#But David and Jodie are normal. Aliens at one point

[gay11aliens]

I feel like the people in media I see who I think are attractive are either mean, murderers, or no one cares about them their just there

[mxmeiyun]

Doctor Who season overviews

My friend is embarking on the wonderful journey of watching of “Doctor Who” and asked me for a rundown of what episodes she absolutely has to watch, my favorites, and ones that can be skipped. I thought I’d share them here in case anyone else was interested. Also I’m curious what anyone else’s thoughts on some must-view episodes.

(Will be updating as my friend reaches each season.)

Series 1

Definitely watch 1 because it’s where everything starts and you start to get a vibe for how the show goes. A fantastic place to start, if you will.

2 is a fun one with a plethora of aliens. If you’ve seen gifs of the Doctor jamming to “Toxic” by Brittany Spears, this is where that’s from.

3 is the first “historical” episode of the revival. Ok episode overall. Has ghosts and a bit an unintentional easter egg for future episodes/series.

4-5 are a bit silly but also I think have some good characterization of the Doctor and why sometimes he needs a friend to keep him in check.

6 introduces you to a classic DW alien so you should watch it.

7 is good to watch because it sort of sets up some stuff for the finale but I also find the guest characters kinda annoying.

8 is good if you want to learn more about Rose and that becomes more important to later stories and the next season.

9-10 is an all around fan favorite (certainly one of mine) and introduces a re-occurring fan favorite character. The reason why gas masks will forever make me uneasy.

11 follows up after the events of 4-5 (all three could be skipped if you want to go along faster).

12-13 are the finale and should be watched.

Series 2

0 (the Christmas special) is the first one with David Tennant as the Doctor, a muse-watch in my books. (Also, some things happen that become very important in later stories but I won’t say more because spoilers.) Introduces a new important character and re-introduces something

1 has cat people.

2 is a fun one and has an easter egg of sorts for future stories/characters but isn't necessary for major plot line. It’s one of the ones I like to rewatch.

3 sees the return of an old fan favorite companion from Old Who (before this still ongoing revival).

4 is skippable unless you like some fancy French aesthetic or are into automatons.

5-6 you should watch. Re-introduction of another classic Who monster.

7 is kinda weird.

8-9 are a good, kinda creepy story. Sees the introduction of the Ood, which are one of my dad’s personal favorites, who will also pop up later.

10 is literally one of the dumbest eps ever.

11 I literally don’t remember at all but the internet tells me it involves a small child, and Doctor Who does have some good, creepy episodes playing on stereotypical childhood fears.

12-13 are the two part finale so you definitely have to watch those. Prepare for some serious emotions, though.

Series 3

0 (Christmas special) introduces Donna Noble. Must watch, but I won’t say why.

1 introduces the new companion. Also introduces a kind of goofy alien that will pop up again.

2 is a fun one with Shakespeare and witches.

3 sees a return to New New York on New Earth (same setting as 2x01). Should watch because of [spoilers redacted] at the end. (Hint: think of who mysteriously disappeared in that previous episode.)

4-5, as the titles suggest, feature Daleks and imo all Dalek episodes should be watched.

6 is ok. Honestly kind of predictable plot-line.

7 is also ok. Not particularly memorable, but it is the first episode written by Chris Chibnall, who took over as show-runner for Series 11 (first season with Jodie Whittaker, the first female Doctor).

8-9 is a two-parter and is a fan and personal favorite.

10 is unusual because the main characters are not actually the Doctor and Martha, but this is another much-loved episode. Also introduces one of my favorite and most scary (imo) aliens.

11, 12, and 13 all kind of go together. Sees the re-introduction of an important character from the show’s original run. All pretty memorable and Martha is a total badass.

Series 4 (tl;dr: watch all of this series)

0 (Christmas special; you get the drill) is a good one. Sometimes there are episodes where the Doctor meets someone where you just know they’d be a fantastic companion.

1 is a must-see because [spoilers redacted].

2 is another must-see. It’s a solid episode of Who, is yet another good example of why the Doctor shouldn’t travel alone, and as a fun fact, we see two actors who will pop up in later series.

3, as the title implies, sees the return of the Ood! Watch this for some foreshadowing.

4-5 we see a new-to-New-Who alien who is another one that will come to pop up again over time. Honestly the plot and guest characters follow some predictable tropes BUT we also get to see some of [redacted]’s family, which is always good fun.

6 I think is only an okay episode. But meeting the “Doctor’s daughter” (not a spoilers bc its the episode title) is kinda fun. And I think it gives us some interesting insight into companions post their travels with the Doctor. 

Also, weird DW fun fact: David Tennant and the actress who plays his daughter is the real-life daughter of actor Peter Davison, who played the Fifth Doctor back in Classic Who, are now married with kids.

7 isn’t integral to any major plot lines, but it’s no doubt a fun one, especially if you like murder mysteries or Agatha Christie.

8-9 are another must-see two fan and personal favorites for many reasons why, but I can’t go into because spoilers! Some good spooky eps that are really downright chilling at times, but not completely without some good comic bits. Love watching this with friends who are watching it for the first time.

10 does an excellent job of being creepy, which is good if you’re into it, but you can skip it if not.

11 is a good one with a timey-wimey plot. Also yay because [spoilers]!

12-13 are an excellent two-part series finale and that’s all I can say.

The Specials (mini series between Series 4 & 5)

1 is good if you like Cybermen

2 has a spunky one-off companion who is a lot of fun

3 is creepy af

4-5 are a must-watch two-parter. If you liked the Series 4 finale (and let’s be real, how could you not), you’ll enjoy this. Also, it’s the last episodes with Russel T. Davies as show-runner.

Series 5

1 introduces the new Eleventh Doctor and their companion, so definitely have to watch that. (Side note: fish fingers and custard is a weird combination but, speaking from personal experience, it’s not terrible.)

2 is a good one with debatable ethical questions and some good insight into the Doctor.

3 is another Dalek episode, but it’s only okay as far as Dalek episodes go. It’s a historical one, if you like those. Fun fact: it’s written by Mark Gatiss, a collaborator of new show-runner Stephen Moffat and guest star from “The Lazarus Experiment.”

4-5 you have to see because spoilers. But it’s very good. Also, has some plot points that are related to the overall story of the Ponds.

6 you get the gist from the title and honestly it’s not terribly exciting. Some fun bits about the new group’s dynamic.

7 is a pretty weird one tbh but should be watched we get companion character development.

8-9 introduces some fun characters that will pop up again every now and then and has a very important plot point. (Fun fact: this one takes place in the year 2020!)

10 is one of the more emotionally-driven episodes and deals with mental health. One of many fan favorites.

11 is lighter fanfare after some honestly pretty heavy episodes that precede it. Not really important to the overall plot, but it’s a fun comedic one. 

12-13 are the finale, so obviously definitely watch that. Gets a little timey-wimey.

Series 6

0 is fine, as the Christmas specials go. I’m a little tired of the “man makes it his purpose in life to save his dying love who is kind of helpless in her own story” but the ending’s alright.

1-2 set the stage for the whole series, so those have to be watched.

3 has pirates, which is fun but not necessary to the main story line.

4 has such an intriguing title, so how could you not watch it? Will we finally find out if River and the Doctor are married? Spoilers.

5-6 are key plot points. Love a good doppelgänger.

7 follows immediately after 6, so I can’t say much about it.

8 is a pretty weird one but hold on to your butts for a wild ride.

9 is a properly spooky one. Like, actually low-key terrifying. But not related to the main plot line.

10 is emotionally painful but in a good way.

11 is another creepy one that plays on common fears. Inspired by some Greek mythology, which is fun.

12-13 are the two-part finale, so you know the drill.

Series 7, part I

0 is another only-okay Christmas special. They’re just not as fun as they once were, in my opinion.

1 you have to watch for plot reasons. It’s a good one because [spoilers redacted].

2 is pretty much what it sounds like. We are now also accompanied by Rory’s father, which is pretty amusing. Sees the return of a previously-met alien species. (Fun fact: one of the guest stars is David Bradley from, among other things, the Harry Potter movies.)

3 has some fun moral quandaries.

4 is fun because we see the Doctor having a go at normal Earth life, as well as thee return of some familiar arguably badass faces.

5 is a must-see for plot reasons (and the return of one of my favorite on-again-off-again companions).

Series 7, part II (don’t read below if you haven’t finished part I)

5.5 you have to watch and is a sort of mid-season Christmas special. Sees the return of an Old Who monster as well as several New Who faces.

6 follows up the events of the above special, so you have to see that, too.

7 is good because gives some backstory to Clara.

8 sees the return of another Old Who alien, whose species will pop up later in New Who. I didn’t particularly like nor dislike this one.

9 is a ghost story, which we haven’t really seen in Who for a while. It’s ok.

10 is also only ok but you should watch it for overall plot points.

11 we see the return of the Paternoster Gang, who I find quite amusing, but otherwise I didn’t really like this episode. It’s a little gross.

12 is written by Neil Gaiman so you should watch it. It’s also only fine, but better in my opinion than most of the other episodes in this part of the series.

13 is the series finale and has a rather intriguing title and wraps up this half of the series’ major story arc. Honestly I’m not a fan but you should watch it anyway.

Series 8

1 sees the return of the Paternoster Gang and more dinosaurs, but is also the first episode of the new Doctor and as such should be watched. Also have to keep an eye out at the end for some important scenes.

2 introduces a friend of Clara’s and reintroduces the Daleks but with a bit of a weird twist. Not super key to any main plot lines.

3 is pretty much what the title says it is. “Robot of Sherwood.” It’s meh.

