I realised that I didn't actually do a review for "Joy to the World". Not that it really matters.
This may well be the last season of Doctor Who we get for a good while; Disney has yet to make a decision on funding further seasons and even if they greenlight more episodes, it will be unlikely we'll get anything before 2027.
Spoilers after the cut.
I would like to apologise to the people on the District Line at my out-loud reaction to one particular moment in this movie. Sorry for the audible reaction. I will try not to do it again.
I am pretty sure that I did not imagine, when I sat down to watch "Rose" a few days after it aired (I was on holiday at the time) that the show would still be going 20 years later, with I believe 188 episodes having aired since then, not counting Children in Need stuff.
It's been through some good times, it's been through some bad times. We've got a critical new season ahead of us that will probably make the difference between the show carrying on for a few more years and a quick end; Disney will want some good ratings for their money.
But at least we have it. At the moment, many of us really need some form of distraction from the darkness seemingly coming back in much of the world.
Happy anniversary!
Having completed the London Loop last year (see my previous posts), I am now moving onto the Capital Ring, another "circular" footpath that covers inner London.
This has a lot more tower blocks and a lot fewer cows, but the views can still be very good on a clear day - I did this on Thursday 20 March, the first warm day we've had all year.
I've also made an investment in my walking; as easy access to various bits of equipment is handy in this, I acquired an old crime scene investigator vest from a military surplus place near where I live. It also has an inbuilt hood, although I didn't need it.
Section 1 starts from the southern end of the Woolwich foot tunnel, then after a while beside the Thames, heads south/south-east, going through three parks, Woolwich Common and four woods stopping just over the A2.
Counting the station links, it's about 7.2 miles, although I might have done a bit more due to wrong turnings.
Much of the route is on pavement or properly surfaced paths, although it gets bit more unsurfaced near the end. Even for a Thursday, there were plenty of people about, including dog walkers; you're definitely not in the sticks like with much of the London Loop. There's even a somewhat pongy industrial estate once you come off the river; I don't know how many of those I'll encounter on my way.
One notable area on the walk is Severndroog Castle, a Gothic "folly" on Shooter's Hill, built in memory of a British admiral of the East India Company who won a victory for them against the Maratha Navy in 1756. There is a viewing platform, but it's only open on Sundays.
I might do Section 2 on Good Friday or Easter Monday; other things depending. But I will definitely be doing it.
There are sensible solutions to the Israel-Palestine situation. Unfortunately, there are few sensible people on any position of political power in the region.
It is clear that Israel never intended to proceed to stage two of the ceasefire; withdrawing from Gaza is a security gamble for them and in any event, Netanyahu is completely opposed to any Palestinian state. So is the US, with Donald Trump's crime against humanity that would be the Gaza Plan being seemingly official policy for both that country and Israel. Israel has also blocked all aid to Gaza, itself a war crime. Soon hunger is going to become a serious problem for that territory and you can hardly put bread in a rocket, can you? Israel cannot ultimately defeat the Palestinians without a huge number of deaths, some of which will be on its own side and becoming a pariah state.
Hamas is refusing to release the hostages because it is using them as leverage to prevent further Israeli attacks... which is causing further Israeli attacks. They seem to bent on fighting a war that is frankly unwinnable and they should never have started in the first place. They're not firing rockets at this stage - one wonders how many they actually have left.
The Palestinian Authority is worse than useless - not trusted by either Hamas or Israel.
So, the hostages remain in place. Possibly only 24 are alive. How many will survive this next stage? Indeed, how many Gazans will be alive?
There is a character in this episode called Tongo. He might as well be called Torgo, as this is arguably the most riffable episode of Star Trek I've yet come across.
That means it's awful in a funny way. Well, somewhat.
It feels longer in a way to me. I imagine it must feel like an entirety for those involved in one war or the other, including the refugees that I know are in my area.
I don't think anyone wants this war to go on; Ukraine just wants a peace that will keep its country secure in the long-term, because it seems that Putin wants at the least a client state and at most to end Ukrainian independence. They might want to do a mineral deal, but not at the price of becoming an American vassal.
Trump has done vast damage to European security in his first month in office. It appears that we will now have to defend Europe from Russia largely on our own, with implications for public spending in other areas, not to mention taxation.
In any event, it seems Putin is not willing to compromise on anything meaningful and produce a peace deal that Ukraine should accept, so I guess the suffering will continue on both sides for a while longer sadly. Many more people will die or suffer life-changing injuries because one man wants to recreate an empire, regardless of cost.
I just wish more people would accept that, on both far-right and far-left.
So, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have handed over the reigns of the Bond franchise to Amazon after 30 years in charge of it.
To be frank, it wasn't in a great place. The last film was in 2021 and only because it was delayed in release a year because of Covid.
The reaction to this change has been one of concern. Mainly about it turning into the MCU or the Star Wars franchise with oversaturation. Along with a lot of jokes. Even I've done a few and I'll do a lot more.
A lot will depend on the creative personnel. There are a lot of Bond fans in the business; some of them actually very good creatives. What we need is a highly competent head honcho with good ideas and a keen eye for picking talent. The studio needs to give them a decent enough rope, but not too much - a director can go too far and this is not a charity.
Of course, we need a good Bond. A sort of Brosnan-type is my personal preference for the character; humour and darkness in the right mix.
As for spin-offs, I'm fine with one or two, but let's not overdo it, shall we?
Anyway, it's the end of an era in more ways than one. Bond has a new boss and he'll have to adjust to that reality.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to watch.
Don't mind me, I'm just here for the... What the actual... Get your hands off her, you [expletive deleted]!
This review contains spoilers for this film and all four seasons of Stranger Things aired to date. When Sadie Sink leads a movie, some things are inevitable.
In a rather fun coincidence, the trailer for O'Dessa dropped on the same day I started watching this.
So, I kind of forgot this person was in this... and of course, they are a really good actor to boot.
Alternative titles are "Let's Hire Hitler", "I'd happily kill all of these except the haughty Starfleet brunette", "Alias but in the Star Trek universe and awful" and "There are better ways to spend a commute".
One has to remember that while Star Trek could be remarkably progressive, it was a product of the 1960s and so could be very much of its time. A time when women could be paid less than men and viewed as the "weaker sex".
People, the prosecution presents Exhibit A.
Five days before Donald Trump becomes President, in a move reminiscent of the ending of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1981, a ceasefire agreement has been reached.
15 months of war has resulted in a victory for neither side, but the Palestinians have lost far more. Hamas is a decimated force with much of its structure dead, seriously injured or captured. Hezbollah has gone the same way. The fall of the Assad regime has eliminated a major weapons supply route for both forces and Iran is much weakened.
Israel has badly damaged its international reputation. While it may not have sought to commit genocide, it has clearly committed war crimes in its quest to destroy Hamas and it is likely that only pressure from the international community stopped it from doing far more.
Palestinian extremism has become ingrained in their society by nearly 80 years of conflict and Israel isn't a great deal better; this war has probably hardened attitudes on both sides.
Unless some cooler heads enter the scene, there may well be another throw-down in a few years and I can't see that ending any better for the Palestinians if they're stupid enough to try that.
Of course, it could resume sooner if this ceasefire doesn't hold. The Palestinians should not give the extremists in the Israeli political world a chance to say "told you so".
In any event, a lot of people have suffered and died. For rather little. Thus is often the case for war.
In this episode, another passenger aircraft gets destroyed by a piece of crazy science gone wrong as a man literally turns into a beast while in the toilet. Insert joke about EasyJet here.
I could go a full analysis of all the various factors that led to Trump's narrow win in November, which shouldn't really have been the surprise that it was.
However, it's probably best to keep things fairly brief as others will have done far more than this. There are two main reasons for Harris losing.
Firstly, she was basically an unpopular incumbent in an economy many felt was performing poorly and so they voted for a change of government. Something happening in a good many countries at the moment. It is quite possible that if Trump mucks up the economy with his tariffs etc. that the Democrats will sweep back in come 2028.
Secondly, the left in general has become quite seriously out of touch with ordinary voters. Some frankly view anyone who would vote for Trump as beneath contempt, deserving of the pain that is about to come their way. They will not even associate with them socially, which means that they are rather unlikely to convert them or even present them with an alternative to the right-wing distortions that Elon Musk is happily amplifying right now. Also, they don't really look like "working class" people anymore. Who is the most working-class person in the government right now? Probably Angela Rayner.
Trumpism may collapse from its own internal contradictions, but the left needs to get its act together. It is no longer guaranteed the Latino vote or the working class vote; the black vote is better for them, but that could go with the right Republican candidate.
There is a decent chance, as two other politicians observed the other day - and it's happened in other countries with Thatcher and Merkel - that the first Madame President will be of the elephant persuasion rather than the donkey.
My blog last year totalled a respectable 47 posts - not my biggest number, but not my smallest. Most of those were reviews of one form or another.
I'll definitely be doing more of those, but I also plan to cover some other stuff - it's going to be a rather "interesting" year, I'd say.
