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@bluesqueakpip, @monochromedimension

There were some similar jokes in one of the Eighth Doctor audios as I recall: the Doctor commenting sarcastically about the hair dryer of Rassilon, the hoover of Rassilon, etc. One could go on and on, the possibilities are endless.

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@bluesqueakpip, @whisht, @ScoutTheAiredale

Congrats on the UK’s curling performance! We quite enjoy the curling in our family. It’s popular here in Canada, although it doesn’t get the media love that hockey does (except it suddenly becomes very important during the Olympics, when it can add to our medal count!). I like the strategy of it, seeing how they try to block each other, guard themselves, knock each other around. And the sweeping does look kind of hilarious, as does all the shouting. I would adore seeing curling on Doctor Who!

Highly amused by the hurling stories as that is a sport that I know nothing about, except that it exists. (Kind of like my relationship with Aussie Rules, in fact!)

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@ScoutTheAiredale   Thanks for the Brandenburg post, I am deeply attached to those concertos. In fact, I was just listening to that very piece last night! Once upon a time, I knew almost no classical music except piano repertoire. I had studied piano as a child and when I was taken occasionally to concerts, it was almost always to hear a pianist in some context or other. So when I finally went back to school after five years away, there was so much music that I didn’t know! The Brandenburgs were among the first orchestral, non-piano pieces that I really loved. They always lift my spirits.

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@purofilion, I’m so sorry to hear about your bad night. I did wonder why I was seeing your posts at this hour!

I believe that Gould actually died of a stroke. He was only fifty, but he had health issues and I think was on a lot of medications at different times, so I don’t know if the drugs were a contributing factor. But very tragic. As well as the baroque, he had a lot of interest in contemporary music, and also the renaissance (he recorded a lot of English harpsichord repertoire on the piano, music which I don’t think was well known at that time). He had actually stopped performing before his death, because he believed that recording was the only way to properly present music. Somewhat different from the viewpoint of most musicians, I believe!

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@purofilion   Oh yes, Gould; such an iconoclast, and so brilliant and quirky (rather “doctorish”, in fact!). As a young piano student in the seventies, I was steeped in the knowledge that he was Canada’s claim to classical music fame.

For @whisht (and @faegrl, Chopin groupie), here is my current hero of the piano, Marc-André Hamelin, who plays with such feeling and absolutely terrifying technique. (I’m sure this is a man who does several impossible things before breakfast on a regular basis!)

Also, this great little piece, one of Hamelin’s own compositions, demonstrates how easy he makes really hard things look. I bow my head in awe.

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@whisht   Yes, very clever!  🙂  I think “hippyster” is going to be my label of choice from now on. I wouldn’t feel badly, my husband and I were just discussing last night how the result of years of music study was to still have “stoopidly closed minds” to a remarkable number of things that we have only in the last couple of years learned to appreciate. We came to the conclusion that, as music students, we simply didn’t have time to listen to music outside of our specializations with the appropriately inquiring mind! (Ironic, isn’t it?)

Love the two very contrasting Glass compositions from you and @faegrl!

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@whisht  Excuse me; are you calling me a hipster?  😎  As a middle-aged medievalist who still wears hippie skirts, I find that pretty funny!

Yes, Ross has the ability to write about complex subjects in a readable way. I have had that “what was that again?” response to some books on physics, the kind by literate writers designed for lay readers. But however good the writing, they’re still about physics in the end!

I think the difference with people like Part and Reich is that their music takes its cue from less intellectual sources, like gamelan or church polyphony (which are complex but still somehow more connected to human experience, if that makes any sense). I think that composers like Boulez treated their work more like problem-solving. They forgot that most people listen to music with their emotions rather than just their brains. I can listen to a Bach fugue and think, wow, is that ever clever, but meanwhile, another part of me is just soaring at the awesomeness of it.

