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  • #67217
    swordwhale @replies

    Well there we are, a full season!

    Loved it! Bought my first sonic and found a reasonable facsimile of the Doctor’s coat at Goodwill. And a tardis hat at another thrift shop.

    This forum is great. Carry on.

    Gawd, the wait for the return is gonna be a loooooooooooooong one…

    #66616
    swordwhale @replies

    and I too feel “bigger and better finales” goes along with “more explosions and effects” in films…

    that’s not storytelling

    so kudos to Chibnall & Co.

    #66615
    swordwhale @replies

    A someone who has injured her knees in many colorful and exciting ways (swordfighting, karate, and jumping out of a truck full of raptors on the way to a lecture… you have no idea how heavy a three pound great horned owl gets on one hand when your knee is screaming… augh, I can’t lift it anymore!)… I applaud a bit of standing around talking.

    Also as someone who likes to talk a lot…what’s the problem?????????????????

    #66613
    swordwhale @replies

    I think I’m with @bluesqueakpip ; “the threat isn’t to people’s lives as such. It’s to their very selves, their souls.” Good insights into how Tim Shaw affects everyone we see.

    also @thane16 good insights! and this: “Mum just added this:Like ‘red- shirts’ but different and worth a closer inspection”

    I’ve been loving this entire season, this new face of the Doctor, the design, and the crap monsters… who point out the real ones are internal.

    So he lands by accident in front of two Ux who’re thinking he’s the creator and he hijacks their powers. He’s still crap. Whatever he does, whatever powers he abuses, he’s still – completely inadequate. Ryan and Graham are a lot more badass than he is.

     

    I still like Jodi Whitaker’s “fizzy energy”…

    @pedant ; There is a difference between ending the suffering of an individual and a death sentence… and which is it here? And when does that line become grey and fuzzy? (I’ve had to make many decisions about ending the suffering of animals I love, and think death sentences in general are rubbish, tho my enraged goddess instincts say “kill them, kill them a lot”)

    As for this is TV not real life, the point of sci-fi and fantasy is that it dives beneath the surface of reality and brings up deep truths…about real life… in the format of a fictional tale.

    Totally enjoying the discussion here, carry on!

     

     

    #66218
    swordwhale @replies

    Wow…cool!

    I suppose one could get all mythic and pick this apart, well, mythically. Yes, it is very faerie tale.

    The sentience that was in opposition to the regular universe, and gets kicked out echoes many religious legends of Fallen Angels and Tolkien’s Morgoth (who famously sang along with the creation but horribly out of key, because he wanted to be a rock star and they were doing classical).

    The frog was a hilarious “didn’t expect that, did you?”… and then you start to pick apart the mythic implications of frogs…

    fertility, harmony, and licentiousness, in a few cultures…

    also primeval gods, creatures who dive into water to retrieve Important Stuff, and symbols of cluelessness if sitting in a well…

    Of course I’ve been painting frogs lately for an art project: a pamphlet on Creatures You Find Along The Codorus Creek… green frog, bullfrog, pickerel frog…

    I do like moths and illustrated a few of those for an animal alphabet… what else are you going to find for v (in Pennsylvania) but a vine sphinx moth…

    and it’s the caterpillars that eat stuff, but, hey, alien dimension and all…

    I really thought they’d fallen into the Norse Dark Elf realm Svartalfheim…

    and the sheep thing…. bwaa haaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa… it occurred to me A. this is Doctor humor… B. the rebellion didn’t necessarily mean revolting sheep but the people associated with them… I mean here in the Chesapeake Bay we had the Oyster Wars…

    Of course might have been bionic sheep…

    Ultimately about the character relationships without needing a “monster”..

    #66088
    swordwhale @replies

    Still loving this series….

    Had to look up “gurning”… totally enjoy Jodi Whitaker’s enthusiastic childlike sense of wonder high energy Doctor. Yep.

    I was wondering about the not-period-clothing thing too (I’ve spent some time IN period clothing in the Society For Creative Anachronisms and the Longship Company, including marching into odd places like McDonalds and ordering with many a thee and thou and milady). I’m gonna go with the “psychic holoskin” thingie…

    Where was that Venusian taichikungfu thing this week???

    or the Vulcan Neck Pinch

    Ever since Alan Cumming played my favorite X-Man (one of my cats is named Nightcrawler) I have adored him. He did not disappoint.

    I’m seeing the “rubbish monsters” as a nifty reversion to classic BG Who, scary but fun for kids, monstery enough if we shut up and enjoy the ride… and with the knowledge that the real monsters are within…

    #65801
    swordwhale @replies

    oh, PS… another brainfart on work

    As someone who’s done a wide variety of crappy jobs (many literally involving poop: stable work, farm work, wildlife rehab work…we will not discuss beaver poop or dead rats that owls stash in x-yule trees)(though the really crappy jobs were food service etc)… I am now an arthritic achey person on social security (hah hah hah secure hah ha hah) and a part time retail job. I would cheerfully retire if I could and devote my energy to Meaningful Things. Not happening anytime soon. Liking those countries which have a “base wage” concept, your essential needs are taken care of by the entire culture, if you want a McMansion you do extra for it. Can we educate our way out of poverty? It’s probably more complicated than that. I’ll leave that to wiser heads.

