On The Sofa (8)
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Craig 8 years, 10 months ago.
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2 June 2016 at 04:14 #52640
@pedant Thank you for the link, so sad how easy it is to attack people from the safety of your bedroom.(the one in your parents basement) I get how people can love a character as I do the Doctor but he is not my creation. I didn’t invent him or direct his fate as a character in any way. He is not mine , I only get to experience what the writers create and the actors bring to life. You enjoy it or you don’t, how is that so hard to understand?
Why don’t they just stop watching/reading if they dislike the changes so much? The hate and threats spewed by angry or bored trolls do nothing but upset the victims of their digital temper tantrums. Just wait until a new Doctor is chosen, no matter who it is the ARSES will be out in force.
2 June 2016 at 05:07 #52642Anonymous @
It’s also kind of scary, I think.
2 June 2016 at 06:13 #52643@winston @stitchintime Scary, yes; that was part of the message of the article — that when you get to death threats, you’re bordering on lunacy at worse, and have dangerous issues about where you stop and the rest of the world and all the people in it begin. But not everyone is worried by this trend; there’s an interview with director Guillliermo del Toro (sp?) in a recent issue of “Wired” magazine in which he says he’s eager to plunge into a near future in which everybody can disassemble, adopt, and recombine in different media all the parts that make up any individual’s or group of individuals contribution to mass culture, so that everyone is a creative sharer in whatever they choose to get involved in. [not if Disney, Marvel, et al have anything to say about it, Bub — but his point is that copyright really is about to become a dead (ie unenforcible) issue, and different incarnations of an original creative work will spool out into infinity as others adapt the elements of it to other media, some not even extant yet.]
Copyright and single or small group authorship/ownership is, according to another article in the same issue, a formula well tuned to a society in constant change, but slowly, not changing at the breakneck speed that’s fracturing it right before our eyes now. They just disintegrate under the force of rapid innovation and almost instant distribution.
I’m glad I’m old; I’ve run out of interest in re-inventing myself to suit rapid changes in my field of work. I thought we’d have a functioning base on the Moon by now, but that’s not where the big changes are happening as quickly as SF suggested. Instead, it’s our own society that morphing into some weird new forms linked to innovative communications and media. Example? A recent study says that kids sitting at a table and clicking away on their cell phones instead of looking at and talking to each other are using their phones to create rapid and multi-dimensional conversations involving those present, plus everybody else they’re all drawing into the discussion via texting, pictures, links, etc. It’s becoming rather rude, some say, for someone at the table to interrupt the lightning inter-actions by speaking aloud . . .
Is there a “Singularity” after all, and have we met it, and is it *us* becoming shifting and flowing groups co-existing and interpenetrating and developing endlessly through dense, though mostly silent, conversations? It is for me, at any rate, because I have no interest in living that way, and certainly nothing like the speed and agility of the youngsters who’ve grown up living this way.
Oh, well, SF current has carried me away again, and I haven’t seen anything to indicate that these conversations are anything but sprawly chatter of youthful peers more interested in who’s dating whom than in the changing world around them — but there must be some who feel the need to go beyond that, and who do.
2 June 2016 at 07:58 #52644As for copyright being dead, I have my doubts and I guess so do all those countries that recently signed on to the Pacific Trade Deal, which I understand increased copyright from 50 years to 70 years. I’ve also read that one of the common pastimes of some authors is surfing the Internet for copyright infringements on their works and putting a stop to them. Then again, as has been pointed out in another thread, some of the material out there is so poor it may not be worth protecting, in which case infringements might even come to be regarded by some as improvements. 😉
I do recall though that science fiction writer and editor Judith Merrill decried the copyright obsession, saying that in her day writers typically built on each others work, constantly borrowing, combining and swapping ideas and that people were a whole lot less uptight than they have been in recent years about such sharing. She seemed to feel that this led to an explosion of creativity that benefited everybody in the end–including readers. 🙂
As for people sitting together glued to their texting, recent research has suggested that this is leading to a decline in the ability of people to interpret the facial expressions and body language of others; and a common complaint I hear from employers, is a lack of social skills among new hires. I am not sure whether or not these two things are related, however, as I do remember hearing the same complaints directed at my generation at the same age. Mind you, one story I was told was by an employer who reported having to train new hires on how to use a telephone to make actual telephone calls and actually talk to people on the phone (as opposed to texting or emailing them).