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@whisht  Ha, well done you. I actually found it instructive, listening to that piece when posting it, as I hadn’t heard it in years. The Alex Ross book made a big impact on me when I read it, and encouraged me to revisit a lot of music that I had more or less ignored in my music school days. I have a much more open mind now and enjoy a quite a lot of “modern” classical, but I have to say that did not apply to the Boulez! I found myself wondering “What’s the point?” quite a lot during that 10 minutes.  🙂

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Yes, exactly! I just won’t go there, I actually want to keep my blood in my veins (not to mention I want the cat to like me). Fortunately, the vets have finally figured this out as well, as I am no longer given the “open his mouth, pop it in, close his jaw, stroke his throat” instructions that I received in years gone by. Now there are squashy treats with holes in the middle, called “pill pockets”. Those worked well until he started noticing the plastic while chewing, and out the whole thing came. Hence the cutting-open procedure, as he doesn’t seem to mind powder mixed in with his food. And the most recent medication actually comes in chewy treat form. We are all happy with that development. (Although the cheese ball idea would probably be well received!)

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@ScoutTheAiredale    I hope that you and your brother will accept a few words of support from a vile feline creature! My elderly cat Cima is happy to hear that Mum makes sure the pills taste good. Cima’s breakfast and dinner currently include the contents of a capsule that has been lovingly cut in half and emptied into the food (as Cima doesn’t like the bit of plastic, even when hidden inside a treat). You should see me before seven in the morning when I can barely get my eyes open, trying to snip a little capsule in half without losing half of it! There is also a pill that comes in squashy treat form, a little scoop of powder that is mixed into the food, and a tiny quarter of a tablet that seems to go unnoticed amidst all of these delights. I think Cima understands the deep love that is behind all this dispensing of meds, but Cima is of course a cat. You are a dog; I know that you understand!

@fatmaninabox   It’s fortunate that I don’t have to throw balls for the cat. My son used to try to convince me to help him practise his baseball skills; after I proved to him that not only do I throw like a girl, but catch, hit, and run like one as well, he stopped asking. (Of course, in fairness, I am a girl; but fortunately, he was well aware that there were girls on his team who could do all of those things far better than I could!)

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I wonder what general knowledge of biology was like in the fifties. It was obvious to me why the bodies wouldn’t have decomposed until the sealed chamber was opened, and I’m not especially science-minded. It surprised me a bit that the colonel needed this explained.

@bluesqueakpip  Even without the captain’s hint, Colonel Breem’s extreme reaction seemed out of place. My first thought during that scene was that he was that he had really gone over the edge! This was also pointed up in the contrast between his reaction to events and that of the minister. The minister listened to the alien theory calmly enough that I began to think he might buy it, then just as calmly expressed satisfaction when presented with a more convenient “explanation”. Breem, on the other hand, was much more emotional in both his rejection of one and presentation of the other.

@scaryb, I too enjoyed the pure delight shown by Roney and Quatermass as they drew their conclusions. And the squaddies are definitely smarter than their “betters” in this case!

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@faegrl   @purofilion

It’s interesting about the screaming. Susan did scream rather a lot, but then, what would you expect a teenager to do when being threatened by Daleks and so on? I know that nowadays, kids expect their alter egos to be a lot tougher, unfazed by anything, Harry Potter style, but frankly, I know I would probably scream if something monstrous startled the heck out of me while I was exploring an alien world. Although, I imagine the writers also used the screams as a way to increase tension or excitement, rather than worrying about what it meant for the character!

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@thekrynoidman   That makes complete sense, as they would have been looking for their audience. Personally, I find it hard not to love a title like “Duck, You Sucker”, but I’m a bit quirky that way. I can imagine that American fans of “tough guy” westerns, especially back in the day, would have had a harder time with it! I saw a few of those Leone westerns years ago, when they used to show up pretty regularly on TV. I’m not sure if this was one of them or not, but they were always a good time.

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@faegrl   That is brilliant. Just brilliant. The sight of all those guys in white shirts, dark ties, and fox hats simply did me in.  And I enjoyed the Rezonate piece too, by the way, very atmospheric. Like you, I have only recently become familiar with dubstep, as there is a class in my son’s music school that produces it, and we get to hear a lot of it at the performances. I haven’t always warmed to it, I confess, but that might be partly related to the volume at which they play it! But I enjoy some of the more musical ones. The line between music and noise is sometimes very wavy, and its placement depends on your point of view!

That’s a debate that’s actually been going on for centuries. Everyone from Beethoven to Buddy Holly has been accused of making noise not music, and it expands forward and backward from there. How about this, from 1955? Pierre Boulez was one of the big names in classical music at the time (everyone still has to study him in music history classes). It’s not altogether my personal cup of tea, but there are loads of classical music fans who swear by this kind of thing. It just goes to show you.  🙂  As you can tell, I find the noise vs. music discussion fascinating, in any genre!

