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@craig Adding to @winston‘s comment about spam posts:

“On the Sofa 11” has had a lot of recent activity with many brilliant posts, yet it is not listed among the topics on the General forum discussions page. I only knew to reply to it is because I received several notifications for posts in which I was tagged. I can access the thread via notifications, but (at least for me) it doesn’t display in the General discussion forum. Here’s the link to the thread:

On the Sofa 11

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How have I missed this thread and its brilliant observations?

Actually, now I see exactly how I missed this thread. Weirdly, “On the Sofa 11” is not showing up among the topics in the General forum discussions. The only reason I knew to reply to it is because I received several notifications for posts in which I was tagged. I can access the thread via notifications, but (at least for me) it doesn’t display in the General discussion forum.

Is anyone else noticing this glitch? I’ve messaged Craig about it.

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How have I missed this thread and its brilliant observations? Bravo to all for an engaging month-long (and hopefully longer) discussion!

The “resolution” for Donna through her daughter was, as others have noted, clunky. Yet I must admit that I was one of those who was furious with RTD for abandoning Donna without any memory of her adventures with the Doctor, and all that she had achieved with him. So I accepted “clunky” in order to rectify that error. But yes, it could have been done better. My little mind is not sure how Donna’s non-binary daughter, Rose, solved the Meta-Crisis problem. But then, my husband is far more sciency than I, and his observation of post-gap Doctor Who is that problems were often solved in a way that belied scientific explanation.

I try to be open-minded, but in some cases “woke” has become its own form of suppression/repression. It’s worth reading Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America by John McWhorter for some insight into why I believe this to be true. Not universally true, but it’s happening nonetheless.

I agree that Chibnall was virtue signalling in an inexplicably awkward way. I have found this with certain authors. The thing is, I may well agree with their editorial commentary. But if I want to be bashed over the head with an opinion, I’ll read an editorial. I don’t need you to be editorializing through fictional characters. Give me a story, told well. That story may have an editorial slant … but if it doesn’t engage me, then all is lost.

@thane16 Yes, Donna could be “shouty” … but the Donna I loved was the one who, in a crisis, dissolved into tears and reminded the Doctor of what he was blind to, and what was right. I always believed Donna’s brash exterior was just a cover for her inner humanitarian.

So many great posts, but this one jumped out at me:

@winston Good night from the smoky hell that is Ontario. I have to go turn on the fans we use to send our smoke to the White House.

Thanks for the giggle. Given recent events, I needed that.

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@thane16 Hmmm … I thought it was clear from my review that I enjoyed “The Reality War” … but maybe I didn’t express that clearly enough. The only part I disliked was the chunk of exposition we got in the middle, which really slowed down the momentum.

Or maybe you’re reading back to @winston‘s observation that I had been on a journey. That’s because I waited until our library got the DVDs. I borrowed them last week and watched the entire season in quick succession. So I have also reviewed all of the episodes in their respective threads; my reviews reflect the “journey” I took.

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@thane16 I think @miapatrick‘s suggestion about Billie Piper being the Tardis is intriguing. Same as with The Moment. We never really got a satisfying resolution to that. She was there one moment, gone the next (in Billie Piper form, anyway). It could be that another reunion between her and Tennant Doc is an idea that’s percolating.

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@thane16 @winston Yes, a good library is priceless. As you say, sometimes I have to wait, and waiting meant that I didn’t get in on these great discussions first time round. But I did get to see the episodes. Not only that, the library has them as hard media, meaning that anyone who has a DVD player can watch them and isn’t relying on the vagaries of streaming.

@winston Your comment about becoming part of your garden tangentially reminded me of “Silence in the Library” (speaking of libraries) and “Forest of the Dead” and how the forests of the Vashta Nerada were used to create the library. Also, there was a character named Strackman Lux in both episodes … and we had an episode titled “Lux” this season. Coincidence? That’s about as far as I can go with the bonkerizing.

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@winston Yes, not quite The Odyssey … but definitely a journey. I’m late to the party because I refuse to subscribe to Disney+ (looks like that’s not going to be a problem anymore), and I don’t want to buy more “stuff” that I will use only once, then forget about. So I put a library hold on the DVDs and waited (because they were only just released in Region 1 this summer). Finally they arrived!

