@winston   @nerys    I think a lot of the anti-society attitude stems from the myth of the hardy pioneering individual who did everything for himself and was beholden to no man.   So that, reinforced by the successful American Revolution (which was really a rebellion), morphed into the ‘all government is a threat to my freedom’ frame of mind. …[Read more]

@nerys   Unfortunately  Covid was a breeding ground for  anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists  and  bloody-minded obstinate people of all types who thought their individual rights trumped everyone else’s.   In fact, thought that they weren’t properly exercising their rights unless they trampled on somebody else.   The sort of mentality that thin…[Read more]

@nerys    Has Donald Trump sued the CBC for a billion dollars yet?

We know why he hates the BBC.

Given that Trump is the most loathsome excrescence ever to crawl on the face of the earth, with all the appeal of a Dot-and-Bubble slug  [five paragraphs of vitriol omitted], and lies brazenly and continually, any news organisation that reports his…[Read more]

@nerys I know the slugs ignored Lindy because they were working through in alphabetical order.
(As an aside, had the AI read the ‘Hitchiker’s Guide’ quintet, wherein Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, being immortal and bored, set out to insult every living thing in the Universe *in alphabetical order*?)

But, why do it that way. And why ‘build’…[Read more]

@nerys    I wrote a page, but most of it was just repetitive of my comments almost exactly a year ago.   So I won’t post them again.

I found it a very strong episode, even on repeat viewing.    I still think the Slugs evolved naturally on Finetime (or were already there, in the jungle, in which case of course the boatload of Finetime refugee…[Read more]

@nerys It was awful, but relatively brief, and left a lasting impression but no lasting scars. Far worse things have happened.
As a further aside, five years ago next Monday I was walking on a bush track near the beach and I came on a young dead woman hanging from a tree. It was a lovely morning and a beautiful spot, and she had friends who were…[Read more]

@nerys    Well yes, Ruby was on the football pitch precisely in order to ‘target’ (or terrify) Roger ap H-bomb.   She actually got too close and had to back away to exactly 73 yards, and she knew her ‘follower’ would do the necessary.   Exactly what her follower could possibly say to get that result, I don’t know.   Possibly it wasn’t just wor…[Read more]

Yowza! That was some episode. I think this time round I could follow the plot better, or at least understand what was going on. But I’m still completely baffled as to why, and how.
Was the 73-yard woman Ruby all along? Or a holographic projection? And what could she possibly have said to make people run in terror, and keep (effectively) running,…[Read more]

@nerys   @whohar   I’ve quite intentionally never owned a DVD player that wasn’t multi-zone or region-free.   It allows me to buy DVD’s on Ebay without worrying what region they are (Region 1 is US, Region 2 is UK).   We’re Region 4 in Aust/NZ.   But obviously the potential selection is far wider if I’m not limited to Region 4, particula…[Read more]

@nerys     It just occurred to me that King Goblin (aka Jabba) was an acute case of ‘fat-shaming’.    🙂

‘Boom’ also had a song (though mercifully no dancing, what with landmines around and all…)

I’m pretty sure Who had songs on occasion before.    There was the Dickensian Christmas one with the shark.   And Rings of Akhaten.    And probably m…[Read more]

@WhoHar    Oh, thanks for reminding me of that.   It was of course under RTD’s oversight, but how could I have forgotten?

@nerys   I finally got to it.   And it was as good as I remembered.

Moff was back with a vengeance, no-holds-barred, and taking aim at (in no particular order)  the military-industrial complex, unchecked capitalism, holy wars, blind faith, mealy-mouthed corporate-speak, and making all decisions on a totally commercial basis (there must be a word…[Read more]

@nerys    Every long-running series does a song and dance number, just as they all do a Western. Eventually.

So, when Ruby was playing the piano on the rooftop, where did the string accompaniment come from? Inquiring nitpicky little minds want to know.

Maestro didn’t do anything for me, as a villain. Just got no charisma. If the character was su…[Read more]

@nerys @ps1l0v3y0u Space Babies (the title sort of says it all, doesn’t it?) Damn, do I *have* to watch it? Well, maybe I’ll just skip-watch to see if there were any developments in the long-term story.

OK, I liked the little joke about the Butterfly Effect. (Did they have butterflies in the Jurassic? Does it even matter?)

Um, snot monsters and…[Read more]

@nerys   Whoo!   You’re racing through the DVD’s, aren’t you?  Up to the Sutekh thing already.

I’ve been out of action (and mostly, contact) the last few days, since I munged my main laptop, the one with the DVD drive and my email client configured.   I’m just sorting a newer one (but I still have to configure the email, for now I just have t…[Read more]

@janetteb   @ps1l0v3y0u  @whohar    @janetteb     Like Janetteb, I found Chibs’s rewriting of the whole Who timeline too much to take.   ‘Future’ events (by which I mean ones the Doctor’s timeline hasn’t reached yet) can do what they like, but ‘past’ events had better fit into the sequence or they just confuse and annoy me.   Which am I supposed t…[Read more]

@TranslatorCircuit    By a ‘small’ episode I mean any that doesn’t have a cast of thousands and where the peril is focussed on the Doctor or a small group, not some universe-ending threat.   Far more credible

What do you mean, “of course Midnight was total crap”?   Where did the ‘of course’ come from?   Your opinion does not constitute a universa…[Read more]

@nerys   (I’m just coming up to a re-watch of this – after I do The Church on Ruby Road).

The Babies reminded me quite strongly of the goblins in Labyrinth, except not so well done and they didn’t have David Bowie to give it some class.   Or maybe evil Muppets.

Oh, hang on, is this the right episode I’m thinking of?   (Quick frantic google for T…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u     The Toymaker’s pseudo-German was really annoying at first.   I think he dropped it later in the episode (thankfully).      What made the Toymaker so hard to combat, I think, was that he didn’t have plans for world domination or any particular motive, he was just having malicious fun.

Mitchell & Webb had some classics, my favouri…[Read more]

@janetteb    I thoroughly agree about the ‘small’ episodes being some of the best.   (Blink, Moonlight, Listen, the Van Gogh one, The Doctor’s Wife, Boom, even Fugitive of the Judoon).   There were many ho-hum small episodes too, of course (The Wire, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship).   But I think being small gives more opportunity to make the characte…[Read more]