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If all you young men were fish in the water, how many young girls would undress and dive after
Every single aspect of today except for the cats and the Double Awesome from Mei Mei has sucked exhaustingly. I am very tired of seeing doctors who don't take me seriously because I'm not emotional enough and then seeing doctors who don't take me seriously because I'm emotional at all. I thought the pattern had broken lately, but here we are again. I am not looking for a medical discussion or recommendations. I am just upset. Also it is pouring rain and while I remembered an umbrella on leaving the house, I forgot boots. My shoes are drying in the bathroom because it is the only room in this apartment with a radiator.
I can't believe I've remembered for years that Michael Goodliffe was Thomas Andrews in Roy Ward Baker's A Night to Remember (1958), but forgot or never noticed that David McCallum was Harold Bride. To be fair, I had also forgotten completely about Honor Blackman, but historically I feel very fondly toward Harold Bride. McCallum must have been close to his age at the time of filming. [edit: Indeed, that's a very young David McCallum.] Chances are good that no matter what, I would have bounced off James Cameron's Titanic (1997) in exactly the same way ocean liners don't bounce off icebergs, but childhood exposure to the British film can't have helped.
This is a very fine ghost poem that I didn't write: Rachel Hadas, "Mervyn Peake (1911–1968)."
I have been enjoying this compilation very much.
I can't believe I've remembered for years that Michael Goodliffe was Thomas Andrews in Roy Ward Baker's A Night to Remember (1958), but forgot or never noticed that David McCallum was Harold Bride. To be fair, I had also forgotten completely about Honor Blackman, but historically I feel very fondly toward Harold Bride. McCallum must have been close to his age at the time of filming. [edit: Indeed, that's a very young David McCallum.] Chances are good that no matter what, I would have bounced off James Cameron's Titanic (1997) in exactly the same way ocean liners don't bounce off icebergs, but childhood exposure to the British film can't have helped.
This is a very fine ghost poem that I didn't write: Rachel Hadas, "Mervyn Peake (1911–1968)."
I have been enjoying this compilation very much.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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I seem to have read and enjoyed a lot of her work without acquiring any of her collections. Maybe they don't turn up in used book stores because nobody lets go of them.
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Andrew also just downloaded a Big Finish Audio Dr. Who story from back in 2000: Holy Terror, by Robert Shearman; in which the Sixth Doctor, and Frobisher the shapeshifter who prefers to be a penguin, land in a scenario which starts as a combination of I, Claudius, and Titus Groan, and proceeds down an increasingly dark and claustrophobic rabbit hole...
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You're welcome. Thanks for the hugs.
I remain convinced that his illness was Lewy Body Dementia, though it's frequently ascribed to Parkinson's
I know the two are often confused; that's about where my knowledge of LBD runs out. I take it Peake's symptoms look in hindsight more like one than the other? [edit] Found an article that agrees with you and makes fascinating reading.
also I once ran across someone who connected it with "an epidemic of sleeping sickness" when Peake was eleven years old -- at which point I did some math and realized they meant the encephalitis lethargica pandemic of the early 'twenties. Peake would have to have been an awfully delayed case, though.
Or the disease would need to have post-polio-like complications in later life, which (a) would still require an initial infection (b) I'm not sure that it does.
in which the Sixth Doctor, and Frobisher the shapeshifter who prefers to be a penguin, land in a scenario which starts as a combination of I, Claudius, and Titus Groan, and proceeds down an increasingly dark and claustrophobic rabbit hole...
Whoa. Is it good?
(I am charmed by the thought of a shapeshifter who prefers to be a penguin.)
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Frobisher was introduced in the comic strip that ran in the Dr. Who magazine, and periodically gets remembered -- he's a shapeshifter who works as a private eye, and after falling in with the Doctor, decides to be a penguin "for personal reasons."
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That does sound good. I have not ventured into any of the Doctor Who radio serials—I'm barely conversant with the original show. (The Fourth Doctor was my formative one; I loved the Seventh on sight. John Hurt as the War Doctor was spectacular, but I would have given a lot for the real time travel to make a series of him when he was young. I have been eventually frustrated by everyone else. This last series with Capaldi is supposed to have finally gotten good, but I am shy of investing in it in case Moffat burns me again.)
he's a shapeshifter who works as a private eye, and after falling in with the Doctor, decides to be a penguin "for personal reasons."
