The Winchester

[nerys @nerys]

@ps1l0v3y0u Oh. Could I make it ‘Broadchurch’ in space? A series of Intergalactic Moiders with conflicted cardboard cutouts (my fav. Pretty please?)

Had you leveled the “cardboard cutouts” complaint against Season 2, I would have been right there with you. The second season of Broadchurch was a disaster, IMO. Throw in a past murder that no viewer cares about? OK, I get it, it’s the old “cold case haunts investigator, and is finally resolved” scenario. But did anyone care? I didn’t. I cared about the characters I’d come to know in the first season … and we got precious little of them. I approached the third season with fear and trepidation, but I felt that it redeemed itself and didn’t repeat its mistake from the second season.

I realize you’re not carrying that over to Chibnall’s tenure on Doctor Who, but I did want to comment on it. I was surprised that so little of the character development I saw on Broadchurch carried over to Doctor Who. I still wonder if it was a “too many cooks in the kitchen” problem. That’s what it felt like.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@nerys
That was more a comment on Chibnall’s previous Who tendencies. I did try Broadchurch. Was mainly watching Scandinoir at the time, itself pretty flawed. So, on the one hand my comment was a cheap shot, imagining what Chibnall might have done with Who (depending on The Corp). But I can’t really say what I saw convinced me that Chibnall’s handling of character was ever not just dull and worthy. His Who contribution should be no surprise.

Crime. I can be fussy. The later (most recent) incarnation of ‘Those Who Kill,’ is consistently disturbing, frightening and yet curiously dutiful to the (female) protagonist. Great writing but not an easy watch, especially the first one (bring a friend). Also the ‘Paris’ Belle Epoque series had fantastic production values, wonderful acting and chutzpah coming out of its ears; I hope they can fund another series.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u    That passage I quoted – I think Ohila may very well have been there for a quick readthrough, since it was only the prologue (released before the ep itself I think) with just the two speaking characters.

Agreed that talented actors can contribute much to the episode if allowed, though  they’re probably a headache for the writers who have to rewrite lines.

Re your hypothesis, which is (I think) roughly that Chibs was trying too hard to be quite different from Moff’s episodes – well, maybe.   But I also think he just lacked the talent to match those.   His best episode was probably ‘Eve of the Daleks’ which (IMO!) would rate as middling good in a Moff season.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

Thought I’d move the discussion here.

Well, Ncuti Gatwa has gone. Anyone going for a retrospective? This is difficult because of the supposed ‘controversies’. Answer, simple: no controversy. Rating: better than Whittaker, not as good as Capaldi/Smith/Ecclestone. That’s in respect to writing AND performance. Great performances but, whether he annoys you or not, Tennant is untouchable.
Is he coming back? He’s out there for a reason but, if Gatwa wouldn’t commit to more than two seasons, then Tennant’s isn’t back week in week out: perhaps an odd ep or, most probably, the big denouement of the arc.
So, you would think Billie would be in harness for a while.

On the other hand, and checking The Reality War thread no one has mentioned this, I have read she was credited not as The Doctor, but just ‘introducing Billie Piper.’

So, she’s clearly Gallifreyan, but who? Or Who?

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u      Billie Piper as the Doctor?    Wow, I’m right back into it.   My enthusiasm has been revived.   I *love* Billie Piper.

Hopefully she’ll be the Doctor, or at least in Who, for quite a while.   She certainly seems to be well disposed towards the series, judging by the several times she reappeared after Rose’s demise.   Most notably as The Moment in Day of the Doctor.

I think it’s time I rewatched from The Star Beast onwards and picked up the last season DVD set.

 

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ps1l0v3y0u

“introducing Billie Piper”

How can you introduce an actor that everyone knows from past Who?

A strange use of the word “introduce”. Seemingly, it only make sense if you read it as “introducing Billie Piper as …well, somebody or other…”

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave @dentarthurdent

what I meant was, John Hurt was credited as ‘The War Doctor’ in Name of the Doctor but, apparently, Billie didn’t get anything like that this time. So, I assumed she’s The Doctor… but, if she is another version, you have Ruth, The Watcher or The Valeyard. Mind you Valeyard is french for Old Man. Don’t know if anyone has told Billie that.

