Just came across this — another fascinating commentary by Rachel Talalay, this time on the making of “Hell Bent”:

Radio Free Skaro #534 – To The End Of The Universe

The interview with Ms. Talalay begins at about minute 35 in from the beginning.  Seeing the episode from her p.o.v. and her approach is…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  That is a really brilliant insight…to both shows.

Agreed.  The Doctor alone drives himself crazy.  Sherlock, alone, shoots holes in Mrs. Hudson’s walls (for shame, sir!  You are a *renter* here).

Thinking about it, what I like best is the ending — the reference to Rathbone! and the cheerful cocking of a lot of snooks, IMO.…[Read more]

Strange developments are beginning to unfold here.  Trump supporters have begun to realize that “the ACA”, the medical programme that is maintaining their families’ health and lives, is in fact the exact same thing as the hated “Obamacare”, so when Trump & co said they’d dump Obamacare, it meant “We’re taking YOUR benefits and supports, you…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip   Well, that’ll teach me — the old memory is just not what it used to be, not even just last week . . . Thanks!

@thane15   Hmmm.  You have a point there . . . I had newts, once, when I was a kid.  They got free and ended up as dried up little mummies behind the radiators.  Dogs and cats did much better.

@janetteb  A Zygon horse?!  How did I miss that?  Yes, on getting back in time to feed the pets, though actually I think the Tardis could be trusted to make sure they got food, water, and exercise even over and extended absence (like when the Tardis got stuck in London and then grabbed by Clara so the Doctor looked for it for a long time before sh…[Read more]

Liked it — but skipped away from time to time without remorse (prolonged torture stuff, physical or otherwise, pushes me out of a story unless it’s done with a *very* deft hand).  I liked the spirited response to complaints from the “fans” that Sherlock wasn’t just solving mysteries, earlier on — here was a full hand of them, one after the…[Read more]

@missy   Oh yeah, anyone who’s seen it knows that desperate, wall-eyed stare by heart.  I was thinking about how the only “animal companion” the Doctor has ever had, that I can remember anyway, is — K-9.  Of course he can’t lug a dog around with him in the Tardis — a cat would be okay if the Tardis would consent to have mice for it to hunt an…[Read more]

@missy   I’ve had both, often at the same time (you know that thing where your dog stands there looking up at you imploringly because the new kitten is clinging enthusiastically, with all its miniature and needle sharp, teeth and claws, to one of her back feet?).  Love ’em both.

@missy  — My pleasure, as always.  Puss cats agree (which is rare among that species, to be honest); tomorrow is another — WOW!  What was *that*, that just zipped by?  I expect to become more cat-like over the next 4 yrs; one of my personal forms of resistance.  I have good teachers.

@soundworld  You’re entirely welcome, and here’s a thing, if I may, that I learned from a good friend and colleague (someone with some chronic conditions stemming from childhood illness).  You’ve been brave; you know you’ve been brave, although you probably don’t like to talk about it.  You know (I think) that’s it’s a choice.  Give Yourself A Med…[Read more]

@pedant  — Wow.  Now, if only Trump would *listen* (ha!).  But they never do, the greedy, spiteful, baby piggies of the world.

Oops; politics okay, on the sofa?  Just a bit?

@missy  Thanks for your good wishes — I’m finishing up these health things, and have a physical therapist giving me exercises for the recalcitrant leg, so I expect to be planted more solidly again by the time the next wave of whatever hits.

@winston   Mmm, yes; I like to add a glass of nice red to that particular medicine.  It’s amazing that th…[Read more]

@thane15  Then let’s let it rest there, shall we?  If it’s Davis, I’m off the court — I am pretty much deaf to most jazz; my loss.

@thane15   “Kind of Blue”  is a Cohen record, isn’t it?  And if anybody knew the mythology of the “wounded healer”, Cohen did.  So as far as I’m concerned, you’re right on topic still.  And I’ll have to find that record and listen to it myself (tell your mum thanks for the tip about that).  I’ve probably heard some of the songs from it, but not t…[Read more]

@craig  how interestingly one aspect of this week’s Sherlock was made.

Thanks, that’s very, very smart stuff; I’ll have to check out more of Nerdwriter, on the strength of this.

@alexwho  With you 100% on this version of Mary Watson.  I think the idea was to offer us a female version of the Holmes brothers — very bright, easily bored, with that…[Read more]

@thane15  He doesn’t correct their direction or personal plague but allows their direction to unfold thus healing themselves.

I think I understand it (“the wounded healer”) a bit differently.  On one level, this is another angle on “Doctor, heal thyself”– the fact it’s possible to be deeply and inconsolably injured oneself, but a genius at hea…[Read more]

@soundworld  Sounds as if some heaviness is lightening up for you — for me, too, anent health issues; the new year looks better in that respect (if few others), so, cheers!  And yes, the darkness in the stories is crucial to the lightness.  Part of what’s shown there is that coming up from the depths for clean, bright air isn’t always just a ma…[Read more]

I have to admit, I was put off by the crazy-house kaleidoscope of “6 Thatchers”, and Mary as done til “Lying Detective” didn’t make a lick of sense to me — but here, IMO, she finally comes across as a woman John Watson might fall in love with, and marry, and miss.  Of course, she can be a much-softened Mary as John, and John alone, sees her . .…[Read more]

@mudlark  since when has ‘clever’ become a derogatory term?

Since the haters were too addled to realize that it clearly means, “cleverer and I am, and I hate, hate, hate him/them/it for it!”