Gruesome?

Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat has defended the “gruesome” death of popular character Clara Oswald amid claims her shocking demise was inappropriate for the show’s young audience.

The episode featuring actress Jenna Coleman’s final scenes on the hit BBC show have caused a stir, with the actress herself admitting to being “shocked” by the script.

The broadcasting corporation has meanwhile defended its decision to air the programme ahead of the 9pm watershed. 

The Time Lord could only look on helplessly as it flew into his companion’s chest before she silently screamed, with black smoke coming from her mouth, and then collapsed lifeless to the ground.

True, it is the “real” death in a programme that has cheapened death a lot for years, but it’s not worse than other things little kids see these days.

It was brave sacrifice, not a meaningless death. And it didn’t have blood and bullets everywhere…

Clara thought she was The Doctor, and she died for her companion. The Doctor does that all the time, but he’s a Time Lord and he can regenerate.

Did they go too far?

Lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat said: ‘You have to be responsible about it – that doesn’t mean it isn’t shocking or troubling. (UK Mirror)

A) Video Games are much deadlier these days than this.

B) The time slot is late enough at night that the watershed may have been breached by the time this part of the episode was aired.

C) but most important, and why many fans aren’t buying it, is that Clara has died 5 times previous to this.

Death has become a joke. Not to be taken seriously.

So a real, “I mean it” death is not believed and that is the main reaction I see.

But we all know the actress did quit, so she isn’t coming back.

And if Jenna Coleman shows up in the 2-Part Season Finale that will spoil this episode.

Steven Moffat, the series’ head writer, defended the dark themes, claiming children loved to be scared as long as it was kept within certain boundaries. 

He said: ‘You have to be responsible about it – that doesn’t mean it isn’t shocking or troubling. But it is not like children learn about the realities of people dying from Doctor Who.’

However, fans were unsettled by the episode, which was watched by 4.5million people, calling it ‘traumatic’.

One wrote on Twitter: ‘Still left staring blank at my TV after Doctor Who; too emotionally damaged.’

Another added: ‘Doctor Who just tore my heart into millions of tiny pieces then stomped on them. Somehow not feeling much love for Steven Moffat!’ 

Adric didn’t have the same reaction back in 1981. 🙂

The BBC defended the show at the time, saying Doctor Who was ‘a family drama with a long tradition of tackling some of the more fundamental questions about life and death’.

Miss Coleman, who has played Clara since 2012, said that she could not stop crying when she filmed her final scenes. 

She told the Sunday People: ‘It was a surprise when I read the script. It’s really cool and different, and good, I think. And sad. It was ridiculous to get emotional. I’d planned all these things I wanted to say but only got two words out.’

The BBC declined to comment yesterday.

I thought it was very well done. Very well played.

But I’m not a squeamish millennial  who plays Assasins Creed, either.

The Good News and The Bad News

This was heartbreaking when I read it.

Missing episode hunter Philip Morris, the man responsible for recovering nine missing episodes of Doctor Who, has told fans at a convention that he also located the missing Episode Three of The Web Of Fear, only for it to be stolen before it could be returned to the United Kingdom.

Greed and corruption hit Doctor Who fandom. Some private collector out there has one very important episode, and who knows how many more. They are more important than worldwide fandom.

Sad.

Previously missing episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of Enemy of the World were recovered in 2013, alongside episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6 of Web of Fear, two stories from the fifth Season of Doctor Who, originally screened in 1967/8. The films had been found gathering dust in a store room at a television relay station in Nigeria.

These finds completed the two stories, with the exception of Episode Three of The Web of Fear, an important episode in the history of the series as it introduces the character of the Brigadier. At the time it was claimed that this episode was not located with the other finds. The third episode was reconstructed by the BBC Doctor Who Restoration Team, for the DVD release of the story.

However, speaking at the Pandorica 2015 convention, being held in Bristol this weekend, Philip Morris announced that when he initially located the episodes, episode 3 was indeed part of the collection.

The negotiations for the return of the episodes took over six months, and when the episodes were finally returned to the UK, episode three had vanished. Morris said he believed that after word of the find leaked out an offer was made to a member of staff at the Nigerian station, and that the episode had been sold to a private collector.

Currently 97 episodes of Doctor Who remain missing from the BBC archive.

