if ur not looking for book recs feel free to disregard but ted chiang writes really good hard scifi short stories, which could be a good straddle of the line between fiction and nonfiction and also because they are short stories easy to figure out quickly if you don't like his writing ... ling ma's bliss montage is another great scifi adjacent short story collection but one i didn't like as much as ted chiangs ... and if you're looking for science based non-fiction recommendations i thought that the order of time carlo rovelli was accessibly and interestingly if somewhat obnoxiously written at times and the information by james glieck kind of made me absolutely bonkers crazy and was generally a pretty good synthesis of the history of scientific advances in like the field of information theory/communication science with only a few flaws/outdated science moments imo

these sound awesome. i really need to pivot back into nonfiction. thank youuuuuu

im so interested in how you'll tackle jodie's era -- it's been so interesting to see you go through nu who and in such an organized way!! i really enjoy seeing how you talk about each episode and pick the various elements apart && it even made me want to go back and rewatch the tail end of moffat w/ bill & clara with capaldi, even though i'm not generally a fan of his!

heya, thank you! it's nice to know a few people were reading them (I deliberately didn't tag them doctor who, because I didn't want to clog up the main tag, and I didn't want to ruin anyone's good time if they weren't interested in a big complain)

I'm just finishing up a comprehensive excel sheet that I was doing simultaneously with this watch, in which I documented all the ratings I gave each episode, measured average rating per season, and which points tended to do better or worse as a whole throughout the years, and then also gave short points on the pros and cons of each episode with "recommended" ratings.

point being when it's all put together like that, I can see there are some really good episodes throughout this era, and -- despite how much I rag on m*ffat for writing narrative that comes from nowhere (and he does that all the fucking time) -- a comprehensive thematic thread from beginning to end, although in my opinion some of it comes from fandom reading into things (as is a good pastime) more than the actual text of the show

in general I noticed that capaldi-era skewed higher in the ratings (especially s9 and 10), because... well I still wonder if part of it wasn't capaldi's influence on the writing, but whomst knows. I have yet to finish the final episode rating which all of us who know it know is a return to some unfortunate as fuck writing choices, and listen, I was almost, almost wishing m*ffat could have had a little more time because I wanted Bill to have a little more time, and then this episode came and reminded me why m*ffat should never have more time to write anything, so small upsides

rambling at you now officially, this is short ramble length ah well.

I won't be doing such an organised measuring of whittaker's era, a. because I don't know it so well yet (I've only previously seen s1) and so don't have as much of a sense of its episodic structures, and b. while I know it has some things that are great, the things that aren't so great feel more involved and less easy to put on a rating's system. also c. this actually got quite exhausting after awhile (once the hyperfixation novelty of the idea of rating every episode wore off)

so I think for whittaker will be more informally jumping in and out, similar to some of the classic!who watching I'm doing. can say I very much enjoyed the woman who fell to earth, more than I remembered doing, which I think is because last time I got to whittaker I was post-m*ffat tired of the show

so it's nice to know he hasn't ruined my excitement for it this time around, I've found the Things that are for me in his era by poking and clawing at it!!! but isn't that just the doctor who way. sometimes you check out for a bit but it pulls you back in again (affectionately)!

Have you seen slings and arrows? (Sorry this will relate to hamlet eventually) It's a Canadian show about Shakespeare plays and also like what art is what it means to produce art what art means many such questions. It's a comedy & drama revolving around the relationship between our three central characters with an INCREDIBLY fun twist that's just a pitch perfect send up of theater and working in theater and I could go on but I won't. Anyway. One of my favorite shows. Anyway each season crazyloserfailman Geoffrey has to put on a Shakespeare play and in season 1 it's hamlet and there's a scene about ophelia and her character which I've always loved and has really put the character in context for me in a lot of ways!

i have Not! BUT i have been looking for something to give a watch on top of my usual comfort watches (oops started rewatching the hour again like it didn't get cancelled on a cliffhanger)

I may watch the DT hamlet first, and then this next! big big fans of stories about art (mozart in the jungle we lost you too soon!)

thank you for the suggestion, it's on my list