Okay, I’ve been thinking about our BG episode recap discussions.

Generally, we’ve run them as follows: @craig sets up a thread for each episode in the story, we discuss them. But that puts a lot of work on Craig, who has to set up a new thread weekly. That became apparent during The Invasion of Time discussion, when it just wasn’t possible for…[Read more]

@pedant

Funnily enough, I think they mentioned something about a) and b) when I did my BSc. 😈

b) would explain the differences between NHS Scotland and NHS England – the Glasgow study was done with Scottish NHS GPs and nurses, so they’re confident that they can go forward into a wider roll-out. Presumably, gathering longitudinal data as…[Read more]

@pedant

That’s the one. The impression I got is that it’s the big topic at this year’s conferences for diabetes professionals, because the Newcastle-Glasgow follow up showed the results could be replicated in general practice. Plus, the whatever-scan-it-is seems to have confirmed the hypothesis of the pilot study – so it’s all terribly…[Read more]

@pedant

Talking matters diabetic, have you seen the latest results of the DIRECT study? Apparently the preliminary results are so exciting (about a third of patients go into remission) that NHS England is going ahead with a pilot study and NHS Scotland is already rolling out programmes.

In matters pancake, I’m currently trying to make almond…[Read more]

@peladon1972

It would be interesting if the doctor could leave the earth and go to other places and times in the universe

The Ghost Monument
The Tsuranga Conundrum
Kerblam!
The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

That’s over a third of the series on other planets and I’m not even counting the historicals.

@miapatrick and @peladon1972

Doctor Who is a mix between sci-fi and fantasy. Where, exactly, each story places on the Mohs Scale of Science Fiction hardness depends entirely on the writer, and has done from the beginning. Generally speaking, we’re talking really, really soft as the story becomes SF-in-name-only. We want a horror story about a…[Read more]

@winston

Yes, loss after death was a good arc for this series – because, in the subtext, we had the loss of just about everything except the format and the technical staff. Producers, leading actors, writing team – all gone.

I’m going to check the settings on the blog in case there’s anything I can do – it might be a time-out or a connection…[Read more]

Everyone

Just flagging that I have a new blog up – which is really my take on the Series 11 arc. Other series arcs may be available. 🙂

More seriously, since it’s now time enough for Series 11 to have sunk in, so to speak, I wondered if we could use the comment sections of the blog to talk about Series 11 as-a-whole, rather than as individual episodes?

@archaicwhovian

They’re short for Before Gap and After Gap. The Gap is the over-long period when Who wasn’t being produced. After Gap starts with the episode Rose.

Other sites refer to Classic Who and New Who, but we felt that identifying an era by whether it was before or after the Gap was more value-neutral.

@blenkinsopthebrave, @janetteB and @winston

The one slight problem is that we’ve already watched and discussed it, about four years back. I think it was one of the first Hartnells we watched. And we can’t really do the Dalek Master Plan because it’s mostly lost. There’s nothing to stop a second rewatch – the conversations are already set…[Read more]

@Seeoswald

Try some maths.

Eleven episodes of 42 minutes plus one of 60 minutes: 524 minutes to be written, shot, edited and SX put in.

Nine episodes of 50 minutes plus one of 60 minutes: 510 minutes. People are wailing and gnashing their teeth over a loss of fourteen whole minutes of Doctor Who. Why, that’s nearly half one of the older…[Read more]

@seeoswald

It doesn’t matter how much work it is,

Let me guess: you don’t work in TV either.

@bluffme

Any reference for this, or are you just quoting a ‘my best friend’s mate who is third assistant focus puller at BBC Cardiff and once went within shouting distance of the Doctor Who set said’ article?

I take it you don’t work in TV? Just guessing, because you don’t seem to have a clue how much work an effects heavy SF programme is.

A bit late to the party, but there it is. I did manage to watch most of Resolution on New Years Day, but squeezing out any time this week to watch the bits I missed has been a bit tricky. 🙂

Like @ScaryB, I do like the move to New Years Day, even if it was difficult to find the time to watch. Firstly, I agree that the various producers have now…[Read more]

Happy New Year, everyone. 😀

Hi everyone!

Interesting comment from my brother on Christmas Day. He pointed out that Christmas Day audiences (for everything) have been dropping for years – all those new box sets to watch and new games to play.

He thinks the BBC didn’t move Doctor Who because it was a demotion, but because they wanted some heavyweight audience-pulling…[Read more]