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2 November 2023 at 06:18 #74465
Hi @janetteb, thanks for your kind comment.
Apparently Anah was not killed, she was being kept in stasis. I wasn’t sure if she was injured, but, checking the transcript from Chrissie’s site, it appears not.
How much of the Street was a party to Me’s deception I don’t know, but I would think very few. It seems from witnesses that Rigsy was caught standing over Anah’s ‘unconscious’ body, so presumably she was part of the scheme – probably under threat from Me. Her daughter Anahson certainly believed she was dead. It would have taken a strong threat to make Anah allow her daughter to think that. But anyway the Doctor released her from stasis unharmed.
So I’d guess just Me, Anah and probably Rump were involved. Rump did seem to be frank enough in explaining the Shade and the chronolock to Clara, no reason why he should have mentioned that the chronolock was only transferable once. In fact nobody intended Clara to be in danger, she brought that on herself by being a bit too clever. But admirably courageous.
Sarah Dollard (according to Tardis.fandom.com) also wrote Thin Ice, which was the second(?) one with Bill Potts as companion.
And yes, I think I detect the Moff’s prints all over Face the Raven – I may be doing Sarah Dollard an injustice there, but some of the lines are what I’d call ‘pure Moff’.
2 November 2023 at 00:41 #74463Hi @jmrs-23 I’m not sure what you mean by ‘screen accurate’ – do you mean ‘exactly as shown on screen’?
I take it you’re looking for a screenshot that shows the cigarette case in close-up.
You may be able to access the episode on some streaming service, I don’t know but some the others here can probably give a better pointer to that.
Or you could try tardis.fandom.com which has a page for each episode. According to these pages, the cigarette case features when the Doc offers some professor a jelly baby:
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Mummy_on_the_Orient_Express_(TV_story)
and https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Jelly_babyI found the scene at 12:50 into the episode on the DVD. I took some screengrabs with VLC, I stuck them here:
They’re not very detailed, I tried enlarging one that showed the exterior of the case. There appears to be some sort of ornate design on it.
I don’t know if any publicity photos exist that show the case any better.
Good luck with the present!
HTH
26 October 2023 at 09:52 #74448@nerys I always tend to mix up those titles, because surely ‘Hell Bent’ should apply to the Doctor in his own personalised hell – the confession dial? And surely the chance to rescue Clara could be termed ‘heaven sent’? But that’s an aside.
I just find Heaven Sent a little too dark. It starts off well – “My day can’t get any worse. Let’s see what we can do about yours.” But there aren’t many opportunities for the Doctor to show his abilities, or any sign of his adversaries. I used to say I like dark. But that was mostly in reaction to such as Roger Moore James Bond, or Man from Uncle, or later Avengers, that got a bit too lightweight.
I actually liked that Hell Bent was lighter in tone – I was quite emotional enough at losing Clara, so the bittersweet tone of the diner scenes were just fine with me. Emotional death scenes of favourite characters just don’t appeal to me, they tend to get mawkish. Clara’s death in Face the Raven was well done, just long enough to do it justice without overdoing it, and the abandoned Tardis with murals by Rigsy was beautiful and sad.
As you say, it’s subjective, and a matter of personal taste.
I must try Layer Cake, its Wikipedia entry makes it sound a bit like Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels (oh, it had the same director, what a surprise). Talking of British crime dramas, did you ever see Trance, the 2013 movie with Rosario Dawson and James McAvoy, directed by Danny Boyle? Had some interesting twists in it.
Anyway, I’ve just picked up a 2nd-hand DVD of Layer Cake, so I’ll see how it goes.
Mrs D, thanks for asking, is apparently perfectly okay. Except she’s a little bit afraid to drive her car here now, also she’s lost her car keys (I wonder if that’s subconsciously deliberate). Wherever she’s lost ’em, I’ve searched the house and I can’t find them. I never realised how many drawers and cupboards we have! No matter, I have a spare set and I’ll cajole her into driving.
21 October 2023 at 12:16 #74446Well, I just watched Face the Raven, Heaven Sent and Hell Bent. Face the Raven, I just stuck some comments in that forum.
Heaven Sent, I don’t really enjoy watching. It’s a tour de force, but it isn’t really fun.
Hell Bent, on the other hand, is sheer delight from start to end. The dialogue is just so right, so perfectly judged, economical but full of meaning – sometimes several layers of meaning. And visually glorious, particularly the desert scenes on Gallifrey. I see I wrote several long descriptions previously in the Hell Bent forum, so I won’t repeat them. But I think this episode is (in my opinion) the best in all of NuWho.
20 October 2023 at 12:20 #74445Me again (no, not Ashildr/Me, Dentarthurdent ‘me’) having just watched Face the Raven again. A very impressive episode. Herewith random notes –
The intro scene in the Tardis just perfectly shows the easy relationship that has developed between Clara and the Doc. Nicely acted.
Clara seems to be quite expert at using the Tardis technology. After her powerful performance subverting Bonnie in The Zygon Inversion, she is a force to be reckoned with. And she seems to be enjoying danger altogether too much, dangling out of the Tardis. (As Rigsy noticed). This is a sure sign she’s in for trouble ahead.
Is this the first mention in Who of ‘Retcon’?
I do like the extrapolation of the Somebody Else’s Problem field into hiding the trap street.
And I love the surrealism of the meeting of Clara and Ashildr/Me, who can’t remember Clara but re-reads her diary entries of their first meeting. “I enjoyed our conversations. I’ve read them many times.” The Moff likes little quirks like this, and they’re always entertaining. Nobody does it better. Actually, the episode is written by Sarah Dollard. She’s picked up on some of the Moff’s tricks extremely well, I have to say.
There is an awful lot of set-up in this episode, from trap streets to Lurkworms that generate the telepathic visual field (which I call Somebody-Else’s-Problem after Doug Adams who was, I think, the first to describe it), to the Raven.
Me can be quite ruthless in maintaining the stability of her street.
There’s a lot I would have said was typical Moff, Sarah Dollard echoes him extremely well – CLARA: I’m good cop, you’re bad cop. DOCTOR: Can I not be the good cop? CLARA: Doctor, we’ve discussed this. Your face.
Clara has this ingenious idea of taking the curse off Rigsy, since she has Mayor Me’s personal guarantee of safety. Is this being a bit too clever of Clara?
So, who did kill Anah?
Anahson is yet another complication, being a psychic girl disguised as a non-psychic boy. I’d almost say, too many complications, but I can’t really see how the episode would work without them.
And Anahson ‘sees’ that the whole affair with Rigsy was mystery bait to bring the Doctor.
And it seems Anah is only in stasis, and doesn’t the control panel on the stasis pod look remarkably TimeLordish? And it promptly clamps a teleport device on the Doctor.
And now the final twist, and the ultimate irony, that the Chronolock is only transferable once and becomes non-cancellable on transfer – which is to say, Me could cancel the hit on Rigsy but not on Clara.
This is almost as complicated as Blink.
