Lets Kill Hitler

It was set in Nazi Berlin- with the Fuhrer's office recreated in a set that was one of the biggest ever built for the show, but it could have been set almost anywhere. Hitler put in a brief appearance, only to be shoved into a cupboard (quite literally) and forgotten. This wasn't a show about Hitler or fascism or the Third Reich but about the incresingly knotty relationships and criss-crossing time-lines of the Doctor and his hangers-on- and it used the nazis as window dressing. In earlier incarnations the show was about the times and places its characters visited (it began as a wizard way of teaching the kiddies a little history) but now it's mainly about the logistics or illogistics of time travel and how weird it is that your daughter is older than you but used to be your childhood friend.  Stephen Moffat has been defending himself against the charge that the stories are too complicated and- fair enough- there's nothing wrong with making an audience think- but what if the stories have become so complicated there's no space left for any proper drama or character development?  

The doctor died again and then came back to life. Oh, please- stop teasing us! The Doctor is Immortal and if he were really to die the show would end with him- and that's not going to happen anytime soon, is it?  Besides if this Doctor were to die we might get a replacement with a little more presence and gravitas- and would that really be such a bad thing? 

Turning Cold

It's turning cold- and I'm sitting in the back room thinking how I could do with a body warmer-only if I go upstairs to get one I'll wake Ailz so I'd better not. We were down in Sale this afternoon helping our niece move stuff from her flat to the house she's renting off another of her uncles. Incidentally, today has been our 20th wedding anniversary.