Interesting Links for 25-08-2014

[andrewducker]

• Media coverage of Worldcons: Loncon 3, 2014 and Seacon '79, 1979
  (tags: media conventions scifi )
• This is the biggest thing I disliked about the first Capaldi Doctor Who
  (tags: drwho )
• Fish: smarter than you think
  (tags: fish intelligence )
• Macro-economics. Not really much of a science
  (tags: science economics )
• Video game journalism is having

Comments

[gonzo21]

We would like to remind the public that viewing, downloading or disseminating extremist material within the UK may constitute an offence under Terrorism legislation.

... if you have brown skin.

[steepholm]

I think Clara was rather (too) obviously being used to ventriloquize the presumed misgivings of viewers, particularly younger viewers, at seeing an older Doctor. I agree it wasn't really in character, and I don't honestly think it was necessary - Capaldi requires no apology.

[andrewducker]

I agree.

Frankly, I'd have been very happy with them lampshading it:

Lady Vastra: You must be very confused by The Doctor changing.

Clara: Not really. I helped save his life from the Great Intelligence. All eleven of his lives, actually. And then I helped save Gallifrey, his home planet, from the Daleks. And I was helping three of him at once. So I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea that The Doctor changes appearance. I just wish he was less grumpy.

[alitheapipkin]

Yes! This would have been much better

[cartesiandaemon]

Yes!

[steer]

This is the biggest thing I disliked about the first Capaldi Doctor Who

Isn't the difference between knowing in your head and knowing in your heart? A mortician or a funeral director knows more than most that people die but I don't think that would necessarily make them better able to cope with the death of a loved one. Clara had a semi-flirty relationship with a youngish man with a quite friendly and engaging aspect. Independently of this she followed and rescued a series of figures who she never interacted with. Effectively the youngish man that she was friends with is now dead and instead there is a completely different person who has his memories. It would be a surprise if she weren't finding that very hard to handle.

[andrewducker]

I'd have been absolutely fine with it being presented as that too.

After all it clearly is a _kind_ of death. He's missing large amounts of his memories, changed his personality, etc. There's some continuity, but the Doctor that Clara knew has gone. A discussion of _that_ would have been fascinating and well worth having in the episode.

[steer]

I thought the episode did explore that to the extent you can... but did it subtly. Clara went through the stages of grief without it being mentioned that was what she was doing. The doctor's illustration of the Ship of Theseus (with the broom) was surely meant to apply to him as much as to the villain. (To what extent is he the same person if he has a new appearance and a new personality?) Clara eventually gets closure and a chance to say goodbye. So for me I thought that the episode did explore regeneration as death as much as it needed to

[momentsmusicaux]

> (Incidentally, did we see the trailered "am I a good man" sequence? I don't recall but perhaps I missed it and will see it in a rewatch.)

No, we didn't. I suspect (though I don't recall why I do) that we'll see it next week.

[bart_calendar]

That Tea Party article is interesting

[bart_calendar]

Also, I hate it when people bring up Gone With The Wind in these discussions.

GWTW was a romance novel. The movie was a romance movie. Romance novels and romance movies have exactly zero obligation to be even marginally historically accurate. There are a ton of romance novels set in the Middle Ages which are incredibly historically inaccurate and nobody complains about that.

And... GWTW is a romance novel from the POV of Scarlett who is a complete idiot and I don't think either the reader or viewer is supposed to trust her perception of the things that are going on.

It can be argued that we are supposed to have some confidence in the way Rhett sees things - but Rhett doesn't see things at all the way she does. Also, he's mostly just a good looking "bad boy" which is all the male lead needs to be in a romance.

[fanf]

What were the other non-slavery "states' rights" issues?

[bart_calendar]

Taxation mostly. The population of the Northern States was growing much more quickly than that of the Southern States. This led the South to worry that given electoral college math there would never be a Southern President again and that with the north having a long term stranglehold on the federal government that the southern states would be taxed into poverty

[rhythmaning]

I'm so glad I didn't remember Clara meeting all the doctors!!! :)