Doctor Who: An Introduction

As regular readers will be aware, a little while ago I introduced a friend to the many delights of classic Doctor Who. Luckily I was gifted to be introducing an open-minded friend, meaning I didn't have to choose stories that skirted around the show's (at times) obviously cheap production values, and instead could focus on adventures I either knew to be good or had heard good things about. As we went I posted my comments on these eight tales, and now, in celebration of the programme's 45th anniversary, I've compiled them here, along with very brief comments on why I chose each story.

I tried to produce a variety of choices, the only rule being that there would be just one four-part story for each Doctor... a rule I broke for three of the eight! Not without reason, mind: for the 6th Doctor, his two-parters have the same running time as everyone else's four-parters; for the 7th Doctor, I have no excuse beyond I decided that was the most appropriate story; and for the 8th Doctor, there's literally only one choice.

So here's my "Beginners Guide to Classic Who" (if you will), though it's obviously missing the contextualising comments I gave my friend before and after each viewing.

The 1st Doctor: An Unearthly Child
As the first-ever story it seemed a natural place to start, even though I'd never seen it before. We both enjoyed it immensely.

The 2nd Doctor: The Tomb of the Cybermen
A bona fide classic, with the series' best-ever monsters. Simple.

The 3rd Doctor: Spearhead from Space
The relative shortage of 3rd Doctor stories on DVD forced my hand a little, but this is another classic tale. The number of firsts seemed to make it an obvious choice.

The 4th Doctor: City of Death
Though I've never seen it, this is oft cited as an absolute classic. That, plus Tom and Lala, Paris, and a script co-written by Douglas Adams, made it seem a good choice.

The 5th Doctor: Earthshock
More Cybermen -- so much for variety. But I still think they're a great villain, even in the '80s, and Earthshock is unquestionably one of the 5th Doctor's finest.

The 6th Doctor: Revelation of the Daleks
A limited choice for the 6th Doctor in my DVD collection allows this to be the only Dalek story.

The 7th Doctor: Survival
One of the earliest classic Whos I saw, and an appropriate connection into the new series. Also ironically titled as it's the last 'classic series' story.

The 8th Doctor: The TV Movie
The only choice. Besides which, I actually think it's quite a fun romp.

Celebratory Finale: The Five Doctors
It may not be the best story ever, but it's bizarrely fun and seemed an appropriately celebratory way to conclude.

Feel free to discuss whether these are good or bad choices for introducing a newbie, or post any ideas of your own, in the comments section.

There's no 9th and 10th Doctors in the list because, quite simply, we've both seen all of those, so no introduction required. However, if one were to be introducing a friend to new Who too, here are my thoughts...

The 9th Doctor: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
It has to be a two-parter to fit the same length as the other Doctors, and both of the other 9th Doctor two-parters are tied fairly heavily to the season's ongoing story. Well, the second one is; the first one's just a bit rubbish. More importantly, this is just one of the best stories ever. It's also worth considering Rose/The End of the World -- not a two-parter strictly, but they're a pairing specifically designed to introduce complete newbies. Of course, if you've already made your way through 13 hours of Classic Who, that's not quite as necessary.

The 10th Doctor: The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit
In my opinion you're spoilt for choice with the 10th Doctor, as almost any pairing of two individual episodes would work too. This one was an instant favourite for me though, and is a better example of standard new Who fare than his other great two-parter, Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Other major considerations should be The Christmas Invasion (best first story ever, to my mind); School Reunion (if you watched a Sarah Jane story during Classic Who); Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel (not necessarily that great, but big bonus points for having Cybermen, and when my Classic Who line-up included two Cybermen tales it's nice to continue their evolution); Smith and Jones/The Shakespeare Code (a great opening pair); and Voyage of the Damned (personally, I think it's big and fun). (While I liked most of season four, I think it might be a bit too involved to recommend as a starting point.) Oh, and Time Crash should definitely be watched.

Anyway.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know my friend wants to see more classic Who. Of course, from here on out, it's no longer an introduction -- now they're just great stories.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

Long ago, I promised a review of The Five Doctors, Doctor Who's grand 20th anniversary celebration, but never got round to it. Now, the day before the programme's 45th anniversary, I've jotted a couple of very quick notes. The problem is, it's been a while since I last watched it, so this will be decidedly brief.

The Five Doctors, I think it's fair to say, is a mess. Not as much of a mess as Dimensions in Time would turn out to be for the show's 30th anniversary, but a comparison of the two isn't unwarranted. The Five Doctors struggles to squeeze five Doctors, something like six companions (plus cameos from others), the Time Lords, and as many villains as possible -- including Daleks, Cybermen, the Master, and various new ones -- into 90 minutes. A tall order. Dimensions in Time, on the other hand, attempts to fill about 12 minutes with seven Doctors, at least as many companions, the Rani, a host of other villains... and the cast of EastEnders. No wonder it's a God-awful load of rubbish. (I always used to get annoyed with those fans who said "thank God it can't be released on DVD!" (for contractual reasons, as it was for charity), because I thought, "surely it would be best if the whole series could be released, somehow, even if it is rubbish, at least for the curious to see". But having seen it on YouTube a while ago, I can safely say that it really is best left unseen.)

By comparison, The Five Doctors looks like a masterpiece. It isn't, but what it is a lot of fun. The Doctors may not come together until the end, but when they do it's a riot. The final reveal of what immortality means is a wonderful conceit -- it's not a new idea, probably not even in 1983, but it's not what you'd expect from a "children's programme" and I'd wager most sci-fi of the era wouldn't have been so bold. These moments of cleverness are countered by some extreme silliness (Sarah Jane rolls down a hill and has to be rescued by the Doctor and Bessie -- and that's a cliffhanger if you watch the four-part version) and padded running around, but at the same time there's the Raston Warrior Robot, one of the series' finest ever creations, in its only appearance. Why oh why has that yet to be revived? Please Mr Moffat? Or even RTD -- he's got four specials left to do and has already mentioned his love for it.

