The Winchester

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@dentarthurdent Yes, the island has been spared the worst, but even it has not escaped entirely on the west coast of the island. But mainland British Columbia has been hit very hard as this story from today illustrates.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/what-you-need-to-know-about-bc-wildfires-aug-18-2023-1.6940311

But as you point out, it is across the planet, from Hawaii to Greece. And are governments taking climate change seriously? Of course not. Where is the Doctor when you need him?

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@blenkinsopthebrave    I think maybe governments are starting to take climate change seriously, even though they’re typically slow to do so.   If there’s one tiny – I won’t say ‘good’, maybe ‘useful’ consequence of these widespread fires, I think it’s that the ‘climate change is a myth’ brigade have been thoroughly discredited.    Here in NZ, we’ve had record floods instead of fires – but with basically the same result.   We’ve got an election coming up, but not even the right wing are saying that emission reductions are a waste of time.   A few years back emissions were regarded as a weird obsession of a few greenie freaks.   Not any longer.

I hope the fires continue to stay away from where you are.

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

So, I just watched the Girl Who Died / Woman Who Lived duo, and stuck my impressions in their respective forums (fora?) that haven’t seen any activity in, like, six years.   Actually, quite a good pair of episodes.   The excellent Zygon two-parter next.

In fact, with the Magicians Apprentice pair, Under the Lake pair, Ashildr pair, Zygon pair, and winding up with the awesome** Raven / Heaven Sent / Hell Bent three-parter, this has to be the best season ever.   Only one weak episode, Sleep No More.   And the DVD box set comes with the preceding Christmas special Last Christmas and the following one, Husbands of River Song.

(**When I say ‘awesome’ I really mean it, dammit.   Not ‘ossum’ in the devalued sense of ‘quite nice’.)

[winston @winston]

@blenkinsopthebrave  A very late thank you!  It is harvest time here and I too have been missing in action lately but have finally got a chance to sit down. Oh that feels good. Anyway I will definitely be spoiling my little Emilia whenever I get the chance. She is so wonderful.

@dentarthurdent My daughter lives on Vancouver Island and they have had some fires there that have been mostly contained.Smoke from those fires and the huge ones on the mainland are her worst problem now. Also highway closures that have left her trapped away from home.All problems that pale in comparison to the devastation suffered by so many others in Canada and around the world.

She lives in a rain forest that has had very little rain leaving the forest crispy and dry and the streams dried up.The salmon that come back to their streams to lay eggs find no stream and swim around the area until they die. The bears that live off the salmon  starve and the web of death branches out to include so many other living things. How many harmless blameless creatures die because of our refusal to change?

Sorry for the rant but with each new baby born to this earth I get even more desperate for some positive change.

Stay hopeful

[janetteB @janetteb]

@winston  I feel the same. It isn’t just about “us” humans, we are killing so many other innocent creatures and that simply isn’t fair. We don’t have the right to do that. Just today I saw that Emperor penguin chicks are dying in Antarctica. We are destroying so much in our hubris and arrogance. But is isn’t most humans, just unfortunately those in power.

Yes we have to stay hopeful. That is our best defence. (I think the Doctor would agree. If we don’t keep hoping then we have no hope of ever doing better.)

We are about to get busy in the garden too We just had the peppercorn tree removed, much to the relief and delight of our neighbours as it was causing some issues and we were able to provide several with free firewood. We now have a huge area of yard covered in sawdust and lots of plans.

I love the name Emilia. For some reason I like female names beginning with E and as lot of the main characters in my writing have names beginning with E, Eleanor, Emma, Ellen, etc.

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@winston   @janetteb    I’m afraid the problem is us, all of us.   Just too many damn humans.   We breed like lemmings, the only difference is, we ought to know better.   And lemmings can only devastate a small area, humans being much bigger and more powerful and cleverer can devastate the whole planet.

The answer would be simple, if every couple just had one child the earth’s population would halve in thirty years or so.   Just like that.   Everything would become much more sustainable.   The biggest problem would be persuading everyone to co-operate (and not seek a selfish advantage by outbreeding their neighbours).   The next biggest problem would be that national economies only seem to work when they’re expanding, as soon as they cease doing that they have the dreaded ‘depression.’    (I tend to laugh when anyone claims Economics is a ‘science’, if it is they’re not very good at it.   Like a doctor who can tell you in exhaustive detail what’s wrong with you but can’t offer any cure.   Possibly because humans are involved.   Compared with that, nuclear physics and rocket science must be simple.)

Enough gloom.   Winston, I do hope the fires stay away from your daughter’s location too.

Janetteb, it’s remarkable how much wood there is in even a small tree.   I cut down a couple of very small long-dead trees in the hedge along our fence-line, these were just 4″ trunks, but got a good trailer load of fire wood and kindling.   A while back I had a big wattle cut down, it shaded our lawn, but unfortunately if it had ever blown over it would have flattened a neighbours’ house or significantly damaged ours.   About a two-foot thick trunk at ground level.   The tree cutters just left the branches on our lawn as requested and I spent a couple of days cutting them up with my electric chainsaw and sold half a dozen trailer loads of wood.   I’m sad about the tree but it’s a relief to no longer get worried when strong winds are forecast.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

Saddened to hear of the death of Michael Gambon, such a wonderful actor and superb in A Christmas Carol, lovable as Dumbledore too. I think my favourite role of his was in Longitude. I really should re watch The Singing Detective too. I last saw it when I was at Uni studying Film Noir.

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Hi all. Is this thing on? I’m sitting on the porch of our unit (only place I can get a Wifi signal) on a rainy day in Rarotonga, looking at the waves on the reef. But it’s not cold.

This really is a different world. When we arrived (at 3a.m.) our pre-booked car was waiting for us in the airport car park, with our name on it and the key under the mat as usual.
Most food is about double the New Zealand price but my favourite Jelly Tip icecreams – and only them – are for no discernible reason, half the NZ price. Not complaining.

Had an experience with phones that I’m sure the late great Douglas Adams, with his appreciation of technological Catch-22’s, would have appreciated. I bought a Vodafone (Cook Islands) SIM and stuck it in Mrs D’s Vodafone NZ phone – locked. Got on Vodafone NZ’s page and went to unlock it, there’s a $30 fee before they’ll email me the unlock code, OK, try to pay by Visa, it takes me to my bank’s page which says ‘We have texted a code to your phone, please enter it on this page to proceed with payment.’ And of course my phone’s NZ SIM doesn’t work here so I’ll never get the text so I can’t pay Vodafone to unlock Mrs D’s phone… Luckily my own phone is older so unlocking is free so I stuck the SIM in that instead.