The Doctor has never been more frightening than when he threatens eternal vengeance on Me if she can’t save Clara. And Clara is magnificent in that scene where she orders the Doctor not to take revenge.
So to sum up, the whole scenario was set up by Me, under blackmail from some unknown entities, to attract and entrap the Doctor. Clara was just entirely accidental collateral damage.
The final glimpse of Rigsy decorating the abandoned Tardis was very moving.While the plotline was linear and easy to follow, there were so many special details – it could have collapsed into a confusing mess, especially with the mystery element. Full credit to the writer that it remained convincing and gripping from start to finish.
20 October 2023 at 09:48 #74444Well, I just re-watched it in sequence, and – contra what I said 3 years ago – I liked it much better this time. Still not one of my favourites, but it’s not the clunker of the series any more. Which means Season 9 now contains no clunkers, and is now officially The Best Season (in my estimation). I found it easier to follow, and the conclusion – the Doctor failed and Morpheus is still a menace – is not the downer I thought it was. The Doctor can’t win ’em all (as became very evident next episode…)
I’ve just watched all of Sherlock, written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and Gatiss has jumped in my estimation. (I also liked him as Mycroft). Which may be part of the reason I now find Sleep No More more interesting than previously – I can be subject to prejudice 🙂 I share the appreciation of Gatiss with some of the commenters just above. What a pity he couldn’t have taken over as showrunner.
17 October 2023 at 11:19 #74441@janetteb Small islands, like many remote communities, develop their own informal and even ‘quaint’ ways. Pubs in New Zealand country districts used to be known for having a ‘back door’ to the bar for use after official closing time, for example. (And I’m sure the same applied in most countries). Rising sea levels would not be good for Raro, though not as totally disastrous as for many e.g. low atolls.
On another, closer to Doctor Who tack, I finished watching ‘Sherlock’ in Raro. I noted a certain similarity between Sherlock and Capaldi’s Doctor, in that they both were slightly distant from normal human instincts and had to be prompted for the correct response to situations. (I believe autistic people are sometimes like that). e.g. Clara’s ‘cards’ that she made up for the Doctor – “I’m sorry for the loss of your friend/significant other/pet”. Moffat writes this sort of thing extremely well, I think.
Back here, I just watched ‘Sleep No More’ and I found I liked it better this time round. Maybe I could follow the events slightly better on repeat – the ‘found footage’ format can sometimes be a bit confusing. Written by Mark Gatiss, I see, and he’s risen a bit in my estimation after watching the Sherlock series (which he wrote roughly 50/50 with Moffat). Though ‘trapped in a base’ aren’t my favourite variant of the genre (Under The Lake, Cold War, Oxygen, etc, etc) but Sleep No More holds up under repeat viewing and maybe even improves slightly. I think it maybe suffers slightly by comparison with its brilliant neighbouring episodes.
16 October 2023 at 05:24 #74438@janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave That explains things. I was a bit puzzled how to respond for a while.
Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s done that. I’ve done it, and much worse. 🙂
I promise I’m not blenkinsopthebrave 🙂
13 October 2023 at 11:28 #74430@janetteb Thanks. We did enjoy our holiday. That wasn’t Mrs D’s biggest drama – three days after the start of our holiday she drove her little hire car into a power pole, breaking it into three pieces. Mrs D got away with a slight graze on her neck (seat belt) and a night in the hospital under observation. The poor little car ended up on its side and got written off. The rental company were remarkably tolerant, they promptly found us a replacement car but they did suggest that Mrs D not drive it, at least until the police had completed their inquiries. So instead of wandering on my bike I spent much of it chauffeuring Mrs D around to visit rellies. I did decide this wasn’t going to spoil our holiday, and it didn’t. All Mrs D remembers is, she pulled off the road to turn round and next thing, she was on her side. This would be consistent with having bumped her head, and lost a few seconds of memory. As to why she hit the pole, we don’t know – best suggestion I’ve heard is that she hit the accelerator by mistake – this can be very disconcerting. Later on the police came to take a statement, they were pleasant enough, and one of them was Mrs D’s nephew. (Not unusual in a small island with big inter-related families). Since I paid for the power pole and the rental company claimed their insurance, they didn’t think things would go any farther.
@winston Raro has a pretty good climate – just inside the tropics I think. Never gets very cold, and being a small island, never gets shatteringly I’m-going-to-die hot. Lovely place for a holiday, bit small to live there (though it suits some). I did live there for two years in the 80’s, and when I got back to New Zealand the first thing I wanted to do was drive more than 22 miles before ending up back where I started from. Many things were – different. You have to learn to relax, trying to keep to a timetable will drive you crazy. (“Plenty time” – Mrs D). Things rust (salt air) that wouldn’t rust in a normal mainland house. Beer would disappear but your camera was perfectly safe. Among the islanders it’s quite normal, if calling on a friend/relative, to let yourself in, help yourself to a beer and wait for them to turn up. Once, on Aitutaki (another island), I dropped my chequebook on the road. Three days later it was returned to me in Raro – somebody had found it and handed it to the pilot of the daily plane. In pre-electronic days, the local pub kept a blank chequebook behind the bar, and you could borrow it, write a cheque and they’d cash it for you. Once, a bike pulled up outside my office with a couple of the barmaids from the pub, they handed me a cheque “Is this yours?” “Looks like it” “You forgot to sign it”. Only in Raro…
But I expect many small islands end up with a similar culture.
9 October 2023 at 06:48 #74427Hi all. Is this thing on? I’m sitting on the porch of our unit (only place I can get a Wifi signal) on a rainy day in Rarotonga, looking at the waves on the reef. But it’s not cold.
This really is a different world. When we arrived (at 3a.m.) our pre-booked car was waiting for us in the airport car park, with our name on it and the key under the mat as usual.
Most food is about double the New Zealand price but my favourite Jelly Tip icecreams – and only them – are for no discernible reason, half the NZ price. Not complaining.Had an experience with phones that I’m sure the late great Douglas Adams, with his appreciation of technological Catch-22’s, would have appreciated. I bought a Vodafone (Cook Islands) SIM and stuck it in Mrs D’s Vodafone NZ phone – locked. Got on Vodafone NZ’s page and went to unlock it, there’s a $30 fee before they’ll email me the unlock code, OK, try to pay by Visa, it takes me to my bank’s page which says ‘We have texted a code to your phone, please enter it on this page to proceed with payment.’ And of course my phone’s NZ SIM doesn’t work here so I’ll never get the text so I can’t pay Vodafone to unlock Mrs D’s phone… Luckily my own phone is older so unlocking is free so I stuck the SIM in that instead.
