I remember in the 80s with weeks of heat at C37+ & school letting us out at 11:45 with arvos at friend’s pools or a cheeky sneak into the back of cool movie theatres.

The kettle story is a great one. I had similar exp…[Read more]

Yes, the bushfires were fairly close – about 50km / a half hour drive away. We saw nothing until last Saturday when the sky filled with a light smoke, turning the sky orange-brown and the sun a vivid red. Something that would have signaled the end of days to those unscientific folk in times gone past.…[Read more]

I love the term “crumblitude” and intend to use it! Its a great word that totally works.

@thane16  Thank you for asking about my leg. It is  good most of the time although a little stiff in the morning but that only mat…[Read more]

Much (though far from all) my knowledge of Classical comes via the prism of Prog. Mind you first time I heard Tapiola by Sibelius it was a ‘building a library’ program… basically a Head of David like 1/2 hour wall of sound interspersed with two terribly educated gents asking each other… ‘which one do yo…[Read more]

@mudlark I’m sorry about the death of…[Read more]

ooh yes, I’m a Brahms fan. And I also like him because he understood the significance of technique (you mentioned this too, Whohar & its application to written structures) & that the pre-Romantic tradition of tight, organised, quite rules-driven composition needed to be understood before moving into an area where breaking rules c…[Read more]

I realised I hadn’t read your post properly. 😞
I hope your leg isn’t ailing you too much? Falls are an awful part of life.

Where we live, many paths have had roots & tree trunks encroaching on them & so daily walks are best, but if it’s hot, then evening walks are the only option. & then …..crash.

I like Russel Tovey too. First time I…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Pleased to hear your father’s Leicas were ‘collectable’, it’s nice when that happens.

Yes, it is! That made me so happy, especially since a charitable organization we support benefited from it.

Happy New Year to you and all! @mudlark @winston @janetteb @ps1l0v3y0u @thane16 and of course @craig

Happy New Year!

Does anyone make new years resolutions? I have the usual ones lik…[Read more]

Here’s an interesting thought… Pyramids of Mars was hinted by Doggo in Space Babies and the desolate world without music… BUT I wonder if there is also a link to Image of The Fendahl, 2 years later?

Evidence…

There are 12 deities in the pantheon; The Fendahl is a Gestalt being with 12 components Fendahleen and ‘the co…[Read more]

Cheers

Janette

@mudlark

I have been thinking (over-thinking?) about Poppy and the question of whether we are in a world of reality or not at the end

Unfortunately, we just don’t know. And, in actual fact, we have more questions now than we did before the finale. That shouldn’t be the case. I’m fine with leaving a few threads hanging and to…[Read more]

@mudlark, the final paragraph of your most recent post was excellent (as always) and helped me clarify my questions regarding the issue. But I am still grappling with it.

Then I started thinking about how  fiction vs…[Read more]

Omega House. Delta waves… this COULD actually be based on Animal House!??

15 and Ruby duet on ‘Shout’; 14 communes with miniature spectral forms of Ruth and Swarm. Clara and Cherry dance with Ruby and Belinda’s dates. Conrad falls off a ladder…

no no no I can’t go on!

Given that the Wish World is designed ultimately to fail, the fact that the bony and insubstantial dinosaurs (VR?) are such an anomaly may be the point; a way of testing peoples acceptance of the illusion and at the same time prompting doubts and questions

My understanding was that it was the Doctor’s doubts specifically that were…[Read more]

I watched Unleashed too, and I felt for the crew! Midges are really the worst, evil wee critturs.

Are there any songs about them?

Of course there are!! A bit on the cheesy side but here you go:

Scottish legend Kenneth McKellar (“the midges, the midges, I’m no gonny kidyes, with teeth like piranhas, they’ll drive ye…[Read more]

Re: midges, Mrs Blenkinsop reminded me of this love poem which she used to teach back in the day, by Anthony Hecht.

All I can say is, when Delta Tau Chi turn up, the Universe runs out of alcohol. And Villengard share values drop. But V…[Read more]

It’s a sub canon thing that The Doctor was once known as Sigma Theta or ‘Thete’.

But it ain’t sigma, it’s zeta. Zeta and theta have connections with various number theories and functions, especially Riemann surfaces which form the basis of fractal theory.

But that’s me talking, so a lot of the last paragraph c…[Read more]

Actually, I think the full text of The Onion’s incvestigative journalism is worthy of reproduction…[Read more]

The one thing I found slightly disorienting was when Belinda tells the Rani (after turning her head to look at the Rani): “My battle is in there, saving my daughter”. And the next shot is of Belinda holding Poppy in the gold  coloured box. It gave me the impression that Belinda was both outside the box and inside the box.

p.s. I hope…[Read more]

And to @geoffers for clarifying my muddled thinking. Of course the Rani timetravelled from 1865 to 2025. Similarly, we (and the world’s…[Read more]

two thoughts on baby jonas – quick google suggests derived from Jonah and meaning dove, so lots to ponder there.

but also jonas as a variant of John … Smith, the kidnap of the baby by the rani calling back to the TC story? Is the baby in fact the Dr?

