Music

Imaginaerum by Nightwish
The new Nightwish album, released here yesterday, which also forms the soundtrack to a forthcoming film. Apparently it's met with "universal critical acclaim", and I can see where they're coming from: this is everything you'd expect and want from a new Nightwish record, and probably a little more too.

Articles

CATS 1, KIDS 0 by Helen Killer (from regretsy)
and
Why @PayPal is wrong regarding @Regretsy, according to their own policies. by greengeekgirl (from geek girl)
PayPal have demanded a group who raised money to provide Christmas toys for poor & disadvantaged children return all of that money. PayPal will still keep all of the transaction fees, though. And because the person in charge argued about it, they've frozen her personal account through which she does regular business.
And all of this is against PayPal's own policies.
(PayPal have since apologised -- well, sort of -- and are "working" to resolve the situation.)

Jeremy Clarkson, The One Show and the most complained about BBC shows by William Gallagher
(from Radio Times)
As complaints about Clarkson's One Show comments reach a silly level, RT finds out how it compares to other recent BBC controversies.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 23

It's party-time!
Which sci-fi character are you going to dress-up as?

No one. Does that count? I guess not.

Donnie Darko

Because I'm really lazy and really, really don't care.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 1 (of 4)
After going to the far-flung corners of Africa and the Far East in Long Way Round, Long Way Down, By Any Means and By Any Means: Sydney to Tokyo, Charley Boorman now takes on the formidable challenge of… a jolly around Canada. OK, he does extreme-sports-y things there, but… it's Canada. Looks like a lovely place, mind.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x09 Episode 9
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x03 (16/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Diner (1982)
[#93 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Extended Trailer
The semi-mythical 8½-minute trailer for David Fincher's adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel has now been released. (Above link should be for the UK; US is here). It's worth checking out, because 8½ minutes is a long time and you get a great idea of the film from it. Looks like it could well be something special.

Articles

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: 8-Minute Trailer Streaming, 6 Tracks of Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ Score Available for FREE by Germain Lussier
(from /Film)
I've mentioned the trailer in today's Films post, but this is worth noting for the free sampler. After the massive success (both artistically and critically) of Reznor & Ross' score for The Social Network, this is a definite pre-order for me.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 22

Coolest alien race

So what does "coolest" mean, eh? There are loads of possibilities for a category like this. I don't think it means "alien race most like Samuel L. Jackson", for instance.

Cybermen

I love the Cybermen. They're better than the Daleks. They prefigure the Borg.

When done right they can be properly scary, because they take us humans and strip away all that makes us human. They have no emotion -- they can't be reasoned with or bargained with or persuaded. And they stomp about and shoot stuff and blow stuff up and all that too.

And, in the right designs, they can look rather cool.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Have I Got News For You
42x06 (25/11/11 edition; extended repeat)

Onion News Network
1x02 Snowlocaust

Articles

Space: The Final Frontier by Shaun Usher
(from Letters of Note)

just weeks before NBC's season premiere of the original Star Trek series, two of the programme's producers... contacted Gene Roddenberry and asked him to quickly write the show's now-famous opening monologue... For the next week or so the three men exchanged drafts by memo, a couple of which can be seen below; Roddenberry came up with the final draft on August 10th, an hour before it was recorded.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 21

Favourite alien invasion movie/series

Alien invasion is a constant theme of sci-fi across books, TV, film and more. Unsurprising, really -- it involves aliens (sci-fi!) and keeps it grounded on Earth, which can be good for both relating things to your viewers and, perhaps even more importantly, the budget.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

It's not an invasion story per se: only one alien actually arrives and it's after, essentially, a bribe. But it's a bribe to stop an alien invasion (if I remember correctly), so I'm going to count it. And that's because it's bloody brilliant.

Torchwood was quite good through its first two series. Some episodes were brilliant, some were dire, and overall it felt half-thought-through and made up on the fly -- characters' behaviour changing from week to week, that kind of thing. I think more people wanted to like it, as a rare dose of adult-orientated genre TV in the UK, than actually genuinely did.

But that all changed with Children of Earth, which is flat out one of the greatest SF miniseries ever made, never mind its connections to previous Torchwood or Doctor Who or what have you. It's a cracking tale full of action, emotion, humour, tension, fear, heartbreak...

You don't need to have seen previous Torchwood to get it, and if you disliked previous Torchwood that shouldn't put you off: Children of Earth is exceptional.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

this week on 100 Films

Just 1 new review was posted to 100 Films in a Year this week...

