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16 January 2022 at 05:40 #72819
@winston So sorry to hear about the family. Out here, there are only myself and Mrs Blenkinsop. Back in Ontario there is a large extended family coping with every thing from the medical issues that come with age (at our age cohort) to the economic issues that come with Covid for the next age cohort (and their children). Of course, everybody copes but, let’s face it, we (especially our age cohort) have seen better times.
8 January 2022 at 21:14 #72796Last night, we watched something from the Blenkinsop DVD collection that had been sitting on the shelf for years: “The Flipside of Dominick Hide.” For anyone who knows it, you will remember it fondly. For anyone who doesn’t know about it the show was on the BBC programme “Play of the Day” in 1980. It was a time travel story (hence the attraction to Whovians) that was incredibly sweet and clever and funny. It starred Peter Firth (who is almost my age) and watching it last night, I realised how it captured, in an uncanny way, what life was like for me in 1980 (the casual lifestyle, the camaraderie among friends, the casualness of relationships). But not, of course, the time travel.
I have no idea if it is available on any streaming service, but it comes with a four-star recommendation from the Blenkinsop household.
7 January 2022 at 02:37 #72789@mellouie, Welcome!
@miapatrick, You are, of course, quite right about Moffat appealing to a particular cohort. I readily admit to being part of that cohort. I confess, I was never really excited by RTD’s take on the Doctor and all the episodes I liked tended to be written by others (and not just Moffat). When it came to Chibnall, I tried really hard, partly because I am so in love with the history of the show. But…
Anyway, I too, am looking forward to the return of RTD. But I suspect that RTD mark II won’t necessarily be the same as RTD mark I. He has developed as a writer and producer and I suspect he won’t be interested in simply reproducing RTD mark I when he takes back the reigns of the show.
@janetteb, I would simply love to be able to visit that museum! Where is a Tardis when you need one?
6 January 2022 at 04:37 #72782OK, just finished watching The Big Bang. Was it fabulous? Yes. Obviously. Was it about about the end of the universe? Yes. Was it better than The Vanquishers in the way it handled the potential destruction of the universe?
What, is that a trick question?
6 January 2022 at 03:11 #72781We just finished watch The Pandorica Opens. What a fabulous episode. The Big Bang follows after dinner. If there was an explanation of why Moffat was brilliant and why Chibnall isn’t, then honestly this is it.
5 January 2022 at 03:09 #72776Where I am it is 7pm. Mrs Blenkinsop and I just got back from getting our booster shots. Hurrah! On the way home, we stopped off at the local shops–I got a bottle of shiraz while Mrs Blenkinsop decided that we deserved a pizza (which we haven’t had in the house for ages). We also realized that this was the first time we had been out driving at night for about 18 months! Anyway, after we got back, it suddenly occurred to me that the conditions were perfect to say:
“Tonight…pizza, booze, telly?”
And, of course, she replied: “Yeah, pizza, booze, telly.”
I think I have a good idea of which episode we are going to watch.
3 January 2022 at 05:46 #72750Just supporting what @devilishrobby said.
2 January 2022 at 03:56 #72744@winston Sorry to hear about your grand daughter. From what I understand it has milder effects, and the youngsters are more resilient than we are, but it is still something we would all rather was not there.
take care and be safe.
2 January 2022 at 02:45 #72741Well, yes, that was actually a fun episode. I agree with all the wise comments above (but only the wise comments).
Have just finished it, so perhaps more thoughts later. Except for this:
As I watched it I could not help but be struck by the weird connection with a fabulous Japanese film I watched last night called “Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes” about a group of people who discover that the computer on the second floor is streaming a message from the restaurant on the ground floor that is two minutes in the future, and the computer in the restaurant is streaming a message from two minutes in the past. it is a wonderfully wacky movie, and I totally recommend it.
It is very different to tonight’s episode, but it shows that in the zeitgeist there are some great ideas about time floating around.
In case anyone wants to check it out:
p.s. Yes! The other connection, as @cathannabel points out, is the NG episode. Also a gem of an episode.
Isn’t time wonderful?
