On The Sofa (6)
This topic contains 1,013 replies, has 103 voices, and was last updated by 
Craig 8 years, 7 months ago.
-
AuthorPosts
-
1 January 2015 at 00:15 #36762
Happy New Year, all you lovely people of this wonderful place!!!
Not related, but what about adding some comedy to our Capaldi retrospective?
1 January 2015 at 00:17 #36763So, while pointlessly looking for great music to post about new year’s, next year being better etc etc (and failing as the Beatles was just a bit.. anyway) I obviously looked up what animal represents 2015 in the Chinese zodiac and found that:
“…Therefore, 2015 is the Year of Green Wooden Sheep”
Which is my hope for the next great (and unexpected) new monster for the next series.
Or plot device.
I’m hoping someone will inform me that “Chekhov’s Green Wooden Sheep was lampshaded in series 7” or something (I’m still to look up lampshading…).
Also, is it too much to hope that Nick Frost as Santa will come back on April 4th?
“Wot? You expectin’ the Easter Bunny?”
😉
1 January 2015 at 00:35 #36764Happy New 2015 to everyone and may it be for all of us a year that is better than last year.
And a toast to all our absent friends.
2015 is the year of Green Wooden Sheep
Somehow, I’m sure that sounded better in Chinese.
1 January 2015 at 01:45 #36768Happy New Year!!! Bed time now
1 January 2015 at 02:14 #36770@ all- I hope everyone will have a dynamite and very lucky 2015! So apparently we move into
the year of green wooden sheep which is super exiting and confusing together all at once. I
didn’t know green sheep were a natural phenomenon so it must be one of those new scientific
achievements. As long as it represents good things we should all be ok.
Its been a privilege to hang out with all of you thru the fantastic series 8.
Good bye 2014 and Happy Who year to all of you!1 January 2015 at 03:34 #36772@xad4 Thanks for the link to Forty Something! It look like a lot of fun and what a super cast!
You can find the most amazing things from everywhere on everything on You Tube.
Between YT and forums and favorite blogs and online books and news etc. and so on
there are always so many exiting online choices to connect with!1 January 2015 at 04:58 #36778@XADA what @lisa just said. Also seeing Anna Chancellor on the cast reminded me of that heart wrenching scene in the final episode of The Hour which is well worth including if we do a P.C. retrospective.
Green wooden sheep? Well at least it is memorable. (luckily my youngest doesn’t have any sheep in his wooden animal collection or I would be seriously tempted to paint one green.)
Cheers
Janette
1 January 2015 at 06:52 #36779Anonymous @
@janetteb did someone mention The Hour?????? Freddy! Ah, poor Freddy, did he, you know?
I think he’s: you…know…OK…
1 January 2015 at 22:16 #36810CYBER-REPORT: Since arriving onto this forum an hour or so ago, I’ve made many, many posts and am already out of thing to say. Congratulations, me. I won. And yet, I lost.
Emotions are strange.
Forums are STRANGER.
1 January 2015 at 22:23 #36811CYBER-REPORT: Why do I keep coming back here? What have you done to hypnotise me into always opening this page up in a new tab?
I’m enjoying myself.
1 January 2015 at 22:35 #36812Alcohol?
Actually, they put cat-nip at the top of the tabs. Nice that you are enjoying yourself
1 January 2015 at 23:26 #368172015 is the year of the Green Wooden Sheep
Love it!
So long as it’s not “MEH” that’ll do me!!
<ducks>
@barbaralefty You owe me a new keyboard!! 😉
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!
1 January 2015 at 23:26 #36818Oops 😳
Double posted by mistake.
Any passing mods – please feel free to delete this one 🙂
1 January 2015 at 23:39 #36821@scaryb 😀
2 January 2015 at 08:18 #36828Green wooden sheep? As long as I don’t have to a) cook it or b) eat it, it’s fine with me.
Speaking of “The Hour” (and a PC retrospective — you do that here? How, and when?), I can’t say I ever cared a lot about Freddie, though I certainly wouldn’t wish him ill. Capaldi’s Randall Brown (Programming Manager or some such?) and the search for his daughter was a Wrenching Scene source for me. My God, that man can play misery (Dr. Pete in “Fields of Blood”, anyone?). It’s nice to see him laugh once in a while as DW.
Hello and personal introduction, though I might have posted here before a good while ago (and under another name — every time I come to the Forum the sign in thing refuses to accept my name or my password so I have to change one of them to get back on, and now have three identities here though I’d be oh so happy with just one — ). No photo/avatar, I’m afraid; I’m not that computer savvy.