The prolonged exposition in the middle of “The Reality War” is, I think, what makes it a bit muddy for me. If there had been less of that, I would have considered this one of the best season finales (hoping that’s all it is) and regeneration episodes for the Doctor. I didn’t expect that I would become as fond of Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor as I did. I’ll miss him, but wish him well in all that he does.

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Now I can join all of you in expressing my sadness that Ncuti Gatwa left Doctor Who. He really was wonderful. This season left more of an impression on me than his first, I think because so much time was spent on trying to explain Ruby Sunday. I enjoyed her as the Doctor’s companion, but really, the Doctor is why we’re all here. Belinda and the Doctor quickly settled into their Doctor/companion relationship, and for me that’s a more satisfying way to go about it.

And, she’s back! I was happy to see the return of Anita, who saved the Doctor via the Time Hotel. I was afraid she’d been dropped (much like Susan, who was there and then gone).

There was a ton of exposition crammed into the middle that, in my opinion, didn’t really add a lot other than telling us how all this came about. That’s my only complaint. It dragged on for so long that it detracted from the emotional resonance of what had happened in “Wish World” and was upended here.

The revelation that Poppy was the one Belinda really needed to get home to, and that Poppy was not (and could not be) the Doctor’s daughter, carried a lot of emotional weight. This was the one time that, had the Doctor cried, we would have known why. I can’t recall. Did he?

It was poignant to see Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor return and interact with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. It gave her Doctor a more satisfying closure than she was given at the end of her run, and maybe that was part of the reason for bringing her back. It closed the loop.

And, of course, Billie Piper at the end. I can’t contribute anything coherent to that cliffhanger.

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Having watched both “Wish World and “The Reality War” back to back, I’ll reserve most of my comments for the finale. I thought this was beautifully acted by all, especially Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu and Millie Gibson. RTD does have a knack for bringing back past companions to join the team and save the world.

I liked the little touch of Rogue reaching out to the Doctor/John Smith through the TV to warn him that tables don’t do that.

With this episode and its conclusion, I was reminded of “Forest of the Dead” and Donna’s heartbreaking realization that she was in a simulation, leading a seemingly happy life quite different from the one she’d led. But it wasn’t real. When she had to leave her family, it was as poignant then as a similar realization dawning on the Doctor in the next episode.

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Given this episode’s Eurovision connection, I fully expected to dislike it. To my surprise, I enjoyed it. I thought it was going to be a light (lightweight, lighthearted) episode, and it was anything but.

Seeing all of those people swept out of the dome into space was truly unsettling. I’m not sure how the mavity field protected them. Yes, hypothermic people can survive longer without oxygen … but not that much longer. And yes, the Doctor said he tripled the the mavity field, but still. What was it, 100,000 people? And they all had to go through Rylan’s cryogenic chamber one at a time? They made it all seem a bit too easy.

The opposite of easy was the Doctor’s rage at Kid, to the point of torturing him. This is the second time this season we’ve seen him inflict deliberate cruelty, which is very much out of character for the Doctor (though his reasons for doing that to Joy became clear). Later he explained to Belinda that it came from his trauma over the destruction of Gallifrey, but I wasn’t convinced by that, somehow. It felt more like a justification.

I was surprised that before Cora began singing, she didn’t take off her wig, revealing the stubs of her Hellion horns. To me, that would have been fully revealing her true self to the audience as she sang her song. I was surprised it didn’t happen.

Someone asked how Rylan Clark got there, if Earth was gone. I’m the *least sciency person you’ll ever meet, but since Belinda remembered Rylan, and he’d been in cryogenic suspension, then presumably he was in cryogenic suspension before the destruction of Earth on May 24, 2025. So, maybe he was cryogenically frozen someplace other than Earth (Harmony Arena?), then released for the sole purpose of hosting the Interstellar Song Contest. This harks back to the jokes about Dick Clark and his eternal youthfulness.

Also, I was delighted to see Graham Norton, even if he was a hologram. His show remains one of my “go-to”s on BBC.

I’m not going to get into all the bonkers theories since (1) now we know how the series has played out; and (2) … *least sciency, etc. Just know that I appreciate everyone’s brilliant bonkerizing.

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(Oops, wrong thread.)