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

I saw a trailer for this at the cinema a few months before its release. I thought it looked to have basic animation and a too daft tone. I wrote it off, expecting a Pixar-wannabe… Imagine my surprise when it garnered endless positive reviews and a huge box office. My impression from the trailer was massively wrong. How to Train Your Dragon is, as everyone else has likely already impressed upon you, brilliant.

...but, as I'm sure you've noticed, we're now in December (almost Christmas!), so there was also the November update this week. Grand.

More next Sunday.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x04 The Stinson Missile Crisis
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
4x10 A Herald of the New Age
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Strictly Come Dancing
9x20 Week 10 (aka Movie Night)
To repeat myself from last year, "I'm usually in the room when Strictly's being watched, but rarely or barely watch any of it myself. Movie Night's a different beast though, what with being a film fan, and I found it all rather entertaining." Very hard to judge this year -- the score that landed Harry Judd a lowly fourth (of six) would've been enough to top the leader board just a fortnight ago.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 20

What's the best adaptation of a sci-fi book/story?

I don't read enough books to judge this properly -- "best adaptation" implies "the one that has been adapted best", not "the best one that is also an adaptation". So, um...

Children of Men

I've not read The Children of Men, but damn it made for a good film.

And especially good for me because I went to the cinema knowing nothing about it (can't even remember what led me there -- a vague awareness it had received some good reviews, I think), and consequently was completely blown away by it.

And it's probably not going to get mentioned anywhere else in this month of sci-fi-ness, so why not now?


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x05 (25/11/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x03 Episode 3

Pointless
4x02 (15/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x12 Illumination (XL edition)
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Steven Moffat scotches rumours of a Doctor Who Hollywood reboot by Tom Cole
(from Radio Times)
In both tweets and an official comment to "a national newspaper", Moffat says the rumoured Who movie is not a reboot and certainly isn't turning up anytime soon (if ever) anyway.

Collection Count

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

Lots of tweaks across the board this week. Usually this whole thing quiets down just before Christmas, before a big jump thanks to the day itself, but this year I think I've got a few bits and bobs on the way to keep it going until then anyway. Which is different.

Number of titles in collection: 1,404 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,141 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 263 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,498 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,495 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,329 [up 14]

See you next week, faithful reader.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 19

Empire or Rebel Alliance?

C'mon, how much choice is there in this one?

Rebel Alliance

As the blog I took this from put it, "plucky good guys with the coolest space-ships or evil planet-destroying bad guys who are controlled by a demonic Emperor?"

Rebels it is.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Life's Too Short
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x02 Little Red Book
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless
4x01 (14/3/11 edition)
I'm sure there's a reason these Pointless repeats just skipped two episodes into the start of series four... I just don't have any idea what it might be. Still, this is the series I started watching in (albeit later on) and now everything looks more familiar -- the higher-definition question screen, the lack of needless repetition of scores on said screen, the more dramatic lighting... Super.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Andrew Stanton Tells Me It’s On His Agenda To Completely Change The Way Movies Are Made by Brendon Connelly
(from Bleeding Cool)
On how Pixar make movies differently, and why live-action should be done that way too.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 18

Best use of special effects on the small screen

Much like yesterday's film topic, there's a lot to choose from here. TV special effects were even cheaper for even longer, but since at least the '80s there's been some excellent model work, and in the last decade or so CGI has caught up too. Big budget films still rule this arena, but there are plenty of lower budget (and, certainly, direct-to-DVD) ones with poorer effects than, say, Doctor Who.

And actually, it's from that very series that this choice comes...

Daleks in Space
from Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways

I said yesterday that effects had to be iconic and I think this one is. It also represents the culmination of decades of dreams. Daleks have been seen invading en masse in comic strips since the '60s, but the TV series has always been limited to half a dozen real ones and maybe some cardboard cutouts (seriously, they used to use cardboard cutouts).

But with the development and cost-effectiveness of CG, this became an on-screen reality in 2005. And it was incredible. Thousands of Daleks, pouring through space... Click the link above for a video clip if you need reminding.

Much like yesterday's choice, there may be better-realised, or even more groundbreaking, examples of special effects work in TV. But this beats many of them for sheer impressiveness and the realisation of all those childhood imaginings.

