The Silent Hunter
"Concentrate on what cannot lie- the evidence". Gil Grissom, CSI.
16 September 2025
Israel, Gaza and genocide
25 August 2025
Freaky Friday Finale (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.24, "Turnabout Intruder")
It's taken me over 11 years, but I have watched all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek, not counting "The Cage". I note that my original post in 2015 had me planning to watch "The Cage" after finishing Season 1, but I managed to completely forget about that, probably due to some changes with on-demand video service.
I am going to come back to that after I've done The Animated Series and so close out the TOS era on TV, which will, along with the rest of the Star Trek reviews going forward, be done via a single combined review for each season with a paragraph dedicated to each episode. These things do take a while to write.
So, we've seen strange studio worlds, sought out odd life and unusual civilisations and boldly gone where no costume designer has gone before.
(I'm not even done with William Ware Theiss either, as he did the first season of The Next Generation.)
So, it's the end, but the moment has been prepared... sorry, wrong show. It is time to lower the curtain.
It is time for "Turnabout Intruder".
15 August 2025
80 years since VJ Day
11 August 2025
The Greatest Gathering - or that's a lot of trains
The coat of arms of the city of Derby |
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These two were from The Cab Yard, a museum under development near Swansea. The 442 cab in the left is a cab simulator, but this required booking and was full up for the day. |
The brand new Class 93 from Stadler, a tri-mode locomotive (25kV overhead, diesel engine, battery) |
HST power cars were rather prevalent - the yard near Derby station also had a bunch of them. |
08 August 2025
Looking for those cruise missiles - a visit to Greenham Common
It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, the road to nuclear annihilation is paved with the same stuff most British roads are paved with.
Had the Cold War (maybe the First Cold War now?) ever gone hot, then 24 vehicles, each armed with four nuclear cruise missiles, would have come down this road and made their way to pre-planned launch sites in the Berkshire countryside, ready for orders to launch weapons on targets in the Soviet bloc.
Greenham Common is of one of the most well-known sites to British students of the Cold War period. This one-time RAF base played host to American nuclear bombers like the B-47 Stratojet, but is best remembered from being one of the two locations that hosted BGM-109G Gryphon cruise missiles in the 1980s.
(The other, RAF Molesworth, is still an active facility)
Known simply as Cruise to many or the GLCM (Ground Launched Cruise Missile or "glick-em"), the Gryphon was the Tomahawk's land-based cousin, developed and deployed as a response to the Soviet deployment of the RT-21M/SS-20 'Saber' intermediate-range ballistic missile, capable of nuking pretty much anywhere in Europe from well within the USSR in under 15 minutes.
While the Gryphon was by no means as fast as that, its ability to fly long distances at low altitudes using terrain matching systems to keep on course meant that the Soviet Union ended up seeing it as a potential first-strike weapon. They invested considerable amounts of time, money and energy looking for evidence of a planned US first strike.
The presence of the Gryphon at any rate was controversial to put it mildly. Anti-nuclear Peace Camps, eventually women-only were set up outside the entrances to Greenham Common to protest and disrupt operations on the site.
This included breaking into the control tower and reading all the emergency situation documents and writing on the pages to confirm this. When base security didn't show up for five-and-a-half hours, the women started turning the lights on-and-off to get them to show up, because if they just left, the Ministry of Defence would deny it.
A "battle" between the USAF, the police and many locals on one side, with the protestors on the other ensued. Rocks were thrown, statements were cooked up, fences were cut and it became rather difficult for the missile unit to do any exercises outside the base because protestors kept turning up. In the event of an actual war, I suspect those women might have dealt with in a much more lethal way.
Eventually, the INF Treaty of 1987 saw the missiles removed in 1991 for destruction and the base closed shortly afterwards.
07 August 2025
I think all the double entendres have been used here (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.23, "All Our Yesterdays")
05 August 2025
Capital Ring Section 2, Green Chain Section 8a/9/9a
Storm Floris mainly hit the north of the country, but its effects were definitely felt down in London yesterday as I did another long walk. Blustery wind for much of day and occasional rain; I gave serious consideration to going home early if things hadn't improved after lunch.
Ironically, I also did over 21,000 steps when I was at The Greatest Gathering in Derby on Saturday - post on that to follow.
Section 2 of the Capital Ring goes from Falconwood to Grove Park. Well, not exactly as the actual start points are next t a bridge over the A2 and somewhere called Marvels Lane, which is lacking in any Brie Larson.
As walks go, it didn't have many highlights - the area is very suburban in character.
This building is Conduit Head, which was part of an underground tunnel system designed to bring water to Eltham Palace, where Henry VIII grew up. Falling into mostly ruin in the 17th century, only the medieval hall survives with an Art Deco mansion from the 1930s surrounding it. English Heritage now run the place and charge a steep admission fee for entry - I skipped that as I didn't have time. Also doing some Taskmaster-related events if that's your jam that you need to place on a shelf without stepping out of a circle.
I went through Mottingham too, where W. G. Grace lived for thirty years. You know an area is posh when the houses have names.
The highlight of this particular section is King John Playing Fields, which has a spectacular view of nearly all the prominent structures of London.
Also, this house either has a lot of genuine rubbish for collection or a fly tipper is really showing that they just don't care.