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@mudlark Excellent analysis of this episode. It helped me pull together the many ideas that were flying by. Beautifully, but still flying by. As others have noted, this impressed me as a testament to how powerful stories are in our lives, helping us to give meaning to actions and events that may seem inexplicable. And the power of forgiveness. And breaking the cycle of abuse because “Hurt people hurt people.”

Like you, I was reminded of Scheherazade telling a story each night, leaving it unfinished so that the king won’t kill her, and also Samson, whose immense strength lay in his hair until Delilah cut it while he slept.

I too loved the story window and could have done with an entire episode of that.

I had not considered some of the problems mentioned in this thread. For instance, about how this Doctor can remember being Ruth Doc (since he seems to remember leaving Abena behind) after the memory wipe. However, the memory wipe would explain why he thought this was his first time in this body (which I inferred to mean Black), which made him feel unwelcome in certain places. But, as you noted, he wouldn’t be the first Black Doctor. That was Ruth. And he seemed to remember being Ruth Doc. Hmmmm.

I’d almost forgotten about the child Belinda saw in the street. I wonder what was going on there. This definitely deserves a rewatch. And hey, if all we get worth rewatching are “The Well” and “The Story and the Engine”, then I consider this season well worth it.

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So, immediately following “The Well” I found this one a bit of a disappointment. Millie Gibson was wonderful. It reminded me of my disappointment that she got only one season as the Doctor’s companion. I did think it was a nice callback to “Blink” in that we only saw the Doctor and Belinda together at the beginning of the episode.

However, we did get a rather long-winded lecture from the Doctor as a bookend … which I thought was unnecessary. We already knew what Conrad represented, and it’s not pretty. Getting worse and worse, I’m afraid. I didn’t want the Shreek to kill Conrad, though I wouldn’t have been disappointed if it had. But really, we’d been shown all of that and didn’t need more exposition to explain it to us.

I’m always happy to see Kate return, but I liked UNIT when it was less … well, populated. Maybe, as @juniperfish suggested, the idea was a spinoff with Ruby joining UNIT after dealing with her PTSD. I wouldn’t have minded that, but if that really was RTD’s plan, I don’t see any evidence of it becoming a reality.

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Oh, now we’re talkin’! I just watched “The Well” and was completely enthralled throughout. I felt that Ncuti Gatwa really came into his own as the Doctor. Now I don’t see the actor, I see the Doctor. And Varada Sethu was every bit as good as Belinda. That’s impressive, considering how early on she is in her tenure as the companion. When Bel asked the Doctor if they could change clothes again, and he noted that she was starting to enjoy this, I found it utterly charming. A perfect Doctor/companion exchange.

But to reference “Midnight” … my favorite Doctor Who episode of all time? Well, as soon as that became clear, I was on board. “The Well” didn’t surpass “Midnight” … but I found it worthy of its status as a sequel. As with “Midnight” I was on the edge of my seat through the whole thing, and moved to tears more than once.

I knew nothing about Rose Ayling-Ellis before seeing her as Aliss. She gave such a genuinely moving performance, utterly captivating in her portrayal of the fear and vulnerability Aliss had against the entity, but also the troopers who considered her a threat. The way she was treated by the Doctor, Bel and the different troopers impressed me as a believable crisis and confrontation that a deaf person might experience in this situation. I clued in early on to the possibility that Aliss didn’t suffer the same fate as her fellow crew members because she was deaf.

I know the Doctor said that when he last met the entity, it was playing games. But I still expected the entity to resort to what it did in “Midnight” and possess first Aliss, then the Doctor, speaking through them as it did before with Sky and then the Doctor. But that didn’t happen (and, I’m guessing it couldn’t happen with Aliss because she was deaf). I guess that’s what is meant by playing games before. Now, having learned from its previous interaction with the Doctor, it’s playing for real? Dunno.

I was so happy that Aliss was saved (thanks to the Doctor’s quick thinking to have Shaya shoot the mercury pipes (creating a mirror for the entity to see itself, thus freeing Aliss), but heartbroken that it hid behind Bel, and then Shaya shot Bel so that it would hide behind her … only to have Shaya sacrifice herself by jumping into the well.

At the end, I wondered if the entity really had been killed, or if now it was behind Mo. Brrrr! Properly creepy stuff. I’m glad it was left open-ended for our imaginations to work out.

