iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm giving a short talk in London next month — grâces soient rendues à Ti.

Reposted by Phil Pascoe

James Goss @gossjam.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

« Et zut ! Ça recommence ! » Quelle surprise! La traduction de Meglos est très intéressante. Un soi-disant discours académique pour #DoctorWho #TargetBookClub depuis Phil Pascoe (@philpascoe-ish.bsky.social) Billets: bit.ly/smallbluebox

Et Zut - Ca recommence! Phil Pascoe - Secrets hiddenin the French translation of Meglos

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Thoughts after …che Dio perdona a tutti: Eating too many sciù manifests an audience with il Papa, but as it's the hyperglycaemic spike that does this, not the other ingredients, could you achieve the same effect with trentacinque 🌱-sciù con ricotta di latte di mandorla? Another way of loving Flora.

Poster for the film …che Dio perdona a tutti (English title Holy Cannoli, directed by Pif, 2026). Against a yellow background, seated on a bench from right to left are Giusy Buscemi as Flora, Pif as Arturo, and Carlos Hipólito as Il Papa.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'd believe the person who took the time in 1987 to tell the BBC receptionist (at great length, interrupting her when she tried saying "Thanks for the call") his views on Bonnie Langford, was also in 2023 asking people to fork out £50 at minimum to watch AI generated recreations of missing episodes.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Human, presented by Dr. Ella Al-Shamahi (BBC, 2025).

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social article gives interesting context and critique of the Turin Horse episode, including comparisons with works by Dostoevsky and Kundera. lareviewofbooks.org/blog/essays/... (Still think the Everett True approach to horse-beaters is more effective than Nietzsche's.)

lareviewofbooks.org

Nietzsche’s Horse | Los Angeles Review of Books

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

How Nietzsche's encounter with the horse in Turin should have turned out.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This Saint-Pierre ep occurs over a day. Maybe Arch wound down after solving the case, but she says she "got lost in a YouTube superhero rabbit hole" before eventually finding The Avengers. If Arch only watched The Fear Merchants, did she log on to theavengers.tv and follow production order instead?

Screen from Saint-Pierre season one episode two. Fitz, a Canadian man with short dark hair, standing in a street at night, saying "I thought you'd never heard of The Avengers."

Screen from The Avengers series five, episode number varies, titled "The Fear Merchants". Patrick Macnee as John Steed is looking adoringly at Diana Rigg as a smiling Emma Peel.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

In Saint-Pierre, after finding a dead man called John Steed, Arch seeks out then quotes from The Avengers: The Fear Merchants. Except… on all French / Canadian streamers that'd be the second episode listed. So when, on a very busy quatorze juillet, did Arch find time to watch two Avengers episodes?

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

#Bookish #DoctorWho A Sneed at a seance, could this be Gabriel Sneed's grandson? And a circus run by a Rossini… Luigi / Lew Russell / Ross's uncle? A great start to the second series of Bookish!

Screen from Bookish season two episode one. Jason Watkins as Harold Sneed, Medium Nonpareil, a balding man wearing a dark jacket and tie, seated in a dark chair in a dimly lit room, looks upwards with wide eyes and furrowed brow.

Screen from Bookish season two episode two. In the left foreground, a dark haired man in clown make up and clothes is smoking a cigarette. Behind him, to the right, Polly Walker as Trottie, dressed in dark purple clothes with matching hat and bag, looks curiously at the clown. Behind her, a poster advertises Rossini's Circus.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I talk to patients, then type my own notes. Now and then, a typo in the ED notes gets copied and pasted into the inpatient ones, all the way through to the discharge letter. The idea that a doctor who's burnt out to the extent of using an "AI" scribe would read and check its output is… optimistic.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I seem to be mainly watching television made in Aotearoa-NZ lately. And looking forward to season five of Wellington Paranormal going on the list!

Recent activity from Serializd showing I’ve been watching New Zealand Spy, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee New Zealand, Ash vs Evil Dead, and Dead Ahead.