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@thekrynoidman  I am familiar with “A Fistful of Dynamite”, but was not aware of the “Duck, You Sucker” alternative name… I think I prefer that one!  🙂  Great bit of scoring.

@monochromedimension   Now, that’s just fun! It makes a nice tribute to the importance of good scoring (continuing with the theme above) and also the unsung editor!

 

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@whisht   I agree, Ella’s singing is so deceptively simple. She has that lovely clear voice, and always lets the melody take centre stage. And my condolences on the broadband!

@ScoutTheAiredale   I’ve heard Lena’s version as well, and like it, too. The beauty of “Stormy Weather” is that the glorious, twisty-turny melody lends it self to so many interpretations. Best wishes for the performance, by the way. And what a great curtain call number, I can just see you all now!

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@bluesqueakpip  I guess that it depends what you consider to be an iconic item. Each Doctor always had his particular style or costume, and to me, most of the “accessories” were just part of the overall look (Tom Baker’s scarf probably being the exception). I certainly never thought of the Seventh Doctor’s hat as being anything other than the hat that went with his jacket (Four and Five often wore hats as well). And the velvet jackets and frilly shirts were just what the Third Doctor wore, as the Fifth wore cricket clothes and the Sixth wore that very bizarre jacket.

I wonder whether Matt’s bow tie would have seemed so important if the writers hadn’t chosen to make it so? “Bow ties are cool” and so on. But I suppose it really depends on your point of view.

I loved that remark by Beth Willis. It certainly suggests a lot of Eleventh Doctor/Matt Smith cross pollination of character. Maybe another human/time lord metacrisis?  🙂

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@monochromedimension  I don’t mind Time and the Rani, although I will admit that it is silly in places. But as I think has been made clear before now on this forum, I am foolishly easy to please! I loved the portrayal of the Seventh Doctor in the TV Movie, he seemed so calm and at peace with himself. I didn’t care for the treatment his death received, however, because it seemed so much more violent than any of the others, and because it was so pointless. (Although to be fair, I guess no more pointless than the Sixth Doctor’s departure, falling and hitting his head on the TARDIS console!)

@faegrl  Regarding the Eighth Doctor, if you want to get the best of him, you really have to forget the TV Movie and go to Big Finish audio. It does unfortunately cost money, but the downloads are less expensive, and a lot of the early stuff has been reduced in price. I know that some people don’t really engage with audio only, but if you don’t mind it, then that is where you will find the proper Eighth Doctor!

I haven’t seen most First Doctor episodes in a very long time, but I remember the Dalek serial well enough to agree that it was great. For one thing, the Daleks were new! New, and very scary. I also remember Genesis of the Daleks from Tom Baker’s era with a lot of love. I know the Daleks are iconic, but they haven’t always been used well throughout the run of the show. (Although I will admit to having loved the bit of Cyberman/Dalek trash talk in Doomsday!)

And by the way, I’d say that Troughton wore a bowtie when they were still cool!  🙂

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@faegrl    Oh, I haven’t heard ELO in forever! I used to like them a lot. I have one of their LP’s, which gives you some idea of where my time stream started.  🙂   And yes, Walking on Sunshine is a goofily happy song, isn’t it?

Well, there wasn’t enough wind to blow down trees, only to freeze us all half to death, and enough rain to drown the poor players. We have a lot of artificial turf fields here now, and they don’t seem to cancel for anything less than six inches of snow, which we rarely get. (If you can’t see the lines, you can’t play, of course!) So we have played games in some of the stupidest weather imaginable. This morning it is sunny, but more rain and “damaging winds” are forecast for later today, so perhaps another sunshine song?

 

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@monochromedimension, I also loved Seven. When he first appeared, he immediately became my favourite after Four, even in his “silly season”. I liked how he could go from light to dark with just a look. Four did that as well, but (without even realizing it at the time) I had missed it with Five and Six.