Glorious.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Argumental
4x04 Episode 4

Frozen Planet
Part 5 Winter
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

House
8x07 Dead & Buried
I presume that thing with Chase being on TV is going somewhere in future episodes. It better be anyway, otherwise what a half-arsed aside.

Pointless
3x48 (18/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Drool: Here’s The Blu-ray Set For Game of Thrones Season 1 by Devin Faraci
(from Badass Digest)
This looks rather pretty. Hope we get the same treatment in the UK, whenever the set is ultimately released.
And it reminds me that I really need to get on with watching it! It was on back in April and I only watched the first two episodes. Might need to re-watch those at this point, I think. (And finding those links reminds me I'm still only halfway through The Crimson Petal and the White. Dammit!)

Fox confirms sequels for X-Men: First Class and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes by George Wales
(from Total Film)
I really loved First Class (when I get round to writing it, it'll be a five-star review at 100 Films), so I'm very excited by this news. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was also meant to be good, so I'm sure The Sequel to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes will be one to look forward to too.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 17

Best use of special effects on the big screen

This is a very, very tricky one. While you might argue old special effects were Not So Good, I think you can go at least as far back as the groundbreaking effects work of Star Wars before you reach that time. So that's 35 years of movies to consider -- crikey.

And, actually, there's a definite charm and lingering impressiveness to, say, the stop-motion work in King Kong or the integration of matte paintings in Forbidden Planet. So that makes the list even broader. Oh dear.

But I think I have a good one...

Lightsabers

The best special effects are iconic, and there are few more iconic than the lightsaber. Sure, they're not always the best realised special effect -- even on the new Blu-ray editions the colour and thickness of the beams can be variable -- but that doesn't matter when they're so damn cool and instantly recognisable.

And there's the sound too. Visuals may be the main calling card of this category, but in film the visuals are in part sold by the sound, and everyone knows how a lightsaber goes.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x02 Tim Vine
God Tim Vine is good. Even if "Pen Behind the Ear" is too much of a time-filler.

Junior Bake Off
Episode 12 (of 13)
I know who I want to win, and (slightly cruelly) who I don't... but will they? Ooh, tension.

Pointless
3x47 (17/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 16

A great quote!

Science fiction is full of great quotes -- more than many non-fans would care to realise, I think -- but this has always been one of my favourites...

from Doctor Who: Survival



The Doctor:
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.

Added at the last minute when it became apparent the series had been cancelled, this is a beautiful and incredibly fitting end to the series: looking out to the madness of the universe, but grounded with the mundanity of a cup of tea -- and always continuing.

I swear this one speech has inspired so much dialogue in the relaunched series. And some people would say the Sylvester McCoy era gave us nothing!


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Death in Paradise
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x46 (16/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x09 The Unseen Bits [season finale]
Quite why this was broadcast four weeks after the end of the main series is anyone's guess. It's all new material though, and very good. In fact, in some ways it's better than regular Would I Lie to You -- it's much pacier.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lion King (1994)
[goodness-knows-what-th watch]
I haven't seen The Lion King for years (and, as you can see, I have no idea how many times I've seen it), but it's an exceptional film. Utterly brilliant. Looks fantastic on Blu-ray too.

Articles

Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask by Tom Lamont
(from the Guardian)
Excellent interview with comics writer Alan Moore about the adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask from his V for Vendetta by protesters.

Where are the great movies, asks Spielberg by James Orr
(from the Telegraph)

Steven Spielberg yesterday criticised modern film making claiming there have been very few great movies made over the past two decades.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 15

Which spaceship would you most like to own/fly?

I guess the TARDIS doesn't count here -- it's a time machine primarily, isn't it? -- and while part of me would like to say Serenity, it's a bit high-maintenance, isn't it? Same goes for the Millennium Falcon.

So, I mean, in a dream world:

USS Enterprise

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan -- far from it -- but in the same way I'd rather live in a mansion than a dingy bungalow, how brilliant would it be to have a gleaming high-tech starship at your command?

OK, all the military-esque duties of being in the Federation might drag that brilliance down a bit. Maybe owning your own ship, a la Serenity, would be preferable. But if the Enterprise was your own personal ship, with everyone at your command... Such stuff as dreams are made of, eh?


