The Saga of Hopalong

Merlin - a review

2008-09-22T13:15:56Z

I watched Merlin last night to see if it was any good. These are my thoughts.

MERLIN – a Review of the pilot episode.

MERLIN seemed to start well with a nice voiceover from John Hurt and a creepy public execution. But then it fell apart a bit with some misstaged, silly scenes showing characters acting a bit too stupid or naïve for my liking. First the scene with the devastated mother made me think of the old woman who shouted “boo” in Princess Bride. Then she shows powers that when totaled up during the episode implies that she could have saved her son if she wanted to. Hmmm, let’s see, this witch can disappear in broad daylight, sneak past armed guards in the forest, use voodoo to knock out someone, cast a glamour to appear as someone else for long periods, by touch sucking the life from someone and finally by singing send many people to sleep with cobwebs over them. So why doesn’t she sneak down to the dungeons when her son is being held, either cause the guards to fall asleep, or glamour herself as the king or something? They really should have implied or blatantly shown that she had only just arrived too late. Sigh, yet another plot which makes no sense from the BBC. Typical!

Next stupid scene is Merlin gaining entry to the castle by asking guards where he can find the castle/court physician and the guards let him in without any questions. If Merlin had been an assassin, they would have been rather embarrassed. Thankfully the scenes with Richard Wilson are nice and enjoyable, and the breakfast test is well played. Then we have the slightly silly idea of Merlin delivering the medicines and he does not ask who or where to deliver them. So we must assume that he has studied the castle and its inhabitants so as to know the important people. Yet then he confronts Arthur without knowing who he is. Headdesk! Even when we throw away the idea that he had studied the castle or the inhabitants and somehow instinctively, magically knew where to go, he still shows a bit too much naïveté when confronting Arthur. Did the fine clothes or expensive armour not make him think at all that this must be a noble’s son who could kill me on the spot and no one could do anything? If he really was that naïve and stupid, he would have been found out in his village. This scene is such a nice idea – the concept that young Arthur was a prat is great but not played this way. If Merlin had been a bit diplomatic or even tried such a method, this scene would have worked wonderfully.

Then we had the stocks and again the scene is treated as a joke when the reality was that it was considered to be a punishment for a good reason. People usually didn’t chuck fruits that were soft but rather things like rotten eggs which were hard. Guenviere is nice and the idea that she likes Merlin niceness is brilliant – when he finds out that she’s destined to be Arthur’s wife, there will be much angst!

Except for the climax, the rest of the episode is meh – neither great nor bad. Some minor bad points are Merlin’s stupidity is not knocking to enter a lady’s room, what happens the singer’s body after the witch replaces her – how do the guards not see it? Ditto the maid who sees the truth? The witch is lucky, no cleaner enters the room while she’s out and raises the alarm. The dragon scenes are nice but need to have a good purpose to them. It will be interesting to see how they continue with the dragon presumably teaching Merlin.

The climax is very nice. The witch singing people to sleep is very fairy tale-ish and the cobwebs that form are a lovely creepy touch. Merlin’s resistance is nicely played as is his method of stopping her. Finally the saving of Arthur leads to a reward which is almost a punishment. Tee Hee.
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Overall a solid 6 out of 10. Watchable but with several flaws but most pilots are like that. Hopefully the things that make no sense will be left by the wayside and forgotten, or even reconned, while the good stuff is expanded and even added to.

Thoughts on Dw season 4

2008-08-13T10:04:39Z

One of the reasons why I want to really, really like season 4 is that it’s finally made it 100% clear that the Doctor’s timeline is not fixed, as some people asserted. The dialogue between River song and the Doctor in Forest of the Dead, the events of Journey’s end where they stop the Daleks destroying the multiverse – despite the fact that for Rose it was something she had witnessed, and even with returning the lost planets, thus affecting majorly the events of PiC and FOP. The added complexity of a timeline which changes whilst being very brain-hurty, does nicely allow me to explain away previous canon contradictions as being caused by timey-wimey stuff.

I actually like to think of all the episodes affected by season 4 and how each might change.

So the season in order

VotD - no temporal implications

PiC - affected majorly by Journey’s end as the adipose, not missing a planet, wouldn’t contact out to Nanny. Presumably the Doctor and Donna could meet investigating something else – anyone feel like writing a new second meeting of Donna and the Doctor. Also no Rose as she wouldn’t be trying to find the doctor

FoP - again no missing planet may mean that the aliens never come to Earth in the first place and so the Doctor & Donna land, see that they’re in Pompeii and leave before Volcano Day – Donna arguing all the time and then of course Vesuvius doesn’t explode...perhaps with no aliens siphoning off energy from the volcano for years and thus providing an release valve, Vesuvius does explode at the destined time.

PooO - no temporal implications

tSS/tPS - minor temporal implication as no Rose on Monitor. Also I do wonder what torchwood and Sarah Jane were doing during this crisis – again anyone feel like a fic?

tDD - no temporal implications

tUatW - no temporal implications although I wonder if Torchwood ever found out about this

SitL/FotD - no temporal implications, indeed some of River Song’s dialogue is only possible in a post JE timeline.

Midnight - minor temporal implication as no Rose on Monitor. Also no missing moon of Poosh.

TL - majorly affected as no Rose, no disappearing stars, etc but it’s a story which rewrites timelines in itself so what do you expect.

tSE/JE - majorly affected as no missing Earth, no reason to go to Shadow proclamation, no missing planets for donna to remind the doctor about, no reason to go to Medusa Cascade, no story whatsoever...

Incidentally, does anyone believe that the Daleks are completely destroyed? Let’s face it, the Daleks were smart enough to send the Cult of Skaro into the Void as a precaution before. What’s the chances that once they had rebuilt to a minimum level of numbers, the first thing they did was to send one ship off with orders to hide somewhere and grow. Thus that way if the doctor did show up and destroy them, the Dalek race would survive and if he didn’t, these Daleks would have shields against the reality bomb and survive anyway. – and as we seen Davros clone himself before, there could even be a davros with them – even if we don’t argue that Davros must have survived JE as we didn’t see him die...

