Podcast

Radio Free Skaro
#221 2 Entertain or Not 2 Entertain
Doctor Who-related podcast, which this edition has a lengthy interview with Dan Hall, commissioning editor (i.e. Man In Charge Of) the classic series DVD releases. If you're interested, be sure to skip straight to the interview (starts at 20:06, to be precise) -- the opening twenty minutes are an irritatingly waffley discussion of Sarah Jane Adventures and other really boring waffle about Who news, which simply proves some podcasters still need to learn how to edit -- and also that they really should edit.
As for the interview itself, as a Who fan and DVD fan I found most of it rather reassuring. There's a lot of discussion about things that feel irrelevant or don't need going over (it opens with a massively overlong chat about the syncing up of the US & Australian release schedule with the UK one), but the stuff on future Revisitations sets, the possibility of more animated episodes, the release of Shada and the possible potential for Blu-ray is all interesting.

Articles

Christopher Nolan reveals title of third Batman film and that ‘it wont be the Riddler’ by Geoff Boucher
(from Hero Complex at the Los Angeles Times)
While the title isn't the most exciting proposition -- The Dark Knight Rises -- I'm glad they won't be using the Riddler. He's different to the Joker, of course, but I was concerned that he'd be too similar to the way The Dark Knight used the Joker to really work as a different-enough villain. Personally, Catwoman seems the most obvious choice to me, but we'll see.
In even better news, though, it won't be in 3D! Hurrah! Here's hoping it'll all be in IMAX -- I likely won't be able to see it on an IMAX screen, but the IMAX segments of The Dark Knight look so amazing on Blu-ray that I want to be able to see it there.

TV

Band of Brothers
Part Five Crossroads [2nd watch]

Russell Howard's Good News
3x01 (21/10/10 edition; extended repeat)
In a Good News rarity, this edition's stand-up -- Jimmy McGhie -- was actually quite good and likeable. Wonders never cease.
Even better, they've finally started putting the extended version on iPlayer. I would say "well done" but, well, I'm not sure it's good to congratulate someone for something they should've done a long time ago.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Story of England
Part 4 Peasants Revolt to Tudors
"That the Pope of Rome is Father Antichrist, and false in all his workings, a false extortioner, and a deceiver of the people"
True today, of course, but written in the early 1400s. Seems people of the past were always more progressive than we think...
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

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

Articles

Ronald D. Moore on Why Galactica Steered Clear of ‘Technobabble,’ Aliens by Lisa Grossman
(from Underwire at Wired)

I can’t tell you how many messages I’ve gotten that say, “I’ve watched this episode three times, and I hate it more every time I watch it.” Well, that’s a fan.

A spot-on description of sci-fi fans.
The whole article's interesting for anyone who likes Battlestar Galactica, though be warned it has some huge spoilers towards the end.

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
1x04 Episode 4
I think I must've misunderstood something: I thought Russell Kane was a comedian, but I've seen him on several programmes now and it's not just that I don't find him funny, the studio audiences never seem to laugh either.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Band of Brothers
Part Four Replacements [2nd watch]

Due South
1x02 Free Willie [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss
Part 2 Home Counties Horror
Mark Gatiss' excellent personalised history of horror films continues into the '50s, '60s and '70s with the rise and fall of Hammer horror, not to mention other British, British-inspired and gothic horrors. Plus, 'folk horror' films, a term Gatiss seems to have coined (at least, that was the impression the programme gave), covering the likes of Witchfinder General, The Wicker Man and Blood on Satan's Claw.
The series is so good, it's almost a shame it's so short and focused -- a couple more episodes dealing with pre-Universal horror and where the genre has gone in more recent years (as I believe tonight's final part only covers US horror in the '60s and '70s), done with the same level of insight and quality, would be most welcome.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
9x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

New Eighth Doctor costume revealed by Chuck Foster
(from Doctor Who News Page)

Considering he now exists solely on audio, and therefore in stories of dubious canonicity and outside the mass public consciousness (arguably, even outside mass fan consciousness), the reveal of a new costume for the 8th Doctor might just be considered an irrelevancy. Or, if like me you still love McGann's incarnation, it's a little bit interesting and perhaps even exciting.

I like where they've gone with it -- it echoes the TVM costume while being new, though the bag seems unnecessary. The retro sonic screwdriver is also nice -- it would fit neatly with the TVM-stlye console room, I feel.

Still, there's no denying this revisionism comes too late. Back when Big Finish did their second 'season' of 8th Doctor audio and the promo photos had a shaven-headed McGann, I felt they should've officially restyled the 8th Doctor with short hair and a more modern costume... more-or-less exactly the look the new TV series gave Chris Eccleston just a few years later, in fact. At this point, it's rather a last-ditch attempt to drum up more interest and make the 8th Doctor's adventures still feel current -- which Big Finish naturally want to do, as he's the most recent Doctor they're allowed to use.

