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So many very, very good reasons that they would never, ever do this but I’d still rather like to see a Doctor Who episode that’s played exactly like when they visit Pompeii or World War 2 or the Mars base or whatever, and the companion wants to change things but the Doctor explains it’s a fixed point, and they have a localised adventure trying to save this one village, and we reflect on the tragedy of the role of the Time Lord and etc etc all the standard that kind of episode stuff - but the setting is Children of Earth.

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I think I did a disservice when I posted this without specifying that the fan fiction comment was posted under a sketch in which Mat Baynton’s character makes a woman piss in a glass and then drinks it in front of her

Presenting: Some Old Comments on Even Older YouTube Uploads of Horrible Histories Sketches

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Mathew Baynton once again being incredibly relatable on Taskmaster (massive tryhard who appears to find receiving any actual positive attention utterly excruciating)

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So when the Master turned everyone on Earth into himself, there would have been some women who were in labour at that moment, right? Which suggests that across the Earth, several thousand Masters suddenly found themselves in the process of physically giving birth to themselves

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The back third of Room of Swords is such an interesting variation on the Eight Deadly Words - I Don’t Understand What Is Happening To These People And I Have Given Up Trying To But I Will Keep Scrolling Through Incomprehensible Plot Swerve After Confusing Exposition Dump In Chase Of Those Little Character Moments That Remind Me That I Do, In Fact, Still Care What Happens To These People

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I really enjoy that this thumbnail makes it look like the Supreme Dalek is the protagonist and Donna and Ten are his sidekicks

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I totally commend TV Tropes for its efforts to avoid spoiling things for people casually exploring their Doctor Who character sheets, I really do, but god does this make it seem like Dot and Bubble must be about the Doctor and co. meeting Gallifrey’s Actual Worst Time Lord

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So Eito’s just going to be one of those characters it’s impossible to go in unspoiled about isn’t he

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Really loved this week’s Doctor Who, very different for the show, which I think is great! Best thing about DW is that it’s a true sandbox of a programme, and I’ve long thought the show runners have never taken full advantage of that. With 73 Yards being very Celtic, specifically Welsh, and this one obviously being heavily inspired by African folklore, I hope that ‘cultural mythology/history story’ is going to be a new at very least once-a-series thing now. If they’re as good as these two, I would personally love to see them try something with East Asian or Indigenous North American stories

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Once again we don’t hear a word about Fourteen or the Nobles this week, which to me firmly implies that part of his Mental Health Lifetime’s self care regimen is staying off social media. Good for him!

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Look, getting a Midnight sequel is cool and all, but WHEN will I get my follow up episode to 1965’s Journey Into Terror, episode four of serial sixteen, The Chase, in which the Daleks fight robot Dracula, lose, and the Doctor leaves genuinely believing that the whole thing took place in an alternate dimension created by the collective unconscious of human fears, before the camera pans over to reveal that they were actually just in a fairground haunted house in the 1990s (he never learns the truth). I NEED to see the robot Frankenstein’s monster that suplexed a Dalek make a return and I will be camping outside your house, RTD, until you make it so

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I’ve got a close friend who is a very sweet, very offline heterosexual man a few years my senior. We work at the same theatre, but he also works at several other arts venues in our city. He was telling me today about a show he worked for a few weeks back - they’d turned half the bar into a merch table, he said.

‘For what?’ I asked.

‘I think they were podcasters or something. Maybe YouTube. Not sure.’

‘Probably YouTube, if it’s that much merch. What were the audience like?’

‘Mostly women, younger but not teenagers, around your age, early-mid twenties’, he told me.

‘Huh. Wonder if it’s something I’d have heard of then?’

‘Maybe. Oh! And the women - they all had really colourful hair.’

And that’s how I worked out that he’d worked a Dan and Phil show.

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Front row seat tonight at Operation Mincemeat!

…which is much less glamorous than it sounds, because this wonderful play is, unfortunately, still relegated to the Fortune Theatre. One day you will tour, Mincemeat, and I will see you in an environment fit for the 5’ 1” with weirdly long feet.