Yes, @faegrl, it is of course a show intended (at least partly) for kids; however, I don’t think that means that a millenium-old character needs to be talking just like them, or that they would expect him to (kids are of course pretty smart about stuff like that!). @confusedpolarity, you see, it is fun writing Doctor dialogue, isn’t it? 🙂

I actually quite liked the Eleventh doctor’s bow tie; as for the fez, I don’t think we were supposed to like it. I think that we, like Amy and River, were supposed to think it was fairly stupid; an example of the doctor’s childish glee rather than his good sense! But having been a choirgirl, I have always had a bit of an affection for bowties and suspenders! But I’m not sure that a special accessory is required. I don’t think that early Doctors necessarily had them, and even Nine’s leather jacket was more a part of his costume than an accessory. The Doctors have always worn coats. Earlier Doctors even used to change outifts from time to time; I believe that it was really with Five that they went into a full “costume” concept. And by the way, @faegrl, I’m completely with you on Ten’s sneakers; I have a pair of blue ones that I love to wear as soon as it stops raining!

I think that the new Doctor’s “look” suggests that he is going to be more in the “authoritative” vein, which I think that we all agree will be a good thing! And @confusedpolarity, this is definitely the best statement of the day:

He’s the Doctor. That automatically makes him the coolest man in most rooms.

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@confusedpolarity  @faegrl

I completely agree about missing the Doctor’s dark side. To be honest, although I have enjoyed all the AG doctors, none of them have nailed it one hundred percent for me. But my benchmark will always be the Fourth Doctor, who I think really nailed that combination of silliness and menace, youthful exuberance and age-weary cynicism, that for me makes the Doctor who he is. Balance is important, and for me, Tom Baker got it absolutely right.

Nine had the cynicism, but not really the goofiness or enthusiasm. He tried to portray those qualities, but I didn’t often believe them; to me, he was most believable in his anger, or his cold alien side. Ten had the positive attributes in spades, and could be hard and unforgiving, but his anger was often loud rather than menacing, and he didn’t always feel alien enough. His darkness always felt too human to me. Now, Eleven had the crazy alien down perfectly, and the youthful excitement, and he did cynical reasonably well, but he didn’t really ever frighten me, although he did get angry. It’s often said that he played an old man in a young body, and I think that was sometimes true, but I thought it came across best in his melancholy moments. He got angry, but never felt menacing.  He never really scared me. And I feel that the Doctor should be scary, sometimes.

So yes, I’d love to see that balance back. The Doctor who could shift between “Oh, look, wow, a cool new alien!”, “Oh, Daleks, you want to exterminate me, of course you do, how boring.”, “You fool, if you push that button, the universe as we know it will disappear forever.”, and yes, even, “Run, Companion, RUN!” (I love writing doctor dialogue, it’s terribly fun.)

And am I showing my age too much when I suggest that maybe, maybe, the Doctor’s dialogue could be less trendy Earth teenager, and a little more thousand-year-old Time Lord?   🙄

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Okay, enough is enough. I think that we have brought it on ourselves with all of this rain music. I have just spent two hours watching my son play soccer in what felt like a hurricane (we have played in heat, fog, freezing rain, sub-zero temperatures, and even a bit of snow, but never in pouring rain and high wind until now!); and now I am reading about more storms in the UK.

So enough rain dancing, how about a sunshine song? There are tons, and I offer you two:

There, now don’t you feel warmer and dryer already?

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Okay, @whisht, I was singing around the kitchen to that one, and now you’ve got me started. “Stormy Weather” isn’t uplifting in a thematic sense, but it does fill me with well-being. I love everything about it; the winding melody and harmonic progressions are beautiful. I used to love to play this at the piano, so much fun.

There are so many classic singers doing this that it was hard to decide which version to choose. I wasn’t going to go with Ella, but then I found this gorgeous version with Joe Pass, very melodious and laid-back.

But I almost picked this wonderful bluesy version with the classic orchestra accompaniment.

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@whisht   I’m so sorry about your trip, what a disappointment. Loved your Valentine, though.  🙂

Here is my contribution to the rainy day thread, a rain song with a bit of a romantic theme, so it’s a 2-for-1, from a film to which I am infinitely attached! I give you the unforgettable Gene Kelly.

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Came on this morning to find this massive list of rainy weather songs. Very appropriate as it was pouring down here as well (although the sun has now come out and I’m seeing nice patches of blue here and there). So I have spent an enjoyable half hour working through the rain repertoire.

@purofilion    Tough to learn anything about Skubas on the internet, as all the links seem to be in Polish. That’s a lovely track, but is it the “featured artist” doing the singing? (I’ve learned a lot from my son recently, and one of those things is “DJ” vs. “featured artist”. It’s a changed world.