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But some good news, for those that didn’t see it in the theatre or just wanted a copy of it.

BBC Worldwide America have released a Blu-ray + DVD Combo release of the 3D version of last year’s season finale of Doctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven

The release comes hard the heels of the recent cinema event, Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven 3D, which saw the two-part season eight climax shown in movie theaters across the United States.

Special features on the Blu-ray 3D + DVD combo pack include The Doctor’s Meditation – the special prequel scene to the first episode of season nine – and a 45-minute extended interview with Doctor Who stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, hosted by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame.

I got mine at Target for $17.00

Curious Fandom

A few days ago it was announced that in advance of the Series 9 premiere the Series 8 2-Part Finale would be released in Theaters nationwide with a prequel for Series 9 included.

I jumped right on it. Maybe a little too fast and didn’t get the best theater for it. But oh, well, at least the set won’t shake.

But then, this morning, I was thinking about why I, and hundreds (maybe  thousands), would show up to a theater and pay $14 to watch a 3D showing of an 2-Part episode we already have on blu-ray to begin with!

It’s not like we just watched it on TV and a few days later went to the theater and paid to watched it again…. 🙂

Is it the Prequel to the episode that will be on that weekend?

Is it the fan experience of showing up to a theater full of like minded Doctor Who Geeks?

The answer would be, YES.

Doctor Who fans love to get together and geek out with each other. Otherwise, Gallifrey One wouldn’t be going into it’s 27th year in 2016 and sold out in under an hour.

We are Doctor Who fans, we are different.

After all, do fans of Arrow or Agents of SHIELD show up at movie theaters for a prequel?

No.

But we do.

And we’re suckers $$$ for it. Hook, Line and sinker.

The BBC and BBC America are so lucky to have us. 🙂

So rejoice fans of the best TV show in the world, it’s only 7 weeks to go.

I will be there with my 7th Doctor on.

Join us won’t you. Bwah hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…. 🙂

Cinema WHO 2015

BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events announce the return of Doctor Who to the big screen for a two-night special theatrical event, Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven in spectacular 3D, starring Peter Capaldi. In this epic two-part finale, the Doctor comes face-to-face with the mysterious Missy, and an impossible choice looms. With Cybermen on the streets of London, old friends unite against old enemies, and the Doctor takes to the air in a startling new role.

Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven, the show’s two-part eighth season finale, will be presented in RealD™ 3D and Dolby Atmos sound (where available) on September 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. (local time). The event will feature The Doctor’s Meditation — a special prequel scene to the first episode of Season 9 — and an exclusive interview with Doctor Who stars Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman, hosted by Wil Wheaton (Big Bang Theory, Star Trek: Nemesis), in addition to the two-part Season 8 finale.

Tickets for Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven in 3D can be purchased online starting Friday, July 31 by visiting www.FathomEvents.com, or participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy the event in approximately 700 movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations visit the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

See you there!

Home

I am now home. Tomorrow it’s back to the grind of reality.

What a time I had though.

I went to The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff last Wednesday and saw the new Capaldi version of the “Experience” and the re-modeled Archive Display.

Still one of the best things to do ever, as a Doctor Who Fan.

Then the Symphony at Wembley Arena was in all words, Spectacular.

It was a very emotional night and a beautiful thing to see and hear.

Peter Davison had some more fun with himself and he good-naturedly pick on Colin Baker (his successor as the Sixth Doctor).

I was kind of underwhelmed by the monsters running in the audience but have a feeling that has more to do with the limitation of the venue but at one point being 12 feet from Dalek that looks right at you, that was a thrill. A Cybermen can even closer, as did a Dream Crab headed individual.

Both the Experience and the Symphony were Capaldi-centric but they hit a lot of heights.

If you get the chance, go for it. You won’t be sorry.

More to come as I get more sleep and process my hoard. 🙂

Bad Fan?

Do Sherlock and Doctor Who Really Have a “Bad Fan” Problem?

by Joanna Robinson

November 10, 2014 9:34 am

There was a big mystery looming over last night’s season finale of Doctor Who. And, for once, the question wasn’t wrapped up in typical Whovian wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey . . . stuff. No, the question here is much more straightforward. Is Steven Moffat, the man in charge of the two biggest TV series on the BBC, actually bothered by the intensity of the Sherlock and Doctor Who fans? Or is he just having a bit of fun?

