Arachnids In The UK

[idiotsavon @idiotsavon]

@kevinwho Ooh, if the Doctor that we think is the current Doctor turns out to be a pretend Doctor, and then we meet the real and completely different Doctor, then that would be egg on everyone’s face who ever had any kind of strong opinion about the new Doctor, or whether “Jodi” was even any good.  Because that wasn’t even the new Doctor you morons. 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@idiotsavon – Terrible indeed, but what a twist!

@lisa – I like JW well enough, but I admit this season isn’t grabbing me either.  I mean, the most intriguing element yet was that the Ghost Monument shows up on that planet every 1000 cycles, and that the planet was out of orbit.  Really?  Cool!  Something there snares a TARDIS every 1000 cycles?  Pulls it through space and time from a regenerating Time Lord, perhaps?  Or just grabs for time-traveling devices, and when it gets one as massive/powerful as a TARDIS the planet gets knocked out of orbit.

I really hope sometime in the next six episodes (or at Christmas) some of these things will be addressed.  I understand they want the casual fans back, but the casual fans sat still for a Doctor Dances, Blink, Silence in the Library, etc. story once per season…

[Anonymous @]

@idiotsavon – Exactly!  It’s a notion I love to play around with!  “This show burns out whoever plays the Doctor!”  “Yes, so maybe we’ll only pretend it’s the Doctor, mwahahaha!” 😀

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@idiotsavon

I think the “nudges” idea has legs.

But also there is a theme of inadequacy and its relationship to cruelty. Tim Shaw was a cheat, Epzo a social cripple willing to cheat (but prevented by the rules); James Blake a spiteful racist who escaped to fishing. A bus driver abusing his power; and the spiders too big to live a perfect metaphor for and careless second-rate Trump.

I suspect that Chibnall is going for arc-of-theme, rather than arc-of-plot.

Still would have liked a bit more of a sense of threat. I mean, An American Werewolf in London was the genre-maker of comedy horror, but it was dripping with threat.

[LionHeart564 @lionheart564]

@miapatrick

I want to see racism being discussed on a more intellectual level. Racism isn’t something that comes out of nowhere. Any english in 12th century will not be a racism against african because most of them never met one.Thay will not have the concept of different race. If not for western nations’s rising power of 16th century to 19th century white peoples will be considered themselves as the superior race to every other human being. In 17th century western missionaries consider we Chinese as the more civilized people, even up to 18th century western countries like France still hold China in high regard. The Opium War changed that.

Power and ignorance created racism, power can be taken by other if history or future has a different direction and all human are equally capable of  ignorance

But of course considering the unfortunate implication it may be best just use green people and blue people to tell this kind of story

[Miapatrick @miapatrick]

@lionheart564 yes Chinese civilisation, and Japanese, were more comprehendible to Europeans than African, the kind of literary and artistic culture was more recognisable. (To the extent than when, say, the Benin Bronzes were found in Benin, europeans were convinced they derived from a different culture.)

The concept of different races did exist in the 12th century, though. The Moorish occupation of Spain and subsequent reconquest and the crusades fall into this time. I agree that this would mostly have concerned the upper classes. This was also a time when the upper classes spoke a different language to the lower classes in England. As well as (often exaggerated) tensions between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons, we had tensions between England and the parts of the British Isles where the Celts had been driven. We also had institutionalised discrimination against Jewish people.

Of course this same culture that denounced the infidel muslims also rediscovered a lot of the classical literature of Europe through the work of islamic scholars and absorbed a lot of of the scientific work of the Islamic empire , often by Latinising the names of Arab scholars and absorbing them into the cannon.

It’s true that throughout history England specifically absorbed waves of invaders – the Angels, Saxons, and Jutes, Scandinavians, Normans, and that makes up who we are now, and the language we’re typing in. Race did make this more complicated. There has been extreme bigotry towards the Irish, for example, but it hasn’t lingered in the war racism towards people of African decent. The visible difference seems key. (Which is why anti-Semitic propaganda so often uses cartoons of hooked noses). We remain very good at absorbing other cultures (our most popular dish is a bastardisation of an Indian dish, our national drink is tea, we drink it out of china, we’re obsessed with paper, bombfire night is coming up and we’ll celebrate it with fireworks).

