Articles

[Doctor Who] Series 5 DVDs to exclude "Next Time" trailers
(from Radio Free Skaro)

What the... Not best pleased about this, I must say.

If you want to complain (as I have), send an email about it to DVDenquiryline@2entertain.co.uk. If you'd like a ready-written email, just click this link and add your name at the end. (FYI, this is the same as the letter I sent, which also mentions some sound effects that are missing during the title sequence.)

Complaining might seem pointless, but their responses so far indicate that any feedback is passed on to the relevant people -- if enough people voice their displeasure, things might change. Do remember to be polite though -- not only does it make them more likely to listen, it's also not the fault of the person who'll read & respond to your email.

Collection Count

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

Absolutely no changes this week, which my bank balance will be happy about... although there is another big Complete Series set currently winging its way over from the States... Still, 'til that turns up (hopefully next week), there's always a new stat of the week.

Number of titles in collection: 1,183 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 1,094 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 89 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 2,895 [no change]
Number of films in collection: 1,246 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,051 [no change]

Statistic of the week:

Number of Steelbooks:
23
(1.9% of the total)

Steelbooks: pretty packaging. I like pretty packaging. Ergo, I like Steelbooks.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Damages
3x09 Drive It Through Hardcore

Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
18x20 (11/6/10 edition)
I say I watched this... I fastforwarded Katherine Heigl and stopped when Diddy came on. Which just leaves the opening monologue and Frankie Boyle, really. Life's too short for interviews with such uninteresting people.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x04 The Sexless Innkeeper
Very clever 'single couple' montage. We likes this, yes.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Wallander [Swedish]
2x08 Skytten (aka The Sniper)

Articles

27 Star Wars references that are also sexual references
(from Sci Fi Wire)
Many immature "lolz" to be had.

The Critics Are Crazy About Jonah Hex! by S.T. Vanairsdale (from Movie|Line)
and
Capone's Jonah Hex review is nearly as incomprehensible as the film itself!!! by Capone (from Ain't It Cool News)
To say "it hasn't gone down well" would be an understatement...

TV

Damages
3x08 I Look Like Frankenstein
Well, he came back out of nowhere. Presumably there'll be some greater role to play... just not yet...

Dexter
3x10 Go Your Own Way
Great cliffhanger. This is definitely shaping up to be another fantastic season of Dexter -- only two episodes to go.

Films

True Lies (1994)
[#62 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

500,000 download new Who game by Christopher Dring
(from MCV)

“The result is a lot more than I was expecting,” Simon Nelson, controller of portfolio and multiplatform at BBC Vision told MCV.
“We had set ourselves some fairly stretched targets on this and we’ve blown them away... This has been part of the Who planning process rather than just a bolt on at the end, which too many interactive things have been. I’m hoping that we have demonstrated to the TV and the games side that there is a marriage worth pursuing here... I like to think we’ve broken ground for the TV industry, games industry, the public service sector and hopefully even the commercial sector”
...the BBC is not resting on its laurels and is focused on making sure the rest of The Adventure Games are a success before looking ahead to future projects.

It came out on Mac earlier this week, so I can finally play it. I forgot that until today, which shows what revelations about the kind of game it was did for my initially-high excitement levels.
I might play it later.

Serafinowicz: Five Reasons I Love Apple and Five Reasons I Hate Apple by Peter Serafinowicz
(from Gizmodo)
I agree. Also, presented with funny piccies.

The use of digital media comes at a price by Dan Roberts
(from Executive Style at The Sydney Morning Herald)
Interesting article on the mental and physical impact of spending too much time on computers, the Internet, social networking, etc. The solid evidence is hardly extensive at this point, but it's nonetheless compelling.

Toy Story meets The Wire

TV

Damages
3x07 You Haven't Replaced Me

Dexter
3x09 About Last Night

Films

The International (2009)
[#61 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]
Taking a little break from Battlestar Galactica to re-apply the time to film watching.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
1x10 The Hand of God
1x11 Colonial Day
1x12 Kobol's Last Gleaming Part 1
1x13 Kobol's Last Gleaming Part 2 [season finale]
Proof again of BSG's addictiveness -- I'd intended to watch my usual two episodes, but couldn't resist ploughing on through the finale. Which leaves me having got through the whole miniseries & first season in just one week. "Oops." A break before season two... maybe...
In these episodes we have examples of everything the series has been doing best: full-on action in Hand of God; full-on politics in Colonial Day; resolutions and more mysteries in both parts of Kobol's Last Gleaming; and throughout, issues of religion, torture, democracy, and more. And a great set of cliffhangers too, without losing sight of this being a serial: there are some answers and resolutions, but many plots are left mid-way. It's a confident series that doesn't opt for "wrap everything up + cliffhanger", or even "wrap everything up for now + cliffhanger", but pushes on as if this is just a midseason ep. Thank goodness their confidence was rewarded.

Damages
3x06 Don't Forget to Thank Mr. Zedeck

Dexter
3x08 The Damage a Man Can Do
Now there's a nifty cliffhanger! It doesn't feel like it -- probably because I've watched this season so broken up -- but I'm now heading into the final third of the season. Exciting times.

