Doctor Who 12.3 "Orphan 55"

                                             
Graham (Bradley Walsh) wins a voucher for a break and puts the pieces together before the Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) warns him it will actually transport them there now and they haven't packed.  Graham is disappointed that he hasn't packed his speedo, cos he's wearing it.  Didn't see him sunning in any speedo, infact he wore a jumper, ha.  They arrive on Tranquillity Spa and you know there were many instances of deja vu already with this episode.  Not listing any but I'm sure the one with Clara and Doctor Twelve comes to mind with the smiley faced robots in Smile etc, though it wasn't really a spa etc.  Then the Doctor Who ep with the bus in the desert - Planet of the Dead).

Upon arrival they all go their separate ways and the Doctor says she'll investigate.  Ryan (Tosin Cole) gets infected by a Hopper virus from the vending machine which the Doctor must remove from him and leaves him to stick his thumb in his mouth and suck on it for the hallucinations.  From the Hopper she posits something is wrong here and attempts to investigate further.  Okay scratch the attempt, we know she'll succeed.  As Hyph3n (Amy Booth-Steel) is asked why she's using high level security key for the cupboard and wants in, showing her psychic paper as she's a resort inspector.  Kane (Laura Fraser) tells them they've already been inspected but she manages to get in and finds the ionic membrane is not working.  Asking her to explain what's happening, since they don't use guns, as a message for a drill is heard.

Ryan in the thumb sucking position meets another fellow thumb sucker named Bella (Gia Re).  She claims she's a hotel critic as Ryan says he's a doctor for pilots.  Failing miserably with his pick up lines.  Yaz (Mandip Gill) stumbles upon an elderly couple where Benni (Col Farrell) is about to ask Vilma (Julia Foster) to marry him.  Graham meets Nevi (James Buckley) and his son, Sylas (Lewin Lloyd) at the vending machine as they're trying to repair and his son tells him what to do to effect repairs.  There's a massive hole in the and the Doctor fixes the membrane showing the spa is surrounded by a dome, as Graham walks into it.  Yaz turns up with the same news, late as always.  The planet is a 'fakecation' since it's not real but is cheap for those wanting a getaway.  The creature inside the dome (Millennium Dome anyone?)  rids most of the holiday makers before it's transported out and they are known as Dregs.  (Dregs of society no doubt.)

The species is meant to have survived some sort of war and as more attack, they are summoned to the linen cupboard.  Ryan and Bella don't make it there and neither does Benni who goes back for Vilma's hat.  They look for the others and she wants to find Benni so they get on the vehicle which is the only mode of transport as the air is toxic and oxygen is limited, using nose clips and bracelets to indicate oxygen level, the Doctor forces Kane to take them on Benni's trail. Vilma even pays Kane with her necklace to make her follow.  As the vehicle is damaged they get out only to be attacked and must find other ways of leaving.  Benni says goodbye to Vilma after proposing and asks her to kill him.  Escaping through the hatch on the floor they run to underground tunnels and the Doctor finds the sign in Russian showing the tunnel is a Siberian underground network.

They realize this is Earth in the future and after the Doctor has explained the significance behind orphan planets where some war has been fought and after time are taken over.  This one was taken over by Kane and she is Bella's mother.  Bella having an agenda for wanting to burn down the spa.  After a Dreg enters the tunnel, Ryan saves Bella and they are transported back to the spa were she sets about threatening Ryan with a gun and setting the timers on the bombs.  Using the tunnels to return the Doctor finds the Dregs omit oxygen and breathe in carbon dioxide and this can be used to defeat them.

They transport father and son and back home and Kane and Bella remain behind to fight the Dregs as the others return to the TARDIS.  The Doctor explaining she only realized this was Earth a few seconds before they did.  Thus the future is bleak and a topical episode which some will have found to be so preachy in respects of scientists warning of global warming etc but humans not listening.  How they can change their future with billions of voices and action.  Yeah well a good start would be the BBC toning down the music so it doesn't drown out the dialogue.  Thus half the episode came across as garbled, I mean how loud must the volume be to watch the bloomin' show!
Most of the characters were used as Dregs fodder and again showing how people became dregs in the future.  Most of the episode was sombre and not as light hearted as the others, yes the subject matter in reality was grim, but still a little interjection of humour would've helped.

