It&#39;s a full life, if a trifle banal

I really like the music week by week, although I know others find it too loud.

From:

sugoll.livejournal.com

A passing side comment: I assume that the theme tune never appears *during* an episode? Cos', y'know, that would be wrong.

From:

I gather from my resident expert that the licence doesn't allow them to use the theme during an episode.

From:

sugoll.livejournal.com

Good-oh. But did they used to? It struck me that you get things like the Bond theme, or the Mission:Impossible theme, that plays during dramatic moments. But the Who theme just wouldn't fit.

From:

Mr A says it was used a lot during the 1980s (by Paddy Kingsland, Dominic Glynn), particularly the "ooo-eee-ooo"... But not really before (or after).

From:

iainjcoleman.livejournal.com

Yes, but they never used the full theme tune as incidental music. What did happen was that musical motifs from the main theme were incorporated into the incidental music. It's not really analogous to the way the James Bond movies break into the full theme tune at moments of maximum nonsense.

From:

The cave scenes were shot in a quarry, weren't they? Even though I have only seen one proper old school quarry so far (masking as Skaro in Genesis of the Daleks), this made me smile.

I really want the disappearance of the TARDIS to turn out to be plot rather than convenience.

Now that would be nice. I strongly suspect, though, that it will turn out to have been merely a convenient device to make the situation genuninely claustrophobic and life-threatening. Otherwise, they could just cram the whole crew into the TARDIS and leave the creature from the pit behind...

Some people were speculating that this episode might be a ret-con of Pyramids of Mars and that the Unbenign Presence will be Sutekh or any other Osirian. Personally, I'd rather like it to be Cthulhu. Preferably the baby plush version (http://www.paizopublishing.com/image/product/catalog/IMPTYV/IMPTYVHP004_360.jpeg).

From:

Baby Plush Cthulhu is so cute!

I was also wondering whether Sutekh might turn up - it's the same guy doing the voice of the Unbenign Presence. But I hope it isn't - on the whole I'd rather they kept on inventing new stories than refining old ones.

The cave scenes were indeed done in a quarry. If you ever see any Blake's 7, you'll get quarries in abundance.

From:

Baby Plush Cthulhu is so cute!

Just imagine it rising out of that pit and doing the evil laughter in a really tiny, squeaky voice...

But I hope it isn't - on the whole I'd rather they kept on inventing new stories than refining old ones.

I completely agree with you.

And I'm really, really looking forward to the next part, as I have no idea what exactly is going on there. Apart from the fact that Satan is on the loose.

If you ever see any Blake's 7, you'll get quarries in abundance.

From what I've heard, a show is not really BBC retro sci-fi if there is no quarry involved.

The only sci-fi show Germany ever produced, way back in the 1960s, was partly shot in the bed of the river Isar right here in Munich, where people tend to go for a pick-nick or a barbecue in the summer. It's not that easy to buy the alien planet thing under these circumstances.

From:

a show is not really BBC retro sci-fi if there is no quarry involved

They did a couple of radio plays of B7 (which are awful), but one of the good lines was when they teleported down to an alien planet, and one of the crew remarks it looks like they're in a quarry.

From:

*snerk*

From:

sallymn.livejournal.com

Hey, I've set at least one little story in a quarry, just for artistic verisimilitude...

From:

cdybedahl.livejournal.com

Neither The Prisoner nor Sapphire and Steel had quarries, as far as I can remember, and they were both excellent SF. Maybe they weren't BBC?

And Germany has produced at least half of one other SF series, the wonderfully deranged Lexx (which was a co-production with Canada).

From:

Both were shown on ITV, tho' I don't know off the top of my head which production companies made them.

From:

ITC and ATV, I think.

From:

Thanks - I'm feeling much too hot today to do research.

From:

I didn't count Lexx due to the co-production aspect. I don't think it would ever have been produced at all if it hadn't been geared to an international market right from the outset.

'Cause German audience are apparently considered not to like sci-fi well enough, especially not German sci-fi. (Um, don't mind my complaints about that. I might be slightly bitter. :D)

From:

If you're counting co-productions, then you'd have to include Star Maidens (http://www.animus-web.demon.co.uk/maidens/)!

From:

I must admit that I had never even heard of that one before. I don't know whether this is a good or a bad thing...