    #65800
    swordwhale @replies

    Still lovin this series!

    As someone who has a love/hate relationship with tech in general and Amazon in particular (and don’t get me started on voice menu robots that you have to wade through when you call a business… which is where I begin conversing like a mariner, singing (badly) bleep you bleepity bleeping robots to the Hallelujah chorus, and generally deciding I Will Never Call That Number Again)…

    this was a cool episode. Again, it played with our assumptions. The Baddie we thought was, wasn’t, and it was an ordinary unassuming person.

    A few folks have noted that the industrial revolution wasn’t all evil and agriculture isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Well, mostly it’s mud and other hoofed stock… it is neither awful nor idealistic, it just is what it is. Most people in my nearly, semi still-rural area of Pennsylvania who are doing agriculture have to deal with weather, quirky markets (let us not discuss the trumpocalypse and the soy market), expensive and breaking machinery, veterinary care… or being kicked by a large herbivore, bitten by a pig (they’re basically brilliant evil), or chased by turkeys (please eat the turkeys, they are basically feathered velociraptors). On the other hand, most of us would never ever ever move to a city… bleargh… I can barely stand driving into them for necessary stuff. Despite the “hard work” we love it, the animals, the natural world, do our best to protect the environment, and it beats the bleepity bleep bleep bleep out of standing in a grey noisy unnatural factory with bad air. (been there, done that, phooey… I can barely stand retail).

    I do really detest mud though, and my knees and I wish we could ship all this rain to California…

    The whole bubble wrap thing tho… taking a mundane innocuous object and making it terrifying… and the idea that in whatever future they have flown into, bubble wrap is still the best tech for that purpose.

    Nice that we didn’t actually get The Evil Corporation, just a giant honkin business that mostly works but can work better, with One Disgruntled Crazy Person.

    I don’t get the irritation with the tardis interior. It just feels homey to me… goddess cave.

    @janetteb  “It is more like drinking a Jacobs Creek sparkling shiraz after drinking Rockford Black”… is that like a Flying Dog Pearl Necklace (Chespaeake Bay oyster stout) vs Bud Light??? >D

    As for saving Charlie, he was warned, given the opportunity to turn himself around, and did not. Too bad, so sad. Kerblam! (nope, zero sympathy)

    Has the idea of “work” changed over time? In a natural setting, a lifeform does what it naturally needs to do to thrive… horses graze, move to water, to shelter, away from predators, they seem to like what they do… cats sleep, play, climb the curtains, hunt, sleep for most of the day, they do none of that because they HAVE to… hawks sit and wait, or soar on thermals, in unnatural settings (wounded educational birds on a lecture) they can stress out doing what they are NOT geared to do (like sitting on your fist staring at squirmy staring-back third graders)… Humans went from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists and on. Is “work” exhausting toil? Or something engaging, enlightening, a thing we immerse ourselves in and love? (well it should be). Brainfart over. Show made me think. Ow.

    Many interesting comments her on the subject too (@lionheart564, good insights)

    @bluesqueakpip good insights on the development of the Doctor and her relationship with death.

     

     

     

    #65632
    swordwhale @replies

    @pedant …oh…coughtrumpocalypsecoughcough lol

     

    Interesting to see the views of Jodi Whittaker’s Doctor. I seem to remember a description, in an interview about the new series; “fizzy energy”.

    I think I relate to it as a fabulous well channeled version of the ADD brainstyle, with bottomless brilliance. Since we’re only six episodes in I suspect we’ll have much more character development to go.

    Wondering how much of the uncertainly some have with the character of the Doctor is because a woman is bringing a slightly different kind of energy to it? Is it different from what all the male actors brought to it?

    PS, I’m a 63 year old woman who has always been annoyed that boys had all the fun in all the TV and movies and books I absorbed … and who thinks gender doesn’t matter. But it might give a different color to a portrayal…

     

    #65628
    swordwhale @replies

    More and more I’m shouting “THIS IS THE SERIES I WANTED WHEN I WAS TWELVE!!!”

    Meaning, Hero Girls, adventure, heroes who aren’t warriors but save the day, humor, exotic locales (including Sheffield), a quirky spacetimeship, random forays into living history (which I grew up to do a lot of), space the final frontier, aliens…

    @drben I agree, this season does have a different feel, but Thirteen is definitely The Doctor.

