On The Sofa (8)

[Missy @missy]

@missrori

Thanks for that missrori an interesting observation. To me, the Twelth Doctor is more human than the ones before.

@ichabod

Very droll!  *grins*

Missy

[MissRori @missrori]

Hey @ichabod, since you asked…

Each autistic person’s condition manifests itself in a unique stew of “unconventional” behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses.  But there are certain basic behaviors that seem particularly common across a cross-section of them….

The Twelfth Doctor isn’t good with names, or remembering faces.  He’s prone to gesturing extravagantly with his hands.  He seems very touch-sensitive, especially if the contact is unexpected (i.e. a hug).  He focuses so intently on a task at hand that often he doesn’t pay attention to the people around him and their emotional needs.  He’s not much for bantering, or small talk.  He wants to talk about what’s concerning him in the here and now, even if no one else understands his passion about the topic (say, the dream of what’s under the bed).  If something is obvious to him but it isn’t to others, he’ll be frustrated with them for not seeing it, forgetting that they aren’t him.  He doesn’t understand practices that more “neurotypical” folks take as a given, such as wearing makeup.  He lies as well as any Doctor does, but most of the time it’s only in the service of a given plan to save the day — otherwise he tends to be brutally honest.  And he is not good at masking his emotions just to be “polite”, because that wouldn’t be honest either.

So he often ends up rather detached from others in the course of a given crisis, especially in Series 8.  He’s looking at the big picture and how to save the day, and he often ends up having a cold, blunt attitude that comes off as cruel, snobby, and grouchy, or just insensitive.  Clara being referred to as a “carer” calls to mind the need many autistic people — I am one of them — have for someone who can take them aside and explain that not everyone is interested in what they are fascinated by, especially when it’s distracting them from the more immediate needs of others (think “Under the Lake”).  Someone who can tutor them in better social skills, as Clara does with things like the cards.  Unfamiliar places and people can be both exciting and scary for autistics, who often thrive on routine.

But just because an autistic person seems heartless doesn’t mean they are.  In fact, their emotions may well be stronger than in most people — capable of great fury, but also great love — and they wear them on their sleeve when they are sparked to do so.  When they are around people they know well and are comfortable with, they can be warm and lovable, and show off their sense of humor and imagination.  They can adapt and learn, become more comfortable in their own skin and willing to show their gentler, rocking-out side.  And contrary to popular belief, they are capable of great empathy.  Give them the information they need to understand where another person — or mummy, or shapeshifting rebel, or mad scientist, or former friend, or lonesome immortal lass — is coming from, and they can empathize with their plight and help them if they can.

So that’s how the Twelfth Doctor has autistic qualities.  At places like Tumblr, with a bit of searching there’s a lot of interesting headcanons, interpretations, and fanfics by autistic Twelfth Doctor fans that explore all this in greater detail.  butterfly-in-the-well, in particular, is an autistic blogger who has written much on the topic.

@missy I see what you’re saying.  He may seem more “other” and “alien” to other characters than his predecessors did, but his emotions and passions are so raw and real that he touches the heart more profoundly.  He’s more honest with himself, more capable of shame, guilt, atonement, rage…and love.  He’s too much heart for others to take!  😉

[Missy @missy]

@missrori…said.

I see what you’re saying.  He may seem more “other” and “alien” to other characters than his predecessors did, but his emotions and passions are so raw and real that he touches the heart more profoundly.  He’s more honest with himself, more capable of shame, guilt, atonement, rage…and love.  He’s too much heart for others to take!  

Oh spot on!  Why couldn’t I have said that? It’s exactly what I feel about him, he touches me in a way that the other three Doctors didn’t.

Missy

 

 

[Anonymous @]

In his own unique way, he certainly makes quite an impression.

[Missy @missy]

@stitchintime. Indeed he does.

Missy

[TrillianWho @trillianwho]

Hello everyone,

New to the forum, and this is my first post – hope this is the right topic for it!

Can’t say I’m new to Dr Who, I’m a Tom Baker child like many here from what I’ve read, and I did keep up with the first seasons of the reboot, but for whatever reason I never followed it systematically until recently, when, having some time in my hands, I went through seasons 1-9 in a few weeks – rewatching the first ones and catching up with Matt Smith and Capaldi, who I had missed entirely.  I suppose back then I thought that David Tennant was the best the Doctor could be, and after he left I never gave Matt Smith a chance – and boy was I wrong! As much as I enjoyed Tennant, Smith became my Doctor from the first episode I think, and his run remains the most re-watched for me, for many reasons.

