Richard Flowers

Professor Emilia Rumford smiles naughtily while eating a sausage sandwich

Miss Vivien Fay tilts her head while eating a sausage sandwich

Time for comfort Who:
Break out the sausage sandwiches (but no cake)!

OTD 1978: #DoctorWho The Stones of Blood
Doctor Who and the Space Lesbians
Fabulous camp
Awesome archaeologist Professor (there’ll be more of those)
K9 vs vampire rocks
Introducing brilliant writer David Fisher…

Look, I am just going to be happy that there is #DoctorWho in the future again.

@pruebray.bsky.social is very articulate in her rage and 100% right. The party needs to rethink.

The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Osgood in the slithery organic heart of Zygon-dom

Three Zygons – two beautiful orange-green, suckered natural forms and the abominable body of a human. Yeuch. She looks familiar, though.

The Doctor faces an army of Zygons!

Doctor Who – The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion / The One Osgoods / The Two Claras
Turns parents against kids, kids into monsters, monsters into people, companions into control freaks…
‘Truth or Consequences’ vs ‘Trick or Treat’
For #HalloweenWho this week: three shown on Halloween itself.

Today’s desktop is one angry penguin 🐧

I am disgusted by the people who would sue the Party rather than accept they lost.

I am disgusted by the capitulation of the current President and Chief Executive.

I have done this.

I identify as male. It is nobody’s business to expect me to provide proof. In fact it would be sexual assault to obtain such proof.

I also want to re-iterate, this is not "the lib dems". It is a tiny minority of very noisy transphobes with bottomless pockets SLAPP*ing the party into doing this.

The expressed will of conference /a month ago/ was that this was so awful it wasn't even worth debating.

I am beyond furious about this, not least because it is a change in the election rules after nominations have closed, as well as the obvious breaches of GDPR and the Human Rights Act.

Are you a 🔸️🔶️ #libdem 🔶️🔸️?

If so, whether you are cis or trans or consider yourself neither, you need to email compliance TODAY with something like the text in the image. If you need the address and don't have it i can supply in DM.

Want to know why? 🧵 from Charley ⤵️

But I also wish to be clear that the blame lies primarily with people who, for all they wear shirts claiming that 'Liberals debate.' won't accept that they, in fact, keep losing the debate.

You don't want to debate. You want to control.

In addition, I am requesting that the party remove any data it holds about whether my gender matches my Assigned Sex At Birth for my own protection. I would strongly urge other Lib Dems, cis or trans, to do the same.

Sadly this recommendation has been ignored.

We are currently exploring legal and other options and a formal Statement from LGBT+ Lib Dems will follow.

It was and remains my position, that if it is impossible to use the gender quota for our committees in a way that doesn't invalidate trans people's existence then the fairest option is to not use it at all given they are not a legal requirment.

It is also a direct betrayal of our party manifesto from 2024, a direct contravention of party policy passed in March and in complete opposition to the expressed intent of the group who drafted the amendment that created those quotas and the conference that passed them.

Following the announcement by the Lib Dems returning officer on quotas in our federal elections I would like to make it clear I spent many hours and more emails trying to point out that this decision went against the expressed will of conference barely a month ago.

*We got in late last night, so I managed to watch Part One on Blu-ray before keeling over but not to write this

Pyramids of Mars is one of my all-time favourites and gave me utter, blissful terror this weekend half a century ago, enthralled for life before I even turned four

My review of the novelisation (less horrifying yet even more death):
loveandliberty.blogspot.com/2011/11/doct...

The black-robed, black-masked servant of Sutekh burn-strangles his discarded priest at the cliffhanger of Pyramids of Mars Part One

“Your evil is my good.” Sutekh the Destroyer (Gabriel Woolf), ancient Osiran god, stares into us through the fathomless black eyes of his Pharaoh mask in the darkness

Alister Pearson’s Pyramids of Mars cover painting – the Doctor (Tom Baker); a black-robed, black-masked messenger of death; a mummy; Sutekh triumphant

The Pharaonic figure of Sutekh the Destroyer stands in front of a Black Pyramid in the dark sands of Egypt, commanding us to read the mighty monument that is Doctor Who: The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume Two, a shaft of light struck across them Sutekh the Destroyer played by Sutekh dolly Black Pyramid played by black marble chopping-board Dark sands of Egypt played by black towel Shaft of light playing across by sheer luck Photo by Alex Wilcock Doctor Who: The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume Two – a big black hardback with five titles: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock Doctor Who and the Five Doctors [Also available in paperback with Tom and the Daleks on the cover]

