Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

Romana II
A small world it is.

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Lalla ward was the actress who played the Doctor's Time Lady companion, Romana. She would marry Tom Baker and they would divorce shortly thereafter.

"Ward said in 2004 that her long friendship with Douglas Adams, with whom she worked on Doctor Who, meant more to her and was "more valuable and more enduring" than her marriage to Baker.
In 1992, at his 40th birthday party, Adams introduced her to his friend Richard Dawkins (biologist and author of such books as The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker and, later, The God Delusion). Ward and Dawkins married later that year."


Richard Dawkins, famous anti religious zealot, or at least that is who he plays on 'TV':

"Dawkins is a noted atheist, a patron of the British Humanist Association, and a supporter of the Brights movement, and is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982, he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms. This concept is presented in his book The Extended Phenotype.

He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—"a fixed false belief".[9]:5 As of January 2010, the English-language version had sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages. Dawkins founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to promote the teaching of evolution and to counteract those who advocate classroom programs against evolution. In 2014 he joined the global awareness movement Asteroid Day as a "100x Signatory"."

Lalla Ward (born Sarah Ward; 28 June 1951) is an English actress and author.

She is known for her role as Romana in the BBC television series Doctor Who.

"Sarah Ward is the daughter of Edward Ward, 7th Viscount Bangor, and his fourth wife, Marjorie Alice Banks; as such, she is entitled to use the courtesy title "The Honourable". Her father was the BBC's war correspondent in Finland at the beginning of the Second World War, while her mother was a writer and BBC producer specialising in dramatised documentaries. Her mother committed suicide in July 1991.

She has a brother, Edward, two years her junior; and a half-brother, William, who is the 8th Viscount Bangor, three years her senior. Through her father she is descended from George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III, and from John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough, John, 1st Viscount Mordaunt, and Bernard Ward, 1st Viscount Bangor. Her great-grandmother Mary Ward was an illustrator and amateur scientist, and is documented as the first person in the world to die in a motor vehicle accident.:"

I'm not saying Dawkins is right or wrong, I have no idea, those are metaphysical questions, in my opinion. It is just an interesting thing to note and might simply show how these people all move in the same 'celebrity' circles, making Dawkin more the latter than 'scientist', perhaps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalla_Ward
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
Last edited by ProperGander on Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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hoi.polloi wrote:You're right! Not to mention the reiterative propaganda "sitcom" Big Bang Theory!

If you are a regular watcher of 'Doctor Who', I am sure you will notice many problems with the show's premise that the character who is supposed to be "smarter than everyone in the room" is actually a mouthpiece for the idiots in charge who genuinely believe that about themselves.

Please post what suspicious things you notice in the show, and keep going with the excellent citation and keeping it digestible for average readership.
"Great minds think alike." ;)

Television Programming as Propaganda tool:
The Big Bang Theory is a great example. The best thing I think that show does is have the NASA space suit clearly visible among all the comic book and fantasy memorabilia. As well as the clearly depicting the "the character who is supposed to be "smarter than everyone in the room" is actually a mouthpiece for the idiots in charge who genuinely believe that about themselves." meme. By this I mean specifically how the main characters know and care more about fictional creations than real science. The one character who is an engineer is made fun of by the theoretical 'dark matter' expert, the character known as 'Sheldon', who had to find another theory to speculate about as his area of expertise was eliminated from mainstream consideration.

Of course the engineer character goes to the International Space Station and the production did a pretty decent job faking Zero Gravity on a sitcom budget.

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"Actors can be suspended in various rigs and suspended harnesses with hoops and bearings which allow smooth motion around a desired axis. After the rigs themselves are digitally painted out of the frame, the resulting motions create a convincing illusion. Short scenes can be shot in actual zero-g conditions in aircraft traveling in a parabolic arc.
These kind of illusions can be further enhanced with entirely cgi visual cues like debris, floating objects, etc. Metallic objects are particularly easy to make photo-realistic so perhaps the pen you refer to is entirely digital. The selling point for a shot comes from unified visual cues leading viewers to conclude the environment is weightless. What we see leads us to make conclusions about mass and weight.
A good example of how this can be used is contact juggling, where the artist uses a fairly heavy acrylic sphere yet makes it seem weightless. Here's an example:"



This show is on CBS. In the last century, Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the Presidents by the same name, sat on the board of directors of the broadcast company. A nice parallel to Joseph Kennedy's involvement with the film industry.

"From 1944 to 1956, Prescott Bush was a member of the Yale Corporation, the principal governing body of Yale University. He was on the board of directors of CBS, having been introduced to chairman William S. Paley around 1932 by his close friend and colleague W. Averell Harriman, who became a major Democratic Party power-broker."
"The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by (William) Paley in 1928, and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System"
William S. Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States"
"During World War II, Paley served in the psychological warfare branch in the Office of War Information, under General Dwight Eisenhower, and held the rank of colonel. It was while based in London, England, during the war when Paley came to know and befriend Edward R. Murrow, CBS's head of European news. In 1946, Paley promoted Frank Stanton to president of CBS. CBS expanded into TV and rode the post-World War II boom to surpass NBC, which had dominated radio."