I have noticed that for some of us there is still a strongly felt need to connect in person with other people. I was a little surprised to find when I recently started working with some IT professionals, how much they value meeting up and actually having face-to-face conversations. I figured they’d all be online or texting each other all the time, but for this particular group at least, this is not the case.
3 June 2016 at 05:33 #52646@stitchintime As for copyright being dead, I have my doubts
I have doubts, too, and the timing may be off by a decade or two; in any case, the problem is *enforcement*. Those authors and publishers who are making real bucks in the media markets can afford to threaten and then to sue pirates and other offenders, but given the costs of legal services, and the median writing income of published authors (and guild members) last time I looked at the Authors Guild report as about $7500 a year, the best most of us can do is to find a lawyer who’ll write a cease and desist letter to the offender (who may simply move the pirated text to another site, or just ignore such warnings as a matter of course, and that’s assuming you can actually *find* a real human person to contact). Disney can copyright everything it owns and (so far) enforce their ownership, just as corporation can copyright gene sequences for drug formulations etc., but for “small” creators (and discoverers) what appears to be real protection can be worthless, or nearly so, if you actually try to use it.
Most professional writers don’t have time to spend surfing the net for plagiarists; your publishers are supposed to keep track of that (I’ve found myself sending plagiarism tips (sent to me by readers, mostly) TO my publishers to follow up on, because they, in true modern no-service business fashion, weren’t even trying).
Judy Merrill was, of course, right — by all accounts, that’s how things were in the early years of American SF, and it paid off hugely — in ideas, not the only reward that signifies in America, ie cash. In those days writers of genre fiction were paid 2-5 cents a word, and ideas in the genre were still fresh and new. People wrote very very fast and did actually produce some wonderful work — usually loaded with unquestioned imperialistic, racial, and patriarchal assumptions that now make many of those books and stories a tough read now. There were few big screenplay buys — genre writers wrote directly for Hollywood, when they could. Mostly they sold stories to pulp magazines and publishers who also put out Westerns and Romances, all of which were considered crude, low-rent entertainment, which a great deal of it was.
No doubt Ted Sturgeon, of that mid-century generation of writers, had all that in mind when he uttered his famous dictum (at a panel at a convention, I heard) that “90% of everything is junk.” Only he used a different word.
Love the phone story! I think there are scads of negative effects of screen-connectedness replacing “face time” as well as whatever positives come out of it; and there are also experienced people in tech and business who still recognize the value of sitting in a room and talking/listening to each other — happy to have you confirm that (I’ve been hearing rumors — ).
3 June 2016 at 23:59 #52647@ichabod
“there are also experienced people in tech and business who still recognize the value of sitting in a room and talking/listening to each other — happy to have you confirm that (I’ve been hearing rumors — ).”Yes, some of those rumours are true. In fact, one of those ‘experienced’ IT professionals actually ‘telephoned’ me recently to inform me of an upcoming meeting. (*grins*)
I have also been attending a lot of community meetings lately regarding planning for further development in my area, all of which I was informed of either by mail or at some other similar meeting. This face-to-face meeting thing, pre-arranged by ‘primitive’ means, could be making a comeback. 😉
19 June 2016 at 17:30 #52764It occurs to me that now that it is safe for me to sit on a sofa*, it is time that I checked in to say hello to all and a very belated but appreciative ‘thank you’ to @puroandson @StitchInTime and @missy, plus anyone else I may have overlooked, for their good wishes in the aftermath of my op.
