h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hmmm.. not really sure about that one. Though continue to love the chemistry between the Doc and Clara.

FB

Hoovooloo got a mention though

Couple of Blade Runner references: "I've seen things...." speech from the Doctor, and "Home again, home again, jiggety jig".

Did I spot the pandorica in the back of one of the market stalls?

Hoovooloo got a mention???

Buffy got a mention too: that was amusing.

It was alright. Not amazing, not in any way bad. I really liked the memory stuff, though Moffat is playing that card a bit too often. I liked the leaf a lot, I think that was a nice idea. I liked Clara too, she's stepped into the role with ease.

Heavy emphasis on stories. Wonder if that's significant for the series.

I still think Rose's 'End of the World' is the best of the companions first trip episodes. Nearly 10 years on and that episode still gets me.

This episode didn't really grab me so I don't think I really engaged with it. I think I'll watch it again to see if there was more in there than I thought.

I like Clara although for some reason she keep on reminding me in appearance of Catherine (Duchess of Cambridge) which was a little distracting, hopefully I'll get over that

Hoovooloo was mentioned at the begining when he was introducing the aliens

I loved the leaf

she *kept* on reminding me

Having now slept on it I think the big problem was that it was just too rushed. There were lots of individual elements that were ok but they didn't fit into a 45 minute episode. What we needed was:-

More of the (excellent) little girl to build her character and sympathy a bit more.

A bit more time in and around the market to set up the fact that something was *badly* wrong under the surface. Give the Doc has been here once before but that this soul eating festival only happens every 1000 years a "Hang on something is wrong" would have worked.

We needed how much the leaf meant to Clara to have been amped up a bit. We know it was important to her old man but they fluffed the lines of what could have been an amazingly noble sacrifice on her part by just rushing too it.

FB

A soppy one, I think, but none the worse for that.

I'm going to stick my neck out a bit and say I'm starting to wonder whether the 'mystery' behind Clara will turn out to be that she's related in some way to either Jenny (The Doctor's Daughter) or Susan Foreman.... or both.

Maybe it's because I've already begun thinking that way - but I've already heard a couple of references to granddaughters in the two episodes...

That would tie in with the 50th Anniversary theme...

<BB<

And here's another question... Why can't Clara understand alien languages?

In previous series it's been mentioned that the Tardis manages to translate alien languages for anyone who has travelled in it...

How come that function suddenly appears to have stopped working for Clara?

I'm not entirely sure it has. There are times when this has been conveniently side-stepped for the purposes of the plot/comedy. Take the Judoon, for example, with all the "So Bo Ko Ho Do Fo" nonsense.

And it Tennent's first episode it was suggested the it was somehow linked to the Doctor, as Rose couldn't understand the aliens until the Doctor woke from his post-regeneration coma-thing.

And doesn't it fail on primitive languages, because they haven't developed proper syntax or something?

Basically, I think there's a lot of reasons why it doesn't always work. Though there may be another reason in this episode - as Clara says when the Tardis won't let her in "I don't think it likes me."


Geggs

Perhaps, when Clara declared that the Tardis was smaller on the outside, it implied that she had only seen it from inside before... Could she be a child of the Tardis? I don't think it was revealed in the Doctor's Wife episode where the personality of the Tardis came from.

I noticed the "I don't think it likes me" as well...

The only other person I can think of that the Tardis 'rejected' was Capt. Jack after he'd become 'immortal' ... I wonder if that's relevant?

Possibly, though for the opposite reason. The Tardis rejected Jack because he was a "fixed point in time", I think - he never changes. Clara, it seems, exists at multiple points in time. There isn't just one of her, there are (at least) three.


Geggs

I certainly noticed the 'grand-daughter' reference. Might be significant, might not.

I just watched the latest episode again because something didn't seem to gel when I first watched it.

Seeing the Doctor reading The Beano at the beginning seemed a bit too obvious and aimed at younger viewers, so the rest of the show seemed out of kilter I felt. Also some of the acting in places was weak. The Doctor's reaction to the god thingy at the end seemed a bit contrived perhaps.

Another contrived moment was near the start when Clara and the Doctor seemed to have clearly choreographed movements around the consul in the Tardis when deciding where to go.

Clara looks as if she is going to be a great companion, although in places her acting seemed more suited to the stage than TV. Maybe this will pass though. She has a bit of a funny run too

I couldn't help wondering about the vampire type creature in the glass cage whose job it was to wake up the grandfather. The legend had apparently been going on for thousands of years, so had the creature been in the cage all that time? There is the question of how they get it in the cage in the first place...it didn't seem too happy to be there. Also someone would have needed to change its clothes now and then, not to mention clear up its poop and pee. Quite a hazardous occupation. I may be over thinking things a little bit though

It seems that, as in a recent discussion about Star Trek, you know you're over-thinking it when the subject of latrine arrangements comes up.

Its just as well then I didn't mention someone would also need to clean the glass on the cage too. They probably couldn't whistle whilst they did it either - it would mess the lullaby up

This is a little old news now, but the director of the first Doctor Who series believes the programme has now become more sexualised. Peter Purvis also thinks the story lines are too complex. Personally, I like the complexity of the story lines rather than the simpler, linear stories of the past, which were not all that gripping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22062350

Don't pick at the singing part too much - nobody could sing constantly without needing to eat, drink, sleep etc. so I think the other plot holes have to be carefully filed in the same box marked "Do Not Overthink".

I thought the Beano was the Doctor attempting to be inconspicuous but failing due to his lack of knowledge about appropriate reading material.