On The Sofa (6)

[Anonymous @]

@lisa so sorry I didn’t see your article -everything (bar one) from the Dr Who Forum has, lately, ended up in a *spam* folder!  Horrors.  And I didn’t even know.

Beaut article on Seneca. Yes, Diderot and Montaigne were fans as is Emily Wilson, from Penn Univ, who I know well: a great book, btw.

Thank you, puro

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

Courtesy of Popbitch:

(For overseas readers, Alex Jones is the slightly vacuous co-present of The One Show, a magazine show)

Alex did bamboozle Christopher Eccleston on the show last week…
…prior to going live, Chris and representative told them both : “No questions about Doctor Who AT ALL, Chris will NOT comment”. Poor Alex responded with “Oooo, were you in it then ?”

[lisa @lisa]

Neil Gaiman’s new anthology of various short stories includes a touch of some Doctor Who and
I imagine many other treats –here is a book review I found

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/04/381641501/neil-gaiman-is-back-to-mess-up-your-dreams-in-trigger-warning?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=books&utm_term=artsculture&utm_content=20150204

[lisa @lisa]

I got an interesting vid from my brother today– he always sends me a lot of this 🙂

[ichabod @ichabod]

Oh my Gord — anybody seen this before?  Cracked me up, still picking up pieces of self from floor —

[Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty]

Oh @lisa there has literally never been anything better than that. There is so much goodness I can’t make up my mind which of the good is best!

@ichabod love surprisingly sweary Doctor.. Oh, hang about..

[ichabod @ichabod]

@Barbara Lefty  — well, a Doctor who ran his mouth off along the lines of Tucker would certainly put an end to recent discussions of the Doctor’s “asexuality” (or not!), I should think.

Meanwhile, for your delectation (and at a tasty tangent to our main subject(s)):

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-31159898

Guid grief!  I’ll have that )(&*^&)_(+_(*%%## tangerine now, thanks!

 

[Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty]

Deep breath @ichabod 😛

Saw the chimp story, cue jokes about Scottish Chimps preferring a deep fried Mars bar!

Have seen that gang, they are quite socially … robust, when it comes to who gets what at feeding time. Afterwards, all sweetness and mutual grooming. Possibly by way of apology?!

[Dr.Genie @dr-genie]

Hello!

Brand new to the forum, just popping in to say hi. I’m a Matt Smith fan, as I joined the fandom a couple of years ago. However, I also quite like Tom Baker and Mr. Capaldi. I’ve been hanging around reading threads, but this is my first post so…. Geronimo.

[lisa @lisa]

Wow! Really interesting conceptual art using books! I wonder what he could do with a few
Doctor Who graphic novels? Got me wondering…

[ichabod @ichabod]

@serahni  — I’ve enjoyed Pratchett’s take on Death as a character too, and my favorite of the books is Small Gods.  I’ve got the whole bunch and read one at random from time to time, just because I love Pratchett’s narrative voice — smart, cheeky, and kind, among other qualities.  Haven’t been able to get into the new ones at all, though.  I clearly need to give them another try — can you recce any one in particular?  I haven’t been keeping track.

[millymittens @millymittens]

Speaking of Neil Gaiman – I adore him as an author, but I honestly thought that ‘Nightmare In Silver’ was a bit pants… Especially after the ‘The Doctor’s Wife,’ which was brilliant. Anyone else think that if they ever get Gaiman to write more episodes, that he should just create his own idea/monster/threat, as opposed to trying to evolve existing ideas?

[ichabod @ichabod]

Oh, look it — answers to some DW questions (leading to lots more confusion, thanks so much — ) (and also provocation) (Jesus, Moffat is so damn clever . . . all I can do is shake my head in admiration):

http://www.reddit.com/r/gallifrey/comments/2m7im3/steven_moffat_qa_for_dwm_480/

Hope that works.

 

[TimeyWhimeyTardis @timeywhimeytardis]

Hey everyone! sorry for not posting lately, but I’ve been (and still am) very sick. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more as now, although my throat is still sore, I’m not asleep most of the day.

