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theskyexists · 5 years ago

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Orphan 55

I got so mad at Thirteen getting choked AGAIN that I paused.

Why. WHY. WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway wow that was...weird.

Look I agree with the message - I am a FERVENT environmentalist - but I found that last bit ridiculously on the nose. That whole speech almost straight to the camera. Would it have killed them to intersperse with more reverse shots? I'm a bit of traitor to myself here but Jodie is not good enough at long speeches yet to carry that off entirely.

What I DID love was the way the Doctor couldn't relax, muscled her way in, took over, told people off, was absolutely brilliant. 'Come on, Kane.' she says very sharply and Kane comes. Whenever somebody tries to challenge the Doctor she puts them in their place and if somebody doesn't tell her something then she'll figure it out herself and notice all the details. Powerful and a bit grumpy compared to her cheery old self

Also loved the moment where Yaz and Graham were like, oh shit where's Ryan. Also loved Ryan being like, ah that must have been the Doctor who saved my life. Also LOVED the bit when the Doctor efficiently removes the Hopper virus from Ryan (who is hilarious), catching him when he falls over, there's just something so - almost parental about their dynamic and I love it.

But the way all the people got murdered? There were zero twists to that, they just fed all the location characters into the kill machine, Hyph3n, Vorm, Benni, Vilma, Kane, Bella. Jfc. I thought the fact that they kept Benni alive might have been an indication of something more. And yeah all the monsters turned out to be sentient victims of classism but they still got blown up? Like, they had an understanding - the Doctor and the 'alpha' (yikes, no) and it clearly was extremely intelligent, but it was impossible to come to a long term agreement ? To negotiate? Apparently they were lost causes despite being victims? But the Doctor just showed they weren't?? Once again, not even an attempt - a start at structural change. What do they eat anyway?? Good survival episode for a change but the Doctor should be making an impact in structural and imaginary forces! Instead we get...oh it might not happen though.

i don't think we've ever had this take on time travel from the Doctor before??!!? This is Moffat opposite. Everything they've experienced could apparently just be an alternate timeline on the eddies of the continuum???

Loved YAZ drawing attention to the Doctor's bad mood. And her also questioning her very sharply on WHEN she knew it was Earth. And her being like: NO SHOW US. That twist was also very nice. But I thought Kane would have had something to do with the dregs/victims?? Beyond wanting to provide for her family? Some sort of solidarity or ancestry or outrage. She also seemed ....idk...coded as .... well very 'literal' - almost like neuro-atypical? Thought the acting gave it a lot of depth so was surprised to find the character so shallow. And how the fuck did she show up by the end of it totally fine if the Dregs are so dangerous.

Benni and Vilma (oh ha, I only got it now) were very like the couple in the Titanic Christmas special who also sacrificed themselves - but not as sympathetic.

There were two parallels with Ryan going on, one for Ryan and one for Graham. Bella resented her mother (didn't she look young????) for never being there for her to the point of multiple counts of manslaughter. And Sylas and Devi, Sylas being a much better MECHANIC than his dad but dismissed. I'm not sure...what it was supposed to say about the companions.

The way people kept throwing themselves into the Dregs' jaws kind of diminished the effect of the sacrifice. Love how Yaz was caring for Vilma- the weakest among them - but she AGAIN gets the least to do. And she still expects the Doctor to take care of herself. The Doctor points to her not having an oxygen supply and she's like: alright she'll be fine ey.

In conclusion, great writing for the Doctor. Some good bits for the companions. The message super weirdly on the nose and the setting and other characters didn't have much else to say. The parallels to companions weren't super clear. And there was another count of choking (GODDAMMIT) and Yaz not getting to do anything. Also that last speech made me flashback to the end of Cats with Judie Dench looking me straight in the eyes reciting a Jellicle cats poem for ten minutes.

Ed Hime did better last series, in my opinion.

#idjfbf #kdbfbf #irjfnr #ofjrnt #orjtnt #my stuff #dw #doctor who #spoilers #orphan 55

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thefamoustownofyeadon · 5 years ago

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Twenty Stories That Made the Famous Town of Yeadon. Day 4- Strange Fruit.

Laurie Lee once wrote about how strange things happen in out of the way places

Up until about 1973 Yeadon essentially ran itself. We had our own Yeadon Urban District Council, and good Primitive Methodists (which was their official name) like Rueben Yeadon were in charge. They made it up as they went along.

But compared to places like Guiseley we were not a high achieving town. Sometimes oddballs ended up in Yeadon and flourished.

Today I will focus on dentistry. We will cover medicine and education in the next few days.

I need to be clear I liked these people except for Ma Dutton and the Neanderthal male teachers who were crazy buggers and a few of them sadists my dad had to 'have a word with'.

Mr Moffat was the town's dentist. His surgery was above a paint shop on the Town Hall Square. He had learned to be a dentist in the war by helping out a military dentist in, I think North Africa. It was kind of on the job training. We were short of everything after the war so when the health service started in 1948 they gave him a job as the town dentist.

First up, he and his wife, the dental nurse chain-smoked in the surgery. Even when they were giving treatment...and we never thought it odd. I associate dentistry with the smell of cigarette smoke and paint from the downstairs shop.

Moffet was nosey and when he had me in the chair as a kid he would try and extract info. How's your dad, David? Is he still street selling and not paying tax?

He was full of stories about my dad. "Do you know David, your dad was the first man in Yeadon to wear a green shirt".

He had a weird obsession with my dad and his hats. "David, during the war your dad would tell women he was French and wear a beret". If I want a laugh, even now, I think of my dad trying to impersonate a Frenchman.

Moffat did not really believe in pain control for the young, or even trying to save their teeth...and by age 18 he had pulled most of mine out.

Even when a competent dentist opened on New Road Side, dad said we had to keep going to Moffat because he never charged us. He was running some kind of scam with the paperwork. He prospered and bought a big house in Tranmere. My dad used to do Punch and Judy shows at his house. Maybe that was one hand washing another😎😎😎

Mr Moffat died climbing the 100 steep steps up to the parish church and abbey at Whitby ....... In 1985 I had to have emergency dentistry in Bermuda. It was $50 just to see a dentist but everything else was extra. He offered me a half-price deal if he could take photos and X-rays of my teeth and use them for a Dental Conference in the U.S. He said that my teeth were incredible and he had only seen dental work like mine in the oldest of training materials. I told him about Moffat.

NB. Do not get me wrong. I liked Moffat. Nothing like a dentist you might imagine and he looked and acted much like Frankie Howard in Up Pompeii. And he used to make me laugh. RIP

Reminder- 'The Famous Town of Yeadon,' project has its very own Facebook page with lots of fascinating extras and contributions from fully vetted members.

#yeadon #yorkshire #humour #1960s

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clarabosswald · 6 years ago

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this week on gallifreybase: my attention’s been turned to a brilliant post summarizing all the unmade episodes in new doctor who some of which i knew about, some i didn’t i love this kind of behind the scenes stuff to death so here is the post under the cut for everyone to enjoy