Now, having seen all the AG seasons in one go, there are many things that just stand out as inconsistencies to me, or dangling plot threads, and I’m trying to come up with theories to accommodate them. I don’t know how bonkers these theories are, but that’s what made me sing up!

My theories mostly come from character development. I have been able to hand wave many timey wimey stuff, since this isn’t a hard SF show, but looking back, I can’t do the same with character inconsistencies. Mainly this has to do with the Doctor’s name, and my reasoning goes as follows:

The Doctor tells Clara that his given name is not important, and what matters is the name he chose for himself. Fair enough, that makes sense in every way and I think it is true and not another lie. But it’s more than that, not only he keeps it hidden, he refuses to utter it in the Name of the Doctor, not even to save his friends’ lives. He went to Trenzalore to try and save them, he was prepared to die himself perhaps, he was already risking another time fracture just by going there, and still he didn’t give it, he was left with just imploring GI to spare his friends. And then I remembered the lines from the Forest of the Dead (“there is only one reason I would tell you my name, only one time I could”). What if that “could” is quite literal? What if he physically can’t pronounce his own name and it’s not just a matter of trust or for avoiding something worse?

So that was my starting point and I have many thoughts on that. Has such an idea been discussed already? And if not, is this the right topic for it?

[Anonymous @]

@trillianwho welcome to you -this is my first welcome! I’ve not done it b4. I’m doing it for mum -she welcomes people sometimes I hope you have a great time on the Forum and we will enjoy your comments on Clara and the doctor and hopefully the new season when it eventually arrives on telly (were in Australia). Your idea about the doctor physically not being able to say the name is awesome. just brilliant. Why didn’t we (the hybrid) think of that b4? “there was one time that I could” I remember that from the Vasthta Nerada episode with River: I adore that two parter. It’s almost my absolute favourite of two parters (except for anything this year with Peter Capaldi)

Miss @ichabod I hope you are getting better from your operation. I can’t pronounce or spell it and its on the other thread but it had something to do with Calcium -the name in chemistry that I think is Na (I loved chemistry!). Anyway I hope youre better,

Mum is in hospital and that’s abummer as its her birthday. I know that last year and b4 we used to ask people to find a song on the music thread for birthday stuff? I remember Mr @whisht doing that?

Maybe we can find a song for mum? I might pop over to the music thread to do that now-ish

Thankyou for reading,

Puro’s Son (the hybrid)

[TrillianWho @trillianwho]

@puroandson

Thank you so much for your welcome! I’ve only been reading this forum for two weeks give or take, but even in that little time, i know two things: you have an amazing mum, and she has an amazing son. Just reading you two (i don’t remember what posts exactly, but they happened to be some of the first ones i read) made me think that this forum has some special people in it. I know what it feels like to have loved ones in the hospital… whatever it is that you’re going through, happy birthday to your mum and you have my best wishes from half a world away. 🙂

[ichabod @ichabod]

@missrori  @missy  Thanks you both for comments above — I think I share some of your thinking there, about the ways in which #12 is a-neurotypical for human behavior (and possibly TL behavior as well, since the TLs we’ve seen don’t seem any more different on average from stuck-up, over-privileged humans than the Olympian gods seemed in comparison with the humans of their day).

@trillianwho  (“there is only one reason I would tell you my name, only one time I could”). What if that “could” is quite literal? What if he physically can’t pronounce his own name and it’s not just a matter of trust or for avoiding something worse?

Welcome indeed; and what an interesting, provocative question to bring to the table!

@puroandson  Thanks, Son of Puro, for your good wishes, and yes, I am getting better — a bit wobbly today as the anesthetic wears off from two days ago, but maddeningly itchy (not just ichi!) around the incision, which means the thing is healing.  Looks as if I’ve had my throat cut by a neatness freak, just above where the collar bones meet at the base of the neck, and about an inch and a quarter wide.  I hope to have at least a souvenir scar to show off.  Meantime, a bit Frankenstein-monster-ish, but more from bruising than anything else.  The thing was a rogue parathyroid gland, of which there are four situated behind the thyroid itself, and which are supposed to work with the thyroid proper to keep bones strong etc.  Parathyroid + ectomy = parathyroid removal, as with an appendix in an appendectomy.   Word roots are a pleasure of mine; they’re like the building blocks of chemical formulae, endlessly useful and entertaining; feel free to ignore at will, of course.

I am very sorry to hear that your mum is in the hospital, and I wish her a prime quality birthday gift from the universe in the form of feeling much better and coming home again very soon.

