Doctor Who's Kerblam, or it's title for writers: how to do contemporary issues in an SF setting, while throwing off your audience before they reach obvious conclusions. Others have written fairly comprehensively on how the plot reflects contemporary labour and employment practices and noted the call backs to earlier iterations of The Doctor, of course … Continue reading Doctor Who: going organic
Author: Becadroit
Spring in my spam
Tis spring in Melbourne. We have hail, flash flooding, humidity, sunshine, cloudy days and much politics. Also, we have spam, lots of spam referencing flowers. It's the season: She cherished the flowers. I love flowers of every kind. The flowers. Sounds creepy with 'the'. But think of this as a season for crafts and markets. … Continue reading Spring in my spam
Doctor Who: Borderlines
Familiarity breeds If you learn nothing else from 55 years of Doctor Who it is that people are people, no matter if they are blue, or encased in metal, or are sentient mollusc planets escaping their own universe, or humans living in India in 1947. Thus, I don't understand the outcry about the focus on … Continue reading Doctor Who: Borderlines
Doctor Who: R&R
With any ongoing narrative, it's easy to think about each episode or series, or producer era in terms of like or dislike. I hate Moffat, some declare, others loved Amy and Rory. OK. These declarations are personal judgements, informed by individual preferences, biases and understandings, hence debating them is endless and circular. People don't change … Continue reading Doctor Who: R&R
October: it’s a wrap
Often I feel like I'm not achieving enough. Days contain all sorts of things that need to be done, but there's not enough structure. Meanwhile, sleeping has been extremely absent, which means some fuzzy thinking and fatigue. Is there such a thing as Seasonal Affective Disorder for spring? Whatever it is, my head hurts. Yet, … Continue reading October: it’s a wrap
Doctor Who: Sympathy for the Devil
Motivations We knew this would happen. New companions of The Doctor would return to Sheffield and from there, make a decision to keep going. In terms of Joseph Campbell Hero's Journey schema, heroes are called, get help (The Doctor), and then may resist the call (go home) but then decides to cross the threshold. The … Continue reading Doctor Who: Sympathy for the Devil
Review: A Star Explodes
I saw Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born. I have many feelings. My friend thought we were seeing a 2018 version of Almost Famous. I imagined something about a musical. We were wrong. There are spoilers. So stop here. Firstly, the singing performances are everything. They soar. Obviously Lady Gaga can sing, but she is … Continue reading Review: A Star Explodes
Doctor Who: Balancing Act
In Rosa Doctor Who achieved the balance between education, personalisation, new stories, and call backs. The Doctor Calls It's a new era but the comforting sense of continuity um, continues, with call backs to the Storm Cage, Perception Filters and a Vortex Manipulator. New viewers won't care these have a provenance, while everyone else will … Continue reading Doctor Who: Balancing Act
Starting something
I didn't mean to, but I started something. I have an Instagram account, and it's mostly full of sunsets, art, and visually arresting things (and puns) and now RedBubble promotions. I don't really use Insta for writing related efforts. This week I started to. It's been both frustrating and creatively fulfilling. After endlessly tinkering with … Continue reading Starting something
Doctor Who: Setting Up
I'm going to concentrate on the craft in my commentary of Doctor Who, because: brand differentiation. I'm claiming it. Chris Chibnall is doing a couple of things with this story: cementing relationships and setting up the enemy. Call Backs: Looks like the Stenza have been set up as the Big Bad, first hunting on Earth, … Continue reading Doctor Who: Setting Up