Why not!
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Whoa. Is it good?
Can't help butting in here. It's excellent and weird and dark, it's a Robert Shearman audio! He wrote Holy Terror, which as moon_custafer says, is a thoroughly twisted up and dark thing with Six and Frobisher. He also wrote Dalek for the Ninth Doctor, but that was essentially a much shortened and simplified version of his Sixth Doctor audio Jubilee. If you're at all interested in Big Finish, they do downloads from their websites and first fifty (or is it 100?) (which includes Holy Terror and Jubilee) are very cheap. As Frobisher is a comics companion and (I think) only in a very few audios, Holy Terror would be accessible without knowing anything other than shape-shifting penguin PI companion. (There's more explanation of Frobisher in The Maltese Penguin.)
If new Who is currently not your thing and you don't mind the audio format, there's a lot of good stuff in Big Finish - I would very much recommend the Six & Evelyn titles from the main range (which include Jubilee) and also the initial Eight and Charley run (which includes The Chimes of Midnight and Scherzo by Rob Shearman - Chimes of Midnight is possibly still the very best BFA and highly S&S-influenced. (Not that the other ranges aren't good, but I latched onto those two particularly & as both Evelyn and Charley are new (& very likeable) companions, they're a good starting place - but as I said, the initial main range titles are pretty cheap, so you can try out any of the Doctors as you please.) I don't know if Rob Shearman has done much outside this - I think maybe he did write some short stories as well? - but I seem to remember hearing that he's not been able to write much since, which is a terrible shame.
(But when it comes to DW, I may not be the best guide for you, as while I too adore Seven - he is the best! - I enjoy Steven Moffat's work a lot. (I imprinted hard on his fantastic Press Gang* as a teen, but I definitely enjoy his approach to Who an awful lot more than RTD's.) But DW is such a huge and variable thing, we're all going to like some of it more than others, and the happy bit is there's always some other part to go off and escape into, no worries, until the current bit re-adjusts to our liking. That is both the curse and the joy of it. (Since I have an allergy to Chris Chibnall's everything I've ever seen, I'm unlikely to enjoy the next era much at all, and there we go, that's DW for you.))
am very tired of seeing doctors who don't take me seriously because I'm not emotional enough and then seeing doctors who don't take me seriously because I'm emotional at all.
*hugs* Doctors need to take a person seriously. It's awful when they don't.
McCallum must have been close to his age at the time of filming. [edit: Indeed, that's a very young David McCallum.]
LOL, but he looks just as frowny as Steel. He did go on about a ship sinking... (Although I'm fairly sure that was the Mary Celeste.)
* which also had David Collings in. There was no escape! And, incidentally, Big Finish is named after a Press Gang episode as well.
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The internet tells me that CZP actually did two collections of his, which seems like a good sign.
[edit] Also he is now co-editing the newest Year's Best Weird Fiction.
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I don't hate Moffat as a writer: I liked Jekyll and his Doctor Who one-offs so much, I was really looking forward to his tenure on the show. I just don't think he's as good a showrunner as he is a writer. In the cases of both Eleven and Twelve, I loved the casting and the original conception of the characters, but in practice I wound up aggravated by the long-arc series mysteries and feeling that a lot of opportunities—including the companions—were being wasted. There's not a lot of record of it in this journal because I mostly talked about it in other people's comments (and e-mail, archaic), but here's an early episode of Eleven and here's the premiere of Twelve. I have also bounced amazingly off Sherlock after the first episode. On the other hand, my father followed Coupling while it was airing and I enjoyed all the random episodes I saw of it. I think
I imprinted hard on his fantastic Press Gang* as a teen, but I definitely enjoy his approach to Who an awful lot more than RTD's.)
I didn't really bond with the Russell T Davies era, either! Ten in the episodes I saw was extremely hit-or-miss for me, to the point where I had to catch David Tennant in other things to be sure he could act. Maybe I'll get lucky and like Chris Chibnall. I did enjoy the first couple of seasons of Law & Order: UK, although since I didn't know Chibnall from a hole in the head I just put it down to the ridiculously good cast, speaking of Bill Paterson.
