.
If you’re a Whovian — or, even more, if you’re a non-watcher who’d like a way into understanding what all the fuss is about, I’d like to recommend Jill LePore’s “The Man in the Box“:
Behind the door labelled Studio Four, where “Doctor Who” is filmed, it smells of glue and paint. Industrial-gauge steel chains hang from the ceiling, which is painted black and is so impossibly high that it feels more like a night sky than like the underside of a roof, the chains like falling stars. The only light is artificial, slanted, and green. The concrete floor is speckled and spattered. Surrounding the set, cameras, lights, and microphones stand on tripod legs of smeared chrome like an army of giant arthropod invaders, patiently waiting. In the stillness, a stagehand wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black cargo pants rummages through a Tupperware storage box, making an awful clatter. He pulls out something metal and rusted, cradling in his tattooed hands the part that would roll away if you were to guillotine a robot. “This, this,” he mutters in quiet triumph, “is the head we need.”
“Doctor Who” is the most original science-fiction television series ever made. It is also one of the longest-running television shows of all time. (Virtually every other marathoner is a soap opera.) It was first broadcast in 1963, three years before “Star Trek,” and, with apologies to Gene Roddenberry, is smarter and, better yet, sillier. The U.S.S. Enterprise, for all its talking computers and swooshing doors, is a crabbed and pious Puritan village; Doctor Who tumbles through time and space in the Tardis, a ship that from the outside looks like an early-twentieth-century British police box, painted blue and bearing a sign on its door that reads “POLICE TELEPHONE. FREE FOR USE OF PUBLIC. ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE OBTAINABLE IMMEDIATELY.” Inside (it’s bigger on the inside), the Tardis has something of the character of the reading room of the British Library, if the British Library had a swimming pool and were a pub designed by someone who adored Frank Gehry, Lewis Carroll, and typewriters with missing keys…
Unfortunately, you’ll need access to the New Yorker archive, or a paper copy of the November 11 issue (the one with the ACA joke cover) to read the whole thing, but it’s worth the effort. Late notice, because I just got around to reading my newstand copy.
***********
Apart from picking over the remains, what’s on the agenda tonight?
Joseph Nobles
First real steps to peace with Iran. Sounds like a great agenda here!
Of course, Twitter is taking a little time in its exuberance to marvel at #MahSenator John Cornyn who tweeted out this incredible rejoinder:
Damn, won’t the haters hate?
Joseph Nobles
Well, everyone is discussing Iran in the other thread, so old news. But it’s nice this happened right after Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary episode.
PsiFighter37
There was a deal on Iran.
No offense AL, but that is a BFD and should be the focus of this thread. Or maybe focusing on how the GOP is freaking out again, on cue, that the black man in the White House didn’t screw something else up.
khead
We are close to putting a cone on Gracie kitty because she ABSOLUTELY CANNOT QUIT SCRATCHING HER HEAD.
Not sure what the issue is but she has scratched herself so much that she has scabs between her eyes and ears…. and she has also scratched her chin raw to where scabs have formed there too. Trips to the vet have not helped to this point. Any advice would be appreciated. This is no way for a fur baby to live.
Valdivia
wait until Bibi wakes up :)
Baud
Next month, Obama cures cancer to distract from Obamacare.
Hal
I don’t want to discuss Iran because it’s obviously an attempt by Obama to distract us from healthcare.gov. He will do anything to avoid this scandal, including averting a long, drawn out war in the middle east.
BTW, when the hell did Scott Walker become a Christie alternative? Did I miss something? The man is toxic and it’s up in the air whether he can win re-election, let alone the Presidency.
Redshirt
I have no idea what any of you are talking about.
#ontopofmountain
khead
@efgoldman:
College football is all about timing, location and turnovers. All three of those things were against Okie St @ WVU.
Princess Leia
@khead: I had a dog that did this- they did the flea and mite scan- nothing. 3 different vets. Then they said it was a food allergy. Changed to the wacky foods. Still scratching. Months of scratching til a dog chemo drug was prescribed as a last resort. She STILL was scratching and losing her hair. Finally I asked to PLEASE give her Revolution just in case it was invisible mites. They thought I was nuts, but did it. After two days, no scratching ever again!
Hope you find your solution in a quicker and less costly way!!!
khead
@Princess Leia:
We’ve never put a cone on a cat. I suspect she will go berserk, er, not be pleased. No idea what the problem is and the vet has no clue either. So far. We are on our third different change in food too.
Burnspbesq
Ho hum, another routine win for Duke.
National championship game in field hockey tomorrow. C’mon Devils!
Belafon
@Hal: Well, if soldiers aren’t getting limbs blown off, what’s the point of a nationally coordinated solution to health care.
BD of MN
@PsiFighter37: I’m guessing this was a scheduled post previous to actual news breaking out…
piratedan
@Burnspbesq: congrats on your football team being bowl bound, a stellar hoops recruiting class and a promising college hoops start. Will be an intriguing game if the devils and Cats meet in the NIT championship
Redshirt
@efgoldman: No. We are in a patent battle.
amk
@PsiFighter37: Yup. bj is going msm way.
Lurking Buffoon
@Hal: A toxic theoretical candidate for the next presidential election? Does the GOP figure the third time’s a charm?
handy
Interesting choice, AL. Was there recently a Attempted Assasination of George Wallace Anniversary I missed?
Redshirt
@efgoldman: Patent – it’s a method of publishing.
Petorado
WaPo has great story on success of ACA sign-ups in Kentucky, revealing the extent of human misery the program’s trying to address. The article is so effective at avoiding beltway insiderism that a righty commenter said it was propaganda that Goebbels would be proud of. Another case of reality and its well-known liberal bias.