Never mind. Mrs D is currently in bed recovering – we called on her cousins two days ago in the afternoon and a party developed, as they do. (One lives here, one in Sydney, one in London, so it may be years before she sees them again). Eating drinking and talking until 3a.m. Anyway yesterday all the food and red wine took their revenge and she was in a very sad state, as happens when oldies party like a teenager. So I persuaded her to let me take her up to the hospital where they did some tests, diagnosed alcohol/food poisoning and nothing more serious (such as medication reactions), gave her some pills for nausea and diarrhoea, and sent us home. I made a point of asking if there was anything to pay but because she was over 60, or could be considered a local resident, or something like that there was no charge. As a visitor she should have paid $5 for the tests, $10 for consultation, $5 for the prescription. Triple if alcohol was involved (which it certainly was in her case but they overlooked that).
4 October 2023 at 10:20 #74426Hi @winston I initially thought you were saying you’d watch just this one and the last one – in which case I was going to say, don’t bother with this, there are better eps. But that’s not actually what you said.
Just contemplating JW’s eps (and finding myself in the unusual position of actually recommending some of them!) I’d suggest It Takes You Away, Resolution, Spyfall (2 eps), Fugitive of the Judoon, not sure about any of the Flux storyline but if I had to choose one I’d do Village of the Angels, Eve of the Daleks which was actually good, and The Power of the Doctor. And there are at least an equal number that don’t actually make me cringe 🙂
I must re-watch some of them, which I will do when I get up to them, at the moment I’m stalled just before Sleep No More (after the dynamite Zygon two-parter) then of course the triple that ended Clara’s story. Then Bill.
However Who is in stasis for me right now as I’m in the middle of 3 weeks holiday in Rarotonga with a dodgy Internet connection. I did bring with me all of ‘Sherlock’ and I’m appreciating Gatiss and Moffat’s way with words. Mycroft: “Sorry, I’ve never been very good with them.” Sherlock: “Babies?” Mycroft: “Humans.”
Normal transmission will be resumed in about a week’s time 🙂
15 September 2023 at 14:47 #74408@winston @janetteb Yes, I’m more tolerant of anomalies if I like the characters or the story. I’m much more likely to notice errors if I’m not just a little emotionally invested in the fate of the characters. (And at worst I find myself nit-picking the plot as a sort of revenge on the bad writing/acting). Kill the Moon was an exception to that where I liked the Doctor, liked Clara, didn’t hate anyone, I have no objection to them having a fight if it was well-motivated (people do), except that the Doc buggering off and leaving Clara and classroom pest to their fate was totally out of character – BUT there was so much impossibility in it from the very start it was impossible to ignore. Enough of that.
Just watched the fifth episode of Sherlock – ‘The Hounds of Baskerville’ – and I suspect I could drive a truck through the holes in the plot (probably could through Doyle’s original too) – but I don’t care. The story is so diverting and gripping. Also, really very scary in places.
Janetteb, I’m a little bit less worried by breaking of the canon (retconning Gallifrey for example) but the Flux season was a confusing jumbled mess. Although I *still* haven’t really accepted JW as the Doctor. But the after-Flux specials (of which there are 3) – Eve of the Daleks was actually quite good and worth your watch – by far the best of the Chibbers’ episodes. Legend of the Sea Devils was middling, about as good as Curse of the Black Spot (let no-one say I don’t know how to damn with faint praise 🙂 , The Power of the Doctor was quite passable. Though I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about.
My ringtone is ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ – the unforgettable rendition by the legendary Portsmouth Sinfonia. I think it was their best work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurfuw
13 September 2023 at 07:16 #74399@janetteb I think you sum it up quite well. I notice Terry Pratchett is at some pains (on occasion, in his Discworld novels) to establish and comply with the peculiar laws of physics in a ‘strong magical field.’
The giant stompy robot bothers me a bit too. As does the dinosaur in the Thames, you can only carry the ‘somebody else’s problem’ concept so far. And what about the starship Titanic crashing on London? – I suppose that was an alternate reality.
But yes, fiddling with established history does worry me quite a bit too. I think ‘Vincent’ fitted in quite well, no cover-ups needed. Not too worried about Robin Hood because he was largely legendary (i.e. mythical), ditto various interpretations of King Arthur and Merlin. I do prefer it, though, when TV writers make the effort to fit in to history, or at least ‘hide their traces’ (or as Captain Jack would put it, the ‘self-cleaning con.’) One I liked was when ‘Hercules’ (the TV series that was made here) had just defeated Julius Caesar’s (unrecorded) invasion of Ireland, and Caesar’s faithful and presumably incorruptible scribe remarked that it was Caesar’s only defeat – ‘Caesar does not have defeats’ as the scribe disappeared overboard with a splash. So that’s why history doesn’t mention it – neat.
I’m trying to recall if there are any similar instances in Doctor Who of covering up. There was the Christmas Invasion which presumably was hushed up by the authorities. As was the attempted Dalek invasion in Victory of the Daleks (easier to do in wartime). Or, recent case in point, the Zygons – did UNIT just persuade all eyewitnesses it was ‘crisis actors’ or ‘performance art’ or Halloween? Then there were the Monks, but Moffat explicitly dealt with that – “we thought they were just like filming something here or something?” Really, Moff is very good at tidying up. The Silents of course are the embodiment of self-cleaning monsters. Oh, and of course that priceless exchange from Day of the Doctor on Osgood’s first appearance – “What’s our cover story for this?” “Er, Derren Brown.” “Again?” “Oh, we’ve sent him flowers.”
Which leads me to wonder if there are any real events in real history that no-one ever got to hear about. There probably are but of course by definition we’ll never know.
12 September 2023 at 13:06 #74397@winston Well the parachuting from a jet didn’t bother me too much, it’s only a moderate improbability. I can also gloss over the fact that Bonnie sees the Doctor’s plane on radar over Belgium and gets to the coast on her little bike in time to shoot it down. (By contrast everything – and I mean every detail of the plot – in KTM was way over the max on impossibility. You’re a much more tolerant viewer than I am 🙂
I’m trying to work out what things I will readily accept and which ones will make my subconscious reflexively go “No, wait!” and bring my ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ to a crashing halt. After all there has to be some coherent rules or causality in order to follow the story. I think you gave a clue in “the Doctor can do anything, even fly.” Well he can with the help of Time Lord tech. And that’s probably it – in my conceptual Who universe, ordinary terrestrial matter behaves according to the laws of physics. Space Shuttles can’t land with no air, I can’t telephone back to last week or use my phone to teleport me. (Unless it’s been magicked by the sonic screwdriver). However alien or future human tech can do ‘supernatural’ things and it doesn’t worry me.
12 September 2023 at 10:57 #74396@janetteb @winston I also like the stories where ‘everyone lives’. As long as it’s not too predictable. For all the good characters, at least, I don’t much care about the villains. (Except Missy. Extraordinary writing by Moff and charisma by Michelle Gomez that could make everyone love a ruthless megalomaniac).
Of course this always raises a problem of how to get rid of time-expired Companions in suitably dramatic but non-terminal ways. Which has been managed with – varying degrees of success 😉
As to Osgood, is she really dead if a clone (if it is the clone) survives with her personality? One could argue that the dead Osgood would know, but of course the thing about being dead (unless one believes in life-after-death) is that one doesn’t know. This is getting distinctly metaphysical.