But DW is such a huge and variable thing, we're all going to like some of it more than others, and the happy bit is there's always some other part to go off and escape into, no worries, until the current bit re-adjusts to our liking.
Oh, yeah: I am not concerned about not liking the last few seasons in that I think it makes me an inadequate science fiction fan or something. I am just sorry, because I wanted to. I really like Peter Capaldi.
Doctors need to take a person seriously. It's awful when they don't.
*hugs* appreciated. Thanks.
LOL, but he looks just as frowny as Steel. He did go on about a ship sinking... (Although I'm fairly sure that was the Mary Celeste.)
Well, now you know what he looked like when it went down! (He had impeccable origins.)
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I think that's fair; and I think to a certain extent RTD had the exact same problem - that DW (and Sherlock) is event TV and planning 'big' arcs and spectacles as required seems to be strong points for neither of them. SM can seem to at least write a whole show and do arcs (*points to Press Gang) but showrunner is a lot too much.
And in that case, my recs are probably a reasonable guide, although of course, not that anybody's tastes coincide exactly!
(As I said, re. Press Gang, it was a teen thing I adored, so I can't be rational about it, but it's always a rec I'd second provided the person's not a Moffat-hater, because that would just be silly).
I can't stand Cris Chibnall, but he's hardly the worst writer around and Broadchurch was widely praised, and I'm sure he'll at least be more linear, which should please a lot of people. I just don't get on with him at all, unless he's being lighter/fun.
Peter Capaldi is wonderful! SM has done, here and there, some very good contained eps for him, which he didn't really get a chance to do with Eleven (that I can think right now) - perhaps one day you might like to try "Listen" from S8 and "Heaven Sent" from S9 if you should ever get the chance, as they're definitely Moffat at his most contained and different - and obv. have much Mr Capaldi, especially "Heaven Sent" which is virtually a solo performance. (S10 had "Extremis" but that was the start of a rather duff trilogy - as you say, those arcs!)
Well, now you know what he looked like when it went down! (He had impeccable origins.)
LOL!
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Yeah. Both of them also, oddly, often seem to have a tin ear for the potential of their own stories. I remember tuning in to Series 3 because Derek Jacobi was guest-starring in "Utopia" and then the incredible disappointment when he regenerated promptly into John Simm. "The Sound of Drums" and "The Last of the Time Lords" are objectively not great episodes, so I have no idea if Jacobi could have done anything with them on a plausibility level, but I feel he might at least have been fun to watch in the way of actors with long practice with really silly scripts.
Oh, right. I'm going to have to listen to at least one Big Finish story in December, because Derek Jacobi's Master will be back, as I assume you have seen.
SM can seem to at least write a whole show and do arcs (*points to Press Gang) but showrunner is a lot too much.
I think in hindsight I'd have really enjoyed his run if he'd been the head writer, but someone else had been structuring the series overall.
I can't stand Cris Chibnall, but he's hardly the worst writer around and Broadchurch was widely praised, and I'm sure he'll at least be more linear, which should please a lot of people. I just don't get on with him at all, unless he's being lighter/fun.
Understood. Just so long as he's not grimdark, that being a mode that I do not think works at all for Doctor Who and something I'm tired of seeing as a narrative default these days anyway.
And in that case, my recs are probably a reasonable guide, although of course, not that anybody's tastes coincide exactly!
Fortunately, I don't expect them to! It is already enough of a pleasant surprise that you like some of the same actors I do.