One thing I wanted to mention was how this episode followed after the Doctor finding out the revelation of how Gallifrey is no more and burns.  To see Earth suffer much the same fate, at the hands of humans, whereas that was at the hands of the Master.  How the 'timeless child' was mentioned and here the planet is known as "Orphan 55", another child reference.

Digital Spy mentioning Planet of the Apes as did my sister.  Also I mentioned Alien, Godzilla and other freaking monsters!  Digital Spy also does a good review on the political statements from past eps so I don't have to, ha and I especially like how they put forward the case of how so many people out there are just on the "leftist this and leftist that" bandwagon and critics of this.  At the end of the day you have to take a side and decide what you want for the future, for your children, your legacy and humanity in general.  You can't forever live like an ostrich and bury your head in the sand (radioactive) shirking responsibility and denying.  You are responsible for what is happening even if you don't want to be political.  As I've said a thousand times politics makes the world go round (not flat) and it affects you even if you are closed off to it!  And OMG stop with the "woke" already, fed up of hearing that everywhere!

They mention Doctor Three's story The Curse of Peladon (read Pelaton into that ha!) and show that politics in the show went as far back as the early seventies.  And kudos for saying how all the ranting for Doctor Thirteen and her stance is jealousy on the part of men.  Women can't - but men can...!

Hellier 2.9 "The Center of Your Mind"

                                                   
Greg speaks with Amy and she tells him she was arrested after she contacted him.  She heard 'UFOnaut' when she was going through some things.  She heard a girl screaming when she was by the lake camping.  She was third grade teacher and what she's experienced has "ruined my entire life."  Green men are in the caves and underground and warns against digging into something he won't be able to "unsee."  Tyler saw a green man in the tree after everything Amy said about being seen,  as well as alluding to Pan and his relevance to the green man.  Everything was linked eerily.  Amy's green men are "literal green men."  Bringing them full circle to goblins as Greg explains.  Doug told her to find out about someone who did this, referencing Greg.  He's an old man she's known for 20 years.  She believes in the pagan rituals in the caves but there's much more going on in her view.  Inexplicably and no one lives there.  She's certain it's the government.  Amy warns: "dig quietly."

Greg believes she's trying to make some sense out of what she's seen.  Connor thinks it would've been better if Greg called her when they were far away, not within the town.  The "scary people are literally surrounding us right now."  Marginality is more apparent in smaller areas as Connor says.  They should look into the creatures in the caves.  Greg wants to continue the ritual.  In The Mothman Prophecies it was written that all UFO encounters were hallucinations as Karl reads.  They suggest Karl should use the Estes method as he's more objective.

"What's going on in Hellier?"
Karl: "A gateway...to other places...it's closed...I'm supposed to open it...need to come out [when it opens].
"What's going on in Somerset"
Karl: "The fringe is here...between..."

Karl explains a similar phrase in the tin can ep season 1, where do we use this?
"In the space between."  He has liminality on the mind but he thinks it's subconscious as he wouldn't have connected it.

"What happened to Indrid Cold?"
"What happened to David Christie?"
"Keep saying he's dead."  They hear noises almost like footsteps upstairs.

"What are the goblins?"
"Are they there to keep us out or show us in?"
Karl: "The gate exists so the gate keeper exists in turn."
Do they need some sort of signal to allow access to those gates?
Karl:  "They have the means of something - an offering of bread?"

Karl: "create a fountain..don't know how [to create.]"

He's gone to 'that other place' where he can communicate with someone. They'll know if 'it's them.'
Talking to a preying mantis.  The symbol is like a pyramid with light coming out of it... Illuminati is what came to my mind.

Karl attempted to do word association in a trance-like state.  The fountain was in a cave, of stone or a stream akin to a landmark.  Mentioned the well and anyone who drank from it would return to Somerset.  Speaking of this he explains how it could be the all seeing eye which was in the pyramid at Somerset.  Showing there's more happening than just his subconscious.  The bell was placed in the wall and could have had a fountain in it.  Greg reads of the "Intergalactic radio like the blindfold with a note like the Estes Method."