"Prescott Bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the Bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. Like his son, George, and grandson, George W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential Skull and Bones student society. He was an artillery captain in the first world war and married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921."

"Prescott Bush was appointed as a director of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation. "
"In May 1933, the Harriman International Company, became the head of a syndicate of 150 firms and individuals to conduct all exports from Hitler's Germany to the United States. The agreement had been negotiated by John Foster Dulles and Hitler's economic minister, Hjalmar Schacht. Dulles was the international attorney for several Nazi enterprises and in September, 1937, he wrote to Prescott Bush about the German Atlantic Cable Company, that owned Nazi Germany's only telegraph channel to the United States."

Of course the logo for the Columbia Broadcasting System is the eye. And Columbia is the "historical and poetic name used for the United States of America and also as one of the names of its female personification".

Image
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source:
https://www.quora.com/The-Big-Bang-Theo ... s-in-space
http://www.space.com/17891-big-bang-the ... esign.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Paley
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/s ... ndworldwar
http://spartacus-educational.com/MDbushPR.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_(name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Bruckheimer
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

hoi.polloi wrote:As a very brief addendum, the producer credited with pitching, producing and creating the whole premise and possibility for the Doctor Who show in the BBC in the first place is Sydney Newman, a Russian Jewish fellow working for Canadian Broadcasting who made outright propaganda films and was controversial later in his life for suppressing politically "sensitive" films. He was also, allegedly, the one who demanded the show feature applied and theoretical science as we know it today and that the show feature an inexperienced character who makes mistakes because of their misunderstanding of said science. Hmmm. Sounds to me a bit like the "internal war" I suggested may have always existed behind the scenes of the show started with its inception.

According to the official narrative, the show was not supposed to feature 'bug eyed monsters' or something to that effect. But that went out the window right away with the introduction of the Daleks.
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This monster was marketed and promoted and made the show a hit. This is why the show went from its initial concept to what we ended up with, or at least that is the story.

The understanding of science is bound to be shaky. The show was not a science show and that means it really is 'fantasy'. In other words, the writers do not care about being consistent with theoretical science anywhere near as much as they care about telling emotionally appealing and riveting stories, or just cranking something out and collecting a paycheck. They also do not care so much about historical accuracy and the rest, not as much as the fan would, at least. These guys also didn't have the internet at their fingertips to aid them in any research, and with deadlines and limited budgets and so on, it is easy to see how and why the show would not come anywhere near to presenting a clear picture of science. The writing itself would be commissioned from freelance writers as well, so not every television writer will be versed in the various theories and so on. Again and more importantly I think they just didn't and still do not care about the details of the various scientific theories. This really is something that NASA worshippers who also like their science fiction fare, do not understand, and why they get confused when they see things like Matt Damon's latests Mars flick. History needs not be anymore accurate than what passes for fact. These are actors and theater people, so maybe we shouldn't expect them to care about much more than simply having a chance to perform or create their art or work at their craft. A lot of effort and real engineering goes into these productions. That is the area I find fascinating. I don't think everyone who works behind the scenes are 'in on it' and most who work in the industry more than likely, take things we would see as red flags, as simply the way the industry works. There's also the very strong possibility that since these people all work 'behind the curtain", so to speak, they can more easily recognize the 'tricks of the trade' used to generate the various imagery sold as factual 'NEWS'. And sure some of them probably have a background generating the fake news imagery or in writing scripts for the various 'events' or newsreel type war accounts. This could explain why we get various hints and nods from "Hollywood' productions. Allot of the film makers are real fans of the industry and it shows when they are interviewed as they tend to light up like little kids, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of them figured a thing or two out for themselves and this might have leaked into some of their work. Of course all of this is speculative and I filled in some blanks in there, which I think is usually a mistake, and may be here as well. I don't mean to come across as an apologist or anything like that. I just think that the approach to the media fakery is going to include the idea of everyone being on a need to know basis, so not everyone needs to know how it all works.

The lead actor, producer and head writer would also change every few years or so and with this turn over of production staff, we also get continuity and like mistakes which are also due to the show being on for a long time. And more importantly, and this is something 'fans' usually do not get, is that the creators of this work usually do not care about being accurate. At least not back then, before all the syndication and books and so on. It is not part of the equation. The 'reverse the polarity' line from the Jon Pertwee era, for example, was used all the time because the actor did not like having to recite technical jargon, if memory serves. There is a gag reel with a collection of shots of the actor reciting the line in numerous episodes and it is referenced even today. But here I am repeating what I have read, so it is possible that the picture is different and more complicated. I tend to to think people will take the path of least resistance more often than not, but then that sort of assumes people are always logical, and that is clearly not the case.