Of course JE does affect other older episodes – for example Dalek in season 1 of NuWho. Even if we assume that in PotW, TARDIS Rose doesn’t destroy it with the rest as she knows that it was already dealt with (which is a big assumption) then after both Doomsday and JE with Daleks in the skies killing at will, there is no chance that people don’t know that the Dalek’s real name is and just how dangerous it is. So what are the chances that Van Statton or whoever owns it decides to just destroy it and then study the base remains – just like with the other three that Jackie, Mickey and Jackie destroy in tSE/JE.

h0pal0ng @ 2008-07-06T15:57:00

2008-07-06T15:03:46Z

Turn Left

Love the premise.

Loved the start with the marketplace and the way the fortune-teller is clearly desperate to get Donna inside and the way the dialogue indicates that the Doctor is the true target not Donna, otherwise the rest of the episode makes little sense. Loved the way the flashbacks are being triggered by the teller and are more than just simple flashbacks.

AU Earth is interesting. Nice to see Donna getting promotion so quickly – another sign of how wonderful she really is (although it does raise the question of how come Donna hasn’t managed to do this earlier in her life) The Webstar at Xmas made me go WTF? originally as the question in my head was “why would these events happen at Xmas without Donna as another person who was duped into the drinking particles would be unlikely to be getting married at Xmas”, but then I remembered that the Racnoss had developed a way of speeding the process up and activating the particles and presumably when they did this, the host was teleported to the TARDIS and so on. The idea that without Donna stopping him, the doctor waits too long watching the empress die, is interesting. Similarly the idea that Donna investigates when everyone else is running away from the webstar is a bit off until the later line about donna dreaming of the Doctor. This is not just the Runaway Bride Donna but more of a half-way house Donna (i.e. a mix of RB Donna and the doctor’s Donna). I loved the interaction between Donna and rose as well. Rose is very “Oh Shit, now what?” when she hears that the Doctor is dead but once donna touches her and Rose presumably feels her time travelling Zing as happened with the Dalek, Rose really looks at Donna and then sees the weirdness.

The touches that then fuck up the world are nice – the Voyage of the Damned destroying London, the adipose screwing up America, the sontarans screwing up everyone else, etc. It’s nice in NuWho after all the stuff about the doctor being brilliant BUT, that they’ve finally admitted that without the Doctor, everyone dies.

The bits with Wilf are brilliant as usual and the rest of the story is nice - UNIT, TARDIS, ring of mirrors which makes me think of Evil of the Daleks, Kinda and Human Nature, and altDonna’s sacrifice. Although I’m not entirely happy with super-techy Rose and her refusal to say her name, her waffling on about “casual nexus”, “it’s in flux” (although liked “It’s something the Doctor would say”), etc. Rose is not the doctor, she is not a science geek so the idea that in the 5/6 years max that she had in parallel torchwood where enough to teach her this level of science – no, no ,no.

Something that was brilliant was the Bad Wolf ending. I did not see it coming (I thought the two words would be the prosaic Rose Tyler) and it was brilliant!!!

Overall, a few nitpicks but I really liked it – 9 out of 10

The Stolen Earth

A bad start in that the TARDIS arrives on Earth and we see briefly through the doors the red light is still there. Then we had the start of the Earth shifting and when we cut back in the TARDIS is back to normal. No red light, no cloister bell – WTF????????? There should have been a line where we see the Doctor turn off the alarm as he’s getting annoyed by it.

Loved the reactions of UNIT and Martha, Torchwood, Sarah Jane and Wilf to the displacement of the Earth. Loved the reactions to the message. Some people don’t like Jack’s fatalistic reaction but consider that the Daleks are the beings that originally killed him and started his whole curse thing, and that he knows that Daleks frighten even the Doctor. No, I find his reaction perfectly believable. Loved crazy Dalek Caan.

Loved the Shadow proclamation (although Meh to the Judoon speech from the Doctor – why exactly isn’t this being translated for Donna?) Loved the fact that it’s Donna who reminds the doctor of the vital clues. Loved the Doctor just leaving the proclamation against their wishes – Heh.

Loved Wilf and his paintball gun. Loved Rose saving them. Loved Harriet Jones and her shaking them into action. Loved Jack’s reaction to Sarah and her “Oh” back. Loved the idea of everyone ringing the Doctor and the brilliance of Harriet’s death.

Meh to mopey Doctor. Why exactly does he seem so ready to give up here? Loved his reaction to the phone. Loved the idea of the signal coming from a time pocket. Loved the effect of the planets popping into view although the TARDIS looked weird. Loved the outerspace Facebook. Loved Jack’s “Where the Hell have you been?”, donna’s reaction to Jack. HATED Rose’s whining. So far this series Rose has been travelling although dimensions attempting to get to the doctor, has been able to put her image on the Tardis scanners and the Midlight shuttle and she can’t hack into a local signal that she receiving on the laptop – also how did the sentient software finds Rose in the Noble house? This bit with Rose whining at the Doctor makes no sense and indeed with her jealously at Martha makes her really shallow by implying that despite her meeting Donna without jealousy, seeing Martha makes her afraid that the Doctor’s head might have been turned by a young, pretty face. ??? Well done, Russell, (Facepalm)

Loved the Doctor/Davros dialogue especially – one thing … Bye! Almost a Master moment from the Doctor which helps you believe that they were once friends.

Then it ends badly. The Doctor heads to Earth but rather than locking onto the signal source which would be sensible, he lands the TARDIS in a random street. Then Jack leaves Torchwood to go looking for him and leaves his team behind for no apparent reason despite the presence of Daleks attacking Torchwood. Sarah Jane also does something stupid for no real reason. Instead of say activating her sonic screwdriver and hoping that the Doctor detects it, she heads out in her easy to spot car And then when she meets dalek, instead of driving through them, brakes and appeals to their good side WTF??????? Then the Doctor and Rose who see each other for the first time in years in the middle of a Dalek invaded Earth, run towards each other throwing all common sense overboard and yes, a Dalek shoots at the doctor. Jack somehow arrives and shoots the Dalek immediately as if he knew it was there – badly directed/cut. They get into the TARDIS and while donna gets the explanation that she really should have got in the Doctor’s Daughter, the Doctor mutters sorry, I’m regenerating and deliberately STANDS up to regenerate…

WTF??????? Didn’t you learn anything for POTW, Russell, from people’s annoyance then? I remember several people including myself being immensely pissed of at the idea that someone could “die” and stay standing. There was a good plot reason for all regenerations to occur lying down, you know.