TV

Band of Brothers
Part Three Carentan [2nd watch]

Downton Abbey
1x05 Episode Five
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Have I Got News For You
40x02 (21/10/10 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Just Good Friends
1x01 After All This Time

QI
8x06 Happiness (extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Sarah Jane's Alien Files
1x02 Episode 2
I'm warming to this a bit now... but perhaps that's because I watched it while wrapping some presents, which it happened to be the perfect length to cover.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Film / Theatre

Oklahoma!
A filmed version of the late-'90s West End revival, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Maureen Lipman and a pre-X-Men Hugh Jackman.

this week on 100 Films

6 (six!) new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

The Band Wagon (1953)

In this behind-the-scenes musical, Fred Astaire plays Tony Hunter, a slightly washed-up star of stage and screen. One can’t help but wonder if his performance has an autobiographical edge. It’s of no concern to the viewer though, because he’s as wonderful as ever.

Brigadoon (1954)

The Scottish accents are appalling, the costumes and setting gratingly twee, the Highlands recreated entirely on a soundstage... But the ill-conceived cast, costumes and studio-bound setting begin to pale under the charm of Gene Kelly and the machinations of the plot. Even the Scottish accents, though consistently dreadful, eventually become less irritating.

Gigi (1958)

a film about largely horrid people doing morally dubious things. It begins with an elder gentleman singing Thank Heaven for Little Girls; not because they bring a youthful joy to old age, but because they’re a constant source of new young ladies for him to have affairs with — he’s a dirty old man really.

Grindhouse (2007)

Rodriguez packs every scene with at least one element you should expect from this style of cinema: graphic blood-spurting violence, horrific mutations, vicious zombies, over-the-top logic-light gunfights, entirely random explosions, clichéd dialogue, stock characters, extended shots of the female form… Have I missed anything? If I have, it’s probably there too.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

at times it reminded me of Pride & Prejudice, albeit a version with much of the dramatic tension removed. For instance, Austen’s tale spends a long time creating a bad impression of Mr Darcy, only to eventually reveal his (mostly) good intentions. St. Louis manages all of five minutes in which the Darcy-ish character is suspected of having done something dastardly before the truth is revealed.

Witchfinder General (1968)

it’s more like an historical action-adventure [than a horror film], with soldiers dashing around the countryside, horseback chases, bar brawls, ambushes and the occasional sword fight.

More next Sunday.

TV

Argumental
3x10 (19/10/10 edition)
Poor Ben Miller -- he did really well and didn't win once.

Band of Brothers
Part Two Day of Days [2nd watch]

Merlin
3x07 The Castle of Fyrien
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
24x01 Episode 1
So Mark Ronson made for a pathetically weak host, which I suppose was to be expected. It just goes to show, reading aloud from an autocue requires more talent than you'd think. That Paul Foot guy was surprisingly good though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Sarah Jane Adventures
4x03 The Vault of Secrets Part One
4x04 The Vault of Secrets Part Two
[Watch parts one and two, or a compilation of both, on iPlayer.]

Articles

PSP named UK's 'most returned gadget' by Mark Langshaw
(from Digital Spy)
With all the residual PlayStation hatred of a former N64 owner (not to mention GameCube, Gameboy Advance and DS), I'd just like to say... hahahahahahahahahaha! PSP sucks!

*ahem* I do apologise. Well, a bit. Not much though.

TV

Band of Brothers
Part One Currahee [2nd watch]
Despite owning it on DVD since its release, and now Blu-ray too (well, instead), I don't believe I've watched Band of Brothers since its original BBC Two broadcast. With 10 days 'til sort-of-sequel The Pacific is released on DVD & Blu-ray, it seems a good time to finally reacquaint myself with its predecessor.
It's still thoroughly excellent, even though (as I recall it) the best is yet to come. One notable thing, nine years after it was first shown: how many of the faces are now much more recognisable. It's an incredible cast.

House
7x03 Unwritten

The Mentalist
3x02 Cackle-Bladder Blood
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
2x05 Bristol
So they're in Bristol, but they don't have Russell Howard on? What is the world coming to...
Though there's something even more troubling about this episode: Squeezing five comedians into the show's regular 45 minutes usually means we don't get to see enough of the good ones (equally, it means the poor ones are gone pretty quickly), but this edition is cut down to just 30 (for no apparent reason). It means everyone bar McIntyre is really rushed; ridiculously so, in fact. Why, people-who-do-such-things, why?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC confirms BBC One HD launch details by Andrew Laughlin
(from Digital Spy)
Hooray! With the existing BBC HD even more freed up to show stuff from the other channels, hopefully this will mean less instances of stuff not getting an HD simulcast. Sarah Jane in particular has been annoying me in this respect -- while CBBC and BBC One are showing two eps per week, on Monday/Tuesday and Wednesday/Thursday respectively, BBC HD is showing just one episode every Saturday. What? Why? Gits.

Director Norrington quits Crow remake by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
I'd be lying if I said I'd been massively excited for this film, but the people involved and the 'new direction' talk had piqued my interest. So, this news is a shame.

Neil Gaiman drops Doctor Who hints by Morgan Jeffery
(from Digital Spy)
Beware spoilers, though I think Gaiman does a good job of genuinely teasing without giving away anything significant. In other words, it's more fuel for speculation (much more) without providing anything definitive.

