TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Five
Real Time Episode Six [finale]

Abandoned my previous pace just to get it over with a double-bill. I did enjoy the second half of the serial more than the first — there are some neat concepts, even if I felt they were poorly utilised — but, overall, it wasn't worth the two-decade wait. And it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be resolved! (Because the actress died. Obviously they could continue it in a novel or something, but, well, they haven't in the past 22 years, so I doubt they will now.)

Oh well, at least I've ticked off another piece of Doctor Who apocrypha (the fact it has some form of visuals makes it sort of a proper story, right? But it didn't occur in chronological order (jumping back to the Sixth Doctor) and was only a webcast, so it's also sort of... not 'real' Who, right? Hence "apocrypha". Maybe not quite the correct word, but it's the closest I can think of right now).


X-Men
2x07 Time Fugitives Part One [2nd watch]
2x08 Time Fugitives Part Two [2nd watch]

Films

The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901)
Possibly the first British Western. It's also a comedy short — read the accompanying notes on the BFI's (free) streaming copy otherwise you probably won't get the 120-year-old topical humour. Other than that... it's still not very good.

Articles

Doctor Who: Real Time (Review)
by Darren Mooney (from The m0vie blog)

For a different, more positive take on Real Time (which still acknowledges all the flaws that overwhelmed it for me), you could do worse than this piece.

Videos

Critical Role
2x30 The Journey Home [2nd half]
2x31 Commerce & Chaos [1st half]
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#78 'The Journey Home'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Four
Credit where it's due, this episode has a decent twist/cliffhanger, which I didn't see coming and is also quite a neat concept. Unfortunately, I have no faith it'll do anything interesting with that in the remaining two episodes, considering the rest of the writing continues to be lacklustre. For example: this episode contains two scenes clearly designed to give the Doctor and Evelyn big grandstanding speeches that define them as characters and/or the Cybermen — similar to the Fifth Doctor's famous speech in Earthshock, for example — but neither really lands, meandering on and around the point rather than succinctly nailing it.

For All Mankind
2x01 Every Little Thing
Finally got another free month of Apple TV+ from somewhere, so trying to make sure I get some use out of it — picking back up this excellent series (which I'm now three whole seasons behind on) seemed a good idea for that. It begins with a timejump, and I also watched the 20-or-so minutes of news featurettes they produced to help bridge the in-world gap since the season one finale.

X-Men
2x06 X-Ternally Yours [2nd watch]
Having another crack at continuing this, too. Hopefully it'll be more successful than my last attempt...

Videos

Critical Role
2x30 The Journey Home [1st half]
Laura and Travis return after a break of seven weeks... or six days, at my current pace. (Also, random bit of maths: crazy to think that if Critical Role were a regular hour-long US network show, I'd be about 156 episodes in now. That's longer than the entirety of Buffy, for example.)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Three
"I've never known Cybermen to look so badly-made before." You said it, mate.

Videos

Talks Machina
#77 'The Stalking Nightmare'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode Two

Videos

Critical Role
2x28 Within the Nest [2nd half]
2x29 The Stalking Nightmare

I was somewhat trepidatious heading into this run of episodes — with three of the (excellent) regular cast gone and a parade of guest stars in the offing, would it be below-par filler, treading water until the 'real' heroes returned? As things turned out, quite the opposite — not just major, game-changing plot turns (thanks, rolls of the dice!), but interesting locales, exciting combats, memorable NPCs, and some brilliant guest stars (Sumalee Montano clearly received a lot of love from the fanbase, and rightly so, but Ashly Burch is fantastic too).

I'd probably still say Midnight Espionage is the best individual episode of Critical Role I've seen so far (as a game, there's an element of luck about what events occur and plot points appear within one episode, and that one landed so many great bits), but the six-episode run from The Hour of Honor to The Stalking Nightmare is probably my favourite extended arc (or two, really) so far. Phenomenal.

[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]


Talks Machina
#76 'Converging Fury' and 'Within the Nest'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Doctor Who
Real Time Episode One

Back in the early '00s — after Big Finish had taken off but before the TV revival was announced — BBCi (as it then was) produced several Doctor Who webcasts, which started out as “audio dramas with accompanying illustrations” and gradually progressed to “fully animated” (before the revival was announced and put a stop to all that). This was the second, following Death Comes to Time earlier in 2002 and preceding the 8th Doctor Shada and Scream of the Shalka in 2003 — crazy, with hindsight, that all of that took place in just two years. Even crazier that it’s taken me over 20 years to get round to listening to it. (These were 20 years ago! Time really does fly.) The original official webcast links are dead, but you can buy it on CD from Big Finish (audio only, obv), or do as I'm doing and watch it on YouTube.

