This wasn’t technically my introduction to Who; I’m pretty sure I had seen some Tom Baker/Fourth Doctor repeats as a small child and I had a figurine of that version. But this was my first time new series were in production during my lifetime and my first time watching at an age where I could form memories.

This is more or less me, as well. I have very fuzzy memories of Classic Who reruns, but really jumped in with the 2005 series (although even then I started in 2007 or so). I have gone back and watched some Classic serials here and there, but my knowledge is far from complete.

I wonder what their main motivation is. If it’s an effort to shield Gatwa from “fan” harassment, it’s commendable. But ultimately probably pointless.

Moving the Coast Guard from Fisheries to DND is a sneaky way to add $2.5 billion to the defense budget without actually spending more money…

I just wish they wouldn’t be so secretive about it all. It seems pretty clear that they’re scrambling a bit…and honestly, that’s okay. TV is hard, and sometimes you have to pivot. There’s no need to (try to) cover it up.

The first post is up!

I caught the highlights of the Dogg Bowl - really glad to see Buck Pierce win his first game as head coach.

Nathan Rourke looked pretty sharp in the highlight reel, with a couple of long-bomb passes. Edmonton’s extended play to end the 3rd quarter was nuts.

In “The menagerie”, pt 1, Kirk explicitly states he only met Pike the once when he was made Fleet Captain.

I actually think this one is a fun way of playing with that established dialogue in an unexpected way. The actual exchange goes like this:

MENDEZ: You ever met Chris Pike?

KIRK: When he was promoted to Fleet Captain.

MENDEZ: About your age. Big, handsome man, vital, active.

KIRK: I took over the Enterprise from him. Spock served with him for several years.

It’s entirely possible that “when he was promoted to Fleet Captain” and “I took over the Enterprise from him” are two separate events. And if that’s the case, then you might as well sprinkle in some additional meetings in between. I don’t think it’s the original intent of the scene in “The Menagerie”, but it’s a valid alternative interpretation.

The Gorn thing is admittedly a bit tougher to explain, but I think it’s mostly a Kirk problem - Spock doesn’t really say anything to indicate whether the Gorn are familiar to him or not. And I don’t think Kirk has me the Gorn (yet) in SNW?

Okay, rewatch complete.

I do think that anyone who genuinely believes that something like “Space Babies” (which, to be clear, I did not particularly enjoy) was somehow out of line needs to pop back to 2025 and really look at what RTD was doing in his original run. A garbage bin belching after eating Mickey The Idiot kind of says it all.

This episode does a very, very good job of introducing the Doctor, and the basics of what he’s all about (no Time Lords or Gallifrey to be mentioned just yet) to a new audience. Rose really was the best idea RTD had, allowing her to serve as the audience proxy moving forward. The focus on Rose’s “domestics” was also a very good move, one not really replicated in the following seasons (though RTD certainly tried, and came pretty close with Donna’s family).

The Nestene are a bizarre villain to open with - it’s like RTD has a thing for smacking new viewers in the face with the goofiest things he can think of, just to set the expectations. Armies of department store mannequins in the streets of London are truly a sight to behold.

The episode isn’t shot particularly dynamically, but it gets the job done.

One thing that I absolutely hate is Murray Gold’s scoring for this era. The opening music over the montage of Rose’s daily routine encapsulates it nicely - that driving percussion over the orchestral stuff just doesn’t work for me at all. I’m going to try not to harp on it through the Tennant era, but I think Gold’s work improves a lot once Matt Smith takes over. “The Doctor’s Theme” is fantastic, though.

Don’t get too excited - this is just the individual episodes of “Unleashed” for the season, stitched together.

Welcome to the regenerated Retrospective Discussions! The idea is simple: we discuss each episode as normal, but there’s no need to pretend the subesequent years of stories never happened - feel free to reference later continuity, compare it to future episodes, etc.

As long as the threads are minimally active, I’ll post one every Sunday until The War Between the Land and the Sea comes out, at which point we’ll shift are attention to that for a few weeks.

As for myself…I haven’t rewatched “Rose” yet, and haven’t seen it in a few years, so I’ll be back after I’ve rectified that situation.

Batel Watch 2025: maybe she survived the Gorn?

is this a cynical attempt to make political hay out of alluding to what has been said of Kinew’s past?

The PCs have done this for years, so it’s an understandable instinct.

That said…I’m not convinced that there isn’t a little fire beneath the smoke. The 2023 altercation was inconclusive. I just don’t know.

It could be a case study for Portage & Main.

Toronto @ Montreal

Once again, I saw a bit of this one live, and caught the highlights for the rest. This Winnipegger is never going to be upset about watching the Argos lose.

Montreal looked very well put-together. I’ve got to agree with the officials on the Arbuckle “forward pass” - there didn’t seem to be an eligible receiver anywhere near that ball. Toronto’s O Line was a bit of a disaster.

That one Toronto TD was great, though - love the effort.

Ugh, I barely engage with the Endeavor System, so I’m not 100% sure.

I think New Who has definitely danced on the razor’s edge, getting by with narrative shortcuts as long as the emotional resonance lands. And when a story doesn’t land with you, those shortcuts are very visible.

I actually do like the small bits of exploration of the a Timeless Child that RTD has done using it to inform the Doctor’s personality in new ways. It would be great to see a Jo Martin story or something like that, though.

Trying another “Flux”-type season could be interesting too - sort of a hybrid between the old serials and more modern episodes. Hell, the eight-episode seasons are practically begging for it.

All good - I love the Mastodon engagement, even though it’s kind of awkward.

It’s a pretty pedestrian-heavy area. It’s probably justified.

The TARDIS materializes in 1990s San Francisco.

Billie Piper stumbles out, is shot almost immediately, regenerates into Paul McCann.

taxpayer per unit of road ratio

I’m a big fan of this metric. Easy to understand, hard to argue with.