Who UK: Kate, I'm super-confused about the big picture.

I feel like I totally get the details, like I knew the box was for the Doctor, that Rory was fake and that the Universe was blinking out of existence. But my brain is screaming, So What!

Knowing all that hasn't brought me one micron closer to figuring out how everything is connected.

Ooooh! Just now, it popped into my brain that the story could be like that creepy John Cusack movie, was it called "Identity"? Where the Dream Master (Doctor's subconscious) is creating an alternate reality where everyone and everything is a representation of the Doctor .

Very Jungian and Gestalt. I think my Freudian slip is showing!

Maaaayyybee, when the TARDIS first landed in Amy's garden, the Doctor actually drowned in the pool, in the library, and this whole season has been his near-death experience while regenerating. That would be a question answered for canon (what happens to his brain when he goes all 'splodey?) but not great storytelling.

Okay. I'm off my rocker.

3peat:

Just now, on rewatch, 11 asks Amy," doesn't ever bother you that your life doesn't make sense? "

Man! If that isn't him talking to himself. I don't know what is .

Heh, bonny, I like that idea. Well, in the sense that I'd feel cheated if that were the real explanation, but it's nifty to think about.

Yeah, I feel like I have a decent handle on the details, but no clue how it all fits together. Until next week, I guess!

Right! Can't wait to see how wrong I am.

Oooh. Just now, 11 said," Romans. I was just wishing for Romans."

More fuel for my topsy-turvy fire.

Yeah, I go back and forth on whether I think they're in someone's dream (Amy's? the Doctor's?) or whether this is all actually happening, just being influenced by Amy's mind. I'm leaning more towards the latter, but I really don't know.

UK Who thought: well, I'm just stating the obvious here (I think), but we all realize that the Doctor is a kind of Pandora's Box himself, right? All the pain and death he brings, with the basic hope of the fight in the end. But no, not seeing any big picture here, unless it was all Amy's dream. And then, I'm gonna hate that season. Watching the Stonehenge speech for the 5th time, even while knowing he was fooled - and I still want to go with him wherever he'll lead. I guess that makes him, officially, a Doctor to me.

As for Romans: I was literally 10 seconds away from sending my Ancient Rome lecturer an email, asking him who commended the legion(s) in Britain then. But I like bonny's view of things better.

Hm, yeah. Okay so listing what we know about Amy and how she's weird - her house has too many rooms; where's her aunt; why do the dates of her life not match up (missing Daleks? Date on Rory's work badge); her wedding day is the day the Tardis explodes; the crack started (?) in her bedroom and has been following (possibly) her; the doctor has already gone back in time once to talk to her (on the spaceship when he told her to remember what he'd said when she was little).

None of this really helps to tie anything togther for me right now, but hrm it's all very interesting.

Did anyone here see "The Gates" on ABC? What did you think?

Who UK: it's very interesting. What makes me hopeful is that I have a lot of faith in Steven Moffat; there have been very few internal inconsistencies in his episodes so far. A bit of artistic licence, but no enormous retcons. So, fingers crossed .

As for Amy's life not making sense... as well as the things mentioned above there's also the question of what happened to her parents, especially assuming that's also the reason she went to live with her aunt .

One more thing making me look forward to next week - casting spoiler!: Caitlin Blackwood - Amelia Pond - is listed in the credits .

Who UK: I think we are narrowing in on it! You have all given me great stuff to think about...and Shir, the whitefont you suggested as 'obvious,' I think quite succinctly states the whole point. Exactly that...so... who else would have that big picture view of the Doctor's impact and role in the Universe than the great man himself ?

Actually, that question poses some interesting challenges. The only other one, albeit, a galactically broken one, was the Master. But, in many ways, even HE was a projection of the Doctor's faults.

Given Fiona's casting spoiler and very important point about internal consistency and Jars' roundup of Amy's inconsistencies , makes me think that the whole arc rests on the head of a pin. The moment in the forest where the Doctor shows up, dressed differently, to remind Amy to remember what he told her when she was little .

I think I'll need to rewatch 11x1 over and over again, scouring for what that might have been.

Any speculations?

At the moment, the only things that are sticking in my brain are that Amelia was very brave. And, "You're Scottish, fry something."

In another Jungian spasm, I'm wondering if Amelia represents the kid!doctor who was clever and brave enough to run, rather than get caught up in the ghastly Gallifreyian rituals and wasting of innocence. He certainly has felt abandoned over and over again .

Now see? THIS is good tv. The kind that makes you fold your brain over to see things from different angles.