4 is a little timey-wimey and develops some intercharacter relationships but overall isn’t exactly mandatory viewing.

5 is a robbery heist with some sci-fi twists. It’s alright.

In 6 we see Clara trying (and failing) to compartmentalize her life with the Doctor and her regular human on Earth life. It’s decent and there’s a snippet at the end that hints at some overarching plots.

7 tries to make some arguments about ethics but isn’t too convincing. The plot’s kinda fun, though.

8 is another one where the title, “Mummy on the Orient Express” pretty much sums it up. It does have a couple small throwbacks to older New Who seasons.

9 isn’t key to major plot lines but it’s a decent and kind of spooky episode.

10′s kinda dumb but has some weak environmental messaging.

11-12 wrap up the season’s major plot lines.

Series 9

0 is like a Christmas-themed reworking of a previous episode but I won’t say which one because spoilers.

1-2 are a pretty strong two-part season opener, I think. We see the return of some of the Doctor’s oldest friends/enemies.

3-4 are a properly timey-wimey, fairly creepy story. It’s a good one that honestly I wouldn’t want to watch by myself late at night with the house to myself.

5-6 are also timey-wimey AND introduce a character played by Maisie Williams (of “Game of Thrones” fame) who is actually pretty complex for a female character created by Stephen Moffat.

7-8 sees the return of, no surprise here, the Zygones. And also UNIT and Osgood, who is fan service personified but I’m ok with that.

9, in a way, is about the evils of capitalism but in space!

10 is important for plot. (Sees the return of some new old friends.)

11-12 has some good timey-wimeyness and a healthy dose of angst. (Also, the ending is gay and you can’t convince me otherwise.) It’s frustrating, but in an understandable way? I guess?

[timeagainreviews]

The Eve of the Thirteenth

Recently I watched "An Unearthly Child," in preparation to write the first official article of Time and Time Again (TATA? Ok, I love that). But then it hit me that it’s a rather auspicious time to talk about the First Doctor’s first episode. With this being the eve of the first female Doctor’s first episode, it seems so appropriate. So I’m going to wait until after "The Woman Who Fell to Earth," drops.  See what I did there?

I know this blog is meant to be about revisiting episodes, but the timing is just too good. Besides, it is my blog. However, this being said, I suppose I should share my hopes and expectations for series eleven. 

Jodie Whittaker as "The Doctor"

Not since maybe Eccleston has anyone had as difficult a regeneration to overcome. While every actor new to the role feels a pressure to keep the show going, I’d say some feel it harder than others. Davison had to follow up an endearing seven-year run from Tom Baker. McGann had the pressure of trying to reestablish the show, as did Eccleston. Many people even said nobody could replace David Tennant. But the one I am reminded of the most is Patrick Troughton. Troughton was really one of those "make it or break it," Doctors. The concept of regeneration was far from established lore, it was rather a gamble.

Jodie Whittaker has a very similar weight on her shoulders. It’s another one of those "make it or break it" moments. The beauty is, I think she knows it. Everyone involved knows it. However, as much as I’ve emphasised on the pressures involved, I’m confident they chose the right woman for the job. She looks like a children’s show presenter in her costume, which is wonderfully coupled with her mad energy. For me, it’s never been about "We need a woman in the TARDIS," we need the right person in the role, and she’s perfect.

Doctor Who is the ideal show to change the gender or race of its lead. On a science fiction level, it makes total sense that the Doctor is able to change these things with ease. It’s almost laughable that it’s taken this long. It’s almost poetic. The Doctor- a man who has experienced thousands of years worth of exploration and change, still has something new to experience- womanhood. It is, as they say, about time.

The Companions

Honestly, I’m not that fussed over these companions. That’s not to say I’m disinterested or even upset with their casting. I feel confident they’ll all shine in their own ways, and live up to the show’s standard of companions. I think it’s cool that the Doctor’s friends this time around, are rather diverse. As a fan of older companions such as Wilf, or Evelyn Smythe, I am rather looking forward to Bradley Walsh as "Graham." Tamsin and Ryan both seem like they’re going to have some cute banter between the two of them. It seems pretty solid.

Many may say "That’s a pretty crowded TARDIS," but I like the bigger TARDIS crews at times, as they can be a nice way to add a new dynamic. The thing that would have actually excited me would have been a companion from the future, or past. Or even an alien companion. Not since Captain Jack, have we had anyone riding in the TARDIS who wasn’t from the present-day UK.  We got teased with it in "Asylum of the Daleks," with Oswin, and again in "The Snowmen," but then we ended up with modern day Clara Oswald. I had even hoped for Bill to be from the 80’s or 90’s. Where are the highlander companions? The Keepers of Traken? I guess Nardol sort of counts, but come on.

Chris Chibnall

Mr Chibnall is probably my biggest worry for the series. As a writer, I’ve never been all that big a fan of his episodes. "The Power of Three," was one I found particularly dreadful. When the Doctor saved the day by pointing his sonic at a screen, I felt cheated. The little cubes amounted to nothing, really. It’s not that he’s a bad writer, he’s just a bit dull. He managed to make “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” less exciting than the name implies. That’s probably impressive on some planets.

Overall, I think he’ll do fine, I’m just worried he’ll be a bit boring. I hadn’t worried much until he said that no old baddies would return in series eleven. Which, is fine I guess, but why not? While the Daleks and Cybermen can be really overdone (especially the Cybermen as of late), there is a wealth of villains to draw from the Doctor’s rogues' gallery. One group I’d like to see her face off against are the Axons. Whittaker’s "Godspell" evoking threads call for retro baddies!

So long as Chibnall doesn’t get too dark like he did with Torchwood (which literally felt like a little boy excited over getting to say the F-word), I’d say he’ll do fine. Parts of Torchwood were a bit "lizard brain," to its credit. Doctor Who should always have a touch of the surreal. The first episode had it. An indestructible police box, bigger on the inside, that travels anywhere in time and space? It seems normal now, but even to this day, there’s nothing quite like it. Keep the energy up, and keep it weird, you’ll do fine, Chris. It’s not like you’ll get the series cancelled again.

The New Writing Staff and Production Crew

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much anything about the writers. I’ve looked them up and read about some of their stuff, but that’s about as far as I’ve taken it. I will say however, it’s nice to see so much new blood. Men, women, people of colour, many perspectives. Doctor Who thrives on being shaken up. I’m all for it.

As for the new production crew, it’s even more of the same- happy to see someone new. I know a few people were growing tired of the whimsical look of much of the Moffat era. And at times, I kind of miss the tacky trash TV look of the RTD era. From what I’ve seen of the series 11 trailer, we’re in for something a little more grounded in reality. The cinematography looks rather simple, the sets seem plausible, if not a little dull. I’m hoping they’re hiding the big knock you on your ass sets and cinematography for the actual episodes. I would not be averse to having a show that looked as colourful as the promotional artwork we’ve been seeing. It’s gorgeous. A feast for the eyes. If the leaked TARDIS console pictures are anything to go off, I’d say they’ve kept some rather exciting secrets from us.

Segun Akinola replacing Murray Gold

Music is such an important part of Doctor Who. The theme song is both haunting and exciting: portentous of the tale about to unfold. The Radiophonic Workshop, with geniuses of sound like Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer, pushed not only the atmosphere of the show to greater heights but music as well. In the same vein as musique concrète, they were pioneers of electronic sound.

Upon the reveal of Akinola’s appointment as music director, I promptly sought out his SoundCloud and spent an entire afternoon listening to his stuff. I was heartened to hear he was both melodic and ambient at different times. His music is minimalist, and percussive as well. One of my biggest criticisms of Murray Gold was that he was too safe a choice. For me, he never really felt strange enough for Doctor Who.

Perhaps I am an odd duck, but I miss the days of the Third Doctor driving his bizarre car to a soundtrack of muddy synthesisers that sounded as if they wanted to murder you. The closest Gold ever came to that level of greatness was the aforementioned "Asylum of the Daleks." The music matched the tone of the episode exquisitely. I had hoped to hear more of that experimentation from him, but he never really did. Akinola seems the kind of guy who just might take us to strange places.

As we all know though, the true test will be in his imagining of the theme tune. I was never a huge fan of the Capaldi era theme. It didn’t really, slap as they say. From what I’ve heard of Akinola’s work, I’m very curious how he’s going to approach it.

Well, friends, that’s it for now. We’ve got nowt to do at this moment but wait. The next time you hear from me, it will have already happened! I hope you’re just as excited as I am! Doctor Who series 11 premieres tomorrow, the 7th of October at 6:45 pm on BBC 1!

[perspectivecinematic]

DOCTOR WHO (SEASON 11, EPISODE 1) REVIEW:

Finally, our female doctor is here!

Jodie Whittaker was first announced in July of 2017, and now a year and a few months later: she’s officially The Doctor! We get to see her in action!

Now, if you don’t know what Doctor Who is, I’ll explain: this show is about The Doctor, who is an alien that travels through space and time with human companions. The Doctor can change (or regenerate, as they call it on the show) when he dies, which is the main reason the series has been going for more than 50 years now. There’s been 12 previous main Doctors; Matt Smith, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi were the last three actors to play the main character.

Every first episode of a new Doctor is meant to be a starting point for new fans to start watching. It works as a pilot. There’s so many episodes that you might not know exactly where to start. This first episode is meant to do that. For example, my first episode of Doctor Who was “The Eleventh Hour” of season 5, which is the Eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith) first episode. And other than the actual pilot of the 2005 series, this is one of the best places to start loving Doctor Who. This episode, the first episode of season 11, wins over both of those other episodes.

“The Woman who Fell to Earth” is not only the best introduction for our 13th Doctor, but I think it’s the best introduction to Doctor Who period.