Never mind. Mrs D is currently in bed recovering – we called on her cousins two days ago in the afternoon and a party developed, as they do. (One lives here, one in Sydney, one in London, so it may be years before she sees them again). Eating drinking and talking until 3a.m. Anyway yesterday all the food and red wine took their revenge and she was in a very sad state, as happens when oldies party like a teenager. So I persuaded her to let me take her up to the hospital where they did some tests, diagnosed alcohol/food poisoning and nothing more serious (such as medication reactions), gave her some pills for nausea and diarrhoea, and sent us home. I made a point of asking if there was anything to pay but because she was over 60, or could be considered a local resident, or something like that there was no charge. As a visitor she should have paid $5 for the tests, $10 for consultation, $5 for the prescription. Triple if alcohol was involved (which it certainly was in her case but they overlooked that).

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent Sorry to hear that Mrs D has been unwell. Hopefully she is now fully recovered and you are both enjoying the holiday.

cheers

Janette

 

[winston @winston]

@dentarthurdent So I looked up Rarotonga and it sure looks wonderful. I hope the Missus has recovered by now and you are having a great time.Seriously though, how is it possible for a place to be so beautiful , exotic and wild at the same time? Looks like paradise.

Have a great holiday and spare a thought for a cold Canadian raking leaves.(so many leaves)

stay safe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb   Thanks.   We did enjoy our holiday.   That wasn’t Mrs D’s biggest drama – three days after the start of our holiday she drove her little hire car into a power pole, breaking it into three pieces.   Mrs D got away with a slight graze on her neck (seat belt) and a night in the hospital under observation.   The poor little car ended up on its side and got written off.   The rental company were remarkably tolerant, they promptly found us a replacement car but they did suggest that Mrs D not drive it, at least until the police had completed their inquiries.   So instead of wandering on my bike I spent much of it chauffeuring Mrs D around to visit rellies.   I did decide this wasn’t going to spoil our holiday, and it didn’t.   All Mrs D remembers is, she pulled off the road to turn round and next thing, she was on her side.   This would be consistent with having bumped her head, and lost a few seconds of memory.   As to why she hit the pole, we don’t know – best suggestion I’ve heard is that she hit the accelerator by mistake – this can be very disconcerting.    Later on the police came to take a statement, they were pleasant enough, and one of them was Mrs D’s nephew.   (Not unusual in a small island with big inter-related families).    Since I paid for the power pole and the rental company claimed their insurance, they didn’t think things would go any farther.

@winston   Raro has a pretty good climate – just inside the tropics I think.   Never gets very cold, and being a small  island, never gets shatteringly I’m-going-to-die hot.   Lovely place for a holiday, bit small to live there (though it suits some).   I did live there for two years in the 80’s, and when I got back to New Zealand the first thing I wanted to do was drive more than 22 miles before ending up back where I started from.   Many things were – different.   You have to learn to relax, trying to keep to a timetable will drive you crazy.   (“Plenty time” – Mrs D).   Things rust (salt air) that wouldn’t rust in a normal mainland house.   Beer would disappear but your camera was perfectly safe.   Among the islanders it’s quite normal, if calling on a friend/relative, to let yourself in, help yourself to a beer and wait for them to turn up.   Once, on Aitutaki (another island), I dropped my chequebook on the road.   Three days later it was returned to me in Raro – somebody had found it and handed it to the pilot of the daily plane.   In pre-electronic days, the local pub kept a blank chequebook behind the bar, and you could borrow it, write a cheque and they’d cash it for you.   Once, a bike pulled up outside my office with a couple of the barmaids from the pub, they handed me a cheque “Is this yours?”   “Looks like it”   “You forgot to sign it”.    Only in Raro…

But I expect many small islands end up with a similar culture.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent. Sounds as though Mrs D needs a holiday to recover from her holiday. Hope all is well now. Raro sounds wonderful. I now want to visit. Your description reminds me of a small island that my friends and I stayed on on the Cork coast when we were backpacking/hitching around. With a population of 80 everyone was a neighbour and the pub stayed open for a long as they liked. The nearest cop was on the mainland.

I hope that Raro isn’t too threatened by rising sea levels.

Cheers

Janette.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb   Small islands, like many remote communities, develop their own informal and even ‘quaint’ ways.   Pubs in New Zealand country districts used to be known for having a ‘back door’ to the bar for use after official closing time, for example.   (And I’m sure the same applied in most countries).    Rising sea levels would not be good for Raro, though not as totally disastrous as for many e.g. low atolls.

On another, closer to Doctor Who tack, I finished watching ‘Sherlock’ in Raro.   I noted a certain similarity between Sherlock and Capaldi’s Doctor, in that they both were slightly distant from normal human instincts and had to be prompted for the correct response to situations.   (I believe autistic people are sometimes like that).    e.g. Clara’s ‘cards’ that she made up for the Doctor – “I’m sorry for the loss of your friend/significant other/pet”.     Moffat writes this sort of thing extremely well, I think.

Back here, I just watched ‘Sleep No More’ and I found I liked it better this time round.   Maybe I could follow the events slightly better on repeat – the ‘found footage’ format can sometimes be a bit confusing.   Written by Mark Gatiss, I see, and he’s risen a bit in my estimation after watching the Sherlock series (which he wrote roughly 50/50 with Moffat).    Though ‘trapped in a base’ aren’t my favourite variant of the genre (Under The Lake, Cold War, Oxygen, etc, etc) but Sleep No More holds up under repeat viewing and maybe even improves slightly.   I think it maybe suffers slightly by comparison with its brilliant neighbouring episodes.

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Well, I just watched Face the Raven, Heaven Sent and Hell Bent.   Face the Raven, I just stuck some comments in that forum.

Heaven Sent, I don’t really enjoy watching.   It’s a tour de force, but it isn’t really fun.

Hell Bent, on the other hand, is sheer delight from start to end.   The dialogue is just so right, so perfectly judged, economical but full of meaning – sometimes several layers of meaning.   And visually glorious, particularly the desert scenes on Gallifrey.   I see I wrote several long descriptions previously in the Hell Bent forum, so I won’t repeat them.   But I think this episode is (in my opinion) the best in all of NuWho.

