Kopic's Doctor Who & Torchwood News |
- Katherine wings it with impromptu concert for grounded Afghanistan plane - WalesOnline
- Something special about 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' - Los Angeles Times
- The Twelve Doctors of Christmas - The Doctor Who News Page (blog)
- The Twelve Doctors of Christmas
- Watch Charlie decorate the Doctor Who lunch bus!
- Our final Fan of the Month of the year is revealed
- Who's that for then, Matt? - The Sun
- Dr Ooh's grandpa for you! - The Sun
- ABOVE: My Family - Daily Star
- Advent update: Day twenty-four
- Steven Moffat On 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' - Crave Online
- 'Doctor Who' is iPlayer's 'most watched' - Digital Spy
- Doctor Who: Iis this the best Christmas special yet? - Daily Mail
- Merry Christmas, Doctor Who - CNN International
- Matt Smith on The Graham Norton Show tomorrow!
- Matt and Karen share their highlights of the past year
- The Eleventh Hour leads iPlayer's Top 20 for 2010
- 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' Review (The Spoiler-Free Early Edition!) - MTV.com
- Doctor Who, Sherlock, The Incredibles… And Legally Blonde? It's The 2010 ... - Bleeding Cool News
- Ginger and Relative
- WhoNews Charity Deadline
- Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol Philo party, win 'Who' swag! - Monsters and Critics.com
- Upstairs Downstairs - The Audiobook
- A Christmas Carol Video Round-up
- Couple Lose $800000 on Game Show, Despite Giving Correct Answer - FinanceNews.co.uk
- Eleventh Hour tops iPlayer requests - The Doctor Who News Page (blog)
- Eleventh Hour tops iPlayer requests
- IDW Comic in MTV List
- Top TV picks for Christmas - Stuff.co.nz
- Karen Gillan - TV Guide
- A Yuletide Visit From the Doctor - TV Guide
- Karen Gillan looks like a great actress - Guyism
- DVD Review: Doctor Who - The Complete Specials - Hawke's Bay Today
- Torchwood could run another seven years - io9
- TV: Who knew Dr Who was a footballer too? - Courier Mail
- Matt Smith said his grandad helps answer his fan mail - Monsters and Critics.com
- Season's bleatings - The Australian
- Doctor Who's Best Christmas Episode Yet? - TV.com (blog)
- Charlie - Decorating Bus
- Dr. Who fan gets a saucy surprise...from Matt Smith's Dad - This is London
- Series Two Of Sherlock Following The Same Pattern As The First - Bleeding Cool News
- Some of the year's best TV didn't make it to winter - Belleville News Democrat
- Top off your Christmas Day with BBC America's 'Doctor Who Christmas Special' - San Jose Mercury News
- Episodes of Christmas Past…
- The Twelve Blogs of Christmas: Eleven
| Katherine wings it with impromptu concert for grounded Afghanistan plane - WalesOnline Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:04 PM PST
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| Something special about 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' - Los Angeles Times Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:52 PM PST
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| The Twelve Doctors of Christmas - The Doctor Who News Page (blog) Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:39 PM PST
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| The Twelve Doctors of Christmas Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:27 PM PST  Tor.com is publishing a series or articles entitled The Twelve Doctors of Christmas, in which a host of special guest writers celebrate the many men (and one woman) who are known of as The Doctor.The series starts 26 December.