    I also have no problem with less bonkerising and more straightforward plots. I personally prefer character driven stories, not convoluted plots which leave me going ????????????

    In general: Perhaps if it isn’t flying for you, it may be just that you like pepperoni pizza while I would rather have pumpkin pie (with cinnamon and a huge pile of real whipped cream). Admittedly I am not as steeped in decades of this show as some fans, but I do have knowledge of earlier incarnations (which I enjoyed when I could watch them, and I adored Capaldi), but I do love this version. I think it is also an excellent jumping on place for those who have not seen the show at all.

     

    Ran into a couple of boys from Bristol in the store where I work in York Pennsylvania…

    Me: (ooo British kids!) “Have you seen the new Doctor Who?”

    Them: “Erm…no. Never.”

    Me: —

    After my salesmanship skills were dumped on them they might check it out tho…

     

    I like how in this one we get the History Lesson, from several angles, and see the pain it inflicts on a personal level rather than from the bird’s eye view of history… though we get a strong sense of how it is echoing down through the decades. I actually had to look up the partition of India… I have known and worked with a number of Indians but had zero knowledge of this bit of history  and its effects… other than the Nepalese guy I worked with grumbling under his breath at some Pakistani customers…

    The science fiction elements worked beautifully… the “demons” who turn out to be something else entirely (even though they look quite scary) was a neat twist.

    And the Doctor not being all knowing, especially about this race.

     

    @sontaran2589 There is a neat throwaway line near the beginning when the guy in the cart says something to the effect their language is pretty good for foreigners. Chalk it up to the babblefish…er…universal translators…eh… thingamabobbies they got in the one episode to translate stuff. He’s hearing them speak in the local language, we’re hearing the locals speak English.

    @juniperfish  well said!

    The actual demons of partition were, of course, people, fuelled by sectarianism and the legacies of British colonialism. This seems to be a central theme in Chibnall’s Who. The “real” monsters have been human in Arachnids in the UKRosa and now in this episode, when they have followed paths of intolerance and chosen a desecration of the ethic of care (for one another, for the planet/s).

    I like Chibnall’s vision for this Doctor – that we are living in dark times and so the Doctor has GOT to be a light shining in the universe.

    As a rather peevedwiththetrumpocalypse American I applauded Macron’s “nationalism being the opposite of patriotism”… the world needs more Team Tardis.

    @pedant …I spew things out on twitter by accident (tied to my wordpress) but don’t look…  Gammon and Angry Virgins waht??? Are there still people grumbling about Dr Who doing what it does; change, and reflect the culture around it?

    OK, googled it. Angry Virgins are scary… ugh.

     

    I loved this episode.

    Now where can I get my new sonic…

     

     

    #65480
    swordwhale @replies

    @troygorsline I also thought of Stitch… much of the P’Ting is a similar sort of indestructible potential weaponized creature… dangerously cute.

    I thoroughly enjoy everyone’s critiques of the show (I may learn something as a writer), but have to put in my vote for I LOVE THIS DOC AND THIS SHOW SO FAR!!!

    Sorry, not sorry about the stuck caps…

    >D

    #65479
    swordwhale @replies

    @miapatrick Of course this same culture that denounced the infidel muslims also rediscovered a lot of the classical literature of Europe through the work of islamic scholars and absorbed a lot of of the scientific work of the Islamic empire , often by Latinising the names of Arab scholars and absorbing them into the cannon.

    Wow, cool historical insights!

    And… the American Cowboy’s horsemanship style came from the Spanish in the wild west, who got it from (drum roll please)… the Moors and other Arab horsemen. And their small, wiry, hardy Arabs influenced most American breeds.

    Not to mention the “Spanish Colonial Horses”…descended from Moorish Barbs… that still roam the wild west, the east coast barrier islands; the Outer Banks: (Corollas, Shackelfords and Bankers), South Carolina (the Marsh Tacky), and Florida (the Florida Cracker Horse). Even the wild horses of my favorite islands, Chincoteague and Assateague (Maryland and Virginia) originally had Spanish Colonial Horses… aka.. Barbs from the Moors.

    (Most of my equines have been both Arabs and wild mustangs, it’s a favorite subject… WHO knew it would have anything to do with a tardis)

    @whisht taking the spiders to a Planet of Huge Flies… why didn’t I think of that! Brilliant!

     

    I think technically the human race is all one thing and the differences in DNA between us are ridiculously tiny.

    Actual genetic variation in humans. Human populations do roughly cluster into geographical regions. However, variation between different regions is small, thus blurring the lines between populations. Furthermore, variation within a single region is large, and there is no uniform identity.  http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/

    Basically: difference between chunks of land where we come from: small. Variation in any bunch of people in a chunk of land: large.

    Human race.

     

    And yes, WhitDoc does have a distinctive style with the sonic screwdriver. I’m amused.