This episode not only introduced Jodie Whittaker as our new Doctor, but also our new companions and our new Series Runner/Writer Chris Chibnall. We said (a much needed) goodbye to our past show sunner Moffat, on season 10. I was really excited to see how a new writer can bring a new perspective to the Doctor. We’ve had Moffat for such a long time now, that we really needed this new fresh take.

I think Chibnall did a great job in the pilot, we didn’t get too much information on The Doctor. Which is great because we’re placed in the same position as the companions. We usually get one or two companions, usually girls, but this season we have three people! We have Graham, Ryan and Yaz! A very diverse group! The last time we had three people as companions was with the 5th Doctor in 1980s.

And I feel like we really got to know each of the companions and how they know each other, their interactions were fresh and something we really haven’t seen before. They’re just humans! Which is just perfect for the Doctor; a nice contrast.

The plot itself was pretty simple by the end, compared to other more convoluted storylines we’ve had in past seasons. But it was engaging enough where I didn’t end up guessing what the ending was going to be! The alien was something we haven’t seen before (which is impressive after 50 years), and we really ended up caring about the companions!

Whittaker brings such spirit to the role of the Doctor! She really reminded me of the Third Doctor a bit. The Third Doctor’s main plot was that he was stuck on Earth without a Tardis (his time/space machine) and had to MacGyver a lot of his tools with normal objects he found on Earth. This is totally something Thirteen did in her episode! We usually don’t see a lot of modern Doctors have Third Doctor qualities; there’s usually more influence from the Second Doctor and the Fourth Doctor. But I found it really fascinating that they brought some qualities from the Three and the plot is really similar too! I love that!

Something I noticed was how much less dialogue this episode had! I feel like we got so much dialogue and just endless talking from Moffat that this felt so refreshing! Moffat is famous for his “clever” lines and they were great at first but after so many years, he realied on that more than necessary. Sometimes you don’t need characters so much; the performance benefits from it. Instead of telling us, this episode SHOWS us. And if that’s the theme for the rest of the season, I couldn’t be more excited for it.

Would I reccomend it? YES

10/10 Stars (but maybe I’m biased)

-- Mercedes

[whovianfeminism]

Whovian Feminism Reviews “Twice Upon A Time”

Letting go is always the hardest part. And yet, letting go is how this show survives. We have to let go of Doctors and companions, TARDIS windows and sonic devices, and producers and showrunners to let new ones come in. It’s how Doctor Who has survived for 54 years. Change and go on, or die as we are, as the Doctor would say. But it doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier. "Twice Upon a Time” gave us an episode filled with both sadness and hope, a perfect balance between a heartfelt goodbye to Peter Capaldi and a generous welcome to Jodie Whittaker.

To prepare for this historic regeneration, we’re brought all the way back to another iconic regeneration -- the very first one. After playing William Hartnell himself in An Adventure in Space and Time, David Bradley returns to Doctor Who to play the First Doctor in “Twice Upon A Time.” His portrayal of the First Doctor is incredibly well done, recreating the feel of Hartnell’s performance while also providing his own subtle interpretation of the role. In the unseen moments between the First Doctor’s escape from the Cyberman ship and his regeneration in the TARDIS, Steven Moffat slips in a story about how he, too, might have resisted regeneration.

Although it doesn’t quite break the fourth wall, I can’t recall an episode of Doctor Who that acknowledges quite as much as “Twice Upon a Time” that we are, in fact, watching a television show. The “Previously...” opener doesn’t just show us an abbreviated version of “The Tenth Planet,” it tells us that it took place 709 episodes ago. Black and white footage from “Tenth Planet” is show in its original, smaller dimensions before it beautifully transitions from Hartnell’s Doctor to Bradley’s Doctor, in color and in modern television dimensions. 

There’s also a bit of a retrospective on the era and the actor which influenced the character of the First Doctor. Though this is a show about an alien time traveller, Doctor Who has always been a product of the people of its time, and has reflected their biases and prejudices. This was something that Steven Moffat was very aware of when writing his version of Hartnell’s Doctor. He told SFX magazine that the First Doctor reflected "old fashioned attitudes” in ways that stand out to modern audiences but were “normal and invisible” at the time. And instead of ignoring that, he tried to embrace it and confront it head on. 

The first Doctor has several astounding moments that lay his sexism bare in “Twice Upon A Time,” several of which are grounded in comments and actions from previous stories. The First Doctor threatens to give Bill a “jolly good smacked bottom,” which is exactly what he threatened Susan with in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (a line which Hartnell may have improvised himself). And the First Doctor mentions to both the Twelfth Doctor and Bill about how he expects female companions to clean up the TARDIS and fetch him things. That moment is handled much better than a similar one from “The Five Doctors,” where the Fifth Doctor asks a very offended Tegan to “humor” the First Doctor when he makes a similar demand of her.

Although I understand and appreciate what Moffat was attempting to do, I have to admit that after the fourth or fifth sexist comment it began to feel overplayed. His point could have been made with just one or two lines. Eventually, they began to actively detract from my enjoyment of “Twice Upon a Time.” The last thing I wanted to hear in the episode introducing Jodie Whittaker was two men sniggering over how all women are made of glass, even if they were clearly in the wrong. Hartnell and the First Doctor were hardly progressive, and it’s perfectly reasonable to want to address that. But to have some of the worst moments of that era of Doctor Who thrown so frequently in your face was just exhausting. 

And yet, I have to admit there might be a generational difference here. I later watched "Twice Upon a Time" with my mother, who's just one year younger than Moffat, and she actually appreciated those moments. She grew up watching the same era of television as Moffat did, and remembered just how pervasive and accepted those sexist attitudes and comments were. These types of comments were already outrageously outdated and caricaturish by the time I was watching television in the 90s. But they were the background radiation of the media my mom consumed at a young age -- a poison in the foundation of our current media that we are still, generations later, trying to clear out. She felt it was important to have those moments called out for what they were, instead of letting them be swept away and forgotten. 

And she felt that those moments perhaps revealed the endemic bigotry that kept a woman Doctor from being able to come forward earlier. Is it really believable that an alien time traveller would believe it is appropriate to spank a grown woman or would be befuddled by lesbians? No. Is it also believable that an alien capable of totally changing their physical appearance has only ever appeared as a white man? No. But did we really need to belabor the point and escalate the problematic comments? From my perspective, no. 

Between three Doctors and two regenerations, we hardly have any time for Bill Potts, who makes a re-appearance to help urge the Doctor towards regenerating. Although it’s always a delight to have Pearl Mackie back on our screens, Bill is unfortunately not much more than a plot device in “Twice Upon a Time.” She’s used as a tool by the Testimony to either manipulate or understand the Doctor. She asks the right questions so the Doctors can provide us with exposition. And she’s there to put in the emotional labor to convince the Twelfth Doctor that he should regenerate. Bill does have moments of charm but ... that’s it. Moments. In the end, nothing much has changed since “The Doctor Falls.” She still lacks a satisfying story arc that is wholly her own, and exists almost entirely to further the Doctor’s arc. It makes me long even more for the next season of Doctor Who, where a woman will be the lead protagonist and a woman of color will be one of her companions, and it will be much harder to make their stories center around white male characters.

But for the time being, this is still Peter Capaldi’s story, and I cannot begrudge him the incredible ending that he so justly deserved. The man who was introduced as the Doctor while holding his lapels in an imitation of Hartnell ends his tenure by encouraging the First Doctor towards regeneration. The man who began by creating a “darker, less user-friendly” Doctor lands on his defining ethos: “Be kind.”

There is fear and sadness here, too. Regenerating isn’t dying, but it is an ending, and both of the Doctors are afraid of what comes next. The First is afraid of who he might become. The Twelfth is afraid that he might never leave the battlefield. But they still get another chance at life — which is why it is so very fitting to put them up against a British Army Captain from WWI, who is facing a very real and very final death. He was resigned to his death, until the Doctors accidentally gave him hope. Now he’s had time to think about everything he will lose, and he is afraid.

But kindness underlies everything. The Doctor pushes time forward to save a stranger’s life, relying on the simple and yet extraordinary kindness two armies showed each other in the middle of a brutal war. That selfless act of kindness gives the First Doctor the courage and conviction to regenerate. The Testimony allows the Twelfth Doctor to see his companions one last time and restores his memories of Clara Oswald, giving him peace. But it is one more call for help, one more act of kindness, that finally convinces the Twelfth Doctor he must regenerate. 

His final triumphant speech epitomized the Twelfth Doctor, and the man who played him. Peter Capaldi will be remembered above all for being one of the kindest, most generous actors to ever pilot the TARDIS. He understands intimately what it is like to be a fan of the show, and what the Doctor means to so many. He was generous with his time and went the extra mile to show his appreciation. And he never, ever gave a condescending answer to children. His final lines about how children can hear the Doctor’s name came directly from his answer to a young fan at an episode screening. 

I’ll admit that I have never before cried at a Doctor’s regeneration. During Capaldi’s, I sobbed. Bill was right — the hardest part of knowing the Doctor is letting him go.

Enormous credit has to be given to Rachel Talalay for creating such a gorgeous episode. I feel like I say that every time I review one of her episodes, and yet it has never been more true. She faced such a variety of challenges in this episode, from faithfully recreating scenes from the 1966 story “The Tenth Planet” to a grim and damp WW1 battlefield, from spaceships and glass ladies to explosions galore. And never is an opportunity wasted to turn what could be a simple scene into a work of art. When the two Doctors first meet at the South Pole, the scene is infused with the shifting, changing blues and greens of the Aurora Australis. When the Twelfth Doctor is considering whether or not to regenerate, the sky is filled with a fading golden light.