The theory that a Ladydoc shouldn’t in anyway ape a ‘blokedoc’ is not necessarily unsound. You might say it was an act of faith by both actor and writer.

But then the Faye Marsay resemblance is down to either:

1. er… ’kookdoc’ – which is a bit insulting isn’t it? On many levels. I wouldn’t put it past Moffat.…[Read more]

For the rest, I agree with all of your comments.

@janetteb I…[Read more]

@Mudlark I love the catch about the Rani turning the 7th son of a 7th son of a 7th son’s Mum into flowers and his Dad into an owl, a la Blodeuwedd. That’s another duality (like the bigeneration) as Blodeuwedd has the dual form of owls/ flowers. Hers is also a very…[Read more]

Maybe this is a how the fate of the earth will be determined and the Rani and Omega foiled; by the persistence of an underlying reality, reinforced by Poppy and the army of the disabled and homeless who had no part in Conrad’s feeble Utopia and could therefore see through the illusion.

Except Poppy and the army can’t do anything if th…[Read more]

Yes! Let’s all have a good rant down the pub.

Hey! I just posted a major essay into the ether. Tsk probably a good thing.

The quintessence:

Ruth is fine but the continuity is weird. It probably needs a bit of retro conversion.

The Division is reminiscent of The Obsidian Order/ Tal Shiar/Section 31. But it and t…[Read more]

i think the giant skellingtons stalking all around london are nothing more than an offshoot of the “bone palace,” the rani’s headquarters. purely aesthetic, and a nod to fairy tales, but perhaps also a built-in “test” of how well the wish world is holding together? if everyone is content to accept them as reality, then the…[Read more]

@Mudlark The whole point of the false world is that it can be destroyed by doubt… And the Doctor’s breakthrough doubt is powerful enough to break into the underverse where Omega is supposedly trapped.  So Conrad was employed as a flawed world maker. Set up to fail… poor Conrad!

Random thoughts -…[Read more]

But ‘poppy’ is also echoed in the Hellions and their ruined planet. Poppy Honey.

Space Babies and Rogue are emerging from the murk.

Paradise Towers is worth a look… just started. Pity about Mel…

There’s something somewhere about a young actress who played a Red Kang and crops up later. Can’t remember…

I shall deploy the sonic trowel!!

@janetteb I have paid attention to the observations about Ruth Doc’s Tardis and how, if she preceded Hartnell Doc, the…[Read more]

The problem with trying to fit Ruth Doc into the…

[Read more]

@Mudlark – LOVE your Lesley Gore pick for Robot Revolution – just perfect (tho I admit to bias as it’s one of my all time faves). Thank you.

Thanks also to @Whisht – always spot…[Read more]

One of the criticisms of Remembrance is that The Doctor commits genocide when he uses The Hand of Omega to destroy Skaro.

I may have to investigate Paradise Towers again… I only know of Brier’s extreme and non kosher hammery by repute. But by the sound if it there’s something interesting there. Does that explain Anita (Dobs…[Read more]

See above

Apologies to anyone I’ve missed off the list.

As to what’s goi…[Read more]

If I have understood the significance of her appearance in this episode, she represents a memory flash on the part of Abena, having been the Doctor who refused to take her, Abena, travelling as a companion. None of the others, including Gatwa Doc would have been aware of her.

The slight problem with this that I can see, is…[Read more]

He wasn’t prepared to accept  the loss of control and subordinate status, but in defying the gods and planning revenge he lost his own power as a storyteller

Yes, this was my take also. It would have been nice to understand how and why it occurred but I assume the story runtime meant it had to be implied rather than shown (t…[Read more]

I’m reluctant to comment on the Ruth aspect because this story and indeed the whole season has intrigued so much.

But there seems to be so many plot holes surrounding the Ruth incarnation. Is RTD attempting a rewrite of Chris, or are they singing from the same hymn sheet?

So the image of Ruth was a shock; who actually saw that? T…[Read more]

the Unholy Trinity

I wonder who this could be. My first thought was either three of the Pantheon (but which ones?), or possibly three Time Lords: Rassilon, Omega and the Master. (Or Meddling Monk, or The Rani).

But I think it more likely that Mrs Flood is one of this Trinity.

We tend to think of Unholy as…[Read more]

I haven’t been active for a number of years, but I’ve occasionally lurked, and am grateful to you all for keeping this site so informative and congenital.

I logged in specifically to thank @Mudlark for that wonderfully informative post. I enjoyed the episode a lot, but was toraĺly mystified by the Barber’s motivations and actions. Part of…[Read more]

A wonderfully informative reflection on the episode.

I was unaware of the connection to the story of Sheherazade, for example. Thank you.

without being wildly OTT,

We are talking about RTD2, of course.

Conrad:

As someone is going to say soon, ‘hurt people hurt people.’

As Morrissey might have had Anthony say to Cleopatra, ‘some b******ds are bigger than others.’

Who has always revelled in died-in-the-wool, invidious nasties. Some get a chance to save their reputation. Some are punished. Some apparently get away with it. And some, a…[Read more]