“This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don’t you think so?” ― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles This post is in response to Helen Razer's article in Crikey, which if I read it right, lamented too many adults - including critics - take too much from TV and books for children and warns … Continue reading Doctor Who and Childish Things
Art/less Disadvantage
My mother was an artist: lively pen and ink portraits, wry and whimsical cartoons and sculpture in clay and wood. She held exhibitions and sold her pieces. Her wake featured some of her best works. My grandmother produced remarkable charcoal landscapes and haunting portraits too. My aunt, I believe, had talent with water colours. The boxes … Continue reading Art/less Disadvantage
Doctor Who: the boy friend code
Steven Moffat has gone on about how The Caretaker is a return to the ideas of The Lodger, because The Doctor. Whatevs. This episode had more likenesses with Vampires of Venice, Amy's Choice, The Big Bang and A Good Man Goes to War with Amy and Rory and with Rose and Mickey with Rose, Father's Day … Continue reading Doctor Who: the boy friend code
Doctor Who: Blue Steal
I was going to write a post about my adventures the other Saturday. And then I was going to review the Doctor Who episode Time Heist. Then everything sat in my brain for a few days. So I'm going to write about both-ish Mainly because they involve heists, bank vaults, rare and precious things in a museum, … Continue reading Doctor Who: Blue Steal
Doctor Who: Chalk and Talk
This looping story line thing that is evidenced by Listen, is definitely a thing. Jenna Louise Coleman called it the Moffat Loop and she should know. And over at iO9 there is a succinct summation, putting it all down to The Doctor basically inventing a monster and letting the logic of that play out through loop after … Continue reading Doctor Who: Chalk and Talk
Stories: bigger on the inside
Analyse this? I came across a fairly thorough psychological interpretation of Harry Potter via FB recently. The page linking to it had a lot of comments - people were either upset as it had 'ruined' the books or they were angry that someone had 'bothered'. Whatever the complaint, there was so much entitlement, or ownership. I … Continue reading Stories: bigger on the inside
Heroic Codes in Doctor Who
Cooking up a story Writers are like chefs. They have ingredients: pop culture tropes, personal influences, knowledge of their audience, big themes and little obsessions. They also have recipe rules they can choose to follow or ignore when they cook up a story. They chuck everything into a mixture, have it whiz in their brains for … Continue reading Heroic Codes in Doctor Who
Doctor Who & Hamlet: Are we who we say we are?
If you've yet to watch the 2014 Doctor Who episodes, then you probably should. Or you can enjoy this song Who Are You by The Who, which posits important questions thematically linked to Doctor Who and this post. Like: Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?). I really wanna know (Who are you? … Continue reading Doctor Who & Hamlet: Are we who we say we are?
Doctor Who: Inner Spaces
If you haven't seen Into the Dalek, then, to misquote the Spice Girls, stop right now, thank you very much. This blog post is about what it means to have a human touch. Some good hard SF concepts and special effects in Into The Dalek, in addition to some nice insights into Clara's world and how … Continue reading Doctor Who: Inner Spaces
A Deeper Breath – more on Doctor Who
The first viewing is raw, impressions are quick, and it's about trying to get the vibe of it, The Castle style. Later, on reflection, and upon a brief survey of what other people think (everything from deep love to resentment at this new guy and the title sequence), it's time for further analysis of Deep Breath. … Continue reading A Deeper Breath – more on Doctor Who
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