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| Watch Charlie decorate the Doctor Who lunch bus! Posted: 23 Dec 2010 10:47 AM PST In the build up to A Christmas Carol, the BBC have been releasing short Doctor Who Confidential videos presented by popular Internet blogger Charlie McDonnell, in which he goes behind the scenes of the Christmas special. In the third part, he surprises the cast and crew by getting into the festive spirit and decorating the lunch bus. [...] | ||
| Our final Fan of the Month of the year is revealed Posted: 23 Dec 2010 10:30 AM PST With the end of the year just around the corner, it's time to reveal our final Fan of the Month of 2010! We'd also just like to say a huge thanks to everybody who has entered over the past 12 months. We really couldn't keep it running without your contribution, so thanks for taking the time [...] | ||
| Who's that for then, Matt? - The Sun Posted: 23 Dec 2010 10:16 AM PST
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| Dr Ooh's grandpa for you! - The Sun Posted: 23 Dec 2010 10:12 AM PST
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| Advent update: Day twenty-four Posted: 23 Dec 2010 10:00 AM PST It's just gone midnight, which means that it's now officially Christmas Eve! After the months of waiting, there's now just a matter of hours between us and the big day, and, of course, the debut of A Christmas Carol! To help pass the rest of the time, head over to the home page now to check out our penultimate [...] | ||
| Steven Moffat On 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' - Crave Online Posted: 23 Dec 2010 09:46 AM PST
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| 'Doctor Who' is iPlayer's 'most watched' - Digital Spy Posted: 23 Dec 2010 08:38 AM PST
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| Doctor Who: Iis this the best Christmas special yet? - Daily Mail Posted: 23 Dec 2010 08:03 AM PST
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| Merry Christmas, Doctor Who - CNN International Posted: 23 Dec 2010 07:57 AM PST
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| Matt Smith on The Graham Norton Show tomorrow! Posted: 23 Dec 2010 06:44 AM PST Don't forget that there will be an early Christmas present tomorrow night as Matt Smith will be appearing as a guest on The Graham Norton Show! The episode airs on Christmas Eve at 10:30pm on BBC One, and Matt will be sharing the sofa with comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Please note that the series contains strong [...] | ||
| Matt and Karen share their highlights of the past year Posted: 23 Dec 2010 06:32 AM PST Matt Smith and Karen Gillan appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning to talk about A Christmas Carol! During the interview, they also shared their personal highlights of what has been a busy old year! Karen revealed that one of her favourite moments was travelling to Utah to film the new series, while Matt opted for another visit [...] | ||
| The Eleventh Hour leads iPlayer's Top 20 for 2010 Posted: 23 Dec 2010 06:20 AM PST The Eleventh Hour has been named as 2010's most requested programme on the BBC's iPlayer! Matt Smith's acclaimed debut episode, which first aired on April 3rd, has been watched 2,241,000 times on the service. Meanwhile, David Tennant's regeneration in The End of Time, Part Two has also made the Top 20, coming 9th with 1,015,000 requests. In 2nd [...] | ||
| 'Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol' Review (The Spoiler-Free Early Edition!) - MTV.com Posted: 23 Dec 2010 06:11 AM PST
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| Posted: 23 Dec 2010 05:42 AM PST Move over Greggs the Bakers, there's a new gingerbread maker in town and they're making TARDIS's just in time for Christmas! The confectionery delight, which is very detailed indeed, was actually made by LiveJournal user therru last Christmas but as a special treat this year, he's revealed the step by step guide on how to make you own TARDIS shaped delights just in time to sit down and munch them all up whilst enjoying the Doctor Who Christmas Special. The level of detail that has gone into making this is truly fantastic and if you want something that's going to impress Doctor Who fans of all ages then this is it. But why stop there? Does anyone else have a Doctor Who related recipe that they would like to share at this time? Maybe some Dalek cookies or a Cyberman flan? A Zygon sticky toffee pudding or a Silurian Upside down cake? Leave your comments below and let us know! For a step by step guide on how to make your very own gingerbread TARDIS, visit: geeksofdoom.com | ||
