Abigail Brady

Many Doctor Who episodes fall into the format:

1. Doctor goes somewhere random
2. Doctor starts to enjoy random place
3. Doctor discovers problem in random place which places his own and his companions' life at risk
4. Doctor fixes problem

Now, if I went somewhere random on holiday this summer, I think I would not have a high chance of becoming involved in an alien invasion, or events leading to a coup, or somesuch. Unless I had extraordinarily bad luck. Admittedly my potential vacations do not extend to all of time and space.

The Doctor doesn't have bad luck. Why does this happen then? I have a theory.

When the Doctor originally stole the TARDIS, he triggered the anti-theft device, which makes the TARDIS land in dangerous places to try to kill the thief. This, working in conjunction with the randomizer, means that he doesn't just go to random places, but to places where he is in severe danger of dying. The business where it translates languages for him is just a ruse to get him to leave the TARDIS. And you know, it's working. At least five regenerations caused by landing on random dangerous planets. Of course that took several hundred years. The man is that good. He may have figured it out and probably leaves it on for the thrill.

so, the big companion news is that ( spoiler ), and another series of Paul McGann/Lucie Miller audios has been announced, but not for BBC7.

Having missed it on Saturday due to being away; yesterday I listened to Valhalla. This features an aged, companionless, 7th Doctor, investigating a mystery on a Jovian moon, almost despite himself.

"for sale. one doctor. excellent condition. six previous owners. only 900 years on the clock. extensive experience in cross-cultural affairs and science. practical, witty, highly clubbable. (even if i say so myself) wanted in many major - oh, no, no, not putting that - much sought after - that's better - in all major star systems. available at all times. has own transport! would make an excellent companion"

It's rather an improvement on the last few plays, which have been lacklustre : Renaissance of the Daleks was particularly silly (toy daleks?; it's hard to know whether the silliness is despite or because of writer Christopher Bidmead) and the subsequent two releases were saved only by their one-part bonus adventures: Urgent Calls in particular being a fun little vignette. Release 100 in September should be a particular high-point, featuring 1-part stories from each of Rob Shearman, Joseph Lidster, Jacqueline Rayner and Paul Cornell.

What, you mean it's on television, as well?

weekend was cool. squirmelia's party on saturday, followed by an adjournment to feeling gloomy. note to self in future, though: either get drunk beforehand or like carling.

then, board games on sunday. i co-won War on Terror as the Terrorists, with timeplease and fluffymormegil, and then mostly sat the games out for the rest of the evening, reading and doing the cryptic crossword from thelondonpaper. i like this crossword because it makes me feel clever : possibly the paper's sole redeeming feature. (the Metro's is Nemi, I have yet to see a point to The London Lite).

i am reading The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. it is nice, but it doesn't scare me! :( i mean, ok, perhaps this has a little to do with the plushie cthulhu which is downstairs and the gradual desensitation of people to horror fiction in the last 80 years, but still. the anthology is a little weighty to read all at once, so i'm lining up The Demolished Man as next read after this novella.

( random reviews of things )

but now i am tired and i should go to bed for i have to be up early tomorrow for a trip to hertfordshire.

eek, i seem to have got into listening to doctor who audios now. tsk!

the start of Jubilee confused me massively. i put it on, noticed it was a trailer for some other story, and skipped tracks, and got confused when i couldn't find the credits. but no, the trailer is part of the story! damn you rob shearman! SCARPER! SCARPER! and i've not even listened to the 2nd track yet. :)

really enjoyed The Kingmaker too (a rather ingenious dirk-gently-ish story regarding the princes in the tower), although it was outright anachronistic in its comedy and i can see why people who take matters more seriously might not like it (brief clips with jon culshaw as the 4th doctor! shame tom won't do them though perhaps he wouldn't be able to recreate it)

we've decided on IRC that this year's Big Brother could do with an interesting twist. the one we are thinking of is as follows: carry on as normal, but don't actually broadcast any of it, or conduct actual votes or anything. they may wish to actually keep tapes of things that happen, or not. each week, someone gets evicted (as normal, except that evictions will be decided by whim of producers or by a coinflip) and it is revealed that they have spent X weeks of their life locked away from the world and NOBODY CARES. *cackle* possibly then this moment of revelation is broadcast.

othergates, I finished watching the The Daleks last night and then also watched all of Genesis of the Daleks.

firebug music quiz this evening?

so. the scone party is planned for Saturday 20th May. Sorry if I've set this so you can't make it, had to make decision one way or another. the plan is tea and scones in afternoon (it will be served at 4pm PRECISELY). people will be invited to bring jams, marmalades, honeys, if they feel like it. if you turn up around 3.30pm you even get to see me make the scones.

this will be optionally followed later in evening by apparently still unnamed event (see after setlist). Watching the 2nd part of the Doctor Who 2-parter might also feature. people will be welcome to drink the beer i keep winning, etc.

It should be good. I even bought a teapot and everything! Crash space available, let me know if you need it. I figure I can sleep 4-6 people in front room [ and i've had an offer of space from someone else too ]. See the directions.

quite a quiet weekend. helped vjbseven and lost_species empty their flat on Sunday and was impressed they got everything into their van. We watched Remembrance of the Daleks on Saturday, which was good. Last night I went to see some bands at FireflyFirebug. Probably going to pub quiz there tonight.

Yesterday evening consisted of watching the newly-arrived City of Death DVDs with vjbseven, between which was a visit to the Attik to watch Uniting the Elements and return their mike stand. Apart from putting us on the guestlist, they gave us a free album even. And also were quite good. Yay.

I am at Ashton Keynes now.