MONDO EXTRAS

The continuity announcer introduced the episode with "Next up is Doctor Who, but first: travel news with Sally Calypso." That's a sign that we're dealing with information, with media and received wisdom; that's a sign we're going to be playing the long game again -- that we'll be asked to do some of the work ourselves. References to American Gothic, 2000AD ground the episode in reality, even as the ridiculous premise is taking it apart -- just like our last visit here, when metaphor overtook science. Alice and May Cassini, an elderly Boston marriage on the road, are named after the man who discovered Saturn's rings: Saturn rules the sphere of the Emperor, Trump IV, God the Father, the god of Peter's World, of hard truths and impossible decisions, rules and regulations; who must choose between the open hand and the closed fist, between Chesed and Gevurah, mercy and judgment, Doctor and Master. Between Peter's World and dancing for life, in the Spirit Of The Blitz.