Reverse the polarity of the magnetic probe (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.7, "That Which Survives")

There are episodes of Star Trek that the fandom loves. There are ones that it hates. Then are the ones that are so forgotten, Lower Decks hasn't even made a joke about them.

I get a feeling that this one doesn't receive much attention... and is clearly that another cheap one. Anyway, here we go:

• I've said it before and I'll say it again... Starfleet really needs defences against random people teleporting in.
• Losira's hair and make-up look like some form of LSD was involved in their desire. While her top must have involved a lot of double-sided tape. Lee Meriwether had been Miss America in 1955.
• That's a rather unconvincing-looking earthquake in what is obviously a studio set with a purple backdrop. No-one ever thought to add a cloud?
• A planet with no accessible water or non-poisonous foodstuff is not really a good place to set up home. Even Rimworld gives you those.
• Sometimes redshirts don't have to wear red. Although one does here.
• Phasers must be powerful if they can create an entire grave; something that takes multiple hours to do, even for a shallow one.
• Listen to Scotty! He knows what he's talking about, even when he phrases it in a rather strange way. But he doesn't even put on safety goggles when going in the Jeffries tube and gets far too panicky in the climax.
• "Lt. Amato". That's how you're burying him? Doesn't he even have a first name? Also, are you going to recover his body afterwards? His family might want it back!
• "I am for you". What is this? A Donald Trump ad?
• Strange women in purple distributing death by the touch of a hand does not make for a good system of security.
• Spock is very funny in this, playing emotionless Vulcan to the hilt.
• If every cell in Sulu's shoulder was disrupted, how does he still have a functioning left arm?
• Reverse the polarity of the magnetic probe? This appears before Jon Pertwee became the Doctor. Mind you, it's not done as easily here as in Doctor Who.

Conclusion

Saved from being truly bad by the Spock and Scotty stuff, that still doesn't make the episode very good.

It's notable that D.C. Fontana was so unhappy about how how far the story changed from her concept that she had her credit changed to "Michael Richards".

4/10

Exit Assad

When this latest offensive began, I doubted that Assad would be in power at the next Islamic New Year in June.

He has now fallen faster than anyone really expected; his army deserting, his allies in Russia and Iran abandoning him. His current fate is unknown; at best he'll be living his remaining days in exile - there is a French warrant out for his arrest in any event.

Syria now faces an uncertain future; one hopes that the new government will be democratic and tolerant of religious minorities.

In the meantime, Assad's fate should serve as a warning to all tyrants, active or wannabe; when the fall comes, it can come very quickly indeed. 

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.

Assisted Dying Bill

The House of Commons is voting tomorrow on legalising assisted dying for the first time since 2015; it will be an unwhipped vote with MPs free to vote their conscience.

The details on the proposal are here.

I understand the desire of people to end their suffering and go out on their own terms, but it would be very hard to detect whether someone had been pressured or coerced to take the life-ending medication.

The restrictions are very tight; how many people would be in a position to actually go through this? Some terminal illnesses rob you of the ability to know what day it is, at which point you're not going to be able to have the presence of mind to take your own life. Others will be different.

In any event, I am personally not comfortable with suicide or helping someone to kill themselves. I am not sure I want the High Court deciding on these cases either. This is not a case where someone is brain-dead; they are still actively living human beings.

I would personally vote No on this, but I understand those who would support it. I trust if this were to pass, it would not be a slippery slope.

Sixty-One Years of 'Doctor Who'

Watched most of the Tales from the TARDIS version of "The Time Meddler" today. It's not bad, although very much of its time in terms of pacing, fight scenes etc. The Doctor/Monk stuff is fun though.

The show is in interesting place now; the Disney-funded "Season 2" is to air next year. There has been no official greenlight for a third season although scripts are being written for it. A lot will depend on the performance of Season 2 outside the UK and Ireland; a bad performance and Disney may well end up pulling the financial plug, which would put the show in serious trouble.

Also, we might end up going to a Sixteenth Doctor in 2026, depending on Ncuti Gatwa's feelings about continuing with the character; pretty much all of the leads bar one since 2005 have done three seasons then out.

Finally, it would be nice to have more than eight episodes in a run. Ten at least, please.

So, happy anniversary to the Doctor and long may it continue in some form!

Remembrance 2024

The events of the last year, particularly the last week, make it clear that the struggle against fascism and other forms of intolerance did not end in 1945. There is a distinct possibility people will be called upon to defend freedom again at some point in my lifetime - and with nuclear weapons a thing, there might end up not being anything else but freedom.

I wonder what the veterans who sleep in Flanders Fields are making of all of this.

The return of Donald Trump

Well, he's back for another four years. Unless he drops dead first, which is possible. I want to wait for all the final numbers to come in, but my initial thought is that there is a danger of overcomplicating this election.

"It's the economy, stupid" goes a long way to explaining the results, frankly.

As for Trump, we're about to see how strongly the guardrails cope with his crazy ideas.

US Presidential Election 2024 Prediction

We are nearing the end of an election campaign even nastier than the last one. Donald Trump and his Republicans have engaged in the sort of rhetoric that the Nazis used and they're increasingly not able to hide it.

Kamala Harris, thrust into the nomination after the Biden campaign collapsed, has done a remarkable job in the circumstances, although admittedly many are not entirely happy about her lack of a clear stance on Gaza. She might be clearer on that once election is secured.

The election looks very close, but one of course must remember a little thing called margin of error; a blowout in the swing states is entirely possible with a normal polling error.

The Trump campaign seems to be having some major issues with its ground game; they also seem to be setting the "information environment" (thank you Institute for the Study of War for that) to claim election fraud after any loss. The insult comic at the Madison Square Garden rally seems to have invoked real fury among Puerto Ricans.

Harris has an advantage in enthusiasm, particularly among women and older voters. The Democrats are seem to be at just the right level of confidence to avoid complacency.