So the cliffhanger of doom is – Torchwood’s Gwen and Ianto in danger from daleks – like you would really kill off another show’s character(s) in yours.

-Sarah Jane Adventures’s Sarah Jane – ditto

- Doctor regenerating – does anyone believe that they could really keep a new Doctor a secret?

So none of the cliffhangers work in terms of tension or excitement – well done, Russell. Facepalm

Overall a steady 7 out of 10. Could be as good as 8 if the final makes sense of some stupid bits. If not, down to 6

Journey’s End

As expected, where it all goes pear-shaped. Or where RTD tries to hide with brilliant characterisation, and dialogue, the fact that the Emperor has no clothes on.

The cliffhanger resolution:

- Doctor regeneration – the doctor pours the excess regeneration energy into the hand. While I expected the hand to be important considering the amount of times it was shown in TSE, the idea that the Doctor choses this is offensive as it makes his previous dialogue sound stupid

- Sarah Jane’s rescue by Mickey Smith and Jackie – while I love mickey and his line “Us smith’s have to stick together” the idea that he was monitoring Sarah Jane all the time so that he could resuce her at need, makes Rose’s whining all the worse. If she knew that Mickey was monitoring Sarah Jane, why doesn’t she just teleport over to her to get on the signal? Stupid, stupid, stupid

- Torchwood protects Ianto and Gwen by being timelocked in a time bubble. So is this why Jack was so happy to leave them as he knew they would be safe. If so why didn’t he tell them? He would have looked pretty stupid if they had left the hub for some reason, like say to rescue people. Also a time bubble seems to be pretty advanced tech for torchwood so how did Tosh do it? Finally as Davros’s dialogue concerning Caan proved, a time lock is beatable so the idea that a Dalek empire at the height of its powers can’t break into it- sigh

Loved the banter in the TARDIS, especially Donna’s hopeful “seriously, you can hug me” but why no interaction of Jack and Rose? Loved the idea that the TARDIS is no refuge from Daleks – I would hope so too, otherwise the time war is a bit shit. Loved Donna panic at being trapped and a huge NOOOOOOOOOOO to the idea of TARDIS being destroyed. Loved Sarah Jane’s wisdom at being captured so that she can catch up with the Doctor. Loved Jackie’s reaction and then Mickey’s. Loved Jack’s cleverness at faking death (although I’m unsure at the success of it) Meh to his survival in the incinerator – fair enough his survival but his clothes not even smoking – Bah! Also Meh to Rose’s not knowing about it –why did she think Jack was taken to Sontra in Turn Left then? Stupid bitch. Loved Donna’s and the hand and the saving of the TARDIS but why doesn’t the Doctor detects its survival? (If he does but is just covering then why does he seem so surprised later.) Loved Sarah Jane’s instinct’s in taking advantage of the distraction. Loved Mickey’s attempt to mime to Jackie – not as good as Donna. Hee. Loved Jack and Mickey’s reunion.

Martha’s journey deserves a new paragraph especially the German speaking daleks. HeeHee. Loved the shear badassness of the ousthagen key and it’s purpose. Loved Martha’s determination to give the Daleks one chance – as indeed the Doctor always does. Also loved Sarah Jane’s backup plan. Knew she wasn’t just depending on the Doctor. Meh to the idea that both Martha and Jack’s plans can be so easily undone. Martha fair enough – she might not be aware of the capability of teleports, but Jack should be. He surely would have created some sort of dead man’s switch or blocked or turned off the teleports. Well done, Russell.

The scenes between Davros and the Doctor were also both cool and stupid. Davros making those sort of psychological ploys to undermine the Doctor’s confidence in his companions, yes, I understand why he tries it, but the Doctor falling for it or even the lack of response from the companions as if they agree with Davros? No way, Captain Jack should be the first to say, “I was a soldier before meeting the Doctor. All he did was show me that there are sometimes other ways. Peaceful ways” Also the bit where the doctor guesses that Davros is a pet and Davros doesn’t reply, giving the impression that the doctor has hit a raw nerve, totally contradicts the previous episode. After all why does the supreme Dalek accept davros’s rebukes if Davros is a pet. Also if Davros isn’t in control, why does he have a FUCKING DALEK OVERRIDE CONSOLE? Headesk*

Then we have the 2^nd Doctor and Donna. Their scenes were brilliant! The Doctor aping Donna in some ways was nicely done, the “Your’re naked!” “Yes, I am” was amusing, the plan to turn back the field was nice but the idea that the 2^nd Doctor doesn’t tell Donna what to do if he can’t make it to Davros, despite the doctor knowing what sort of defences Davros has – stupid. BUT I LOVED DOCTORDONNA, although a better reason for her existence rather than Dalek Caan being traitor would have been cool. Its motivation makes my brain hurt if I try to understand it. Dalek Caan goes back into the timelocked Time War and saves Davros, seeing the total of time&space in the process and understanding the death and destruction the Daleks have caused, goes mad and decides to stops the Daleks. IT then HELPS Davros build a new Dalek Empire, warns him in cryptic messages what’s coming and somehow manipulates timelines so that DoctorDonna exists. Yet it didn’t stop the Trickster in Turn Left. HeadDesk* Thank God Davros didn’t notice the important of the phrase “Thricefold man”. Grrr

The images of out of control Daleks make me think of so many of the early stories and the companions pushing them around – Tee Hee. Then we have destructo Doctor and the mad dash for the crowded TARDIS, and all the companions pitching in to help fly it. Loved the cameo of K9, but a big RASPBERRY to the idea of the TARDIS towing the Earth home. Half an hour ago the TARDIS was 1 second away from total destruction, yet now it’s able to tow a frelling planet. Fuck you, Russell.

Then the whole Rose/2^nd Doctor leaving scene. Why does it have to be parallel Earth? Why not this one? After all UNIT was pretty much wiped out. Rose and 2^nd doctor would be useful. All you have to do is collect Pete ~~and his millions,~~ and baby son and Jackie would be happy to stay here. Contrived, contrived, contrived.

