Films

Lady of Deceit (1947)
[#88 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

More commonly known as Born to Kill, but this is the UK title and what it was called on BBC Two, so I go with that. It's also a better title, if you ask me -- Born to Kill is thoroughly generic noir, while Lady of Deceit better suggests the film's themes.

It's based on a novel called Deadlier Than the Male, which is also what it was known as in Australia. Why they didn't just stick with that everywhere, goodness only knows.

TV

Doctor Who
21x23 The Twin Dilemma Part Three
It finally feels like the story is getting underway... with just one part left. Hey-ho.

Friends
3x12 The One with All the Jealousy [4th or so watch]
3x13 The One Where Monica and Richard Are Just Friends [4th or so watch]

The Two Ronnies Spectacle
1x03 Songs & Serials [final episode]

Non-Fiction

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Book One, Chapters 5-10

This is bloody addictive once you get going -- I was reading on-and-off for close to four hours to get through all that (some 160 pages), but the time just evaporated. And I still had to stop myself from just plunging on.

The one bit that grates, though, is the absence of script pages. There were tonnes and tonnes -- whole drafts of whole episodes, in fact -- included in the original hardback version. Here, Davies and Cook discuss them, but (for space reasons) we're no longer privy to reading the actual scripts. And because they're mentioning the existence of the pages ("Here are some more I've written", etc) and their content ("Oh my, that turns up", etc) it really draws attention to their absence. Shame.

TV

Friends
3x11 The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister [4th or so watch]

Suburgatory
2x11 Yakult Leader
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Wrong Mans
1x03 Dead Mans
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
[#87 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Non-Fiction

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Book One, Chapters 3-4

TV

Castle
3x03 Under the Gun
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Cowboy Bebop
1x07 Heavy Metal Queen
1x08 Waltz for Venus
And to think, I was once worried I would finish the first half of the series long before the second box set was out -- and that was before the release date was put back to today. Still, good a time as any to resume.

Doctor Who
21x22 The Twin Dilemma Part Two
The accepted wisdom that it was a mistake to make the Doctor so unlikeable in his first outing remains true, but, nonetheless, Colin Baker's performance is the best thing here by a mile.

Friends
3x10 The One Where Rachel Quits [4th or so watch]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
27x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited
1x01 The First Doctor
BBC America's 11-part Doctor Who retrospective, which has been running all year over there at a rate of one a month, finally makes it to the UK courtesy of Watch, who are airing the whole thing across six weekends. It's a bit of a beginner's guide, but that also means it serves as a pleasant-enough overview for those of us more familiar with the show's history. Plus you get to hear the thoughts of insiders like David Tennant and Steven Moffat.

Downton Abbey
4x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Friends
3x09 The One with the Football [4th or so watch]

DVD Extras

Doctor Who: The Golden Age

Short featurette on the Tenth Planet DVD (officially out tomorrow) that sets out to expose the fallacy that there was once a "golden age" of the programme. And it's quite right too. Of course different people have different favourite eras, for whatever reason, but you can't really single out a point when it was unquestionably better than at any other point.

this week on 100 Films

Firstly, allow me to point you towards the 100 Films in a Year summary of what's on TV today. They all happen to be on Channel 5, oddly.


Now then, down to regular business. Three brand-new reviews were published this week, and they were...


The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

“Old fogies go to India” is the setup of this frothy comedy-drama... But when said fogies are played by Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie and Penelope Wilton, it will surprise no one to learn there’s something here for us all.

Read more here.


The Debt (2011)

a team of Mossad agents are hailed as heroes following a high-value mission, only to face serious repercussions decades later. A cast led by Oscar winner Helen Mirren and nominees Jessica Chastain and Tom Wilkinson help affirm this as serious-minded Cold War drama

Read more here.


Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961)

the first of two live-action Tintin movies made by the French in the ’60s. It seems quite a low-budget affair, but that might just be applying modern tastes to an era of more simple means. For all the flat direction and pound-store costumes, there’s still a globetrotting plot involving sunken ships, numerous chases, helicopters, and that kind of thing.

Read more here.


And there were loads new to the new blog (four today alone), as follows...


Angels & Demons (2009)

It still concerns itself with Hanks’ Langdon dashing about trying to solve insanely cryptic clues in a limited timeframe, surrounded by irritating policeman, suspicious friendly characters, and a girl who is almost pointless. However, it’s a lot less talky

Read more here.


Angels & Demons: Extended Version (2009)

the extended cut is basically the same as the theatrical version. If you enjoyed that then you might want to seek this out for your next viewing, just because why not? If you weren’t impressed before, however, there’s no special incentive to try again.

Read more here.


Cameraman: The Life & Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)

It’s a biography of Cardiff’s work, moving chronologically through his major contributions to cinema. The insights are numerous thanks to the number of films covered and a lot of footage from an interview with Cardiff himself.

Read more here.


Glory (1989)

it would be easy to slide into Issue of the Week melodrama in handling such a tale, but Zwick manages it without undue sentiment — there’s an appropriate realisation of the importance of events, perhaps even occasional reverence, but time is taken to show doubts and prejudices.

Read more here.


Hercules (1997)

the tale is told with surprising faithfulness. There’s still a healthy dose of anachronistic content to liven up the humour though. In fact, the sequences with Hercules’ adoring fans and merchandising empire ring even more true in this Twilight-obsessed world than they did 13 years ago.

Read more here.


Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

The first half hour is great fun, but then it gets weird, adds in hefty doses of over-complex plotting, and drags along fairly slowly until it finds an exciting climax a little late on.

Read more here.


Vantage Point (2008)

I don’t imagine you’ve missed the endless comparisons [to Rashomon] But, in fact, it’s nothing like it... There are no lies and no real misdirection; none of the characters interpret what they see, we’re just shown it from where they were standing.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Atlantis
1x03 A Boy of No Consequence
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Friends
3x07 The One with the Race Car Bed [4th or so watch]
3x08 The One with the Giant Poking Device [4th or so watch]

Films

Fast & Furious (2009)
[#86 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Comics

Dredd Underbelly: Part Two by Arthur Wyatt & Henry Flint
(from Judge Dredd Megazine #341)

In which things suddenly, almost inexplicably, leap forward from last time. It feels like some of the story has been skipped, even. Ho hum.

Collection Count

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

A big pile of Doctor Who DVDs this week (six, to be precise) sees my DVD collection of the classic series become almost complete... just as they find some more stories. But I have those on pre-order now, so yay. And aside from such as-yet-unreleased titles (which, obviously, I couldn't own) and a few Special Editions (which are all still a bit pricey), there's only one story I don't have! So if anyone sees The Ambassadors of Death for about a fiver, do let me know...

Number of titles in collection: 1,623 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,193 [up 7]
Of which Blu-rays: 430 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 4,033 [up 9]
Number of films in collection: 1,719 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,994 [up 27]
Number of short films in collection: 404 [up 12]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Doctor Who
21x21 The Twin Dilemma Part One

While everyone else (not literally, but you know what I mean -- that's how it feels) is busy watching The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear off iTunes, I'm waiting for the DVDs (November and February respectively) -- and, instead, watching a story I've never seen.

Last night, while waiting for the official confirmation of which missing episodes had been found, I worked out that there are around 310 previously-existing episodes of Who that I've never watched. So while this new find is exciting on many levels, and is all kinds of improbable and wonderful, for me it's not a "must see now!" moment -- it just increases the number of episodes I've never seen (and decreases the number of missing episodes I've not listened to, haha!) That's why I'm in no rush... which is great, because each story is something like £10 on iTunes, and then £13 again for each on DVD in only a few months, so I'm saving £20.

