On the Sofa 11

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Dunno if this will link properly, but this is AWESOME!

Ncuti on the correct pronunciation of his name… which apparently his mum didn’t tell him he was 26!!

😀 😀 😀

https://x.com/i/status/1791184337339089156

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

I don’t think this classifies as a spoiler

https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-mrs-flood-fourth-wall-unresolved-davies-response/

I do think RTD2 is using Mrs Flood merely as a device; she is just there to make us sit up and ask…”Why?”

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Well… is that good art? For any reason? If the fans keep making noise we’ll keep getting this nonsense.

In any case, Russ can never say ‘yes, that’s what it is. You’re absolutely right,’ before the reveal. Or there would be no reveal.

Is this the real divide with those who sporadically want to forget continuity and reduce the show to a soap (in which the only continuity can be cliche?)

The soufflé is the recipe. The recipe is continuity. And Russ is probably going to play all the right notes… but maybe not in the right order.

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsothebrave @ps1l0v3y0u

I honestly preferred the days when the showrunners focused on the show rather than the publicity. I know you need both, but there seems too much of the latter at the expense of the former.

And, yes, Rule 2: the showrunner lies. But it becomes tedious if it’s all the time and, I’d argue, self-defeating.

And the publicity should never fill in the gaps in the storytelling…

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whohar

Yes, I feel the same way. At the moment, there seems to be more stories on the web featuring RTD2 than stories about the show itself or the actors, or writers, or, well, anybody beyond RTD2.

The latest one I came across this morning. It was about how Who and the TV version of Star Trek are collaborating for some event or other, and the piece seem to consist primarily of RTD2 talking about…RTD2!

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I think San Diego ComicCon is soon, so it may be that the Who-ST tie in is related to that.

I guess you need a certain level of self-confidence to showrun a major show. I guess the trick is to make sure it doesn’t go to your head.

As Dickie Attenborough once said: “The day you believe your own publicity, you’re dead”.

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Started re-watching the Troughton story “Web of Fear” last night. So far, just the first two episodes. For those who have seen it, you will recall that it is set in the London Underground, that has been closed off due to unknown malevolent forces. The Monsters are, of course, the Yeti, deployed by the Great Intelligence. The military are sent into the Underground to deal with the problem. Chaos ensues. Into this chaos, the Tardis arrives.

As I watched it again, I had this strange feeling it reminded me of something else…Military, underground tunnels, monster… And then it struck me. It felt strangely like “Aliens” with Sigourney Weaver.

I can’t imagine the writers of “Aliens” made the connection, and I know that the Doctor will not suggest, like Sigourney Weaver: “I think we should take off and nuke the planet from outer space; it’s the only way to be safe” (one of my favourite movie lines…) but it certainly added something to my re-viewing of the Troughton story.

Tonight, episode 3, with the arrival of someone very special to Who lore.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Have now finished watching “The Web of Fear” with the Troughton Doctor. A really brilliant story. It features the introduction of Leftbridge Stewart (as an Army Colonel, before they thought of UNIT). A riveting story, with a huge amount of both action and paranoia.

The third episode (of six) is reconstructed using stills-in a really effective way, and the acting by everyone throughout the whole six episodes, from Troughton to the minor parts is excellent. In fact, when you take into account all the soldiers, everyone shines.

I really think this is one of the great classic Who stories and encourage  everyone to watch it.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Just posted this morning, for those who may be interested. The Doctor Who panel from Comic Con 2024.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave @nerys

Web of Fear… I remember watching this. Rather liked The Yetis as a nipper. All the critters from this era made a big impression. I suppose identifiable mooks are good for kids.

 

The pictures of Jasper are horrific. When the UK had its record breaking day (40 degrees) 2 years ago about a 1/4 of a village called Wennington went up in flames. Tiny place. The fire started in an over-heated compost heap. Many years before I would cycle down the high street on the way to work… just a row of Victorian cottages and a 4 square medieval church. But it was the first rural place outside London. Familiar. Very much of a shock. Homes visibly destroyed. Horses running in panic. Nothing to what a Mediterranean country faces most years.