 

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent That’s interesting. I really preferred “Heaven Sent” to “Hell Bent” … which fell slightly short of the mark, for me. Despite Moffat’s wonderful writing, and superb acting by Capaldi and Coleman, what should have been an emotionally intense sendoff for Clara didn’t quite come together for me. I’ve never been able to pinpoint why. I appreciated the episode, but never found myself fully immersed in it. I think it’s just one of those highly subjective things.

Sorry to hear about Mrs. D’s accident while the two of you were on holiday. I hope she is fully recovered, physically and emotionally.

@janetteb We just watched Layer Cake last night. As good as Daniel Craig was in that, Michael Gambon almost stole the show, as he did in nearly every performance I’ve seen by him.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys I always tend to mix up those titles, because surely ‘Hell Bent’ should apply to the Doctor in his own personalised hell – the confession dial? And surely the chance to rescue Clara could be termed ‘heaven sent’? But that’s an aside.

I just find Heaven Sent a little too dark. It starts off well – “My day can’t get any worse. Let’s see what we can do about yours.” But there aren’t many opportunities for the Doctor to show his abilities, or any sign of his adversaries. I used to say I like dark. But that was mostly in reaction to such as Roger Moore James Bond, or Man from Uncle, or later Avengers, that got a bit too lightweight.

I actually liked that Hell Bent was lighter in tone – I was quite emotional enough at losing Clara, so the bittersweet tone of the diner scenes were just fine with me. Emotional death scenes of favourite characters just don’t appeal to me, they tend to get mawkish. Clara’s death in Face the Raven was well done, just long enough to do it justice without overdoing it, and the abandoned Tardis with murals by Rigsy was beautiful and sad.

As you say, it’s subjective, and a matter of personal taste.

I must try Layer Cake, its Wikipedia entry makes it sound a bit like Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels (oh, it had the same director, what a surprise). Talking of British crime dramas, did you ever see Trance, the 2013 movie with Rosario Dawson and James McAvoy, directed by Danny Boyle? Had some interesting twists in it.

Anyway, I’ve just picked up a 2nd-hand DVD of Layer Cake, so I’ll see how it goes.

Mrs D, thanks for asking, is apparently perfectly okay. Except she’s a little bit afraid to drive her car here now, also she’s lost her car keys (I wonder if that’s subconsciously deliberate). Wherever she’s lost ’em, I’ve searched the house and I can’t find them. I never realised how many drawers and cupboards we have! No matter, I have a spare set and I’ll cajole her into driving.

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent What did you think of Layer Cake? I found it just a little too complicated for my tastes. If it weren’t for the three principal actors — Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon and Colm Meaney — I think I would have given up on it altogether. My husband hated the ending.

But, having said that, I can see why this was the film that made Barbara Broccoli think Daniel Craig would make a good James Bond. And she was right.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys     The DVD of Layer Cake hasn’t arrived in the mail yet.    Um, it certainly should have done, thanks for the reminder, I must chase it up.    I’ll probably comment on it when it finally arrives (whenever that is).

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys    In related news, I’ve almost finished reading Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’  (having watched the DVD series with Capaldi as the Angel Islington a short while back).    I find Gaiman’s writing style rather plain, which is interesting as his scenarios are truly fantastic (they are fantasy after all).   But quite absorbing.    If he wasn’t so busy with other projects, I think he would have made an excellent showrunner for Dr Who.

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent I have never watched the series, but I loved Neverwhere the book. You mentioned you saw the series first. Did it measure up to the book?

My husband was watching Benediction on Crave. It too features Peter Capaldi. I want to watch it, and so I hope to do that soon.

[Oochillyo @oochillyo]

Hey everyone 🙂 how are you all 🙂

For writing a book or even if was making a film version , does everything ‘big’ a key focused thing have to make logical sense , even in Sci Fi, if there’s no magical or Sci fi reason just is how it is in story though it would be an unbelievable thing in the real world is immersion broken if it exists in the story like its normal ?

I don’t want to have a this is the rule or reason this can be in the story but as a big element and contradiction to logic do I have to give reason to the reader ?

Thank you 🙂

Take care everyone stay positive hugs 🙂

Regards – Declan Sargent

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oochillyo.

[janetteB @janetteb]

Hi @oochillyo I would say yes that every story creates its own logic, ie the Tardis, utterly impossible but explained within the story and that also leads to other story justifications. Likewise the Doctor regenerating. take for example the Doctor changing gender, that is explained logically withing the narrative and has been so since the end of the Hartnell era even if the writers of the time weren’t thinking in those terms.

I am currently reading Terry Pratchett novels. The plots are insane but makes sense within the logic of that world and he really pushes the boundary of what is and is not justifiable.

The same rule applies to art as well.. One of my sons is a digital artist. He creates fantasy scenes but still has to justify the elements within them according to the logic of the fantasy world he is creating.

This is not a hard and fast rule, there are none when it comes to creativity and I hate people who say you have to do this or that, write this way or that way, because we are all different and operate differently but in general creative works, images, stories, “read” better if they operate according to their own logic. I would suggest be creative and then develop a justification. Trying to work out the “justification” for what you are creating can lead to some interesting narrative complexity and give more depth to your fantasy world.

Good luck and

Cheers

Janette

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys     I would say (from memory) that the TV series quite closely followed the book.   As I would expect, since Neil Gaiman was apparently closely involved in the TV production.   (I think in general it does make a difference to ones viewpoint which version one saw first, since the first-seen tends to establish itself in ones brain as the yardstick by which other versions are judged.   I couldn’t avoid that, for instance, when reading the Moff’s novelisation of The Day of the Doctor, the TV version kept interrupting.   I must read it again).     That said, I think I can recommend the TV version of Neverwhere if you get the chance.

@oochillyo   @janetteb   I definitely think that stories have to follow their own internal logic.   And that credibility depends partly on our own background and viewpoint – I’m an engineer for example.    I (too often) quote Kill the Moon as an example – I have no problem at all with the Tardis (which violates every law of physics) materialising inside the hold of the Space Shuttle – *but* the Space Shuttle (which is a glider) gliding to a landing on the airless Moon makes me snort with disgust, in reality it would just make a new crater.    The Tardis and the sonic screwdriver I accept because they’re Time Lord technology (hence equivalent to ‘magic’), and thus fully explained within the internal logic of the show.   The Space Shuttle – isn’t.

Messing with history also meets with a mixed reaction from me, I get annoyed that Tesla gets credited with the development of AC electricity supply when the major credit should go to George Westinghouse.   Non-engineers would probably be baffled by that.   🙂    But Martha prompting Shakespear with some of his best lines – I love that.