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Reposted by Phil Pascoe

Matthew Sweet @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Farewell Bill, most radical of the Goodies. Present at Grosvenor Square with Tariq & Vanessa. Turned his harassment by the Met into slapstick TV comedy for kids. Angry, hairy, furiously talented.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Rewatched the NHS episode of The Goodies, one we had off air on VHS and saw many times. The background song "I'm…Gonna Be A Doctor", an under-recognised Bill Oddie jam, kept me motivated during medical school. After the sad news, I found myself humming it again at work tonight. Thanks Bill, for joy.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

It is the early 1990s. Doctor Who is not in production but Sylvester McCoy is still making in character (or near enough) appearances. Doctor Who Magazine are publishing short stories in the Brief Encounters series. I hope one day to have read all the Key to Time novelisations. It is the mid 2020s.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

To anyone who may have followed my profile recently, I'm an occasional Bluesky participant who sometimes posts about my interests which include: Doctor Who, old Hollywood films, extending personhood, toxicology, and the work of Luciane Buchanan. It's vary rare that I post about narcissistic injury.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Thank you, Kenny. If I could echo half your compliment: Joe Ford is indeed a very splendid chap. His infectious enthusiasm and the community he has built around discussing and celebrating the series is a real asset to the worlds of Doctor Who.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The online critic who posted this edgelord shit about someone whose death has been announced and whose many contributions to Doctor Who are justly celebrated, might want to reflect on who has squandered chances, whose work is disposable, and who like a lurking troll has been hanging around too long.

A post on bluesky quote-posting a post by Big Finish that reads:
"The Big Finish team were deeply saddened and shocked to learn of the passing of our friend and colleague, Justin Richards, who died peacefully at the weekend. Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends. A full tribute will follow."

The quote post, whose author's name and handle are removed in the image, reads:
"A complicated legacy. Prolific and reliable like few if any Wilderness Years writers; The Burning remains one of Who‘s most impressive reinventions. But he also exemplified how the Wilderness generation hung around too long, squandering the chance for new series books to be anything but disposable."

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I've probably missed something but in the latest Rutans vs Sontarans story Peri is so strongly anti-Rutan it seems inexplicable. After Planet of Fire she might understandably be suspicious about shape-shifters, yet if that was the case imagine the tension in the TARDIS when the Whifferdill moves in…

Cover to the Doctor Who audio drama Rutans vs Sontarans: Grave Moon (2026). Appearing on the cover are Peri, a Rutan, the Sixth Doctor, the Eighth Doctor, and a couple of Sontarans.

Panel from the Doctor Who comic A Cold Day in Hell! (1987), illustrated by John Ridgway. Frobisher appears down-hearted and says, "Yeah, I know, Doc — thanks. But a holiday won't help me forget about Peri overnight."

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Arguably I'm overthinking The Tank, a low budget horror film, if I try to dredge up meaningful connections to Kenneth Grahame. Alternatively, as my ongoing interest in the work of Luciane Buchanan has led me to watch many things I wouldn't have otherwise, arguably there's no actual thought involved…

Luciane Buchanan as Tripitaka in The New Legends of Monkey (2018).

Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin in The Night Agent (2023).

Luciane Buchanan as Thya in Evil Dead Burn (2026).

Luciane Buchanan as Luciane Buchanan supporting Aotearoa-NZ at their FIFA World Cup match against Iran on 16th June 2026.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

I'm not sure whether the 2023 movie The Tank quoting The Wind in the Willows has any deep significance beyond loose association — modernity encroaching upon, then retreating from, the Wild Wood. The film's monster, ostensibly ambystomatid, does have somewhat lutrine, talpid, and batrachian features.

Screen from The Tank (dir. Scott Walker, 2023) showing Luciane Buchanan as Jules holding a flambeau.

A page from The Wind in the Willows with a 1913 illustration by Paul Bransom of Mole running through the Wild Wood while amongst the trees multiple shadowy figures watch. Next to this is the cover of the Australian DVD release of The Tank (2023).

Screen from The Tank (2023) with Luciane Buchanan as Jules reading The Wind in the Willows to Zara Nausbaum as Reia. The on screen subtitle reads "the hall seemed full of monstrous animals."

Screen from The Tank (2023) showing a rodent-like snout emerging from water in a darkened space.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Matthew Sweet often references Doctor Who during his radio broadcasts, but this episode’s allusion to General Grugger of the Gaztaks was quite a deep cut. 🌵 podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a...

podcasts.apple.com

Satire and Gulliver's Travels

Podcast Episode · Arts & Ideas · 12 June · 57min

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

On this planet there live far more people than there are human beings.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

In the Warner Bros press book for Ladies They Talk About (1933) I learn that the "Parrot" was played by a yellow-crested cockatoo called Snowball, described as "an old time actor" who had already appeared in films for four years. I feel compelled to track down Snowball's other work. #worldparrotday

Clipping from the press book for Ladies They Talk About (1933). "Though his name does not appear in the cast, there is an old time actor that plays a vivid and colorful role in the Warner Bros. picture, "Ladies They Talk About," starring Barbara Stanwyck [...] His name is Snowball, a snow-white, yellow crested Cockatoo, with four years screen experience, already to his credit."

