Articles

Survivors axe confirmed by BBC by Paul Millar
(from Digital Spy)
Cheerio Survivors! Though they clearly wanted a third run, they'd at least wrapped up most of the major plot threads. It's no surprise it's gone, really.
But bless Digital Spy for thinking the largely-criticised opinion of their often-criticised TV reviewer counts as "a roasting by critics".

Doctor Who's 10 best cliffhangers

For no reason other than I have, I've written a list of my favourite 10 cliffhangers from the 00s revival of Doctor Who -- yes, this makes the post's title slightly misleading... but also slightly catchier.

With Moffat's reign only just underway -- and no proper cliffhangers yet -- this is really "the best cliffhangers from the RTD years", but there you go. I was going to do the classic series too, but there are just too many to try to remember.

And so, in a loosely ranked order, here they are...


10) Bad Wolf
This is 10th because, really, technically, it's not a cliffhanger. Forget "Rose, I'm coming for you" or whatever -- very dramatic speech, yes; cliffhanger, not really -- the Next Time trailer does the real work here, getting us all excited in a way the 'cliffhanger' didn't. And the key is the closing dialogue: an extra-deep Dalek voice booms, "THEY SURVIVED THROUGH ME". Through who, through who? I can't even remember the details of the revelation, but the tease is immense and the speculation ran rampant.

9) Evolution of the Daleks
This one was thoroughly ruined in advance: it was all over the cover of that week's Radio Times. But if you play the game of pretending you don't know... holy crap, it's a Human Dalek! That's new!

8) Last of the Time Lords
"Something strange enters the TARDIS" became the staple for end-of-season Christmas-special teases -- though it just felt that way, because in fact they only did it twice (well, three if you count the first season's regeneration; and it was almost a fourth, but they (wisely) cut that scene from Journey's End). So Doomsday gets points for doing it first, and it certainly did it well... but Last of the Time Lords did it better. This wins out for how it does it: it's the Titanic! And it's broken through the side of the console room! Repetitious or not, that still earns maximum points for originality, thanks.

7) Silence in the Library
Donna's one of those help droid things! By nuWho standards this is gloriously understated -- no monsters surrounding our heroes, no twist-tastic reveal, no oh-no-it's-all-lost moment for the Doctor -- he's just running away, and mid-chase spots his friend's face glued to a computer, and we know what this means -- she's sucked inside and there's no hope for her. Well done Mr Moffat, much better than The Empty Child's "they've surrounded us" cookie-cutter closer.

6) The Sound of Drums
Whatever you think of the choice of music, or the ageing of the Doctor, this is a helluvan ending: the villain isn't about to win, as per usual in cliffhangers, he has won. Never-ending hordes of floating metallic spheres descend on the Earth, decimating it, and the Doctor can only stand by and watch, helpless, as the Master celebrates like a loon. How the hell are they gonna get out of this one?!

5) Army of Ghosts
Now, personally, on first viewing, I just thought "oh typical, it's the bloody Daleks again". But if you weren't expecting RTD to pull such a stunt, or if you think the Daleks are actually pretty cool and should be in every season, then I imagine this is pretty amazing. Indeed, if one switches off and believes the lies -- i.e. the Daleks were all wiped out at the end of Parting of the Ways and so we shall completely ignore the possibility they might ever return -- then this would be a shocking surprise.

4) Turn Left
It's less an actual cliffhanger more a hint that Something Big Is Coming, but the key to this is context. Bad Wolf was a huge part of nuWho's return -- fans spent the whole of the first season debating what it might mean and what it was all building to. Many were let down by the eventual revelation, but that doesn't detract from its significance. And then it kept cropping up, right until Bad Wolf Bay, appending a whole extra set of heightened emotion onto those words. So they mean a lot to fans, and they also mean Rose -- so factor in that we've seen her two or three times already this season, and that we know Donna's meant to convey a message, and that it says Bad Wolf EVERYWHERE... Christ it's exciting.

3) The End of Time, Part One
It's the Master again, and again he's won. This cliffhanger is both hilariously funny and gloriously tense: John Simm, on the face -- and in the body -- of every man, woman and child on the planet is at once amusing and, when you think about it, utterly terrifying; and there's no obvious way that the Doctor can just fix it and undo everything. Once again, the Master's won, and the Doctor's screwed. Oh noes.

2) The Stolen Earth
In the middle of an over-stuffed story full of Everything We Ever Did In New Who, Russell picks up on one more: regeneration. For one whole week, the nation genuinely believed the Who production team might've pulled off the greatest coup in modern TV history by filming a major twist that no paper or magazine had got its grubby little hands on. The fact that he ultimately didn't regenerate almost didn't matter: viewers genuinely believed he might have, and that's the important bit. Now, of course, when any viewer knows the 10th Doctor definitely survives for another six episodes, it might not have quite the same effect.

