JulesLuvsShinzon

^^^Oh please do elaborate!

^^^^Like "Star Trek: The Experience"??????????????

Hi guys!!

Put it this way, if I got that much fun from riding a stationary bike I'd never leave the gym ~ although I'm not so sure how well it would good down with the good Christian folks that run the gym!!

Actually, it could a whole new angle for the world of Shinzonlust (which is all fiiiiiiiiiine, thanks for asking TBT!)...

Moving swiftly on...

I was really picking up on another member's comment about the sig which I had noticed before, but had not felt sufficiently offended to make a complaint, although I wondered really why it needed to be there at all. It comes down to a question of asking the question 'should I just because I can?'

I'm not certain that the mods would necessarily be obliged to act upon the complaint of only one member anyway because in extreme cases of basic illiberal intolerence, the place could soon be a tyranny of censorship, and I think the mods should only act if a lot of members complain. I think it would be more of a problem if you could see more of her body.

Usually, on the forums I frequent a lot, I actually make people's sigs invisible because I find them mostly too large and distracting. I presume there is that option here as well.

Still it's always worthwhile to have a thread like this that acts as a kind of self-audit of usual practice because it will bring out issues that don't always become headlines.

^^^Yeah, but I'm wondering if we should always be so quick to forget the past just because some bad stuff happened. I tend to remember mostly the positive stuff from the AA days and we did have some good times!!!

Anyhoo, does Ady still live in York? Remember, Evil Guy, I know where you buy your comics!! Mwahahahaha!

Hehe Tim Brazeal and Ulan.... I still keep an eye on TB.... that trek convention he did went well.... heheh

Aw! That was a low blow Ady!! LIke watching a car crash in very slow motion!

It's a scary thought ~ but that guy Ulan is still lurking out there ...somewhere.

Hi, I've not been around in a loooong while, but I thought I'd check in today and see how some of the guys I knew at AA are getting along.

I saw this thread and thought I would add my own thoughts as an occasional visitor to this site. Firstly, I would agree that a language filter doesn't really work too well because you can post the most innocent word such as 'cockpit' and have to spell it creatively or else the filter cuts in. Over at Trekunited, they substitue the word "phlox" for a variety of actually quite low-key potty-words, and speaking as a mother myself, really kids use far worse in the playground. It doesn't matter how much you try to keep your kids away from profanity etc, there's always some precocious chavvy kid spouting swears at school. I realised this the day my daughter came home (aged 11) and told me that she now knew how to carry out fellatio having learned all about it from some mother's copy of the Cosmopolitan Guide to Good Sex that had been brought into school, which was being passed around at break. I'm a broadminded sort of a mum, so I didn't have a complete hissyfit, but you can bet we had a timely discussion about the 'yukky' act!

I also have issues with the kind of lazy parent who believes it is the job of everybody else to censor themselves in order to protect their kids from adult material. There was a nasty row about this over at AA, where I responded to some mum who tried to combine parenting with spending long hours online herself, and expected the rest of us to behave in a way that she wouldn't have to explain to her kids everytime they came around the computer wanting her attention. Go figure. Sorry, but the internet is the internet, and in my opinion, kids under the age of 13 shouldn't be online unsupervised anyway, even if it does make things inconvenient for parents who would prefer to abdicate responsibility for bringing their children up. The internet isn't a babystitter and younger kids should be outdoors playing anyway with their parents supervising. If raising kids is hard work, don't have kids ~ simples!

I enjoy a good knob joke or fart gag like anybody else and I can be a potty-mouth at times, and a good board makes allowances for mild mucky humour, however, since it has been mentioned once or twice in this thread, I'm not keen on the bonking lady in the Civil War signature either! I think that showing a woman having sex (real or fake) in a signature goes too far. It's just not necessary in this situation and I'm not sure what having that says about the guy who put it up there. Everybody's free to look at that kind of thing from the regular sources in the privacy of their own home with a side order of Kleenex, but let's just say that the wobbly woman could limit the diversity of the forum where female minimate fans might think this is just a frat-house party or a guys' locker room, and just think the place isn't for them, or decide to make their own signature in kind!

....Actually, that could be a good idea!

