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This isn’t exactly a Doctor Who memory, but it’s related to Doctor Who. My husband found this hilarious Rowan Atkinson sketch that was remarkably prescient:

The comments are pretty funny, too.

@winston   @nerys    I think a lot of the anti-society attitude stems from the myth of the hardy pioneering individual who did everything for himself and was beholden to no man.   So that, reinforced by the successful American Revolution (which was really a rebellion), morphed into the ‘all government is a threat to my freedom’ frame of mind. …[Read more]

@nerys    Covid did bring out the beast of us and the worst of us.  There have always been racists ,bigots and haters of all shapes and sizes here in Canada and around the world but the rest of us told them they were dispicable and held them accountable. When the big orange menace emerged from the muck he took a big stick and lifted up the rock th…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u The “rage bait” is so true. I engage far less with social media than I used to, but I still see a lot of it. And there’s been a big increase in AI-generated content to attract clicks. It’s sad to me that people of all political stripes fall for it … and share it.

Why do writers leave Who?

Robert Holmes, series 16

Ribos: The last but one Holmes story before he was apparently exiled for 4 years. One received well, the other rather less so. Need to be careful here because there are people who get touchy about this era. But new team of Williams and Read had a problem: the Hinchcliff/Holmes formula was…[Read more]

@nerys @dentarthurdent

In the age of ‘rage-bait’, malicious blatantly revanchist/irredentist sites and posts, of funded social media stooges, of bots and fake foreign avatars of known personalities, can we really claim the new information order down to ‘matters of opinion’ or reactions to apparent ‘mistakes’ made in obviously exceptional…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Yup. The whole “individual rights over the public good” mantra took an ugly turn during the pandemic, and it doesn’t seem to be losing steam.

What’s strange to me is the speed with which many people forgot how bad it was. Governments, along with health care and public health personnel, were feeling their way through terrifying…[Read more]

@nerys   Unfortunately  Covid was a breeding ground for  anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists  and  bloody-minded obstinate people of all types who thought their individual rights trumped everyone else’s.   In fact, thought that they weren’t properly exercising their rights unless they trampled on somebody else.   The sort of mentality that thin…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Ah, thanks for clarifying that. Now I know the particular “why” you were questioning. Why do it that way? Dunno. Maybe there’s an underlying social media reference I didn’t pick up on, though I can’t think of anything done alphabetically. Even my “Friends” list is ordered, not alphabetically, but some other way.

@ps1l0v3y0u I…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent Has Donald Trump sued the CBC for a billion dollars yet?

No, but probably only because annexation is more top of mind.

Unfortunately, in Canada the “defund the CBC” rhetoric came to a head during the pandemic, in lockstep with similar protests and blockades opposing Covid public health measures and demanding to overthrow the…[Read more]

@nerys    Has Donald Trump sued the CBC for a billion dollars yet?

We know why he hates the BBC.

Given that Trump is the most loathsome excrescence ever to crawl on the face of the earth, with all the appeal of a Dot-and-Bubble slug  [five paragraphs of vitriol omitted], and lies brazenly and continually, any news organisation that reports his…[Read more]

@nerys I know the slugs ignored Lindy because they were working through in alphabetical order.
(As an aside, had the AI read the ‘Hitchiker’s Guide’ quintet, wherein Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, being immortal and bored, set out to insult every living thing in the Universe *in alphabetical order*?)

But, why do it that way. And why ‘build’…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit

I don’t know John McKay… and I’m sure I should … apparently hugely influential. You get the idea that there were so many musicians like Keith Levine, who hadn’t done the grammar school music thing and so didn’t launch into classical references and jazz, though jazz was anti rock (which in early 80’s was very cool…) most of…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u I don’t know about this chord being contained in ‘The Inner Light”, “Blue Jay Way” (covered by this band on their reunion tour) or “Within and Without You”, I’m sorry that no one on here can tell me the song or songs I’m thinking of which contained “The Devil’s Chord”, so now I’ll have to reveal them.

The main song I’m thinking of i…[Read more]

@nerys @dentarthurdent @janetteb

This was the high water mark of S1. Only the finale (of the series) was a real problem, because those 2 eps dragged, and begged so many questions. That is, intelligent guesses can be made about to the arc but most people aren’t that interested. This means the show (or rather RTD and Gatwa) become a target to peop…[Read more]

@ps1l0v3y0u @janetteb Sadly, Canada has its own “Defund the CBC” initiative, led by those who, quite predictably, feel their own political causes are not sufficiently championed. But, given how reliant Canada has become on American broadcasters, the CBC is really the only broadcaster in Canada promoting Canadian culture (especially music). If we…[Read more]

@dentarthurdent The only reason the slugs ignored Lindy is because they were killing in alphabetical order, and they hadn’t yet reached P for Pepper-Bean. That’s why she betrayed Ricky September in the conduit. She knew her turn was next because P was coming up in the alphabet. But then Lindy remembered Ricky September’s birth name, Richard…[Read more]

@nerys and @dentarthurdent Agreed it is a very well written episode that plays very effectively with the contrast between the light and bubbly surface and underlying darkness.  RTD at his best. I also feel that he was establishing something here or attempting to; the Doctor’s sense of betrayal and anger with human flaws.

Cheers

Janette

@ps1l0v3y0u In Oz the public broadcaster, (ABC) is purely government funded which I guess is a mixed blessing. Not dependant upon a drying up license fee but instead are subject to government whims and the malice of one side of politics who dislike anyone who dares criticise them and equate truth to bias. (it is universal sadly)

Back in the day…[Read more]

@translatorcircuit

I have so so much admiration for those who, Pete Sinfield said of Ian McDonald, can pluck a string, hit a key or vibrate a reed and create a pleasing sound. Because I can’t. I can only admire and read.

The tritone is a dissonance, ‘mi contra fa’, avoided and ‘demonised’ by medieval sacred music: typically an augmented f…[Read more]