I’m not a “Whovian”, I guess, since I don’t give a hang about the details about how time travel could or couldn’t work or which Doctor is #X. I watch for the great banter and emotional depth of the characters and the admirable skills of the writers and the cast. The current series plays, for me, as darkish-comedy-over-common-tragedy (the fact that for all of us, everything and everybody from memory worms — I presume — to star systems, dies eventually and mature life can easily be seen as a series of losses). Here in my seventies I’m finding that very satisfying. Well; maybe more compelling than *satisfying.*
Talking too much, apologies of a newbie here, and I hope 2015 is gorgeous for everybody!
2 January 2015 at 08:48 #36829Hi @ichabod, lovely to see you here, I’m a newbie, who could possibly come across as obsessed logging on at 08:30, but actually just getting breakie for the other half to go to work and taking 5 before the wee one is up 😉
Never mind the avatar, what about the ideas?! Love your description of the show, and look forward to future discussions of scene source and writing. I think you can’t love Doctor Who without loving that stuff too, but as I know nothing about it, I am very pleased to see you here.
Not sure when/if the PC marathon will happen, but there is a long way to go before the next season, so it’s a plan. Other people seem to be sorting it out. As the sort of person who, prior to PCs doctor, used to watch the Malcolm Tucker swearing videos on YouTube just to pick me up after a bad day at work, I’m all for it.
2 January 2015 at 09:15 #36831@ichabod welcome to you. I won’t hold it against you that in your (counting, still) 3rd-4th line you complained about not caring for Freddie: honestly, I just can’t live with that.
I kid. Of course.
Each to their own. As long as people are nice about it, all’s well. I actually forget the order of the Doctors (don’t hit me mods)! Also, I haven’t watched more than about 50% of before the re-boot Who (ducks twice). I know, I know: inexplicable/irresponsible laziness is the main problem – and a very bad memory 🙂
So, we just get on the site and natter; pass a drink, and grin… Mostly, it’s huge fun.
Kindest and enjoy (is there glitter under…my..my..? looks across @scaryb who is purring happily as I sneeze)
Purofilion
2 January 2015 at 21:45 #36848Being a latecomer to Dr. Who, although I have watched every episode starting with Chris Eccleston, I have a big question. How is it that Galifrey with it’s “superior science” and mentality can get their butts kicked by the Daleks? Also, why do the leaders of Galifrey come across as “evil”? I thought superior minds had superior “thoughts”. Help!
2 January 2015 at 23:44 #36852How is it that Galifrey with it’s “superior science” and mentality can get their butts kicked by the Daleks?
Much the same as as the Viet Cong kicked the butts of the most technologically advanced armed forces on the planet.
Also, why do the leaders of Galifrey come across as “evil”? I thought superior minds had superior “thoughts”
Power corrupts, and I would think power under siege gets pretty paranoid pretty quickly. Also, it is shown that it was only the high council that had gone bug-bonkers. The military was still trying to fight the enemy without.
But consider this: do you think the Time Lords got to be Time Lords without denying others the opportunity? You don’t get to be top dog without seeing off the pretenders. But there’s always another upstart in the playground.
(In terms of background lore, as far as I know, the Time Lords and the Daleks were unknown to each other until One stumbled upon them)
3 January 2015 at 00:02 #36853Hi:
I was wondering, are the scripts for DW all written in-house, or, are scripts from outside sources ever used?
thanks…
3 January 2015 at 02:41 #36857@pedant (In terms of background lore, as far as I know, the Time Lords and the Daleks were unknown to each other until One stumbled upon them)
That’s what I think happened. It explains why the TLs have a pretty strict non interference policy and are so against rogue TLs traveling around, like the Monk, Master, and the Doctor. It is the butterfly effect that Martha was talking about in Shakespeare Code.
Martha: You step on a butterfly, you change the human race.
The 10th Doctor: Then don’t step on any butterflies. What do you have against butterflies?That is hilarious, but I think it shows that the Doctor still doesn’t admit that his travelling around is causing harm, even if he has good intentions or just wants to learn and witness history.
@cedarbranchtardis How is it that Galifrey with it’s “superior science” and mentality can get their butts kicked by the Daleks?
@pedant Much the same as as the Viet Cong kicked the butts of the most technologically advanced armed forces on the planet.