I will have to go back to view the actual credits, having been side tracked by shout-outs to The Bakers, Letts and Nation. I expected someone to say ‘Nation gets a credit whatever’ but, bearing in mind no-one has done anything serious with the Daleks since World Enough and Time (in the weapon forges of Villengard in fact) I wonder now if the ‘Remembrance Oct 5th ref’ was not Omega but the Pepperpots, if not the genocide of Skaro.

The Moment link is interesting though because it should imply Billiedoc has a conscience. Whereas 10 was quite willing to fry the Racknoss, torment The Family of Blood forever, waste a regeneration to keep pretty, then proclaim himself Timelord Invictus.

Wiping out the Daleks with Donna is perfectly forgivable.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Well, Ruth is quite unlike Rose, physically (though of course regeneration could be used to account for that).   I would very much hope Billie is the new Doctor.   As for the fact that she’s already been a major character – well, Capaldi was also a Doctor who had previously appeared as an incidental character.   And, Rose had also looked into the time vortex powering the Tardis, which might have had some lasting effect on her.

As to the Moment (or its interface), according to the episode, The Moment simply chose Rose as a character from the Doctor’s past which should be pleasing to the Doctor.   (It confused past and future, but that’s just one of those things that happens).   Whether the Interface turns out to have any deeper connection with the Doctor – well, we’ll see.

By the way, I don’t think the Daleks were in World Enough and Time, that was Cybermen.   Daleks did appear in at least two of Chibs’ episodes.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent @blenkinsopthebrave

Sorry, posting under time pressure. Of course, I meant ‘Twice Upon a Time,’ NOT ‘World Enough…’

I haven’t studied Chib’s Dalek stories. I really will have to check out the post TTC arc and specials. Albeit reluctantly. But Moff drilled right down into Dalekdom, whereas Chib just wheeled them around, didn’t he?

But anyway I checked the Reality War credits and, long before The Martins, Letts, and Nation…

‘Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor’

‘Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor’

’and introducing Billie Piper…’

so… PROBABLY The Doctor. But might (eventually) be Ruth, The Watcher or The Valeyard. Or any of the mugshots from Morbius.

Yes, Capdoc copped a Roman face to remind him to save Ashildr, who I have speculated elsewhere was quite crucial to The Doctor’s history, so actually he really had no choice. But significant.

6, back in the days when JNT thought if you squeezed your eyes very tight, no one would notice, had previously strutted Maxil, a shouty Gallifreyan functionary. No plan. Random.

If The Doctor has Rose’s face, why?

1. Looked into The Heart of The Tardis

2. Personified The Moment’s Interface. Of course the script of Day of The Doctor would seem to indicate that 2 follows from 1 (Badwolf)

3. Russ’ last desperate throw of the dice.

4. Always part of Cartmel 2.0… there was an early draft of Nuwho in which Rose was the product of The Doctor’s attempt to design the perfect companion.

Which is weird because you would think that was Ace, wouldn’t you?

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u   Of course, Twice Upon a Time!   I’d forgotten about Rusty.

Chibs had two Dalek episodes, IIRC, Resolution (which was one of his better episodes) and Eve of the Daleks which was his best  (and I say that as a non-Chibnall-enthusiast).

I liked Ace, but I think Sophie Aldred is a bit too old now to play that part.   Yes I *know* they brought her back in The Power of the Doctor,  Chibs’ final episode and (as I recall) also a not-bad episode, but doing a cameo role in one ep is far different from playing a major continuing role.

Maxil – I thought you meant he was Capaldi, but Google tells me it was Colin Baker.   OK, I get the point.   I think you can usually get away with it.   Thinking on Monty Python’s Life of Brian, I never had any problem with John Cleese playing about six different roles *in the same movie*, in fact I hardly even noticed.   Maybe I was laughing too hard.  (As an aside, in New Zealand where the pool of actors is quite small, even if you include part-time extras, when ‘Hercules’ and ‘Xena’ were making one episode a week, we got quite accustomed to seeing the same dozen beefy guys as outlaw thugs one week, Roman legionaries the next, and barbarian hordes the week after).

