Things in Who change. Always Have, Always Will.

My reply to: But why? Why did Eccleston step down? Why is Tennant stepping down? *pout*

But Why? Why was Tom Baker so horribly typecast by the British film and TV industry that nobody would ever give him a role worthy of his talents, thus creating the very fear that caused Davison, Tennant, and Eccleston to be nervous about what a long-term role can do to a career?

Who fans have been in what has been an unusual situation: the actor choosing to leave the show, which hadn't happened since 1984.

Neither Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, nor Paul McGann chose to leave. The Powers That Be simply made the decisions from on high and these respected actors and their collectively (in my opinion) unfinished characters were left to rot for years until novels and audios did each of them some justice to the actors' and writers' vision.

In a sense, I consider Tennant and Eccleston to be lucky in that they themselves had the choice. It hasn't always been thus.

a better way?

Uncertain Principles: The Football Positioning System:

It's NFL playoff time, which means that sports fans will be treated to the sight of the most high-stakes farce in sports, namely the ritual of "bringing out the chains" to determine whether a team has gained enough yards for a first down. We've all seen this: the play is whistled dead, a referee un-stacks the pile of players, picks up the ball, and puts it down more or less where the player was stopped. Then he tosses the ball into the middle of the field, to a second referee, who tries to replicate the spot closer to the center of the field. Then a guy on the sideline carrying a big stick (connected by a ten-yard chain to another stick held by another guy) tries to put the end of the stick at the same position as the ball.

Three plays later, the spotting procedure is repeated, and then the sticks are bought out to the center of the field, the chain is stretched taut, and they measure the position of the ball to the nearest millimeter. Because, of course, there's absolutely no error in placing the sticks.

The whole ritual is preposterous, and anybody with the slightest scientific inclination has to wonder: "Isn't there a better way of doing this?" So, what would be required to do a better job of this?

The premise has a point - just as computers and video (i.e., technology) has improved the accuracy of the game (if not the game itself) from a penalty standpoint, shouldn't technology also be used as this otherwise fraught-with-error-sources means of first-down-ness?