I have now reached the stage of being able to dispense with the crutches except for longer excursions outdoors, although still more tortoise than mountain goat, and it will be a while yet before I am fully fit.
I have been doing more reading than watching of box sets so far, so I have not yet caught up on the backlog and only just started on my re-watch of season 9 of Doctor Who, though it has been a revelation watching episodes for the first time in HD and with a decent sound balance. I have, however, binge watched all the surviving episodes of Doomwatch (early 1970s) as well as the original TV production of Edge of Darkness – viewed for the first time since it was originally shown (and repeated) in 1985. I’ll give my thoughts on these later, if anyone is interested.
* sofas are generally to low and squashy to be suitable seating in the weeks immediately following a hip operation.
19 June 2016 at 19:23 #52770@mudlark
Glad to hear that recovery is progressing. Would love to read your reflections on ‘Edge of Darkness’ when you have the time. It is probably 30 years since I saw it, and I have the impression of a show that was very 1980s–Gaia, the politics, the conspiracy. And the whole look and feel of it. I remember particularly loving Joe Don Baker in it. Another very 1980s show I remember with great fondness was ‘Bird of Prey’ with Richard Griffiths.19 June 2016 at 21:44 #52772@ichabod
Just reading your impressive reflections from a couple of weeks back on the possessive insanity of fandom, and your point about how this desire to return to a mythical past impacts on contemporary politics as well (eg, your example about the desire to revive a caliphate in the Middle East).What both the extreme fringes of fandom and major political movements seem to have in common is a strange revulsion to change, to new experiences, to something different, to…the future, I suppose. You can see it in some parts of fandom–the assumption that any change in Doctor Who is ipso facto bad; but you can also see it in political culture–the Trumpian desire to take America backwards. To what?–a world that looked like (but never was) an episode of ‘The Waltons’? Or a British desire to return to…what?…a world that looked like (but never was) an episode of ‘Dixon of Dock Green’?
What I become increasingly dispirited by is that so many people seem to fear, and even hate, change.
Sorry, that seems to have turned into a bit of a rant. Clearly time for a reviving glass of wine…
19 June 2016 at 22:44 #52776@mudlark
It’s good to hear that you are progressing. I had similar issues with sitting when my back went out on me, but my sofa is very old and very hard and therefore that’s where I slept during my convalescence as my bed was too high, too soft and too squishy, such that I had trouble getting in and out of it.@blenkinsopthebrave
I believe that it has been suggested elsewhere that it may not be change, per se, that is the issue because people often confuse their recollections and/or fantasies about the past with the past, so that what people think they are yearning for may not in fact have ever existed in the way that they remember it. In such a case, the resistance is not to change but to what is, as opposed to what we think or imagine we remember about what was.The other thing is the feeling of loss of control over what’s happening. People usually feel better when they have some control over what’s going on. I have found the only way to deal with that, at least for myself, is to get involved with what’s going on, whether I agree with it or not, because that is a way that I can know what’s going on and participate in shaping it. That way, I at least get some of what I want some of the time, which I think in this crazy world is about as good as it ever really gets. Sometimes the only choice is to be part of the problem or part of the solution–even if you don’t think there is a problem or don’t like the solution, as it may be the only practical way available to influence the shape of change and its outcome.
19 June 2016 at 23:28 #52779@StitchInTime
All good points, but I would argue that an important factor in what I am calling resistance to, or hatred of, change, is bound up with a hatred of difference. The other factor I think plays out is the attitude to the future. For a lot of people the future is not full of possibility and hope but is to be feared. Why? Because, in part, it will lead to an acceptance of difference. I remember reading inspirational science fiction and utopian literature as a teenager and being incredibly excited by the possibilities the future might hold. Precisely because they were different from what I was told were the “accepted values”. I still feel that way. But I am painfully aware that there are an awful lot of people that don’t.
As I look back on the above paragraph, I realise I probably haven’t explained myself as well as I might. The result of either too much wine, or too little.
