Doctor Who: mid-season musings

Well, we’ve fallen into the gap between the two halves of this season of Doctor Who, so it’s a pretty good time to consider what’s going to happen next. Naturally, spoilers for the first half of the season abound, and rumours regarding the future likewise.

The mid-season finale was slightly disappointing in that the rather lovely Lorna and the amusing Strax ended up mortally wounded. In a not-very-surprising twist River Song was revealed to be the offspring of Amy and Rory, and was probably the kiddiwink seen in the first two episodes of the season. She also has some Time Lord DNA and is able to, at least partially, regenerate.

The actual ending was slightly strange. The Doctor ran off in the TARDIS, leaving his companions and River behind, searching for young River. At the end of the episode it showed a skeleton at the bottom of a body of water, clutching a sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor’s ‘death’ in episode 1 also needs to be explained. The most obvious solution is that the ganger Doctor gets reconstituted and allows himself to be killed. That said, the real Doctor could do that, and fake Doctor could be made permanent (this could provide a handy get-out clause for the 13 incarnations limit Time Lords have, although this is more of a law of man than nature [see: The Deadly Assassin]).

The first half of the season was generally good, especially the excellent first two episodes, though the finale was a little lacking in tension. There are rumours that Rory and Amy will leave the Doctor at the end of the season, presumably to look after the young version of River.

Matt Smith should be around for another few seasons at least, (I think he’s guaranteed to be there in 2012, and maybe 2013). It’d be good if they got him a companion (or two) from the past instead of a modern day girl. Well. That, or Sally Sparrow, obviously.

It also appears that Moffat’s taking a different line to RTD regarding the daleks. Specifically, they’re going to be used less often, which I think is a damned good thing. They’re great villains, but were being over-used. I hope that the increasingly overblown season finales get binned too. Dobby the House Doctor was not a good look.

Lastly, 2012 is going to see fewer episodes. The BBC first claimed this was because Moffat, who also writes Sherlock, was too busy, a claim the man himself refuted in plain terms quite quickly : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13784334

Thaddeus

Review: Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe, by Brian May, Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott

Occasionally I veer away from my usual genres of classical history, fantasy and sci-fi and buy something completely different. One of my favourite science books is Bang!.

The three authors take the reader through the universe’s life, from its earliest beginning at the Big Bang to the present day, ending with the various theories regarding the death of the universe.

I’m not well-versed at all in this sort of thing, and was pleased to find that, with one or two minor exceptions, the contents were pretty easy to understand. It’s a good book for someone who isn’t an expert but might be interested in the universe and how it came about.

The book is hefty in size and festooned with excellent photographs and diagrams that either illustrate scientific principles or simply show how staggeringly beautiful the universe is.

The most interesting part of Bang!, for me, was the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, which was something I had no idea about and enjoyed reading. The mind-boggling strangeness of the concepts involved (such as time not existing before the Big Bang and the huge loss of mass our sun undergoes every second) are a little bizarre, as is the strange truth that we can literally see the past when we look to the skies.

Over the course of the book the focus shifts from the Big Bang through the mass of the universe to our particular planet. It’s a little odd to read about history in this way, but the three authors do an excellent job of combining high science with simple and understandable writing.

The copy I’ve got is a hardback, second edition, as the writers updated it to take account of fresh discoveries.

It’s not my usual sort of fare, but Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe is an easy-to-read and enjoyable foray into the mysteries of the universe strewn with excellent photography. And one of the writers played guitar for Queen. What more could you ask for?

Thaddeus

Physical versus eBooks

As well as prevaricating over what book to buy, I’m now prevaricating over whether to buy a physical or eBook next. I’ve pre-ordered the physical version of A Dance With Dragons, and imagine I’ll still get some historical books in physical form.

The problem, and the reason behind me getting a Kindle in the first place, is that I really do lack room and don’t want to get rid of any books I have now.

There are a few advantages to eBooks. Firstly, they do save a hell of a lot of space. Secondly, the screen is very good and does not detract at all from reading or cause eye strain. Thirdly, delivery is almost instantaneous. Fourthly, they’re often (sadly not always) cheaper.

So, why even consider getting any physical book?