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u   Oh yes, re Daleks, Moff made major forays into Dalek history.   Chibs used them as villain of the week – nothing wrong with that, you can write a perfectly good ep with that format.   Considering what he did to the Time Lords, the Daleks were probably lucky he didn’t give them his undivided attention  [/snark]

 

[winston @winston]

@nerys   @blenkinsopthebrave  and all my fellow Canadians and Whovians .Happy Canada Day! The lady looks good for her age. Our true north, strong and free. We have a lot of problems and there is lots of room for improvement but we are free to vote, to voice our concerns, to make our own decisions about our future and to stand up for the vulnerable people and creatures.

We have driven from coast to coast and Canada is a huge country with a small town personality. It is big and beautiful and ours.

Happy Birthday Canada.

Sorry, was that too much?

stay Canadian

[WhoHar @whohar]

@winston @nerys @blenkinsopthebrave

Happy Canada Day!

I’ve only been to parts of Western Canada (mainly Vancouver and Whistler / Blackcomb) but have very fond memories of both the place and the people. Enjoy the day.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@winston, @nerys and all, just awoken from celebrating Canada Day. I was drinking a very nice red wine and wearing my very best white shirt, and therefore “showing the colours”. @whohar, you are always welcome back! As for the importance of Canada to “Doctor Who”, let’s not forget that the show was created by Sydney Newman, who was of, course, Canadian!

 

[nerys @nerys]

@winston @whohar @blenkinsopthebrave Thank you for your warm Canada Day wishes! My husband decided to work and plans to take the day off later on. So it was a regular day for us. But, given recent events, I am all the more grateful to call Canada home. We celebrated Canada Day quietly, but no less gladly.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@winston  @nerys   @blenkinsopthebrave   A belated but warm wish for a happy Canada Day.   From another Commonwealth country on the other side of the world.   To address the elephant in the room – hope your circumstances don’t suffer too much from the antics of the Orange Idiot  (and that’s as political as I want to get in this forum).

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@winston

That was a lovely description of Canada. I moved here (from Australia) about 12 years ago, although my wife (who is Canadian) and I met and married in Australia. But after visiting here (with her) about 25 years ago, I fell in love with the place. It took a while, but we finally made it. And I cannot think of a better place to be.

[WhoHar @whohar]

@winston @nerys @blenkinsopthebrave

@whohar, you are always welcome back!

Interestingly, I had two job offers to go and live in Canada in the early 2010’s – both in Montreal. I umm’ed and err’ed about it for some time before heading to Melbourne.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

I’m just re-reading Moffat’s The Day of the Doctor. (That was one of my top TV episodes ever). When I first read the book, I think my experience was somewhat impaired by having recently watched the episode. The written word can never match the ‘personality’ that actors bring to the screen. (Can’t think of a better way to put it). So I missed that. And also, the extra material in the book just seemed like a digression from the story, so I was a little impatient to get back to the bits I knew.
Reading it this time round, I like it a lot better. It can certainly stand on its own as a sci fi tale. Notwithstanding that the chapters are all out of numerical order, which is potentially confusing. Probably my foreknowledge (from having seen the TV episode) helps me there. How easily a reader who comes to it ‘cold’ would follow it, I really can’t judge.

Writing and film have entirely different strengths and weaknesses, a good book is no guarantee of a good film, or vice versa. But I think in The Day of the Doctor, Moffat has been very good at both.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent

I shall have to rewatch Day of The Doctor. No great hardship.

Highlights… 10 in Elizabethan England, The Moment, Jenna Coleman settling into the role… and Bill’s mum running for cover (same actress)! If only they’d persuaded Timothy Dalton and Lee Evans to return.  Actually, not a problem: it’s practically perfect.