@fatmaninabox  Nice list. I haven’t heard 10,000 Maniacs in years, and the Weather Girls do bring a nostalgic smile. I hadn’t come across Blyth Power before. But I must agree with puro that the last one wins. BJ Thomas’s voice singing about rain but filled with sunshine, and Butch Cassidy was possibly my favourite film during my early teens!

@faegrl No men falling from the sky in Minnesota? What about snowmen?  🙂 The Real Tuesday Weld are new to me, what an interesting fusiony style they have. I love it when I hear someone performing music that is clearly the way it is because it’s what they want to do, and not what sells records or makes hits!

@scaryb Great links, and thanks for edifying me, as I actually had no idea that Annie Lennox is Scottish.   😳

 

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@faegrl   I remember seeing that video, hilarious! Big Proclaimers fan here, I’m very fond of those boys, and do they ever have pipes! I saw them last summer at an outdoor performance here, and was terribly impressed at their vocal power, even twenty-something years on. They were very businesslike, not much chit-chat, just got as many tunes out as they could fit in. And not a whole lot of body movement, all the energy emerging through their voices. (This impressed my son a lot, as he has always sung that way himself. He used to put on his Lego Rock Band game, assume the position in front of the TV, mic in hand, and perform all these great old rock songs without moving a muscle!)

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Sympathies to everyone who has suffered from unnecessary water in the home! We live on the ground floor of a duplex, and we have had water coming through the walls (from a leaking water tank upstairs), through the bathroom ceiling (leaking pipe), and through the light fixture in the middle of the kitchen ceiling (when the upstairs tenants let the laundry sink overflow)!

Cheers! It currently feels more pub-like than usual, as my teenager is home with a tweaked back and he’s got the stereo on in the living room. It’s a little early here for the beverage alcohol, but I seem to remember that the pub has coffee and tea for the before-lunchtime crowd? I raise my mug to you all.   🙂

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I must confess to having been a huge Tolkien geek as a teenager. I read The Hobbit first, aged around eleven, and went on from there. There was a time when I could have quoted tremendous swaths of dialogue from the books, especially any lines spoken by Eowyn, who was my absolute favourite.

My son enjoyed the books as well, and we have enjoyed all the films pretty much unreservedly, as I don’t mind lots of atmosphere at the expense of forward motion (which I agree does happen), and can happily accept the film versions on their own terms.

My son so loved the Hobbit that about five years ago, he decided to dress up as Thorin Oakenshield for Halloween. Long before the movie of course, and most of his friends had no idea who he was– they all thought he was Dumbledore! He told everyone who asked that he was “Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror, King under the Mountain”. He very earnestly couldn’t believe that they thought he was Dumbledore. “Didn’t they see the Arkenstone? And my sky blue hood?”  🙂

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@purofilion     I will admit that, living in the middle of a city where we get very little snow, we don’t put snow tires on in the winter. When it snows, we just don’t drive. There is good transit in our area, because we are very central, and lots of stuff is within walking distance. The Family Members put away their bikes in slippery conditions and take the subway. Ice can be difficult of course, but we only get it a couple of times a year.

I’m astonished that the Australian government doesn’t acknowledge global warming when you suffer its effects so much there. We have a very frustrating government here in that regard. As a nation, we contribute so much to the situation and yet suffer some of the lightest effects (although we have our share of flooding, tornados, and so on, it is much less widespread and frequent than many places). Because we don’t suffer, the government seems to feel that they can ignore the problem. Drought is a terrible, frightening thing. I remember some years ago in Alberta, the ranchers there were in the same position as yours are now. Dry, dry conditions, insufficient grazing, brush fires. And last summer they had flooding, and whole towns were under water. And meanwhile, our government’s main concern is figuring out how they can pump as much bitumen as possible out of the tar sands, to put more money in the pockets of oil company executives.

I guess we can only do as my husband suggested the other night when we got onto depressing subjects, “Can I pour you some more wine?”    🙂

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@bluesqueakpip   I also loved the drill operator’s remark about insurance! Good point about the paleontology / anthropology confusion. We could assume that the anthropologic knowledge was a hobby or a sideline. Lots of scientists have a certain amount of knowledge of other disciplines. The final view of the aliens, brilliant!