Series 1 -The Paul Abbott episode Originally in RTD's Series 1 Pitch document, Episode 11 was just called "The New Team" and just said "The Doctor, Rose and Jax. A small scale adventure, character stuff" presumably to be written by RTD himself. Then it was retitled "Pompeii" after RTD saw a documentary on the event and thought similar SFX could be used a Who episode. Then Russell managed to tempt his friend, successful showrunner Paul Abbott to write an episode. So the pitch document for Ep11 was re-titled "Paul Abbott Episode" There's no evidence that Abbott used the Pompeii idea. Instead, according to Russell, Abbott's story pitch was that Jax would discover that the Doctor had been secretly manipulating Rose's life, in order to make her the perfect companion and there would be conflict over whether to tell her. RTD was hesitant over the idea, because it ruined his own plans for the Doctor & Rose, but he allowed Abbott to continue to develop it. However after a few weeks it became clear Abbott wouldn't have the time to do the episode, Russell replaced with his own script "Boom Town" Series 2 -The 1920s by Stephen Fry In RTD's Series 2 story outline, Episode 11 was called "The 1920s" and was to be written by Stephen Fry, partly based on research for his film "Bright Young Things" The episode was also based on the story of "Gawain and the Green Knight" giving the story new alien origins. It included a scenes of the TARDIS landing on a strange planet. It was reportedly set in 3 different time periods (incluiding the 1920s) The story apparently involved the Gawain character falling in love with Rose in the wrong narratative order for viewers, and for Rose herself. However, late in 2006, it was decided that the story was too expensive for this point in production and it was pushed back to Series 3 & replaced with "Fear Her". It has also been said there were issues with violence. Unfortunately by 2007, Fry didn't have time to rewrite the script further or alter it for the new companion and so he wrote a letter to RTD and it was abandoned altogether. Some have said (off the record) that the script's tone was was very different from RTD episodes, closer to the Classic Series (e.g. It began with the Doctor & Rose playing chess in the TARDIS by candlelight) in 2011 Fry has said he would like to re-use the idea, taking out the Dr Who elements and turning into a novel, when he has the time, but since then nothing has happened. Series 3 -Ood story by Chris Chibnall After his first successful year show-running Torchwood, Chibnall was invited to write for Dr Who, Series 3 Episode 7. He told Starburst Magazine "Russell said, “Come and write this episode"... It was one with the Ood, and it had Zack and Ida from The Impossible Planet, and it was like going to see what had happened to them afterwards. There were tiny elements of it in Planet of the Ood but it wasn't the same story. And so we did a lot of planning on that; and it was an alien planet. And then I finished all my writing duties on Torchwood and we had the meeting and it was like, "Actually we can't afford to do that. We need an episode set in corridors, with no monsters, because we couldn't afford monsters. That's probably why there are no real aliens" Series 4 -The Suicide Exhibition by Mark Gatiss This was planned for Penny's (later Donna's) Episode 3 (which was later swapped with "Planet of the Ood") RTD's Series 4 breakdown describes this as "World War 2. Monsters on the loose in the Natural History Museum as a Nazi strike force invades...Plus an Indiana Jones-type chamber hidden beneath with sliding stone doors" Gatiss said the story was based on how, during the war, museums would put out less well-known exhibits, so that if they were bombed they wouldn't lose any great treasures-Suicide Exhibitions. He also said the monsters were based on the preserved bog-men found in the museums, like "The Lindow man" "After the first draft, Russell said, "Let's make it the Nazis and do the full Indiana Jones on it." The whole museum was a puzzle box of sliding doors and traps and stuff." Gatiss worked on the script for a year, and a script was ready to film, but when the production team discovered it'd be possible to shoot an episode overseas, the story was abandoned in favour of "Fires of Pompeii" -Century House by Tom MacRae An companion-lite episode. The Doctor goes live on reality TV show "Most Haunted" to track down a ghost known as The Red Widow. Donna & her family watch him at home on TV. It was set in a big old, abandoned, spooky house on a cliff top, with OB vans and tricks with cables rings around the house. Certain rooms would flashback to the 1950s/60s. There was a big fire sequence towards the end. If I remember correctly, MacRae compared moments in the episode to Sapphire and Steel. This was an idea RTD originally gave to MacRae to develop for Series 3 (so Martha and her family) Unfortunately they found there wasn't a place for it there, so it was held back for Series 4, episode 8. Unfortunately, despite MacRae working on it for over a year, RTD and the team were concerned that the setting was too similar to "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and that the concept they had given him wasn't strong enough. Shortly before pre-production, RTD challenged himself to try to come up with something better in a few days, and ended up quickly writing "Midnight". In a later interview, MacRae was quite sanguine about this, saying that if his episode had to be replaced, he was glad it was with one of the best. The Specials -Space Opera/Alien Hotel by Gareth Roberts and Russell T Davies One of RTD's earliest ideas for the 2009 Easter special would be have to the TARDIS arrive in the middle of an interstellar war, complete with aliens, spaceships, and dogfights in space. He gave this idea to Gareth Roberts who wrote an outline. RTD has issues with the result, including later scenes set in an outer space hotel where guests were having alien eggs secretly implanted (a gruesome reference to easter eggs) So the story was abandoned in favour of what became "Planet of the Dead" -A Midwinter's Tale by Phil Ford and Russell T Davies A grandmother (possibly to be played by Helen Mirren or Judi Dench) is trapped in a posh hotel with her unruly family at Christmas. Wishing that they'd all just disappear, she storms out, only to find the corridors deserted, her family has disappeared, and as she searches further, so has all of humanity. Finally, she comes upon the TARDIS and the Doctor. Investigating, they discover eight-legged centaur-like creatures abroad in London. It transpires that aliens from another dimension, the Shi'ar, have frozen time on Earth in order to hold a festival celebrating the marriage of their queen. The life of the grandmother's family becomes endangered, culminating in a race through secret tunnels beneath Buckingham Palace. This was a story idea by RTD given to Phil Ford, planned for when there would've been only 3 specials: Easter 2009, Christmas 2009 and the Doctor regenerating at Easter 2010, leaving a few weeks before Series 5. "Midwinter" would be the Christmas special. Eventually it was decided there wasn't enough incident for an hour. "Waters of Mars" was developed instead, which was then moved to November with a new two-part Christmas regeneration. Series 5 -Death to the Doctor by Gareth Roberts This was originally planned for Series 5: Episode 7, the "Amy's Choice" slot. According to Gareth Roberts on Twitter,it was set on a Holiday planet like Las Vegas in middle of huge star war. The planet totally peaceful, with the law rigorously enforced. , There were police robots called Fleetfoots. If anyone committed any crime they had to fight a duel with a giant cyclops, and then the Doctor got arrested on a minor offence... Amy and Rory would have to find a way to get him off world without whole planet going up in war. The story also involved a disgraced Sontaran character called Commander Skorn. This story got as far as CGI being designed for the cyclops. Unfortunately as Series 5 went on, there was a budget crunch and it was realised they couldn't afford their original plans. So Hungry Earth/Cold Blood was rewritten to be cheaper, Neil Gaiman's Episode 11 was moved to Series 6, and Roberts' episode was abandoned altogether. Instead Roberts and Simon Nye were hired to write new, cheaper stories for episodes 7 and 11. However, even though the episode was lost, Moffat reinvented Commander Skorn as Commander Strax for A Good Man Goes to War, delighting Roberts. -Fear Itself by Paul Cornell (from Paul Cornell's Newsletter https://paulcornell.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=198e8a011b70a7fa79dd704d6&id=de506d08cb) This was to be a companion-lite episode. It was a loose adaptation of Cornell's Christmas story "The Hopes and Fears of All the Years" The story involved the Doctor visiting a boy (Tom) every year on his on his birthday, because the Doctor knows he will, on one birthday, save the boy's life. It charted the life story of the boy, then the man, through the Doctor's regular visits on the same day. The story went through at least six drafts with the threat the Doctor was protecting Tom from changing during this process. By the Sixth draft it an alien computer that turned surrounding people into monsters for a few minutes each year. Tom had a green glowing lump on his neck & the computer's directive was to obtain it/destroy it. The story got as far as Cornell being brought in to to talk about casting, with some big names being discussed for grown-up Tom. Eventually it was decided the story was too expensive for Series 5 (Two scenes of birthday visits through the decades would've depicted the two World Wars) and the episode was pushed back to Series 6. However when Series 6 started, Cornell was told they weren't going ahead with his episode after all. Series 7 -Craig of the Gods by Gareth Roberts This was intended for episode 5 of the original Series 7b when Beryl the Victorian nanny was to be the companion. Craig was playing a computer game with real people trapped inside. The Tardis landed in game, Doctor and Beryl looked up through the clouds to see god and it was Craig. The story was seemingly abandoned when Beryl was replaced with Clara as the companion Roberts later observed that similar ideas were used in Series 10's Extremis. -Craig's Wedding by Gareth Roberts This would've featured the return of Craig, Sophie and their son. In one interview, Roberts said "I had this idea where Craig and Sophie were going to get married and were on this beautiful island somewhere near Greece and it was all going fine, then you turned around and saw the Doctor water-skiing away from a Sea Devil. Then you’d have Craig trying to keep him out of the wedding.” However someone who had read the Series 7 outline says that Sea Devils weren't there, instead a different monster was featured. Roberts later described the episode as "Nuts In May on Alzarius" Nuts in May was a Mike Leigh comedy about a slightly dull married couple (Craig and Sophie?) who try to go camping, but keep having their peace interrupted, often by the husband's jealousy. It may have been cancelled due to James Cordern's rising stardom in America. From what we can gather, it seems to have been replaced with "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" Series 8 -Strax on Trial by James Henry Detailed here http://jamesandthebluecat.blogspot.com/2018/01/always-spell-check-your-email-headers.html Briefly, James Henry (writer of Green Wing, Campus and Smack the Pony) was asked to pitch stories for Series 8. Eventually Moffat asked him to develop one his own ideas, where Strax is kidnapped by his fellow Sontarans, taken back to his home planet, and put on trial for helping humans and the Doctor. An outline was written (read the blogpost) and it appears it was in competition with "Mummy on the Orient Express" and "In the Forest of the Night" for the final two slots. For various reasons, those two episodes were chosen instead. Series 9 -Vampire story by Paul Cornell Paul Cornell was asked to come in and submit ideas for Capaldi's first series. One story idea was for the Doctor & Clara to encounter a community of peaceful vampires in London and for the Doctor to get bitten and become one. The story was a sort of inverse 'Human Nature', going with the idea that this was to be a Doctor who couldn't quite be trusted. This story idea was accepted and could've been made for Capaldi's second season (per Cornell's reddit AMA) but it was never developed further than a one page outline. Series 10 -Jamie Mathieson's New Monster In 2015, when Moffat was first talking to writers for Series 10 episodes, he told the Radio Times "[Mathieson] has just been in and pitched a brilliant idea, a brilliant new monster. I just read his first pass at a storyline for that and I’ve no idea where we’ll end up going with that story. But that’s him. Being Jamie, he came in with 20 ideas and this one is just a belter" Early next year, Mathieson told a convention he had received an email from Moffat beginning "I can't stop thinking about your monster" However, in a 2017 DWM, Moffat reported that although they had tried to make Mathieson's monster story, they'd never managed to get the script to work, Moffat thought that it would still make an amazing horror film. Instead he asked Mathieson to develop another different story based around astronauts. -Sleep No More 2 by Mark Gatiss When planning his story for Series 10, Gatiss originally planned to do a semi-sequel to "Sleep No More" He told the Radio Times "I had this idea [that] I'd like to do the double in a kind of Yeti way, to have two stories about the same monster.” "Although it was still in space, 'Sleep No More' was originally going to be on a trading floor; it was a stocks and shares thing, with these executives who were trying to stay awake in order to be more productive...I thought there was something in that, and actually maybe I could do a modern day one, set in the City, where they’d invented the same process but actually thousands of years earlier, and it had the same effect.” So the story would have been more of a prequel, set in Modern day London, The Genesis of the Sandmen. Gatiss said he abandoned the episode when he realised that this could be his last Who episode, so he asked instead to write the story he'd always wanted to do: Ice Warriors on Mars. -Pride & Prejudice & Daleks by Paul Cornell Paul Cornell was again asked to submit ideas for a later Capaldi series. One idea he developed, involving Daleks in the Land of Fiction was paid for because it was similar to an idea another writer was working on and they wanted to be able to use his ideas (this is standard practice with writers) However the latter story was never made. List of writers that were commissioned, but we still know nothing about their stories Series 3: Matthew Graham (possibly the man who can drain color that he unsuccessfully pitched for Series 2) Series 5: Rob Shearman, Jack Thorne, Amanda Coe Series 7: Tom MacRae, John Fay, Jack Lothian, the mystery original writer of Series 7b Episode 2 Series 10: Russell T Davies (Moffat said at Cambridge that they had a story all worked out, but then he became too busy) At some point during the Steven Moffat era, Charlie Brooker & Jed Mercurio were asked by the showrunner if they wanted to write Doctor Who stories. However Brooker was too busy & Mercurio wasn't interested in 2018 acclaimed writer Sally Abbott said that she worked on a Doctor Who story for several months, but wouldn't say more except it was "a few years ago" Paul Cornell has also said that around 2011/2012 he worked with Caro Skinner on another TV Doctor Who spinoff, which he's going to discuss on his newsletter at a later date. So if you want to read about that in full, I encourage you to subscribe https://paulcornell.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=198e8a011b70a7fa79dd704d6&id=de506d08cb)

