TV

Death in Paradise
1x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x46 (16/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Would I Lie To You?
5x09 The Unseen Bits [season finale]
Quite why this was broadcast four weeks after the end of the main series is anyone's guess. It's all new material though, and very good. In fact, in some ways it's better than regular Would I Lie to You -- it's much pacier.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

The Lion King (1994)
[goodness-knows-what-th watch]
I haven't seen The Lion King for years (and, as you can see, I have no idea how many times I've seen it), but it's an exceptional film. Utterly brilliant. Looks fantastic on Blu-ray too.

Articles

Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask by Tom Lamont
(from the Guardian)
Excellent interview with comics writer Alan Moore about the adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask from his V for Vendetta by protesters.

Where are the great movies, asks Spielberg by James Orr
(from the Telegraph)

Steven Spielberg yesterday criticised modern film making claiming there have been very few great movies made over the past two decades.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 15

Which spaceship would you most like to own/fly?

I guess the TARDIS doesn't count here -- it's a time machine primarily, isn't it? -- and while part of me would like to say Serenity, it's a bit high-maintenance, isn't it? Same goes for the Millennium Falcon.

So, I mean, in a dream world:

USS Enterprise

I'm not a huge Star Trek fan -- far from it -- but in the same way I'd rather live in a mansion than a dingy bungalow, how brilliant would it be to have a gleaming high-tech starship at your command?

OK, all the military-esque duties of being in the Federation might drag that brilliance down a bit. Maybe owning your own ship, a la Serenity, would be preferable. But if the Enterprise was your own personal ship, with everyone at your command... Such stuff as dreams are made of, eh?


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

ATP World Tour Finals
Final
Two worthy players, but great to see Federer win in his 100th career final, and break the record for number of wins at these year-end finals in the process.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Cruise of the Gods
[#92 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]
BBC TV movie from 2002 about a fan cruise for a forgotten '80s sci-fi show, starring a pre-Little Britain David Walliams, pre-Gavin & Stacey James Corden and post-Marion and Geoff but pre-anything much else Rob Brydon. And Steve Coogan too. And Russell Brand has one line -- not as a cameo, just as a bit player. This is long before he got anywhere.
It's really very good, actually. Liked it so much I'm going to bend my rules slightly and include it in 100 Films (hence the number up above. Just in case you hadn't guessed.)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x08 Episode 8
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Onion News Network
1x01 Enter the FactZone
The American spiritual successor to The Day Today (which I've still not seen) comes to Sky Arts after beginning back in January in the US. But that's OK -- it's about The News but not news, so it's not in the least bit topical. Very funny though.

Pointless
3x45 (15/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 14

An under-rated sci-fi gem

Oh, there are loads that could go here! But I choose this one:

Ultraviolet

No, not that crappy 2006 movie, but a British miniseries from 1998 starring Jack Davenport From This Life and Coupling And Pirates Of The Caribbean and Idris Elba From The Wire and Luther and written & directed by Joe Ahearne Who Directed Half Of Doctor Who's First Season Back.

It was about vampires & that, but as you can see it was before the whole current craze took off -- indeed, Buffy would only have fairly recently started in the US at the time, and even that some would say predates the current vogue that bloodsuckers are experiencing.

But even for that, it took an alternative view of the creatures, a very technological and modern view. I haven't watched it for years but my God was it good. I really ought to watch it again. Nonetheless, I think it deserves to be more widely remembered as a classic of the genre.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

this week on 100 Films

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

Holiday (1938)

not the funniest of comedies — though I did think it was funny — instead hitting a level of dramatic/character interest that I didn’t predict. I think it’s more a personal favourite than an objective Great Film (but then, one might argue, what is?), so the best I can do is encourage you to seek it out

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

Prince of Persia is analogous to an average entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, only without the craziness and humour provided by Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. This probably explains Persia’s relative lack of success: Pirates began with an exceptionally good blockbuster flick, and has since coasted on goodwill and affection for Depp’s character; Persia has neither of these benefits.

More next Sunday.

TV

Junior Bake Off
Episode 11 (of 13)
The rest of this series is only on iPlayer for a few more hours. Fortunately, I've downloaded it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Merlin
4x09 Lancelot du Lac
Is that really the end for Guinevere and Lancelot (again)? They're certainly being brave with not pressing the reset button this season.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
1x06 Codename: Portis [season finale]
That's more like it! A blazing return to form for the final episode. Fingers tightly crossed for a second series.

Films

Beyond the Pole (2009)
[#91 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 13

What's your favourite flavour of Star Trek?

Six TV series, eleven films (and counting) -- there's plenty of Star Treks to choose from... though that distorts the numbers a bit, what with most of the films slotting into one of the TV strands.

I've never watch Star Trek consistently. I've seen bits of all of it except The Animated Series. So, bearing that in mind...

Star Trek (2009)

Some would say this counts as The Original Series -- it features Kirk, Spock and co, after all -- but it isn't, not really. By reinventing those characters and their situation so thoroughly, it turns a '60s TV idea (that survived/limped on through movies into the '90s) into a highly modern '00s-style action/adventure. And by rebooting the continuity in the process, it successfully makes it a new variant.