1 January 2022 at 19:20 #727321 January 2022 at 00:33 #72723@janetteb, @jimthefish, Thanks for that, but I tend to wonder if Chibnall even thinks on that level. He seems to have a very wonky knowledge of the history of Who (case in point: the reference to the Brigadier as “our new corporal”. I honestly believe he is not interested in learning enough about the history of Who to be faithful to it.) Anyway, tomorrow, and following the destruction of almost the entire Dalek race (and most of the universe) in “Flux”, a jolly comedy with…Daleks.
31 December 2021 at 01:56 #72718It is probably the effect of all the Christmas mulled wine, but you have to explain to me: a) a regeneration crossover (?) and b) Missy’s canonical status as the last Master.
29 December 2021 at 19:09 #72715Was just reading (IMDB) that the cast list for the final JW show (where she presumably regenerates) will include both Sacha Dhawan and John Sim as the Master. I am sure I am supposed to be more excited by this news than I am.
25 December 2021 at 00:03 #72705@janetteb I loved that story about taking out the bin! (Particularly the photo of it in the phone booth: “It was just talking trash.”) I was showing it to Mrs Blenkinsop the morning, and at the same time an email from an Australian friend who has recently retired to New Zealand came in with the header “We should be proud to be Australian” containing the same link.
And yes, a very happy festive season to everyone!
22 December 2021 at 03:47 #72698Yes, HECS was a bummer (I only managed to go to university because of Gough). But at least Bob came from a union background, and represented a world that is long since gone.
Have a great Christmas. (And that goes for everyone at the pub.)
22 December 2021 at 00:59 #72695Something to rekindle memories of Australia in the 1980s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT120JBL4yo
Ah, the days of yore, back when the left-wing Prime Minister was a champion beer drinker. These days, the Prime Minister is a right-wing evangelical.
So much for progress.
9 December 2021 at 05:54 #72654I have been contemplating “The Flux” as a whole story told over six episodes. I am still contemplating, and I have already (as others have) expressed thoughts on the whole story. But…I think it requires a dedicated blog. I am contemplating it, but would also be keen if others wanted to jump in before me.
A quick preview: looked fabulous, was lots of fun from week to week, but was ludicrously frustrating in terms of plot, and character development, and motivation, and coherence, and…
8 December 2021 at 00:51 #72651@devilishrobby Yes, the lack of a big bad (unless Chibnall brings in Time at the end to say that time itself is the big bad–and that sounds ridiculous even as I write it) has been a problem. Absolutely agree with what you say about the less-than big bads that are jammed together–Swarm, Azure, Tecteun, the Grand Serpent. The only one that had any back story was Teucteun, and she was jettisoned unceremoniously.
I have found the experience of watching each episode enjoyable–they have been done with a sense of verve, with good actors, stunning make up(!) and great visuals. In that sense, I have enjoyed watching them. But the further away from each episode I get the more questions and criticisms I have with the story telling.
7 December 2021 at 06:01 #72644Umm…where is everybody?
6 December 2021 at 02:52 #72637By and large, I really enjoyed it. Read somewhere else that it had been planned as 8 or 9 episodes and Covid meant they had to make rapid changes. If true, I understand why some things felt rushed or unresolved. A lot to process, so will return after sleeping on it, but a couple of thoughts:
Of all the characters, the one who seemed to exhibit extraordinary powers/abilities was Diane. Will she return as Diane, or…? Was hoping for more with Bel and Vinder. Kate Stewart seemed a bit underused. I hope she and UNIT return. Professor Jericho died a hero’s death, and my wish-fulfilment desire is that he will become the 14th Doctor (Yes, I know it won’t happen, but still…)
5 December 2021 at 22:30 #72636@cosmo Welcome! I find that the Radio Times is a good source for what’s happening in the world of Doctor Who.
5 December 2021 at 05:59 #72622@janetteb Yes, it was a lovely interview. It was something about the humility that I responded to.
5 December 2021 at 04:18 #72620So, some questions that I really hope are resolved tomorrow.
1. Who, if anybody, is the Grand Serpent connected to? He can travel in time, so…a Time Lord? But he does not seem to be connected to either Swarm/Azure or to Tecteun. In fact, who is the Grand Serpent and why is he doing what he is doing?