(Yes, I currently have a job researching theatrical history. No, that does not necessarily mean I enjoy actually attending - or working in - historic theatres)

Brief notes:

I’m pretty sure it was Holly Sumpton playing Monty (my favourite) tonight. Really embarrassing if I’m wrong about that given how close I was, but I’m bad with faces. She plays the role in a slightly more grounded, gentle way than I’d previously seen/heard on the soundtrack. It makes for a different feeling story, because Monty feels a lot more human this way, which in turn makes everything else feel a little less outlandish as well. Not a criticism of anyone, this is why I love theatre - different people in the same roles results in slightly different stories! And that is so cool!

also she is very pretty hi Holly Sumpton if you’re out there I was the woman in the red coat who was staring at you like a cat all evening, I think we made eye contact a few times, I’m sorry you’re just very very talented and also beautiful

also also she did the funniest goddamn voice for her bit of Das Übermensch

The whole cast is great to be clear I just really like Monty. Or, enjoy? Is probably the better word? I hate that I like him? I find him the most interesting. So I very much had a point of focus tonight

But interestingly, I believe it was mostly covers/alternates this evening, so that was cool. Jonty Peach and Geri Allen (again, hope that’s right) made a great Hester and Jean, respectively. Teared up a little at their Useful

The first time I saw the show, the follow spot was late to Spilsbury’s appearance during his reprise. I’ve seen a promo video where it’s on time, and it was on time tonight, so I think the first time was a mistake, but I actually think that was funnier - like even the LX operator was surprised

Tiny bit of corpsing in the All The Ladies bit of Glitzy Finale when they flubbed the words a little, I could see the actors laughing about it, it was cute. Think Sumpton might have been fighting laughs at one or two points as well. I love live theatre so much

(no one who doesn’t know that song off by heart and wasn’t sitting in the front row would have ever known - that’s professionalism!)

I didn’t realise until today that they sing the final Sail on Boys bit of Glitzy Finale in their natural voices. But I could hear Seán Carey switch into Irish, and Jonty Peach sounded different too. I think that is wonderful. I adore the ending already, and that detail just adds to it. Such a good play.

my god if musical theatre doesn’t make people spitty

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Hello, people who are still following me because of The Rainbow Magic Thing. If you're even still here? Wouldn't blame you if you're not, it's been three years. But I'm at my parents' house for Christmas, and I've just come across some old doodles of the girls that I did back when I was writing TULF - and I thought, hey, maybe there's still an audience?

I've missed 'em. It's been five years since I started the whole thing. Maybe 2025 is when I finally reopen one of the four WIPs I have for this universe. Probably wouldn't end up feeling that tonally different - my drawing skills haven't got any better since 2021, so I assume that extends to writing too

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New concept we invented at work today: Rainbow Noise. It’s like white noise, in that it is soothing and can prompt a desire to fall asleep, except that instead of being a weird staticky crackly sound, it’s when your friends’ conversation reaches levels of Pure Gay Nonsense so as to be entirely incomprehensible

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I’ve been watching Coupling on the recommendation of a friend. It’s very good (if a bit definitely-came-out-almost-25-years-ago); in fact, it’s made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions. And god damn do I love Gina Bellman. There’s a lot of weird gender essentialism, but it’s all for laughs at how irrational these people are being rather than remotely serious commentary, and if you’re like me, you might enjoy viewing it as a sort of anthropological opportunity - observing the rites and rituals of early 21st century heterosexuality. Worth mentioning is that one of the characters is blatantly Steven Moffat’s self-insert. I have no issue with it, it’s not uncommon for sitcoms to do that, and it’s definitely not something the show is trying to keep secret - in fact, I’d realised before the first ten minutes were up.

Apparently, though, the thing that’s meant to clue you in is that the character is named Steve. That honestly didn’t cross my mind until I saw it mentioned on Wikipedia. I figure it out as soon as it was established that he has a massive lesbian fetish.