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ValueSubtracted, 5 days ago

Guess what! I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell sci-fi discussion spaces!

ValueSubtracted, 7 days ago

I’m not sure when I’m actually going to be able to watch them, but I’m looking forward to the full Ncuti Gatwa experience!

ValueSubtracted, 7 days ago

My least favourite type of RTD episode is the Goofy RTD Episode, and this was definitely that. I doubt it will end up ranking too highly on my list by the end of the season.

That said, I always appreciate social commentary that’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and the episode delivered on that. And Ncuti Gatwa’s physical presence is something special - I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of physicality since Matt Smith.

Also, uh, did the Doctor just suggest that the world of Star Trek is real in his universe?

This is obviously a sign that setting up this discussion thread was the right decision.

ValueSubtracted, 6 days ago

“The Devil’s Chord”

All right, it’s hard to make the case that this one was less silly than “Space Babies,” but I enjoyed this one more, largely on the strength of Jinkx Monsson’s delightfully unhinged performance as Maestro, and the fact that I love The Beatles (not that they get a lot to do).

This is one of those high-concept episodes built around an interesting premise (“the world would end if there was no music”) that DW often does really well. I think in this case, they could have done a little more to show the lives of the people in this music-free world, but it worked well enough.

Having Lennon/McCartney finish the Maestro off with the lost chord was blindingly obvious, and extremely perfect.

I’ve got to say, Chris Mason did an amazing job capturing John Lennon’s mannerisms while singing. I happened to watch “Let It Be” the other day, and the guy did his homework. Pour one out for George and Ringo, though - they really didn’t get anything to do.

ValueSubtracted, 6 days ago

It does seem that RTD is going harder into serialization this time around - the Ruby story reminds me a lot of Clara’s tenure with Eleven (which wasn’t the best, but what can you do?).

ValueSubtracted, 4 days ago

Is it wise casting a drag queen as a villain given all the anti-drag queen sentiment?

Gosh, what a loaded question! I think it ultimately boils down to a question of representation - these things shouldn’t be a problem in isolation, but they can be a problem if it’s part of a greater pattern. It does sound like Davies is intent on weaving queerness throughout all aspects of this series, so that will probably make a difference.

I was convinced the lost chord was going to be the mystery chord that opens A Hard Day’s Night.

I had the legendary chord from “A Day in the Life” in mind, which of course isn’t really possible on a single piano (at least, not to its full effect).

ValueSubtracted, 11 days ago

I’m just curious…is there any interest in discussing DW episodes in a startrek.website community?

ValueSubtracted, 11 days ago

Oh boy, I cannot get behind that Capaldi slander.

The Chibnall/Whittaker era…I don’t think they’re are many people who would say it’s their favourite, but there were at least a few pretty good installments in there.

ValueSubtracted, 11 days ago

At the same time, “Demons of the Punjab” is probably a top 10 episode for me, I really love it.

“It Takes You Away” is delightfully weird, the New Years specials are generally pretty solid, “Fugitive of the Judoon” is pretty good even though the greater arc-stuff is not, and I have good memories of “The Haunting of Villa Diodati” and “Can You Hear Me?” even though I haven’t revisited them since the first run.

ValueSubtracted, 1 month ago

I spot-checked a couple of them on Mastodon, and I can call up their profiles without an issue.

ValueSubtracted, 1 month ago

siiiiiiiiiiiiigh

But yeah, federation between Mastodon and Lemmy is pretty unidirectional. Users on (most) Mastodon instances can use their accounts to post to Lemmy and follow Lemmy users, but it doesn’t really work in the other direction.

ValueSubtracted, 1 month ago

At one point, I recall being able to at least search for a Mastodon user from Lemmy and have them come up in search results (no posts and couldn’t follow).

Hmm, I think that still works provided the Mastodon user has interacted with Lemmy in some way. It will pull up their bio and posts/comments made on Lemmy, but that’s it.

I think the difficulty lies in the way the two platforms treat user accounts. On Mastodon, it’s pretty straightforward - a user is a user.

On Lemmy, the users are users, and the community federates to Mastodon as a “group” that boosts/retweets every single post and comment that users make to that community. It’s not really ideal, but I’m not sure if it can be improved considering the radically different structure of each platform. This is what the Quark’s feed looks like on Mastodon:

!A screenshot of @quarks as seen on Mastodon, showing the various users being “boosted”.

ValueSubtracted, 2 months ago

Since Lemmyvision is a homo sapiens only club, startrek.website will not be able to participate directly, and Spock’s rendition of “I’m the X” is sadly ineligible.

But this is pretty cool!

ValueSubtracted, 2 months ago

We’ve had 2FA disabled, because it wasn’t working properly at one point. This is a good prompt to look into getting it up and running again, so thanks for bringing it to our attention!

ValueSubtracted, 2 months ago

2FA should be working now!

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

Quitting a platform is always easier than you think it will be.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

I suppose it could make sense if they’re looking to break up the company and keep the streamer.

It does seem like bundling might be the new strategy for the non-Netflix, non-Disney players.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

This seems fine, I guess. Pascal is the only one that I recongize by name, but that means nothing.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

It was interesting, even at the time, it seemed like everyone was talking about Krasinski as a cameo, and not necessarily a long-term plan. It’s been a weird era for Marvel.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

No details about the format yet, as near as I can tell.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

Hmm yeah it looks like they deleted it for some reason. I’ll try to keep an eye out for whether it gets reposted.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

It’s an interesting idea, but I wonder if the “Twitter-like” design of Mastodon is more appealing to brands than the “Reddit-like” design of Lemmy.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

Interesting, isn’t it? I saw a number of people making that same observation during one of the migration waves.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

This guy really seems to be intent on buying the parts of Paramount everyone else considers dead weight.

ValueSubtracted, 3 months ago

I don’t know, it sounds like it might be better off in someone else’s hands…depending on the someone.