@purofilion — Yes!  That’s it, exactly what I imagine a very old wanderer of the universe(s) would think and say.  It’s not just *us*, humans, who are puny and helpless when large scale natural upheaval threatens.  Even Time Lords, even *every*body, is dwarfed by the scale of the laws of physics working themselves out on everything, and too da…[Read more]

@purofilion, @JimTheFish  MotOE, yes, a gorgeous piece, polished and dark to precisely the right “period” tone — it does stick in my memory as a finely-cut gem, complete with strong moral-dilemma undertones and overtones, and that beautiful little scene on the beach after . . .  Just a knock-out.  “Listen” is more of a mysterious enigma story, ha…[Read more]

@janetteB Oh goodie, what’s the oncoming show on the BBC that you’re suggesting might help me not starve to death on a diet of awful TV between now and August?

@JimTheFish Yes, exactly, on how the flash-bang gang of viewers start foaming at the mouth of characters in film fiction actually start showing some *character*, especially *character…[Read more]

@purofilion   You’re a couple of eps behind us, then, so I can’t say much about “Fortitude” without spoilers; we’re closing in on the finale here.  It’s sure neat looking, though I have some doubts about the streamlined nordic-modern architecture of the “public” buildings on a remote island with nothing much going for it and maybe 500 inhabs?  …[Read more]

@purfilion — mentioned this on another thread, so I’ll try not to be too repetitious here — but yes, I stopped for a look at a Broadchurch episode last week, I think it was, and was, as before, underwhelmed.  The characters never appealed to me, and I’m not a Tennant fan (I like my screen guys older and more marked by life, I guess — maybe…[Read more]

@purofilion  — “out in a few months” — those words are music to my ears!  Except it’s 5 months, which is a bit more than a few . . . Meanwhile, “The Blacklist”, which had legs for a while, has recently gone pear-shaped, formularized, and boring.  TV has never seemed such an endless wasteland.

Driving in the car today, errands, tuned to a lo…[Read more]

@Serahni — Ichabod here.  I tried Broadchurch again last week — more courtroom, glum faces — I must be just ruined for normally grim “serious” TV these days.  I ended up at “Fortitude” again, murky and nutty as it is, because at least it’s got monsters!  Sort of.  And scenery that wants to gnaw your face off (those jagged, rocky peaks with sno…[Read more]

@FatManinABox  — oh, thanks for the goodies!  Happy tenth, everybody!

ichi

Oh, most of my friends are GoT fans, it’s no surprise that lots of other friends are too.  It’s a hugely successful show, many cuts higher in every department than the better-than-average — but it just doesn’t grab me any more; what can I say?  Except that I went off the Doctor, too, for a few years, so maybe I’m just more easily bored than m…[Read more]

@Mudlark  Now, that’s something I need to read —

@lisa  Thanks for the link — interesting reactions to GoT.  We watched most of it, though I never minded missing an episode —  women (and a certain eunuch) intrigue, men betray, everybody kills if they live long enough to do that, and they’re all moving around a large fictional geographical stage all the time, on foot, horseback, ship, etc.  T…[Read more]

@purofiion  http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/top-21-tracks-of-series-8-part-1-72400.htm, followed by part 2, good listening despite some poorly cleaned tracks; listening to this while winding up taxes gave me a lift!  Some of the selections were very surprising, since I hardly ever hear the music while actors are speaking words.

I hope pizza (or C…[Read more]

Oh, aarrgghhh, oh PLEASE  — but Iannucci’s idea sounds like something really tentative and far off for now, so . . . might as well just start breathing again.  Bah.  Breathing.  Not as great as it’s cracked up to be . . . Anyway; as somebody said a while ago, what a wonderful time to be alive and plugged in!  Jeez.  It kind of reminds me of early…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip  — You have an MA?  Great, who better to learn better from?  By all means go on; I’m not averse to learning something I didn’t know, or sharpening up outdated data (for example, about the inaccuracy of NT names).  As for Dan Brown, lord knows I tried but could NOT get over the horrible writing and structure and characters and –…[Read more]

@purofilion   Yep, been watching, on and off.  It Is Very Slow.  Everybody is sort of nuts (they do go out of their way to say that nobody goes to live in Ice Hell without pretty good reason to be running from something, so . . . ).  There’s a dead but very small mammoth that might have contaminated some kids; somebody’s arm — just the arm — han…[Read more]

@lisa  — Yes on Warren, but it’s been pointed out that we need her badly in the Senate . . .

@purofilion  — missing an ear, mangled eye — for a minute there, I thought you were talking about the War Doctor, at least as I would have imagined him!  Doesn’t the Doctor grow back missing bits, if they’re not too large and complex?  I seem to recall — a hand?

@bluesqueakpip — The missing kids of Jesus — I’m just working off the norms of…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip  — I’d never made that connection before — I knew that “Christos” meant “Annointed One”, but not that “Messiah” was the same word in a different language (that would be — Hebrew?).  “Healer” never seemed applicable in the case under discussion — healing the sick (and occasionally the dead0 was just something that figures like t…[Read more]

@purfilion  Oh, don’t give it another thought — most of us threw snacks to the troll!  It’s a natural impulse among normal, decent people to try to move at least a step or two in the direction of the list-burglar (breaks in, steals time and energy), giving the creature a chance to respond to the climate here by becoming better and joining in.  …[Read more]

@lisa   Basically, I don’t see him as Jesus either: no Son of God claims, no miracles, a few companions rather than a dozen devoted disciples, a dud and a runaway as a kid (not brilliant lad confounding the adult scholars), roaming all of the universe in his vehicle rather than going by sandal-power from one village or town in a tiny area of the…[Read more]