Films

Serenity (2005)
[5th watch]
Now that's a gorram good film. Would rather watch this than Star Wars any day. Haven't actually seen it since it was on the big screen, at my uni's cinema society (when I saw it twice, back-to-back) -- the best part of three years ago now!
Oh how I wish they'd make a sequel.

TV

QI
6x04 Fight or Flight (extended edition)
What's the point in watching the Friday night broadcast when there's an extended one on the next day that's also available on iPlayer? (Well, it was extended on the iPlayer on the telly.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Having a lot of work to do in a very short space of time (12,000 words by next Friday) means one thing: lots of time procrastinating. And the easiest way to procrastinate is reading things on the Internet. So a whole load of articles today -- and these are just the most interesting.

Though, first, some very sad news...

TV presenter Tony Hart dies at 83
(from BBC News)
Who didn't watch at least one Tony Hart-fronted show in their time? (Well, the very young, the elderly, and foreigners, but still.) The BBC have a full obituary here.

On to other news... (Stay tuned til the end for all the juicy goodness.)

Jericho feature in the pipeline by Sarah Rollo
(from Digital Spy)
Aiming to follow the Firefly / Serenity model, I wager. While Jericho's fanbase is dedicated, I doubt it's quite as dedicated as Firefly's was. But we shall see. If it even gets made, that is.

Legal downloads swamped by piracy
(from BBC News)
While legal downloads have increased -- "a 25% rise since last year with downloads now accounting for a fifth of all recorded music sales" -- they're still swamped by the illegal (more relevant to consumers, "free") kind -- "95% of music downloaded online is illegal". To bung some basic maths on that, almost 80% of all music acquired is acquired illegally!

The pre-owned gaming debate by Liam Martin
(from Digital Spy)
I'm not much of a gamer any more, but this is nonetheless an interesting feature on the impact of the sales of pre-owned games on the industry. Occasionally written like a poor student essay ("So far, both sides of the business spectrum have been examined, but what about the consumers?"), it still has some interesting quotes and things to say -- basically, buying pre-owned feels good for the consumer, but it could kill the industry.

And be sure to look here for all today's TV news.

Articles: TV news

Heroes 'will start from scratch'
(from BBC News)
"Heroes is returning to its roots in a bid to turn round falling audience figures in the US. Creator Tim Kring said series four will start "pretty much from scratch", after fans criticised a lack of direction in the second and third series." But then, remember what Kring said before the start of the third season? So I'll believe it when I see it.

ITV's Demons drops to 4.2m by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"ITV1's fantasy drama Demons lost another 650,000 viewers last night (Saturday), according to early figures. The third episode pulled in 4.18m... The audience is down almost 1.6m on that for the first episode." Oh dear oh dear. No second series then, I'm guessing.
(On an only-vaguelly-connected note, I love how Digital Spy's staff seem to work every day of the week! Either they have no life, or really love their job. Says the man who updates his blog every day. Hey, at least mine's a hobby.)

Jones feels Gavin & Stacey pressure by Alex Fletcher
(from Digital Spy)
Mostly interesting is something I hadn't yet heard: Gavin & Stacey is definitely getting a third series! Hurrah!

Laurie: Accent caused UK House flop by Simon Reynolds
(from Digital Spy)
"Hugh Laurie has claimed that his American accent is the reason for House's failure in the UK." For one, it's not really a "failure", is it? If it were a failure it wouldn't still be on a Freeview channel in a primetime slot. And to be honest, I rather suspect it has more to do with it being on Five. Five's ratings may've gone up in the past few years, but back when House started it was still before all this "everyone must have digital TV" stuff that's going on now and Five wasn't available everywhere (far from it!) Plus that there's a huge discrepancy between US and UK viewing figures anyway, and I expect he sees both, making the UK ones look teeny-tiny by comparison.

New Argumental on Dave in March by James Welsh
(from Digital Spy)
Hurray!
That's all.

