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@ps1l0v3y0u @dentarthurdent @thane16

Was this tendency because the Doctor was (then) male, and the companions, as ever, were female

I mean, yes I think so. The companion does tend to riff off the lead and, with Moff’s previous writing, we know he likes to explore the sexual politics of the traditional male-female relationship.

I liked RTDs take:…[Read more]

@thane16

On screwball, did you see Bringing Up Baby in ‘39 with Katharine Hepburn?

Oh, yes. Many times. It’s great, She’s great and a young Cary Grant is also great.

Anything with Hepburn, Grant or James Stewart is always worth my attention. And The Philadelphia Story has all three. Would recommend, if you’ve not seen it.

That trio are p…[Read more]

@thane16 @dentesrthurdent @whohar

Thought I’d move over here…

Right! Neither I, nor Cardinals Fang or Biggles quite expected that!

Personally, I start off with the existential question ‘why should any right-minded Whovian be u fuly critical of Moff?’; and ‘how could the show written by Chib be both SO tedious AND incoherent.’ It shouldn’t b…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent I think @ps1l0v3y0u meant that women could sometimes be written as “another bloke” as opposed to a well thought out female character. If I’m wrong please chip in.

There are so many rules or concepts associated with writing for any character that I don’t know how anybody does it without facing criticism. But I was impressed with Am…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

Some people were annoyed that Moff’s companions were obvious bloke adjuncts. They have a point. I’ sure Bill ‘molested by a puddle’ also had some people frothing. 

Not sure what ‘bloke adjuncts’ means.   They were normal heterosexual people (like, the 90%) who naturally had boyfriends (or, in the case of Bill, girl-puddl…[Read more]

@whohar   I was aware that in devoting a couple of column inches to the Bechtel test I was maybe giving it far more significance than it (IMO) merited.   But that’s one of those can’t-win things.

I do like strong female characters who don’t just stand on a chair and scream when they see a mouse.   (Though I did have a female acquaintance last…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent    @thane16

@ps1l0v3y0u

Ah, the infamous Bechdel test, aka the Bechdel–Wallace Test, was developed in the 80s, named for Alison Bechdel and Liz Wallace.

It’s pretty broad and, yes, limited in its usefulness. I believe it was originally developed to bring a focus on the roles of women in film, with their being quite the numbe…[Read more]

@classiccar

Welcome, just post a question on a forum and someone will respond if they have an answer.

Suggest The Winchester may be a more appropriate forum, but it doesn’t matter too much.

Have you watched the tape?

My first thought was the 1996 Doctor Who Movie which had McCoy and McGann in it.

And I found Jim McManus on…[Read more]

Hello, I have just signed into this site but I can’t work out how to ask a question so please forgive me but I am trying to find out information on a Vhs tape I have, it is labelled Sylvester McCoy The Movie presented by Jim McManus but there does not seem to be anything on google about it.

@dentarthurdent (I’ve just found out that there was a second woman in Alien, the navigator. I’d forgotten that. They had a row about whether to let the crew back in. Who were male. So it still fails the test.)

A bit off-topic: I rewatched The Birds for the umpteenth time over the weekend. It’s a timeless classic, and I never tire of it (ev…[Read more]

@thane16 @dentarthurdent

The Test. I did kind of say Moff didn’t really care. Do I? Well, it’s there now. You would think it might be successfully extolled at some point. And yet examples are few. To the extent that Dan ended up giving Yaz the talk… I mean… ah???

But Moff (and Jamie Matthieson) did lock Clara and Maisie in the baggage car of…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u The Bechdel Test sounds like barely relevant hokum to me. ‘At least two named women characters who talk to each other about something other than a man’?

Well, ‘Alien’ would fail that and the hero was a woman, ffs! So would ‘Hell Bent’ (I don’t think Clara and Ashildr talked to each other about anything other than the Doctor, although…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u @whohar @janetteb

Until about 8 years ago I was ignorant of the Bechdel Test myself. I actually thought Moff’s female characters were well rounded (not just …ahem….well rounded…) progressing from confused & helpless to “being the Doctor.”

Over the years one notices how companions evolve. In the 2000s the Doctor saved his beloved com…[Read more]

@thane16

Moff: you know where my sympathies lie. But there are those who cannot stand him, consider him ‘unwho’. He clearly wasn’t bothered what side of the Bechdel Test he landed. I am inclined to think an awareness of the principle of the Test should be enough. In the words of Arcade Fire: ‘I guess we’ll just have to adjust.’

BUT the plots did…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Cor, yes! MI5’s ziggurat: a perfect description of it. I wonder who employed the architect to build THAT?  Oh yes! El Trumpo presenting the prize. What a delicious moment.

Yes, the fan service was evident, wasn’t it? I think even Mrs Flood’s status was confused with her monologue to Ms Cherry in Season 1 (almost like AD or CE org…[Read more]

@thane16

Hi!

I went off on one a bit. How could RTD speak so convincingly about the special that wasn’t? The BBC authorise the press releases don’t they?

But, what with the dire ratings, it was hard to see how there wouldn’t be a problem at some point. Murky business.

The furore over Billie Piper was really quite distressing. She’s an actor.…[Read more]

@syzygy I do agree about UNIT’s new mega-HQ. Makes MI6’s Ziggurat look like a garden shed. It also has (in my opinion) a really dominating and intimidating appearance, more like CyberHQ than UNIT.    (As an aside, do Cybermen drive Cybertrucks?)

And I, like you, was also disappointed in the companions, or rather the treatement of them. I re…[Read more]

@thane16 (and son)

And I don’t understand how RTD could speak so fluently (or should I say in his usual slightly rambling, breathy way) about a Christmas Special that hadn’t been made at all?

He’s basically lied to the fans and admitted it. Not sure why he felt the need to do that but it’s not a good look. I’m assuming the pressure behind the sce…[Read more]