But seriously, while I agree with the guy who did not want to ask the guy to modify his signature just for him because he appreciates the diversity of the board, if I were asked to draw a reasonable line which could be crossed on a board like this, I would ave to say that the bonking lady is well on the wrong side.

Just MHO, and I realise I'm not a regular visitor here, but it is something that occurred to me in the past.

It's nice to see a guy reassessing his life in life in terms of being a dad since being a parent should always come before hobbies. Anyhoo, there'll come a time when you can begin again with a venegeannce ~ I should know teehee!

This movie didn't just live up to the hype, it transcended it. Totally excellent in every respect.

Ledger and Oldman rocked! Ledger totally inhabited his role and Oldman so immersed himself in Commisioner Gordon that I didn't even frickin' recognise him!

Ohhhhhhh.........aaaaaaaggggggggggggggggggggg!

But then I should have obeyed the direction not to look and then I might not have ended up with my keyboard covered in partially-digested lunch!

Most Cosplayers are utterly deluded that they look just great dressed up as their heroes, whereas, in reality, they look bloody daft and seem utterly intent on a personal mission to spread offence, pandemics of abrupt reverse-peristalsis, and ruin your favourite sex fantasies!

It took me quite a while before I could get these vile images out of my head and enjoy my favourite eyelid fantasies again.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ningauble/2351506328/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9998548@N04/2413654041/

Such people should be put in the stocks and paraded around the city centre on a dumper truck while sane people pelt them with rotten fruit and sponges dipped in rancid cooking fat.

I swallowed my loathing for Captain Jack and Martha sufficiently to watch the series finale. I thought it was a great swansong for Donna but the one thing I couldn't get out of my head is......did they nick a pile of weapon visuals from Star Trek Nemesis, or what?

^^^LOL!

Blair's problem was that he didn't quit when he was ahead!

I have the season finale recorded ~ I haven't watched it yet!

I'm not really in a tearing hurry to see Tennant go, I'm not that adversed to see him in the role another season. I don't think he's a contender for the best Doctor ever though....I would have liked to have seen a second season with Eccleston who was only really getting warmed up when he quit.

Maybe that's the trick ~ always leave the public wanting more!

*slaps Jules about a bit with a herring*

Hi Jules

Kaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! How are you? I haven't "seen" you in ages! How's Shinzon doing? How are you enjoying the new series of Top Gear???

Long time no see, must be quiet over in trekland at the moment?

Timbo! Hi to you too! Yes, it's very quiet in Trekland since the movie got put back until next May!

Have to say I agree this series has been very up and down ( ohhh matron!).

Martha has never annoyed me too much, of course that could be that as bloke I'm more forgiving than Jules cos she's reasonable eyecandy - ( Waits for Jules to explode at that comment and all the non PC things it infers!)

Tate just annoys me, albeit she's settled a little bit and is less shouty now ( She still reminds me of the Vogon guard from Hitchhikers). I predicted way back in the first couple of episodes she'd be a one series character that will be killed off.

Well at least she didn't spout Vogon poetry!!

Not having a male perspective, it does depress me when people will forgive a dull female character because she's eyecandy, from a feminist perspective, that really happens way too much in sci-fi these days. I saw somewhere back in the thread someone accuse Catherine Tate of being a "munter", but at least munters concentrate on the plot in hand and it was refreshing to see absolutely no focus on sexual chemistry whatsoever, even if the recurring "On no, we're not married" line got a bit competitive since the audience aren't all that dumb and probably twigged to the new dynamic as soon as Donna Noble was announced as the new assistant.

The problem with Martha wasn't actually that she was "eye candy" as far as I'm concerned, Piper and Minogue also fall into that category and I am sure there are quite a few babyboomer men out there who twinkled with nostalgia over Sarah Jane. No, the problem with Martha was that she was a career-minded PC character meant to attract more twenty-something women to the series by trying to be representitive of them. Martha was Doctor Who's PC version of Bridget Jones, and simply failed to reach her target audience in terms of being convincingly anything other than a cipher. I was once a Marie Claire reader myself and I wasn't convinced by her as an aspiring doctor or as the Doctor's assistant, and then having spent the whole of last series lusting unsuccessfully after the manifestly unobtainable Doctor she becomes conveniently "engaged" to somebody else. I think the producers knew that she wasn't hitting the spot and that was why she was shunted over to Torchwood ~ the home of cliche and kitsch.