19 June 2016 at 23:37 #52781@blenkinsopthebrave
Ah, well, my beverage of choice this evening is Jasmine tea. Have you tried that? 😉20 June 2016 at 00:12 #52782@StitchInTime
Jasmine tea? Well, that’s awfully…different. Perhaps too much of a change.
20 June 2016 at 01:57 #52785Well, some sanity at last 🙂
Good to hear from both you and @mudlark about these and other issues. I am totally with you on the fear regarding change attitude.
It’s a fear culture in the States -beginning I believe in the mid-90s and it’s progressed now to Australia with every news outlet (both print and vision) being exercises in wanton presentation of some fearful event or potential fearful event leading to a myopic stance on virtually any issue that matters. People wander around in a desperate haze to talk to someone about a particular situation or momentous ‘time’ -and it breeds negativity on many levels.
I’ve watched some old videos on youtube. In nearly every comment there’s an addendum. Even though the commenter states “what a terrific old movie” most move onto “I wish movies were like this today”.
Now, even leaving it like that would be acceptable. But they take another wobbly step in adding: “all the movies of today are such garbage: swearing, sex and gore everywhere you look. I want to go back to the way it was.”
And there we have it: The Way It Was. As you pointed out, it never was ‘that way’ -it was simply depicted as such. I’m reminded of young girls admitting they’d love to live in the 1700s or the 1800s; that they’ve been born out of time and would love “the Romance, the enormous bustles and dresses (they frequently forget which fashion style exists for each century!) and the courting.”
No doubt some folk led beautiful lives of equity (:cough:) and leisure whilst the majority slaved away in toothpick factories but :cough: let’s ignore that…. 🙁
Yes, I think fear of change is the most fearful problem 🙂 And I’m not making light of that (RTD would have a fit after the lady at the Maxine Peake event/interview had a go at RTD about “changing endings”).
(RTD: don’t fan blast me please!)
Cheers to all -Winter arrived last night Mr Blenkinsop -in Brisbane, anyway.
PS: @mudlark, yes, sofas are squishy. Mr Puro has recovered from an operation recently and has piled the sofa with cushions in order to be able to ‘hop up’ or, more likely, gently move forward and then struggle to the standing position. I’m very glad you’re back and can watch some terrific series incl. old Who.
20 June 2016 at 02:12 #52788@puroandson No doubt some folk led beautiful lives of equity (:cough:) and leisure whilst the majority slaved away in toothpick factories but :cough: let’s ignore that….
Not to mention how many of these lovely girls would have lost their lives at an early age in childbirth– assuming that they survived childhood themselves. And yes, lovely to be courted by some guy three times your age who your father is going to make you marry, like him or not. The list goes on. I’ll take the 21st century, thanks very much, Trumps and all. 🙂
20 June 2016 at 08:30 #52799@blenkinsopthebrave Just reading your impressive reflections from a couple of weeks back on the possessive insanity of fandom
Thanks, I appreciate the appreciation!
What I become increasingly dispirited by is that so many people seem to fear, and even hate, change.
Sorry, that seems to have turned into a bit of a rant. Clearly time for a reviving glass of wine…My feeling about the drawing-the-line-at, the digging in of heels, and the pull toward illusions of the past is that while there’s always been some of that (” . . . to hell in a handbasket . . . these kids these days . . . ” shows up in a text from ancient Mesopotamia, as I recall), we’re now more scared than ever because the observable changes are piling up right in front of us at a truly alarming rate, and we’re built to *adapt* over long periods of evolution rather than to watch a tsunami coming at us that’s going to hit us in about twenty minutes (well, the next bit of it to roll in, with many more after). This isn’t political conservatives growling about economic policy and “handouts” to “the poor”. This is (scientists are saying) more like Noah’s flood. So let’s just yell about evil brown immigrants and the evaporation of “jobs” as we’ve known them, instead. It feels like doing *something* instead of just standing there quaking as the wave of real change starts to break.