I'm sure all the other Star Treks have their merits, and maybe if I'd actually seen more of (say) The Next Generation I'd have a different view, but this is the version I've personally most enjoyed.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Argumental
4x03 Episode 3

House
8x06 Parents

Pointless
3x44 (12/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

QI
9x11 Infantile (XL edition)
[Watch QI XL (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

A couple of deals from Amazon UK's Black Friday deals are the sole boosters this week. Today is said Friday if you fancy a look at the remaining deals.

Number of titles in collection: 1,401 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,142 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 259 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 3,487 [up 11]
Number of films in collection: 1,493 [up 5]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,315 [up 45]

See you next week, faithful reader.

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 12

What's your "yeah I know it's rubbish but I love it" sci-fi film?

I don't actually think this film is rubbish, but as I can't think of one that is but I love anyway, this is the next best thing:

Flash Gordon

Y'see, some people (a lot of people? I dunno) think is one of a multitude of cheap Star Wars knock-offs from the late '70s/early '80s. I'm certain that was what inspired them to make it, but it's actually far better than that.

I'm not going to go into a full description of why I love it because I've already done that here, but suffice to say it's very deliberately camp, silly and B-movie-esque, the very things it often gets criticised for. Once you accept that's the filmmakers' aim, you begin to see how well they've pulled it off, and how much fun it is.

Plus the Queen score is solid gold. Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum FLASH! Ah-ah! etc.

(The '30s Flash Gordon cinema serials are brilliant too, incidentally. Grew up watching those on Saturday mornings on the BBC and loved every minute of it.)


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
7x03 Ducky Tie
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Life's Too Short
1x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x43 (11/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Rev.
2x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 11

Favourite space film/series

Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy...

Firefly

If you've still not enjoyed the delights of Firefly, what in God's name is wrong with you?! This is a perfect TV series. It's exciting, it's hilarious, and so much more -- all things I said about its big screen spin-off, but they're even more true of the small screen version because it was longer.

What's most impressive, really, is how quickly you come to care for these characters. There are only 14 episodes total, but long before that you love them and dread that all-too-soon end. But the time you get to spend with them until then is to be savoured, again and again and again. And again.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Frozen Planet
Part 4 Autumn
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson
3x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Pointless
3x42 (10/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 10

Which sci-fi universe/reality would you most like to live in?

The apparent explosion in popularity of MMORPGs in the last decade suggests many universes that masses of people would like to live in.

But there's a difference between wanting to spend far too many of your waking hours gaming in that world and actually living in that world. The universe of The Matrix may look cool, but if you were actually there you wouldn't be Neo, you'd be some lowly chump. Blade Runner may be massively popular and influential, with a huge amount of visual Cool, but would you really want to live in that dark, downtrodden world? Really?

So where might I actually like to live?

X-Men (Marvel) Universe

You might be a mutant with some amazingly cool superpower! Or you might just be a regular bloke -- but hey, it wouldn't be any worse than the world you currently live in.

Except for the insane levels of jealousy, I suppose.

Still, better than somewhere that looks cool but is actually miserable to exist in.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Dave's One Night Stand
3x01 Ardal O'Hanlon
I gave up on this last series due to not really finding it funny and an increasingly rubbish roster. This series had some good previews however, and there are good people on it too, so here we go.
It's still just "Live at the Apollo On Tour, With a Rubbish Sketch at the Start" though, isn't it.

Death in Paradise
1x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Junior Bake Off
Episode 10 (of 13)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Romanzo Criminale
1x02 Episode 2
Gonna need to watch this more often than once a week if I want to catch up with Sky Arts' airings (and I do) (and they're on episode eight).

Spy
1x05 Codename: Blood
After a run of great episodes, this wasn't so hot. Some clever movie spoofs in there, but a lot of it just felt like being overly cruel to poor Tim. Perhaps if he uses his Glock to mortally wound that police officer chap in the next episode, that might redeem this one a bit...

A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 9

No.1 sci-fi hottie

This is not the kind of thing I would usually blog about, obviously, but it's on the list, so, I guess, here we are.

The problem is compounded by the fact that one person's "hottie" is another's "ew, really?!" (and vice versa, of course), and no one wants the latter reaction.

Zooey Deschanel
Trillian in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film

I said I'd need to avoid picking too much Doctor Who, but clearly I need to be wary of Hitchhiker's too.

Though, while I've mentioned it a few times, this is only the third I've actually chosen it. So there.

And in fairness, I haven't really picked Trillian, I've picked Zooey Deschanel, who's only contribution to sci-fi is that one. (And The Happening, but who wants to mention that?) So it does feel like kind of a cop-out, what with her not being that well known for her sci-fi-y role, whereas you kinda think this ought to be going to someone who is at least largely, if not wholly, known for their contribution to sci-fi.

But c'mon, it's only the "hottie" "award" -- the "contribution" being assessed here isn't intellectual, is it?

So hush, it's done now, let's all just move on.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

TV

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
25x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Only Connect
Children in Need Special: Great Believers vs Free Speakers
Apparently they make this notoriously-difficult quiz slightly easier for the celebrity/special editions. Which probably explains how I did moderately well at it.

Pointless
3x41 (9/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]