10 September 2023 at 13:07 #74392Well I finally got round to the Zygon Invasion/Inversion. Second half of the double ep benefited noticeably from the Moff’s contribution, I think. He’s really good when he starts getting psychologically complicated, like having realClara linked to Bonnie’s mind. The Doctor’s antiwar speech in the Black Archive is powerful (again). I liked the reveal that he’s had to mindwipe Kate 15 times over the Osgood boxes – busy fellow, isn’t he?
I thought Bonnie’s transformation into Osgood was a bit of a stretch, but the writing helped to make it credible so far as it could – “The same thing that happened to you. I let Clara Oswald get inside my head. Trust me. She doesn’t leave.”
Is the Doctor’s first name really Basil? Never, remember Rule 1.
Parachuting out of a jet airliner is one of those things you cannot physically do. It was possible for airliners equipped with ventral airstairs like the BAC 1-11 or the Boeing 727 (as in D B Cooper’s famous attempt) but almost certainly not from a more recent airliner with only side doors. But I don’t mind glossing over that for the sake of the story. Possibly the President’s plane comes equipped with jettisonable doors and parachutes.
(Incidentally, I also just watched A Scandal in Belgravia, to my mind the best of the Sherlock episodes. More of Moff’s brilliance.)
10 September 2023 at 12:31 #74391@rule1 Yes, I agree, Osgood x 2 is a symbol of the peace. Bonnie taking the dead Osgood’s place is actually at the end of The Zygon Inversion.
My thoughts of ~18 months ago are still pretty much unchanged after a repeat viewing. Clara was captured in the little boy’s flat (as was made explicit at the end of ‘Zygon Inversion’).
I thought the second ep of the two-parter was noticeably better, it had more of the Moff’s sparkle to it.
25 August 2023 at 15:02 #74383@winston @janetteb I’m afraid the problem is us, all of us. Just too many damn humans. We breed like lemmings, the only difference is, we ought to know better. And lemmings can only devastate a small area, humans being much bigger and more powerful and cleverer can devastate the whole planet.
The answer would be simple, if every couple just had one child the earth’s population would halve in thirty years or so. Just like that. Everything would become much more sustainable. The biggest problem would be persuading everyone to co-operate (and not seek a selfish advantage by outbreeding their neighbours). The next biggest problem would be that national economies only seem to work when they’re expanding, as soon as they cease doing that they have the dreaded ‘depression.’ (I tend to laugh when anyone claims Economics is a ‘science’, if it is they’re not very good at it. Like a doctor who can tell you in exhaustive detail what’s wrong with you but can’t offer any cure. Possibly because humans are involved. Compared with that, nuclear physics and rocket science must be simple.)
Enough gloom. Winston, I do hope the fires stay away from your daughter’s location too.
Janetteb, it’s remarkable how much wood there is in even a small tree. I cut down a couple of very small long-dead trees in the hedge along our fence-line, these were just 4″ trunks, but got a good trailer load of fire wood and kindling. A while back I had a big wattle cut down, it shaded our lawn, but unfortunately if it had ever blown over it would have flattened a neighbours’ house or significantly damaged ours. About a two-foot thick trunk at ground level. The tree cutters just left the branches on our lawn as requested and I spent a couple of days cutting them up with my electric chainsaw and sold half a dozen trailer loads of wood. I’m sad about the tree but it’s a relief to no longer get worried when strong winds are forecast.
21 August 2023 at 14:54 #74377So, I just watched the Girl Who Died / Woman Who Lived duo, and stuck my impressions in their respective forums (fora?) that haven’t seen any activity in, like, six years. Actually, quite a good pair of episodes. The excellent Zygon two-parter next.
In fact, with the Magicians Apprentice pair, Under the Lake pair, Ashildr pair, Zygon pair, and winding up with the awesome** Raven / Heaven Sent / Hell Bent three-parter, this has to be the best season ever. Only one weak episode, Sleep No More. And the DVD box set comes with the preceding Christmas special Last Christmas and the following one, Husbands of River Song.
(**When I say ‘awesome’ I really mean it, dammit. Not ‘ossum’ in the devalued sense of ‘quite nice’.)
21 August 2023 at 14:34 #74376This starts with a rather hilarious hold-up that goes off the rails because the Doctor bumbles into it. This is a Clara-lite episode so the human interaction is between the Doctor and Ashildr, now known as Me.
The encounter in the hold-up was so typical of the Doctor, I was sure this episode was written by Jamie Mathieson and Stephen Moffat, like the previous one, but no it was Catherine Tregenna (whoever she is). And the melancholy note struck at the end of the previous episode continues as Me explains that she can barely remember most of her life, and begs the Doctor to take her with him.
I liked the bit of detail that Ashildr boasts that, at Agincourt, she got so close to the enemy, she penetrated armour with her arrows. A historical fact confirmed for me by Tod Cutler’s experiments with arrows and armour on his Youtube channel.
Interesting that, since Ashildr has a bit of alien in her and has travelled through time ‘the long way’, we (or at least I) unconsciously assume she knows much more than ordinary people of the era, as much as we do, in fact. The error of this is highlighted when the Doc says “Sonic technology. It should be able to deactivate any alarms.” Ashildr: “What’s an alarm?” Of course. They haven’t been invented yet!
The burglary is simultaneously comic opera yet quite tense. It’s quite on the cards that the householder may shoot Me, or equally bad, that Me may shoot him. (Why equally bad? – because the householder is innocent, and Me is not supposed to be a villain. Missy might get away with shooting him, but nobody else.) It’s not shown how they get down off the roof, but I guess we don’t really need to know.
The butler saying “Would you care for a cocktail, milady?” is surely an anachronism in 1651 though. First used (google says) in the 1800’s. Oops!
The old trope about the villain (Leo the lion) explaining his plot in detail to the hero is quite skilfully handled here, even the slightly convoluted rules of the amulet. It seems Me is quite prepared to sacrifice her faithful retainer Clayton but draws the line at Leo killing the Doctor. Sort of a mixed message there.
Sam Swift is very good indeed with his gallows humour. The idea that the amulet would actually kill (rather than just exploiting a death) seemed to be a leap of logic on Me’s part. But using the Mire pill to restore him to life was a very neat touch (I wonder, was that foreseen by the writers when the Doctor gave Ashildr a spare in the previous episode?) The whole portal opening/closing effect seemed to be quite out of proportion to its energetically insignificant cause (Sam’s life energy) but I’ll let that slide.
So we end with Me reconciled to living life in the slow lane, with a new purpose, to help people. Seems a bit much of a change of heart, but maybe the discovery that Leo the lion was going to betray and kill her had a powerful effect.
So, quite an entertaining, fun episode, but with a serious and melancholy streak running through it.
20 August 2023 at 14:27 #74375Correction – I said there was no ‘Next time’ preview – there was. At the end of the credits. Rarely have I proved myself wrong so promptly. I hate it when that happens.