@whisht   Yes, we’re obviously not meant to find Breen sympathetic, and yet he’s clearly far from stupid. He comes up with a plan to carry on drilling in a way that he believes will be safe, rather than just let’s get in there and try again. He’s just pretty blinkered and single-minded. (And I won’t judge how you have summoned demons in the past, but in my coven, we use circular pentacles all the time!  😈 )

@thujone   Nice inclusion of both in-story and real-world explanations for the circular “pentacles”. And of course, I haven’t seen the rest of the episodes yet, but I’m assuming that as they are in fact alien markings, this could explain their difference from actual cabbalistic signs.

Final thought: I like that Miss Judd, she pays attention!

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@whisht    I wasn’t familiar with Mornington Crescent, but it was pretty funny nonetheless! I loved the ridiculous remarks made in the eerily-accurate tones of the sat-nav system. I then looked up the background of the game and it all made sense (sort of).

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Ah, detailed conversation about the weather. So very Canadian.  🙂   I’m fortunate to live in very temperate conditions. So we here in Vancouver all struggled through last week when the temperatures dropped to around –8 (plus windchill) and the air became very dry. Similarly, we start panting when the summer temperatures reach into the high twenties. I’m well aware that my correspondents in other parts of the world will laugh at this! Our biggest extreme usually involves lots and lots of rain between November and March (although not so much this year, I must say!). As our cold spell wound down, there were dire forecasts for a whole lot of snow over the weekend, and all kinds of safety warnings in the medium. In the end, not a flake. Just some rain and fog, and a lot of ice this morning after it dropped below zero again overnight. Where’s the fun in that?

So I wish for everyone more rain or less rain as required, cooler temperatures in the south, warmer temperatures in the north, and enough snow to have fun with, but not to cause traffic crashes and trap senior citizens in their homes for days.  🙂

 

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@faegrl, did you do that? It’s really good! I love montages when they are well assembled, and they aren’t always. I also enjoy the art of matching video clips to music. It can be okay, or it can be really wonderful. I love that song (I hadn’t heard it either) and agree with @whisht that it absolutely nails the Tenth Doctor: the gradual move from playful to egotistical to borderline megalomaniacal, and then full circle back to “Hello, I’m the Doctor, want to take a trip through time and space… just for fun?”   😀

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@purofilion, thanks for asking! We are having a long weekend here, the rather pointlessly-named “Family Day”. Really just a day introduced to get more people on the ski slopes and help us survive the long haul between Christmas and Easter. So there’s been an extra-leisurely pace to the weekend, knowing that we have this extra day tacked on at the end.

Heehee, bald men looking like Voldemort. I’m sure there must be a meme in that idea somewhere! Interesting the personality contrast between the two brothers. I imagine that there must be something native to those roles that will attract certain types: an introvert is less likely to be a conductor, and an extrovert will probably prefer that over the “behind the scenes” role of an accompanist/arranger. And yes, films like Eat, Pray, Love tend to irritate me as well. The last one I saw like that was Under the Tuscan Sun, which really bothered me because I couldn’t understand why any woman with so much going for her could be so whiny!

Agreed about the DW music, it contributes so much to the atmosphere of the shows. You make we want to go back and rewatch the entire series just to listen to the evolution of the musical themes! In fact, I might do that, fall is a long time away.  🙂

Here is some contemplative morning music for you, James MacMillan’s Strathclyde motet “Oh radiant dawn”. A wonderful piece, full of flight and lovely moments of stillness.

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Ha. We have a long weekend here, and Monday is the new Sunday for me today. Mind, how easily art thou confused!  🙂

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I’ve just been sitting with a tea and the news this Sunday morning, reading about the terrible flooding going on in southern England. My thoughts go out to all our UK friends, I hope you and yours are safe and as dry as can be expected in the circumstances!

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Bravo, @purofilion, I knew you could do it! There will be no stopping you now!  🙂  And I’m pretty sure that no DW link is too tenuous too prevent a good tune being posted here. Like @whisht, I find the precision of these lovely women performing Metallica and Radiohead and so on, just fabulous.