Affectionately,

ichi

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous @]

@trillianwho

that’s a lovely thing to say! Aww shucks -<blushing a lot>  I will pass on your thoughts.

I agree about this Forum: it was mum who said to me “come look at this place (I was maybe 11 at the time?) people are discussing Who and they are really clever, polite and curious”.

She has enjoyed many great hours reading and theorising (boy, thank goodness for spellcheck) and knowing things about Doctor Who. We love the show. For us its a big talking point and I like being here because most of my teenage friends don’t watch the TV I do. I don’t think they watch much TV -they like what I call apocalyptic films with muscle blokes who crack (really bad ) jokes. It was here that I found out about the show House, Yes Prime Minister, Buffy, Angel and so many other great shows. Oh and music too?

If you like any music at all -classic, rock, jazz, fusion, 80s punk then we have it all here. I call Mr @whisht the music master and Miss @arbutus too has music qualifications or credential?

Oh @ichabod I see “ectomy” -I get it now <wacks head> But it sounds painful!! That’s not good at all but if it means less pain and better working thyroids then that’s good right?

I hope the scars and areas stop itching. I know from my own tiny injuries that when it itches it is getting better but it drives me nuts. Nuts. Mum uses creams on me. Can you imagine mum running after me with oitments and me screaming, “go away with that?’

That’s me because there’s something called …Mm. I can’t remember..it grows in the garden, it’s spiky and has ‘vera’ in the name. It smells very bad? Then there’s paw paw ointment which is better and also talcum for itchy areas AND would you know that iced tomato rubbed over an itchy area helps? THEN theres ice cold apple cider vinegar. So putting ALL that together and rubbing that on everybody runs away from ME because o f the vinegar stink!

Awesome. 🙁

Thank y0u all

Puros Son

[Missy @missy]

@trillianwho

Hello there.  Although my favourite Doctor is PC, the first three were great too. have fun here.

@puroandson: I do hope all goes well with your Mother. Wish her a happy birthday from me. My Birthday was yesterday 28th. You can use lemon jucie or oats for itching too.there is a white powdery stuff, which for the life of me I can’t remember the name? You mean aloe vera

@ichabod: I didn’t know that you were unwell?  The news must have slipped through my net. Good luck for you recovery.

Missy

 

 

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

@puroandson I’m very sorry to hear your mother is unwell but I wish her a happy birthday and a speedy recovery as we all do here, in the mean time how about treating her with some jelly babies!

@ichabod I hope you’ll make a full recovery soon as well, and I’m sure the itching will die down shortly.

@trillianwho Hello, I hope you enjoy it here and I must say your post on the memories thread was very good. Companions nowadays are a lot more fleshed out as you say and I can’t really think of any from the classic series that have such detailed backgrounds and lives, Ace was a companion who had a lot of attention and character development though so if you were going to be interested in checking out classic series companions I’d suggest her, my favourite is Jamie from the second doctor era but I love Donna from the new series!

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

I was just watching the happiness patrol from McCoy’s time in the TARDIS, it’s a fantastic story with the funniest monster in the whole series in the form of the Kandyman! The actor who’s playing him is just brilliant and the moment when he answers the phone is just hilarious! Anyone else seen this story?

[janetteB @janetteb]

@trillianwho Welcome. You have settled in to the sofa already.  I like the name too. (Of course as far as I am concerned there in only one version of Hitchhikers and that is the one with the Doctor and the Doctor’s Daughter’s Mum.

@puroandson Please pass on my regards to your Mum. Wish her a happy birthday and a speedy recovery.

@ichabod I hope you are fully recovered soon. Your scar sounds rather like mine. (I have lots of others but they don’t show.) I used to be a bit embarrassed about it but have long since forgotten it is there. For a while it did provide an excuse to buy lots of necklaces and fancy scarves for winter so that isn’t too bad.

Cheers

Janette

[Whisht @whisht]

@puroandson

Hey mate – you’ve made me blush!

;¬)

But also I have to dig through some music to give your mum something worth listening to, so it may take a few hours and that means it may be tomorrow by the time you and she (maybe?) hears it.

But wanted to say – you’re a good bloke, keep just doing what you do.
You can call me “whisht” if you’d like, but equally happy with you calling me what you do.

Now, please give your mum our love.
Hope she’s back home soon.

Take care
whisht

[Anonymous @]

@all

thank you for those wishes! yes, I got home last night.

In the evening: I didn’t want another night there. So, I was home for the cake. 🙂

Thanks to Son for his rather large er…conversation…with everyone here.