So, here is how I think it is going to go:

Prediction Map

• Harris wins the popular vote by two to three points.
• Harris wins six of the seven swing states, coming close in North Carolina. 303 electoral votes will be three fewer than Joe Biden got in 2020.
• With the rise of early voting on both sides, the 'red mirage' will be less prominent than 2020, but still there nonetheless.
• The Democrats will take the House, the Republicans the Senate. This will mean more Congressional gridlock.
• Trump will "declare victory" on Wednesday morning (UK time) and scream fraud later.
• The National Guard are going to be needed at some point, sadly.

But of course, I could be wrong and it's going to be a long couple of days, I would say.

One Year of War in the Middle East

Today marks one year since the October 7 attacks by Hamas on innocent Israelis that very much set the spark for a conflict that shows no signs of a quick resolution.

Both Hamas and Israel have bitten off very much more than they can easily chew here - so has Hezbollah. It is quite likely at this stage that Israel will eventually be able to defeat both of them, but at a very high human cost. Quite how the Gazan death toll has been so low is a mystery to me - we could easily have seen a quarter of the strip's population dead by this point.

Ultimately the peaceful resolution would be a two-state one, but that would need powerful moderates on both sides to be able to deliver it. There currently aren't sadly, so it looks like this conflict might go on for a while; any ceasefire would just be temporary.

And innocents on both sides will continue to suffer.

Dame Maggie Smith 1934-2024

If she had just done Violet Crawley and Professor McGonagall, she would have worth a glowing obituary. But that was just a small section of a very long acting career.

She was one of the greatest actresses of the last century. Her list of accolades is massive, with the DBE coming even before she had done Harry Potter. Few could do a waspish put-down like her - she stole every scene she was in on Downton Abbey.

She will be greatly missed. RIP.

Wigs, Frocks and Glocks - rewatching 'Alias'

This post contains a fair amount of British self-deprecation. I'm surprised, in all the time I've had this blog, I've never done a post on this show.

James Earl Jones 1931-2024

One of the greatest voice actors of all time has died.

Darth Vader was simply an iconic role that any actor would be happy to have on his obituary, but he did so much more than that over his very long career. His legacy will last for centuries.

Rest in Peace.

It's a D from me (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.16, "The Mark of Gideon")

Star Trek can frequently be a case of "great idea, shame about the execution" and this episode is clearly a case, clearly a cheapie to pad out the episode order.

Because the execution is very bad.

A complete lech (Review: 'Beetlejuice')

So, Netflix currently has the 1988 Beetlejuice movie on there and since the sequel is coming out, I decided to give the original a go.

I will be watching the sequel, but not in the cinema. Thoughts below the cut.

In space, no-one can hear Dora scream in Spanish (Review: 'Alien: Romulus')

It's very difficult to cover this movie without spoilers, so I'm going to have to insert a jump break here.

Anyway, my screening was pretty much full, although a small screen; the last time I've had that happen was for Black Panther.

It also had the air conditioning at full blast, which very much helped matters in terms of atmosphere.

What's black and white and illogical all over? (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.15, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

I take notes when I'm watching this episode of things that stand out to me when I'm watching it. My ones for this episode extend to over 2 1/2 pages. A5 pages, that is.

In this case, the stuff standing out is not necessary good. Quite the opposite.

• The bi-coloured skin was the director's idea. It should have been rejected.
• Seriously, Starfleet needs better defences against mental ship hijacking. Also, how on earth do you hijack an electronic system using your mind anyway.
• An invisible spaceship of course saves you a lot of money. As well as reusing effects footage from a previous episode as they did for the original; the Netflix version uses the remastered CGI stuff.
• Kirk is a great poker player when he activates the self-destruct. He'll of course eventually self-destruct the Enterprise for real in The Search for Spock... with the same codes being used.
• One wonders how the crew of the Cerritos would have handled this. It may well have been a lot more enjoyable too.
• Alas, persecution did not end in the 20th century, as my own country demonstrates.
• There's a reference to the Vietnam War here, with an implicit comment about African-Americans being drafted to go and fight there - a reason why Muhammad Ali refused to serve, getting (among other things) banned from sanctioned boxing bouts for over three years. However, this is also a series that did "A Little Private War".
• Today's racists are a good deal less erudite.
• How do you spray something from orbit? Liquids don't stay liquid in a vacuum.
• "Proceeding without incident"... then there's a pretty big incident.
• Lokai is wearing some very tight trousers in this; he has a noticeable bulge.
• There's some stupidly fast repairing and travelling in this.
• For a species with little real contact with the Federation, they seem to know an awful lot about operating its technology.
• Piles of unburied corpses... yet vegetation is reclaiming the cities. That doesn't really make sense.
• By the end, it feels rather padded - by Fred Freiberger's admission, the chase scene was because they were running under-length.. There's also the use of stock footage from the Second World War of burning cities, also for padding.

Conclusion

This could have been an interesting story about racism and hate... with a page-one rewrite. Instead it's got less subtlety than the Doctor Who episode "Orphan 55", which is saying something.

It's really just awful.

2/10

London Loop Section 21

So, I reach the end of my London Loop journey. All 24 sections on the 150-mile route have been completed. More or less. I can't say I followed it 100% exactly, especially when some really heavy mud turned up to the party.

Joe Biden

It's starting to look increasingly like Joe Biden will have to pull out of his re-election bid, with reports that Barack Obama, very much the most respected man in the Democratic Party, is privately expressing his doubts over Biden's ability to defeat Donald Trump.

Biden's age is starting to catch up with him. His memory looks like it is beginning to go and he's having problems even reading stuff from an autocue now. His debate performance was by all accounts disastrous; Trump was an open goal and he kicked the ball into the stands. He's been pretty sheltered from direct public scrutiny in terms of exposure to the press.

At the moment, Trump does not have an insurmountable polling lead; he is still inside the margin of error. But the Democrats need to gain in the polls and Biden staying on the ticket will no longer help that, due to the clear questions being raised about his ability to do another four years.

Personally, I have real concerns about his ability to even live another four years if he got re-elected. He's been much better than Trump, but it's clear that he now needs to gracefully retire.