Doctor Who Supercut - Reverse the Polarity

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDaCMhKPGys

"A catchphrase used during the Third Doctor's era was "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow". The phrase was Pertwee's way of dealing with the technobabble that he was required to speak as the Doctor. Terrance Dicks recalls that he had used the line in a script, and Pertwee approached him about the line. Dicks had feared that he would have to remove it, but Pertwee stated that he liked it, and wanted to see it more often. Dicks obliged"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Doctor

I think your broader points are correct. I think that science fiction productions would not be funded if there were no interest by the people with the capital to promote such things. There's obvious profit motive for some investors, of course. But there is also the government or military intelligence aspect that cannot be denied and is clearly demonstrated with examples like all that Lookout Mountain and Hollywood talent produced propaganda, as well as the obvious NASA/Star Trek connection and other telltale signs. And there's what you pointed out, "Sydney Newman, a Russian Jewish fellow working for Canadian Broadcasting who made outright propaganda films" I think as long as the scripts hit certain marks, which are built into these genres anyway, the financiers of these works are happy. Especially if the intent is not so much a profit based one, but more about getting ideas out into the mass consciousness, or reinforcing various memes like 'relativity' and other mainstream scientific nonsense like 'time travel' and 'multiverses' and so on. All with a pedigree from the world of literary fiction. Funny how today we are beginning to hear about the clearly fantasy inspired theory of 'Multiverses' from the likes of the mainstream celebrity mystics. These are literally comic book ideas.

Below is an example of a very deranged mind. Here this man has confused fantasy with reality. A very troubling thing to watch. ;)
Is Time Travel Possible? - The Science of Doctor Who - Doctor Who - BBC

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O8lBIcHre0
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

Star Trek and 20th Century Propaganda

Early broadcast television exposed the audience to a very limited amount of content as there were less than a handful of television channels to choose from and the broadcast day had a beginning and end, back then. I think this is something easily forgotten today.

I know not Doctor Who, but related. This is an example of Hollywood's relationship with not only the NEWS but the legal system, something that would come up again during the 1990's with the O.J. Simpson Trial miniseries and famed helicopter videos of the 'Bronco chase' that never actually showed O.J. stepping out of the Bronco , despite the camera following the SUV all the way to his home and driveway, but I digress.

Marvin Belli
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"In perhaps his best-known role, other than as himself, Belli appeared in a 1968 Star Trek episode, "And the Children Shall Lead." In it he appeared as Gorgan, an evil being who corrupted a group of children, one of whom was played by his son Caesar."

"Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. He won over $600,000,000 (U.S.) in judgments during his legal career. He was also the attorney of Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."

Zodiac Real Voice On Jim Dunbar

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsM-kwU2mRU
Marvin Belli is on set in the newsroom and on the phone with the supposed 'Zodiac Killer' or so it seems.
see around 0.27 or so, after Walter Cronkite introduces the segment.

Melvin helped out with a production George Lucas was also involved in, Gimme Shelter.
"Much of the film chronicles the behind-the-scenes dealmaking that took place to make the free Altamont concert happen, including much footage of well-known attorney Melvin Belli negotiating by telephone with the management of the Altamont Speedway. The movie also includes a playback of Hells Angels leader Ralph "Sonny" Barger's famous call-in to radio station KSAN-FM's "day after" program about the concert, wherein he recalls, "They told me if I could sit on the edge of the stage so nobody could climb over me, I could drink beer until the show was over.""

Notice the use of the live 'call in' with both the Zodiac and the Gimme Shelter events. Gimme Shelter (rhymes nice with Helter Skelter does it not?) is a supposed 'snuff' film. But should we really believe anyone was killed? It was a Hollywood production after all...

"At this point, footage from the documentary shows Hunter (seen in the film in a lime-green suit) drawing what appears to be a long-barreled black .22 caliber revolver from his jacket and pointing it in the air.[7] The film shows what might be an orange flash at the end of the pistol in one frame. Due to the film's low fidelity, it is impossible to determine whether the flash is a gunshot, a reflection, or a film defect. The Angels did not report any discharged cartridges in Hunter's pistol.[8] The film then shows Hells Angel Alan Passaro, armed with a knife, running at Hunter from the side, parrying the gun with his left hand and stabbing him with his right. The footage was shot by Eric Saarinen who was on stage taking pictures of the crowd. Saarinen was unaware of having caught the incident on film. This was discovered more than a week later, when rushes were screened in the New York offices of the Maysles Brothers.

In the film sequence, lasting about two seconds, a six-foot opening in the crowd appears, leaving Patty Bredahoft in the center. Hunter enters the opening from the left, his hand rises and the silhouette of a revolver is clearly seen against Bredahoft's bright crocheted dress. Passaro is seen entering from the right and delivering two stabs as he pushes Hunter off screen. The opening closes around Bredahoft. Passaro is reported to have stabbed Hunter five times in the upper back. Witnesses also reported Hunter was stomped on by several Hells Angels while he was on the ground. The gun was recovered and turned over to police. Hunter's autopsy later confirmed his girlfriend's report that he did have methamphetamine in his bloodstream at the time of his death."
The bold part sounds very staged to me, as in stage direction for an action sequence in a film, suggestive of the work of stuntmen.