    @miapatrick I’m trying to sort out what the fuzzything is in your avatar…

    #65462
    swordwhale @replies

    @bluesqueakpip …love that: “Democracy means that losing side always thinks the winning side is stupid…Democracy includes the right to make stupid decisions.”

    yep.

    Having voted (Pennsylvania, US), I am sitting here hoping for the Big Blue Wave to wash away the Orange Menace…

    many people are quite energized, but had a long conversation with older neighbor lady who is Just Fed Up and completely cynical about all politicians…

     

    Nary a problem that couldn’t be helped by a smaller population of (healthier, happier, better educated, diverse) humans: give women education, health care, control over their own reproduction, and problem solved.

    #65460
    swordwhale @replies

    Listening to Science Friday on National Public Radio, ( https://www.npr.org/podcasts/583350334/science-friday ) I encountered a nifty sciencey story about “Ever wondered why your dog’s back-and-forth shaking is so effective at getting you wet? Or how bugs, birds, and lizards can run across water—but we can’t? Or how about why cockroaches are so darn good at navigating in the dark? Those are just a few of the day-to-day mysteries answered in the new book How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future, by David Hu.”

    It took me awhile to realize David Hu probably has a doctorate… which makes him…

    yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasss, at the end of the segment they played the Doctor Who theme…

     

    Also, went to the beach last Saturday with friends… we’re talking miid-Atlantic coast, Virginia, Assateague, barrier island, wild horses, gorgeous wildlife refuge and COld. We passed a car with surfboards on the roof… I took a pic. Later, I realized the license plate frame said “don’t blink”


    <h2 class=”title” data-metrics=”{"action":"click rundown story","category":"podcast directory"}”></h2>

    #65458
    swordwhale @replies

    Did anyone else think the android is a descendant of Data from ST:TNG?????????

    Which just shows how influential that was..

    #65435
    swordwhale @replies

    (just spent five minutes wondering why I couldn’t post, conversing like mariner… then realized keyboard not plugged in …because…cats… type…)

    #65434
    swordwhale @replies

    @juniperfish aaaaauuughhhhhhhhhhh, I finally saw Deadpool and I cannot think of what relates to AvocadoPear…

    I’m actually loving this series so far, perhaps it fits my taste well, adventure with a bit of humor, and great character development. (Yaz will get her day, I’m sure.) Comparing it to some critically acclaimed dramas on the BBC that show up here on PBS (coughplacetocallhomecough) this is more my flavor (I’m beginning to heartily be annoyed by draaaaaaaaaamah that just never resolves at the end of the episode). But then, I don’t like pepperoni pizza or Picasso either.

    @ pretty much everybody… the Pting struck me as a classic gremlin, not the furry weird ones from the movie, but the original ones that ate WWII planes… nice twist that it devoured energy and it took awhile for everyone to figure that out. It clearly was meant to be an annoying creature and actual threat, but at the same time kind of hilariously cute… sort of like raccoons in your trash… or bears…

    @jimthefish or those purple minions… indeed

    and reddy-bluey reddy-bluey reddy-bluey T-shirt… how about a purple one?

     

     

    #65302
    swordwhale @replies

    @kevinwho

    I see your points about Who delving into US politics. I perhaps just enjoy the “view from across the pond” at our silliness. Nice seeing an outside viewpoint.

    But sure, let’s see what else the season has to offer. I enjoy the weekly vacation in BBC land.

    #65301
    swordwhale @replies

    @lionheart564

    I dabbled in various martial arts to the point where I run from danger…. ok, limp from danger (bad knees)… I did learn one really good tai chi form and do it often… if not very well. 😉

    #65265
    swordwhale @replies

    @bluesqueakpip Definitely comedy horror. I adore spiders so was basically going “stupid humans don’t go in there” the whole time and howling with Halloween laughter.

    Lovely that the Doctor is rooting for the spiders.

    And He Who Shall Not Be Named was the truly scary thing… noo no nooo noooo nope train to nopeville we’re gonna elect someone with fewer guns and more hearts.

    Really cool and hilarious to step outside our own American insanity and see how our situation is seen from the other side of the pond…

    Why did he not get eaten by a giant spider…

    Team tardis is fabulous.

    And yes, giant honkin spiders are a theme in several of my favorite things: Middle Earth and Harry Potter.

    @juniperfish I think He Who Shall Not Be Named (Mr Greed and Trash Heaps) was a pretty good  and somewhat hilarious poke at Certain Political Figures and Trends. Stupid, selfish, narcissistic and utterly impotent.

    Wait wait, the shirt was blue, then it was red, then… I have no idea…

    caps lock, bwaaaa haaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

    We can’t wait for the Doctor, or anyone else, to fix earth’s problems. We have to do it ourselves. A rather sombre message, for sombre times.

    Indeed, well said.