Oddly, I’ve not read many Who novelisation’s. I have got Fury From The Deep, because the show itself is lost. And it was the most mythically sofa-hidingly and terrifying one of the lot. ‘Oh my god do you remember the one with the seaweed?’

So, I’ll watch the animated recreation of FftD after DotD. Then the 2 Mara stories, cos they’re out there somewhere. Then Caves of Androzani (3 Davison eps??) and Blink.

That will build me up for Eve of the Daleks.

Then I’m into pre xmas viewing. Looks like I’ll have to line my own fave up for the day.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent I read the book a few years ago and really enjoyed Moffat’s writing style but It is more of a companion to the episode which was almost perfect. (Only imperfection that springs to mind is Liz 1’s very modern hair style)

@ps1l0v3y0u I read a lot of the early novelisations when I was a teen back in the dark days before video. The only Who novel I have read recently is the above mentioned Day of the Doctor. I wanted to get RTD’s Rose which came out at the same time but missed that one. the books were generally better than most tv tie ins in the day as they were usually written by the story writer though Harry, (Ian Marter) penned a lot too. I still have a small collection of them. Some did not survive the test of time as they were not well bound. when we do Dr Who podcasts I usually pull some out to scatter on the table along with other Who merch’. (of which we have far too much..)

Don’t think I have seen Fury of the Deep. Must look it up. We recently watched the colourised Troughton War Games. that was well done.

cheers

Janette

 

[WhoHar @whohar]

Steven Moffat’s qualities that he looks for in an actor playing / the character 0f the Doctor

 

“Attractive, but odd. There is something utterly odd, a sort of benevolent, kindly, slightly incompetent impersonation of a human being. The Doctor is never quite right.”

“But also there has got to be an edge, slightly dangerous, the most dangerous [person] in the universe, all of those things. It is a tall order.”

He added that the Doctor is forever trying to look cool, yet never quite nails it. “He is really trying, or she is really trying. [They are] not quite there. ‘I am really cool because I got a bow tie’. ‘I have got a nice suit.’ ‘I put my trainers on.’ There is just something off kilter about them.”

“Above all, it is someone that little kids would want to run up and take that [person’s] hand and feel absolutely safe. That is what the Doctor is about. Somewhere between Indiana Jones and Willy Wonka.”

I would add “Humanlike but Otherworldly” but otherwise I think this is pretty much spot on. Would be interested to know what the Forum thinks.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u    I think Day of the Doctor is the only Who novelisation I’ve read.

Getting a bit further in the book, I’ve notice that the Moment (Rose) doesn’t seem to feature at all in the dungeon in the Tower of London.   I distinctly remember, from the TV episode, her leaning against the wall in the background, invisible to the two later Doctors but (in my view) completely changing the dynamic of the scene by her presence.    (Something long-haired blondes with dark eyebrows invariably seem to do).

I do have to admire the skill with which Moffat ensures that we can always tell which of the Doctors is speaking, even while the narration switches from one to another, often just by their manner of phrasing.   The War Doctor was particularly distinctive in that respect, I can almost hear John Hurt’s voice.

@janetteb   I was intending to get ‘Rose’, but – like you – I couldn’t get hold of it.

I’ve just completed watching Red Dwarf as far as the end of Season 8 (IMO, seasons 3-6 were the best, 7 and 8 are fading in quality, to my mind); and all the Daniel Craig  Bond movies  (and it isn’t often I get to mention those two in the same sentence  🙂

– so now I’m about to start re-watching Who from Eve of the Daleks (or somewhere around there) forwards to the present.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@whohar    I think Steven Moffat sums up the Doctor really well.   There is something subtly – odd – about the Doctor’s view of life.   Moff could do that supremely well.   Oh, and your addition (humanlike but otherworldly)  – yes I agree.