Greg doesn't like ghostboxes.  Tried the Estes method which he called "weird."  Using the Franks box, Dana felt a tingling sensation". 
"An early version Frank Sumption built under the influence of ETs and are rare."  He gave them to people "he felt were right."  They got one days before heading to Somerset which made them think they had to use this in conjunction with the Estes Method.  Tyler tried it and got a "strange accent."  They get a thread about Indrid's family and they don't know what to do with it, Connor and Connard.  Tyler: "leave it alone and point to the story."   Dana feels he's communicating with Indrid.
 "He is one."

Why did Tyler make me think of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) with that accent?? 
He calls himself "Michael."  Greg asks where he's from?  They hear him reply sunny - a talisman."  Connor asks what he looks like, he says "angel."  Connor had a talisman with different predications and gave Tyler a St Michael ,medallion.  He says Connor is "wigged out." 
Didn't hear anything under the ledge but it came when he mentioned "adrenalin"???  I think it was like a response to that word, either whatever stirred there felt it had to get away or it was an adrenalin fuelled reaction from Tyler, in either wanting him to react that way.

Tyler hadn't gone through anything like that.  He's not religious but he thinks angelic entitles are all part of this: "I think one man's angel is another man's alien."  They needed to do a ritual in a cave and invoke Pan...

I actually do like ghost/spirit boxes and didn't much like the Estes method.  Also since I didn't like the blindfold being used and not being able to listen for myself what was happening and what was coming through.  That's my only criticism, I like to be involved and see/hear for myself.  That being said I do get why they use this method, for them it's tried and tested.  I also think they got good responses from Tyler, coming through Tyler.

Hellier 2.8 "Secret Commonwealth"

                                                       
May 23 10.23am in reference to synchronicities and it's #FolkloreThursday mentioning bluebell fairies which will lead adults around for days, in Somerset.  At 10.28 for Fae in Somerset 1684.  Oakmen are also mentioned.  Searching Somerset on Twitter Greg finds tweets on Somerset, Kentucky mentioning UFOs and also Somerset, England, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies and the author "paid a heavy price for revealing these secrets.  His name was Robert Kirk."  Re Neukirk and he's an ordained minister like his father.  Dana feels they're being pulled into an initiation.  After a month Greg got a book he was looking for from someone.  The Rebirth of Pan by Jim Brandon, which is a pseudonym.  He read it all in one go and makes notes from it.  Referring to the footprint they found in the cave in Hellier - three toed print which they didn't know the significance of until now.

Power names were in the book but not in relation to HP Lovecraft, but Crowley, McGee, Parson, Pike etc.  Parsons and Pike are power names and connected to Hellier.  Pike County.  Orion and Sirius.  Bad aliens chase after dogs and hate dogs.  David's dog vanished.  Sirius is called "the Blue Star" which Connor says alludes to the blue star balloon they found.  20,000 BC was recorded as the first appearance of Pan in a cave.  Some believe this was to meet the sorcerer...Trickster Prophets Kadir in Islam and are green men.  False prophet, trickster.  Pan becomes puck in Shakespeare, to chaos.  Christians eventually took the image of Pan and turned him into the devil.  Most Christian sites are built on pagan sites.  Shows up in religions, horned entities all return to Pan.  Crowley invoked Pan to speak, communicate with extra terrestrials and any entities he wanted to converse with.  Dana thinks they should make a fairy alter at the cabin and let them know why they're there.  Cinnamon, cakes,  white candles, honey etc and show they want to communicate.  She had a list of what she wanted to put on the altar from the woods, such as cloves, bluebells.

Kyle Kadel lives in Somerset and has a paranormal museum.  Ghost sightings, trains, secret cults, sightings.  He spoke of secret societies in the area and of questionable activity since the '50's.  Which they should fear.  Nathan, Kyle's friend who has a podcast and mentioned quartz which led to hallucinations in people.  NASA's website has maps and he got the electromagnetic map.  South Eastern US.  Pennyroyal Plateau above the cave system.  His wife is named Amy.  She mentioned the thermostat flying off the wall in a triangular movement and she saw it twice, and again about 3 years later. The number 3.
70% of people at Eastern State are from Somerset.
The Blue Gas theory about paedophiles and the woman who mentioned it was raided by the police and they found meth.  She wa salmost killed in a hit 'n' run.  Greg mentions Amy got an e-mail from a woman who saw people in the caves and doing rituals in robes.