Then it gets even worse. Donna being unable to cope with the knowledge of a TimeLord, yet earlier she said that the universe had been waiting for her. The idea that Donna’s character growth and development gets undone like that. Russell, I hate you. Also the idea that the doctor forces his on her despite her insistence that she doesn’;t want to go back. Fuck you, doctor. So much for Free will/freedom which is supposedly what you’re fighting for.

Overall 6 out of 10 although it is the best of the finales in terms of enjoyment

RTD, your strengths are characterisation, and dialogue. Your plots usually are ropey and your finales are 10 times worse so why do you insist on writing them? My perfect series has Moffet and Paul Cornell writing the plots (and the writer of Fires of Pompeii which was brilliant) and you being a superb script editor putting in the proper characterisation.

Film Reviews

2008-06-16T15:50:54Z

in the last month, I've seen four films - Iron Man, Indiana 4, The Incredible Hulk and The Happening. There are my thoughts on each.

Iron Man is a great film. I love the updating of the premise with the start of the action involving the War on Terror, Robert Dowing Jr is brilliant as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow's redhaired Pepper Potts is "Oh mama" and there's lots to love. The CGI suit is amazing.
The only drawback I had with the film. is also a drawback in the little I know of the comic and is to do with the lack of "heroism" of Iron Man. From what I understand, Iron Man fights usually concern protecting Stark Industries technology rather than saving people. Yes we do have Iron Man saving the car full of people in the end fight and helping the refugees in the middle but in both occasions the reason he is in the area is to stop people from having Stark Techology weapons. Hopefully in any sequel or Avengers movie they'll address. Easily 9 out of 10

Sign of Geekiness - when the title just comes up on the screen, I realise "that's a nine word title. Wonder what sort of countdown round would you get from the initial letter of each word - I, J, A, T, K, O, T, C, S. Longest word I can quickly see ATTICS for 6. The film itself - love the start with Indy asking and getting gunpowder and shotgun shells from the enemy. Love the brief glimpse of the Ark. Love the idea that Indy survives a nuclear explosion. Love the hints of McCarthyism. Love the bike chase - especially the library bit. Love the grave robbing with some small traps and puzzles to figure out. Love the creepiness of the skull gazing. Love Marions intro and the quicksand bit. A Meh to the lorry chase scene as it goes on a bit too long. Also Meh to Indy's naiveness in believing the double agent story. Meh to the lack of a city of gold - especially when it could have been done easily enough with CGI nowadays. A simultaneous Nice and a WTF to the aliens and the Russians getting what they want at the end. Easily 8.5 out of 10 - great fun but as with most Indy films don't look too hard at the plot

OH MY GOD. The updating of a childhood pleasure. The Incredible Hulk was a Tv series I loved as a child and as an adult. seeing the opening montage with so many images coping the series, hearign the haunting music as David Banner walks slowly away from his latest change. So cool. Stan lee in a cameo that's actually a plot point. Lou feringo as a guard! A plot which does as it says on the tin with much Hulk smash!
One niggle is the fall from the chopter. No sense whatsoever. What they should have do is have Betty say "Let's see if you still can change" and soundly kiss him and then whisper sex talk into his ear with resulting rise in watch beeping and then the eyes. Then have Bruce start his fall. due to slight stupidity, a very good 9 out of 10

worst film that I've seen for a long time. The Happening has some great ideas but equally has some really clunky bits. for example, 5 people approach an isolated house looking for food and shelter and the inhabitants get so afraid of them that they shot dead two of them. The three survivors leave. Later they come to another isolated house. If you;re one of these three, do you a) sneak up on the house, risking getting shot again if you scare the inhabitants; or b) do you approach as openly and as loudly as possible trying to mimimise any scare factor. (Note: if the inhabitants are likely to shoot first anyway then sneaking may help but what are the odds that the locals will know the best places to hide?) Similarly an old, suspicious women has reluctantly offered you shelter. you wake up the next morning and don't see anyone - including the rest of your party, do you a) sneak around the house, risking scaring the old woman who may then go berserk and shoot you or b) thinking that if the old women has harmed the others, she probably would have dealt with you already whilst you were sleeping and since you are in a stranger's house and don't want to be rude, call out for people and thus let people know that you are awake and up. The film has it's male lead doing a) both times. I know personally be doing b). Thus I couldn't believe in the characters and thus wasn't swept up by the film.
These poor character/plot points coupled with some very odd science put me off the film totally. I'm stretching to give it 4 out 10. Barely watchable.

Midnight Review - Spoilers

2008-06-16T15:08:52Z

Part of me really wants to love this episode because it has a fantastic premise, is brilliantly acted and is probably one of RTD best scripts. Unfortunately there's a couple of points which I'm finding it hard to get around. Firstly as other people online have pointed out (and argued over), there is an hint of racism in the depiction of black characters in this episode - especially near the end. When the doctor is possessed, the survivors are split three ways - the rabidly agressive who want to throw the doctor out - Mum and Dad; the fence-sitters - Jethro and the Professor, who nevertheless go along with the first two, and the two people who realise that something isn't quite right with the other's interpretations of events - the hostess and Dee-dee. Both the last two are shouted down as if their opinions don't matter in any way and in what I'm convinced is just an unfortunate concidence, these are the two black characters left. So we have a white vs black standoff. If instead the writing had swapped the reactions of Jethro and DeeDee around, I would have been happier. Jethro, who had been shown to have an independant streak, could have argued with his mother and she could have given the sort of shouting down that the Professor gave DeeDee, and DeeDee who had been shown to be a bit quiet could have had the "don't know" type of reaction. then problem solved.

Secondly there was a bit of stupidity on the doctor's part. Now this, in some ways I could live with this as I believe that just as the doctor inspires the best in some people, so too do the companions inspire the doctor, and the lack of Donna is actively hindering the Doctor in his attempts to argue his points. Also there are some subtle hints that the intelligence is making people stupid - but then there should have been some muttering of "What was I doing?" from the passengers which there wasn't. Additional arguments that the doctor could have made in the first "throw her out" argument:
a) With no guarantee that the alien would be killed outside and given that it's perfectly possible that it hadn't physical form in the first place (otherwise the body should have been found by the rescue shuttle and this should have been mentioned), yet as a formless intelligence it was still able to rip the cabin off the shuttle... where would you rather the alien was? Here in the shuttle where we can keep an eye on it or outside where it could be doing anything...
b) Suppose you do kill it. Then what? First, why assume that's there's only one? Perhaps by killing the first all you do is anger the rest... Or supposing that it is the only one. When the resuce shuttle comes, how are you going to explain your actions? when the authorities ask you "why you threw Skye out, what are you going to say?" "She was copying what I said and annoyed me" or "She was looking at me funny?"

