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Random Neolithic Remains

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:34:50 GMT

Skara Brae, Orkney

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Reading, Listening, Watching

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:51:10 GMT

Reading: Still These Old Shades. Not to rehash last week's discussion. It is fun enough, especially later on, but it has bought into the idea that Nobility Will Out and its heroine also seems somewhat naive given her age and background.

Listening: A lot more of 13 Minutes on the Artemis mission, interspersed with various podcats of Doctor Who fans watching no longer missing episodes.

Watching: We managed to get to the end of an old series of Taskmaster before the Sparrow left, this being what we mostly watch when she is around. And missing Doctor Who episodes, of course.

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Doctor Who Missing Episodes

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:15:16 GMT

Late last year, maybe early this? Toby Hadoke asked various people he knew what 17 missing Dr Who episodes they would pick if they were the only 17 left to be found. It now transpires he almost certainly knew, at that point, that 2 episodes of The Daleks' Masterplan had been found, but it got me thinking. My list is something as follows:

1. & 2. The Tenth Planet episode 4 and The Web of Fear episode 3. These both complete stories and are significant, in the first case for the regeneration of William Hartnell into Patrick Troughton and, in the second, for the first meeting with the Brigadier.

Then I have a string of picking one episode from any story for which no episodes exist so.

3. Marco Polo - there are three episodes in contention for this: episode 3 (which features Ping-Cho giving a storytelling performance something not attempted elsewhere in Doctor Who, or much at all these days), episode 5 which features Tutte Lemkow who is mildly (in)famous for having been in Doctor Who three times, none of which survive and having provided choreography for a fourth episode which also doesn't survive, and episode 7 (which is believed to have good fight scenes which, obviously, don't survive well on audio). I'm going to go for Marco Polo episode 3 for the storytelling - alas poor Tutte Lemkow.

4. The Myth Makers episode 1 - the choices here were episode 1 which sets the scene or episode 4 which pivots from farce into tragedy and introduces new companion Katarina. Doctor Who rarely enough does outright comedy that I've picked the introductory episode and it also features Tutte Lemkow so yay!. Also, with the recent returns we have 3/5 of Katarina's episodes and I've no real desire to see more.

5. The Massacre episode 4 - on the other hand, I'd rather see the conclusion of this one, which seems to have been pretty grim throughout, but I'd be interested to see how the Massacre of St. Bartholemew's Eve portrayed via woodcuts worked in practice. It does mean we miss out on William Hartnell's turn as the Abbot of Amboise however.

6. The Savages episode 4 - Episode 4s are tempting in and of themselves, but in this case we get Frederick Jaeger's impersonation of aspects of the first Doctor - seems well worth it.

7. The Smugglers - lots of choices here. Episode 4 once again has a lot of fighting that doesn't work well on audio, but I'm going to go for The Smugglers episode 2 where Polly convinces the stable boy that she can do voodoo.

8. The Power of the Daleks episode 1 - the other side of the regeneration of William Hartnell into Patrick Troughton.

9. The Highlanders episode 2 - in which the Doctor repeatedly bangs a man's head on a desk in ruse to convince him he is ill with a headache.

10. The Macra Terror episode 1 - because it includes the scene in which the Second Doctor is neatened up by a machine - which was cut from the animation.

11. Fury from the Deep episode 3 - which ends with Maggie walking out into the sea.

So now I have 5 left.

12. The Space Pirates epsiode 5 - The Space Pirates is not much loved but people hypothesise this is because the only episode we have involves the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe stuck in part of a disintegrated space station for the whole episode. So let's have another and I've picked one that features the character Dom Issigri because no one seems to know what he looks like.

13. The Power of the Daleks episode 4 - for no other reason that it would be nice to have a later episode of this, after the Doctor has ceased to be quite such a stranger to everyone, and episode 4 of 6 seems as good a place as any to stick the pin.

14 & 15. Marco Polo episode 7 and The Smugglers episode 4 for the aforementioned fight scenes.

16 & 17. The Daleks' Masterplan episodes 4 and 12 for the deaths of Katarina and Sara respectively.