I’m pretty much ignoring Mrs. Flood, since I’ve read enough to know how that part goes. I’m just trying to appreciate each episode on its own terms. And for me, this one was the best yet of the Ncuti Gatwa era.

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BTW, I did not recognize Linus Roache as the projectionist. I recognized his voice, but couldn’t place him. I kept thinking of Stephen Colbert, though I knew full well it wasn’t him.

And, I see that others liked the trio of fans. Maybe this episode deserves a rewatch. I might enjoy them more on second viewing.

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I was really into the first half of this episode. I enjoyed the creativity of a cartoon becoming real, and how that idea was executed in the cinema … er, picture show. What better force to have behind that than Disney? At least initially, Lux seemed truly scary. But then he got … annoying.

And, did we have to bring religion into it? I know they were talking about gods, but for me it just got all cringy at the end.

I also thought introducing the trio of fans broke the episode’s momentum. It had already slowed down while the Doctor and Belinda were trying to figure out how to escape the film, and then it slowed down even more. Hardly worth the trouble just to give “Blink” a nod of recognition.

Is it just my imagination, or did Ncuti Gatwa deepen his voice this season? I just feel like his Doctor is a bit more restrained, and his voice sounds lower in pitch than last season. But maybe it’s just my imagination.

Varada Sethu was fabulous. It was as if she’s been the Doctor’s companion for far longer than two episodes. She and Gatwa already have a great chemistry together.

@janetteb Yes, I too have bad memories of pressure cookers. This was in the 1960s, but still. My mother boiled green beans within an inch of their lives, and I have loathed them ever since. That’s the one food I hated as a child, and never found a way to like (though I can tolerate the frozen ones).

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@dentarthurdent In the past, I felt that Moff created elegant (though occasionally convoluted) solutions to crucial problems, giving the audience the aha moment we craved. It just didn’t happen this time … which surprised me.

However, when I do a search, the overview we’re given suggests that your conclusion is the correct one:

The Doctor didn’t actually figure out the code through deduction; instead, he received it via a bootstrap paradox (a closed time loop). His future self supplied the code because that future self remembered getting it from a later version of himself, meaning the code essentially “came from nowhere” in a self-sustaining loop of time travel.

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Something I forgot to mention: The scene in the field hospital where Belinda discovers the X-ray blankets was one of the best moments in the episode. Charming (especially when the Doctor uses the blanket to reveal his two hearts) and illuminating, without a lot of heavy-handed preaching.

Belinda asks if Missbelindachandrakind having a second diaphragm is better than humans.

The Doctor replies, “If you start deciding which body is best, you’re going down a very dangerous path.”

Sadly, this gets lost in the crazy quilt that follows.

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@dentarthurdent I think you are correct on both counts, re: Omicron and its timing. This variant was much more infectious, yet less dangerous, so people began dropping their guard somewhat. And, frankly, I think isolation fatigue had set in.

As I recall, when the first wave of Omicron hit, Atlantic Canada escaped the brunt of it because restrictions were still in place. But then, around mid-February 2022, things took off because restrictions were relaxed (as you point out, restrictions were relaxed because public health officials weren’t as concerned about hospitals being swamped with seriously ill patients), and people weren’t as worried about becoming seriously ill.

Your timey-wimey theory is bonkers. But, like I said, I don’t have anything better to offer, so at least you put some effort into making it work somehow. The briefcase code almost felt like a dropped thread, an idea that Moffat was pursuing, then got distracted and mislaid his idea, but kept on writing to meet his deadline. I’m 100 percent positive it did not happen that way, but it’s how it seems.

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I enjoyed this episode despite the on-the-nose incel and coercive control terminology, which I felt was too much tell, not enough show (as in, “show me, don’t tell me”). Also, @blenkinsopthebrave I too found it odd that the Doctor causing a power outage in a major hospital was played for laughs. Had it happened in a shopping mall, OK. But that would not be funny for a great many patients and staff.

I expected something weird to happen because Belinda’s star certificate said “Miss Belinda Chandra” … and she hated the “Miss” and wanted it gone. So I thought that the Doctor might have “doctored” the certificate to say only “Belinda Chandra” before handing it back to Belinda. But I don’t think that was the case.