Personally, I think that Sophie Okonedo would make a kick-ass Doctor's assistant.

The sexuality thing is an odd one for me, I'm pretty easy going and liberal in my views on how 'sexuality' is portrayed in the media but R.T.Davies totally lacks any finesse in pushing his agenda and it's now a joke/game to spot the 'gay' reference shoe horned into in every episode.

Same here! I don't want to come off as sounding po-faced here, but I kind of think when you're down to playing "spot the double-entendre" (there's an idea for a drinking game, but one would certainly being double by the end of the episode!), then it's detracting away from the sci-fi.

To be honest if Tennant is at the end of his run then I wont be too upset. He's been a great doctor But I'm starting to bore of the " Smug know it all, do something wacky, panic a bit then get really really angry before saving the day" routine. perhaps it's time to bring someone new in?

Yes, he needs to quit while he's ahead.

Anyone else happy Moffat is going to be in charge? IMO He's probably one of the best writers out there at the moment and isn't afraid to make things intelligent & funny but still 'behind the sofa dark' which is what IMO Dr Who is about!

T.

Agreed, it's time some of the slapstick "monster" element (like the Adipose) took a backseat and Who became genuinely eerie again. There were some fine spine-chilling moments in this series ~ it's what I watch Doctor Who for!

What 'Jules' posted was a canny synopsis of the recent Dr.Who/Torchwood series.

Thanks for the compliment!

I personally like the Donna character & the current Dr. is perhaps the best. It is easy to rate the 'current' anything as the best but perhaps I have, for once, a 'special' vantage point. I watched the very first episode of Dr.Who when it aired in 1963 & have seen some wonderful episodes & some total crap during the next 45 years.

I was born in 1962 and from what you say then I'm probably a little younger than you, but I think we're coming at this from the same perspective. I can just about remember William Hartnell, but I was a Troughton/Pertwee gal myself. I agree with you that watching Who has been pretty much serial agony and ecstacy over the years and the many incarnations!

Regarding the re-vamped Dr.Who ,I dislike the 'agenda' ,I cringe at some of the acting of a few of the supporting cast(usually those wearing UNIT uniforms) , I shudder at how far Rose's front teeth continue to 'grow' & that's it .....apart from those minor criticisms Dr.Who is the only show that could even compete with US Sci-Fi. This IS the golden-age of Dr.Who without a shadow of a doubt . Oh yeah we had Kylie as well ,I like Kylie a lot ,an awful lot,very much,totally .....

Actually, we tuned into the Christmas special and she wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought she would be.

And, crikey, I thought it was just me who noticed Rose's teeth ~ what is that all about, LOL!

As I said before, I like my Who dark and genuinely creepy, and there have been some truly majestic moments in this past series. I love it that the US guys are getting enthusiastic over British sci-fi!

^^^I guess we'll have to agree to disagree; the world would be a boring place if we all held the same opinion!

Once I knew that Martha was being shunted over to Torchwood (the best place for her) and Catherine Tate was taking over as the Doctor's assistant then I started watching again.

I have to say that this series has outdone itself and raised the bar higher, and there was me thinking that this "Who" revival was running out of steam. I like Tate's comedy and I think that she has been a brilliant assistant. I am pleased to see that she appears to have won over even the most anti-members here. I love the dynamic between her and Tennant and I am really happy to see that soppy unrequited love angle drop off the end. The only downside was when Martha came back, and I have to admit that the thought of Rose, Sarah Jane, Martha, and the Torchwood team all thrown into one over-egged messy episode was enough for me to miss it. I am looking forward to the season's finale though.

I am interested to see that so many people find the whole Barrowman's sexuality underpinning of Torchwood gratuitous and unecessary. I think so too, and goodness knows I've been extremely outspoken and supportive of seeing more gay characters in sci-fi, but Barrowman's brand of campness is an utter throwback to the 70's and smacks of a time when things were a lot less progressive than they are now. Davies may well have an agenda, and while we are all grateful to him for bringing back the Doctor in such fine style (excepting every episode with Martha in it), when an agenda begins to be the thing that drives a series, and that agenda is that we all are still somehow in need of educating about the diversity of human sexuality in such a dumb-assed and crass way, then he runs the risk of alienating a large part of his audience because we really don't need so-called alternative sexualities thrown in our faces every single week.