Other people have their own boundaries of what they’ll accept, and those boundaries are often irregular or even fractal.

janetteb, I trust you’re enjoying Sir Pterry, I have all of his books and I’m slowly re-reading my way through them.   They are explicitly magical, the Discworld exists in a strong magical field and (so far as I can tell) the laws of Discworld ‘physics’ are quite consistent.   It’s notable that Sir Pterry incorporates every spook and monster ever invented by man in his books sooner or later.   And under the guise of magic and fantasy, he manages to impart a strong humanist (is that  the right word?) feeling, without ever sounding preachy.   And his characters are masterfully defined.   (My favourite characters – Vetinari, Angua the werewolf, the Librarian, and of course Death).

Incidentally, going back to the book vs film question, I don’t think Terry Pratchett’s work translates quite so well to film.   Even though I do like the TV movie of Hogfather.   Partly because his writing style is just so good, so amusing, so wryly funny, and much of that cannot be translated to a visual medium.   And of course portraying orang utans or talking dogs or Death (an anthropomorphic personification) on screen is always going to be difficult.

I find that Sir Pterry’s books often remind me of Doug Adams’ ‘Hitchhiker’ series.    Just something about the fantastic flavour of both.   It’s interesting because I would unhestitatingly class Hitchhiker as ‘sci-fi’ and Discworld as ‘fantasy’ but they are remarkably close in tone, or at least they seem so to me.   I used to think there was a sharp line there but I no longer do.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent I am currently reading Reaper Man, usually while I am sitting in the car in supermarket car-parks surrounded by shopping trolleys which is weirdly apt. Also living in a semi rural town that has had the centre drained of life by external shopping centres the point he is making is all too prescient. Terry Pratchett has a strong humanist message, or Humanist. It certainly accords with the Humanist ethos.

Also yes agree that T.P and Douglas Adams are very similar in style and certainly in humour. Both have a lot of depth in their writing. I still think that D.A. had the best solution to ruling the universe. (The man on the island who did not know that he was President)

I am fond of the TV adaptation of Hogfather because that was my introduction to T.P though I have not got to the book yet so will probably amend my view of it when i do. I did enjoy the animated adaption of Maurice and his Educated Rodents, (with David Tennants’ fine voice acting skills) after reading the book but that is a somewhat simpler narrative and it certainly did not capture the philosophical complexity of the book, remarkable for a children’s story but I was not expecting any adaptation to pull that off.

Cheers

Janette

 

 

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent @janetteb @oochillyo

Is there a real claim a primacy for the ‘internal logic’ of Who or any other show? The result is always a compromise between the writer, the director, the producer, the ‘chemistry’ between the characters, production constraints (severe in the case of classic who) and the response to public or establishment criticism.

It’s a wonder any coherent shows are/were made! You certainly need a strong show runner like RTD to beat the various elements into shape. But some shows seem better than others or why are we talking about this?

Personally, with regards to Who, my position is close to Chris Bidmead’s… it’s sci fi, rather than space opera or fantasy. And it certainly shouldn’t be soap! It’s also not horror though it can rightly horrify occasionally. You are welcome to disagree but if the science is bad, the story probably will be too.

‘Kill the Moon’… urghh. ‘Forest of the Night’? Not much better. ‘Robot of Sherwood,’ had other problems. Otherwise a great series.

Unfortunately sci fi is largely about ideas rather than characters and admittedly Bidmead’s approach in the early 80’s wasn’t a roaring success.

Right! This is where the companions come in, and antagonists too, if the story is up to scratch. Monsters can also transform a show but producers tend to insert them into excellent stories which don’t need them: Primords and Magmabeasts, if they had looked effective that would be a different matter but one was the victim of bad speculative science and the other a man who hadn’t enough time to rehearse in his rubber suit.

When it comes to companions, more is definitely less. You would think Chibnall would have learned that from the ‘crowded Tardis’ era. Dimensional transcendentality reduces multiple characters to cliche and two dimensions. You couldn’t cram in enough dialogue for four main (quite unpopular) characters into the 1.5 hour stories of the 1980’s; Chibnall had no chance in 45 minutes. I understand why he wouldn’t want to have a novel woman doctor playing against a sole companion, but facing down/ignoring any stupid speculation generated by a single female companion, say, would have been far preferable to the worthy lampshading ‘Fam’.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb There’s no particular reason why you might amend your view of the Hogfather TV adaptation when you read the book, first acquaintance is a powerful influence. 🙂 Hogfather is one of his best books, by the way.

I’m up to ‘Moving Pictures’, one behind you with Reaper Man. Reaper Man is a good one, IIRC. Are you reading them in any particular order? I have all his books in order in my bookshelf and tend to read them in order of publication, though it’s really not necessary. As far as I can tell, all his books are in chronological order, he never (?) went backward in time, though he did jump from one place and set of characters to another, and some characters overlapped into different threads. Of course various fans have published ‘reading order’ guides, I found a useful one for information (even though I don’t follow it) was Kryzsztof Kietzman’s (see if this link works) https://d4804za1f1gw.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2019/07/24165448/Discworld-Reading-Order.jpg

I liked Doug Adams’ ruler of the universe, too. And he was fond of cats, which is a plus for me. One of the strands of Doug Adams humour was looking at things from a skewed point of view, such as ‘Much of the unhappiness in the universe was concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” (I’ve misquoted him, I’m sure). While Terry Pratchett takes common human tropes and deftly adjusts them to suit the quirks of his characters, such as when Angua the werewolf had gone missing, “Her bed hadn’t been slept in. Neither had her basket.” That is the only time he mentions her basket, but *of course* a werewolf would need one from time to time. And Death of course is a fertile source of those little quirks.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u   I agree with most of what you say. And specifically re Kill the Moon/Forest of the Night. Robot of Sherwood had big problems with the golden arrow (as far as I’m concerned) but it was light-hearted enough I could overlook that.

However I think any show has to be internally self-consistent, and that has to come from the showrunner and writers. Directors and actors can detract from that, or possibly even improve it though I don’t know if that has ever happened. (I’d love to know if a regular character has ever said ‘No I wouldn’t do that, three episodes ago I did the exact opposite’ and had their point taken up.)

