Leverage
5x13 The Corkscrew Job
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
31x01 Episode 1
Friday, 29 September 2023
Fiction
Doctor Who: The Nameless City by Michael Scott
Chapters 2–5 [the end]
That completes the Second Doctor portion of my 60th anniversary celebrations. Another really good little story, I thought — this collection is two for two so far.
A brief pause for the weekend now (which is why I got through Fury in three days instead of six), and then on to the Third Doctor.
Chapters 2–5 [the end]
That completes the Second Doctor portion of my 60th anniversary celebrations. Another really good little story, I thought — this collection is two for two so far.
A brief pause for the weekend now (which is why I got through Fury in three days instead of six), and then on to the Third Doctor.
Games
The Dragon Staff of Maladoria
23–28 March 2021
Unusually, didn't have time for this yesterday, so have caught up by simply playing two days' worth today (no point overcomplicating it by spreading those skipped days over several play-days). And that turned out to be fortuitous, because the 24th to 26th are just about companions you can employ for the next part of the adventure, while the weekend of 27th/28th is just a shopping exercise.
23–28 March 2021
Unusually, didn't have time for this yesterday, so have caught up by simply playing two days' worth today (no point overcomplicating it by spreading those skipped days over several play-days). And that turned out to be fortuitous, because the 24th to 26th are just about companions you can employ for the next part of the adventure, while the weekend of 27th/28th is just a shopping exercise.
Thursday, 28 September 2023
Fiction
Doctor Who: The Nameless City by Michael Scott
Prologue + Chapter 1
The second in the 11/12/13 Doctors, 11/12/13 Stories series, to finish off the Second Doctor portion of my 60th anniversary celebrations. Despite these books only being short (calling them novellas feels a stretch — their long-ish short stories), I managed to start this one today but didn't find time to finish it. Tomorrow, hopefully.
Prologue + Chapter 1
The second in the 11/12/13 Doctors, 11/12/13 Stories series, to finish off the Second Doctor portion of my 60th anniversary celebrations. Despite these books only being short (calling them novellas feels a stretch — their long-ish short stories), I managed to start this one today but didn't find time to finish it. Tomorrow, hopefully.
Wednesday, 27 September 2023
TV
Doctor Who
5x33 Fury from the Deep Episode 5
5x34 Fury from the Deep Episode 6
These two episodes really pick up the pace of the serial, packing it full of action and excitement. The first four episodes have their moments, but I can't help but feel if they'd been condensed into two, and these two left as they are, we'd have an absolute-classic four-parter here, rather than an unfortunately compromised six-parter.
5x33 Fury from the Deep Episode 5
5x34 Fury from the Deep Episode 6
These two episodes really pick up the pace of the serial, packing it full of action and excitement. The first four episodes have their moments, but I can't help but feel if they'd been condensed into two, and these two left as they are, we'd have an absolute-classic four-parter here, rather than an unfortunately compromised six-parter.
Tuesday, 26 September 2023
Audio Drama / Podcasts
Doctor Who: Redacted
2x02 Apex
This isn't 'officially' part of my 60th celebrations, by-the-by, it's just the whole season has already been released so I'm listening to it as and when.
[Listen to it (again) on BBC Sounds.]
2x02 Apex
This isn't 'officially' part of my 60th celebrations, by-the-by, it's just the whole season has already been released so I'm listening to it as and when.
[Listen to it (again) on BBC Sounds.]
Monday, 25 September 2023
TV
Doctor Who
5x29 Fury from the Deep Episode 1
5x30 Fury from the Deep Episode 2
My 60th anniversary celebrations move on to the Second Doctor now (see further down today for the conclusion of the First Doctor). For this one, I've chosen an animated reconstruction of a missing TV serial. There are some complete Second Doctor serials I've not seen, but (as I said at the start) I'm trying to vary the media featured, and the Second Doctor is the only one with whole animated serials that I've not yet seen. I had intended to only watch one episode a day (my usual MO for watching Classic Who nowadays), but I'm getting a bit concerned about finishing everything before the anniversary rolls around, so I'm speeding this one up a bit.
As with Galaxy 4 earlier this month, the animation has its own listing as a miniseries on IMDb and on Letterboxd, as well as the ones for the original serial, which again leaves me with a logging/rating conundrum — the kind of thing that probably only bothers me. Of course, last time I made a judgement on this was only a couple of weeks ago, so I'm just following the precedent I set then.
5x29 Fury from the Deep Episode 1
5x30 Fury from the Deep Episode 2
My 60th anniversary celebrations move on to the Second Doctor now (see further down today for the conclusion of the First Doctor). For this one, I've chosen an animated reconstruction of a missing TV serial. There are some complete Second Doctor serials I've not seen, but (as I said at the start) I'm trying to vary the media featured, and the Second Doctor is the only one with whole animated serials that I've not yet seen. I had intended to only watch one episode a day (my usual MO for watching Classic Who nowadays), but I'm getting a bit concerned about finishing everything before the anniversary rolls around, so I'm speeding this one up a bit.
As with Galaxy 4 earlier this month, the animation has its own listing as a miniseries on IMDb and on Letterboxd, as well as the ones for the original serial, which again leaves me with a logging/rating conundrum — the kind of thing that probably only bothers me. Of course, last time I made a judgement on this was only a couple of weeks ago, so I'm just following the precedent I set then.