20 August 2023 at 14:23 #74374Well, here’s some random thoughts on The Girl Who Died.
It actually turned out to be a much better episode than I expected at the start.
Minor nitpick – electric eels don’t flash like that. And I’m certain they don’t produce enough current to power electromagnets to yank the Mire’s weapons out of their hands. But never mind.
I like Clara in this episode. She looks very fetching in that Viking get-up. The Vikings turned out to be not as savage and hostile as they first appeared.
Ashildr – I sympathise with, but sometimes I want to slap her. As when Clara had persuaded Mire chief that his best option was to avoid taking on the Doctor’s superior technology (nice work Clara) and Ashildr promptly scuppers it.
I felt a bit sorry for Ashildr having to put on the Mire helmet. But defeating the Mire was, as the Doc said, a happy ending. Which turned to tragedy when Ashildr is found dead. And back to triumph when the Doctor revives her. And then the revelation that she may be immortal. Episode closes on a happy Ashildr watching the seasons go past, which turns to sadness as the aeons flash past. This is a real roller-coaster of emotions. Interesting that it says ‘To Be Continued’ but there are no previews of ‘next week’ during the credits.
I like this episode much better on re-watching. First time, I was still waiting for an episode as dazzling as the season opener. But in this ep, we got some lovely moments between Clara and the Doctor. And the Doctor feels responsible for Clara. even though she didn’t ask him to be (but that’s not how it works). But then Clara feels responsible for the Doctor, too.
And it highlights the heavy burden of having power – the Doctor can revive Ashildr, but at the possible cost of making her immortal – should he? Clara said “Whatever you did for Ashildr, I think she deserved it.” That could be taken two ways, of course, though Clara meant it kindly. But in a sense Ashildr did ‘deserve it’ – if she hadn’t declared war on the Mire, none of it would have happened.
19 August 2023 at 14:07 #74373@blenkinsopthebrave I think maybe governments are starting to take climate change seriously, even though they’re typically slow to do so. If there’s one tiny – I won’t say ‘good’, maybe ‘useful’ consequence of these widespread fires, I think it’s that the ‘climate change is a myth’ brigade have been thoroughly discredited. Here in NZ, we’ve had record floods instead of fires – but with basically the same result. We’ve got an election coming up, but not even the right wing are saying that emission reductions are a waste of time. A few years back emissions were regarded as a weird obsession of a few greenie freaks. Not any longer.
I hope the fires continue to stay away from where you are.
18 August 2023 at 16:36 #74370@blenkinsopthebrave Would that be Vancouver Island? I do hope the fires stay well away from your location. Much of the northern hemisphere seems to be getting extreme heat and fires – Hawaii and Greece for instance. Down our end, we’ve had it record wet and cold, the opposite extreme. I don’t think 2023 will be remembered fondly by many people, so far as weather goes. I’d like to think it can only improve, but who knows.
18 August 2023 at 15:13 #74368Hi all Well I just resumed my re-watch with Under the Lake / Before the Flood. Actually quite a good double episode, though it suffers a little from following the exuberantly weird Magician’s Apprentice / Witch’s Familiar. Also, it’s a little hard to follow, with the time travel factor. This time I think was the first time I’ve really understood the sequence of events, more or less. What is apparent is that the Doctor will bend the rules to protect Clara (which becomes very clear at the end of the season). Of course he owes his existence to her (if I interpret The Name of the Doctor correctly).
The other thing I noticed was that the Tardis is capable of extreme accuracy on occasion, as when the Doctor sent it back from the ‘Russian’ village to a precise location in the underwater base. Yet on other occasions it has been a year off (as when returning Rose home at the start of Season 1) or hundreds of miles off (as referenced in one of Clara’s ‘cheat cards’ – “It was my fault, I should have known you didn’t live in Aberdeen.” As a device for making the Doctor socially acceptable they are a sad failure, “I’m very sorry for your loss. I’ll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet.”)
16 August 2023 at 23:19 #74364Hi @oochillyo
Most of what I said applies to emails. From your post it looks as if most of the fake warnings you’re getting are coming through your browser.
One simple thing you can do that might help is to drop the line (turn off your computer) when not using it. If anyone’s targeting you they’re doing it in one of two ways – either using your email address (which doesn’t change) or using your IP address. It’s likely that your ISP (Internet service provider) allocates you a different random IP each time you log in, so if any site is ‘tracking’ you through your IP adddress, they’ll lose you as soon as you switch off. I’m not an expert in this stuff, and I’m not sure whether having other devices connected like smart TV’s etc will defeat that, but it can’t hurt.
Specifically, if the ‘I’m not a robot’ button caused a site to begin targeting you, your IP address is the only link they have to you (there’s no way they can know your email unless you told them). So switching off then on again later should lose them (I think).
There are certainly browser settings that will allow or deny pop-ups (which many of these ‘warnings’ may be). On the other hand a few legitimate sites may depend on pop-ups to work properly. Certainly in Firefox (mostly what I use) there are so many settings it’s confusing or hard to find, what I mostly do is Google ‘block pop-ups in Firefox’ or similar and there’s usually a step-by-step ‘howto’ article somewhere.
There’s a good page on fake antivirus warnings here https://www.avg.com/en/signal/spot-fake-virus-warning
and a review of free antivirus software here https://www.avg.com/en/signal/best-free-antivirus-software
(I know they’re both by AVG but they seem to be valid information to me. AVG is a legitimate company but you don’t have to use their product. I’ve used it once and it worked OK, but the second page lists several others).
If your friend has a particular free antivirus in mind, see if you can get them to help you download it and set it working. If it’s one of those listed on the second page I linked above, so much the better. It’s much easier for someone who’s familiar with how it works to explain it.
(I’m a bit limited in advice I can offer since I haven’t used Windows much since Windows XP, so I’m not familiar with the look of the screen. The Internet stuff and the email stuff and the browser stuff is pretty much the same whether it’s Windows Mac or Linux, but the ‘look and feel’ and the names are often quite different).
cr
16 August 2023 at 02:57 #74362@oochillyo Okay. The ‘confirm I’m not a robot’ button is quite common on websites and harmless, it’s just there to do what it says, confirm you’re a human and not a bot wasting their bandwidth in some way or another. I doubt it had anything to do with those notifications.
It’s quite likely those emails are fake, and ‘phishing’. Clicking on any links in such emails will either download a virus to your computer or take you to a fake website that asks for account numbers or passwords. IF YOU ‘PAY’ such an account, they will then be able to take as much as they want out of your credit card. If you have provided any details to a suspicious source recently, go to your bank’s website and look through your accounts for any withdrawals you didn’t make, if you see any call your bank promptly.
Your browser should show the current address in the top bar, (for example this page shows as https://www.thedoctorwhoforum.com/forums/topic/the-winchester/page/5/) and if it’s anything but the exact genuine address, DON’T GO THERE. In general, NO bank or government department is going to send you an email with a link to click on. If you want to go to their website, type their address into your browser yourself or Google them and click on the link that Google gives you.
