Articles

The Times gets the wedding bouquet by Peter Sands
(from Sands Media Services)
Tomorrow's front pages. The Times is indeed the best, while The Independent's is just horrid.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x14 (21/4/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Derren Brown: Miracles for Sale
To be honest, I was a little worried I'd find Derren's latest special to be a little dry and inconclusive, which has on occasion happened before (stand up Messiah and Seance). But while this does lack a certain element of showmanship or impressive trickery, it's an interesting, important and often surprisingly tense exploration of faith healers and their con, and how they just use techniques that can be duplicated by an (exceptionally dedicated) everyman.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Just Good Friends
3x04 Juanita

TV

The Crimson Petal and the White
Part 2 (of 4)
Another excellent episode -- perhaps not as striking as the first, but with more than its fair share of twists and surprises. It also continues to look stunning, even more so in HD. It appears as if a DVD release is on the cards but no sign of a Blu-ray. Barring a US release (it seems an increasing number of new titles, even British-produced ones, are granted a BD release overseas but not here -- Glorious 39, Easy Virtue and Made in Dagenham are some recent examples I've noticed), I think... other means may be necessary to keep an HD copy.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Game of Thrones
1x01 Winter is Coming
Much hype surrounds this, the first fantasy series from acclaimed US drama-producing cable network HBO, airing over here on Sky-customers-only Sky Atlantic the day after the US, adapted from a series of very popular fantasy novels, with a star-studded cast. Fortunately, it lives up to the expectations: it's dark, complex, scary, thrilling, beautifully shot, brilliantly written and performed. Looks like HBO have yet another classic in the making.

Have I Got News For You
41x03 (22/4/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 2 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Yes Minister
Party Games [Christmas special; 2nd watch]
The final, double-length episode of Yes Minister, which sets up the sequel/continuation series Yes, Prime Minister. It's also one of the best episodes in my opinion, as ever exposing the ludicrous (but ever so plausible) political machinations of Whitehall while being just flat-out funny.

Articles

Misfits, Sherlock lead BAFTA nominations by Kate Goodacre
(from Digital Spy)
I love how headlines spin things. Misfits does lead, with four, but Sherlock has three -- the same as two other programmes.
Other interesting bits: Matt Smith is nominated for Doctor Who, apparently the first time ever one of the show's leads has been up for a BAFTA. Benedict Cumberbatch is similarly nominated for Sherlock, while Martin Freeman is up for Best Supporting Actor. The full list is here if you want a closer look.
To sum up, though: "The BBC achieves a total of 49 nominations across its four channels, with Channel 4, More 4 and E4 receiving a combined total of 25 nominations. ITV1 is recognised 8 times" -- says it all.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
2x02 Mark Watson
The first episode -- Chris Addison's show -- is now available on Dave's website. I guess this and other episodes will follow in time.

The Event
1x16 You Bury Other Things Too
I wasn't sure about The Event in its early days, but it's never been bad and since it's Christmas-started several-month hiatus I think it's really picked up. Not looking good for avoiding the axe though, as I understand it, which will probably be a shame.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Just Good Friends
3x03 Meeting By Chance

$#*! My Dad Says
1x07 Dog Ed Pursuit
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
[#47 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
Direct-to-DVD Family Guy movie, made as part of the fourth season just after the show was un-cancelled. It later aired in an edited/censored three-part form as episodes 28 (Stewie B. Goode), 29 (Bango Was His Name, Oh!) and 30 (Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure) of season four... though I also believe those episodes 'aren't officially counted' and aren't on the separate season DVD releases (because they were a) censored and b) already released as this). So that's interesting then.

TV

Extraordinary Dogs
1x12 The Uncommon Nose
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Family Guy
3x18 From Method to Madness
3x19 Stuck Together, Torn Apart
3x20 Road to Europe
3x21 Family Guy Viewer Mail #1
And that completes my Family Guy DVD set, which (as I may have mentioned) I've had waiting to be watched since sometime during the series' cancellation (and it came back in 2005, so... yeah...)

House
7x18 The Dig
Well look who's back! About time too. And, as usual these days, it means the arc/character plots are far more interesting than the forgettable Case of the Week.

Films

A Bunch of Amateurs (2008)
[#46 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

The nominees for the 2011 Hugo Awards are up! by Cyriaque Lamar
(from io9)
Three Doctor Who stories are up for "Best Dramatic Presentation - Short", as per usual, though they're not necessarily the three I'd've chosen. A Christmas Carol, yes, but I'd've put The Eleventh Hour over the season finale and -- if we're talking a science-fiction/fantasy award here -- Amy's Choice above Vincent and the Doctor. But that last one I don't mind so much -- it's the lack of a nod for The Eleventh Hour, which I believe is easily the best story of last season, which bugs me most.