The reality of climate change is dwarfs the relevant debates and political manoeuvrings around what ought to be possible.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Mrs Blenkinsop and I were just rewatching “The Space Museum” with Hartnell. was it good? Well… But it was classic “Who” and it had characters like Ian and Barbara and Vicki.

And it brought back my teenage years .

We used to discuss those early years quite a lt. If there is anyone out there who who would  like to continue to talk about those early years of “Who” it would be great to hear from you.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Not quite as far back but I am watching Pertwee’s 2nd (aka Season 8). Some stories I’d not seen before

It’s the Master season, and the quality is…variable. In descending order of quality, I’d go:

The Daemons

Mind of Evil

Terror of the Autons

Colony in Space

The Axons

The Axons was woeful from a number of perspectives, which surprised me a bit. Apparently Capaldi was asked by Moffat which of the classic era monsters he’d bring back. Capaldi said the Axons or the Mondasian Cybermen. Moffat baulked at the Axons and we ended up with World Enough and Time, and The Doctor Falls, so it worked out pretty well I’d say.

 

Anyhoo back to Season 8: There’s still plenty to enjoy in the season, for me anyway. I’m a big fan of Delgado, and him and the Doc’s interactions are great. Similarly with the Unit crew (aside: one of the Unit tech guys was a Sergeant called Osgood!).

And The Daemons is one of my favourite classic Who stories – all English folk horror. Lovely.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whohar Totally agree on The Daemons. One of the best. And I have always loved the Delgardo Master. Not every story featuring him was brilliant, but Delgardo always was.

 

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave

IIRC, there were plans to reveal that the Delgado Master was the Doctor’s brother, which were curtailed by the death of Delgado in a car crash in Spain in 1973.

Re: UNIT. I remember reading about an army Major (?) who, when asked about Doctor Who, said (I paraphrase): “Complete rubbish but the Brigadier is spot on”. I would think many of the writers of that era would have had actual recent experience of the army due to National Service, which would have informed their writing of the UNIT characters.

There’s a cracking line in the Daemons from the Brig. They are trying to subdue the gargoyle statue-come-to-life (Bok), and the Brig says to one of his men who has a rifle pointed at Bok “Chap with wings. Five rounds rapid”. Marvellous.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whohar Yes, Delgado’s early death was very sad. Another (small) role by him that I will always treasure was in the wonderful 1953 comedy “The Captain’s Paradise” with Alec Guinness and Celia Johnson that features a wonderful comic sequence with Delgado as a policeman.

I did not realise that there were plans to reveal his Master as the Doctor’s brother.  A missed opportunity, as Pertwee and Delgado worked so well together.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave

That’s interesting, I’d not heard of The Captain’s Paradise. I’ll check it out.

Apparently there were two thoughts re the Delgado Master: either the Docs brother, or that they were two halves of the same person. Id and Ego if you like. There was something called the Final Game which was going to set all this out:

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Final_Game_(unproduced_TV_story)

There is a fan produced YouTube series, which I’ll listen to when I get round to it:

https://youtu.be/GUVU0081khk

Of course, some of these ideas have since been used (cough, cough, Valeyard). I’m seeing this quite a lot as I am going through classic Who, with many ideas reappearing in some form or other in the modern show. I like that connection.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Mrs Blenkinsop and I spent the last few evenings watching “The Mind Robber” with the Troughton Doctor. We both loved it. The best way I can describe it is that it has a Lewis Carroll feel to it, particularly in the way it mixes reality and fantasy. For example, there is a plot twist that results in Jamie, played by Frazer Hines, being played by a completely different actor over two episodes! I can’t say more without giving it away. But if you can find “The Mind Robber” I think you will enjoy it.

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Sad news has just come in that the wonderful actress Jean Marsh (who was in a number of Doctor Who stories and was previously married to Jon Pertwee) has died.