If you enter into it in the intended spirit -- a jolly romp celebrating the show's startling age, bringing together as many things that are great about the programme as possible -- then it's quite hard not to enjoy it as a nice bit of fluff. Plus it has the Cybermen as a major villain and basically ignores the Daleks, which is something I'll always approve of.

Cornwall

I'm off to Cornwall for the weekend, as of this afternoon. The reason I mention this perhaps unnoteworthy fact (though I know some who would dispute that) is that I'm not sure what the status of my Internet connection will be down there.

But don't worry, the moment has been prepared for! I may not be able to keep you up-to-date with my latest cultural experiences, but there are a couple of items that will appear over the weekend regardless (I recommend checking just after 1pm for those). "Updated every day", remember. Connection or not, I'll be back Sunday night at the latest, so I can fill in the missing time then if necessary.

Cheerio!

Poem of the Day: Haiku Achoo

by Richard Nelson

It's another Funny Friday entry for Poem of the Day this week, with this seasonally-appropriate haiku penned by none other than your faithful cultural guide (i.e. me). This was composed for no reason other than I wanted to, and is a completely original premiere just for this blog. Aren't you lucky?

In cold winter months,
breeze biting inside one's nose
means swift expulsion.

I'm sure that excellent (if I say so myself) title must've been thought of and used before, but what's truly original these days, hm?

TV

Big Cat Week
2x04 (6/1/05 edition)

Little Dorrit
Part 8 (of 14)
The story finally gets going! Hurrah! Now there are actually characters to genuinely care about and others to genuinely dislike -- I already can't wait for the Dorrit family to get their comeuppance (they bloody better...)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x08 (20/11/08 edition)

Films

The Cable Guy (1996)
[#79 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Articles

Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy by Chuck Klosterman
(from A.V. Club)
Don't worry: despite the title, I don't think you're actually expected to know who Chuck Klosterman is; certainly, the article begins by explaining who he is. Sort of. And then the article is primarily worthy of note for pushing your B.S. monitor to the max. "Chinese Democracy is (pretty much) the last Old Media album we'll ever contemplate in this context—it's the last album that will be marketed as a collection of autonomous-but-connected songs, the last album that will be absorbed as a static manifestation of who the band supposedly is, and the last album that will matter more as a physical object than as an Internet sound file. This is the end of that." What a load of self-important claptrap.

Poem of the Day: The Avenging Angel

by William Wilfred Campbell

Another World War I poem, but I came across this one quite by chance. It's dedicated "To Flight- Lieutenant Robinson and all the heroic aviators of the Royal Flying Corps", which might lead you to assume Campbell was a British airman, just as his death in 1918 might lead you to assume he was killed in the War. Neither is the case, however: Campbell was a Canadian poet, an ex-priest (he had a crisis of faith and resigned in 1891), and died of pneumonia on New Years Day 1918.

Don't let the length put you off, it's a surprisingly quick and rewarding read. More at the other end...

When the last faint red of the day is dead,
     And the dim, far heaven is lit
With the silvern cars
Of the orient stars,
     And the winged winds whimper and flit;

Then I rise through the dome of my aerodrome,
     Like a giant eagle in flight;
And I take my place
In the vengeful race
     With the sinister fleets of night.

As I rise and rise in the cloudy skies,
     No sound in the silence is heard,
Save the lonesome whirr
Of my engine's purr,
     Like the wings of a monster bird.

And naught is seen save the vault, serene,
     Of the vasty realms of night,
That vanish, aloof,
To eternity's roof,
     As I mount in my ominous flight.

And I float and pause in the fleecy gauze,
     Like a bird in a nest of down;
While 'neath me in deeps
Of blackness, sleeps
     The far, vast London town.

But I am not here, like a silvern sphere,
     To glory the deeps of space,
But a sentinel, I,
In this tower of the sky,
     Scanning the dim deep's face.

For, sudden, afar, like a luminous star,
     Or a golden horn of the moon,
Or a yellow leaf
Of the forest's grief,
     When the autumn winds are atune;

There is borne on my sight, down the spaces of night,
     By the engines of evilment sped,
That wonderful, rare,
Vast ship of the air,
     Beautiful, ominous, dread.

One instant she floats, most magic of boats,
     Illusive, implacable, there;
Throned angel of ill,
On her crystal-built hill,
     O'er a people's defenceless despair.

Then sudden, I rise, like a bolt through the skies,
     To the very dim roofs of the world;
Till down in the grey,
I see my grim prey,
     Like a pallid gold leaf, uncurled.

And I hover and swing, until swiftly I spring,
     And drop like a falling star;
And again and again,
My death-dealing rain,
     Hurl to the deeps afar.

Then I hover and listen, till I see the far glisten
     Of a flame-flash blanching the night;
And I know that my hate,
That has lain in wait,
     Has won in the grim air-fight.

Then I curve and slant, while my engines pant,
     And the wings of my great bird tame;
While the sinister Hun,
In his ill, undone,
     Goes out in a blinding flame.

(Other sources have pointed this out, so, in case you're unaware, "the Hun" was a slang name for the Germans in World War I.)

The Avenging Angel was written and first published in 1917. I've chosen it for the clear, easy-to-follow language, considerably aided by an equally clear and consistent use of rhyme. The rhythm makes it very readable also. For all these reasons, as well as the interesting subject matter (for one, it seems rather pro-war (or, at least, pro-RAF), making it a distinct counterpoint to the Owen I posted), it makes a worthy addition to the list.

TV

The Devil's Whore
Part 1 (of 4)
Andrea Riseborough leads a relatively starry/recognisable cast (including the likes of John Simm, Dominic West, Peter Capaldi, Maxine Peake, Michael Fassbender, Tom Goodman-Hill, and, next week, Tim McInnery) in this drama about the English Civil War. It may sound a tad staid as a setting, but the title is more of a clue: there's buckles being swashed -- and, indeed, buckles being undone -- left, right and centre. Hurrah! And some weird fantasy elements too. It doesn't feel like History, which is a good thing, and is all rather exciting executed, even if some of the direction is a little odd. Worth watching if you missed it; I'm very much looking forward to the rest.

