Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

I recently found myself re-listening to some of the big finish Doctor Who episodes I bought over the years before the BBC told me and the rest of the people who have actually cared about the series and the character over the last half decade what they could do with their fandom.

Apparently this strategy has not been all that productive when it came to the new “festive” special:

Whereas the Christmas Special used to get ratings in the 12 million, 13 million range, the latest “Festive Special” got… 4.69 million.

The absolute lowest of the rebooted Doctor Who.

The irony being that according to my oldest who actually watched it the episode was one best of the Jodie Whitaker series, in that it was better than the absolute worst episodes (like Fear Her and Oxygen) of the revived series but not as good as what could be considered a standard vanilla episode like The Curse of the Black Spot or even Thin Ice.

Of course the problem for these guys is that while the BBC is a government agency and can be a gravy train it is not the government itself and thus can’t force people to watch and without viewer the portion of the train offered eventually shrink’s to the point where it’s bad for the reputation of those involved, to wit:

The Mirror cited a Doctor Who source as saying: “It’s all very hush-hush but it is known on set that Jodie is leaving and they are gearing up for a regeneration. Her departure is top secret but at some point over the coming months the arrival of the 14th Doctor will need to be filmed.”

Unfortunately while some might cite this as good news the bad new is that they are keeping her for a 3rd series so as not to pretend that the first female doctor was not the abysmal failure that it was. As bad as that news is the worst news is in the next paragraph:

The report added that Whittaker’s co-stars Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole will also leave the show to make way for a refreshed alien-fighting team. Mandip Gill will remain, while British comedian John Bishop is joining the cast. Showrunner Chris Chibnall will also remain with the BBC Studios-produced series, the Mirror added.

This means that the re-writing of the series as uber woke (rather than just quietly woke as it has been since it came back) and the throwing out of canon to indulge Chibnall’s fanboy fantasy will continue.

While the critics where orgasmic at the changes I suspect people developing projects might think twice about hiring an actress that has killed an almost 60 year cash cow for their purposes. I’d feel sorry for Whittaker who is a passable actress who has done some good work in the past if she didn’t rub the wokeness in at the start

The real question will be having already chased away the paying customers who will want to come in for the series death? With Chibnall still the boss and the BBC having given in the woke mob once it’s certain said woke mob will demand an equally as woke if not more woke choice. Of course if the BCC figures the series can’t be saved they will like choose a white straight male who can be blamed for the cancellation.

Given the degree of wisdom we’ve seen from actors of late I’m sure a suitable sucker can be found then again if there is one thing these parasites know it’s self preservation.

With rioters crashing the Capitol just days into the new year, 2021 has got off to a rollicking start. So we probably should have predicted the release of the CIA’s “entire file” on UFOs. The Black Vault, a website devoted to the collection and publication of government records related to UFOs and paranormal phenomena run by John Greenewald, Jr., released the treasure trove of documents after twenty years of Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the CIA dating back to 1996 (when Greenewald was 15).

The records go back to the early 1950s, when officials grew concerned when “so many ‘flying saucers’” were being reported. An April 1976 memo, painted with redactions as it is, still reveals a moment where Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology is handed intelligence and, after a brief examination, says he would “personally look into the matter.” The description of the intelligence itself was redacted. Some report? Photographs? Can you request the retraction of redactions through the FOIA?

Several reports focus on UFO sightings across the globe, from a 1957 sighting in Iran, a 1965 document concerning Antarctic Flying Saucers,” a heavily redacted account of 1976 sighting in Morocco, and a 1977 report about “’Unusual’ Natural Phenomena” in the Soviet Republic of Karelia, a province of the Soviet Union adjacent to Finland, where a “huge star suddenly [flared] up in the dark sky” and sent “shafts of light to the earth,” before moving over the city of Petrozavodsk like a “medusa” and then toward nearby Lake Onega. A 1985 report about another Soviet incident 120 miles from Minsk, in present day Belarus, also describes a “large star” seen by an airline crew mid-flight that again sent lights to the earth, amid many other details.

The release follows less than a year after the US. Navy officially acknowledged three incidents, one in 2004 and two in 2015, in which its pilots encountered “unidentified aerial phenomena” that seemed to defy the known laws of physics.

On Thursday of this week, the Navy claimed its top secret briefing slides relating to the 2004 incident, if released as requested by a separate FOIA filing by UFO researcher Christian Lambright, would “cause exceptionally grave damage” to U.S. national security.

None of the recently released evidence provides confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth, but the year is still young. If 2021 hopes to outdo 2020, a light show over Devil’s Tower would probably do it.

As I see what’s been going on since November in general over the last 10 days in particular I have to say this.

I’m only slightly disappointed in the Democrats, you have to remember that I didn’t expect better of then and I stated bluntly that the only reason why President Trump won in 2016 is the left didn’t think they needed to steal the election and the long delay in finally calling it that evening was all about seeing if they could steal sufficient votes to solve the problem, but not having time or the coordination and planning that was available by 2020 it just wasn’t doable.

I am however disappointed in everyone else, either through inaction or fear has gone along. I always presumed that Americans were adverse to having their rights and prerogative taken from them but apparently that died with the world war two generation.

They may not have been the greatest generation of Americans but apparently they were the last.

As a rule republics commit suicide, it may still be possible to resuscitate ours over the next four years but that will depend on how willing the people will be to let it die rather than do the heavy lifting required to keep it alive..