to those of you who are on gb, here’s a direct link to the post:

#doctor who #russell t davies #steven moffat #i don't know what to tag this with but it's such a good read #i wish they'd written more bts books about the production of who #this stuff is fascinating

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thenightling · 5 years ago

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Though this is funny and for insane reasons reminds me of The Corinthian from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman I have to tell you there are actually lots and lots of gay characters in horror, it’s just for many years they were “hidden.”

homofied

Gay horror characters:

For starters in the original Fright Night from 1985 there was Evil Ed (not the crappy remake, that straight washed everyone). Ed was supposed to be in the closet. Jerry Dandridge took advantage of this. Jerry Dandridge (the vampire) was bisexual. Amy was played by a lesbian and Peter Vincent (who was modeled after Vincent Price and Peter Cushing, Price was bisexual in real life, by the way) was played by Roddy McDowall, who was gay in real life. As Peter Vincent was partly modeled after a bisexual man, and played by a gay man, there’s very little chance he was straight. (Again, this is not the remake version, which weirdly straight washed everyone). In Fright Night part 2 Regine was bisexual. And she had a trans henchwoman named Belle.

Dracula’s daughter was supposed to be a lesbian and preferred to feed on women. There was a gay club named after her in San Franciso.

Miriam Blaylock in The Hunger was bisexual.

All of Anne Rice’s vampires are bisexual. Carmilla was a lesbian in all her incarnations (except the version in The Batman vs. Dracula. That one is probably bisexual. And the version in Castlevania is also bisexual). One very good depiction is in the 1970 film The Vampire lovers, directly based on the original Carmilla novel.

Dario Argento’s version of Dracula, Steven Moffat’s version of Dracula, and Frank Wildhorn’s Dracula is bisexual. (Let’s just assume most versions are actually bisexual).

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) has a deleted scene showing that Renfield was jealous of Mina and felt that he had “Lost him to that pretty woman.”

Horror master Clive Barker is gay and married.

John Constantine from the film Constantine and TV show is canonically bisexual.

Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust parts 1 and 2 is openly bisexual and talks about the pleasures of male and female anatomy. Mephisto turns up in a lot of horror films, including the 1926 silent film version of Faust and The Haunted castle, the first horror film from 1897.

In Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman Alexander Burgess, Paul, The Corinthian, Judy, Donna (Foxglove), and Hazel are all gay. Wanda is trans. And Desire is genderfluid.

There’s a lot more I could name. In fact I made a post about gays in horror some time ago.

https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/165397979838/the-real-lgbt-icons-of-horror-fiction

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hillvale · 6 years ago

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Tonight at Hillvale Gallery, 7-9pm — Keep The Fire Burning. A celebration of five years of Hillvale with a projection based group exhibition. ⠀⠀ We had an overwhelming response with 605 entries. We truly appreciate the support over these past 5 years — it’s what makes Hillvale special to us. It was great to see so many entries from across the globe, with kind words of appreciation. ⠀⠀ Photos from Aaron Chapman, Aaron Claringbold, Abigail Varney, Adelina Onicas, Aishah Kenton, Alex Johnstone, Alex Meagher, Amber Maree, Andy Johnson, Andy MacRae, Anne Moffat, Arda Satata Fitriajie, Asia Taylor, Baris Bulut Karabulut, Bella Capezio, Ben Christensen, Ben Clement, Ben Hattingh, Ben Hermans, Blythe Kirk, Brodie Lancaster, Brynn Chadwick, Caroline Goessling, Catherine Drysdale, Chris Moses, Christopher Sutherland, Clare Steele, Coby Baker, Craig Lyons, Damien Laing, Damien Melchiori, Daniel Wilson, Darsh Seneviratne, Dylan Dimovski, Dylan Ooster, Emmaline Zanelli, Felix Atkinson, Garry Trinh, Greg Holland, Guy Heath, Hannah Nikkelson, Heide Peverelle, Jack MacKinnon, Jack Shelton, Jacky Hawkeswood, Jaclyn Paterson, Jacob Strasser, James Bugg, James Whiting, Janomes Martinez, Jason Hamilton, Joe Nigel Coleman, John Bollen, Joo Anna Oh, Joseph Liu, Judy Turner, Kae Kitzler, Karl Halliday, Kate Moffat, Klari Agar, Kosta Greig, Kres Saban, Lakshan Dharmapriya, Laurence Watts, Lekhena Porter, Leonardo Magrelli, Liam Brownlie, Louis Mitchell, Lucy Hillman, Luke Byrne, Luke Murray, Luke Pownall, Luke van Aurich, Madz Rehorek, Marc Harpur, Marcelle Bradbeer, Mathieu Mathon, Matthew Foy, Matthew Justice, Max Turner, Maximillian Williams, Michael Danischewski, Michael Garbutt, Michael Thomas, Michaela Dutkova, Nadia Mizner, Natasha Cantwell, Nic Ojae, Nusha Gurusinghe, Oliver Hodgkins, Paul Handley, Pearce Leal, Phillip Dixon, Rebecca McCauley, Robyn Daly, Rubin Utama, Ryota Hisanabe, Sam Rogers, Samuel Nolan, Sarah Pannell, Sean Barrett, Shannon Rush, Shea Kirk, Simon Peel, Sonny Witton, Stacey Zalomski, Tash McCammon, Timothy Hillier, Vanessa Howells, Walter Bakowski, Wilhelm Philipp, Will Vink, Xiao Xue Tang, Zoie Kasper. ⠀⠀ #Hillvale #KeepTheFireBurning https://ift.tt/2QmVHkH

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rocksbackpages · 4 years ago

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New for RBP subscribers this week

“We said we wanted to be pop stars and everybody went, ‘Oh, that’s so ironic and cool and kitsch’. When we said, ‘We’re actually going to be pop stars’, they all went, ‘SELL OUT!’”