    @mudlark I am the crazy lady popping cups over spiders and releasing them into the garden, or simply scooting them onto a Kleenex or something and releasing…

    nice argiopes in my garden… one of my favorite pics this year…

     

    but then, it seems the crows have taken the TARDIS…

     

    (one on a lighting fixture in a Royal Farms parking lot on a trip)

     

    This is still the series I would have adored when I was twelve…

    I adore it now.

    @lionheart564 You can communicate in more than one language, awesome! I’ve only got English, though I tried to learn to count to ten in Chinese (kung fu class I dabbled in),,, hahahaha lol… I was awful. You are doing fine.

    @kevinwho indeed, fair enough, the current toddlerinchief has insulted everyone… and truly peeved the Canadians… who do not peeve easily…

    Interesting to see the varied reactions to the show so far and this episode in particular. One of the strengths of Doctor Who is its constant change with each new Doctor and showrunners and writers. We all have our favorite flavors. I happen to like this one very much, but critiques of the episodes are interesting to anyone who writes their own stories, like me.

    #65218
    swordwhale @replies

    I too am very angry about the attack on trans rights, because it is a nasty and deliberate attempt to break-up the power of LGBTQ+ by atomising it, and the architects of the attack know exactly what they are doing, as trans-folk have reached less critical mass support amongst the “general populace” than lesbian and gay folk (bisexuals are still often just erased). “Love is love” has been such an effective and powerful piece of persuasion, whereas “my gender is different from the one I was assigned” is still breaking through in terms of public understanding (in a US/UK context).

    @juniperfish

    I had a brief conversation with a middle aged woman a few months ago in a store… she went on about “men using women’s bathrooms…” All I could do (as a store employee) was say something like “The only ones using women’s bathrooms are women…” (whether they were born as such or not), and point out that your family is in danger from hetero men not trans people of any gender. Ugh. The attitude is embedded in our culture, and how to speak up is sometimes a conundrum…

    …and one of my male friends went through the transition to what she had always felt she was, female. Up to him telling me he was now she, I knew nothing about it. It took a wee bit to wrap my brain around it.

    So yeah, this conversation needs to happen more often, the mainstream needs to be educated.

    #65217
    swordwhale @replies

    Dear UK friends:

    Please translate “jumper” to us Americans.

    I thought it was “sweater” as in John Watson’s jumpers.

    The lovely @janetteb mentioned the Doctor’s T-shirt as a jumper.

    I usually think of jumpers like this…

    Picture

    (me, back in the dark ages of the 80s, when I had knees)

     

    #65215
    swordwhale @replies

    @anduril

    omg I did not notice the color of the Doctor’s T-shirt changed!!! I had to look up stills from the episodes.

    Maybe she has not-empty pockets now…

    good username, anduril

    #65214
    swordwhale @replies

    @chiana

    3 shadows…

    photographer artist smacks head in disbelief that she did not notice this

    or the shadows may have been somewhat vague, due to the proximity of the suns to each other

    or they couldn’t afford the CGI

    or the extra lights

    I think Tatooine had the same problem…

    #65066
    swordwhale @replies

    Adventures in Time and a Pink TARDIS…

    OK, I hope I’ve got the right forum page here…

    As I remember, the original Who was supposed to inspire kids to enjoy history.

    Here on the Chesapeake Bay, specifically on the Chester River, in Chestertown (Maryland), a couple of “time machines” decided to have a sail one day… and it turned into a party that has gotten rather larger…

    Picture

    Friends and I try to go each year.

    The waterfront is a floating timeline from 1630 to 20th century…

    Yes, one of the “tardises” is blue…

    (Kalmar Nyckel and Privateer Lynx)

     

    But this year I ended up on the pink one. I didn’t pick it because of our first woman doctor, the skipjack I’d booked a ride on had engine trouble and we were sent off to other ships…

    Picture

    The Lady Maryland is a pungy schooner, they were always painted green on top and pink on the bottom. Legend varies as to why. They delivered perishable goods, and were wicked fast and agile. It’s basically a pretty tractor trailer. Here, in another year, with the shadow of Kalmar Nyckel on her sails…

    It was a drizzlyish rainish pewter sort of day. Umbrellas are a bad idea on boats, not enough space and too many pokey bits, so I spent a lot of time wiping the camera and hiding it under my backpack’s rain cover.

    The sailing trips (about two hours on the river) tend to be interactive: you can heave and haul on a line to help raise a sail. It’s an incredible amount of work to raise a single sail! The ships themselves are, like the tardis, more like living things than mere machines. Their hulls creak and groan with the waves, their lines sing with the power of the wind, and when the sails snap out it’s like dragon wings overhead. And they often have a mind of their own.

     

    (there’s more on my website, http://www.swordwhale.com, I took all these pics except the one of me, that was my buddy Dave Tristan)

     

    #65065
    swordwhale @replies

    @jimthefish

     

    OMG… what did I just see….