2. If the universe is being destroyed in a way that is converging on Earth as the last point of destruction, why are the Sontarans hell bent on attacking it, particularly if Sontar is, presumably, already a pile of ash, and also presumably, Earth (and the Sontaran fleet) is about to become a pile of ash?
3. Tecteun told us (?) that she unleashed the Flux. Swarm and Azure seem to be all in favour of the Flux, so what, exactly, is/was the conflict between Tecteun (when she was alive) and Swarm/Azure?
3 December 2021 at 15:04 #72615Not sure if this has been pointed out here, but just rewatched it again last night, and this is only a minor point (I think) but during the scene set in UNIT in 1967, as Farquah and Prentice are walking down the stairs we hear the sound of Lethbridge-Stewart coming from behind a door. Farquah says: “That’s our new corporal. A bit of a shouter…” Corporal? 1967? That makes no sense. And would Lethbridge-Stewart have ever been a corporal? It seems to me that Lethbridge-Stewart had Sandhurst written all over him. I could never imagine him in the ranks.
So, was it a mistake? That seems far fetched to me, as they have taken so much effort to get all the other references to the show’s past right. Is there something going on that we haven’t thought about?
1 December 2021 at 20:53 #726041 December 2021 at 17:19 #72602I keep going back to a question @bluesqueakpip asked ages ago. If Chibnall presented the Doctor as the timeless child, why was that story called The Timeless Children? Do they refer to the many children that were studied/sacrificed? by Tecteun? Or…?
@bluesqueakpip What are your current thoughts?
1 December 2021 at 02:06 #72590An interesting, if vague, read.
You’re right. I must make my posts more focussed…
You make a good point about the extent of creative control, but I wonder just how much creative control the BBC actually exercised. They certainly allowed RTD, Moffat and Chibnall to do things in their own radically different ways. If anything, I might a bit more nervous about Sony in that regard, if only in the sense that under the BBC the show has retained an identifiably British stamp to it. Will Sony respect that? I hope so.
30 November 2021 at 22:52 #72588Was just reading (from a source quoting The Times) that when RTD takes over the reigns in 2023 and control of Who shifts from the BBC to Bad Wolf it could have significant financial implications. Apparently in the vicinity of up to £40M in commercial revenue lost over the course of ten episodes.
This series in particular looks utterly fabulous. Not sure what the implications for the RTD-led future are. Does it mean we will see a return to lots of running around old rock quarries in dodgy costumes?
Here is a link to the article:
29 November 2021 at 18:58 #72579@juniperfish, That is an awesome interpretation. It makes total sense, and, along with the serpent motifs, it also feels like a mobius strip, where the universe, the Doctor, and Doctor Who the show meet themselves in a never ending way.
@miapatrick, Also love the idea that Chibnall might also be attempting to fold the 8th Doctor into this interpretation of who the Doctor is.
If these interpretations are, indeed, what Chibnall is attempting, and can actually pull it off next week, I will be incredibly impressed.
Still a little nervous about the allusion to what appears to be Lungbarrow in the teaser for next week, though.
29 November 2021 at 03:46 #72572No, another final thought…
In the previous episode with the Weeping Angels little Peggy witnesses the death of her awful Great Uncle (“he was never nice to me”). It struck me in this episode how it was replicated by Awsok’s attitude to the Doctor.
29 November 2021 at 03:40 #72571Oh…final thought: what about the little girl Peggy? What happened to her? She was an incredibly interesting character in the previous episode, and her story deserves (at least) an episode of its own (if not more).
29 November 2021 at 03:33 #72570Really liked it.
Yaz, Dan, the professor–Indiana Jones. What’s not to like?
UNIT’s history compromised by the serpent. Yes, it makes sense.
Awsok–everything about that was perfect. Barbara Flynn, the dynamic between her and the Doctor. It was brilliant. But perhaps less impressed by her death, which seemed…too easy.
Anyway, just liked the mix that the episode provided.
But will have to watch again.