Most people will remember her for Upstairs, Downstairs, but she was so much more; including Doctor Who Stories from the 1960s to the 1980s, and movies like The Eagle has Landed.

I thought she was brilliant in everything I saw here in.

RIP.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whohar

You were asking about the Jean Marsh story we were going to watch. it turned out that the Blenkinsop basement failed to reveal a Who story with Jean Marsh, so we watched an episode from The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes where she played a small but key role in an excellent episode called “The Looting of the Specie Room”.

Highly recommended.

 

 

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I think you may have struggled to find any extant Who with her in it. Aside from The Daleks Master Plan (lost) The Crusades is also lost I think. McCoy ep Battlefield your best (only) option there.

I’m not familiar with that version of Holmes or that story, but glad you managed to get a tribute watch in.

I do like a good Holmes story, with Jeremy Brett’s tv version being excellent. I also have a soft spot for the old movie versions with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, although they tended to veer wildly away from the source material.

And of course there’s always the 80s BBC Hound of the Baskervilles version with Tom Baker, if you want a Who tie-in.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@blenkinsopthebrave

Thanks for sharing the news about Jean Marsh. Very talented woman. I was a big fan of Upstairs Downstairs in the 70s (my next door neighbour was a cook in a similarly big house in the 1920s. She found it very authentic for the most part).

I was gobsmacked when I realised Rose was the same actor as the wonderful Sara Kingdom. (I can be a bit slow on the uptake, LOL).  Interestingly, if you count Sara as a companion, The Daleks’ Masterplan actually knocked off 2 companions, with (ancient Trojan) Katerina being a shocking first. I was devastated! It was such a long time ago, but I remember this serial very fondly, as one which was pushing the boundaries of Doctor Who. And the Daleks were still VERY scary (tho not quite so scary as some of the humans!). So much good stuff (starting with the bottle episode (some weeks before it) Mission To The Unknown). Shame they’re all mostly gone.

Checking the credits – the writers were Terry Nation, with Dennis Spooner doing most of the second half, and Director Douglas Camfield, so that explains a lot 😉

RIP Jean Marsh

Oh, and with you and @whohar on The Daemons

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

The Mind Robber… Wasn’t Fraser Hines stricken with Chicken Pox?

Just as well it was such a warped out weirdo story really. And Cold Turkey was sliding down the charts. And Mick had put the Stones’ Rock n Roll Circus on ice. And Roy Wood had managed to grow a tache.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ps1l0v3y0u  He was indeed, and he has my sympathies–60 years too late.

But the way he was replaced could only have happened in the context of the story in “The Mind Robber”, which I think of as really enjoyable romp between reality and fiction and back again.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave
I will check the rest of The Mind Robber, having watched it about 10 years back, but had a peek at episode 4… first broadcast Oct 5th 1968.

Key elements: fictional characters, Gulliver – first sci fi protagonist?; The Karkus – comic strip cartoon, Medusa – nice design; the ‘Master’ (pre Delgado) a human writer of pot-boilers from 1926 who serves ‘an intelligence.’ Also some really rubbish robots.

Facts that precede writing is history. Writing that creates pseudo history is fiction.

Post truth.

To pose the (possibly) obvious question… is the Doctor’s own history being fictionalised?

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

We were watching “The Daemons” recently (after long gap) and we both noticed what many other viewers  in recent years must have noticed and commented on, but which (I confess) passed us by. And that is that one of the members of UNIT (and regarded by his superiors as too slow in getting this done) was…Sgt Osgoode! It all makes sense now–if one Leftbridge-Stewart could beget another Leftbridge-Stewart, then one Osgoode could beget another Osgoode.

Is UNIT one big family?

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

Re The Mindrobber connection… I thought perhaps I might move the discussion here from The Lux forum.

When might have this arc… and it is obviously an arc… become less rooted in reality… and what significance might regeneration or bigeneration have for it?