Our specific and greatest problems with racism come with the fact that many of our black and asian population come from former slave populations and the occupation of India respectively, from countries we tried to justify our treatment of with ideas of basic inferiority. That isn’t to say that within communities and individuals of these ethnic groups you won’t find bigoted views, as you say, it’s human nature. But yes, green and blue people, for now, might be best. Though it does bare repeating, the second episode did feature someone of asian decent using two white people as his own personal, disposable, real life video game characters.

[Whisht @whisht]

Hi everyone – apologies for not coming on earlier, but have read everything.
In fact I think that I’ve enjoyed reading on this site more than the episodes (I’ve learnt more as well!).
I think that as @pedant mentioned, this series is likely a thematic arc rather than a plot arc. Not sure we’ll see any of the monsters/bad guys again (maybe one).

For me I’m beginning to think the theme is that bullies pick on the ‘weakest’. Or at least the people they perceive as the weakest. And the episodes are more focused on the bullied rather than the monsters (and the monster/bullies are all a bit rubbish ‘cos bullies often are especially if you’re a kid at school).

So, we get Tim Shaw picking on Karl;
Angstrom the contestant/almost-refugee survivor of the Stenza;
Black people in segregated America
Staff of notTrump including Yaz’s mum.

However each time we’re shown how the ‘weakest’ can overcome their bullies, and there are right ways and wrong ways of doing that.
So Karl shouldn’t kick an-already beaten Tim Shaw in order to feel better (you don’t get self-worth by bullying others).
Angstrom wants to win the jackpot to lift her family out of poverty.
Rosa non-violently resisting.
Yaz’s mum talking back to notTrump.

I’m still having problems with the series so far. I really don’t like the interior of the Tardis – its too dark for the bright WhitDoc (and to my eyes the crystal pillars looks plastic-y and let the effect down).
The ending of Arachnids seems to be erm, lets just put the spiders away from people and let them die in that room (rather than say, take them to a planet of huge flies).

I don’t know, there’ll just be little bits that take me out of the drama – or just a lack of drama or peril.

But I really want Whitaker-as-the-Doctor to work and think she will nail it soon (for me).
I also like a lot of what Graham, Yaz and Ryan are doing and evolving as and there are some great smaller moments (which people here have all talked about really well).

So – on to Sunday!
(but not before I maybe put penny’sworth on a couple of other threads!)

[LionHeart564 @lionheart564]

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”><span class=”useratname”>@miapatrick </span></div>

<div class=”bbp-reply-content”>The concept of different races did exist in the 12th century, though. The Moorish occupation of Spain and subsequent reconquest and the crusades fall into this time. I agree that this would mostly have concerned the upper classes.</div>

<div>The term “race” is something hard to define. We use the term very loosely to describe a group of people of similar physical appearance, of same religion, of same culture.In the origin post I used race as to describe a group of people with similar physical appearance. Moorish is indeed have some physical appearance difference from christian spanish but also they are more alike to each other in physical appearance then to chinese or african. So where does the line drawn when difference is too great to be consider different race? I don’t know there is any clear and scientific definition of “Race”</div>
<div>For people of that time, they don’t have the very concept of “Race”.Difference yes ,but not racial difference. If one is white but also a muslim,most christian european will just see this one as a muslim, not a white muslim.The whiteness has insufficient social meaning to be considered as defining trait of in this time period,it’s religion that most defining trait of a person.</div>
<div>The idea of a entire people is inferior just by birth is not very popular in history before 18th century europe. Bigoted views of other people of difference is very common, it can be found both in Ancient China or Ancient Greek but not in such way.I don’t think it is a coincidence that such idea come around the some time as the concept of race being created in europe.</div>

<div>Though it does bare repeating, the second episode did feature someone of asian decent using two white people as his own personal, disposable, real life video game characters.</div>

<div>
<div class=”bbp-pagination”> When I first watched the I didn’t noticed the Ilin (the game master) is played by a non-white acter (<b>Art Malik</b>) because he with makeout was similar enough to rest of the white case to my eyes even both of me and him are technically Asian(Chinese and Pakistani).</div>
</div>

[LionHeart564 @lionheart564]

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”><span class=”useratname”>@miapatrick </span></div>

<div class=”bbp-reply-content”>The concept of different races did exist in the 12th century, though. The Moorish occupation of Spain and subsequent reconquest and the crusades fall into this time. I agree that this would mostly have concerned the upper classes.</div>

