Hurrah!

[tree_and_leaf]

I do believe I've finished my confirmation of status report (even the proof reading - I'd have been done at the start of the week if I hadn't found something horrible had hppened to the bibliography)

Hurrah! Now to celebrate with something crazy like finally washing up the stack of dirty mugs which have accumulated over the week...

Oh, and I finally got to watch 'Human Nature' last night; very much enjoyed it. And, she said shallowly, doesn't DT look good as an Edwardian M.A.? Academicals suit him. I note, too, that despite Four's punting exploits, the TARDIS seems to see the Doctor as an Oxford man. And rightly so.†

† Mind you, given that the very first scene in 1913 contained an anachronism, I'm not sure how careful the dressers were in their choice of gowns. But Oxford! Doctor is now canon (sort of), so there. I feel my Encaenia! Doctor is vindicated.

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

What was the anachronism?

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

There are several recognisable Oxford college arms visible on the wall of the TARDIS cricket pavillion in Castrovalva - but there might be some Cambridge ones, and non-collegiate ones, too.

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the confirmation of status report - bibliographies do seem to have a way of screwing themselves up without you actually doing anything (rather like the christmas tree lights that you always put away folded, and yet are always tangled next year...)

I really hope the second part of this DW lives up to the first; it's shaping up to be the best episode(s) of the series thus far.

I'm quite glad my suspension of disbelief and lack of detailed historical knowledge combine in such a way that I can usually overlook minor anachronisms on TV - what attracted your attention?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

They weren't anachronisms, but I didn't like the firing of heavy machine guns towards the village, or the profligate use of ammunition; or the new cricket bal that the boy was carrying.

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

No, I wasn't exactly happy with that (though I seem to remember - though I probably picked this up from the Sharpe books... that the English were rather keen on practising with lots of ammuntion, though not admittedly, for schoolchildren) but I managed to put in the folder marked Make It More Exciting For TV.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

The British army certainly had an advantage in the Napoleonic wars because they were the only ones to routinely practise with live ammunition (but that was a century before this Dr Who story!) Creatrix thinks that the machine guns might turn out to be a Plot Point (TM) in part two.

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my history isn't that bad! I meant that I'd read somewhere the Brits practised with live ammo and so it didn't strike me as too strange (especially within the limits of what you can expect from saturday evening tv).

Oooh... Plot Points are always interesting! In our house, I think we're just hoping there aren't too many scarecrows tonight - they were more frightening than we thought they'd be.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

I completely misread "the Doctor is now canon" and found myself thinking- but he's disguised as a teacher, not a clergyman....

BTW- I didn't spot the anachronism either- what was it?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't mean to slur your knowledge of history ... And yes, the scarecrows were quite frightening.

I like the icon, BTW - from Stephen Fry's "The Letter"?

[tree_and_leaf]

Embarrasinly, a bit of research has revealed that it wasn't an anchronism, or not exactly. It was the use of the rather wimpy Dearmer rewrite of 'Who would true valour see' from the Pilgrim's Progress (Which in Dearmer's hands came out as 'He who would valiant be/ gainst all disaster/ let him in constancy/ follow the master'). I was convinced this was anachronistic, but it turns out the rewrite wa published in 1906, in the English Hymnal.

I would be surprised if that sort of minor public school was using the EH in 1906, as it was very much an Anglo-Catholic party book; I would have expected them to use 'Ancient and Modern', which does contain the orignal version. But I suppose that even if they knew the background of the EH (unlikely) the opportunity to slip in a Master reference would be too tempting! Actually, though the Bunyan version, though certainly not the Dearmer, is the only hymn I can think of that really suits the Doctor - the lonely knight/ pilgrim fighting monsters on his travels...

[tree_and_leaf]

I've never actually seen Castrovalva - I should, some time.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that - I'm afraid the reference had rather passed me by. I do see what you mean about that hymn suiting the Doctor, though.

[tree_and_leaf]

Embarassing,y I was (more or less) wrong anyway - it was the use of the Dearmer rewrite of 'Who would true valour see', but it turns out that this is possible (though I still think it's more likely that the school would have been using Hymns A&M)

[tree_and_leaf]

The thing I really boggled at was the way that everyone was allowed to wander off to flog Whatshisname the fag, without anyone doing anything to clean, put away, or even unload the gun; they just seemed to leave it standing around. Poor show!

[tree_and_leaf]

lol!

The anachronism, embarassingly, wasn't. *points up thread*

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I know I did see that one, but, like so much else from 25 years ago, the memories have almost entirely faded.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

When small, it would be one of the hymns I would request in school assemblies, precisely because of reference to 'the Master' and, I like to think, the general Doctorness of the hymn.

[tree_and_leaf]

I hope so - I thought I heard machine gun fire in the trailer, fwiw.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for that. The general feeling at the group viewing last weekend was that we wouldn't watch the trailer. (NB I am in no way averse to your comment!)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My favourite (with no Doctor connections I can see!) was "When a knight won his spurs".

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

And no way to train them to be soldiers!

[sacred-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is!

I was surprised,because they're much more an old-school type of monster, and yet my heartrate definitely increased a bit when they started moving.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I know just what you mean. They were really quite menacing.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Especially the Allan Ahlberg alternative version.

"When a knight won his spurs in the stories of old,
He was... face the front, David Briggs! What have you been told?"

[cuiaalfheim.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for finishing the report! And a silent fist-shaking at paperwork. ;)

And finally, a big "WOO!" for the Doctor, canon-shiny!

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, no. If they were really being prepared for arny life, they'd all have been put on a charge for Carelessness With Army Property and made to do something really unpleasant....

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Congrats on finishing the report! And bibliographies are rather like Gothic heroines in that horrible things keep happening to them but somehow at the end they turn out alright.

One day till transfer of status...