TV

Argumental
4x07 Episode 7

Death in Paradise
1x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
That was good fun. I hope we get more.

The Royal Variety Performance 2011
Back to ITV and it gets worse. Well, there were some very good bits, but most of the singing (of which there was plenty) was appalling.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

TV

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 3 (of 4)
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

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

Cars (2006)

it’s a bit predictable, kinda like Pixar/any kids’ movie by numbers. Pixar are usually better than that. There may be one or two slight surprises along the way — mostly in aid of a Good Strong Moral Message for the kiddies — but at times it’s a bit thumb-twiddly as you wait for characters to reach the point they’re inevitably headed for.

Diner (1982)

Diner is like a series of vignettes. There’s a loose plot holding it all together — the aforementioned wedding — but it all plays like a series of connected subplots. It’s a “slice of life” kind of film, rather than a “big story” kinda film. That works for some viewers and not for others. For me, I enjoyed some of it and some of the amusing moments, but it all felt ultimately empty.

More next Sunday.

TV

Strictly Come Dancing
9x25 The Final Part 1
9x26 The Final Part 2 [season finale]
[Watch both parts (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

The British Comedy Awards 2011
Didn't agree with all the winners... but then there were a few that really exceptionally deserved it, and it was Good Fun All Round. Plus, a Harry Hill clip that actually made me laugh. First time for everything.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
42x09 (16/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
9x16 VG Part 1
I seem to have completely missed an episode of QI. Really don't know how. Annoyed about that now.
This was just a highlights show. Which was fine. It also included at least one clip from at least one episode that hasn't aired yet. Which was different.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Best And Worst Sci-Fi Movie Posters 2011 by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
You might not agree with every choices in either category (I certainly didn't), but it's a good reminder of the last year nonetheless.

Doctor Who: Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill to leave next series by Daniel Sperling
(from Digital Spy)
I know no one really believed it when they left toward the end of the last series, but the thing is kids probably did, and it was a good surprise, and more importantly it was a good, well-reasoned send off. How are they going to bring them back after the Doctor's resolve that he was messing up their lives? And how will they write them out again in a way that tops that? As much as I love Rory, it's a shame they've not just let them go.

Doctor Who: "The assumption that the audience is intelligent has paid off" says Steven Moffat by Tim Glanfield
(from Radio Times)
Yes indeed. Though to be honest, I preferred it before all these intricate multi-year timey-wimey plots. Self-contained one- and two-parters with maybe a big linking season finale for me, please.

Collection Count

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

This week, the number of films in my collection crosses the 1,500 mark. I dread to think how few of those I've actually watched...

Number of titles in collection: 1,411 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,143 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 268 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 3,508 [up 4]
Number of films in collection: 1,501 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,335 [no change]

This week should be the latest running time update, but I'm 'on the road' at the minute so don't have access to that information. Instead, I've decided to bump it back a fortnight, thereby covering whatever I get for Christmas too. Shiny.

Before then -- see you next week, faithful reader.

Films

Enchanted (2007)
[2nd watch]
This was #80 on 100 Films way back in 2008, and obviously I hadn't watched it since. It's bloody great though.

Articles

Doctor Who Magazine's Christmas tribute to Radio Times by Paul Jones
(from Radio Times)
The new DWM, out today, takes as its cover inspiration a Christmas RT from the '20s. See the original and the homage at the link.

TV

Curiosity
1x03 Why is Sex Fun?
Based on this -- a big new flagship documentary with a different celebrity presenter for each episode and that kind of thing -- the Americans aren't half as good at making documentaries as we are. Sure, it's ultimately informative, but it's also repetitive, over-directed and inaccurately titled. Plus it has a dreadfully cheesy title card/ad break bumper; so bad I thought it was years old, but it seems it's brand new. Ugh.

Frozen Planet
Part 7 On Thin Ice [final episode]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
10x07 (9/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
42x08 (9/12/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Onion News Network
1x03 Man-Horse Marriage

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x04 Stephen K Amos

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Life's Too Short
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x08 (23/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 30

To finish we need a great tune for the end credits -
what's your favourite sci-fi theme?