For quite a few years I've been saying that we need sci-fi to actually be representitive of real human society with more proper roles for women and some decent roles for gays and lesbians, but in the many, many online discissions I've had with gay sci-fi fans, the one thing we have all agreed on is that nobody wants to see gay stereotypes (especially a passe one such as Captain Jack) or for sexual orientation to be the most apparent aspect of a gay character. Really, Captain Jack's sexuality (as ambiguous as it is portrayed to be) should have no bearing on the plot at all and it makes Torchwood less of a sci-fi show in the same way as Martha's making cow eyes at the Doctor diminshed Doctor Who.

The problem is that Barrowman is now a media darling and his face is all over the place. It's a mystery to me ~ espcially when there are much smarter gay entertainers such as Graham Norton and Julian Clary ~ how Barrowman has gained such an ascendency ~ but then I never did understand the appeal of Les Dennis or Harry Hill's TV Burp either.

Well I simply had to respond to this thread!

That's one of the funniest "boobs" I've seen in a while, and at least it makes a change from the usual AA cock-ups (or maybe I didn't want to use that phrase in this context! ).

You' re getting a little "extra" for your money!

Right brained ~ and I stared at it for ages trying to make it turn the other way...maybe if it had been a naked bloke and I had something to fix my eyes on!

Anyhoo, the right-brained attributes are reasonably on song...apart from the religion thing.

Myself, I just used up the soap. That's right, ADV mate spent a couple of weeks in the family shower. .

Genius! Knowing how some guys fight shy of the shower room, this is an absolute must-have for the gal who wants a sweeter-smelling other half!

^^^LOL!

Your parents are very lucky! My daughter does the "Kevin and Perry" thing of being routinely hateful to us (yah, but you have to know that I have some great strategies for not letting it get too out of hand!), and almost creepily polite to her friend's parents

Still, at least she behaves herself when she's outside the house and at school where it matters!

It was lovely to spend this lunchtime in town enjoying a chat over coffee with my 15 year-old daughter. Usually she treats me and her father like slightly senile old retainers who don't know the first thing about anything worth knowing. Whatever opinions we have, she seems to willfully take up the opposite position like it's her duty or something. This is normal teen behaviour, but she can be very sweet at times, and when she is being sweet and talkative ~ unlike the usual "DUH!" response teens give out ~ you get to see what a really great (and sensible) adult she will become.

(More sensible than her mum who collects toys anyway! )

I pop in and read these topics from time to time, and the discolouration issue got me thinking. I have a customised bombermate (no. 69 out of 100) that is still mint in the bag and has been kept carefully in a box in the dark with other AA items such as spare hands and accessories. Out of curiosity, I went and looked at mine just now and I can't honestly tell is it has actually discoloured or not. My eyes are going long-sighted which means that if I want to scrutinise anything up closely then I have to flip out my contact lenses, but I think that the fact that I can't see any discolouration around the decal means that it is still in mint condition.

The thing is, these mates are not ~ as somebody pointed out earlier ~ something that minimate completists need to be chasing after because they were never part of an AA production run. These cuties were a lovely gesture made by TBT at a time when the old AA boards really rocked, and are a memento of those times. Even though TBT knew I wasn't a minimate collector per se, I was included in his kindness because I was one of the community. This gesture still gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling!

....and I won't be selling mine....ever.

^^^She certainly don't!! :tongue:

............and I loved it when it simply was Saturday afternoon telly and wasn't having to compete with celebrity-studded talent shows and the like!

^^^I think you go a long way to explaining on my behalf exactly why I stopped watching Who after Tom Baker hung up his long scarf! ...Only to begin again for the first two seasons of this and the last incarnation!

I've got to disagree (but then you knew that I would!) that the new Who shows "history"...a slapstick version of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras to be sure, but I'd hate to meet the kid that actually thought those shows were in any way instructional! :o

^^^Are you absolutely certain it's "always been that way"????

Peter Davidson was bought in for that appeal to be sure, but he's not exactly the most memorable Doctor is he? He's second only to Paul McGann in that respect, and his Doctor only lasted one ill-fated revival attempt ~ at least on TV, although McGann's Doctor lives on in audio book form.