Screen from Ladies They Talk About (dir. Howard Bretherton and William Keighley, 1933) showing Ruth Donnelly as the Prison Matron, with Snowball the cockatoo as the Parrot on her shoulder and spreading his wings. Prisoners in the background appear amazed.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I enjoyed Ladies They Talk About, particularly Barbara Stanwyck's Nan and her swaggering derision for the carceral state and well-meaning reformists. Half comedy half drama, the light tone of this Pre-Code film is set every time (without explanation) the prison "parrot" (clearly a cockatoo) appears.

The Warner Archive Collection blu-ray release of Ladies They Talk About. The cover art by Alberto Vargas vaguely depicts the film's star, Barbara Stanwyck.

Screen from Ladies They Talk About (dir. Howard Bretherton and William Keighley, 1933). Barbara Stanwyck as Nan Taylor stares down Ruth Donnelly as the Matron. On the Matron's left shoulder is a white cockatoo as the Parrot.

Another screen from Ladies They Talk About (1933). A close up of the Matron's stern face while the "Parrot" on her shoulder has wings spread.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Far End of the Sea, the first Nauruan 🇳🇷 movie, was released free online this month. youtu.be/0y02ydhx9U4?...

youtu.be

Far End of the Sea | Official Motion Picture (2026)

YouTube video by Pleasant Island Productions

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Like the Loch Lamond song it quotes, Far End of the Sea, from Naoero, is a traversal, taking high and low roads, crossing boundaries of water and language and sanity and death. And though "the broken heart it kens nae second spring again" this touching film shows there's sometimes value in greeting.

Screen from Far End of the Sea (dir. Matthew Holmes, 2026) showing the film's title over a Nauruan shore at sunset.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The above escapist nonsense was enabled by the Doctor Who Title Card Generator created by bsky.app/profile/andr... andrewblair.co.uk/apps/who-tit...

Screen from an episode Don Kirshner's Rock Concert showing Rupert Holmes performing The Piña Colada Song.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I gave a presentation to FACEM colleagues today about diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycaemia.

Screen from a keynote presentation titled Sugar and Salt. Pictured are Abby Elliott as Natalie Berzatto from The Bear and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Salt from Doctor Who and the War Between the Land and the Sea.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

#letterboxdfriday #lastfourwatched — Another gowns by Orry-Kelly movie. — Not Orry-Kelly, more an orrecchiette movie. Una pittura di Dorian Gray. — Is recognition of detectivehood a step towards sheepishly accepting ovine personhood? — "Inspired by a true story" yes, there is no plastering in this.

The last four films I've logged on Letterboxd:
— A Dispatch from Reuters (dir. William Dieterle, 1940)
— Totò, Peppino et la… malefemmina (dir. Camillo Mastrocinque, 1956)
— The Sheep Detectives (dir. Kyle Balda, 2026)
— Is This Thing On (dir. Bradley Cooper, 2025)

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Just imagine… trying to explain white appropriation of hip hop popularisation of African American Vernacular English, through which is filtered the language of Southern Gospel, to this man. Where would you even begin? It has nothing to do with Death to the Daleks! In the end I just dropped the line.

A photo of an English man in early middle age, taken around the year 2000.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

The absurdity of Gareth Roberts explaining to Spectator readers the concept of rap beef reminds me an audio play I wrote about language theft had a trying-to-be-cool character affirmatively reply "Word!" A please explain note came from the director asking "Why would anyone just say the word 'word'?"

Headline of an article in the conservative publication The Spectator: "My strange beef with rapper Azealia Banks" by right wing commentator and Attack of the Graske writer Gareth Roberts.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

An unexpected but delightful mention of Lano and Woodley in this #DoctorWho related audio sitcom. I've got a feeling, got a bit of an inkling, Mr Dorney might have slipped in some other references to late twentieth century Australian television viewing habits. This episode's title: Monky Magic. Ooh.

Cover of the Big Finish audio sitcom Doctor Who: Dark Gallifrey: The Meddling Monks: Part Two.