1) Utopia
He's the goddamn Master! Even if you'd suspected, the writing, editing and music make the end of this episode the most thrilling 10 minutes nuWho had produced to this point (arguably, it still is). Plus the actual cliffhanger bit -- that the Doctor & co are stranded in the Far Future, with enemies baring down and the TARDIS stolen -- is pretty neat too. But it's that reveal that's the real classic here.


And, to extract maximum value-for-money from this post, the worst cliffhanger in all 60 episodes of Russell T Davies-managed Who is...

The Poison Sky
"Oh my God, the TARDIS is suddenly and randomly pulling us off into the future to a different story! Why?!" Well, um, simply because someone decided Martha should be in another episode… Rubbish.

TV

Archer
1x08 The Rock
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Have I Got News For You
39x02 (8/4/10 edition)
No extended edition this week, sadly; especially a shame as it was a particularly good edition, I thought.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
6x15 Private Lives

Russell Howard's Good News
2x03 (8/4/10 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch only the shorter version (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Johnson: 'Kick-Ass controversy is mad' by Catriona Wightman
(from Digital Spy)
Despite his embarrassing uncomfortableness in interviews, Aaron Johnson has some very sensible things to say about what's considered 'controversial' and what should be.

TV

Archer
1x06 Skorpio
1x07 Skytanic
If you've not been watching Archer you should consider catching up with it (unfortunately only the most recent episodes are still available on Demand Five if one wants a place to see it legally & free). It's humour isn't always the height of sophisticated wit, but it's largely funny and has a surprising line in on-going storylines for a comedy cartoon.
[Watch Skorpio and Skytanic (again) on Demand Five.]

Doctor Who
31x02 The Beast Below
Another excellent episode: a different style of story, beautiful fairytale tone, meaningful collection of relevant subtexts, Sophie Okonedo being fantastic, and, wonderfully, the Demon Headmaster. A shining example of a standalone episode -- come the end of season polls it'll likely be forgotten behind all the high-profile returning monsters, two-parters and the season finale, which is a real shame.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x02 All About the Girl
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
6x14 5 to 9
Truly excellent Cuddy-centric episode, even if the everything-turns-out-perfect conclusion(s) were so perfect it made me think it was going to turn out to be a daydream -- that would've been a very House-like trick to pull.

The Mentalist
2x06 Black Gold and Red Blood
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
3x05 (10/4/10 edition)
That Star Wars list was a walk in the park! Sure, the full version was full of all kinds of obsessively obscure characters and droids, but getting to 15 or so would've been eminently achievable. Blokey was just showing off naming the likes of Boba Fett over Han Solo, Chewbacca and Yoda.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The case for arresting the Pope by Allison Kilkenny
(from Allison Kilkenny: Unreported on True/Slant)
Fingers crossed...

this week on 100 Films

After some time away, I've finally posted a new review to 100 Films in a Year, and it was...

Choke (2008)

the distinctive narratorial ‘voice’ is very reminiscent of Fight Club, both book and film, as are numerous other elements: support groups; random encounters; the inclusion of a Big Twist. While an awareness of the author means the latter feels a little formulaic, Shyamalan-style, at least it seems Palahniuk can still pull them off.

More next Sunday. Quite a few more, I hope.

TV

Doctor Who
31x01 The Eleventh Hour [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x01 Call Me the Doctor

Outtake TV
2009/10 Episode 1
Doesn't Rufus Hound look like Anne Robinson these days...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Over the Rainbow
Programme 3 (of 20)
Programme 4 (of 20)
How Amy even made it into the final 20, never mind final 10, I don't know. Well, actually, I can guess, and it's nothing to do with her appropriateness to play Dorothy.
[Watch programme 4 (again) on iPlayer.]

Russell Howard's Good News
2x02 (1/4/10 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch only the shorter version (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week. Except last week, as it turned out.

A pile of post in my absence means this week the numbers jump up more than they have in a while -- yay! Plus it's the latest running time update, which I always like because it saves me having to think of a new statistic for this week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,162 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 1,087 [up 6]
Of which Blu-rays: 75 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 2,822 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,222 [up 7]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 3,874 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Total running time of collection (approx.):
196 days, and 50 minutes.
(Up 1 day, 4 hours, and 12 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Ashes to Ashes
3x01 Episode 1
And so, the final series of Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes begins (yes, a week late for me). Plenty of questions still unanswered, plenty of new ones in this episode. It should be an exciting couple of months...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
22x05 The Mark of the Rani Part One
22x06 The Mark of the Rani Part Two
I'm fairly certain that this is the first (proper) classic Who story I've watched that I'd never seen before since City of Death way back in June 2008. I ought to do this more.
You may also have guessed this was for Insomniac Whovian (it now has it's own real site/blog!) on twitter. Follow @I_Whovian and me for more such antics, and take a look-see at #MarkOfTheRani for comments on this story.
[Watch The Mark of the Rani (again) on msn video player or SeeSaw.]

