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Samuel R. Delany's foreword to the Sandman volume A Game of You is also useful in understanding Carter's use of Tristessa.

Imogen Binnie writes about problems with the portrayal of Tristessa here and here.

I may have a new favourite first chapter.

Alas, no.

Chekhov's gun?

'There are truths that are not useful. All knowledge is local, my friend has said. Is it true, where is it true, that that child had to die in that way? Is it true, where is it true, that she did not have to die in that way?'

'No human mind could encompass the history of Hain: three million years of it.'

'I want to put a fist through these last six years and grab our life.'

'Finally. I was insane. I liked this.'

'What I did for my boys never stopped. Now I have to give that all up?' Horror.

'Love of god and country is like fire, a wonderful friend, a terrible enemy; only children play with fire.'

Chapter 7 is a waste. It asserts a distinction between ethics, morals, and politics, but never articulates it. It dismisses the 26 years of the classic series, contradicting the book's central interest in completeness. And it ultimately argues that individual stories can have interesting ethics rather than whether the vast narrative does, again running counter to the purpose of the book.

Well-deserved attention paid to the superlative Grimm Reality.

Another good reading of a Moffat-era story, sensitive to these stories' revisions of Davies' material.

Interesting reading of Iris Wildthyme through prism of Adorno (and vice versa).

'the sometimes turgidly self-important NAs' :-)

'At their best, Doctor Who narratives renew familiar problems of defining and understanding emotional states and ethical choices by a process of vertiginous shift in perspective.' (Somewhat belied by his disinterest in realism or politics.)

Chapter 6 asks 'What kinds of beauty can be seen in Doctor Who?' It disappoints by being somewhat haphazard and tentative, but it is nonetheless intriguing. Key beauties: surreal apposition, the epic vignette, and the harlequinade motif.

Excellent point about clockwork men in a story about time ('The Girl in the Fireplace').

'[C]haracter [conceived quite specifically in terms of psychodrama] has become much more important, if not central, to storytelling [in the new series].'

'[T]he stylistic differences between the old and new Doctor Who series are less marked than current hyperbole suggests.'

'It seems to me that, far from being useful indicators of aesthetic value, picture standard and technical sophistication are at best red herrings and at worst fodder for specious hierarchisation.'

Chapter 5. Thoughtful and challenging chapter on Doctor Who's heteronormative structuring of the companions. I would love to read more on Amy in this vein, taking into account her entire run.

The erasure of River Song from this account is just foolish, as is the dismissal of how fans queer characters.

The misunderstanding of how 'The Long Game'/'Bad Wolf' actually underlines the Doctor's narcissism is disappointing. The Doctor's only 'failure' in the former is to realise there is someone behind the Jagrafess, highlighting how only the Doctor can save the day.

Chapter 3. Some good concrete examples of the differences Henry Jenkins identified between texts made for fan and coalition audiences. But the dismissal of political readings is entirely unargued.