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

ATP World Tour Finals
Final
Two worthy players, but great to see Federer win in his 100th career final, and break the record for number of wins at these year-end finals in the process.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Cruise of the Gods
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
BBC TV movie from 2002 about a fan cruise for a forgotten '80s sci-fi show, starring a pre-Little Britain David Walliams, pre-Gavin & Stacey James Corden and post-Marion and Geoff but pre-anything much else Rob Brydon. And Steve Coogan too. And Russell Brand has one line -- not as a cameo, just as a bit player. This is long before he got anywhere.
It's really very good, actually. Liked it so much I'm going to bend my rules slightly and include it in 100 Films (hence the number up above. Just in case you hadn't guessed.)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Onion News Network
1x01 Enter the FactZone
The American spiritual successor to The Day Today (which I've still not seen) comes to Sky Arts after beginning back in January in the US. But that's OK -- it's about The News but not news, so it's not in the least bit topical. Very funny though.

Pointless
3x45 (15/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 14

An under-rated sci-fi gem

Oh, there are loads that could go here! But I choose this one:

Ultraviolet

No, not that crappy 2006 movie, but a British miniseries from 1998 starring Jack Davenport From This Life and Coupling And Pirates Of The Caribbean and Idris Elba From The Wire and Luther and written & directed by Joe Ahearne Who Directed Half Of Doctor Who's First Season Back.

It was about vampires & that, but as you can see it was before the whole current craze took off -- indeed, Buffy would only have fairly recently started in the US at the time, and even that some would say predates the current vogue that bloodsuckers are experiencing.

But even for that, it took an alternative view of the creatures, a very technological and modern view. I haven't watched it for years but my God was it good. I really ought to watch it again. Nonetheless, I think it deserves to be more widely remembered as a classic of the genre.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Holiday (1938)

not the funniest of comedies — though I did think it was funny — instead hitting a level of dramatic/character interest that I didn’t predict. I think it’s more a personal favourite than an objective Great Film (but then, one might argue, what is?), so the best I can do is encourage you to seek it out

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

Prince of Persia is analogous to an average entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, only without the craziness and humour provided by Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. This probably explains Persia’s relative lack of success: Pirates began with an exceptionally good blockbuster flick, and has since coasted on goodwill and affection for Depp’s character; Persia has neither of these benefits.

More next Sunday.

TV

Junior Bake Off
Episode 11 (of 13)
The rest of this series is only on iPlayer for a few more hours. Fortunately, I've downloaded it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
4x09 Lancelot du Lac
Is that really the end for Guinevere and Lancelot (again)? They're certainly being brave with not pressing the reset button this season.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
1x06 Codename: Portis [season finale]
That's more like it! A blazing return to form for the final episode. Fingers tightly crossed for a second series.

Films

Beyond the Pole (2009)
[#91 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 13

What's your favourite flavour of Star Trek?

Six TV series, eleven films (and counting) -- there's plenty of Star Treks to choose from... though that distorts the numbers a bit, what with most of the films slotting into one of the TV strands.

I've never watch Star Trek consistently. I've seen bits of all of it except The Animated Series. So, bearing that in mind...

Star Trek (2009)

Some would say this counts as The Original Series -- it features Kirk, Spock and co, after all -- but it isn't, not really. By reinventing those characters and their situation so thoroughly, it turns a '60s TV idea (that survived/limped on through movies into the '90s) into a highly modern '00s-style action/adventure. And by rebooting the continuity in the process, it successfully makes it a new variant.

I'm sure all the other Star Treks have their merits, and maybe if I'd actually seen more of (say) The Next Generation I'd have a different view, but this is the version I've personally most enjoyed.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Argumental
4x03 Episode 3

House
8x06 Parents

Pointless
3x44 (12/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x11 Infantile (XL edition)
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

A couple of deals from Amazon UK's Black Friday deals are the sole boosters this week. Today is said Friday if you fancy a look at the remaining deals.

Number of titles in collection: 1,401 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 259 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,487 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,493 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,315 [up 45]

See you next week, faithful reader.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 12

What's your "yeah I know it's rubbish but I love it" sci-fi film?

I don't actually think this film is rubbish, but as I can't think of one that is but I love anyway, this is the next best thing:

Flash Gordon

Y'see, some people (a lot of people? I dunno) think is one of a multitude of cheap Star Wars knock-offs from the late '70s/early '80s. I'm certain that was what inspired them to make it, but it's actually far better than that.

I'm not going to go into a full description of why I love it because I've already done that here, but suffice to say it's very deliberately camp, silly and B-movie-esque, the very things it often gets criticised for. Once you accept that's the filmmakers' aim, you begin to see how well they've pulled it off, and how much fun it is.

