Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

It's not the busiest week of recent times, but it's no slouch either, with five new additions across most categories: there's 3D, 4K, TV, and films all here; stuff I've seen before, and stuff I haven't. There's even a short.

No alternate cut are counted, although there sort of is one: the animation of Doctor Who serial Evil of the Daleks comes in both colour and black & white versions. But I've not quite worked out how to count alternate cuts of TV episodes (which I do have, for things like Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, and some anime) so there's no change to that figure.

So, the only thing that's entirely unrepresented this week is DVDs. Not so unusual, that.

Number of titles in collection: 2,668 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,064 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 1,604 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 123 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 6,731 [up 8]
Number of films: 3,117 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 232 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,115 [up 7]
Number of short films: 886 [up 1]

See you next week, faithful reader.

this week on 100 Films

Five brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Life of Pi (2012)

it concerns, literally, the story of a boy stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger, and, figuratively, the very nature of storytelling itself — not to mention the purpose of religion and the existence of God. Never has “from the director of Hulk” seemed less pertinent.

Read more here.


Red Sonja (1985)

From the sword and sorcery ‘boom’ of the ’80s, Red Sonja concerns a warrioress going after the evil queen who slaughtered her family and has now seized a magical MacGuffin that will destroy the world or somesuch. The first remarkable thing is that I don’t think anyone in it can act.

Read more here.


Space Station 76 (2014)

The film’s visual aesthetic is a loving recreation of classic SF, from the set design to the gorgeous model-like CGI exteriors. I don’t think anything in particular was being referenced — at least, not obviously so — but it’s all reminiscent of the likes of the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Space: 1999, and so on. It’s been created with such care that it borders on the beautiful.

Read more here.


Videodrome (1983)

even though it’s 32 years old and the tech being depicted is similarly dated, its fears about the influence of the media and the changes it brings to society could’ve been shot yesterday. These thought-provoking themes are in part conveyed through Cronenberg’s familiar stomping ground of body horror, with top-drawer prosthetics giving tangible visual life to nightmarish ideas

Read more here.


Whiplash (2014)

Chazelle’s screenplay is admirable in its psychological complexity here, particularly as it’s contained in a straightforward-seeming master/pupil, abuser/abusee drama that also functions as a surface-level dramatic thriller. The extra levels come from these exact characters and their exact relationship.

Read more here.


Plus five archive reviews were reposted on the new blog...


Cut (2009)

When the violence comes, it’s moderately brutal. And here’s the rub — it’s arguably not brutal enough to cover the horrid reality of what some people have to suffer. It’s been made suitable to be shown on TV in a slot where people will see it — which, for its aims as an awareness advert, is completely appropriate.

Read more here.


Enchanted (2007)

it’s the one that starts out as a traditionally animated Disney film, before The Normal Girl Who Will Marry A Prince is thrown into a Magic Portal by The Evil Stepmother and finds herself in present-day New York. It’s one of those concepts so good it just makes you think, “why haven’t they thought of that before?” Thankfully, they pull it off.

Read more here.


Flushed Away (2006)

Aardman Animations, the Bristol-based company most famous for Wallace & Gromit and Creature Comforts, branch out into CGI for the first time with this tale of rats trying to save the sewers of London. CGI rats? Yes, thoughts of Ratatouille are inevitable. Can Aardman beat Pixar at their own game? You might be surprised…

Read more here.


Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

For those who’ve never heard of MST3K, it’s a bit like a DVD commentary… except instead of people involved with the film recounting anecdotes or academics offering analysis, we have people taking the piss out of it. I say “people” — one person and two robots. Who are obviously voiced by people. Look, that’s not the point.

Read more here.


Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

Kim Stanley’s performance is stunning. Initially just a Hyacinth Bucket-esque overbearing wife, as the film continues we learn more about her almost solely from what Stanley brings to the role. By the final scene, when the truth of her character is laid bare, there’s little doubt that she’s given an extraordinary performance.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x10 The Passage

How I Met Your Mother
7x20 Trilogy Time
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Mock the Week
11x04 (5/7/12 edition)
aka Episode 100. Loved the "best bits" montage.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x09 Unfinished Business [extended cut]

I had thought I was going to watch the broadcast version of this episode -- I usually do with things, first time round (see: Neon Genesis Evangelion. (I say "see" -- I watched that before I started this blog.)). But goodness knows when second-time-round might be, and this particular extended version makes a regular episode feature-length, with 26½ minutes of added material.

According to executive producer Ronald D. Moore, this is "an 'editor's cut'... the starting point for cutting down the episode to the standard length... while it offers a lot more details on the characters, it is a rough cut (unlike the Pegasus extended cut). He considers some scenes better and some worse than in the final cut, sometimes preferring story points only being told by implication and not spelled out. He thinks some scenes may be too long, with the ideal cut maybe somewhere between the two." (There's also an odd situation with the episode's music score, which you can read about in a little more detail here.) So my decision to watch the longer version was based on the premise that if neither's perfect, I may as well see the one with more material.

