TV

The Wire
1x10 The Cost

Yesterday's TV post was accidentally left unposted, but can now be found here.

Articles

Russell T Davies: interview by Gabriel Tate
(from Time Out London)
Who-related interviews are everywhere at the minute thanks to the recent special, which inevitably means lots of repetition. As interviews go this is a good one though, with a few interesting bits you might not have seen elsewhere.

TV

Red Dwarf
The Making of Back to Earth
A nice little making-of, though it's only about the filming and so sadly lacks detail in how the project came about, what it was really like to be back after 10 years, and various bits of production too (such as the new camera system being used and anything that happened post-wrap -- i.e. CGI).
For my thoughts on the three-part season itself, look here, here and here.

The Speaker
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Nature's Great Events
Part 4 The Great Tide
Despite some heavy similarities with the final episode, this is still a spectacular edition. And when it's those movie-action-sequence-esque bait-ball bits that are being repeated, I don't mind in the slightest.

Orangutan Diary
2x05 Episode 5
Despite this penultimate episode of the wildlife series airing almost three weeks ago, complete with a "next time" trail promising a resolution to the series, the BBC have only just scheduled a first airing for episode six. (Next Sunday, if you're interested.) Oddly, they still list the series as having 10 episodes. No explanation for that one.

Primeval
3x03 Episode 3
An episode of two halves, the first a light, fluffy, infinitely silly romp, the second dark and arc-plot heavy. It's a very odd disjunct, and feels a bit like the makers have tried to combine those two opposites in the way that Doctor Who does, but instead of blending them have just stuck them next to each other. It also featured a Very Significant Event... which, thanks to appalling ratings, will surely come as a shock to casual viewers who skip this one.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Predator 2 (1990)
[#17 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]

Articles

Huge audiences for Talent, Who by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"The first of this year's Doctor Who specials, Planet Of The Dead, was seen by a respectable 8.41m (39.6%) on BBC One. [It] was the first episode of Who to be simulcast in HD on BBC HD, where it was seen by 184k (1%).
Primeval, meanwhile, shed over 1.5m in its head-to-head battle with Who. This week's episode, which saw one of the major characters killed off, averaged a disappointing 2.71m (14.3%)."
Chances for a fourth year of Primeval aren't look too rosy then.

Games: Wii

Had my first-ever proper go on a Wii today.

It's easy to see why it's proved so popular, as it's a great deal of fun, especially when you have other people to play with. A quick go on Wii Fit (dull and preachy) was followed by some multiplayer Wii Sports. I started the Bowling abysmally, scoring just 7 in the first round against proper scores from my Wii-versed family members, but soon got the hang of it and stormed to a 40-point-lead victory. I like Bowling.

Conclusion: I want a Wii. Can't say much better than that.

TV

Orangutan Diary
2x04 Episode 4

Red Dwarf
9x03 Back to Earth Part 3 [season finale]
See here for my thoughts on this episode.

Films

Predator (1987)
[#16a in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Seen this twice before, but will be reviewing it as part of a series on the Alien and Predator films.

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth (Part 3)

Not the strongest part of the three, thought it confirmed to me that this would be much better viewed as a single 90-minute piece -- the sheer volume of ongoing plot elements, running jokes, quite in depth references back to events of previous parts, and really awkward cliffhangers all suggest this that's how it was meant to be seen. I suppose only the DVD release can reveal that for certain.

In all, it's not the best Red Dwarf has to offer, but it was mostly very cleverly done (too cleverly for some, it seems) and entertained plentifully. There were also a nice number of references to previous episodes -- many of them years and years old -- that only fans were likely to get, but which didn't impede too much on the enjoyment for newbies. It did rather rely on you having seen Blade Runner to fully appreciate it though.

Ratings for Part 1 were strong but dipped for Part 2, though were still great by Dave's standard and was against much stronger competition. Hopefully Part 3's were alright and, factoring everything in (including various repeats and a bumper-bonus single-sitting repeat tomorrow), here's hoping we'll be treated to more RD in the future.