Little Dorrit
Part 7 (of 14)

Films

The Green Mile (1999)
[#78 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
It's like the anti-Shawshank. Not in terms of quality though.

Fiction

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
Parts Three - Five
I know it doesn't affect the quality of the story, but it's annoying how thin the pages are here. Clearly wanting to use glossy paper stock but wanting to keep costs down, it's all glossy but thin, making it too easy to turn two pages at once, especially as the glossiness helps them stick to each other.
As for the text itself, I'm still not certain. It occasionally falls into the usual traps of big team-ups/crossovers, especially regarding "assumed knowledge" -- for a book that looks very accessible to newcomers, due to its "fresh start"/no continuity approach, you'd think it would be free of this, but too often you feel you should know who someone is or will be.
On the bright side, a magic-based character like Dr Strange feels much more at home in a weird Elizabethan world than he would in the modern 'almost real' superhero world that the numerous film adaptations have given us. Plus, things are beginning to come together (I'd hope so too, as I'm over halfway now), and there's a very well-built cliffhanger on Part Three.

Articles

Doctor Who (before the Tardis) by Tom Geoghegan
(from BBC News Magazine)
A really very weak article about the newly-released documents I mentioned earlier today -- it's full of slightly-off facts and ill-informed opinion. The comments are also largely hilarious, especially the woman who thinks the article is suggesting the TARDIS should/will be removed from the show. Bless. Other people demonstrate why they're not in charge, wittering on about new series episodes being "so fan fiction" or "blatant nostalgia" and therefore not appealing to kids. Yeah, cos they show still being the most-watched by kids on the whole of TV clearly means it's too nostalgic or too simplistic for them, doesn't it.

Fox Lines Up X-Men: First Class by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
"If a movie studio can develop mutant powers, then we’ve discovered Twentieth Century Fox’s: the ability to create X-Men spin-offs." This one is, essentially, "teen X-Men". Yay, angst!

Introducing... Premakes! by Chris Hewitt
(from the Empire Blog)
Well, now, here's something that will never catch on.

Sergeant to pull out of Strictly
(from BBC News)
Mark my words, the BBC'll have 3,000 complaints before the week's out -- that's what the British public do these days.

World War Z, And Why You Should Care by Helen O'Hara
(from the Empire Blog)
"for my money it's the best horror novel in decades, and one that absolutely deserves the wider audience that cinema would bring."

Poem of the Day: Kubla Khan

or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

So, I forgot Poem of the Day yesterday. Easily done, but I'll try to avoid doing so again.

Today's poem is another fairly famous one, based on an opium dream the author had. I'd wager this is several hundred times better than any drug-induced poetry you might get today.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
     Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

     But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
     Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
     A savage place! as holy and enchanted
     As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
     By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
     And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
     As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
     A mighty fountain momently was forced:
     Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
     Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
     Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
     And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
     It flung up momently the sacred river.
     Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
     Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
     Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
     And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
     And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
     Ancestral voices prophesying war!

     The shadow of the dome of pleasure
     Floated midway on the waves;
     Where was heard the mingled measure
     From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
     A damsel with a dulcimer
     In a vision once I saw:
     It was an Abyssinian maid,
     And on her dulcimer she played,
     Singing of Mount Abora.
     Could I revive within me
     Her symphony and song,
     To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

"There is widespread speculation on the poem's meaning, some suggesting the author is merely portraying his vision while others insist on a theme or purpose. Others believe it is a poem stressing the beauty of creation, and some read sexual allusions throughout." (Source: as ever, Wikipedia. It's much better than some people say.)

The Genesis of Doctor Who: The Creation of a Television Hero

Heard of the BBC Archive? Unless you're very into TV history (or sci-fi -- this kinda geeky thing always gets reported by sci-fi mags) then probably not.

Essentially, the BBC are now releasing online selected documents from their history, for the first time allowing public viewers the chance to "explore who we are and see how attitudes have changed over the years through selections from an archive which began over 70 years ago... go behind the scenes to find out how the BBC archives are maintained, uncover forgotten stories from the Written Archives and see how broadcasting has changed through the decades." These are the sort of documents previously only available to Proper Researcher People and the like.

To tie in with the programme's 45th anniversary, the Archive have released a selection of documents from the birth of Doctor Who in 1962/3 -- that's the programme, not the character.

The collection, which can be read here, contains six documents and a photo gallery. The latter is a selection of 17 colour and black & white photos of the show's first cast and crew, mostly taken in the early '60s when the show was beginning, but with some from the '50s (on other productions) and '80s (when some of those cast members returned to the programme). It's not an especially comprehensive gallery, and most of the images will be very familiar to long-term or attentive Who fans, but for those unaccustomed to how the relevant people looked it's probably a nice primer.

The former includes the following documents:

Titled simply Science Fiction, the first document is a four-page 1962 report looking into whether the BBC should make science fiction drama for TV.

Equally simply titled, Report: Science Fiction is a three-page follow-up document, also from 1962, on the kind of stories BBC science fiction dramas might handle.

The third document contains two pages of general concept notes for a science fiction drama, though what's suggested doesn't necessarily resemble the final product...

The first series-specific document is titled "Dr. Who": General Notes on Background and Approach, a four-page outline of both production style ("a series of stories linked to form a continuing serial") and content (list of characters, etc).

Skipping ahead quite a lot, the penultimate piece is a Radio Times article previewing the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, as well as that episode's listing in the schedule.

Finally, a two-page Audience Research Report reveals both reaction and ratings. It's intriguing to learn that, in those days of just two channels (versus the hundreds we have today), Who's initial viewing figures were about half what they are today.

As well as these scanned images, each document is available in a plain-text version (very handy if you needed to quote it for any reason), though these unfortunately have to be viewed page by page and miss out some accompanying notes.

But that's an incredibly minor criticism of a fascinating and valuable project. It won't be of interest to everyone, or even every Who fan, but it's an incredible opportunity for those who are interested. One of the things that most intrigues me is that the BBC were so specifically looking for a sci-fi show, as I'd always assumed Who was born out of the desire to create something educational.