Two other minor points are the rose clip and the treatment of aliens. Rose trying to make contact with the doctor on contemporary Earth - no problem. Rose trying on a different world in presumably a far flung future. WTF? If she can do that, why as she not tried in every episode? I want a good reason for this and somehow I don't think I'll get one. finally the treatment of aliens - at the start the existence of aliens seems to be accepted. The Professor goes one about how no one at all came to this system for all eternity which implies that he's talking not just about humans. The hostess greets people with (approx) "Ladies, Gentlemen, facsimiles of..." which again would seem to imply aliens. Yet later when people go a bit crazy, the idea that the doctor isn't human seems to be suspicious and evil. Surely by the era where the technology exists to survive in such inhospitable environments, human and aliens must have coexisted for centuries and such prejudices would be long gone. Surely there should be more of a futuristic feel to the passengers. Personally i would have just set the story in Antarctica in near future and had the idea of the first arctic tourists.

Free Chocolate for the WIn!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-09T15:23:16Z

Out on site today at the city hospital where parking might be tricky, so decided to walk down thus getting sore legs and a nice feeling of "Well Done". Usual crapness at work with much twiddling of thumbs while they got stuff sorted for me to do, then at lunchtime, go to vending machine for sweet snack and find that there is £1 credit on it and no one to be seen. Result! Free chocolate doesn't have any calories, doesn't it. :)

May Day Hols

2008-05-04T17:20:05Z

I was wondering what are people doing tomorrow when they're off? (assuming that they're not unlucky and working)

I'm restless and would like to do something but I'm not sure what. So learning other's people plans may give me ideas.

Calling all Party animals!

2008-04-11T11:57:55Z

I've training this week under a German VISTA instructor and he's wondering what's on in Belfast at the weekend. SO any ideas from anyone?

Club And societies Quiz is back.

2008-02-12T18:01:16Z

Tonight - 9:30 Speakeasy - See you there!

PS Who wants a lift?

What's going on with Gwen?

2008-01-31T13:13:57Z

Every so often Torchwood seems to have a moment or scene where one thing is happening on the surface with Gwen but there could be another explanation behind it all.

For example in last night's episode, the team only find out about the hospital's demolition after Gwen, totally at random, goes there to satisfy her curiosity. And she's the first to see the "ghosts" rather than one of the several builders there. That was lucky! However what if there was a deeper reason for this concidence? I'm convinced that the only way to make Torchwood make sense is to assume that Gwen, like Gywenth in the Unquiet Dead is "psychic". This assujmption makes last night episode make sense. We already know that Psychic and Time Rifts are linked in the Whoverse, thanks to Unquiet Dead and again we know that in that episode the Rift only opened fully when Gywenth stepped physically into the area where the Rift was strongest. If we extrapolate this to last night, we see that as expected, the Temporal hijinks only "start" when Gwen steps into the area where the weakness or hole is! Thus the lucky happenstance of Gwen finding out the Rift was becoming active is changed into a subtle plot point. This theory also explains some of the plot holes in Season 1 episodes. The best example is Random Shoes in which there are several points where Gwen reacts to something Eugene's said - almost as if she can hear him. The main example of this is the bit in the car when Gwen is about to get out and interview Eugene's dad and Eugene's cries out that he's not ready, that he can't do this and Gwen stops and says something like "don't worry , you don't have to do it"

I hope that my theory is proved right over the course of the series.

A rant about Doctor Who’s Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

2008-01-18T17:32:52Z

A few posts recently about the top 10 best and worst and others about the Vortex and Rose have reminded me of my hatred for the last half of Parting of the Ways.

From the moment the TARDIS arrives back on the Gamestation, the plot holes start appearing and growing until the last ten or so minutes make no sense whatsoever.

Firstly the idea that despite the Daleks having created the Gamestation and that they were able to teleport the Controller off once she betrayed them, that there was nothing they could do to remotely destroy the Gamestation while the Doctor was on it. Yeah right. Even the possibility of Daleks teleporting onto the station which was mentioned in the plot by Jack wiring in the “surfboard” – but what stops the Daleks doing this before Jack had creates the shield – how long does it take to teleport?

Secondly Jack’s speech to the masses who don’t believe in Daleks – powerful but stupid. These people are game players so why not approach them in that mode. Imagine saying something like this instead:

OK, I say Daleks are coming, you say I’m wrong/lying or mistaken. Ok, if I’m right and you help us fight them, then we may live. If I’m right and you don’t help us fight them then they will kill us and then you. If on the other hand, I’m wrong, then if you don’t help us, nothing happens at all. If you do help us and no daleks come, again nothing happens. So you see only by helping us can you assure yourselves of the best chance of surviving. Otherwise you’re betting on me being wrong – do you really want to bet your life on that?!

Thirdly why only one Anne droid attacking the Daleks – there were several rooms for each other game type so why only one Anne Droid?

Fourthly the Doctor’s decision not to press the lever – Given the choice is either destroy the Daleks, the already mostly destroyed Earth and himself or let the Daleks take the survivors and create more Daleks who would then attack the rest of the universe (and you definitely get the feeling in New Who that the Daleks would win). So basically the choice is total extermination of this small corner of the universe or allowing the universe to be enslaved forever. My vote would be for the former as the latter is surely a fate worse than death.

Fifthly Rose and the vortex. If the power of the TARDIS allows a person to do the things that Rose does then WHY DIDN’T ANY OF THE TIMELORDS THINK OF IT BEFORE, LIKE SAY DURING THE TIME WAR? If the Doctor had the choice of one of his incarnations or the time War continuing and the possible destruction of Gallifrey, surely he would have done it. RTD needs to learn that if you introduce a technology or Dues Ex, you must be careful especially nowadays where story arcs in series are allowed and even expected, you must be careful to introduce a reason why it never appeared before or can be used again. As for the belated attempt in Xmas Invasion to say that it could have equally blown up the universe and Rose “just” got lucky – way to make your Heroine into an idiot! The idea that Rose should really have destroyed the universe, thus becoming the biggest killer ever! – NO! No! No! The idea that several films and TV shows take that saving your loved one is worth risking the world/universe is profoundly stupid because obviously if the world you’re standing on or the universe you exist in gets destroyed, well so does your loved one who wouldn’t thank you for this act of stupidity if they truly loved you back.

