Doctor Who and a link or two

[heliopausa]

Links first!

The Royal Society has been publishing in science matters for 350 years, and is celebrating by flinging all their online archives open free until the end of November. 

Here's an interesting and fun interview with a Tourette's Syndrome activist. (about ten minutes, you tube.)

Here are some great photos of Kazakh eagle hunters - like falconers, except they ride out with eagles on their wrists.  There's a recording of an interview with someone who's just written a book, too, but I haven't listened to that, just looked at the pictures. (Do I hear cries of "shame!" out there?)

I thought the Doctor playing Amazing Grace was a great intro to a very edgy episode, with so much terrifying switcheroo going on between who is family and who can be trusted after all, and what is an enemy, and can there be a friend inside the enemy, really?  (I think the Zygons' physical appearance is great.)  Yes, it's horribly easy to kill unknown people Not Like Us at a distance.  :(  I thought the soldier who didn't press his mother (or not) on his place and date of birth was surprisingly not on the ball, though.  Though then again - who was it, exactly, who were reduced to piles of smoking ash - the soldiers or their 'families'? - and as Osgood demonstrates (and Donne also hinted) doesn't every death diminish us all, anyway?

I found it a little difficult to be engaged, even so - partly because of not having lots of the background which the series now assumes.  (Like about Osgood, for example.  I have a vague feeling she's a descendant of Clara?  But I don't know why she's important, or where I got that idea from.  I don't even know all that much about Clara - though I guess there's not much more to know about her from now on, anyway.) 
also, it looked so much like a set-up for a lesson on how to be open to immigrant-led shifts in culture, and while that's a worthy end-point to be working to, I don't like great lolloping dobs of didacticism mixed in with light entertainment, especially if the light entertainment in question doesn't think its own stories through, as per the soldier, above, or askaffyr pointed out an hour or so back, the Doctor's odd decision to not use the most sensible means of transport available to him.

 

Late addition!  News from the Melbourne Cup!  I love that it was an outsider who won,that it was a female jockey, that her brother (with Down's Syndrome) is working right alongside her as a strapper. 

Comments

[autumnia]

Osgood originally appeared in the 50th anniversary special and is no relation to Clara (at least not yet). She's important because she participated in the peace treaty between humans and Zygons in the special, though this episode's intro suggests there is more to that than just signing some papers.

A lot of the comments I've seen about this episode center around current events, particularly immigration and discrimination. There were even a few that thought it was poorly timed considering the ending with Clara ready to shoot the Doctor's plane out of the sky and the tragic plane crash in Egypt.

I think Clara's character hasn't been fleshed out enough even though we've seen her through several series. Some of the other companions who've spent less time with the Doctor (e.g. Donna) seems to have much more complex personalities and is more relatable than Clara. And yes, there does seem to be some flaws in this storyline as well, particularly with the soldiers accepting those Zygons' response that they were the humans, not the other way around.

[heliopausa]

Thank you very much! :) I don't know where I picked up (or made up) that idea about Osgood.
I do think it's a pity that so many back-references make it a show mainly for those in the know, now.

Yes, plainly references to immigration/refugees - I expect those to become even more overt next episode, and to end by strongly endorsing mutual acceptance, rather than fear. I don't know how they'll square that with Clara/Bonnie's demonstrated murderousness, though.

My guesses for next week: that the line about a Zygon in its child form will be significant, and that "the truth of who we [Zygons] are" will be different from the form we've been seeing. Kate Stewart's not dead, and the soldiers were all Zygons. Or maybe the "Doctor" we've seen is a Zygon, which is why he didn't take the Tardis. Oh, and that continued peaceful co-existence will prove possible.

(I don't see that anyone could reasonably blame the series for the coincidental loss of an aircraft the day it aired. If they had pulled show (tricky, at the last minute?) it would have drawn much more attention to it.)

[marmota_b]

I haven't seen it, but I've long decided that trying to avoid Doctor Who spoilers is pointless, so I would like to add: it's not like it's the first time in the show's history that something important was in the news. Maybe not this coincidental, but a show that started out in life with the death of Kennedy should be able to deal with it one way or another...

[heliopausa]

Yes, I think there's no way to avoid the spoilers for major plot points for anything with a really wide following. On the other hand, Doctor Who's storyline (said in very doubtful tones!) is so complex and abstruse by now that keeping up with everything that's gone and is going on would be a nearly full-time occupation.
and yes -it would be a rare week or night on television that some plot point or other in some show wasn't echoed in a news story. :(

[pulchritude]

Those photos of the Kazakh eagle hunters are absolutely beautiful and remind me why I'm a cultural revivalist.

[heliopausa]

:) I'm so glad they hit the spot!