TV

Bill Bailey: Part Troll
As screened by Channel 4 a week or two ago. I didn't think I'd seen this before, but then much of it seemed very familiar -- though still hilariously funny. Perhaps C4 aired it previously, no doubt cut down (as they almost always seem to do with their stand-up) to fit an hour-with-ads slot, while this version filled an hour-and-a-half slot and so may have been uncut (there will still some jumps however). Anyway, it's very funny, I recommend it.

The Graham Norton Show
4x07 (13/11/08 edition, uncut repeat)
Robin Williams was the only guest this week... but that's OK, cos he's hilarious (even if he did most of the same stuff at Prince Charles' 60th birthday gig).

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #402
Including some nice articles on Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart -- even down to an edition of That Annoying Column that is actually (shock! horror!) likable. Though it does include an editor's footnote saying the writer should be fired -- ironic that my usual feeling should appear on the only one I've actually liked. Elsewhere this issue, there's other interesting stuff. Oh yes. (Only other bit I really remember: a good review of the Sarah Jane Adventures series on DVD.)

Articles

The Enterprise Through The Ages
(from Empire Online)
And there I was thinking all of Star Trek's spaceships looked basically the same...

JJ Abrams On The New Star Trek Trailer
(from Empire Online)
In 32 hi-res stills, director J.J. Abrams talks Empire through the just-released Star Trek trailer. "Part of [Kirk's] story in this movie," says Abrams, "is becoming the man that we all expect to see" -- so it's Star Trek Begins by way of Batman Begins and Casino Royale then. J.J. Abrams: never knowingly involved in something original.
[Watch the trailer here.]

New Coraline Poster by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire Online)
"It's the new film from author Neil "godlike genius" Gaiman and stop-motion director Henry "godlike genius" Selick."

Quantum of Solace Debut US Weekend Total Updated: $67.5 Million by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
Turns out, the new Bond didn't do quite as well as everyone thought. Still recording-breaking by a considerable margin though.

Trailer Breakdown: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
(from Empire Online)
Entirely worth reading for one throwaway comment: "Dumbledore has, in other words, got mad skills."
[Watch the trailer here.]

Zack Snyder Talks Watchmen by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire Online)
A different report about the same screening I mentioned yesterday -- so here be spoilers -- but with some more detail from Zack Snyder's interview, including this amusing/interesting/complex (and spoiler-free) bit of info: "Snyder also talked a little about Under The Hood, a DVD extra chronicling 1940s costumed adventurers The Minutemen. "Eric Matthews did that; it's a mock documentary. The complicated thing is that it's done as a 1985 [when the film is set] TV retrospective looking back at the publication of a book that's supposed to have come out in 1972. That's very cool.""

TV

Clone
1x01 Alive
Oh dear, what's with all that poorly-dubbed laughter? Especially as it isn't even put on all the gags. Most of which were distinctly over-written, it must be said; and most of those that weren't were underwritten. It's almost good, at times, though never as good as it could be. Fingers crossed for improvement.

Heroes
3x07 Eris Quod Sum

Lead Balloon
3x01 Gas

Spooks
7x05 On the Brink
This week's plot is partially borrowed from the news, partially borrowed from Casino Royale. Also, I watched it when it was on! Hurrah! Though, it was on BBC Three last week, so...

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapters 17 - 19
Fade Out [the end]
A damn useful book. Highly recommended for anyone attempting or interested in screenwriting.

Articles

Final Secret Crisis Invasion - But at What Cost? by Newsarama Staff
(from Newsarama.com)
Comics can be seriously ludicrous. This year, the two major publishers have each had major 'events', spanning new titles, miniseries, and issues in existing books: Secret Invasion for Marvel and Final Crisis (what's the betting that'll turn out to be a misnomer?) for DC. Obviously buying all the various issues would be very costly, but as they're doled out month by month over a year (or more) it can be easy to miss just how much one is spending. And the totals it would cost a dedicated comic fan to buy all of the relevant stuff? $378.78 for Secret Invasion, $135.08 for Final Crisis (or up to $317.56 if you include relevant prequel series published in 2007). It's because of things like this that I don't buy comics.

Getting Into The Graveyard Book With Neil Gaiman by Zack Smith
(from Newsarama.com)
Neil Gaiman discuss this & that, including why we won't learn much about his forthcoming two-issue Batman story -- titled Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? in tribute to the famous Alan Moore Superman story -- until it hits shelves.

Quantum of Solace Sets Bond Box Office Record With $70.4 Million Debut by Devin Zydel
and
James Bond Finds Solace At International Box Office For Third Straight Weekend by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
Quelle surprise. And it's expected to continue to do very well, even in the UK, where despite a lot of negative reaction it's only dropped 41% of business into its third week (while that might sound a lot, it really isn't).
The focus on the US by Bond fansites amuses or annoys me alternately, considering Bond is a British character in fairly British films who's always done a lot better in the rest of the world than he has in the US -- when most films were getting 50% of their total from the US and 50% the rest of the world, Bond was doing more like 40/60 (respectively), if not higher. Ah well, you can never escape the Americans' overdeveloped sense of self importance.

SFX 177 Preview: Red Dwarf News by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Teeny tiny snippets of new info on the forthcoming Red Dwarf specials. The new issue of SFX (which this is obviously taken from) is out on Wednesday, so there may be more then. (It also has some form of huge Watchmen feature. Yay!)

Watchmen – First Look by Jayne Nelson
(from SFX)
Absolutely bursting with spoilers -- including about changes they've made, so even people who've read the book may wish to skip this one.

Websites

A highly amusing exchange on IMDb's Yes Man boards. Here's a direct link to the relevant three posts, but I'll quote them here for the sake of ease (slightly edited for clarity and linkage):

bobthegrinch:

This is actually based on the book Yes Man by Danny Wallace... It really is an excellent book, I highly recommend it, but this film looks like typical Hollywood comedy garbage.

amc001:

The Hollywood movie machine produced Trading Places, Groundhog Day, The Big Lebowski. All good comedies. But I agree that the typical Hollywood comedy is garbage.

bobthegrinch:

That's why I used the word "typical".