Sixthly, the randomness of “Bad Wolf”. Rose scatters the words “Bad Wolf” throughout time and space as a message to herself, She chooses those word because those are the words that she saw… Well that’s a rather useless reason for all the appearances throughout the season. Also she “scatters” the words yet we hardly see them in season 2/3 yet if she has “placing” them in times/places where she experienced them, why are they in places where she or the Doctor didn’t experience them but we, the audience, did – Van Slatten’s helicopter call sign for example. If the placed them in every location she visited, then why are they not at all in certain places – like the first ep.

Seventhly the regeneration – wrong on at least two levels. First the fact that the Doctor regenerates standing up. I don’t mind too much that he starts standing up, but he should instantly collapse once the process is over – as indeed we see with the Master in season 3. Regeneration is a process which occurs instead of death and how many people die standing up and stay standing up. Secondly the stupidity of the doctor saying the speech about two heads and Barcelona, instead of explaining properly to rose what’s happening. No instead of ensuring that Rose won’t be frightened out of her wits by the weirdness of the change, the ninth Doctor decides to spend his last moments going on about how wonderful he is. Granted he’s in pain, etc. but other Doctors tried to reassure their companions in similar circumstances so why is the Ninth Doctor not as good? Indeed given some of the writing of the tenth, there has been a dumbing down of the Doctor sensitivity in these and other matters.

If there have been just 2 or 3 of these plot holes, maybe even four, I might have still enjoyed the episode and just put them down to dramatic license, but dramatic license only allows you so much stupidity after which it’s just bad. As it is I look at this episode and go, this could have been so good.

In case anyone’s interested, my fanwanks/solutions for these holes are:

Firstly, before the Doctor gets Rose from the Dalek fleet, he quickly locks the gamestation down so that the Daleks can’t hack in. Then due to him actually distracting the daleks with the rescue of Rose, the gamestation workers are secretly recoding everything they can think of – thus keeping the Daleks off. This in turn buys enough time for Jack to hook up the “surfboard”

Secondly, Jack is enough of a soldier to know that in such a situation he needs actually brave people to stand and fight and anyone who would join up as a result of the above argument would break and run when faced with such a terrible enemy as the Daleks.

Thirdly, with less people helping with the fight, they only had time to jury-rig one robot.

Fourthly, a crap attempt could be – if you believe that the Doctor is responsible for the destruction of Gallifrey and the Dalek battle fleet. He may be thinking – I destroyed a planet before thinking that it would destroy the Daleks and I was wrong. Perhaps I’m wrong about these being the only other ones and there might be other options yet. – which he is right about. Otherwise again this is just crap.

Fifth – I have no explanation here. This is just stupid.

Sixth - Same again

Seventh - the ninth doctor is damaged as a result of the Time War – the reason why he seems to latch onto Rose so fiercely – that why his actions are stupid. As for the regeneration – that’s due to the specific Time Vortex energy swirling about his body.

Deal or No Deal Question

2008-01-06T20:49:29Z

I've been filling in the online application for Deal or No Deal as I could use some money and it's a very involved questionnaire you have to fill out. For example they ask the following question
How would your friends/family describe you? (please give positives and negatives)

Which made me wonder just what DO people think of me? So please in one or two lines, please let me know that you think. any comments will be screened and please be brutally honest

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-01-01T02:28:02Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR and may the following year exceed the last for you all.

Also I will be going to see "I am Legend" tomorrow night at Dublin Road at the 20:40 showing. If anyone wants to join me, let me know.

Xmas Review

2007-12-31T11:25:58Z

Went to parents on Thursday to spend time with brother who was home from America. spent thursday night in watching first eight episodes of house on DVD - excellent stuff! Especially loved the line from Hugh Laurie's House to Chase - an austrialian doctor who has complained about House calling him British - "Your money has the Queen on it. You're British!"

Friday - spent helping Mum tidy house for Xmas
Saturday - morning spent shopping, then back in time for footy. Spent evening at other brother's house playing on his pool table.
Sunday - spent with neices and nephews
Xmas Eve - lazy day with some help for Mum with the cooking
Xmas day - spent morning cooking, afternoon digesting, and evening with family having a Xmas sing-a-long
Boxing Day -to - Friday - caught a stomache bug off the kids and spent three days clutching at stomache and sleeping
Saturday - finally able to eat again. Hooray! Caught up with chocolate eating by eating large bar of Dairy Milk. Otherwise watched TV
Sunday - back to Belfast in time for work Monday. Boo! otherwise more TV and House especially. Now up to 18 episodes

stuff

2007-11-13T09:18:25Z

It feels like ages since I posted but I've been a bit meh about doing things lately - must do better.

Anyway before a long catch up post, I wanted my friends to know that I intend to go to cheap cinema tonight and see 30 days of night at Dublin Rd at 7:00. Fran and Michael will probably be going with me. Anyone else interested?

USA Shows I watched this weekend:

2007-10-15T11:01:52Z

Bionic Woman, episodes 1 -3

Michelle Ryan does a good job as the new BW. She plays 24 yr old bartender, Jamie Somers who is raising her 14 yr old sister after flakey dad dumped them both. She is seeing a college professor who is secretly head surgeon of the organisation who is trying to create an enhanced operative. Katie Sackoff (Starbuck from BSG) plays the FIRST BW who has gone slightly loopy due to the implants and slaughtered 14 agents. She tries to kill the doctor and only manages to seriously injure Jamie and grief-stricken, the mad professor decides to operate on Jamie to save her life. As events unfold, Jamie must decide who to trust and what to do with her new abilities. Unfortunately they can’t stop the disease of plot holes…

Rating: 7 out of 10

Bones; Season 3 episodes 1 -3

As enjoyable as ever, although the fact that I somehow have skipped the last two episodes of season 2 does confuse me a bit. Bones is still a show with semi-interesting plots, very engaging characters and some nice snappy dialogue.