Live-Action LucasArts (Review: 'Phantom Peak: Starlit Summer')

Over the last few years, only partly interrupted by the pandemic, there has been something of a major increase in what is called immersive theatre. Theatrical productions where you are a direct participant in the events and can, in a way, influence them. The pioneers in this world are Punchdrunk, a British theatre company, while Secret Cinema have also made a name for themselves.

So, anyway, I've been to a couple of these experiences. The live-action Crystal Maze Experience that I managed to get my team at work to do as an away day went down very well, even if I ended up getting "volunteered" as Team Captain. The Stranger Things Experience in 2022 also proved to be a lot of fun, even if the ice-cream was more expensive than Karen Wheeler's perms...

On Saturday, I went to Phantom Peak, located in the Canada Water neighbourhood of SE London. I mainly know this place as somewhere I change trains when I have to go somewhere else in South London, so I'd not really seen it above the surface. It's definitely a pretty nice neighbourhood.

I feel I should probably get to the point or Jonas is not going to be impressed.

General Election: Post 3 - The landslide on 34% of the vote

We still have one seat left to declare, but that's not going to make much of a difference. Anyway, here are my thoughts in no particular order:

• My prediction for Labour's majority and vote share was too high; so was that of many others. On a uniform national swing, we would have been looking at a hung parliament.
• I suspect many Tories will be glad to have got 121 seats, but it was still a whooping for the ages. Close to half their vote and over two-thirds of their seats gone. 15 Cabinet Ministers ousted as well, but our Portillo moment has to be Liz Truss losing her seat and leaving her count without a concession speech. Which I was asleep for...
• The Lib Dems actually exceeded my prediction by at least one seat. 71 seats is their best result ever, but their vote share was well below the 22.0% they got in 2005 under Charles Kennedy. Lot of tactical voting there.
• The SNP are likely at 10 seats at best; a massive collapse which probably puts independence on the backburner for at least the rest of the decade.
• Reform got 5 seats, in range of my prediction, along with a vote share that outdid the Lib Dems. Those sort of parties generally do much better under PR as they tend to have their votes widely spread out. A lot of second places though and they helped Labour over the line in many seats by the amount they took off the Tories.
• Corbyn retained his seat against expectations. There were also four more independents who won over Gaza and another won in North Down over opposition to the NI Protocol. The former and Corbyn might want to team up to form their own group, because I believe it would get them short money.
• George Galloway lost his seat and showed even less class than Liz Truss by not even going to the count.
• Four MPs for the Greens; they concentrated their resources on winnable seats.
• Levelling Up remains a thing, sadly. Changing the signs would be expensive.
• Sir Keir is setting expectations early, but he will need to deliver in a reasonable time. The 2025 local elections, which will see protest votes, will be a big challenge.
• The overall future for the Tories really depends on their next leader. They lost a lot of votes over their immigration failures, but someone like Kemi Badenoch will have problems with people who went for Labour or the Lib Dems.

General Election 2024: Post 2 - Prediction

OK, we are now two days away from the election and here are my predictions:

• Labour will get a majority of between 200 to 225 seats, but on a vote share noticeably lower than Blair's 1997 victory. Maybe 38%.
• The Conservatives will stay above the psychologically important 100 seat level, but not by a massive amount. A bunch of Cabinet minsters will lose their seats and we may well have another Portillo Moment.
• The Lib Dems will get between 60 and 70 seats.
• The SNP will no longer be the majority party among Scottish MPs.
• Reform will get 5 to 7 MPs, one of them being Nigel Farage.
• Jeremy Corbyn will not retain his seat as an independent.
• The Greens will have at least two MPs.
• Some special arrangements are going to be needed for "pairing" in the Commons due to the sheer number of Labour MPs.
• There will no longer be a Department of Levelling Up. That brand will be consigned to history.

A typical RTD finale (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.8, "Empire of Death")

• I watched the Tales from the TARDIS for "Pyramids of Mars" this morning before watching the finale; the edited version works even better than the original story and reminds you of just how powerful Sutekh can be.
• Speaking of Tales from the TARDIS - so that's where the memory TARDIS comes from. Hopefully, we can get some more of those next year.
• Ncuti Gatwa is great at fury, rage and sadness, with wonderful facial expressions that don't become something for memes, like Jodie Whittaker's scronch or Claire Danes' ugly cry face. At least not yet.
• Great episode for Millie Gibson as Ruby's main mystery arc is concluded. A very resourceful and smart companion, who I'd be happy to see more of. It did seem that this episode was written so it would allow for Ruby to leave the show permanently at this point.
• This said, the actual reveal of Ruby's mother, while realistic and definitely different, was a bit disappointing. And the stuff with her really went on a bit too long if I'm being honest. RTD likes his family stuff, but he's overdone it this time.
• Also a great return for Mel, historically seen as very much a screamer and ill-served in her original run. Bonnie Langford gets to demonstrate that she can do a lot more than just panto acting.
• Gabriel Woolf's voice has lost none of its power despite nearly fifty years passing and the fact that the actor is now 91 years old. Sutekh is a memorable villain and his ability to take over people at will, even effectively simulate them, makes him a force to be reconned with.
• When the entirety of UNIT got dust-killed, it became clear that there was going to be some big Uno-reverse-card pulled at the end, because RTD has done this sort of stuff before, most notably in the 2007 season finale with "The Year That Never Was".
• If the story's set in 2024, where did Mel get a 75 registration motorbike from?
• The final scene with Mrs Flood in a costume that some of us would recognise is quite interesting indeed. We haven't seen the last of her, I'd imagine.

Conclusion

A very typical RTD finale, for all the good and the bad.

8/10

London Loop Sections 19 and 20

Well, I'd planned to do these two in April as per my previous post, but La Niña had other plans, what with it having been rather wet recently.

When I actually did do it, the British weather just couldn't seem to make its mind up, as it commonly does...

Section 19 (Chingford to Chigwell)

The forecast was for possibly thundery showers (at least from the BBC) and the rain started as I was travelling up to Chingford on the Overground. I decided that I would take things a bit at a time, being prepared to abandon the walk if things got too bad.

