DW 4x13

One thing I'm not getting is when Martha is threatening to use the Ostenheigen(?) key and explains what it does, Ten says that is never an option, which, wasn't that the Doctor's choice in the Time War? The genocide of two races, one of them his own, to keep the loss of life at simply two races, and not more? I mean, holy crap, Martha has been put into a position to know the Doctor's guilt, and while she wouldn't survive like the Doctor did, no issue was made of this? Did RTD just make the Doctor call his actions in the Time War a big freaking mistake, that he was wrong? I'm so confused!

Also, the BBC DW site has the translation for the German that was exchanged between Martha and the other woman. The best bit was the last, because Martha's "I know" was in response to "You're going to hell."

Are there any clues as to why that gypsy woman was so adamant in making Donna turn the other way, or was that simply a throwaway that will never be explained?

Err, Julie - you might want to white font that first paragraph.

oh crap! Sorrysorrysorry. Thought I had!

Thanks for the catch. *headdesk*

'sallright. I'm a spoiler companion, so it was no skin off my nose.

One other thing I noticed that was nicely set up in advance for DW 4x13: When Donna's brain begins to break, and you have her get stuck repeating "binary" (awesome choice of words, that), it brought back to mind not just the Data Ghosts from "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", but all of "Midnight" and especially the Doctor's horrified "don't do that," when Donna mimics him at the end.

Anne, I totally flashed on Joan Cusack in Toys when she gets broken and starts repeating "I'm all right! I'm alright! I'malrighti'malright!" which had me laughing even as I was horrified.

I'm having a hard time thinking about anything else after that finale, rewatched the ep, rewatched the Confidential (broke me again) and reading the UK thread over at TWoP, where a poster reminded me of River Song's reaction to Donna, where she knew *of* her but didn't know her/had never met her. Oh, Donna, the Doctor will still speak of you!

DW 4.13: Never mind the Osterhagen Key, I just want to know why they sited the base 60 miles from my house?!! Apart from the obvious connotations of the name, of course. Still, the German-speaking Daleks were hilarious. Funnily enough, until somebody mentioned it upthread, it never occurred to me that most of you wouldn't have been able to understand the unsubtitled old woman (who wasn't actually German, but nevermind). Funny, that .

I have a lot still to process about the episode, and I need to watch the Confidential and rewatch the last couple of eps. On the whole, I enjoyed it a lot, except for the plot holes they could have driven a Tardis through. And Bernard Cribbins made me cry - not for the first time, the last Chapter of "The House at Pooh Corner" gets me Every. Single. Time.

I sort of guessed that Catherine Tate only signed on for one series, and I knew that RTD is not in favour of killing off companions. Still, what happened to Donna was harsh .

Can anybody jog my memory - where and when had Mickey and Captain Jack met before?

Fiona, they met in "Boomtown," aka the one where they re-encouner Margaret the Slitheen, who'd managed to become Mayor of Cardiff.

That's the one! Thanks Anne.

I think the writers must have taken half an hour and made a flow chart of who had already met.