Rating 8 out of 10

Charlie Jade (?)
A series that SFX gave out the first episode as they thought it was wonderful. I watched this – a series about three parallel worlds and some calamity falling them, and even I, a geek, was confused at times about which reality I was currently watching and what was happening, so I dread to think what a “mundane” audience would have thought. Perhaps too smart for its own good.

Rating 6.5 out of 10 – has potential

Chuck, episodes 1, 2

Wonderful. A great premise linking both humour and action – a nerd receives an email from his old college roommate, who unknown to him is a spy, which contains all government secrets. This information downloads into his brain where it is apt to come out at random triggers – pictures, smells, names, etc. The CIA and NSA send agents to deal with this leak of information but spy an opportunity when Chuck is inspired to link some of the information together and warn them of a terrorist bombing. Deciding to keep Chuck alive for now, the two agents take jobs at Chuck’s workplace – a supermarket. Alec Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly) plays a macho, soldier type agent who just wants to kill him and be done with it and who must pretend to be a salesperson. The other agent is the CIA best female agent who is both beautiful and deadly and who gets a job in a café and thus must wear pigtails and a short skirt and also pretends to be Chuck’s new girlfriend. With neither of the agents trusting the other as both want to be the person to bring Chuck in, if it’s necessary; with some nice sexual tension between Chuck and his girlfriend which is amusing and with Chuck trying to stop Alec from killing shoplifters… there’s a lot of good stuff with this concept.

Rating 7.5 out of 10

Pushing Daisies, episodes 1, 2

Brilliant! Easily the best of this batch. Anna Friel plays the love interest of a man who at age 12 discovered when his dog died that he could bring dead things back to life with one touch. A second touch kills them permanently and if he brings anything back for more than a minute, something else must kill – rules that he works out in one tragic day soon after. Up to about age 30, he tries to make few friends, afraid of what he might do in grief. The exceptions are: a PI who does learn his secret and they form a partnership where he brings murder victims back and asks them who killed them and then the PI gets the evidence to prove it and they split the reward; and the waitress in his Pie restaurant who is madly in love with him and who helps care of his dog hoping to get closer to him.

When he hears that his childhood sweetheart, Charlie has been murdered, he finds that when he brings her back that he can’t let her go and so sneaks her back to his apartment where she joins the partnership.

This summary doesn’t give any information on the real reason this show is brilliant and that is that the show has been filmed as if it was filmed by Tim Burton. The plots are mad, the characters are weird, the dialogue is ultra snappy (and soppy) and the filming is super-saturated so that it all looks like some brilliant Fairy Tale.

Hope that it can last and that the humour doesn’t get old.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Moonlight, episodes 1, 2

A mix of Forever Knight, Angel and many other vampire and detective shows, Moonlight isn’t really anything new. The characters are somewhat crappy named – the hero is Mick St. John; but the plots are reasonable to good; the acting is reasonable - Sophie Myles plays a reporter who gets involved in the hero’s life. There is a nice undercurrent of things like The Masquerade where vamps are trying to keep their existence secret and are willing to do whatever it takes to do so. Mick is the only one protecting the humans at times, sometimes from his old vamp friends. There are a few plot holes in the pilot which are somewhat explained by the second which is bad writing.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Reaper, episodes 1 -3

Quite good. Premise is that a 21 yr old boy, Sam finds out that the reason why his parents never scolded him and quite spoilt him was that when they were young, his dad had been terminally ill and had arranged to sell the soul of his firstborn to the devil in exchange for a cure. Originally his parents had decided to have no kids but the devil, too sneaky for them had bribed a doctor to tell them that they were infertile. The devil puts his new soul to work on Earth as a Reaper – a bounty hunter for escaped souls, and hi-jinks occur.

There is a nice vein of humour in that the way the new Reaper must catch the souls. The devil gives him a “vessel” capable of trapping the particular soul that he’s after this week and these vessels are different each week and are made in such a way so that Sam can “use” them. The first turns out to be a dirt Devil which hoovers up the soul, the second a radio-controlled car, and the third a toaster. Also the character of the devil is nicely done with a suave, charming approach used when he first appears, which is replaced by a quiet menace if he gets annoyed.

Slight wonder of whether the jokes and characters can last or whether they will get annoying.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles – Unfinished pilot

Wow. They managed to put it a twist that surprised me and this is a franchise which has been around for so long. Nice plot, nice characterisation and some lovely action scenes – but can this be sustained on a series budget? Will be very interested in seeing finished version.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

h0pal0ng @ 2007-09-28T10:49:00

2007-09-28T09:49:43Z

Hi, I've been thinking (yeah, you were right - you could smell smoke! :) ) and I was wondering if people would like to go to the Funfair on Boucher road next Thursday. I've never been to a funfair and while I don't expect to go on many rides due to having a weak stomach, I expect that I'll still have fun watching my friends’ faces as they make themselves sick! :) I wouldn't be ready what with work and all until at earliest 7:30 so meet at the fair at 8pm. Well, anyone interested?

Update

2007-08-15T12:12:54Z

I finally have my car back. AAAAAAAAAAAh. It feels so good not to have to reply on public transport and walking.

In other shock news, we are finally tidying our house. I can see carpet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

saturday and Sunday

2007-07-14T09:30:13Z

QUBSF have decided to have a lowkey Harry Potter Day today. We are going to show the first two Harry Potter films in the MBC building at the City Hospital Belfast from 2 to 7ish, with much talk afterwards about the new film and othercoming last book.

Depending on demand, we will either also go to see the 5 film that evening or show the third and fourth films on Sunday - same time and location following by a cinema trip to see the 5th film

So if you;re in Belfast with nothing to do, please free to call in and watch HP again on a large (projector) screen

some DW musings

2007-07-11T09:57:10Z

Doctor Who speculation

Do we really believe that in the 18 months the Master had on Earth before SoD that all his time was just used setting up the election win, the Valiant, the Archangel network and his various Doctor traps, or given that he is a genius and a Time Lord that he would have had spare time to carry out other schemes. Also during the Year That Wasn’t, did the Master spend all his time “ruling” the world or did he have time for other things?