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alightformyideas · 4 years ago

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Hoje eu recebo toda a abundância que me rodeia

Olá, ninguém!

Realmente espero que ninguém esteja lendo além de eu mesma, já que tumblr ficou no passado e poucas pessoas ainda lembram da existência dele.

Comecei a participar de um grupo de meditação em que durante 21 dias meditaremos juntos e faremos algumas atividades diárias para atingir o inconsciente coletivo.

A primeira tarefa é fazer uma lista de 50 pessoas que tiveram influência em minha vida, podendo ser tanto pessoas vivas, com também quem já partiu, parentes, amigos, celebridades, escritores e personalidades que eu necessariamente não conheça pessoalmente.No processo, preciso lembrar do porquê eu escolhi essa pessoa e de que forma ela mudou minha vida positivamente.

Então vamos lá: 1. Mamãe

Me deram a luz e ao mesmo tempo são as luzes da minha vida.

2.Papai

3. Vovó Martha - Meu maior orgulho e espelho. Forte e determinada, me ensinou a amar a natureza e a defendê-la.

4. Vovô Nelson - Como poderia ter lembranças de quando eu tinha somente 3 anos? Mas eu lembro muito bem dele, do sorriso, do cabelinho branco que eu penteava.Tenho quase certeza que ele me fez comer meu primeiro tucumã. Aprendi com ele que “Banana de manhã é ouro, de tarde é prata e de noite mata”.

5. Vovó Maria - Sempre muito religiosa, com ela aprendi a pedir instrução divina. Me ensinou a tomar banho de cuia e a fazer dindin. A simplicidade também liberta.

6. Vovô Raimundo - Engraçado e sobretudo, bondoso. Tinha um coração puro e sempre me fez querer emanar a paz que ele me emanava. Quando vovô tava presente no recinto, tudo parecia que ficava bem.

7. Thude - Minha tia confidente. Uma das irmãs mais novas da mamãe e pra mim, é irmã mais velha. Desapegada, quase nômade, independente. Compartilhamos o amor por viagem. A coragem dela em largar tudo pra seguir um sonho me inspira

8. Thita - Miau. A melhor pessoa a lidar com crianças que eu já conheci. Bondosa como o vovô, me ensinou que a felicidade tá nas coisas mais simples

9. Tia Teia - Irmã mais nova da mamãe e a mais trabalhadora. Cresceu por mérito próprio e hoje tem uma família linda. Com ela aprendi que temos que batalhar pra conseguir crescer na vida.

10. Tia Bia - Minha musa fitness. Mora fora, aprendeu espanhol em 6 meses para se adaptar ao novo país. Já viajou mais que todas da família e já viu coisas lindas. A força de vontade dela pra ser o que ela é me inspira

11. Tia Esmeralda - Tia querida e vizinha de frente. Companheira de exercício físico. A casa dela é minha segunda casa. Decidida (às vezes cabeça dura) e com gênio forte, supera adversidades com uma determinação admirável.

12. Tia Lane - Era meio maluquinha mas o tempo a tornou uma pessoa responsável, porém nunca deixou de ser criativa. Autodidata nata. Aprendeu sozinha a fazer cabelo, costurar, jardinar. E faz tudo com muita qualidade.

13. Gregory - Meu irmão. Aprendi a exercer a paciência (Mas também a amar quem pensa diferente de mim)

14. Isabelinha - Minha prima mais próxima, parece irmã. Até as pessoas falavam que éramos parecidas. Minha companheira desde o berço.

15. André Lulu - Meu primo irmão da Isabelinha. Outro que parece irmão. Com ele, bela e gregory, tive a melhor infância que poderia pedir.

16. Lade - Minha prima mais velha e descolada. Se hoje meu gosto musical é bom, a responsável é ela.

17. Prof. Marta Lira - Diretora do Pinnocchio, me chama de Calol até hoje. Uma inspiração.

18. Prof. Graça - Minha professora da alfabetização. Me ensinou a ler e a escrever.

19. Prof. Goretti - Professora de ciências da sétima série. Passou um álbum de botânica que até hoje tenho em casa e sempre guardarei comigo.

20. Prof.Rosa Patrícia - Professora de história do final do meu ensino fundamental. Minha matéria favorita do colégio e tenho certeza que só comecei a achar isso após as aulas dela.

21.Tia Nelly - Minha tia, irmã do papai e dona do Colégio que estudei a vida inteira. Deu continuidade ao legado educacional de vovó Martha.

22. Tia Babá - Minha tia, irmã do papai. A alma mais bondosa e caridosa desse lado da família. A luz que ela carrega é quase palpável de tão forte.

23. Prof. Judy - Professora da faculdade. Melhores cafés e conselhos. Ao mesmo tempo rígida. Por um tempo achei que rígida até demais. Depois vi como me ajudou a crescer na faculdade.

24. Prof. Célia - Simplesmente me ensinou a editar um jornal mural (Jornal Expresso, o mais famoso da UFAM). Querida por (quase) todos os alunos. Bota a gente pra produzir. E tá certíssima

25. Prof. Israel - Salvador da pátria, meu orientador do TCC. À ele tenho minha eterna gratidão por todas as orientações, por aguentar minhas crises e sempre dar forças pra eu finalizar.

26. Ana Clara - Minha primeira e melhor amiga fora da bolha familiar. Do maternal pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

27. Valéria - Da primeira série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

28. Nathalya - Da segunda-série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

29. Evelyn - Da segunda série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

30. Isabela - Da nona série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra

31. Gabi - Da sétima série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra

32. Alinne - Nos conhecemos desde o maternal. Mas a amizade daquelas que eu posso considerar pra vida toda aconteceu na sétima série também. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

33. Camile - Da sétima série pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

34. Bia - Do terceiro ano do ens. médio pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

35. Isabella S. - de 2017 pra vida. Já aprendemos muito uma com a outra.

36. Katyuscia - Foi minha professora na Cultura Inglesa, depois foi minha Coordenadora quando eu dei aula lá. E sempre foi uma amiga que vou levar pra vida.

37. Marília - Mari é aquela amiga que ao mesmo tempo é mãe. Quer por que quer cuidar da gente. E a gente deixa, né? Faz o melhor chocolate quente, brigadeiro e mac n cheese.

38. Isabela B.- Estudamos juntas na cultura, demos aula juntas na cultura. Ela literalmente me ensinou muito e vou levá-la pra vida.

39. Nay - Demos aula juntas na cultura. A melhor unidade que existiu inclusive. Mesmo nos falando pouco, sei que é um elo que durará a vida toda também.

40. Tony - Meu primeiro amor. Com ele descobri como era amar, assim como aprendi a seguir em frente e superar.

41. John Mayer - Trilha sonora do meu dia-a-dia, me ajudou a superar por fases difíceis.

42. Tom, Harry, Danny e Dougie (McFly num conjunto) - Fizeram parte de toda a minha adolescencia. E até hoje é minha banda do coração.

43. George Harrison - Ele me ensinou que todas as coisas devem passar e que quando chega o sol, tudo fica bem.

44. David Bowie - Me ensinou que existem seres que não merecem fazer parte desse mundo, pois são maiores que ele.

45. Steven Moffat, Ryan Murphy e Michael Schur - os agradeço pelas distrações à realidade e ao entretenimento fornecido. Diretores/Roteiristas/Produtores da maioria das minhas séries favoritas.

46. Milan Kundera - Depois de ler a insustentável leveza do ser e a festa da insignificância, acho que posso me considerar outra pessoa.

47. Adriene (Yoga w/ Adriene) - primeira professora de yoga. primeira aula de yoga. Mudou minha vida. Não largo mais por nada. Namastê.

48. Julia Manickchand - minha primeira cliente de assessoria artística. Aprendi muito com ela e espero que ela consiga alcançar o sucesso.

49. Ines Daou - Minha chefe na área de eventos. Ensinamentos infinitos, assim como os ditados que ela sempre repete, sendo meu favorito “a bondade é um esporte perigoso”.

50. Valber, Vitória e Bianca - Mais que colegas de faculdade, amigos. Com eles eu adentrei numa aventura que durou mais do que esperávamos. Nossa “empresa” de dindins alcoólicos, a Smoochies. Negócios à parte, sei que posso contar com eles pro que der.

51. Gilbertinho - A nossa amizade foi instantânea. Logo no primeiro dia que nos conhecemos sabia que ia sair algo bom dali.

52. Natasha - Me acho muito parecida com a Natasha no temperamento. Tranquila, na dela. Me identifiquei logo de cara, assim como Gil. Uma amiga pra todas as horas.

