@jimthefish

That is an excellent read Jim (it popped up in my Google recommend feed this afternoon) and I’d recommend it to everyone.

@jimthefish

Agree about the lack of TV writers like Chabon in the UK, but Chabon is probably pretty unique as a TV show runner in the US, come to think of it. I read, nervously, that he won’t be the show runner for season 2 of Picard. I think we should savour the show while it lasts in its current form. To that end (reading your other posts) I…[Read more]

@Jimthefish

What Chibs has done is that he’s tried to destroy/rewrite the fabula rather than contribute his own sjuzet (God, kill me now for even going down this route….)

If this reaches the stage of discussing semiotics, your local vicar should be able to suggest some suitable deliverance ministries.

In the meantime, if I understand you, you…[Read more]

@Jimthefish

but there are lots of valid criticisms you can make of Chibs.

There are indeed, and I’ve actually made some of them. His pacing! But I’ve never been bothered as much as you’ve been by his tendency to have characters who experience ‘lightbulb’ moments and then do a 180 degree turn. We’ve argued about this before, I think, and you…[Read more]

Another episode of “Picard”. As expected, excellent. This one (that includes the characters of Deanna Troi and Will Riker) reminded me, in a good way, of the the rather unique chapter in “Wind in the Willows”, called “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”–that is, the chapter that was very…pantheistic.

What sort of writer could pull off such a feat…[Read more]

@jimthefish I don’t agree that this storyline is designed to make room for a Doctor Who Extended Universe, because such a thing already exists. As I’m sure you know, there are hundreds of Doctor Who books and comics, and a fair few video games too – and that’s before we mention the ridiculously prolific Big Finish. The pre-Hartnell regenerations…[Read more]

@PhaseShift

Hello! I’ve enjoyed reading your thorough and amusingly-worded criticisms (‘fanwank’ will soon pop up in my autocorrect, probably at an unfortunate moment when I’m texting my mother), some of which have bothered me too.

If regenerative ability is down to the special ability of the Timeless Child, and therefore not exposure to the Time…

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@jimthefish wrote

But something seems to be happening to fandom. At one end, you have the repellent bigotry of the NMDs but at the other the fans of 13 and Chibs have become somewhat fundamentalist, perhaps understandably fearing that acknowledging any issues will be giving ammunition to the NMDs. The loser seems to be anyone who wants to engage…

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Thanks @JimTheFish. How goes the dam?

@Jimthefish

Just saying that I really hope that we’re not being infected by the Twitter virus where if you articulate any criticisms of the current run that you’re automatically labelled an NMD and basically told just to shut the hell up.

I hope so too – but I think, when articulating criticisms, there is a responsibility to assess whether the…[Read more]

After a second viewing, I still have the same feelings as after the first (although I do take on board @phaseshift‘s point that the BBC hierarchy would need to approve a retcon–or re-retcon). Having said that, Part of my unease with where Chibnall is taking the show is that he seems to be taking it  back to RTD, if not JNT. Looking over the…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

But I suppose my main point is that I’m developing a deep suspicion that had the Holmes/Hinchcliffe/Nation plot points been broadcast under the name ‘Chris Chibnall’, you would even now be telling me how awful they are.

Well that’s a rather lame attempt to paint me as a ‘bowelstreak’ type naysayer, isn’t it? Especially when coupl…[Read more]

@jimthefish

For your average ‘Not We’, all they know (and want to know) is that the Doctor is a renegade Time Lord from Gallifrey who travels in a Police Box and has adventures.

Except that part of that statement isn’t true. Well, it wasn’t true in 1963.

Is there something wrong with a story that plays with the audience ‘knowing’ som…[Read more]

@phaseshift

your response is an inelegant method of not answering my main point.

Inelegant, I grant you. But I suppose my main point is that I’m developing a deep suspicion that had the Holmes/Hinchcliffe/Nation plot points been broadcast under the name ‘Chris Chibnall’, you would even now be telling me how awful they are.

I can accept that…[Read more]

@jimthefish Can you, I, or anybody really say that anything the Doctor does is un-Doctorly anymore? We have no idea what all those other Doctors have been up to all those years, working above the Time Lord law to boot! For all we know some of them really did eat babies, and not the jelly kind!

A common theory for the prison the Doc is trapped…[Read more]

OK so what’s interesting me about the Brendon section is that most of it simply repeats what the Doctor already observed (narrated by the Master), after which, he serves with the Guarda till retirement, at which his memory is (none consensually) erased.

So the early part, which is a big part of the big secret, the big lie, is still there. The…[Read more]

@jimthefish

That Who has made it to 50 is remarkable but even I strongly doubt it will make it to a 100.

Really? Sherlock is currently over a hundred and thirty years old and Doctor Who has a much more flexible structure than good old Sherlock. I’d expect the series to be ‘rested’ at some point, but given that we’re now looking at an twenty six…[Read more]

So… must admit I agree with so much of what @jimthefish (and @badwolfalice ) said.
I think it’ll be retconned soon enough, but that’s a writer’s preserve (maybe that the child was a TL child dropped back through time eg the Great Boundary; so a paradox, seeding the ability to regenerate upon themselves).
They’re adding ‘mystery’ as they wanted t…[Read more]

@jimthefish oh The Good Place is fabulous. How far have you got out of interest?

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