This one really is very, very easy, and conforms to what I'm certain must have been a running theme...

Doctor Who

Whether it's the creepy electronic original, or one of the synth-tastic '80s versions, or the orchestral TV movie recording, or one of Murray Gold's bombastic modern renderings, the Doctor Who theme is always unbeatable. It can inspire dread or excitement as needed, and that scream into the cliffhanger... Ah, perfection!

Plus, it's easily singalongable. Who hasn't at some point oo-wee-oo'd?


That's it! The end! What a good note to end on (see what I did there?)

I've quit enjoyed this, even if I did struggle with a few answers. Maybe I should try to find another one...

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

TV

Argumental
4x06 Episode 6

Blue Peter
5/12/11 edition
For the making of the BBC One Christmas trail. Also, Ed Sheeran is clearly not cut out to be a presenter.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Charley Boorman's Extreme Frontiers
Episode 2 (of 4)
Most of it, anyway -- for some reason the copy on Virgin Media Catch Up died every time at the final ad break. I suppose I should just watch it online...
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Death in Paradise
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x10 Episode 10
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 29

Best pre-1980s sci-fi

For this one I wanted something that was only pre-'80s -- so no Doctor Who (not even classic series only), no Star Wars or Star Trek, etc. Naturally cases could be made for all of these -- I could just have an era of Who, or the original Trek, or just Empire Strikes Back -- but I wanted to push for something different.

I don't know if "best" is quite the right word, and maybe I should've chosen this yesterday, but...

Flash Gordon serials

Larry "Buster" Crabbe starred in three of these cinema serials (the precursor of TV series, I suppose) in the '30s and '40s -- Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. They used to show them on BBC One on Saturday mornings in the late '90s (God that makes it sound long ago), when I was in the early year(s) of secondary school, and my friends and I used to love them.

They're silly and schlocky, and notorious for those kinds of cliffhangers where everything seems impossible... and in next week's recap something completely different happens and everything's OK. Ah, an age before repeats or VHS or harddrive recorders or iPlayer. Or, apparently, memory.

These things aren't Great in the proper use of the word -- there's no revolutionary SF concepts or fantastic screenplays or beautiful performances to be found -- but they're damn good fun, full of scrapes and spills and primitive special effects. They're a joy.

And I don't think I've seen all of them. I've seen at least two, because I remember the serial changed on the Beeb and suddenly the lead female characters had swapped hair colours, which was most confusing. I have two on DVD -- I hope different ones -- but I'm not sure which two, because they go under so many different titles. Quick read of Wikipedia suggests I have the first and third; don't know which I saw on telly. Anyway, I must try to right this and see them all.


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

TV

Have I Got News For You
42x07 (2/12/11 edition; extended repeat)

How I Met Your Mother
7x06 Mystery vs. History
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Two Doctor Who episodes recovered! by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News)
Headline says the salient point, really, though there's plenty more detail in the article. Indeed, there's an even more thorough article at the Radio Times.
This is obviously fantastic news -- I never expected any more episodes to be found, as the last discovery was back in 2004. Still 106 to go though...

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 28

A great sci-fi B-movie

I haven't seen many B-movies, those cheap '40s/'50s/etc films knocked out during the studio era to fill out cinema schedules, notorious for their so-bad-they're-good-ness. I feel I should've seen more. But when there are so many good films to watch...

Anyway, this is a complete and utter cheat, but tough.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

It's a tribute to the B-movie rather than a B-movie in its own right, but that's the best I can do.

It's wonderful for all sorts of reasons, but as this is meant to be about B-movies I'll mention some of those elements, because it's littered with them right from the start. I mean, if you were in any doubt, the opening song highlights it: Science Fiction Double Feature. It's there in the name, never mind the lyrics.