Ross will not apologise for prank again
and
Jonathan Ross plans new Sachs apology
by Daniel Kilkelly (from Digital Spy)
Don't you just love it when there's a pair of stories like that? I guess we'll have to wait til Friday night to find out which is true, though the latter sounds more convincing.
The pair of stories also have an interesting line in establishing Ross' true thoughts about the affair and the BBC: "Being suspended hit Jonathan hard -- but he says, 'I have learnt my lesson'", and "Jonathan feels let down by some aspects of the BBC... It was a pre-recorded segment and he expected those who needed to check and follow through to do so. He was aware of the potential pitfalls and alerted other people at the BBC before it went out."

Ryan tipped as new Who assistant by Daniel Kilkelly
(from Digital Spy)
I'll believe it when I see it, considering the source; but, considering her recent recurring role in Merlin, her previous appearance in a Moffat production (Jekyll), and that she (supposedly) auditioned when Rose left, it's not at all implausible. She'd certainly be better than Lily bloody Allen. She's probably older than the new Doctor though, isn't she? But then, so's almost everyone they might consider, so...

Websites

comparethemeerkat.com

Have you seen those annoying ads on the telly? (If not, check it out here.) Despite the high level of irritation they provoke I couldn't resist checking out the site, just to see what, if anything, was there.

Of course, it's mainly an excuse to get you to visit comparethemarket.com -- which I made a point of not doing -- and if you're on there long enough it'll even warn you that it will auto-forward you to the real site, unless you're really interested in comparing meerkats. This side of thing filters through to every element -- take the FAQ, for example: while trying to be amusing, as if really part of a meerkat-comparing site, it's also (unsurprisingly) all about how good the main site is.

And behind all this, you genuinely can search for and compare meerkats. My God is it an over-developed ad tool! They're silly meerkats, of course -- they can scubadive, or fly helicopters, or come from locations as diverse as New York, Rio, and Western-super-Mare -- but some of it's actually mildly amusing... very mildly...

On the other hand, I'd've been more annoyed if you couldn't compare any meerkats, so it's good really... mildly good...

TV

Demons
1x02 The Whole Enchilada
Yes, I'm watching this exactly a week behind. But at least I've got round to watching it, unlike Apparitions or Dead Set, which I still have all of recorded.
The title song is really, truly dreadful -- big dramatic pre-titles, you expect a decent theme kick-in, like you get with Who, or even EastEnders's closing theme... but no, it's some silly disposable pop trash. That should be changed.
As noted at the time, Demons' ratings dropped for this episode. It's not that bad, and it's wonderful to have so much telefantasy (as it used to be known, back in the day) on TV these days, so hopefully it will continue to do OK. Or at least that they'll cancel it for something better.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Eurovision: Your Country Needs You
Episode 3 (of 5)
We don't have a hope of winning Eurovision anyway, but these acts certainly aren't going to do us any favours. At least Charlotte's gone -- despite what the judges... sorry, panel... sorry, what are they?... Anyway, despite what they had to say, her rendition of Duffy's Rain On Your Parade was literally no better than mediocre karaoke. No wonder she ended up in the Sing Off... sorry, "Danger Zone".
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Live at the Apollo
4x06 (16/1/09 edition) [season finale]
Russell Howard: hilariously funny, lots of sensible points about the world too.
Jo Brand: somewhat disappointing, especially coming right after.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Oedipal snakes

Tonight sees the terrestrial TV premiere of Snakes on a Plane on Channel 4; at 10pm for those who are interested.

In acknowledgement of this -- and as part of my general review catch-up on 100 Films in a Year -- I've today posted my thoughts on the Samuel L. Jackson-starring B-movie-esque Oedipally-catchphrased Internet-fandom-engendering horror/thriller.

And you can read them here.

TV

Lark Rise to Candleford
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Vincent (1982)
[2nd watch]
Tim Burton's excellent stop-motion short, based around a poem what he wrote.

The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2006)
[#4a in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Music

Doctor Who: Series 4 - Original Television Soundtrack by Murray Gold

The third volume of Gold's great music from modern Who doesn't disappoint. There's nothing quite as outstanding as series three's This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home, or even Torchwood's The Chase, but the overall quality is still incredibly high and several tracks are excellent.

Personal favourites (in order of appearance, with one exception):

UNIT Rocks

The Doctor's Theme Series Four (compared to the series one & two version, this really shows just how far Gold's music has come)

Voyage of the Damned Suite

A Dazzling End

The Dark and Endless Dalek Night

A Pressing Need to Save the World (isn't that a great track title?)

