On The Sofa (9)
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Craig 5 years, 3 months ago.
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30 October 2018 at 23:11 #65249
@jimthefish I know where you are coming from re: the fans of the supercilious and slightly superior Doctors that the young female companions looked up to (although even there I suspect we are still in @pedant‘s “angry virgins” territory). But that type of Doctor was only applicable to the ’70s with Pertwee and Tom Baker. The other Doctors not so much.
And thinking back to those years, it probably says a lot about me (not sure whether good or bad) that of all the female companions to the Pertwee/Tom Baker versions of the Doctor the two I really liked were Caroline John’s Liz Shaw and Mary Tamm’s version of Romana. Both of them were self assured and just as likely to laugh at the Doctor as they were to laugh at his jokes.
As for The Macra Terror, at least I am old enough to remember it. If only one could see it again.
30 October 2018 at 23:23 #65251It wasn’t the right who messed up star wars it was the far left just had to correct that point. But so far I’m enjoying doctor who, I’m currently on season 2.
31 October 2018 at 00:18 #65254“The far left” Ah, see that’s the type of youtube comment I’m used to reading. Generally, political statements of that kind could be best left to the Pub: The Kebab and Calculator.
I am, however, deeply concerned, you think it’s the “far left” who somehow messed up Star Wars. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Clearly, by your statement, you are, in fact, a member of ‘The Right” and from in the US.
Puro.
31 October 2018 at 00:24 #65255I am indeed from the U.S. and to be precise on the political compass I fall more on the lower right quadrant. And yes the far left killed star wars by infusing sjw political correct nonsense not to mention the fact that Disney in their wisdom decided to declare pretty much all the eu non canon. Which is funny when you consider in the eu the story of what came after was done way better including a child of han and Leia who turned to the dark side and was above and beyond better than the kylo ren garbage.
31 October 2018 at 00:31 #65256Say no more: “politically correct;” “sjw;” “nonsense.” We’ve had some interesting discussions about “SJWs” as well as the craziness of the term “PC” which generally means being courteous. Feel free, perhaps, to read those particular comments across The Pub, in the episode discussions on ‘Rosa,’ and so on.
Also, punctuation is your best friend. As is knowledge and facts. Probably, though, you’re about to mention: “fake facts.”
So, I’ll just skip your posts and move on….
Puro.
31 October 2018 at 00:38 #65257I didn’t join this site to argue or even talk politics, that said I believe in facts because facts don’t care about your feelings.
31 October 2018 at 01:21 #65259Oooh.We have a sockpuppet in the house.
31 October 2018 at 01:23 #65260Not a sockpuppet. But I see when I’m in a place where I am not wanted so ill go enjoy your leftist echo chamber.
31 October 2018 at 01:58 #65263Hmm, didn’t follow that link, did you? Hope I didn’t inadvertently trigger you.
31 October 2018 at 02:00 #65264Lol I’m not the one getting triggered I don’t get triggered. That’s what you leftists do.
31 October 2018 at 02:54 #65269And yet, here you are, being all triggered.
31 October 2018 at 02:57 #65270Not at all I actually have no emotion tied into this debate at all. I could honestly careless what you think politically I didn’t join the site for political discourse.
31 October 2018 at 03:06 #65271You should be more specific when Like TLJ spend entire sub plot to just to make a social commentary, main plot is illogical because resistance doesn’t act like a military organization should act. You see, it isn’t hard to present a true agreement.
31 October 2018 at 04:10 #65273Well, you all know my opinion of a female Doctor – it’s all wrong, for me at least.
My feelings, my opinion, I don’t say it to be bloody minded – as some might think.
As I haven’t watched any episode, I can’t comment, but I wouldn’t be insulting either.
However that doesn’t make me a false fan of the programme, I’m still a Whovian, but not of this series.