Outnumbered
3x01 Programme 1
Outnumbered impressively retains its brilliance even as the kids age and it heads into a third run, thoroughly disproving the notion that if you want to make a good comedy series you can only do two rounds. Karen may just be the greatest TV character created ever. Though the Doctor (see above) and Gene Hunt (see above above) would run her close. Good day, good day.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Boyle blasted for Down's Syndrome gags by Alex Fletcher
(from Digital Spy)
What this women's basically saying is, "I find Frankie Boyle's dark and un-PC humour really funny... until he makes nasty jokes about a condition I actually know about and then he's evil."

Jonathan Ross: Can I be honest with you? by Decca Aitkenhead
(from guardian.co.uk)
Absolutely fantastic interview with Jonathan Ross, ostensibly about his new comic -- and there is indeed some nice stuff in there about Turf and his general thoughts on comics -- but the interview ranges wider, to his attitude towards life, the press and certain controversial matters in his past. Well-written and insightful, this is actually an excellent example of how to do an interview-piece, and probably deserves to be read by everyone, whatever your opinion of the interviewee.

TV

A Comedy Roast
1x01 Bruce Forsyth
Very funny. Hopefully this is a format that can now run and run.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
3x04 (3/4/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Doctor Who - The Adventure Games by Marcus
(from Doctor Who News Page)
Announcement of a series of Doctor Who PC/Mac games, to be made available free from the official site later this year.
These aren't the tacky little Flash-built arcade-style games the site's always had, but Proper, 3D, Download-and-Install games with voice casts and writers and the whole works. They sound like the could be excellent, provided they really are old-school adventure games and not platformers/shoot-em-ups masquerading as 'adventure games'. Best of all (from a very fannish point of view), the screenshot of a Cyberman suggests we may have seen the back of the alternate-universe Cybus Cybermen...
Very, very exciting.

The greatest 9,331 movies of all time by Paul Hiebert
(from Film Salon)
Yes, nine thousand, three hundred and thirty-one. Madness! But fun madness.

Still Wrapped In Plastic: Twin Peaks Turns 20 by John Powers
(from npr)
Nice little piece on the importance, impact and greatness of Twin Peaks. Don't worry, there're no spoilers.

TV

Have I Got News For You
39x01 (1/4/10 edition; extended repeat) [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
3x11 The Gypsy and the Hobo

Today I sat on a train nearly all day. Just so you know.

TV

Channel 4's Comedy Gala
In aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Most of the show was very good too, but can anyone tell me just why Lee Evans is so popular? Some of his stuff is funny, other bits fail miserably, and other bits are just old; there are worse comedians, certainly, but why does he get such huge gigs -- and, here, headlines with double the time of anyone else + an award (albeit a rather daft one) -- when there are other much better, and arguably more prominent, funnymen (and women) out there? It baffles me.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Download 700+ Free Scifi Books Onto Your iPhone by Cyriaque Lamar
(from io9)
Always good. (And it's legal, of course.)

Pope's immunity could be challenged in Britain by Paisley Dodds
(from Mail Times at mail.com)
Interesting article discussing the possibility of this happening. Sounds unlikely, but we can but hope. You can sign a related petition here.

TV

Doctor Who
31x01 The Eleventh Hour
Fantastic start to the new series. It's beautifully shot -- incredibly movie-like, much more so than it has been before -- and wonderfully fast-paced, witty and exciting. Not sure on the new TARDIS set but I may be convinced; but the new theme is a too-busy mess and the new title sequence a little lacking, in my opinion: it's like the old one but with a more-complex vortex graphic and fewer unique moments (e.g. the time-freeze TARDIS-spin). I like the new episode title/credits font, and that someone's finally worked out how to make it different sizes in the post-titles opening credits, but it amuses me that, having gone HD, they've suddenly got massively bigger overall.
But these are silly fan-ish worries. The episode itself was wonderful -- the bit with all the previous Doctors, and #11 walking through the hologram, was simply glorious -- and the hints at the series arc highly intriguing. I'm unfeasibly excited for the rest of the season.
Job done.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Jonathan Creek
The Judas Tree [Easter special]
Hm. Well, that's not vintage Creek, is it.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Doctor Who Roadshow comes to Scotland by Jonathan Melville
(from ReelScotland)
I was in Edinburgh while this was going on. I missed it. To be honest, I'm quite glad I didn't bother taking the time to go.

The New TARDIS by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Exec producers Steven Moffat and Piers Wenger chat a bit about the ethos behind the new TARDIS console room. Interesting.

Scott wants Robin Hood sequel by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
Hm.

TV

Chris Moyles' Quiz Night
2x06 (2/4/10 edition)

Have I Got News For You
39x01 (1/4/10 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]