Clearly ‘is you uncle alright?’ doesn’t answer any questions. Having a spare… indeed a recuperating Time Lord knocking around poses questions. Like, what’s Tennant’s diary like?

Mavity. Our first hint that something was amiss. Logically, what can Mavity have to do with Reality? And Mavity would appear to predate the bigeneration. My use of ‘appear’ is not meant to mean I don’t think it actually did NOT, but once you mess with reality, how would you know? ie what kind of a solution IS this? And to what kind of problem?

That is… RTD can’t say this but… Chris was cccrrrazy! Not in a good way. What we need to do is get crazier still, to sort it out! My problem. I gave up on Chris; he was TOO crazy. What I may have to do is watch say 2 post Timeless Children eps per each current series ep to get a handle on what RTD thinks he’s up against. Assuming he’s not effectively trashed it all. That might explain a lot.

Regenerations…

I’ve had my doubts about 2 becomes 3, for all the duff retconning of The War Games remake.

Ruth rocks up with police box apparently from before Clara’s Death Star Elevator type 40.

What, why and wherefor is The Watcher?

5 becomes 6 was disastrous on so many levels.

8 takes a dose of something bad to become Gaius Caligula; the metacrisis regen; the Trenzalore regen…

Now, what after all was so significant about THAT planet, the Kovarian Chapter had to get quite so fundamental… and Moff prove so unable to resolve the arc he supposedly created? What do we KNOW happened? Magic stuff comes through and The Doctor regenerates.

That is… have all our show runners been wrestling with a Cartmel 2.0 template tied to the haphazard evolution of canon before The Break… The Time War… T’floox??? Does it account for The Valeyard? If such a thing existed it might be supposed to keep them true to canon but maybe doesn’t always work that way. Russ and Moff could do the three legged race, but Chris was hopping for Graybridge.

The Master. What internal clues in the Master’s timeline positively indicate succession? Both he and The Doctor are time travellers; can’t they meet in any order? Hot Smoked Master becomes Tremas Master. Yana becomes Saxon. But the rest? Missy was pretty reluctant to admit anything to Saxon. Why is Arshad only partially converted? Why does Missy rock up with a massive army of Cybermen having previously told Clara she laughed at death rays and in fact used them to charge up her vortex manipulator? She’s marooned on Skaro, where 7 once collected his/her executed remains. And WHY turn The Master into a golden gnasher? Who else do we know has one??

[WhoHar @whohar]

@ps1l0v3y0u

Are you saying that RTD may be taking us into a fantasy world in part to retcon the worst excesses of the Chibnall era?.

But also to explain away the many and inevitable anomalies and inconsistencies of a 60+ year old sci-fi / fantasy show? Interesting.

Some random thoughts:

1. Can you retcon the entire show in a way that would not destroy/ tarnish what’s gone before? This would be a big risk for RTD, especially if he’s considering his Doctor Who legacy.

2. And even if it can be done, should it? All / some of the writers, directors, crew, actors etc. may have their work significantly impacted e.g rewatch Smith’s last episode again, but through the lens of Chibnall’s retconning – it changes the core of the story.

3. Moffat’s already had a go at this e.g in the 50th anniversary special there was a line about the Unit dating controversy, where Kate L-S says “70s or 80s, depending on the dating protocol” (I paraphrase). And, you can argue that Clara entering the Docs timestream may have caused some of the historical anomalies we’ve seen on screen. I don’t know if Moffat considered this typw of retcon, but he was very prone to changing things up when it suited him / the story.

3. There’s a much easier way to retcon TTC (although not as entertaining and it would be a bit more of a metaphorical slap in Chibnall’s face). All of it was predicated on what the Master told the Doc. Just reveal that the Master was lying.

I don’t think RTD will do it at all but, if he is going to do any retcons, it would only stretch back to the start of 14, or maybe a couple of eps back into the Whittaker era. Although there was Whittaker’s 4th wall break in that awful Orphan 55 ep., so maybe he’d retcon back even further.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

All of it was predicated on what the Master told the Doc. Just reveal that the Master was lying.