| Posted: 23 Dec 2010 05:04 AM PST The deadline is fast approaching for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners to take advantage of WhoNews' charity "phase" – the Doctor Who news aggregator and reader will end donating proceeds tonight. Since December 9th all profits from WhoNews have been donated to Cure Leukaemia, a charity that enables patients access to potentially life saving, ground breaking drugs and treatments. Cure Leukaemia supports the Haematology Centre at the University Hospital, Birmingham, UK. New WhoNews purchases will contribute to the find until midnight tonight, but don't forget that with iTunes you can send apps as gifts to family or friends while still donating. This is easily done by visiting WhoNews in iTunes and rather than clicking Buy App, click the little arrow to the right and select Gift App. We'd just like to add that Paul has done a marvellous job in managing not only the development of this app but also taking the bull by the horns and doing some good with this app, so if you have an iDevice and want your purchase to count for more than a few 1s and 0s, buy WhoNews tonight! (Thanks to Paul) | ||
| Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol Philo party, win 'Who' swag! - Monsters and Critics.com Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:56 AM PST
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| Upstairs Downstairs - The Audiobook Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:41 AM PST With just days to go until the new episodes are broadcast, Big Finish is proud to be selling Upstairs Downstairs, an audiobook of the original 1970s TV series read by Jean Marsh and released by AudioGO. Jean is perhaps best known to Big Finish fans for her portrayal of Sara Kingdom in the Doctor Who TV series, three instalments of the Companion Chronicles and in The Daleks: The Destroyers from The Second Doctor Box Set. She co-created Upstairs Downstairs with Eileen Atkins and portrayed the role of Rose Buck throughout the entire five-year run, and is the only member of the original cast to return for the new series. | ||
| A Christmas Carol Video Round-up Posted: 23 Dec 2010 04:37 AM PST Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol is just under two days away and the media blitz is in full swing. Here's a round-up of the recent TV appearances and videos. Earlier today ITV's This Morning featured a behind the scenes look at A Christmas Carol. It includes interviews with Katherine Jenkins, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.
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| Couple Lose $800000 on Game Show, Despite Giving Correct Answer - FinanceNews.co.uk Posted: 23 Dec 2010 03:48 AM PST
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| Eleventh Hour tops iPlayer requests - The Doctor Who News Page (blog) Posted: 23 Dec 2010 03:07 AM PST
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| Eleventh Hour tops iPlayer requests Posted: 23 Dec 2010 02:53 AM PST  Matt Smith's debut as the Eleventh Doctor is the most watched programme on the BBC iPlayer for the year so far according to the BBC.The BBC iPlayer celebrates its third Birthday this Christmas with over 1.3 billion requests being made throughout 2010. The Eleventh Hour accounted for 2.2 million of these hits with the rest of the series averaging around 1.5 million hits each. Top Gear was the second most requested programme, with over half a million fewer requests than Doctor Who. Daniel Danker, General Manager, Programmes and On Demand, said: BBC iPlayer has had a remarkable year – with well over 100 million requests for programmes each month of 2010 and over 1.3 billion programmes played through the year. In 2011 we will bring BBC iPlayer to even more licence fee payers, dramatically increasing our investment in BBC iPlayer on mobile and TV, and laying the foundation for an incredibly interactive London 2012 experience. As part of the BBC's commitment to increase the reach of BBC iPlayer, the service is now available on around 40 different devices. For those who enjoy watching on-demand from the comfort of the living room, BBC iPlayer can be found on a range of TVs including Samsung, LG, and Sony Bravia, Blu-Ray disc players, Nintendo Wii and PS3 games consoles, and Virgin Media and Freesat set-top boxes. For those on the go, the BBC iPlayer mobile site can be accessed from phones and tablets including Apple iPads, iPhones and selected models of BlackBerry, Android, Nokia, Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson phones. TV Top 20: best-performing episode per title/series, 1 January 2010 to 17 December 2010 1 Doctor Who, Series 5, The Eleventh Hour, Episode 1, BBC One, 2,241,000 2 Top Gear, Series 15, Episode 1, BBC Two, 1,680,000 3 Sherlock A Study in Pink, Episode 1, BBC One, 1,403,000 4 Top Gear, Series 14, Episode 7, BBC Two, 1,255,000 5 Outnumbered, Series 3, Programme 1, Episode 1, BBC One 1,157,000 6 EastEnders Live 19/02/201,0 BBC One 1,130,000 7 Live at the Apollo, Series 5, Episode 6, BBC One, 1,076,000 8 The Apprentice, Series 6, Bakery Episode 3, BBC One, 1,050,000 9 Doctor Who, The End of Time Part 2, Episode 2, BBC One, 1,015,000 10 Russell Howard's Good News, Series 2, Episode 3, BBC Three, 982,000 11 Mock The Week, Series 9, Episode 3, BBC Two, 944,000 12 Mock The Week, Series 8, Episode 5, BBC Two, 940,000 13 The Incredibles 2010, BBC One, 904,000 14 Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 2010, BBC One, 870,000 15 Gavin And Stacey, Series 3, Episode 6, BBC One, 839,000 16 Legally Blonde 2010, BBC Three, 807,000 17 Junior Apprentice, Episode 1, BBC One, 795,000 18 Tracy Beaker Returns, Full Circle Episode 1, CBBC, 776,000 19 World Cup's Most Shocking Moments 01-Jun-10, BBC Three, 730,000 20 Madness In The Fast Lane 10-Aug-10, BBC One, 720,000 | ||