<div>The term “race” is something hard to define. We use the term very loosely to describe a group of people of similar physical appearance, of same religion, of same culture.In the origin post I used race as to describe a group of people with similar physical appearance. Moorish is indeed have some physical appearance difference from christian Spanish but also they are more alike to each other in physical appearance then to Chinese or African. So where does the line drawn when difference is too great to be consider different race? I don’t know there is any clear and scientific definition of “Race”</div>
<div>For people of that time, they don’t have the very concept of “Race”.Difference yes ,but not racial difference. If one is white but also a muslim,most christian european will just see this one as a muslim, not a white muslim.The whiteness has insufficient social meaning to be considered as defining trait of in this time period,it’s religion that most defining trait of a person.</div>
<div>The idea of a entire people is inferior just by birth is not very popular in history before 18th century Europe. Bigoted views of other people of difference is very common, it can be found both in Ancient China or Ancient Greek but not in such way.I don’t think it is a coincidence that such idea come around the some time as the concept of race being created in Europe.</div>

<div>Though it does bare repeating, the second episode did feature someone of asian decent using two white people as his own personal, disposable, real life video game characters.</div>

<div>When I first watched the I didn’t noticed the Ilin (the game master) is played by a non-white acter (Art Malik) because he with makeout was similar enough to rest of the white case to my eyes even both of me and him are technically Asian(Chinese and Pakistani)</div>

[LionHeart564 @lionheart564]

@craig
@miapatrick

I don’t know what happens but I think the post system is broken for me

[Miapatrick @miapatrick]

@lionheart564 trying to formulate a comment along the lines of ‘so we all look the same to you?’ that makes it clear I’m making a joke 😉 … sometimes europeans are bad at telling the difference between facial characteristics of, say, Korean and Chinese people in a similar way. The racial difference in that episode would be registered by europeans and people from the Indian sub-contenent.

 

[Miapatrick @miapatrick]

@lionheart564 yes I keep double posting, though my links seem to be working.

 

[idiotsavon @idiotsavon]

@pedant I’d like it if the “nudges” theme became a thing: the message that, however unremarkable we think we are, we each have tremendous power to change and shape the world. But that one bad choice, one little nudge in the wrong direction could be catastrophic.

Thinking about it, wasn’t there a convo somewhere on the Rosa thread about Thirteen’s warning to Team Tardis? She’d told them to be careful not to change history, whereas Ten and Twelve were both explicitly cavalier about treading on butterflies.

At the beginning of World Enough and Time, Twelve seemed incredibly complacent, sitting with his feet up on the Tardis console eating crisps. And in the end, that single bad decision, that small delay in getting himself out of the Tardis, was what got Bill killed.
Hence, perhaps, Thirteen’s change of heart and new-found caution.

Actually, there was a certain nonchalance and showmanship about the Doctor as played by Tennant, Smith and Capaldi that I don’t think is there with Whittaker. Whittaker’s Doctor seems more anxious somehow. Maybe she’s feeling the pressure: don’t make a wrong move, no matter how small; don’t nudge things the wrong way. (Again.)

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@lionheart564

Are you by any chance composing in something else (Word, say) and then copying and pasting? That often brings a lot of bad formatting with it. The best way around it is to click the “Text” tab in the Reply box, which will show you any garbage that has cropped up.

Thanks for the comments on my query (Chinese whispers is both a children’s game where a message is passed along a line via whispers, and then the final message is compared with the original and a metaphor for garbled communication).

In the west we have a real tendency to attribute negatives to national stereotypes (in the UK syphilis was known as the “French Disease”, in France it was the “Italian disease” and the “French disease” right back at them by the Italians). I was curious see see if a similar thing happens in China.

[LionHeart564 @lionheart564]

@miapatrick

I won’t blame them since myself can’t tell one is Chinese or Korean or Japanese just by looking at the face.

@pedant

Thank you for your advice.

And to your question.No,we don’t really do that. In most of our history,we don’t see others as our equal but one of three things, tributary starts, barbarians or imperialism invaders. So a equal -ish rivalry like England vs France or France vs Italian doesn’t exist in China. Plus we have enough old storys as idiom.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 4 months ago by  LionHeart564.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@lionheart564

I will be deeply disappointed if I don’t count as a barbarian 😉

@idiotsavon

Yes, for all her bubbly persona, she is significantly more cautious and considered that her three forebears.

