Wednesday, 10 January 2018

The New Doctor



            I got up to pee at 4:00 on Tuesday and though I’d been warm enough under a sheet, the apartment was cold. I wrapped a towel around myself and went out into the hall to turn on the furnace and then I went back to bed. By the time I rose an hour later it was too hot.
The reading on my hygrometer has been at a very dry 10% humidity for a few weeks, but on Tuesday morning it had jumped to 30%. My guitar stayed in tune a little better but I’ve found it holds its tuning best at 40%.
            In the early afternoon I took my bike through the middy slush downtown to the OISE Library to renew my French grammar exercise books. I was supposed to return them on Monday but I took the day of grace because of the snow and also because I wanted to edge myself toward taking another day of grace next time so I can make my return day Wednesdays, to correspond with my English course, so I wouldn’t have to come downtown just to return the books. My new pants got splattered on the way.
            After the library I travelled down Queens Park to University and to Staples, south of Dundas. I figured since I was downtown already I should buy some new pens for making lecture notes. I also bought four rechargeable batteries because the ones I have don’t last long in my camera anymore. They’re fine for my stereo remote though.
            I stopped at Freshco on the way home. I bought some decent bread because the spelt bread that I got from the food bank is good to serve as thin burger buns but they are lousy at sopping up egg yolk. I also bought some red prince apples, some blackberries and some yogourt.
            I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. Since it’s recent I won’t reveal too much about the story, but the twelfth and first Doctor are together through the whole episode and everybody knows now that the twelfth regenerated into a woman at the end. There were some funny interactions between twelve and one. David Bradley gave an amazing portrayal of William Hartnell’s grumpy original Doctor. He didn’t like the fact that the Tardis was lit so dimly but Doctor 12 argued that it is supposed to be atmospheric. Doctor 1 barked, “This is the most powerful space-time machine in the universe! It’s not a restaurant for the French!”
            There is some inconsistency between various Doctor Who narratives. They played up in this story that the first Doctor on the TV show was the first Doctor of all but I recall it having been suggested that there were many previous regenerations. Otherwise William Hartnell’s Doctor would have lived in that incarnation for at least a couple of thousand years. If they others die after a couple of years then if Hartnell’s incarnation must have led a very sheltered several millennia with no adventures at all. They also show the 1st Doctor being puzzled by phrases like “data base”. One assumes he has been to every era so the age of computers and the internet would not be a surprise to him. When he meets Bill and learns that she has been the Doctor’s companion he tells her that he needs her. It appears to her and us at first that he means as a friend, but then he adds that the Tardis hasn’t had a good cleaning in a long time. He also hears Bill use language that one would not have heard on the original show and he threatens to spank her bottom if he hears her speak that way again. Doctor 12 tells him, “Please stop saying things like that!”
            We only got to see Jodie Whitaker at the very end but I’m very interested in seeing where she’ll take the Doctor. Will she be funny or morose? I suspect there will be lots of humour with a serious sub-narrative. I’ve read that her companion will be a middle-aged man. That’s kind of disappointing to hear but maybe they’ll find a way to make him interesting.
           
           
            

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