| Posted: 23 Dec 2010 02:40 AM PST Prestigious music channel MTV has released their best Comics, Webcomics and graphic novel picks for 2010. Among the best of the best are some titles that you may recognise (including Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma from Image Comics, the Ectopairy web comic by Hans Rickheit and the odd non-fiction comic 120 days of Simon by Simon Gardenfors) but of course the reason that we're telling you this is because one of the category winners is Doctor Who!
So there you have it, even in other media such as comics, Doctor Who is still coming up trumps! For the full list of winners, visit splashpage.mtv.com | ||
| Top TV picks for Christmas - Stuff.co.nz Posted: 23 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST
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| Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:24 AM PST
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| A Yuletide Visit From the Doctor - TV Guide Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:24 AM PST
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| Karen Gillan looks like a great actress - Guyism Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:20 AM PST
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| DVD Review: Doctor Who - The Complete Specials - Hawke's Bay Today Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:05 AM PST
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| Torchwood could run another seven years - io9 Posted: 23 Dec 2010 01:03 AM PST
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| TV: Who knew Dr Who was a footballer too? - Courier Mail Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:16 AM PST
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| Matt Smith said his grandad helps answer his fan mail - Monsters and Critics.com Posted: 22 Dec 2010 11:22 PM PST
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| Season's bleatings - The Australian Posted: 22 Dec 2010 11:11 PM PST
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| Doctor Who's Best Christmas Episode Yet? - TV.com (blog) Posted: 22 Dec 2010 10:40 PM PST
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| Posted: 22 Dec 2010 10:28 PM PST The third of the Doctor Who Confidential Red Button previews of A Christmas Carol is now available online. It will be on the Red Button service later today. Video may not be available outside the United Kingdom. | ||
| Dr. Who fan gets a saucy surprise...from Matt Smith's Dad - This is London Posted: 22 Dec 2010 10:24 PM PST
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| Series Two Of Sherlock Following The Same Pattern As The First - Bleeding Cool News Posted: 22 Dec 2010 08:58 PM PST
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| Some of the year's best TV didn't make it to winter - Belleville News Democrat Posted: 22 Dec 2010 07:03 PM PST
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| Episodes of Christmas Past… Posted: 22 Dec 2010 07:00 PM PST Last Christmas, he broke our hearts but the very next year, he'll mend them again. Steven Moffat has revealed to the New York Times that this year's Yuletide special A Christmas Carol was deliberately designed to lighten our spirits – balancing out the darkness of The End of Time which waved a long goodbye to the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant. Moffat also took time to praise the Dickens classic that the episode takes its impetus from:
How this particular take on the wonderful Charles Dickens story will measure up to the original – or indeed any of the cinematic versions – is generally unknown. However we'll know by the time we all head to bed on Christmas Day. You probably know this already: Doctor Who's A Christmas Carol airs on Christmas Day at 6pm on BBC 1. | ||
| The Twelve Blogs of Christmas: Eleven Posted: 22 Dec 2010 06:17 PM PST On going a bit mad every now and then. Well, the quiz deadline has passed, and we have a winner! I'll be announcing their name, and giving you the answers, tomorrow. So yesterday's blog caused something of a reaction, eh? I do think it's a bit weird that a lot of the people in the comments section did exactly those things I talked about. A couple of them even started with 'really, Paul...' (It's not the use of my first name that's annoying - what else would you call me? - it's the use of it like a long, sighing breath as if to a wayward child.) It's like they didn't read the blog, but just saw that it was about illegal downloading and said what they always say in those circumstances. Amongst