Actually it's an old Russian proverb. Reagan made it his catch phrase as part of a plan to improve American-Soviet relations dreamt up by a writer named Suzanna Massie whom Reagan used as an unofficial back-channel to Moscow.

To be honest I really don't buy that argument, because that argument was never actually made to anyone in Regan's cabinet and only arose after the fact.

On the other hand, letting science fiction writers dictate policy led to the star wars debacle.

The sad thing about 'gamergate' is that the men lashing out are exactly the sort of people who would really be helped by feminism. They cling to these fucked up and kinda tedious fantasies because they've been strung along by all these toxic ideas of what manhood is, but can't actually enact it because... well...…

On the one hand, Canada did build several secret flying saucers for US military intelligence purposes.

I never liked the Pitt because they chickened out on the baby-murder. And normally that wouldn't bother me, because baby murder is fucked up and a lame way of trying to crank drama out of something. But the whole story is clearly built around the idea of baby-murder. You hook up with a chick named Medea and it's…

The Novel Writing Machines and Telescreen and so on had some roots in what had come before, but were relatively novel ideas and totally impossible in the forties. Much like the pewpewboom rocketships of Flash Gordon.

To be fair, there are a lot of fuckwits who read Science Fiction because they want pewpew robots or who are only interested in Hard SF. That's what keeps the licensed novel industry alive despite the fact that 90% of it is raw diaper garbage, or what prompts people to split hairs about hard SF, Soft SF, science…

Especially since they're laying the groundwork for superpowered people by laying it on thick with Kree technology.

It's somewhat different in that Skinner isn't an actor and has no real acting career. Part of why Tate worked is that she is an actor.

Congress's job here is more to do with budgets and oversight, but the same principle applies. If you're willing to listen to someone explaining "Oh yeah this is important because" and weigh that against what other people say is important, or the demands of people on other committees, and come to a decision? You're…

I'd advise looking him up on Tumblr. But they don't seem to get that his character design implies he's an alcoholic because they just draw all noses like that.

I think Stan would be one of those characters that's arbitrarily drawn in a different style. He'd probably be more cartoonish.

The problem isn't that these people don't have a science background. That's fine. In fact, you'll often see more sensible policy from countries under the Westminster System, which shifts the portfolios of ministers musical-chairs style whenever one of them fucks up. You could be in charge of transport for six months…

Obviously he'd love to do it, Capaldi's an old friend and collaborator of his, and so on. I think the trans-atlantic issue is the biggest reason we haven't seen Ferguson on the show. That and the fact he doesn't necessarily have that huge a profile in the UK. The latter issue's probably less and less important though,…

This kind of thing happens like, once a year. It's very strange.

I kinda get the feeling that Scott Bradlee and the Postmodern Jukebox would blow your mind.

That's somewhat different. Tate's an actor who's done a bit of presenting, whereas Skinner's basically a full-time presenter at this point who is very busy in that sphere. Look at how they're ramping up production on Room 101.

First off, he's not more manipulative than, say Sylvester McCoy, who dedicated at least two serials to gaslighting his companion. Have some perspective.

Actually, the opposite sort of happened here. Moffat mandated the title, and told the writer to come up with whatever he wanted so long as he used that title and the stipulation that it had to be in space as a starting point.