And never has a regeneration been quite as incredible as Jodie Whittaker’s. Most regenerations are efficient -- one Doctor burns or fades (or sneezes) into the next, and he plunges straight into a new adventure. But Whittaker is revealed in a mix of intimate glimpses and long, slow shots. We see her lit from behind, standing amongst smoke and light. We see her stumbling to see her own reflection, our first glimpse of regeneration from the Doctor’s perspective. Each scene, beautiful on its own, builds up our anticipation until we finally get our first full reveal of the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s a regeneration that will be remembered as being truly iconic.

Steven Moffat may never have cast a woman to play the Doctor himself, but he has been laying the groundwork within the narrative of the show for a woman Doctor for a very long time. And in an episode that could’ve been focused solely on memorializing Capaldi and Moffat’s time on the show, they both instead provided an incredible generous welcome to Jodie Whittaker.

“Twice Upon a Time” is, above all, a story about letting go. The First Doctor believes it is courageous to simply live and die as himself, but it is later revealed to be fear — and perhaps vanity and selfishness too. The viewers know, from seeing all the Doctors who have followed, that he has so much left to do. There are so many adventures to be had, planets to be saved, and friends waiting to be known. Things can’t end with the First Doctor.

But it’s not just the Doctor who needs to hear this —it’s the viewers too. We all have favorite eras and favorite Doctors, and that’s okay. But some fans go even further to say that the show should have ended after their favorite time or Doctor, as if because they got no enjoyment out of what followed that it held no value for anyone else. To end the story now, to deny all those stories that are waiting to be told, is selfishness.

Some are just nervous or afraid about what comes next. And that’s okay. I won’t deny I’m nervous about what the future holds too. But “Twice Upon a Time” has a message for us too — this is a chance worth taking. We wouldn’t have Peter Capaldi if someone didn’t take a chance on Patrick Troughton, or all the men who followed him. 

Jodie Whittaker is a chance worth taking. 

The Doctor has to grow and change, or the show will die. This is a change that brings the character forward into a new and exciting direction. This opens up a whole new universe of stories, and gives another wonderful actor a chance to define the role. And it gives a whole new generation of young girls and boys a new hero to look up to.

In one beautifully delightful moment, we get a glimpse of Jodie Whittaker and the Doctor she might be. And I cannot wait to see where we go from here. 

[scriptscribbles]

The point people are making isn't how big or little the comments will be. The point is it's completely out of character for the First Doctor to say any such thing. The point is that Moffat is reinventing an important character trait for the sole purpose of trying to be relevant to the times, when it really isn't necessary in any way. And then using "well he IS from the 60s" as an excuse, despite the fact he isn't actually from the 60s.

I’m afraid I have to disagree, quite firmly. I understand this is an issue people feel quite strongly about, but I’m not going to admit I’m wrong because, in this case, I have a firmly held critical opinion and believe I am justified in expressing it.

Yes, the character isn’t from the sixties (though, let’s remember, it’s unclear where he is from back in Hartnell’s time, it’s initially suggested he’s a human from the future if anything). But the writing is. And a few progressive shining stars like Verity Lambert aren’t going to lift everything out of the cesspit of human injustice. And it shows in the writing, including that of the character of the first Doctor.

Context never can be erased from writing. Never. And it absolutely, absolutely shows in how the first Doctor was written. Of course, Doctor Who transcends that. Doctor Who can transcend most anything. But it’s always there. I certainly noticed it a lot when watching the classic series several years back, and I have a far more critical eye now than I did then.

This isn’t reinvention. It’s just making the implicit issues explicit text and dealing with them. Hell, the show’s done it with more recent eras already (even eras by the same people!) with things as little as the Twelfth Doctor pondering why everything is called “sexy” now, or responding to Donna’s ending with Clara. The show’s always going to be reflecting on itself. That’s fine. That’s how it moves forward, and Twice Upon a Time is very much about moving forward, specifically to Jodie Whittaker, which I think is rather safe to call a progressive endpoint. And I’m sure give it a few years and we’ll be laughing about how the show was so white up until the Fourteenth Doctor came along and sorted it all out.

Take Susan’s departure, for example, which I mentioned the other day. And I know I’m just fishing for controversy here. I don’t like that feeling, but equally, I’m not going to shut myself up when people keep pushing me to voice something rather angrily like you just have. So I will admit, it’s a good moment. Hartnell utterly shines. It’s iconic for a reason. And yet, personally, I find it uncomfortably chauvinist in a way that is indicative of the era. The Doctor is generally overbearing and paternalistic towards Susan, but this is a particularly bad case. He has stripped her of agency numerous times and infantilized her, but this really takes the cake. Earlier in the serial we get beautiful moments like Susan rejecting the whole heteronormative labor thing, saying “I eat” when asked if she can cook. God, I love that moment. But her ending up with David, that’s treated as her way of growing up and living the life she should have. Travelling the universe isn’t good enough, I suppose, nor leaving on your own terms. You’ve gotta be dumped off to be the housewife of the first man who gives you googly eyes. I get the feeling if we were to see a televised continuation of that at the time, it’d be about her learning to cook and clean and raise children and become a good little wife.

Seriously, those lines are loaded. “I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you’ll be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do.” Yikes. Gotta be a wife and give up adventuring to be fulfilled, apparently. It’s not cruelly intended or anything, it’s just good old fashioned gendered expectations of the time. Meant sweetly, but from a modern eye, horrific. Same as the spring cleaning line David Bradley has, sweet and harmless in the sixties, eyebrow raising now. It’s implicit, culturally ingrained chauvinism, that wouldn’t impact an alien from the future, but would absolutely impact how men (and let’s not pretend otherwise, it was overwhelmingly men writing, directing, and producing, and generally straight white ones, there’s a reason the ones who weren’t are so worth emphasizing) would represent one.

When people say, “Well, he is from the sixties,” they don’t mean the character diegetically. They mean the world of the production, which always will seep through into any media. No media ever truly exists in a vacuum from politics and ideology, that’s a basic first lesson of media studies.

The chauvinism’s not something active or malicious, but it is, in my perspective, something that does happen a lot in the era, including through the Doctor. Not big things, just a bunch of little ones. That happens to pretty much all fiction, impacted by its context. And it seems like those little things will give birth to little reflective moments in a bigger and more interesting episode.

At the end of the day, though, really, I just want to be excited about my favorite show having one of my favorite Doctors return to close off one of my favorite eras.

[thiefofnobility]

I’m afraid I have to disagree, quite firmly. I understand this is an issue people feel quite strongly about, but I’m not going to admit I’m wrong because, in this case, I have a firmly held critical opinion and believe I am justified in expressing it.

Yes, the character isn’t from the sixties (though, let’s remember, it’s unclear where he is from back in Hartnell’s time, it’s initially suggested he’s a human from the future if anything). But the writing is. And a few progressive shining stars like Verity Lambert aren’t going to lift everything out of the cesspit of human injustice. And it shows in the writing, including that of the character of the first Doctor.

Context never can be erased from writing. Never. And it absolutely, absolutely shows in how the first Doctor was written. Of course, Doctor Who transcends that. Doctor Who can transcend most anything. But it’s always there. I certainly noticed it a lot when watching the classic series several years back, and I have a far more critical eye now than I did then.

This isn’t reinvention. It’s just making the implicit issues explicit text and dealing with them. Hell, the show’s done it with more recent eras already (even eras by the same people!) with things as little as the Twelfth Doctor pondering why everything is called “sexy” now, or responding to Donna’s ending with Clara. The show’s always going to be reflecting on itself. That’s fine. That’s how it moves forward, and Twice Upon a Time is very much about moving forward, specifically to Jodie Whittaker, which I think is rather safe to call a progressive endpoint. And I’m sure give it a few years and we’ll be laughing about how the show was so white up until the Fourteenth Doctor came along and sorted it all out.

Take Susan’s departure, for example, which I mentioned the other day. And I know I’m just fishing for controversy here. I don’t like that feeling, but equally, I’m not going to shut myself up when people keep pushing me to voice something rather angrily like you just have. So I will admit, it’s a good moment. Hartnell utterly shines. It’s iconic for a reason. And yet, personally, I find it uncomfortably chauvinist in a way that is indicative of the era. The Doctor is generally overbearing and paternalistic towards Susan, but this is a particularly bad case. He has stripped her of agency numerous times and infantilized her, but this really takes the cake. Earlier in the serial we get beautiful moments like Susan rejecting the whole heteronormative labor thing, saying “I eat” when asked if she can cook. God, I love that moment. But her ending up with David, that’s treated as her way of growing up and living the life she should have. Travelling the universe isn’t good enough, I suppose, nor leaving on your own terms. You’ve gotta be dumped off to be the housewife of the first man who gives you googly eyes. I get the feeling if we were to see a televised continuation of that at the time, it’d be about her learning to cook and clean and raise children and become a good little wife.

Seriously, those lines are loaded. “I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you’ll be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do.” Yikes. Gotta be a wife and give up adventuring to be fulfilled, apparently. It’s not cruelly intended or anything, it’s just good old fashioned gendered expectations of the time. Meant sweetly, but from a modern eye, horrific. Same as the spring cleaning line David Bradley has, sweet and harmless in the sixties, eyebrow raising now. It’s implicit, culturally ingrained chauvinism, that wouldn’t impact an alien from the future, but would absolutely impact how men (and let’s not pretend otherwise, it was overwhelmingly men writing, directing, and producing) would represent one.

It’s not something active or malicious, but it is, in my perspective, something that does happen a lot in the era. Not big things, just a bunch of little ones. That happens to pretty much all fiction, impacted by its context. And it seems like those little things will give birth to little reflective moments in a bigger and more interesting episode.

