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coinhaber · 1 year

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Versal Network: Sınır Ötesi Kripto Ödemeler

Versal Network, Merkezi Olmayan Ödeme Hizmetine Başladı

Versal network PayPal'ın eski teknoloji liderleri Jim Nguyen ve Nas Kavian tarafından kurulan bir şirkettir. Bu şirket açık Sui blok zinciri üzerinde hizmet vermeye başladı. Bu merkezi olmayan küresel ödeme ağı, dünya genelindeki işletmelere sınır ötesi işlemleri kolaylaştırmayı hedefliyor. Six Clovers'ın kripto ödeme sistemlerini kullanarak, kullanıcılar artık küresel ölçekte dijital para birimi işlemleri gerçekleştirebilecekler. Versal Network, Sui blok zinciri üzerine inşa edilmiş olup merkezi olmayan bir yapıya sahiptir. Nitekim geleneksel finansın inovatif bir birleşimini temsil etmektedir.

Versal Network, Six Clovers ve Sui Blok Zinciri İşbirliği

Six Clovers'ın CEO'su Jim Nguyen konuyla ilgili şunları söyledi: "Sui ile bir sonraki milyar kullanıcı için zincir üstü dijital varlıkların gücünü ortaya çıkarma vizyonumuz gerçekleşiyor. Bunu yapmanın yolu, blok zincirini soyutlayarak ve müşteriler için altyapıyı görünmez hale getirerek yerleşik e-ticaret ile Web3 ticareti arasındaki boşluğu kapatmaktır." Six Clovers API'nın sunduğu sorunsuz entegrasyon sayesinde işletmeler, Versal Network'ün gücünden yararlanarak stablecoin'ler ve Merkez Bankası Dijital Para Birimleri kullanarak gerçek zamanlı ödemeleri kolaylıkla gerçekleştirebilecekler. Sui blok zinciri ekosistemi, Versal Network'ün yanı sıra diğer önemli bileşenleri de içermektedir. Bunlardan biri, itibari para kullanarak SUI jetonlarının satın alınmasını kolaylaştıran bir platform olan Transak'tır. Ayrıca, eski Meta Platforms çalışanları tarafından kurulan bir katman 1 blok zinciri olan Halliday HQ, başarılı bir finansman turunun ardından Eylül ayında 2 milyar dolarlık bir değerlemeye ulaştı.

SUI Blockchain: Kesintisiz Sınır Ötesi İşlemler için Mükemmel Ekosistem

Six Clovers, yeni bir ağ olan SUI Blockchain'i duyurdu. Bu ağ, sınır ötesi kripto ödemeleri için tasarlanmış bir ekosistem sunuyor. SUI Blockchain, Mayıs 2023'te başlatıldı. Son 30 gün içinde saniyede 1.007 işlem gerçekleştirecek şekilde üst noktaya ulaştı. SUI Blockchain, Rust programlama diline dayanan Move programlama dilini kullanarak hızlı işlemler yapıyor. Bununla beraber anında işleme ve ölçeklenebilirlik özellikleri var. Ayrıca SUI'ye sahip bir Layer 1 blok zinciri olarak kendini öne çıkarıyor. SUI Blockchain, proof of stake mekanizması kullanıyor. Maksimum 10 milyar SUI token arzına sahip. Bu tokenlerin 'ü yatırımcılar tarafından satın alınabiliyor. SUI'nin 24 saatlik işlem hacmi 2,53 milyon dolar. Ayrıca 7 günlük işlem hacmi 17,76 milyon dolar olan 11,65 milyon dolarlık TVL var. Binance borsası, SUI'yı Launchpool aracılığıyla kullanıma sunarak onun ilgisini çekti. Tron'un kurucusu Justin Sun, Binance CEO'su Changpeng Zhao'yu cevap vermeye teşvik ederek Binance'e 56 milyon dolarlık TrueUSD istikrarlı para yatırdı. Daha sonra Sun, Binance'e geri ödeme yaparak SUI tokenlarını TUSD likidite havuzuna yeniden tahsis etti.

