I’ve spent a lot of the evening fixing up the last station building for sale. I’m not going to complete the project, but I have fitted lights, glazing, a full floor and of course chimney breasts, fireplaces and mantelpieces. Someone else can continue with the fiddly stuff. I just need it in good enough condition to interest a modeller.
I don’t waste much time with television. The only thing that interests me these days is Dr. Who and I note they have brought back a lot of the old style Daleks. Good. Those new ones look like Fisher-Price designed them. The Cybermen have made great advances since the days of vacuum-cleaner hose on the arms joined by practice golf balls at the elbows, but whoever designed those new Daleks missed a memo.
In one episode (the Tennant guy), a rare flash of cyber-sarcasm appeared when a Dalek said ‘Daleks have no concept of elegance’. The Cyberman replied ‘This is obvious’.
That’s the point. Daleks are entirely functional. They aren’t meant to look like Bugattis with sink plungers. They are meant to look like the old galvanised bins with sink plungers.
But I digress.
I never watch Dr. Who live because Saturday night is often Smoky-Drinky night and because I keep forgetting it’s on. Since I never buy newspapers and have no TV pages around the house, often I only find out the series has started when someone tells me or when I visit iPlayer in an idle moment. I found out about the current series three episodes in so I had an evening of pure escapism while I caught up.
I don’t need a TV licence. I have not watched or recorded a live transmission of anything in a long time and that is what the licence is for. Most people have the TV on all the time. If I turned mine on now, the most noticeable difference you’d experience would be the smell of hot dust.
A friend of mine who lives far away also has a TV. His transmissions are all digital and he does not have a digital TV nor does he have a decoder. He has an old analogue TV he uses for DVDs. So, in his house, there is no equipment capable of receiving live transmissions. He cannot possibly be accused of licence dodging even though he has a big TV in his living room because that TV is no longer able to decode transmissions.
Before the onset of digital, there was always that element of doubt. You say you only use your telly to watch VCR or DVD, but it could pick up transmissions. Now there are millions of TVs that can’t. They are DVD/VCR monitors and receive nothing from the airwaves.
Next we are to be treated to Internet TV which means everyone can get to things like the iPlayer and equivalents on all the other channels who get nothing from the licence fee and nobody needs to record or watch live transmissions. Just call them up later.
Once it’s in place, nobody needs a licence.
Bye bye BBC.
It’s okay, Who-fans. The Doctor only has one incarnation left and it’s probably going to be Harriet Harman anyway.
That’ll finish off the Daleks.
Eh?
I don’t think the monolithic socialist bloc that is the BBC will think like that (when they do get round to thinking about it – they’re a bit thick).
Rather, the logic will run; “So you have a computer. It attaches to the internet and enables you to view BBC programmmes. Therefore, all computers and internet connections should be taxed.”
Mind you, I can’t see Dell or Branson wanting to donate to the coffers, but you get my drift. They’ll see it as a reason to expand their source of income.
Oh, and by the way, I got a bit of adverse comment on another site because I don’t use capitals when spelling my name. It’s not some post- e. e. cummings-type posing. It’s because my computer is so ancient, the bloody shift key doesn’t work properly.
The licence fee is really just a tax anyway – the idea that they can actually link it to TV viewing is a myth. And you still have to pay it even if you only watch live TV via the Internet.
Hi Leggy,
It’s always lovely to hear of someone else who’s starving the BBC of funds. I cancelled my licence in 2005 and watch DVDs only (it’s The Waltons at the moment!).
I get a letter from TV Licensing every two years asking if my situation has changed (I assume by that they mean do I want to resume paying to be exposed to wall-to-wall propaganda and be condescended to whenever any “information” is being aired.)
I give them a call and tell them I still don’t need a licence and they say they may send someone round to check and I say it’ll be a waste of their time as they won’t get in. I’ve not had an attempted visit yet (that I know of).
I’ve saved over £1,000 on licence fees – but probably spent twice that on DVDs! But I have the enormous satisfaction of no longer paying the salaries of the Guardianistas who hate my country and my faith and my way of life and my freedom, so it feels like a victory in an armchair warrior sort of way. Actually, it doesn’t really, as the rotten BBC still exists. If a factory spewed out as much filth as the BBC does, it would have been closed down under environmental regulations years ago.
My worry is that, because computers can stream live telly, a TV licence will be required just for owning a PC or Mac or those things beginning with “i” that lots of people have that I can’t afford because I buy so many DVDs.
As for Dr Who, it’s used as a propaganda tool like everything else. No matter what DVD I’m watching; no matter how old the material, I’m always on the lookout for the propaganda. Even in the Waltons.
That’s all from me just now. Goodnight, Leggy-boy!
Now that the analogue signal has been turned off, I’ve also stopped paying my telly tax. I’d debated doing so for several years but had always decided that there was too much chance of TV Licensing plc trying something on. Less chance of that now.
I’m keeping the TV though… in the absence of monitor of similar size it does nicely for playing DVDs.
The very latest designs for Daleks lack the elegance of the Ecclestone/Tennant era bronze jobs. They have a hunch for crying out loud, and after the first outing were never seen in profile. I fact, there’s a certain amount of retconning going on and the new ones were recently referred to as ‘the officer class’. Presumably, we shall be seeing less of them.
It did occur to me that much of their inspiration came from the style seen in the BMW idea of a mini. You quite often see TV SF design vocabulary drawn exclusively from cars of the period. Thus the original Enterprise had the styling of a Ford Anglia, whereas the Patrick Stewart Enterprise resembled the GM Saturn. So it is with Daleks. The 60s originals had Morris minor indicator lights on top so you could tell which one was talking, not that they said much beyond the usual.
Not entirely sure how this idea applies to the new Cybermen though.