At the end of the day, though, really, I just want to be excited about my favorite show having one of my favorite Doctors return to close off one of my favorite eras.

Weeeeelll, let’s start by pointing out the fact you are wrong when saying it’s unclear where the Doctor comes from. In the unaired pilot, Susan straight up says she was born in the 49th century. She also calls Ian and Barbara “Earth people” and the Docco says he is “of a different race”. If the unaired pilot is not canon enough for you, I will use examples from the aired pilot. In which the Doctor says “the children of my civilization” and “I tolerate this century but I don’t enjoy it”. So however you got “sexist 60s human” from that is beyound me. While they didn’t have a name for Gallifrey at the time, they explicitly said he is from another planet and from the future. And even if THAT’S not enough proof for you, I should argue that whether or not they knew where he was from at the beginning is actually totally irrelevant. The point is, we know now and the story is being written now. So, hypothetically speaking, if One did ever say something sexist in his days, it was because of the time period it was written in and not because it’s something the Doctor would say. So why make him say it now? We know the Doctor now and there would be no need to point out something that isn’t actually part of him. 

You seem to be totally missing the point, however. The show is not reflecting on itself. The First Doctor has never shown an ounce of distaste or disrespect for someone based on their gender. He has never made a comment that comes off as sexiest. They are adding a character trait that was not there before for the sole purpose of being woke. Now, I’m doing this paragraph by paragraph, so I’m waiting to get to the part where you give me actual context from the show because so far it’s just been fancy words and generalizations.

AH! But here we go. Yes, let’s take Susan’s departure. But before we do, may I go to “I’m not going to shut myself up when people keep pushing me to voice something rather angrily like you just have” because did I in no way encourage you to become angry over this. I was telling you, as a One stan, the view point we have. If it came off as rude, I’m sorry, but that’s what voicing your opinion over the Internet does. And perhaps, my friend, as an analysis blog who posts opinions and replies to anons, you should understand this. I did not and do not have malicious intentions. I simply want to clear this up and clear the name of my favourite Doctor.

Whom you are trying to convince me is okay to completely destroy for the sake of unnecessary relevance. So if anyone should be angry, it’s me. But I’m not. I want to do this as civil as possible.

Now, back to Susan.

“The Doctor is generally overbearing and paternalistic towards Susan”

Pardon my French but, ehem, no shit. He is her grandfather and she is the last thing he has of his family and his home planet. Naturally, he would want to protect her. Whether I think it’s overbearing, no. I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. I think he has a reasonable level that any grandfather with his grandchild in dangerous situations would have. I believe the words you are looking for is protective and love. In fact, using Susan is a rather awful example because she was the one person he initially only showed affection for. Of course, he gained affection for Ian and Barbara when they all became besties, but from day one, Susan was the one he was the softest on.

“Earlier in the serial we get beautiful moments like Susan rejecting the whole heteronormative labor thing, saying “I eat” when asked if she can cook.”

I’m sorry I had to pause for a second because I think you might be looking too much into this. I’m 99% sure that was comic relief at best. What’s the opposite of cooking? Eating. What’s the key to comedy? Opposites.

“But her ending up with David, that’s treated as her way of growing up and living the life she should have. Travelling the universe isn’t good enough, I suppose, nor leaving on your own terms. You’ve gotta be dumped off to be the housewife of the first man who gives you googly eyes. I get the feeling if we were to see a televised continuation of that at the time, it’d be about her learning to cook and clean and raise children and become a good little wife.”

I understand your job is to analyze, but the thing is, this scene isn’t that complicated. The Doctor did not leave Susan with David because David fancied her. She did not stay to become a good little wife or because it’s the “role of a woman” to look after a man/children. The whole point was that the Doctor felt he was dragging her down. Susan expressed numerous times that she wanted a place to belong, somewhere to stay and not have to keep moving around. The trouble was, she felt so attached and protective of her grandfather that she couldn’t bare to leave him. The Doctor, however, selflessly, forces her to stay. Because he knows she could do good in this time period and he knows she would be happy here (which she was). But he also knew she was too loyal to leave him. It had nothing to do with romance. It was a good place to give her what she wanted. It had to do with the Doctor giving up the one person he cared most about to let her live the life she wanted and make her not feel obligated to take care of him. 

Which. Funnily enough. Is the opposite of chauvinism.

“I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own.” Because that’s straight up what she has been asking for for the past few episodes.

“Yikes. Gotta be a wife and give up adventuring to be fulfilled, apparently.” Nope. Because once again, Susan expressed that she wasn’t fulfilled by adventure and wanted to belong somewhere. Because, believe it or not, people all want different things. Not everybody wants adventure. Some people want roots. This, of course, all coming from her trauma of being pulled from her home planet and exiled into a stolen time machine where she proceeded to go on adventures in which she watched friends and her grandfather nearly die multiple times. So no, it has nothing to do with being a good little wifey but instead, wanting to be home somewhere. Sort of like when you take a long vacation and you just want to get to your own bed. But Gallifrey is off limits because it didn’t exist at the time of writing so the Doctor gave her a new home.

“that wouldn’t impact an alien from the future, but would absolutely impact how men (and let’s not pretend otherwise, it was overwhelmingly men writing, directing, and producing) would represent one.” Yes, which is a totally valid argument considering Verity Lambert, a female, produced the episode. And like.................. all of Hartnell’s era. Most of it, anyway. Up until Mission of the Unknown. Also, fun fact, Verity was one of the first women to be awarded role as a full time producer in television. So, y’know, Doctor Who was also built on powerful females in charge.

“It’s not something active or malicious, but it is, in my perspective, something that does happen a lot in the era. Not big things, just a bunch of little ones.” Lots of little things you haven’t named. I, personally, cannot think of any. And neither can you, apparently, as the one example you did give wasn’t actually an act of sexism.

If One is truly one of your favourite Doctors, you shouldn’t be excited for what Moffat is going to do to him. Because a true One fan knows this is not something he would do. He adored his companions, he never once said an offhanded chauvinistic line to them. And ESPECIALLY not with the intentions of it being such.

And, once again, even if you can come up with a valid example that perhaps I may have forgotten about as there IS a lot of Classic Who, I would like to go back to my original statement by saying any slightly, offhanded sexist remarks would yes, be because of the time period it was written in. However, just because they did it back then doesn’t mean we have to do it today. If you go out and call someone a racial slur and say “Sorry! They did it in the 60s and I’m just trying to make a point that it’s offensive now” doesn’t actually help anything. You still were an asshole to somebody, somebody got hurt, and nothing was gained, because yeah, no shit it’s offensive. The fact that Moffat would even think of adding such a plot device despite it not legitimately being a part of the First Doctor’s personality, says more about Moffat than it does about the writers of the 60s/The First Doctor. He’s essentially doing what writers in the 60s did and then pulling himself back up and going “It’s okay! I know this is wrong!” Good for you, Moff. We didn’t need to know that because it affects Doctor Who in no way and reflects on something that never existed.

As someone who likes Moffat, you should be thankful I disagree with this. Because if he didn’t do it to begin with, he would’ve saved himself some dumbassery.

Also it’s 2am so this is a mess, forgive me.

[thechurchillreview]

DOESN'T CONTAIN WONDER WOMAN SPOILERS. What does a successful (money-wise, with critics, moviegoers, comics fans) Wonder Woman mean for the future of the DCEU? How about the landscape of the superhero film genre in Hollywood after the fact? Just some personal thoughts along with my own adoration for Wonder Woman! 

The reviews of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, the newest DCEU installment, seem to be more positive than the ones for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice alongside David Ayers’ Suicide Squad. The most memorable moments in Dawn of Justice were Gal Gadot’s smiling Wonder Woman kicking Doomsday’s butt singlehandedly and Ben Affleck’s Batman Arkham Asylum inspired fighting sequence towards the end. So, when it was announced that Wonder Woman was receiving the next solo live-action outing, I was extremely worried...Especially after the dismal treatment and narrative role of Amy Adams’ Lois Lane in both MoS and Dawn of Justice seriously miffed me. 

The humorous Wonder Woman Hark A Vagrant! commentary filled comic is by Kate Beaton. The WW ice cream gif is from 2011′s Justice League: War, borrowed from Tumblr user @wouldyouliketoseemymask. Comics pictured are Wonder Woman: Paradise Lost, Wonder Woman #25 under Gail Simone, Rebirth Wonder Woman: Year One, and New 52 Wonder Woman #41. 

At the same time, I sincerely hoped, almost prayed, that Wonder Woman would surpass the quality melange (I feel tonally and for watch-ability purposes Stereotype Squad is the strongest entry. Wasn’t overly serious or gritty for the sake of gritty versus having substance) of the previous DCEU flicks whilst being true to her iconic character. That’s a bit of a Herculean border-lining on unfair request, I know. But, if DC Comics/Warner Bros. did screw up Wonder Woman, I’d never give another cent towards anything in the DCEU because she’s one of my all-time favorite comic book heroes. I can’t begin to picture myself being forgiving of such a possible butchering combined with history in the making!