Also, emails – your email program should have an option to show all details, including where the email came from, and if it claims to be from your bank but the ‘from’ address is info@www.sportsshop.com or sales@daisydoo.co.ni or something, then it’s definitely fake. But beware, sometimes those ‘from’ addresses can be spoofed to look a bit like the ‘real thing’.
Also, hovering your mouse pointer over a link in an email should pop up a little box showing where the link points to. But again, sometimes scammers set up websites with addresses that try to look like the ‘real thing’. For example, our Inland Revenue is ird.govt.nz – if I see a link that points to ‘inlandrevenue.gov.nz’ I *know* it’s a fake.
The ‘Your computer has been hacked’ email is quite common. It’s always fake. So is the email from ‘Microsoft’ that your Windows has been hacked / needs updating etc – Microsoft will never (so far as I know) send you an email. NOR will they phone you to tell you so. Such phone calls are almost certainly fake. (A while back I got a phone call to tell me ‘my computer was infected and they were scanning my computer right now’. I strung them along a bit until they realised I was just deliberately wasting their time and hung up. They can’t ‘get into’ your computer unless you follow *their* instructions to allow them – so don’t! If they’re already ‘in’ your computer as they claim, they should be able to see what you can see – like ‘how big is my hard drive?’ Or ‘how much free space on my hard drive?’ which you can see in your ‘My Computer’ (or file manager/explorer or whatever) but they can’t unless you let them in. How do they know your phone number? – they just ring numbers at random until someone answers and confirms they have a computer.)
For example last night I got an email that told me my subscription to Norton Defender had just expired, ‘click on the link’ to renew my subscription – I don’t run Norton, never have. I just deleted it. And I keep getting phony messages from ‘Inland Revenue’ to ‘confirm’ my details for a tax refund. They’re fake.
As for antivirus, I assume you’re running Windows 10 or 11? I believe it comes with antivirus already. There are also free antivirus programs you can download. Googling ‘Windows antivirus’ should give you a guide to them.
(I can’t be more specific because I don’t run Windows, I run Debian Linux.)
HTH
cr
16 August 2023 at 02:02 #74361@oochillyo First, DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS in any email (unless you are quite certain they are legit). I’m posting this now so you get it promptly. I’ll follow with some more thoughts in a few minutes.
15 August 2023 at 13:14 #74359@janetteb Yes, it is eerily quiet.
Neverwhere (the DVD) was okay, quite a bit darker than Good Omens, but with a good streak of Gaiman fantasy running through it. I found Door (the heroine) quite charming, the two villains Croup and Vandemar suitably repulsive, the Marquis de Carabas engaging. And the angel Islington suitably menacing (played by a much younger Peter Capaldi).
Just started reading the book, which is 370 pages, slow going not because there’s anything wrong with it but because I only emerge from the Youtube rabbit hole a few reading minutes before I go to bed.
I was just musing about DVDs and the unique enriching effect they have/had on the viewing experience. Which is to say, that a good DVD set would have many extras, like ‘making of’ mini-documentaries, interviews with cast and crew, and commentaries by actors, writers or producers. All this was technically impossible with VHS, and probably not worth doing for the streaming services. It will be a sad day if DVD or Blu-ray ever dies out.
7 August 2023 at 13:51 #74353Just continuing with Good Omens 1. My geek streak is captivated by one thing – at 46 minutes into episode 4, Witchhunter pinpoints ‘Jasmine Cottage’ on the 1:50,000 OS map on his wall. This is indeed the exact location of the cottage where they shot the exteriors of Anathema Device’s cottage. It’s Colstrope farm, almost exactly 1 mile due north of Hambleden village (which is just north-east of Henley on Thames). The word ‘Colstrope’ has been most expertly replaced (in the movie) with ‘Jasmine Cottage’ but in all other respects it’s the original OS map, unaltered. (Streetmap.co.uk has online OS maps, for anyone who wishes to check).
5 August 2023 at 16:23 #74351@janetteb I’m watching Good Omens series 1, and I just noticed that the licence plate of the Morris Minor that features in it is SID RAT. Neil Gaiman seems to have considerable affection for Who.
I’ve just started reading Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’ (having viewed the TV series a couple of weeks ago). I expect I’ll order Good Omens 2 sometime in the near future.
3 August 2023 at 16:14 #74347Hey Declan, that’s good. Keep it up, the more you read, the easier it gets.
30 July 2023 at 13:16 #74341I answered this but the website seems to have swallowed my answer. Often happens if I use the ‘Edit’ function on a post.
Short recap, it wasn’t Ranskoor Av Kolos (last ep of Chibnall’s first season), it was The Timeless Children (last ep of his second season), the Doc was imprisoned by the Judoon. It was resolved in the following special, Revolution of the Daleks. (NOT Resolution, that was the special that followed Ranskoor av Kolos)
By the way, there are full episode synopses at tardis.fandom.com, use the menu TV>DoctorWho>Main Episode List, scroll down and click on the episode you want. That’s how I managed to recall the above.
And full transcripts at chakoteya.net
30 July 2023 at 13:07 #74340@janetteb I agree the movie didn’t really feel like Doctor Who. I can’t point out exactly why, I think all the elements in it have cropped up in mainstream Who at one time or another, but there’s just something about it that – well, doesn’t really feel like Who (to repeat myself). It was watchable enough, at no time did I feel affronted like Kill the Moon. In some ways it was just predictable. And in some ways too ‘realistic’ – the hospital scenes and the motorbike chase, we’ve seen it all 100 times on American dramas. The Doctor holding up the cop by pointing the gun at himself – now that was a nice Doctorish twist, almost Moff standard.
I did like the Tardis interior.
I was shocked that the Doctor got shot. Almost as shocked when Grace got killed, I thought it was going to have a tragic ending, I was greatly pleased when the Doc revived her.
I would have loved to see Paul McGann as the Doctor in a whole series. Preferably the more mature McGann of Night of the Doctor, the extra lines on his face make him look more distinguished. And he has this fabulous voice. I think he could have been as good and much-loved as Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi.
@winston The half-human thing would be fine by me. There’s a back-story there to be told. I assume it’s canon. (Unless the Doc was lying but why would he?) Unless Chibnall wrecked the canon, I prefer to have a mental blank about that.
As for the romance, that too was fine by me. For the same reason as yours, nuWho is full of that sort of thing.
I don’t care for Eric Roberts as the Master. My favourite Master is Missy, followed I think by Sacha Dhawan.
So, like you, I find it a middling sort of story.
Oh, and congratulations on becoming a great-grandma, I’m sure you’re a great great-grandma. 🙂
30 July 2023 at 12:12 #74338@janetteb I’ve got Good Omens 1 sitting on top of my pile of DVDs-to-rewatch (when i finish with the extras of the Dr Who movie). Prompted by recently watching ‘Neverwhere’, (the book of which arrived in the mail today), followed by the movie of Stardust. So I’m having a sort of Neil Gaiman mini-season at the moment.