"lol".

100 Films update

It is, once again, over a month since I last posted an update from my other blog, 100 Films in a Year. There have been numerous reviews posted there since then -- including one of Quantum of Solace, just 17 days after I actually saw it -- so here's a summary of them:

from 2008...

After the Sunset (2004)

Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)

Casino Royale (2006)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Hitman: Unrated (2007)

The Invasion (2007)

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

St. Trinian's (2007)

Stay (2005)

Zodiac (2007)

Also...

Inside-Out (a short)

Quantum of Solace also means that I finally have a "Q" in my collection (unlike the film! Haha!) Only "X" and "Y" to fill now -- damn having seen all the X-Men films! (Well, I suppose there's the unwieldily-titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine to look forward to next year.)

from 2007...

300 (2006)

Before Sunrise (1995)

Before Sunset (2005)

The Black Dahlia (2006)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)

Great Expectations (1946)

Miracles (1989)

Starter For Ten (2006)

Transporter 2 (2005)

There's still more to come from both years.

Poem of the Day: A Martian Goes to the Cinema

by Richard Nelson

Today's poem is by me!

Tasked with writing a poem in the genre of Martian poetry (see last Monday), I initially struggled for a topic before alighting on one I had plenty of ideas for. Much redrafting later, I'm pretty pleased with the result. The only bit that seriously bothers me is the title -- it completely gives the game away. I don't think it's hard to guess the subject, but the title ruins even that little piece of ambiguity. If anyone has any better suggestions they're most welcome.

In the dark, strangers sit
in forced silence, except
for the crunch of card balls.
The crowd fill their stomachs
for the endurance test:
avoid waste disposal
for two, or three, or more
turns, under assault from
loud sound and moving light.

Super-powered people --
who can change size at will
from moment to moment,
travel from place to place
in an instant -- compel
these silent endurers
to suffer emotions
they avoid, at all cost,
in life outside this room:
fear and violence and
death and pain and true love.

They can craft, from nightmare,
with silicon numbers,
impossible creatures;
mis-remember the past;
mis-predict the future;
and say Martians are green,
though clearly we are not.

And when the names of their
torturers scroll by -- so
slow, so many -- they rush
to the waste disposal,
to the safety of home,
in discussion of all
they endured, together.

For the observant (or, rather, the unobservant, as I'm pointing it out), the piece is written in trimeter -- i.e. three syllabic pairs per line. Much English speech naturally falls into pentameter -- i.e. five pairs per 'line' -- which may or may not having anything to do with us having five digits on each hand & foot, but I've decided that's why, and so as Martians only have three digits (of course) they would (semi-)logically speak with a deference to trimeter instead of pentameter. It's somewhat thin logic, I know, but good enough for me.

Tomorrow, poetry by someone who isn't me; or 'real poetry', some might say.

Watchmen full trailer!

Yes, yes, yes, and yes again. This looks nigh-on perfect.

Two wonderances:

In the comic, the group of heroes don't have a name -- the "Watchmen" of the title is more a concept and a reference to the famous quote, not the name of an actual group. So either the audio for the trailer has been cleverly edited to help ease selling the film (most people who haven't read it assume the title does refer to the group, which isn't unreasonable as most comics' titles do), or they've changed it so the group is called that. Personally, that's a change I can live with, but it'll annoy some.

Secondly, is it really wise to be releasing the full trailer for a film out in March now? That's three-and-a-half months away. Unless they've got a big plan up their sleeves, aren't the General Public either going to get tired of it or forget all about it long before the film itself arrives? Maybe they should learn some lessons from Doctor Who's publicity department.

Anyway, those points aside, it's absolutely brilliant. And it uses a Muse song. So go watch it here.

TV

Outnumbered
2x01 Episode 1
The first series of Outnumbered was one of the Best Things Ever and, thankfully, series two has set off at the same level of quality.

Spooks
7x04 A Chance for Peace
While I'm watching this series of Spooks at around the same time it's broadcast, I've only seen episodes on iPlayer so far -- meaning I've still not watched an episode of Spooks on first broadcast since 1x02, way back in May 2002! (I've spent the last year catching up on DVD.) And as it's technically shown first on BBC Three, and I'm watching at BBC One pace... well, there's always 8x01 (probably)...

Stephen Fry in America
Part 6 Pacific [series finale]

Top Gear
12x03 (16/11/08 edition)

Articles

5 Reasons To Skip Quantum Of Solace by Josh Tyler
(from Cinema Blend)
Like Quantum of Solace or not, these are five really bad arguments why it's really bad. Unintentionally very amusing.

Elisabeth Sladen (The Sarah Jane Adventures) Interview by Will Martin
(from Last Broadcast)
Among other Sarah Jane factoids, Ms Sladen reveals this snippet: "The joy now is doing the DVD commentaries, although unfortunately I’m not anymore due to contractual reasons with 2entertain, we couldn’t come to an agreement." Oh dear.

Bond from the Beginning #3: Goldfinger

The archetypal Bond film, and it's easy to see why: the unrelated pre-titles, the credits, the song, the girls, their names, the villains, the locations, the gadgets, the Q scene (actually not repeated similarly for at least 17 years), the score, the ultimately unfeasible plan... It doesn't have everything (see earlier for the poor puns, see later for the volcano bases and cat-stroking baldies), but it has enough that no Bond-summarising article can be written without noting its significance.

Personally, I've never fallen as deeply for Goldfinger as others have; it doesn't have the grit of From Russia With Love and it doesn't meet the ridiculous excess of You Only Live Twice. I find it to be less than the sum of its parts; but those parts are mostly so excellent that its still a greatly entertaining film, and, I'm sure, not undeserving of the adulation lavished upon it by so many.

post... on a Sunday?

Today is Sunday. Post is not delivered on a Sunday. That's just The Way Of The World.

But today, I got post. Today. Sunday. Sunday! And this from the same postal service I've had to complain to several times for delivering my post to the wrong address.