[Azzitay @azzitay]

Poor Jodie deserves better writing than this.

The plothole of the Spiders in the Panic Room and the Rest in Town is too damn bad for an

awesome series like Dr.Who.

Fire the Writer and get a decent one i say.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@azzitay

There was no plot hole. It was clearly shown what happens to spiders that get too big.

 

 

[Chiana @chiana]

I agree with Whisht, I’m not really getting into this series. All the pc preaching, and then to put all those spiders in a sealed room to die a slow death, probably eating each other, was far more cruel than killing them quickly; and we didn’t find out what happened to all the other spiders all over the city. I know they would have eventually died from growing too big, but they could have seen off quite a few victims in the mean time!

As for the Rosa episode, I’m sure the protest would have happened another day; it wasn’t absolutely essential for it to take place on that specific day.

They’ve obviously thrown a lot of money at it, with sets and big name guest stars, yet older series with far lower budgets managed to deliver the thrills which are lacking now; and I’m sure some of the older crews would have spotted the single shadow mistake in The Ghost Monument too!

I’m not totally against JW, although I think a female actor with a bit more character may have been better (personally I think Rebecca Front would have been quite good) but I am getting a bit tired of the sonic screwdriver pose with the big arm swing!

[swordwhale @swordwhale]

@miapatrick Of course this same culture that denounced the infidel muslims also rediscovered a lot of the classical literature of Europe through the work of islamic scholars and absorbed a lot of of the scientific work of the Islamic empire , often by Latinising the names of Arab scholars and absorbing them into the cannon.

Wow, cool historical insights!

And… the American Cowboy’s horsemanship style came from the Spanish in the wild west, who got it from (drum roll please)… the Moors and other Arab horsemen. And their small, wiry, hardy Arabs influenced most American breeds.

Not to mention the “Spanish Colonial Horses”…descended from Moorish Barbs… that still roam the wild west, the east coast barrier islands; the Outer Banks: (Corollas, Shackelfords and Bankers), South Carolina (the Marsh Tacky), and Florida (the Florida Cracker Horse). Even the wild horses of my favorite islands, Chincoteague and Assateague (Maryland and Virginia) originally had Spanish Colonial Horses… aka.. Barbs from the Moors.

(Most of my equines have been both Arabs and wild mustangs, it’s a favorite subject… WHO knew it would have anything to do with a tardis)

@whisht taking the spiders to a Planet of Huge Flies… why didn’t I think of that! Brilliant!

 

I think technically the human race is all one thing and the differences in DNA between us are ridiculously tiny.

Actual genetic variation in humans. Human populations do roughly cluster into geographical regions. However, variation between different regions is small, thus blurring the lines between populations. Furthermore, variation within a single region is large, and there is no uniform identity.  http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/

Basically: difference between chunks of land where we come from: small. Variation in any bunch of people in a chunk of land: large.

Human race.

 

And yes, WhitDoc does have a distinctive style with the sonic screwdriver. I’m amused.

@miapatrick I’m trying to sort out what the fuzzything is in your avatar…

[nerys @nerys]

@chiana … but I am getting a bit tired of the sonic screwdriver pose with the big arm swing!

Why more so with Jodie Whittaker than with any of her predecessors? They’ve all shown a flair for swinging out the sonic screwdriver and striking a dramatic pose.

[Chiana @chiana]

Perhaps I haven’t noticed it so much! I didn’t think it was every time with others Doctors, and there are times it needs to be wielded discreetly.

Maybe it’s just because I’m not really seeing JW as the Doctor. I remember when Matt Smith took over and I knew David Tennant was going to be a tough act to follow. Within a few minutes of the start of his first episode I thought “he’s got it!” I don’t have that feeling now unfortunately.

[nerys @nerys]

@chiana I had the same feeling about Matt Smith, to the point where I avoided watching Doctor Who for quite some time after he started. It was only when we happened upon a repeat and watched it that I realized he was quite convincing as the Doctor, and every bit as good as Tennant, just different.

In fact, I loved Chris Eccleston, too. But because he had only one season, it didn’t seem like such a major transition to Tennant. Truth be told, I thought Tennant got off to a slow start. But once he got going, he was great.

