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
Reviews
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
Doctor Who: Salad Days
Shipping steel There was plenty to relish in the first episode to feature Jodie Whittaker's Doctor The Woman Who Fell to Earth. These included the entirety of Whittaker's performance, but also the score, camera work and colour palette, and The Doctor building things, in addition to the sets. Plus Salad Man. The locations for filming … Continue reading Doctor Who: Salad Days
Holding an idea
I've had difficulty sleeping recently. It's spring messing with my sinuses, as per usual, and my brain thinking about things, also as per usual. Anyway, the week the Australian Prime Minister spoke about "abiding the law" when asked about banning conversion therapy for LGBTIQA+ people, I couldn't sleep at all. During one restless night I … Continue reading Holding an idea
Bread and circuses
News and social media can be like that scene in The Matrix where the dude is looking at the people and only sees lines of glowy green symbols. I feel like I only see, or too readily see, the bad, the sad and the maddening. There's plenty of it. Which is exactly why I resist … Continue reading Bread and circuses
Rewatch: Alien/s
I rewatched the Alien franchise (the first four films). They speak about how humans incubate fears of the dark, the unknown, of disappearing, of birth, change, life and death. Probably, I'd insert a quote from Helene Cixous or Luce Irigaray here about language, myth, the body and sexuality, but you know... Anywho, these films are … Continue reading Rewatch: Alien/s
We know what we are, but not what we may be
Every now and then I become aware of my hollowness. I'm hollow but not like a log that was once a healthy tree. No. I'm hollow like a vessel made to be filled up by something else. I take on the interests of others to fill out this human form and to make up for … Continue reading We know what we are, but not what we may be
From here to something more
To dedicate a life to the making of beautiful things is my thing. Often this has been difficult. But I'm still trying. Hence the previously mentioned University of Iowa MOOC, which I successfully completed. Yay. This course was useful for short story feedback and introducing authors I'd not read before. It was interesting seeing how people … Continue reading From here to something more
Review: Wellington Paranormal vs Melancholia
Some works of art are meant to be appreciated for their engagement in serious. You are meant to linger over their apparent eternal verities like they are revelatory morsels of magic that compel you to examine the human condition. Sure. But after watching Lars von Trier's claustrophobic and heavy going Melancholia (2011) twice (once to … Continue reading Review: Wellington Paranormal vs Melancholia
Architecture of fire
The Common Campfire is an interactive, responsive light installation by Adam Grant, whose previous creative endeavours include Jafflechutes and This Bike Has MS. This particular work appeared under the auspices of Test Sites, a City of Melbourne support program for interdisciplinary artists to develop and share works with the community. But enough facts. This is … Continue reading Architecture of fire
Writing Bec 