`` Liar and a Dreamer''

Yes, I was pleased with the start of the series. It was nice to see Jean Luc Picard again. As things went on, I got more and more underwhelmed. Okay it suffers from 10 episode syndrome. Tie it up in 6 episodes boys The swearing is unnecessary and the change in tone is strange. In the Ensigns of Command Star trek the next generation showed a man being tortured, as its viewers sat down to fish fingers and chips on a wet Wednesday evening. It's also silly. People did not say fuck off, before the 1920's. They used the verb but they did not use it as a phrasal. Why is this important because the foul language of the past. Would not shock us. In my life time, I have heard the word bloody go from a medium strength curse word to a mild curiosity. I understand why Riker played Jazz, and drank lemonade, Why Picard was full of Dixon Hill and Shakespeare You do not what to date your series. Language and pop culture will do that  As Major Grin on You Tube shows - In Picard we see

I really enjoyed this one. It would have been perfect for my A-level classical civilization class When the BBC do History, as Andrew Cartmel observed they do it really well. This even  looks alright, despite the budget and tech limitations  I was impressed by the scope of the episode. Ian ends up on a galley, we visit an Italian villa, and finally in Nero's court The imperial court even technically has an Arena ( We see Ian fight a gladiatorial contest for Nero) This was the first Hartnel Story I encountered. I hated the novelization. It was written in epistolary form.... A selection of jottings from Nero's notebook.... A letter which Ian tried to write to a friend. ...The Doctor's personal diaries. Oh and best of all, the memoirs of Locusta. ``A poisoner remembers...'' Locusta is an actual person who served Nero. Oh Locusta is a Gaul. I did not know that Compared to recent visits to the Roman world. The Romans shows I think more of the dark side of the emp

Thanks to Britbox, I have been able to watch the entirety of season 1 I also watched the Battle of the River Plate I had seen ``An Unearthly Child'' before and the first episode is a stone cold classic. The confrontation between Chesterton and the Doctor in the junkyard is unsettling. Even knowing there is 50 years of canon The Daleks I was a bit disappointed really. It is interesting that the Dr here simply manipulates his crew to get his own way. The Doctor  lies about a piece of TARDIS equipment being faulty and needing topping up with mercury. Oh and that the specter of atomic war hangs over everything The Dals, and the Thals The Daleks are trapped in their city eating vegetables grown with artificial sunlight. Do we hear or see the Daleks eat later? One amusing exchange is that Chesterton tries to shame the pacifistic Thals into action by pretending he is going to sell one of the Thal women into white slavery Another interesting exchange is a Thal describing

My reaction and response to this latest work by Edward West In this book, the author describes Mr. P J Brennan an aged Irish history master A man who remembered the V1's falling on Stamford Bridge. He had done his national service with the RAF, and worked on a history of the high school he had taught at. He had been researching the school's trip to Berlin in the 1930s and meeting the HJ  It was Mr. Brennan's custom to tell his A-level history class whom in history each student reminded him of Which qualities  with great men and women they shared Ed is compared to Edward Burke-  and is upset Reader, I was St Loyola, founder of the Jesuit's Yeah, I actually was. Because I went to High school with Ed. The same Mr. Brennan whose A-level history classes I studied in  Said the teenage me, was like Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits. (I was quite a strident youth) The school Ed and I attended was a successful RC high school in Holland Park. I am from a

The Timeless Children, There are spoilers here. In short, I would have preferred Chibnal left things alone. Okay is the Master going to pay a price for the destruction of Gallifrey?  All of the  Timelord's are dead. The Shobogans too. If we accept the Day of the Doctor- There were millions of children of Galifrey. The Master gets away with this. I am actually fond of the Jo Marten/Ruth Doctor. I want to see more of her. I like her assertiveness which is refreshing I was not so keen on the fact that the Doctor as the Timeless child, has had nearly infinite lives and thousands of regeneration's. I would have preferred an earlier cycle of regeneration. Something that we know the Timelords can do.  Why is not there at the end of the Universe with Me/Ashilda?  The Doctor could have saved everyone in Mawdryn Undead so it seems? Why did the Eternals, or Sutekh not notice that the Doctor was not different to other Timelords? Why did Rassilon not bait the Doctor with t

I am very frightened about Coronavirus. I am not frightened for myself. I am worried about my daughter. My daughter has Autism, and does not speak. She has constant pica. She has eaten stone surfaces. She is getting more destructive and violent as she gets older. She possibly has asthma. She lives in Peru, which has obvious problems. I am worried that if I go to visit her next week. I will bring sickness with me.