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@barnable @monochromedimension     I must say that, while I also hope for a change in energy from the new doctor, a little more gravitas, I can’t imagine the Doctor ever avoiding trouble or objecting to interfering in other people’s issues. Even the First and Third, the most serious of the incarnations, never hesitated to jump right into things. I think that if you change that, you change something pretty basic about the Doctor’s personality. He has always been a meddler, and always believed that he knew better than most others how things ought to be meddled with (so to speak). And he has never minded causing a disturbance or putting himself in danger.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a return to a habit some of the BG Doctors shared, that of simply materializing someplace with a purpose that they had never shared with the companion. Said companion thinks they are somewhere for a spot of sightseeing, and then suddenly they are being chased or shot at, or the Doctor is saying, “Aha! I knew this would be here.” And so on. A return to sometimes landing places they didn’t mean to go would also be great.

While I am looking forward to seeing where they take the Gallifrey thread, I actually hope that it isn’t the main event of the series. I would prefer it if, like some past series arcs, it was the connecting theme but not always front and centre.

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@purofilion  Yes, the girls look lovely. I agree completely that the less “tarted” look is nice to see. In my son’s choir, they don’t wear a uniform as such, but dark pants on the boys and a no-mini-skirt rule is the norm. I like it, it encourages some self-respect in the young people, which as a cranky old mom, I think is quite lacking in a lot of them these days. So many smart, gifted, enthusiastic young people who have no idea how to dress!

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I just had to share a couple of Who-related (in a weird sort of way) things that I ran across today. Killing some time on what is an usually cold afternoon here on Canada’s west coast (usually called the “wet coast”, but not lately!), I was playing a game on a new Scrabble app, and was advised that I could have gotten some good points by using the word “zygon”. I did a double take at that, and looked it up on the online dictionaries. All that came up was a description of the DW monster (with a nice photo in one case). I was really starting to wonder whether some game designer was having a bit of a prank, when I finally got a hit in a medical dictionary. Apparently it is a fairly obscure medical term. Oh, well!

Then, logging on to come here, my browser’s homepage showed me a promo video for a maker of acoustic guitars, here in BC, called “Riversong”. Ha! Does anyone know if the Doctor’s wife played the guitar? Or had a secret identity as a luthier?

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@faegrl   Agreed that “drooling over the Doctor” is not my priority (although I can certainly do that over an older doctor, being somewhat older myself!). I know what you mean, it’s hard not to fear flaming when you share a view that goes contrary to that of the many! I loved the Eleventh Doctor myself, but agree that no one is to everyone’s taste. In return, you won’t hate me for saying that, unlike many people on here, I am hoping that we have seen the last of River. I quite liked River, most of the time, but I felt that her goodbye in NotD was so poignant (really one of the most moving and believable moments of that relationship, I thought) that I would hate to see it weakened by making the character essentially immortal.

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@purofilion   Also nice!

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@purofilion, this seems to be the one you mean. What fun. I played it for my son, and he recognized it from the first piano chords, and talked about the possibility of his vocal ensemble doing something similar. We looked at each other when the vocal bridge came on, and had the same idea that the arranger should have had them layer the chorus over top of it to build up a kind of “symphonic” effect. Nice choir, I don’t think I’ve heard them before. Thanks!

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@scaryb, that’s exactly what I had in mind. I like the idea too, but I will be the first to admit that it isn’t airtight. I really have to watch The Girl Who Waited again!

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Welcome, @faegrl! Looking forward to hearing from you on the different forums. Do you have a favourite Doctor? Are you looking forward to Capaldi/Series 8? What are your views on parallel time streams?  🙂  Do you have a favourite bonkers theory of your own? See you around!

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There, @bluesqueakpip, you see? I knew I could rely on you.  (salutes)  And I find it interesting, now that we look at TGWW  in light of this discussion, that not only are there two time streams running parallel, but that they remain collided (or perhaps re-collide?) after the initial POD (like the acronym, @barnable!). Because we don’t normally see the Doctor entering another time stream, and yet, these ones join up again, allowing him and Rory to return (as far as I remember, I’m a bit vague on the episode). Or is this time stream only a different one for Amy? Because what actually defines a time stream? Is it particular to a single person? I think I’m going to have to ponder this one for awhile.

As to Clara, I assumed that it was because she hadn’t seen that part of the moon landing footage. But you’re right, possibly the Silence look or act differently enough that they don’t appear to be the same beings that humans were told to kill? Because as @purofilion says, these aren’t really the same Silence.