53.Carol P - Ex cunhada e amiga pra vida. Admiro o brilho que vem dentro dela. Dona de si, poderosa, extrovertida. Aprendo muito com ela.

54. Kk, Mc, Melka, Goga, Sergio e Rob - Nunca imaginei que a vida me colocaria de paraquedas no meio desse grupo lindo que posso chamar todos de amigos. Experientes, criativos, inteligentes.

55. Malu e Dorinha - Minhas primas mais novas, das quais amo com toda a força do meu ser. Por elas, tenho vontade de evoluir e ser sempre melhor, para que elas possam me ver como exemplo.

MANTRA DO DIA - Co Ham So Hum

Deus é uma fonte ilimitada de abundância e tudo aquilo que foi criado diretamente por Ele é manifestação da abundância ao seu redor, assim como você mesmo. Perceba-se.

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the-desolated-quill · 7 years ago

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The Snowmen - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

The Snowmen has got to be the least Christmassy Christmas special ever, and believe it or not I mean that in a positive way. Doctor Who Christmas specials have always left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, not just because most of them have been poorly written and just plain idiotic, but also because every year the show seems determined to drown you in slush. To its credit, The Snowmen does manage to escape that somewhat, keeping the slush to a minimum. Okay the villain is ultimately defeated by ‘a family crying at Christmas’, but it never comes off as mawkish and there is actually a decent in-universe explanation for how that worked, so I’ll allow it just this once.

So who are the villains? A deadpan Richard E. Grant and some carnivorous snow voiced by Ian McKellen. Compared to other Christmas special villains, they’re fairly good. Out of the two, Mr. Simian’s character is the weak link because we don’t learn anything about his character or the nature of his relationship with the snow, but Grant’s performance is still pretty good and it holds your attention. Ian McKellen also does a decent job with the material he’s been given, and I do like the idea of alien snow, even if the bitey snowflakes and smiling snowmen were a bit gigglesome (and the less said about the bad CGI ice governess, the better I think). It’s a bit like the robot Santas and killer Christmas trees from the RTD era. It’s silly, but it’s enjoyably silly. And as an added treat for us classic series fans, it turns out this episode is actually an origin story for the Great Intelligence. Usually you can see Moffat’s plot twists coming several galaxies away, so I was kicking myself that I didn’t pick up on it the first time. Particularly considering how the hints and Easter Eggs are so obvious on rewatches. The Snowmen as in The Abominable Snowmen and the Yeti. A disembodied voice trying to gain a physical form. The map of the London Underground. The snow is being kept in a giant sphere inside Simian’s office. And of course the initials GI. So yeah, that was a nice callback.

All in all, this could have been a fairly decent Christmas special. Nothing to write home about, but still watchable. Unfortunately The Snowmen is ruined by one thing and that’s the characters. Good fucking God are they horrendous!

Let’s start with the Doctor. After losing Amy and Rory, he has decided that he doesn’t want to travel or help people anymore and is now living above England on a cloud as a lonely old miser.

Fuck off! Not in this universe nor in any other universe would this EVER happen!

You may recall a couple of years ago when I reviewed the RTD era that I really didn’t like the Doctor’s reaction when he lost Rose. it just felt too human and it didn’t really gel with his character. He’s lost companions before. He mourns, but he moves on. Why would Rose be any different? But credit where it’s due, at least the Doctor kept travelling through time and space rather than stay in once place and sulk because RTD knew that that at least is something the Doctor would definitely never do. Here... I mean you can’t even use the excuse that the Doctor was in love with Amy. I’m not saying he wouldn’t be emotionally affected by what happened. I’m just questioning why he would be this emotionally affected to the point where he would actually refuse to help people in need. It just feels totally out of character.

Plus it really does display just how arrogant Moffat is. Of course it would be his characters that caused the Doctor to sink into a deep depression and only his character can bring him out of it. And of course his characters are what inspired the creation of Sherlock Holmes, which he will later adapt in his god awful Sherlock TV show. Christ Moffat, I hope you’ve got plenty of tissues to clean the mess up with after you’ve finished wanking yourself.

Matt Smith doesn’t help matters. His turn as a reclusive miser just isn’t in the least bit convincing, but at least it’s preferable to when he magically makes a full recovery and reverts back to his obnoxious goofy self. This is the Doctor now everyone. A man who has arguments with his own hand and sexually molests Punch and Judy dolls. (Sigh. Only 11 episodes to go Quill. Just hang on).

We also see the return of the Paternoster Gang. A group of one dimensional, unfunny cardboard cutouts that people really seem to like for some reason. Strax is by far the worst, with each bad joke and moment of incompetence driving another nail into the coffin of the Sontarans forever. (But wait, isn’t Strax supposed to be dead? Ah fuck it! Everybody knows death is only a minor inconvenience in the Moffat era. Who cares if it ruins the impact of future deaths or that it completely contradicts Sontaran lore. Just laugh at the Doctor calling him a potato, something the Doctor would also never do because I’m sure that’s racist to Sontarans). And Vastra and Jenny have the same problems as every other Moffat woman in that they have no character or agency of their own. They exist solely to help the Doctor. Also Jenny is in a dominatrix outfit for some reason, and they openly talk about being gay. Two things that would definitely have caused shock and outrage in the rigid and repressed Victorian era.

Actually that’s one thing that really pisses me off about New Who and this episode in particular. None of it is true to the period. Clara is completely contemporary in both her outlook and behaviour, and everything unsavoury about the period is dismissed with the Doctor’s sneer of ‘Victorian values.’ Yes this is the Victorian era, but it’s the Victorian era you’d find on the front of a Christmas card. It’s very easy to just sneer at a period of history and congratulate ourselves for how much better we are today, but why not actually explore the era properly? What’s that saying? The past is like another country? Let the audience see that. Why not have Clara behave like a woman during the Victorian era would and have the Doctor come in to challenge that? Have the episode be a clash of different attitudes and values.

Speaking of Clara, she is by far the worst thing about this episode. I honestly didn’t think it could get any worse than Oswin in Asylum Of The Daleks, but boy was I wrong. She is just insufferable. She’s really smug and smarmy and not in the least bit likeable or believable. She’s like River Song, but 10x worse. Also it doesn’t help that Jenna Coleman decides to give Clara this really bad ‘gor blimey guvner! Strike a light! Up the apples an’ pears’ Cockney accent. (Brief side note, why was she keeping the whole nanny thing secret?). I’m certainly not buying her supposed special connection with the Doctor. That’s another thing Moffat is guilty of. He’s so shit at writing female characters that he can’t effectively convey whey they might be so unique in their actions or behaviour, so he has to just flat out tell the audience instead. Well I’m sorry, but that shit just won’t fly. What reason does Clara have for chasing the Doctor’s cab? What reason does the Doctor have for being impressed with Clara despite the fact she’s done nothing remotely noteworthy? What reason does Clara have for snogging the Doctor’s face off despite the two sharing no romantic chemistry whatsoever? Answer: the script said so. Maybe if Moffat spent less time writing stupid scenes like the ‘respond with one word’ interrogation and more time actually developing her character, I might have actually given a shit when she died. (I mean for fuck’s sake, talk about disappearing up your own arse. How the fuck would Clara have known the word ‘Pond’ would have passed the one word test? How does ‘Pond’ convey she needs the Doctor’s help? What is even the fucking point of the one word test other than as a pathetic attempt for Moffat to try and look deep and intelligent as opposed to a pretentious halfwit? God, he’s such a shit writer).

Worse still, despite the fact Moffat had insisted that Series 7 won’t contain a series arc, it turns out Clara constantly dying is going to be a series arc now. So it looks like we’re going to be stuck with this ungodly annoying woman for quite a considerable time. Bugger!

While The Snowmen is considerably less slushy than some of the previous Christmas specials, I unfortunately have to stick this in the bad category along with the likes of Voyage Of The Damned and The Doctor, The Widow, And The Wardrobe due to its terrible characterisation and Moffat’s pretentious, egocentric bullshit.

#the snowmen #steven moffat #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #clara oswald #jenna coleman #the great intelligence #bbc #review #spoilers

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viking369 · 3 years ago

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Wow, who wrote this, Critical Drinker? Too much broflake whinging. Yeah, Whittaker wasn't the best choice, but who actually wrecked the show? It's stated pretty clearly here: Moffat and Chibnall. With those two driving the train, it was going off the rails, and neither Helen Mirren nor Emma Thompson nor Judy Dench could have prevented it.

TIME's UP!

Why does Doctor Who completely suck? I’ll try to keep this brief. It seems to have begun with Moffat’s takeover as show runner. While there were good stories and bad alike, and while he tended to keep within the realm of the Doctor’s general narrative, he left loose threads all over the place and gaps with the size and strength of black holes everywhere.