that, of course, there were also many good points made. At any rate, I have withheld my approval in many places, and I hope nobody thinks my silence constitutes acceptance. (And, oh, hey, I discovered I was spelling 'withheld' wrong.) I may get that on a t-shirt: 'I withhold my approval of your copyright theft.' But people would just make cheap knock-offs. Which brings us to today's, potentially even more contentious, subject. I've been psyching myself up for this one too. But for entirely different reasons. I was recently at dinner with the guests of the Fortean Times Unconvention when the charming chap across from me started talking about people he'd encountered who'd had life-changing mystical experiences. And I actually started to say 'well, in my own case...' He perked up as any good Fortean would, but I found myself waving it away, saying I didn't want to talk about it. It was then I realised that I've being doing that for ten years. I've started to speak about it to a couple of friends when drunk (one of whom got very alienated by that conversation), but I really haven't said a thing. A writer who primarily works in television is expected to be a good deal less eccentric that any other sort of writer. Middle class but with a bit of a regional accent that indicates working class roots, smart casual verging on fashionable, could almost be a producer, like any reasonable person would want to be, talks about last night's soaps. That's your ideal in UK TV circles. (In those meetings I tend to feel like I'm from the wrong social class, without quite knowing what class I'm from.) Novelists don't have to play as well with others. Romantic shabbiness, wild hair and odd opinions are all allowed. And any comic book writer who hasn't had an encounter with extraterrestrials and doesn't look like they've woken up in a hedge isn't really trying. So where am I in all that? A bit lost, really. Wanting, desperately, sometimes, to be one thing rather than another, but not instinctively, naturally, anything. I have gangs I hang out with in all those media, people I love utterly, but none I've told the whole truth to. I've had three and a half numinous experiences in my life, one of which lasted for most of an evening, on and off. (I use that word, 'numinous', because it doesn't seem to frighten people, and because it's got a ring to it.) It's why I don't regard myself as having a faith, because faith tends to mean belief without proof, and I feel I've had (at least a bit of) proof. Though of exactly what I have no idea. All of the following sounds, frankly, ridiculous. But I suppose that's what stuff from outside consensus reality would sound like. Back in the day, I used to get in rows on the internet all the time. Ten years ago, I'd have been in that comments thread fighting every single commenter, including those who agreed with me. I used to get into very personal slagging matches, which I took very seriously. (No, I'm not saying mystical experiences changed that, I just grew up a bit.) But one day, sitting in my flat in Bath, I thought to myself that rather than fight this one particular guy to the death online, for what I saw as his failings, I could just forgive him and let it go. It would actually be easier. An ordinary thought. But then, something kind of... well, let me be as precise as I can be. A sudden, incredibly huge, feeling of love burst into my mind. It made me fall back on my bed and lie there, for about a minute I think, somewhat luxuriating in it and somewhat wondering if I was having a stroke. Then it gradually faded. It was simply a feeling of love, like something cosmically enormous was delighted about and at me. No words were involved. It was like being hugged by the universe. Or rather by something from outside it. If there was a message, it was implicit: that the moment I forgave, something felt excited and delighted and almost compelled to communicate that to me. I tried it out in the next few days, tried to find things that felt like it, reached for it, like I could make it happen, replicate it, but I couldn't. Still being young, stupid, me, a week or so later I became furious about a negative review of something of mine that somebody had written. But this time I made a conscious effort to act in the way that the feeling seemed to have been pleased by. I forgave the writer, and, as I was driving along the motorway, on the way to a cricket match, just got a precise flash of that same feeling, as if a reminder was necessary and apt. (That's the 'half', because it really was a tiny dose.) I should point out, by the way, that, in the case of the review writer, there was nothing to forgive. I don't think 'forgiveness' implies wrongdoing on the part of the person being forgiven (and I hate it when it's used in that horrible passive/aggressive way). Forgiveness just means dropping the whole burden of anger and desire for revenge and letting the fight end with you. I became, after that, an Anglican. I still flinch from using the word 'Christian', half because of the sharp intake of breath it causes from people, the 'I have to take care to behave in a particular way/I don't know what way that is/How mad is he?