28 July 2023 at 12:50 #74325So I just watched Doctor Who (the movie). There doesn’t seem to be a forum for the Eighth Doctor ( @craig – how about it? 🙂 so I’ll just post my very brief comments here.
Interesting. This iteration of the Tardis console room is not bad, it has a definite Fu Manchu feel to it. It’s turned into a sort of Edwardian living room. But the console itself looks good and nicely techy to me.
Lots of stuff about the Eye of Harmony that powers the Tardis. The Tardis is definitely linked to the Doctor in this episode (and I thought that wasn’t really established until The Doctor’s Wife).
The Doc says he’s half-human. On his mother’s side. Of course this could just be Rule 1 (the Doctor lies).
Well, it was okay. Sort of Terminator meets Doctor Who meets Frankenstein. Could have been better, could have been worse. Would have liked to have seen him in some full Moffat-written episodes.
Eight (Paul McGann) was okay, though I think the 17-years-older McGann of Night of the Doctor looked the part much more.
I did like Grace. In that respect it was more like nuWho in that it gave the Companion (Grace) a major part to play. I believe that disconcerted some traditional oldWho devotees, as did the suggestion of romance between the Doctor and Grace, but of course after Rose, Martha, and River, that caused me (as a nuWhovian) no qualms whatever.
28 July 2023 at 01:26 #74324@oochillyo Yes I get most of my DVD’s from charity shops. Quite a lot of them still have Blockbuster or United Video or Video Easy labels on – not stolen, just sold off when the stores closed. Which is sad. Youtube is great to have but it killed the video stores.
Last night I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral for the first time (which shows how out of touch I am). Got it from the charity shop several months ago and it just sat on the pile. Entertaining film, not an earthshaking plot but just go-with-the-flow. But at eight minutes from the end I was really tense, wondering what the hell Charles (Hugh Grant) was going to do, now that Carrie had reappeared in his life with the Worst Timing Ever just as he was about to marry Henrietta. All I could think of to get him out of his dilemma was a meteorite striking Henrietta on the way to the service. Or striking the church. It genuinely was a cliffhanger moment for me and I had no idea how it would turn out.
The character I liked best was Scarlett with the orange hair. Delightfully quirky (and I hesitate to use that word. Most ‘quirky’ characters are intensely annoying and should be taken out and shot immediately. This is because most scriptwriters can’t write a genuinely odd character, they just take a boring character, open the big jar labelled ‘quirks’, and plaster arbitrary oddities randomly all over them. Genuine eccentricity requires a properly written character with some integrity). I was puzzled by her relationship with Charles – didn’t seem to be his sister, definitely not his girlfriend. According to one of the deleted scenes on the DVD extras, he found her under the dining room table after a party four years earlier and she never left. Fits her perfectly.
(Whovians please forgive the OT).
Also yesterday, Doctor Who (The Movie) arrived in my mailbox. I had to get it from Ebay UK. 2-disc set, with 2 commentary tracks and numerous extras, the Beeb certainly tried with this one. That’s the next few evening’s watching ticked.
26 July 2023 at 16:23 #74322Hi @janetteb Yes I agree that Yaz was probably the best-written of the companions, eventually. It was maybe fortuitous that she took a back seat for a while until the writing had settled down a bit. And I did like her family (unlike Martha’s!)
I don’t think you’re missing much by skipping the Flux episodes. I found the whole story way too confusing to follow. However, the first of the post-Flux specials, Eve of the Daleks, was quite good and worth a watch. And Power of the Doctor, as mentioned, is not bad, and worth it for the curiosity value of seeing Ace and Tegan and various Doctors again.
24 July 2023 at 11:56 #74320Okay, so just watched The Power of the Doctor. It was better than I’ve come to expect. I’ve posted my comments in the appropriate thread.
24 July 2023 at 11:52 #74319Thoughts after first watching The Power of the Doctor.
Well that was a LOT better. Partly because the threat was finite and comprehensible and not completely OTT like the Flux. Partly because Whitdoc’s irritating mannerisms have got cut back and only popped up a couple of times.
Quite what Rasputin and the Winter Palace had to do with it all, I can’t figure out. Seems like there was going to be a Russian Revolution plotline that got lost.
The episode actually got better as the episode progressed and the excesses of Chibs’ imagination settled down a bit.
I groaned at the captive child and was considerably relieved that it was only camouflage. The Qurunx is a neat idea, I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of it, but I guess it did what was needed of it plot-wise.
Bringing back Ace and Tegan was shameless fan-service but worked okay.
The idea of the recycling previous Doctors sounds really tacky but actually worked surprisingly well. And the idea that they were just voices in the Doctor’s head was, I guess, the most practical way to do it (rather than having a mass intersection of the various Doctors’ timelines, which would have the practical problem of them all remembering the encounter when they returned to their part of the series. Though I think the Moff came up with a fix for that in Day of the Doctor.)I still think Ruth would have made a better Doctor than Whittaker.
Minor quibble, why did Graham have to pop up inside the volcano for a pointless bit of comedy business that just took the edge off Ace’s guerilla warfare attack? She certainly has upgraded Nitro-9 judging by the way it blew all the Daleks out of the volcano.
I quite like that Yaz learnt to fly the Tardis. Clara did. Not sure if anyone else. The Companions’ Committee for Operating the Tardis caused me to groan the way it did in The Stolen Earth, though I have to say its implementation – each one just pull one lever when commanded – was a lot less comic-opera cringey than Stolen Earth was.
I thought Yaz’s farewell was quite well done. In fact Yaz was by far the best Companion of this Doctor’s tenure.
And Companions Anonymous was an interesting idea, and I suppose surprisingly credible – a reunion of past Companions because who else could they talk to?
The transition into Ten again was remarkably painless compared with Twelve to Thirteen. No burning Tardis crash-diving. But I do hope Ten re-models the interior. I haven’t noticed those columns nodding recently like some bizarre sex toy, maybe someone realised how absurd they looked and switched them off.
So overall, one episode I might watch again.
Now to see what everyone else thought.
24 July 2023 at 08:11 #74318@janetteb I miss video shops too. There was something exciting about a good-sized store full of VHS or, later and better, DVDs. Even if I’m not going to rent 99% of them. (A local branch of Blockbuster franchise near where I work specialised in ‘cult TV’ which meant of course, Doctor Who, but also every other series from Blakes 7 and The Prisoner down to Buffy and The Fugitive… (not that I ever watched the latter) … sadly the lease expired and they closed.)
Fifth Element was just fun to watch – not an epic, but visually great and with just enough humour to keep it light.
