We are the kings of Articulate

[alexsarll]

OMG 'The Sound of Drums'!!!!!!!!!1111oneeleven, basically. Although there was that little laziness spoiling it - ageing the Doctor, fine. But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that? Say 'a thousand'. Wouldn't take any longer, and wouldn't spoil an otherwise excellent episode. And can it be pure chance that this story is being screened around the installation of a new Prime Minister? I can believe Brown as an evil alien, actually. Although if he takes that attitude towards the President, I might well forgive him the rest.

Asking a former bishop to review Christopher Hitchens' anti-religion masterpiece God Is Not Great was unlikely ever to end well, but Richard Harries' effort is still surprisingly inept. Every objection he raises is addressed within the book, which leaves us three options: he couldn't be bothered (or wasn't brave enough) actually to read the book; he was too stupid to understand it; or his review is written in deliberate bad faith. Any of them would further prove just how right Hitchens is.

Horrid weather today, isn't it? I sure am glad that I'm in my nice warm bed and about to have a lovely hot shower, and not, say, wallowing in mud to the sound of James Morrison.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

Surely that would just indicate bishops are not great? While they claim to have a pipeline to God, I'm not aware of God ever verifying that they really know anything about him, much less anything special.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose that could be taken as the review's fourth argument for the correctness of the book.

[moleintheground.livejournal.com]

I went for a 10km run in the lashing rain at eight this morning. Honestly, it felt exultant. It felt like an altered state after a bit.

My arse hurts now, though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Why, did your run take you to Hampstead Heath?

[moleintheground.livejournal.com]

Heh. As if I need to go that far to get bummed, Alex. Land's sakes, you're only down the road.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Yes! *does dance like Mrs Saxon*

I loved the little aliens going nah we don't like her. And The Master biting his fist. ACE!

I had a dream last night that the little cute deadly aliens were half dalek and attached themselves to humans and became hooommaaann daaalllleeekkks. It was a horrible dream, not least becase I wouldn't put it past RTD.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh dear heavens, I do hope your dream was wrong! But yes, I can picture you as one of them.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Seriously, if Daleks are the big bad again (it's not looking good, master mentions if doctor knew what they were it'd break both his hearts, and the next week thing had someone looking inside the metal bit. Please god no...) I will actually go find RTD and kill him. NOT THREE SERIES IN A ROW YOU DOOFUS! Two is pushing it...

I am BORED!

[jimyojimbo.livejournal.com]

I kind of thought they could have strung the mystery of the "big bad" out a lot more this series. Well, I guess maybe that's cos I was spoilered ages ago. But maybe The Doctor could have found out earlier that TM was somewhere and the big mystery is where/who TM is. Rather than just pop back to London - a convenient answer to that little conundrum - and go, "where is the Master, oh, yes, hang on, it's Tony B.Liar Saxon innit?"

Oh and the ageing Doctor thing - the David Tennant shaking around in a speeded up fashion - VERY lame. but two thumbs up for Simm.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

where is the Master, oh, yes, hang on, it's Tony B.Liar

Now that WAS a good episode of LoM, though Gene as "Gordon Brown" was funnier.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Surely Saxon = Cameron, or maybe Brown at a push (and given timing), but not Blair?

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

See attached icon.

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

It was disappointing to me. Prob because I hate cliffhangers and I'm away next weekend - we'll have a TV but Kate won't be interested in watching, and by the time I get home LJ will have blabbed all the spoilers. I did like The Master's dealngs with the US President though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes. I would forgive the whole decimation-of-humanity bit for that. Well, I say that - obviously if I were deciding which 10%, I would actively encourage the decimation.

I like cliffhangers and, while broadly in favour of exes as friends, would never let that get in the way of the Who finale. Priorities, dear!

[mylifebythesea.livejournal.com]

The last few episodes of Who have been rather ace haven't they? That's twice I've actually made an effort to sit down and watch it when it's on now.

Completely unrelated, but I'd suggest picking up the new Midnighter. It turned out to be rather good fun.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Mail it to me or something, I find the idea of paying for a Christos Gage comic obscurely offensive.

But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that?

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, right, the Doctor is over 900 years old, according to something or other, right, but the First Doctor was William Hartnell, right? And they've all more or less regenerated straight into the next chap, right, and yes they have adventures that happen between the other stories that you see on telly and everything but basically right, was the First Doctor about 860 when we first saw him, and why had he not regenerated before that point?

Re: But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that?

[kiss-me-quick.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he was just very very very good at avoiding death/things that make you regenerate?

Re: But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, the account of the Doctor's age has increased by whole centuries since it was first mentioned, but yes, he was centuries old when he first regenerated. And bear in mind, even within that he did get in the way of the Time Destructor beam during The Dalek Masterplan. So what we know is, Time Lords can die/regenerate of old age - but only after *centuries*.

By way of comparison, the Eighth Doctor lived through the whole of the twentieth century in realtime *twice* - once awake, and once asleep. And all that without any sign of ageing.

Re: But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that?

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

Troughton says he's about 450 in "Tomb of the Cybermen". The habit of overlapping companions makes working out where the extra 400 years comes from.

When they're talking about aging hime maybe its 100 timelord years, rather than human years.

Re: But why say 'a hundred years' when we all know he'd barely even notice that?

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Do we definitely know that William Hartnell -> Patrick Troughton was the first time the Doctor regenerated? And what about all the rejuvenation/regeneration semantics?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes but when you think about it, we've only really seen one Master - it was his last incarnation and then its efforts as a possessing entity. If we were used to him regenerating fully, as the Doctor always has, people wouldn't be so hung up on the goatee &c.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

Richard Harries is actually pretty cool as bishops go (I've read quite a bit of his writing), but he was hardly going to agree with Christopher Hitchens about anything when he could be putting his own point of view across... I liked it when they interviewed Christopher and Peter Hitchens about the book on the Today programme and boiled the interview down to "You two are brothers, why can't you agree about anything?".

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well no, obviously I wasn't expecting a Damascene 'You know what? I've read this and realised that I wasted my life'. But he could at least have engaged with what was actually in the book and responded to that (if indeed he were capable of any valid comebacks), rather than coming up with a load of slipshod and half-baked arguments which Hitchens has already refuted within the book Harries has supposedly read!

I'm amazed they even managed to get the Brothers Hitchens in the same room again for Today. Was Peter as hilariously Mail as ever?