This 4.1 mile section took me two hours and five minutes to do, partly due to difficulties finding my way to the next part of the route in Buckhurst Hill. The Forclaz trekking hat I got from Decathlon did wonders at keep the rain and later the sun off my head.

This section, which takes you through the eastern part of Epping Forest, is fairly flat and generally easy walking, but there were some badly overgrown bits that I had difficulty getting through. I also ended up walking along a road as the main route was a quagmire, stepping onto the verge when traffic was approaching.

I reached Chigwell and a light lunch in one of the local gastropubs, during which the rain came down, also drenching the people at Trooping the Colour in Central London.

I gave serious consideration to going home at that point, but when I came out, the rain had stopped and the wind wasn't too bad.

Section 20 (Chigwell to Havering-atte-Bower)

Like I said, the weather was inconsistent. The wind came and went. The rain stopped, then started, then stopped...

This section was supposed to be 6.4 miles, but it ended up being somewhat longer due to the fact I managed to end up badly off in course in Hainault Forest Country Park, followed by the golf course straight after. The mud got quite bad in some sections, but generally only in the bits under tree cover. The rain got quite heavy at times, but my clothing was waterproof and the hat worked as well.

The walk also took me past two massive piles of manure and this rather interesting sign at the Chigwell Row Water Works:

As I reached my home borough of Havering, the rain still fairly heavy and dark clouds in the sky, I did consider aborting at several points, but decided to push on.

You can see all the way to Central London at various points of the Loop, which I might have mentioned before:

As I neared the end of the walk, I entered Havering Country Park, where I had been told that there were some sequoias present - examples of what can grow to be utterly huge trees. I didn't initially see and wondered if I couldn't see the trees for the wood.

I did eventually find them though along a long avenue of trees. They are pretty impressive, but having only been here since they were imported in during Victorian times, they are nowhere near as big as their American relatives:

I finally reached Havering-atte-Bower, 3 hours and twenty minutes after I started.

As you can see by the water droplets on my lens, it was raining again. With the 375 bus to Romford a long time away and the other bus stops at least 20 minutes walk away, I decided to get an Uber home.

At which point it stopped raining.

I did over 33,000 steps and my right leg did not let me forget it all evening.

Just one section left to go now.

Pyramid schemes (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.7, "The Legend of Ruby Sunday")

• Why can't the Doctor just materialise the TARDIS inside UNIT instead of crash-landing into the operations room? Also, putting the operations room next to the helipad doesn't seem like the greatest idea on the planet.
• This Doctor is the only one who could yell "Give me the lovin'!" and not look ridiculous. It's a great performance from Ncuti Gatwa all round here, covering comedy and drama with aplomb.
• Ruby is definitely a good companion. Not one of my favourites, but I've seen considerably worse.
• People do an awful lot of travelling in the space of two hours; does this world not have the massive traffic problems Central London has?
• What happened to the previous UNIT scientific advisor that we saw in "The Giggle"?
• The Time Window just sounds like more handwaving technology, but it's not like that's uncommon for Doctor Who.
• "Probability of trap, 96% and rising" is definitely a great line.
• We still don't know who Ruby's mother is. Perhaps we'll find out next time.
• UNIT does seem a bit overstuffed with characters, especially many that we've not seen long enough on screen to care about.
• "Wrong anagram". Well, that was a twist and a half. Bringing back the original voice actor as well. Now how did he get out of that time corridor?

Conclusion

Well, if you're going to bring back a villain from the past, that's not a bad one to bring back, that's for certain. Even if no-one holds down a pillow this time.

9/10

General Election 2024: Post 1

I must admit that I haven't been following this that closely. Being in full-time employment and with a bunch of other stuff to do has rather limited my time.

It's clear from this that the Tories are going to lose and lose heavily. Going out of power after 14 years would be expected anyway, although their government and this last Parliament in particular have been a shambles of massive proportions. Sunak has been the best PM of the last three and that's damning with faint praise; his early departure from Normandy will be mentioned in his obituary, I'd say.

I don't detect a massive deal of enthusiasm for Labour. Certainly I don't have it myself. I would have liked to see more of a move back towards the EU and a softer tone on immigration. Fiscal circumstances are cited as the reason for a lot of restraint - the Tories have saddled us with some massive debt levels - but I get a feeling the party could be bolder. I also wonder just how many actual votes they'll get.

The Lib Dems will probably do quite well - maybe even recover to their 2000s level of support and seats. But they are not going to get near to power for a good while.

Reform will have a strong turnout, but their votes will be thinly spread. In time, they may replace the Tories as the main right-wing party, which is arguably a case of be careful what you wish for.

In any event, we're going to have some real challenges in the next few years. Starmer may be a bit dull, but dull is better than Boris Johnson by a long chalk.

I can't imagine the Fifth Doctor doing much of that (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.6, "Rogue")

• The pre-titles sequence is particularly great here. Contains some wonderful lines then a memorable death sequence.
• Can we have Kate Herron and Briony Redman back for future episodes? They were great.
• I cannot imagine most of the Doctors dancing to Kylie Minogue, let's for sure. Not only goes Ncuti Gatwa carry off the Regency outfit with aplomb, he's got a great variety of performance in this.
• A very good episode for Ruby Sunday, who finds herself very much with her own plot and bringing what can be described as "Northern" to the whole literal and metaphorical party. Plus she plays a key role in the denouement, something companions rarely do.
• Rogue was great fine. We may well see him again at some point, even if only in audio format.
• They keep killing Indira Varma! The Chuldur shapeshifters were generally a good deal of hammy fun. One is reminded of the Slitheen, but they were doing their stuff far less for giggles.
• The Doctor having a gay relationship would be something new and dramatic, if we'd not already seen it with Thirteen and Yaz. Mind you, this was much better written than those two.
• The Doctor moving on quickly from a relationship that didn't work out reminds me of "The Girl in the Fireplace"... which was eighteen years ago now.
• Just when you think jokes about the TARDIS have all been used up, we get a gag about it resembling a shed. I'm pretty sure there are TARDIS sheds already in some fan's gardens.
• A whole bunch of points in this where I genuinely laughed out loud. Good job.
• Glad to see a tribute to William Russell at the end, a man who had a massive impact on the show's early success.