Albert and David Maysles are the directors of Gimme Shelter. Coincidentally or perhaps not so, they directed the documentary about Jackie Kennedy's cousins, titled 'Grey Gardens'.

"Grey Gardens depicts the lives of a reclusive upper-class mother and daughter, "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Beale (who were, respectively, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis), residing in a derelict mansion in East Hampton, New York. In order to finance these films and others, the Maysles also made commercials for clients such as IBM, Shell Oil, and Merrill Lynch."

""Best known for his work in direct cinema (cinéma vérité), Albert (Maysles) did not begin his career as a filmmaker; he got a Master of Arts degree from Boston University where he taught psychology for three years before making the switch to film. He took a trip to Russia to photograph a mental hospital, and returned the next year with a camera gifted to him from CBS to film his first documentary, Psychiatry in Russia.""

This review of Gimme Shelter is very interesting...
PAULINE KAEL VS. GIMME SHELTER
"If events are created to be photographed, is the movie that records them a documentary, or does it function in a twilight zone? Is it the cinema of fact when the facts are manufactured for the cinema? The Nazi rally at Nuremberg in 1934 was architecturally designed so that Leni Riefenstahl could get the great footage that resulted in Triumph of the Will; in order to shoot A Time for Burning, William C. Jersey instigated a racial confrontation that split an Omaha church; the Maysles brothers recruited Paul Brennan, who was in the roofing and siding business, to play a bible salesman for the ‘direct cinema’ Salesman. It is said to be a ‘law’ that the fact of observation alters the phenomenon that is observed – but how can one prove it? More likely, observation sometimes alters the phenomenon and sometimes doesn’t…there is no reason to believe that the freaked-out people in Gimme Shelter paid much attention to the camera crews, but would the event itself have taken place without those crews? With modern documentarians, as with many TV news cameramen, it’s impossible to draw a clear line between catching actual events and arranging events to be caught; a documentarian may ask people to re-enact events, while a TV journalist may argue that it was only by precipitating events that he was able to clarify issues for the public – that is, that he needed to fake a little, but for justifiable reasons. There are no simple ethical standards to apply, and, because the situations are so fluid and variable, one has to be fairly knowledgeable not to get suckered into reacting to motion-picture footage that appears to be documentary as if it were the simple truth."

The Hells Angels would seem to have named themselves after a Hollywood production produced by none other than Howard Hughes. Hughes owned property near the Spahn Ranch.
""The Spahn ranch wasn't a hippie commune. It bordered the Krupp ranch, and has now been combined and incorporated to make a German Bavarian beer garden. Howard Hughes knew George Spahn. He went to this ranch daily while making The Outlaw. Howard Hughes bought the 516 acres of Krupp property in Nevada after he moved into that territory." Spahn Ranch was where Charlie Manson liked to hang out and do his 'thang'. From wikipedia:" Spahn Ranch is notoriously and best known as the primary residence of Charles Manson and his followers, the "Manson Family," for much of 1968 and 1969."

Hell's Angels

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8wmyCcbnX0

For the sake of comparison at 9:30 the swimming effects shot from this film, as compared to the squadron shots from the above film at around 0:30: Also note the use of models in the Hughes film. I am thinking in terms of this being a composite or keyed special effect. The thing to consider is how easy it is to shoot footage in a controlled environment as opposed to attempting it during actual combat. We should also consider that the news folk might not want to really get in harm's way. Security reasons as well might be why Hollywood would fake war newsreel footage and even war accounts that end up in the history books. It is not crazy to think that the military might be smart enough not to reveal the details of battles and things like that, in order to avoid revealing the strategies and tactics and reasoning behind the Allied victory. Such a thing is surely not impossible. The same reasoning could apply to news fakery today. These are all possibilities, as are more 'extreme' notions like, but not limited to, "they didn't even bother fighting much of it", or "allot of it was demolition work, like on 9/11",(rather than actual bombings).


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS37kyfnGy4

You can't make this stuff up. Or maybe you can... ;)

It is obviously not crazy to question any and all news stories. We are dealing with a Military Industrial Entertainment Complex who are also involved with film making and special effects, which are one and the same.



source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Belli
http://www.zodiackillerfacts.com/belli.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimme_Shelter_(1970_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Meredith_Hunter
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065780/ful ... t_ov_st_sm
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0563099/?ref_=ttfc_fc_dr1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_and_David_Maysles
http://thedocumentaryblog.com/2007/09/1 ... e-shelter/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._J._Simpson_murder_case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TruTV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spahn_Ranch
https://books.google.com/books?id=Fiyw_ ... ch&f=false
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Sk ... _scenario)
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:14 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

CBS and 21st Century Propaganda

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A sample of 'Primetime Programming'. This show is an example of how the writers do not care about continuity or logic. There are some glaring storyline inconsistencies and flaws that I won't get into here, but that illustrate the lack of concern about such 'details' on part of the production staff. This show really shows how a fictionalized series is clearly used to promote very inaccurate views of history, to say the least. The 9/11 propaganda love never stops in the world of the "Blue Bloods'. Note the double meaning of the title of the show.

