We're on Gallifrey. Death is Time Lord for man flu. Jul 23 2018 12th Doctor Ashildr Clara Oswald Today I finished Clara's run on Doctor Who. Granted, she died two episodes ago, but with this show you just have to accept a bit of timey-wimey goodness. More importantly, given what is coming very soon, today's episode contains the very first in-cannon onscreen regeneration of a Time Lord in which the gender changes. It has been mentioned in the past, and of course there is the change from Master to Missy, but this is the first one where the gender change happens unambiguously onscreen. For anyone complaining about Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor, the foundation was already laid. And if you think it is just the show caving to a bunch of Social Justice Warriors, well, let me point you to this very excellent post at SartorialGeek.com (which I discovered via my friend Riff -- who also happens to be the best Roger Delgado Master cosplayer in the world). In short, from Day One Doctor Who has been a very inclusive and socially aware program. Yes, it has had its faults and missteps, it's not perfect, but this has quite intentionally been in the show's DNA from the very beginning. It's one of the reasons I am such a fan. But enough about that, let's talk about the deposement of Rassillon. (Is that even a word? I think so. If not, it should be.) Read more ...
It's funny, the day you lose someone isn't the worst. At least you've got something to do. It's all the days they stay dead. Jul 22 2018 12th Doctor Clara Oswald After getting nearly four days behind in writing, once I hit 'Publish' on this entry I will be caught up. This has been a long, tiring, but awesome weekend with five performances of the show I am doing, plus a few other things. I am ready to go to sleep like right now. So let's talk Doctor Who so I can go to bed. Read more ...
Three Point Five Million Steps! Jul 21 2018 12th Doctor Ashildr Clara Oswald Riggsy At the point I completed watching this episode I had taken a cumulative 3,302,141 steps on the treadmill as a part of this ridiculous project. How insane is that? When I started in February of 2017 I had no idea how long it would take or how far I would end up walking, but I never imagined this. As I barrel towards the completion of this project in just over two weeks, it's hard to comprehend just how much this stupid thing has changed me. I feel better, I look better, I have become more successful creatively, it has just been an amazing experience. I figure I have roughly 120k more steps to go, so this is the last big numerical milestone I will hit before the end. I just need to take a moment here and marvel at quite literally how far I have come in the last eighteen months. Ok, so, now that that's done, let's talk about the first actual death of a companion since Adric helped kill off the dinosaurs in Earthshock. Read more ...
It doesn't make sense. None of this makes any sense. Jul 20 2018 12th Doctor Clara Oswald Still catching up on missed posts, this is number two of the four I need to write today. It would be a little easier if it was an episode I actually wanted to talk about, but as noted historian and philosopher Mick Jagger once pointed out -- you can't always get what you want. So let's talk about my least favorite episode of Doctor Who. Read more ...
Well, here's the unforeseeable. I forgive you. After all you've done, I forgive you. Jul 19 2018 12th Doctor Clara Oswald Kate Stewart Petronella Osgood In year-and-a-half of this ridiculous project, I have never gotten this far behind in the writing. The past few days has been a perfect storm of work deadlines plus show performance dates, and while I have stayed current in getting my workouts done (aside from completely missing on Wednesday), I just haven't had the time to write my daily posts. So this is the first of three back-dated posts. Hopefully I will be current again by the end of the day. So let's get down to it, and talk about the futility of war. Read more ...
I'm the President of the World. I'm here to rescue people and generally establish happiness all over the place. Jul 17 2018 10th Doctor 11th Doctor 12th Doctor Clara Oswald Kate Stewart Petronella Osgood War Doctor Good lord, it's a quarter to midnight and I still haven't written this blasted thing. I've been buried in work all day and only just came up for air. The good news is I did fifty five push ups this morning, and my arm still feels fine. Alternating days seems to be making a difference. For now at least I will keep on that track, and see how it goes. As for Doctor Who, it was a mighty good one today. So let's talk about that. Read more ...
Oh, just ignore me, I'm just passing through, like fish in the night. Jul 16 2018 12th Doctor Ashildr Clara Oswald This has been a slog of a day. I barely slept last night, having been awakened by a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. As a result, I didn't get my workout done until evening. On the upside, I did a hundred sit ups tonight. Tomorrow I am shooting for 55 push ups, we'll see how that goes. I am just having some sleepy time tea while I write this, so hopefully tonight I will get some decent rest. Of course I also watched some Doctor Who while on the treadmill, so let's talk about that. Read more ...
Beyond the unfolding of your smile, is there other kindness? I'm afraid. Jul 15 2018 12th Doctor Ashildr Clara Oswald First the big news: After several weeks of letting my arm and shoulder recover, this morning I finally properly tried push ups again as a part of my workout. I went deliberately light, only doing fifty (as opposed to the hundred-per-day I was doing before I damaged myself). It went well. My right arm felt plenty strong, if a little bit out of practice. My intention at this point is to try alternating days between push ups and sit ups, to give myself some recovery time between muscle groups. God knows I am not a physical trainer or anything, I should maybe talk to one of those sometime... In any case, I also watched Doctor Who on the treadmill this morning (of course), so let's talk about that. Read more ...
This regeneration, it's a bit of a clerical error anyway Jul 14 2018 12th Doctor Clara Oswald This morning I tried a few push ups for the first time in a few weeks. Good news: I had full strength in my right arm! Yay! So clearly I am going to jump right back into an aggressive strength training workout in order to re-destroy my arm as rapidly as possible. Or, perhaps, I will ease into adding some strength training back into my workout. One of those two things. Also, I watched the second half of the current Doctor Who story, so let's talk about that. Read more ...
I'm very sorry for your loss. I'll do all I can to solve the death of your friend slash family member slash pet. Jul 13 2018 12th Doctor Clara Oswald On the third episode into Peter Capaldi's second season (and Jenna Coleman's third), Clara gets her new identity for the season. Her first year she was the Impossible Girl. Her second year she became Romance Girl. On her third and final go-around she has become DeathWishClara. None of these changes of character are in any way organic, it's simply that for whatever reason Steven Moffat seems completely unable to have a companion be an actual person, they must be a plot point. He might as well have had a new companion each year for all the insonsistency in behavior between them. Read more ...