Warner Bros confirms Hobbit cast by Christian Tobin
(from Digital Spy)
It's been the talk of the 'net today, but in case you missed it, nine of the leading roles in The Hobbit (in addition to the likes of Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis returning) have been confirmed. They're a mix of "brilliant!", "interesting..." and "I have no idea who that is".

Collection Count

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

And it's been doing so for a whole year!

Normally this would be the latest running time update (which is only logical -- I do it monthly, of course it would coincide with the anniversary), but I've expanded it rather for a sort-of-celebratory Statistic of the Week. More after the latest numbers...

...which this week see the Back to the Future trilogy hit Blu-ray. Gorgeous set, it is, and replaces my old DVDs. Plus two new DVDs and you get this:

Number of titles in collection: 1,226 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 123 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,007 [up 7]
Number of films in collection: 1,294 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,280 [up 60]

Statistic of the week:

In honour of Collection Count reaching its first anniversary, I've decided to see how much my collection has grown in the past year. Exciting stuff, eh?

So without further delay, in the last 12 months my collection has increased as follows...

Number of titles in collection: up 169 (15.99%)
Of which DVDs: up 79 (7.7%)
Of which Blu-rays: up 90 (272.7%)

Number of discs in collection: up 391 (14.95%)
Number of films in collection: up 200 (18.3%)
Number of TV episodes in collection: up 628 (17.2%)

Plus, in that first-ever post I included the first running time total. And so...

Total running time of collection (approx.):
212 days, 6 hours, and 58 minutes
-- up 32 days, 14 hours, and 5 minutes since last year! (That's 18.32%, fact fans.)

Well crikey. What a year, and all that.

See you next week for the start of Year 2, faithful reader.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
10x08 Science Special
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Dragons' Den
What Happened Next 3 James Caan
It's been nearly a month since I last watched this. Crikey. (I know that's not that interesting, but... surprised, I am.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x22 Robots Vs. Wrestlers
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

Law & Order: UK
3x06 Masquerade
L&O:UK just got recommissioned for another run of 13 episodes... which, thanks to the way they broadcast them, means series 5 & 6.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Mad Men
4x06 Waldorf Stories
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
9x12 (14/10/10 edition) [season finale]
Season-ending highlights/outtakes. Always surprisingly good.
(Skipped the last proper episode thanks to the frequently-useless people who control what goes up on Virgin Media's version of iPlayer. Fortunately, I've downloaded it from the online iPlayer for viewing at some point.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Due South
1x01 Pilot Part 2 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

House
7x02 Selfish
I somehow failed to note when I watched episode one of this season, which is a rather surprising oversight (I've now dropped it in somewhere that seems vaguely plausible). I thought I'd not made my comment on how they've finally changed the title sequence, something they've needed to do for years (ever since he took on a new team). Amusingly, they've done it in the cheapest way possible, dropping in new shots for the new cast names.

Whites
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

The Night Listener (2006)
[#108 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

TV

Due South
1x01 Pilot Part 1 [2nd watch]
I used to love Due South when it first aired -- about 15 years ago now! It's always worrying revisiting something you once loved after so long. While it undeniably looks dated now, it's still good fun, and I'm sure will improve once it settles down into the series proper. BBC Two are repeating it weekdays at 1pm (though it seems to be constantly pre-empted by stuff this week), and making it available on iPlayer too.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss
Part 1 Frankenstein Goes to Hollywood
This has come under fire from some for not being a particularly complete history. Did they not actually watch it? Gatiss sets out his stall early on: this series both covers three specific eras of horror and is based around his personal predilections. However much the whole of horror cinema may owe to something like Nosferatu, it was a more-or-less isolated example, not part of a significant Horror movement. Besides which, the clue's in the title: it's A History of Horror, not The History of Horror. And, actually, a bloody good programme it was too.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Sarah Jane's Alien Files
1x01 Episode 1
I'm not certain to what degree this can be classed as "pointless". Essentially, it's a glorified way of recapping previous Sarah Jane Adventures stories: new scenes show Sarah Jane and Mr Smith creating a database of aliens, entering details they learnt from previous encounters. In practice, this mostly means a lightweight fact file and a couple of plot recaps. It's not even very thorough though: this edition covered the Trickster, an enemy Sarah Jane as encountered thrice (so far), but they only covered two stories. I fear my completist nature will see me watch the rest of the series, but I really shouldn't bother.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spooks
9x04 Episode 4
"Should we discuss the illegal act of breaking into another country's embassy?" "Debate? What? No, just do it! Action action action!"
Oh Spooks, you used to be so good...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Story of England
Part 3 The Great Famine & The Black Death
Cheery.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Snyder explains Sucker Punch 3D axe by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
First Harry Potter 7 Part 1 drops its 3D, now Sucker Punch... The Hobbit next, please?

Steven Moffat teases Sherlock series two by Tara Fowler
(from Digital Spy)

"The critical words, I’d say, would be - Adler, Hound, Reichenbach," declared Moffat.

I can't think of three other words Mr Moffat could have chosen that would've gotten me more excited. Can't wait.