"Blue Bloods is an American police procedural drama series shown on CBS in the United States and Canada and on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom. "

"The series follows the Irish-American Reagan family of police officers with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Francis X. "Frank" Reagan (Selleck) is the Police Commissioner. He was a U.S. Marine Corps officer and a Vietnam veteran before he joined the NYPD. He is a 9/11 First Responder, a widower whose son Joe was murdered in the line of duty, and has three other adult children—Danny, Erin, and Jamie."

"Reception
Reviewers have praised the series' on-location shooting. The New York Daily News praised Selleck's performance as Frank Reagan, while also praising the family dinner scene for discussion of morally complex issues.

The Daily News drew comparisons between Selleck's characters Jesse Stone and Frank Reagan, saying that both Reagan and Stone are moral, principled men of few words. In Entertainment Weekly's annual Fall TV Preview, Ken Tucker named Blue Bloods as one of the "5 Best New Shows" of 2010."

For those interested, here is an example of the continuity problems and the lack of concern or care about it, as the broader themes and memes are what is important to the producers of this work.

"The series centers on the Reagans, a family of police officers in New York City. Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) is the police commissioner with three grown children working in law enforcement: the oldest Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), a hard-nosed detective; Erin (Bridget Moynahan), an assistant district attorney who prosecutes many of the offenders Danny apprehends; and Jamie (Will Estes), a recent Harvard Law School graduate and a rookie cop in the NYPD. Frank's second son, Joseph, was killed in the line of duty while investigating a group of dirty cops nicknamed "The Blue Templar"."

"On Friday's episode, the youngest crime-fighting Reagan (Will Estes), who's been working undercover all season as Jimmy Reardon tailing the Sanfino mob family, saves a baby from a burning building. His heroics immediately set off a media frenzy, which threaten his undercover identity should his name and photo be released."


There is a public funeral for the second son, the family attends. Tom Selleck is the commissioner, his dad was commissioner, his two sons are cops and his daughter an assistant DA, all in New York City. You would then think that with knowing all of that it would be impossible for the youngest son to go 'undercover'. One would think it a terrible idea to take a newbie police officer, fresh out of the academy, with such a public background, and assign him undercover work. Inexipicably this is exactly the storyline for the commissioner's youngest son, 'Jamie' who proceeds to go undercover as 'Jimmy Reardon'.

source:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1595859/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bloods_(TV_series)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blue%20blood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... s_episodes
http://www.tvguide.com/news/blue-bloods ... s-1045730/
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/ha ... colony.htm
http://history.econtrader.com/the_first ... tution.htm
Last edited by ProperGander on Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:38 pm, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

Television programming is like what film theaters used to be, the viewer is shown works of fiction and works labeled as fact. The public has been conditioned to trust as fact, anything labeled as 'news'. The voice over, or bold headline defines perception. The audience is so conditioned that they cannot tell reality from fantasy, as the lines are purposely blurred by the mainstream media itself. There are many proverbial layers to the lie. Every news story is told in the same manner, making it impossible, or nearly so, to 'pan the gold from the stream'.

Maybe this subject needs to be retitled? Or perhaps some of these posts put somewhere else? Just throwing that out there. :) Clearly I am going off on some serious tangents.

In any case, this would seem to show how the people in charge of the networks can easily control perception.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

Unread post by ProperGander »

Doctor Who, Gallifrey, Time Lords and the Vatican
The art of television series design

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"Ah, now there's something... Passive religion has had a profound, though referred, effect on the programme's history. Let's begin with Time Lord society, which appears to be based heavily on ceremony. Elaborate robes, hierarchically divided according to school-house-like chapters and designations, along with regalia and an air of serene superiority are surely connections to the church. Having discovered a manner in which to traverse time, they now see themselves as lords over it. They have strict laws of time and a policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other societies, which could be said to be a Godlike wisdom of allowing people to learn from their own mistakes (though they think nothing of unleashing the odd bolt of lightening: removing someone from existence itself, forcibly regenerating the Doctor, or even the attempted termination of him to save themselves)."

The origin of the word Doctor:
"Doctor of the Church (Latin doctor, teacher, from Latin docere, to teach) is a title given by a variety of Christian Churches to individuals whom they recognize as having been of particular importance, particularly regarding their contribution to theology or doctrine."

Is it hard to imagine that writers spend a lot of time doing research in libraries? Are these names chosen with such meaning in mind in the first place?
Interesting the parallels to the Vatican, or the Rome 'never falling' idea (or meme), I wonder if that was on the Stephen Moffat's mind when he wrote the anniversary episode "The Day of The Doctor" which actually has four versions of the character present in the script. The end has an 'easter egg' surprise that involved an actor who was contractually obligated to keep 'mum' about it. Tom Baker tells a story about how when he got the part of the Doctor, he was a construction worker and that the BBC had him go back to the work site after he quit, in order to take some publicity photos with his former co-workers, complete with cigarettes.