Missy
31 October 2018 at 07:22 #65279@lionheart564 the only thing with that argument is that the originals made a lot of social commentary. The Empire is facist, it’s clearly singled as facist, down to the designs of the uniforms. Princess Leia is an important political figure who strangled Jabba the Hutt to death with his own chains. I agree that sub plot, at present, looks as though it could be removed from the film without violence, but it introduces a great character, reinforces the message that the superstar maverick would do better occasionally listening to his generals, and the resistance are a rebellian terrorist organisation, in the style of the French resistance during world war II, that’s what they’ve always been modelled on because, as I said, politics and social commentary have always been part of the films. Remember, these films are set long before our time.
2 November 2018 at 10:48 #65358Hi all – thought I’d plop down on the sofa for a minute!
So – a bonkers theory:
For me this series is centred around those who are bullied and only concerned with the ‘monster’ and their motivations as a way of showing the bullied that actually they are not [insert whatever the bully is saying of them such as inferior/fat/thin/spectacled/stupid/smart/tall/small etc].
It is a problem with the monster and not them.So I think we’ll get a reveal from the Doctor that she was bullied at school (I think we’ve had something similar before) but also that she may have been a bully herself (much like Karl using it to achieve self-worth).
It was in fact the self reflection of being a bully that she realised she needed to become The Doctor.
Which isn’t that bonkers, so lets have the Stenza being the species she bullied (picked the wings off as it were) and how that’s now coming back to haunt her!2 November 2018 at 18:44 #65368Just to say, I will be AWOL for the next two Sundays, as I’m sailing up the Danube on one of them big river cruisers with my 90 year old Dad. Will have to catch up rapidly when I get back to Sheffield (Sonic City) – I will stay clear of this site till then, however, and hope that I can avoid spoilers on Twitter and Facebook! Have fun and don’t feed the trolls…
2 November 2018 at 22:12 #65371@cathannabel I hope you have a fantastic time!
2 November 2018 at 23:00 #65372@cathannabel Seconded. Have a fabulous time. (And your parting advice is very wise.)
Who knows, by the time you return, the discussion elsewhere on the site may have definitively established the existence of God. Or not. My money is on not.
2 November 2018 at 23:15 #65373@winston ! It’s good to see your picture and handle again.
@cathannabel We (i’m typing for Mum and adding in myself) echo those sentiments. Have a great time. And enjoy this time with your Dad: it should be a terrific experience and one your dad should treasure and so will you. Mum also said she spent 3 days on the Danube when she was 25 with grandpa. On one day it was hot & against the judgement of ‘le capitaine’ people jumped in the water.
@whisht terrific bonkerising: essential element of this site. I don’t have any theories except for the Stenza coming back and being a group whose culture was lost in the Time War, caused by the High Council. I also wonder whether there are other TLs still out there.
Not the Master/Missy or any mentioned in Mat Smith’s era but a completely different one(s)? Mum is out for a couple of weeks too. I may be checking in or out -depending on assessment which is going to be spectacularly bad. From last semester of 4 As, one B and one C I reckon on losing all but one A.
None of this year ‘counts’ towards final marks at the end of Year 12. The philosophy assignment has done me in (and mum too) but the English essay on Kate Grenville is torturous because of time restrictions, @janetteb you may know The Secret River because of your extensive research ?
Also @juniperfish you might have an idea about how to describe “God exists” [or not] using Kant’s theory of ‘predicates?’ It’s not good when our taxes are providing such poor education in some state schools that the teacher actually says, “I have no real idea how to teach this philosophy task because I don’t like Immanuel Kant” and I said: I know you didn’t set the task but everyone knows something relevant. David Hume? And he said, Nup not him either. He’s contracted and doesn’t know us well. Shy but writes thoughtfully.
@blenkinsopthebrave I hope you can get a Doctor Who soon? Perhaps (mum says) you can work in your celler while you wait for it to show up on DVD? 😀 But that’s a year away!
