I happened to be thinking just this morning about our profound attachment to the Doctor down through the years. Seems to me that a significant part of it is the thought that our lonely species has a friend and protector, somebody who, through the magic of time travel, will literally always be there. It’s significant that the Doctor is non-human, so that he can validate us, that there’s at least one person out there who loves us in spite of our many flaws and thinks we’re worth saving.

Yeah, episodes like “Listen” are moving when they reveal something of the Doctor’s early life. But they also feel somehow dangerous, like we might learn something we didn’t want to know, or that we’re intruding where we shouldn’t. It complicates our relationship with the Doctor to think he had a life before us and might to this day have other loyalties, loyalties that might at some point come into conflict with the Doctor’s professed love for us.

Disquieting.

We saw in “Listen” the good (?) Doctor’s humble childhood. “Fear can make you kind.”

We know that the Doctor and the Master have a long history – back to childhood. Is this the first time the Master was Missy? (Best incarnation of the Master ever, BTW)

The Doctor has grandchildren, or at least that’s what was presented in the very beginning, so there is always that to explore in an origin story.

We’ll see. I enjoy this regeneration, he’s a smart-ass.

PS: Still watch it on cable, when it airs. Or if I miss it, they typically show the previous episode before the new one.

First ground is internal show logic: Oswin Oswald never interacted directly with the Doctor in 7.001; the reality she experienced in the can was as hermetically sealed as her reality. But the idea that she once again has been canned and, I guess the Doctor is just humoring her? Or is the Doctor’s reality also compromised? Has he also been canned? The complexities seem to multiply.

Second ground is external: They’re making a spinoff called “Class”, which, nope, isn’t about Donald Trump refurbishing the TARDIS, it’s about Clara’s school. Basically Sarah Jane Mysteries redux, what with the beached companion leading the kiddies on new adventures and saving Earth before naptime. So Clara seems to have a different destiny than to become spam in a can.

Dude, I think the problems begin to snowball…and that’s probably all for the best, since you’re right, losing a companion to Dalektation would be unbearably grim.

Yes, let’s head to GeekSpeak to talk cord-cutting. I’ve been itching to spill what I’ve learned in the last couple of years, but my experience has become ever more Android, no dissatisfaction in sight. I rely less on buying video from stores (didn’t know Microsoft had jumped on the bandwagon, but of course), and more on free streams. They’re out there, but sometimes it’s a bit of work to track them down. So why don’t you start by describing how you’re watching TV these days. My own reality is a bit hermetically sealed, so I’d rather hear about what somebody else is up to.

We first met Clara in the series 7 episode Asylum of the Daleks. She thought she was just a survivor of a spaceship crash, but by the end of the episode we learn a terrible truth (as does she): she’s a human who has become, over a long period of time, a dalek, and there’s nothing that can be done for her. It’s a genuinely sad episode.

In the latest series 9 episode, Clara was placed inside dalek armor by Missy. When Clara asks Missy how she can get out, Missy dodges the question. Later, when the Doctor finds her in the armor, he says those words you never want to hear from him: “I’m so sorry.” It usually indicates that the poop has, in fact, already hit the fan.

We later see Clara and the Doctor together, with her looking like she always had…but then, in the older episode, she thought she was fine and perceived herself as completely human, when in fact she was a dalek.

Long story short…I think we’ve seen the beginning of Clara’s awful transformation. It’ll be a most terrible way for the Doctor to have to part with a companion.

I’ve been watching this season via Microsoft TV and Movies. I used to do all this sort of viewing on Google Play, but I’ve been becoming increasingly unhappy with both Google and Android. Maybe that could be a topic for GeekSpeak.

But sure, I’ll play that silly little game with another Zoner.

Lots of breadcrumbs have been dropped. The biggest seems to be about the possibility of a Lady Doctor, reignited this time, of course, by Missy, who demonstrates that Time Ladies do indeed exist (for those who never wondered where Time Lordlings come from).

And Clara’s leaving. I thought she was adorable at first, but to be honest, she’s getting a little stale after a couple of years. Will Arya Stark replace her? Stay tuned!

Still, none of that rises to the level of “nasty, British, and shot” (a bit of genius in its own right, McFly, congrats). Watcha got?

Something that’s beginning to bother me about the show is how this kind of speculation always breaks out of the show itself and starts to be all about second-guessing Stephen Moffat and which celebrity will and which celebrity won’t be guest starring. Seems like the show no longer has a fourth wall, and lives at least in part in a Whovian-Industrial Complex. That’s just the price of success, I guess, but it’s starting to feel a little shabby.

Just out of curiosity, how do you watch Dr. Who? BBC America? Or online 24 hours later for $3 at Amazon or iTunes? Even Google will sell you the episode for the standard $3. Ever tried to stream it using BBC’s iPlayer?