"Gallifrey Falls No More was a Gallifreyan landscape painting made using stasis cube technology, depicting the fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, on the final day of the Last Great Time War. The painting was believed to have two conflicting titles: No More, or Gallifrey Falls. However, according to the curator of the National Gallery, the painting's full title was actually Gallifrey Falls No More. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)"

If one considers the idea that the Vatican or Church controlled or still controls knowledge, then the idea of the Time Lords occasionally revising history might make sense as analogy to how history is actually constructed and subsequently revised as needed. In the show this is the purpose of the Time Lord C.I.A.

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source and other reading:
http://www.sci-fi-online.com/Features/02-11-14_Who.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_the_Church
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Gallifrey_Falls_No_More
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Doctor
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05075a.htm
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Celestial_ ... ion_Agency
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Genesis_of ... (TV_story)
http://www.markfulton.org/mithraism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus
Last edited by ProperGander on Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Docto Who and Military Drills

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"The War Games is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969. It was the last regular appearance of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and it is the last serial to be recorded in black and white. It is also the last regular to feature Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines as companions Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon. It was also the story where the Doctor's race, the Time Lords, was revealed."

Then there is this 1980's film:

"WarGames is a 1983 American Cold War science-fiction film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy.
The film follows David Lightman (Broderick), a young hacker who unwittingly accesses WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III."


and this BBC production:

"The War Game is a 1965 television drama-documentary film depicting a nuclear war. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government, and was withdrawn before the provisional screening date of Thursday 7 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting, it will, however, be shown to invited audiences...""


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Doctor Who and Transhumanism and the One World Order

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One of the Doctor's enemies, the machine man zombie, the Cyberman. I would think a metaphor for the media-mind controlled mass. Notice the Moon is featured during this age of the 'Space Race'. Of course there is the heliocentric model and one world order memes, as well as the "War of The Worlds" style invasion story.

"The Cybermen first appear in the serial The Tenth Planet in 1966, set in 1986, in which their origin story is given as follows. Millions of years ago, during prehistoric times, Earth had a twin planet known as Mondas. Mondas was knocked out of solar orbit and drifted into deep space. The Mondasians, already far in advance of Earth's technology and fearful for their race's survival, their lifespans shortening, replaced most of their bodies with cybernetic parts. Having eventually removed all emotion from their brains, to maintain their sanity, the natives installed a drive propulsion system so they could pilot the planet itself through space. As the original race was limited in numbers and were continually being depleted, the Mondasians – now Cybermen – became a race of conquerors who reproduced by taking other organic beings and forcibly changing them into Cybermen. These Cybermen fight against the First Doctor (William Hartnell) when the Cybermen attempt to drain the Earth's energy to make way for Mondas' return to the solar system. However, Mondas absorbs too much energy from Earth, destroying it and those Cybermen on Earth. The adventure takes its physical toll on the Doctor, forcing him to regenerate for the first time, becoming the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton).


The Cybermen as they emerge from the sewers onto the streets in their first invasion of Earth as seen in The Invasion.
Redesigned Cybermen next appear in The Moonbase (1967), set in 2070, opposite the Second Doctor, who discovers a crypt containing Cybermen during a visit to the Moon. They attempt to remotely destroy the Earth by affecting its weather patterns with a device called the Gravitron. However, the Gravitron is used against them, hurling them into space. Later that year, The Tomb of the Cybermen sees a 25th Century human expedition discover sarcophagi containing hibernating Cybermen on the planet Telos, where the creatures arise and attack. This episode introduces the cybermats, small mechanical scouts used by the Cybermen, as well as their leader, the Cyber Controller. In The Wheel in Space (1968), the Doctor and his crew face off against the Cybermen on a marooned Earth space station in the 21st Century. This episode introduces the Cyber-Planner, an immobile unit which directs the Cybermen. The Cybermen plan to take over the space station, after which their fleet will invade Earth. The Doctor uses an x-ray laser to destroy the Cybermen. In The Invasion that same year, the Doctor and his companions visit late 20th century England where he discovers an army of Cybermen are hidden on Earth, working with magnate Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney) for their fleet to invade Earth. Their invasion is defeated by the Doctor and the military support of the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce."



ource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberman
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:07 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Doctor Who: Introducing The Matrix
Time Lord Facebook

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A common idea and a very interesting one, the Matrix was a popular film series and is also a term used by Jordan Maxwell, who I guess never watched this BBC classic children's show. The Matrix is a virtual computer network and repository for all Time Lord knowledge, and a place for their minds (or memories) to go to when a Time Lord finally expires. There are obvious parallels to the internet. The theme of the story is about tampering with history or memories. Perhaps an analogy to the media manipulation and the public's long term memory problems. Of course 'matrix' derives from Latin, ‘breeding female,’ later ‘womb,’ from mater, matr- ‘mother.’ I can't find the link now, but I believe I may have come across a reference to the 'matrix' having its science fiction origin in an earlier published novel. The Matrix here could be regarded as 'Mother Church' perhaps. This reminds me of Mr.Maxwell pointing out the word 'church' comes the same word we get 'circle' and the name 'Kirk' from. Of course, the word is also a mathematical term.