So, I'm not complaining -- especially as the delivery brought me my 900th DVD (more on that later) -- but I am rather surprised.

I mean... it's Sunday!

Bond from the Beginning #6: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

I used to proudly lay my allegiance with the fans who believe OHMSS is an underrated classic; now I'm not so sure, though I wouldn't say it's among the worst -- all told, it's a mixed bag.

The first third is an unusual (for Bond) love story, which unfortunately seems quite hollow after Casino Royale did the same thing so brilliantly. Finally the actual 'Bond film' gets underway, complete with proper spying... and a ridiculous kilt-based outfit. The final third holds all the action sequences: crammed into 40 minutes there's two ski chases, a toboggan chase, a car chase, a helicopter raid, a large gunfight and an avalanche; the latter is especially well realised. This unbalanced structure undoubtedly helps unbalance some fans' view of the film.

Elsewhere there's an effort to remind us this is the same series: the titles are full of clips from the previous films and there are numerous other references. While the reasoning behind them at the time is clear, we're now familiar with Bond's changing face and they're just intrusive. As the new Bond, Lazenby is certainly no Connery, but he could be worse. His performance helps sell the final scene, which is still incredibly sad (indeed, while Casino Royale's romance plot may be more convincing overall, the death scene isn't a patch on this).

The direction is largely fantastic (though there are some dire sped-up shots) and the score is perfect; the instrumental main theme is probably my favourite ever.

There's still a lot to be said about OHMSS, but my opinion (for now) is that it's neither as bad nor as great as most of fandom would claim.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
7x11 (13/11/08 edition)

Merlin
1x09 Excalibur

Russell Brand's Ponderland
2x03 Education

We Are Most Amused
Comedy show for Prince Charles' 60th birthday. Split in half (or two-thirds and third, to be accurate) for no reason other than bunging The X-Factor in the middle. Bloody load of rubbish, that is. Though, if one's being generous, the split could be seen as a way to keep the adults-only material separate from kiddy-friendly stuff.

Films

Fist of Legend (1994)
[#77 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]
I hadn't intended to watch this, but wound up getting sucked into it after Children in Need. Apparently it's "regarded as one of the best martial arts films of all time, and almost universally viewed as Jet Li's best" (source: Wikipedia), but the dire English dub does its best to hide this. The fights are still good though.

Star Trek Trailer
This trailer isn't officially released online 'til Monday, but as it's attached to a certain major release that's just come out in the States there're some surprisingly good bootlegs online already. Like this one, for example. Hard to judge properly without being able to see it properly (though the quality's probably better than you expect), but, as someone who's not much of a Star Trek fan anyway, I remain unconvinced. But it looks like Simon Pegg will be good at least.

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapter 16

Music

Hold Your Colour by Pendulum
and
In Silico by Pendulum

Having heard their great cover of Coldplay's Violet Hill on Radio 1's Live Lounge Volume 3 (the original version, incidentally, is comparatively mediocre -- just as I'd expect of Coldplay), I somewhat eagerly acquired Pendulum's two albums... only to discover they're rather dance-y and mostly not my sort of thing at all.

The more recent In Silico (trivia: the title was chosen as a riff on Nirvana's In Utero) is the better of the two. I only made it a third of the way through Hold Your Colour before giving up, while the other at least has a few decent tracks: Propane Nightmares, The Tempest, Mutiny, and perhaps Granite and 9,000 Miles.

This is probably because -- according to Wikipedia -- "[In Silico] represents a change in sound from the band's debut album Hold Your Colour, away from drum and bass, incorporating more rock and electronic influences." I suspect these are incorporated in a way that makes it seem a huge change to drum & bass fans, whereas to rock or electronic fans it just sounds like an above-averagely-pleasing selection of drum & bass tracks.

Articles

AMPAS Rejects Dark Knight Score
(from Studio Briefing)
"an uproar has now followed the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's decision to disqualify the score of The Dark Knight because credited composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer were unable to establish that they were directly responsible for more than 70% of the music... The two had listed three others as composers on the official cue sheet... in order to qualify them for royalties. The Academy's music committee reportedly spent hours debating the issue, with several members arguing unsuccessfully that the score merited nomination notwithstanding the cue-sheet issue."

Quantum of Solace US Opening Day Haul Estimated At $27 Million by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
"The numbers are yet to be confirmed, but it’s clear that 007 convincingly beat off competition from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa ($8.1 million) and Role Models ($3.76 million). At $27 million, Quantum of Solace would have the 26th highest US opening day ever. The only 2008 release to top this opening would be The Dark Knight [obviously]... $27 million would place it above other 2008 big-hitters Sex And The City and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. It would also place it above [frequent film of comparison] The Bourne Ultimatum." The last Bond film, Casino Royale, had an opening day of $14.7 million -- nearly half QoS's. It leaves the new release "on track to a weekend haul of approximately $70 million" -- the franchise's opening weekend record is held by Die Another Day at $47.1 million.

The Showdown: Wall-E Vs. Batman
(from Studio Briefing)
"While many industry observers are predicting that The Dark Knight on DVD will become the year's biggest video hit, a few others suggest that Disney/Pixar's Wall-E [sic] should not be overlooked. They point out that animated features have a long history of dominance in home-video sales and that Wall-e [sic] is one of the few that holds as much appeal for adults as it does for children. Meanwhile, websites that focus on high-definition fare have unanimously endorsed the Blu-ray version of Wall-e as the HD gold standard."

The thick Sharpe's Peril and why Jonathan Ross and Brand should stay by AA Gill
(from Times Online)
Belated commentary on the Ross/Brand/Sachs thing (I'm not even going to bother linking back to it any more), but, as regular readers know, I love this position on it -- especially as it has added Piers Morgan-slating, which is always welcome. Also, eventually, Gill gets round to his point -- slating the latest Sharpe. He's mostly wrong about that though.