Jon Pertwee?????????? A hottie for the gals?????? Nah! Sure, he was a dandified Doctor in a cute vintage motor, but I don't think he was bought in as eye-candy exactly!! William Hartnell?? Patrick Troughton??? Colin Baker??? Gawd!! You'll be telling me that Tom Baker was a sex symbol next!!

Leela (Louise Jameson happened to be the niece of an English teacher in my school) was a rather cynical stab at an early 7of9 "invigoration" attempt, and somehow isn't quite as iconic, or regarded with anything like as much affection as dear old Sarah Jane ~ who, incidentally, still looks today like she did in the 70s ~ so maybe time travel is possible after all! And that's kind of my point: short term pimping that in the end isn't nearly as effective as great characters ~ which the current assistant certainly isn't. K9 was a better actor!

If you really don't like what you're seeing/expect to see then maybe it's time you moved on and let Dr Who become a happy memory rather than something you watch to hate.

Trust me, I already have! As soon as I realised that I found the new assistant insipid and the Kylie/Tate Christmas Special was announced, I ditched the rest of the third season. I simply wasn't enjoying it anymore. Instead of raising the level of the audience, it's simply become dumbed-down, and no longer soley about the Doctor.

The whole point about Doctor Who back in the day was that apart from being on at tea time, it wasn't teally "family viewing". It was the preserve of geeky uncles and kids who were looking forward to diving behind the settee and getting a scare in a non-threatening environment. Most of the adults in my family thought Who was a slightly silly kids' programme, and took the time out (after an afternoon spent lounging in front of Grandstand) to do adult things like getting the tea or argue about politics while we kids were saying "Sssh! Dad!". The TV was left to the kids for a precious short while so that we could shriek and run quivering behind the sofa! Of course, I had nerves of steel, and for me, it was an early assertion of Girl Power to steel my nerves and be superior to my older male cousins who dived behind the sofa almost as soon as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop struck up, and who would watch the entire show peeking round the sofa. If my Nan, my Mum, my Dad, and My Grandad had sat down and started enjoying it, then it wouldn't have been TV for us kids that "got it".

I think it says a lot about today's families and young people that they have to have celebrity endorsement in order to be attracted to something. Whereas before, you were either captivated by the Doctor, his TARDIS, UNIT, and The Brigadeer, or you weren't and if you weren't endlessly fascinated by the Daleks and yelling "CLIMB THE STAIRS!!" at the Doctor and his assistant, then you went off and played Subuteo or whatever, and the sci-fi integrity of the show was kept. Sadly, the BBC has never heard of over-gilding the lily by forever trying to widen its appeal, and now the soap and bingo crowd can bill and coo over Tennant, "that Catherine Tate", plastic Barrowman (a sure-fire Ganny's heartthrob), while there's Kylie for the dads, and it's a shame, because the new Who didn't need the tinsel and was already damn fine without it! Celebriteee has ruined it, and it seems that I'm not the only former Who affictionado who thinks the same way.

It started so well, but Doctor Who is really losing its way. When "celebrity" becomes more important than the content of the show, then really, it simply isn't Doctor Who any more. It's more like "celebrity come dancing"...with Daleks. Barrowman is so camp he actually sets my teeth on edge; he would be better off sticking to occasional appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, where his over-the-top presence at least has some competition from the show's chairman ~ who has far greater talent and verbal dexterity than Barrowman can ever dream of. I thought Torchwood was dreadful ~ sci-fi for devotees of Big Brother. My mother-in-law liked it because it was full of pretty young people ~ enuff said.

I happen to be one of those people who would like to see Who become "adult" and taken out of the Saturday Night tea time slot, since the producers seem to think celebrities like Tate and Minogue are needed to pimp this show for the soap crowd and 'families'. While everyone appreciates the vast improvements in technology that is now at the BBC's disposal in that they can make some truly eerie creations, I think the effort is now being wasted on a show that is rapidly descending into a sad parody of itself. Forget shooting in Cardiff, just move the entire show to the end of a pier, or the ballroom at the base of Blackpool Tower.

Christopher Eccleston rocked as the Doctor, and Billy Piper provided warmth and humanity to the concept, complete with a proper sense of awe for a time-travelling alien. Tennant is great as the Doctor, but it seems that it is no longer the Doctor's show anymore.