War journal: Day 1

[kingandy]

It's the weekend, and I am work.

BEWARE
I HUNGER

Comments

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

You're not going to start pissing missles are you?


So what is the connection between Unicron and Galactus then?

[kingandy]

Well, that depends on whether you believe the transformers comic or not. If you do, then they are both survivors of a previous universe that consume planets in order to live. Though admittedly Galactus seems to drain geothermal power (as well as some nebulous "life force" kind of thing) while Unicron actually consumes and processes the physical matter of the planet. Come to think of it, they may not in fact be competing for foodstuffs...

(Also according to the comic books, Primus - the God of the Transformers - was Unicron's rival in the previous universe, or possibly created by the new universe to oppose him, I forget. Anyway, it was he who trapped both himself and Unicron in planet-sized chunks of metal after the universe was reborn. While Unicron used his will to shape his chunk into a planet-sized robot, Primus shaped himself into a planet-sized planet, and populated it with many tiny robots under the reasoning that strength of numbers would prevail. Or something.)

Incidentally, here's the article I got that "pisses missiles" comment from (I linked it a few months back).

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

So . . . what actually happens during "Trial of a Time Lord" apart from the introduction of the obnoxious Mel?

[kingandy]

The short version: The Doctor was pulled up by the Time Lords for interfering with history. He gleefully proved that yes, he did interfere with history, he was glad he did it and he'd do it again I tell you ha ha ha ha ha, and was then surprised that they found him guilty. Luckily the whole affair turned out to be orchestrated by the Master, so the Doctor was let go. Despite being unremorseful and clearly guilty of the crime of which he had been accused.

The details are a lot more strange. The Valeyard (mysterious prosecutor, apparently a potential evil future Doctor plucked out of time by the Master and promised the remainder of past-doctor's lives in exchange for convicting the Doctor) showed the tribunal three of the Doctor's adventures - one from the recent past, one from the present (the one he'd been on just before the time lords abducted him) and one from the future. Then witnesses were called from each one, Mel being the witness from the future episode.

(Note that this is NOT how Mel meets the Doctor, she already knows him. We are left to assume that after leaving in her company the Doctor returns her to his future self, then bums around a bit before picking her up again, for the first time. Allegedly the original plan was to do this on-screen, but in the end they couldn't be bothered.)

The season as a whole suffered a bit from having the last episode written by completely different people (there was an argument, or a strike, or something). Suddenly everything was magically made right again by way of some very clumsy exposition. In fact the whole thing's a bit strange from the moment they enter the Matrix. (No, really.) Some very neat ideas in there, otherwise.

Personally, my respect for Colin Baker has grown over the years - that's Colin himself, not his Doctor. Can't stand his Doctor. See, Colin's a proper-type actor who came to the role with some very definite ideas about how to develop his character, and then they saddled him with a clown costume and terrible scripts. I would be very interested in seeing how Colin's plans would have turned out, with the initial comical mania progressing into a darker, more sinister wossname.

At least, that's what I hear.

[kingandy]

Ah, more on CB's Doctor here

[paradoxrealm]

Following this general what actually happens thread...
What actually happens in Mostly Harmless?
The fifth book of the Hitchkikers guide
I've never been able to figure it out

[kingandy]

COMEDY HAPPENS
IT IS FUNNY
YOU WILL LAUGH NOW
thus spake Adams

[blue-room.livejournal.com]

Mark W: Hai! Weekend workers of the world unite and all that. Yes I too am working on the weekend, there's some important horse race on apparently :).
What you up to, or is it all hush hush? After I've done the links for the day I may even do some QA, just to see if any of the bugs I've asked to be fixed months ago have actually been fixed. Bitter? No just scared for my sanity if they haven't.

[kingandy]

We need to get some crap done by Monday. It's not something that could be done during the week - the client gave us their latest data on Friday so we have to get it up and running before they need to place any more orders (Monday).