"We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more." by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
The great thing about fansites is that they often summarise interviews and articles from other sites, so you just get what's new or interesting instead of having to trawl through all the same old publicity fluff. Here, the best bits are comments from producer Barbara Broccoli: "In Casino Royale, the book, there was no Moneypenny or Q so that is why they are not in that story. And, in this follow-up, there didn’t seem to be a reason or a place for them. That doesn’t mean that they won’t appear later on. We made a decision to strip everything away. Some things will come back, some things won’t. Some things will come back in a different way. We will take some more risks and shake things up a little bit more and hope audiences are with us." Sensible, I think.
Also: "Hopefully at the end of Quantum of Solace, we have this ‘whole’ character [for Bond]. And now we can do what we want. I think in some way, he will go after the organisation [Quantum]. So in that sense, it may become a trilogy, but we haven’t really structured it that way." Super. And what else will be back? "I don’t want [Judi Dench] to leave. She keeps threatening to leave but I will not let her!" Good girl. Anything further? Gadgets, apparently! "The trouble is, everyone has gadgets. We will need to come up with a few that have not been invented by the Sony Corp!" Good luck!

TV

Children in Need 2008
Hurray! I love Children in Need. Even when it's below-par (and, let's face it, it's well past its best -- it's mostly music these days, with no natty 3D or Smell-o-Vision gimmicks and very few original sketches or whatnot) it's still entertaining, still has its moments, and, of course, it's all for a good cause. Plus anything with this much Terry Wogan has to be good. But this year was better than most -- highlights being Doctor Who and Top Gear/Ashes to Ashes -- so that was super.
[Watch it (again) in hour-long chunks on iPlayer.]

QI
6x01 Families [Children in Need special]
For those who don't know, each series of QI has an alphabetical theme -- i.e. series one was "A", series two "B", and so on -- making series six "F". So in that sense, this is at the end of series six; of course, being filmed more recently, it could be called 7x01. Rubbish, says I. Not that it matters, or anyone cares. Anyway -- it's all the better for having added Terry Wogan, who was (of course) brilliant. I love QI -- there's a Christmas special on the way, followed by series "G" in 2009.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]
Edit: Oh, the confusion! I blame TV.com. Anyway, this is 6x01, not 6x11, because the (first?) 2009 series if "F".

Films

Fargo (1996)
[2nd watch]
I hadn't been intending to re-watch Fargo, but we watched about half of it (mostly from the first half, but also a few scenes toward the end) in my screenwriting module, analysing a certain aspect of screenwriting theory and how it appears in every scene. Unfortunately I don't have my DVD of the film with me to watch the rest.

Poem of the Day: The Pencil Case

by coolositymax

I never said all the stuff posted in this strand had to be 'professional' or 'published' or anything (I have no rules, remember) -- I may even post stuff by me at some point -- so here's a favourite of mine from the World Wide Web. I've always liked its simplicity and humour -- making it an especially good choice for a Friday, I think -- which works because of the rhyme and rhythm. Poetry doesn't have to be Deep, Complex and Meaningful to be good.

Pen, Pencil, Ruler,
Scissors, Paper, Glue.
Crayons, Staples, Eraser,
Pencil Shavings Too.

This poem is available online at deviantART. If you're a member, please comment (and fav, if you wish) there.

Unlike the rest of the blog, Poem of the Day will be taking breaks at weekends, so see you on Monday.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
4x06 (6/11/08 edition, uncut repeat)
Glasvegas are appallingly overrated, it seems to me. Karen Allen, on the other hand, is lovely.

Little Dorrit
Part 6 (of 14)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x07 (13/11/08 edition)

Films

Groundhog Day (1993)
[2nd watch]
Is this really 15 years old now? (Yes, obviously.)

Articles: Bond

Bond 23 Expected In 2011 by Matt Weston
(from CommanderBond.net)
So much for 2010, it seems they may be following the release pattern (or, at least, spacing) of Pierce Brosnan's era. The piece is an interview with Bond producer Michael G. Wilson and includes a few other snippets of interest to fans, such as thoughts on returns for Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright, and comparisons between Quantum and SPECTRE.

Movie Reviews: Quantum Of Solace
(from Studio Briefing)
An intriguing set of reviews for Quantum of Solace in the US: some critics assert the view widely expressed over here that it's not enough like the Bond of old and too much like Bourne, while at least one other lists elements that may've seemed appropriate in Bonds of the past but don't fit now. Oh the irony.

Poem of the Day: The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd

by Sir Walter Raleigh

Today's poem is indeed by the famous Elizabethan "writer, poet, soldier, courtier and explorer". It was written as a response to another piece -- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe (yep, the Elizabethan dramatist and poet, allegedly a spy, an atheist and a homosexual) -- but the cynicism in Raleigh's reply suits me better.

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall,

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten--
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and ivy buds,
Thy coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last and love still breed,
Had joys no date nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee and be thy love.

To nab a brief bit of analysis from Wikipedia's entry on the poem: "It could be considered a criticism, or at least a negative reaction to the original poem, as the nymph is in fact rejecting the shepherd in question quite harshly, and includes many lines that are directly connected to propositions made in Marlowe's poem. However her main reason for rejecting him is more related to her own feelings of mortality and the transience of life".

Tomorrow, it's Funny Friday.

TV

Charles at 60: The Passionate Prince
There have been lots of excellent documentaries about the monarchy in the past year or two. Just an observation.

Little Dorrit
Part 5 (of 14)

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapters 14 - 15

Articles

First Full Enterprise Photo From Star Trek Unearthed
(from AceShowbiz)
It's a pretty good re-design if you ask me (a non-Trekkie, I should add). It's faithful but not slavish; modernised, but also stylised (like a lot of the film seems to be). Director J.J. Abrams describes it as "realistic", which I think might be a bit of a stretch, but I would certainly call it "appropriate". Anyhow, see for yourself:

Keep going for more on Star Trek...

Monopoly Movie Finally Passes Go by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
This is the oddest idea & director pairing for a movie ever. Ever.

