What great fun! Actually, I do not remember this from the day, but what I like about it is that it seems so obviously based on allusion to either Oxford or Cambridge cultures or/and the Church of England. And because I do not remember it from its original screening,could the story be alluding to “The Manchurian Candidate”?

No idea, but looking…[Read more]

@thane16

My memories of Brisbane are sort of vague (like most of my memories these days, but we won’t go there…) but I vaguely recall a place called 3 (or 4?) Frogs, and also the Moo Restaurant (?).

These days we go to a new cafe around the corner that caters to the locals (which means 70 year-olds who sit around with an espresso and work on…[Read more]

@janetteB

“of its time”

I so totally agree. My memory of cuisine in Australia in the 50s and 60s (ie, when I was living at home) was of the dreaded “chops, peas and potatoes” where the chops were over-done, the peas were from a tin and the potatoes were…well, I try to block it out. And then there was “dessert”. Which, in the young Blenkinsop…[Read more]

As it is April 1st, I thought it would the appropriate time to share what is widely, and justly, regarded as the best April Fool’s Day sketch ever done (by the BBC in 1957):

What an absolutely wonderful story! And I totally agree, @craig, it is such a pity that the show’s current format does not allow for stories told over multiple episodes any more. Although who knows what Chibnall has in store for us.

And it was also brilliant to be 13 again, for those 4 episodes!

It also had a lot in common with one of my…[Read more]

@pedant

Brilliant!

@ddoherty95

Three answers:

1. Peter Cushing (the satirical response)

2. Everything that @janetteb and @winston said. Because they are right.

3. For me…it will always be William Hartnell, because I was 12 years old when I saw him in the very first episode, “An Unearthly Child”, in 1964 (it was Australia, so we ran a bit behind the BBC) and…[Read more]

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

Well, this just keeps getting better and better! One of the great things about these early historical stories, including my distant and rather fragmentary memory of “Marco Polo” was that, when separated from the Tardis, and set in the past, there had to be greater attention to the story (as opposed to the wonder of the sci-fi elements). And as a…[Read more]

Wow! Just…wow! It was like being 13 again! Why do I think this is such a great Who story? The main thing to keep in mind when answering that question is to appreciate it in context. It was not made for 13 year-olds (or 63 year-olds) in 2018. It was made for 13 year-olds in 1964.  To be a 13 year-old in 1964 was to have been someone who watched…[Read more]

@thewatcher Actually, I had not thought of that, but I understand your point, given “The Five Doctors” in particular.

On the other hand, it did not explicitly rule out the possibility that he had met his future incarnations (I think) just that he had not met the 12th.

But, nonetheless, I take your point. It may be an an example of what Mrs…[Read more]

Ahh, “The Aztecs”. This was why I fell in love with show at the age of 13. The whole idea of engaging with different cultural assumptions in a historical context was a revelation to me at that age. I am certain it was one of the reasons I would end up pursuing academic life.

Watching it again, I am still impressed by how it made thoughtful points…[Read more]

Just came across this. A sequence of all the regenerations. So, a

SPOILER ALERT

for anyone who is unfamiliar with BG Who.

BTW, is it just me, or are others being denied access to this site because of…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Alas, no love for Peter Wyngarde…

I like the idea of a retrospective of female Time Lords, though. Perhaps, instead of “The Aztecs” (yes, one of the greats…but my favourite Hartnell?…that honour might actually go to “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”). Anyway, as “The Aztecs” isn’t actually really about Susan as Timelord, why not…[Read more]

A rare emergence from the Blenkinsop cellar to note the passing of a Who alum (and so much more) Peter Wyngarde, who was, of course, the priest Timanov in the 1984 “Planet of Fire” story.

But there was so much more: the brooding Quint in the utterly terrifying Deborah Kerr version of “The Innocents”, the conflicted college professor in equally…[Read more]

@thane16

hi Thane and Puro,

Well as an alternative (antidote?) to The Bill, I highly recommend the episode of The Comic Strip presents  “Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown”. It is a stunningly brilliant  satire of the police shows of the 70s, compared to the police shows of the 80s and 90s, like, well…The Bill, where the episode e…[Read more]

@thane16

Hi Thane and Puro,

since you are both watch The Bill I will head on over to The Malvodarium to offer an alternative perspective…

Just rewatched with Mrs Blenkinsop and again, not a dry eye in the house. But this time realized the connection with the truly brilliant 1945 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger “A Matter of Life and Death”, about an airman, who should have died, but strangely lives and “heaven” has to decide whether to correct the mistake by returning…[Read more]

@scaryb

A few years back Mrs Blenkinsop and I were in Perth, Australia, for a conference, and decided (in a fit of lunacy, as it transpired) to get a ferry out to an old convict settlement on Rottnest Island which is a few miles off the coast of Western Australia in the open sea. We were travelling with a good friend from Canada. The trip started…[Read more]