perhaps one day you might like to try "Listen" from S8
I thought "Listen" was fantastic! (I watched all of Series 8. "Dark Water" started to lose me and after "Death in Heaven," when the new series started up, I just didn't go back.) I have notes from a conversation on that one:
"I really liked, actually, that there was no explanation for the thing under the blanket in Rupert's bedroom or the things behind the door at the end of time. The latter has a perfectly viable scientific explanation: the air shell around Orson's timeship has failed and the atmospheric pressures are equalizing in creepy ways, which in any other episode would have been the false explanation and here might be the real one. (I thought that perhaps the Doctor doesn't tell Orson what he saw out there because he saw nothing.) The thing under the blanket is almost certainly supernatural; there's that little zap of spark-light when it disappears that makes it unlikely to have been another child playing a trick. But there are a million supernatural things it could have been without being the Doctor's theoretical perfect hider and I liked the idea that it was just one of those million, which in another episode could have been the monster of the week and here was just another little bit of the background weirdness of the world. It provides a nice double-sided lesson: it's okay to be scared when there's something scary in the room with you. That's sensible. We didn't evolve from prey animals just to get our heads bitten off by the monsters we convince ourselves don't exist. But it's also okay to be scared, full stop. To be scared of the dark, of the unknown, of not being good enough, of making a mistake, of getting hurt, of hurting someone, of failing. It happens. It's all right. It doesn't have to make you cowardly or cruel. I loved the slowly revealed meaning of the title: not listen for the horror that frightens you in the dark, but listen to the person telling you that you're going to be able to cope with the fear.
"There were a lot of small things I liked about this episode, which seemed attentive to its own story in ways that Moffat's showrunning hasn't been for so long. The way that Clara and Danny's date goes wrong: it's not sitcom flaming wreckage and it's not a demonstration of their fundamental incompatibility, it's two people who are deeply, awkwardly attracted to one another and can't figure out how to talk about it through their nerves and mutual defense mechanisms. It feels very organic, which makes it more painful, which makes it all the more rewarding when they finally shut up and kiss. The way Clara isn't responsible for Danny's timeline: she gives him some useful tools for dealing with his fear (insofar as he'll remember them through the Doctor's dreamy memory-scrambling) and she reinforces some of the ones he's using already, but he's already come up with "Dan the soldier man" for himself. She doesn't make him a soldier. She doesn't give him his new name. She's not closing a loop. The way Clara comforting first Rupert and then the nameless Gallifreyan kid is not an extension of her persona as the Impossible Girl, the girl born to save the Doctor: she is merely doing something she's very good at, working with kids, intelligently, compassionately, without saccharine or self-consciousness. And I love how playing monster-under-the-bed to reassure Rupert becomes, inadvertently, the real thing when she reaches out from under that other bed and how the episode nicely differentiates that she isn't, again, the cause of the Doctor's night terrors so much as one more piece of the dream, but maybe the piece he'll remember now.
"The nursery rhyme itself is a lovely, eerie image, and it's working sideways off a very old speculative trope: that as the mundane and the normal dies out, the supernatural steals back in to replace it. The things that have spent millennia unseen have no one to worry about anymore. It's a nightmare's holiday. The demonic and the invisible inherit the earth. I just really, structurally like it better if this one time the monsters are not real—or at least, not this particular monster. Nothing hides perfectly, not even a time-traveler from himself."
So again, it's not like I think Moffat's ability to write and plot on the episode-level abruptly deserted him with the advent of the Eleventh Doctor, I just think he'd have done better without the pressure to write and plot across seasons.
and "Heaven Sent" from S9 if you should ever get the chance, as they're definitely Moffat at his most contained and different - and obv. have much Mr Capaldi, especially "Heaven Sent" which is virtually a solo performance.
Cool. I will check it out sometime, then.
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it was a beautiful episode, where just once DW and its fear of monsters is turned inside out - you couldn't do it every week, but it's pretty amazing (and seemed at the time to come along at exactly the right moment). Thanks for sharing your analysis! (I don't always have a lot to say back on that kind of thing (unless I do), but that's only permanent lack of brain and not lack of interest.
Heaven Sent, btw, is quite dark, as it's essentially a metaphor for working through grief, but it's one-off, Steven Moffat metaphor + Rachel Talalay's direction + Peter Capaldi keeping us watching him for 40 minutes otherwise unaided. But worth knowing so you don't watch it at the wrong moment.
Understood. Just so long as he's not grimdark, that being a mode that I do not think works at all for Doctor Who and something I'm tired of seeing as a narrative default these days anyway.
Chris Chibnall has written both fun episodes and very dark ones; it's impossible to say! I fear more darkness and without SM's ultimate fairy-tales-everything-works-out optimism. But then RTD could be ridiculous and fun and he has a much more pessimistic view of things generally, so I suspect no one would go on an all-out dark DW. It is still a mainstream family thing over here, so the BBC would get nervous!