Sci fi of the Doctor Who flavour has to be about characters, since ‘ideas’ are hard to show on screen, usually boring, and if of galactic-sized phenomena (e.g. Independence Day) they require hugely expensive special effects for which no Who before the 2020’s had the budget, so either looked impossibly lame or just couldn’t be done. And as Independence Day and Chibnall’s Flux series demonstrated, FX are no substitute for a good strong coherent plot. So Who had to be very much character-driven.

And I also agree that, with Companions, more is less. Take for example Journey’s End, where the Doctor and half-a-dozen favourite Companions were playing at flying the Tardis towing the Earth back into place – that was so contrived and every-companion-gets-a-line it makes me cringe. The Tardis can be flown solo ffs, why did it need a committee? Amy and Rory were just manageable (with Rory taking a definitely secondary role), Chibnall’s menage was just too many and I agree it would have been much better with just Yaz (and I wouldn’t care if every lesbian refugee from Xena and Gabrielle had jumped on the fanfic wagon 🙂 Oh, and ‘Fam’? Please. Moffat wrote the Doctor as a humanoid alien with slightly odd quirks and a lack of comprehension of accepted human behaviour, Chibnall’s Doctor was more like a hearty and unbearable Girl Guide leader.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent.

“(I’d love to know if a regular character has ever said ‘No I wouldn’t do that, three episodes ago I did the exact opposite’ and had their point taken up.)”

According to JMS (creator of Babylon 5) one of the actors objected to something his character did in the second season and his objections were taken on board and the script modified accordingly. A good script writer should at least give consideration to the opinions of the actor regarding their character. Some do some don’t and this in the only example that immediately springs to mind. Older more experienced actors are more likely to have input into their characters than younger, less confident actors. (I am thinking now of Ryan and Yaz, who were very inconsistently written characters and would no doubt have improved had the actors had more say.)

I have just watched the final episode of the last series and yes agree with your point about the lack of a strong coherent plot. The start was promising, the end was cute but what was that hot mess in the middle all about? There were cybermen, daleks and the Master doubling as Rasputin, (neat idea but didn’t seem to really go anywhere), all swirled together in a badly cooked soup. I would not have minded had it been a bit incoherent if there had been good dialogue, well developed characters, even the odd moment of humour but the script was flatter than one of my failed pitta breads.Then he tried throwing in a lot of beloved old faces to try and win over fans but gave them the same leaden dialogue. They deserved better, J.W. Yaz and Kate all deserved better.

Cheers

Janette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb   It’s probably a symptom of my disinterest that I can hardly remember what the overall plot of the Flux series was.   Or maybe it was just quite obscure at the time.   The Flux eating the universe actually reminded me of episodes in that weird series Lexx where robotic heads were eating everything and changing it into more robotic heads, sort of like cybermen on steroids.

I dimly remember Kate, I seem to recall she was quite a good character.   (Resorts to tardis.fandom.com where would we be without it?)   Oh, you were talking about ‘The Power of the Doctor.’    Kate Stewart.   I was thinking of someone else, I thought you were talking about The Flux.

Um, as I recall, I found The Power of the Doctor ‘not too bad’ though that’s more a reflection on what came before (viz. the Flux series).    Just browsing tardis.fandom.com to try and figure which later companion I’m thinking of.   Nope, can’t do it.   I’m going to have to re-watch the series at some point, I guess, I seem to recall some incidental characters who deserved better treatment.   But it’s hard to write a coherent series when the apocalypse meter is off the dial all the time.    Sometimes, the most effective episodes are the ‘small’ ones where the peril is finite and only a few people are at risk.   I’m thinking of ones like The Girl Who Waited or The Doctor’s Wife or World Enough and Time or Face the Raven, for example.   Or even Eve of the Daleks, the best episode of Chibnall’s tenure IMO.

Well, on to the first of Bill Potts’s episodes, The Pilot.

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

hi @dentarturdent

Without a doubt nothing sucks as hard as a phrase such as ‘the end of time ITSELF!’ or ‘the reality bomb!’

I wonder where the universal threat trope originates. Having a race which can manipulate time goes a long way there but, although Doctor One is very down on actually manipulating time (The Aztecs and The Time Meddler), the nature of the threat if Time is changed is not explored at that point (though I need check I player I suspect).

The eventual appearance of The Lords in The War Games (a bit long but not too much… main problem being shouty scenery chewing) is essentially a humanitarian intervention inspired by Two, but thereafter they become micromanagers with Four as their favourite agent.

The first identified ‘universal’ threat is Kronos in The Time Monster then, despite temporal shenanigans on the part of The Sontarans, there’s nothing until The Guardians and The Key of Time. The Guardians represent another major gripe of mine: pseudo religion by the agency of superpowerful beings who seem to exist for no very good reason but that’s my personal rejection of anything of anything more mystical than agnosticism.

After that it seemed to be end of the universe twice a series, well there’s Logopolis… ‘entropy is killing the universe!’ Er, yes? I think you’ll it pretty much defines it, actually. Then there’s Terminus, which surely is only saved from the ultimate Who crud list by Sarah Sutton prancing around in her slip.

There must be more… Terminus, ludicrous though it is, may be the key though… this (the 70’s & 80’s) is the period in which the Big Bang finally displaced Steady State.

Yes, smaller stakes are always more comfortable.

Thought… does this also relate to the death of Historical stories; once The Lords are on the block they all become historical fantasy stories (yeah? Prove me wrong). This what really annoyed me about The Robot of Sherwood: Robert Hode would seem to be genuinely time paradox: an attested retainer for Edward ll who understandably got a bit depressed and then rocks up… a century earlier?? Not kidding, attested again! Two Robert Hode’s? Or a stowaway on The Tardis?

What a wasted opportunity!

 

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

<span class=”useratname”>@ps1l0v3y0u</span>   Hi,  I can’t really comment on most of that since I’m essentially a nuWho fan.   I have watched the last few of Seven and Ace’s episodes on DVD, and I know all the old Doctors, but that’s about it.

I’m okay with such concepts as travelling to ‘the end of Time’, but I just find that – dramatically – threats of universal destruction are overwhelming and tend to overshadow the stories of the characters.

Robin Hood’s authenticity never worried me at all, I just accept him as a mythical figure.   Like King Arthur.  (I had to Google ‘Robert Hode’, it seems there are varying candidates for the original of Robin Hood).   So that aspect of Robot of Sherwood caused me no qualms at all.   I was mainly concerned with the impossible ballistics of shooting the spaceship with a golden arrow, and how could an arrow stuck in the hull be processed quickly enough to boost the engines?   Never mind that gold is a remarkably unreactive metal so unlikely to be a usable power source.