Plus the Queen score is solid gold. Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum FLASH! Ah-ah! etc.

(The '30s Flash Gordon cinema serials are brilliant too, incidentally. Grew up watching those on Saturday mornings on the BBC and loved every minute of it.)


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x03 Ducky Tie
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Life's Too Short
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x43 (11/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 11

Favourite space film/series

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy...

Firefly

If you've still not enjoyed the delights of Firefly, what in God's name is wrong with you?! This is a perfect TV series. It's exciting, it's hilarious, and so much more -- all things I said about its big screen spin-off, but they're even more true of the small screen version because it was longer.

What's most impressive, really, is how quickly you come to care for these characters. There are only 14 episodes total, but long before that you love them and dread that all-too-soon end. But the time you get to spend with them until then is to be savoured, again and again and again. And again.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Frozen Planet
Part 4 Autumn
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x42 (10/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 10

Which sci-fi universe/reality would you most like to live in?

The apparent explosion in popularity of MMORPGs in the last decade suggests many universes that masses of people would like to live in.

But there's a difference between wanting to spend far too many of your waking hours gaming in that world and actually living in that world. The universe of The Matrix may look cool, but if you were actually there you wouldn't be Neo, you'd be some lowly chump. Blade Runner may be massively popular and influential, with a huge amount of visual Cool, but would you really want to live in that dark, downtrodden world? Really?

So where might I actually like to live?

X-Men (Marvel) Universe

You might be a mutant with some amazingly cool superpower! Or you might just be a regular bloke -- but hey, it wouldn't be any worse than the world you currently live in.

Except for the insane levels of jealousy, I suppose.

Still, better than somewhere that looks cool but is actually miserable to exist in.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x01 Ardal O'Hanlon
I gave up on this last series due to not really finding it funny and an increasingly rubbish roster. This series had some good previews however, and there are good people on it too, so here we go.
It's still just "Live at the Apollo On Tour, With a Rubbish Sketch at the Start" though, isn't it.

Death in Paradise
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Junior Bake Off
Episode 10 (of 13)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Romanzo Criminale
1x02 Episode 2
Gonna need to watch this more often than once a week if I want to catch up with Sky Arts' airings (and I do) (and they're on episode eight).

Spy
1x05 Codename: Blood
After a run of great episodes, this wasn't so hot. Some clever movie spoofs in there, but a lot of it just felt like being overly cruel to poor Tim. Perhaps if he uses his Glock to mortally wound that police officer chap in the next episode, that might redeem this one a bit...

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 9

No.1 sci-fi hottie

This is not the kind of thing I would usually blog about, obviously, but it's on the list, so, I guess, here we are.

The problem is compounded by the fact that one person's "hottie" is another's "ew, really?!" (and vice versa, of course), and no one wants the latter reaction.

Zooey Deschanel
Trillian in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film

I said I'd need to avoid picking too much Doctor Who, but clearly I need to be wary of Hitchhiker's too.

Though, while I've mentioned it a few times, this is only the third I've actually chosen it. So there.

And in fairness, I haven't really picked Trillian, I've picked Zooey Deschanel, who's only contribution to sci-fi is that one. (And The Happening, but who wants to mention that?) So it does feel like kind of a cop-out, what with her not being that well known for her sci-fi-y role, whereas you kinda think this ought to be going to someone who is at least largely, if not wholly, known for their contribution to sci-fi.

But c'mon, it's only the "hottie" "award" -- the "contribution" being assessed here isn't intellectual, is it?

So hush, it's done now, let's all just move on.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Children in Need Special: Great Believers vs Free Speakers
Apparently they make this notoriously-difficult quiz slightly easier for the celebrity/special editions. Which probably explains how I did moderately well at it.

Pointless
3x41 (9/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Come together this Christmas with the BBC
(from BBC Media Centre)
All sorts of great stuff on the Beeb this Christmas. And a Jim'll Fix It special presented by Shane Richie. Seriously. Ugh.

Matt Smith On Doctor Who 50th Anniversary & Series Seven by Dave Golder
(from SFX)

Matt Smith told BBC Breakfast this morning that filming starts in February for 14 new episodes of Doctor Who, including a full series, a Christmas special and a 50th anniversary special, which will be a one-off.