Jodie Whittaker won me over within minutes. But I also realize this is very subjective, and not everyone is going to react the same. I quite enjoyed Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, but lost count of the number of people who posted (mainly on other sites) that he just wasn’t the Doctor, for them. Different strokes, and all!

I do hope, as others have observed, we start getting some episodes that feel like the Doctor and her companions are facing more of a serious menace. Fingers crossed that that’s yet to come.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@juniperfish  We can’t wait for the Doctor, or anyone else, to fix earth’s problems. We have to do it ourselves. A rather sombre message, for sombre times.

And much needed — and heeded, to some degree, as noted about the mid-term elections here in the US.  This part of what CC is doing I do like: the scaling back of the earlier Doctor-braggadocio (though some humor, and a bit of the endearing edging into buffoonery went with it, too).  WhittDoc is herself, so far for me, a scaled-back Doctor in other ways, too — less self-absorbed, more brisk and chummy than aloof and alien, more *demanding* of humans rather than pointing out our failings.

I see a good parent to nervous children here, rather than an ancient, experienced, and erratic space adventurer; and maybe that good but realistic parent is also what’s needed right now.

@missrory  . . . Doctor has knowledge that, as a time-and-space traveler who needs to keep the Web of Time intact (and who saw humanity pay dearly for a previous self ousting Harriet Jones), there really is only so much she can fix.

Yeah — She can do repairs and upgrades, but she can’t change Entropy permanently, only interrupt it a bit here and there . . . and now knows that, and shows a bit of humility on account of it.  I love your comments on those damned, futile, useless “super-heroes” who do nothing about our real problems, just a lot of posturing, muscle-flexing, and game-playing about invented ones — although that does reflect with uncomfortable accuracy the relationship between the current administration and the problems of the nation it administers, come to think of it (though I can really only speak for the US, of course — where it looks like a close fit).

@arch  . . . love graham, Walsh is playing the character very well and I love that we have a mature companion again.

Yes; he’s becoming the warm, steady heart of the group, very good and enjoyable work from Walsh.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@chiara  I think a female actor with a bit more character may have been better (personally I think Rebecca Front would have been quite good)

I think so too; Amanda Tapper, from “Sanctuary” etc, might have done better.  I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by chipper-upper-lipper-itis, or something, and longing for some moments of reflection, some quiet thoughtfulness, all the stuff (of course) that tends to get left out of programming for young viewers (though Walsh brings some of that, in his memories of his beloved Grace — but WhittDoc has no such moments that I can recall, so far — too busy and flighty, expressing energy and quick thinking in buzzing activity).

[Cath Annabel @cathannabel]

I had a vague memory of a (relatively) obscure literary reference and have just tracked it down to this episode:

We’re going to lure them in here with the promise of food, then deal with the spider mother in the ballroom. Oh, that sounds like the best novel Edith Wharton never wrote.

Bit of an odd one!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton – not entirely obvious why Wharton sprang to mind.  Still, I do like the occasional obscure literary reference.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Spiders.

Okay, first, I liked this ep, liked Yaz’s family (and her Mum) and the researcher Jade. And some good scary moments (scared me, even though I like big spiders). Would have liked it better but for the plot holes around spiders.

I do agree with the Doctor’s disapproval of guns, except that Chibnall seems to be undercutting his own argument, every time. (In Ghost Monument, no you don’t shoot the sentrybots, just zap ’em with a nuke-like EMP – how is that better?)

But ‘everyone’ seems to have swallowed the implicit idea that shooting is a quick and painless death. This is complete BS. Unless Mr Big was an expert on spider anatomy, and a crack shot, all he was doing was inflicting random pain on it. But was the spider even suffering (before it got shot), or was it slowly drifting away? Humans deprived of oxygen do not suffer, they just lose consciousness (it’s the build-up of carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen, that triggers the breathing/choking reflex). Maybe spiders are the same. So Mr Big was just torturing a dying creature. Chibnall could have made that obvious, but he let Mr Big off the hook. (And why didn’t the Doctor just sonic Mr Big’s gun to jam?)

And the spiders in the ‘panic room’, where it was implied that it was more ‘humane’ to let them die ‘naturally’ than shoot them. Well, given that shooting is far from painless, maybe it was, but it sounded unconvincing. I prefer to think that Jade would have come back (and did, because they’re still there) with a few cylinders of nitrogen to flood the room’s ventilation system, that would do it.