Then there's the Ordinary American Small-Town Couple who Get Lost In The Woods At Night, going to the Big Mysterious Mansion for help, where they find it's Full Of Weirdos who are conducting A Crazy Scientific Experiment, and it all goes loopy and Changes Them Forever, and there's a climax with Ray Guns and Aliens Who Look Like Humans, and no doubt all kinds of other things where I could capitalise every first letter and make it look like a widely-acknowledged trend. (I can't be bothered to surf through all of tv tropes for the real ones, but I bet all of these -- and more -- are on there.)

So no, it's not a B-movie. But it's the best homage to them there is. And if you've never even seen a proper B-movie, it's still rollicking good fun.


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...

That Touch of Mink (1962)

a sex comedy… but being a film produced in ’60s America, no one comes close to using such language. But it’s unquestionably all about that. However, despite being all about a lewder side of life, tonally and visually it’s very light, fluffy and funny. It’s also briskly paced and constantly amusing

More (hopefully several more) next Sunday.

TV

Merlin
4x11 The Hunter's Heart
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x07 (22/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 27

Who are the nastiest bad guys?

There are many different definitions of nasty in this context, I think. They could be cruel, they could be ugly, they could be just plain evil. But there's one, at least, that has all bases covered...

Xenomorphs

Have you seen an Alien film? Then this shouldn't really need explaining. These terrifying-looking creatures are experts at stalking you in darkened corridors, or just flat-out attacking you, or sticking something to your face that implants itself inside you so that a new one of them is born by bursting out of your chest...

And if you do, somehow, manage to damage them, they have acid for blood.

"Nasty" doesn't cover it.


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

TV

The Graham Norton Show
10x06 (2/12/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x06 (21/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

The Dark Knight Rises prologue: Tom Hardy's Bane blasted as unintelligible by Ann Lee
(from Metro)
The opening six or seven minutes of Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman film were screened for critics and filmmakers last night. Trust a Mail-owned paper to be depressing: most (perhaps all) of those critics have soundly praised the footage, noting the tricky dialogue as the one minor downside that may be fixed (the film's still six months away). For a more thorough preview, try /Film, which also has details on how much of the finished film will be in IMAX. Sounds incredible, though I'm not sure I'll be able to see it in that format. Still, there's time to plan yet...

Doctor Who named most-downloaded US iTunes show over Modern Family by Hugh Armitage
(from Digital Spy)

"This is incredibly exciting news," said Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat. "It's an honour to be on the same list as all those shows, let alone at the very top. And for a British show to have achieved this in the US is absolutely remarkable."

Matt Smith rues cancellation of Doctor Who Confidential by Paul Jones
(from Radio Times)

“It’s a pity as I think it’s a show which can reinvent itself year on year and it’s one of the biggest shows on BBC3," said Smith. “I guess people come in and have new ideas and want to have their own fresh take on it"

A polite way of saying "some people change things for the sake of it to make their own mark", I think.

Collection Count

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

Not much to report this week, except for that the numbers are still going up, despite it being nearly Christmas. Expect some next week too; the week after, I'm not sure; and the week after that will be the big (hopefully!) Christmas one.

I will say, though, that I was sent two packages from the same US retailer a couple of weeks ago. They shipped just 3½ hours apart. The one sent second arrived last Tuesday; there's still no sign of the one sent first. Weird.

Number of titles in collection: 1,408 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 266 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,504 [up 6]
Number of films in collection: 1,498 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,335 [up 6]

See you next week, faithful reader.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 26

Best battle scene

I kinda feel this ought to be a big ol' space battle, like that one in Serenity or something, but I can't think of many that immediately jump out at me, so I guess this becomes "best battle/fight/action scene", and I offer up this one:

Lightsaber duel
from Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace

I love a good movie sword fight, but unsurprisingly these are few and far between in sci-fi movies. Except for Star Wars.

For all the prequels' flaws -- and they are many -- the one thing they have over the original trilogy are the lightsaber duels. Whereas the first three films largely feature actors bumping some sticks together a bit, the prequels feature fully choreographed fights that are properly exciting to watch.

The best of these is at the climax of Episode I, when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan take on Darth Maul (there's a bunch of Fantasy names if ever you saw them) and his infamous double-ended lightsaber. It is, as I said, fully choreographed and properly exciting, and just about everything you dreamed a lightsaber battle should be ever since you were a kid.