Kripto Sınır Ötesi Ödemeler ve Havaleler

Kripto para birimleri, havale ve sınır ötesi ödemelerde gelecekte büyük bir rol oynayacak. Küresel havale piyasası 2026 yılına kadar 930 milyar dolara ulaşacak. Ayrıca kripto para birimlerinin benimsenmesi için büyük bir fırsat. Geçtiğimiz yıl Uluslararası Ödemeler Bankası ve Uluslararası Para Fonu gibi kuruluşlar, merkez bankası dijital para birimlerini (CBDC'ler) içeren sınır ötesi işlemler üzerinde deneyler yapmışlardır. CBDC'lerin gelecek on yıl içinde dünya çapında 213 milyar doları aşması bekliyoruz ve bu da sınır ötesi ödemeleri önemli ölçüde artıracak. CBDC'ler, sınır ötesi ödemeleri artırmak için potansiyele sahip gelişmeler arasında yer alıyor. Bu dijital para birimleri, merkez bankaları tarafından oluşturulup veriliyor. Kripto para birimleri ile benzerlik gösteriyor. Read the full article

#coinhaber #kriptohaber #versalnetwork

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larryland · 3 years

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REVIEW: "Ragtime" at the Mac-Haydn Theatre

REVIEW: “Ragtime” at the Mac-Haydn Theatre

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veryslowreader · 4 years

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The Great Stink of London by Stephen Halliday

Another Year

#the great stink of london #stephen halliday #another year #ruth sheen #jim broadbent

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mymanylives · 5 years

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black and white: The Newsroom

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ofhouseadama · 11 years

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this is for the ones who stand, for the ones who try again for the ones who need a hand, for the ones who think they can

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lovehurried · 4 years

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TAG DROP • Sloan Sabbith (2/3)

SLOAN SABBITH & mackenzie ‘ mac ’ mchale. SLOAN SABBITH & charlie skinner. SLOAN SABBITH & james ‘ jim ’ harper. SLOAN SABBITH & margaret ‘ maggie ’ jordan. SLOAN SABBITH & neal sampat. SLOAN SABBITH & leona lansing. SLOAN SABBITH & kendra james. SLOAN SABBITH & gary cooper. SLOAN SABBITH & reese lansing. SLOAN SABBITH & elliot hirsch. SLOAN SABBITH & wyatt geary. SLOAN SABBITH & rebecca halliday. SLOAN SABBITH * verse 000. ( undetermined ) SLOAN SABBITH * verse 001. ( childhood )

#td.#SLOAN SABBITH & mackenzie ‘ mac ’ mchale.#SLOAN SABBITH & charlie skinner.#SLOAN SABBITH & james ‘ jim ’ harper.#SLOAN SABBITH & margaret ‘ maggie ’ jordan.#SLOAN SABBITH & neal sampat.#SLOAN SABBITH & leona lansing.#SLOAN SABBITH & kendra james.#SLOAN SABBITH & gary cooper.#SLOAN SABBITH & reese lansing.#SLOAN SABBITH & elliot hirsch.#SLOAN SABBITH & wyatt geary.#SLOAN SABBITH & rebecca halliday.#SLOAN SABBITH * verse 000. ( undetermined )#SLOAN SABBITH * verse 001. ( childhood )

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sophie-e-b · 2 years

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Here she is! The brand new video for Hypnotized. Shot in the iconic Barrowland in Glasgow with 100 dancers helping me articulate my feelings through the medium of dance. Ever was it thus. Shot by the ever-brilliant Sophie Muller, make up and hair by lisalaudat1, styling by Tamara Cincik Work and I’m wearing a fabulous latex creation by Atsuko Kudo.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Hypnotized”

Director: Sophie Muller

DOP: Robbie Ryan

Production Company: PRETTYBIRD

Co-Founder / Exec Producer: Juliette Larthe

Head of Production: Fiona Bamford-Phillips

Head of Music Videos/ Exec Producer: Chris Murdoch

Service Company: LS Productions

Producer: Sam Barber

Production Manager: Jack Cowhig

1st AD: Remo Catani

3rd AD: Luke Keogh

Runner/Driver: Graeme King

Runner: Imogen Bristow

Work Experience Runner: Ralph Owen

Work Experience Runner: Lily Owen

Camera Assistant: Florence Gilbertson

Lighting Desk Op: Gary Edby

Lighting Tech: Adam Thayers

Lighting Tech: Alastair Lees

Lighting Tech: Ricky Smith

Grip: Davey Logan

Grip Trainee: Theo Logan

On-site Rigger: Jim Stinson

Choreographers: Frankie Mulholland & Kirstin Halliday

Hair & Makeup Artist: Lisa Laudat

Photographer: Kevin J Thompson

Lead Dancers: Mhari Burley, Kieran Burns, Sgaire Wood, Yasmin Singh, Oliza Howieson, Kathryn Fraser, Samatha María, Connor Totten, Peter Clark, Liam McGrath

