@janetteb I’d never seen Sacha Dhawan before that episode. But I agree he would have made a great Doctor. He’s got personality.
One thing that did ring false to me, was the Master’s glee at the prospect of instantly disposing of the Doctor. That’s not how the Master operated at all. Ultimately, he always wanted to beat the Doctor,…[Read more]

Okay, I just watched Spyfall again 2 years later. So my impressions are almost fresh. I think it holds up well.

– Spyfall starts off really well and quite intriguing. Then the Doctor gets all annoying and patronising with ‘C’ to the point where I want to shout at her.

I do like “O” (the Master), he’s got some personality. The Doctor…[Read more]

@robertcaligari I am NOT saying FX are more important than other factors, in fact they can’t compensate for inadequacies elsewhere (though some producers try). I don’t disagree with you. If it doesn’t need FX then it doesn’t.

Army of Darkness was a product of Sam Raimi, who, along with Rob Tapert, founded Renaissance Pictures which for five…[Read more]

@nerys I’m sorry I missed your reply, I wasn’t ignoring you 🙂 Just semi-sentient recovering from my trip. Like you, I’ve been ‘woke’ (ugh!) on climate change for a long time. The world can’t keep absorbing more people with a higher standard of living (and hence energy and materials consumption) forever. The old traditional methods of…[Read more]

@devilishrobby Well, I only know Whitaker from Doctor Who, so to me she’s an awfully hammy actress. Everyone who’s seen her in other productions says she’s good, so I’ll just conclude that she was possibly slightly mis-cast (I think a ‘darker’ character would have done better) and certainly mis-directed and had some awful scripts. (“I’m the…[Read more]

@robertcaligari Sarcastic but a fairly valid generalisation, I fear. And as CGI gets better, there’s even more temptation to just ‘blow stuff up.’ Of course most of Who, most of it’s life, has suffered from pathetic special effects and rubber monsters. The recent ep with Tennant and Donna in the blue spaceship was a magnificent exception…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u   I will address just one comment – your last.   It is formally rejected (grin).   These days I wear sandals if catching a bus or a train (because bare feet for some reason make operators nervous) or – usually but not always – at the supermarket.    But not otherwise.   I used to have to wear shoes to the office but now I’m retired,…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u   @nerys    I would take any comment by tRump as the exact opposite of its face value.   That is, if he thinks Kamala is ‘very, very nasty and disrespectful’ I’d regard that as high praise for Kamala.   Only slightly diminished by that fact that almost *everybody* is ‘nasty and disrespectful’ to the narcissistic, malignant tumour…[Read more]

I was in Paris last week. On Friday the temperature hit 32 degrees. Couldn’t go down by the Seine** so all I could do was go to the Parc de Vincennes and lie on the grass under a tree by the lake. For several hours.

**Because the banks of the Seine have been closed for security reasons. Blame the Olympics. In my jaundiced view, Paris…[Read more]

I’ll echo @janetteb ‘s comments.   This forum works because its members are all respectful to each other and because Craig will step in if (and only if) someone gets out of line.

Anonymous, you’re completely wrong to say members are ‘forbidden from discussing what they want.’  I’ve rabbited on about everything from dahlias to my mad driving sk…[Read more]

@dwnerdfrommars   Thanks!   The weather keeps repeatedly getting better, which is to say it stops actually raining lightly for a little while.    I think I saw some sunshine once.

Anyway, I had a swim (Porth beach, Newquay), which is to say I immersed myself in the water for the required token one minute before deciding it was too freakin’ cold t…[Read more]

El Nino bad?  La Nina good?   Not that I know any Spanish, but if I were a feminist I’m sure I could see some significance in that.   🙂

Meanwhile, on more important topics – what the hell happened to the weather?   Three days ago I went to Hastings.   It rained, and there was a howling gale next morning.   Then I went to Chichester.   The rain eased but the gale remained.   Then I went for a trip on the Mid-Hants Railway (in the rain) and a quick walk in the New Forest (it was r…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u    Did tRump describe Farage as a patriot?    Well first of all it’s none of his business.   Secondly tRump’s idea of patriotism – well he has no concept of it.   His idea of what is good for the country is anything that makes money for tRump.

Any time tRump mentions ‘patriotism’ Dr Johnson’s savage dictum comes to mind ‘an appeal to…[Read more]

A while back Craig mentioned PR (Proportional Representation).   Just my 2p – speaking as a voter, it’s bloody marvellous.   Our flavour in New Zealand is MMP – Mixed Member Proportional.   I get two votes – one for our local MP (this is kind of a sop to our previous FPP electorate origins) and one for a party of my choice.   Of course I can vot…[Read more]

Hi @mudlark @janetteb and all

At the moment I’m sitting in a second-floor room in Finsbury Park.   Leaving tomorrow to pick up a car and head for Cornwall via Hastings.   Been too busy to even poke my head into the Winchester for the last couple of weeks, rambling round the Alps having sundry adventures and misadventures.   (At some point I might…[Read more]

Hi @winston Hope your leg is continuing to improve. I just watched the three specials too – on reflection I think the second one (Wild Blue Yonder) was far the best. Absolutely beautiful ship, stunning CGI that looked ‘real’, and what an awesome corridor (I can just imagine RTD saying ‘Running through corridors? I’ll give ’em corridors!’)…[Read more]

@janetteb Well yes, I’ll definitely watch it again. Just, knowing the answer to the puzzle does remove some of the suspense – in a way that most Who episodes aren’t quite so susceptible to. It’s a bit like watching Battlestar Galactica when you know which ones are Cylons 🙂
But still very, very watchable.

I had hoped that Rose(2) would…[Read more]

If that was Newton (well it either had to be him, or George Washington, and he didn’t seem to be carying an axe). But this guy seems altogether too cheerful and normal for Newton, who was a bit of a weirdo. And as Chrissie at Chakoteya.net noted, Newton did NOT invent the word ‘gravity’, he simply added a new explanation for it. I should be…[Read more]

Oh, and – almost like a throw-back to past times – the DVD includes a decent collection of extras including a full-length commentary by David Tennant, Phil Collinson (exec producer) and producer Vicky Delow. It’s a while since a DVD set bothered to do that, I think.