Or maybe you’re reading back to @winston‘s observation that I had been on a journey. That’s…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent  @whohar     The other day I was standing out in the garden surrounded by growing things and all the critters they attract and it was all go…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent

@winston @nerys

Whitaker’s Tardis was “off” so her opinion on Gatwa’s is …..but I think it was more a nod to Moffat’s lines: “I don’t like it.”

This goes back quite a way. In The Three Doctors, Troughton’s Doc is in the Tardis with Pertwee’s Doc and he looks around before saying something like “You’ve redecorate…[Read more]

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]

Davros and ablism. It’s not a simple ‘No! Not on my watch’ surely? Yes, the world has moved on, and we got Shirley and (see below) Jinkx Monsoon on the show, but there are ways of playing it, ain’t there? 12 turfed Davros out of his unit and rode it like a bumper car. I’ve said it before bu…[Read more]

the most concerning was Dacron’ ableist issue; the sonic better as a telly remote than a gun & TenDoc regenerating back into his 2006+ clothing as keeping 13’s outfit would be an insult to drag performers

Agreed. Also the hypocrisy. The sonic is too gun-like but then the Doc shoots Omega in the fa…[Read more]

School Reunion was good because it introduced the Old Companion well, it…[Read more]

RTD1: weird narcissistic racism, venal politicians, polyamory, shaggy dog stories about royal malaises, tech monocultures, nerds and their love interests,  racism in the past, environmental collapse, imperial heritage, more venal politicians, assisted weight loss, slavery, xenosexuality, super-wealthy…[Read more]

As the Doctor was male, he couldn’t let go of the Dr/Donna crisis

Which is weird if you think about it. Imagine it had been written the other way around.

Also the Doc had just been female and this “ability” to shrug this off had never been explored.

The messaging is fine, but the delivery was woeful. There seemed to be a l…[Read more]

On the face of it, the ‘let it go’ moment is definitely a bit clumsy. Or you could read it as a generic ‘hey, these are just people’ statement.’ Or it’s RTD getting his revenge in first. I wasn’t studying the forums or meta at that stage, but I imagine Russ knew what was coming.

Otherwise you wonder if…[Read more]

yes, the more we focus on identity politics, the less focus exists on working class & middle class oppression thru an overall mismanagement of economic opportunity & the foundational roots of exploitation & marginalisation

Agreed. Class is the one thing that’s never mentioned, and some studies have shown it is this one single factor that…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

It’s an interesting discussion.

On the etymology of woke: IIRC it came out of the Civil rights movement in the US (pre-Covid) with the phrase “Stay woke” meaning stay awake i.e. be alert to what’s going on around you. It was taken on by liberals and it started to appear in the le…[Read more]

Was RTD rubbing the viewers’ nose in it? Being ‘arsy’? Not arf!

I’m not sure ‘woke’ would be anymore than a novel and obscure adjective if not for The Culture Warriors. Why persecute religious or racial targets when you can choose to denounce absolutely anyone who disagrees with you?

Of co…[Read more]

What were 3-4 issues you had with this iteration or series.

I would say (in no particular order):

1. Too crowded a Tardis. Consequently not enough story for all the leads.

2. The first female Doctor. There was not enough written about the gender change. What a wasted opportunity. Instead, he decided to turn the Doctor – traditionally a…[Read more]

in the social messaging of Chibbers I thought it was overtly political – except I understand that’s both essential (plays & stories were always this) & part of Who’s rich history but something about the execution of their messages was clunky or unsubtle….

Well, you said in three lines what I took a page to do.   The ‘social messaging…[Read more]

Right. Chib. The socio-economic years.

The history eps: Rosa, Demons… yes there’s commentary there but, because it’s buried in the (recent) past, you can (if you want) mentally sanitise it to oblivion. And, worthy though the ambition is, the narrative of Rosa is a problem. Old white bloke on bus. Then we get proper risk…[Read more]

have you SEEN some of my posts?!

The ‘23 specials contained a few clues. Sylvia runs around yelling ‘none of this is real!’ For forgetful Donna’s benefit. This is BEFORE Mavity raises its now possibly completely irrelevant head.

Und zen ze Toymaker scene mit der outrageous Central European mugging. This would seem to be a straightforward catchup. Hmmm. Really?…[Read more]

I’ll comment on your points tomorrow.   It’s 3-34 a.m. and Mrs D reminded me it’s about bedtime.   (I’m retired so don’t have to worry about getting up in the morning.   Mrs D is…[Read more]

I observe these were criticisms made of Moffat. They are aren’t my accusations. But, yes, RTD was also quite up for all that. Personally, I don’t really understand the angst, other than it being the natural tension of a kiddult scifi show. To me it’s Hinchcliffe/Holmes vs Whitehouse or JNT/Seward vs Grade.