I liked Sasha 55 and was a little surprised to see her make such an early exit. Being shown some of the Doctor’s time with her, rather than told, would have given her death greater impact. But, there’s only so much you can do in an hour-long episode, and this one had a lot of history to unpack.

I enjoyed meeting Belinda, who reminds me of Martha. I found it admirable and believable that she immediately sought to put her nursing expertise to use in the field hospital on the rebel base. I also appreciated that she was willing to sacrifice herself because she truly did feel responsible for what was happening. She impresses me as a good companion for the Doctor.

Side-note: My husband walked in while I was watching “The Robot Revolution” and remarked, “It looks very glossy.” Yes, it does. Maybe too glossy. That strikes me as being part of the Disneyfication of Doctor Who.

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@dentarthurdent Re: COVID, I’m in Nova Scotia, where we were part of the Atlantic Bubble that saw very few cases in the first two years of the pandemic, compared to the rest of Canada. Then along came Omicron and its variants, and suddenly we had a surge of cases. Before Omicron, Nova Scotia was exceptional for its lack of cases, but once Omicron arrived, we experienced infection rates similar to Canada overall.

My parents were both in the U.S., where things were very different. I knew, talking with them and my sister on the phone, that they were surprised at how few cases we had in the Atlantic provinces, and especially in Nova Scotia. What was our secret? I always felt part of it was because Nova Scotia is not a thoroughfare (except in the summer, when the ferry runs between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor, Maine. So, when you get to Nova Scotia, that’s the end of the road. Unlike other places, we weren’t getting people traveling through on their way to someplace else.

When I drove to Indiana (2,700 km.) to see my mother and other family members in October 2022, I saw how different the attitudes were. In Nova Scotia, almost everyone was masking, observing lockdown restrictions, etc. I crossed the border into Maine and stopped at a gas station, where I was the only one wearing a facemask. That was a recurring theme all along my route through the U.S.

Back to the Christmas special: I understand what you mean about the Doctor’s explanation to Joy, how he was deliberately cruel in order to save her, but really, I don’t think the audience needed that anymore than Joy did. Or, at least, we didn’t need two explanations. It just felt redundant to me … which surprised me, coming from a Moffat script.

As for your “he knew it because he knew it” solution to the briefcase code, you might be right, but it just doesn’t work for me in a satisfying way. However, I can’t come up with anything better, so your guess wins by default.

Sorry you’ve had such a cold two weeks in Auckland, but it’s good that your flowers are blooming again! Our days are getting shorter, which means fall is on its way. Autumn is usually our nicest season, but I dread what comes after (even though our winters tend to be milder than elsewhere in Canada). Early on, it looked like we were headed for another drought summer, but then the tap got turned on again, giving us sometimes torrential rain. Unlike other parts of Canada and the world, we have only had about a week total of seriously hot, humid weather. So we have been fortunate in that way.

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Back to “Joy to the World”: Something I forgot to mention in my previous post is the exchange between Joy and the Doctor, when she realized that he’d been deliberately cruel to distract her enough to release her from the briefcase. It struck me as redundant that the Doctor felt he had to explain it to her … twice. Joy’s facial expression told me she understood without needing two detailed explanations. I found that odd, especially in dialogue written by Steven Moffatt.

As others noted, I never did figure out how the Doctor worked out the code for the briefcase. I was hoping he’d somehow get it from Anita, or that it would just turn up (as often happens on Doctor Who) in the form of a timey-wimey revelation. But we never got the aha moment that usually accompanies such revelations (like the Day of the Doctor dungeon door/”long way round” solution that @dentarthurdent described).

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I’m finally holding in my hot little hands the Season 2 DVDs from the library!

I’ll start with things I disliked:

I thought it was too bad that Anita and Joy had to compete for screen time. I would have preferred Anita as the primary character. I found her more engaging than Joy (though I’d warmed up to Joy by the end).

The music was way over the top, basically telling me what to feel instead of supporting the narrative flow.

And I really didn’t need the Bethlehem Year 1 title card. It was pretty clear where/when we were, and what the star was meant to represent.

Things I enjoyed:

The Time Hotel was spectacular. The dinosaur felt shoehorned in, but still pretty impressive.

As usual, I got a little lost in all the timey-wimey stuff, but I just rolled with it.

Poor Trev. But, in the end, he didn’t let the Doctor down.