Poem of the Week: Peter Cottontail

by Beatrix Potter

A slightly delayed poem this week -- because it's Easter! Mmm, chocolate. And in that sort of spirt, here's a lovely bit of Beatrix Potter.

Before we begin, I should point out that the titular rabbit is, of course, Peter Rabbit. Apparently; because, as I'm sure you know, Peter and Cottontail are two different bunnies in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I'm afraid I have no clarification on this point.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity, hoppity,
Easter's on its way.

Bringin' every girl and boy Baskets full of Easter joy,
Things to make your Easter bright and gay.
He's got jelly beans for Tommy,
Colored eggs for sister Sue,
There's an orchid for your Mommy
And an Easter bonnet, too.

Oh, here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity, hoppity,
Happy Easter day.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Look at him stop,
And listen to him say:
"Try to do the things you should."
Maybe if you're extra good,
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way.

You'll wake up on Easter morning
And you'll know that he was there
When you find those choc'late bunnies
That he's hiding ev'rywhere.

Oh, here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity, hoppity,
Happy Easter day.

Happy Easter Day indeed.

TV

Doctor Who [new]
4x15 Planet of the Dead [Easter special]
See here for my thoughts on this story.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Primeval
3x02 Episode 2
Oh dear, what a load of tosh.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Red Dwarf
9x02 Back to Earth Part 2
The real point of this new series kicks in here, I feel; Part 1 was all preamble to this. Funnier and cleverer -- too clever for some, it seems, based on comments to be found online.

Robin Hood
3x03 Lost in Translation
As action-packed as the rest of this new series, but suffered from coming right after a brilliant new episode of Doctor Who. Scheduling fail there.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Alien Resurrection (1997)
[#16 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
Found this surprisingly enjoyable -- underrated, I think.

Articles

Dollhouse Robbery? The Truth Behind the "Missing" Episode by Matt Mitovich
(from TV Guide)
I'm not even watching Dollhouse (awaiting a UK broadcast like a good boy), but this has been an interesting story that -- unsurprisingly -- has a far less sinister truth behind it than most were assuming.
Random Wikipedia trivia: "Episodes of Dollhouse are about six minutes longer than standard one-hour dramas on US network television, as the show airs with half as many commercial advertising slots."

New Red Dwarf pulls in over 2 million by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
"The return of Red Dwarf for its first new episode in ten years was a huge hit for Dave... The first episode of a three-part reunion special, Red Dwarf: Back To Earth, pulled in 2.06m (10%) [and] a further 341k (1.9%) watched at 10pm." Apparently Dave's usual ratings are around the 250k mark, so this is clearly a great success. The total will go up later too, as this doesn't include those who recorded it to watch later.
"The success of Red Dwarf helped Dave to a primetime share of 3.2%, making it the most popular multichannel station of the night by a margin of almost one share point." It also beat BBC Two and Five in the ratings, and came relatively close to BBC One and Channel 4 too.
Let's hope this success continues tonight and tomorrow -- it's ratings and DVD sales that will dictate if we get more.

TV REVIEW Doctor Who "Planet Of The Dead" by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
I thought it was slightly better than this review does, though lots of comments are fair enough.

Your Questions for Jordan Fields of Shout! Factory
(from Satellite News)
About the current DVD releases of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which are put out by Shout! Factory. Very interesting if you're into the show or intrigued by how much work goes into small-label DVD releases (a helluva lot).

And see a pair of TV-related interviews here.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead

Doctor Who's never-ending fourth series continues throughout this year -- they're consistently dubbed The 2009 Specials, and I'm sure will be on DVD, but as Series 5 begins in early 2010 and these are referred to by the production as 4.14 to 4.18, I suppose they do remain part of Series 4 -- and this Easter special is supposedly the last chance for a romp before the run up to Tennant's departure at Christmas/New Year. It's also the first Who shot in HD -- oo-ooh.