I do agree that – *if* the conflicting dates of ‘Robin’s origin were common knowledge – then the Tardis would be an excellent solution.   The only drawback (from my point of view) is that almost nobody in the audience is aware of the anomaly, so it would be a solution to an unknown problem.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent

yes! The golden arrow! Only mind-boggling bad science can trump nerdy ‘bet you didn’t know…’ historical observation that is normally disproved a decade later.

I’m sure a C13th Robbin’ Hoodie looked just as suspicious and ubiquitous as they do today. And what better alias to invoke if you were out of favour with the state? No need to deploy either Tardis or myth. Though I still think the former might be more fun than a golden arrow.

The term ‘myth’ is deployed too easily. Normally, we don’t have much of the relevant history – it’s gone – just a lot of very ancient wordsmiths who made something they thought plausible and entertaining from whatever facts they had to hand (but we don’t). Decent textual analysis can normally boil away the tosh.

For instance, Vortigern and Ambrosius are regarded as ‘mythical’ but they were both without doubt real people from a very long time ago about whom a lot of (occasionally entertaining) guff has subsequently been written.

Of course, a historian also needs to think very carefully before they make something plausible or entertaining from whatever facts THEY have to hand.

Though you would think entertainment and plausibility should be essential for a Who writer!

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u Well the classic mythical figure has to be King Arthur, I guess. Based on (presumably) some ancient chieftain. But the most mythologised-about has to be Cleopatra whose existence is very throughly documented. It’s fun to play with historical figures, but ideally it should dovetail in to known history and not do violence to it. So for example I was okay with Queen Nefertiti being on a spaceship and deciding not to return to Egypt (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) since apparently she disappeared from contemporary history quite unexpectedly (I read that somewhere, sorry if I got that wrong). I doubt that Who episode is ever going to confuse history. (What I wasn’t happy about was her going off with that misogynistic Great White Hunter ass Riddell, but that’s another issue).

You said “a historian also needs to think very carefully before they make something plausible or entertaining from whatever facts THEY have to hand.” Ditto for fiction writers!

History is, unavoidably, just a collection of ‘stories’ about historical figures and events. Most things in the real world are complicated, and telling a coherent narrative demands massive simplification. For just one example, I’ve read extensively about the early history of railways and the steam locomotive, and the popular historical account which tries to compress it into five minutes and five people has to leave out a vast host of details. This is inevitable if it’s going to be fitted into a general history course. You could say the same of any topic. So as soon as you start to make a story out of it, the question of what to leave out skews the story – even if the teller is unbiassed (and of course history is, notoriously, written by the victors).

But then modern stories, even totally fictional ones, can overlay and obscure the historical record. For example there is a persistent attack by American commentators on the character of George III (‘mad King George’). Reading his detailed Wikipedia page I get the impression that he was an enlightened King for his day and his relatively short periods of mental illness late in his long reign do not define him. And how many Netflix watchers now think Cleopatra VII Philopator was black? (I hope that idea doesn’t stick. Really, anyone deliberately putting counterfactual information in a self-styled ‘documentary’ should never be allowed to make anything for television ever again).

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent

Hi! I hesitated to mention Arthur. It’s just a name used to sell books about the dark ages. Many current academics will only rely on archaeology and virtually ignore mythology; they have their funding to think of and really don’t need to be associated with utter nonsense.

Having said that there are two very good candidates for Arthur, neither of them imperial exactly but a cut above your average British ‘Teyern’. I leave it there.

Better not comment on locomotives either…

Of course the Ptolemaic dynasty had far fewer Greek ancestors than the owner of the kebab shop down the road but only because they had the SAME single Greek ancestor a few generations back. The 25th dynasty (C8th BC) probably had darker colouration than the modern Egyptian genotype and, yes, skin colouration is something modern North Africans are sensitive about.

Sculpture of Septimus Severus make him look very North African, and the Roman empire was a melting pot but this was a slave society doubtless with racial discrimination on the basis of colour. After that most people became serfs before Western Europe decided to industrialise slavery again (and indeed industrialise.)

Mesolithic Cheddar man had genetic markers for dark skin and blue eyes. His people were swamped by paler skinned Middle Eastern farmers who were in the turn replaced by the bronze bashing Yamana mob.

Race is a nonsense and a problem!

George III was an enlightened despot but he weren’t no democrat. Nicer than Fred or Catherine (ooh you are so Great) but he was looking after the people only because they were his livestock and cash crop. Britain could have won in North America by giving in to calls for representation and so dividing the loyalists from the radicals. But that would have been politically inconceivable.

I really didn’t like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship; Riddell was obviously there to bag a tricerotops. Chibnall tries to play fast and loose with political correctness ala Rusty but inevitability comes across tone-deaf. On the other hand I thought thought the Power of Three quite good.

Slightly surprised no-one has yet tried to make out Akhenaten and Nefertiti were aliens…

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u I deduce that you’re some sort of historian or history fan. 🙂 I’m not really, except in a few specific areas.

Take any subject, like, say, sailing ships, or the English Civil War, and what the average member of the public (including me) ‘knows’ probably amounts to about half a paragraph. Usually it boils down to just a few anecdotes. That’s inevitable. I mentioned the early history of railways because I do know quite a lot about that, and therefore it’s obvious to me just how much popular accounts are leaving out (which is most of the story). I don’t mind that so long as the result isn’t actively misleading, and really, from a general social history point of view, I guess it doesn’t matter much who made which improvements so long as somebody did. Doubtless most popular accounts of the Civil War are leaving out just as much but I wouldn’t know. I just have to hope the writers aren’t misrepresenting anything, because that is not acceptable.

I would apologise for introducing Arthur, except that in the context of ‘mythical British historical figures’, omitting Arthur is a bit like talking about ‘Scottish legendary monsters’ and forgetting Nessie. 🙂

I didn’t care for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship much either, I’d forgotten Chibnall wrote it, what a surprise. I should probably have thought of a better example of not clashing with history. The only character I really liked was Nefertiti. Riddell was obnoxious, which is why the last scene where Neffy had apparently volunteered to be Great White Hunter’s servant girl really peeved me.

Um, better example – The Unicorn and The Wasp. Apparently Agatha Christie really did disappear for a while with no explanation.

