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@winston

I hope your local library has it. Or, who knows, it might be on youtube. It is very funny.

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For those who have never seen it, here is the trailer to “Idiocracy”

 

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@nerys

The best all-American movie I have seen recently is the wonderfully funny (and strangely prophetic) “Idiocracy” (2006).

Highly reccomended.

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Second (glass) reflections:

Did I enjoy it? Not really. It highlighted the ugly side of the world we inhabit in 2025. And frankly, I get more than I need of that from the news each day.

Doctor Who was magical when it took you to societies on distant planets, or to Earth’s past, where it then told stories of good and evil. You were exposed to important moral questions, but refracted through the exciting settings of foreign planets or Earth’s past. As we we were discussing it just now, Mrs Blenkinsop used the example of “The Star Beast”, which revealed the ugliness of the remnants of future Earth society’s treatment of the poor creature that provided that society with life and protection. Moffat was brilliant at making moral points, but also at entrancing you with the wonder of a foreign world. But RTD2 wants you, on the hand, to watch DoctorWho, but on the other hand to simply set it in, and tell you about, the world we live in every day.

 

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OK. just watched it. first thought: there has been a lot of word play in these shows. Such as:

Susan Triad – Sueteck

AI – Al

If we read Conrad backwards, it spell Darnoc. A quick search revealed that Darnoc is a malevolent spirit in online gaming.

Is it important? Dunno. Maybe…

Will think more, and maybe come back after the second glass of wine.

 

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Australia votes!

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/may/03/australian-federal-election-2025-live-news-today-anthony-albanese-labor-peter-dutton-liberal-coalition-greens-polls-vote-odds-results-politics-latest-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-68155a998f08c2e1abc79e8a#block-68155a998f08c2e1abc79e8a

 

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@mudlark

I only just read your message above. So sorry to hear about your Christmas experience, and that of your elderly neighbour downstairs. Good to know that she is on the mend. I am impressed by your marathon Tom Baker viewing! I enjoyed watching them back in the day, but watch less now (partly because I tend to agree with Mrs Blenkinsop’s assessment of his Doctor as being reminiscent of the type of university professor who slept with his students…)

 

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I was just watching some old X Files and it made me think of Who.  In the early years it was a a great show, and then something happened. What happened? They started to kill off characters for no obvious reason. Do you remember Agent Pendrell? You should. He was a wonderful minor character. And they killed off X- a major character. who was also wonderful. Why? Because they felt  it was a way to somehow give complexity to the show and send it off in a different direction.

It failed. The show started to go downhill.

Well, I suspect something similar is happening to Who.

They keep trying to reinvent it (the destruction of Gallifrey, The Flux, Tecteun, etc,)and I fear it will go the way of  The X Files.

 

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Gallifrey.

I am sure there is a perfectly simple answer to the question I am about to raise–there usually is. But here goes anyway.

Gallifrey was destroyed. But Gallifrey existed before it was destroyed. The Doctor has a time machine. Does this not beg a rather obvious question…?

 

 

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@janetteb

Yes! Bring back Gallifrey!

I am with you!

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@juniperfish

A couple of thoughts from Mrs Blenkinsop:

1. Would RTD2 really want anybody to think of the first Black Doctor, as the “Beast”?

2. The Doctor’s tears: When this Doctor bi-generated, he was full of positivity, whereas the Tennant  Doctor was completely devastated. Indeed, the new Doctor had to hold and comfort the Tennant Doctor. But as the new Doctor has gone from one adventure to another his positivity  has given way to the burden of being the last of his kind and the loss of of Gallifrey. All of which he inherited when he bi-generated. And perhaps the tears are a manifestation of that.

 

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Very well done. And very creepy. Given that no one on the ship has heard of Earth or the human race it taps into the question wether we are watching fiction or reality.

As for the appearance of Grand Moff Triad at the end, I reserve my judgement.

 

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In the context of this discussion, it might be interesting to note that the titles of the final two episodes at the end of May are listed as:

Episode 7: “Wish World”

Episode 8: “The Reality War”

 

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I am sure this must have been suggested before, but given all the meta references in this story, what if every episode we have seen with 15 is not reality? Perhaps even from when Jodi Whittaker became Tennant. The salt, mavity, and so on. Hmmm.