Not that this really works for most of us, I think. Like other animals, we sense the ground shifting radically (and in some places literally, where there were few earthquakes before) beneath our feet, with no place to run or hide, and creeping dread everywhere . . . it’s not surprising that most would rather cross their fingers and shut their eyes. Our own ill-treatment has, IMO, turned our home planet against us, and the response is already being felt.
And, hey — isn’t it always time for a reviving glass of wine? Or one of those naps that should be half an hour and you wake up refreshed and ready to go, except that the sun has already set and the day is gone.
20 June 2016 at 08:44 #52800@arbutus Not to mention how many of these lovely girls would have lost their lives at an early age in childbirth– assuming that they survived childhood themselves. And yes, lovely to be courted by some guy three times your age who your father is going to make you marry, like him or not. The list goes on. I’ll take the 21st century, thanks
Gods, yes! There’s a good time-travel story by a British Y-A writer (“The Devil in the Road”, or perhaps “The Devil in the Forest” — was years ago) in which the hero (on his motor bike) ends up the England of witch-killing times. The first thing that tells him that this isn’t Kansas any more is the sight of a rotting corpse hanging on a gibbet and twisting in the wind . . . and the stench of that wind, and pretty much everything else (never mind the lice, the microbes and leech-treatments and gangrene and food poisoning and typhus etc.). He meets a young woman who laughs at him for smelling “like an apothecary’s shop!” Even for guys, a “Disney Experience” this would not be.
Ah but “Highlander”, and all the rest of that sanitized and prettied up tripe! I’d laugh, if it wasn’t for the crying. I love history — but to read about, not to visit (Heaven forfend!).
20 June 2016 at 11:08 #52803@mudlark I have now reached the stage of being able to dispense with the crutches except for longer excursions outdoors, although still more tortoise than mountain goat, and it will be a while yet before I am fully fit.
Excellent news. I shouldn’t worry about being a tortoise, he got where he wanted to be eventually.
Keep up the good work.
Missy
20 June 2016 at 18:49 #52815@arbutus @blenkinsopthebrave @StitchInTime @puroandson @missy Thank you all for those kind words; it’s good to be back and I hope to contribute more to the conversation in the next few days. Re-watching Doomwatch and Edge of Darkness after such a long interval has been an interesting and rewarding experience which perhaps merits some comment once I have collected my thoughts. As for season 9 of Who; so far I am only up to The Girl Who Died, but have been struck afresh by how much of the themes of the last three episodes is prefigured in these earlier stories. I had watched all the episodes at least twice when they were first shown, but now realise what a big difference it makes to re-watch them all in relatively rapid sequence. I will need to go back to the original discussions before I venture to add anything further but maybe, just maybe, I will find something to add. Watch this space 🙂
22 June 2016 at 05:52 #52827@mudlark Good to hear from you. I have been thinking of you, wondering how the recovery was going. I hope that soon you will have progressed from tortoise to mountain goat.
@blenkinsopthebrave I wanted to comment on one of your remarks up thread which I heartily agreed with but have now forgotten what it was. I don’t think you have said anything I don’t agree with so you can take your pick.
@puroandson re the people fantasising about the past. I once wrote a novel, or part of one, about a nineteenth century servant in response to a friend who would often say how she wished she lived in the nineteenth century having watched too many costume dramas. I love period dramas too but it frustrates me that all of them depict the lives of the privileged few. For every Elizabeth Bennet there were three or four servants living lives of absolute drudgery.
Re’ blindly clinging to the wreckage of the past and somehow thinking that it can be brought back pristine and whole is destructive. I see it all the time in our town, people who cling to the old business model and wonder why they are going bankrupt. We have to accept that tsunami as @ichabod so aptly described it, and be ready to ride it out. Years ago an enlightened South Australia premier foresaw a time when there was no long mass employment and began planning for that. However nobody else followed up on his vision and some forty years later all our politicians are still trying to revive the economy of the nineteenth century.