Surely the latter so what sort of things could he, would he have done? Some of my suggestions are:

In the 18 months, he surely would have wanted his TARDIS and thus would have travelled either to a slightly different point in the future era (one trillion +/- 18 months) and picked his TARDIS up from where he had left her and brought her back with him. Surely it is the fact that he has another TARDIS that allows him the luxury of turning the “only” working time machine that he otherwise has into the Paradox Engine. Indeed as we know he travelled to Utopia, thus proving that there was at least one trip into the future, there is no reason to imagine that there weren’t others for this sort of purpose. Some people may argue that he couldn’t have moved to the co-ordinates of his TARDIS as it may have been outside the leeway of the coordinate drift allowed by the doctor’s locking of the controls. But there’s nothing to assume that he had to travel straight to his TARDIS. For example suppose that as Minister of Defence, he requisitions some alien tech (like a Extrapolator) from UNIT/Torchwood “for study” and then takes it into the TARDIS, travels to the future era and then uses the Extrapolater to “surf” to his TARDIS’s location, flies his TARDIS back to the Doctor’s and links them as we know he can do from several 3^rd/4^th Doc stories and then travels back to current day Earth with only a few hours passed, and returns the Extrapolator to its source. No, there is too much leeway in the shown stories for any assumption that the Master is TARDISless to hold much water for me,

In the Year That Wasn’t, the Master is aware of the destruction of Gallifrey and time Lords and he has the Doctor prisoner. Given that he is, like the doctor, a master scientist of all sciences, what are the chances that given a sample of his time Lord DNA, the Doctor’s Time Lord DNA and say some human sex cells, says some eggs from his wife and some sperm from Captain Jack (chosen due to the immortality Jack seems to display) and from them created in a genetic lab a couple of fully Time Lord babies (if he’s willing to allow some small portion of Human DNA in his creations then some of them could be female). This would certainly better explain his comments of a new “Time Lord” empire. Now these infants may have to grow up normally but would the Master allow them out of his sight or would he be brainwashing them every chance he got. So where’s the logical place to keep them – locked in his TARDIS, where they would be “protected” from the Time rewind in LotTL. So what are the chances of the Master bringing back the Time Lords – as a race of beings brainwashed to “hate the doctor” and regard him and all that he loves as “evil”? Now there’s a story with angst for you.

Most of the Master previous stories have been split between him seeking power and just trying to survive for as long as possible. Sod/LotTL shows him doing the former. What if he was also doing the latter? What if the Master as well as creating new Time Lord Babies also tried to create a clone of himself by some similar method and as a result had created and stored in his TARDIS several replacement bodies/babies that were perfect copies of himself. One of the last scenes of LotTL showing the Master’s ring being picked up a-la Flash Gordon and his laughter, suggesting that the ring may be “storing his essence”. Suppose that whoever did the picking up (Lucy, I believe) has been programmed to take the ring to his TARDIS and put it on one of the stored bodies. Hey presto, new Master in new Time Lord with full regeneration cycle! He could then last for as long as his supply of new bodies last and would be essentially immortal. Imagine that as a foe of the Doctor!

We see that the Master is in control for a year and indeed was on Earth for several months before. He can’t afford Earth being invaded or destroyed before Martha leaves with the doctor and releases him in Utopia, and he would hate to reply on the doctor, so it’s in his best interest to help stop invasions. Indeed we see in the Runaway bride that he is taking an active part in defending this planet. So how many invasions did The Master defeat in those thirty months? How many times did he (through gritted teeth and with a high level of exasperation with humanity’s foolishness) save the Planet? I would love to see a “flashback” episode next year as the doctor light one, where a team lead/advised by the Master stop an invasion – by utterly annihilating the enemy. How dark an episode would that be?

What's this - a post. Blimey!

2007-07-10T08:00:00Z

I'm back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After months of lurking because I'm lazy, I now have a few things to say to my friends

1) Tonight I will be going to see Die Hard 4 at Dublin Road. The film times are 6:20 - a bit early and 8:20 - rather late, so I'm going to try for the 6.20 (heading down straight from work). So does anyone want to join me? This is of course not a SF outing in any way so people will have to pay full price for their ticket - £2.50 Since Die Hard is just out,we will probably have to book the tickets in advance so let me know by lunchtime please - otherwise buy one yourself.

2) Tomorrow QUBSF is at the Odyssey due to Queen's being shut. So meeting by the CoolFM booth in the center and I imagine most people in again be bowling/playing arcade games. Unfortunately there's no midnight showing for HP anywhere :(

Spiderman 3 tonight

2007-05-08T12:39:41Z

As I was unable to see this over the weekend, I intend to go tonight to Dublin Rd, 8:00pm showing. Anyone want to join me?

Also Boo Virgin/NTL - no Doctor Who goodness in the Catch up TV (although oddly it does have the confidential) :( As I was babysitting, I missed bits on Saturday and was really looking forward to the rewatch)

Book Sale

2007-04-27T17:40:49Z

I have just confirmed that the annual Library Book Sale will be on from Thursday 24th May to Saturday 26th. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekend Plans - Details

2007-04-27T08:45:20Z

Friday - 7:30pm -Yorkgate - Film: Next
Afterwards at 9:30 - 10:00 head back to my place with a few friends. Let me know if you're available.

Saturday - Barbacue at friends house so hoping for good weather

Sunday - meeting brother for lunch so busy until 2:30 - 3:00. But rest of day - no plans so again if anyone wants to meet, let me know.

PS Brain started to work again and I've realised that 2007 - 1973 is not 33 as I said but 34. I already am an adult hobbit! Oh well, I'll just steal the cliche of being 33 "again".

HAPPY EASTER!

2007-04-07T11:08:17Z

Easter Plans.

1) Go to parents and play loads with neices and nephews
2) Stuff myself on chocolate on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...
3) Come back on Tuesday and go for a meal then cinema (or vice versa). Possiblilies are:
                      Yorkgate    Dublin Road        storm
Sunshine       7.35pm        7.00pm            5:20pm
                      10.00pm    9.30pm            8:20pm

300              7.10pm        6:40pm            5:30pm
                     9:55pm        9:20pm            8:00pm

As always I prefer to go with friends so would anyone be interested in coming along?