I think Chibs tried to do the same slight oddness on occasion, but it requires a delicate touch and (maybe I was in a non-appreciative frame of mind) I don’t think he’s got it.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent @whohar
VAR have confirmed… he never got it, at all. Ever

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@ dentarthurdent

Smith and Hurt are obviously first rank, though we didn’t know that about Smith in those days. Tennant seems slightly dazed to able to do his usual stuff and bask in thespie love. Billie more than holds her own. Assuming we get another series, that’s gotta be a good sign!

The Moment is DEFINITELY in The Tower, or was it The National Gallery? Cos Hurt had his ‘about time I grew up’ moment.

Nit picks. I probably DIDN’T connect ‘job’, ‘office’, and Zygon Kate. Not absolutely sure there ISN’T a plot hole or some fridge logic there, but you CAN get away with this when you don’t have to explain everything to Chucklegramps.

What? Is that me?

It’s official. Good ep.

New fav ep just suggested itself: The Pilot.

[winston @winston]

@ps1i0v3y0u   The Moment is in the tower in the episode. The Moment is the one who reminds the War Doctor that the sonic screwdrivers of all 3 were the same. She says something like “different case, same software” so therefore it had a long time to work out the door. Of course that was unlocked all the time.

This is also one of my faves!

stay safe

[winston @winston]

@whohar    This perfectly describes all that I love about the Doctor. I would add brave , reckless and a little crusty around the edges. Also quirky very quirky. You know that this person is not from around here.

stay safe

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@winston  @ps1l0v3y0u   The Moment is definitely and memorably in the cell in the Tower, in the TV episode.  I remember the phrase ‘different case, same software’ and probably said by her.

BUT in the book, that was an internal thought of the Doctor (probably 11) – “The case was new, but the drives and software were the same as the old boy’s”.   (Obviously wasn’t running Windows   🙂     I stand to be corrected (because it’s always a bit distracting working out who’s speaking in the book) but I don’t think the Moment was mentioned in the Tower scene.

I’m not sure when the book was written vs the episode, but I can imagine the Moment’s presence was added in because they had Billie available – so the Moment acquired more personality than it might have done with just another actor.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@craig

The Flux is upon us. Sontarans, Daleks and Cyberbods

[winston @winston]

Yikes!

[winston @winston]

It was a cold and rainy evening here, perfect for a spooky Halloween but horrible for the little trick or treaters.  While we don’t get a lot of the little weeners here because we live “in the country” we usually get 10 or so. Tonight we had a total of 2 kids begging for candy. One was a scary Micheal Myers  and the other was an 80s girl complete with leg warmers and big hair. They got a lot of candy but not enough. I now have to eat all this candy so it doesn’t go to waste. Poor me but someone has to do it.

I hope you all have a spooky night and that your little ones get loads of candy.

stay scary

[janetteB @janetteb]

@winston Halloween is a rather recent U.S. import here so door knocking has not really become widespread. We have only once had kids come to the door and we did not have “lollies”. for a few years after that we did buy some, “just in case” but they were never needed. Ours is an entirely child free street however, Plenty of dogs and cats, possums, bats, and ducks but no kids. when our boys were young there was only one other boy living over the road. They did not meet until a Turkish uncle visited and was horrified to learn that they did not play out on the wide, open, almost traffic free street. He got them out there playing football/soccer and Sam’s Mum ordered him to go and join in. Soon she was referring to him as our fourth son.

We spent Halloween this year dealing with last minute travel panics. Our two youngest boys have headed off to Thailand. their first holiday “alone”. the elder is almost ten years older than I was when I headed out into the world. Life is getting far too serious these days. I don’t think they have the freedom we had.

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb When I was six or seven I used to walk a mile to school, half of it on a path across a ‘common’ – a patch of uncultivated land covered in bushes and trees. (I went back last year and it’s all still there). From about ten I used to bike across a different common to the station to catch the school train. Once I rode to Salisbury – about 30 miles each way – through minor roads using an Ordnance Survey 1″ map to find my way.

About 11, I went for a hiking holiday in the Peak District, in a small organised group – which involved my parents putting me on the train at Bournemouth West for Derby. I had to find my own way to the hostel in Derby for the start. And back, from Sheffield. I suppose the locals must have talked with a Whitdoc accent (hey, I just managed to work in a Who reference, didja notice? 🙂 but they seemed normal to me. And the following year, to the Rhine valley.