OYD* 1975: #DoctorWho Pyramids of Mars
Eerie discords summon a horrifying cliffhanger
Then enter the dark god with the most silkily threatening voice in the Universe
50 years of Sutekh
Terrance Dicks:
“Sutekh’s voice was soft and ferocious at the same time, like that of some great beast…”

Doctor Who – The Curse of Fenric by Ian Briggs, cover by Alister Pearson (audiobook version): the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Ace, a monstrous blue Haemovore, runes, poison and logic diagrams, all set on a chessboard

Nicholas Parsons’ parson threatened in a graveyard by two vampiric young women

The Curse of Fenric graphic for the Horror Channel – the Doctor runs past a Haemovore stained glass window

Monstrous blue sucker-covered Haemovores rise from their graves

OYD* 1989: #DoctorWho The Curse of Fenric
Just weeks before the end**, one of the greatest stories
Vampires from the future
Evil From the Dawn of Time
And even in World War II, the evil within can be more frightening than bombs.

*Yesterday
**Never the end. Doctor Who will always come back.

Andrew Cartmel puts his arms round Richard and I at his play Triple Threat, October 2024 (we’re not all drenched in blood. It’s just Fenric-appropriate stage lighting).

Two soldiers gaze adoringly into each other’s eyes. Subtext? What subtext? Signed to us by writer Ian Briggs. Action by Tom of Finland. Or Russia? Tom of Transylvania…?

Janet Henfrey as Miss Hardaker, speaking words of loving kindness

And our DVD insert, signed by Janet Henfrey with Miss Hardaker’s blessing

The Curse of Fenric is an all-time favourite for both of us
On our anniversary weekend:
Gay subtexts
The Sarge has the same wedding ring we do
And what could be more romantic than Miss Hardaker’s sweetly loving words
“Nothing for you but pitiless damnation for the rest of your lives! Think on it!”

I see Labour are claiming to be an anti-racist party again.

This can only mean they're about to announce yet another policy to make life more difficult for immigrants or refugees.

Don't trust her, Charlie Brown! She's gonna swipe the ball away!

Collins is on TREMENDOUS form atm.

Thank you, Auntie Jennie!
Oh, my knees.
If anyone has ever required evidence that physical co-ordination is not my thing…

Today is our anniversary and we have exchanged silly presents but mainly groans and achy commiserations.

Saying Star Trek fandom is mostly male is like saying Doctor Who fandom is mostly straight or Thomas the Tank Engine is famously beloved of neurotypicals or only cis people own a blahaj.

Daddies @richarddominic.bsky.social and @alexwilcock.bsky.social joined in (along with other people, and after some pressure) with the Morris Dancing, which was one of the most wonderful, life affirrming things I have ever seen.

I am very tired and achy this today after much dancing at wonderful wedding yesterday. There was cèilidh, at which i did Stripping the Willow, and then there was Disco at which I bopped to everything from Whitney Houston to Iron Maiden.

I think i am feeling my bit of French ancestry with Heavy Legs

YouTube video by Steven Capsuto - LGBTQ Images on Television Clips: 1970, June Lockhart gently challenges homophobia on THE VIRGINIA GRAHAM SHOW w/Rev Troy Perry

From starring in the Universal horror film 'She Wolf of London'🐺 (1946) to Hollywood's favourite Mom in 'Lassie' 🦴 and 'Lost in Space'🚀, June Lockhart has died at 100.

Rest in peace🌹

I've shared this before but here she is defending gays from a patronising bigot in 1970.

youtu.be/Xm2q-F6FdoY?...

And on the day of October 26th 2014: back then beardless but looking sharp in wedding grey suits and gold ties, Richard and I attack the wedding cakes – the knife is going for the Fudge Dalek

The Dalek concept was Remembrance Imperial bonded polycarbohydrate fudge, but lemon meringue fudge on delivery was yellow instead of white – phew for the salted caramel, so the fudge Dalek had a Time War update to RTD bronze.
Tasted great!
4/4

Over the many years’ wait until the Liberal Democrats made our marriage legal, we’d been to many weddings
One of the many lessons learned in advance, not everyone likes the same cake, so:
Traditional fruit cake
Individual vanilla sponges
Towering chocolate Barad-dûr
and fudge Dalek
3/4