These plot holes could so easily have been fixed with a couple of lines of dialogue. Why do I get the impression that most of Chibnall’s stories are at first-draft stage and could have done with a bit of decent plot editing?

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

I see I already posted about this ep, but that was 17 months ago and it’s right above this one.   Busy group this…   🙂

Robertson is an almost exaggerated caricature of the obnoxious American businessman. (Was he deliberately aimed at Trump? I don’t know, I think if one looks at the most extreme caricature of a billionaire with political ambitions then Trump almost self-selects. Not that I have any objection to heaping derision on Mr Trump, other than Doctor Who shouldn’t get too overtly political, but if the writers had intended they could have put in a lot more identifying touches).

I thought the scene where the Doctor dropped the companions off and was visibly reluctant to leave was quite well done (though she was a tad too quick to jump at Yaz’s invitation, I would have dissembled a bit, maybe that’s just the Doctor being not-quite-human).

I do like Yaz’s family. The whole scene in their flat is quite light and engrossing, even the little rivalries. And the cobwebbed flat next door is good and spooky. And quite scary. When Ryan was peering under the bed I was sure the spider was going to do the Alien face-hugger trick. I like the scientist Jade, too.

Robertson seems determined to make a heap of trouble for himself. Unjustified dismissal, which is probably a civil matter, but possession of an automatic pistol in UK is a criminal offence (without the proper licences) and pointing it at people doubly so; and then virtual kidnapping of Yaz and her mother.

The giant spider grabbing Robertson’s henchman is pretty standard horror stuff, but quite well done. Also standard, the spider webs trapping them all in the hotel. So then they have a discussion in the kitchens about spiders and politics and Robertson appears a little more human. (Oh, and Jade: “I heard you’re only running because you’ve hated Trump for decades” – so Robertson definitely is not an alias for Trump.)

And we have another scary moment with the corridor full of spiders pursuing Graham and Ryan.

But anyway, leaving aside Robertson’s litigious threats, his modus operandi of ‘repurposing industrial sites into leisure venues’ sounds admirable to me.

So then we have a long, long, rather tedious preaching session on the perils of toxic waste and uncontrolled landfill and mutant spiders and it’s all Robertson’s fault (at this point I’m starting to feel almost sorry for him).

And then we have another preachment by the Doctor about not shooting the spiders (she is tiresome sometimes) and a rant about shooting things by Robertson that is so heavy-handed and transparent it makes me (as an anti-gun sort of guy) embarrassed. So then the Doctor wants to trap the spiders in the ‘panic room’ so they get a ‘humane, natural death’ (Jade’s words, actually). What, starving and eating each other? (Unless they can cut off the air and suffocate them first).

And the obligatory Ryan-has-a-cool-idea, of luring the spiders with some sort of noise-that-claims-to-be-music (who woulda thought they were rap spiders?).

Then the big momma spider, which has grown too big and is suffocating, is shot by evil Robertson. Who gloats that he’s going to be the next President. Now previous Doctors would have done something about that (think Tennant in Christmas Invasion).

[I wrote a para about spider physiology but I see I covered it in my last post (right above this one) 17 months ago…]

And at the end, the three decide they want more adventures with the Doctor. Would be fine if she didn’t ruin it with “Look at you. My fam.” [Aaaargh! No!] “No, still doesn’t quite work.” [At last a flash of sanity…] “Team Tardis?” [Nooo, please kill me now!].

So, much of the episode was quite good, interspersed with a few really clunky and clumsy scenes.   If they edited about ten minutes of preaching out of it and fixed a couple of minor details (like dialling back a little on Robertson) I could quite like it.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Skipped Rosa again. Just started re-watching Arachnids in the UK. Well the American owns a golf course and a hotel with gold paint all over it and is ruthless about firing people and only the absence of a fake tan and a bad hairpiece distinguishes him from we-know-who.

I see the last two posts on this ep were both me. 🙂 So rather than repeat myself, I’ll just mention briefly the changes in my reaction to it this time round:

But surprisingly, when the Doctor delivered the gang home to Sheffield and said goodbye, I felt almost sorry for her. I must have got accustomed to her Yorkshire-lass schtick over three series. She was pathetically, almost indecently quick to accept Yaz’s invitation to tea, and typically (for this Doctor) brash to invite the others. I like Yaz, and I like her father, who instantly welcomes Yaz’s friends. And I like Yaz’s mum, who also happens to look sufficently like Yaz to be convincing – good casting.

