A recent Breaking Bad episode featured a fictional pitch for a Star Trek episode; now someone has animated it:
Richard Nixon’s Keen Grasp of History and Culture
Nixon: God damn it, I do not think that you glorify on public television homosexuality. The reason you don’t glorify it John anymore than you glorify, uh, uh, uh, whores. Now we all know people who have whores and we all know that people are just, uh, do that, we all have weaknesses and so forth and so on, but God damn it, what do you think that does to kids? What do you think that does to 11 and 12 year old boys when they see that? …
I don’t want to see this country go that way. You know there are countries – You ever see what happened, you know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates.
Ehrlichman: He never had the influence that television had.
Nixon: Do you know what happened to the Romes, Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. The last six. Nero had a public wedding to a boy. Yeah. … You know what happened to the Popes? It’s all right that, po-po-Popes were laying the nuns, that’s been going on for years, centuries, but, when the popes, when the Catholic Church went to hell, in, I don’t know, three or four centuries ago, it was homosexual. And finally it had to be cleaned out. Now, that’s what’s happened to Britain, it happened earlier to France. And let’s look at the strong societies. The Russians. God damn it, they root them out, they don’t let them around at all. You know what I mean? I don’t know what they do with them. … Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell no. … You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they’re trying to destroy us. …
Now, this is one thing I want. I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this sonofabitching, uh, Domestic Council? … I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them. I see another thing in the news summary this morning about it. You know it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them? …
More here.
Fear and Loathing at the Atlas Society
At IOS 2.0, my friend Irfan reports unhappy tidings from the Atlas Society grad seminar.
He also answers a challenge from Chris Christie about 9/11.
To Rule the Earth
I make a cameo appearance in George Smith’s latest post on the Herbert Spencer / Henry George debate.
A Ballad of This Dream; or, Bottomes Galore
According to Ian Fleming’s Wikipedia page, during his teens Fleming studied at a school run by a Phyllis Bottome, and then had an affair with an (apparently unrelated) woman named Monique de Bottomes.
That explains so much.
Habemus Doctorem
Some speculation via quotation:
THE MASTER: “There is some evil in all of us, Doctor, even you. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation. And I may say, you do not improve with age.” – The Ultimate Foe (1986)
THE DOCTOR: “Sorry, wasn’t it obvious? The Dream Lord was me. Psychic pollen. It’s a mind parasite. It feeds on everything dark in you, gives it a voice, turns it against you. I’m nine hundred and seven. It had a lot to go on.” – Amy’s Choice (2010)
THE GREAT INTELLIGENCE: “The Doctor lives his life in darker hues, day upon day, and he will have other names before the end. The Storm, the Beast, the Valeyard.” – The Name of the Doctor (2013)
So might Capaldi be playing the Valeyard? Capaldi doesn’t look enormously like Michael Jayston (he actually reminds me of Craig Ferguson), but he does look more like Jayston than Tennant or Smith do.
I know the big V.’s supposed to be just after 12, not just after 11, but the Hurt Doctor might throw the count off. And indeed the narrative function of the Hurt Doctor might be precisely to advance the count so that Moffat can do the Valeyard storyline before he quits as showrunner ….