Thinking about it, you’d also have to work out how to explain away Doctor Ruth, but it could be done (e.g. the previous theory she’s between 2 and 3).

I don’t recall if any other Doctors were explicitly shown but, if they were, then it becomes a bit more convoluted to do.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@whohar

Well continuity porn is a big risk for RTD. That’s where you tend to both lose potential new fans and p*ss off established ones. I’m talking about Resurrection of the Daleks, or Attack of the Cybermen. Not a good look.

There again we, as fans, are trying to make sense of something that might only be dependent on what side of bed Russ gets out of bed in the morning.

Is there really something like a Cartmel 2.0? Can we say RTD and his fellow WHO enthusiasts, including Andew Cartmel, developed this during the interregnum? Obvious canon and continuity were already throwing up problems in the first run.

Alternatively, the show runners are just making things up. Well they obviously do, with reference to canon and continuity. In the past there was also the writers ‘ownership’, of certain characters and monsters. Even in Nu Who, only Whithouse wrote Tivolians. Maybe that’s a good thing.

But a plan would help you navigate stuff. And a plan would need to be quite secret. The unspoken problem with Cartmel 1.0 was everything was all pretty up front… almost like he was preparing for the end.

Was Chibnall writing according to ‘a plan’? Or under corporate instruction? Or both? Did he get the job because his pitch was ‘I can deliver a kid friendly essentially sexless Woman Doctor and also get a streaming partner on board.’ That’s a tough ask. But it would mean he would have to interpret a hypothetical plan quite differently to the relative freedom that RTD enjoyed.

Chris was Unit free wasn’t he? I think the V’linx is important. I think to have a Spare Doctor (14) knocking around is also important. Or why are either of them there? So, I think Chris’ ‘peculiar’ arc should survive ‘unmindrobbed’ – if indeed we have a fictionalising VR at work. After all, Chris may have been interpreting ‘The Plan’ his own way, maybe with some Corporate instruction.

So. When? Must be pre mavity, therefor pre edge of The Universe. Then is the salt thing misdirection?Clara was in the Doctor’s timeline but so was the GI. 10 was flawed: genocidal, vindictive and vain. So is the face of 14 the sign of weakness; is he ‘morally’ vulnerable to the GI? Because otherwise the whole arc is down to a spilt cup of coffee. Bambleweeny sub meson brains and brownian motion generators aside, I’m not having that. Interestingly, the GI that Simeon encounters develops by copying, like The Not Things, like machine learning and AI.

The Master lies? Yeah that was my reaction, a vindictive way of chucking Chris’ offensive exposition back at him. But, if not a complete lie TTC might still be a partial truth or a distortion.

Vindictive rage is an odd motivation for the ‘O Master’, though Saxon was certainly no fan of Rassilon. But in what order, with respect to his own timeline, does Omaster appear? We haven’t seen the Tissue Compression Eliminator since Tremas. Is Omaster lying, or is this an early incarnation? Is it the discovery of the real origin of The Time Lords that sends him over the edge, only adding to the damage done by the Untempered Schism. After all, Delgado Master appeared to be only slightly sociopathic with a peculiar sense of humour.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

In the context of this discussion, it might be interesting to note that the titles of the final two episodes at the end of May are listed as:

Episode 7: “Wish World”

Episode 8: “The Reality War”

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

noted

[Mudlark @mudlark]

Hello everyone, and apologies for having been so long AWOL.

As things turned out I’ve only just caught up by binge watching Joy to the World, The Robot Revolution and Lux end-to-end which I enjoyed, though with an slightly uneasy feeling that some elements of the plots didn’t quite add up. I have also caught up with the discussions, but if I’m to add anything of substance I will need to watch the episodes again at more leisure to register the details.