(thanks spawn of mine)

Kindest and again, thank you PuroSolo

[ichabod @ichabod]

@janetteb  Your scar sounds rather like mine.  . . . For a while it did provide an excuse to buy lots of necklaces and fancy scarves

That’s what my mom did about her thyroid scar, too!  In my case, it’s hopeless — I mean that I buy pretty gewgaws from time to time, but sooner or later off they come, tossed in a box, forgotten — I just can’t abide having jewelry dangling off me and sliding around.  Kind of like the cats, one of whom managed to chew off a red band that came home from the operating theater around my wrist, with “Allergy” printed on it in black letters.  She’s well pleased with herself, having groomed me free of the weird appendage as any friend would, and that’s fine with me!

[ichabod @ichabod]

@puroandson  — Glad you’re back home again.

Ichi

 

[Whisht @whisht]

hi @ichabod – just wanted to echo everyone’s thoughts and glad the op went well.

Also hi there @trillianwho – welcome!
Hope you like it here, and judging by your posts I think you’ll make it an even richer place!

I’m sure I’m missing saying “hi” to someone else – have been lurking with not much to add to the conversations, so have just sat back, listened and enjoyed them.

🙂

[ichabod @ichabod]

@whisht   thanks!  Feeling pretty good today —

[Anonymous @]

@thedentistofdavros @janetteb @ichabod @whisht @missy @trillianwho (and others who I’ve left out)  in this special place.

Thank you for all your kind comments and well wishes -it was very much appreciated indeed.

Yes, I found a packet of lollies, @thedentistofdavros with my favourite jellies as well as those little lolly bananas (?) and my special favourite, which look like jelly babies but are brown and have a chocolatey flavour? I remember many years ago during times when names were inappropriate (though not seen that way) that these lollies were “golliwogs” and had other even less salubrious labels.

Thank you Missy for the “aloe” in the vera 🙂 Yes, he thinks I run around screaming “come back here and put on this ointment! Now!” In fact, being 6 foot and fast I couldn’t catch up to him if I tried. He should be thankful I pile all this stuff on him preventing sun burn, the itches from various healing soccer ‘scars’ and toothaches. Children. Honestly!

But he’s a treasure and I can’t live wiv out ‘im    🙂

@ichabod your scar sounds irritating and I imagine the pain you were in was far worse. Speaking as a junkie someone who uses pain relief for Crohns, I hope you’ve been given some codeine or panadeine forte through the tough recovery. If ‘neck jewellery’ isn’t something you like, perhaps scarves? Although it occurs to me you’re in Summer and scarves during this season can be burdensome. But part of me would say “show ’em off, damn it” -our lines and puckers, wrinkles, dimples and scars are recollections of experiences, the road map of our tribulations, passing highways of melancholy and bridges to better health, understanding and wisdom (I’m excluding all celebrities’ nips and tucks from this observation!)

Yeah, that’s a bit kitsch but there’s a measure of truth in it I think  <-_->

Kindest to all -enjoy (hopefully) a Summer’s Sunday (eight hours away if you’re in England?) if you’re on the other side of our planet. Certainly it was a wintry night for us in Brisbane (a rare treat).

PuroSolo x0

[Missy @missy]

@puroandson

Our eldest boy (man now) was 6ft at 15. Now he’s 6’5.  and although I’m not short, I have to pull him down by his shirt to kiss his cheek! Our other two (daughter and son) are normal heights.

You are right, who can live without them.

Missy

[ichabod @ichabod]

@puroandson   I hope you’ve been given some codeine or panadeine forte through the tough recovery. If ‘neck jewellery’ isn’t something you like, perhaps scarves?

I am delighted to report that I did come home with pain meds, but never had to use anything stronger than Tylenol, and now it’s just a bit of irritating soreness, nothing worse.  Best of all, nobody has called me up to tell me any bad news about the tumor itself (I picture an anemic-looking, rather dwarfed and wrinkled lima bean).  Now all I have to do is get my bones fit again.  Keeping in mind that that does *not* mean getting back to dead-lifting 132 pounds at the gym (our coach was a competitive power lifter, I realized after a bit).  We talk a good bit about time here sometimes, so it shouldn’t take that much focus to remember that the blasted stuff does pass, and only in one direction in physical reality, and leaves real, irreversible changes in its wake — that may be offset a little here, moderated a bit there, etc., but no, it is not the same river, not ever again.  I really shouldn’t have to type that out, now, should I?

Okay; wine and cheese now.  Also bedtime.