Anyway: #bbbDW50 (note the new link). It's time for the Sixth Doctor, and (as I mentioned before) after jumping 8½ years to get from the Fourth to Fifth Doctors, the time skipped to reach this is just one week.

There are several reasons for that choice, but one is the marvellous symmetry of it: Androzani is The Greatest Doctor Who Story Ever Made™, and it is immediately -- immediately -- followed by The Worst Doctor Who Story Ever Made™. Plus it's one of only two Sixth Doctor tales I've never seen (the other is Timelash, the second-worst story ever), which is a bonus.

And it really is dreadful. The writing, the acting, the costumes, the sets, the monsters, the music... everything is awful. It's slow, it's dull, it's unlikeable, it's irritating. It's not even so-bad-it's-funny. And ever so slow -- the Doctor and Peri spend the entire episode in the TARDIS! Dear God!

I imagine it doesn't improve from here.


The Great British Bake Off
4x08 Quarter Final
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


Have I Got News For You
46x01 (4/10/2013 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Non-Fiction

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Book One, Chapter 2

TV

Friends
3x06 The One with the Flashback [4th or so watch]
Oh, if only they'd known how many more flashbacks they'd do...

Mock the Week
12x11 (3/10/13 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Doctor Who
21x20 The Caves of Androzani Part Four [2nd watch]

And so The Greatest Doctor Who Story Ever Made™ comes to a close. It really is a corker, I think. OK, the monster is crap (and also needless), and there's a couple of bits of duff dialogue here and there -- but in the same way that no Who story is completely without merit, no great one is completely without some drawback. Everything else about Androzani is so exceptional -- particularly in this final part, where it all comes together magnificently -- that the minor sticking points can be largely overlooked.

Next time: after jumping 8½ years to get from the Fourth to Fifth Doctors, the time skipped to reach the Sixth is... one week. If you don't know what that means... well, you'll see...


Friends
3x04 The One with the Metaphorical Tunnel [4th or so watch]
3x05 The One with Frank Jr. [4th or so watch]


The Two Ronnies Spectacle
1x02 The Sketches

Films

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
[#85 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

Non-Fiction

Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter by Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook
Foreword by Philip Pullman
Introduction by Russell T Davies
Introduction by Benjamin Cook
Book One, Chapter 1

In 2008, then-showrunner Russell T Davies and DWM journalist Benjamin Cook co-wrote a book about Davies' experiences writing & running Who. I devoured it in 10 days back in January 2009, because it was fascinatingly insightful, brilliantly written, and gorgeously designed to boot.

Come the time for a paperback version in 2010, and Davies had finished his time on the show -- the original book covered Davies' final full series, after which they (of course) produced a run of specials. So the paperback is updated to include those episodes... but what's extraordinary and special and wonderful is that this update isn't just a chapter or two stuck on the end, oh no. Of the paperback's 693 pages, fully 353 of them are part of the updated section. Or, to put it another way: over half. It's another whole book again! Wonderful if you didn't buy the original Writer's Tale (essentially you're getting a whole extra book free); and even if you did, it makes the paperback a worthwhile proposition (if they'd just published the new stuff it would surely command the same price).

I've had this second edition/sequel/whatever it is for years now (I got it for Christmas the year it came out, if I remember rightly; though as it's a 5th printing, maybe it was for a later birthday/etc); but, even though I loved the first volume, it somehow wound up being put unread on my shelf. Well, with the 50th anniversary fast approaching, what better time to dig it out and dig in? The only question: do I re-read all of what I read before (it is nearly 5 years ago now -- more than enough time has passed to need a recap/appreciate a re-experiencing), or just go straight to the new stuff? It's a bloody long thing to re-read, after all; but if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Something I notice before I begin: the original had 15 chapters (and an epilogue-bit), while this version of the first book has just 12. I don't imagine they've omitted three chapters' worth of stuff, so I guess it got restructured. They did remove the four early-draft scripts that were in the hardback, so perhaps that necessitated some combining of chapters. Anyway...