Moffat first started messing with his hyper-devoted fan base back in January of this year, when he brought Benedict Cumberbatch’s popular Sherlock Holmes character back from the dead. That episode, titled “The Empty Hearse,” gave the fans what they wanted and then some. Not only more Cumberbatch, but Cumberbatch starring in a steamy, hair tousling, coat ruffling fantasy sequence.

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But that sequence came courtesy of the fevered imagination of Sherlock’s Anderson (Jonathan Aris), a former Holmes colleague who was driven a little bonkers by the detective’s death. In a frenzy of guilt, Anderson formed a Sherlock fan club, a group of like-minded conspiracy theorists who were not only convinced Sherlock was alive, but were hell-bent on figuring out how he survived his great Reichenbach fall. This group, decked out as they were in deerstalker caps, were obvious stand-ins for the Sherlock-obsessed Tumblr crowd whose love for Cumberbatch and all things Holmes helped turn Sherlock into the television phenomenon it is.

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Things didn’t end well for poor Anderson, who never did get a satisfactory explanation for exactly how Holmes survived. (Nor did we, the audience.) And his frustration over the futility of his meticulous research was a message from Moffat (and co-creator and writer Mark Gatiss) to the obsessive fans. Relax, he seemed to say, nobody wants to be an Anderson.

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But poking gentle fun at obsessive fanboys is nothing compared to what went down on last night’s episode of Doctor Who. During the all-star Doctor Who anniversary extravaganza last year, we were introduced to a character named Osgood (a charming Ingrid Oliver). Decked out in classic Whovian regalia (Tom Baker’s iconic scarf), Osgood immediately became a fan favorite and meta audience proxy.

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Here was a clever, brave, likable character as obsessed with the Doctor as any devoted Comic-Con attendee. So when Osgood popped up again on last night’s finale, “Death in Heaven,” the response was extremely positive. This time the scientist was sporting Matt Smith’s bow tie, David Tennant’s shoes, and casually dropping Eleven’s famous catchphrase.

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And when the Peter Capaldi’s Doctor muttered part of his standard companion invitation to Osgood (“All of time and space—something for your bucket list”), the audience was meant to think that the young bespectacled scientist was about to experience the ultimate in Whovian fan-wish fulfillment. Would Osgood join the Doctor in the TARDIS as his new companion? Yes, please!

Alas, if you think Anderson driven mad by his love for Sherlock was bad, then you might want to look away for this bit.

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The Doctor’s nemesis, the Master (or Mistress or Missy, if you must), pulverized that cute little audience proxy for one reason only: Osgood admired the Doctor and he admired her in return. And though I have to admit the sequence was beautifully plotted and scripted, with a wonderfully menacing and gonzo performance from Michelle Gomez, the message couldn’t be clearer. Love the Doctor too much, or in the wrong way, and you’ll be quashed.

Moffat claims to have had good reason for bumping off Osgood:

The Master-stroke-Missy would have to kill somebody we liked in the most cruel, heartless, and terrible way to absolutely say that this person is shockingly evil. Osgood was the one we flung in the fire to make the Master burn brighter.

And all that makes logical, and dramatic, sense. It is, undeniably, good storytelling. But it’s also true that Moffat has had to put up with a lot of criticism from a very invested, very vocal fan base, and that scrutiny won’t be ending any time soon. Barring, say, James Bond or Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes and the Doctor are probably the two most famous fictional characters in all of the U.K. And Steven Moffat doesn’t have the advantage of having invented them. He’s adopted them. You (probably) wouldn’t tell J.K. Rowling she’s doing Harry Potter wrong, but you will often hear fans say “that’s not my Doctor” or “that’s not my Sherlock” in regards to Moffat’s tenure and these particular iterations.

Not that he’s under any obligation to service the fans, but Moffat has, at times, made changes that seem like responses to audience complaints. Displeased with the flirty, silly Doctor played by Matt Smith? Here’s a grumpy, asexual version played by that delightful crank Peter Capaldi. Frustrated that the twelfth iteration of the Doctor wasn’t a woman? Well, O.K., how about we make the Master a woman instead?