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@ichabod That’s a great link to Q&A with Moffat.. Loved it. It’s a bit of a shame he’s the showrunner – I’m sure he’d have loved hanging out on our wee sofa if he was still just a fan 😉 (And delighted he confirmed our suspicions that Gallifrey is out of the Timelock but the Doctor hasn’t realised it yet (Listen))

@lisa – Further to your books as sculpture vid, thought this might amuse you – the story of Edinburgh’s mysterious book sculptor from a year or 2 back (identity’s still a mystery I believe,although probably a she. She’s done interviews with the press since then, but only by email to remain anonymous!) Hope it makes you smile, it’s one of my favourite things! http://www.scotland.org/features/edinburghs-mysterious-book-sculptures-to-go-on-display/

Hi and welcome to newbie @dr-genie, and a get well soon wave to @timeywhimeytardis

And thanks @ichabod @barbaralefty and everyone for links and comments. Actually that link to the chimps reminded me of Pratchett’s gorilla librarian 🙂 Death is my fave Pratchett character tho.

 

[Mudlark @mudlark]

@scaryb  The Librarian would be offended; he is an orang-utan which, when you think about it, is a form far better adapted for clambering around the library stacks 🙂

 

[DavidNoble @davidnoble]

Hi everyone, I hope you don’t mind me posting this but I think it might be of interest to some members of this forum. My parents moved house recently and during the clear out we found some old Dr Who toys from my childhood that are at least 20 years old.

I have no idea what they’re worth but I think they might be quite rare since they’re complete and fully boxed; I’ve listed both the items on eBay in the hope that they would be of interest to a collector.

Here’s the links:

Dr Who & Tardis:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291378832520

Davros & Daleks:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291378841367

Can anyone here tell me anything about these sets? When they were manufactured and for how long? Any info is appreciated.

Again, I hope it’s not against the rules to post stuff like this; if it is then feel free to remove my post.

I’d like to see them go to a good home and it would help if they fetched a decent price as I’ve got a rather expensive holiday coming up!

Cheers!

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Sofa or Pub, not sure? Surprised nobody has mentioned (unless they have and I missed it) that David Tennant was on Just a Minute this week, and did rather well. As far as I know BBC Radio is not limited by location (Neil Gaiman keeps telling people so, so it must be true).

For those who don’t know, Just a Minute is a game show on the radio where guests have to try and talk about a subject for a minute without hesitation or repetition (it’s quite hard).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b051ryqd

[ScaryB @scaryb]

@craig

You beat me to it!

It was indeed an amazing debut – they’re saying it’s the best debut in almost 50 years of the programme. Ah the Scots – great at the blethering! 😉

Response by a gobsmacked Julian Clary in the Indie

 

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

thanks for the link @craig Tis indeed an impressive performance but no less than I would expect from our David. As he said in “Christmas Invasion”, “i certainly have a gob”, or words to that effect.

Cheers

Janette

[ichabod @ichabod]

Ah, that was fun!  Thanks for the link!  Not just a pretty face, then, hmm?

[FlirtingDinosaur @flirtingdinosaur]

@ichabod thanks for the link to the Q&A

“Amy: You managed to lose the accent” –  just spat some tea on my keyboard..uuups!

cheers

s

[ichabod @ichabod]

@flirtingdinosaur  You’re welcome!  Here we are with more than six months to go, and there are still nuggets of Who stuff popping up all over.  Never know what you’re going to find . . .

[millymittens @millymittens]

@ichabod oh my goodness thank you for that link because I completely looked over the fact that GALLIFREY is no longer time locked…

Oh and can I ask you guys a quick question? Do you think there is a distinction between fans of new who and old who?

[millymittens @millymittens]

Oh and could I also quickly ask, as I haven’t seen any of the ‘old’ who episodes – is it worth watching them? For Tom Baker etc.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@millymittens  I get very restless with Old Who these days (though I loved it back then), but looking in on Tom Baker’s reign could never be a mistake!  Wonderful, quirky, completely idiosyncratic work, and useful for catching the homages to Baker that Capaldi is dropping into his performance in NuWho.