Edit & Grade: Sophie Muller

Artist Management: Kat Rullach & Derek Mackillop @ Wallace Productions

Record Label: Cooking Vinyl

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clampart · 5 years

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Photographs from the Collection of Steven Gelston

January 9 – February 29, 2020

Opening reception: Thursday, January 9, 2020 6:00 – 8:00 pm

ClampArt is pleased to present “Photographs from the Collection of Steven Gelston,” an exhibition of exclusively black-and-white prints of nearly all male figurative imagery collected over the past thirty-five years.

Steven Gelston grew up surrounded by art. His parents were intelligent and curious collectors of art who purchased works by largely living artists of their own generation still within attainable means. The collection came to include pieces by artists such as Josef Albers, Red Grooms, Philip Guston, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, and Larry Rivers, among many others. Gelston’s parents possessed strong aesthetic tastes and enjoyed researching the artists who caught their attention. Gelston’s mother led art tours for other women in the community through the museums and galleries of Manhattan. She also organized the annual art show in her town, which included works by often very well-established figures. Eventually she pursued her master’s degree in art education at New York University and went on to teach elementary school art classes. After retiring, she worked as a docent at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Gelston’s family’s appreciation for art and artists rubbed off, and his first purchase of art for himself was an impressive, signed, limited-edition Claes Oldenberg print which he acquired while still an undergraduate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The sophisticated and playful conceptual print graced the walls of his dormitory room.

Eventually Gelston began collecting WWI and WWII posters (combing his love for history), but his first acquisition of a photograph would not be until 1985 during a trip to Key West, Florida. There he acquired two prints by an artist named Chuck Pearson, and it was then that his passion was unleashed. Slowly and thoughtfully, Gelston began researching and buying photographs of primarily male subjects by living artists of the day. Not at all a trophy hunter going after the biggest and most recognizable names, Gelston instead followed his eye and purchased works to which he responded personally.

After years of assembling his collection of photographs, a friend pointed out the fact that the faces of all of the models were cropped out, turned away, or otherwise obscured. After that time with this in mind, Gelston knowingly acquired a photograph titled “Ivan Ivankov, Gymnast, Belarus” by the then up-and-coming artistic duo Anderson & Low, which pictures a shirtless athlete looking up at the lens of the artists’ camera with his arm reaching across just the lower half of his face.

Amusingly, Steven Gelston likely will cringe at all of the attention paid to him, but ClampArt’s exhibition is meant to honor his true appreciation of art and his ongoing support of young, developing artists who rely on such generous patronage.

Gelston is passing on the baton of custodianship for these wonderful works of art, and it is now an opportunity for others to live with and care for the photographs he lovingly singled out for his own enjoyment over the course of many years.

The exhibition includes prints by now well-known photo-graphers such as Anderson & Low, Bill Costa, Wouter Deruytter, Jim French, David Halliday, Annie Leibovitz, Harriet Leibowitz, Blake Little, Dianora Niccolini, Len Prince, Karin Rosenthal, and Joe Ziolkowski, in addition to younger practitioners including John Kenny and Sebastian Perinotti.

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isfjmel-phleg · 3 years

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Hi Rebekah!! As you also love Mysterious Benedict Society (and have excellent taste in books in general) I was wondering what your thoughts on Trenton Lee Stewart's other book (The Secret Keepers) are. Would you recommend it? Is it as Good as MBS/good in a different way? And who are your favourite female character(s) in the Wodehouseverse (since it's Psmith Pseptember, and Leave it to Psmith features one of my person favourites, the lovely Eve Halliday!)?

Hi, friend!