But it seems that there’s a certain kind of fan, the kind that fetishizes catchphrases and iconography like the TARDIS, the deerstalker, the scarves and bow ties, that Moffat considers a bad fan. Don’t believe me? Look what happened to poor Seb last night when, swept up in his admiration for the Doctor’s derring-do, he committed the cardinal sin of speaking Internet-ese.

There was a lot to love in this finale of Doctor Who. (I’m going to ignore the baffling “Other Side” coda and the worn-out “love conquers all” solution.) As I said, Gomez’s Missy was absolutely delightful. I think we all have our fingers crossed for her return. The tease of Nick Frost’s Santa was perfection. Clara turning her knack for lying into an asset rather than a character flaw was tremendous, and the payoff for Danny Pink, military man to the last, was particularly satisfying. And don’t forget that Moffat gave us this, a truly lovely bit of Doctor wisdom.

But when you look at this finale and last season’s Sherlock premiere side by side, a pattern does emerge. Steven Moffat can’t really hate his overly enthusiastic Internet-savvy fans, can he? Surely, this is all in good fun.

Maybe. Maybe not. But if I were you, I wouldn’t cosplay in the general vicinity of Moffat any time soon.

The Season In Review

I think it was a very fine season overall. It was very character driven, much more than Series 7 was because Clara was the center of the story but not in a “Impossible Girl” mystery sort of way. Her character was effectively re-created at the beginning of this season as Clara “The Impossible Girl” really had no character because she was a plot device.

So we had this new character who was a type-a control freak who was addicted to the adrenalin and the adventure of The Doctor’s world but had it rocked by our dear Mr. Pink. She wanted it all. She wanted Mr. Pink and her life with him, but she couldn’t give up her life as an adventurer in Time & Space either and in the end it cost her both.

And she became The Doctor, at least The 12th Doctor, that is.

And she became an incredible liar, even to herself. She was strong, she was decisive and she was tough.  In the end, she even lied about Mr. Pink not coming back from the dead.The Doctor lied about Gallifrey.

But she walked away.

Not in a Martha walking away sense though. She was not pining for The Doctor.  It was just over.

Now how this will be addressed in The Christmas Special is anyone’s guess at this point.

But also this series had everything thrown at the Fans.

Daleks

Cybermen

The Paternoster Gang

And The Master all in once series.

It was a bit of a greatest hits of the past album in the end.

We even got the Cybermen walking down the step outside St. Paul’s and an “appearance” in spirit of Brigadier Alistair Gordon-Lethbridge Stewart, arguably one of the greatest companions of all time and a true “champion” of the human race.

The only thing we didn’t have was Sarah Jane Smith, in some form.

Otherwise we ticked all the greatest hits boxes.

But there was innovation in these hits. Doing the Dalek episode from inside the Dalek and thus looking inside this new Doctor.

The Cybermen “weaponized” the Dead, with the help of The Master.

The Master came back as The Mistress.

You even arguably got a new twist on Moffat’s all-time hit, “Blink” with “Listen”.

The Doctor finally met Robin Hood.

You had The Orient Express, but not the one you’d expect exactly.

And you had the companion put through the ringer like nothing before it.

But all these greatest hits were not done just so that they could be re-done. It was better than that. We could enjoy our nostalgia in a new way.

And Peter Capaldi…

What a performance as the “Grumpy Cat” Doctor with a heart of gold.

He took the character back to his roots, in the Hartnell grumpiness, but it was for a practical reason.

This Doctor was imminently Practical and pragmatic, to the point of being cold, aloof and heartless on the outside.

But on the inside, he was still the same kid who left Gallifrey nearly 2000 years ago because he just wanted to see what was out there and became the hero, the oncoming storm, and the mad idiot in a box.

I loved Peter Capaldi’s Doctor.

I think the defining moment for me was in “Mummy on The Orient Express” when he was explaining to people who were going to die in 66 seconds to please give him some data so that he can defeat the puzzle of the monster but if they can’t eventually he would win, but at a much higher cost.

So, if you help him out he can keep the body count down as much as possible.

Very Practical. Very Hard. Very unemotional. Expressing emotions are not this Doctor’s strong point. But he does have them.

“I have to know!” He implored Cyber-Danny.

And that is the essence The Doctor, he has to know.

Danny becomes the Doctor, saving the world but also altering time – The Afghani Kid he “killed” he re-wrote History on that one. Clara becomes The Doctor and then walks away.