That’s a good explanation. It could also be that the Daleks in the Time War are even more advanced than any of the ones we have ever met. The Daleks have time travel abilities. 😉
Power under siege is brilliant @pedant
3 January 2015 at 02:50 #368583 January 2015 at 02:55 #36859Yow, the forum let me in again! I don’t have to create another damned identity here. A word, though — I use “Ichabod” because whatever, but am actually a female person. Having lived through the uproar over James Tiptree Jr. being accidentally outed as Allie Sheldon, (this is about someone female writing under a male pseudonym in SF, for those not familiar), I just want to make sure that nobody gets mad at me later for having “concealed” my gender.
Next, thank you, welcomers, for your warm welcome. We’re likely to be more than forty days in the desert here, until Season 9 starts, and that’s a long time to have hardly anyone to talk with about DW.
And next, I tend to talk tech a little bit, but in the theatrical sense, and not everybody likes that. E.g., if I bring up the music (and how they’re clever enough to make it *really big* at just the right times, so that a good deal of the “all of time and space” comes over on the music even when they don’t have the budge to take stories to the Planet of made entirely of Bushes, say), some people might find that they don’t *want* to be thinking about how the music works when they’re in the middle of a scene that’s super-shippy and they don’t want to be distracted. So just a suggestions that if you prefer to avoid questions about “how” effects are achieved, you might just want to skim or even skip posts from Ichabod. I love thinking and talking about the how and why stuff, but I don’t want to be any kind of spoiler-y for others.
3 January 2015 at 03:03 #36860Brilliant as in vivid, colorful, striking, eloquent.
@Purofilion if you know everything already, why are you still reading? That’s pretty dim!
3 January 2015 at 03:13 #36861@cedarbranchtardis You can have great minds but still not have the ‘common’ sense to make
the smartest choices. It happens on planet Earth every day. I know it may sound bizarre
but having intelligence is only 1 element and then you also have to get these smart folks
to properly collaborate to an effective end too. I guess different Galifreyans had
political differences just like how it happens here
Daleks seemed to of been better on the cohesive team work thing which is sort of significant3 January 2015 at 03:36 #36862Hi @ichabod
if I bring up the music (and how they’re clever enough to make it *really big* at just the right times, so that a good deal of the “all of time and space” comes over on the music even when they don’t have the budge to take stories to the Planet of made entirely of Bushes, say),
That sounds cool to me, since I normally don’t notice the music very much, but I know it makes a huge difference like you said.
Welcome to the DWForum.
3 January 2015 at 03:53 #36863And welcome (again!). You can be who/whatever you like in here, up to you 🙂
@arbutus and @Purofilion in particular are pretty hot on the technical side of music stuff, but you’ll find a pretty wide range of interests and angles in here, so post away.
Daleks seemed to of been better on the cohesive team work thing which is sort of significant
Y’know, that might be the most insightful sentence ever about why the TLs found themselves on the back foot and sinking fast by the time of Day of the Doctor!
3 January 2015 at 04:51 #36868@Purofilion – I’m glad you are watching Buffy. Maybe you thought I was complaining about having to wait from reading my latest posts. I didn’t mean that at all, take your time and enjoy them. I will wait.
I really meant the idea “Power under siege causing paranoia” was brilliant. I shortened that to “Power under siege” which is less interesting, but it sounded about the same in my head. Sorry for the miscommunication.
<Back to my corner>
It seems like California is on fire every year. Global warming is scary. Like everyone I hope you stay safe @janetteb.
@lisa – I 2nd @scaryb‘s eloquence, by saying “It real good!” 🙂
3 January 2015 at 10:24 #36878http://www.cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/jenna-coleman-confirmed-to-return-for-all-of-season-9
No idea where to post this, no idea if it’s been posted anywhere else, but this showed up on Facebook and so now I’m having a little celebratory dance! I will admit that Season 8 did not make it easy to like Clara but that’s why I feel she needs at least another season. There’s something untold here, something unfinished. And now, maybe, we’ll get it!
3 January 2015 at 12:46 #36881@serahni I agree re’ Clara. Still so many loose threads to tie off and I really want to find out who Orson is, how he fits in and what became of the toy soldier. (I had dreams about that toy soldier and woke up at least once knowing I’d cracked the mystery but unable to remember how. damn those dream crabs.)
Cheers
Janette
3 January 2015 at 23:58 #36902@barnable nah, I was just being an idiot. And it worked. Which isn’t good. The Buff. Hah. What to say; the sadness. The ‘Faithless’. Anyway, wrong thread.
4 January 2015 at 00:07 #36904@Purofilion – I overreacted quite a lot. We have been doing good for a while now. No worries, Still friends. 🙂
4 January 2015 at 00:55 #36909Hiya i’m new to this forum, um well forums in general. i can i get some helpful advice about forum posting please?