My parents were okay with all this, they may have had misgivings but they probably thought it was normal – as it was, for the time. In fact they suggested the hiking tours.

I don’t know if it’s different these days, either the world has become a much more dangerous place or (apparently) parents are much more paranoid.

By the way, global warming is definitely a thing around here. Today I went for good a walk on the beach at low tide down by the harbour and the water was almost warm – I eventually managed to find a spot where the mud was not too oozy and went in for five minutes without undue suffering. (I like the water, but not the cold variety). Normal years, I never go in before December at the earliest, often not before Christmas.

[nerys @nerys]

My husband was traveling on business, and the remnants of Hurricane Melissa had blown through earlier in the day, so I didn’t feel up to doing Halloween. We get very few trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, anyway, so it’s hard to feel like it’s worth putting out the effort.

When we lived in Ontario, we averaged between 80 and 100 trick-or-treaters. Our first Halloween in our house, we were woefully underprepared and ran out of treats. My husband resorted to handing out packets of hot chocolate while I ran out to resupply us. That was fun.

He so enjoyed the Halloween rituals that he dressed up, painting his face, wearing a costume and playing spooky music. So, when we moved to Nova Scotia and got no trick-or-treaters, that was a huge letdown for him, and we haven’t done that since.

[janetteB @janetteb]

Every year, despite my best intentions I just never get time to sit down at my laptop and wish everyone here a wonderful yuletide. So this year I thought I would get in early and, as our tech has failed again and we cannot watch The Snowman< I am taking the time to wish everyone a wonderful season, (despite the lack of a Christmas Special).

And now the tech maestro has got the computer working and we have the Snowman starting ..

Merry Yuletide/winter solstice/summer solstice/Christmas/holiday season to all

cheers

Janette

[nerys @nerys]

@janetteb Thank you! Merry Yuletide/winter solstice/summer solstice/Christmas/holiday season to you and all!

[WhoHar @whohar]

@janetteb @nerys

Yes! Here’s to everyone having an enjoyable festive period, however you choose to celebrate it.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb @nerys @whohar

Merry Christmas / New Year / solstice.

I’ve been absent [minded] for a while, time always sneaks past when I’m not looking. Been swimming every day, here (water’s warm!) And also indexing all my digital photos, of which I have literally tens of thousands, I tend to binge on shots. A luxury I could never afford with film, but with digital it’s virtually free. The downside is extricating the decent shots from the so-so ones (the really bad shots are easy, make like a Cyberman and Delete). I’m currently up to 2018, not too far to go. But it’s a huge time sink, which is why Who has temporarily taken a back seat. It’s temporarily stalled at ‘Dot and Bubble’. Hope to resume shortly.

 

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent OK, now you’re just bragging! Oh, to be able to swim in the ocean at this time of year (especially in our hemisphere). Come to think of it, here I’m not sure I’d do it any time of year. Most of the time, the water is too cold for me. Some folks here do polar plunges. I’m not one of them!

Re: your digital photos, I could not do what you’re doing. When I take a group of photos, if they’re something I want to save, I put them in a folder, name the folder and save it on our hard drive and backups. (Looking at all the folders I have named “snowy owl” tells me maybe I took too many snowy owl photos! I currently have 1,066 photo folders. Just doing it that way takes up time, so I can’t imagine how much time this is taking you!

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys Sorry if it looks like I’m bragging. But its just so nice to be able to go and swim every day (and this year Summer seems to have arrived early, at least up this end of the country). What I also love about summer are the long evenings, it doesn’t get dark until 10pm or so (of course anyone in the mid-latitudes can say the same). It always catches me by surprise how suddenly the long evenings arrive, and also how rapidly they decay at the other end of the year. Guess I’m just slow on the uptake.

But anyway, I’d feel I was somehow selling my good fortune (in living here) short if I didn’t at least mention it.