Chris
@handy:
What a fucking pity it never went past “attempted.” Only the good die young, I guess.
PurpleGirl
One of the kitten cams I watch has had a bunch of 10 feral kittens who have mostly been sick for over a month now. A number of them had ringworm (which is really a parasitic spore infestation. Some of the kitten also had tape worms and lung worms and upper respiratory infections. One of the medicines used on these kittens was Revolution. I think at the other cam I watch, a couple of the kittens also were treated with Revolution. It seems to help with a number of problems. I know it’s expensive but if it works, it may be worth trying it.
PeakVT
First real steps to peace with Iran.
Well, the US wasn’t exactly at war with Iran, either, except in the minds of Christianists and Israel-firsters. But it’s still a positive development.
Anne Laurie
@PsiFighter37: You have a new thread up top. We were out to dinner, and not watching the news.
@khead: When did the scratching start? If your household heating system had just kicked on, Kitty may be allergic to dust mites. And the problem, per my vet (we have a dog with similar skin issues), is that once they start scratching it becomes a nasty feedback loop — the more damaged the skin gets, the stronger the urge to scratch, which further damages the skin.
We had to put Zevon on prednisone for a couple months to break the cycle, even though the vet warned us about possible complications in a 15lb dog. If your vet doesn’t see a reason not to try it, a dose of Revolution has been known to work
miraclesvery effectively against ‘subclinical parastical infestations’.But you might have to put a collar on Kitty just to give the scabs a chance to heal. There’s a new inflatable ‘soft’ model that’s supposed to work better, but I don’t know if it comes in cat sizes…
Dave N.
@khead: Cone of shame. Helpful, yet also hilarious.
Dave N.
@Hal: Not just win re-election. Scooter will be lucky not to be indicted by 2016.
Bruuuuce
@handy: Not that I know of, but I will say that, until I read about the song, the lyrics sounded very like they could have been about the JFK assassination. I have no doubt that it sounds like it to many people. (The only cognitive dissonance in the lyrics comes from the assassin’s statement that his act would make him famous, too,)
Omnes Omnibus
@Bruuuuce: I will point out that the song could be about a photographer taking a picture.
fuckwit
cones are cruel. don’t agree? look: http://www.thepaincomics.com/The%20Cone.jpg
Villago Delenda Est
This, right here, is pretentious crap.
The author is very obviously a Pakled.
Cermet
What utter and complete bullshit this line is: “The U.S.S. Enterprise,… is a crabbed and pious Puritan village … .” Did this writer watch either series? First off, Star Trek covered some very import social issues: the first interracial kiss; also, the first ever TV show having a Black person as a major character (senior officer and on all the episodes) and also note that the show had some featured main story lines built around a BLACK character (who were show as smart and not superficial.) Even the Vulcan doctor for the ship was black (yes, a MD!) One episode dealt having a ‘clean’ (read non-local) war. In that episode, a war was being fought with no effects on the main people of that population except only a very small and select group of people were disappearing – everyone else was allowed to go about their business like there was no war … gee, just like a war being fought at that time (Vietnam war). They even had a single episode on interracial fighting between two groups involving a race of black/white people (very silly in many ways but none-the-less a very direct attack on our own racial problems.) Even an issue of woman not being taken serious for command … yes, the show was puritan in many ways but it was the mid 1960’s!
In the early Doctor Who series, I never saw a major black character, much less the show even trying to touch on that issue (and yes, Britain has a large black population.) The show was utter fluff and NEVER touched, much less even tried to address that divide. Yes, women were on the show but they were mostly eye candy and little else.
WereBear
@khead: My steps in such cases:
Corn or other grains in her food? Kitties often have grain allergies because they don’t have the enzymes to digest them. In my wegie mix, it took the form of throwing up every time he ate. With grain-free food, problem vanished.
Put coconut oil, the more unrefined the better, on the irritated areas. This soothes the itch, and equally important, gets more fats in her diet. A lot of cats need more fat than fat-phobic vets recommend, and then their skin dries out.
CANNED. It’s really a kitties best friend, because it also has water and better macro-nutrient proportions.
Does she drink enough? Getting a kitty fountain can do wonders for that, too.
NotMax
@Cermet
Bill Cosby isn’t black? I-Spy had already aired for a full year before Trek premiered.
Too logy to look up other earlier examples.
Cermet
@NotMax: Your point is correct but in no way changes my point; so wow, you win three for that mighty catch!
Matt McIrvin
@Cermet: And when a black character did show up it was often really embarrassing, e.g. the hulking, monosyllabic lackey in Tomb of the Cybermen.
As for female companions, Barbara at the very beginning was actually pretty cool. Things varied after that.
Matt McIrvin
By the way, today I finally got around to watching the Genesis-of-Doctor-Who docudrama, “An Adventure in Space and Time.” It was well worth watching, though if you are a big fan of the original series you will probably find most of the dramatized facts familiar. David Bradley is an excellent William Hartnell, but the guy they got to play Troughton at the end looks nothing like him.
EJ
Tried watching the New Who. Loved the old ones as a kid, and I thought Torchwood was a lot of fun. (Yeah, I know it came after the Who reboot – Netflix doesn’t care if you watch stuff out of order). I did like Ecclestone as the 1st season doctor, but just couldn’t get past Tennant saying “Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.” Seriously, that just did it in for me – I never even made it to Matt Smith. Also far too many monsters of the week, and not nearly enough Daleks.
Now that Capaldi is the Doctor, I may give it another shot, though.