That said, I've not seen this mythical data yet, and we've spent the day so far getting the servers back online after the big electrical storm yesterday... it's so much fun.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Despite "shittest doctor" labels stuck to him, I too would have liked to have seen how a "darker" doctor would have worked. McCoy did it a bit, but there was a definite difference in quality between McCoy's manipulative "Merlin" morif and Bakers' looperness. And now Grade is back with the BBC. Joy.

It didn't help that the sixth doctors' companions were Mel and Peri. But even Peri was better than Mel.

[kingandy]

Read the Virgin Missing Adventure, "Millennial Rites". It managed to make Mel actually vaguely likable. It did this mostly by giving her some backstory so that she didn't actually exist in a void, and then completely altering reality so that she was a different person. It was great, there was some crazy world-altering thing in a triangle between Canary Wharf, the Millennium Dome (or, in the Doctor's universe, Ziggurat) and the Library of St John the Beheaded (IIRC). I seem to recall the newly created reality worshipped a trinity of Gods composed of the TARDIS, Yog-Sothoth and some guy from the next universe over. Also, return of the Valeyard. Ooooooh.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

As I recall, one of the Virgin books with McCoy in it has a nice take on the valeyard; that he's actually created by the bitterness of the sixth Doctor being denied a full run as an incarnation. Can't remember which one it was - probably the horribly depressing one in the small village with the psychic vampire thing that wipes nearly everyone out. Wish I could remember what it was called - but I was brought so down by the (otherwise quite good) story, I've more or less blanked it. I think it ends with the Doctor dumping Ace on a planet somewhere and refusing to let her back into the TARDIS.

[kingandy]

I'm afraid I have no idea. The only two books I know of where Ace gets left behind are Love And War (which also introduces Bernice Summerfield) and Set Piece, neither of which have much to do with psychic vampires and neither of which feature the Valeyard.

6Doc's bitterness is touched on in Return Of The Living Dad, though, when 7Doc comes close to regenerating. At least, I think that's where it was.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Nah nah. Small village. People tormented by visions of things - regrets and that - no Valeyard, just a reference to him. Lots of soul searching from the Doctor. One of the characters is (in a post-modern way) an actor at an old peoples' home who played the equivalent of Doctor Who in a 60s television show.

Love and War - is that one with strange plant things in it, and the Doctor sets Ace's new love interest up to die horribly?

[kingandy]

Yes, that's it exactly.

I always enjoyed the scene (in L&W) in the communal intarweb dreamtime VR thing the dirty thieving gyppo pikeys had rigged up - with impromptu appearance from Vic Reeves. "What's at the end of the race, Ace?" Only slightly incongruous...

Ah, after a spot of looking around I suspect you're thinking of Head Games. Does this ring a bell? other possibilities include Strange England and Human Nature. Unfortunately I've never read any of them, so can't narrow it down more than that...

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Found it. http://www.clivebanks.co.uk

"Nightshade" and a remarkably early book it is too, apparently written by one of the league of gentlemen fellas.

[kingandy]

Aha! I was about to suggest a trawl through this, but you beat me to it...

[ghostbritain.livejournal.com]

Just read it. When i saw Unicron in Toys 'r' us before christmas, i nearly bought it myself.
Now i want it again.
So very much.
And i want my old Scorponock back, and my Optimus Prime Powermaster. And my Soundwave (he was superior)...

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

I am praying that the new Dr Who proves popular, and when Grade attempts to ruin it, is pilloried in the press and the whole thing contributes to his downfall.

I despise Grade. He's a sychophant who promotes other sychophants into postions of power.

[samharber.livejournal.com]

On Radio 4 they asked Grade if he had any plans about Dr Who. He said that as long as he didn't have to watch it, they could do what they want.
I consider that a good thing.

And Grade was a better choice than anyone else.
Of coure, if he had real balls, he'd appoint Greg Dyke as the new DG again. Wouldn't that piss off the government.....

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

But he won't, nor will he do anything that would upset the civil service.

Grade is probably the best choice given the limited selection,(though the current head of the BBFC seems like a good choice tot ake over from Grade) but I don't expect anything radical or exciting to come out Grade's reign, because he's got no spine.