My introduction to Wonder Woman was through Super Friends, a series I never gained any enjoyment from viewing. Not due to her, simply all in all. To the point that for a long time I didn’t recall I’d ever seen it besides some Cartoon Network gag featuring said cartoon with Brainiac and Solomon Grundy complaining about not having pants. By the early 90s, I had finally read my first comic book story arc (The Death of Superman my sister’s boyfriend owned) which is ironic since he’s one of my most loathed heroes, yet his supporting cast and villains were and remain fantastic in my eyes to this very day. I learned about the DC Comics trinity and Marvel Comics as I devoured episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, X-Men: The Animated Series, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. I’ve always had an affinity for superheroes, the varied powers with rad animation/visuals, numerous art styles, varied characters, costumes (unless objectifying, particularly on the women, I’ve never grasped this society standard), themes, subtexts, and etc. I was less influenced by solely the likes of Batman and Spider-Man, no, Princess/Senator Leia Organa, Buffy Anne Summers, Sarah Jeanette Connor, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, The Secret of NIMH’s Mrs. Brisby, Aliens’ Ellen Ripley, Ferngully’s Krista, Fa Mulan, Belle, Jasmine, Lady Kluck, Inspector Gadget’s Penny, S: TAS’s Lois Lane, X-Men’s Storm/Ororo Munroe, Xena, Widow Tweed, Maleficient, Andrea Beaumont, The Brave Little Toaster’s Toaster, Lisa Simpson, Daria, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s April O’Neil, and The Powerpuff Girls left a bigger impact on me. Bear in mind I think my feminist, equality for all, diversity, and embracing individuality stances confuse or vex my family the majority of the the time: no one’s officially said this, probably there under the surface though.

Then DCAU’s Justice League premiered and Wonder Woman got some spotlight as the other two members of the Trinity did a decade ago. Alas the time limit structure and sharing the limelight wasn’t enough for Wonder Woman tales most of the time. A fish out of water warrior learning about the world of men that wouldn’t put up with crap while practicing compassion/love (even to her enemies)? YES! This compassion is a double edged sword, serving as both a strength and a weakness for the Amazon from Themyscira. The established core of her character lends itself to some daring storytelling. Justice League and its sequel show Unlimited gave us some great moments with Wonder Woman. Naturally, adoring what the character stood for prompted me to locate comics of her past adventures at my local libraries. Stories by William Moulton Marston, Gail Simone, Jodi Picoult, Greg Rucka, Kurt Busiek, Joe Kelly, Trina Robbins, Darwyn Cooke, Meredith Finch, Nicola Scott, Aaron Loprestri, Phil Jimenez, and George Perez, made my fondness and appreciation towards the character grew. 

While Brian Azzarello did the opposite towards the character and Amazons in general. *GLARES*

Ever since the 90s which gave us animated shows for both Batman and Superman yet shafted Wonder Woman from the same treatment, I've wanted this movie. Sure, she was in the DCAU Justice League and Unlimited series alongside her first full-length feature in 2009's Wonder Woman followed by little screentime in Young Justice (when juxtaposed against Batman’s position) and a Lego Movie cameo role: still that's not quite the same is it?

Wonder Woman’s 2009 standalone DCAU movie remains one of my most beloved since the DCAU was initially formed and was the directorial debut (by herself, no co-director credit like with Superman: Doomsday) of animation director and storyboard artist Lauren Eve Montgomery best known for her storyboard on work on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Justice League Unlimited. It was penned by comic book legend Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic. In celebration of Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, a commemorative edition of 2009’s Wonder Woman with a cover that unfortunately has antagonist Ares on it was recently released with many special features and I’m tempted to re-pick it up (which is something I don’t normally do for any DVD/Bluray I already possess). Wonder Woman got a cameo role in 2014′s The Lego Movie, it was minuscule and added little though, siiiiigh. 

The lasting ramifications of a positively reviewed and liked Wonder Woman by critics and audiences alike are potentially revolutionary. Wonder Woman, is the first superhero female lead motion picture since 2005’s Elektra (it has taken 12 years) with a budget over $100 million under the hand of a female director. 1995’s Tank Girl starring Lori Petty was directed by a woman (Rachel Talalay) except it had a significantly less money to work with comparatively: I did a whole critique/analysis of it before on here. The last superhero motion picture directed by a woman was in fact 2008’s Punisher: War Zone, courtesy of equal pay in Tinseltown advocate Lexi Alexander, that was originally a box office bomb like Tank Girl that has also gained a cult movie status. Meaning, the track record of female-led superhero flicks hasn’t been good and studios (Marvel! Argh…) keep circling back to this to justify Doctor Strange, Black Panther, another Thor sequel, plus another Guardians of the Galaxy before 2019’s Captain Marvel and the in development hell/non-existent (?) Black Widow hit theatres someday.

In this regard, DC Comics, Warner Bros., Zack Snyder, and Geoff Johns, believing in Wonder Woman is unusual and refreshing. How well it does could craft a new future for superhero franchises! A planned Harley Quinn spin-off, a character actor Margot Robbie played close to on fleek in Suicide Squad, that has a writer attached which may or may not have the Birds of Prey/Batgirl in it is equally encouraging. The Hollywood superhero landscape might mirror what I’ve always longed for after the overall reception to 1999’s Blade, 2001’s X-Men, and 2002’s Spider-Man placed comic book adaptations in a mainstay pop culture position: a mixture of female, male, and LGBT heroes getting their chance to shine from a sundry of backgrounds, cultures, religions, and more. Essentially, an exceedingly more balanced reflection of the world we live in that’s been severely lacking forever, ugh.

May Wonder Woman demolish the longstanding myth that female superhero leads don’t sell thanks to its advertising campaigns, writing, acting, editing, visuals, and directing this weekend. That’s my wish. I’ll be checking it out on either Thursday or Friday with one of my nieces. I promised a year and half ago that I’d see it with her. I distinctly remember sitting through previews before the last Hunger Games and her transfixed reaction to that Wonder Woman teaser appearing onscreen. She was psyched. I was psyched! My vow will be fulfilled in the coming days. Of course I want to share this experience with her. It could be wholly transformative. The trailers bring merry tears to my eyes, so, what will the entire thing do to me? To her? Something wondrous (...Sorry) I am hoping. ;’) 

Link to Tank Girl: http://thechurchillreview.tumblr.com/post/154552289293/52filmsbywomen-rachel-talalay-just-saw-tank-girl 

[undertsums]

Time to discuss

So I don’t normally talk about just stuff, mainly because ya know people ain’t interested.

But with Doctor Who back and people still complaining I think I understand how to get Doctor Who fans to just agree so here goes.

It’s gone on too long.

1. No more Daleks Remember how WAY back in Eccleston we saw the ‘LAST’ Dalek but NOPE there is more, take care of them and NO MORE! I get it, Daleks are the one big enemy, but Jodie’s done it right, they have had ONE Dalek and it was a new concept.

Bringing in anymore you’d have to come up with a new way and well it’s hard to do that.

2. No more Cybermen Basically after A good Man Goes to War I don’t think they show up again, which is sad I think they deserve more screen time. But also I get it they are meant to be all dead at this point.

So with the two BIGGEST enemies gone, Jodie has nothing to fight with, no big enemy, no big problem, which is why all her episodes are generally boring and just oh it’s an alien we don’t know. But can you blame them? Doctor Who has been going on for a LONG time, granted I don’t mind, I’m loving Jodie’s time, she’s the first Doctor I’ve actually liked since she’s shown up.

So now I think there is a way to fix it per say but people might not like it because it sounds like bullcrap. But I think the ONLY way they can bring back the badder enemies and stuff without it being stupid of oh they just survived the LAST time we fought them. I think Jodie ending up in an alternate Earth would be perfect, though sadly yes she would have to lose her companions, but Jodie needs something to happen to her, something personal and deep.

David lost Rose, Matt lost Amy and Rory, Capaldi lost Clara. But Jodie is all happy and sunshine because ya know new Doctor and meant to be a change from dark brooding Capaldi, I think that after this Timeless Child plotpoint, we are going to have something bad happen.

I hope Jodie isn’t regenerating soon, I like her, she’s a good Doctor so far, I think it’s the crying fangirls that just wanna see pretty men on the screen. No one had a fuss about Missy, everyone complains about Jodie.

So alternate Earth+something bad happening (maybe loses an eye, or becomes deaf). something new, something not done before.

[networkingdefinition]