The reason I hadn’t watched the Christmas special before now was that, for me, Christmas didn’t really happen. I woke up on the morning of Christmas Eve with a bad headache and acute nausea and the next few days are a bit of a blur. Far worse was the discovery on Sunday 29th that my downstairs neighbour, two months short of her ninetieth birthday had fallen, broken her arm and been lying on her living room floor since Christmas Day. I have copies of her door keys, and if I had been up and about as normal I would almost certainly have realised something was wrong and gone down to investigate, but in the event it wasn’t until a friend of hers became worried and called on me that we found her and were able to call an ambulance. Fortunately she is a very tough lady and after a couple of weeks in hospital and two more months convalescing in a nursing home she is is now back living in her flat, albeit with support from carers.

After that I didn’t feel much like watching the Christmas special and my only Who activity in the following weeks  was an attempt, still not fully achieved, to watch all the Tom Baker episodes in sequence. Over Easter and covering the first two weekends of the current season  my youngest brother and wife were over from France and we were occupied with various activities, including larger family unions, so it is only now that things are fully back to normal.

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

@mudlark

I don’t presume to speak on behalf of the forum. But…

No apology necessary. All forum’s members insights are welcomed at any time. Personally speaking, your posts are much appreciated.

Sorry to hear about your and your neighbour’s recent travails. Hard at any time, but Christmas makes it especially poignant. Hope all is well for you both.

Post when you are able (they are always welcome), but please don’t feel under any obligation.

As they say Down Under: Rest up.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

I was just watching some old X Files and it made me think of Who.  In the early years it was a a great show, and then something happened. What happened? They started to kill off characters for no obvious reason. Do you remember Agent Pendrell? You should. He was a wonderful minor character. And they killed off X- a major character. who was also wonderful. Why? Because they felt  it was a way to somehow give complexity to the show and send it off in a different direction.

It failed. The show started to go downhill.

Well, I suspect something similar is happening to Who.

They keep trying to reinvent it (the destruction of Gallifrey, The Flux, Tecteun, etc,)and I fear it will go the way of  The X Files.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@blenkinsopthebrave. you make a good point. When Moffat recommended keeping Jenny, the Doctor’s Daughter alive it was because the more characters, villains and locations that you have tucked up in the canon the more there is for future writers to draw upon. RTD is drawing on past stories to enrich his current writing in the latest episode for example. it enables writers to have something to play with other than the three big bads, “Daleks, Cybermen and the Master” and enriches the other all universe; something that despite its long vintage Dr Who is much in need of. (hence my grumbling about the destruction of Gallifrey and probably why Moffat brought it back. In a universe that has only one recurring planet in it, earth, having two more, Gallifreya and Skaro, (both destroyed by RTD and restored by Moffat) gives the universe a tad more substance. (but I do harp on an old theme. Apologies)

Cheers

Janette

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

The early seasons of the X files featured more monsters of the week, with just a few ‘arc’ stories. Cigarette Smoking Man and the alien invasion got quite tiresome very quickly.

Monsters are, more often than not, cardboard cut outs. Some are derivative. Tim Shaw was basically the love child of Predator and Jem’Hadar. Ought to have been creepy, sadly not.

I did like the X files’ Mr Tooms and his sporadic Vitamin B12 cravings. Now HE creeped me out.

We still haven’t got a handle on Russ’ take on Chris’ ‘arc’… I remember The Toymaker, having introduced Donna to Amy, Clara and Bill in puppet form, almost dismissing t’floox. Dast ist nicht augezeichnet.

Is the RTD2 arc there to reintroduce the audience to The Doctor’s history, perhaps by way of some kind of Fictionland? Still up in the air, though October the fifth from Boom MUST be relevant. Or are we just being given a trail of breadcrumbs? Is that good art? Or telly?

Time Lords are only interesting when they go rogue. Daleks can be quite dull too; I liked the Cult of Skaro and the Rusty/Clara as dalek theme. Bill goes Cyber had whumph, but was rushed, with just hints like Bill mopping the floor and Razor’s try ups hinting at the real design.