Unless he's done his maths wrong, sounds like we're only getting a regular compliment of episodes in 2012/13... and that months later than usual. But we'll see.
I didn't mind this year's split season, and I don't mind them shifting the series to be broadcast in Autumn/Spring instead of this year's Spring/Autumn, but it would be a shame if we only got 14 episodes throughout 2012 and 2013 instead of the 28 we would normally have got. A 2012-13 season, anniversary special and 2013-14 season was more what I was hoping for; to put that another way, 8 episodes in 2012 (including Christmas), 15 in 2013 (including Christmas and an anniversary special) and then on into 2014. Maybe that was wishful thinking. Maybe 2014 will actually return us to the regular 13-episodes-in-Spring/Summer.
Time will tell.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 8

Best robot/android

I had quite a long short list on the go for this one -- R2-D2, Kryten, WALL-E, the Terminator, Maria, and more -- but then I suddenly remembered...

Marvin the Paranoid Android

Marvin is probably the best character in Hitchhiker's. As Wikipedia puts it, he "is afflicted with severe depression and boredom", which makes all of his very dry comments hilariously funny. It also makes him feel very identifiable, despite the fact he's a robot who's much more intelligent than you.

Bless 'im.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Downton Abbey
2x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Cliffhangertastic! I wonder if we can look forward to a resolution in the Christmas special or if they'll make us wait until series three?
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Junior Bake Off
Episode 9 (of 13)
The first semi-final, and suddenly two kids get to go through. I guess we can look forward to a three-part final then? Odd.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Jury
2x05 Part 5 (of 5)
I can't say I buy everything that happened here -- the clunky political subplot, for instance; or how the yob and, actually, most of the jurors were ultimately convinced to vote "not guilty" (an 11-1 or even 10-2 split would've been more plausible). It's also interesting how many little things were similar to the first series, for instance how the jurors chose their foreman -- either there is actually some evidence of what goes on inside jury rooms and, by some weird coincidence, most behave the same way, or screenwriter Peter Morgan knows what he'd do and keeps applying it to other people.
Still, overall it was very good.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Pointless
3x40 (8/11/10 edition)
The 100th edition! Oo-ooh.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Cars (2006)
[#90 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
This is renowned as Pixar's weakest film and, while I haven't quite seen all of them, I can certainly see why. It's distinctly average; when the rest of their output ranges from "very good" to "exceptional", that makes it seem especially poor.

DVD Extras

The Inspiration for Cars
A short featurette (only around 7 minutes long) on the Cars DVD, in which director John Lasseter discusses the various things from his personal life that led to the film's creation. I think it gives some insight into why the finish project feels a little self-indulgent.

Articles

Doctor Who Series Six DVD REVIEW by Ian Berriman
(from SFX)
It's a REVIEW. A REVIEW!
Silly title capitalisation aside, this is a refreshingly balanced take on Who's past season. "Remember when watching Doctor Who was fun?" I did enjoy the season overall, but crikey I know what Berriman means.
Plus, criticism for the slightly lackadaisical treatment the new series DVD releases get these days; criticism with which I wholeheartedly agree.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 7

Best non-human character

As "best robot" is coming up tomorrow and "best villain" was yesterday, this is essentially "best alien character"; who could be a villain, I suppose, but isn't just a monster.

Yoda

I could've had the Doctor again here, of course, but including him twice might be a bit much. Or I could have gone slightly less obvious and had Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhiker's.

But the thing is, despite his obviousness, Yoda is brilliant. He's wise. He's funny. He's surprisingly handy with a lightsaber. He's just cool.

And everyone's tried to speak like Yoda -- you can say that about how many characters, hmm?


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

this week on 100 Films

2 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Clash of the Titans (2010)

It’s massively flawed in many areas, but good bits occasionally shine through. Unlike most blockbusters of the past few years, which tend to be bloated affairs in need of a good chop down, it would actual benefit from being a bit longer — some plot elements could do with greater clarity, most of the characters could do with some depth.

Magicians (2007)

If you like people saying rude words, particularly in relation to sexual activities, then you’ll find lots to laugh at here. If you don’t like that kind of thing, there’ll be lots to cringe at. If you don’t mind it… well, you won’t mind it. There are other funny bits, mind. None of it’s particularly big or clever, but it elicited laughs regularly enough to keep it entertaining.

More next Sunday.