It's been a long time since I've read The Secret Keepers, although I keep meaning to reread. But I do recall enjoying it. Not as much as The Mysterious Benedict Society, of course, but MBS is exceptional. But The Secret Keepers has a similar style, a similar puzzle-solving emphasis and sense of adventure, a similar atmosphere of anxiety in the world caused by the villain, and a likeable hero. There's much less of a central strong friendship throughout (Reuben is frequently working on his own), but the relationships he does have are well-drawn. I'd recommend it.

I am very fond of Eve Halliday, of course, probably mostly because she's the one I've had cause to analyze the most. But I also like what little we see of Mike's wife Phyllis, and his sister Marjory. Molly Scott in the short story "Playing the Game" is in the same vein as Wodehouse's trickster types. Sally Nicholas in The Adventures of Sally is a sweetheart. Joan Valentine and Aline Peters in Something New are something like an alternate Eve and Phyllis. There are probably more (Jill in Jill the Reckless? Ann Chester in Piccadilly Jim?), but I haven't read much Wodehouse in a long time!

#asks #thebirdandhersong #sorry I haven't got more!#I am overdue for a reread of absolutely everything

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gen-is-gone · 2 years

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EDA Writer Tournament Update

Okay, so thank you to everyone who voted in the preliminary round! The actual tournament starts tomorrow, with sixteen bouts in round one. The polls will will last for twenty-four hours apiece, every other day, culminating in a final showdown on Wednesday, March 1st. The round one brackets will be:

Kate Orman VS Mark Morris VS David A McIntee (there was a tie in the preliminary)

Lawrence Miles VS Dave Stone

Paul Magrs VS Terrance Dicks

Lloyd Rose VS John Peel

Paul Leonard VS Jonathon Morris

Paul Cornell VS Micheal Collier

Jacqueline Raynor VS Simon Messingham

Trevor Baxendale VS Mark Michalowksi

Mags L Halliday VS Colin Brake

Jim Mortimore VS Mark Clapham

Simon Bucher-Jones VS Gary Russel

Paul Ebbs VS Steve Lyons

Peter Anghelides VS David Bishop

Justin Richards VS Steve Emmerson

Nick Walters VS Lance Parkin

Stephen Cole VS Simon A Forward

#eighth doctor adventures #eighth doctor #eighth doctor books #EDA writer tournament

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leslea · 4 years

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Ready Player Two: The Mysognist’s Love Song

This is a review. Spoilers & typos to follow:

I enjoyed Ready Player One (RP1). It was quirky and fun. The dystopian setting was disturbing, especially as the kid who served as the story’s protagonist didn’t actually do much to make the world a better place, once he became its newest prince. We’re told from the git-go that the world is spiraling downhill, and what does Wade/Parzival do at the end? The bare minimum. He lets the debtors go. He shares his riches with his friends. Well, he was literally just a teenager, and most assuredly a feral one, at that, so you could excuse his lack of vision. Certainly there would be a Ready Player Two (RP2) that would redeem our child champion?

Haha, no.

RP2 is the story of what happens to a neglected impoverished child when he lucks into immense privilege, but lacks the heart, charm, or charisma to be anything other than a hermit and an incel. Where Harry Potter could arguably be said to have started from a similar circumstance, yet grew into an actual savior role in his fight against Voldemort & the Death Eaters, Wade Watts’ character in RP2 is unabashedly a less-loveable version of Donald Trump in a world where he is, in all practicality, king.

As RP2 begins, Wade owns everything. Not just the Oasis, but a futuristic tech that allows one to record their own visceral experience of being alive. This tech, called ONI, goes even more viral than the Oasis, and makes Wade rich beyond the human mind’s ability to calculate. He has power--so much power, he can control anything. He is literally the richest man in the world, and most assuredly its most envied/hated. Nothing is out of reach for him--and though his friends from RP1′s ‘Gunting days are portrayed focusing on developing real relationships (marriages, babies, etc.), working on improving their environments, and delivering aid to their communities, our dear Wade simply pines for the one thing that eludes him: Samantha, aka Artemis, his fierce and determined love interest from RP1.

He brags about the one week he spent in seclusion with Samantha in a bedroom. He talks way too often of his other sexual exploits via ONI, allowing him to experience sex from the POV of other men, women, transpeople, and non-binary folks. He has done the deed every which way but loose, and author Ernest Cline is as eager to share those details with the reader as he is the spout off acronyms and descriptions of fictional technology. Whereas the latter will have you yawning in boredom, the former will simply turn your stomach. Raise your hands if you were hoping for more cybersex in RP2. Anyone? Anyone? Right.