4 January 2015 at 03:09 #36916@barnable Always dude 🙂
@virginadare I would say ‘hop on’ and give it a go. Check out the Etiquette page and then say hello. Often people go to threads to do with ‘how I met the Doctor and what I remember most about him’ -the memories page. Have a scroll through those and introduce yourself if you like. Good to meet you & welcome.
Regardez-vous, purofilion.
4 January 2015 at 11:03 #36921Hellooooooooooooooooo i have a question. As the doctor came out from the Pandorica originally? It gave him the screwdriver to rory ok but There must have been to force a doctor in origin who managed to get out somehow and then give the screwdriver rory
4 January 2015 at 12:02 #36922@darkanian
There doesn’t have to be anyone who has to get out originally – it’s what the Doctor Who team have started calling a ‘Moffat Loop’, a classic time-travel paradox. The Doctor escapes because he’s a time-traveller able to travel back in time from after his escape to before his escape. After his escape, he’s able to travel back to give Rory the screwdriver, which sets in motion his escape, which means he can travel back in time to give Rory the screwdriver…
If you want a look at a diagram for a Moffat loop, try the Fez Diagram in my blog for The Day of the Doctor. You think the Pandorica’s mind-bending? That Fez was never even made…
4 January 2015 at 14:30 #369284 January 2015 at 17:46 #36933IANotAFish — Holy crow! That chart! You know the traditional Navajo rug called “Eye Dazzler”? Kinda like that. Also why I have *never* written a time travel story and *never* will. I usually don’t read them, either, because they make my brain scream. One huge exception: “Timescape”, a very old novel by Greg Benford. It’s a — sort of a time travel story that can make your eyes tear up. Tears or no tears, the Doctor is the only one who can lure me into a time travel story these days. I’ll go any-when with the right guy.
4 January 2015 at 18:29 #36934Yes, Timescape is a small masterwork (even though my amazement was tempered by inadvertently seeing a critical date as a chapter heading). A very clever and well thought out time travel take. Sort of 😉
You might enjoy No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop. Also Time Storm by Gordon R Dickson.
Not a time travel story, but dealing with similar themes, Christopher Priest’s A Dream of Wessex is simply sublime. The diagram for it would be epic.
4 January 2015 at 19:26 #36935“Timescape” has always struck me as the perfect example of time travel as tragedy.
[[[SPOILERS]]]] for the book.
It illustrates an idea of heroism that I hadn’t really seen dealt with that much in my reading at the time and didn’t see stated outright until I read a novel about European vampires in the Southwest by a “Native American” author who was, I think, and academic and brought his novel, “Eye Killers”, through the Oklahoma University Press. In this book locals here in my town chase down bad guys with the help of an old shaman from one of the pueblos, and he reminds them (in word and deed) that for some groups, a hero is the person who goes to meet the enemy, defeats it, and sends something of value home; but he (or she) does not return. The essence of this hero is leaving to do a dangerous job, doing it, and dying in the process, which is just what he (or she) knew was going to happen or expected to happen. No celebrations for you, bub; no parades. You just give the job everything you’ve got to see that that precious something gets home, and you’re done — and people remember you. Like the scientists living on the dying-Earth timeline in “Timescape” who have provided us (in their past) a means of escape, but have none for themselves.
I’ve not read Priest’s book, but I like his work, and will; Mike’s book I read years ago, and Gordon’s. Way back down *my* “time stream”, when I was reading everything I could get my hands on . . . Bet everybody here remembers their own version of that time. Have you read “Among Others”, about exactly that feeling? Super book — Jo Walton, I think.
4 January 2015 at 19:54 #36936@ichabod @pedant Yes, ‘Timescape’ is good on so many levels, the themes still relevant, and the time travel premise, if questionable according to modern theory, was entirely plausible when it was first published (but then it was written by a physicist). It is more than 30 years since I read it – my copy is a paperback edition of 1982 – but it is a novel which has stuck in my mind and your mention of it has prompted me to get it down from the shelf again, to read as soon as I have finished re-reading Terry Pratchett’s ‘Hogfather’ in honour of the season.
4 January 2015 at 20:15 #36938Ah, Pratchett . . . what an excellent idea! I know exactly where to put my hand on it, on the shelf in the, er, well, the cats’ room. I shouldn’t let them hang around with Pratchett books — they little f**kers are too damn smart already . . . on the other, hand, they also make me laugh, a very Pratchett-like attribute and much appreciated.