Song of Freedom

and, most of all, The Greatest Story Never Told.

Additionally, track 27, Doctor Who Series Four Closing Credits, seems to be the track that was given away as a hidden free download with the series three album. Personally, I think it's an excellent rendition of the theme, perfectly suited to the current incarnation of the show.

Also, Gold's liner notes are variable in quality, but still a great addition -- something similar was much missed from the Torchwood soundtrack, in my opinion. Among the things he reveals is that these 76 minutes are cut down from about 420, which just makes you wish there was even more.

Articles

First, the big news...

We Shall Watch the Watchmen by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire)
Hurrah!
"The Watchmen legal dispute has settled, and everything is on course for the film's release... The settlement will see Warners pay Fox an unspecified sum upfront, and then give them an unspecified share of the film's profits. Those sums are 'unspecified' because the studios are keeping silent on the details of the deal, but it's known that the sums involved are in the tens of millions of dollars."
Poor Warners. Still, great for the rest of us!

And elsewhere...

Keanu Reeves Does the Cowboy Bebop by Helen O'Hara
(from Empire)
"Exciting news this morning as Keanu Reeves signs on for the long-mooted film version of anime series Cowboy Bebop, a futuristic series about bounty hunters around the solar system. Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter or 'cowboy' who travels on spaceship Bebop with his partner in (hunting) crime Jet Black and a motley collection of marks and hangers-on" -- kinda like Firefly, only more Japanese (or something). Could be groovy. I might finally get round to watching the series now...

Murray Gold and Ben Foster on Four Years with the Doctor by Michael Beek
(from Doctor Who: Series Four - Original Television Soundtrack liner notes)
A fairly interesting interview with the Doctor Who composer and orchestrator. More interesting still are Murray Gold's track-by-track liner notes -- especially the occasionally bizarre introduction, which include Gold berating his engineer for creating a rubbish version of the album!
See here for a couple of thoughts on the album itself.

Paul McCartney Selects Duffy For Live And Let Die Cover by Devin Zydel
(from CommanderBond.net)
"she has done a really brave reworking of one of the most played and instantly recognisable songs ever. I would be very surprised if this is the last Bond song she sings." She'd certainly be a more appropriate choice than Amy bloody Crackhead... sorry, Winehouse.

Tiger bread
(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
This is why Wikipedia is great -- however random the thing you want to find out about, they probably have some info on it.

TV

The Sandbaggers
2x04 A Question of Loyalty
Still brilliant! Burnside continues to dig a deeper and deeper hole for himself, it seems. Where will he wind up?

Articles

Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus - DVD by Steve Roberts
(from the Doctor Who Restoration Team Website)
A slew of new articles on the RT's site at the minute (there's lots of Who DVDs out this year, and most have already been announced), but this one is especially interesting -- they've discovered 17 seconds of material missing from the story, which haven't been seen since the original broadcast 45 years ago! The images are still missing unfortunately, but the soundtrack has been reinstated for the DVD release.
While we're at it, the new article about The War Games also has some interesting info about archiving. (It's more interesting than that sounds!)

Two Bafta nods for Kate Winslet
(from BBC News)
But she won't be repeating her Golden Globe double whammy -- she's nominated for the same two films, but this time both in the Best Actress category.
Among the rest of the nods: "Slumdog Millionaire has 11 nominations in total, as does Benjamin Button. Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight follows with nine nominations, while Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, is up for eight awards. Frost/Nixon has received six nominations in all, while The Reader has five."
Read the full list here. Most are more or less as expected, though I'm very disappointed to not see a Best Actor -- or at least Best Supporting Actor, even -- nomination for Michael Sheen.

TV

The Secret Life of Elephants
Part 1 (of 3)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Torchwood: Original Television Soundtrack by Ben Foster & Murray Gold
Track 2, The Chase, is bloody excellent. The rest of it's good, but that's outstanding.