For instance, bringing in John Hurt to be the canonical 9th Doctor because Russell T. Davies wouldn’t bring 8th Doctor Paul McGann in for at LEAST a regeneration cameo back on ’05… SO unnecessary. McGann was never called in for the 50th anniversary until near post production as a sort of after-thought to cement Hurt’s incarnation into place. WHY didn’t Moffat simply put McGann back in the TARDIS for the 50th? Answer- because he’s a narcissistic bastard who thinks he’s clever.

To be fair, the move WAS very clever. However, it was also stupid, insufferable, and has proven that much of the fan base if filled with morons, psychopaths and mental defectives. Not counting Hurt as the 9th Doctor??? Seriously? Tough shit, kids; it’s canon. You SAW the show, right? You DID listen when he did, in fact, call himself “The Doctor”, didn’t you? Capaldi was called “The Doctor of War”, but that’s not an isolating moniker, now is it? Seriously, kids; get a grip!

Despite this infuriating shit-fuckery, fans have also neglected the fact that David Tenant portrayed two, YES TWO incarnations of the Doctor. In “School Reunion” he did tell Sarah Jane Smith that he’d regenerated ‘half a dozen times’ since last they met.

They last time they canonically met was in ‘The Five Doctors’ with Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor. Add six more- Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, and at the time, Eccleston… that’s only 5, right? Well, Hurt makes 6, baby. That’s just basic math. Need more? Alright, let’s include Matt Smith’s explanation to Clara while he was on Trenzalore. He told her that he was done and couldn’t regenerate anymore and that he was the last of “THIRTEEN SILLY DOCTORS”. Point and set. Done. Canon. Etched in dwarf star alloy. There’s no debate here, children. It’s fact, not your perception, your “truth” or skewed point of view. Fact.

Regeneration, for you novices out there who can’t be bothered with canon material, is when a Time Lord’s body is repaired to cheat death by replacing every single cell with a fresh, new one. Often, this also creates a change of appearance but it is not mandatory or conducive to the process. Anyone who is ‘old school�� and recalls former companion and Time Lady ‘Romana’ already knows that form change can be controlled at will, at least when it isn’t during a time of duress.

Perhaps the Doctor was never good at controlling his regeneration process. Perhaps it’s because he’s half human, according to canon from the 1996 movie. Perhaps his faces were from memories of random people that leapt to mind during the near-fatal instance that triggered the regeneration. Colin Baker played a Time Lord before he was the Doctor and he shot then-Doctor Peter Davison on Gallifrey. Right after, the Doctor wore that face. Perhaps Pertwee’s 3rdDoctor had met the young Curator of the Undergallery, hence changing into Tom Baker’s face as inferred in “Day of the Doctor”. Even Capaldi acknowledged his Doctor’s facial origin.

What we do know for sure and beyond doubt is that when you have something like a coffee mug and it breaks and you follow up by buying a new mug that looks exactly like it, you simply cannot claim that they’re both the same mug and in the case of the Doctor, this simple, cognitive avenue of thought applies as well. All new body- same shape- new incarnation. Period.

While we may live in the Era of Anti-Intellectualism, what with the Americans having elected Trump and the Brits putting that ass-scab Johnson into top political offices, it’s no wonder that the Doctor Who fan base cannot accept these things. They’re still crying like infants; screaming at those of us with working brain cells that Jodie Whittaker is the 13th Doctor.

So while the show may have had its issues, part of the problem is that “Newvians” think they’re oh-so-smart-and-facts-be-damned attitude is somehow valid. It isn’t even a pleasure talking ‘Who’ with others. Too often there’s the resounding risk of being attacked or ostracized as a heretic for calling them out on their bullshit. This isn’t to let the BBC, marketing divisions and “bling” makers that don’t want to change their packaging off the hook. They’re very much part of this problem and it’s an issue that wouldn’t BE an issue had Davies clarified to the unwashed masses that Tennant was two incarnations and had Moffat simply hired Paul McGann to be the Doctor for the Time War in the goddamn first place.

Moving on, this brings us to the post-Smith era with the 14th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. I had very much looked forward to his time as the Doctor as he was a long-time fan of the show and he knew his stuff. That seems a little trivial to some, but if you’re going to play a role, you should KNOW the character you’re going to portray. I really have no complaints about Capaldi’s era; his Doctor was a bit like earlier incarnations and it was Capaldi’s interpretation of how the character should be, but thinking back, not too many of the stories from his time were… memorable. Part of what made Davies’ time as show runner was that most, not all but most of the stories done during his tenure as show runner were not only memorable but worth revisiting.

I’ve binged Eccleston and Tennant’s stories, starting with “Rose” straight through until “End of Time” with a lot of enthusiasm. During that stretch, I found that one of the best; nay THE best one-off writer was Moffat. I was looking forward to his legacy when it was announced that he was taking the helm when Davies stepped down. However, he initially turned the show into “The Amy Pond Show featuring Rory and some guy called The Doctor with special guest star River Song”. The lead character, the one the show is named after, seriously took a back seat for the first few seasons. The “Suck Factor” came into play, not just on a story by story basis but for a whole season where Moffat couldn’t hold a story arc together if his life depended upon it while Davies was a total master of it. Moffat refused to listen to suggestion on criticism, and that egotism make the suck factor worse.

During Capaldi’s time it only got worse. Add to that the same horrific fuck-ups that were done during the show’s original run began bubbling up like they did back then. Egos began to run the show. The “PC” police started poking at it, chipping away and changing it so that it took a lot of the fun out of things. The writing got bad. The filming schedules were sporadic and there were large gaps of time between shows. It was a death spiral for Doctor Who back in the 1980’s, and we’re seeing it again. At least Capaldi’s time as the Doctor ended will and introducing ‘Missy’ was a welcome surprise which was obviously a warm-up for the introduction of a female Doctor (which was a concept that had been around since 4th Doctor Tom Baker left the show and before they’d cast Peter Davison as his successor).

With that said, I get asked “Why a woman? What’s wrong with having a decent male role model that doesn’t carry a gun?�� Well, the answer is- nothing. I rather prefer a male in the role, but have never, EVER been adverse to a female actor in the lead. This is a science fiction show, after all, and if it is to grow, new ideas and concepts will come around for better or worse and there’s never been an issue for me having a female lead. I just wish it wasn’t Jodie Whittaker. Holy. Shit.

She’s an alright actor, but she’s clearly out of her bailiwick when it came to Doctor Who. She’d barely heard of it and new NOTHING of the character or the show’s history. She went into this with ZERO research and it shows. She’s NOT Doctor material on any level and cannot act the part for shit. This era already began in the crapper and of course, having Chibnall as show runner made the show’s inevitable demise more concrete.

To begin with, let’s just start with some basics, shall we? I’ve made it clear that I loathe Whittaker in the role, especially when there’s someone like Phoebe Waller-Bridge out there who’d simply and totally own the role and make it so much better. However, the show kicked off trying to run like an Olympic sprinter and it ended up staggering like a drunk on meth attempting to navigate a dark, foggy back alley in a heavy snow on icy tarmac covered in wet leaves.

The outfit. Holy mother of god, what the fuck? If you thought Colin Baker’s ‘technicolour dreamcoat’ was a disaster, what the unholy hell did the wardrobe department put Whittaker in? It looks like something from a “Mork and Mindy” reject bin. The first female incarnation and THAT was the best they could come up with??? Seriously?

Then came the crystal-tipped dildo of a sonic screwdriver. Need I say more on this? Your first woman Doctor and you give her a sonic screwdriver that’s sure to hit the ol’ G-spot every time? What the hell were they thinking?

And the TARDIS. Sweet Jesus, who the hell let props DO that to the TARDIS???? A biscuit dispenser? I thought Smith’s initial ‘brassworks’ console room was horrible at first but it did grow on me after a while but Whittaker’s “Crystal Fuckery On Ice” console room is simply the singular, worst of all the TARDIS sets ever made since the show’s inception.

To compliment the already uninteresting new Doctor, let’s talk about the companions. Not much to say, really. Not interesting. Not exciting. Not memorable in any way other than the fact that they cast everyone from ‘the north’ and if it wasn’t for captioning, most Americans can’t understand most of what any of the main cast is saying. Hell, I’m an American and my family mostly British and my kid has to keep asking me what the hell is being said most of the time and I can’t even tell half the time.

First season… What can I say? I’ve got nothing, mostly because I can’t really recall it without looking it up or watching it again. It was totally unmemorable until the very end when it perked up a tick with the desperate yet irrelevant stunt of bring Captain Jack Harkness in for a cameo out of sheer desperation for rating because things were just THAT boring and unmemorable. Add to that a ‘mystery Doctor’, or ‘Doctor Ruth’ as she’s sometimes called, dressed FAR better than Jodi and man, could Jo Martin command the role, upstaging Jodie on every level. She was more The Doctor in her few and short scenes than Jodie was in her entire time in the role. There’s no solid explanation as to who Jo’s character really was at time or writing. Then again, no solid anything is Chibnall’s signature in Doctor Who. Nothing is consistent or sacred to this fop. This brings us to…

Whittaker’s final season- thank fuck.