The other recurring theme is Infamy, Infamy, The Universe gorrit in fer Me (The Doctor): a bit self regarding. The Doctor, ooh he is so big! is just the flipside of boring bureaucratic Gallifrey. But it is I’m afraid is where we’re going this time.

On the other hand a VR threat may ‘looks’ like a game and yet be very dangerous and relevant. This Season has got off to a good start.

My feeling is WHO tends to ‘snatch’ at arcs, they’re nailed up like scruffy hoarding and go ‘cosmic’ too quickly.

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@mudlark

I only just read your message above. So sorry to hear about your Christmas experience, and that of your elderly neighbour downstairs. Good to know that she is on the mend. I am impressed by your marathon Tom Baker viewing! I enjoyed watching them back in the day, but watch less now (partly because I tend to agree with Mrs Blenkinsop’s assessment of his Doctor as being reminiscent of the type of university professor who slept with his students…)

 

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@whohar  @blenkinsopthebrave

Thank you. It certainly ranks as my worst Christmas ever, and that includes the one when I had measles (aged 6 – no vaccine available in them days), the one when I had chickenpox (aged 10), and the one where I was felled by a migraine on Christmas morning – although on the latter occasion I recovered sufficiently by late afternoon to wobble downstairs and partake cautiously of mince pies and Christmas cake.

My neighbour is still frailer than she used to be but, judging by the sounds of merriment issuing from the flat below me, is enjoying  a riotous social life with friends visiting at all hours. I’m OK, although my arthritic spine is being somewhat uncooperative. We’ve been enjoying some unseasonably hot weather lately (28 C -82F) on Thursday and I need to get to grips with the garden before it reverts completely to wilderness.

[syzygy @thane16]

@mudlark

We’re sorry to hear about your Christmas (I can relate) and am very glad to see you back here and enjoying some Who.

I liked Lux and The Well.
Fondly, Puro.

[RLM0544 @rlm0544]

Poppy is “The Timeless child” Throughout the history of Dr. Who we have been given clues and The reality War put them all together.
1. The doctor has said many times that He was human on his mother’s side.
2. In the episode “The timeless child” They showed a black child being found by Tecteun at a portal and was used to give the Gallifreyans the power of Regeneration.
3 In “The story and The Engine” There was no reason for Poppy to appear unless it was a clue to the origin of the Doctor.

The Doctor is a physical manifestation of Infinity he was his own beginning, his own father, although as a time lord he was supposed to be sterile In the episode “Wish World” I believe he subconsciously whished Poppy to be his daughter, before he ended all the wishes.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

Thought I would post here, as The Winchester is supposed to be for non-Who discussion. It seems to have transgressed it original rationale.

Last  night we watched the only 3 surviving episodes of “The Dalek’s Master Plan” with the Hartnell Doctor (episodes 2, 5 and 10). The companions are Peter Purves as Steven and…Jean Marsh as Sarah Kingdom! These three episodes are the only surviving episodes to feature her as Sarah Kingdom.

Anyway, what I was struck by was how morally dark it was for what was still a children’s show in 1965. A lot of it revolves around the politics of Earth in the year 4000, and the grim death toll is not limited to the behaviour of the Daleks. There is also an appearance by an actor who would go on to play a different and very important character in subsequent Who.

Highly recommended if you can find it. We watched it on our “Lost in Time ” dvd, which is what it sounds like–surviving episodes from the days when the BBC would wipe them after screening. Not sure if they can be found elsewhere.

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave @ dentarthurdent

So… no talkin shop dahn the pub. Ok I’ll remember that.

I mentioned Ace, not because I thought she’d be coming back, but because she (and Sarah Jane) are the favourite Classic companions. And, of the two, the writing for Ace was probably better. And she was the first ‘supered’ companion, apart from Romana. I think Leela was wonderful too but, when not in the hands of Holmes and Boucher, the writing for Leela veered to lazy or indifferent.