Anyway, what of the episode itself? Very entertaining, with a good mix of styles and a suitably epic feel. The concept of creating something with enough meat to tide you over 'til there's more at Christmas was a good one as this hour pulls it off as well as it was likely to. Trapping a bunch of Ordinary People in a vehicle seems to be a favourite trope of Davies', but that's because it works; it's just a shame there wasn't an extra ten or fifteen minutes to flesh them all out more.

The final moments, hinting at the darkness to come, were very well handled, whetting the appetite but not overdoing it and ruining this episode. And the trailer for the next special looks fantastic -- The Waters of Mars has to be the best title since The Empty Child! I'm counting down to November already.

Russell T Davies and Doug Naylor interviews

With Britain's two biggest sci-fi series both having new episodes tonight after a long break (though Red Dwarf's is considerably longer!), here are interviews with the men in charge...

Doug Naylor on the red carpet
(from Dave)
A video interview with the co-creator, writer and current director of Red Dwarf, Doug Naylor, discussing (amongst other things) the miniscule budget the new specials were produced on and what the future potential for RD is. Considering the excellent ratings achieved by part one, if it can maintain that momentum I think we may well see more.

Russell T Davies Doctor Who interview: full transcript by Robert Colvile
(from Robert Colvile's blog at Telegraph.co.uk)
A nice long interview with Davies, discussing a little of what's to come in his remaining three episodes (spoiler warning on that, then), how the transition to Steven Moffat has been (and will be) handled, and various reflective thoughts on his era of Who.

TV

Argumental
2x03 (6/4/09 edition)

Red Dwarf
9x01 Back to Earth Part 1
Hurray, they're back! Looking rather swish and filmic in RED-shot HD (how appropriate that it's the first UK TV programme to do this) with some rather wonderful CGI (and some poor bits too, of course). Most importantly, was it funny?
Yes, in places. In reality it's about as good as could be expected, I think, and while some bits were a tad garbled -- and it felt like watching the first half-hour of a 90-minute feature film -- it was entertaining enough for me. I suspect (hope?) that the real goodies will be in the next two parts, showing tomorrow and Sunday.

The Wire
1x09 Game Day
Perhaps the best episode yet, as the police get one step closer to Avon Barksdale and Omar continues to be unflappably cool.

Films

Alien³ (1992)
[#15 in 100 Films in a Year 2009]
And tomorrow, I'll finish things off with Alien Resurrection... and then start on the Predator films. Can you see where this is headed?

Articles

Turkish Rambo Coming to DVD in April by Kevin Gilvear
(from DVD Times)
"Get RambOWNED."
Including an interview with the distributor's marketing assistant and a trailer for the film. It sounds crazily brilliant to me.

TV

Damages
2x08 They Had to Tweeze That Out of My Kidney
Again, Damages almost seems to tread water; and again, I'd blame this on the sheer volume of plot threads, where some have to be left untouched in order to devote enough time to others. I'm beginning to wonder if this season is a lost cause, one which we should stick with to its end in the hope they can more successfully emulate season one in the already-commissioned third.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
5x05 (2/4/09 edition, uncut repeat)
It can be quite interesting -- or quite odd, depending how you see it -- watching this a week after recording, because all of the topical jokes are a week out. Guest-wise, this one was a bizarre affair, as Oscar-winning Italian actor/director Roberto Benigni manfully struggled to understand and speak English while being irrepressibly enthusiastic, and Patsy Kensit was... just bizarre.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Wire
1x08 Lessons
It seems like every episode someone is trying to shut the team down, only to be defeated by some technicality near the end. Perhaps it is realistic that such a large operation would be an annoyance to so many, but it begins to feel like a disappointingly stock TV trick when it almost-happens-but-is-thankfully-stopped so neatly within every episode -- so much for grand overlapping plot arcs, eh?
That said, it's a relatively minor irritant in what is by and large a brilliant show. Lots of memorable bits in this episode -- McNulty getting his kids to follow Stringer, for example, or rescuing Bunk from a drunken one night stand -- but the best of all has to be Omar's efficient, violent revenge.