While I was all for a more inclusive and diverse cast for DW, and having a woman in the lead, putting a twat like Chibnall in charge became a real deal breaker. I knew his type back in school. He tipped his hand as one of those angry little jerks who say the 4th Doctor’s story “The Brain of Morbius” back in the summer of 1977 and lost his mind in the process.

In this particular story, the Doctor visits Karn, meets the Sisterhood, and discovers that a villainous renegade and war criminal Time Lord named Morbius, who’d been executed on Karn long ago, lived on in the lab of a ‘mad scientist’. Only Morbius’ brain survived and was kept in a jar to be placed in an amalgamation of alien body parts found in different crash sites on the barren plains of Karn. The scientist even has an ‘Igor’ sidekick to help him. Eventually (spoiler alert) the brain of Morbius gets put inside the “Frankenstein’s Monster” of a body and the Doctor faces off with him in a game Time Lords call “Mind Bending” which is, as the Doctor explained to Sarah Jane Smith, a sort of Time Lord wrestling, mind-to-mind.

With the Doctor and Morbius at the controls of a mind scanning machine, the two duke it out, trying to push each other back into their own memories, risking death if pushed too far. We saw the faces of Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell appear on the monitor as well as eight others. No actual, solid declaration was initially made at the time but behind the scenes, writers and producers inferred that the Doctor could be older than we thought and his story having begun far before Hartnell came along… BUT!

THEN came “The Deadly Assassin” which flushed that notion down the shitter. It was two stories after when the 4th Doctor had to return to Gallifrey (first time on screen) and he’d left Sarah Jane back on Earth (apparently nowhere near her home in Croydon). In this story, it is plainly and definitively cast out there: The Rule of Twelve. A Time Lord could regenerate twelve times for a total of thirteen incarnations. This meant that given that there were already eight “Morbius Doctors” revealed on top of the four we knew of from the show already, that put Tom Baker at incarnation number twelve and that his successor would be the last one.

Given that this would complicate matters and/or kill one of the BBC’s biggest cash-cow, they amended the prior narrative that inferred that the other faces were the Doctor and changed it to those of Morbius before he was executed. It wasn’t a detrimental fix, but one that was needed to clarify things. Thus it was clarified, settled, and that was that, right?

Wrong. There were and are still fans who will tear your face off like a maddened monkey if you tell them otherwise; they are firm that those faces were of the Doctor. “Take your facts and get fucked! It’s the Doctor!” Wild, right? You’d think that people who persisted with it would be considered the bloody village idiot and ignored, ostracized and put into a mental health facility before they hurt themselves of others or do irreparable damage to something… Something like Doctor Who… by making one of these deranged arseholes show runner someday… like Chibnall. Yeah, he was one of the village idiots. You can tell because he specifically and intentionally showed a very brief flash of the Mind Bending scene when “Doctor Karen” was having flashback as the whole “Timeless Child” horse shit was being shoveled around.

Speaking of “Doctor Karen” and Whittaker’s Doctor is known in some circles… While I had no complaints of grief over a woman actor taking the role… I thought the point of feminism was to being all people to a respectful, common level of existence. People who fear feminism because of misinterpretation just had their fears affirmed when Doctor Karen told Stephen Fry’s character that she’s “had an upgrade”… UPGRADE???? Really? Now Doctor Who is pitching that women are an upgrade from being a man? Moffat did the same thing after The General regenerated into a woman and she complained about how men cope with all the testosterone. Jesus Horatio Christ. What a defeat for Doctor Who right there. So much for the assertion that women aren’t trying to make themselves out to be better than men and the really shit thing is that it was MEN that put that out there in the Whoniverse. Yeah; fuck you, Moffat and ESPECIALLY Chibnall, you ball-less wonders.

As this whole “Timeless Child” shit-fuckery rolled out, I could see that Chibnall was trying to push his own views out into the show with no regard to established canon or respect for all those who worked so hard on the show for over fifty years. He was going to burn it all down and try to remake it in his own image. Unfortunately, that image is akin to an angry monkey throwing its own shit around the zoo and he clearly thinks he’s clever and even funny. Hell, he seems to be having a grand old time while the Whoniverse burns to the ground irreparably.

So what hope does Russell T. Davies have as he returns as show runner in charge of all the creative powers while the BBC is left sitting in a damp puddle of it’s own shart-fest?

Part of the magic of Doctor Who was the lead character being a good-guy shrouded in a bit of mystery. We weren’t meant to know exactly who he was in his past before leaving Gallifrey. Having a little slice of his past come to light on rare occasion was gravitas; a bit of sweet delight added to an already delightful meal for the mind that was as subtle as a chocolate covered cherry. Davies knew this when he re-imagined the Doctor as a sort of PTSD stricken, post war veteran of the Time War and he left that time a mystery to slowly be unfurled over the course of years that led up to the 50thanniversary story eight years later. During that time, the Doctor revealed a bit about his origins but not really a lot. It was more of a revelation into the people of Gallifrey, really.

During the Classics, Hartnell never specified why he and his granddaughter Susan were exiled. Troughton revealed that the Doctor’s family was “gone” and that he’d still think of them but we don’t actually know if he meant that they were dead or lost somewhere or if they were the ones that sent the Doctor away and didn’t want him around anymore. Much later, during McCoy’s story “Remembrance of the Daleks” it is revealed that when the Doctor first stole the TARDIS and ran away with Susan that he’d brought with him a relic of the Ancients of Gallifrey; the Hand of Omega. Still, he wasn’t totally clear on how he got this relic or specifically WHY he made off with it. All we know is that when the Doctor first arrived at Totter’s Lane, he hid the Hand on Earth and that McCoy came back to just after that time in order to reclaim it so that the Daleks wouldn’t get their plungers on it.

The Doctor is, or at least WAS a character with a mostly untold, mysterious past and that defined the character immensely. It was a common consistency from the first episode right up until the show died with Peter Capaldi’s incarnation. The entire “Whittaker Era” destroyed any semblance of Doctor Who. While everyone was once free to imagine what the Doctor’s past was all about, that’s now been utterly annihilated by Chibnall’s maniacal, childish and outright desperation to be loved as he crammed a nonsensical, boorish, and very forced storyline out of his arse in order to make his own fantasies and dreams the final, end-all-be-all of Whovian Canon. There is no longer really a “Who” in “Doctor Who” anymore. It’s now Chibnall’s wet dream; a foul-tasting scheme for revenge for all the times he was told to sod off over the Morbius Doctors and all the times he’d been beaten up by bullies for being such an argumentative, geeky asshole. Well, that’s what I’d wager this all is, at any rate.

There’s only one real fix to this problem and sadly, it sucks and yet it’s the only path to redemption for my beloved Doctor Who. Davies has two solid paths to take from here on out and either choice is going to piss off a lot of people. To restore Doctor Who to its former greatness, he’s going to essentially have to do a major retcon job and start over with Capaldi’s regeneration. Maybe getting Jo Martin to return as the REAL post-Capaldi Doctor and making Jodi a stray bit of regeneration energy that went astray or something would do it… Perhaps Phoebe Waller-Bridge… Helen Mirren, anyone?

The other path Davies could take is literally to do nothing. He could try to soldier on and hope ignoring the issue like he did in clarifying Tennant’s two incarnations and push by it in hope we’ll ignore or forget about it as well. That seems to be the 21stcentury way of dealing with things in “polite society”; turning things into “alternative facts”.

In closing, I can only say this- this sort of thing is EXACTLY what the 4thDoctor was driving at when he said:

"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering."

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robertmcangusgroup · 7 years ago

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The Daily Thistle

The Daily Thistle – News From Scotland

Saturday 1st July 2017

"Madainn Mhath” …Fellow Scot, I hope the day brings joy to you…. Heaven full of sparkling stars, even a Spielberg moment as a Shooting Star blazed its way across the night sky… The Seven Sister clearly visible along with many other of the galaxies.. but it’s funny to think that when we look up into the night sky we are in fact looking back in time, as the light from our nearest celestial body the moon for example takes 1.3 seconds and 8 minutes from the Sun our nearest star. Taking that a step further the next nearest star is Proxima Centauri which is 4.24 light years from the sun, so its light will take 4.24 years to reach us. One more step and I promiss I will stop… The farthest star to be discovered yet (Progenitor of GRB 090423, GRB=Gamma Ray Burst) is 112,900,000,000 light years away, so that means when we look at Progenitor through a telescope we are in fact looking back 112,900,000,000 years…. Heavens the stuff we can talk about at 4:00 am over a good cup of Colombian Coffee is amazing, and all that information has impressed Bella as she is asleep on my feet…..

