Soumitalia

Because people describe blogs: Old fart likes history, biology, paeoltonology, middle ages, polar exploration, victorian, Viking, and does historical fencing and cello. British comedy, Simpsons, Sherlock, Star Wars, and South Park but no Fandoms please.

[renaissanceswordclub]

Rory warming up with sidesword and buckler.

[suomitalia]

This is the niche my fencing has landed in. I love bolognese style.

[suomitalia]

I can't wait for my vacation, a whole week in the Canadian sub artic not thinking about anything but decompressing and writing. I hope my cel service is spotty.

[suomitalia]

This was a thing, and apparently it would've had the 4th doctor some kind of drunken bum or something.... whatever it was it had the concept of bitter old fart that drops out of society until he gets hit in the head by the proverbial baboon, but scanning the script that was online it would've been an utter crapfest. Your character can't get his mojo back after one bitter line. Not like I have the skills to judge but hey. It kills the vibe, though no clue why I like storylines like that. Old bitter Luke was probably the only good thing about the Last Jedi.

[tumblebuggie]

[have i the right?] to touch these two wires together?

ah the famous moral dilemma from [genesis of the daleks] 

“But if I kill… wipe out a whole intelligent life form, then I become like them. I’d be no better than the Daleks.”

[jamisings]

Okay, while I love the First Doctor all of you going on and on about how Moffat “made” him sexist obviously either have never seen a full episode or you’re looking at him through rose colored glasses.

The First Doctor once threatened to spank Susan in the exact same manner he threatened to spank Bill.

The First Doctor did expect women to clean up after him - as shown by how he treated one of the 5th Doctor’s companions. 

The First Doctor was created and written in the 1960s when casual sexism was “more acceptable.” (It really wasn’t but people tend to view it that way.) If you go back and actually watch the episodes that survived you’re going to find WAY more sexism than you want to believe.

So, Moffat didn’t “make” the First Doctor sexist, he just made the first Doctor’s sexism more in your face.

[unwillingadventurer]

We have seen every episode of the First Doctor countless times, including every single recon and we’re pretty sure we’ve been paying attention and not actually been asleep during them. We also aren’t looking at him through rose tinted glasses as we have no loyalty to that era or nostalgic bias having only discovered it in 2010. Our defence of One comes from the butchering of his character to make modern writers seem ‘better’ in comparison. Seriously, One said more sexist lines in that one Christmas episode than his entire three years in the 60′s which is like 130 episodes where we weren’t cringing at how sexist he was. 

Yes, he did say to Susan about the smacked bottom but don’t know how you can say its the same. Susan caused a mess, is his granddaughter, and the whole point of that story is that he hasn’t realised she is a woman and not a child anymore. He says something silly that a grandparent might say to someone they still believe is a child. Bill is a grown woman who the Doctor has known for barely any time, he eavesdropped her conversation, told her what to do and threatened to smack her bottom. The Doctor didn’t go around telling Barbara or Sara or the astronaut Carol he was going to smack their bottoms. 

No, the First Doctor never went around telling women to clear up after him. That line to Tegan was written in the 80′s and was yet another ‘haha sexist 60′s’ mis-characterisation of One in another multi-doctor special. Yep, we’ve watched every First Doctor episode, never once did he ask someone to clean after him and especially not act as though that was all they travelled with him for! He valued and respected all the women who travelled with him. Evidence for that is in every damn story. (except the first because he’s an alien arsehole before his character development). And that’s another thing the Xmas special was One at the end of his era so he’s the best he should be then.

Yes the First Doctor was created and written in the 60′s (largely overseen by the show’s only ever female head btw) and yes, casual sexism existed and yes once or twice it might have cropped up in scripts but not in the Doctor’s mouth and really compared to other shows of the time it really wasn’t anything terrible. Sexism was actively cut from early era scripts, there’s evidence of it, one by Hartnell himself because he hated a line about women cleaning! And today’s Doctor Who episodes are far from perfect in this regard but does that mean in years down the line Twelve should be mis-characterised to say that the 2010′s were not perfect? 

If you go back and watch the episodes that survive which is more than are actually missing then you’ll actually find very little of what you’re suggesting. We’ve watched most of Doctor Who and the First era is one we find the least worrying in terms of sexism. We aren’t pretending it doesn’t exist, for the most part it isn’t there and it certainly isn’t a Doctor proclaiming women are made of glass. If we think something’s sexist we’re aware of it and we’ve seen countless films and TV of the era that highlight this well. This era was much more progressive than its given credit for with extremely well rounded female characters and a complex Doctor who was not simply a walking talking sexist caricature. 

So, no Moffat DID make the First Doctor sexist. He did it for cheap laughs because it didn’t even have any social commentary anyway. He did it to say ‘hey look how old the show is and how cool we are now and how look next Doctor is a woman.’ He used the First Doctor as a mouthpiece for what he thinks the 60′s is like which makes no sense seeing as the Doctor is a time travelling alien not a 60′s dude with a pipe and slippers. If he wanted to make a statement he could have used the captain to spew all the sexism. No, he wanted the Doctor to do it because lolz old men being sexist is hilarious and what better than shift the focus from his own Doctor’s and eras sexism? 