Minuses – well, the biggest minus is, we’re 1200 miles from anywhere (‘anywhere’ being Sydney, Australia). I do so envy Poms (i.e. ‘Brits’) who can just pop across to France or Spain or Norway for the weekend. By car, ship or train if they don’t want the hassle of flying. From here, it involves a 20-hour-plus flight with all the accompanying complications so it’s something we can only afford to do – in terms of cost and time – every few years at best.

Cataloguing photos – it’s taken months, on and off, since I re-started. I was more-or-less up to date until 2017, when I did my big trip via the Trans-Siberian to Europe (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, UK) and came back with about 20,000 photos. Admittedly only about 10% were worth keeping. But whenever I drove somewhere obscure – like English country lanes which I prefer to main roads – I took a snap of the signs at road junctions so I could later retrace my route on the map or Streetview (I’m also obsessive about maps and knowing exactly where I am, or was). Much quicker than noting it at the time. I have no photos labelled ‘somewhere in Cornwall’, they’re all ‘Tolcarne village heading west’ or something like that. Maybe I’m weird. I just note them all down in order in a large plain text file, I can just do a word search in any editor to locate the ones of interest.

After 2017, I let it all lapse until a couple of months ago when I decided I really had to break the logjam and catalogue that trip. So now I’ve broken free of that and just have a few evening’s worth left. But it’s quite pleasant ‘work’, and every now and then I come across a photo that’s good enough (at least in my optimistic imagination) to make it worth the effort.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent that is impressive and requires dedication. My filing system is more akin to @nerys. I store all my images in folders roughly dated. No details attached. I have photos of places which I have forgotten the name of. Recently I made up a slide show for our eldest as a 30th gift. (it was started as an 18th gift so has taken a fair while and is still “a work in progress”, but his party got deferred so I have a short reprieve. Getting the photos in order has been bit of a nightmare especially those taken from film. At least the digital shots have dates but I did not “go digital” until 2004 so a lot of guess work was involved. At least it will be easier for the younger sons.

I am envious of your Trans Siberean photos. The partner and I did the trip in 1991, in the last two weeks of the Soviet Union so remarkable time to be there, as history was happening and it really felt like it too, but I had a brought a second hand SLR for the holiday and it rather let me down but even worse we had our baggage stolen from Prague Station and I lost all my photos from the train journey. I have some photos from Moscow onwards.

Cheers

Janette

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent I was only teasing about the “bragging”! I’m glad that you have this opportunity to swim daily. You enjoy it, and that’s so important in life. Our daytime hours are similar in the summer. Like you, I love having such long days.

The most time-consuming part for me (and I think it’s the same with you) is weeding out all the photos I don’t want. The blessing and curse of digital photography is that you can take lots of photos, and (unlike film) they cost you nothing. So I do take lots. Weeding out the mediocre shots and trimming the photos to a manageable number can be a slog.

@janetteb My system is similar to yours. I do include a short descriptive filename for each folder, along with the date. Otherwise I’d be hopelessly scrolling through photos, trying to find what I’m looking for.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb I’m not sure if the word is ‘dedication’ or ‘geeky obsession’. When I first went digital, c.2004, I saved the results on DVD’s, which naturally prompted me to put an index on each DVD. My first digital camera was a dreadful little thing, best forgotten, in 2005 I upgraded to a Fuji which gave adequate images. Then my first ‘good’ digital, a Panasonic TZ2, in 2007.
Up until that time, I used a film camera – a Konica T3 and a TC, with an impressive selection of lenses, the digitals were just for convenient carrying when I didn’t want to lug around a big camera bag. But the TZ2 made my nice Konicas obsolete overnight. Sad, in a way, they were beautiful pieces of tech.

Anyway, aside from all my digital photos, next job is to scan the prints of all 450 films I took with the Konica and index them. 🙂 I did say I was obsessive, didn’t I? They do all have details written on the back.