T16 and Puro signing off,
2 November 2018 at 23:29 #65374The Blenkinsop household successfully mastered the dark arts of technology, and we can now watch it! “Rosa” was simply brilliant. Puro, thanks for for the suggestion, but this technological breakthrough will require less strain on the cellar. T16, good luck with the assignments, and please pass on my best wishes to Puro for the next couple of weeks.
3 November 2018 at 01:40 #65375@thane16 Thank you for the welcome. I am showing up very late for the party but I have my Tardis slippers on and I am ready to go. After reading hundreds of posts to catch up!
Due to a series of unfortunate events we were without internet for a couple of months. There was a storm, a few big,old trees and a lot of downed wires to deal with. Then waiting for the “internet guy” to show up and hook me up and here I am. The worse thing was watching the new Doctor and not being able to go straight to this great site, full of smart people to discuss the show. I have watched the first three episodes and hope to add my 2 cents worth after I read what everyone else has written.
@blenkinsopthebrave I have been fighting the dark arts of technology myself for a bit and have also been victorious. Give ourselves a happy face sticker.
6 November 2018 at 04:04 #65433@thane16 No I must plead ignorance. currently helping R.3 with his English Essay which typical of all three recalcitrants, (and indeed why I call them that) he has left to the last minute. He wanted to write about Mortal Engines the novel, but has to find a short story with comparable themes. Searching for stories but theme is not easy but we have finally settled for Canticle for Leibowitz. He wanted to compare it to Norsica Valley of the Wind which would have been perfect but the teacher said it had to be a short story, contrary to the criteria sheet.
@cathannabel I hope you have a wonderful time. I would love to sail down the Danube.
@winston Glad you are back with us again. I would hate to be internet deprived though I would get probably a lot more work done. So easy to just click on the news or check here to see if there are any new posts instead of doing what I should be.
Due to all the exams etc we are very behind with our viewing but re-watched the spider episode last night which led to an extended discussion about the series as a whole and the Doctor. R.3 asked, was BG Doctor merciful? He disliked guns but was not opposed to killing things, provided it was not his finger on the trigger. I think BG Doctor would have reacted differently to AG Doctor in the spider episode. (To tired to recall title. Apologies.) Certainly BG Doctor appeared indifferent to the fate of the “red shirt” characters. AG Doctor values human life far more. He/she would not just step over the bodies with a swish of the scarf and carry on. (Not thinking of a specific scene.)
Cheers
Janette
6 November 2018 at 23:20 #65460Listening to Science Friday on National Public Radio, ( https://www.npr.org/podcasts/583350334/science-friday ) I encountered a nifty sciencey story about “Ever wondered why your dog’s back-and-forth shaking is so effective at getting you wet? Or how bugs, birds, and lizards can run across water—but we can’t? Or how about why cockroaches are so darn good at navigating in the dark? Those are just a few of the day-to-day mysteries answered in the new book How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future, by David Hu.”
It took me awhile to realize David Hu probably has a doctorate… which makes him…
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasss, at the end of the segment they played the Doctor Who theme…
Also, went to the beach last Saturday with friends… we’re talking miid-Atlantic coast, Virginia, Assateague, barrier island, wild horses, gorgeous wildlife refuge and COld. We passed a car with surfboards on the roof… I took a pic. Later, I realized the license plate frame said “don’t blink”
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7 November 2018 at 01:38 #65464@swordwhale That picture made me smile! Thanks. I once saw one on a car in a parking lot that said “My other vehicle is a Tardis” I wanted to look for my fellow Whovian in the mall but my OH was having none of that.
Lucky you having such a beautiful place to visit, I hope it was a good day even if it was cold.
7 November 2018 at 01:44 #65465So I’ve just caught up with The Cry, a new BBC drama in which Jenna Coleman is outstanding. This shot in an early episode suggests a director with a keen visual sense of humour, in what is otherwise a very dark tale (what’s that in the background?)…
8 November 2018 at 21:14 #65490@pedant What sort of show is “The City”? What popped into my head was China Mieville’s novel “The City and the City” (prolly not). Mieville is too convoluted for me in book form (I more or less quit at “The Scar”), but I’d love to see a smart screen presentation of his work.