So why bother to ‘design’ Rose? Of course, as it happened, Russ didn’t. Probably a meta ambition. But Rose was always clearly ‘meant’ to be significant. And, if there is a plan, I assume it must contain a stipulation that in order NOT to wreck it (as a lot of people think Chib may have) you need to create a new mystery for every one you solve.

So, Rose disappears in a parallel universe, but she’s ‘owned’ by the Vortex too. For that reason, if we are looking at the origin of The Valeyard, I don’t think it’s Rose, but 10/14.

btw in UK CB radio parlance, 10-14 is ‘prowler report!’

Will come back shortly with my grand unified RTD2 analysis.

[WhoHar @whohar]

@blenkinsopthebrave @ps1l0v3y0u @dentarthurdent

As a bit of a palette cleanser, I’ve just been watching a few eps from Smith’s first season (aka Series 5):

The Eleventh Hour (still the best regen story imo)

Pandorica / Big Bang

Plus a couple of other eps: the Angels two-parter, and Vincent.

It’s like watching a different (and much better) show. Imaginative ideas, creative plotting, likeable, believable, characters, fantastic performances, and great stories with subtext.

Chalk and cheese when compared to the current iteration which relies too much on spectacle over substance, bombast, poorly executed didacticism, and unsatisfying callbacks to the classic era.

I came away feeling a little bit saddened.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@whohar

Vincent and the Doctor. What a brilliant, brilliant show that was. And for all the reasons you point out. As you say , chalk and cheese compared to the current iteration.

 

[syzygy @thane16]

@whohar without doubt Season 5 was a beautiful fairytale & resonated so perfectly. I periodically rewatch The Eleventh Hour: that mysterious opening scene with the warm light emanating from the Tardis is unforgettable. And the 2 young Amy’s -the hidden room in the corner of one’s eye & the enormous house with only one inhabitant.

Puro

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@whohar @blenkinsopthebrave @dentarthurdent
11th hour. Olivia Coleman does creepy

special mention for Amy’s choice. Toby Jones does creepy.
And Big Bang was totally off the wall yet elegant. Better season ender than Wedding or Time of the Doctor.
I wasn’t overly fond of the return of The Angels at first. Especially Angel Bob. Or the Silurian story: uncomfortable foreboding of The Fam from Chib.

The Lodger is another hidden gem. The later ‘oh seen this tech before’ misdirection from The Doctor in Day of the Moon, zooms in under the radar.

I think Smith was brilliant but some people are sniffy and/or confused by Moff.

Also like to mention the 2nd half of series 7. Even the 2 difficult eps look great.

[syzygy @thane16]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I wonder to what extent it’s now about new sources of funding; a lighter show for youngsters; Disney’s expectations & the bottom line: not to mention the contract Gatwa negotiated so he wasn’t doing 13- 14 episodes per year? I think this explains a lot.

[syzygy @thane16]

PSI

yes, people are terrified around Moffat. The odious expression “too clever” was bandied around a lot. Also, in interviews he’s hardly sufficiently “apologetic or humble” -whatever the heck that means! His era with Smith & Capaldi and Sherlock was top tier telly. I’m pretty sure it taught our son to think…

[syzygy @thane16]

Ps: yes, I liked the Chibnall Hungry Earth BUT it’s weird listening to this where the Doctor says, maybe 6x “be better. Be better than this.” It’s sadly one note. And some of the characters are 2 dimensional. But the kid? And his dad? They were colourful & humorous characters. It’s one Chib set of eps I’ll happily rewatch.

[WhoHar @whohar]

Ah, yes Amy’s Choice, which I had watched but missed from my list.

Interesting that a number of my favourite episodes are not written by either Moff or RTD (or Chibs or Gatiss):

Dalek

Amy’s Choice

Vincent

Father’s Day

Human Nature/ Family of Blood

The Waters of Mars

The Doctor’s Wife

The Rebel Flesh / Almost People

Zygon Invasion / Inversion

Mummy on the Orient Express

I’m sure there are others.

[Author]

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