 

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

Ah wine and cheese. That’s just what I need now after and exhausting weekend. I have been involved in running a local writer’s festival. Into it’s second year now. We have over fifty people at the launch of an anthology we put out on Friday night, (which is a lot of people for such a small event as ours). Attendance yesterday and today was modest but not embarrassing and we are already busting with ideas for next year’s event. But right now I just want to relax with a glass of wine, some nice cheese and Dr Who; not until I have caught up on my daily coffee intake however.

@puroandson Glad you are home again and you do indeed have a son to be proud of. I used to love those lolly bananasctoo when I was a kid. Hate to think what they would do to my skin if I ate one now.

@whisht It is nice to hear from you. I have been “lurking” a lot myself too. Really enjoying everyone else s posts but often feeling either that I have nothing of value to add or simply to tired to add something of value.

cheers

Janette

 

 

 

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@puroandson – like a few others, I’ve been lurking and reading a lot but haven’t had anything to add – so I haven’t been posting.

A happy belated birthday to you!

@ichabod – when it comes to tumours, no news is definitely good news. Glad to hear you’re getting better and that you didn’t need too many pain meds.

[TrillianWho @trillianwho]

@ichabod @missy @thedentistofdavros @whisht @janetteb (I hope I’m not forgetting someone)

Thank you all so much for your welcome! It’s a long wait for the new episodes, I kind of wish I hadn’t been hooked with the series until later in the year, but I think time will pass swiftly with you guys!

@janetteb
I absolutely adore Douglas Adams – although i agree that the movie wasn’t the best it could be, the respect it showed and the homage to Adams left me with tears in my eyes in the end. Plus, coming to thing of it, i believe Trillian would make an excellent companion!

 

[TrillianWho @trillianwho]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Doctor’s backstory and what we know so far regarding Gallifrey. There are many gaps of course, many things to speculate on rather than infer, but these are some the things i’ve gathered (please correct me if i’m wrong, if something in the BG series contradicts this):

We don’t know if every Gallifreyan is a Time Lord, do we? We have the Senate and the High Council and the military, but we also have “normal” people, like the guys at the repair shop and the old lady in the barn and all those people in Hell Bent. Do they also have 12 regenerations?  Is that something they have at birth or something that comes later, to a selected few? From what I’ve seen, i believe this is the case. I think that the regeneration rules as they have been shown has to be something more applicable than genetics – otherwise, how could you bestow a new cycle to someone? In my mind it has to do with something like tailored genes and nanotechnology, applied to the more evolved DNA of Gallifreyans. I think that anyone on Gallifrey can be a Time Lord, but the ruling class keeps that a privilege. Perhaps only for those that have passed through the Academy?

I also have a still-in-progress idea about the Matrix and the Schism and the Eye of Harmony – what if that’s the force behind regenerations? If we were to apply science (or hard s.f. tropes to be exact) to that, regeneration would be more like reconstruction, like having your personality traits stored in a database, and building them anew in a new body, and that database could be the Matrix, powered by the Schism. It would explain the different approach to each Doctor, the fact that it is like dying every time, the fact that it can go wrong, even the fact that regenerations seem to be more smooth on Gallifrey than some of the Doctor’s.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on that 🙂

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

@trillianwho

I always held the belief that all people born on Gallifrey were known as Gallifreyans and once you get through the academy you become a Time Lord/Time Lady as you said above.

There is a fourth doctor story called the Invasion of Time (I haven’t watched it in a while so my memory may be a bit rusty!) which is set on Gallifrey where you see outside of the citadel people living in pretty bad conditions far from the idea of how time lords live and I can’t quite remember what they called the people outside of the citadel but I am pretty sure they weren’t called Time Lords but they were from Gallifrey perhaps they were Gallifreyans?

I agree with all that you say about regeneration and the matrix though in the first post regeneration story the new doctor (Patrick Troughton 2nd) said his renewal was part of the TARDIS, so perhaps it has something to do with time or the time vortex?

I’m not sure but I think you’re maybe right that regeneration isn’t a genetic thing and is something controlled instead anyway it’s good to hear your thoughts!

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

@puroandson

Glad to hear your feeling better and back home, it was all down to the lollies!

[MissRori @missrori]

Welcome @trillianwho — that is a pretty neat theory, that the Doctor literally can’t say his name for some reason.