Galaxy Quest was a sci-fi comedy. Once I’d got my head around the idea that the aliens had fantastic technology but had built their ship to have exactly the capabilities of the fictional ‘Enterprise’ lookalike that they’d seen on TV. I particularly remember when the villain triggered the self-destruct and they were racing to reach it, just failed to make it in time, but it stopped on 1. Because OF COURSE it would stop on One, that’s what it always does on TV. (I love it when producers do that to me!)
Time I resumed my Doctor Who – Under the Flood next. But I might break into that with The Power of the Doctor which has just arrived in my mailbox.
23 July 2023 at 13:00 #74315And tonight I watched another older sci-fi movie, The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich. This has become one of my favourite scifi movies, it’s just sheer fun. It manages to invoke suspense without being gloomy or dark. Milla Jovovich is delightful as the alien Leeloo, and Gary Oldman is excellent as the buttoned-down villain Zorg. And Luc Besson’s imaginary world is highly entertaining. It was made in 1997, but the effects are first-rate, as good as anything today.
20 July 2023 at 09:59 #74314@winston Yes, Martha did make a very favourable impression on her first encounter.
The Judoon weren’t too bright, but they seem to keep cropping up as sort of Galactic cops for hire, or maybe just heavies-for-hire. Quite cunning the way the Doctor let the vampire acquire his alien DNA, I thought.
18 July 2023 at 17:14 #74311Well, tonight I watched Blade Runner. And it still holds up really well. Fantastic atmosphere, and morally very ambiguous.
One point that intrigued me – I’ve always called the humans-controlled-by-Daleks (like in Magician’s Apprentice) ‘skin jobs’. I got the term from the reimagined Battlestar Galactica with the Cylons. But I just saw it used (just once) for the Replicants in Blade Runner. I wonder, was that the first or was it used in the original BSG of 1978? Or did Philip K Dick use it in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Or somewhere else?
17 July 2023 at 08:54 #74307@winston Well I just watched Stardust last night. A very pleasant movie. What I might call a ‘good-natured’ movie. Even the ghosts of the murdered princes seemed to regard it more like a sporting contest than something to get bitter about. And the scenery was magnificent. I’d like to see Good Omens 2, too.
Electronic voodoo – I invoke it quite often, since I have a tiny LAN (Local Area Network) usually consisting of my desktop/server downstairs and whichever laptop I’m using in the lounge. I have several laptops, which is very handy when I ‘break’ one, I can use another to Google for information. (I’ve never bought a new laptop, when I upgrade it’s to a new-ish used one and I stick some version of Linux on it, the previous one gets relegated to ‘spare’ or ‘backup’. By the time a laptop reaches the stage of fourth backup, hence truly surplus, it’s too old to be worth selling anyway.) Since I like fiddling I quite often break something – digitally, not physically.
15 July 2023 at 13:04 #74300@missy As so often, the TV/movie and the book of Good Omens are similar but different. Sufficiently different to make viewing/reading both rewarding. Same goes for Stardust (the movie and the book) and Moff’s The Day of the Doctor. I’ve ordered the book of Neverwhere and I trust it will be the same.
The DVD of Neverwhere includes an interview with Neil Gaiman and a full commentary by him. I’m half-way through watching his commentary and I have to say he has the knack of making it interesting. As an aside, I had much difficulty persuading VLC to read the DVD on my laptop (two laptops actually, I tried both), eventually succeeded but neither would play the interview without stuttering sound and frozen picture no matter what settings I tried. My bargain-basement DVD player, though, played it without a blip. There’s a lot of voodoo going on when it comes to DVD’s.
14 July 2023 at 12:35 #74293I just watched the series (mostly because it was written by Neil Gaiman) on DVD. I found it okay, not as good (IMO) as Good Omens, The Doctor’s Wife or Stardust (and I know that’s comparing wildly different flavours).
It ended quite satisfyingly while apparently leaving the door open for further series (which never happened). I was highly amused by the use of London place names for characters – the angel Islington of course, the Earl who held court in an Underground train, old Bailey, the seven sisters, Hammersmith the blacksmith.
I was slightly disappointed that the two heavies, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar – two of the nastiest thugs ever – were sucked through the door along with Islington. I had hoped that the Marquis de Carabas with his crossbow and Richard with his hunter’s knife would manage to dispatch one each, it would have been fitting revenge.
But all in all a reasonably satisfying story. I think I’m going to buy the book now.
14 July 2023 at 12:11 #74292@janetteb I too am currently re-reading my way very slowly through Terry Pratchett (I’ve got all his Discworld books, they have their own little bookcase). Up to Moving Pictures at the moment. I like the the talking dog (forget his name, haven’t reached him yet) who says “woof” instead of barking.
14 July 2023 at 12:04 #74291@janetteb Well, we know all about creepers. Our trees are always under threat from Madeira vine (which is apparently edible) and Moth Plant which is decidedly not, irritant white sap. Both spread like rockets. The Moth Plant shoots up into the trees and makes big grey-green pods which, if allowed to mature, produce thousands of wind-spread seeds. Madeira Vine is even more difficult, it produces corms or tubers every few inches along it which, if knocked off (and they fall off easily) will sprout. It rapidly matures into thick ropes which cover the trees. I’ve had to have trees cut down – some years ago, a row of casuarina trees along the boundary which reached about 50 feet so had to go, most recently a wattle (acacia) which reached about 60 feet, lovely tree but I was always nervous if strong winds were forecast because it could have seriously damaged our house or the neigbours if it ever fell over.
I agree about Martha. She did fall very heavily for the Doctor – but that happens sometimes. “You had to go and fall in love with a human – one that wasn’t me.” As for the Doctor being so blind, a snippet from Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Long Long Time’ (that I was listening to last night) seems to fit – “I never drew one response from you, All the while you fell all over girls you never knew.” If she had stayed for another series, a major reorientation of their relationship would have been needed.
I just finished Neverwhere (it was a six-half-hour series). Um, wildly bizarre, it could have been the pilot for a continuing series, there was enough wild and weird ideas in it. Shades of Doug Adams’ Somebody Else’s Problem field, or even the Silents, ‘normal’ people failed to notice underworlders unless they were talking directly to them. It was actually written by Neil Gaiman. Intriguing, inventive, a bit more chaotic than Good Omens or Stardust for example. I must hunt down the discussion thread, be interesting to see what others made of it.
I read Good Omens long before it was made for TV – a jolly good book.
13 July 2023 at 11:34 #74283… Speaking of which, I just managed to find The Power of the Doctor on special so I ordered it. Along with Doctor Who (the movie) with Paul McGann.
Also in my mailbox I found a DVD which turned out to be ‘Neverwhere’, a 6-part TV series from (googles) 1996, written by Neil Gaiman (which is why I ordered it). I’d forgotten I’d done it. It’s about spooky people with mysterious powers in the London underworld (underworld being quite literal in this case, down in the sewers and the Underground). Just watched the first two episodes and totally failed to recognise the angel Islington who looked us straight in the eyes at the end of Episode 2 as Peter Capaldi until the credits came up. Remarkable how a few extra lines on his face and bushier eyebrows changed his appearance.
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