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.