"Old English cirice, circe "church, public place of worship; Christians collectively," from Proto-Germanic *kirika (cognates: Old Saxon kirika, Old Norse kirkja, Old Frisian zerke, Middle Dutch kerke, Dutch kerk, Old High German kirihha, German Kirche), probably [see note in OED] from Greek kyriake (oikia), kyriakon doma "Lord's (house)," from kyrios "ruler, lord," from PIE root *keue- "to swell" ("swollen," hence "strong, powerful"); see cumulus. Phonetic spelling from c. 1200, established by 16c. For vowel evolution, see bury. As an adjective from 1570s"

"The Matrix is part of the Amplified Panatropic Computer Network, or APC Net, which contains the biological imprints (or bio-data extracts) of all Time Lords as well as the memories of dead Time Lords, storing them in an extradimensional framework of trillions of electrochemical cells. It also receives input from sensors contained in the TARDIS time machines piloted by Time Lords. As a result, the Matrix is not only a record of the past but can actually predict the future as well. The amount of knowledge in the Matrix, though vast, is not complete, and can be tampered with if given the right amount of access. The unauthorised extraction of a Time Lord's bio-data from the Matrix is an offence tantamount to treason"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(Doctor_Who)
https://doctorwhoandtardis.wordpress.co ... octor-who/
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(mathematics)
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Doctor Who: Ineffectual Heroism

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The Doctor is sent by the Time Lords themselves to stop the birth of the Daleks in the first place. Of course a moral quandary causes the Doctor to balk, but to only change his mind when it is too late, and the Dalek's end up simply having an altered history, instead of ceasing to exist. One would not want to erase a famed menace from history, if one wants to create drama with them again, would one? There are plenty of World War One and World War Two references as well.

"In the serial, the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companions Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) are sent by members of the Doctor's race, the Time Lords, to the time of the Daleks' creation, to avert their future terrorisation of other species. The Doctor faces the dilemma of whether he has the right to do so.

Genesis of the Daleks was originally commissioned under producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks, who felt that the outline submitted by Nation was too similar to his previous Dalek adventures, and encouraged him to explore the origin of the Daleks. The story introduces the Daleks' creator Davros (played by Michael Wisher), who had a unique visual design. The script was handed to Letts and Dicks' successors, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes, who made changes to the original script which gave it a darker tone. Nation, having intentionally modelled the Daleks on the Nazis, further explored the theme in Genesis. It also addresses the moral issues that come with time travelling and genocide. The story was filmed over January and February 1975, with some location filming done in a quarry in Betchworth."


source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_of_the_Daleks
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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CBS Propaganda

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Jerry Bruckheimer produces the CSI television series for CBS. He is also the famed film producer known for films like Top Gun, which was directed by Tony Scott and produced with cooperation of the U.S. Navy who have a history of film and radio productions of various kinds. The film involves an aircraft carrier, the mythic "Enterprise" itself from Star Trek... I mean, the famed U.S, Navy nuclear vessel. Paramount produced the film so any Star Trek references are self promotional. Lucky for Tom Cruise, the Star Trek crew were nearby if he needed any help. I think they were lost in San Francisco at the time. Currently one can watch the original episodes of Star Trek on the CBS website. I like the original series the best and space fantasy never grows old. My favorite episodes involve Captain Kirk single handedly taking down an entire programmed society while the brain-washed minions and elite of that society look at him like he is crazy. In one episode, Spock shows up with the calvary , but Kirk does not need saving, as he is already free and has destroyed the war game simulation that had kept two worlds at virtual war for centuries.

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Jerry Bruckheimer worked with Sir Ridley Scott's brother the late Tony Scott. Riddley Scott currently produces the CBS legal/political/scandal show, 'The Good Wife', which has continuity problems of its own, similar and more prevalent than those found on 'Blue Bloods'. This 'good knight', has the current NASA inspired Mars fantasy film in theaters now, Matt Damon is excellent as a guy lost in the Cinder Lake desert.

"During the 1980s and 1990s, he (Jerry Bruckheimer) was a co-producer with Don Simpson of a string of highly successful Hollywood films for Paramount Pictures. He originally met Don at a screening of 1973's The Harder They Come at Warner Brothers. The two worked together and created Bruckheimer's first big hit, 1983's Flashdance, which brought in US$95 million, an incredible sum for an R-rated film. He had a number of other hits during that time period, including the Beverly Hills Cop films, Top Gun and Days of Thunder. Top Gun marked his first collaboration with English director Tony Scott, who would direct six films for Bruckheimer"

"His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and the U.S. version of The Amazing Race. At one point, three of his TV series ranked among the top 10 in the U.S. ratings—a unique feat in television."

