That episode was when RTD was in charge?
Anything with David Tennant, except for the 50th Anniversary special, was when Russell T Davies was showrunner. When Matt Smith took over, so did Moffat.
I miss Tennant and RTD. Whether or not Capaldi is better than Smith, we’ll still have Moffat’s story lines with grand visions yet poor payoffs.
What I don’t know about Dr Who is a lot but I do see it sometimes and what I love are the child-orientated unspoken themes. I just watched this and thought aging, mortality, preparing for and meeting death, being true, defiance, love, loss, memory, and more … all addressed without unearned sentiment. Goodness, Moffatt did well with this one. And I’m not much of a fan.
Matt Smith was a playground boyfriend through to granddad.
I thought it was, at the very least, touching and sincere. At best, a whole education. It was a fine tribute to Matt Smith’s era, and having Karen and he touching faces instead of words was a beautiful goodnight.
If there has been a better kids show, I haven’t seen it
Not a Captain Planet fan?
Compared to most here, I barely know Dr Who …
Having looked again at the 4-minute denouement, holy smoke is that excellent acting, writing and tone. All that stuff about breath on a mirror, who we are being the sum of who we were … as he begins to fade away: “the thing is …” - great acting. The power of memory as he invokes the child Amelia and the adult Amy, what he won’t forget, what you shouldn’t forget about him … damn.
Again: no cheap, unearned sentiment. Seemed pretty near perfect to me. Possibly the best 4-minutes of Dr Who I’ve seen.
Or the Papal Mainframe is descended from the library computer that River’s consciousness was transferred into and that computer created Tasha Lem as its avatar. Not quite a reincarnation of River, but contains some River inside her.
Oh I like this theory!
Anybody have any idea about relative positions on the galactic timeline - the library episode and the final episode Papal Mainframe?
As far as I can tell, everything in the Whoverse happens at the same time.
As do I. Makes sense as we know River didn’t have any regenerations left, and she was Evil before she regenerated into River.
I know it’s practically impossible, but I wish they were able to keep the regeneration a secret before it aired.