The friendship between Anita and the Doctor really resonated with me. I would have liked more of that, but it was overshadowed by Joy’s discovery of her destiny with the star seed.

The scene of Joy on her iPad, wishing her mother a Merry Christmas, was deeply moving.

The reference to COVID and dying alone hit home with me. In November 2020, my 93-year-old father got a mild case of COVID and was hospitalized in isolation for many weeks. When he was fully recovered, my stepmother got him a room at a nursing home, but because he still tested positive, he had to remain hospitalized and in isolation. The only people he saw were hospital staff.

Finally, he tested negative and was admitted into the nursing home, where he spent only a week before going back into the hospital not because of COVID, but a different condition he’d been managing for a few years. I’ve always believed that COVID, mild though it was, and six weeks of isolation did him no favors. A few days later, it was clear he was dying. The only people allowed in were my stepmother and stepsister … and we were grateful that they could be with him at the end.

Before COVID, my biggest worry was, would I get there in time? I never imagined that I wouldn’t be allowed to be at my father’s side. It’s a plight I did not repeat with my mother a year and a half later. All of her loved ones were there with her in the last week of her life.

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@dentarthurdent (I’ve just found out that there was a second woman in Alien, the navigator. I’d forgotten that. They had a row about whether to let the crew back in. Who were male. So it still fails the test.)

A bit off-topic: I rewatched The Birds for the umpteenth time over the weekend. It’s a timeless classic, and I never tire of it (even though, after finding out about Alfred Hitchcock’s treatment of Tippi Hedren and what she was subjected to, some scenes, like the attic scene, are even harder to watch).

I was reminded that Veronica Cartwright (who played the Alien navigator you mentioned) made something of a career of screaming and crying. I came across this fascinating interview, in which she reflects on the highlights of her career:

Veronica Cartwright on “The Field,” “The Birds,” “Alien” and Much More

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@winston I love that sign! “Sorry” is firmly entrenched in the Canadian vocabulary.

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@janetteb I definitely agree with you about the Paul McGann movie. I had no idea he was so good because … well, that movie didn’t offer a clue. But when I saw The Night of the Doctor, I was so impressed with him. As you say, what a difference a good script and good direction make!

@winston Yup, Mark Carney’s dance card is full … more than full, actually. I don’t know how he does it, but I’m glad we’ve got him.

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News-ish:

Wanted: a new PM, a new James Bond, a new Doctor – and a UK that can agree on its leading characters

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/26/prime-minister-james-bond-doctor-who-uk

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Much as I love Steven Moffat’s writing, I did feel that the complexity of his story arcs led to a conundrum for Doctor Who: How do you top this? Chris Chibnall tried … with largely disastrous results. His best episodes were the stand-alones that didn’t seem hell-bent on one-upping the story arcs of his predecessor.

I’d hoped that with RTD’s return, we’d see a return to a more compact, disciplined style of storytelling. I’ve only seen Ncuti Gatwa’s first season (I have a library hold on the second season). But, while there were some stellar episodes, the centre doesn’t hold. From what I have read, the same is true for his second season.

So, following as it does news of the break with Disney, this news is not surprising. But it is disappointing.

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@dentarthurdent Yes, I’d agree that patient consent is key.

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@dentarthurdent @ps1l0v3y0u @winston I confess that I’d completely missed out on Peter Capaldi’s earlier work, with the exception of seeing him in Pinochet’s Last Stand (2006 TV film), which I believe we watched on HBO. And, of course, his earlier guest turn on Doctor Who. I’ll have to see if there’s a way for us to watch The Thick of It. Sounds good.

Oh, and I just discovered that he and Lewis Capaldi are distantly related! Makes sense, given where they are from and the fact that they share the same last name.

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@ps1l0v3y0u It seemed to be very much about Peter being a fan, his devotion to the classic show… and adjusting to overwhelming public recognition.

Yes, I would think going from relative obscurity to international stardom would be a challenge for anyone. But Peter handled it with aplomb during his run with Doctor Who.

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I was listening to CBC Radio’s Q program this morning and enjoyed this interview with Peter Capaldi, who talked about his time with Doctor Who:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-50-q/clip/16211467-peter-capaldi-ora-cogan

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@ps1l0v3y0u I’ve never seen black turnstones; I looked up photos of them, and they are quite striking.