A planet ruled by women dressed in platform boots must have some kind of appeal, though.

From:

executrix.livejournal.com

aervir said: Just imagine it [Baby Plush Cthulhu] rising out of that pit and doing the evil laughter in a really tiny, squeaky voice

And we will call this quarry...THIS QUARRY!
I think we will call it...your grave!

From:

*g*

And you won't be able stop me! FROM BEYOND THE ~~QUARRY~~ GRRRAVE...

From:

i-smell-shite.livejournal.com

I loved it but it isn't against the laws of physics to get something orbiting round a black hole! Mr Happy was clawing his eyes out with a fork but other than that he loved it too. I thought it was like watching an English version of Serenity. It was really scary!

From:

The bad science fortunately passed right over my head.

From:

manna

I loved it but it isn't against the laws of physics to get something orbiting round a black hole!

Yep (or rather no, but yep if it's too close). That was why there was a whacking great power source in the middle of the planet, to keep it from falling in, and which was why the humans were there and drilling down.

From:

..at which point I thought a) I expect the power source is an Ancient Evil Buried For Aeons Where No One In Their Right Mind Would Come Looking For It, and b) doesn't Humans Drilling Deep Hole In Planet always end in tears on Doctor Who, and if so why doesn't he warn them against it on principle?

We do seem to have hit a patch of Classic Who the last couple of weeks.

From:

manna

doesn't Humans Drilling Deep Hole In Planet always end in tears on Doctor Who, and if so why doesn't he warn them against it on principle?

He did warn them, though, didn't he? Right after he finished being amused at how very, very human it was, he said they should get back in their spaceship and get the heck out of there as fast as possible.

From:

I didn't remember him warning them about the drilling, specifically - wasn't he just talking about the general situation orbiting the black hole? He was a bit sniffy about whether their real motive for trying to tap the power source was military.

From:

manna

Maybe. I assumed it was the drilling, because that was what they'd been talking about just prior. That they'd try to reach it just because it was there, and then he commented that they were all mad, and they should leave.

From:

i-smell-shite.livejournal.com

The chap lying beside me who has a PHD in Astrophysics says that a stable orbit is possible at any distance from a black hole greater than schwarzchild radius, also known as the event horizon. The planet is clearly outside the event horizon as our hero's are able to observe the hole accretion disc. But other than that he thought it was bloody good and can't wait for the next one!

From: (Anonymous)

There is an innermost stable circular orbit which is at twice the schwarzchild radius: If the planet is maintaining a circular orbit inside that distance then you can be sure something very weird is going on.

cheers, Phil

From:

iainjcoleman.livejournal.com

True [1] but irrelevant, as the planet is clearly much much further out than twice the Schwarzchild radius, given the observed angular size of the black hole.

[1] Well, mostly true: the maximum equatorial extent of this boundary is twice the Schwarzchild radius. The actual extent depends on the angular momentum of the black hole.

From:

I'm loving this one! I’m hoping that the TARDIS bit is going to turn out satisfying in a thematic sort of way. On the edge of the Black Hole he's losing the one thing he has left and has to venture into the Underworld to find it etc etc ... Great stuff ;-)

From:

I knew I could rely on you for the mythic interpretation!

From:

;-) Also I think there might be a touch of Forbidden Planet in the mix. Great big power source and monsters from the id.

From:

And Pak'ma'ra. I was hoping they might sing.

From:

I had to look them up as I'm not that familiar with Babylon 5 but there is definitely a distinct resemblance. Singing Ood - now that's rather a charming thought - a chorus of "We are the Legion of the Beast"

From:

katlinel.livejournal.com

a chorus of "We are the Legion of the Beast"

I'd like it if they did it as a full-production Busby Berkeley number, with grand staircases and foutains and so on. But then my head is in a weird place at the moment.

From:

My head seems to have just joined yours...

From:

katlinel.livejournal.com

My head welcomes your head in this weird place.

From:

Their synchronization would be perfect.

From:

Oh, the minute they walked in I thought "Pak'ma'ra! Which means they're obviously not going to eat you, at least not until you've been dead for a while!"

From:

jhall1.livejournal.com

An excellent episode.

As an aside, is it my imagination or is the theme tune this series even faster than it was for the last series? It seems slightly _too_ fast, which I didn't notice it being before.

From: