Sunday 4 January 2009

TV

Gilmore Girls
5x12 Come Home
Oh Emily! You do something good, and then you have to toddle straight off and do something bad. Typical Gilmore.

Midsomer Murders
9x08 Four Funerals and a Wedding
I haven't watched Midsomer by choice for the best part of a decade, and this has done little to change my mind. Apparently it's the highest-paid writing gig on TV though.

Films

The Kite Runner (2007)
[#3 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Non-Fiction

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Chapter One
Including RTD's initial episode-by-episode breakdown for Who season four, which reveals some interesting things -- for example, Mark Gatiss' original WW2-set episode three (sounds like a corker), the long-gestating Tom MacRae-penned episode eight (nifty also), and that the excellent Turn Left began life as little more than "Doctor-lite, I'll try to keep it cheap."

The Eleventh Doctor

After yesterday's announcement -- which drew 6.1 million viewers (despite its early slot, it was the second most-watched programme of the day) -- there have naturally been a flurry of articles and whatnot about the rather shocking casting.

Courtesy of the BBC Press Office (via Outpost Gallifrey), here are the first pictures of Smith 'in character' -- though as that's the same outfit he was wearing in the interview I'm guessing it's not his costume, and I hope to God he gets a haircut.

Click to enlarge
Click to expand.

Naturally articles abound. You can find the official press release here (plenty of comments from Official People on the Who staff and at the BBC), and the official site's exclusive interview here. Typically, Outpost Gallifrey have a nice summary of some major reactions from the press, which can be read here.

Personally, I'm still not convinced. The comment that he looks like "the Twilight choice" seems worryingly spot on. Many fans will take comfort in that he's Steven Moffat's choice, as Moffat is seen as Who's best and most consistent writer. I'm sorry to say, not me. The Empty Child is still one of Who's best ever stories, and Blink is one of the scariest things in anything ever, but Moffat's most recent work -- Silence in the Library and the separate miniseries Jekyll -- has been too barmy, unfocused, and of dubious quality, in my opinion.

Still, we'll see... in about 15 months...