Connor wanted to leave Somerset at once.  They may chance upon a 'human monster.'  All of the synchronicites all ended up back here at Somerset and it was something they had to follow through on as with everything else.

Hellier 2.7 "The Trickster"

                                        
Meeting Allen Greenfield for the first time and his thoughts on Hellier.  Being lead to "access to a greater public, the very things they have been discussing here."  Alan referred to numerology as the number 93 shows up.  Took him 30 seconds with a list he sent to Greg.  Allen is a tholomite in the footsteps of Aleister Crowley.  As 93 refers to Christ which Greg found significant cos of David Christie, specifically his last name.  Aleen thinks they should keep going until it becomes dangerous to their health and thinks it is a ritual.  Suggesting they should ask who is behind it and who the source is behind all this.  Bring them to "a higher level of understanding of nature."  He thinks Terry Wriste is being associated with here and what Terry said was real.  Terry would be 75 now.  Allen said he has a code word he would give Greg off camera if they try and contact him.  Due to the existence of tricksters.

He suggests they run "Hell ier" through the secret cipher as Terry spells it.  Terry reactivated his e-mail which Allen is typically Terry so he wants to meet them on his terms when he's ready.  31 is significant the only authorized edition of The Ufonauts was edited by Allen.  Magical significance as 93 related to Libra 31 or 7 7 7.  He feels the numbers are a code but he's not a code breaker.  Allen doesn't recall the name of the town until Greg brings up Ashland and he says it could have been.  Karl thinks the '70's are what they were looking at.  Greg felt Allen wasn't Terry and Connor agrees.  Allen saying they were "being guided by The Third Order."

Conner asks why they would do that: with reference to initiation, "the creation of a crisis and the resolution of a crisis and the assimilation of that crisis resolution dialect."  They wanted to get abducted by aliens back in 2012.  Greg thinks an experience is more about the movement of the mind rather than their body being relocated.  So they did the reverse and only came up with lights in the sky which were the only phrases that came out.  Show Allen footage of this 'experiment.'  They interviewed the subject years later and he's now afraid of extra terrestrials.  Allen and Greg thinking that he might have already had an experience.  Allen thinks if not a physical experience then they could be unethically introduced by another human, or they tuned him in.

After the interview they spoke of the balloons Tyler found in the woods.  4 Feb 2019 California: they met a man at a bar and he shows him a video with a silver balloon floating down which had 'happy birthday' on it.  The balloons happened on the same day.  The dates in February were important as the Wriste/Amy e-mails were received.  He thinks they're on the path due to these synchronicities.  When they returned from Atlanta they went to Somerset.  The tree on the road prevented them from going any further.  They find a balloon here.  Allen told them they weren't "impressed" by the two balloons.  Is that why they got this one now and shows there's something more to it than just coincidence, more than a synchronicity.  Allen calls it a 'gift.'  He mentions balloons on 5.26 on the clock time; but the interview ran far longer than this after beginning at 3.27 on the clock behind Allen.  As Connor says they mentioned the balloon after the interview??

Aleister Crowley is mentioned so many times in so many places and in reference to the paranormal, occult that to not know him or his works by now is unmentionable.  There seem to be more than just synchronicities again with the balloons and their appearances, just as they dismissed them as being nothing. Then to find one again and being led on that direction or path, just pulls everything they find into relevance again.

Doctor Who "Spyfall" Part 2 Review

                                             
As we return to the gripping finale, though this is Doctor Who when do we ever get a finale as certain scenes lead on to more questions - unanswered - and more episodes tailing off from them.  As the plane hurtles towards certain doom for the three on board, Ryan (Tosin Cole) finds some messages on the walls of the plane for him, some mostly at eye level on the floor by the seats.  The laminated message in the back of the seat leads him to open up an app on his phone which tells him how to fly the plane, as he remarks to Yaz (Mandip Gill) he can't ride a bike but he can fly a plane.  The Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) also appears on the monitor on the plane as a pre-recorded message so she tells them they can't ask any questions.  Also telling them that the cockpit door must be shut and it's very robust, which Graham (Bradley Walsh) closes.  Without Ryan being able to level out the plane.  This allows the plane to land safely back in England and Barton (Lenny Henry) is told it's due to it being pre-programmed.  The Master/O/Oh (Sacha Dhawan)is very upset that this happened as is Barton who turns up at the airport.  The staff being angry since he didn't inform them of any tests.

