Uh oh, I haven’t been doing weekly reviews of Doctor Who episodes this season. Spoilers below.
( Season Three so far... )
Meanwhile, I’ve watched “The War Machines” and “Vengeance on Varos” recently.

“The War Machines” is a very odd story, it’s the first story set in the present day (with the possible exception of Planet of the” Giants, but that doesn’t count) and the first to feature the British Army. But unlike all the UNIT stories that follow it feels too short rather than too long. The threat of the War Machines is never really made obvious and the climax is rushed. Also, Dodo gets the worst exit of any companion, and the Doctor is called “Doctor Who” on screen for the only time. It also has a superb performance from William Hartnell and provides agood introduction to Ben and Polly.

“Vengeance on Varos” looks incredibly prescient these days. Reality TV has almost caught up with it, all we need to do is move from mental to physical torture and we’re there. But the plot needed some major tightening - scrap the whole mad scientist / turning Peri into a bird sub plot and there would have been room to come up with a less contrived and rushed solution to Sil’s approaching invasion fleet. Doesn’t Owen Teale (he was the lead cannibal in Torchwood’s “Countrycide”) look young? The sixth Doctor demonstrates his callous streak here and poor old Colin Baker only gets a few bits of decent script with most of the good stuff going to Martin Jarvis and Nabil Shaban, both of whom excel.

Very True Mood:  chipper

Spilling olive oil on the keyboard.
Pros: gives it that nice shiny look.
Cons: too many to mention really.

Sigh. Not a bad weekend really. Lovely weather, which I saw out the window as I was working. Got some nice JavaScript written and identified a few more IE CSS bugs that will need to be worked around. And a cracking episode of Doctor Who yesterday.

Very True Mood:  morose

Let’s talk about the tenth Doctor’s ongong obsession with Rose. Three episodes post-Rose and we get at least one reference and an anguished expression in every one.

(more…)

Very True Mood:  thoughtful

Argh, Croydon was too full of children and chavs and chav children today. I bought a cheap pair of jeans, a cheap t-shirt, a Hellblazer spin-off graphic novel and one of the About Time volumes.

pink_weasel went into a yarn department and walked out empty handed.

Then round to the in-laws for silliness and thai food. Feeling well stuffed right now.

Oh, and let’s not talk about the rugby, okay?

Your Squid Quotient = 156.25

Interpreting your results: An average Squid Quotient is around 100. A SQ of 100 means you have a normal affinity for squid. A SQ above 100 means you have an attraction or fondness for squid. Below 100 means that you should probably stay away from the deep ocean.

find out your squid quotient

You scored as Sgt. Benton. You are Sgt. Benton! Calm, fixed, resolute: for being such a nice person you have a bit of cynicism that you keep hidden. It helps you sort out the good from the bad when you deal with people. Not easily fooled by mere charm or facade, you are, all the same, a simple soul. You long for love but don’t quite comprehend romance. you recognize that a stable home, longterm friendships, and trust and respect are the foundations of a happy life.

Sgt. Benton		68%
Captain Mike Yates		57%
Jo Grant		57%
Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart		50%
The Master		46%
Doctor Who (Third Doctor)		29%

Which Doctor Who Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Very True Mood:  mellow

Via snapesbabe

What Kind Of Whovian Are You?

Your Result: Good natured jumper wearer

 

When two fans get chatting in the line for autographs at a convention, you’re the one that flinches when the other swears. You own a cat called Sutekh.

Hard Living Demon Fan
Laddyfan
Classic series n00b
Frothing fanboy
New series n00b

What Kind Of Whovian Are You?
Make a Quiz

Just so long as the jumper in question isn’t covered by bloody question marks, okay?

Very True Mood:  confused

Well, a little bit moany, by comparison with some people[1] I’ve really got nothing to complain about, and what I have is largely self inflicted.

There ought to be a law against it.

I’m waiting for a furniture delivery. It’s coming sometime between 7 and 6 today. Getting dressed before 7 on a Saturday? When you have no plans to go further than the local shops[2] today? It’s just not right.

