@jimthefish

Late night greetings!

Not sure I’d agree that the Pertwee era deliberately set out to push boundaries.

Well it certainly pushed the boundaries of acceptability. I cannot now recall whether it was Spearhead From Space or Terror of the Autons that had the blood-splattered windscreen that sent people into a frenzy. All tame now, but star…[Read more]

@jimthefish

Yes, it did, but all that really suggests is that people were just as idiotic in 1973 as they are now.

Crikey! That’s harsh. I don’t think intelligence has anything to do with it, rather prior experience. The Pertwee era was known for pushing boundaries. A natural consequence is that the boundaries then lie well within those of today.…[Read more]

@jimthefish

But he does bring gravitas to the part: it’s just in the lighter moments he feels a little forced. Though I think part of my problem with him is that his costume is just not quite Doctorly enough.

I actually liked the costume more than I did the actor, who remains my least favourite Doctor. I was quite excited by the billboards I saw (…[Read more]

@miapatrick

Really sorry to hear you’ve been left in such a horrendous situation. My mother has been left in a similar position. I think this virus has become a measure of where we’re at, socially and institutionally, and the lack of wiggle room in the latter (and the gobsmacking selfishness of the former) doesn’t bode well as a dry run for the…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

My point was more that there seems to be an invitation to draw connections between The Timeless Children and earlier, classic stories, but that those connections don’t quite work. Whether it turns out those connections are supposed to be made, or whether they’re misdirects, or whether they’re accidental, is, of course, the f…[Read more]

I’m sorry for your loss, Damon.

@mudlark

Tongue planted well and firmly in cheek 😀 Endgame is one of my favourite plays by one of my favourite writers. I’ve seen it a few times now. The big draw for me this time was they also did Rough for Theatre II which I’d read but never seen before and was rather good.

Retrospectively the big draw is that it’ll be the last thing I see o…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>@bluesqueakpip</p>
Halloooooo! I hope you’re having a great weekend.

Yes, that’s a continuity problem. But there’s no good answer to it, because the pre-Hartnell selves were a continuity contradiction anyway. If they were real, the regeneration cycle should have been rebooted at the end of the Davison era…

[Read more]

I’ve recently rewatched both The Brain of Morbius and The Deadly Assassin to try and figure out what Mr. Chibnall might have had rolling around his head.

Both at first glance invite easy connection to The Timeless Children: the pre-Hartnell incarnations of TBoM; the Doctor’s allusion to Time Lord history being bunkum in TDA.

But both of the…[Read more]

DOCTOR: If I went in [the Matrix], I could discover where he intercepted the circuit.

SOME DUDE: I couldn’t allow that. It’s too dangerous. The psychosomatic feedback might kill you.

DOCTOR: I’m aware of that.

SOME DUDE: It’s never been done.

CASTALAN: Let him try it.

SOME DUDE: Alright.

SOME DUDE lies the Doctor down and pulls a device out…[Read more]

I went to see Endgame the other day. I was very confused. I’d heard a lot about it, not least that it was a sequel to Infinity War starring Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson, neither of whom were in this latest production, although I don’t remember them being among those killed off by the snap.

Instead we got Daniel Radcliffe as Clov and A…[Read more]

Yes, this made me very sad. He’s one of my favourite actors. I especially loved him in Bergman’s Winter Light and Hour of the Wolf. He had a good innings and a looooong career, but he could never outstay his welcome.

@jimthefish: Rian Johnson… good shout!

@davros

It has only just occurred to me while reading your commentary that there’s an odd disparity between what I think most fans of the reboot consider the golden age and the received wisdom about the quality of its content.

I think for a lot of people, David Tenant + Billy Piper = Who at it’s best. In terms of the dynamic between the leads,…[Read more]

@jimthefish

It’s almost deconstructing the whole concept of Who RTD-style finales in a way.

I think of Doctor Who generally, in fact any formulaic adventure story. Typically these go: bad guy has very clever plan, good guy is wrongfooted from the off, the evil plan goes smoothly, bad guy explains it, good guy cleverly pulls the rug out and w…[Read more]

@jimthefish

As a final coda to my burbling ramblings above, this is a long but pretty good read

Thanks for the link. The author is definitely correct that Mr. Moffat’s scripts subverted audience expectations. This is something I felt from The Big Bang onwards. By itself, The Pandorica Opens is setting up an epic finale involving a serious dollop o…[Read more]

P.S. @bluesqueakpip

Tom Baker really was an icon of his time. Punk before punk, as you say. But what is our time? Punk, misfits – they’re practically mainstream.

Well, our time is one where people discover that our past wasn’t quite the glowing iconography we thought it was – and then try to pull the symbols of that past down, destroy it.[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Oh, I’m not arguing that the old canon is sacrosanct. There’s just a difference between what Moffat did — filling a gap we all knew existed without altering anything before it — and what Chibnall may have done: adding a gap that wasn’t there and filling it with stuff that impacts everything from Hartnell onwards.

Well, after The…

[Read more]

@phaseshift

Elizabeth Sandifer in her blog asked why Doctor Who had never actually engaged with the punk era, as Pertwee had engaged with the iconography of the glam period. Baker was already a punk before punk started. His oddness and aversion to ‘the system’ was his superpower.

No way! I was having this exact conversation with myself in my hea…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

Damn, I wrote such a long post and it seems to have been incarcerated by the Judoon!

Short version is: I agree that it’s far too premature to declare the mythos ruined. There are many places this storyline could go, some great, some pointless, some bad. But we do have Dr Ruth, glam-rock Division time lords, and regenerating…[Read more]