As for the fans — I dunno, I was a fan of “old” who, now can’t stick with it, but love and admire NuWho as a brilliant example of pop culture at its best and great fun to watch and discuss.  Fans of the older shows sometimes sound as if they’re still action addicts and find the newer emphasis on character and depth annoying, but that may just be the heavier emphasis that tends to be put on negative comments about NuWho, and the weirdly lunatic fixation of some on hating Steven Moffat for not being, well, the writer they think they would be in his place, I guess, instead of who he is.

 

[ichabod @ichabod]

@millymittens  Oh, and you’re welcome!  I didn’t catch that unlocking of Gallifrey either.  I depend a lot on internet conversations about Who to keep me in the loop — really great resource!

[ichabod @ichabod]

@millymittens  You know, it may even be that the enormous support network now all keyed into the internet — discussions all over the place, fan conventions, magazines and magazine-like sites, a whole parallel Whoniverse on tumblr, etc. — may make it easier for the writers to be more complex in their writing, since a slowpoke like me can mooch around on the net and find interpretations of bits of the show that went by me too fast, or that connect up to older shows that I don’t remember or didn’t see — where was I? — yeah, we can “catch up” if we need to instead of staying lost and wandering away disappointed.  That makes us, in roundabout way, part of the creative process that keeps this whole shebang running.

Probably not, but maybe so?  More likely, I think, than the idea of Moffat and crew scouring the massive amount of fan talk and output to get a better grip on “what the fans want”, since a) there isn’t enough time in the world to do that, particularly when like Moffat you are writing TWO highly demanding shows, DW and Sherlock, and b) strongly creative people usually walk into a job with plenty of ideas of their own and the confidence to execute them and see how people like them, rather than the other way around.

 

[lisa @lisa]

@scaryb Thanks for sharing that article with me about the book artist!
I have become inspired and currently I’m making one similar to what is in this
video. I went scrounging around at salvation army book racks and found
some great gardening books with lots of interesting flowering hedges and
scrubs and trees and I hope to make something ‘hobbit-y’ lol I even have
been to the craft store and invested in some good cutting tools. I’ve also ordered
some new big finish to listen to while I’m creating. all set!

Happy Friday the 13th to everyone!
some

[lisa @lisa]

this is the right video regarding the above post –[-sorry @craig !!
big goof on the cut paste thing again-]

[lisa @lisa]

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-02-16/doctor-who-incredible-fan-made-video-shows-the-tardis-dematerialising-in-a-whole-new-way

some Doctor Who treats! Also, on You Tube check out the ‘John Smith’ channel for a lot more of the same
creative vids.

[DonnaNoble @donnanoble]

This is my first post, and I would like to say something about the episode “Love and Monsters”. My all time favorite Doctor Who quote is “We forget because we must.” from that episode. People look at it and go “Oh, that’s deep.” and don’t think about it anymore. They don’t realize how deep it actually goes. It means the pain in our lives is so great, we must forget it or we will be consumed by the pain, or fear, or whatever. It would destroy us, creating something out of us that we were never meant to be. That is why we forget. We forget the great pain, and shove it down in us where we never remember. It comes to the surface, I think, when we are faced with the same thing again. Just my philosophic thoughts on that.

[Anonymous @]

@donnanoble I didn’t realise that (and the other thread) was your first post. I hope you feel welcome here. I really do!

I just find one thing a bit odd: When you say “they don’t realise that” or “you’re wrong” (on the other thread: The faces of the Doctor?). Probably people might surprise you and actually do realise the concept you understand also. And that’s a good thing, no?

It’s true indeed that great pain is often subsumed and repressed in order to ‘get on with things’. It’s part of the natural order of life that we must do that. Unfortunately, as you suggest, it has all sorts of repercussions. I imagine that the Doctor has seen much pain and perhaps has attempted (as you said with Doctor Ten) to run away and forget: maybe that’s why he was running faster all the time.

Anyways, enjoy!