The Power of Three, since you mention it, was really good until the last few minutes. Loved the idea of the enigmatic cubes, studying us. (Echoes of the mice in the Hitchhiker series – projections in our dimension of pan-dimensional beings, and all the time that scientists were studying lab mice, the ‘mice’ were studying them. There’s nothing new in sci-fi. 🙂 BUT if the cubes were studying us for a year for some subtle reason, why the crudeness of just killing a third of the population? Why did it need a year of study to do that? Am I missing something?

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

Hi @dentarthurdent

Yes, history was originally my field. It was a long time ago and the economic imperatives behind Victorian locomotive design was one of my more obscure studies. I suppose I still get fed up that everyone thinks Nigel Gresley is great (and I’m not saying he wasn’t quite good) but have never heard of George Churchward.

I keep a jaundiced and (hopefully) informed eye on freaky interpretations on tv. Richard Miles’ Ancient Worlds from about years back was excellent: refreshingly orthodox though the end was a bit of a cop out.

I did use lockdown to study Arthur and post Roman Britain: the gap between the freaky amateurs and the academics (who really don’t want to know) yawns. You can get translations of contemporary sources online (though some may be a century old). There’s a lot of interesting, unknown stuff out there.

I would say Power of Three is Chibnall’s best, his earlier nod to EE doc Smith on 42 notwithstanding. Kind of says it all; he’s no Moffat or Mathieson is he?

I even liked Steven Berkoff’s performance!

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Well I’m a Southern Railway fan primarily (I grew up in LSWR territory) but I think Gresley certainly had the best-looking of all modern locomotives. (It’s great to see that a P2 is being built btw). I acknowledge Churchard’s lead in e.g long-travel valves but (IMO) Churchward having made great advances, his successors were reluctant to change anything and were overtaken by other lines of development. But yes, as so often happens, Gresley’s was the name that stuck and others were eclipsed. This always happens, in the public imagination there’s only room for one name. Going further back Brunel gets all the publicity as a Victorian engineer and other engineers just as capable, like Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke, get eclipsed.

By the way, when I said I know ‘quite a lot’ about early railways I wasn’t claiming to be any sort of expert, I was comparing myself to the average extent of knowledge. I certainly wouldn’t claim that my hobby could match a professional interest, a bit disconcerting to find that you had one. 🙂 Just that it gives me sufficient background to see how much gets left out of popular accounts.

Looking at Chibnall’s pre-Chibnall episodes (as it were) – 42, Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs, Power of 3 – yes Power of 3 was undoubtedly the best, for sufficiently small values of ‘best’ 🙂   Stephen Berkoff was okay as the villain except that the ending was rather rushed. We didn’t get to see much of him. Reminded me of Solomon, a bit.

There were a couple of Chibnall-written episodes from Chibnall’s reign that are possibly equal/better than Power of 3 (at least in my recollection and I’ve only viewed most of them once) – Resolution, Spyfall, Fugitive of the Judoon (co-written), Eve of the Daleks (which I think is the best thing Chibnall has written).

As an aside, and just to prove you can’t believe everything you see on the Internet, I was googling ‘Chibnall Dr Who episodes’ to remind myself and this page https://guide.doctorwhonews.net/person.php?name=chrischibnall listed among Chibnall’s writing credits – wait for it – Asylum of the Daleks(!) Nooooooo! I had to go to Tardis.fandom.com to reassure myself that I wasn’t going bonkers, I *know* it was written by the Moff, it has the Moff’s fingerprints all over it, unmistakeably, it introduced Clara and I recall seeing Moff being interviewed about it. And it’s one of my favourite episodes.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys    Well, ‘Layer Cake’ finally arrived in the mail.   I just watched it.   Yes, I did have some trouble following the complicated plot, though that did help with giving the impression that things were spinning out of control of XXXX (Daniel Craig’s character).   Interesting how they managed to never mention his name without that ever being obvious until the end.   (I found Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels similarly confusing on a first watching, it got easier second time round when I could identify the cast a bit easier).    Layer  Cake – I didn’t really like it, didn’t dislike it, but I couldn’t stop watching – just had to see how it all worked out.    And I have to say I was expecting a bad ending, but then there were several reversals in the last few minutes and I thought XXXX was going to get away with it and the final shock came from a totally unexpected (but in hindsight quite justified and predictable) quarter.

But I think my favourite film in the British crime genre is still Trance, with its ongoing puzzle of who’s controlling who.

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb    I’ve just started (re-) reading Reaper Man  (he says, blithely ignoring the excitement going on nearby over New Episodes!)    I guessed you’ve finished it by now.    I think it’s one of Pratchett’s most entertaining books (and of course it features a favourite character, Death).   The Auditors of Reality remind me of management consultants.   The sort that ‘advise’ making half the workforce redundant.   I expect they invented kpi’s.    In the Who universe they would be Daleks, I think.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent We have not watched the new story either though we are planning to do so later in the week. (Son and his gf have Disney + so we don’t need the eye patches to do so)

We are going to watch it as a household, something we stopped during half way through the first Chibnell/J.W. series. They drifted off one by one then but are all keen again now that RTD is at the helm again and there will be jelly babies, jammy dodgers, (home made) and fish fingers and custard, just like old times.

I have a couple more pages to read of Reaper Man. It is my “handbag book” which means i am mostly reading it while waiting in supermarket car parks for family members to do their shopping which feels remarkably apt. Also a month or so ago while I was part way through the book a shopping trolley turned up on our street and ended up in our house. It felt as though the story was real and happening here. (I believe the trolley is now back where it belongs)

cheers

Janette

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@janetteb   I know just what you mean about your ‘handbag book’.   I was using Moving Pictures in similar fashion, which is why it took me so long to get through it.    In fact I’ve learned from experience that if I chauffeur Mrs D anywhere, especially if her very large family is involved, I make sure I’ve got a book handy in case of emergency.   That way I can settle down in a spare corner while they talk family things at length.

I wish you success with your family watch-through.   And I do hope RTD’s new episode is a success.    I probably won’t get to see it for some time, until it comes out on DVD.   But I can wait.   🙂

[Devilishrobby @devilishrobby]

@dentarthurdent.
I’ve heard or read some where that the BBC are releasing a triple DVD of the specials in a standard and “steelbook version” ( whatever  that means) immediately after the 3rd special is aired so it should be available to preorder and buy from most dvd outlets and online. Though I did hear the Steelbook version is something like £60 uk but it’s supposed to have quite a few extra goodies for collectors and I think also includes the Dr Who unleashed episodes for each special.