/How much of a bigot is he?' reflex that's common in Britain, half because the word has been hijacked by lunatics who persecute gay people. I chose the Anglican church not because I was directed to, in any sense, but because I liked their loose commonwealth of different versions and their military devotion to wishywashyness. Or meekness, if you prefer. I'm not a very good churchgoer. I don't go often. I loathe most hymns and almost all forms of sung church music, can't be bothered to sit in the cold, and get bored easily. I like a good intellectual sermon, and the old stones, and getting blessed. (I don't want to be confirmed and drink from the cup, and I'm not sure I'd ever have the space to say why.) I like offering those around me a sign of peace. I like the opportunity to let my mind venture outwards, to consider my failings and ask for forgiveness, but I've never got the hang of prayer. I don't think God should or will save me or my loved ones from anything, so I don't know what I'm meant to be asking for. (I'm told it's more complicated than that.) In asking for forgiveness, I try and tune into what I remember of that numinous feeling, but really get nowhere near it (there's usually some awful music blaring in my ear to make sure I don't). I know of people who replicate such highs through various practices (such as meditation), but I've never managed that and haven't much tried. It doesn't seem like a thing that's up to me. Now, if, like me, you're of a sceptical and scientific turn of mind, you'll be saying to yourself: hmm, didn't he get romantically involved with someone who was planning to be a vicar before he had his numinous experience? Yes, I did, and wasn't that convenient? I'm pretty sure that if I'd met a Hindu I'd have chosen to become a Hindu. But as a hard ecumenicalist (I think every way of seeing the divine is as valid as every other, all being vague human glimpses of the beyond), I don't see that as much different. I couldn't have called down my numinous experience just because I was in a relationship. I think my experience was probably some form of temporal lobe event, as has been witnessed in brain scans of meditating monks and nuns. But meeting any human being in person is just a question of photons hitting the back of one's eye and pressure waves moving the air in one's ears. This was a communication and a presence that used different organs. I was also quite a heavy ecstasy user a few years previously, but I'd let that dwindle away for some considerable time before the experience, and there's really no comparison between the two states. I'm also no stranger to ritual magic (and I still like a bit of Wicca), but I've always had my transcendent experiences accidentally, rather than during any form of working. After those experiences there was nothing, not for many years, not when I forgave people and was kind, not when I was a complete bastard, no sense of contact at all. The moment had stopped being something enormous that might happen again at any time, and had instead become, through civilised experience, an ethical ruler with which to measure my own behaviour (and not anyone else's). The second major experience was just kind of fun. I was sitting on a train, in January last year, reading the New Scientist magazine (#2691 if you want to replicate the experiment). The feature article about the holographic universe (a concept I was already familiar with from Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe amongst others) blew my mind... a bit literally. The idea is that our entire experienced reality is just the three dimensional playback of existing, rather more 'real' 2D data stored in the event horizon of the universe. I've often felt what Kate Bush called 'my terrible fear of dying', but have never felt able to believe in a religious afterlife (Christ having not at all clearly promised such a thing, despite every link in the human oral tradition through which we hear his sometimes garbled words presumably wanting him to). But the idea of being kept whole and entire, outside time, as part of all information gives me more solid ground for hope that our collective hunch as a species that mind doesn't end with bodily death may be correct. At any rate, I had, as I clattered along on that train into London, a kind of secular epiphany of which atheists would be proud, filled with that familiar form of sudden joy, but this time about the awe and mystery of cosmology. (The fact that the battle between science and religion is in the field of evolutionary biology, where the religious people fighting it are obviously wrong, serves both camps. In cosmology, astrophysics, the study of mind, we find much to draw us together.) That feeling hung around for a while, as I stumbled off the train at Paddington with my brain all 