Articles

First today, two RIPs (one of which, if I'm honest, I shamefully forgot yesterday) -- both cultish, though one will undoubtedly get more media coverage than the other:

John Scott Martin (1926-2009) by Paul Hayes
(from Outpost Gallifrey)
"veteran of countless roles in over one hundred episodes of the classic series of Doctor Who... best remembered by fans as the main Dalek operator across the twenty-six years of the classic series, but he also played various other monsters opposite the first seven Doctors, and also had occasional more visible roles, such as the dead miner at the start of The Green Death... In 2004, he appeared as the old man who inherits all of Swansea in the Russell T Davies comedy-drama serial Mine All Mine."
I know this isn't necessarily the place to say it, but Mine All Mine is brilliant and much underrated, and it was lovely to see Martin turn up in it.

R.I.P. Patrick McGoohan by Keith Phipps
(from A.V. Club)
"Actor and writer Patrick McGoohan has died at the age of 80... his fame rests squarely on the cultishly adored series The Prisoner, which ran for 17 episodes in 1967 and 1968. McGoohan, who also wrote a few episodes under a pseudonym, starred in the James Bond-meets-Franz Kafka series as a spy who, after resigning, wakes up in a mysterious village assigned a new name: Number 6."

Moving on...

John Barrowman To Write Torchwood Comic by R. Alan Siler
(from Outpost Gallifrey)
Part of Torchwood Magazine's much-needed revamp? (See here for more of my thoughts on that!)

Samuel L. Jackson: The man who may not be Nick Fury by Keith Phipps
(from A.V. Club)
"Jackson, who famously cameod as Marvel superspy Nick Fury in 2008's Iron Man, may not be reprising the role... "There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down... Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it." ... Marvel has stated that it will not comment on active negotiations, so maybe all is not lost."

Also see today's reports on an idiotic judge and the uselessness of our legal system.

the British Injustice System

(Do you see my clever pun there?)

A yob accused of robbing a driving instructor walked free from court - after a judge ruled that the victim was too believable as a witness.

Judge Jamie Tabor praised Denise Dawson as 'honest, utterly decent and brave' when she identified a man as her alleged attacker and gave evidence against him.

But moments later he halted the trial and ordered a not guilty verdict on Liam Perks, 20.

The judge said Mrs Dawson's good character and compelling evidence could sway the jury, even though she had had only a fleeting glimpse of her attacker.

[source]

What a moron! Surely the point of evidence is to sway the jury?

And this is the same judge who...

set free a woman who killed her husband just to stop him seeing his mistress [source]

let off a famous photographer who took indecent photos of a 15-year-old girl [source]

suggested rape victims shouldn't bother pressing charges [source]

let a paedophilic choirmaster go with a lighter sentence because one boy he abused seemed to be enjoying it [source]

let a defendant break his curfew to go to a holiday camp!

I appreciate that most of these articles being from the Daily Mail rather weakens the case against anyone, but it was the top Google result. See the main story covered by The Independent, The Times, The Telegraph, or even The Sun. (I also looked on The Guardian's site for a leftest-of-the-left view, but couldn't find an article on it.)

Judge Jamie Tabor -- the sort of person that makes you wonder why being in contempt of court is a crime.

TV

Broken Saints
Chapter 11 Surfacing
Chapter 12 Passage
The plot rattles on ("rattles on" in the context of Broken Saints, anyway) as we reach the halfway point -- in terms of episode numbers at any rate (the parts get much longer toward the end, meaning the halfway point in running time is somewhere around the end of Chapter 15).

Derren Brown: An Evening of Wonders
Derren Brown's brilliant, you know -- incredibly clever, hilariously funny, amazing to observe. It's all good.

Gilmore Girls
5x15 Jews and Chinese Food

Films

Watchmen Japanese Trailer
Sure, you can't understand a word the voiceover guy says, or read any of the on screen text, and it's pretty low quality... but look at the beautiful pictures! Revel in the coolness! Amaze at the apparent faithfulness! I can't wait.

Articles

Add "Get Off My Lawn" To "Make My Day"
(from Studio Briefing)
"Gran Torino took in $29.5 million in 2,808 theaters -- or a whopping $10,500 per theater -- [over the weekend] after playing for a month in limited release. It was the 78-year-old Eastwood's best opening ever." Well blimey.

Report: Watchmen Settlement Close
(from Studio Briefing)
Fingers crossed!