Ruddy turnstones, in their breeding plumage, have a feather colouration much like a calico cat (which is why I called them the calico cats of the bird world):

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Turnstone/species-compare/64811941

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@ps1l0v3y0u Now, if you want to see Turnstones in April, try the end of Southend Pier.

First time I ever saw ruddy turnstones was along beaches in our neck of the woods (southwestern Nova Scotia) in summer and fall. They are the calico cats of the bird world. Very distinctive!

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@dentarthurdent Thanks for clarifying the species. Wow, 100 of them! The most I’ve seen here is three at a time. Do yours migrate or stay put for the winter? The ones we see here migrate to this area in the spring to breed, then they leave for the winter.

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@dentarthurdent On our local beach at the moment, we get flocks of oystercatchers, which I think look slightly absurd with their long red beaks.

I envy you your close proximity to oystercatchers. Would these be Eurasian oystercatchers? I saw them when we visited Denmark in 2007 … though I didn’t know it at the time. Not living near the ocean back then, I was eager to see seals. We did see seals, but also lots of birds, most of which I couldn’t identify. It’s only with the help of Merlin’s photo ID that I have since been able to go through my Denmark photos and identify some of the birds I photographed.

The photos I have of the oystercatchers are not good enough to identify that way; we were too far away. But I have since been lucky enough to see American oystercatchers on Cape Sable Island, This is one of the few places in Canada where they breed, and it’s only about a 40-minute drive from here. It took me over a dozen tries, but I finally spotted them last summer. They’d moved from their breeding area (visible to me only with binoculars) to feed on the nearby sandflats. When I saw them, and then reviewed my Denmark photos, I realized that I’d seen Eurasian oystercatchers in Denmark. It’s because of that distinctive red beak you mentioned. I think they’re quite striking!

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@whohar Thanks for that clarification!

So, refresh my memory: Was “New Earth” the first episode in David Tennant’s first season as Doctor Who? As I recall, after Christopher Eccleston’s regeneration, Tennant made his first full-length appearance in the Christmas special, and then onward and upward.

@janetteb, I’m with you. I was not overly impressed with most of Tennant’s first season, especially after being so impressed with Eccleston. But after that, Tennant grew on me.

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@whohar Are you referring to these (“The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet”), or to two additional lost episodes that have been found?

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/doctor-who-lost-episodes-9.7131796

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@winston That’s a lot of snow! I would have preferred to visit at a more springlike time, but it reminded me how much I enjoy spring. Yesterday morning, we awoke to a thin layer of snow. As the sun rose, the dripping snow glittered like gems. Eventually the snow melted, turning into a spectacular spring day by mid-afternoon.

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Hello, all! Good to see the updates from everyone. We just got back from a trip to Ontario to visit family. We thought we were sick of winter here in Nova Scotia. Well, there the snowbanks are still heaped so high that the street signs barely peek out over them. And this is the slowly melting version. I can’t imagine what they were at their peak height. Here we finally had a proper winter and got a lot more snow than has been the norm in recent decades, so fingers crossed that the snowmelt will prevent the drought we experienced last summer.

Crazily enough, when we landed in Toronto Friday afternoon, it was sunny and 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit)! According to the forecast, their previous day’s high was 23, as well. We were tempted to stay and enjoy the warmth … except it didn’t last. Saturday and today are much more seasonal for this time of year. But what a shock to go from that, to finding our car coated in ice when we got back to our airport hotel. And then there was the fun drive home in freezing rain, then rain and fog. Very tiring for my husband, who did all the driving. My night vision is not good, so I avoid long nighttime drives, if I can help it. Which means I’m not much help to my husband in those situations. But we got home safe and sound, which is the important thing.

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I just spotted this story, from CBC Radio’s As It Happens program, about two recently discovered Doctor Who episodes (“The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet” from Hartnell’s third season), which were previously thought to be lost forever:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/doctor-who-lost-episodes-9.7131796

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@winston So happy to read your update on your little fellow. You’re right, those sleepy times will become farther and fewer between, so hopefully his parents are banking their own sleep time now. They’ll need it!