The three watch him and as this is Essex, Graham's haunt; he knows the area.  As they traverse the high street, Barton locks into them via their phones and via message on the big screen tells them they can't escape him nor can their families or friends.  Ryan smashes their phones and Graham takes them to a development where there isn't any available tech.  Here they think what the doctor would do or say and Graham reassuring them she's not dead and will return.  Graham says she wouldn't want them to give up and Yaz says they shouldn't panic.  As the creatures return and surround them wherever they run to. 
[Perhaps this building site was more of an homage to where Graham and Grace first encountered the Doctor in the 11.1 opener.]
The alien creatures are now given names as the Doctor finds out they're called the Kasavin.  Ryan and Graham try to fend them off using their gadgets which they both confess to have maintained, including Graham's laser shoes which come in handy, although he doesn't know how to use them.  This leads them to the warehouse where Barton killed his mother.

He apparently brought his mother (Blanche Williams) there so she can tell him he's done well, but of course she's the first sacrifice of his to the Kasavin who finish her off.  As Yaz calls her sister and tells her she's alright, they track them down and again the laser shoes are used by Graham to steal their car.  As Barton tells them he's only 97% human since he allowed them to experiment on him, revealing the larger picture, they can now take over humanity completely, wipe out their DNA and use them as human storage.  As he gives his keynote speech later on.

The Master found what the Kasavin were going to do and intervened to ensure this happens but also so the Doctor would get involved.  The Doctor meanwhile finds an ally within the Kasavin she was transported to and she says the creature is her guardian.  As it shows up, the Doctor takes her hand and is transported back to her time - being in the nineteenth century.  She meets Charles Babbage and finds out the woman is Ada Lovelace (Sylvie Briggs) Lord Byron's daughter and the achievements she and Charles Babbage (Mark Dexter) will make for the future.  The Master shows up there too and uses his device to shrink people out of existence.  As the Doctor tries to stop him, he tells her to kneel and call him "Master" in an attempt to garner her to obey.  Ada returns and uses the machine gun to stop him, as well as shooting him in the shoulder, which he later calls "painful" and throws a 'cluster' bomb at him.

Escaping him they return to Babbage's house where he shows them the Silver Lady.  A light statue which the Master also had in his TARDIS (the farmhouse) apparently it's not bigger on the inside?!! He's using the statue to transport the Kasavin and the Doctor says she needs to return to her time using the statue.  However as she leaves, Ada grabs hold of her hand and they end up in Word War II Paris, 1943.  Ada disrupted the line so she couldn't return to the twenty first century.  They're met by a woman who takes them to her house for safety, as a German patrol approaches, led by none other than the Master.  He enters her house and has the soldiers shoot at the floorboards where he believes the Doctor must be hiding.

He then leaves and the woman who turns put to be a spy named Noor Inayat Khan, codename 'Madeleine' (Aurora Marion) uncovers the Doctor and Ada beneath another part of the floorboards, where she keeps her machine.  The Doctor sends out a message on the wireless and it's in the form of the Master's heartbeats, a rhythm we're familiar with.  She gets him to meet her alone on the Eiffel Tower of course.  He tells her the Nazis accept his appearance as he used a snippet of psychic paper on them.  Telling her about the destruction of Gallifrey, how it is burning and there is nothing left of it.  She leaves her phone with Ada who uses it at a particular location and the Doctor uses her Sonic to send a message to the Nazis.  Who decode the message finding that the Master is a double agent who's been sending Nazi info to England.  They come for him as she removes the psychic paper so they recognize he is not a Nazi.  Meeting up with the others she has gotten hold of his TARDIS and uses it to return home.

Barton at his speech hooks the users onto their devices, including Yaz's family as he continues with his plan.  When she returns, everything stops and his plan is foiled.  She tells the others how she went back into Barton's office last year and messed with the statue in his office.  As well as showing us how she used the Master's TARDIS to send messages in the plane for Ryan and the others to save themselves. 
In the TARDIS by herself she goes to Gallifrey where she sees the horror of the destruction firsthand and is able to communicate with the Master who tells her he was the one who did this and how they were lied to. 