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@devilishrobby     I just Googled and ‘steelbook’ is what it sounds like – simply a steel DVD case.   Personally I’m perfectly happy with the usual polythene DVD cases, less likely to get scuffed (because their labels are slip-fitted paper under a clear plastic cover).     Steelbook issues apparently typically have more ‘extras’.   But I’d be a tad unhappy if the standard version was deliberately skimped on extras in order to big up the Steelbook.    Actually, the idea of a steel DVD case sounds curiously old-fashioned and steampunk, to me   🙂

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

@dentarthurdent Back to the great Terry Pratchett. the S/O and I were discussing Hogfather last night, it (ie the tv adaptation) being one of my standard pre Christmas watches, and he made the point that Death’s granddaughter is called Susan and it struck me that indeed this could be a nod to Dr Who. Death is very Doctorish after all which is perhaps why he is such an appealing character.

It would hardly be surprising if T.P was influenced by Dr Who given the time he was writing.

We still haven’t watched the new episode so are keeping you company with that, though we are planning to watch tomorrow night and I have a tin of home made Jammy Dodgers ready and waiting and a bag of English Jelly Babies in the pantry, not to mention the fishfingers in the freezer. All is set. We just cannot manage to get the household together at the same time.

Cheers

Janette

[WhoHar @whohar]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>@devilishrobby @dentarthurdent</p>
There’s also a steelbook of the Colourised Dalek “movie” they showed on the BBC on the 23rd November.

They are generally Blu-ray or 4k (so higher quality than a dvd), and often have extra art on the inside cover. Plus some extra content on the disks, but not always.

They do look great and seem to have come to prominence in recent years, mainly I think because people were not buying the plain DVD when a stream is available. So they are now verging into the collectable territory.

I’ve just ordered the 60th and aforementioned Dalek steelbooks (my first ones) as a bit of an indulgence. They are popping up everywhere atm – Disney have released a steelbook range as part of their 100 year celebration.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

Hi all, I’m not a huge fan of doing this, but times are tough for a lot of people. Especially those most vulnerable.

I volunteer for an organisation called Streets Kitchen. I feed the homeless, and those in food poverty, every Friday and Sunday night (was doing it last night). Streets Kitchen does it 7 days a week. I’ve been doing it for about 4 months now.

Here’s me. I’m trying to be like The Doctor. 🙂

I also, because I can, now do their website – although it still needs a lot of work.

https://www.streetskitchen.org/

We have a Winter Appeal which will go to food and tents and socks and underwear and jeans and jackets etc. to keep people alive over winter.

We’re halfway there. If you would like to contribute, that’d be cool.

https://peoplesfundraising.com/fundraising/streets-kitchen-winter-appeal

Many thanks.

[Juniperfish @juniperfish]

@craig That’s brilliant – times are indeed horrendous – the Doctor would be proud of you 🙂 (donated)

[JimTheFish @jimthefish Time Lord]

@craig — that is indeed really great and worthwhile. Donated.

[Oochillyo @oochillyo]

hey everyone 🙂 how are you all 🙂

I didn’t really know where to write this, either here or the creativity section but looking through (the creativity section) is very Doctor Who focused which is super and I feel little bad/selfish about writing something for me and soo off topic after @Craige highlighted and asking for support of the amazing food support charity Streets Kitchen 🙂

I did a little food bank work at school, I found it little confusing checking all the due dates and where all the items go but its highly important and though can be time consuming for the volunteers and people who work at food banks and other food kitchen charities they go the extra mile all the time and have good hearts well done to them 🙂 its soo valuable to numerous people so thank you for telling us about this street kitchen and hope they can get support from this community 🙂 Good Luck to them 🙂

Regards – Declan Sargent

[Oochillyo @oochillyo]

hey everyone 🙂 how are you all 🙂

So I’ve been thinking a lot about my story , watching writing techniques every day and did a little writing in the Morning after weeks or months so I’m thinking its important to keep going and want to ask for advice about story not soo much techniques at the moment.

First general question – If my ‘good side team’ like the main character and his friends are fighting the equivalent of ‘Darth Vader’ haha (sorry been seeing a lot of Star Wars in film and writing techniques) say for the final battle I’m worried my ‘good side’ team is too overpowered with the allies they have and yes I could say the villains team have lasers or whatever but I wonder if the ‘tools’ lets say that the good team have gained are too strong ?

I know I can change this and probs people will say to do so but I don’t want to weaken the wow effect of the fight.

For example (its a sci fi horror I think story, trying to stick to fewest genres as I had about 5 mixed for a long time haha) my protagonists has, his super advanced vehicles/tech and weapons , friends (one of which can phase through things and often saves the protagonist from danger, a half skelly friend who enables actual skeletons to side with the main character including a giant skelly that is fitted with laser eyes, giant – crab, scorpion and worm, plus other mythical creatures and such is this too over powered if say we are trying to over take a castle (giant of course) and the villains armies can future tech and vechiles too

Like with Jurassic Park about themes of Man trying to play with the nature order , I thought about like Fantastic Beasts film where its a lot of creature allies but do the villain’s have to have similar allies, does it seem stupid if they don’t also use these mythical creatures that are in the world

A second thought which I keep trying to remember cause I have lots in mind these super creatures, do they have to like travel the world such as if its the giant Crab obviously there may be more than 1 (were sticking with its natural but like life cycle ect just a normal creature but giant) so for realistic sci fi do the characters have to witness a lot of these ‘super’ creatures around the city’s or world ? as do they have to have the commonality of living things that do walk around that do migrate or are certain creatures to be hidden in the world cause I don’t think that makes super sense with a lot of animals especially giant things should be noticed

I basically don’t want a million opponents to each have for example a giant crab (just for the main character) but why would that not happen in a world like that if people are sure to witness these creatures especially for the main villain why doesn’t he use these creatures to gain advantage?

I will work out tradition or such reasons to shut down people and the villain over using these creatures but if I go that route, does it look stupid of the villain not to use such power (from you the reader perspective)

I do guess its like Fantastic Beats in a way where Newt uses the creatures to help him but few others do and there is reasons or values as to why , is that what I need to give the reader of my story ?

Ps I’ve worked out how the giant skeleton is going down but does having giant creatures or creatures with lot of use like the worm and scorpion working underneath buildings and minefields to aid the main character make the story stupid or the main character and his friends too powerful even against weapons and lasers when you have the visual effect of giant opponents vs human sized villains ?

Thank you I know its a lot but I’m flying with questions and want to understand if these ideas like super creatures vs human army is stupid before I advance the concept.

Regards – Declan Sargent

[Author]

Posts