As my page has not refreshed since last night the conversation has almost certainly flowed away..
Cheers
Janette
22 June 2016 at 17:30 #52837@janetteb I love period dramas too but it frustrates me that all of them depict the lives of the privileged few. For every Elizabeth Bennet there were three or four servants living lives of absolute drudgery.
Exactly. You might look up a book called “Mary Reilly”, set in the household of Dr. Jeckyll. Also, there’s modern British author whose name I cannot remember — Cookson? Coulson? — who wrote quite a few late 19th-early 20th c (I think) precisely about the “servant class”, to which she said her own family had belonged for at least a couple of generations before her own. It’s there, but you have to go looking for it.
Actually, that’s probably why the first iteration of “Upstairs, Downstairs” on TV was so mesmerizing: it *was* about the servants as much as the masters, and gave a pretty good idea of that life of drudgery, although a bit prettied up all the same. Best thing about it was, to me, what doofuses the upstairs people were, blundering along kind of on the edge of gentility since Bellamy Sr. had no country seat, as I recall — just a very nice house in London — ? Though that was Edwardian times, rather than Victorian, if I remember correctly. Actually, “Jane Eyre” is about a governess and her uneasy relations with her “betters”, isn’t it? Only without the drudgery.
Are there any novels about 19th c servants that show lives of quiet desperation but without the solace of climbing out of the drudgery somehow, which I doubt very many managed to do?
23 June 2016 at 12:27 #52855@ichabod the one novel I am aware of that is about a Victorian servant is Esther Waters by George Moore. There was a BBC adaptation of it but that is long forgotten. I guess Tess D’Urbervilles is also a servant. The two novels were written at about the same time but take vastly different approaches the former being more social realist.
I don’t really think of Jane Eyre as a servant as governesses were somewhat more privileged. Many were daughters of middle or upper middle class families fallen upon hard times. That is one reason why the position was so hated as they were neither “upstairs” or “downstairs”. It was a very lonely life quite often.
Cheers
Janette
23 June 2016 at 16:19 #52859@janetteb Yes, that was clear in the story — especially since there is actually something for her inherit, later in the story, from — a deceased aunt, I think? So her family is perhaps lower bourgeoise rather than outright peasantry, I suppose. But she does start out a poor orphan, treated as some one just one insecure cut above servant class, and always conscious of the precarious nature of that position and the need to defend it with little else except her own force of character. Made for a compelling story, all right, but fiction. I can’t think off hand of any real-life examples of such a woman marrying up into the class that employed her, certainly not with children on the scene.
23 June 2016 at 22:00 #52861The one real-life marriage I know of between a Victorian servant and a ‘gent’ was the rather weird relationship between Hannah Cullwick and Arthur Munby. I seem to recall, when I was researching for the play, that there may have been a number of such marriages – but they were generally kept secret.
Rather like The Paternoster Gang, where Madame Vastra and Jenny have to pretend to be mistress and servant.
There are a couple of books on the real life Victorian governess; they did sometimes get marriage offers from people within the household. So, Jane Eyre isn’t entirely unrealistic on that.
Kathryn Hughes and Ruth Brandon have both turned their PhD thesis on the Victorian Governess into books.
24 June 2016 at 06:18 #52865@bluesqueakpip I have a book about Hannah and Arthur. He did not publicly acknowledge their marriage and yes it was indeed a somewhat strange relationship. I think I read that there were other marriages between “masters” and “servants” but they were rare and generally not spoken of in “polite society”. The reaction of “society” to the marriage of Eugene Wrayburne at the end of Our Mutual Friend demonstrates why. Must look for the Kathryn Hughes and Ruth Brandon books.
In Australia it was not uncommon for housekeepers to marry their employers in the Victorian age. Classes were far more fluid then as a lot of the employers were “self made” anyway and there was a shortage of women, especially single ones as they tended not to immigrate alone.
