Aww, no mention in the news segment about John Barrowman's appearance on The Friday Night Project this past friday? It was damn funny... JB even drops his pants and shows his ass for gosh sakes.
Warren and Steven wax lyrical as they watch the Shakespeare Code...which came across as quite entertaining when it was the second episode of a new and exciting season of Doctor Who, but after an epic season comes off as a somewhat smaller tale of wordsmithery and witchcraft. No matter, as our intrepid pair use the time alloted to ramble on about things Who and otherwise. Hey nonny nonny! (feed, web, direct download)
Aww, no mention in the news segment about John Barrowman's appearance on The Friday Night Project this past friday? It was damn funny... JB even drops his pants and shows his ass for gosh sakes.
The Branagh (pronounced Bran'-uck, fwiw) movie Warren was trying to think of was Much Ado About Nothing. The witches were from Macbeth, not Hamlet as you guys said.
One thing I didn't harp on previously was Martha's outfit. Eccleston's Doctor made Rose change her outfit for The Unquiet Dead, but Martha's running around Elizabethan England in a tank top and jeans? The tank top alone would have gotten her arrested, never mind the denim for anachronisms. However Tennant's Doctor didn't make Rose change for Tooth & Claw, however they at least addressed it in that episode.
As for Shakespeare being rammed down our throats in school, while I'm sure we've got it easier here than in England, Warren and I certainly went to the wrong high school if we wanted to avoid Shakespeare stuff. Then again, I enjoyed Shakespeare as a kid (though not as much as I do as an adult)... I even did a book report in Grade 8 on Hamlet, long before facing The Bard in the school curriculum.
Life on Mars... I've downloaded it and begun to watch it. I'm 3 episodes into the first series and it's an enjoyable show. There's really no difference between it and any other cop drama though, so other than enjoyment of a BBC period piece and John Simm's acting there's not much reason to watch it. Despite the trite writing and plot conveniences, Murder City (starring Amanda Donohoe and Kris Marshall) was a much better cop show from Britain. I would advise finding and watching that (it ran for two series if memory serves) ahead of Life on Mars.
And yeah, I had issues with The Shakespeare Code as Warren points out. Chiefly the issues were with the hitting-us-over-the-head with Shakespeare quotes (despite the fact I do the same thing daily with quotes from The Simpsons or Futurama or the like)... and the pop culture crap. I've got nothing against JK Rowling though, so I'd welcome her writing an episode. I don't think it'd ever actually happen though.
As to classic series foes and monsters, the Black Guardian might be a good one to resurrect. I can certainly see the Eternals coming back given the setup they received, however other than the generic 'last of the time lords' thread running through the resurrected series we never really had any setup for the return of the Master, nor did we have setup for return of the Macra, so the mention of them shouldn't mean we get an episode featuring them.
The Ice Warriors, however, sort of did make it to the 80s, just to be contrary to Warren's statement. They were slated to return in Mission to Magnus in the canceled Colin Baker season, just as they were to reappear in the 90s (well, 1990 anyhow) in the canceled Season 27. Nothing onscreen of course, so they're still technically 60s/70s monsters. However the Macra reappeared after 40 years, so who knows what we may get down the line.
Also, lastly, as far as slavery goes, the UK indeed did have slavery. Recently (last year?) there was a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, so at least they seem penitent about it.
Well, we got a few things wrong, but meh. :) You keep us honest, Mr. Burgess! Didn't know about the slavery though....I always thought in England-proper it wasn't allowed, though their conduct overseas sort of made things a moot point.
Ah, a cursory googling reveals the Anti-Slavery Act was enacted in 1833. And I'm guessing you didn't see as much obvious slavery in England because it was easier just to beat up some poor guy and get him to do your bidding, unlike the States where the vast expanses and need to cull natural resources (and massacre Indians just to keep your musket finger supple) meant a bigger, free workforce.
If we looked at each and every historical story from each the classic series and the new, we'd probably get a fairly even split between era-appropriate costumes and the opposite (probably more heavily favouring the former in the Hartnell era given there were more historical stories and most that leap to my mind involved period dress), so while the theory covers some stories I think it's too lacking to be a blanket theory.
Nothing I can think of really explains any Doctor's outfit for any given historical drama (though he did don a cowboy hat in The Gunfighters at the very least) other than he's the Doctor and no other explanation needs to be given. =)
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