@swordwhale I watched a documentary about Pony Penning Day on Chincoteag (?) the other night — only it’s Pony Penning Week now, I think (I read “Misty of Chincoteag” like any other horse-loving girl). It looked great, and the idea of financing the island’s Fire Station with a yearly Pony auction is ingenious.
As for Dr. Hu — there was an item on him in the science section of the NYT earlier this week, showcasing his odd interests and his book, and I think he sounds like just the sort of scientist Doctor Who would be if s/he actually did research science (and expanding the size scale at the upper end into astrophysics, though maybe Hu looks into that, too). It would make my day if Dr. Hu’s license plate read “DR HU” + some numbers . . . maybe “14”?
8 November 2018 at 22:48 #65496There was a six part BBC adaptation of The City and the City early this year, although I only recently got round to watching it. It diverged in some respects from the novel, giving Borlu a back story and an additional motive in the form of a wife who had disappeared, and greater prominence to the archaeological excavations. What made the dramatization particularly effective in my opinion was the distinctly noir-ish flavour and, cinematicaly, more than a hint of Blade Runner influence. I’m not sure what viewers who hadn’t read the book made of it, since Mieville’s work does, as you say, tend to be convoluted. For the most part I find it worth the effort of reading.
I haven’t yet had time to watch The Cry, which @pedant referred to. It is a drama based, I think, on the Dingo Baby case a few years back and the reviews seem generally to have been good, especially of Jenna Coleman’s performance.
8 November 2018 at 22:58 #654988 November 2018 at 23:39 #65501Yes as you have clearly realised, The Cry – obviously partially inspired by Lindy Chamberlain but also informed I think by the case of Maddie McCann, but very much its own story. And, as I say, Coleman was excellent and props to whoever put a Tardis in the background!
I very much enjoyed The City and The City as well.
10 November 2018 at 10:54 #65534@ichabod @mudlark
I’ve just finished Mieville’s Iron Council (one of his Bas Lag novels).
I’ll admit that for me it dragged a bit, which is something I also thought of his other Bas Lag novels (they just feel like they could do with a bit of editing).
I prefer his other novels (eg Kraken) but really liked The City and The City (though didn’t catch the TV adaptation).I’ve just got the latest Saga collection (its a comic). As its been a while since I read the last one, I’ll go back to the beginning and re-read them and finish with the latest. From memory there was a bit of a dip in quality a few collections in, but will be interesting if I think the same on a re-read.
I’m rambling – need more tea!
12 November 2018 at 22:37 #65591From DigitalSpy: On ratings.
Apparently a lot of gammon stomping off is no biggee…
(Especially when they will sneak bake so that can whinge again)
12 November 2018 at 23:54 #65597From George Sheard on Twitter:
Ep1: finalised at 10.96m – Highest Ratings for a series opener. Ep2: finalised at 9.00m, which are the highest ratings for Ep 2 since 2008. Then:
Ep3: 8.41m – Highest Ratings for Ep 3 since 2012
Ep4: 8.22m – Highest Ratings for Ep 4 since 2010
Ep5: 7.76m – Highest Ratings for Ep 5 since 2012Ep6 is still only on overnights, but was the second most popular programme on Sunday. And has lots of people bawling their eyes out on Twitter. 🙂
13 November 2018 at 07:34 #65611@bluesqueakpip High ratings — good! Relieved to hear it. Thanks.
13 November 2018 at 08:51 #65616ratings! awesome!
YOl! Dr Hu…..loved the number plate. Didn’t even though they were …..a thing. Apparently people have ‘life size’ Tardis’ in their garden: I have a Tardis mug which, when you heat things, allows for a disappearing Tardis (it really was awesome in its day).