Also, for what it's worth, although originally released in six parts, each one only runs 11–17 minutes, with the average being 15, meaning the whole story has the same running time as a Season 22 two-parter. Watching it in two halves would truly emulate that, then, but I've stuck with the original broadcast length because... well, it's like most of Season 22 in another way: it's not very good. I'm not even talking about the basic Flash animation, but the frequently clunky dialogue, line readings that consistently sound off (despite the writer and director being the same person), and a general insipid pace and structure. Maybe it will pick up. Maybe only having to experience it in short bursts will be a blessing.

Videos

Critical Role
2x27 Converging Fury
2x28 Within the Nest [1st half]
I'm trying to cut back a bit... but even after watching a whole episode, I still just wanted to carry on, so eventually caved in the evening (hence the extra half episode — there literally wasn't time for another whole one today). The heart wants what the heart wants — whatcha gonna do?
[Watch Converging Fury (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#75 Live from San Diego Comic-Con 2018!
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

this week on 100Films.co.uk

Only one post at 100Films.co.uk this week: delayed from the start of the month, the films I failed to watch in May...





More next Sunday, perhaps.

TV

Doctor Who
40x06 Rogue
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x26 Found & Lost
Man, Critical Role was just continuously knocking it out of the park at this point, particularly with how episodes ended. Even though this was one of their longest episodes yet (representing 6½ hours of viewing between it and Talks; then even more time because I rewind/rewatch some moments to see more reactions, and quite thoroughly peruse the YouTube comment section — it took me basically all afternoon and early evening), I still just want to watch Talks to hear what they have to say, then go straight on to the next episode to find out what happens. I may just spend tomorrow on the show, too...
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#74 'Found & Lost'
Such a shame they've wiped this show from official channels (even if it's understandable why) because there can be some great insights here (as well as a lot of fun, silly frolics). Sometimes the quality depends on whether there's a good lineup of guests ("good" possibly defined by who your personal favourites are), but they've often got the people most relevant to the episode under discussion — this episode, in particular, has the perfect lineup in that regard.
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Collection Count

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

Just two new additions this week, including the latest Doctor Who animation.

Number of titles in collection: 3,300 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,002 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,298 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 355 [up 1]

Number of discs in collection: 7,991 [up 4]
Number of films: 4,069 [up 1]
Number of additional cuts: 386 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 9,720 [up 4]
Number of short films: 1,145 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Videos

Critical Role
2x25 Divergent Paths [2nd half]
I thought this episode might be a bit of a bust at the start — with Travis and Laura absent, Liam limited on a screen, and several of the present cast clearly tired from an emotional day IRL, struggling to play as the absent characters — but after a bumpy start, it picked up, and even delivered a particularly emotional climax with the exit of Kiri. How do they keep doing that?! "Thank you, Matt, for making this game work with half of a crew."
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

LEGO Dungeons & Dragons Game Night
This three-hour actual-play special was produced to promote the LEGO Dungeons & Dragons set and released two months ago. I've been meaning to watch it since it came out, but I've (obviously) been spending time on Crit Role instead — but as I've been watching so much of that the last couple of days, I thought it was finally time to make room for this. It's a lot of fun, and watching Ginny Di's behind-the-scenes video made me super envious.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Talks Machina
#73 'Divergent Paths'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x24 The Hour of Honor [2nd half]
2x25 Divergent Paths [1st half]
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#72 'The Hour of Honor'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x23 Have Bird, Will Travel
2x24 The Hour of Honor [1st half]
Oh yeah, an episode and a half (plus Talks, below). After a bit of a break, it feels good to have a bit of a binge. (This wouldn't really count as a "binge" for most shows, but altogether these represent 7+ hours of Critical Role content in one day.)
[Watch Campaign 2 (again) on YouTube, or Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#71 'Have Bird, Will Travel'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

TV

Richard Osman's House of Games
7x49 Week 10: Thursday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]