Doctor Who

... : X

—hugs back, pats—

I liked Vampires in Venice. There's a hilariously historically accurate black gondolier guy and Amy murders a fish vampire. And it's written by Toby Whithouse.

Okay, now I'm angry.

I've known for a while now that the BBC isn't giving An Adventure in Space and Time the best home video release, since I heard a recording of a convention panel about finding missing episodes derail into the difference in the video market between the UK and USA, and there was a comment that they were likely making a mistake in not releasing Adventure in Bluray because even though the UK Bluray market is practically nonexistent, there's a lot more sales in the Doctor Who niche because of collectors.

In November I wanted to get a DVD of it. It was only available in Region 2/4.

In December I wanted to get a DVD of it. It was only available in Region 2/4.

Just now I wanted to get a DVD of it. I finally found somebody post on Amazon that a Region 1 version does exist, but it's only available in Canadian Best Buy stores. Not even available online. Idiotic.

Let's beat their door down about this.

edited 14th Jan '14 8:12:38 PM by TParadox

I don't entirely follow the cause of your difficulties but I do express a generalised sympathy for them.

I'm not kidding about the historically accurate thing. I say hilariously because I really doubt Whithouse knew of that when he wrote the episode. I recommend that blog in general for things that don't happen to be related to Doctor Who. Also because of it I now kind of want an episode where they go meet Beethoven.

The BBC made a thing I rather enjoyed and will not allow me to buy a useable copy from them, despite the fact that useable copies do in fact exist.

Wack'd pulled out an obscure reference to a writer for Sesame Street on Bring Back Roomies. I'm starting to wonder whether he's really an AI with formidably powerful Natural Language and Answer Engine programming sent into the internet to pass the ultimate Turing Test.

I doubt it; we've had AIs capable of passing the Internet Turing test for almost a decade now. It's actually easier than a normal Turing test, all you really need to do is make sure they don't try to sell you something in every post.

The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith.

Guess who has a new page quote on his profile page

-hugs Wack'd, Gilphon, T Paradox and Laura-

Any Doctor Who happening today?

Compare all the producers!

Don't skip things!

edited 15th Jan '14 4:51:32 AM by unnoun

Gaitiss should not be allowed near the position of Head Writer. He has always been and always will be better suited for the expanded universe; mostly due to his love of exploring settings rather than characters.

Toby Withouse is still my dream guy for the job.

I'd prefer Neil Cross.

I'd prefer someone with no or very little connection to the show, I think. We've had two fanboys in a row, time to try something new.

We've had...five, actually, and that's if we're just counting television.

...I'm not so sure I agree. I mean, there's a path from Survival through the New Adventures into the TV Movie and onward to Big Finish that brought us a great swathe of what was great about the Nu Series, that only fans active in that culture and time period would understand. The BBC Books didn't have as much impact. Which, I mean, they were nothing if not divisive. I may like Faction Paradox, but there's a lot of the BBC Books that is rather less acceptable.

But anyway. Moffat and Davies were both fans and know about some of this stuff. And it has tangible impact and connection with their work, stylistically if nothing else. I mean, we've had Paul Cornell write for the series. Nick Briggs as the voice of the Daleks.

And yeah, Adams, Bidmead, Saward, and Cartmel were fans too.

edited 15th Jan '14 5:18:51 AM by unnoun

Neil Cross is yet to fully prove himself to me, but I'm also weary of that because is a very valid point. I don't want a repeat of the 80s, which was the Running the Asylum that tends to happen in the third decade of any show. And Neil Cross' fan tendencies, though yet to show themselves, have me weary. I would love for him to prove me wrong though.

Until then; Toby's my choice.

...Toby is kind of a fan himself.

And, I mean, JNT can't be said to have been a "fan" the problem is that he was catering to them. And listened to Ian Levine and Saward. And half the time Saward was dealing with JNT's nightmare briefs of "put this, this, and this continuity bit in there somewhere".

There's a difference between someone that isn't a fan asking themselves "what do all the fans want to see" and someone that is a fan themselves asking "what do I want to see".

edited 15th Jan '14 5:38:31 AM by unnoun

Yeah that's the tradeoff, but I think getting a fresh set of eyes on things could lead in interesting directions. I don't have anyone specific in mind, though (unless someone could coax Alan Moore into TV writing, lol).

Also, I don't want to see a precedent set/strengthened that the head writer has to come from within the Doctor Who tent. Bear in mind that we're due to start getting scripts from writers whose primary exposure to the show is the revival, and that the showrunner after the showrunner after Moffat could come from that cohort. I suspect that the influence of big finish etc. is going to wane no matter what happens.

Ah yes that's certainly true.

At least Toby's episodes have assured me he isn't one to go continuity mad. I do have a fear that after Moffat the show could easily become inaccessible. It doesn't need to be RTD levels of accessible considering it's current fame, and in fact the Moff probably has it in the right place, but these things have a tendency to escalate.

Toby managed to write an episode where a companion and a robot talking dog return, who haven't been seen since the Seventies, and actually made it extremely accessible.

edited 15th Jan '14 5:37:10 AM by Whowho

Lawrence Miles interview.

Lawrence Miles interview.

Lawrence Miles new blog. With wider interests and less libel.

Damned Dinosaurs.

edited 15th Jan '14 6:05:50 AM by unnoun

Unnoun, what's your opinion of Terrance Dicks?

I've been wondering.

Unnoun do you know anything about this

edited 15th Jan '14 5:49:08 AM by imadinosaur

I like his novels. He is more or less a good writer. The prose is functional enough.

...He has some major problems with social issues. Gender, race, sexuality, class etc. He's generally well meaning, but that doesn't actually help.

I mean, god, the way he handled the actually feminist characters in the novelizations. The way that Sarah Jane was the first feminist character and not actually that well done of one in the 70s, when feminism was at it's peak in the culture at large. The line about "women can rule too" when the country had been under a female monarch for a few decades already. Patronizing as fuck.

And the way The Green Death treated hippies wasn't especially pleasant either.

And there's the fact that he said and actually seemed to believe that the companion's role was to stand around and get kidnapped.

I love Jo Grant, but I think I like the Jo Grant that Katy Manning acted a lot better than the Jo Grant that "Uncle Tewwance" actually wrote. The novelizations of Jo Grant stories help me feel justified in this view.

Maybe. He didn't give me very good answers. I think he was wrong actually. I disliked and disagreed even. I don't actually like that tumblr much, but he posts lots of Faction Paradox stuff. And I need to get my fix.

edited 15th Jan '14 6:02:56 AM by unnoun

I suspected that would be your response. He writes plots far better than characters.

Why do you ask though?