Shuler Donner Talks Magneto by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
The other X-Men prequel, which is still in development, sort of. Sounds like it could be good, though it'll be a helluva challenge to find two actors as good as McKellen and Stewart. (Incidentally, why isn't Stewart a Knight yet? His part in Extras should've sealed that one, I think.)

Star Trek Footage Revealed by James Dyer
(from the Empire Blog)
Empire have seen a whole chunk of the new Star Trek film (the 11th, but it's simply called Star Trek), and it actually sounds like it might be quite good. Shocking, I know. Read the spoiler-filled summary at that link, and look out for a new trailer soon (it's attached to Quantum of Solace in US -- clearly expecting that to be a Big Hit over the pond too, then).

How many syllables are in the word "hour"?

Not something I'd thought about until today, when trying to write a poem in a specific meter.

Think it's simple? It isn't, as this complex answer to that simple question proves. Said answer is long and quite technical, but so interesting that I wanted to share it.

Source: Yahoo! Answers

Poem of the Day: If--

by Rudyard Kipling

I originally posted this yesterday, before alighting on something more appropriate, so here it is again today. If-- was written in 1895 (first published 1910), in reaction to an event that contributed to the start of the Boer War. It's a justly famous poem, voted Britain's favourite in the '90s and one of mine too, which makes it an appropriate early choice for this series.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

See you tomorrow!

Che in the UK

After all the coverage I've given it, I feel I should point out that the only real interest I have in Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevera biopic is to do with the fuss surrounding whether it would be released and, if so, in how many parts. I don't share the common student's passing obsession with him -- or, rather, with the iconography of That T-Shirt.

Just so we're clear.

Anyway, it seems the UK release will be split in two, with Part One hitting our shores on January 1st 2009, and Part Two following seven weeks later on February 20th. Why such a gap I don't know, especially as Soderbergh expressed a desire for them to be released at the same time, so people could see all four hours in one go if they wished. I guess anyone wanting to do that will just have to wait for the DVD. To be honest, it's not that epic a running time; certainly not on DVD. I've watched all three extended Lord of the Rings films in one day -- that is an epic.

Anyway, here's the UK Che poster:

The technically-minded part of me wonders, "will they be called Che: Part One and Che: Part Two on screen, or retain the original, different titles on each half (still listed on IMDb)?" It hardly matters, but that's more likely to persuade me to fork out £7 (total) to go see them than their actual contents. Unless they win Oscars, in which case that reason edges into the lead.

Just.

TV

Argumental
1x03 (10/11/08 edition)
The blues was robbed! It's still a shame this is premiering on Dave, because more people should see it. I don't know how many are seeing it, but as it's on Dave I should wager it's "not enough".

Natural World
Titus: The Gorilla King
Gorillas are amazingly human-like. Titus' life story could easily be made into a plot involving humans (probably a political/monarchy drama set in the past, a la The Tudors) and no one would go, "that's weird, why're they behaving like that?" Unless you kept the flea-picking bits in, of course...
[Watch it on iPlayer or read about it at Radio Times.]

Non-Fiction

Story by Robert McKee
Chapter 13

Articles

Details on How Terrence Howard Lost His Role in Iron Man 2
(from FirstShowing.net)
True or not? Sounds like it might well be to me. Either way, it's an interesting story, and nice to have a proper explanation after all the speculation.

James Bond is back with martinis but not the gadgets by Geoff Boucher
(from Hero Complex at Los Angeles Times Blogs)
Not much new to learn from this interview with Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster, but it amuses me how many of these articles are prominently branded "exclusive", despite similar (and often superior) interviews with the same people being plastered over every website and magazine going. It seems "exclusive" means "commonplace" these days; or, more accurately, "please read this!"

Lord of the Rings-inspired movie in the pipeline
(from Boxwish Blog)
No, not The Hobbit -- or 'The Hobbit 2' -- this is something else. (No, it's not another of those "films about fans" either.)

Next Big Viral: Neill Blomkamp's District 9 - For Humans Only
(from FirstShowing.net)
Bit late on spotting this one (though I did notice the banners in photos at the time, but just thought they were some silly con thing). Still, sounds interesting...

new Watchmen character posters

Nice enough, though I preferred the comic-inspired ones.

These were originally released scattered around the web as various exclusives (the one here was the first I came across, for example), which explains why some are extra-good quality, why the Dr Manhattan one is really low quality, and why Silk Spectre's has an MTV logo at the bottom (studies have shown it takes males longer to notice this logo than females.) Presumably all six sites were given equal-quality files, which makes it all the more annoying that not everyone bothered to include those -- especially the very poor quality Dr Manhattan one.

As usual, this rather silly 'exclusive' method means that any site not granted an exclusive can compile all six independently, thereby topping any of these oh-so-special treated sites. The irony of that always amuses me.

Click to enlarge.

(If anyone cares, the sites that had them were, respectively, Access Hollywood, USA Today's Lifeline Live, Wired's underwire, MTV's Splash Page, LA Times' Hero Complex, and EW.com's clearly rubbish PopWatch.)

Additionally, one of the sites had another poster that I've not seen before, which is my personal favourite so far:

03.06.09 is too far away.

Poem of the Day: Dulce et Decorum Est

by Wilfred Owen

Following yesterday's A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, and in the run-up to needing to read a lot of new poetry for a module next year (starting mid-January), I've decided to post a poem every day (you may've guessed that from the title). I don't have any selection criteria at the minute -- old, new, long, short, familiar, obscure, anything goes. Though I have no desire to spend a long time typing anything up (unless it's really good) and don't want to violate any copyrights, so it'll just be stuff I find available online -- so mostly old stuff then, I guess.

As today is Remembrance Day, this year the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, it seems most appropriate to include a poem by one of the war poets. There's a lot of notable poetry from this particular war, much of which I studied at A-level, and this is one of the most memorable -- very well know, but for good reason.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

For those who don't know, the Latin phrase at the end was a common mantra at the time (originally written by Roman poet Horace), which translates as, "It is sweet and noble to die for one's country".

(Trying to find a version of this to post here, I noticed several variations. I went with what I considered to be a moderately definitive one, but am prepared to be corrected.)