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@whohar Well, my Nanny theory was a second glass of wine theory. Even I recognize that  inebriation is not always the equivalent of illumination…

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There is a scene in the cinema, where they are screening an old black and white Western. It immediately reminded me of one of the most wonderful 1950s British comedies ever made,  “The Smallest Show on Earth,” about a young couple who inherit a run-down cinema, and try to make it work, by showing cheap movies, including an old Western. As I watched the show tonight I really wondered if RTD2 was using the same cinema footage of the old Western  from “The Smallest Show on Earth”.

If If you have never seen the movie, with Margaret Rutherford, Peter Sellers, and many more, I encourage you to seek it out. It is one of the most wonderful British comedies of the 1950s.

 

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First impression–I thought it was pretty good. And it was the one episode of the RTD2 years so far that made excellent use of all that Disney+ money.

I really liked the meta allusions  with the trio of fans and their constant answer to the question of which was the best episode–“Blink”,”Blink”,”Blink”. In fact, the trio of fans reminded me the group Anderson had got together in Sherlock”, coming up with theories about how Sherlock survived the fall.

@whohar Yes! Mrs Flood must be able to time travel.

I am sticking to my idea of the Time Lord Nanny…

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We were watching “The Daemons” recently (after long gap) and we both noticed what many other viewers  in recent years must have noticed and commented on, but which (I confess) passed us by. And that is that one of the members of UNIT (and regarded by his superiors as too slow in getting this done) was…Sgt Osgoode! It all makes sense now–if one Leftbridge-Stewart could beget another Leftbridge-Stewart, then one Osgoode could beget another Osgoode.

Is UNIT one big family?

 

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@ps1l0v3y0u  He was indeed, and he has my sympathies–60 years too late.

But the way he was replaced could only have happened in the context of the story in “The Mind Robber”, which I think of as really enjoyable romp between reality and fiction and back again.

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@bobbyfatv2 @ps1l0v3yOu

“The Mind Robber” is one of the great original Who stories (with a real “Alice Through the Looking Glass” feel to it) and could well be related to the way RTD2 wants to play in the land of fiction.

As for Mrs Flood, while Mrs Blenkinsop and I were sitting out in the garden room this evening, I pronounced to her (after the second glass of wine) that Mrs Flood was obviously the Doctor’s original Nanny from Gallifrey watching over him. And as we know anything said after the second glass of wine must be true…

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@whohar

You were asking about the Jean Marsh story we were going to watch. it turned out that the Blenkinsop basement failed to reveal a Who story with Jean Marsh, so we watched an episode from The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes where she played a small but key role in an excellent episode called “The Looting of the Specie Room”.

Highly recommended.

 

 

 

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@juniperfish Excellent critique, with spot on examples. I totally agree with you about the death of the long-form TV story telling. It provided a way of immersing yourself, getting to know characters, and reflecting on their actions. Slowly, and over time. Indeed, it was a little bit like reading a novel. But what is now on offer is more like the instant gratification  of a video game. In a long-form TV story you come to understand why a character experiences loss. Here, the Doctor simply sheds a tear. That’s it. Was any viewer thinking about Sasha 55 when the final credits rolled?

Thanks for your perceptive analysis, and great to see you back on the board.

 

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@whohar

All good points. And if they really are dismantling the studio that does, indeed, sound ominous.

But for tonight, watching Jean Marsh in a Who story is where this evening is heading.

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Sad news has just come in that the wonderful actress Jean Marsh (who was in a number of Doctor Who stories and was previously married to Jon Pertwee) has died.

Most people will remember her for Upstairs, Downstairs, but she was so much more; including Doctor Who Stories from the 1960s to the 1980s, and movies like The Eagle has Landed.

I thought she was brilliant in everything I saw here in.

RIP.

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More thoughts:

Tonally, I felt it was all over the place, The robots were killing machines, but looked like large, cuddly toys. The same goes for the spaceship that kidnaps Belinda from Earth.

The Doctor inadvertently causes a power outage in a major London hospital,  and it is played for humour (aka the cat).