I do still prefer the experience of reading a physical book. I’m not sure why, though I’m reminded of what Giles said in a Buffy season 1 episode when asked why he disliked computers. He said it was because they didn’t smell, like books smell musty. I’ve got a copy of Outlaws of the Marsh and the glue (I think) used is different to most others and always evokes memories of China and reading about Li Kui and Sagacious Lu.

Physical books are much better, I feel, as gifts. Like vinyl, the essential information is the same, but the physical copy somehow feels more fitting and meaningful.

Last, and most annoyingly, some eBooks aren’t that well formatted. Sometimes you get strange wide spaces between lines. The Night Watch is a good example of a well-formatted eBook. It does have slight gaps between paragraphs but they are clearly intentional, make reading it a little easier and at no point during the book do they became over-sized. OCR errors (OCR is Optical Character Recognition, I think, the scanning technique used to transfer the characters from physical copies to the eBook format) sometimes happen but in the few books I’ve read they’re rare. One exception would be in The Night Watch where ‘lie’ is mistranscribed as ‘He’. Fortunately, it’s clear what the word should be and I think there are only two in the whole book (so, no worse than the odd typo in a physical book).

The Kindle’s eased my problem regarding space, but hasn’t removed it completely.

Thaddeus

Elite soldiers of the Ancient World

Following a similar vein to an earlier post on sieges, I thought it’d be interesting to have a look at some of the finest soldiers from thousands of years ago.

Leonidas and the 300

The 300 Spartans of Thermopylae are perhaps the most famous. Assisted by their usually forgotten allies for the first few days, they bought the Greek alliance time by staving off an enormous army led by arch-lunatic Xerxes. The Spartans defended the narrow pass at Thermopylae (Hot Gates, in Greek, I think). Unfortunately, some dirty swine told the Persians of a secret track that led behind the Spartan position. The defenders learnt of this, and almost all of them left, except the Spartans. They died fighting bravely and, although they lost, Thermopylae has the air of victory. It’s almost the antithesis of a Pyrrhic victory. In the end, the Greeks managed to defeat the hugely larger Persian forces, setting the scene for the Peloponnesian War.

The Theban Sacred Band

It’s sometimes assumed, wrongly, that fellows of a not entirely heterosexual disposition are not the best chaps in the world at fighting. The Theban Sacred Band would beg to differ. In a little window of history, Epaminondas, King of Thebes, won two victories (Leuctra and Mantinea) over the Spartans (inventing the oblique order of battle as he did so). The Sacred Band were the finest of his troops, and consisted of 300 (again) gay chaps (or 150 pairs). The reasoning was basically that you’re likelier to fight remorselessly and less likely to turn and run if your lover’s life is also on the line. They were an elite force, but the problem was timing. Thebes had kicked Sparta’s arse, only to find out Philip II of Macedon and his son (some chap called Alexander) were not so easily beaten. At the Battle of Chaeronea Philip’s brilliant tactics and Alexander’s (who was in his late teens) fury slew them almost to a man. Being ever so slightly vindictive, the Macedonians also totally obliterated Thebes. (One of the Diadochi later restored it, I think).

Alexander’s Companions

Companion does not just refer to his best mates (although they were), the Companions were the very best of Alexander’s cavalry, and led by the man himself. The Macedonian army was fantastic in every regard, but relied upon intelligent and bold action from its commander. The phalanx could pin an enemy down effectively, enabling the cavalry to storm in the flank or rear and massacre them. Countless times the Companions saved Alexander’s life and routed his enemies. However, the risks weren’t entirely from the opposing army. Cleitus the Black took exception to his leader’s increasingly Persian-influenced style of kingship and the two had a drunken argument that ended when Alexander killed him with a spear. Alexander wept for days afterward, perhaps recalling that Cleitus had saved his life at the Battle of the Granicus.

The above three loosely defined units have something perhaps unexpectedly in common. They all lost, ultimately. The 300 were slain, of course, as were the Theban Sacred Band. When Alexander died, the Companions split as the huge Macedonian territory was torn apart by the Diadochi. There was no grand, unified Macedonian empire. It was sundered into the Seleucid Empire, Macedonia itself and Ptolemy’s Egypt.

If Alexander had lived beyond the early 30s and marched west after reaching home, he would have smashed Rome to pieces. It’s an intriguing thought.

Thaddeus