Articles

Christopher Eccleston talks about Doctor Who exit
(from BBC News)
On the one hand, it's nice someone's finally talking about it -- exactly why and under what circumstances Eccleston left the series has always been a bit of a mystery -- but, at the same time as adding a bit of clarity, it also muddies the waters. I mean, what exactly does

I didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I thought if I stay in this job, I'm going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong.

mean? It gives his reasons better than before, but is still quite unclear -- what environment? What culture? Who imposed it? The show's producers? The BBC?
I suppose the wait for more revealing years-later interviews continues...

The Nintendo 3DS Is Real, and Doesn't Need Glasses
(from Gizmodo)
As you may well have heard. Highlights:

There is a 3D depth slider to choose a degree of 3D, to maximize or even turn it off entirely. ... two cameras on the outside. So you can take 3D photos. ... The 3DS can also play back 3D hollywood movies

Talk of what it's like to actually use here.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
1x08 Flesh and Bone
1x09 Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down
Holy moly, a comedy episode! Well that's not something I'd expected to see in BSG.

Damages
3x05 It's Not My Birthday
There seem to be an increasing number of unheralded super-weird dream sequences on TV these days. Or maybe it's just my imagination.

Dexter
3x07 Easy as Pie
A rather excellent episode, revisiting notions of Dexter's code -- who is and isn't worthy of his 'talents'?

Articles

Damon Lindelof Writes the Sequel to Armageddon You'll Wish Was Real by Christopher Rosen
(from Movie|Line)
I'm no fan of Armageddon (though I do need to see all of it) or Lost (though I do intend to catch up now it's all finally done), but this is still quite funny. Especially as "it’s no less ridiculous than anything in the Michael Bay original Armageddon and actually seems almost believable as a movie project". And is called -- frankly, brilliantly -- Armageddoner!

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
1x06 Litmus
1x07 Six Degrees of Separation
A pair of similarly-themed but notably different episodes that are the first concrete examples of the series tackling themes that have earnt it such plaudits; namely, notions of justice, particularly in wartime, and religion. Importantly, there are few easy answers, and, I expect, further ramifications to come.

Damages
3x04 Don't Throw That at the Chicken
Much like Dexter a week (and a bit) ago, other series coming to an end means I can restart Damages, almost three months after I last watched it. Thank goodness for "previously on"s.

Dexter
3x06 Sí Se Puede
It feels considerably more than 10 days since I restarted Dexter. Too used to marathoning through it, I suppose, especially when I've got through nine BSGs in five days.

Articles

Scribes thrive on serial series by Robert Koehler
(from Variety)
Interesting (if brief) article on how US TV has, in the past decade or so, definitively moved away from the syndication-friendly format (i.e. standalone episodes suitable to be seen at random in any order) to the DVD-friendly serial format (i.e. long story arcs running the course of a whole (if not several) seasons).
(Variety limits the number of articles you can read without registering, and then limits further without paying. On Safari (and I presume other browsers, but I don't know), however, if you stop the page loading once the text has appeared, you can usually catch it before the password barrier pops up. Nifty.)

this week on 100 Films

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

Burn After Reading (2008)

as two minor characters observe at the end, we’ve learnt nothing. There’s been a sporadically complex set of coincidences and accidents, some good laughs and some surprises too, but the end result is… what? But maybe that’s the point.

Ghost Town (2008)

The high-concept at the film’s centre — that Ricky Gervais sees dead people and doesn’t want to — is neat enough. It largely sticks to its rules, it manages a few moments of humour, it doesn’t get too repetitive, it often plays the most obvious card

Ivanhoe (1952)

Most notable is an excellent siege sequence, a moderately epic extended battle that is certainly the film’s high point. The randomly hurled arrows and choreography-free sword fights may look a tad amateurish almost sixty years on, when we’re used to slickly staged and edited combat sequences, but the scale and rough excitement of the battle easily makes up for it.

Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)

The cast are adequate, even if Richard Greene’s no Errol Flynn and Peter Cushing’s no Alan Rickman (here at least). Terence Fisher’s direction is rather flat a lot of the time, though a few scenery shots, riding sequences and fights bring out a bit more dynamism.

More next Sunday.

TV

Battlestar Galactica [2004]
1x04 Act of Contrition
1x05 You Can't Go Home Again

Doctor Who
31x11 The Lodger
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
5x11 Extra Time
And that's all the football I intend to watch this year.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
2x17 The Red Box
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Wallander [Swedish]
2x07 Läckan (aka The Leak)

Articles

BBC to revamp The One Show by Paul Millar
(from Digital Spy)
Is there a legal requirement that press releases must always describe HD as "glorious high definition"? How about another adjective, at least.

Collection Count

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

Despite another 24 hour delay, it's back to the teeny-tiny increases this week: one new DVD, and one new BD-that-replaces-a-DVD half cancelling it back out.

Number of titles in collection: 1,183 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,094 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 89 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 2,895 [up 3]
Number of films in collection: 1,246 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,051 [up 6]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles unrated:
135
(11.4% of the total)

Having previously done titles rated U, 18, and 15 (i.e. the lowest, highest, and largest-in-my-collection of the UK ratings), the only one with any significance left is "unrated". These are titles that are either E (for Exempt) in the UK, or other discs that are somehow allowed out unclassified, or some of my US imports, where ratings on DVDs aren't compulsory.

See you next week, faithful reader.