I went out a…[Read more]

I think @ps1l0v3y0u meant that women could sometimes be written as “another bloke” as opposed to a well thought out female character. If I’m wrong please chip in.

I’m not sure what that means. Well, if they got drunk with the other – girls, cracked juvenile bad-taste jokes, and went out on the pull on Saturday night, I guess t…[Read more]

Was this tendency because the Doctor was (then) male, and the companions, as ever, were female

I mean, yes I think so. The companion does tend to riff off the lead and, with Moff’s previous writing, we know he likes to explore the sexual politics of the traditional male-female relationship.

I liked RTDs take:…[Read more]

On screwball, did you see Bringing Up Baby in ‘39 with Katharine Hepburn?

Oh, yes. Many times. It’s great, She’s great and a young Cary Grant is also great.

Anything with Hepburn, Grant or James Stewart is always worth my attention. And The Philadelphia Story has all three. Would recommend, if you’ve not seen it.

That trio are p…[Read more]

Thought I’d move over here…

Right! Neither I, nor Cardinals Fang or Biggles quite expected that!

Personally, I start off with the existential question ‘why should any right-minded Whovian be u fuly critical of Moff?’; and ‘how could the show written by Chib be both SO tedious AND incoherent.’ It shouldn’t b…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u

Ah, the infamous Bechdel test, aka the Bechdel–Wallace Test, was developed in the 80s, named for Alison Bechdel and Liz Wallace.

It’s pretty broad and, yes, limited in its usefulness. I believe it was originally developed to bring a focus on the roles of women in film, with their being quite the numbe…[Read more]

The Test. I did kind of say Moff didn’t really care. Do I? Well, it’s there now. You would think it might be successfully extolled at some point. And yet examples are few. To the extent that Dan ended up giving Yaz the talk… I mean… ah???

But Moff (and Jamie Matthieson) did lock Clara and Maisie in the baggage car of…[Read more]

Moff: you know where my sympathies lie. But there are those who cannot stand him, consider him ‘unwho’. He clearly wasn’t bothered what side of the Bechdel Test he landed. I am inclined to think an awareness of the principle of the Test should be enough. In the words of Arcade Fire: ‘I guess we’ll just have to adjust.’

BUT the plots did…[Read more]

Hi!

I went off on one a bit. How could RTD speak so convincingly about the special that wasn’t? The BBC authorise the press releases don’t they?

But, what with the dire ratings, it was hard to see how there wouldn’t be a problem at some point. Murky business.

The furore over Billie Piper was really quite distressing. She’s an actor.…[Read more]

And I don’t understand how RTD could speak so fluently (or should I say in his usual slightly rambling, breathy way) about a Christmas Special that hadn’t been made at all?

He’s basically lied to the fans and admitted it. Not sure why he felt the need to do that but it’s not a good look. I’m assuming the pressure behind the sce…[Read more]

I think that “The War Between The Land and The Sea” was basically a waste of time and money! I read that Disney+ wanted a more tightly defined series which enabled them to predict how popular each episode might be, but the war referred to in the title ended in the series, so no more episodes could be made.

I felt really sick about all…[Read more]

I have visited the ospreys , they are very wonderful and so are the people who work hard to protect them and provide them with nesting sites. Thanks and hello to your friend.

We have them nesting on the river but they also needed p…[Read more]

@thane16   I loved water skiing when I was younger but it was just for fun and I fell a l…[Read more]

Yes, the bushfires were fairly close – about 50km / a half hour drive away. We saw nothing until last Saturday when the sky filled with a light smoke, turning the sky orange-brown and the sun a vivid red. Something that would have signaled the end of days to those unscientific folk in times gone past.…[Read more]

I love the term “crumblitude” and intend to use it! Its a great word that totally works.

@thane16  Thank you for asking about my leg. It is  good most of the time although a little stiff in the morning but that only mat…[Read more]

And I love it that as a young’un, you thought ELP composed that music.…[Read more]

Much (though far from all) my knowledge of Classical comes via the prism of Prog. Mind you first time I heard Tapiola by Sibelius it was a ‘building a library’ program… basically a Head of David like 1/2 hour wall of sound interspersed with two terribly educated gents asking each other… ‘which one do yo…[Read more]

Howard Goodall (of multiple tv theme contributions) presented an interesting program a decade or more ago called ‘The Story of Music’, about the Western Classical Tradition. Not sure if it’s still in circulation.

However, I found I parted company with his narrative after Beethoven. Not because I don’t like Romantic Classic…[Read more]