Repair or despair? Natalie or Jim?

How old are you?

LOL Maybe the next president will do it...

Like the Biltmore mansion.

:-( That makes it even more remarkable that you're doing so much, though.

Natalie

Until this year, I had never seen or heard the term 'arse'; yet I see a number of N.G. posts from residents of the southern US which include the term. Most Canadians seem to say 'ass', however some made-in-the-UK movies for worldwide distribution don't use 'arse', instead substitution 'ass' in the dialog. Go figure. BTW, how could anyone reasonably say "barse arkwards"?

Regards,

:-)

I've seen British expressions such as "arse" and "f*ckwit" since going online in the early 90s. I'm surprised you hadn't seen them before a year ago!

Natalie

Sorry for the typo: s/substitution/substitute/

dialog.

I confined my Usenet participation to comp.* and parts of sci.* since when I had a UUCP feed; I guess most posters in those groups were not inclined to use the term even if from the U.K.

Regards,

Michael

I should also mention never having seen/heard the term 'wanker' until the Sylvester McCoy Dr. Who episodes ;-) (For me and many in the U.S., Tom Baker is the _only_ Dr. Who).

Regards,

Michael

I tried *so* hard to get into Dr. Who, but alas, no.

Natalie

How about Red Dwarf? I just got some (on VHS tapes) on Freecycle. I won't know how many episodes, till I pick them up.

"Michael A. Terrell" ...

LOVE that show! I don't have it on video, though. I do have the complete collections of Blackadder and Monty Python

Natalie

Well, that would be nice, especially if you like New England weather and scenery. Have you visited here before ? I would guess that the liklihood of a posting here has diminished considerably in recent years, as a number of the Anglo - American bases have either closed down or been mothballed since the 'end (??)' of the cold war. To the east of where I live right in the centre, all the way across to the coast, it is very flat fenland, so good for runways. I guess that this, coupled with the proximity to the european mainland, is why all of the bases grew up there in the first place during WW II, and carried on into peacetime, and then grew further as defensive bases run largely by your good ol' boys. Do you still have any bomber forces or whatever permanently located here ? I'm not too sure about that, to be honest. I used to see practice flights come across my county all the time, fighters as well, but don't seem to any more.

Dangermouse eh ? I used to watch that many many years ago. Have you ever come across a UK tv programme called 'Minder' ? If not, there are plenty of clips on You Tube. It's where my nic comes from, being a deliberate corruption of the name of one of the two main characters. For no other reason, I might add, than that I always loved the part he played. It was representative of gentler times ...

Arfa

Arfa

Are you sure about that ? I have watched Doctor Who since the very first episode, and I can't remember any Doctor ever using any language that was in any way inappropriate for children. The BBC, and British broadcasting in general, has always been fiercely protective in that way, sticking rigidly to the 8pm watershed. Doctor Who has always been shown before that time. Sylvester McCoy goes back what ? 20 years now ? British television was a much gentler place back then than it is now, and very little swearing or inappropriate language at all was tolerated, let alone during a programme made primarily for children.

Have you seen any recent series of the programme ? Tom Baker was indeed the Doctor of choice for many, and of the 'old' Doctors, was certainly my favourite, if only because he had a 'looney' edge to him, and ate jelly babies, but since the programme was resurrected a few years back, there have been a couple of excellent Doctors and assistants. The current Doctor (David Tennant) is absolutely superb in the part. He brings exactly the right level of eccentricity and humour to it, and manages to play it, much like Tom Baker did, with enough seriousness to make it a valid role, tempered by just a little 'hamminess' to keep it light. I have always thought that the BBC have managed to cast this series well for Doctors over the years, and thought that when they did bring it back after a gap of many years, that they would struggle to keep it fresh, but it has surpassed all of my expectations in this respect. If you have not seen the current Doctor, go take a look at

Do you have a reference for the episode that you felt contained the word "wanker" ? I would be interested to follow up on that.

Arfa

Yes, that's another good one of specialist taste. The main character (Craig Charles - Lister in the series -) now plays a leading part in a soap that has been very big here for 40 years. Before that, he presented "Robot Wars" where teams build robot warriors that fight each other, and the house robots, in a battle arena. Another (Robert Llewellyn - Kryten in the series -) presents "Scrapheap Challenge" which is like your "Junkyard Wars" (is it ?? )

Arfa

Good Lord ! I didn't know that until you posted this and I looked him up on Wikipedai. What a come-down.

Graham

Well, we all have to eat. He is just a TV actor - nothing really special. Do you believe that having a major long standing part in a mainstream TV soap as opposed to playing the lead in a series that was at best a little odd and specialist - hence the reason that it was on BBC2 - or presenting a show on Channel 4 that was only of interest to mechanical nerds who liked destroying things, is actually a come down ? I think if I were him, and I had a regular part on a much loved and respected programme with prime time exposure over 5 episodes a week, even if it is a soap, I would be quite pleased ...

Arfa

It was in at least one episode and involved Ace and some 'punks' she knew; sorry I don't have more details. I watched those episodes with less than rapt interest as I felt the series was departing from the style that I enjoyed in the Tom Baker (and less so in the Peter Davison and Colin Baker) years. I felt that the McCoy years adopted a harsher mid-80's edginess (to appeal to youth culture?).

Regards,

Michael

Indeed, from what little I have read online, I would enjoy seeing the new shows; do you have any idea how to do so in the U.S. at present? FWIW, I found the Hartnell shows (I doubt that here we saw all of those that exist) showcased 1960's high tech and interesting locations that otherwise may have been lost to visual documentation. I wonder if they are available in some medium now.

Regards,

Michael

There are plenty of clips on YouTube, and you could also look on the BBC website. All programmes that they broadcast are available for download for up to 7 days after transmission, but it does say to "UK license holders", so I'm not sure how that works, unless you have to register with a name and address that has a current license attached to it. There was a Christmas special that I'm sure you could find if you Googled for it, and the new series starts in a few weeks, I think.

Arfa

If I were to be facetious, I'd definitely say that Sylvester McCoy put the "Tard" into "Tardis". He was highly annoying as The Doctor.

I also agree that (for me at least), Tom Baker is the best; I especially like "The Pyramids of Mars", featuring Sutekh The Destroyer!

Having said that, I don't remember THAT many Tom Baker episodes because I was still VERY young when he started (1974?) and quite young when he finished ('81 or '82?).

I have heard people say many Dr Who fans tend to prefer the actor who was playing The Doctor when they were kids - probably about 10 years old or so. Certainly it's true in my case.

"Blake's Seven" (BS) was also good in a rather bare, low-budget kind of way. Avon and Orac (the irritable, arrogant Perspex supercomputer) were my favourite characters. Colin Baker featured in at least one episode, as did Michael Sheard (who was also in Doctor Who IIRC) who was best known to my age group as Mr Bronson on "Grange Hill". Also David Haig from "The Thin Blue Line" appeared in both "Blake's Seven" and "Doctor Who". Also, Servalan (in BS) had sexy shoes on sometimes. Which was nice.

Martin