Seeing as I haven’t posted all week…

Happy New Year

I have foolishly gone and made a bunch of resolutions, and told people what they are (so I can’t conveniently forget all about them), so I might as well post them here:

1. Give up alcohol for seven weeks. An odd length of time, but it means I can start drinking again just in time for Lettice’s 30th.
2. Give up soft drinks, sweets and crisps. Yikes! All in one go.
3. If I buy breakfast on the way to work then I must buy a cheap lunch. Kind of vague this one, but I know what I mean.
4. Pay at least £100 into my savings account every month. Standing order now set up to transfer the money the day after I get paid, so I don’t need to do anything else for this one.
5. Limit my wargames/role playing games spending. I did a little experiment a while back and the results were a bit scary. I’m aiming for a lower figure this year - £500 total, so I have a limit of £100 per quarter and an extra floating £100 for magazine subscriptions and similar costs.
6. Get a hair cut at least every two months. Lettice may want me to go for “the full Tom Baker” but there were some very frightening photos of me taken at the Christmas party and I think short is better.

Five days into the year and I haven’t broken any of them. Though the fact that alcohol free lager tastes even more revolting than regular lager and that alcohol free bitter doesn’t seem to exist, may be my undoing.

[1] Lawrence Miles has dumped his diary/blog for November and December online in one big splurge. It’s not easy reading. This guy is one of the most talented writers to ever touch Doctor Who but he’s got some serious issues - I really don’t want to say anything trite like “tortured genius” because that turns a person into a cliché.

[2] More importantly to the Farmer’s Market - West Norwood is moving up in the world!

Had a fantastic long weekend, four days of relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

Thursday night, left work and headed down to Croydon where ate at Wagamama’s (the Salmon Ramen is very good) before going to see Mitchell and Webb at the Fairfield Halls. I think this is the third time I’ve been to that particular venue - the first was to see Victor Borge some twenty years ago, and the second was to see the Rocky Horror Show about eight years ago. Anyway, Mitchell and Webb were just as good live as on the telly - some familiar sketches (taken to new extremes in a few cases) and some I didn’t recognise from the TV series.

Friday, we went up to the British Museum to see The Past from Above exhibition. Really breath taking stuff that really brought home just how vast the extent of human history is. Most parts of the world have see who knows how many lifetimes lived, with not a single line in the history that most of us know.

Also at the BM, was a (relatively) recently reopened gallery dedicated to the Enlightenment and hence the birth of the museum itself. It does a very good job of emulating what the BM is like in our secret thoughts - all book lined walls and eclectic displays.

Saturday, pink_weasel went to play at the Tate whilst I stayed home and read comics. But I did find time to visit West Norwood’s first ever farmer’s market (it’s going to be a regular event every two weeks) where I picked up some cheese and some welsh dragon sausages (pork and leek and chili). In the evening I left a very knackered Lettice in bed and went to Giroscope’s birthday bash in fitzrovia - Duke of York, for beer Palms of Goa for curry; and finally The Fitzroy Tavern, for more beer.

Sunday was a quiet day at home - my dad brought the second of two leather chairs, Lettice poured dye all over a book (on purpose) and we started watching Doctor Who - The Invasion (with the missing episodes filled in by animation). Though not the best animation in the world it captured the likenesses of the main characters well and was, of course, cleaner and smoother than the surviving ’60s live action episodes.

Today, we lay around in bed and then went to Croydon again to see Casino Royale. Possible the best Bond film ever. Certainly the best since the ’60s. Having a actor who can actually act certainly helps. It will be interesting to see what they do next time, now that they’ve done the whole “how Bond becomes Bond” bit, will they find something suitably interesting for Craig to get his teeth into for the sequel?

Phew. Back to work tomorrow where with any luck I’ll be holding second interviews for my assistant. With luck we’ll be able to make someone an offer at the end of the week and have them start very early in the new year. Which will mean that I should be able to take more than two days off next time.

Very True Mood:  satisfied

You all know which one.

At work until nine o’clock this evening. Doing something the hard way because the easy way would utilise a semi-transparent PNG and for various reasons the usual hacks to get them to (sort of) work in IE couldn’t be made to work. Gah.

So came home, ate fish and chips and watched the first two episodes of The Hand of Fear. Feeling a little better now. Shame that it’s now a bit late to start drinking beer.

Very True Mood:  frustrated

There’s a post on radw saying that John Levene (Sergeant Benton) has died. However, as it’s been posted by a known troll and spells his surname wrong I’m somewhat doubtful. I can’t see any confirmation on the BBC or elsewhere. Has anyone heard this from a reliable source?

Very True Mood:  worried