Why did RTD2 feel the necessity to come up with a phenomenally complicated story to explain that Belinda was related to the soldier in the 51st century? Different characters are often played by the same actor in TV shows.

When RTD brought back Who after the show was cancelled, in large part because of the excesses of John Nathan-Turner in the late ’80s, RTD’s revival of Who really felt like Doctor Who, but this feels like the cartoon excesses of JNT on speed.

As RTD said in “The Five(ish) Doctors”: quel dommage.

 

 

 

 

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Some immediate random thoughts.

* I think it would have worked better if they had been brazen enough to have  called the episode “Planet of the Incels.”

* Never kill a cat and expect a laudatory review from me.

* I assume RTD2 is pitching his stories to the generation that constantly plays video games. Alas, I am not part of that cohort.

*  I confess that I am finding the brief appearance of Mrs Flood in every episode more tiresome than intriguing.

* But I really liked the bit about “every 9th word”. For me, that worked really well.

* In both this opener and the opener to the previous season, the Doctor is consciously searching out the person who will become his companion. I will be interested to see what RTD2 does with that, and why he is doing it.

 

 

 

 

 

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@craig

Opening it up for comments when it screens on TV works for me. And, as always, many, many thanks for keeping the site going for all these years.

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@scaryb

Great to see you back! Am responding on this forum as it is just general “hi!”

As we are of a similar vintage (and like good wine, improve with age) I could relate to your memories of watching TV back in the’70s. My university days really began in ’75 (after a bit of disorder back in ’71 but all sins were forgiven). The mid ’70s years were, for me, the share house years with other students which were, for the most part, really good years. Of course, the TVs were uniformly crap, but looking back, my memory was that it didn’t matter, and I can still remember so much TV from those years.

Anyway, great to see you back, and as you mentioned her, I am hoping @mudlark will be back soon with her archeological expertise.

 

 

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Mrs Blenkinsop and I spent the last few evenings watching “The Mind Robber” with the Troughton Doctor. We both loved it. The best way I can describe it is that it has a Lewis Carroll feel to it, particularly in the way it mixes reality and fantasy. For example, there is a plot twist that results in Jamie, played by Frazer Hines, being played by a completely different actor over two episodes! I can’t say more without giving it away. But if you can find “The Mind Robber” I think you will enjoy it.

 

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@winston So very sorry to hear about the ice storm.The loss of the garden is particularly unfair, as a garden is something one puts one’s personality into. There are no instant solutions, but at least Spring is on the way.

Stay strong.

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@whohar Yes, Delgado’s early death was very sad. Another (small) role by him that I will always treasure was in the wonderful 1953 comedy “The Captain’s Paradise” with Alec Guinness and Celia Johnson that features a wonderful comic sequence with Delgado as a policeman.

I did not realise that there were plans to reveal his Master as the Doctor’s brother.  A missed opportunity, as Pertwee and Delgado worked so well together.

 

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@whohar Totally agree on The Daemons. One of the best. And I have always loved the Delgardo Master. Not every story featuring him was brilliant, but Delgardo always was.

 

 

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Mrs Blenkinsop and I were just rewatching “The Space Museum” with Hartnell. was it good? Well… But it was classic “Who” and it had characters like Ian and Barbara and Vicki.

And it brought back my teenage years .

We used to discuss those early years quite a lt. If there is anyone out there who who would  like to continue to talk about those early years of “Who” it would be great to hear from you.

 

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New trailer

 

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Intriguing announcement of forthcoming episode titles

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@thane16

So glad to hear that you and family are coping with everything the elements could through at you. And yet still have a sense of humour!

I remember back to 2010 (?) when there were catastrophic floods in Brisbane. Mrs Blenkinsop and I had just purchased high above the river in Brisbane (near the university) and the flood waters rose up to within a few feet of our house. There were houses around us which only displayed the peak of their roofs until the flood waters receded. It was a bad time and a substantial number of lives were lost. Nature really shows no mercy. These days we live on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada, and I have developed more of an appreciation for how nature shapes us. I would recommend The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet, which is a marvellous account of a mother and her five children who (with no crew) explored the coast of Vancouver Island  during the late 1920s and early 1930s in a 25 foot motor launch. I would also recommend Heart of the Coast by Alexandra Morton and Billy Proctor about the life of Billy Proctor, who spent his life as a commercial fisherman and developed an appreciation for the ways that human intervention were upsetting the balance between nature and the the fish.