Puro
13 November 2018 at 09:39 #65617I’m back, and catching up (have watched the Conundrum ep but not the Punjab yet – tonight for sure). The Danube was amazing, and the company we travelled with (Riviera Travel) were superb. It wasn’t the kind of holiday I’d envisaged for myself but it was my father’s holiday really, and I was there as eyes and ears but obviously enjoying the places we visited (and the life of luxury) as much as possible, and I’ve now got a short list of cities I definitely want to go back and explore properly. Travelling with my father was challenging. I found myself yelling ‘Dad! Dad!’ so often that some of the staff on board took to calling him Dad too… And I must have told him a dozen times each day ‘Don’t wander off’ with about as much effect as it had when various Doctors gave that instruction to various companions (he did wander off in the middle of Salzburg, following a random group of total strangers, and was only intercepted as he was about to cross the road with them and disappear into the throng)! However, we both survived….
Brilliant to see the new series and the new Doc are getting lots of viewers and lots of love.
13 November 2018 at 10:28 #65618Great to see you back and ‘not lost’ though #LostinSalzburg should be a thing. I always loved Prague but Salzburg is colourful, a tad smaller, its river not quite as ….threatening. Indeed it is a life of luxury. Not uncommon amongst Aussies to spend $20 000 on a 4 or 2 month holiday in Europe incl fares/accom/cabs/train passes and just…..living, wandering and eatin’
So much so, one happily chugs bake beans and devon-‘meat’ for the next 12 months 🙂
Puro
14 November 2018 at 04:12 #65631@thane16 When we last went South to Victor, (the coast) we saw three Tardis. One was doubling as a post box, the other two purely garden decoration. I was needless to say both surprised and impressed. We have multiple Tardis but they are all of the miniature variety. Still when we did the Dr Who Podcast I was able to organise a nice display on the table of various Who related items. One of the family “treasures” is a pewter Dalek salt and Pepper set. The O.H and I bought it as a shared birthday pressie when we were both students and broke.
Glad the ratings are good.
@cathannabel Glad you enjoyed the holiday. Travelling is always wonderful even if not quite the style of travel one would choose. Cruises are certainly not “my thing” either but I am still envious. I always have the proverbial itchy feet. Unfortunately I don’t have the bank balance to facilitate those annoying appendages.
Cheers
Janette
15 November 2018 at 07:50 #65646@cathannabel I must have told him a dozen times each day ‘Don’t wander off’ with about as much effect as it had when various Doctors gave that instruction to various companions (he did wander off in the middle of Salzburg,
I know the feeling, from when my husband and I did a couple of river cruises, and before it became just too much to even think about. He got lost in Vienna, somehow made his way back across the city in time to get back on the boat for the next leg of the trip! Exciting times . . . I’m glad you got to do this with your Dad.
@thane16 Puro — While in Prague, I had a truly creepy dream of people hanging long white sheet-like cloths from upper story windows in those taller apartment buildings. Someone told me that that was in fact done in medieval times (?) to signal the presence of plague — but did Prague, as an inland city rather than a port, fall victim much to plague? Anyway, that dream probably colored my sense of a sinister air about the place.
15 November 2018 at 10:16 #65648I think that would’ve been my relatives hanging out their sheets to dry 🙂
The amount of times we put sheets out -only to bring them in standing up from ice or frost -I don’t like to count. Prague is a truly beautiful city to me. People cite Paris as the most romantic and yet the buildings are all large and white (still beautiful) whilst Prague’s are capped with coloured, elegant crown mouldings. Many have painted emblems across the top with apartments and official buildings in duck-egg blue, earth, pale-pink and rust colours. I found Salzburg more homely, somehow -though definitely ‘home’ to the richest of cultural groups with modern acoustic concert halls and permanent galleries. As to plague I must defer to @mudlark our historian of this time-period and @janetteb.
Puro
15 November 2018 at 10:47 #65649I don’t know the answer but I suspect being inland was not much defence against plague. It spread across Europe, carried by merchants and the like. (I am sure @mudlark will know more.) Though a later outbreak of Plague than the most traumatic, “black Death” the story of the plague outbreak in Eyam in Derbyshire, caused by the arrival of a bolt of cloth from London, indicates that nowhere was immune.