5 January 2015 at 04:36 #36958I have been thinking about our viewing schedule for the year and an excellent post by @barbaralefty on “An Unearthly Child” helped me formalise those random ponderings. Given that PC is now established as the Doctor might we pick one story from each Doctor that somehow reflects upon the character of that Doctor, either their first story or from early in each regen’. For instance for the first Doctor I would suggest “The Edge of Destruction” as we have done “An Unearthly Child” and I think his character is really cemented in the third story. I am not suggesting this as an alternative to the PC retrospective which I am totally sold on, (though I am not sure I will watch all the Torchwood series) but as the “Who” based option.
It recently dawned upon me that I am not nearly familiar enough with Terry Pratchett’s work. I read one book a few years ago while travelling to see if it would be appropriate for the boys, decided it was a bit too old still and, due to circumstances of the time forgot all about it. Recently the eldest and youngest and I watched “Hogfather”, then rewatched it with the entire family. Needless to say a copy of “The Colour of Magic” found its way under the Christmas tree as a result. (I think the boys are now of Discworld reading age. I may be too. 🙂 )
Cheers
Janette
5 January 2015 at 07:57 #36962@janetteb Terry Pratchett remains my favourite author of all time, I think, and the Discworld series are books I have read and reread, sometimes in an endless rotation! I hope you and your boys enjoy them. He really is a brilliantly creative man.
5 January 2015 at 11:29 #36971@janetteb I second (or is it third?) the recommendation of Prachett’s Discworld novels. They are wonderfully imaginative, gloriously, laugh-out-loud funny, and with an underlying stratum of solid insight and wisdom. And if your boys are of an age to read them, then I would judge that so are you 🙂
The character of the successive novels changes considerably and so they are, in my opinion, best read in order of publication. The earliest are very different in character from the later ones – ‘The Colour of Magic’ and ‘The Light Fantastic’ in particular; in those first two a good deal of the fun is playing ‘Spot the Parodies’, though they are enjoyable, light hearted romps even if you are not familiar with the works and authors being sent up.
5 January 2015 at 11:52 #36973Cheers @janetteb, hope all reasonably settled for you now. Definitely be up for an Edge of Destruction watch, now we have seen Unearthly child and the Daleks.
5 January 2015 at 13:11 #36976Discworld is a thing I could never get into. Much as I enjoyed the writing and the invention, I found it impossible to give much a toss about any of the characters.
His (nominal) children’s works on the other hand – Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny And The Dead etc – were utterly wonderful. Engaging, with likeable characters and some surprisingly deep themes.
Also, Pratchett fans, the BBC has done a superb radio adaptation of Good Omens, now in iPlayer (5x30min episodes, 1x60min).
It may be possible to arrange for it to fall off the back of an internet for those with no iPlayer access.
5 January 2015 at 14:10 #36979@pedant. Lol. I had to read that last line twice before I “got it”. I must chase that one up. Sounds like it would be good for long car drives. (When we next have a working car that is.)
To add to my suggestion I would recommend that the first C.B episode is sufficient to get the feel for his incarnation and for Doctor 8 we would have to do a rewatch of the minisode or listen to one of the radio broadcasts as the film was covered (by the brave) last year.
Cheers
Janette
5 January 2015 at 22:48 #36996@IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan
Pratchett certainly writes with a unique style that may not appeal. As @mudlark mentions, his ability to paraody and to weave analogy into his narrative is where his brilliance really shines for me. I love figuring out what he’s referencing and delighting in the ways he’s made it work, though absurdly so in many instances. As an Australian, The Last Continent is a delightful read but I think my favourite story, and it’s really hard to choose, is Small Gods. I find it impossible to target a favourite character, though I do hold an affection for Death. The newer stories, with the newer characters, have taken me a little while to get to but I am halfway through his latest and enjoying it. It shall be my airplane reading when I head back home this Thursday!
5 January 2015 at 22:56 #36998Hi Whovians!
Relatively new here, and relatively new to Doctor Who (a friend got me into it a few months ago)! Watching it inspired me to use it for my job, where I based weddings off of pop culture. I wanted to share it with you all – there will be two more, a bridal party inspiration and a bridal one. This one is about the ceremony and reception. I’d love everyone’s feedback on the comments on the post 🙂 since a lot of you have been fans a lot longer than I have, you might have some insight I simply don’t have yet. I’m still only as far as the Tennant episodes :/ anyway, here’s the link: http://www.vabridemagazine.com/doctor-who-style-inspiration-ceremony-and-reception/
You guys are awesome!!!
-
AuthorPosts
The topic ‘On The Sofa (6)’ is closed to new replies.