You were much more adventurous in your Trans Siberian trip than me – I did it in 2017, when Russia was quite tame. Coincidentally, my camera developed a random fault – I think the optical image stabilisation lens came loose – which meant about half the photos were distorted round the edges. Cropping them on my computer helped. I’ve also once lost a whole batch – in 2008 I followed the Silver Fern (car) Rally round South Island and I lost a SD card. Ouch! More recently, last year in France, when I put my rental car on its roof, I got the paramedic to snap a couple of photos on my phone, which then got pickpocketed in Paris. Luckily all my other photos were on my camera. When I got home, at a friend’s suggestion, I wrote an email to the local Chief of Police asking if they had any photos they could kindly share with me, and by return I got a most courteous reply from the Brigadier (?) with four good photos.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys    As you say, extra shots in digital cost virtually nothing.   Great, compared with 50c-a-shot film, but it can be a problem.   I don’t weed out nearly as many as I should.   Ones that are out of focus or accidental shots of my feet are obvious candidates for deletion.   Deciding which of several similar okay shots is the best is just too time-consuming so I tend to keep them all.   I don’t get completely swamped, only because terabyte hard drives are affordable these days, and I have four in my computer downstairs.   (I do backups by copying everything to a different hard drive).

[winston @winston]

I finally had a quiet moment to wish all my friendly Whovians a happy day!  We are half way out of the dark. I hope you all had a great day or a quiet day or whatever kind of day you wanted. I had all three of my kids home together for the first time in years and it was a fun and funny Christmas just like I want. I wish the same to you all.

Tomorrow I do it all over again with granddaughter and great granddaughter. So much food. There goes the diet but there is always the new year to start again.

stay jolly

[nerys @nerys]

@winston I’m glad that you are able to celebrate with family! Sadly, we don’t have any family in our immediate vicinity, so we visit with friends. Still, it’s a jolly time, and we are doing our own share of overeating.

@dentarthurdent Interesting that you mentioned your Konica cameras! Our first digital camera was a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5, purchased in 2005. Then we got an Olympus Stylus 790SW to take with us when we went kayaking (it didn’t take great photos, but it was waterproof). In 2013, we bought a Panasonic Lumix FZ200, and then in 2019 we upgraded to its successor, the FZ300. All of these are basically “point and shoot” cameras with fixed lenses, though the Panasonic FZ200 and FZ300 might be considered “bridge” cameras. I’m not entirely satisfied with the FZ300. Even though it was improved in many ways over the FZ200, it has a number of known flaws: the top zoom button stopped working (though the side slider button works), and there’s vignetting in the lower left-hand corner of images when the camera is fully zoomed out. It used to be considered a super-zoom camera, but I think several others have overtaken it.

We have two different external hard drives that we use as backups for all our files. As you say, the storage space is quite affordable. I prefer having our own backup system to using “cloud” storage. I’m not convinced that I want my stuff on anybody else’s cloud.

[syzygy @thane16]

Just dashing in by late Tardis (“takes you not where you want to go but where you need to be” -a tad paraphrased).

Hoping you all had a merry Christmas, relaxing in firesides, standing in snow or having informal Christmases’ by the beach or sleeping on cooler porches (not Porsches) where constant temps at 29 degrees Celsius at midnight felt like The Fires of Pompeii. 🥵🥵

aaand calling out to all including @blenkinsopthebrave @cathannabel, @arbutus @mudlark as well as others @janetteb (how is summer going?) @nerys @dentarthurdent @ psIl0v3y0u and to our many newcomers!

affectionately, Old Puro and Fam. 🎄❤️

 

 

[syzygy @thane16]

Oops!  @winston @scaryb @juniperfish

[syzygy @thane16]

@winston sounds like you had an amazing Christmas with your 3 children! And also a grandchild and a great- grandchild.  I know Covid seems long ago but I don’t think we take for granted those family gatherings in the way we once did (or, at least, I did).

@nerys in my Christmas cracker (I make them myself) one of the Fun Facts I included was “how much does a cloud weigh?”

That discussion was long! Apparently an average cumulus can weigh 500 000 kg or 100 elephants. 🤣

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