It certainly felt like quite an epic episode -- in character terms, anyway -- dealing with a lot of long-standing issues (even if the viewer didn't know about all of them yet). Moore also notes that there was "a faster pace in the aired version", so it would be interesting to see the contrast. Hopefully someday there'll be a second-time-round and I can watch it then.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x07 A Measure of Salvation
3x08 Hero
It's been nearly 18 months since I last watched Galactica -- oops, that wasn't meant to happen! I tried reading the episode summary at that link to remind me where I was, but it didn't really help, so instead just settled down to watch the episode and hope the "previously on"s would do the trick. And thank frak for those, they did. Shame I didn't manage one more episode before my accidental abandonment, though, because that really wrapped up the ongoing stories (for the time being, anyway) before apparently moving on to more episodic tales with Hero.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x06 Torn

How I Met Your Mother
6x06 Baby Talk
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Mentalist
3x11 Bloodsport
Got fed up waiting for Five to bring this back post-Christmas, so I... acquired it...

No Ordinary Family
1x04 No Ordinary Vigilante
And now I've caught up with Watch. Super.

Primeval
4x06 Episode 6
What a load of tosh. And trying to play a completely unsurprising plot development as if it's the biggest twist ever? Oh dear.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x05 Collaborators

Fast and Loose
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Killing [aka Forbrydelsen]
1x02 Day 2
This is rather good y'know. If you missed it, you've got two months to catch up on iPlayer... but I'd recommend getting a head start, what with it being 20 episodes longer. Quite how the story will stretch that far is yet to become clear, but it'll be interesting finding out.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Top Gear
16x01 (23/1/11 edition)
Ah, here we are: the proper return of Top Gear. Lovely.
Also, we love the 'back-up dog'.

Aww, bless!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x02 Precipice
3x03 Exodus Part 1
3x04 Exodus Part 2
Helluva cliffhanger on Precipice! Luckily, watching on Blu-ray means I can rush straight on to the action-packed Exodus two-parter. Shiny.

The South Bank Show
37x04 Ian McKellen Revisited

Yes Minister
1x02 The Official Visit

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
3x00 The Resistance [webisodes 1-10]
3x01 Occupation
It's now, shockingly, almost six months since I last watched any BSG. I was getting through it so fast too! Time (overdue) to dive back in, then, and this is what's next: The Resistance, a series of ten webisodes totalling 26 minutes, detailing some events that occur between seasons two and three. They may still be available for free online to the US, and they're on the US DVDs, but not the UK DVDs, but they are on the Blu-rays everywhere (on disc two of season three -- common sense does not prevail). In case you wondered.
As for the new series proper, bold of the producers to continue their Iraq war analogy by having the Cylons become the occupying force and the sympathetic human characters become insurgents. Can't imagine that went down too well in the US...

Episodes
1x01 Episode One
This has been soundly slagged off in some quarters (coughRadioTimescough), but I rather enjoyed it. In fact, I'm actually looking forward to more -- so that's rather good too then.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
8x16 History (extended repeat) [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Ronald D. Moore on Why Galactica Steered Clear of ‘Technobabble,’ Aliens by Lisa Grossman
(from Underwire at Wired)

I can’t tell you how many messages I’ve gotten that say, “I’ve watched this episode three times, and I hate it more every time I watch it.” Well, that’s a fan.

A spot-on description of sci-fi fans.
The whole article's interesting for anyone who likes Battlestar Galactica, though be warned it has some huge spoilers towards the end.

Articles

Bruce Feirstein interview: James Bond, Blood Stone and modernising GoldenEye by Michael Leader
(from Den of Geek!)
Interesting point in this interview: writing GoldenEye, the film, was all about having to move Bond into a new, post-Cold War world; now, writing the GoldenEye game remake, which updates the story to today, 15 years on from the film, involves updating it to a much-changed world again. Which is kind of interesting. It's also increased my already-quite-high interest in the game. Crap, I'm gonna have to buy a console again, aren't I...

Mark Gatiss interview: writing Sherlock, and where it’s heading next by Simon Brew (from Den of Geek!)
and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes villains like no other by Steven Moffat (from guardian.co.uk)
Just to whet your appetite ahead of this Sunday's Sherlock series finale, here's a pair of articles: the first an interview with co-creator Mark Gatiss about the series' conception and where it may go next; the second by co-creator Steven Moffat on why Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, is so legendary, plus which are the best screen versions.

And in other Sherlock news...

Sherlock DVD & Blu-ray Cover Art
(from Sherlocking)
Seems like we now have nearly all the details for the DVD/BD release of this excellent series: all three episodes (naturally), commentaries on the first and third, a half-hour making-of, and, perhaps best of all, the unaired one-hour pilot. It could only be better if they'd done commentaries on episode two and the pilot -- hopefully the making-of will cover why the latter was rejected and the series rethought.