Cheers
Janette
24 June 2016 at 15:03 #52873On a day when it seems the fudricks have taken over the asylum (with the fall of Cameron being the most meagre recompense), can I just say that seeing the mighty Dave Gibbons’s rendering of the 12th Doctor made me squee just a little bit…
24 June 2016 at 19:35 #52875What is a fudrick?
24 June 2016 at 20:48 #52878@blenkinsopthebrave Thanks for those recce’s.
@jimthefish Um — who’s Maxwell Edison, for those across the pond?
@stichintime Maybe a “fudrick” is what just happened in Britain?
24 June 2016 at 22:43 #52880@ichabod–
Maxwell Edison was a recurring character in the comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine, from which the above frame was unmercifully ripped. DWM has just celebrated its 500th issue (thus making me feel incredibly old) and has celebrated with a special strip that has reunited many of its major writers and artists over the years. The issue is well worth seeking out btw and has lots of goodies, including a pretty good interview with Steven Moffat.
As for the fudrick — it does indeed refer to the tumultuous events in Britain of the last 24 hours. But perhaps that’s best left to the Fox Inn, if not outrightly glossed over altogether…
25 June 2016 at 01:35 #52887Welcome back to you brother!
Young puricle picked up that you hadn’t been around for a while? He has some algorithm thing going which attests to which Forum member is around and talking and which isn’t -this, more honestly, is something his more technological friend can do -rather than him (Son is the least technological child I’ve come across!).
We have just finished House and together with Buffy it changed his life.
Good to see you around: we have other things on our watch list including Veronica Mars
25 June 2016 at 01:35 #52888@jimthefish Thanks for the info.
25 June 2016 at 02:16 #52889Ah, okay, armed with that information, I did a search, which led me to a lot of Scottish sites, which led me to a dictionary of Scottish slang, which led me to the discovery that, putting it politely, a “fud” may refer to a stupid person. It also has another meaning, which is best left to imagination. I then looked up, “rick,” and when I finally found some information on that, and put the two together, I ended up with a very rude word with Anglo-saxon roots that begins with “f” and ends with “r,” which may or not be correct. Another possible definition though, perhaps more appropriate for the context and less naughty, is a stupid person full of hot air.
25 June 2016 at 03:40 #52893That is very kind of you, and I am not entirely sure I deserve such praise, but one thing our comments have in common is that I cannot remember what I said up thread either!
25 June 2016 at 04:27 #52894@stitchintime
yep, pretty much.
The dictionary definitions of everything have a kind of ‘bad’ history around here….:)
Puro and Son
30 June 2016 at 16:48 #5301230 June 2016 at 17:04 #53013On a slightly smaller scale, this is near me organised by one of the BG Who FX guys whose name escapes me:
30 June 2016 at 20:48 #53019@pedant — that looks rather excellent…
30 June 2016 at 22:45 #53023Has anyone mentioned here the new Top Gear? I’m not a big fan but I watch it from time to time (practically every Sunday as BBC Brit shows a few episodes in a row with Clarkson and now the new episodes with Chris Evans). I’ve never been a fan of Clarkson who is a bully and a boor but he certainly knows his stuff. When I heard that Matt LeBlanc was appointed as one of the host of the programme I was rather sceptical as he’s such a wooden actor. But after two episode which I’ve seen I have to admit that he really knows what he’s doing. He cartainly loves cars and has his own opinions (or he plays well his role). It’s Chris Evans who seems adrift. When he speaks I have the impression that he just utters the lines he memorized from the script and has not the faintest idea about the cars (maybe except his own Rolls-Royce Corniche). And that squeaky voice of him…
1 July 2016 at 00:04 #53024Yeah – Evans is one of the best radio people around (although too shouty for breakfast radio for me), but he has never quite made the full transition to TV.
But, to be clear, he is a true petrolhead.
Have you seen Episodes? That might give you a different take on LeBlanc (who has been a bit of a revelation on Top Gear)
If I have caught up on some of the lost sleep, I have already been nagged by @sirclockface to take him.
