Gaza ceasefire

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.

'Fringe' 1.13, "The Transformation"

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.

The Return of Donald Trump

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.

2025 Plans

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.

'Fringe' 1.12, "The No Brainer"

It's been eight years since I watched an episode of this show. Barack Obama was President, David Cameron was Prime Minister, Brexit hadn't been voted on and I had never heard of The Last of Us. We have also lost Lance Reddick to heart disease.

Anyway, I intend to resume watching this, especially as I am approaching the end of Star Trek with a plan for a fortnightly post.

As this show is from the same production company as Alias and shares a bunch of behind the scenes personnel - such as Shauna Duggins, who did some of the stunt doubling for Anna Torv here, comparisons between the two are inevitable.

Sydney Bristow and Olivia Dunham could have a fascinating lunch together.

Anyway, this one involves people's brains liquefying after they click on a pop-up and watch some weird video. In 2009, most of us already knew not to engage with strange pop-ups...

Nice View, Shame about the Air Conditioning (Review: 'Doctor Who' 2024 Christmas Special, "Joy to the World")

I wasn't able to watch this on Christmas Day due to a family gathering, but I managed to avoid any major spoilers for this. I haven't been on Gallifrey Base to discuss this episode, so I don't know what others thought of this.

Anyway, here we go:

• I imagine that pumpkin latte would have gone rather cold by the time the Doctor found Joy.
• Ncuti Gatwa has now settled into the role, with a great line in empathy and reassurance, but I found his blue-tinted buzz cut rather distracting at time.
• Nicola Coughlan just didn't work for me. Not that I've watched Derry Girls but she seemed a little one-note and flat for me. Not helping was her rather big coat, which rather reducing her ability to express herself through body language. It must have been uncomfortable too.
• The Doctor has spent a lot of time living days in order - including within the last few years of this show's run. Steven Moffat, why did you put that line in like that? You should know better.
• Moffat's hanging of a lampshade on the whole bootstrap paradox thing was OK, but he's done that idea to death now.
• Villengard make a good faceless corporate villain, although their whole plot in this was rather convoluted.
• They seem to have hired rather a lot of extras for this... which seems like a waste of money that have been spent on some bigger sets.
• Surprised the Doctor didn't have more of a go at the Time Hotel as a concept, as that sort of thing i
• The resolution of the dinosaur situation that was the ending of one of the preview clips was a bit of a cop out.
• Moffat basically lets everyone live here. Another one of his common shticks. Probably needed for a Christmas episode, but he's killed in the past in them.
• If Mary Whitehouse was still with us, I can only imagine her reaction to the ending of the episode. I can't say I was overly impressed myself.

Conclusion

Ncuti Gatwa saves this from being a clunker, but it's not exactly a great episode and definitely one of Steven Moffat's weaker ones.

6/10

Christmas 2024

I am probably in danger of repeating myself here, but Jesus gives me something to look forward to. In a world where justice seems far away for many, with widespread war and poverty, I know that one day - I do not know when - things will get better.

One day, Jesus will return, having already done so much good from his first visit, arriving as a humble baby in Bethlehem just over 2,000 years ago. Tears will stop, there will be no poverty or illness or fear. The righteous will be rewarded and those who willingly distance themselves from God will get their own rather different reward.

That is what keeps me going and stops me despairing at the news.

Merry Christmas to all my readers.