tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post8227913560551890202..comments2024-03-17T20:50:21.456-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Doctor Who #909: The Rings of AkhatenSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-30037700974992854682014-08-14T15:02:57.279-03:002014-08-14T15:02:57.279-03:00You make a good point about the nature of the &quo...You make a good point about the nature of the "star" (and the word could mean life-giver here and still be a radiating gas giant; indeed, if it's a being that acts as a cool star, then the ecosystem around it doesn't need to conform to any known astronomy. As I watched it, I only saw a magical space that needn't conform to physics at all.<br /><br />And yes, your theological point of view may be showing there. I subscribe to the idea that the divine is expressed in two diametrically opposed ways. One is the physical universe, which I find more amazing if it is this at once simple and complex system on the macro and micro scales, developing in incredible ways over an infinity, natural forces creating all that we see and can't see. The other is the divine within, which is what each individual person can accomplish whether creatively, ethically, scientifically, spiritually, however you look at it. I do not believe in predestination, and give my life the meaning I want to give it. Afterlife or not (and I'm too much of a skeptic to seriously believe in that as such), we're on the Earthly plane for so short a time, every second does count.<br /><br />So what others might call emptiness and a reason to despair, I see only urgency and how privileged to experience what we do as links in a chain going back through our families, cultures, ecosystem, and ultimately, in the Sagan/Doctor metaphor, from the beginnings to the very end of this universe.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-68873218909823482592014-08-14T11:22:19.848-03:002014-08-14T11:22:19.848-03:00This is one of my pet peeves. I am 90% sure that t...This is one of my pet peeves. I am 90% sure that this was supposed to be a gas giant orbitted by a ring and lots of moons, not the system's star. they're too close for it to be a star, there's still light when it goes out, the size of it comparatively, etc. <br /><br />But everyone thinks its a star. <br />EVERYONE. <br /><br />I did for the first 2-3 watches, too. (In fact, wondering why there wasn't a reference to '42' that he'd encountered a living star before (asie from the obvious reason of 'everyone wants to or already has forgotten about 42 along with The Lazarus Experiment') first got me pondering it.) I *think* the production team intended a gas giant- but colored it so incompetently, with reds and oranges and burning colors, then had it burst into flame, that the intent didn't read to the audience. It's bad filmmaking 101 (right up there with shooting down at the giant dino in Jurassic Park III), and totally on them... but I really think it's supposed to be a gas giant. Barely-ignited brown dwarf at best.<br /><br />If not, it is one small, dim, cool star. :-)<br /><br /><br />Also, I know that Sagan's star-stuff in inspirational to many people, and it may just be my theology speaking... but did anyone else find the Doctor's speech to be escpeisally DEmotivating? "Yeah, you're just a collection of random stuff that used to be other stuff anf will go on to be other stuff." To me, that says 'you're definitively NOT special, except as a random and unique configuration of all this stuff that's not unique to you' rather than 'you are special and unique.' Clearly it did not play that way to you, Siskoid- but I'm wondering if to anyone else? Certainly to me, it's all about the stuff her body is composed of being special and nothing about HER being special.<br /><br /><br />Good episode, though. I like the Hartnellian references and themes- the Vigil (wasn't that their name?) have a VERY 60s-Who vocal effect. This is definitely the 1st-Doctor tribute as much as Cold Blood is the 2nd, Hide is the third, etc. (A sequence in which, as usual, Colin Baker gets skipped on in the end.) ;-)Andrew Gilbertsonhttp://www.nolinecinemas.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-47403206224925626012014-05-19T22:31:02.309-03:002014-05-19T22:31:02.309-03:00"Compare [Ellie] to Jackie, Francine and Sylv...<i>"Compare [Ellie] to Jackie, Francine and Sylvia who had much more antagonistic relationships with their daughters."</i><br /><br />One is compelled to note that the prior 3 mothers were RTD creations. You don't have to be Freud to detect some mother issues he's been working on in his writing...snellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.com