TV

Doctor Who
31x12 The Pandorica Opens [2nd watch]
31x13 The Big Bang [season finale; 2nd watch]
32x00 A Christmas Carol [2nd watch]
32x01 The Impossible Astronaut
Read my latest thoughts on The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang here. A Christmas Carol, meanwhile, is probably the most Christmassy-feeling of all the Who Christmas specials, so watching it on a super-sunny day in the middle of April feels wrong. It's properly brilliant though.
As for The Impossible Astronaut... well, I'm not quite sure yet. It was definitely quite good and had some very good bits -- the aliens are scary (the bathroom scene in particular), a lot of quotable and amusing lines -- but it felt less than the sum of its parts somehow. I think that, unlike some nuWho two-parters, it really needs its second half to assess its quality. So we'll see next week.
[Watch The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang and The Impossible Astronaut (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who Confidential
6x01 Coming to America
Despite revamped graphics and a slightly revamped format, Confidential seemed to struggle to fill its length. Perhaps a return to a tight, fast 30 minutes would be better now?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen
A short but poignant tribute to the greatly-missed Elisabeth Sladen. Well done CBBC/Confidential.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
4x01 (23/4/11 edition)
Assumed this had been dropped, but no, it's back for a fourth run! Considering most Lottery shows are cancelled after just one series, that's impressive. It may be irritating in places -- step forward Nick Knowles -- but the simplicity of its format is addictive.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Radio

Graham Norton
(23/4/11 edition)
Managed to tune in for some of today's Steven Moffat interview, and caught the rest just now. If that's what you're after, it begins just under halfway through.
[Listen (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

Normally I'd just attach this little slice of my thoughts to tonight's TV post, but with a new Who to talk about then it might get a little crowded. I wish I hadn't left my season five catch-up to the very last minute, basically. But anyway, here they are.

Firstly, though, a couple of links: my thoughts after the broadcast on The Pandorica Opens are here and on The Big Bang are here. This is my second watch of each.

Fan polls always rate nuWho season finales disproportionately strongly, I think -- I could expound on why, but my ultimate viewpoint is they have a tendency to top polls while rarely being the season's strongest story. The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang is a case in point. It has a lot going for it, with a lot of fun along the way, but ultimately I don't think it's as enjoyable in its own right as several other stories from season five. As a climax to the whole run it's great, but there are others that work better in isolation; as stories in their own right. I think some viewers are just too easily led by the Big Ending, Sub-plot Concluding, Mystery Revealing status of finales.

This one in particular works better on first viewing. With all its mysteries solved, the first half goes nowhere fast. There are still good bits -- the whole pre-titles; Underhenge; the Doctor's grand speech to his assembled enemies -- but without the mystery of what the Pandorica is or what's inside it you just want it to get a wriggle on.

The second half is less dependent on you not knowing what's coming, however, so the timey-wimey fiddling is still entertaining. The fact the loop never begins is a distraction though; it bamboozles you by rushing along, hoping you won't notice this impossibility. Of course, if it owned up to it, we'd still just be offered "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" or "the miracles of the universe" as an explanation, so perhaps the point is moot. But it would be even more satisfying if it wholly worked rather than mostly working.

I do love how brilliant Rory was made to be in The Big Bang though, and Amy's "something borrowed..." recital at the wedding is less uncomfortable and more awesome when you know it's going somewhere and she's not just some barking girl. I'd've shot and edited it slightly differently, but hey, that's a niggle. And the two effects shots of the Doctor flying the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS are stunning.

All-in, I think I'd rank The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang somewhere around fifth for this season (out of the ten stories). As I've said previously, this is a particularly strong set of stories, so that pushes it (perhaps disproportionately) low -- indeed, everything I've ranked above would be a personal contender in a Greatest Doctor Who Story Ever list, so to be beaten by them is nothing to be sniffed at.

[You can currently watch The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang in HD on iPlayer.]


P.S. If you were curious about how I'd rank the stories in the wake of my re-watch... well, this list is very rough, and a couple are interchangeable depending on my mood, but here we go:

1) The Eleventh Hour
2) Amy's Choice
3) The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone
4) Vincent and the Doctor
5) The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang
6) The Beast Below
7) The Lodger
8) The Vampires of Venice
9) Victory of the Daleks
10) The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood

At any of those links, click the episode title for my original thoughts on broadcast (some of which are longer/more significant than my re-watch thoughts. If you care.)