When the others meet up in the TARDIS they tell her how she knows everything about them but they know nothing about her so they ask about her home.  She tells them where she's from and how she can regenerate, the Master being an old friend, she stole a TARDIS and ran away, time travelling.  But she can't take them to Gallfrey just yet.  Not only as she's just processing the horror of what she's seen but effectively she hasn't worked out anything about the Timeless Child and the lies.  Once again finding, realizing that she's the last of the Time Lords.  Doctor Thirteen finally gets to show some emotion concerning her own character and history from the result of the loss of her home.  Something she didn't get to do last series as everything was new and we were just getting to meet the new characters. 

Actual history alluded to here with Noor and Ada and two female heroines of their times.  Nothing to do with the Doc being a woman of course.  As well as being topical when Noor asks if the Fascists win.  "Never not as long as there are people like you."  Having to brainwash Ada and Noor's minds at the end since history can't be changed.  Sad as Noor died at Dachau at the age of 30 and didn't get to see her work and sacrifice for the masses and the defeat of Fascism.  And Ada having the technical achievement erased from her mind too, as the Doctor lets slip the word "computer" in front of her.  Ada also dying young at 36.

Hellier 2.6 "The Altar"

                                           
Yes the tin, thought that too, if it was such significant why leave it behind?! That's how my brain works, occupational hazard...David's house was burned down. Don't know why the pic blurred there on the video? Aside from hiding its appearance.  Greg hoping they're contacted by others, including someone who knows who David, Terry are etc. Any takers I wonder?  The press/media ensured season 1 had publicity with plenty of e-mails especially from Kentucky highlighting their own experiences as well as of others.  Cipher 11 was carried out by a viewer and analyzed how wind-ow was misspelled by Wriste and came up with Ash.  Though he didn't associate it with Ashland. Thus more synchronicity.  Someone on Twitter tweeted about The Wagon Wheel in Ashland, Ohio.

Greg didn't expect to hear from occultists.  Karl mentioned an e-mail he got from Greg which was sent to him by Jeff Richmond. Implying David and Terry are sigils.  (See Supernatural 1.17 Hell House for a good visual explanation of sorts.  As well as their mention of Tulpas.)  A sigil being a term associated with a magic symbol.  Come to be associated with an angel or other entity.  Again relevant in this show.  George P Hansen, parapsychologist who wrote a book named The Trickster and the Paranormal writing that "marginalized people and disarray tend to manifest paranormal activity."  Connor refers to this as the "teenage stage;" as Greg comments on poltergeist activity happens to teenage girls.  Greg referring to Amy as "marginalized" even before the e-mails they got from her.  As Connor calls him this too, "in-between living in one place and between another" as he moved to another place just recently.  George P Hansen sounds so familiar to me, perhaps as I didn't opt for a career in psychology, which my have ended up in parapsychology.  Though I have done reading on this area, sure I read him for my Supernatural book.

Greg thought of a live investigation where the tin can was discovered.  Doing a live EVP session, with music coming up. "Bing bing" from the can.  Tyler has read about people hearing music in caves.  Dan thinks this experiment was more vital.  Then thought they should play the notes in a constant harmony and it would open up something.  Tyler saying "it takes three of them" to make the sound thus opening a portal.  It is only natural that music and harmony go hand in hand, not so much harmony as in peace, but more the rhythm associated with it. 

They also received an e-mail from someone who said he met Terry Wriste.  Wriste being a Tennessee name.  He met him in the '70's with his father.  Terry being a "tunnel rat in Vietnam."  Terry said he met little men, Goblin-like creatures in the tunnels as well as VC.  They spoke with Vaughn who sent the e-mail.  He had worked with ciphers before and he found Terry had spoken of blowing things up and he met cryptics in Vietnam and saw him as unstable.  He pronounces Wriste as "Reeste."  Vaughn said that Terry Wriste was his real name, whereas Alan Greenfield didn't think so.  Greg asks if Terry used "sluff" when he was shooting and used so many profanities and he was angry about so much.

Terry also knew about Kentucky and what was happening and Vaughn thought if he'd run into him again, ie he'd probably be shot by Terry.  Greg would only want to meet him "on a good day."  With people saying they were doing an "initiation ritual" for Greenfield.  And what was the reason behind it.