Recent content by Hermit of Archenland

Princess Frances As promised, here is the rant in response to your disgusting slur against the memory of the late Robert Holmes. I am actually going to approach this from a slightly oblique angle. I recently watched a YouTube video about current and returning Dr Who showrunner Russel Davies...

Then they were being utterly stupid! I don't have time just now to go into this this in detail but I will continue later. Look forward to a rant!

Why are you calling Robert Holmes a racist? Please don't tell me this is a reference to The Talons of Weng Chiang or I shall be rather annoyed.

I never saw Hartnell and Troughton when they were first broadcast; I started watching the program with Pertwee. It's pretty hard to assess the first two Doctors now because so many of their episodes are lost. My favourite classic Doctor is Davison, mainly because I liked his stories so much...

I sometimes wonder if the people making these accusations of sexism against Lewis on the strength of Jill's words have really thought through what they are implying. Jill said 'she's interested in nothing nowadays except lipstick and nylons and invitations.' Now if we are going to ignore the...

I have always thought the idea (promulgated in the movie) that the Telmarine invasion followed almost immediately after the Pevensies' disappearance makes no sense. One reason for that is Aslan's Howe, which had been constructed over the Stone Table in the interval between the two books. This...

I'm not sure how widely reported it's been in other countries, but here in the UK this past week there's been a huge controversy about revisions to Roald Dahl's books. The censors have removed everything they consider 'problematic' such as the adjective fat (replaced by huge) and sometimes even...

I don't think The Last Battle is really all that similar to Revelations. You do have the figures of the Devil, Antichrist and False Prophet (Tash, Puzzle and Shift) but instead of all three being thrown into the lake of fire, the Devil consumes the False Prophet before being banished to parts...

Sorry Peeps but I really can't agree. I suppose I have a particular affection for Prince Caspian as it was the first Narnia book I read and scenes like the Romp and the conjunction of Tarva and Alambil were my first real encounter with the numinous in literature. I've read the book dozens of...

My favourite version of Robin Hood was a 1980's TV series called Robin of Sherwood. Devised by the TV writer Richard Carpenter it was a joint British/Canadian production that ran for three seasons on UK Independent Television, although I'm not sure how widely it was shown outside Britain and...

I'm afraid I have to agree with CF. In the Starwars sequel trilogy the character of Luke was totally assassinated. I don't want to believe that misandry was the motive, but when the female dominated production team appears wearing tee shirts with the legend 'the Force is female' and the new...

I think that quote is from near the end of The Silver Chair when a faun is describing what centaurs have for breakfast. But I'm sure pavenders are mentioned earlier in the book when Eustace and Jill stay at Cair Paravel. The list of breakfast food for centaurs (at least the human part of...

How about pavenders? I think that's the only food mentioned in the books that's uniquely Narnian. Actually I always imagined pavenders to be something like trout, although I'm not really a fish enthusiast.

I think it's Mere Christianity, I haven't read it for a while so I might be getting mixed up with another essay but I know he wrote that somewhere. I certainly don't think the Caloremenes are supposed to be a metaphor for Muslims. The Calormene religion is polytheistic, they practice human...

The only mention Lewis made of Islam that I can remember is in Mere Christianity, where he maintained that Christianity and Hinduism are the only viable options among the world's major religions. He dismissed Buddhism as a Hindu heresy and Islam as a Christian heresy. Technically that's...