TV

Children in Need 2011
Being the post-midnight stuff, of course, which this year was back to being mostly repeats unfortunately. Great total though -- the highest ever by over £5 million!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Family Guy
It's a Trap!
Family Guy complete their run through the original Star Wars trilogy with this spoof of Return of the Jedi, released on DVD & Blu-ray last December and later aired (in an edited form) as the end of season nine back in May.
And that's it, because they're not bothering with the prequels. Unless they change their minds, of course. Which I doubt.

House
8x05 The Confession
Some people have been really laying into this series of House, but I've liked it. However, I do agree that getting the old team back in this episode gives it a real boost.

The Jury
2x04 Part 4 (of 5)
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Merlin
4x08 Lamia
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x39 (5/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spy
1x04 Codename: Bookclub
I think this is the best comedy on TV right now. Love it.

In the unlikely event anyone is curious, I've now decided to give up on Wilfred. Having watched the first four episodes a while ago, I just don't care enough to spend another three-and-a-bit hours of my life watching the rest.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 6

Best sci-fi villain

Science fiction is one of those genres that finds itself full of moustache-twirling megalomaniacs. While it may be fun to watch the scenery-chewing antics of the likes of the Master or Agent Smith, the best villain is one who's a little more complicated.

Apologies, because if you haven't read or seen Watchmen I'm about to massively spoil it.

Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias

Despite the fact "comic book villain" would likely be used as an insult to name an obviously villainous villain, there are actually a couple of great ones in that medium. Take Magneto, for instance, the primary villain in much of X-Men: he's the former best friend of heroic leader Charles Xavier and does what he does because he thinks it's the best thing for his maligned, oppressed race. Not exactly a villain for the sake of it, is he?

Ozymandias goes even further, perhaps. He starts the film as one of the gang of heroes; indeed, as far as we know, he is one for most of the story. But behind the scenes he's being A Bit Naughty, murdering people and plotting to change the world. Like all the best villains, he has a genuine goal he thinks is the right thing to do.

Unlike most, he wins.

How many villains can you think of that win? And not just "win for a bit... until the heroes defeat them", but win-win; win so that a new status quo is set up in which they have won; win so that the heroes except it and move on, rather than constantly plotting to overthrow the villain. And win cleverly, too: he doesn't describe his plot to the heroes while they have a chance of stopping it -- it's enacted 35 minutes before they even arrive.

That's why Veidt wins this -- because he succeeds; or, to put it another; is the best at it.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Children in Need 2011
More CiN tomorrow (because of the post-midnight stuff, obv.).
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x05 (11/11/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x10 Inland Revenue (XL edition)
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Precisely no new titles again this week, but it is time for the always-exciting running time update, so at least there's that. There's a handful of DVDs and Blu-rays winging their way to me across the Atlantic, so maybe they'll be here for next time.

Number of titles in collection: 1,399 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,141 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 258 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,476 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,488 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,270 [no change]

As I said, time for the running time update...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
251 days, 6 hours, and 36 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 8 hours, and 5 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 5

Best sci-fi hero

If I'm not careful this will become a catchphrase for this series, but... there are many great heroes in sci-fi (just insert topic of the day instead of "heroes"), but one stands out as the best choice...

The Doctor

I know, I said I'd try not to have too much Doctor Who, and that's 60% of answers so far, but hush, it's right.

The thing is, the Doctor's the most heroic of all heroes, because he doesn't need a weapon or an army or any of that palaver to win the day -- he just uses his brain. And often his mouth. He always fights for what's right, he's never selfish or cowardly, and he's prepared to lay down his life for his friends... or even people he barely knows. He's funny, too. Jokes are cool.

There are many great heroes in sci-fi, and at least a few that can boast most of the above traits... but I can't think of anyone else who has them all.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Argumental
4x02 Episode 2

Life's Too Short
1x01 Episode 1
This seems to have had quite a mixed reception. It wasn't great -- a bit too much "The Office + Extras" -- but it had its moments.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
10x04 (11/11/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x38 (4/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x01 Episode 1
Time flies: the first series of Rev. ended 15 months ago! There I was wondering if it had just been on earlier this year. Anyway, great to have it back.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Wikihistory by Desmond Warzel
I'd never heard of this story before, but apparently it's "beloved" and "oft-quoted". It's only a short'un, which is nice, and takes the form of a series of message board postings for a group of time travellers, who have to keep fixing each other's mistakes. Neat.