@thedentistofdavros — The people mentioned in “The Invasion of Time” are called Shobogans — apparently regarded as hoodlums by the Time Lords.  I agree that with what we’ve been given in the televised canon over the years, it would seem that not every Gallifreyan becomes a Time Lord, but I’m not sure how the regeneration issue works out.  A lot of the Doctor and show’s mythology only evolved over time, after all, and there seems to be hesitation about revealing too much of his pre-show backstory at this point.  Back in the 1990s, the New Adventures novels worked from some ideas that were being floated in the original show’s final years, and the authors came up with, on their own, a ton of new information about Gallifrey and the Time Lords — such as that they were sterile and new Gallifreyans were effectively test tube babies, and that the Doctor was something of a genetic reincarnation of a forgotten co-founder of Time Lord society — but that’s pretty much been ditched by “official” continuity.  They do want to keep some mystery about him, after all.  😉

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip

thank you for the birthday wishes.  🙂

I was home and before I knew it my son was explaining that he had started his Legal Studies course a year early.

I thought I’d share this with you as fellow academic/teacher.

In Aus, students can choose to take a subject entitled Legal Studies which may (or may not) assist them with law subjects (pre-law -except it’s a poor prerequisite). @janetteb -you may have heard of this also and your son(s) may have taken this subject or something similar.

As his English marks are good and he had a ‘spare’ on a particular subject line, teachers suggested that certain students take a fill- in subject and they mentioned Legal Studies.

This is where it becomes interesting. The young teacher is inexperienced and decided, off her own bat, to show long excerpts from a trial held in the US (note that this is Australia and we have barristers who receive instruction etc etc). The trial was the State of Arizona against Jodi Arias who has since been sentenced to Life without Parole (the prosecutor asked for the Death Penalty).

And this is where it gets more interesting. She asked them to watch this both in class and at home. I don’t know if you’re aware of the case (I was not) but it involves some of the most bizarrely sexual and stalker-like evidence I’ve ever seen. Large quantities of exhibits included pornographic material in the form of taped sex talks and instant messages.

The child is 14 -and so are the other students. Naturally Son is fascinated by this trial and is reading the intensely nasty comments about the case all over you tube. The comments are worse than the trial material. Fascists are talking about “killing her family” and commenting on the fact that “women like these should be burned at the stake. Why do we bother with a trial?”

I cannot fathom, for the life of me, how a teacher would think this is remotely appropriate for a child nowhere near his senior year.

He’s gone on to make his own comments (using my name: the naughty Puricle) usually in an attempt to ‘make the nutters see sense, Mum’ but nonetheless the trial itself is highly volatile. I would assume the rules of evidence are completely different to those used in the Westminster system? Certainly it’s completely different to Australia.

What do you think? Should I march to the school and have a word in this teacher’s ear?

My palms are itchy. I think I want to slap her. But a ‘word’ might be better (also, more legal).

PonderingPuro

PS: I thought this was the Pub (slaps head) and thus the contents of this post would be better in the pub rather than near our clean sofas.   😉

[janetteB @janetteb]

@puroandson  Yes.  Teachers at the boys school have been hauled over the coals for showing M rated films to the kids. What you are describing is far worse. R.1 did Legal Studies in yr 12. Unfortunately what should have been an engaging intro to law was so boring it must have been designed to put kids off. Given that he was only doing the subject because the school had dropped Drama which he had his heart set on the result was not good. Still three years later and it no longer matters as he has to do adult entry anyway to get into Uni anyway.

@trillianwho, @missrory and @thedentistofdavros I would like to see more development of Gallifreyan society, especially the non-time lord elements but at the same time I appreciate the mystery element. I suspect that when the concept of regeneration was first floated as a way of changing actor while preserving the character the science behind it was not really a consideration. Given also that our current understanding of DNA is greatly advanced since that time I think there are even more unanswered questions revolving around the matter. I liked the suggested explanation above. (I just scrolled up to check who suggested it and I have already forgotten. Urgh I need a weekend sleep in desperately). It seems to now be established the the time vortex can affect DNA to give regeneration ability. (River Song)

Cheers

Janette

 

 

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@puroandson

What do you think? Should I march to the school and have a word in this teacher’s ear?
My palms are itchy. I think I want to slap her. But a ‘word’ might be better (also, more legal).

The best thing to do would be to ask the head why the teacher is giving them this material – is it part of a school wide discussion on domestic abuse, sexual abuse and/or pornography? Because the availability of porn on the internet and the ability to pass it around on mobile phones between kids means that, yes, schools can find themselves urgently needing to give lessons about some of these topics to 14 year olds – and also feel that they need to explain that the practices seen in pornography may not be normal, or realistic, or much fun for the woman. This can involve some explicit explanations.