TV

Doctor Who
31x08 The Hungry Earth [2nd watch]
31x09 Cold Blood [2nd watch]
31x10 Vincent and the Doctor [2nd watch]
31x11 The Lodger [2nd watch]
I didn't like The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood much first time round. This time I didn't mind as much, but it's still my least favourite story of series five. It's almost relentlessly traditional-style, and perhaps I'd be more forgiving if it actually was a classic-series story, but it doesn't sit quite right in the relaunched series. Plus, like Victory of the Daleks, it has an array of little niggles that hold it back. It also has some high points, particularly in Cold Blood, but they're not as high as Victory's instantly-iconic "Spitfires in space", etc. So it is decent, but also my least favourite story this series.
My thoughts on the exceptional Vincent and the Doctor remain the same as on broadcast, while The Lodger is a superbly funny, gloriously sweet and surprisingly chilling little adventure that's in its own way brilliant. I do think this is an exceptional season -- there are some blips, yes, but the general standard is shockingly high.

The Graham Norton Show
9x01 (15/4/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Just Good Friends
3x02 Back in London

The Mentalist
3x17 Bloodstream
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Films

Cameraman: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)
[#45 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Collection Count

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

A nice few updates this week -- most of them on DVD! That's not happened for a good while, I don't think.

Number of titles in collection: 1,301 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,107 [up 4]
Of which Blu-rays: 194 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,232 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,368 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,810 [up 16]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

10 O'Clock Live
1x13 (14/4/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Doctor Who
31x06 The Vampires of Venice [2nd watch]
31x07 Amy's Choice [2nd watch]
The Vampires of Venice is great fun -- a really well-done traditional-style Doctor Who story -- but Amy's Choice is a properly great episode. It's very unusual, intriguing, clever in all sorts of ways, funny too... Not every story can be Different or Innovative or what have you, but those that are and do it well (see also Blink, for instance) can be among the series' best, and I think this is one of those.

Articles

“Doctor Who is half Hammer Horror, half The Generation Game.” by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
An excellent all-knew interview with Steven Moffat on the eve of the eve of Doctor Who's return. Packed, as ever, with shrewd observations and memorable quotes.

Doctor Who's Matt Smith defends the show from criticism by Trevor Eve by Benjamin Cook
(from The Telegraph)
And this is quite right too!

Smith has a rule never to respond directly to criticism, but he makes an exception this once: “If we all listen to Trevor Eve, then we’re in trouble. Thank you very much, Trevor, we appreciate your opinion, but that’s ridiculous. Doctor Who is brilliant. That’s why it attracts some of the best writers in the country, and some of the best actors. Trevor, try telling that to Sir Michael Gambon.

More, as ever, at the link.

TV

Doctor Who
14x05 The Hand of Fear Part One
14x06 The Hand of Fear Part Two
14x07 The Hand of Fear Part Three
14x08 The Hand of Fear Part Four
I became a Doctor Who fan during what have become known as "the wilderness years", the period between December 1989 and March 2005 when the show was off TV (aside from that '96 blip, but I'm talking about before that even). My interest was sparked by the Target novelisations, several of which were in my primary school library. The Hand of Fear was, I think, the first I read -- I must have had some awareness of the series, because I remember picturing Jon Pertwee as the Doctor before, some way in, realising it was actually that curly-haired bloke off the cover in this story.
So the Target range definitively sparked my love of Who, and ever since I've been wary of watching any story I'd read and loved in novelisation form. Indeed, I never watched any of them -- but it seemed only fitting to break such a 'rule' in tribute to Elisabeth Sladen, this being her final regular story. She has gone far too soon, an untimely loss of the Doctor's greatest friend.
"Don't forget me," Sarah Jane says as she leaves the TARDIS. Who could?

Extraordinary Dogs
1x11 The Unassuming Hero
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Monroe
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
Despite the inappropriate-but-catchy music, I liked Monroe. Hope they do some more.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Lis Sladen, 1948 - 2011 by Tom Baker
(from Tom Baker: The Official Website)
Many tributes to Elisabeth Sladen last night and today, but naturally among the most poignant is this one from the fourth Doctor himself. Most recent TARDIS incumbents David Tennant and Matt Smith have also paid tribute, and the BBC have announced a special tribute to air on CBBC this Saturday.

My Two Cents (4/19/11) by Bill Hunt
(from The Digital Bits)
Why Blu-ray has caught on, despite recent 'expert' reports to the contrary. Well argued and quite possibly wholly correct.