Before I delve too deeply in how important it is for even blockbuster authors like Cline to CONSENT TO QUALITY EDITORIAL INPUT, I need to outline some important problems with this story beyond “What’s wrong with Wade, items 1-999.”

Samantha is justly described to have turned her back on Wade over some important issues. She is a woman of integrity, and for years Wade stalks her virtually, even though in all reality he grows a smaller and smaller figure from her past. Think about any woman you know who moves on and gets things done in life: they do not sit around pining for a dickhead ex who they slept with once, years prior. They just don’t. Samantha, however, despite all her success, integrity, and morals...just can’t help but fall back in love with Wade.

All powerful Wade. Involuntarily celibate (in the “Earl,” as Cline calls “in real life,” [IRL]), plugged into the internet from his spinal column or brain stem or whatever, 12 hours per day Wade. Childish destroyer of dissenting user accounts Wade. Stalker Wade.

Although Samantha refuses to make eye contact with him for years, the moment he needs her help...poof. She’s back on his jock like static cling, if I may borrow Cline’s penchant for quoting nostalgia in lieu of creating new content.

While Samantha’s inexplicable change of heart is problematic enough, it is only foreshadowing for a bigger problem with the story. Wade, as owner of the Oasis and all that digital shit, ends up on a quest to restore the Siren’s Soul. This is the “egg hunt” of RP2. Instead of eggs, this time he’s hunting shards, which is fitting, really, because Cline left me feeling sharted on by earlier than midway through the text.

Where were we? The shards. Right.

The singular essence of Kira Underwood, constantly referred to as “Og’s wife,” has been divided into seven shards and hidden around the Oasis--that is, until the end of the story when Cline mercifully hid the last two together. I might have wept if the story had gone on one chapter longer than necessary. When the shards are collected and merged, they will...? What? Oh, they will coalesce into the actual soul of the departed woman. They will bring her back, digitally.

Now, not only is it creepy on many levels that Wade--let’s call him Parzincel--is repeatedly referred to as Kira’s owner, but his idol before him, James Halliday, is characterized has having created this ONI technology for the main purpose of bringing Kira back, so that a digital version of himself could finally possess her. While “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” is certainly a handy commandment, “thou shalt treat women as FUCKING PEOPLE WITH THEIR OWN INHERENT RIGHTS” would perhaps be a better placard to engrave and set on the desk of Halliday--to then be passed down to Wade. It never seems to dawn on Parzincel that he has no right to possess Kira, or any other ONI user.

The in-game avatar of Halliday eventually explains that Kira’s “siren” avatar was able to explain to him that possessing her, manipulating her, etc. was wrong--but ONLY after Halliday hooks himself up the ONI and lives some of Kira’s experiences. Cline plays Halliday off in both books as an Aspergian genius, someone very high functioning on the Autism Spectrum, but as the mother of a young man with autism, I am beyond disgusted at the idea that you would have to hook one living being up to another human being’s synapses for them to have ANY understanding that the other person is a free, competent human being with agency of her own. Kira is repeatedly characterized as an artistic genius with a great heart. She, like Samantha, is demonstrated to be loving and kind. Generous. And yet both Kira and Samantha are primarily belongings for men to possess, control, pursue, and lose. Oh, if only they did lose them...because of course, they don’t. In Parzincel’s dream future, the best thing he can do is create a double of himself, so that he can experience the inexplicable love of Samantha in the “Earl” as well as in an ONI paradise.

Kira, as the “first stable AI,” is never once shown having any sort of existential crisis. She simply loves being a pretty plaything for Wade and Jim and Og, digitally--and naturally she is “still in love with Og.” Okay, whatever. By this point in the story, Og and Kira are nothing more than paper dolls set up to somehow replace Wade’s missing mother/father figures. You can almost see the author sitting spraddle leg on the floor of his study, pushing dolls around. “You are the mommy now, and you are the daddy...and Wade is the baby! Now kiss!”

In a world as technologically advanced as that of RP2, there would be nuances to digital characters, right? If only there were nuances in the humans who created them, I suppose.

