• Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @miapatrick

    less sure about the damage to the streets just getting healed up.

    Yes, I baulked a little at that. It is one thing to halt the ongoing damage by aborting the spaceship’s take off sequence, but how would that that magically cause the riven streets to seal up? It was one of the minor nits I was determined not to pick, but now that you…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @ps1l0v3y0u

    Yes, we have strayed into nit-picking territory and I vowed I wouldn’t do so, at least for this episode, but once tempted I’m afraid I find it hard to resist, so forgive me if this once I ignore the cones and warning tape and dive into the rabbit hole. Then I will go away and sit quietly in my corner.

    It’s the London Town in this…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic Dr Who News (5)

    Next Week’s edition of the Radio Times, dead tree version, has now landed on my doorstep and contains a feature on the new design of the Tardis interior. As far as I can discover it isn’t available in the on line version, but I am pleased to report that it sounds as if those intriguing circular, irising portals will indeed be used to access other…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @janetteB

    maybe it originates in the home counties and London

    People certainly used to, and presumably still do, speak of ‘going up to Town’ when visiting London for purposes such as shopping or meeting friends, but not ‘London Town’, which sounds distinctly odd in a modern context except, as you say, in songs and poems. Another such reference…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @pufferfish  @jimthefish  @ps1l0v3y0u

    That reference to ‘London town’ is indeed weird. I confess I missed it at the time – possibly I was so engrossed that my mind filtered it and I just heard ‘London’ – but I checked the transcript and, yes, there it is. But even if the writer hadn’t been RTD, I’m not sure that it can be counted an Am…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @blenkinsopthebrave

    I shall be on the lookout for similar transgressions in the coming weeks…

    🙂  I’ll join you. I can be hawk eyed when it comes to transatlantic cultural false notes

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @Juniperfish

    Rose: Presumably she chose the name herself when she transitioned, but the choice could very well have been influenced by another of the suppressed memories she inherited from her mother – Donna would certainly have heard a lot about Rose from the Doctor.  Agreed. the name also served as one more item in the pile of coincidences…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @pufferfish

    Donna’s laptop could have been a Chekov’s laptop, but I doubt it in this case. Perhaps she had been reading emails or browsing the internet and something she read prompted her mind to drift off and ponder the matter of her sense of loss and of something ominous approaching. At any rate it provided a setting for her monologue rather…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    @Missy

    When you say

    ….. some of you do analyse too much, just sit back and enjoy!

    it sounds as if you think analysis somehow spoils or detracts from enjoyment, which I assure is not the case.   As @craig points out, this forum was set up precisely to provide space for people who want to analyse, theorise and speculate, and in fact it is d…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    PS.  I love the new look Tardis console room – uncluttered and clinical in a hark back to the original, but with masses of space for interaction. I always got the feeling that the claustrophobic interior of Whittaker’s Tardis had been designed by someone who never took it further than a visual concept, without considering the actors who had to…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Star Beast

    It’s so good to be back, seeing familiar faces/avatars returning, and to have, finally, a new episode to discuss. It’s been a long wait.

    Welcome, too, to @B10essee  and  @unitpicker: I hope you will have fun here and find participation rewarding.

    As for the episode, I enjoyed it hugely, borne along by the sheer energy in the production and c…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic On the Sofa 11

    This may be of interest to those who are fans of the original theme, assuming they haven’t already seen it.

  • Mudlark replied to the topic Dr Who News (5)

    @janetteB   And now part 4 is up.

    @Translatorcircuit   Am looking forward to watching the  Dalek episodes this evening. I gather they have been edited to cut out some of the padding as well being colourised (horrible word).   It will have to be on iPlayer on my computer, though, as my Tivo box is currently on the blink -probably expired of old ag…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Winchester

    @janetteB @winston @blenkinsopthebrave

    Sad indeed.  I always enjoyed ichabod’s posts and insights, and when the forum comes fully to life again, as I trust it will when the show returns in the autumn, her contributions will be greatly missed.

    Thanks, janette, for relaying the news; I had missed it in January and have just been reading some of…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic Dr Who News (5)

    @dentarthurdent

    Your views on Moffat’s writing coincide pretty much exactly with mine. I, too, love the ‘puzzle boxes’ and the densely layered plots which repay multiple re-viewings – so much more satisfying than simple narratives, though I concede that the latter can be very entertaining. As for the accusations of misogyny, I, born in 1942 and…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic Dr Who News (5)

    For the record, there is an interview with Steven Moffat in today’s Guardian in which, among other things, he discusses with good humour some of the more negative responses to his take on Doctor Who and Sherlock.

    @blenkinsopthebrave

    Thanks for that link.  The ingredients could, in theory, add up to an exciting send-off for the thirteenth Doctor…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Winchester

    Re. the above. I meant to include a link to the aforementioned report

  • Mudlark replied to the topic On The Sofa (10)

    @dentarthurdent

    Like you, I tend to prefer science fiction/fantasy stories set in an imagined future to those with a historical setting, but not for the reasons you cite. For me, as an archaeologist and historian, it is the inaccuracies which are jarring, and there generally are at least a few inaccuracies or anachronisms.

    That said, I thought…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Winchester

    Children are good at joining the dots.

    Today’s Observer/Guardian has a report on an eight year old Ukrainian boy who, with his family, has just been evacuated from their village near Kharkov after living in a basement since the start of the war. He spent much of the time there drawing, and there is a photo of him and one of his drawings – of what…[Read more]

  • Mudlark replied to the topic The Winchester

    @janetteB

    We don’t get dust storms as such, but occasionally, if there is a dust storm in the Sahara and the wind is in our direction, the fine particles which get lofted into the upper atmosphere get carried here. If it then rains it brings these particles down to leave a fine deposit of pink or orange powder over everything. If it doesn’t rain,…[Read more]

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