I really loved Prague though we only had a day there due to visa restrictions and had our baggage stolen from the station lockers. Prague was certainly memorable. Really regretted not having stayed longer. We were there on the second last day of the USSR. The following night we watched Gorbachev announce the dissolution of the Soviet Union from a hotel room in Budapest.
Cheers
Janette
15 November 2018 at 15:54 #65651@ichabod @thane16 @janetteb I loved what little we saw of Budapest (we had a coach tour and then a short guided walk by which time it was dark) and very much want to go back and explore without the constraints of a guide or an elderly parent! I also was very taken with Bratislava. Salzburg was lovely but for some reason it didn’t leave me with a strong desire to return – I’d go back to Vienna though as there was so much we didn’t get time to see. I think the former Iron Curtain cities for me had a particular fascination in the juxtaposition of brutalist concrete slabs from the Communist era with lovely old buildings, ornate churches and so on. Plus as a history nerd my period is definitely WWII and its aftermath. And Prague is now top of my list to visit for architecture and history as well as literary connections (my PhD thesis involves studying W G Sebald’s Austerlitz which has a long section set in Prague). Will raise a glass to @thane16 Puro when I do!
15 November 2018 at 22:01 #65668Your confidence in my omniscience in all things historical is very flattering, but my knowledge of the incidence of plague is not very detailed. There were few if any places in Europe not devastated by the Black Death, least of all urban centres, although Poland is supposed to have remained largely unaffected. This 14th century pandemic originated in east Asia and arrived first in Europe via the maritime ports – Mediterranean, Atlantic and Baltic – spreading from there, as Janette says, along inland trade routes and via people fleeing from the cities into the countryside to escape it. In Britain it was introduced through the ports on the south coast of England and spread north from there over the space of about a year. I don’t know how badly Prague was affected, but I doubt whether it escaped altogether.
Don’t forget, though, that Bubonic/Pneumonic plague remained endemic in Europe until at least the mid 18th century and there were many further, more limited outbreaks, mostly centred in cities which certainly included Prague. The Great Plague of London 1665/66 is the last such in England, but far from the last elsewhere. Given the very limited medical knowledge of the times, there were other epidemic diseases which might also have been regarded in a similar light to the plague.
I have wanted to visit Prague ever since I read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s description in Between the Woods and the Water, but I fear my travelling days may be over, other than hopping Eurostar to Paris 🙁
15 November 2018 at 22:07 #65669@mudlark Thanks! And Fermor’s book is one of my favorites, right up there with, say, “Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village” et al.
15 November 2018 at 22:19 #65670In other news, it looks as if I may shortly be having my nose reshaped in a less than aesthetically pleasing fashion.
Over the past five weeks a small, doubtful-looking, oozy spot on my nose has developed, and first thing this morning I finally got round to calling the GP practice and arranging an appointment to have it looked at. It turned out that the doctor I normally see was unavailable as it was his turn on call-out duty (yes, they still do home visits), so I ended up seeing one of the other partners, a very pleasant, jolly lady.
I had been thinking on the lines of ‘possible basal cell carcinoma’, so I after had given her the background details I was a bit disconcerted when she started asking pointed questions about family history of melanoma (answer: yes, I had one removed from my back 18 years ago, but this thing looks nothing like it). Whichever is the case, I have been referred to a dermatologist at the N &N University Hospital – a convenient 4 miles from where I live, and we shall see.
A complication I could have done without, soddit.
15 November 2018 at 23:55 #65672@bluesqueakpip – I really like your analysis of where we are right now on your blog.
And I’m sure there are ‘fixed moments’ in the future that can’t be changed (not just Earth’s past).
So I can see how Ryan and Yas (and us the audience) would and should feel “but this is wrong – I should be able to make a difference!!!”On a separate point about Tosin (so this includes @margaret-blaine )
I like Ryan as a character and Tosin as an actor for me is fine.