NEW CANAL ROUTE GETS ROYAL SEAL OF APPROVAL…. A new route forming the eastern gateway to the Forth and Clyde canal will be named after the Queen. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will board a barge and lead a flotilla along the canal on Wednesday. The Queen Elizabeth II Canal section has been built as part of the £43m Helix project, which features the Kelpies sculptures. The royal couple will also carry out engagements in Stirling Castle and Perthshire during a three-day visit. Scottish Canals chairman Andrew Thin, Scottish Canals, said: "This event is a fitting culmination of more than a decade of hard work that saw the partners and the local community come together to turn an ambitious idea into reality and breathe new life into the area." Falkirk Council leader Cecil Meiklejohn said: "The official naming of the canal is another huge landmark in the Falkirk area's transformation from an industrial heartland to one of Scotland's best tourist destinations."

BORDERS BOOK FESTIVAL BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORDS IN MELROSE…. The Borders Book Festival in Melrose broke previous records for ticket sales and attendances this year. More than 30,000 people attended the event between 15 and 18 June - an increase of 21% on figures in 2016. Organisers said it would be an understatement to describe it as their "most successful yet". They also staged a record number of sold out events including talks by John Cleese, Judy Murray, Michael Parkinson and Carol Klein. Fans also flocked to see John Cleese at this year's event Festival director Alistair Moffat said: "We're delighted that this has been a record-breaking festival. "But the most important thing is that, with two days of wonderful weather, people were able to enjoy being outside in the sunshine, eating and drinking, and talking to each other; as well as being entertained and enthralled by our stellar line-up of speakers."

DRUGS WORTH MORE THAN £2.7M SEIZED IN A YEAR IN NORTH EAST SCOTLAND…. Drugs worth more than £2.7m were seized in the space of a year in the north east of Scotland, police have said. The recoveries included more than 250kg of cannabis, more than 15kg of cocaine - including crack cocaine - and about 5kg of heroin. The figures in Aberdeen were from April 2016 to March this year, and from January to December last year in Aberdeenshire and Moray. Det Supt Alex Dowall said the results were down to "hard work". He said that most of the accused came from outside the local area.

INVERNESS' WI-FI PROJECT TO COVER WIDER AREA OF CITY…. A project that provides free wi-fi in parts of Inverness is to be extended across other parts of the city this summer. Officially launched in February, Ness Wifi is an open network free for all users and has no restrictions on time. The coverage at the moment includes the Victorian Market and nearby streets. Highland Council said it is to be extended throughout the city centre as far as Eden Court and the Northern Meeting Park. Ness Wifi received funding from the £315m Inverness City Region Deal. The deal, announced in March last year by Highland Council and the Scottish and UK governments, involves direct funding and borrowing. Highland Council said it was investigating the potential for free wi-fi in towns across the Highlands.

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU TO VISIT EDINBURGH…. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to meet the Queen in Edinburgh next week. He will have a private meeting with the monarch at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on Wednesday to "honour her importance to Canada's history". He will also thank her for her "continued dedication to Canada", his office said. Mr Trudeau will visit Scotland after meeting Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for the first time the previous day. He will then go on to the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on 7 and 8 July. The Canadian Prime Minister's office said his visit to Ireland and the UK will "serve to recognise the strong family ties, history and common purpose our countries share". Mr Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, was elected as Canada's prime minister in 2015 and said he is looking forward to his meeting with the Queen. He said: "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's commitment to public service has long inspired me and many other Canadians. "With this year marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation, I look forward to thanking her personally for her dedication to our country and for carrying out her duties with such grace and strength."

On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today,

Our look at Scotland today is of the Kelpies in all their glory… the eastern gateway to the Forth and Clyde canal

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Saturday 1st July 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus

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cgl1404 · 8 years ago

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The Twists and Turns in ‘Many Happy Returns’

This has been planned as early as a month before, my birthday celebration. One of my friends -- I can’t recall who, probably Loida -- created an event in our chat group. That makes it almost unescapable for us not to know about it. Likewise, it is highly improbable that all of those in the group will be able to go, plus the fact that it coincides with the holy week.

The day came. Meeting place and time have been set. As usual, I’m late. But guess what, I came to the place and met none of them. Well, two of them are nearby, inside a church. Lacking the courage to explore an unfamiliar place, I tried to contact them through all means available -- call, SMS, instant messaging -- to no avail. The rest of us are somewhere else, so I’m left solo at an LRT station, in Anonas. I hate that, alone in an environment I’m not very familiar with. Just standing there, more than an hour, I think, until Alyssa and Mark came into contact.

Rachel’s will be our first stop, so the three of us went to a tricycle station where Rachel will meet us. Then came Sir Luna, and we waited for the rest of the group. As far as we are aware, the second group are waiting at a McDonald’s in Cubao. Not too far from Anonas, right?

They eventually came, after several missed and picked up calls and vague “we’re coming” responses. To my surprise, they came with a cake with them, a present for me. Greetings. So we all went to Rachel’s house.

We saw her progeny, and it is cute. In my opinion, not all infants are cute, but her newborn is. It still amazes me, procreation. It’s like 3D printing with artificial intelligence inside, except it’s not artificial.

To her generosity, she served us pancit canton. The food was nice. Pictures were taken, questions were asked, stories were told to each other. The girls, particularly, were busy catching up with each other. We also had some good laughs, and Loida was the butt of the jokes.

The last one that hasn’t arrived yet was Judy. She started messaging us at around 1530, I think, saying that she’s on the way. Miscommunication has led us to believe that she was already going back home after her getting into the next meeting place and we still haven’t. She ended up meeting us on our way.

We then went to The Yard, but failed to settle for a place and foods to eat, so we went to the nearest Shakey’s chain. It was small, and has no room for us, which led us to another Shakey’s. And that’s where the highlights of my day happened.

There was another surprise. The pastry was not the all of it. They showed me a paper bag, and it contains a copy of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, and some stationery papers with their letters for me on them. It felt like the sequence of events was written by Christopher Nolan, or Steven Moffat, or both of them. The gifts explain why it took them so long to arrive.

I hate being the receiving end of a Happy Birthday song. When I started seeing hints that my officemates are preparing for something, I told one of them not to do something about my birthday. In my defence, it is not a huge assumption. We’ve done it to some of our teammates, even to one who came into the company later than I did. I said in the email that it is uncomfortable for me, with a lot of people’s attention on me, waiting for their chanting to end. During the day of 14th of April, they’ve tried several times to start the ritual, but I managed to hold them off. Gladly, they respected it, and I still take it as their gift for me.

But did that work with my friends? Of course not. With the cake in front of me, and a bag of gifts in my hands, what would keep them? I asked them to keep it low and fast, and they did. The lone candle on the cake was lit and then blown off (the fire, not the candle off the cake hahaha).

But was that all? No. The crew picked up that we are celebrating one’s birthday, so, to my (another) surprise, they surrounded our table and started singing. They sang a song prepared especially for Shakey’s and then the traditional song. That was so exhausting. All I managed to do is look down, clap a little, wishing this ends up immediately. Christine, I think, has a video recording of that. We also had some pictures taken.

Among the multiple shots that were captured from different devices, this is, I think, the least embarrassing one. Arms straight at the sides, stance too rigid. I appear uptight because I actually am uncomfortable with it, thinking “let’s just get this over with.“ It’s even more embarrassing that one of us made one of the pictures as her Facebook cover photo. Oh well.

In the past years, it has been my tradition to make something for their birthday. This all started when they asked me to make a simple slideshow of pictures for Loida’s 18th birthday. The only device that I had then was a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which is not a very powerful device, even at that time. But I made it. I then did it to four of them, completing a cycle of birthdays of what we call 6 degrees, excluding me. I’ve edited some pictures for my classmates (though still at this time, not all of them yet) as a form birthday greeting. Which leads us to yet another surprise.

The first recipient of my somewhat-creative works, Loida made me one. Pictures of me, with The Script’s Millionaires as the music track. Unlike what I’ve done, she included some messages -- actual sentences -- in it. I don’t have a copy of it, but although I didn’t like some of the pictures included (as someone who did not win the lottery of genetics to have attractive physical appearance), I of course still appreciate it. The effort made and the sentiment in the images, plus a song of one of my favourite bands, in one short video.

We ate, talk some more, and then separated to head off into our respective houses. Some of us, Christine, Alyssa, Sir Luna and I stopped over at Mark’s to rest a bit. The girls spent the night there while Sir and I headed home. We went to our college school to get some documents the following day.

#my birthday #latepost

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