And, aw, turning for Jacobi, only to be robbed! John Simm, I think, was not entirely happy at how he was asked to play the role, so I am looking forward (somewhat tentatively, because obv. Michelle Gomez is the best Master since Roger Delgado) to seeing him have another go. (Although now that water has flowed under the bridge, I do understand that he regenerated into a deliberate mockery of Ten, and Simm did give us that. It was just... well... something! LOL.)
But, hey, the Master always has rubbish plans and frequently a rubbish beard, too, what can you do?
I had heard somewhere that BF were getting Jacobi back - that is cool - I do agree with you that it would have been wonderful to have more of his Master before he had to regenerate. (Although how are they going to work that - is he just going to be Yana, I wonder?) You'll likely hear it before me; I'm years out of date with BF! Audio-listening is something I can only do in small doses these days.
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Agreed—it really only works as a one-shot and requires at least some knowledge of the conventions, but it's worth it.
I don't always have a lot to say back on that kind of thing (unless I do), but that's only permanent lack of brain and not lack of interest.
Thanks for letting me know. Like many people on the internet, I write a lot about things that interest me, and then I get Tiny Wittgenstein and worry that I am just inundating people with opinions they don't want.
Heaven Sent, btw, is quite dark, as it's essentially a metaphor for working through grief, but it's one-off, Steven Moffat metaphor + Rachel Talalay's direction + Peter Capaldi keeping us watching him for 40 minutes otherwise unaided. But worth knowing so you don't watch it at the wrong moment.
That is less likely to hit me the wrong way than some other metaphors, but I appreciate the heads-up in case.
John Simm, I think, was not entirely happy at how he was asked to play the role, so I am looking forward (somewhat tentatively, because obv. Michelle Gomez is the best Master since Roger Delgado) to seeing him have another go.
They had better call that "The Two Masters."
But, hey, the Master always has rubbish plans and frequently a rubbish beard, too, what can you do?
Pass the popcorn?
(Although how are they going to work that - is he just going to be Yana, I wonder?)
I have no idea! I suppose he could be some artifact of fractured time, if he was sealed in the Time War with the rest of Gallifrey.
You'll likely hear it before me; I'm years out of date with BF! Audio-listening is something I can only do in small doses these days.
Does it require a different kind of attention than TV?
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It isn't but it's coming up on Saturday!! *coughs* (Not that I'm an excited fan here or anything, noooo. /o\)
Pass the popcorn?
LOL, yes. Best thing to do!
I have no idea! I suppose he could be some artifact of fractured time, if he was sealed in the Time War with the rest of Gallifrey.
Yes, I'm sure they'll find a way if they want to. DW is a very obliging canon for being flexible in all the ways.
Does it require a different kind of attention than TV?
I think everything requires a slightly different kind of attention. I don't know, but I do find it needs a little more concentration, so I go up and down on how much I can do it. At some points, it's been easier than others. It's just very variable and I have sometimes quite low limits on how much input I can take. It does get better, though.
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That makes sense. I am glad that if the baseline varies, it always comes back.
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Thank you. Likewise! Argh.
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*hugs and sympathy*
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Thank you.
*hugs*
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Urgh urgh urgh. :(
Sympathies and empathies.
Been there all too often. :(
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Been there all too often.
Thank you.
*hugs and solidarity*
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ETA: So far I've loved everything I've listened to on this album ... I might have to get it.
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I do! I think I got it from you. I heard the song first as "Blackbirds and Thrushes" by Rebsie Fairholm.
ETA: So far I've loved everything I've listened to on this album ... I might have to get it.
I can recommend this course of action. Stuart Estell's Just as the Tide Was Flowing" may be my favorite version of that song so far.
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Thank you. Not all of them are terrible, but I really needed one in particular to listen to me and . . . they didn't.
*hugs*
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McCallum might have been very young, but my God, he could brood well.
Hadas' poem. Wow. Of course I was going to love that!
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I know! He got a head start.
Hadas' poem. Wow. Of course I was going to love that!
I should definitely read more of her. Also get my copies of Titus Groan and Gormenghast out of a box.
*hugs*
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*hugs* are totally accepted. Thank you.