Secret Fire

I guess by now most of you have seen this:

If you haven't, and you consider yourself a Doctor Who fan of any measure, you ought to watch it as soon as possible.

The 1996 American TV movie was generally pretty lame, possessing many of the worst qualities of American drama of the time. It was hard to get a real notion of how good McGann was as the Doctor. Here now with a Steven Moffat script I find him rather pleasingly understated. Compared to the latest Doctors, he almost seems like a typewriter in terms of his emotional range but he gives his lines a great deal of nuance.

The Sisterhood of Karn first appeared in the Fourth Doctor Frankenstein homage serial The Brain of Morbius where they had some of the best makeup and costumes from that era of the show.

That serial had an unusual amount of subtext for the series, the Sisterhood being ancient acquaintances of the Time Lords, sometimes friends, sometimes enemies. The Sisterhood seemed like they were meant to be a commentary on womanhood and faith while Solon, as the story's version of Dr. Frankenstein, inherits some of Mary Shelley's criticism of men and of science. The fact that one of the Sisterhood in the mini-sode specifically mentions Time Lord "science" is curious. In engineering a Doctor for war, the Sisters have now kind of become the Frankensteins.

The Brain of Morbius Part1 by matrixarchive

Twitter Sonnet #565

Challenges addressed in ties choke the treat.
Quickly scolds the red nosed fat suit glamour.
Dashing doormen break the Window retreat.
No ham heart aimed usefully the hammer.
Six o'clock earls dip no bread in their tea.
Calamity climbs a eucalyptus.
Scaly felines bolt for the open sea.
Yellow crowns trace a travelling countess.
Would-be lynx motorists eye the red Porsche.
But headlamps enlarged the fat siamese.
Domestic cat eyes avert from the porch.
Asphalt blood oozed from the hill giant's knees.
Bandoliers cinch on malleable men.
Gunpowder draughts pare down the heart to tin.