The First Doctor was written in a time when attitudes were different but to write him wrong and out of character is a disservice to the character and the actor and the writers and creators who made this programme that we’re still watching today. The First Doctor returning should have been a fun meeting between two Doctors instead it was cringe-worthy, wrong and embarrassing. And what for? Some random dialogue that wasn’t funny? 

But guess we don’t know anything about the First Doctor era. Suppose we should re-watch it for the 100th time and find out what we missed!

[suomitalia]

I've seen this argument float around the internet and yes I agree the original doctor was not that sexist. Being American the show wasn't as in my face so I didn't even see it until the 13th doctor, but I have BritBox, saw the classics and am an old fart that can compare it to shows in the late 70s and early 80s that I did see. Tom Baker was the doctor and far from wearing maroon when I was born, so yeah that's how old I am. In 95% of the shows I watched as a kid female characters existed solely to be 'the girl' and appeal to girls (i.e. frilly, vain,overly emotional, etc) The only exception that jumps to mind was Princess Lea, at last a woman who stood on her own two feet. But back to the Doctor... I started the classics with Hartnell's era expecting the same ' I have to stop and check a mirror every five seconds' females, and was actually surprised by Barbara. For that era she was surprisingly progressive. I was actually shocked how she stood her ground when she knew she was right and stunned that at one point they actually had the Doctor crawl to her with his tail between his legs and apologize. Yes there was subtle sexism in the form of having the young male leads like Ian and Steven do all the heroics (there is casual ageism thrown at the Doctor but no one mentions that) and young girls in mini skirts but that was the times and it wasn't an integral part of the characters' personalities, which comes from the show being headed by a woman. You have to keep in mind it was originally intended as a filler show and they expected it to fail, but Verity Lambert was determined to prove herself by creating something special. As far as the smacked bottom thing, I guess you have to be a gen xer used to your grandparents using corporal punishment to understand it in the context of family life. My grandparents did that with me, but growing up in the States they didn't say smack bottom, they said they were going to 'belt me one' if I didn't knock it off. They even had a paddle that had been manufactured for the sole purpose of spanking kids that said 'board of education' on it. From my generation's perspective that's just how that generation was. Hartnell's Doctor never threatened to spank anyone else and it was unnecessary to make the character use that on a stranger he just met. As far as the cleaning, I don't have the details memorized as others do but I don't recall anyone cleaning the TARDIS period. I dont think the issue was addressed any more than how the Doctor used the toilet- it's a pointless thing to put in a show becasue nobody really thinks or cares about it. So that's my old fart opinion. Oh I also don't see the problem with the sixth Doctor's coat. It was the 80s, we all walked around looking like Jackson Pollock puked on us.

[shittysimpsons]

*GASPS* I’m a nerd!

[valereth2]

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[teaboot]

And I would’ve fuckin gotten away with this, too

[unwillingadventurer]

’Not even my little Susan, or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton. Chesterton. They were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home, back to my own planet. But I can’t. I can’t.’

First Doctor era quote of the day (The Massacre)

[suomitalia]

[montereybayaquarium]

Conservation works! Roughly 60% of the sea otters in Elkhorn Slough are descendants of our Sea Otter Program—and they’ve helped transform the Slough into a thriving ecosystem. Get the full scoop in our latest video for Sea Otter Awareness Week!

This is huge news for us and a validation of all of the hard work our Sea Otter Program team has put into helping southern sea otters recover in central California. These findings may help sea otters return to habitat they once ranged in up and down the coast! 

Find out more about this work in our blog.

[montereybayaquarium]

For our rescued sea otters, every day is #WorldWetlandsDay! Nearby Elkhorn Slough provides critical habitat for otters, shorebirds, fish and plant life. And thanks to your support of our Sea Otter Program, this slough of otters is restoring a vital wetland. Find out more in the reblog above!

[harveydont]

my favorite permian hairless bull terrier

….even though they probably didnt have whiskers because of the maxillary canal, but….

[oupacademic]

“Baked Alaska is a dessert of ice cream surrounded by insulating cake and/or meringue, which can then be heated or even flambéed and brought to the table as a hot dessert that is cold inside. The general idea seems to have been developed by chefs in the eighteenth century and linked to two Americans at the turn of the nineteenth century. Thomas Jefferson is supposed to have served an ice cream dessert encased in hot pastry in 1802, while Count Rumford, an American Tory who had moved to Europe, supposedly developed an “omelette surprise” using meringue in Monaco in 1804.” – The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2 ed.)

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons

[irisharchaeology]

[moschops911]

Fossil animals of Australia, by the Kennis brothers. Featuring: Thylacoleo, Procoptodon, Diprotodon, and a Dromornis with two very Trumpy-looking Palorchestes.

[hellmandraws]

[utwo]

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