Some may argue there are better duels later in the prequel trilogy. Maybe, but this is the first one that showed what a lightsaber duel really could be, and this is the one that sticks in the memory.

And it's nice there's something to like about the prequels, eh?


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

TV

Life's Too Short
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
7x04 Episode 4
Love Milton Jones.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
4x04 Ring Around the Rosie
"Hey, how ya doin'? You're under arrest of the attempted murder of... everybody." Love Cho.
(Accidentally skipped episode three. That will, of course, be rectified.)
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Perfect Couples
1x09 Perfect Lies
E4 started really mucking about with showing this and the order they showed it in (or so it seemed to me), so I've resorted to downloading it. Not that I should really care, what with it being all cancelled and, let's be honest, not being that great in the first place.

Pointless
4x05 (18/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

10 Common Words You Had No Idea Were Onomatopoeias by Andy Kneis
(from Cracked.com)
I had no idea! Most interesting.

Review: Sherlock - A Scandal in Belgravia by David Brown
(from Radio Times)
It was the press screening of the new Sherlock last night, hence plenty of coverage and press releases today. This is the Radio Times review (obviously), but there's also the BBC press pack, including interviews with Moffat, Gatiss, Cumberbatch and Freeman; some nice publicity shots at Blogtor Who; and the PI, confirming it's on New Years Day at 8:10pm. Very exciting.

Click to enlarge.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 25

Funniest sci-fi (intentional or otherwise)

It feels like it should be hard to think of an SF comedy, but actually there are quite a few -- Red Dwarf, Hitchhikers' (on radio, in print, on TV and in film!), Back to the Future, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Galaxy Quest -- and those are just some of the good ones.

Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death

Penned by now-showrunner Steven Moffat for Comic Relief back in 1999, this is easily the most affectionate Who spoof ever. Not only is it a very funny take on the show, it's very funny fullstop; and not only is it very funny, but it actually creates a great deal of nostalgia for the real thing -- some of the ending is only a short step away from the kind of sentimentality we've seen in the revived series.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was in some way instrumental in bringing the show back to TV properly. Considering it was made for zero money (as it was for charity), I think it shows that a Who series was viable in '99 -- sure it might look dated now, but it looks pretty much as good as any other late-'90s SF.

Other series and films may show more longevity and consistency -- this one only lasts for about 20 minutes after all -- but it's the one I'm most likely to re-watch again. And again.


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

TV

Argumental
4x05 Episode 5

Frozen Planet
Part 6 The Last Frontier
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x04 (17/3/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Thor 2 Director Patty Jenkins Exits by Borys Kit
(from The Hollywood Reporter)

as late as Monday afternoon Jenkins was actively working on the movie. The filmmaker participated in an interview and photo shoot ... on Dec. 2, during which she discussed her involvement in the project and praised Marvel.

Weird.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 24

Who's the no.1 captain?

There are plenty of Captains in military-esque SF like Star Trek or... well, other stuff... but the best one comes from a freer universe.

Capt. Mal Reynolds

Some say Mal is essentially Han Solo, but pish, he's better. He's funnier, for one thing. I bet he's braver. He's certainly got more morals. He tries to keep the latter two hidden, but they're definitely there. He always does the right thing... for himself and his crew anyway.

Besides, is Solo actually a Captain? No. No he's not.

If you don't know for yourself why Mal is awesome, you clearly haven't seen Firefly and/or Serenity. And if you haven't seen Firefly and/or Serenity, what kind of sci-fi fan are you?! Not one, I say.

So there.


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

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x03 Reginald D Hunter
An American, an Aussie and a German walk into a Scottish theatre...
The Radio Times slagged off Hunter's stand-up (I was going to link to that, but they seem to have removed the review from their website), but I thought it was very good, and Henning Wehn was much better here than when he turned up on QI the other week.

Death in Paradise
1x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Happy Endings
1x04 Mein Coming Out
Completely random late night viewing. It was fine.

How I Met Your Mother
7x05 Field Trip
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

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.