From the Heart of Europe

• Were champagne glasses modeled on the breasts of Madame de Pompadour?
  Looking at the question objectively, I think we'd have to agree that the female breast, however interesting in situ, would make for a singularly misshapen champagne glass. But you know how it is with these male fantasies.
  (tags: history genderandsexandsexuality)
• The Twelfth Doctors | Tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts
  Speculation on past and future other Doctors, including Rowan Atkinson (who turns 55 on 7 January).
  (tags: doctorwho)

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Brilliant video presentation of world viday statistics. (hat-tip to rfmcdpei.)

My rewatching of Old Who has now brought me to Season 15, the first season with no native earthlings on the Tardis.

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So, a season where Hinchcliffe has gone and Holmes is going; where several stories simply lose their way after decent starts, for a combination of script and technical reasons. I hate to be harsh, but the last season with similar difficulties was the last Letts/Dicks season in 1973-74, just before Hinchcliffe and Holmes took over. My memory of the Key to Time season is that it was mostly better; at an episode a day, I should be reporting on it in the first week of February.

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