We too have a lot of snow, but we’re getting a nice warmup now, so it will be gone by the end of the week. Fortunately we’re seeing a slow snowmelt over weeks, rather than its usual “now you see it, now you don’t” spring pattern. Fingers crossed that it’s recharging our groundwater supply. That gives me hope for a drought-free summer.

I went on a road trip with friends yesterday to a tea room about an hour’s drive away. We had an honest-to-goodness afternoon tea. I can’t remember the last time I did that. It’s been decades. Then we visited the town lighthouse, located in a park along the harbour. Because of the rising temperatures, rain and melting snow. there was a lovely mist over the water. Beautiful, but I want to revisit that spot in better weather.

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@winston Congratulations! Oh, this is happy news, and most welcome today. You’re right, it’s the young ones we need to fight for. Hugs to you and your family.

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@janetteb He really pioneered the story arc in U.S. television. It just wasn’t done before the 90s especially in si fi.

My husband has made that observation, and certainly it was not in widespread use at this time. Babylon 5 did a stellar job with its story arcs, and the extent to which they were carried through was groundbreaking. But there were other TV series that pioneered it. One that comes to mind is thirtysomething, which predated Babylon 5, running from 1987 to 1991.

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@janetteb Initially I was like your son’s girlfriend. When my husband pulled out his prized DVDs and started watching them, I rolled my eyes and doom-scrolled on my phone, somehow seeing that as a better alternative. Especially when he saw fit to explain the whole backstory of a character or scene.

But, over time, the series has grown on me, and I am enjoying it. I am quite impressed at what they were able to achieve, both in terms of character arcs and special effects, given the time in which this was made.

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@janetteb A few years ago now, J.M.S. tried to do a re-imagining of Babylon 5. ( B.5 was originally inspired in part by Blake’s 7 incidentally.) It did not get off the ground. He recognised however that any attempt to ‘re do” the series needed new characters for new actors and a fresh take on the story. He wasn’t going far enough with that however, trying to just do a time reset and I don’t think it would have worked.

Interesting, as we’ve been watching Babylon 5 on DVD. We’re into Season 4 now. I had never watched it before. My husband is the original fan … but I’m enjoying it, too. I was surprised to discover how few of the original cast members are still alive.

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@thane16 Sadly, I’m not familiar with any South African music. After university, I drifted away from classical music, for the most part. My only connection with it now is through band, and also through film orchestral scores. But, living where I do, I would have to travel for concerts beyond the local singer/songwriter realm … and I just don’t do that.

(Speaking of South Africa, they are going through severe flooding due to weeks of rainfall. It’s a bad situation for people and for wildlife.)

We did used to listen to world music more, but for some reason we don’t do that anymore. We did enjoy a concert by a a wonderful percussionist, Senegalese born singer-songwriter and performer Elage Diouf, and his band at our local arts centre. But those opportunities are few and far between here.

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@thane16 Aaron Copland owes much to Charles Ives. It’s the whole “standing on the shoulders of giants” foundation and progression that is art. Copland’s music (the more programmatic pieces, anyway … not so much the avant garde ones from later in his career) do give a sweeping sense of Americana. Maybe it’s that sense of nostalgia that appeals to me so.

@whohar I’m glad that you were spared the worst of the weather extremes. I watch twice-daily safaris out of South Africa and the Maasai Mara, and also Africam fixed webcams. A cyclone has delivered successive days of rain. I’ve seen heavy rain there before, but not so many consecutive days of it. The Olifants River camera was washed away in the flooding. I have also read that camps at the Kruger National Park were evacuated. I don’t want to think about what the impact has been on humans and wildlife.

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@thane16 Love Fanfare for the Common Man! I think part of the reason I love Copland’s music is because of his use of open fifths. Such resonant chords. In high school my wind ensemble played El Salon Mexico. Quite a challenge for a small-town Indiana band, but we loved it.

And I love it that as a young’un, you thought ELP composed that music. Excellent taste!

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@ps1l0v3y0u Aaron Copland is my favorite composer. He kept his private life very quiet, while composing gorgeous music across a spectrum that ranged from the programmatic style he’s best known for, to a more avant garde style. Appalachian Spring moved me to tears the first time I heard it, and still does.

@mudlark I’m sorry about the death of your friend. Condolences to you and all who knew her. Rear Window is a classic, and I never tire of watching it. Glad you finally got to see it!

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