The Lodger. Another fondly remembered ep with a particularly significant departure: the mysterious ‘Silent’ space ship posing as, Craig’s first floor flat. That is we think it’s a space ship, the Doctor says it is, HADS has come to life and trapped Amy on The Tardis.

Of course, at this stage we don’t know it’s a ‘Silent’ spaceship because we’ve o…[Read more]

@janetteb

the duck-pond has no ducks…

it IS a thing. The Doctor discusses it with Amy at length.

The only thing I can think of is The Doctor texts ‘duck’ just before he enters hospital on a fireman’s ladder.

Maybe it got away from him (Moffat)

The Eleventh Hour. This ep is pretty much universally praised. Or, at least, it’s not immediately named unacceptable even by the ‘where’s Tennant?’ brigade. You know: Matt Smith is considered insufficiently blokey; a twitty toff last seen demonstrating at Aldermaston. The daleks turn up three eps in but they were considered too Ford Edsel.…[Read more]

New Project: 2010-2017; The Moff Arcs.

How does ‘the arc’ illustrate the inner working of NuWho? Do 45 minute standalone stories fail to ‘do it’ anymore? Even the most charitable critic must admit Chib’s approach, was problematic. How will a new show-runner choose to handle it? And does the question define the problem with some of the audience?…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @janetteb @nerys

Reverse the polarity…?

Well, if so, it’s a bit sad really.
The reason for the regeneration was a bit forced. Jodie’s reappearance decidedly non-valedictory. The fact that the new face WAS Billie was by far the best bit of Reality War… and that says it all.
Perhaps that’s RTD’s point: someone’s not available; yo…[Read more]

@janetteb @nerys

‘Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow’?

@nerys @janetteb @dentarthurdent

the dropping of Jed Mercurio’s name is very much to do with media reacting to his profile as an established BBC showrunner.

But, Line of Duty is a VERY good police procedural/organised crime group/vice and corruption drama. Lots of mystery, shock, twists and tension. Also humour. Transferrable skills.

The B…[Read more]

Just seen this. Probably clickbait… Jed Mercurio is in the running for WHO??

That might not be too sad…

@thane16

Female authored ‘speculative’ fiction, even May or LeGuin, does seem to be qualitatively different. How would they have written Bayta Darrel? Better than Isaac I’m sure. Though Issac is himself qualitively different to Samuel Butler say. Then you remember Azimov is as much removed from us as he was from Erewhon.

Scifi I like: Star Trek…[Read more]

@thane16

Thank you!

I did actually copy the entire ‘Editorial’! With my humbly submitted commentary. You know my regrettable opinion of the Beeb. Though I do LIKE the Beeb… but…

I still haven’t tackled more than 10 mins of Apples’ ‘Foundation’. I must sound like a curmudgeon, but this IS a very grown up story. They fatally misjudged the t…[Read more]

@whohar

So. The ‘Editorial’ immediately attracted me, and also had me foxed, which forced me to get Salvor Hardin to dust off his Penguin guide to symbolic logic. And his notes are on the back of this menu.

‘We are commissioning a new flagship series of Doctor Who.’ A WHAT?? Flagship? Does that mean NOT Big Finish?

‘The series should feel conte…[Read more]

@thane16 @dentarthurdent

instrumental verse…

The Beatles did it with Yer Blues, unintentionally: maybe the engineer failed to plug in the vocal lead for the last verse or something (you can just hear Lennon on the background).

Starless by Crimson has a 3 verse ‘1st movement’. Sonata and through-composed are the two default positions for Crims…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Yes. That’s enough Floyd.

Spotify is also excellent for sampling the unknown, just exceedingly parsimonious to the artist. I must listen to ‘On the Turning Away.’

If you are venturing into ‘The Tube’, there was an excellent BBC (?) compilation of Floyd films from Arnold Layne (I think) through to The Wall.

The Dave Gilmour‘s…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

Improv. Always fun to pontificate on something you never have a chance of doing…

Miles Davies could obviously improv and knew many fine musicians who could achieve exactly what he wanted. He also said he wanted to form a rock band because they made lots of money and the music was simple.

That is improv in rock and jazz is n…[Read more]

@thane16 @dentarthurdent

Sorry, made a mess of that last post… half measures really won’t do. But perhaps an in depth discussion of PF belongs here.

Richard Wright was probably the most original of the five core players and wrote off-beat pop songs with Syd Barrett. He tried to continue in the same vein after Syd left but encountered much res…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @thane16

Floyd! It’s difficult to talk about them without sounding like an obsessive. I really know nothing about their later post Walters incarnation. I know Gilmour was a friend of Jackie Leven, who I greatly admire.

I’m bewildered by their struggles after Syd Barrett ‘imploded.’ There was a huge struggle over what they were go…[Read more]

@thane16

The beginning of Once Upon a Time in The West is astonishing. I still remember the first time I saw it… WHAT???

But it had been brewing since A Few Dollars More. Love Morricone’s scores.

Touch of Evil has another outrageous opening shot. Also the opening sequence of Goodfellas. What shall I watch tonight? Oh dear ain’t got the last…[Read more]

@thane16 @dentarthurdent @whohar @winston @nerys

The Doctor Lies

The Soufflé is not the Soufflé, the Soufflé is the Recipe

Planet of Hats here I come

Just Some Bloke??!

Mark Gatiss made a rather downbeat interview recently, rather different to the ‘all is not over shtick’ issuing from the usual armchairs. He points out the BBC’s stance n…[Read more]

@nerys @dentarthurdent

This isn’t really an explanation but…

DOCTOR: ….four digits. That narrows it down to a possible 10,000 numbers. Feeling lucky?
JOY: Really not.
DOCTOR: I mean, the variables are never equally weighted. I could figure it out if I just had…
JOY: What?
DOCTOR: Time. The Time Hotel.
JOY: The what?
DOCTOR: I couldn’t use t…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent @thane16

You made me watch The Pilot again. Really NOT a problem… indeed from the age when watching Who REALLY wasn’t a problem.

’The Pilot.’ I feel there’s story in the title…

Moff’s given another chance? ‘No no you’ll just scare the broadsheets with your saphic africs…’

Moff given a surprise extra series? ‘Chibnall is…[Read more]