28 November 2021 at 16:51 #72564@scaryb, @mudlark Yes, you are, of course, right about the Brendon story. I confess I have shuffled that one to the back of my mind, but, in light of what you say, I should revisit it.
Unless maybe, the Tardis, being unconstrained by any concept of linear time, was remembering forwards.
Oooh, I like that!
28 November 2021 at 05:19 #72547Oh, and the sonic.
Doctor Ruth clearly does not know about the sonic, and is contemptuous of it. And as we know, the sonic is not introduced until Troughton.
That’s it…bedtime.
28 November 2021 at 02:57 #72546@scaryb You’re back! How fantastic! Just tonight Mrs Blenkinsop and I rewatched this and over a post-viewing glass of wine with Mrs Blenkinsop, the following bonkers theory came to me.
This whole series is about Division. What is it and why doesn’t the Doctor know about it? Well, if we go back to the Judoon episode, where Doctor Ruth is introduced, the Whittaker Doctor discovers a buried TARDIS. It seems very similar to the Hartnell TARDIS. We subsequently discover Doctor Ruth has been hiding from Division but the Whittaker Doctor has no memory of Division.
Here is the bonkers theory: what if Doctor Ruth was the immediate predecessor to Hartnell, and, as part of escaping from Division, somehow managed to regenerate (into Hartnell) while simultaneously escaping, but in a way that denied Hartnell the knowledge of Division.
This would explain why every Doctor since Hartnell has no knowledge of Division.
Of course, since talking about the episode with Mrs Blenkinsop more than that one glass of wine has been partaken…
27 November 2021 at 03:03 #72540We just re-watched this fabulous episode. It was really great on a second (or third?) viewing. I have had a constant complaint about the Whittaker Doctor lacking authority, but in this episode I realise that she really has the authority that the Doctor should possess. And then I wondered: was it the writer, Maxime Alderton, who also co-wrote the most recent “Village of the Angels”, who was responsible for giving the Doctor that authority? I suspect so.
Because, of the whole Whittaker run so far, these have been the two stand out episodes.
26 November 2021 at 03:33 #72533@craig I like your ideas for where to go with James Bond. At the moment, most people seem to be thinking about how to address issues of gender and sexuality. But I like that you want to bring it back to the Englishness of Bond and shoot it all in the UK.
I would suggest one step further–to address the fact that Bond represents not just the UK, but its past. Or more specifically, its past as represented by the British empire. I can think of all sorts of scenarios where Bond is confronted in the present with the historical legacy of the Mau Mau rebellion, or Partition, or Palestine, for example.
We have become used to a troubled Bond, perhaps this could give those troubles another context.
24 November 2021 at 00:54 #72515- @mudlark, @jimthefish Yes, I agree with you both. It sounds a bit like a version of the Cartmel Masterplan at the end of McCoy’s tenure, which was stopped in its tracks when the show was cancelled. Chibnall even references it with brief shot of what appears to be Lungbarrow at the beginning of the Halloween Apocalypse. I thought the Cartmel Masterplan was highly problematic by doing to the Doctor what Chibnall is obviously doing as well–making the Doctor some sort of Messianic (?) figure. Messianic probably isn’t the word I am after, but it is all too… Tolkien for me. As @jimthefish says, the Doctor is “an irritating, unremarkable yet vital dilettante within the context of Time Lord society” (an excellent description!).
23 November 2021 at 00:24 #72494@mudlark What excellent background research! The pieces really are starting to fall into place. Mind you, I am not sure Chibnall needed to hide the various clues quite as deeply as your research has revealed. That seems to me to be more like telling a story by way of embedding easter eggs, rather than via clear narrative flow.
And yes, Awsock really is an enigma. I get the impression that her purpose is to reveal something rather than participate as a protagonist in the story. But we shall see on Sunday, as I believe she will appear again then.
22 November 2021 at 05:39 #72487OK…just watched it. And then, after dinner, re-watched Chapter 1. I am going to make, what might seem, a rather strange comparison. And it with the most recent series of “Twin Peaks”. It was 19 episodes constructed as one long movie, rather than as self-contained episodes. I think this has a rather similar construction. Each story tells its own tale, but each story only gives us hints as to how it all connects together.
