Tuesday 6 May 2014

One for the record books

The Four Minute Mile by Sir Roger Bannister was sixty years ago today, with a fair wind and a track modern elite athletes wouldn’t want to have a go at. A milestone in human physical achievement that was well publicised and so drew a fair crowd, something time travellers could sneak in to... and like the scaling of Everest or the first flight of the Montgolfiers, something time travellers seeking to squash a moment of pride could easily disrupt.

And you could probably put together a fake Doctor Who episode trailer from Matt Smith’s role in Bert And Dickie. Why is the Eleventh Doctor making sure Britain wins a rowing medal at the Austerity Olympics? Makes a change from Ten lighting the 2012 cauldron, the big showoff. ;)

The 2012 torch relay crossed through Holy Corner here, past the Eric Liddell Centre honouring Edinburgh’s greatest sporting hero, who had a remarkable life on and off the track with just the first part shown in Chariots Of Fire.

Which record or achievement would you like to see the TARDIS land in? We’ve dropped the travellers in horror and SF and war, why not a sports biopic or true-life Ripping Yarn? It could be anything from the labours of Hercules to the first Olympic event on the Moon. (And I say this as someone who might watch some of the Olympics and that’s about it sports-wise.)

Something with room for adventure like the first car race across America, or Nelly Bly testing modern transport against Around The World In Eighty Days.

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