Puro.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

Ayn Rand’s Harry Potter

[ScaryB @scaryb]

Just surfacing from a week of lergy, and limited internet. Again! 🙁

Found this and it made me smile. Hope it works for other people too.

A young Peter Capaldi practising his spoon work. You just never know when spoon skills will come in handy 😉 And dancing.

 

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@pedant — that’s very funny. Good find. Man, I hate Ayn Rand.

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@jimthefish You’ll probably enjoy this, then.

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@pedant — also very good. Unpleasant old crone and massive, massive hypocrite.

I did mention that I hate her, right?

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@jimthefish

You did, and I concur. A cancer on political discourse.

[Rob @rob]

Ohhh Ayn Rand wasn’t that the pen name of Aryan Rant ???

[Anonymous @]

@pedant @rob

Oh Jeezus, I watched and THEN I read the comments -always fatal. I read Rant (thanks Rob!) at age 10 -my parents fleeing from a Communist system thought she was a deity. Dinner conversations were awful.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@purofilion — Horrors!  And sympathies.  My family household was the opposite; awful conversation started with Joe Stalin suddenly becoming an out and out villain, and some people tying themselves in knots trying to justify him while others wandered around with cocktails in their hands looking stunned and betrayed . . .

[lisa @lisa]

@scaryb So I watched Battlefield and found it interesting I think in particular because
of the Doctor aka ‘Merlin’ idea. Knowing how SM likes to pull bits and pieces together in
his grand story arcs and so there might be something there connecting into the next season.
Its fun to try and guess about that. The older stories don’t carry the same gravitas
for me. With the exception of Tom Baker’s series but that was largely because I liked
how he played the Doctor. He was for me the definitive mad quirky benevolent alien.
Gasped when he showed up in the 50th, it was 1 of my favorite bits
Battlefield left me feeling it was done a bit clumsy. The structure and complexity
of AG who is a great deal more appealing for me. Its all the little bits and pieces
I get to unravel that I cant get from BG Who is what I suppose it comes down to.

[domberesford @domberesford]

I’ve got a question to anyone reading who maybe able to clear this up; I’m sure I once saw, on Youtube, some footage of a ‘test regeneration’ scene between Hartnell and Troughton where the first doctor collapses in a field and regenerates there and then, the second doctor picks himself up and carries on running through the field. Did I completely make this up in my head or was there an early try-out version of the first regeneration? It has been bugging me like mad!!!!

[TimeyWhimeyTardis @timeywhimeytardis]

A few weeks ago I was in a store with a lot of doctor who stuff, like a tardis cookie jar and weeping angel figure, and got a replica of the 10th doctor’s sonic screwdriver! Aside from that, I don’t really have much to say, there was a scarf that was similar to the 4th doctor’s, but it was just different enough to make me wonder if it actually was or not, so I didn’t get it.

[Anonymous @]

Some say The Doctor should never be a woman. Can’t see the problem myself considering it’s happened before 😉

[ichabod @ichabod]

@fatmaninabox — yikes, that’s funny!  Thanks for the mug shots!

 

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@ All. As this week rounds up our watch of ‘The Enemy of the World’, and now I’ve had a snooze today, it’s time to start voting on what we should discuss from the Pertwee era.

I have to say that my vote is for “The Daemons” (5 parts by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman) as I think it came very close to being our choice the last time we thought about a Pertwee story. Also, it’s where our current place of libation, The Cloven Hoof, can be found.

But here are some other suggestions:

Spearhead From Space – by Robert Holmes (4 parts)
Inferno – by Don Houghton (7 parts)
The Mind Of Evil – by Don Houghton (6 parts)
The Sea Devils – by Malcolm Hulke (6 parts)
Carnival Of Monsters – by Robert Holmes (4 parts)
Frontier in Space – by Malcolm Hulke (6 parts)
The Green Death – by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (6 parts)
The Time Warrior – by Robert Holmes (4 parts)

Let me know what you think.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@craig

I’m fine with The Daemons.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@craig Me also. I have not seen all of The Daemons so is about time I did.

Cheers

Janette

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