There is likely to be racism in terms of questioning his ability (as @bluesqueakpip says it seems to happen a lot to black actors) but I think there may be other reasons than just racism for questioning Tosin’s ability as an actor.
If we think of the character he’s playing, Ryan is the most ‘junior’ of the team –
– Graham is older and wiser (and his grandad);
– Yasmin is a policewoman which impressed Ryan a lot as he ‘only’ works in a warehouse;
– the Doctor is… the Doctor.
As a character he’s not only embarrassed by all this but also by his dyspraxia.
As an actor Tosin could be considered the ‘junior’ in a very strong cast.So with that character and writing and other actors surrounding him he may get faint praise (or worse if that’s the inclination of the commenter)
But I like his work with Mandip and especially with Bradley, but thought I’d mention his situation (maybe its because I’m the youngest in my family).
btw I made a comment about monsters and I’m not really that bothered by monsters, and would be happy to see an episode without one and just focus on the monstrosity of people.
But if we are to have them then I want them to be… monstrous and not just a cypher.Reading that the New Year’s special would feature an unnamed monster which is a “terrifying evil from across the centuries of Earth’s history” I realised something about the monsters that stick in my mind.
The best recent monsters (and possibly the old ones too) for me were individuals who were monstrous.Julian Bleach as Davros and the writing he had was a fantastically monstrous monster. So was Missy. They were the scorpions to the frog.
The monster doesn’t have to be like the Silence (monstrous mainly as non-individuals interfering across time).16 November 2018 at 04:15 #65677Some random (and probably rambling) thoughts on everyone’s reactions to the “Chibnall approach” to Who. My first thought is that some people seem to be thinking that Chibnall is taking the show off in a new direction, divorced from the past (ie, no arc, and therefore, as @margaretblaine pointed out, little opportunity for bonkerising.) But is it a new direction, or is it, in fact, a very old direction? I have the feeling that a number of people are thinking of Who as essentially AG Who. But I would argue that that Chibnall has a very detailed knowledge of BG Who and it is evident in what we have seen thus far.
Moffat was often criticised for being too reverential to BG Who (ie, writing for the fans–a very stupid criticism IMO). But I tend to think that Chibnall is as acutely aware of BG Who as Moffat was. He just does it in a different way. As I said in response to The Demons of the Punjab it feels (to me) that Chibnall is recapturing the approach of the Verity Lambert/Sydney Newman years. The original brief of the show was to have a show that was directed to children that was both entertaining (adventures in outer space) but educational (history lessons like The Aztecs and Marco Polo).
Well, I tend to think that is exactly what Chibnall is aiming for. A mixture of educational stories (Rosa and Demons of the Punjab) and exciting adventures in outer space. Is the silliness of P’Tang all that much different from the silliness of The Web Planet?
I think that in order to genuinely appreciate the Chibnall vision we should be going back to the Hartnell and Troughton years.
I think there is the potential for a lot of discussion left on the site. So don’t give up @ichabod or @jimthefish, or anybody. We have moved beyond Moffat. But I think there is lots to appreciate and discuss in Chibnall for those of us who have loved the show since 1963.
16 November 2018 at 05:06 #65679@blenkinsopthebrave This makes absolute sense to me. I can see why those who prefer story arcs and complexity are feeling underwhelmed. I loved Moffat’s approach, and Peter Capaldi was probably my favourite-ever Doctor. But right now, I feel as though after a long period of challenging, multi-ingredient cocktails, I’m sitting down to a nice dry martini with a lemon twist.
16 November 2018 at 08:41 #65680@mudlark That is rotten luck. Hope it gets sorted completely and quickly.
16 November 2018 at 12:20 #65682Anonymous @
@blenkinsopthebrave – Well said, and your argument certainly makes sense. The new historicals fit well with what I’ve seen of the original historicals. Although I can’t say as I’ve liked the Hartnell historicals I’ve seen (I prefer to learn history from books). But Chibnall is certainly staying true to Who.
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