Walnuts Quotes

Official Website: Walnuts Quotes

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• A spaniel, a woman, and a walnut tree, the more they’re beaten the better they be. – John Ray • A thing which I regret, and which I will try to remedy some time, is that I have never in my life planted a walnut. Nobody does plant them nowadays-when you see a walnut it is almost invariably an old tree. If you plant a walnut you are planting it for your grandchildren, and who cares a damn for his grandchildren? – George Orwell • Abraham Lincoln once walked down the street with his two sons, both of whom were crying. “What’s the matter with you boys?” asked a passerby. “Exactly what is wrong with the whole world,” said Lincoln. “I have three walnuts, and each boy wants two.” – George Sweeting • After-dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • All families had their special Christmas food. Ours was called Dutch Bread, made from a dough halfway between bread and cake, stuffed with citron and every sort of nut from the farm – hazel, black walnut, hickory, butternut. – Paul Engle • ‘American Sniper’ is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism. The only thing that forces us to take it seriously is the extraordinary fact that an almost exactly similar worldview consumed the walnut-sized mind of the president who got us into the war in question. – Matt Taibbi • Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like a brown condom full of walnuts. – Clive James • Dad says that everyone invented baklava.” It occurs to me now to wonder what that means. Aunt Aya rolls her eyes. “Your father? He is the worst of the worst. He thinks he cooks and eats Arabic food but these walnuts were not grown from Jordanian earth and this butter was not made from Jordanian lambs. He is eating the shadow of a memory. He cooks to remember but the more he eats, the more he forgets. – Diana Abu-Jaber • East of my bean-field, across the road, lived Cato Ingraham, slave of Duncan Ingraham, Esquire, gentleman, of Concord village, whobuilt his slave a house, and gave him permission to live in Walden Woods;MCato, not Uticensis, but Concordiensis. Some say that he was a Guinea Negro. There are a few who remember his little patch among the walnuts, which he let grow up till he should be old and need them; but a younger and whiter speculator got them at last. He too, however, occupies an equally narrow house at present. – Henry David Thoreau • Experience has taught me a technique for dealing with such people […] I counter the devotees of the Great Pyramid by adoration of the Sphinx; and the devotee of nuts by pointing out that hazelnuts and walnuts are as deleterious as other foods and only Brazil nuts should be tolerated. But when I was younger I had not yet acquired this technique, with the result that my contacts with cranks were sometimes alarming. – Bertrand Russell • God didn’t give me the ability to play the piano, or paint a picture or have compassion. But… he did give me the ability to crack a walnut with my hoo-ha. – Karen Walker • Her eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away. – Khaled Hosseini • How do you write? You write, man, you write, that’s how, and you do it the way the old English walnut tree puts forth leaf and fruit every year by the thousands. . . . If you practice an art faithfully, it will make you wise, and most writers can use a little wising up. – William Saroyan • I could eat black walnut all the time, it’s not a flavor of the week! – Herman Cain • I did as much as I could: raising chickens, pushing an ice-cream cart, bagging walnuts, driving a tractor on a beet farm, working on the railroad. I think this eclectic career helped me a lot in life. – Charles R. Schwab • I first saw the site for Disneyland back in 1953, In those days it was all flat land – no rivers, no mountains, no castles or rocket ships – just orange groves, and a few acres of walnut trees. – Walt Disney • I have no ability to develop muscle tone. I could do situps all day and still look like a condom full of walnuts. – Dana Gould • I loved Christmas. We had a really great time. But there wasn’t – it was all – you had to be happy with, you know, an orange and a couple of walnuts, you know, in your stocking. – Nick Lowe • In California there were nuggets the size of walnuts lying on the ground—or so it was said, and truth travels slowly when rumors have wings of gold. – Cherie Priest • In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. – Thomas Merton • It’s better to get the nutrients for healthy skin from food, not supplements. Salmon, walnuts, blueberries, spinach… lots of my favorite foods happen to be amazing for skin too. – Gail Simmons • I’ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, ‘Why?’ Why did I cause so much pain? Didn’t I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can’t I see how we’re all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God’s got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, ‘No, that’s not right.’ Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can’t teach God anything. – Chuck Palahniuk • My wife Ann and I had been digging during the day, transplanting lilies from the front of this abandoned farmhouse back down the road to where we live. We finished. She was tired and laid in the grass. I took a picture. The house is now gone. The walnut trees have been bulldozed and burned. I saw this picture the other day for the first time in years and realized how photographing life within a hundred yards of my front porch had helped me focus on everything I cared about. – Larry Towell • On a grander scale, when a society segregates itself, the consequences affect the economy, the emotions, and the ecology. That’s one reason why it’s easy for pro-lifers to eat factory-raised animals that disrespect everything sacred about creation. And that is why it’s easy for rabid environmentalists to hate chainsaws even though they snuggle into a mattress supported by a black walnut bedstead. – Joel Salatin • On my cornice linger the ripe black grapes ungathered; Children fill the groves with the echoes of their glee, Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when beside them Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-walnut tree. – William C. Bryant • One of the biggest problems with young chefs is too much addition to the plate. You put cilantro and then tarragon and then olive oil and then walnut oil or whatever. It’s too much. – Jacques Pepin • Shrinking someone’s stomach to the size of a walnut with surgery is one way to battle obesity and diabetes and may be lifesaving for a few, but it doesn’t address the underlying causes. – Mark Hyman, M.D. • Some of us are sixty feet long with a brain the size of a walnut. – William S. Burroughs • Tariqah [The Spiritual Path] without the Sharia [Islamic Law] is like having a pistachio tree without the shell. Or a walnut, a walnut cannot grow on a tree without having a shell, and the food that you eat is inside the shell. – Seyyed Hossein Nasr • The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut. – Vannevar Bush • The cross is like a walnut whose outer rind is bitter, but the inner kernel is pleasant and invigorating. So the cross does not offer any charm of outward appearance, but to the cross-bearer its true character is revealed, and he finds in it the choicest sweets of spiritual peace. – Sadhu Sundar Singh • The most overrated ingredients are garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. With garlic, it’s personal; I have never been that big of a fan of its flavor. As for extra-virgin olive oil, I do use it quite often but its ubiquity serves to overshadow many wonderful oils like pistachio, walnut, argan and even grapeseed. – Lela Rose • The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale. – Vera Nazarian • The picture’s pretty bleak, gentlemen… The world’s climates are changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut. – Gary Larson • The very first Walnut Whales recording was recorded just a few weeks after I had started singing, out of the blue, started singing. And the voice, you can hear how uncomfortable I am with it, and how terrified I am with it. – Joanna Newsom • There rises the moon, broad and tranquil, through the branches of a walnut tree on a hill opposite. I apostrophize it in the words of Faust; “O gentle moon, that lookest for the last time upon my agonies!” –or something to that effect. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again. – Jodi Picoult • To this day, I hate walnuts and I hate onions because on weekends when the walnuts and onions were in season, we were out there first thing in the morning and out there until the sun went down topping onions or picking walnuts. – Scott Brooks • Walnuts have a shell, and they have a kernel. Religions are the same. They have an essence, but then they have a protective coating. This is not the only way to put it. But it’s my way. So the kernels are the same. However, the shells are different. – Huston Smith • We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut. – Wole Soyinka • we do not explain my husband’s insane abuse and we do not say why your wild-haired wife has fled or that my father opened like a walnut and then was dead. Your palms fold over me like knees. Love is the only use. – Anne Sexton • What kind of tea do you want?” “There´s more than one kind of tea?…What do you have?” “Let´s see… Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey.” -“I.. Uh…What are you having?… Did you make some of those up? – Bryan Lee O’Malley • What’s wrong with men?” Tenar inquired cautiously. As cautiously, lowering her voice, Moss replied, “I don’t know, my dearie. I’ve thought on it. Often I’ve thought on it. The best I can say it is like this. A man’s in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell.” She held up her long, bent, wet fingers as if holding a walnut. “It’s hard and strong, that shell, and it’s all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that’s all. That’s all there is. It’s all him and nothing else, inside. – Ursula K. Le Guin • When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn’t they matter most now? – Max Lucado • Winter is for women The woman still at her knitting, At the cradle of Spanish walnut, Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think. – Sylvia Plath [clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[equitiesstocks]