Cline’s Parzincel has a weird weird weird way of looking at women. So does Halliday. Even the benevolent Og only barely registers as showing any interest in Kira’s consent, and then, only when he is, himself, close to death. It’s like Cline knew the only decent human being in this story was Ogden Morrow--and possibly Kira. We don’t really get to spend enough time with the Kira character to know.

But why would we? We are just readers, and she is, after all, Og’s wife.

I won’t get started on the Lo-Five or what he did to Aech. I’ll let Tim take over for that bit.

#review #ready player two #rp2 #ready player one #rp1 #spoilers #ernest cline

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Doctor Who: What Makes a Great One-Off Character?

https://ift.tt/2ZLI4i2

Some Doctor Who characters are intended for greatness; some are intended to be killed off at the end of their first episode. Writers have a lot more control over the second than the first. What remains true for all characters, is the tension that exists between their function in the story and their potential to affect it. Even a guard who simply runs into a room to get shot could have dragged the story in another direction, should they be allowed (this stock background character was the inspiration for Terry Pratchett’s City Watch novels).

Successful one-off characters aren’t necessarily those who break away from their function, (or even those who aren’t strictly required, for example Binro the Heretic in ‘The Ribos Operation’), but those who make a story soar to another level entirely. More often, what makes them work is when their function in the story is disguised. There are plenty of ways to do this and most of them intersect: casting, costume, dialogue, performance…

Let’s first address the latter. Does the actor need to get under the skin of the character to create a nuanced and layered take that resonates utterly with the audience?

Nope. Doctor Who frequently embraces camp. Sometimes camp holds Doctor Who at gunpoint and sings piano ballads at it. The results vary. Richard Briers’ possessed Chief Caretaker in ‘Paradise Towers’ undermines the production (while not a production striving for kitchen sink realism, Briers’ parody-like performance still cuts against its Brechtian leanings) whereas Graham Crowden’s Soldeed is heightened and ridiculous among similar performances.

Other great examples of this stock character, which I am calling Ham-Err Horror without apology, include Professor Zaroff in ‘The Underwater Menace’ (intended to be driven mad by the death of his family, only for this to be cut from the script, rendering the character inexplicably inexplicable) and John Lumic from ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ (inspired to create the Cybermen by a fear of death, with actor Roger Lloyd-Pack citing Dick Cheney as an inspiration for the performance, but remembered mainly for the ripe delivery of lines such as ‘And how will you do that from beyond the grave?’).

Sometimes you don’t even need dialogue. Christopher Bowen, as Mordred in ‘Battlefield’, commits to a maniacal laugh so long that there’s a cut to another scene in the middle of it.

And yet there are places where camp or over-the-top villains work unironically, and some of the most hospitable are the Tom Baker stories of 1975-1977. Harrison Chase, Magnus Greel, Morbius, the Master… these characters fit into the Grand Guignol tradition of heightened and melodramatic performances (Just because something is dark and morbid doesn’t stop it being ludicrously tragic). As the tone of these stories is pitched at gothic melodrama though, the characters and setting cohere.

Returning to ‘Battlefield’, while there are some great individual performances from one-off characters, they’re not quite pulling in the same direction (Jean Marsh as Morgaine is playing an inter-dimensional sorceress as if it’s real, Marcus Gilbert as Ancelyn is saying ‘This is ridiculous, and that’s great’ and pulling along Angela Bruce’s Bambera in that direction too). ‘Battlefield’ is fun, but also disjointed.

Doctor Who: Ranking Every Single Companion Departure

By Andrew Blair

It’s a Sin’s Doctor Who Crossover Pays Tribute to Remembrance of the Daleks Actor

By Louisa Mellor

Some characters get by on the strength of costume or make-up, such as the Destroyer (also from ‘Battlefield’) or the Zygons. Broton, the latter’s leader, is a successful character who operates purely as a function rather than an individual. Played with haughty relish by John Woodnutt, Broton is a visual triumph, with the costume a collaboration between costume designer Jim Acheson, visual effects designer John Friedlander and director Douglas Camfield. At its best, ‘Terror of the Zygons’ oozes with tension and atmosphere, with some fantastic design work and enjoyable pulp runaround. This all distracts the viewer from Broton being a colossal idiot. Indulging in clichés such as explaining his entire plot, putting characters in easily escapable situations and assuming the Doctor is dead without proof, Broton has to do these for the story to unfold according to Doctor Who’s format. Fortunately few people watch ‘Terror of the Zygons’ for Broton’s unique take on planetary subjugation.