But the Doctor keeps going off on weird embarrassing tangents like “Sisters. I used to have sisters.” (SINCE WHEN?) “I used to be a sister, in an aqua-hospital.” (SINCE WHEN? Doctors aren’t nurses and the Doctor was never female before so could never have been a sister). “Actually, turned out to be a training camp for the Quiston Calcium Assassins.” Chibs, if this sort of thing is supposed to establish the Doctor’s alien-ness, forget it. We *know* the Doctor’s an alien. This just makes her an awkward embarrassing one. I think he’s just trying to outdo fish fingers and custard. It’s probably an improvement (for me personally) that I’m going off on Chibs’ writing and not Whittaker’s acting choices. Oh, and the Moff’s Doctors used to name-drop very occasionally for comic effect, Chibs does it all the bloody time (Amelia Earhart) and it gets old very quickly.

The spider-haunted flat is definitely creepy. In fact the idea of a plague of giant spiders is good. Makes a change that they weren’t a laboratory experiment that escaped, but a bit more nuanced than that.

By the way, the scribbles the Doctor makes on the map are wrong – there’s only a blank space in the centre because she’s neglected to join up a number of pins. She’s as bad with a marker as Trump with a hurricane.

“I’ve heard you’re only running [for President] because you’ve hated Trump for decades.” No Chibs, that bit of misdirection won’t work, we know it’s Trump. I do rather like it when the gang wind him up – “They don’t need giant spiders. They’d just pop a tiny poisonous one on your pillow.” I like Jade, too. I must be feeling very tolerant tonight.

Overall, I don’t mind this ep. Robertson is a caricature but he’s the only really badly written character. All the others are well cast and sympathetic characters

Oh, the music – something clattering away in the background like a single-cylinder donkey engine – very distracting.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent

You must be in a mellow mood indeed. There are good aspects to this episode, speaking from memory as it isn’t one I re watch. I like Yaz’ family and think it a great shame that they were recurring characters. the rest was meh, very meh and not one to appeal to Australians.  I also found the moralising not just heavy handed, Chibs style, but also a bit confused but maybe that is just because I wasn’t paying enough attention or not sympathising with the spiders or relating to the “don’t kill poor harmless spiders” message. (Far too many redbacks and white tails around here for that.)

cheers

Janette.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb I have to admit that my tolerance towards spiders is probably influenced by the fact that there are no deadly ones here and very, very few even poisonous ones. They’re less hazard than wasps.

Same goes for my tolerant attitude towards snakes – we don’t have any. Not even non-poisonous ones.

But yes the moralising was all over the place, a Chibs devotee might say ‘nuanced’ but IMO it was too heavy-handed for that. As Robertson said, building hotels on waste land was a win-win. But then his waste disposal company was taking short cuts to increase profitability and how much of that can be laid at the top boss’s door? It could have been an interesting point but then Robertson turned into a gung-ho trigger-happy gun nut.

Ah well, might watch another and it will NOT be Tsuranga Conundrum, what a surprise.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb Wouldn’t you know it, my smug statement about no snakes was disproved in under a day. The news just featured an item about a yellow-lipped sea krait in the Auckland Zoo which apparently washed up on Takapuna Beach a year ago and has been carefully nursed back to health. I’m staggered, since the usual fate of any snake which manages to arrive in New Zealand is instant extinction at the hands of the authorities. I thought that was a legal requirement. But get this – the sea krait is a Protected Species! Apparently as an occasional visitor to our shores it qualifies as semi-native.

Okay, I can understand the rationale – any random snake which arrives in cargo might just find that the climate suits it and multiply, like so many introduced species. Whereas the sea kraits occasionally get here by themselves, obviously the climate doesn’t suit them or they would have spread by now, so there’s no danger in keeping this one alive in the zoo.

Still, surprised the heck out of me. Won’t worry me on my swims, although quite poisonous they’re timid and will swim away and unlikely to bite unless you grab it. Apparently there are quite a lot in the lagoon in Rarotonga but I’ve only ever seen a glimpse of one, disappearing as fast as it could, I’m more worried about stonefish.

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