Articles

Bafta must recognise wordsmiths by James Moran
(from the pen is mightier than the spork)
They've just added an award for reality TV to the BAFTAs. Not necessarily surprising or bad in itself, but this is an awards ceremony that has (to quote the article) "six acting awards in total. Drama and comedy shows are rightly split into single drama, drama series, mini-series, continuing drama, comedy and situation comedy. Directing... gets three categories – factual, fiction and multi-camera. Sound and editing get two each." How many writing awards? One. It's not even split into Drama and Comedy. And that's ridiculous, as Moran outlines.

eBay to open UK high street store by Mark Langshaw
(from Digital Spy)

The internet retailer will open its first brick and mortar shop on London's Dean Street as part of a five-day experiment during the Christmas period...

eBay's store will not have tills or any products that customers can take away with them. Display models of the website's 200 most popular items will be affixed with a QR code that shoppers can scan with a smartphone to gain access to eBay's online checkout. Eight table computers will be readily available on site for customers to browse the eBay website and purchase their goods online.

Well, that's certainly... something that will be happening...

How good is the Friends pilot? by Andrew Ellard
(from Storify)
More on TV writing. Here, script editor Ellard demonstrates how the first episode of Friends is "so good that you know 4 characters after 7 LINES." That's some impressive writing.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 4

Best sci-fi heroine

I think this is the first day I've really struggled with, mainly because I kept thinking of fantasy heroines, for whatever reason. But sticking to a decidedly sci-fi universe, I'll choose...

Sarah Jane Smith

She might not go round wielding huge weapons like a James Cameron or Joss Whedon heroine*, but -- much like the Doctor -- that's part of what makes Sarah Jane so amazing.

Over 30 years after her first appearance in a classic kids' TV series, she was given the starring role in her own kids' series, the lead hero. But she was a hero before that, too, being arguably the first sustainable modern female companion in Doctor Who (previous attempts at Independent Modern Women, like Liz Shaw, floundered and were dropped).

And that makes her an even better choice, because before she was the lead in her own series she wasn't just the Doctor's chum along for the ride, she was a hero in her own right.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

* P.S. I apologise for dragging Whedon characters down to a Cameron level like that. It was wrong of me.

TV

It's Children in Need on Friday, which means there won't be time for me to catch up on last Friday's shows as I usually do; which means today and tomorrow will be filled with all their usual stuff, plus Friday's... hence this long list:

Ask Rhod Gilbert
2x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Frozen Planet
Part 3 Summer
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
7x02 The Naked Truth
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x02 Episode 2
I am shocked to discover Lee Nelson can actually be funny. I mean, the character is still fundamentally annoying, but some of his material was quite good.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x01 Scarlet Ribbons
Well, that was fairly obviously what was going to happen. Shame in many ways, it would've been interesting for the show to move on beyond its never-ending Red John constraint. Ah well.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless
3x37 (3/11/10 edition)
I love it whenever I get a pointless answer, but particularly when I do it in the final, and I was particularly particularly pleased to do it in the final on a tricky Sherlock Holmes question. Yay for me.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spy
1x03 Codename: Grades
This might be the best comedy on TV right now. And it's on Sky. What?

Articles

Is Rogue Trooper Heading to Hollywood? by Karl Keily
(from Comic Book Resources)
Looks like 2000 AD might be hitting the big screen big-style -- as well as next year's Dredd, they currently have two other movies in development/discussions. Exciting times.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 – review by Author
(from the Guardian)
I couldn't care less about The Twilight Saga, but this one-star review is rather amusing. The best bit is at the end:

The vampire drama of Twilight is all about the romantic agony of eternity, and this franchise feels like it's going on for ever.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 3

Favourite sci-fi book/story

I don't read as much as I watch TV or films, certainly not these days, so this category is a bit tougher for me. A few different things spring to mind, especially once I started trying to think of a Proper Serious Book to nominate. But this is "favourite", so I went back round to my original thought...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

It's a comedy sci-fi book, this is true, and so not as obviously Important as something like, say, The War of the Worlds or Dune (both of which I also loved). But as well as writing things that are really very funny indeed, Adams packs his text full of ideas and concepts, wittily explained. I mean, what is the titular guide if not an intergalactic Wikipedia on an iPad?

And this is from a novel (originally a radio series, true) written in 1979!

That's why, as well as for being really very funny indeed, Hitchhiker's deserves its place as a classic of the genre.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.