Always fun to go read here, and play match the tid-bits mentioned on the show to stuff DrWho:EU has covered.
The Age of the Pythias beings with the rule of City by the First Pythia. She is also The Symbol of the planet's fertility, Mouthpiece of the Gods, and Guardian of the Great Book of Future Legends. To see the future, a Pythia sits in a wicker cage in the Cavern of Prophecy, under the adytum of Temple. She is suspended over the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be. The smoky vapors allow her to acheive the state of clairvoyant and the state of clairaudiant. Attendants of the Pythian Order wear rust red robes. Pythian seers eat fish tongues. The Court of Principals governs under the Pythia
From "(Virgin, BCC, I Who (which isn't a novel but it's source material is))".
Untempered schism anyone?
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One thing that caught me a bit was how inaccurately was the family portrayed: in a Roman family, the man was the lord of the house and there was simply no arguing with him. He held strict authority and would have not tolerated his wife and children talking back to them as they did in the show.
But then again, who says that every family was like that? It was likely that the guy was just a wuss by the time's standards.
Personally, I am not that terribly impressed. I just wish that a little less technobabble is present in the episodes.
The Shadow Proclamation seems to be a recurring trend too. I'm thinking something linked to the overarching plot.
Given that it most likely contains laws againts meddling with primtive worlds like Earth, I am surprised it wasn't mentioned in the past more often.
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Zixinus wrote:One thing that caught me a bit was how inaccurately was the family portrayed: in a Roman family, the man was the lord of the house and there was simply no arguing with him. He held strict authority and would have not tolerated his wife and children talking back to them as they did in the show.
But then again, who says that every family was like that? It was likely that the guy was just a wuss by the time's standards.
Indeed. While that's the official line, it's important to note that human nature hasn't changed that much; in practice, there's a limit to how much of a jerk one could be in a small-ish household.
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MUCH better. Tate's character has the potential to bring a lot of the Doctor's angst to the surface. Her lack of fawning over the Doctor means she can genuinely challenge his conduct in a way that hasn't happened since Rose did so in Dalek.
Please, please, PLEASE don't introduce any romance between these two.
and Zixinus, we have some idea of how Roman society believed itself to be and how it wished to portray itself. This does not mean that this was how every family unit behaved.
Thoroughly enjoyable imo.
OT, what was the Beeb apologising for at the start of the programme? I fast-forwarded that bit.
The Fawlty Towers reference was the highlight of the episode.
Otherwise, it was good to see Tate's character contribute more in one episode than Martha did for at least half a season.
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This just aired in the US last night, so I'm bumping the thread
I am still cringing at Donna... there's just something about her that I really don't like. Her actions in the volcano made up for it, however, as she realized that they really had no choice.
But convincing the Doctor to go back to save the family was also the right choice imho.
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Was I the only one who particularly liked the bit at the beginning when he mentioned his role the Fire of Rome? It's really neat the way the writers are sticking in tiny references to earlier stories like that. It makes for a subtle yet realistic sense of continuity. I really hope it was the writers and not just Tennant ad-libbing.
Bedlam wrote:Interesting how the TARDIS translation system works unlike the Star Trek version it doesn't seem to know when to stop translating or when it does it picks welsh for some unknown reason (unknown in universe anyway).
I don't think it used Welsh (or ancient Brittonic) but rather didn't translate the phrase at all. If it sounded exactly the same to the Roman as it did to us, Donna's pronunciation would have been very foreign to him. He probably heard the v sound and decided it must be Celtic.
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LadyTevar wrote:This just aired in the US last night, so I'm bumping the thread
I am still cringing at Donna... there's just something about her that I really don't like. Her actions in the volcano made up for it, however, as she realized that they really had no choice.
But convincing the Doctor to go back to save the family was also the right choice imho.
Personally I've really taken to Donna. It's really refreshing to have someone who does not put the Doctor on such a high pedestal all the time.
Johonebesus wrote:I don't think it used Welsh (or ancient Brittonic) but rather didn't translate the phrase at all. If it sounded exactly the same to the Roman as it did to us, Donna's pronunciation would have been very foreign to him. He probably heard the v sound and decided it must be Celtic.
She's red haired. Practically the only redheads the romans were familiar with were the celts, to my knowledge...
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