@Mudlark

But nobody who was taught as we were would ever write ‘could of’ instead of ‘could have’ or ‘could’ve, or fail to spot a dangling participle.

And they aren’t taught that today either, and to suggest so is (as well as being quite insulting to teachers) to ignore two fundamental changes since our day:

1. The inclusion of much more non-RP…[Read more]

@ichabod

1. Moffat didn’t cast Tennant, RTD did (and had worked with Tennant before – like Chibnall with Whittaker, he went with someone he knew he could trust);

2. Moffat has stated repeatedly that the original intent was to cast someone older, but they were won over by Smith’s audition as old in a young body.

@mudlark @janetteb

It’s an interesting point: why aren’t people now generally taught basic grammar and syntax as a matter of course?

Care is needed. Many of the grammatical truths were were taught were not, in fact, truths at all, but the consequence of 19th Century Oxbridge nobs applying Latin rules to a High Germanic language.

Be it the spli…[Read more]

@ichabod

The men, yes.  The young women, however, were doing something else (on tumblr and The Mary Sue at least) — complaining that Moffat’s female characters aren’t “feminist” *enough*.

I refer the honourable lady to the comments I made some time ago

[It can work the other way. Sometime ago I engaged with someone on the Graun, who asserted t…

[Read more]

Apropos of nothing in particular, this is the most sublime thing you will hear any time soon:

@TempusFugit

Greetings.

If you trace any fan site back to its beginnings you will nearly always find that they began as perfectly reasonable places where many views could be expressed in an open a collegiate way.

But then, as is the way with many online spaces, the loudmouths and blowhards have a horrible tendency to butt in with their “Capadli…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

@Mudlark

There are other sources of critique (of course) but too often they seem to boil down to “Well, that’s not how I would have written [her]” (see the West Wing caveat – same principle in action).

But also, the thing with Moffat is that he absolutely refuses to spell things out for the (to be charitable) impatient or inattentive.

Of…[Read more]

@thane16 @missrori

The point that cannot be emphasised enough is that the people who complain about Moffat, using his depiction of women, use exactly the same syntax ad those who style themselves mens rights activists or incels.

That is, people who have never actually met any girls.

They sit claiming to love the show, while the entire point of…[Read more]

@thane16

For some reasons this reminded me of The Amateur Transplants “London Underground” song, which is upthread somewhere.

@thane16 @missy

More likely a fluke of the angle of impact. A 1998 car isn’t significantly heavier than a modern car and things like impact absorbance zones were in common use by then. You didn’t mention whiplash, which suggests they worked as designed.

PTSD’s a fucker. Keep an eye on that. It’s sneaky. Just when you think its gone, it bites…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip

(sorry – just replied in wrong thread |)

You are Truckles AICM£5.

There is literally no change in DW viewing figures that are not reflected in *every* genre of TV viewing, including the soaps, other than those with a live voting element (in fact DW has very slightly outperformed, although I doubt it is statistically significant).

I’m just gonna leave this here: The Pandorica Opens. According the the Skeptics Guide to the Universe crew the food is excellent.

@winston – am jealous. I have a 4 hour drive if I want to see the Dyfi ospreys.

The UK birds head for Senegal, although some have taken to stopping in southern Portugal.

I literally laughed out loud at Stormy Spaniels.

@winston

I think the structure next to the nest is there to simulate the wild habitat at bit. They usually nest in trees, but natural nests can be a bit rickety (the first pair to breed in Wales – Glaslyn had their nest collapse. When they came back the next year the local ape descendants had done some reinforcement work). The birds can hop onto…[Read more]

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@xad4 @winston @thane16 and I’m sure others who have followed the Dyfi Ospreys. I went down on Monday on a rather dreck and dreary day but which was replete with the hope of seeing at least one of the chicks fledge. Thus I took my tripod and Sigma 150-600mm lens and wound the latter all the way out. The Observatory is a wooden structure and with a…[Read more]

BBC APPROVED SPOILERS...

In other news, Joss Whedon and Monica Owusu-Breen are working up a Buffy reboot for HBO: Clicky