Via TMP.

photo © displacedminiatures

Random observation: is the name of next year’s Doctor Who companion, Martha Jones, (and if just her name is a spoiler for you, get a life) a combination of those two great comic book heroines Martha Washington and Halo Jones?

Very True Mood: curious

So Lettice finished her thesis and yesterday we got it printed and bound. Then we went shopping (3 for 2 books, and a couple of cheap-ish Doctor Who DVDs, stories I’ve either never seen or not seen since they were first broadcast) and then to the cinema to see Underworld Evolution which had lots of Kate Beckinsale’s shiny bottom for the boys and lots of Scott Speedman’s naked chest for the girls and not much in the way of a plot, but still quite fun. Today, we’re off to Brixton for lunch and socialising.

Mmmmm, Susan Ivanova.

Anyway, Boom Town. I wasn’t expecting much from this based on the trailers but it turned out better than I expected. Not brilliant but certainly not terrible.

It was a collection of “greatest” hits from the series so far – Slitheen from AoL/WW3; the rift from tUD; incidental music from Rose; Mickey; reversing the teleport from tEoftW; some of which deserved a repeat performance more than others. It was also more than that.

It was a look at the Doctor’s morality and whilst Russell T Davies is clearly against the death penalty (see his interview on Doctor Who Confidential) the episode was no where so clear cut, Margaret’s arguments didn’t really hold water when held against the lengths she was prepared to go to save herself, and the Doctor’s attitude was a mixture of factors – part “leave local customs alone”, part “Everything has it’s time and everything dies” and part traumatised post-Gallifrey Doctor.

The moral debate would have been more interesting if a human had taken a larger part. Maybe we could have been spared some of the Rose/Mickey (non-)relationship and instead had them involved in the discussion between the Doctor and Margaret.

In the end the debate was rendered meaningless by a deus ex machina resolution. I liked the heart of the TARDIS and I wonder if it’s foreshadowing something, possibly connected to regeneration?

7/10

And the Doctor notices the Bad Wolf at last. Just in time for this week’s episode that looks like it could be very, very good and very, very bad at the same time.

IMDB is listing Norman Lovett (the original Holly from Red Dwarf) as Davros in the season finale. But anyone can update IMDB with any old information (it’s not quite a Wiki but it’s nearly as bad) so we’ll have to see. I doubt that such a genre favoutite actor could play such a genre favourite part without it leaking out before now, and I think he’d make a bloody awful Davros. But you never know.

Meanwhile:

You are the eighth Doctor! Friendly and warm, you are the most human of all the Doctors. Your sense of style is a bit old-fashioned. You have a bit of trouble figuring out exactly who you are at first, but no worries. Eventually you’ll find your way.

Which Doctor (from Doctor Who) Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And if anyone hasn’t already, have a look at the Sudokwho.

So, bank holiday weekend (which two weeks into proper job suddenly takes on some importance once again) and the weather wasn’t bad.

pink_weasel and I went down to Dorking on Saturday and got overcharged by an Oxfam bookshop! So Lettice only saved 75% of the cost she would have paid on eBay rather than 90%. Then lunch with my parents and grilling over the wedding arrangements, then home in time for Dalek, which I’ve already written about.

Sunday didn’t quite go according to plan. The aim was to go to Morden Hall Park (sounds like a Hollywoord actor) and visit the craft fair, but a peek from the outside didn’t make it seem like it would be worth the admittance charge. So we got the tram to Croydon and went to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy instead.

I enjoyed the film but with a few reservations. The cast was excellent (Stephen Fry is so good as The Book, I can’t think of anyone else who could match Peter Jones), I loved the look of the film, the Heart of Gold in particular, but I think the only time I really laughed out loud was the “So long and thanks for all the fish” song.

And the ending seemed to strike a bit of a wrong note – going off into space rather than staying on the new Earth was a very un-Arthur thing to do (okay, it was a very un-HHGTTG Arthur thing to do, I know that’s more or less what he did do in SLATFATF). But Zooey Deschanel is very, very cute and I’m sure lots of people would follow her into space.

On the way home I rented DVDs of a couple films I’d missed out on last year, and generally I don’t think I missed much.

King Arthur is, of course, no where near as historically accurate as it claims to be, but when compared with almost every other Arthur film it does come closer. Clive Owen was okay as a Romano-British Arthur but Ioan Gruffudd made a very bland Lancelot and when the great list of warrior women is drawn up (any volunteers?) Keira Knightley’s Guinevere won’t be on it.

Alien vs Predator was better, in fact it was actually rather good. (Or had I just drank too many beers by then?) Sanaa Lathan’s Alexa Woods was a good Ripley substitute (or more accurately a Machiko substitute, go read the comics) and will be on that list. A couple of things annoyed the geek in me – we’d previously been led to believe that the Predators liked things hot but here they are running around Antarctica with no extra clothing; and secondly, isn’t the alien queen a hell of a lot bigger here than in Aliens?

Monday I spent taking all my miniatures out of the display case, dusting and rearranging. The case with the unpainted miniatures is now too heavy to lift. Oh dear.

… is probably the only good line in Chronicles of Riddick. But it’s very nearly good enough on its own. And Alexa Davalos (a) is hot, (b) kicks ass, and (c) is much better in this than she was in Angel.

Yes, I’m recovering from my lousy week by drinking beer and watching crap SciFi movies. Next up Hellboy.

Watched a couple of films on telly last night, neither of which were greeted ecstatically by the critics, or by the audiences for that matter. But as both featured highly attractive women kicking ass I watched them anyway…

The Avengers is full of good things - Sean Connery playing a Bond villain, Jim Broadbent as Mother, Uma Thurman in leather. Shame that it just doesn’t work. There are several reasons for this - the plot is complicated with extraneous elements (cloning, the treacherous Father) which don’t help the narrative at all; Ralph Fiennes was simply miscast as Steed and worst of all he and Thurman have no chemistry together at all. Steed and Peel are one of the great screen partnerships and if the actors playing them in a remake don’t spark then there’s simply no point.

Resident Evil has one good thing - Milla Jovovich kicking zombie ass.