" Many of his films were produced by Disney and Paramount, while many of his television series were co-produced by Warner Bros. and CBS Television Studios. "

"Back in 2001, the man behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer, had visited the Pentagon to pitch an idea. Bruckheimer and fellow producer Bertram van Munster, who masterminded the reality show Cops, suggested Profiles from the Front Line, a primetime television series following US forces in Afghanistan. They were after human stories told through the eyes of the soldiers. Van Munster's aim was to get close and personal. He said: "You can only get accepted by these people through chemistry. You have to have a bond with somebody. Only then will they let you in. What these guys are doing out there, these men and women, is just extraordinary. If you're a cheerleader of our point of view - that we deserve peace and that we deal with human dignity - then these guys are really going out on a limb and risking their own lives."

It was perfect reality TV, made with the active cooperation of Donald Rumsfeld and aired just before the Iraqi war. The Pentagon liked what it saw. "What Profiles does is given another in depth look at what forces are doing from the ground," says Whitman. "It provides a very human look at challenges that are presented when you are dealing in these very difficult situations." That approached was taken on and developed on the field of battle in Iraq.

The Pentagon has none of the British misgivings about its media operation. It is convinced that what worked with Jessica Lynch and with other episodes of this war will work even better in the future."

Jessica Lynch is an actress now. Imagine that.
From her Wikipedia page: "In 2014, Lynch made her film debut as Specialist Summer L. Gabriel in Virtuous. Her role was loosely based on her own experiences in the Iraq War"

Sir Riddley Scott
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"Riddle Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), his better-known works are the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), crime drama Thelma & Louise (1991), historical drama and Best Picture Oscar winner Gladiator (2000), war film Black Hawk Down (2001), crime thriller Hannibal (2001), biographical film American Gangster (2007), and science fiction films Prometheus (2012) and The Martian (2015)."

"He was originally assigned to design the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have entailed realising the famous alien creatures. However, shortly before Scott was due to start work, a schedule conflict meant he was replaced on the serial by Raymond Cusick. In 1965, he began directing episodes of television series for the BBC, only one of which, an episode of Adam Adamant Lives!, is available commercially. (He directed two others, but these have been wiped.)"


"He was brought up in an army family, so for most of his early life, his father – an officer in the Royal Engineers – was absent. His elder brother, Frank, joined the Merchant Navy when he was still young and the pair had little contact. During this time the family moved around, living in (among other areas) Cumberland, Wales and Germany. He had a younger brother, Tony, who also became a film director. After the Second World War, the Scott family moved back to their native North East, eventually settling on Greens Beck Road, Hartburn, Stockton on Tees, Teesside (whose industrial landscape would later inspire similar scenes in Blade Runner)."


"In 2003, Scott was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his "services to the British film industry". In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in London."

Funny how most, if not all, of these Hollywood insiders who work so close with the military., never end up producing television NEWS programming, despite the obvious experience. They all seem to end up creating fictional work instead.


source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Bruckheimer
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/15/iraq.usa2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Scott
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -moon.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gun
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Beta_Tau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lynch
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:22 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Doctor Who and Predictive Programing

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Doctor Who predicts the first woman Prime Minster: I always thought this an odd coincidence, now I wonder if this is where 'they' got the idea from. The explanation from the BBC below, brushes aside any such speculation, so there is nothing to see here. ;) This is from an episode that involved the Loch Ness monster and underground shape changing aliens. According to Doctor Who, dinosaurs might be robots. ;)

"The Brigadier is seen to be on the phone to Downing Street and refers to the Prime Minister as ‘Madame’. At the time, this would have raised an eyebrow as the Prime Minister of the day was Harold Wilson and Britain had never had a woman PM. But Margaret Thatcher had recently become leader of the opposition Conservative Party, and the reference in the script was the Doctor Who production team’s speculation on what might happen in the future. And they were right!"

source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_of_the_Zygons
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... ionTALKING POLITICS
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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ProperGander wrote:
and this BBC production:

"The War Game is a 1965 television drama-documentary film depicting a nuclear war. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government, and was withdrawn before the provisional screening date of Thursday 7 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting, it will, however, be shown to invited audiences...""


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
http://cluesforum.info/viewtopic.php?f= ... 1#p2395513
Check out the scene from approx. 13:12 wherein the Narrator introduces a Doctor doing his rounds, visiting a patient at home.
The Narrator goes '...the time? 9:11 [am}...'.
The good Doctor gets out of the car, approaches the patient's house door and knocks.
The house number? 119.
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Re: Doctor Who: 50 years of Ineffectual Heroism

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Very interesting. Subliminal programming at work, perhaps? 9/11 is both easy to say and remember. Its seems to be a marketing or propaganda trick or technique. And at this point 9/11 is so much a part of the cultural mythology that it is now sewn into the social fabric itself, so that even unwitting content producers promote the memes desired by the social programmers.
Last edited by ProperGander on Tue Oct 13, 2015 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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