Fiction
Doctor Who: Marco Polo by John Lucarotti
Chapters 14–17 [the end]
Doctor Who: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer
Chapters 1–5 + Epilogue [the end]
For Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, Puffin issued a series of short ebooks, one per Doctor. They also bundled them together into a print paperback, called 11 Doctors 11 Stories. A year later, after Peter Capaldi had joined, they released a new story and also republished the book as 12 Doctors 12 Stories. I have both of those — normally I'd've been reticient to rebuy, but when they issued the latter as a neat little box set with the stories split into 12 individual books (plus some postcards), I couldn't resist. And then, after Jodie Whittaker joined, they reissued it again, this time as (you probably guessed it) Thirteen Doctors, 13 Stories (that's not me being weird with the different spelling, it's them). I didn't buy it again. I'm not a fool. Well, not that much of a fool. (Will we get a 15 Doctors, 15 Stories after Ncuti joins? Only time will tell...)
And also, despite owning it twice, I've never actually read any of the stories. Oh dear. But when better to finally do it than now? A collection originally commissioned for the 50th, finally read for the 60th — very me. My plan is to read each Doctor's story after their 'main' contribution for my 60th celebrations, so today we have this First Doctor tale. It was a lot of fun. I hope the next 12 tales can live up to it.
Chapters 14–17 [the end]
Doctor Who: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer
Chapters 1–5 + Epilogue [the end]
For Doctor Who's 50th anniversary, Puffin issued a series of short ebooks, one per Doctor. They also bundled them together into a print paperback, called 11 Doctors 11 Stories. A year later, after Peter Capaldi had joined, they released a new story and also republished the book as 12 Doctors 12 Stories. I have both of those — normally I'd've been reticient to rebuy, but when they issued the latter as a neat little box set with the stories split into 12 individual books (plus some postcards), I couldn't resist. And then, after Jodie Whittaker joined, they reissued it again, this time as (you probably guessed it) Thirteen Doctors, 13 Stories (that's not me being weird with the different spelling, it's them). I didn't buy it again. I'm not a fool. Well, not that much of a fool. (Will we get a 15 Doctors, 15 Stories after Ncuti joins? Only time will tell...)
And also, despite owning it twice, I've never actually read any of the stories. Oh dear. But when better to finally do it than now? A collection originally commissioned for the 50th, finally read for the 60th — very me. My plan is to read each Doctor's story after their 'main' contribution for my 60th celebrations, so today we have this First Doctor tale. It was a lot of fun. I hope the next 12 tales can live up to it.
Sunday, 24 September 2023
Fiction
Doctor Who: Marco Polo by John Lucarotti
Chapters 9–14
I really enjoy Marco Polo as a narrative. It's such a shame the TV version is lost. It's probably still #1 on my personal list of "ones I wish they'd find". But the novelisation...
Well, it doesn’t get off to the greatest of starts. In the early chapters especially (and to an extent throughout) it almost reads like a screenplay, so reliant is it on dialogue, with the barest description of anything else. Even when you do get a line of action or other description, sometimes it adds nothing beyond reflecting the onscreen blocking (presumably, that is — with the episodes missing, it’s hard to know for sure. But, for example, there are moments when characters are described moving around the room in a way that has no impact on what's happening). The prose begins to open up more as the book goes on, but by that point the script-like literalness is so embedded that any section not dense in dialogue comes across as abridgement. That is to say, it feels like there were too many scenes to fit in a short Target novelisation, so parts have instead been summarised.
That’s not to mention that Lucarotti is clearly writing a book “for children”, with a use of language and overall style clearly aimed at a young age group. In fairness, I suppose these books were that at the time, and maybe the entire range is guilty of it. I don’t remember feeling that way about any of them before, but it’s a good long while since I’ve read a Target novelisation — probably not since my own childhood, in fact, when obviously I wouldn’t have noticed as much; plus, I’ve done a lot more studying of literature since then, so I'm more attuned to that kind of thing.
So, not the greatest novel overall, then — but, like I said, at least it's a cracking story.
Chapters 9–14
I really enjoy Marco Polo as a narrative. It's such a shame the TV version is lost. It's probably still #1 on my personal list of "ones I wish they'd find". But the novelisation...
Well, it doesn’t get off to the greatest of starts. In the early chapters especially (and to an extent throughout) it almost reads like a screenplay, so reliant is it on dialogue, with the barest description of anything else. Even when you do get a line of action or other description, sometimes it adds nothing beyond reflecting the onscreen blocking (presumably, that is — with the episodes missing, it’s hard to know for sure. But, for example, there are moments when characters are described moving around the room in a way that has no impact on what's happening). The prose begins to open up more as the book goes on, but by that point the script-like literalness is so embedded that any section not dense in dialogue comes across as abridgement. That is to say, it feels like there were too many scenes to fit in a short Target novelisation, so parts have instead been summarised.
That’s not to mention that Lucarotti is clearly writing a book “for children”, with a use of language and overall style clearly aimed at a young age group. In fairness, I suppose these books were that at the time, and maybe the entire range is guilty of it. I don’t remember feeling that way about any of them before, but it’s a good long while since I’ve read a Target novelisation — probably not since my own childhood, in fact, when obviously I wouldn’t have noticed as much; plus, I’ve done a lot more studying of literature since then, so I'm more attuned to that kind of thing.
So, not the greatest novel overall, then — but, like I said, at least it's a cracking story.
Saturday, 23 September 2023
Films
Fisherman's Friends: One and All (2022)
[2nd watch]
[#69 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023]
[2nd watch]
[#69 in The All-New 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2023]
Audio Drama / Podcasts
Doctor Who: Redacted
2x01 Regrets
I didn't much care for the first series of this, but, hey, it's Doctor Who, so here I am. Here I'll always be.
[Listen to it (again) on BBC Sounds.]
2x01 Regrets
I didn't much care for the first series of this, but, hey, it's Doctor Who, so here I am. Here I'll always be.
[Listen to it (again) on BBC Sounds.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)