Conclusion

An excellent episode, although perhaps not the canon-altering one that some said it was.

9/10

D-Day +80 Years

Operation Overlord was a massive operation. 156,000 soldiers and 195,700 naval personnel were involved on the Allied side just on D-Day itself, a number larger than most of the armed forces on the planet today. 

Over two million had arrived in France by the end of August 1944. Some of them would not come home and many of the others would be traumatised for life. D-Day, especially Omaha Beach, would expose a soldier to more carnage in one day than most of us today in a more peaceful world experience in our whole lives.

It would not end on that day either; it would be a long and hard slog until Paris was liberated. You can read my 2014 post in the subject.

Now the Normandy campaign is fading from memory as the veterans pass on - at least two who were planning to attend today's events died before they could get there.

It now falls on us to ensure that their sacrifice is never forgotten and that we work for a world free of tyranny in all forms.

For those who assaulted those five beaches on 6 June 1944, thank you and I hope you are never forgotten.

Bleak Mirror (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.5, "Dot and Bubble")

• This will inevitably be compared with Black Mirror - in fact, RTD came up with the concept before that show was a thing.
• It does start off a bit saccharine and silly, but I think that's part of the point.
• The Doctor and Millie spend most of their episodes on a screen; perhaps this was another thing linked to Ncuti Gatwa's filming for Sex Education?
• How does someone go for multiple days without urinating at all? What do they eat and drink on Finetime?
• Very good performance by Ncuti and Millie in general; especially Fifteen's frustration at the end.
• Lindy Pepper-Bean's general saccharinity makes the twist at the end much more dramatic, but also serves as a reminder of what we all could do in a situation like that.
• This thing is saying an awful lot about being reliant on technology. I went to Kelvedon Hatch bunker today and one would not hold up much hope for an influencer in any nuclear exchange. Except for any survivalist ones, who might have a chance.
• Some of the elements of this episode don't really bear close scrutiny; it's more a parable than anything else, I'd say.
• Having the supposedly vapid pop star actually be most in tune with the situation was a good twist.
• That's a stupid way to operate a door mechanism.
• I'd argue that defeating the genocidal AI might be a priority, Doctor, before it tries it on anyone else.
• The ending is downright bleak and seeing the Doctor turn away, knowing there's nothing he can do, is really quite moving.

Review

Definitely one of the darker episodes I've seen from Russell T Davies, or indeed Doctor Who for quite a long time. It starts a bit silly, but the payoff is worth it.

8/10

Edit: I managed to completely miss the bigotry displayed in this episode by the people of Finetime. Which says a lot about white privilege, I suppose.

Un eithaf rhyfedd (Review: 'Doctor Who', 1.4, "73 Yards")

• The complete lack of a title sequence, even a title card, is pretty rare for the show, but has happened before.
• Ncuti Gatwa is barely in this one. Was there a reason in terms of scheduling that this is so Millie-focussed?
• While this is clearly meant to be a focus on Millie's acting talents, merely sticking her in a pair of glasses doesn't make her a convincing 40-year-old. They did a much better job with Karen Gillan (who is now 36) in "The Girl Who Waited".
• A Welsh village pretending to be backward and superstitious just for the LOLs. I am sure that some other places will do that too.
• Why can the woman be exactly 73 yards away and no more, no less? How does she drive everyone who talks to her to run away scream?
• Nice to see UNIT make an appearance and for their role as a support service for former companions.
• A search for "Mad Jack" found a rather eccentric Regency-era chap who once tried to cure hiccups by setting his shirt on fire.
• I was rather reminded of "Turn Left" in this episode. Not to mention Mr Saxon from Series 3.
• It's a good thing that far-right politicians don't generally tend to be handsome chaps like Roger ap Gwilliam was in this one. The regular ones are a big enough problem already.

Conclusion

This "Doctor-lite" episode has some rather great atmosphere, but also far too little explanation to be truly great.

7/10

Sunday, Munday, Zappy Days! (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.3, "Boom")

• The last bit of Steven Moffat on Doctor Who was the Twelfth Doctor warning his future incarnations about consuming pears. That rather undersells the final speech he did.
• An AI killing someone because they won't recover quickly enough and will consume more resources than the bottom line is happy with is pretty chilling. While something already done in Doctor Who.
• We've definitely heard the name Villengard before - a past Doctor blew up their weapons factories and had them replaced with banana groves.
• Using your own body as the bomb and turning you into a carriable memorial... that's dark.
• Ncuti Gatwa spends most of this episode standing still on a landmine, unable to do much moving and yet delivers his finest performance as the Doctor in the five episodes we've seen in him so far.
• A very good episode for Millie Gibson too as well. I wasn't expecting Ruby to get nearly killed in this one!
• There were definitely things I was thinking about Munday Flynn. Like "she's wearing a lot of eye make-up" but not "that's Varada Sethu!", which didn't occur to me until I watched Unleashed straight after.
• Not 100% sure about the writing for Splice though.
• Susan Twist is going to be in every episode of this, isn't she?
• Definitely an episode where the "power of love" saves the day. Here it just about works.
• Moffat and RTD are both atheists and so take a couple of shots at organised religion. In fairness, they're not 100% wrong in some of their comments. As an Anglican myself, but not a marine of any form, I know my denomination has been pretty dodgy at times. The gag about "thoughts and prayers" also works well - it's become seen as a cheap refrain by politicians unwilling to do anything about gun control in the states to the point it can no longer be done straight.
• The snowflake thing is pretty meaningful, it seems. I thought Clara, but that was actually a leaf.

Conclusion

Steven Moffat has on the whole been a superlative Doctor Who writer - it's rare he's ever written anything bad.

This definitely is an example of one of his best.

9/10

My Millie screams better than your Millie! (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.2, "The Devil's Chord")

• I watched this the day after the first episode - I'd been out for much of the day on Saturday and generally limit myself to one DW episode a day.
• Jinkx Monsoon eats the scenery like there's no tomorrow in this episode. It's like her volume switch is stuck or something. Also, making Maestro non-binary was a nice touch.
• Going into the title sequence via the use of the piano version of the theme is a good one. However, the tune doesn't really work on one instrument, so cutting was wise.
• The impression that I'm getting from the trailers is that Fifteen will be a lot more varied than past Doctors and to be honest, I'm pretty fine with that. He looks good in all of them.
• Ruby Sunday does rather a lot of screaming in this episode and getting dragged across a floor by her feet. It's like Disney are deliberately trying to ape Stranger Things.
• The Beatles singing rubbish songs was probably one of the best ways to get around the fact that they couldn't afford the rights to any of their songs - indeed, the use of "Ticket to Ride" back in 1965 has caused DVD issues.
• The overall concept of someone stealing music from the universe works well.
• Doing a modern-day take on that 1980 scene in "Pyramids of Mars" is probably needed for the modern audience. I was just too busy knowing it was a homage to appreciate it and wondering when the world got destroyed, as the London Eye is present there.
• Would an American audience have heard of Cilla Black?
• Nice call back to the Toymaker.
• Of course, this is the episode that aired on Eurovision night...
• Frankly by the end of this, I was finding it rather silly. The show has a far-out premise, but good writing generally keeps you from seeing the flaws until a while later. Not this one.
• The musical number at the end was really, really quiet unnecessary and I found myself comparing it to "Idiot Control Now" from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and not in a good way.
• Well, Steven Moffat has done next week's. He has done some good stuff over the years - his RTD1 era work was superb.

Conclusion

An interesting opening concept ended up falling apart by the end of the episode, which just got far too silly.

Frankly, I'd have taken five minutes off this one and given it to the first episode.

I hope this is the only RTD clunker of the season.

4/10

Children and animals (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.1, "Space Babies")

• They've added a new bit to the title sequence, making it slightly longer and arguably much more enjoyable.
• The opening was rather frenetic. A bit too frenetic frankly. Not sure that info-dumping all the key bits of the lore in the first ten minutes was really necessary.
• Not overly used to Fifteen yet; he's got a rather different tone. Or rather different way of delivering the same sort of lines that other doctors would.
• Ruby seems decent enough, but I would need more time to get used to her.
• The music was rather too loud and distracting in places.
• The butterfly effect bit was a decent short gag, but ultimately unnecessary.
• The CGI animation of the babies was frankly a bit creepy.
• Abandoning the station, but not being able to turn the baby machine off because it's illegal. I think that's a rather pointed comment about American abortion laws.
• Some rather clever science fiction tropes here.
• Ah, the Nannie filter... it's the sort of humour this show loves to do.
• Also, you're not a companion these days until you've been been gunged or soaked it seems.
• And RTD still hasn't outgrown toilet humour gags.

Conclusion

An enjoyable story, but still somewhat flawed. Could have done with being a bit longer to let some bits breathe.

8/10

I feel sorry for the scenery (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.14, "Whom Gods Destroy")

As a general rule, if someone is bursting into laughter at Star Trek because of how ridiculous it is, then it's clearly not a good episode. This one would frankly be really suited to be accompanied by Emily Connor, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot.

• Of course the asylum planet is called Elba.
• Considering that mental illness at the time included homosexuality and some people still think it's one, I'm not sure I'd want an instant cure to all mental illness. It also appears to not have worked that well as I am sure there are plenty of crazy people in Lower Decks. 
• Most insane people don't cackle to the best of my knowledge.
• The chess problem was a good bit of thinking by the Enterprise crew.
• There is a massive amount of hamming it up in this episode, by no means limited to Bill Shatner, although he does have his moments. Steve Ihnat (who died tragically young aged just 37) as Garth of Izar, eats a load of scenery in particular, along with Yvonne Craig.
• Speaking of Yvonne Craig, best known for playing Batgirl in the 1960s Batman series, her character is the sort of "Green Skinned Space Babe" that most people think of when imagining TOS, complete with another skimpy costume from the dirty mind of William Ware Theiss. D'Vana Tendi would not be impressed.
• Instant cellular metamorphosis? Really, that's just too silly even for Star Trek.
• Garth of Izar pretending to be Spock is clever though.
• Real power derives from the masses, not some farcical dining room ceremony!
• An explosive that can be set off by dropping it isn't really a very practical explosive. "Hoist by his own petard" comes to mind.
• The BBC skipped this episode in re-runs until the early 1990s because of the "torture" - I've seen much worse in 1970s Doctor Who.

Conclusion

Leonard Nimoy complained at length about the script for this and I can see why. This like many a work featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a few script passes away from actually being good.

But it really isn't. 

3/10

Easter 2024

When someone has been a Christian for a while, it's not always easy to find something new to cover in the Easter story.

But there is still stuff to find. The Palm Sunday service last week mentioned how Jesus was putting his own twist on the traditional triumphant processions of leaders then and now; coming in on a much more humble animal to symbolise the true way of doing kingship.

Also, I recently learned how the fact the son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son having to feed the pigs was the lowest job he could get - remember pigs are unclean in Judaism.

Jesus came to free us from the heavenly consequences of our sin, although that doesn't necessarily mean getting off scot-free on earth. Not by a long chalk in some cases. We are still expected to act in a just and right way, which can mean owning up to our mistakes sometimes. Regardless of how many mistakes we make though, he still loves us. 

Happy Easter everyone.

So, this 15-year-old girl puts on a proton pack... (Review: 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire')

I saw the new film yesterday at a rather different venue to my usual one - the Vue in Leicester Square, which has handprints of some famous actors at the entrance and a time capsule not to be opened until 2093.

The screen was much smaller than the ones in Romford, but all the chairs reclined.

Anyway, my comments on the film:

• Mckenna Grace is again the MVP, as she was in Afterlife. She ends up on her own arc for much of the movie as Phoebe's forcibly benched on the grounds that she is, well, 15. However, she gets to demonstrate the fact that she's a real genius several times, including in the third act. Ghost Corps see Phoebe as the main character going forward and they're not mistaken in that choice.
• Emily Alyn Lind's character is entirely absent from the trailers, but plays a vital role in the overall story.
• Finn Wolfhard isn't frankly one of my favourite actors and I'm not really keen on Trevor Spengler in general. His most notable moment is an encounter with Slimer and that's saying something.
• Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon have a good double act going, with his funny man to her straight woman. The "Busting makes me feel good" bit in the trailers is part of a longer and actually pretty good gag.
• The old gang get some good material to work with, although Venkman doesn't really do all that much in the picture. Winston Zeddemore's overall leadership role works very well and I'd be happy to see him in other movies.
• Kumail Nanjiani as Nadeem is arguably the comedy heart of the movie, with some great gags involving him, especially one bit in the climax.
• Walter Peck is back and is a rather cartoonish foil for the Ghostbusters. The main villain of the piece is far more chilling, pun intended.
• The visual effects look great throughout, although they might have driven the movie's budget up beyond the point it can be profitable.
• The movie doesn't outstay its welcome, although there are some pacing issues in the first half with the climax somewhat rushed. The fact they had to do principal photography with the writers on strike - before the actors walked out themselves - meant that the opportunity The trailers are pretty misleading, but when are they not?
• The 1984 score makes several welcome appearances in this movie.
• The ending is a nice call back to the original movie too.

Conclusion

A highly enjoyable popcorn movie, or whatever your choice of foodstuff is, because I don't eat popcorn. It's not got the greatest plot in the history of movies, but does everything have to?

8/10

Persian Incursion Playthrough Notes

 As promised, please see my playthrough notes here.

Some pages are missing as I forgot to save the scan and others didn't scan very well. Sorry for that.

Insert Kai Pun Here (Review: 'The Karate Kid', 1984)

Watched this on Netflix over the last three days; that streamer of course is responsible for Cobra Kai, one of their longest-running shows at six seasons. Although some wags may remark that getting a second season is long-running for Netflix.

Anywhere, my thoughts on a very 80s movie:

• It takes 41 hours of non-stop driving to get from Newark in New Jersey to Reseda in California. How long would the journey take with all the stops in a car that needs jump-starting on several occasions.
• As is common with many a movie teen, Ralph Macchio was in his early 20s when he did this movie. He manages to look convincingly younger in this, demonstrating the right sort of 'I know more than you, old man' attitude that works for a coming of age piece like this. You do sympathise with him and want him to be happy. He's mentioned in Stranger Things as someone Max Mayfield finds to be hot and I can see why.
• Speaking of attractive people... Elisabeth Shue as Ali. Now I'm more familiar with the older Ms. Shue from her role in the latter seasons of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, but I can see that she must have been popular among certain female-liking types in the 1980s. The term "girl next door" springs quickly and she's definitely got the outfits for it.
• Mr. Miyagi. Now this is a case of "it's trope-y because it wrote the tropes". I'm sure I've seen quite a few characters like him over the years. The broken English, Japanese accent stuff definitely would not fly in this day and age, but the character is more than just a stereotype; he's got a sad backstory involving a darker side of American history not really explored at that point.
• "Wax On, Wax Off". Having not seen this movie before, I figured there was some sort of point to that, but I wouldn't have waited for four days before asking what it actually was.
• My experience with Asian martial arts consists of precisely one judo lesson, but they make the rules fairly clear here. Although my own research seems to suggest under-18s don't get black belts. Not these days at any rate.
• However, I did do fencing at university. The earlier fights in the tournament are over quickly and much more realistic for actual combat. The final showdown... well, that's clearly choreographed.
• Bullies in 1980s movies are particularly creative in their cruelty, while simultaneous being as dumb as a box of rocks. Hey, it comes with the genre.
• Cobra Kai do not seem as a whole to be very nice people, but we get some depth near the end, where they're reluctant to follow instructions from their sensei.
• I see Bill Conti did the music for this - he also did the Rocky series and the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, one of Moore's better movies. It's good, but I can't say it's memorable, bar some of the other songs.

Conclusion

A pretty enjoyable slice of pure 1980s teenage movie with some good performances and generally well-made.

8/10

London Loop Section 18

Or [audible squelching], as it would appear on a Netflix show.

Yesterday, I made my way to Enfield Lock station in the north of London, intending to cover Sections 18 and 19 of the London Loop. This would entail a walk to Chingford, then another one from there to Chigwell. About 9.5 miles.

Now it started off reasonably OK, apart from getting rather lost on the first bit of the walk before I realised I'd turned off one turn too early.

I reached Enfield Lock, not the biggest thing to name an area after by a long chalk.

I crossed over the River Lee Flood Relief Channel, which marks the boundary between the London Borough of Enfield and Epping Forest, which isn't in London.

So far, so good. Then I crossed Sewardstone Road and the whole thing went to pot. Or rather to mud. The next field I had to cross was very muddy and the grass itself squelched under my boots as I walked along. It hadn't rained that day, but a bunch of rain from previous days and weeks had saturated the ground.

Things didn't get much better condition-wise from there. Several times I was having to step across muddy puddles that were deep enough that you couldn't see the bottom and came dangerously close to the liquid mud ending up inside my boots. They needed extensive cleaning when I got home.

I passed Gilwell Park, home of the Scout Association (I went there when I was in Cubs) and then got some great views towards Central London from Yates Meadow.

I eventually reached Chingford, back in the London Borough of Waltham Forest and had lunch in the Holly Trail Café before making a start on Section 19, hoping things would get better.

I got as far as the Butler's Retreat and seeing the path ahead was still a quagmire, my heart was no longer in it. I wasn't prepared to spend at least two more hours trudging through thick mud, especially as the weather was turning.

So, after a look round the Visitor Centre and the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge (that the Tudor monarch probably never personally used), I headed for home.

I plan to do the next two stages - getting me to Havering-atte-Bower - at some point in April, keeping a careful eye on the weather as usually. Hopefully be less muddy then... 

Don't mind me. I'm just here for the screaming British woman (Review: 'Damsel')

Millie Bobby Brown is very much one of the main attractions of Netflix. At least they seem to think so, considering that they make big films centred around her, with The Electric State coming next.

Now, I wouldn't call myself a massive fan of the woman in Stranger Things (I prefer other characters in that), but she's pretty charming in Enola Holmes and when I saw this movie was coming out, I decided that there are worse ways to spend two commutes. I watched this on my tablet, so I didn't notice the CGI issues.

So anyway, my thoughts on this:

• The movie takes rather a long time to get going. It's about thirty minutes before Elodie is yeeted into the dragon pit.
• MBB is admittedly one of the common type of "slightly haughty posh British actresses"; or that's the sort of roles she plays outside of Stranger Things. Playing a noble lady therefore comes across as fine, but without a great dialogue coach, she's not going to pass as a shop assistant from Romford, unlike say Michelle Dockery.
• Elodie screams a lot. Like seriously a lot. In fairness, much of it is in circumstances where screaming is to be expected, but MBB is definitely getting the reputation as a scream queen out of this. The actress has a wonderfully expressive face and can do a range of emotions very well; there's a good overall progression to her arc in this movie. A movie openly feminist and released on International Women's Day to boot.
• Another aspect is that this is basically "Millie Bobby Brown does a striptease". Well, part of one. Her dress gets progressively torn to shreds over the course of the movie and by the end, she's gone from "royal ball" to "Romford nightclub and having fallen down the escalator at the Brewery". She gets some fairly nasty injuries, but most of them are healed and nothing ends up detracting from her beauty at the end of it.
• There's some deep horror stuff in all of this, because Elodie isn't the first young woman to have been fed to this particular dragon by a long chalk.
• The plot is a pretty good one, although some of the character motivations at the end are a bit odd and the conclusion of the story leaves some big questions open about the future.
• Shohreh Aghdashloo has exactly the right sort of voice you'd want for a dragon; reminding me of the late Sir John Hurt in Merlin.
• Ray Winstone does Ray Winstone, just Ray Winstone with a castle. Now, I say that Pegasus was a one-trick pony, but I get a feeling that he was slightly miscast in this one.
• Robin Wright as an evil queen is arguably the best of the rest of the cast; one notes that one of her early roles was of course in The Princess Bride. None of the others really stand out.
• One can't help but notice the resemblance in names between "Elodie" and "Eleven". No-one makes an "El-o-die" pun, which is a pity.

Conclusion

A decent enough film, but not a true great. Definitely saved by Millie Bobby Brown.

7/10

Scanning old material

I've been scanning some of my old notes and am currently finishing off the scan of my Persian Incursion playthrough that I did in 2012-2013. If you look in the November 2012 posts, that's where it starts

The raw PDF will be uploaded here shortly - minus 10 pages I somehow failed to save before throwing the originals away.

Not Skimping on the Skimpy (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.13, "Elaan of Troyius")

• Biochemical stuff making a woman irresistible to men? I've seen that sort of thing several times before. It's also date rape.
• Elaan wears no less than four revealing outfits in this episode. Some of the other outfits are typical Trek silly ones.
• Diplomacy is about being nice to people that you utterly despise. Jay Robinson does a great job as Petri in this regard, reminding me of the late Alan Rickman.
• Arranged marriages are inherently dubious. That should have been explored in more depth and would have been today.
• France Nuyen, who plays Elaan here worked with William Shatner four times, including on stage in The World of Suzie Wong in 1958-59, where they both won awards.
• I hadn't noticed this until I saw it discussed on Memory Alpha, but the Dragon Lady stereotype is in full force here - with a mixed heritage actress seemingly using brown make-up to make her skin darker.
• This marks the first appearance of the D7 battle cruiser in Klingon use; it previously featured in  "The Enterprise Incident" (filmed after this but aired earlier) in Romulan service.
• Engineering clearly isn't very well guarded. One red shirt, who swiftly ends up with a broken neck.
• We're in full "sneaky Russians" mode with the Klingons here. By having the Enterprise blow up and killing Elaan, they'll trigger a war and be able to take over the ruins.
• William Shatner does a very strong performance here, with subtle emotional performances and a strong commanding moment in the climax.

Conclusion

Some of the action in this is pretty good. Some of the gender and ethnic politics less so.

5/10

King Charles III diagnosed with cancer

 I wish His Majesty all the best at this difficult time for him and his family.

Space Saw (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.12, "The Empath")

I've never actually seen any of the Saw movies, by the way. Anyway:

• How did the record tape get on the table in the first place when the two people involved were transported away?
• This was one of the four TOS cases where someone sent in a script unsolicited and it actually got made into an episode. I wasn't aware you could actually do that!
• Of course, the lifeform is female!
• Clearly saving on the set construction costs here with the minimalist set construction more akin to a theatrical production. I'm reminded of "Spectre of the Gun", which did similar.
• That's a 1960s haircut if ever I've seen one.
• Having walked ten kilometres today, I can tell you that six is not a short distance to walk.
• Of course, Kirk's shirt comes off again! But McCoy's one gets damaged as well.
• This is all rather Swan Lake with the balletic style movements at times. Not that I've ever seen that.
• The Vians are torturing people. In fact, the BBC didn't air this in the original run and not at all until 1994, although Sky One aired shortly before that.
• There's some very good shots here with injuries fading in and out; remember this was pre-CGI.

Conclusion

An alright episode, but not a great one. Clearly a budget saver.

7/10

A superb theatrical experience (Review: 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow')

Went to see this at the Phoenix Theatre today. 

Definitely the most spectacular thing I have ever seen in an actual theatre that does plays; there's some brilliant effects more akin to an actual episode of the television show, where it's hard to tell what's live and what's been pre-recorded.

The cast are great; remember this is a mostly British cast doing American accents. In particular, the Oliver-nominated Isabella Pappas as Joyce and Louis McCartney as Henry Creel stand out.

The runtime is very long, but there's an awful lot of plot covered during it and it definitely sets up Season 5 very well.

Definitely worth £75, although bring your own cold drinks because they're very expensive in the theatre.

10/10