the final phase
2nd quarantine in leiden, 2nd vaccination and the 2nd series of doctor who
so in a shock twist surprising no one, i accidentally shifted to writing this only every other week, mostly because i’ve been very busy over the past couple weeks doing things that aren’t particularly interesting to talk about. in particular, i’ve been doing very little linguistics and a lot of watching doctor who. while those both might be the things i’ll write about the most here, there’s been rather a lot of the latter and not much of the former here recently so it didn’t feel right to have the balance that far off. the linguistics will return starting in the next newsletter now that i’m back in the netherlands: you can expect to see me writing about intraspeaker variation, particularly in Yurok rhotic vowel harmony, which is optional in affixes, and on which i wrote my BA thesis last year.
this week i’ll talk about a few non-linguistic things: some observed differences in the quarantine-on-arrival systems in the UK and the netherlands (having now experienced both twice), my experience getting my second vaccine and some thoughts on reading the Target novelisation of The Daleks, the 2nd doctor who serial.
quarantining in UK vs NL
i wrote my first substack newsletter while in quarantine in the UK at the start of my summer holiday and i’m writing this one in quarantine in the netherlands at the end of it.
the most major difference between the two systems is cost. both countries required pre-travel tests that cost money (€49 on the way to the UK and £39 on the way back). the big difference comes in the post-arrival tests, where i had to do two tests in the UK (costing £84) and none in the netherlands. both quarantine periods were 10 days with the option to test to release on day 5, but in the UK test to release would also have cost money, while in the netherlands the test to release is free (and i’m doing it tomorrow). i understand that part of the reason for the cost is to limit the number of travellers, but having had to deal with finding a private test provider in the UK on an official website that was full of companies falsely advertising low prices, i found the dutch system to be far superior.
another difference was the test and trace system. in the UK, i received a phone call from the test and trace system on the morning of my first full day of isolation to check that i was where i said i was. i then got another call two days later (which i missed because i was in the shower) and nothing afterwards. in the netherlands, i have received no such calls at all, despite also filling in a quarantine declaration form with my details.
there’s also a big difference personally: in the UK i was quarantining in my dad’s flat, so i had company and someone to buy food for me. in the netherlands, i have moved into a studio apartment (that the previous tenant/landlord didn’t even bother to clean) and have had to deal with it all by myself. in january, i had a very difficult time dealing with the 10 days of quarantine i had to do by myself in the netherlands, while i didn’t struggle at all to quarantine for 10 days in the UK. this time, i’m doing pretty okay, helped by the knowledge that i’ll be doing my test to release tomorrow morning and should be out in the world in two days’ time.
vaccine logistics (again)
on the 18th of july, i wrote about my anticipated difficulties in sorting out where my second jab would happen given that i would be back in the netherlands before the UK regulated 8 weeks. thankfully, i was able to get both doses in the UK before leaving, which helps not only in getting the benefits of a full course sooner, but also in having both vaccinations logged in the same health system.
in the end, my second dose was administered just over 5 weeks after my first. compared to the UK recommendation of 8 weeks that is rather a short time, but the current dutch advice is for the second dose to be at least 28 days after the first (which means i’m okay here at least!) i should also be able to register my vaccinations in the netherlands as a resident here, so i’ll have both UK and EU proof of vaccination, if all goes well.
doctor who and the daleks
for a lot of this summer i was reading on and off the very first doctor who target novelisation Doctor Who and the Daleks, written by David Whitaker. something that struck me, as i think strikes anyone else who reads the novelisation of an episode they’ve already seen, is what a different the medium the story is being told through makes.
one of the most important things about these novelisations is that they were written at a time where the episodes weren’t repeated or even archived by the BBC. in the case of The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, they were preserved for posterity in their cinematic adaptations, but otherwise almost all episodes were only preserved in literary form. all this is to say that, in many aspects, the novelisations of the classic doctor who episodes, particularly those in the 60s, are every bit as important as the episodes that aired on TV, as these were one of the main ways that fans were able to experience the stories.
something fascinating about the novelisations is the way that they play with the canon of the show. they exist as a separate sort of timeline — in Doctor Who and the Daleks, Ian meets Barbara on Barnes Common after she’s been in a car accident with her pupil, Susan English, who has now vanished into thin air. this replaces wholesale the first televised episode of the show, where both Ian and Barbara are Susan Foreman’s teachers and they follow her home to the famous I. M. Foreman junkyard. in both cases, Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by the Doctor, who believes they have seen too much to be allowed back into human society, but in the television show they land in the Stone Age, while in the novelisation they jump straight into the following televised story on Skaro, the home planet of the Daleks and the Thals.
from this point, the plot plays out fairly similarly, though the use of first person perspective from Ian means that some sections are left out (since he is unconscious during them) and we get much more of an internal narrative as well. on top of the story of the Daleks, which is iconic in its own right, we get the story of a man who is forced to come to terms with the fact that he might never go home, who discovers a sense of adventure in himself that he didn’t know existed, and who falls in love with Barbara — a plot element that is clearly in the background of the TV series but is never quite made canon.
the romance plot is actually a rather large part of the book, as opposed to the television series which hints at burgeoning feelings between Barbara and the Thal Ganatus. in general, the book succeeds in how it portrays the development of relationships between Ian and its other characters — the confused romance between Ian and Barbara, the eventual mutual respect between Ian and the Doctor and the friendship between Ian and the Thals (mostly Kristas).
i look forward to reading more later on — i have copies of Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders, both of which i think will shed some light on two overlooked stories from series 2.
what i’m watching
speaking of series 2, i just finished watching it:
The Crusade (a fairly standard historical episode kicked up a notch by some very poetic shakespearean dialogue delivered in a very BBC drama fashion)
The Space Museum (interesting look at determinism and the first episode where vicki gets to shine by herself without just being a susan surrogate)
The Chase (the daleks pose very little threat throughout this entire serial and the stock music choices are baffling, but it’s nice to see the TARDIS crew in their downtime at the start. the final episode is probably the highlight of the series, packing an awful lot into its short runtime and i found ian and barbara’s exit to be quite emotional)
The Time Meddler (i didn’t remember this being as good as it was, but i loved the new vicki-steven dynamic and enjoyed how the plot managed to pull the rug from underneath me multiple times. the cliffhanger in A Battle of Wits is probably the best of the series)
i also watched some other stories — one from series 33 and three from The Sarah Jane Adventures, which just landed on britbox, and which i will undoubtedly watch a lot of in the near future.
Hide (disappointing, but still good. possibly the most heterosexual doctor who episode in existence.)
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
Invasion of the Bane
Revenge of the Slitheen
i also saw the film Old in the cinema and thought it was very entertaining, if pretty terrible at times, and Airplane! on tv, which i didn’t enjoy as much as i remembered.
what i’m listening to
i haven’t been listening to much music recently, but a song i just discovered that i really like is 24 Hours by Swedish artist Agnes.