    I adore Capaldi

     

    (snorts milk and Oreos out nose)

    thanks

    #65026
    swordwhale @replies

    Still reading through all the great commentary…. whoo!

    He’s no big warrior leader; he has to cheat to even have a chance of passing his people’s test. He’s not even a great warrior who fights other warriors – more a serial killer of worried brothers, random drunks and kindly grandfathers. A murderous, cheating bully.

    @bluesqueakpip I feel like maybe this kind of villain reflects much of what’s going on in several parts of the word in real life… or some of our collective unconscious angst…. evil cheating bullies abound. Where…is…the…Doctor?

    #65016
    swordwhale @replies

    Too adult? If Who isn’t giving 7-year-olds nightmares, it isn’t doing its job.

    @pedant … bwaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! >D

    Perfectly describes that lovely balance of fascination and terror that makes the Whoniverse unique…

    #65014
    swordwhale @replies

    Sorry everybody, kind of skipped the Brexit chatter there….

    I don’t have much knowledge on the details of it, nor a schooled opinion. Best of luck with it tho…

    I’m trying to survive the trumpocalypse…

    bwaaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

    Is the Doctor still the President of the World????

    #65012
    swordwhale @replies

    @pedant

    I would so hang out with you guys, Amaretto or no… but preference to dark beer like muddy pond water teeming with life (see: Chespeake Bay area’s “Flying Dog Pearl Necklace” or “Sweet Baby Java”)…

    sadly, it requires a very long sail…

    (Viking ship Sae Hrafn, Oakley MD, me firing (camera) shots over the bow of my kayak…)

    “Pearl Necklace” is a stout brewed with oysters… really…

     

    #65010
    swordwhale @replies

    ahhhhhhhhhhhh the stuff you find in thrift shops…

    DSCN8197

    Stich AND the tardis hat…

    (shout out to Community Aid in Hanover Pennsylvania USA)

    #64951
    swordwhale @replies

    @pedant

    Thanks for the info on the fabulous Puro!

    fandom …is….awesome…!!!

    #64949
    swordwhale @replies

    @miapatrick

    Thanks for clearing up “Puro” !

    (here I was thinking this was akin to allonsey)

    #64947
    swordwhale @replies

    Puro — Ah, thanks for that clip from Close Encounters — I can’t watch that end sequence (and its rich, playful score) without tears these days — it seems like some message from the past of a different planet, one still full of curiosity, good will, and the confidence *not* to meet a ET visitor with guns blazing.  That’s not us any more (if it ever was, except in the minds of visionary artists); not in the US, that’s for sure, where one political party is trying to shift the blame for its own adherents’ threatening behavior to the party of the victims — an act of calculated venomousness that seems alien to nation that I grew up in.

    We’re at war, here, whether we want to recognize the fact or not, and the rights of POC are central to that war.  Again.

    @ichabod well said.

    #64946
    swordwhale @replies

     

    ‘Duct tape, bungee cords and fence wire… oh yeah, and cable ties…’

    took me a while to work out what you were responding to here…

    @miapatrick oooops… taking me awhile to figure out the details of how this forum works, ack… oh look, you can quote stuff! Yeah, woulda’ been a good idea for me to add where that connected to! (eeeeeee, communications 101 >D)

    Also.. what is Puro??????????????

    #64931
    swordwhale @replies

    @thane16

    Not sure if I made up trumpocalypse, I’ve been saying it for soooooooo loooooooooong…. do use it, it fits!

    Sigh, moving to Australia… I do actually own a didgeridoo… ( I can even sort of play it)…

    Sadly, that was not my bowl of Oreos, but one I found somewhere on Pinterest? I do eat mine that way!!! Best to let them soak a minute or so… yep, if you type in “bowl of oreos in milk” it’s the first pic that comes up (on Pinterest). https://www.pinterest.com/pin/391531761327928204/ “Saved from Casey Brodley, Photographer” it says… now I must take my own bowl pics…

     

     

     

     

    #64923
    swordwhale @replies

    @cathannabel

    Cool! Thanks! It’s actually quite pretty.

    #64922
    swordwhale @replies

    @mudlark

    lol! Nice to know there’s some folks from my generation here!

    Points out how Doctor Who spans actual time and space (and culture and gender and…)

    Wish I had been able to watch it from the beginning! Now I have to catch up.

    #64893
    swordwhale @replies

    oh…Oreos…

    Properly they should be thrown by the handful into a giant bowl of milk until soft, then spooned up…

    yes, eat at least half the package…

    Image result for oreos in milk

     

     

    #64892
    swordwhale @replies

    the Doctor’s deserts…

    I cling to a fading hope that some day before I finally pop me clogs there will be a Doctor who likes ginger nuts or chocolate digestives. Sadly, custard creams, with or without a cup of tea, appeal no more to my palate than do jammy dodgers, which is to say, not at all.