Some clichés exist specifically because that character has worked well in previous stories. Frequently in Doctor Who somebody would sacrifice themselves to save the day, someone else would comment on this, and everybody would look solemn for a few seconds before immediately moving on with their lives. ‘The Ark in Space’ features two people sacrificing themselves to save humanity, one with a quip about his union and the other fighting possession, and in 1975, a single line noting these acts was enough.

In 2005, TV had changed, and so Doctor Who threw more weight behind these deaths (boosted by Russell T. Davies’ seemingly effortless ability to generate a whole human life by adding three adjectives per character to the scripts). Jabe in ‘The End of the World’, Gwyneth in ‘An Unquiet Dead’, Pete Tyler in ‘Father’s Day’… these sacrifices were dwelt on, their weight became cumulative. From this, a subgenre of Almost Companions emerged with Lynda in ‘The Parting of the Ways’, Astrid in ‘Voyage of the Damned’ and Rita in ‘The God Complex’: all too doomed to step on board. Eventually the show acknowledged this with the Eleventh Doctor standing over the body of Lorna Bucket and observing “They’re always brave.”

Doctor Who was commentating on itself as early as its second series (in ‘The Rescue’ David Whittaker created Koquillion, a monster in a rubber suit that turned out to actually be a man in a rubber monster costume). In the 1980s, Doctor Who had become increasingly continuity-heavy, but what its final few series managed successfully was to comment on Doctor Who without making the stories’ success dependent on this. Characters such as Captain Cook offer up twisted reflections of the Doctor, with the Chief Clown, Josiah Samuel Smith and Commander Millington all tapping into the historical influences on the show, but crucially the stories still work if you’re not familiar with all this.

‘Ghostlight’, the most densely packed version of this approach,is still entertaining even if you don’t know what is going on. It’s played with such conviction and unity, with each character managing to feel both heavily symbolic but with a sense of inner-life. This is generally true of the Seventh Doctor’s era supporting characters, especially the guy who snaps “I can’t do anything without my list now can I?” in ‘The Happiness Patrol’.

But as we’ve seen, a standout character doesn’t have to be multi-faceted. Not every henchman can be Packer from ‘The Invasion’ (he’s not only sadistic and cruel, but Peter Halliday really commits to the undignified flapping when things go wrong), but most stock characters in Doctor Who work by being given ‘a bit’.

Usually this stems from their plot function. Harrison Chase, in ‘The Seeds of Doom’ is a plant collector and obsessive because the story is based around aggressive plant-creatures, and needs a simple way to bring the main human antagonist into the adventure. Here though it’s more than that. Lesser examples of this trick can be seen with Tarun Capel in ‘Robots of Death’, where his obsession with robots isn’t as unsettling as Chase’s obsession with plants (and then further down the line we have Magnus Greel in ‘Talons of Weng-Chieng’, who is evil because the story needs a bad guy). In ‘Seeds of Doom’, time is devoted to the idea of a man who considers plant life superior to humanity, and the script and actor Tony Beckley really commit to the comedy and horror of this idea. That’s his ‘bit’.

Perhaps the finest example of turning a character’s basic function into pure entertainment is Duggan in ‘City of Death’. Douglas Adams and Graham Williams, rewriting David Fisher’s scripts about aliens in Monte Carlo, took a Bulldog Drummond-inspired detective character and realised his primary function in the script was to be the muscle for the Doctor and Romana.

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There are other elements of of ‘City of Death’ that poke fun at television’s contrivances (The guard’s throwaway line saying Captain Tancredi will “be here instantly” just before the door opens, for example) and Duggan’s repeatedly punching people unconscious to move the plot along is not only revealed to be an example of Chekhov’s Gun, whereby it’s the solution to the whole story, but also the source of the best sight gag in Doctor Who when Duggan opens a wine bottle by simply smashing it open off the bar. Without providing him with much in the way of depth or backstory, by leaning into the character’s story function to almost absurd levels, ‘City of Death’ creates one of the most memorable supporting characters in Doctor Who history.

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