Of course, writing from Canada today, the biggest threat is not nature, but lies to our south.

@winston As you say: stay strong

 

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Season Trailer

 

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Just popping back in from an extended bout of real life to say that Mrs Blenkinsop and I just re-watched (over two nights) “Wild Blue Yonder” and “The Giggle”. Of the two, we both thought “The Giggle” was the better of the two. (I realize not everyone would agree.)

I especially loved the way RTD alluded to television, and the giggle that attended its birth, as the instrument of mankind’s current insanity.

It was also obvious that the Tennant Doctor and Donna Noble are the two characters that RTD excels in writing about. Try as he might, he simply has not found a way to do justice the Gatwa Doctor.

 

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@thane16

How wonderful to see you online again, Puro! It has been a while.

I’m with you. I found myself getting very emotional by the end. And why not?

All the best.

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@ps1l0v3y0u

Re:Moffat “supposedly his  last outing…”

Really? I know IMDB can be unreliable, but Moffat is listed as the writer of the first episode of the 2025 season. And, as we know, Moffat is a master of playing the long game with his stories.

 

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@craig

A Christmas wish:

Would it be possible for you to create a forum page for “The War Games”? Given the interest that the new colourised version has sparked on the site, I think there might be a lot of interest in a discussion of both versions. Indeed, there already is but it is, somewhat confusingly, over here on the “Doctor Who News” page.

 

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Finished re-watching the original black and white version of “The War Games” in glorious black and white. It was fabulous. I know that the colour version (with 2/3rds of the content jettisoned) is out there, but if you have never seen the original black and white version, you must watch it. One of the best Doctor Who stories ever.

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@craig,

I revere you as our wise Emperor but, a lowly vassal, I confess that I rather enjoyed it. I take on board all your points, but I responded to it from the perspective of someone who has just experienced loss. I certainly felt that it went on for too long, but one of the things that captured me was that I saw it as a sweet and moving statement on the afterlife from a totally secular perspective.

But as I said, I watched it from the perspective of someone who has recently experience loss.

 

 

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@translatorcircuit

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. As you say, the original is epic.

Like you, I will be keen to see the colourised version, but the original really should be appreciated in its entirety. In fact, Mrs Blenkinsop and I started rewatching it last night, and shall be doing so until its conclusion.

With Christmas treats and mulled wine, of course!

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@ps1l0v3y0u, @dentarthurdent, @winston

and, of course, other forum members,

On the question of fantasy, a lot of excellent points have been made above. Given that the conversation began with reference to the visual representation of fantasy in Who I would offer two examples of how fantasy can really work on the screen;

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

For me, these are the two most perfect fantasy films I have ever seen.

And, interestingly, one of the things they have in common was that they were both co-directed by Michael Powell.

 

 

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Have not been around for a while (real life can be a bugger sometimes)

@dentarthurdent

@ps1l0v3y0u

Agree with you both. I would argue that when RTD2 introduced fantasy front and centre to the Who universe he created an intractable problem, that shows up clearly in the “death of death restores life” rubbish at the end of his season. Who began life in the sci-fi tradition, and while you can (very occasionally) inject a bit of fantasy, I simply don’t believe you can go full bore fantasy, and let Moffat do the (very occasional ) sci-fi episode.

So, in-spite of all the Disney money providing candy bar visuals, I tend  to think the show under RTD2 has, overall, been a bit of a mess.

 

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2024 Christmas Special – Full Trailer

 

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@winston,

Sorry to hear about your daughter’s house losing power. Glad to hear she has got the power back. The west coast of the island, while beautiful, does tend to bear the brunt of weather events like this, unfortunately.

 

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@winston, Thanks for asking about the storms. Winter is definitely coming to the island, as the link below indicates. But so far, we have escaped the worst.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-fall-storm-nov22-1.7390478

 

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Wallace and Gromit: “Vengeance Most Fowl”

New trailer

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