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds', and offered me the sort of 'comfort' that non-religious types seem to feel is the only possible reason for faith, when more usually the experience of professing a religion is rather more a burden. And finally, and this is the most ridiculous experience of them all, one which I can hardly credit and makes me feel like a Roman seeing omens... okay, so earlier this year I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, in 3D... It's not that the psychedelic movie and imaging process took me into another world. I was sitting there utterly bored by what I was swiftly deciding was one of the worst movies ever made (and I'm normally a huge fan of Burton). I won't offer a critique here. The point is I wasn't dragged into the experience of the film, I was shut off from it. My mind started to wander, and I found myself considering, as I often do, another cosmological theory, the idea that reality is a simulation. Normally, people react to this as if they've been told they're living in a diluted version of something better. But what I started to consider, watching the movie, was: if reality is a simulation, what a fantastic work of art it is. Everything from free will to elephants: great stuff, five stars, 99% say PC Gamer Magazine. Even the plot holes, like the Young's Slits experiment, the fact that the apparent size of the moon is exactly the apparent size of the sun (so much for Earthly ordinariness, total eclipses from a planetary surface would make us a galactic tourist destination), Sheldrake's various speculations, the placebo effect, Kantian theories of knowledge and virtually everything in the excellent (and purely scientific, those afraid of weirdness) Thirteen Things that Don't Make Sense, they all seem like imperfections to be flaunted. Considering all this, I went off to the toilet. As I stood there... no, come on, this is really what happened... I thought to myself the thought that all religious texts tell us not to think. I wondered if, since I was offering such applause to the genius behind this wonderful simulation, they might just say hello, make themselves known for a moment, tap me on the shoulder. (It's exactly what happens in the wonderful 2010 when HAL tells Floyd to look behind him.) I tested the cosmos a little. And then when I turned round (yes, I had zipped up), there was a little boy at the door of the bathroom, who pointed at me, burst out laughing and ran out the door. I took a look around the door, and I wish I could say he'd vanished, but no, there he was, with his Dad, talking about something else, entirely ordinary. It felt like he was the representation of something, not the thing itself. It was the feeling that went with that moment that was tremendous, that persisted, the 'Oz factor' that experiencers of Fortean weirdness report. The world seemed alive with portents. In a way which I've never felt before or since, that primitive religiosity that suggests another reality above and under this one. It really is very Roman, and talking about it now, I both recall the fringes of it, and look down on it as too blunt, too silly. I took it with me to a car park in Faringdon, hours later, where, just before I stopped the car, I found myself thinking that the one thing one should absolutely not do is build a new belief system around the happenings of that day, do what so many people have done and make a tower of stupid and harmful human assumptions on the foundation of something numinous. (Any ancient religion, I believe, is something that's had a lot of evolutionary checks and balances arrived at, and usually accepts a wide spectrum of truths.) And as I had that thought, a stranger walking past laughed again and nodded enthusiastically, right at me. Well, yes, as I told you, ridiculous. Kind of crass, almost. I'm pleased that I didn't make up something that obvious. And that's been that, from then on. I hope to have no more such experiences, particularly not like that latter walk through the dreamtime. I continue to think that seeking the faults in oneself, forgiving, being kind, not enjoying conflict, is the measure of what we do, and that my religion is one of many approaches that support those ethics. I think, even given the actions of many of those who profess the same belief system while judging and harming people, my folk do hugely more good than bad. I also think that scepticism, rationality and the scientific method are the most valuable tools human beings have. But I think the universe is big. And that there is much beyond it. And that the meeting point of what's ours and what's beyond is Christmas. Phew, told you. I do believe I've come out. In a way. Tomorrow, it'll get even more intense, when... no, actually, it'll just be the answers to the quiz. And hopefully some rude lesbian nurses, because I haven't mentioned them yet this year and the more page hits the merrier. Until tomorrow... erm... if you're still here... Cheerio!  |
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