@miapatrick

Really sorry to hear that. Sending warmest thoughts and hoping you and yours and doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances…

@blenkinsopthebrave

That’s an excellent review and wholly deserved on Fellowes’ part.

On Picard, I’m limbering up for a promising finale. I had been hoping that Narek discovered a better nature but now I’m very much onboard with him getting what’s coming to him. The synthetics community was very much one of your typical TNG utopian communities…[Read more]

@nerys

I think that’s one of those indefinable ‘lightning in a bottle’ things, partly down to writing but mostly to personal chemistry. I always tend to look at how Liz Sladen seemed to strike off Tom Baker far more than with Jon Pertwee (and also how Adric seemed to be less irritating with Baker than he became with Davison).

@phaseshift

I think RTD injected something quite unique (but utterly different from SM) into his novelisation of Rose but, yes, Cornell very much gives you a straight up-and-down, no-nonsense adaptation. Which is fair enough as it isn’t his story.

@craig, @blenkinsopthebrave et al

Yes, I believe Rose is coming up next to be followed by the…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

I’ve just had a rummage through the archives and it looks like we’ve covered every episode of Nu Who, some of which obviously retrospectively. That’s no reason we can’t dig into them again, of course, it people want to do that.

@bluesqueakpip

Yes, that’s exactly what DotD is. Very well put. You can feel the love and affection oozing out of every pore of this story.

@janetteb

Yes, I know that there are many out there who love the Zygons and they’re very much the epitome of Old Who men in rubber suits. Which, now I think of it more, are why they’re maybe the perfect…[Read more]

Well, that was just fantastic and certainly revived my love for Who. A nice palate cleanser after Timeless Children. Love the little Strax intro too. I’d still love to see a proper Paternoster spin-off. The Big Finish audios are nice and all but it’s just not the same. And to echo @phaseshift, I’d recommend checking out Moffat’s Twitter feed for…[Read more]

@XAD4

You just beat me to it. New Moffat-written content dropping online at 6.30 this evening (for the benefit of those who don’t click through)….

@blenkinsopthebrave

An admirable policy. So you literally do have your own Fortress of Solitude….

@blenkinsopthebrave

I imagine it’s happening largely on social media — Twitter and Instagram being likely candidates. But perhaps we could prevail upon @craig to repost our Day of the Doctor thread back to the front page and we can join in here?

@bluesqueakpip (and @miapatrick)

Glad to hear you’re hopefully in recovery mode now. We’re in self-isolation mode now and I’ve had to conduct the last of my lectures and seminars via online technologies. Which has all worked out pretty well so I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes increasingly standard in the future.

Books and TV bingeing are…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Hope you’re doing OK. And to everyone who’s having to self-isolate. Make sure you all take care of yourselves.

There was some talk of doing a Penny Dreadful rewatch blog after S12 was over. Just testing the water to see how many would be interesting in doing it. (Will probably leave it a couple of week anyway till we’ve had @phaseshift‘s blogpost on s13 and Chibs, if he’s still planning that….)

@janetteb

His Dark Materials was really good, wasn’t it? And I’ll bet you’ll really enjoy Picard too. It’s great.

@miapatrick

Yes, the treatment of the actual Good Place is really interesting and the point that for anything to be truly ‘good’ that it has to have ‘an ending’ and basically ‘death’ in it is actually a pretty challenging one for what’s essentially a sitcom. It’s essentially critiquing mainstream Christian assumptions really. (I wonder how this…[Read more]

@miapatrick

Also Jeremy Bearimy deserves to enter the pop culture lexicon in the same way that ‘time-wimey’ has.

@miapatrick

I thought it was mostly adept at knowing when one particular approach to the concept was wearing thin and to shake it up a bit. The s3 stuff back on Earth was to my mind the weakest scenario but even that was still lots of fun and it worked because the characters had well and truly bedded in by then and the jokes were always good.…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave

That’s a great scene. I’ve always loved it. And a great performance. It’s an interesting one because we’re seeing a pretty arrogant, self-obsessed character and yet by the end of it he’s captured our sympathy and the insecurity behind the intellectual bravado is exposed. It’s great writing, great direction and great acting.

@craig and @nightingale

He was an actor of astonishing range and rare unpretentiousness and he never, to my knowledge, phoned it in. Even when he was doing something like voice work for The Elder Scrolls there was something compelling in his performance.

@nightingale and @blenkinsopthebrave

Yes, I’d concur with the both of you on Nolan. I’m not a massive fan either. Jordan Peele is a good call though, maybe with a side of Rian Johnson thrown in. But I think @blenkinsopthebrave might be right on the money with Preston Sturges….