In space no one hears the countdown If Earth is Mostly Harmless, then Space is Mainly Lethal. Lack of air. Un-earth-like physics. People on the edge. In Doctor Who, space is dangerous because of 'grey area' moral dilemmas and countdowns. Seriously, they had an episode called 42 with a living Sun and 42 minutes until a … Continue reading Doctor Who: Goddesses, Captains & Parables
Writing
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: Deep Breath of Comedy, Confusion and Action
The first episode after a regeneration sets the tone, but is also a one-off. The Doctor gets the opportunity to be vulnerable in ways he is mostly not the rest of the time. Much of the rest of the cast can be left to drive the narrative given his erratic behaviour, mental confusion and often … Continue reading Doctor Who: Deep Breath of Comedy, Confusion and Action
The Secret Museum – epiphany and review
I attended a book talk-launch type thing the other evening. It was for Molly Oldfield's The Secret Museum. It was a good talk. Oldfield was erudite - full of interesting and amusing anecdotes about meeting international museum curators and seeing first hand all the things they can't display. To her credit, she coped well with woolly … Continue reading The Secret Museum – epiphany and review
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