3 July 2016 at 17:13 #53059It seems that dark clouds appeard on the horizon for Chris Evans as people get started to call for #Chrexit on Twitter.
I’ve never listened to his radio programme as I usually listen to BBC Radio 4. But I did it today (Friday’s programme). He’s really noisy but energetic and passionate. He could be more passionate as the Top Gear host. I think he is an interresting choice for the job, completely different from Le Blanc but the producers have to find a new formula, think through the nature of their relationship. It must be really hard for him to walk in Clarkson’s shoes.
3 July 2016 at 23:40 #53063It the back end of the 80s/ early 90s, Evans did the GLR (now Radio London) Saturday morning show, which was followed by Danny Baker doing the lunchtime slot. It was, quite simply, the best 4 hours a week of radio I have ever heard. No formula, a lot of ad libbing and quite a bit of boundary pushing. Two broadcasters who understood completely the transaction between the radio presenter and the listener. So many imitators think it is just shouting and banter, but it was so much more. I nearly pranged my car I was laughing so hard once.
It couldn’t last as the BBC became scared of what GLR was becoming, hence the rebrand.
It is no real surprise that neither Evans not Baker have ever quite found their niche outside radio. Occasional moments of brilliance, but much that was felt like they were wearing straitjackets. I get a little of that with Evans on Top Gear, whereas LeBlanc seems to have taken to it like a duck to water.
4 July 2016 at 15:30 #53089And, according to The Twitter, Evans is stepping down.
4 July 2016 at 22:05 #53093@pedant So it seems. And only yesterday I wrote him on Twitter to do not mind those #Chrexit comments. Will see how Matt LeBlanc will menage as a host. He’s an American so I don’t think he would think much about Clarkson’s ‘legacy’ and he knows how to play a role of an american ignorant.
5 July 2016 at 02:38 #53098I reckon there is a chance they will bring someone else in (or do what Have I Got News For You did when they dumped Angus Deayton – move to a rotation of hosts). Pretty well everyone one else did fine (and I actually think Evans was OK on air, but he is not used to not being top dog on a show and, I gather, that showed behind the scenes).
7 July 2016 at 10:28 #53157Since i’m new who is everyone’s fave Doctor and episode?
7 July 2016 at 11:55 #53158Hello, nice to see another new face, my favourite Doctor (as you can probably tell by the profile pic) is the second doctor Sir Patrick of Troughton (he’s an absolute genius) and my favourite episode is The Power of the Daleks though a number of episodes come close!
What are your favourites?
Have you seen any of Troughton’s episodes?
Hope you enjoy it here!
7 July 2016 at 12:08 #53159@thedentistofdavros cool and i have not seen any classic episode yet but i plan too. My fave doctor is a joint 1st with smith and capaldi. fave episode is Dinosaurs on a spaceship.
7 July 2016 at 12:17 #53160Have you got any ideas of which classic episode you will watch first if not I’m sure all of us here can help with plenty of suggestions!
Smith and Capaldi are both excellent (well isn’t every Doctor!) Capaldi has bee my favourite of the new series so far. I thought I would miss Smith to much so I wouldn’t be able to like Capaldi at first but I was wrong and I loved his Doctor immediately!
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is a very fun episode and Smith is particularly funny in that episode I seem to remember.
7 July 2016 at 12:43 #53161@thedentistofdavros I would probabaly just start collecting the dvds and start from the beginning i imagine. I thought that too about capaldi. What about fave companion?
7 July 2016 at 21:44 #53164@1997whovian Hello! My favorite Doctor is Matt Smith, but Capaldi is awesome too. Favorite episode… I don’t know, but if I had to pick right now it would either be Dalek or Asylum of the Daleks.
Favorite companion is a Classic Who companion, Ace. Ace is different from other companions because instead of standing there and screaming or running away, Ace pulls out high explosives.
Also, she took on a Dalek with a baseball bat and won.
That is quite possibly the most awesome thing any companion has ever done. EVER.
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