Frank Woodley and Colin Lane dressed in space suits in a publicity shot from their latest live show, Lano and Woodley In Space.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

From a 1945 Meanjin: "Palestine Variation". There are many voices to listen to on a day of remembrance, those of survivors, of future generations despite the catastrophe. But here too, a recognition that Palestine existed, before the Nakba, with singing amid the red poppies, the women bearing water.

Meanjin Papers, Winter 1945. The cover is purple with white text and an image of footprints.

The poem "Palestine Variation" by Charles McCausland.

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ;
The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing
of birds is come.—Song of Solomon

Winter is past, and the rain
that battered the cold months, hiding the sea,
bedraggling the shepherds, and driving the sheep
with their backs to the sea-rains:
now the rain is gone, over and gone from the disconsolate huts
receiving the women bearing black water jars from the wells :
sun sparkles the sea
and gay waves dash on Gaza beach,
for the nightjar’s weird hooting is forgotten :
the lark mounts in the morning air :
there is larksong over the cornfield
for the winter is gone
and flowers appear : the red poppies of Gaza,
the blossoms in the orange-groves
so sweet, that no thought breaks
of departing spring,
of the burning months tortured by khamsin dust,
of inevitable rain
and the song of the larks stilled in winter
and larks flight-bound, their wings wet in the rain,
of the nightjar
disturbing those who stir in their sleep,
of the strangled agony of the donkey
braying his alien hatred in the rains,
the sea-hiding rains ;
but now it is gone,
the winter is past : there is singing
in the orange-groves
and among the poppies of Gaza
and the beach-dashing waves
and the larks of the cornfield.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

#letterboxdfriday #lastfourwatched — Fragmenting psycheDelia, surely an inclusion on The Collection Season One? — Suppressing the invention of everlasting matches prolongs the power of Kroll. — Un Étranger autiste, for a time when Arab lives remain devalued. — Luciane Buchanan reads Kenneth Grahame.

The last four films I've logged on Letterboxd:
— Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes (dir. Caroline Catz, 2020)
— The Match King (dir. Howard Bretherton and William Keighley, 1932)
— The Stranger(dir. François Ozon, 2025)
— The Tank (dir. Scott Walker, 2023)

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Great journalism! The hitherto unknown fact that Quatermass footage was repurposed into 1960s Doctor Who, which has somehow escaped the attention of all other researchers (including Toby Hadoke!) must come from the same source as the William Hartnell "quotes" in The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel…

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I once interviewed a Kroton (operator, not voice actor) and though this was a very long time ago I think he said he’d also been in a Benny Hill.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Socio-trichology of the space year 4000 in #DoctorWho The Daleks' Master Plan: - surveillance state functionaries: fully bald - lumpenproletarians trapped within the carceral system: hairy and beardy - galactic traitor: the eyebrows of a Willie Wagtail

Several Technix, bald men in black clothing, from The Daleks' Master Plan: The Nightmare Begins.

Several hairy, beardy, desperate men on the planet Desperus, in The Daleks' Master Plan: Devil's Planet.

Mavic Chen, from The Daleks' Master Plan: The Nightmare Begins, a man with prominent white eyebrows.

A djidi-djidi or willie wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), a small, furious, black and white bird with prominent white eyebrows. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

"So for the moment, we do nothing. And by doing nothing, we do everything. Do I make myself clear?" "Come off it, Doctor. What's that supposed to mean?" #FOAMed #EmergencyMedicine #DeliberateClinicalInertia

Screen from the recently rediscovered 1965 Doctor Who episode Devil's Planet, with William Hartnell as the Doctor and Peter Purves as Steven having the conversation quoted in the post.

The cover of the medical journal Emergency Medicine [Aotearoa/Australia], volume 30: issue 2, from April 2018. The cover is blank white with no artwork, just the words "Doing nothing". A short day for the cover designer.

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I fixed the issue on my end by deleting the cookies for the Film is Fabuloius website, then reloading the site and found the payment link then appeared. Just one of many possible ways to express gratitude for their ongoing important work!

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

I listened to Secret Bedfordshire: Flight into Danger today in Canberra. Very nicely done. Thanks for making it accessible in this way for a wider audience!

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Phil Pascoe @philpascoe-ish.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

"But cactic power isn't strong enough to kill anyone!"

Tom Baker as the villainous space cactus Meglos.

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