As for tonight’s story, I thought it was a pretty great (and really creepy) Weeping Angels story. Wonderful actors (Kevin McNally as the Professor and Poppy Polivnick as the little girl Peggy) who were both excellent. I am not going to reveal the conclusion and (as many of you will not see the episode for some time) I hope others won’t reveal the conclusion. But it is stunning.
But how does it work in relation to the unfolding story? Well, that is why I went back and rewatched Chapter One. That establishes a couple of things. Karnavista works/worked for the Division, so I am assuming the Division is not the Big Bad. Secondly, I get the sense that the Division is a sort of take-no-prisoners Time Lord operation. But I may be wrong.
Finally, my bonkers theory (or maybe wish fulfillment hope) is that the resolution of Bel and Vinder’s story will be what saves the universe.
Oh, and when you watch it, stick around for the mid final credits sequence with Bel and Vinder.
19 November 2021 at 16:50 #72469@janetteb The Blenkinsop household is surviving, although the fact that highways have been swept away by the floods has led to supply chain issues (petrol and food are in scarce supply in many places). If the supply of jelly babies and jammy dodgers dries up, however, that’s when we know were are in real trouble.
19 November 2021 at 03:38 #72462The last paragraph of your post was the most inspirational thing I have read for ages. It just so perfectly captures why we are all here.
18 November 2021 at 01:20 #72449@devilishrobby If JW filmed her last scene and regenerated into the 14th Doctor that implies that the 14th Doctor has been chosen and has completed their first day on the job. If so, they have been very successful at keeping the identity of the 14th Doctor under wraps.
17 November 2021 at 04:41 #72433@craig Say it ain’t so! No, really, hear me out. There was a time, it seems ages ago (and it was) when a core group of us–some still around, some who drifted, and some who passed–found a connection with a love of Who that did not really connect with all the criticism and (I must say it) bile that was in evidence on t’other place, when Moffat took over from RTD. You were our saviour, by starting up this site.
But it was never really about Moffat v. RTD. it was about a genuine love of Who, from 1963 on. That was what united all of us, and that was still unites us. Don’t go.
Damn…my iPad is about to die from lack of juice, but…don’t go.
By the miracle of electricity I will be back. And by the miracle of electricity, I hope you (and everyone) will be too.
16 November 2021 at 05:15 #72413@miapatrick My deepest sympathies. You take care.
16 November 2021 at 03:22 #72412@ichabod It is great to see you again! Don’t give up. I totally agree with you about the sound. My initial assumption is that my hearing is declining, but then I realize it if there is a problem, it is not mine.
As for the show, I like to think of it in context. When Troughton took over from Hartnell (I am 69!) my response was “that’s not right!” but by the time it got to the departure of Troughton I thought it was all brilliant.
Yes, a lot of Chibnall has been awful, but maybe part of the appeal of the show is to take the good with the bad.
And at the end of every episode, you just don’t know what the next one will reveal.
Hang in there.
15 November 2021 at 03:59 #72400You are just a young slip of a thing. Nat King Cole sung that song in the year of my birth…1952.
15 November 2021 at 03:47 #72399A question to anyone who knows anything about TV production. This season is visually really impressive. Lots of CGI and lots less running though old rock quarries.
I am assuming that all the CGI visuals are expensive in comparison to people running through rock quarries, but I just do not know. Or did they fly cast and crew to exotic locations before Covid? And was that where they previously spent the money? Again, I just do not know.
15 November 2021 at 02:40 #72396OK, I have to say, I actually really enjoyed this. I read a lot of complaints at t’other place about incoherence and overt exposition, but I thought it was surprisingly easy to follow. It was about time being fractured, and I thought it did it quite well. It was also very emotional, particularly in relation to Vinder and his lost love.
Indeed, I am really surprised by how much I have enjoyed the three episodes so far. If only Chibnall had begun this way…
I particular liked the appearance of Barbara Flynn at the end. I really, really, hope she comes back!
15 November 2021 at 02:28 #72395And this is from me
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