BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

Hurrah!

And thanks to @wolfweed, I won’t even have to watch the World Cup!

SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER...

Hi @janetteB. While I agree with Ellison on Doctor Who (what civilized person wouldn’t?) I do think he is a little harsh on the original Star Trek. Ellison’s work was brilliant, but he was not what you would call optimistic. And that was the core, and the strength in my opinion, of the original Star Trek. It imagined a world that was better than…[Read more]

Damn. That quote above should have read: “the greatest science fiction series of all time”

[I blame it on the head cold…]

And actually, there is a great story behind the transition of that Star Trek episode from page to TV screen. It is quite easy to find Ellison’s original script and Gene Roddenberry’s revised shooting script with a quick…[Read more]

The writer Harlan Ellison died a couple of days ago. An amazingly prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy. And a man of strong opinions who didn’t suffer fools gladly. But I thought I would share this quote of his (made to a convention audience, I believe):

Star Wars is adolescent nonesense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel; Star Tre…

[Read more]

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]