    @mudlark

    I went out west one summer with some friends, one of whom was Dakota and had grown up on the Rosebud Rez. As we neared South Dakota, we stopped at a tiny gas station and Bev came running out with a bunch of crinkly wrapped treats. “I found Twin Bings!” She shared them with all of us… they’re kind of like awful Twinkies with pretend strawberry something or other in the middle, but they were the Taste Of Childhood for her.

    Image result for twin bing

    I totally had to look up a thing called “Chocolate Digestives”….

    My personal Thing I Would Like Dispensed By The Tardis is those Lofthouse soft sugar cookies with the buttercream frosting (and I am a chocolate fiend but these are ….aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa).

    Image result for icing sugar cookies

     

    #64890
    swordwhale @replies

    So how does a female authority figure assert herself without wearing a version of male “authoritative” attire?

    @ichabod

    I think that sums up many reactions to the Doctor’s new wardrobe. Clothes speak to our expectations…

    If I’m in Texas, a knowledgeable cowboy better not be wearing Peter Capaldi’s (rather awesome) outfit. I would not ride with that dude.

    Women, it seems, are expected to somehow either dress like whoo whooo! or like males in the same positions. Pppphhhhhthhhttt! I think she’s nailed a comfortable bit of action wear that is also versatile and a little quirky, yet has some really cool flowing lines. Likin’ the rainbow and the suspenders and the hooded cloaky coat. Kind of timeless.

    Love the boots… I have lived in boots like that forever.

    #64889
    swordwhale @replies

    OK, I have to keep googling stuff…

    American who’s (sadly) a bit vague on Who before Capaldi …

    what’s this green police box thing????? I found some pics of Sheffield boxes that are designed different and kind of an odd 1950s Ford green/blue…

    #64888
    swordwhale @replies

    I’m LIKING this new run…

    I totally love the new tardis… the blues and ocean colors and the organic shapes and the hands on fiddly bits, and surely you all caught the spinning translucent mini-tardis and the hourglass…

    As for everyone “unprotected in space”…eh, couldn’t that be part of the weird alien teleporty thingie? Like, they’re surrounded by some sort of force field yet?

    I have to say I love the new costume too. While the others have been either Classic Really Dressed Up And Ready For The Ball (round here we’re like T-shirts and blue jeans…always) or Whattheheck IS That??? (Cricket what?) this one is what I’d pull out of a thrift shop.

    and…

    my…

    favorite…

    coat….

    @juniperfish …oooooo nice to know the tardis interior is echoing natural forms and goddess symbols.

    “the sinkhole that is Brexit”…lol… and while you’re at it, Doc, the trumpocalypse….

     

    #64866
    swordwhale @replies

    @juniperfish

    Really loving the ensemble cast (apparently a throwback to the early early days)… it has worked in any number of superhero movies so , yeay! Also glad to get away from the romance/crushie stuff (well, it might rear its ugly head later) and into the idea that stories do not hinge on romance and women heroes carry their own swords…er…sonic army knives.

    Jodie WHitaker mentioned in an interview how all the heroes of her childhood stories were guys… in my childhood (ahem, 60s) …same. So wonderful to see the kind of hero I would have loved as a ten year old… and do today!

    #64850
    swordwhale @replies

    @miapatrick

    Duct tape, bungee cords and fence wire… oh yeah, and cable ties…

    #64849
    swordwhale @replies

    @janetteb

    Well said.

    Indeed, we need these kinds of stories more than ever now (Dear Britain, sorry about the trumpocalypse, ergh). Tribalism and fear of The Other is a running theme in human history, and we need to be vigilant. News and facts are fine, but stories go down deep and bring up the heart of truth.

    Perhaps those who did not have patience for “the history lesson” are the ones who most need it?

    #64845
    swordwhale @replies

    So much going on in this episode I have to watch it again (I’m watching on Amazon, the only way I can get it).

    Malorie Blackman, well done. More please.

    Relevant to what’s going on now, and scary that it might rear its ugly head in the future.

    Weird that it starts in the year of my birth, 1955, I was four months old at the time of Rosa’s moment of standing, or sitting, for her rights. Gave me some perspective on where we’ve been and how far we’ve come, but not far enough.

    For some perspective for you wee young things, Star Trek, in 1966, was a Big Deal because there was a Woman of Color on the bridge of a starship (to more or less quote Whoopi Goldberg as a kid : Mom, mom, there’s a black lady on TV and she ain’t a maid!!!). It was a huge breaking of barriers to us in our little English/German American town… we totally admired Nichelle Nichols. and I still do. (also had middle school crush on George Takei, but that’s another tale).