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What, no new wake up music? After too little sleep, and too frantic a start to the day (I managed to spill water, drop food, and step in cat vomit, all in the first twenty minutes of my morning), I now have to find my own wake up music? Oh, well. Here is what finally brought me to life in a positive way (I’m not counting the cat vomit, as while it certainly woke me up, it wasn’t very positive!). I challenge anyone to sit still during this track!

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@barnable   After the end zone dance, I believe that the appropriate action is for your teammate to start pounding you on the helmet. Consider this done.

I should clarify that I have never spoken to an actual physicist! The Family Members are hobbyists only, but they are constantly talking about physics, math, chemistry, and computer technology, and like the penguins in Madagascar, I just smile and wave. I have no idea what the scientific basis for multiverse theory would be, but I think it’s cool and most importantly, very relevant to Doctor Who!

This theory is definitely from bonkersland and I’m by no means married to it, but having suggested it, I’m now going to defend it with passion. We actually do know of at least one other parallel universe in Who, and that’s the E-space universe where Adric came from, and where the Fourth Doctor left Romana. (In fact, since the Eight Doctor and Big Finish are now canon, we can also include the Divergent Universe from those stories. And as you say, Ten does refer to travel between universes, so we know that they must exist.

While a timeline is clearly a different concept than a universe, and both exist, the question of whether changes in reality are the splintering off of new timelines or whole new universes would probably be impossible to determine, unless as you say, the writers actually pick one (and then stick to it, which is always the challenge for some of them!). And in a sense, as you and @bluesqueakpip say, I’m not sure what the practical difference would be between parallel time streams and parallel universes. Only we know that parallel universes are mentioned in-story, and I’m not sure that parallel time streams are. I’m not saying that they aren’t, only that I can’t remember any instances of it. Maybe someone else can? (@Bluesqueakpip, I’m seeing you again surrounded by flickering monitors, running old episodes and scrolling script data! Is that your Mind Palace? 🙂 )

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@schultze101

I agree with @fatmaninabox that the “programming” was only meant to deal with the immediate problem of the Silence on earth. In fact, we know that not every human was affected by the moon landing footage, because when Clara encountered them in TotD, she didn’t seem to be under any compulsion to try and kill them.

What the Fourth Doctor refused to do was to wipe out an entire race at their inception, when they were threatening no one and had yet to commit any crimes. He was also considering the good that would sometimes arise from their future evil. I think in the case of the Silence, it was a different kind of decision.

As @purofilion says, the Doctor has frequently been ready to take drastic action. Some incarnations have certainly been more pacifist than others, but the Sixth Doctor, for example, was not afraid to be violent, and the Seventh Doctor blew up Skaro! I believe that even the gentler-natured Fifth Doctor, when he encountered them, had come to view his earlier decision as a mistake he would not repeat. So we can agree with Eleven’s actions or not, but I don’t think that this kind of behaviour is anything new for the Doctor!

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@barnable   @bluesqueakpip

I have read a bit about multiverse theory, because my Family Members are both interested in physics and talk about it all the time at the dinner table. I usually just smile and nod, and look things up later. 🙂 But my understanding of multiverse theory, which is apparently the latest and greatest thing that for some physicists has replaced string theory, is that tiny changes could result in the creation of parallel universes, which are in some cases totally different (i.e. non life-supporting) and in others almost identical. (This is me both summing up and hoping I’m getting it right, because I’m not well-versed in physics.)

However, where this takes me is that what we really could be talking about is not just alternate time streams, but alternate universes (like Pete’s World). So every time the Doctor changes history in some way, it creates a whole new universe. This could also apply to times when he’s not changing what we know to be history, but influencing the course of events in some major way. Thus there might be universes in which the Daleks rule Earth, for instance, or in which the space Titanic crashed into London. Or just where one person’s life went by a little differently because they didn’t encounter the Doctor at just the right time.

And these different realities could all still exist in parallel universes, and it’s the show itself, and we the viewers, that are following a twisty line between them, our viewpoint jumping from one universe to another. @scaryb, perhaps the scar tissue represents the creation of all these many, many universes, each knot a point of divergence.

I’m not sure how to explain the paradox monsters in Father’s Day. But here’s a bonkers idea. Maybe when Rose saved her father’s life, she inadvertently changed something that had led to the creation of Pete’s World? So the paradox monsters came in because there was some kind of damage, not just to one time stream, but to the multiverse itself? (This could lead to great dramatic dialogue: “We must stop them! The future of the multiverse is at stake!!”

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