A plateful of cookies

there wasn’t much to liveblog about, so more thoughtsy?

Slightly liveblogish, bit thoughty. Plus bonus mid-season trailer thoughts

( Midseries trailer thoughts! )

I think the little things about the previous week’s responses are just bland, rather than their blandness being indicative of anything

You loved seeing and learning more of Yaz’s story.
A historical Doctor Who setting can be great for learning something new.
An emotionally engaging storyline makes for an exciting episode!

Two things we've learnt from your responses last week were:

• You loved that the 'scare' factor played a major part in this episode.
• Doctor Who fans do love a good, "traditionally" scary monster on occasion!

I see the if you can’t say something nice, say something general rule is in effect. (I’m... not surprised.)

Something went wrong with sending out the surveys? I got 1 & 2 all at the same time.
Actually, no. Checking the forum and apparently they were spaced out in order to give time for airings that occur later in the week. Which obviously changed as 1 and 2 went out within hours of each other.

The fan panel shared results of that survey about monsters and companions

as well as stuff I haven't documented yet, like the ones about books

(and like, if you too want to give feedback and make baseless speculation based on what they ask, go here or message me an email you use.)

So in the tradition of documenting my end of series response to the BBC worldwide consumer/fan panel, here’s the one for s10.
Where I try not to cry too much about Missy’s everyone’s death or departure, even when the standard questions they ask start to hit too close to my bundled up feelings. (And if you also want to cry into surveys on a regular basis, you can sign up on their main page, or send me a message with your email if you want an extra chance at a voucher thing)

And I should’ve put this into the final question response, since it does relate to Doctor Who and the surveys, but I really do enjoy participating in the panel because I can see how my responses have shaped the series. I think I was putting a lot of ‘meh’ responses for series 7 and 8, but for the last one and this one, it’s been creeping up. There hasn’t been an absolute clunker of an episode (except for specials) since The Caretaker, which I literally was falling asleep during (and said so), and it makes me really happy and proud that the panel’s comments and criticisms have been listened to.

I’m kind of proud that Moffat grew a writer and obviously began to take criticism on board. I now longer have a use for my Statler & Waldorf gif grilling him about not liking it!
Some of that might be PCap basically being the second showrunner/director at times (in which case he fucking deserves the break, though like... can he stay on as script consultant? assistant director? assistant producer?) but I do think Moffat went ‘maybe I should pay attention to what half the internet and my kids are roasting me for’ and read up on some social justice theory. It might have taken him a godawful amount of time to learn, but he started doing so and also learned to collaborate more and to allow other people demonstrate their skill and expertise.

It’s a shame it took so long and it’s a shame his previous attitude colours Doctor Who and Sherlock so much, and this still shaky change isn’t going to make me any more likely to watch the Dracula adaptation (I prefer my vampires to be women, please and thank you), but it is satisfying to see that it happened and that in some small way I might’ve contributed.

So what follows is literally a cut and paste from all the text fields in the survey they allow you fill out, plus some notes on how I filled the ‘describe in 2-5 words’ questions

The particular references I tried to make are:

Seeds are a symbol of new life. Apple seeds in particular are interesting, as each seed in an apple would produce a radically different tasting apple if planted and allowed to fruit without grafting.

Asgardian apple seeds aren't poisonous at all, in contrast to Earth apple seeds. While there isn't enough cyanide in an apple's worth of seeds to poison a person, prolonged exposure isn't exactly healthy. It's more out of habit that Jane goes to dispose of the seed in the first slice, and apple seeds aren't terribly nice to accidentally bite down on either.

Contrast and interaction with Christian and Ancient Greek mythologies. Eve and the fruit of knowledge, Persephone and the pomegranate.
Both Even and Persephone, in most traditional renderings of their tales, were deceived into eating their fruit or at least that eating it would bring no harm.
Jane however is fully aware of what eating Iðunn's apples will do to her and what she does next is entirely up to her. L
There's also more fruit of knowledge parallels in that, yes, Jane will able to study the universe for a couple thousand more years, as well as possibly learning how to use magic.