Saying that, the selection of this case does sound worrying, which is why I’d go to the head rather than the teacher. Inexperienced teachers have ruined their careers by diving in where angels fear to tread: you might want to enquire whether she’s checked with her line manager/department head that the proposed trial was suitable material for the class.

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip

interesting angle…that it was related to a pornographic study instead of the trial and the trial motions itself. I shall speak to the Head of Dept as you say -fortunately I know her and she’s fair and sensible. I wouldn’t particularly want to ruin the young woman’s career. But I found it odd: it seemed like multiple preparation was being avoided in favour of “just watch this” (a bunch of boys when being told to watch a gnarly prosecutor talk about sex lives might just say “oh yeah, bring it on” as much for the content let alone the lack of other activities).

Thanking you,

PuroSolo

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb I agree yes -it can be very dry.  We have one or two lawyers on the Forum, I imagine they would have found the case study and memorisation of rules of evidence very dry indeed?

As for the ‘M’ movies, you’d be right there. In this case the trial would be somewhere between PG13+ and XXX.

[Anonymous @]

Hi all. I’m hoping someone here might know what I haven’t been able to dig up on the web.  Some time ago I offered to look after some alien costumes which had been stored in my neighbour’s attic for years.  I’ve now had them for a few years and need the space.  The back story is this: they were bought / acquired from the BBC by my neighbour’s daughter who has run theatre companies all her life.  She says that they were originally from Doctor Who, but I have tried to find out if her memory (or what she was told) is right, without success.

The only slight clue I found is that a few of the costumes have labels.  The names are Pat Mullins, David Harrison, and Terry Russeton (sic).  I did find a Terry Russelton who was an extra in at least one episode, but wasn’t an alien in that episode.  One label also has Salisbury (I presume) written as Sailsbury so maybe Russeton was mis-spelt too.

There are about eight of them, and they are just the body costumes.  The feet did exist but according to my neighbour were too far-gone and she threw them away.  The bodies are in good nick. I have no idea what the heads would have looked like.  It looks like these were friendly aliens – there is at least one child’s costume included, and I can’t imagine that being a scary character.

There are photos of the Terry R costume here:- https://photos.dropbox.com/app/album/E7oOwfmKkos88z6 .

Any help greatly appreciated.

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

@pingpongpete1 I did some looking around and found that a man named David Harrison was in two Doctor Who stories, his first was called Castrovalva (with Peter Davison as the Doctor) in which he played an uncredited warrior and his second was as an uncredited extra in Remembrance of the Daleks (with Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor). I also found a Terry Russelton who played an uncredited extra (a marine possibly) in another McCoy story The Curse of Fenric. I couldn’t find any Pat Mullins and I couldn’t get on to see your photos, could you perhaps put them on here?

@missrori Thanks for the info on Invasion of Time and I have to say that the mystery behind Doctor Who is extremely important and is something that should never be chipped away at, it’s great that after more than 50 years we still don’t know all there is to know about this character. The problem I had with series 9’s hybrid arc was that it changed the reason why the Doctor left Gallifrey which I thought was one of the best and funniest reasons he could have for leaving his home planet, he was simply bored, that should never have changed but I’ve gotten over it. The new adventures novels you mentioned are quite interesting especially Lungbarrow which I still haven’t got a copy of.

[Anonymous @]

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”><span class=”useratname”>@thedentistofdavros  thanks for the info, good digging!</span></div>
<div class=”bbp-reply-content”>

I didn’t think I was allowed to put photos here.

Please try this link – hope it works this time.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9z8w7hawh13q5r/AABRdinfA-meufaKmLSBT3tRa?dl=0

 

</div>

[Mersey @mersey]

Has anyone read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? I haven’t but I read the report in The Teleghaph that many people feel cheated by the poor quality of the script so I decided to read the plot summary on Wikipedia. Maybe it works as a play but as a story it’s a load of rubbish. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter but with the heavy heart I have to agree with all negative comments posted on Twitter (spoilers).

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

@pingpongpete1 Hello again, I tried the link and it worked and led me to a page called bbc costumes…who but it said that the folder was empty? Not sure what’s going on, should I make an account in case that’s the problem?

[Anonymous @]

Not doing very well here, sorry!  I’m new to using dropbox so probably messed up.