Walnuts Quotes

Official Website: Walnuts Quotes

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• A spaniel, a woman, and a walnut tree, the more they’re beaten the better they be. – John Ray • A thing which I regret, and which I will try to remedy some time, is that I have never in my life planted a walnut. Nobody does plant them nowadays-when you see a walnut it is almost invariably an old tree. If you plant a walnut you are planting it for your grandchildren, and who cares a damn for his grandchildren? – George Orwell • Abraham Lincoln once walked down the street with his two sons, both of whom were crying. “What’s the matter with you boys?” asked a passerby. “Exactly what is wrong with the whole world,” said Lincoln. “I have three walnuts, and each boy wants two.” – George Sweeting • After-dinner talk Across the walnuts and the wine. – Alfred Lord Tennyson • All families had their special Christmas food. Ours was called Dutch Bread, made from a dough halfway between bread and cake, stuffed with citron and every sort of nut from the farm – hazel, black walnut, hickory, butternut. – Paul Engle • ‘American Sniper’ is a movie whose politics are so ludicrous and idiotic that under normal circumstances it would be beneath criticism. The only thing that forces us to take it seriously is the extraordinary fact that an almost exactly similar worldview consumed the walnut-sized mind of the president who got us into the war in question. – Matt Taibbi • Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like a brown condom full of walnuts. – Clive James • Dad says that everyone invented baklava.” It occurs to me now to wonder what that means. Aunt Aya rolls her eyes. “Your father? He is the worst of the worst. He thinks he cooks and eats Arabic food but these walnuts were not grown from Jordanian earth and this butter was not made from Jordanian lambs. He is eating the shadow of a memory. He cooks to remember but the more he eats, the more he forgets. – Diana Abu-Jaber • East of my bean-field, across the road, lived Cato Ingraham, slave of Duncan Ingraham, Esquire, gentleman, of Concord village, whobuilt his slave a house, and gave him permission to live in Walden Woods;MCato, not Uticensis, but Concordiensis. Some say that he was a Guinea Negro. There are a few who remember his little patch among the walnuts, which he let grow up till he should be old and need them; but a younger and whiter speculator got them at last. He too, however, occupies an equally narrow house at present. – Henry David Thoreau • Experience has taught me a technique for dealing with such people […] I counter the devotees of the Great Pyramid by adoration of the Sphinx; and the devotee of nuts by pointing out that hazelnuts and walnuts are as deleterious as other foods and only Brazil nuts should be tolerated. But when I was younger I had not yet acquired this technique, with the result that my contacts with cranks were sometimes alarming. – Bertrand Russell • God didn’t give me the ability to play the piano, or paint a picture or have compassion. But… he did give me the ability to crack a walnut with my hoo-ha. – Karen Walker • Her eyes, walnut brown and shaded by fanned lashes, met mine. Held for a moment. Flew away. – Khaled Hosseini • How do you write? You write, man, you write, that’s how, and you do it the way the old English walnut tree puts forth leaf and fruit every year by the thousands. . . . If you practice an art faithfully, it will make you wise, and most writers can use a little wising up. – William Saroyan • I could eat black walnut all the time, it’s not a flavor of the week! – Herman Cain • I did as much as I could: raising chickens, pushing an ice-cream cart, bagging walnuts, driving a tractor on a beet farm, working on the railroad. I think this eclectic career helped me a lot in life. – Charles R. Schwab • I first saw the site for Disneyland back in 1953, In those days it was all flat land – no rivers, no mountains, no castles or rocket ships – just orange groves, and a few acres of walnut trees. – Walt Disney • I have no ability to develop muscle tone. I could do situps all day and still look like a condom full of walnuts. – Dana Gould • I loved Christmas. We had a really great time. But there wasn’t – it was all – you had to be happy with, you know, an orange and a couple of walnuts, you know, in your stocking. – Nick Lowe • In California there were nuggets the size of walnuts lying on the ground—or so it was said, and truth travels slowly when rumors have wings of gold. – Cherie Priest • In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. – Thomas Merton • It’s better to get the nutrients for healthy skin from food, not supplements. Salmon, walnuts, blueberries, spinach… lots of my favorite foods happen to be amazing for skin too. – Gail Simmons • I’ve met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, ‘Why?’ Why did I cause so much pain? Didn’t I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can’t I see how we’re all manifestations of love? I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God’s got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, ‘No, that’s not right.’ Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can’t teach God anything. – Chuck Palahniuk • My wife Ann and I had been digging during the day, transplanting lilies from the front of this abandoned farmhouse back down the road to where we live. We finished. She was tired and laid in the grass. I took a picture. The house is now gone. The walnut trees have been bulldozed and burned. I saw this picture the other day for the first time in years and realized how photographing life within a hundred yards of my front porch had helped me focus on everything I cared about. – Larry Towell • On a grander scale, when a society segregates itself, the consequences affect the economy, the emotions, and the ecology. That’s one reason why it’s easy for pro-lifers to eat factory-raised animals that disrespect everything sacred about creation. And that is why it’s easy for rabid environmentalists to hate chainsaws even though they snuggle into a mattress supported by a black walnut bedstead. – Joel Salatin • On my cornice linger the ripe black grapes ungathered; Children fill the groves with the echoes of their glee, Gathering tawny chestnuts, and shouting when beside them Drops the heavy fruit of the tall black-walnut tree. – William C. Bryant • One of the biggest problems with young chefs is too much addition to the plate. You put cilantro and then tarragon and then olive oil and then walnut oil or whatever. It’s too much. – Jacques Pepin • Shrinking someone’s stomach to the size of a walnut with surgery is one way to battle obesity and diabetes and may be lifesaving for a few, but it doesn’t address the underlying causes. – Mark Hyman, M.D. • Some of us are sixty feet long with a brain the size of a walnut. – William S. Burroughs • Tariqah [The Spiritual Path] without the Sharia [Islamic Law] is like having a pistachio tree without the shell. Or a walnut, a walnut cannot grow on a tree without having a shell, and the food that you eat is inside the shell. – Seyyed Hossein Nasr • The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut. – Vannevar Bush • The cross is like a walnut whose outer rind is bitter, but the inner kernel is pleasant and invigorating. So the cross does not offer any charm of outward appearance, but to the cross-bearer its true character is revealed, and he finds in it the choicest sweets of spiritual peace. – Sadhu Sundar Singh • The most overrated ingredients are garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. With garlic, it’s personal; I have never been that big of a fan of its flavor. As for extra-virgin olive oil, I do use it quite often but its ubiquity serves to overshadow many wonderful oils like pistachio, walnut, argan and even grapeseed. – Lela Rose • The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale. – Vera Nazarian • The picture’s pretty bleak, gentlemen… The world’s climates are changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut. – Gary Larson • The very first Walnut Whales recording was recorded just a few weeks after I had started singing, out of the blue, started singing. And the voice, you can hear how uncomfortable I am with it, and how terrified I am with it. – Joanna Newsom • There rises the moon, broad and tranquil, through the branches of a walnut tree on a hill opposite. I apostrophize it in the words of Faust; “O gentle moon, that lookest for the last time upon my agonies!” –or something to that effect. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • They say that there are moments that open up your life like a walnut cracked, that change your point of view so that you never look at things the same way again. – Jodi Picoult • To this day, I hate walnuts and I hate onions because on weekends when the walnuts and onions were in season, we were out there first thing in the morning and out there until the sun went down topping onions or picking walnuts. – Scott Brooks • Walnuts have a shell, and they have a kernel. Religions are the same. They have an essence, but then they have a protective coating. This is not the only way to put it. But it’s my way. So the kernels are the same. However, the shells are different. – Huston Smith • We do not ask the mountain’s aid to crack a walnut. – Wole Soyinka • we do not explain my husband’s insane abuse and we do not say why your wild-haired wife has fled or that my father opened like a walnut and then was dead. Your palms fold over me like knees. Love is the only use. – Anne Sexton • What kind of tea do you want?” “There´s more than one kind of tea?…What do you have?” “Let´s see… Blueberry, Raspberry, Ginseng, Sleepytime, Green Tea, Green Tea with Lemon, Green Tea with Lemon and Honey, Liver Disaster, Ginger with Honey, Ginger Without Honey, Vanilla Almond, White Truffle Coconut, Chamomile, Blueberry Chamomile, Decaf Vanilla Walnut, Constant Comment and Earl Grey.” -“I.. Uh…What are you having?… Did you make some of those up? – Bryan Lee O’Malley • What’s wrong with men?” Tenar inquired cautiously. As cautiously, lowering her voice, Moss replied, “I don’t know, my dearie. I’ve thought on it. Often I’ve thought on it. The best I can say it is like this. A man’s in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell.” She held up her long, bent, wet fingers as if holding a walnut. “It’s hard and strong, that shell, and it’s all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that’s all. That’s all there is. It’s all him and nothing else, inside. – Ursula K. Le Guin • When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn’t they matter most now? – Max Lucado • Winter is for women The woman still at her knitting, At the cradle of Spanish walnut, Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think. – Sylvia Plath [clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[dorukhaber06]

A female Doctor Who embodies sci-fi's power to transform

In the story of the beloved sci-fi show, "Doctor Who," the lead character, the Doctor, survives by periodically transforming into a new physical form and personality, who is also then portrayed by a different actor.

After the BBC announced Sunday that actress Jodie Whittaker, star of the British crime drama "Broadchurch," will be the 13th Doctor, disgruntled viewers immediately voiced their disapproval on Twitter. Chief among their complaints is that the Doctor is a Time LORD, not a Time Lady. To which I say: Please. If Michelle Gomez could win the affection of longtime fans with her eccentric and lovably-evil rendition of Missy, the female incarnation of the Master (another Time Lord and the Doctor's nemesis), then Jodie Whittaker should have the chance to portray the Doctor. Was the world ready for a female Doctor 12 years ago, when Russell T. Davies brought the show back? Absolutely. So why did it take so long to get to this point? Perhaps the BBC feared making too many changes at once and losing potential viewers. But if Gomez's Missy is any indication, a woman can excel at filling a man's shoes. "This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me!" Christopher Eccelston's Doctor says in the first season of the re-launched show in 2005. Haters aside, the "me" that many audience members (myself included) are ready for is, in fact, female. Thanks to other sci-fi stories that paved the way, the idea of a woman being able to think on her feet and save the day on "Doctor Who" isn't exactly an alien concept. From "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to Dana Scully in "The X-Files" to, in more recent years, Katniss in "The Hunger Games," pop culture continues to envision a shift from a more patriarchal society to a less sexist one. And even if that's arguably still more fiction than reality (what with recent stories of harassment in Silicon Valley and a President who freely comments on women's bodies), stories can offer transformation and hope by envisioning a better world. The kids and teenagers who watch "Doctor Who" won't have an issue with the Doctor being a woman unless an ignorant parent tells them to. Younger fans aren't the problem; for them, it's completely normal to see a woman don a cape or solve a crime. It's the naysayers who need to get with the program. Or tune into a different one, because "Doctor Who" -- and most science fiction -- has always been about exploring the edges of what's possible. "Doctor Who" is inherently a show about questioning ideas. The Doctor's frequent pitch to potential companions is that they will see the universe, and it will be scary and exhilarating and wondrous, but it won't be boring. The people who aren't willing to embrace a female Doctor are the people who don't want things to change. Given the choice, they would likely never set foot in the Doctor's time machine, or TARDIS, in the first place. Since "Doctor Who" launched in the 1960s, the Doctor has almost always traveled with female companions, who sometimes serve as a conscience, helping him make decisions, and at other times allow for exposition. A woman in control of the TARDIS opens up fresh possibilities for the dynamic between the Doctor and her new companions. This past season, for instance, Pearl Mackie played Bill Potts, an openly gay character. It's still unknown whether Mackie will remain with the show next season, but it would be particularly interesting to see the two actresses play off each other. What kind of Doctor will Jodie Whittaker be? Will she continue to follow in her predecessors' footsteps? Will she have Matt Smith's manic bravado or David Tennant's brooding charm? Or will she take on a more parental role in the vein of Peter Capaldi's throwback to the show's beginnings? And even more importantly, how will fans react? Are they likely to be more critical of her because of her gender? We'll find out when Whittaker makes her debut in the Christmas special. In the finale of season 10, we saw Capaldi's Doctor resisting his regeneration, because each time he transforms, a part of who he had been dies with him. As showrunner Steven Moffat says in a video on the "Doctor Who" YouTube Channel, "(T)he turmoil of regeneration, while it extends your life, does sacrifice parts of you that you want to keep." I like to think Capaldi's Doctor is a proxy for the older audience. He doesn't want to go, but it's time for him to transform into something more contemporary: a woman who can defy space and time and societal rules in order to see, and help other people see, larger truths. Click to Post