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Canal

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:06:56 GMT

On Friday, while B talked to an electrician I took a walk along the canal at Whaley Bridge.

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:18:26 GMT

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Random Roman Remains

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:16:00 GMT

The Bath House, Chesters Roman Fort

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Lidl is Coming

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:54:45 GMT

As well as a pub whose loss is to be mourned, there was a bus terminal plus petrol station/car wash thing on the corner. This was abandoned, then occupied by squatters, then reclaimed and finally demolished. Then Lidl applied for planning permission.

We have been waiting for our Lidl to appear.

This weekend diggers appeared on the site.

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:46:06 GMT

From a postcard set I got at some point.

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Fossil Friday

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:45:52 GMT

Plesiosaur fossil at Mancheser Museum

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Reading, Listening, Watching

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:43:59 GMT

Reading: Just started a Georgette Heyer novel, These Old Shades. I'm convinced from what people have told me, and the many people I know who love Georgette Hayer novels, that I should be highly enthused by them, but so far all the one's I've read I've been quite take-it-or-leave-it about. Still, I persevere.

Listening: 13 Minutes to the Moon on the Artemis launch. I like the 13 minutes to the Moon series, though it has strayed a long way from the initial premise of presenting the first Moon-landing framed by analysis of the audio from the 13 minutes of the landing itself. In this case, I'm more than a little fascinated to know what they are going to do if Artemis II doesn't, in fact, launch as scheduled this evening.

Watching: We are a little moribund. We managed to locate Midsomer Murders on itvx, were pleasantly surprised at the effectiveness of Marmalade Sparrow's ad-blocker, and added Morse and the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes' to the set of things we watch when we've no better ideas. But I can't help feeling we should find something to watch that has been made in the last 20 years...

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Magnolia

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:26:31 GMT

This was the Magnolia on Tuesday. Then there was hail and a storm and more rain. Some of the blooms are still hanging on in there, but not many.

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:52:15 GMT

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Suprised

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:08:18 GMT

I am surprised to find myself surprised by the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. It reveals that I had subconsciously assumed that obviously he would get away with whatever it was he had been doing.

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Clara Icons

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:16:45 GMT

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:20:39 GMT

The, in my opinion, disappointing follow up to Cartmel's Warhead novel. This one toned down the near-future dystopia feel of the first and rather undermined its anti animal-experimentation message by suggesting that anyone involved in animal experimentation is rather obviously a villainous cold-hearted psychopath.

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Random Roman Remains

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:59:49 GMT

Chesters Roman Fort

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Rory Icons

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 18:19:55 GMT

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:27:51 GMT

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 14:47:06 GMT

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Random Neolithic Stones on a Friday

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:21:43 GMT

Also the stones of Stenness, but not the large ones.

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 14:19:55 GMT

Ah! The BBC Foam machine. For a brief period, it figured prominently in Doctor Who.

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Random Neolithic Stones on a Friday

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:23:10 GMT

A Stone of Stenness, Orkney

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2025 Blanket

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:48:33 GMT

This is the 2025 Mooglycal blanket. I was still attempting to use up the stash which, it transpired, had mostly orange and purple wool in it - not the most auspicious combination but there is now at least a lot less of it than there was and all that really bright orange has gone. The general concept was vertical stripes of red/orange and purple/pink with the darker colours at the top and lighter colours at the bottom. It didn't really work, in part because there was just so much of some colours. Anyway, I have decided to actually have a colour scheme next year since the stash is now under control (well at least that bit of the stash that involves the wool I use for making these blankets).

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:29:07 GMT

This is the cover from Lawrence Miles' Christmas on a Rational Planet New Adventure. This was his debut novel. I recall very little about it. I think many people immediately recognised him as someone with an exciting suffeit of ideas, but sadly, I can not claim to have been among them.

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Fossil Friday

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:11:28 GMT

Mussaurus - the above, stolen shamelessly from Darren Naish's The Great Dinosaur Discoveries, is of a hatchling.

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