And the Doctor is saved from being a soldier, but the oldest soldier he knows.

And that, in the famous word of The Ninth Doctor he’s “Fantastic” because we want to know to. We want to go on that ride.

And it was very satisfying, in my view.

A season of very character driven stories. What could be better than that, really.

Happily Ever After, I’m Lying…:)

Bring on Santa Claus!

Review: Death in Heaven

Spoilers!

OMG Lots of them…

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting to happen, but that’s not a bad thing.

The resolution of the “Clara Oswald does not exist” teaser was cleverly done actually.

And the fact that they played it up in the Opening credits was also a clever bit.

In the end though, he world is saved by…..a Pink Cyberman!!

And Kate Stewart was saved by her Father?!!

Yikes, what a finale.

The Nethersphere wasn’t Heaven. It was more like an iCloud version of the Other Place.

Now how the Cybermen rained down on the world and their pollen “water” made Cybermen out of dead people, especially people who’d been dead for centuries is a bit of a deus ex machina but it is scary. How would you defeat an enemy who can weaponize the dead?

That it is creepy.

Graveyards are creepy.

Death is creepy.

The idea that when you die you become a zombie Cyberman, no Thanks. Not an Upgrade.

But the other thing I noticed on consideration was that Danny Pink did play Time Lord, after all.. He brought back into the word a person who was dead. The Afghan child he killed was brought back to life. A noble self-sacrifice or just a cheat to not bring back the character so the two love birds can live happily ever after and he’s the dead person.

And where does this leave Orson Pink, exactly?

Was this kid’s death a fixed point?

How will this person who was supposed to be dead corrupt the timeline?

And where are The Reapers?

When Rose’s Dad was saved from dying (as he should have) they were everywhere. (oh, am I going all continuity geek! 🙂 )

Will they become a Taliban and kill people that should not have died and thus change the whole course of Human history?

Or is it just not a big enough paradox to summon them? (or did Steven Moffat even consider this??)

But love conquers all, even the love of a soldier, defeats the The Master/Mistress.

Ah… 🙂

But I think the Cyber Brigadier is a bit a cheat just so that THAT character does not get killed off.

Osgood, though, she’s ashes to ashes.

I really liked Osgood. The loveable Geek.

Saw lots of then at Gallifrey One this past February.

I wonder how many Missy’s we’ll have?

As usual the Master’s plan is over-the-top, giving Rube Goldberg a run for his money. Giving the Doctor an army, really? All this time and effort over 2 different regenerations of the Doctor just for that pay off?

But she doesn’t succeed in destroying the planet by his hand. She just wanted him to be her so they could pal around again like they used to back on Gallifrey.

Oh, and resurrecting a very obscure piece of Classic Who lore as one last Master Lie was brilliant.

The Doctor and The Master have always been the flip side of the same coin.

As I have said previously the telling scene is in the David Tennant episode where they both look into the Untempered Schism and The Doctor goes wide-eyed with wonder “Wow! I wanna see all that” and The Master goes mad and wants to control it all.

They are similar, it’s just the methods and the outcomes are different.

In the finest trope of the Super-villain he’s just the hero only dark and twisted. But this Doctor, not quite as twisted as he had been.

Clara and The Doctor knowingly lie to each other YET again.

He isn’t a good man. He isn’t a bad man. He’s just a mad idiot with a box who wanted to see the universe and get an adrenalin kick from the Adventure and goes around helping people the best he can.

In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s
might, Beware my power, The Sonic Screwdriver’s light!!!

He’s The President of Earth, after all. He’s the Commander-in-Chief of a vast army.

They are called Whovians. 🙂

 

Whitehouse Blues

Ah, Hyper PC crowd is at it again. Dear old Miss Whitehouse…

Doctor Who’s most recent episode was the first in the two part finale of the latest series.

It culminated with the Doctor finding out that recurring character Missy was a female incarnation of his arch-enemy the Master.

But some viewers found the plotline, about death and cremation, disturbing and complained to the BBC.

The BBC’s officially responded and has defended the episode.

The BBC said: “Doctor Who is a family drama with a long tradition of tackling some of the more fundamental questions about life and death.

“We were mindful of the themes explored in Dark Water’ and are confident that they are appropriate in the context of the heightened sci-fi world of the show.”

The episode featured an organisation called 3W (standing for Three Words) which offered the slogan “Afterlife means after care”.

As part of the plot, some of the characters discussed what may happen to people after they die.

The BBC said: “The scene in which a character reveals 3W’s unconventional theory about the afterlife was preceded by the same character warning the Doctor and Clara several times that what they were about to hear could be distressing.

“When the Doctor does hear these claims, he immediately pours scorn on them, dismissing them out of hand as a ‘con’ and a ‘racket’.

“It transpires that he is correct, and the entire concept is revealed to be a scam perpetrated by Missy.”

Good Grief…

I guess “In the Flesh” about zombies (dead people walking) and them trying to re-integrate into society must really have sent these people into a coma.

A quick google search turned up…NOTHING!

Surprise, Surprise.

But then again, were the kiddies supposed to watch that one? 🙂

Again, the hyper-sensitive had gone all squeaky.

Chill-out. It’s not the end of the world.

Yet… 🙂

 

 

Mistress

EW: That is the question which has been troubling, perplexing, and generally bedeviling Doctor Who fans this entire season of the long-running British time travel show. As played by Scottish actress Michelle Gomez, the character of Missy has periodically popped up to welcome recently deceased characters to what seemed to be some version of the after-life. Her precise identity has remained oblique, and Gomez’s recurring role has prompted a clutch of theories. Is she some different iteration of Jenna Coleman’s character, Clara? Is she a Satanic riff on the similarly-attired Mary Poppins? Is she a female incarnation of the Doctor’s fellow Time Lord and diabolical foe, The Master?

Fans who plumped for the latter explanation may by this point have a sore back from having patted it too much. In last night’s episode, “Dark Water”—the first half of this season’s two-part finale—it was revealed that Missy is indeed The Master. And a Doctor-kissing Master to boot!

Below, Gomez talks about the episode, how she landed the gig as the Doctor’s archenemy, and what is was like to lock lips with Peter Capaldi.

EW: How did you get the part?
MICHELLE GOMEZ: Well, I was offered another part earlier in the season, which I couldn’t physically attend. I can’t be in two places at once because I don’t have a TARDIS. I was doing this other show called Psycho Bitches, so I couldn’t do it. I was heartbroken, because being on Doctor Who as a young, budding actress was on my hit list and I thought I’d missed my moment.

So, I wrote to the very wonderful, amazing, incredible Mr. Steven Moffat—who should be given a knighthood by now, by the way—and said, “I can’t believe that I can’t do it and if you have any space in the future for a Scottish woman with high cheekbones who’s very good at playing witches and bitches, please please consider me.” And then thankfully, a few weeks later, I got this offer, which I grabbed with both hands.

You’ve appeared in a few episodes throughout the season. Did you have to keep on popping down to Wales to shoot your scenes?
Oh, no. No, no, no, no. I live in New York. So they basically compressed everything into one sort of character chunk, and they shot me out, they shot Missy out. I was in and out within a few weeks or so.

Did you follow the theorizing as to the identity of your character?
I heard some it. My favorite is that I’ve been likened to Mary Poppins. But then of course I have to take that one stage further and say, “Are we saying that Mary Poppins is the most evil woman in the universe?” The problem is that, with me dressed as Mary Poppins, with this face, it’s just going to look a bit evil anyway.

I’m from the U.K., so I’m fully aware that not all Scottish people know each other. But did you know Peter Capaldi beforehand?
Well, Peter and I have a mutual friend, [the actress] Lindy Whiteford, and I feel like I know Peter. Both Peter and I are from Glasgow, so we kind of have an immediate shorthand with each other. We’ve got a similar sense of humor. There’s nothing like a Glaswegian sense of humor. So, we kind of felt like we knew each other and I was delighted when he was made the Doctor. It just made total sense. Of course he should be the Doctor. He’s age appropriate and he looks great in a three-piece suit.

He certainly does. And indeed your character initially seemed very sweet on the Doctor. What was it like kissing Peter Capaldi?
It was like kissing the Glaswegian version of David Bowie. Well, it was hell on earth, really. And I say it was hell on earth, only because obviously Missy would have liked to have taken it further. In fact, she had to pull herself together. That was the hellish part. But maybe it will be revealed in this final episode.

What will be?
That she gets to take it further!