Torchwood attracts Buffy, Breaking Bad, House writers by Maureen Ryan
(from The Watcher at Chicago Tribune)
Or, the list of writers for Torchwood's forthcoming fourth season. Only one other UK writer (besides RTD): John Fay, who penned the middling Mobile but also two episodes of the outstanding Children of Earth (aka Torchwood season 3, of course).
Of the three yanks now involved, one is Jane Espenson, of excellent work such as Buffy and Battlestar Galactica, while the other two I've not heard of, but have worked on the likes of The X Files and House. It'll be interesting to see how Americanised this makes a series that obviously started out as very British/Welsh.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x17 The Captain's Hand
2x18 Downloaded
2x19 Lay Down Your Burdens Part 1
2x20 Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2 [season finale]
Nearly a fortnight off and then a four-episode binge to end the season? Yup, that's my way. Still, I'll take a break before commencing season three (or rather, before that, The Resistance webisodes), just to try to separate them a bit in my mind.
Helluva conclusion though: after spending a miniseries and two whole seasons following the fleet for nine months, the series jumps forward twelve in a single cut. And then, after setting up a radically different status quo, it immediately wipes it out with a nice big twist/cliffhanger. Splendid stuff.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x16 Sacrifice

Rev.
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x15 Scar

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x23 (2/7/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne
Part 2 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stand Up for the Week
1x02 (2/7/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x13 Epiphanies
2x14 Black Market

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x22 (25/6/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Wimbledon 2010
Men's semi-final day. Cheerio British hope then.
[Watch Murray v Nadal and Berdych v Djokovic (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x11 Resurrection Ship Part 1
2x12 Resurrection Ship Part 2
Holy frak. I'm beginning to really see where all the plaudits come from -- BSG was pretty great before, but these mid-season episodes are really pushing it to another level.
The only thing standing between these being listed right after Pegasus was midnight -- a pair of gripping cliffhangers easily ensured my undivided attention for the full two-and-a-half hours of these three episodes back to back.

Mock the Week
9x02 (24/6/10 edition)
It comes to something when Jack Whitehall is your most famous guest. Not necessarily a problem, but it really does come to something when he's also the funniest. (See also: Graham Norton a few weeks back.)
Relatedly -- that white South African guy's act seemed to consist wholly of impersonating black South Africans in a rather awkward, arguably racist fashion. Uncomfortable. And not in the good Frankie Boyle-ish way.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x09 Flight of the Phoenix
2x10 Pegasus [extended version]
The BSG Blu-rays (and some/all of the DVDs) contain a total of seven extended episodes, the first of these being Pegasus. Whereas the creators have labelled some of these episodes "editor's cuts" -- effectively meaning a long, unpolished version of the episode -- the extended Pegasus is a "director's cut" -- meaning the full-length version they would've liked to broadcast were they not stuck with a specific length slot. So, in this case, I've decided to eschew the broadcast version and jump straight to the extended one; quite what I'll do when I get to "editor's cut" episodes is something I'll equally over-think when the time comes.
More pertinently, then: what a frakkin' huge cliffhanger! Glad I don't have to wait months for the resolution -- on I go.

Damages
3x13 The Next One's Gonna Go in Your Throat [season finale]
If this does turn out to be the series finale, it was a great one, wrapping up all the major plot threads from all three seasons once and for all -- at last. But it leaves it open for more, so fingers crossed there'll be another case for Patty Hewes.

Doctor Who Confidential
5x13 Out of Time [season finale]
I often find I miss New York, something this episode was all-too-good at reminding me. As for the two slight hints about next season... reassuring, but disappointingly vague. Which I suppose it what we should expect from Moffat & co.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x05 Duel Citizenship
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x06 Home Part 1
2x07 Home Part 2
2x08 Final Cut
Guest starring Dexter's dad!
Also: if all of the Colonies' paper, photos, cards, etc -- and, most pertinently, video recordings -- are octagonal (as opposed to our use of quadrilaterals) then why are their TVs and monitors still rectangular? ("Because production design didn't think it through," is the real-world answer, of course.)

Damages
3x12 You Were His Little Monkey
All the threads are, of course, coming together just in time for the season (and, possibly, series) finale.

Doctor Who
31x13 The Big Bang [season finale]
See here for my thoughts on this episode.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x04 Resistance
2x05 The Farm

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x21 (18/6/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
2x02 Valley of Darkness
2x03 Fragged

The Graham Norton Show
7x11 (21/6/10 edition)

"I was a dominatrix called Mistress Veronica."

[Watch that bit here, or watch the whole episode (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Wimbledon 2010
Been keeping a vague eye on Wimbledon so far, but paid proper attention today: picking up a match I saw some of the end of yesterday before play stopped for light... which, as you may have heard, turned to the record-demolishing Longest Match Of All Time -- John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut, in which the final set alone eventually beat the previous record for Longest Match Ever.