Please try this again – you shouldn’t need an account.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s9z8w7hawh13q5r/AABRdinfA-meufaKmLSBT3tRa?dl=0

[IAmNotAFishIAmAFreeMan @pedant]

@pingpongpete1

Still not working.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@puroandson

interesting angle

Well, the only alternative angle I could think of was ‘OMG, what is that teacher doing??!! Has she gone mad??’ 🙂

But it does sometimes happen that schools need to discuss triple X rated stuff, usually when something triple X has been discovered in the wild, so to speak.

[time-lord-alvey @time-lord-alvey]

Hi everyone! I’m new to this forum and just wanted to say hello and introduce myself! I only recently became a Doctor Who fan this year (since April 2016) when I decided to watch Doctor Who (the NuWho) in order to relax from my stressful  period of completing my doctoral dissertation. (I also felt the need to watch THE Doctor en route to becoming a doctor myself. 🙂 ) A few days ago, I finished Season 9 of Doctor Who and watched “The Husbands of River Song’. Even though I love all the doctors (at least in NuWho), I have to say my favorite is Eleventh Doctor, with Ten as a *very* close second, and my favorite companion is Amy. I’m very proud to be a Whovian!

[xoce2424 @xoce2424]

Very friendly seller, quickly sent and answered my on questions! thank you very much!!! Now about product – it is really forever rose! Natural rose which stay fresh and beauty forever, like bring from garden to home just now. When i get parcel from post-office and opened it, i was really impressed! Any photos cant to show loveliness of natural rose, i admire the flower! I think in future to buy another one for decorate my office, maybe try even not natural color. It is very cool!

[Anonymous @]

Sorry – you must be pretty fed up.  I can see no way of getting the album to you.  It shows six photos, but when you click on the link it is empty. Here’s a link to the main photo – perhaps that will work.

<span style=”font-family: ‘Calibri’,’sans-serif’;”>https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/2/AAAREhAxehgGs5RAjp1fkO7H4s20z6IFqCv4P5jECGSSoA/12/19068347/jpeg/32×32/1/_/1/2/DSC_5781%20costume%20small.jpg/EJ_zoA4Ywg8gAigC/-RuIf-gOs-F84SKvgsJ1ZToMoAQJWunFl9IeycDQ-7c?size_mode=3&size=1600×1200&dl=0</span>

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@mersey

It’s a playscript. Even the Telegraph article is basically saying ‘Who are these idiots who don’t realise that a playscript isn’t like a novel?’ You can’t read a script like a book – you have to think of a playscript as the skeleton of the story, with the set, effects and performances as the flesh and blood. If you’re reading it for fun, that means you have to do an awful lot of work, imagining the finished play in your head.

And no, you can’t judge a play by its plot summary: try summarising Hamlet if you don’t believe me.

Yes, I’ve read the script of HP and the Cursed Child; getting a ticket is now very firmly on my list of Things To Do. As stories go, it’s effectively a short story rather than a novel and deals with two very simple but very powerful themes – but the power is going to come from the actors’ performances and the visual effects.

Visually, I’m really looking forward to discovering how they’re going to manage some of those scenes on stage; I’d say this is going to be one heck of a theatrical experience. From an acting point of view, the main characters have a lot of subtext to deliver – the script seems to presume that the actors playing adults will be working from the books as well as the script, so will know what book subtext informs which lines. I think you could see the play without knowing the books, but I will say that you’ll probably get a lot more out of it if you treat it as Harry Potter Part 8.

[Anonymous @]

@bluesqueakpip

there’s more HP?

I didn’t even know that. I thought someone said there might be a movie? I said “oh no, not another movie I have to cue up for and… and..”   🙂

Thank you, yes, the “OMG” was my own reaction. I’ve gone back to the trial myself (I’m an addict now) and found comments (incendiary because it’s youboob) and found the puricle trying to EXPLAIN things to these people who want “no trial just crucifixion” and it scared the beejesus out of me.

Is this what we’ve come to? I think so. Maybe.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@puroandson

Yes, there’s more HP – it’s a West End play. Now the reviews have been good, they’re in talks about taking it around the world.

My guess from reading the script is that the playwright (Jack Thorne, who has quite a few BAFTAs to his credit) came up with the idea and the main theme of the play, then JK Rowling worked with him and the director to make sure that the play was true to the books, the established characters and to the Potterverse.

The script (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) is on sale, but it is a playscript. See above for comments. 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@time-lord-alvey

welcome to you. Congrats on completing a PhD or doctorate. Tough stuff.

@pingpongpete1 Dropbox is great but can be confusing. Sometimes it has a ‘header’ suggesting there’s ‘something’ in the D’box but the folder is actually empty.

Kindest, PuroSolo

 

[Author]

Posts