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The Unlimited Rice Pudding of Sylvester McCoy.

28/8/2011

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The Seventh Doctor's original costume.
I can't condone this foolishness, but then love has never been known for its rationality.
-The Doctor, Delta and the Bannermen Part 3.


Over the last couple of weeks I've had an enjoyable hour or so every day listening to Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (despite it being the launch of a bit of a rant on my part it's still well worth a listen HERE, though new episodes end this coming Monday, the same time as the Fringe itself finishes oddly enough). The format's simple enough, every day nationally known comedian and 90's TV star Herring chats with a fellow comedian up in Edinburgh for the Fringe, whilst another, newer comedian does five minutes of their routine to promote their own show. And on the last Tuesday of the run the five minute spot was taken by a fellow I'd never heard off before named Steven Gribbin who introduced himself by saying he was going to do a comedy song combining his love of Doctor Who and Morrissey.

Now obviously, as a massive Doctor Who fan I was expecting a good chuckle from this. And who knows, if I knew anything about Morrissey perhaps his song would have been funny. But what got me thinking (and inspired this blog post), was him starting off by slagging off Sylvester McCoy, telling a (hopefully made up for comic effect as it makes Gribbin sound like a cock) story of going up to McCoy whilst drunk and shouting “YOU RUINED DOCTOR WHO” at him. A gag that played to pretty much silence from the audience, presumably as a result of them being much like the rest of the British public in not being entirely sure who was Doctor Who between “The One With the Scarf” and “The One With the Ears”.



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Discworld Readthrough Part 2: The Dysk is But a Stage.

19/8/2011

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Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.

That's the tag-line on the back cover of my copy of the fourth Discworld novel, Mort. And it instantly tells you why this, out of all the books, is the one Hollywood has been chasing for years. There can't be many better one line pitches.

Sadly, all sorts of wacky legal issues and stock Hollywood executive incompetence (of the sort you expect they do on purpose so that frustrated writers have something to talk about, the famous comment in relation to Mort was “Can we lose the Death angle?”) means not only has it not happened, it's unlikely ever to see the light of day. At least not whilst Pratchett is alive and able to object, I suspect once he's passed on it will all go Douglas Adams and we'll have a mediocre film backed up with “No, really, Terry would have loved it” comments from those involved.


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Doctor Who: 149 Robophobia. Big Finish Review [Spoilers]

11/8/2011

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With the 150th play looming, this month the usual Big Finish trilogy format takes a slight twist for the first time since it was introduced. Instead of three plays in a row with a specific Doctor and companions, we get this month's Sylvester McCoy story, followed by a special Colin Baker release (of which you'll read more next month) before the rest of the McCoy trilogy concludes with the next two releases.

Also, for the first time in a long time, there's been no promotion of an overall arch or storyline across the plays. There's not even any companions, just the Doctor alone. There are a couple of hints in the play itself of Something Bigger tm (the Tardis is black and the wording above the door is slightly different), but apart from that throwaway line Robophobia is, in terms of relation to other Big Finish plays, entirely standalone.


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Many Happy Returns of Optimus Prime

5/8/2011

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The Original UK Video Release.
Peter Cullen, icon to generations of children even if they've never known his face, turned 70 at the end of July. And what better way to celebrate than looking back at a shinning moment for his most iconic role (oh come on, Eeyore is a distant second place. Stop looking at me like that you crazy Winnie The Pooh fans), as he laughs in the face of death, and pokes a giant metal finger in the eye of cancellation- if only for another three episodes- as the titular character in The Return of Optimus Prime.

A lot of
Transformers fans will likely find it a bit odd I've chosen this particular episode to talk about as an Optimus Prime highlight. They'd probably point in the direction of Dark Awakening, widely regarded as the best episode of the original cartoon, or War Dawn, Prime's secret origin. The Return of Optimus Prime is generally seen as being a bit crap. But the reason why I hold this particular 44 minutes of television so closely to my heart can be seen in the picture to the left, the UK video release.

It will be hard for youngsters growing up in a world where all you have to do is wait six months to buy a film to keep forever on a shiny futuristic disc for less than the cost of a cinema ticket (if they even bother to pay at all of course) how important the video rental market was back in the 80's and 90's. Very few people had insanely massive VHS collections, with them generally never costing less than a tenner even when reduced and them being so much larger and chunkier than DVD's few had the money or the space. So the local video library was a God send here in the UK, especially for parents with kids. Many an hour of silence was brought by grateful parents by renting a tape of their favourite show, with the same tapes often being rented several times over the years (to the point where it would actually have worked out cheaper to have brought a copy, but hey ho).


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