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]

We did do a few quarts of stewed tomatoes and some pint jars of juice so the mi…[Read more]

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]

The mister is very helpful again. No good meds for home but I…[Read more]

Sorry for taking so long to reply but I broke my arm last Monday and it was my right arm. I am of course right handed so all is harder. It has t…[Read more]

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]

In fact I’ve noticed there are many different versions of tracks on the Net, some official, some bootleg from various…[Read more]

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]

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]

As musical scores go, I thought Murray Gold’s score called ‘The Shepherd’s Boy’ was one of the…[Read more]

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]

The “resolution” for Donna through her daughter was, as others have noted, clunky. Yet I must admit that I was one of those who was furious with RTD for abandoning Donna without any memory of her adventures wit…[Read more]

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]

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]