    Sadly our history classes were more boring and did not focus as much on the courageous work of people like Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was too unaware of most of what was going on in the wider world to be more than vaguely aware of things like busing and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Which points out how utterly necessary it is to educate kids to be good decision makers in their world.

    Seeing this time through the eyes of Ryan and Yaz was good, they’ve learned the history but experiencing it on an awful visceral level is something else, even Graham, who is older and closer to the history, experiences it in a more immediate way. It all makes it more intense for us.

    I’m a northerner (Pennsylvania) but the southern accents (presumably played by British actors) were pretty great.

    I wondered too how many of those “zapped across time” characters will rear their ugly heads later…lol.

    I like the new TARDIS interior, great colors, and the crystal thingie, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaas. Does sem a bit less “spacey” than some other interiors, but more organic, less super60s spaceymodern shiny.

     

    @mudlark You said it!

    @tardigrade (brilliant handle by the way!) “It is still surreal to me that there were people in America acting like this at a time period that isn’t really that far removed from today.” …uh, there are still people who act this way, esp in the south. But also here in the north. Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) said something in an interview about experiencing some nasty racism. A friend has two adopted kids from Korea, and the oldest (12ish) recently was the focus of racism. Yeah it’s not over… we have to keep educating, and changing people…

    #64842
    swordwhale @replies

    PS: the East Berlin PA (USA) library is a wonderful place where I can borrow DVDs for free…

    They have Doctor Who: Lost in Time, Collection of Rare Episodes

    It’s several William Hartnell episodes from 1963 to 1966 (when I was 8 to 11 years old). A couple episodes are audio only, which is odd, because you have to imagine the action, and it is not an “audio book” with description, just the audio from the TV episode.

    Interesting how much the show has changed from its beginnings. That is its beauty though, it can regenerate, shift, with time and the surrounding culture. The show itself travels through time and is always relevant, fresh and new.

    #64841
    swordwhale @replies

    @juniperfish … as a child who was definitely wired differently, I really wanted a hero to evoke that quality of “it’s OK to be your own wild self”. Sadly, it was the 50s and 60s, across the pond in the US and mostly we had westerns and cop shows. Well, then there was Star Trek… and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and other science fiction and fantasy that I loved, but…

     

    I didn’t even hear of Doctor Who until I grew into fandom in the late 70s, after high school. I did sci-fi conventions, living history (they’re all fans) and collected a like-minded set of friends. Friends who had more than one channel on the TV talked about Doctor Who, someone gave me an insanely loooooooooooong scarf (still have it), explained tardi, tardises, tardigrades (what even IS a police call box???? in America we got these phone things on the desk with a round dial thing that goes brrrrrrring!)… and somewhere along the line I got to watch random episodes as a kind of weird wonderful vacation from the mundane.

    Eventually I got a computer, then a better one, then one connected to the internet. Yes, I do live in the dark ages, and I can swing a sword and row/sail a Viking Longship (longshipco.org Oakley MD USA), paddle a kayak, train a mustang, and sled dogs (they’re all on my website, swordwhale.com). But I will converse like a mariner at any technology unfortunate enough to fall into my path.

    I watched the odd Doctor Who episode (largely Ten and Eleven, they’re great) at friends’ houses, wishing I could catch more…

    and then… wonder of wonders…

    OH HEY YOU CAN BUY THIS ON AMAZON!!!!!

    I watched the entire run of Capaldi there. I adore the grumpy old wizard. Then he regenerated and…

    OMG THIS IS THE HERO I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE I WAS SIX!!!!

    Somewhere in an interview Jodi Whitaker talks about being a kid and all the cool characters who were having adventures were boys.

    YES! That’s how it was in the 50s, and the 60s, and the 70s… all the cool characters I watched growing up were boys! OK, it was fun to crush on the cute heroes but, geeeeeeeeeeeeez… WHERE ARE THE GIRLS I CAN RELATE TO?????

    Now, female heroes are not so uncommon anymore, in the Marvel universe, in Star Wars and Star Trek and other things I loved as a kid. Even the Hobbit produced the very character (or at least a close clone) I’d played for years in D&D and living history (red-headed girl Elven archers were my usual character).

    But the 13th Doctor is one I wish I’d had as a kid, running forward into potential danger with curiosity, pluck, and a huge sense of childlike wonder. Someone who can unpuzzle the puzzle, who isn’t a fighting warrior but saves the day, who is quirky and odd and understands fairness and justice.

    Now where can I get that T-shirt.

     

    @phaseshift …that is hysterical! And utterly imaginative, turning other toys into Doctor Who figures. And yes, I still collect various figures related to my favorite stories (digs through thrift shop plushie bin, oh no this Minion/Dory/Stitch/Bilbo is for my dog/niece/cousin’s kid…).

     

    #49316
    swordwhale @replies

    Thanks to the Australians who defined “a cup of tea, a Bex and a good lie down…”

    I really need to go to Australia…

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