moment he first encountered Colony Sariff.)
And he would have known exactly who River Song was from the first time he met her in Silence In The Library. And he would also have known, for instance, how randy Amy was feeling when he took her home at the end of Flesh And Stone (where they encountered River Song and the Weeping Angels.)

I always assumed it just worked by reading surface thoughts not any deeper. Having looked it up, the references don't specifically say it is telepathic in nature, just that it's a "gift of the TARDIS" but given that it has worked for races that don't even have a spoken language I fiigure it has to be related to telepathy in some way, in order to read the intent.

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Translation_circuit

In any case I just think it's stupid for the Daleks to have their sound systems deliberately omit or mistranslate words. It was a bit of fun but it made no realistic sense, to me.

OSWIN: Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?

I'd forgotten that line. And Missy says false anti-grav smells 'a little bit sexy'.

So now I just have a vision of Moff, half-drunk on whiskey, saying 'a bit sexy' out loud, as he types it onto the screen and fires up a Marlboro Light.

Which isn't pleasant.

So... is there a series 9 arc?

Possibly the confession dial.

[quote=Abomination;79810646]Whilst I agree in principle as the Daleks themselves had very little to do, I felt the scene with Clara getting into the Dalek delivered that sense of threat and danger, and even horrific tragedy about them brilliantly.

Think about being a prisoner of Davros in one of those Dalek camps we've heard talked about. Hideously converted, mutilated and tortured before being locked away inside a tank forever until you rot, unable to die even then. By which point you will have been brainwashed and hardwired into accepting you're a Dalek, your own emotions turning on you, driving you mad until you're nothing but a death machine.[/QUOTE]


That is a brilliant explanation of becoming a Dalek! Nice one!

Just re-watching Genesis of the Daleks and I noticed that the first thing that Doctor asked for when he was captured in the Dalek city was a cup of tea, which the security guards didn't give him of course. Then I was reminded of Twelve zooming around in Davros's chair, drinking a cup of tea. I wondered if it was a nod back to this, or that maybe too random and it could just be a coincidence I guess

That wasn't random. That was a nod to Genesis for sure!

"Personally, I rather like it." - The Awakening.

The Eleventh said he "was promised tea" in 'Victory...', hence his jammy dodger. Still, after his strop earlier in the episode when he smashed the tray away, he'd blown his chances, I guess! The scene in this episode just felt very 'Doctor-y', but who knows. I imagine Moffat has watched 'Genesis...' a few times over the years. Of course, it's very good for healing the synapses as well as tasting nice, apparently...