It's White Out There

Who would have thought? A straight to DVD movie featuring Kate Beckinsale! At least, I only saw it advertised at a local rental store, certainly don't recall seeing it anywhere near the theatre...

And, having watched it, have to say that was a wise choice of the production company, 'cos this movie blows. With a lot of snow, but even without it. Thrill as we watch them try to get a clip off a line and onto another one, not just once, but many, many, many times! Watch as Kate suffers a plot driven flashback every five minutes! No-one will be seated during the last twenty minutes after the movie ends! (By which, I mean the movie ends, but keeps going for twenty minutes with nothing happening! I know Lord of the Rings set the record, but no need to try to outdo it.)

The plot is that something happened and then we spend an hour finding out it wasn't worth noticing and some people die. The exciting thing is that it is set at the South Pole so it's got them trapped by snow every other scene and tension rises as the bad guy has magic 'get out of any trap' powers. Did that sound incoherent enough, 'cos the movie just wasn't interesting enough to bother keeping track of what was happening.

Actors worth noting... well, there's Kate, and yes she does strip down, but otherwise is wrapped up in heavy coats so no skin tight leather for her. Tom Skerritt also turns up, but isn't on screen enough. And... meh...

I think you might be able to guess, but I do not recommend this film. Just plain dull.

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War on Scales 8

We are in the town of Overtown, and meet up with some compatriots I have encountered before, a mercenary who is a Genasi swordmage, and a fellow Melora follower Mafic the Shifter Monk. While we are relaxing, we are rudely yanked out to face the courts and the charge that we stole the Warforged, which is clearly the property of some conglomeration or another. Clearly we are not, and epouse our views to this regard. The judges agree, and we are free to go, and I'm sure that plot will never come back to haunt us.

While we are traipsing back from that, we are set upon by some thugs who want some key we found back in the Vents. We tell them we have no idea what they are talking about as we proceed to beat the crap out them. Well, actually, the rest of the party beat the crap out of them as the bad guys beat the crap out of me! Still, we prevail and have a hostage for our troubles. A hostage that has apparently been in this situation before and says we can return him for 1000 gold... sold! Although the gold ain't turning up quickly...

We decide to look into this thug, Mordo or something, a dark creepling beastie, and spend the next few days looking for information about him. And slowly uncovering it. By Melora's leafy twigs, that's a long time... [Actual role playing! Well, close to it, a big skill challenge, but one that drags on and on, and we get information that we either don't care about or reiterates the same point over and over. Arms dealings. Morty. Active bad guy (at least, active until the previous adventure where we kyboshed his plans). Oi.] We eventually track him into the area of the Nine Bells and a tavern where he used to stay. Sighing at the lengths to get to this point, we head on in...

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DW: Code of the Krillitanes

Before Tennant disappeared, they tried to keep his memory alive by providing one more book: Code of the Krillitanes by Justin Richards.

This is one of the Quick Reads, and this was a quick read. In fact, it was a re-read in some ways. Krillitane oil infused chips... I mean crisps. Did Justin just give us the novelisation of School Reunion? Well, no, believe it or not School Reunion had more plot than this. We get the crisps, we get the home of the crisps, and we get a final showdown or two... and we're done! Definitely plot-lite-lite here.

This does also have the negative aspect of everyone needing to behave in stupid ways in order to keep things moving along. The bad guys need to exposit their motivation, and the answer needs to be quick and simple, as we are basically presented with "tell don't show".

Frankly, if you miss this book, you won't miss this book.

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DW 501: The Eleventh Hour

Boo-yah! Now that's an opening episode! Go Matt Smith! Some Moffatisms we could have avoided... but, it's back!

Lots of wonderful moments here. We saw that Amy Pool will be a police officer... but the expectation is turned on its head! Not a standard companion introduction, but did we ONCE AGAIN need to have the Doctor visit a young girl and then come back into her life while she's fetishised him during the intervening time? At least she didn't stick her tongue down her throat, but from the looks of some of the trailers that isn't far off.

Amy Pool is a good companion, willing to stand for herself and take charge, even if she isn't a police officer (I'm sure I'm not the only who wanted to see her in the other outfits she had). On the other hand, the men in her life seem rather wet, so being the dominant one wouldn't have been hard. As for who she was marrying... hopefully someone else as the obvious choice of Rory is just a depressing nobody of a person.

The plot wasn't that substantial, but it didn't need to be, this was all about the Doctor and Amy. Lots of action, running around, simple monster to battle against, and the Doctor is being too new to properly function. (Not sure how much I want to see that "focus... focus... focus..." sequence again.) And yet, notice that no-one died? Most unusual. Oh, and we have an arc! Definitely want to see what happens with that!

Still, Matt Smith, instantly wonderful. So easily able to accept him as the Doctor, he just takes the lead in any scene he is in. There's still some gelling to his character to come, but I like what I saw and want to see more. However, I do see Moffat making him more god-like, as feared by Lawrence Miles. He's already got the door clicker installed.

Things that will be mocked: The colonoscopey time tunnel and the dildo time rotor.

Verdict: Brilliant!


Coming up: Lots and lots of good stuff! I haven't examined the episode order, so next week... no specific idea!

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Getting my Ar-McGann-On

Armageddon rolled around again, bringing with it a special Doctor Who guest: Paul McGann!

Asked a few duff questions in regards to his Doctor Who episode, but asked about some other shows as well. He knows Matt Smith and would be more than happy to come back (to be honest, don't really see it happening). Nice chap!

Next up: The John and Bonny Show!

Lots of fun to be had here, they spark off each other very well. Some fans got them stuck in a particular schtick which wasn't as funny, but fortunately enough other people had questions that ranged across both of them to keep things moving.

Last pairing: Marion and Michael

...to be honest, while some funny moments, you didn't miss anything...

Afterwards, in the pub, conversation ranged from Doctor Who to James Bond to Shakespeare to... well, back to Doctor Who. Good chatting with good friends!

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Like what?

Okay, what now? I can't believe I just saw this article. Abuse furore 'like anti-Semitism'. You mean like how the abusees are the Jews and the pedophile priests are preying Nazis?

Oh, wait, the person was defending the church. Yes, how dare we accuse the pope of being complicit in covering up the activities of priests under his control that are morally outrageous, that's exactly like how people are accusing Jews of... what? Being in control of the money? Erm... how?

One particular quote: "The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." Really? Reminds me of standard tactics of religion that ascribe olden times activities to current day. Original Sin anyone? Blaming current Germans for the activities of the Nazis? The sins of the fathers are entirely considered as done by the sons.

Even aside from the children, there are what happens to the women...

We've brought other organisations to task for their activities. The church should not be exempt.

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Since you asked... no

Currently there's an article circulating asking "Is this the face of Jesus?" Ooh, I can answer that one!

The face has been created from the shroud of Turin, and therein lies our answer. Basically... the shroud is a fake. Well, I should qualify that as: all scientific evidence points to the shroud being a fake. Most likely a pious fraud, although I have read claims that it was the work of Leonardo di Vinci... but no-one takes those claims seriously.

It was most likely created by covering a person in particular powders, then pressing cloth onto them. This has been replicated and shown to be most probable. And it was done in the 15th century... a little late for Jesus. Let alone that burial practices would not have involved a shroud in this manner.

Anyway, to get back to the question at hand "is this the face of Jesus?" No... no it isn't. It might be the face of the model the artist used, but that's about it.

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