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.

TV

Britain's Next Big Thing
Episode 1 (of 7)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Doctor Who
31x04 The Time of Angels [2nd watch]
31x05 Flesh and Stone [2nd watch]
31x05a Meanwhile in the TARDIS
This two-parter is excellent -- a big proper blockbuster slapbang in the middle of a season of TV! Marvellous! My thoughts from the broadcast all still count, so read them at the above links.
As for this second (and, for now, final) instalment of Meanwhile in the TARDIS... it's non-essential, obviously, but the bit with Amy finding out about previous companions is quite fun. As a fan I'd naturally have liked more time on that aspect of the scene, but hey-ho. Defining the Doctor as "Space Gandalf" is a nice line though.

Twenty Twelve
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
After that ending, I'm very glad it'll be back.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen dies
(from BBC News)
"Goodbye, my Sarah Jane."
Some collected tributes.

TV

The Event
1x15 Face Off
Still running a fortnight behind on this, but as C4 have had to take a break tonight (thanks to the US schedule -- the ep that would've been on in the UK tonight is actually only on in the US for the first time tonight) I'm back to my usual one-episode-behind. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
41x02 (15/4/11 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Law & Order: UK
4x06 Skeletons [season finale]
And that's that for James Steel. I wonder if his replacement will be quite so... self-righteous...
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

$#*! My Dad Says
1x06 Easy, Writer
"Dad, it was one article -- it's not like I'm going to make a whole career out of writing down what you say."
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Films

La Règle du jeu (1939)
[#44 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
aka The Rules of the Game.

Articles

Once More, With Feeling: Joss Whedon Revisits Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog by Dave Itzkoff
(from Arts Beat at the New York Times)
Including talk of the sequel and a little bit about his other upcoming projects.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
2x01 Chris Addison
'ello 'ello, didn't really expect to see this back! I suppose it must be quite cheap to make really, and then endlessly recyclable if you're a repeats-based network.

Wallander [film series]
The Pyramid (aka Pyramiden)
Fulfilling my Scandinavian crime fix now that The Killing is over and I've got through the Millennium trilogy, this was the ninth and final Wallander adaptation to star Rolf Lassgård (the first episode of the other Swedish Wallander was also an adaptation). This one hasn't been tackled by the British series (yet), most likely because its narrative is a combination of several tales from a book of short stories. It was the best of the Lassgård Wallanders, in my opinion, perhaps because it was less familiar and I've finally accepted him in the role.
I believe BBC Four are intending to show some more of the Lassgård episodes later this year (they showed the sixth, eighth, seventh and this one (in that order) around the end of 2010).

this week on 100 Films

4 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

this is a real showcase for Pacino. As Sonny the whole film rests on his shoulders, and he’s more than capable of bearing the weight. Some roles allow an actor to subtly be good throughout the film; others allow a few grandstanding set-pieces where they can Act; but Dog Day Afternoon gives Pacino both... Pacino is brilliant, understated but revealing, cementing the conflicting forces that have pulled on Sonny throughout the film.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

To succinctly compare this to its predecessors, it’s better than The Girl Who Played with Fire but not really as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This is in part because there’s not as much detail of the investigation. Lots of the plot seems to be forwarded by people explaining it to each other, rather than genuinely digging and uncovering information, while the villains futilely attempt to stop the heroes publishing everything they already seem to know.

Lumet: Film Maker (1975)

This ten-minute documentary short is made up of behind-the-scenes footage of some of the filming of Dog Day Afternoon, with the occasional on-set interview with some (to be honest, minor) crew members, snippets of audio interview with Lumet himself, and a voiceover narration.

Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang (2010)

Thompson treats the audience with respect in relation to the first film, playing on expectations and speeding through parts of the story we know. You don’t need to have seen it, but you’ll get a bit more if you have. Also as with the first film, there’s a perhaps surprising undercurrent of genuine emotion and serious issues. This is one of the things that marks these two films out from the overcrowded kids’ film genre

More next Sunday.

TV

Doctor Who
31x03 Victory of the Daleks [2nd watch]
I remember this as being of the fifth series' weakest episodes and, to be honest, it probably is. But that's rather a mark of how excellent the series on the whole is, because Victory of the Daleks has plenty of absolutely great bits -- Ian McNeice's Churchill, for instance (so good I want him back, please), or the Spitfires in space. It's still riddled with niggles and the odd more fundamental flaw -- it's at least five minutes too short, for one, that time being needed to build up some of the subplots; and it does feel rather like just a prelude to whatever the next Dalek story is, existing simply to explain the redesign -- but it's not bad, just not as good as it could be.
On a personal note, when I first thought of re-watching series five in the run up to series six I had plenty of time to do it; when I actually started, I still had enough time; now, I've got 10 episodes left and the new series starts in a week -- oh dear. That said, thanks to the three two-parters, it still averages out at one story per night, more or less -- so maybe, then, eh?

DVD Extras

Helter-Skelter
Featurette on the DVD of Time and the Rani about the creation of the Seventh Doctor's title sequence, the first for Doctor Who to be created using CGI. It was emerging technology at the time, and this featurette certainly gives one a new appreciation for how cutting-edge and extraordinary the sequence was for the time.

Articles

85 Authors Protest At The BBC’s Treatment Of Genre Fiction by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
Some of the comments go a bit far, but the original authors do have something of a point.

Stephen Fry prison 'pledge' over 'Twitter joke' trial
(from BBC News)
That's the headline-grabbing bit; more genuinely interesting is the rest of the article, about a benefit gig in support of the defence.

TV

The Mentalist
3x16 Red Queen
Normally I hate stories that start at the end and then jump "36 Hours Earlier" or whatever -- it's a massively overdone technique now and there's rarely any need for it -- but I'll let this one pass because it was such an effective surprise opening.
[Watch it (again) on Demand Five.]

Articles

BBC Four recommissions hit comedy series Twenty Twelve
(from BBC Press Office)
Didn't really expect that. But I'm glad, because I like it. (Look out particularly from the quote from, not Hugh Bonneville, but Hugh Bonneville's character.)

Collection Count

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

Everything's still on the up. Which is to be expected, really, because I never go selling stuff off. I ought to, probably. Indeed, I have a huge pile of stuff I've upgraded still waiting to be eBayed...

Number of titles in collection: 1,296 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,103 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 193 [up 4]

Number of discs in collection: 3,224 [up 8]
Number of films in collection: 1,366 [up 6]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,794 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.