Alternative 3

There's a secret behind the brain drain of Britain in 1977. People are going missing, but where to? In this special Science Report, they take a look into this and uncover some secrets of the space race between America and the Soviet Union. And just where is humanity heading?


I do like the date of this, the date it was supposed to be broadcast if it wasn't delayed, April 1st, 1977. Says it all really. But I do have to wonder, although it is presented entirely seriously, did anyone fall for this?

According to the Wikipaedia entry, yes. People demanded more information, although it clearly had a cast list, was clearly rather unbelievable subject matter (okay, I am looking at this with 2013 eyes), and it was dated APRIL 1ST, 1977!!! Still, it's a conspiracy unveiling, and there are always people willing to believe in those...

I can see why this is listed as an influence for Ghostwatch.

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Evulotion

It's a fun wee movie, and the similarities with Ghostbusters are easy to make, but this is a separate movie in its own right.

A meteor crashes down, bringing with it a start of alien life. Two comedic nerdy scientists have a look and blow their minds at the implications. However, the government steps in an takes over, and although they seem to have things in hand, events quickly escalate and get out of control. And then they make them worse. Fortunately, the comedy scientists come to the rescue with improbable science, and, after shooting out a bird in a mall, take on the creature with shampoo. Everyone wins!

David Duchovny and Orlando Jones are great leading this very funny movie. Julianne Moore and Sean William Scott are decent enough. And, hey, something I recognise Ted Levine in that isn't Monk!

The creatures are decent enough too, although they have that slightly plasticky look to many of them that CGI gives. The eyelines with the real actors aren't too off, so that's good. And it's clear that there were some practical effects, which is good to see.

Basically, a thumbs up funny movie that everyone should see!

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DW: Harvest of Time

Okay, this should be my last DW post for a while. And this one is about Harvest of Time by Alistair Reynolds.

Near the end of time, there's an alien menace that's reaching back through time to present day Earth and invading them. It's up to the Doctor and Jo to save the day, and also work out how the Master is involved. And, of course, there's a visit to the future, which ties into events... and, okay, I'll admit, does tie in rather nicely.

Which is one of the better things I can say about this book, because the most otherwise I have to say about this book is that it is boring. Dull. And very slow paced. It took me nearly 200 pages to actually want to continue reading it, and by then the thing is nearly over! I was often putting the book down in the middle of my bus trip because it completely failed to engage me. The Doctor, Jo and the Master are very basically written, and as for the enemy... for a long time, I kept reading their name as Slid, and it was a while before I realised it was Sild. And I still kept reading it as Slid! Ooh, beware the horrifying Slid! Not likely. There comes a point when randomly putting letters together to form a name comes up with something you should reconsider.

Despite this supposedly adding a lot to the Master's story, with several winks to later events, the whole book can easily be skipped without missing out on anything. Is this guy a well known author? Can't say I want to read any of his other stuff...

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Reign of Winter

[First, we spend some time levelling up our characters to level 4. It feels like whenever I level, I recheck my calculations for what my attack should be, what my rounds of rage are, etc., and I keep finding that I previously calculated it wrong! Still, hopefully right this time (probably not). And then, after that, we do what all parties do]

Shopping time! We spend time looking over all the magical tat we picked up, and selling off random items. For some reason it is decided that I, Nanoc, should have a Ring of Regeneration. Very nice, although I'm not sure I need it. We shall see once we get into serious combat.

There is a chance to pick up some magical armour... but only I can use it, and it would lower my protection [lower AC, but with a reduced armour check penalty], so I decide against it. We do turn the cold iron swords we found into other cold iron weapons, so I now have a nice new cold iron great axe, and even fashioned some sling bullets for them to use.

That took time, and Nadya used that to pack up and sell off her house. With the witch coming in because we ever so slightly killed everyone, it is best for her and her family to leave town (with Patch the house elf coming with). She volunteers to be our guide to the main capital, although we decide to make a slight detour to check out a local standing stone.

We have barely set off before once again we are beset by crows, sent by the white woman. They amass and attack... and although I deal with them, two of our party are blinded. [I said 'let's get something to help against blindness', and they are all like 'no, we'll use goggles'. Well guess what, THE GOGGLES THEY DID NOTHING!]

One day down, many still to go...

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The Fish Doctor

After the big episode yesterday was The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot (#FishDr). (This does contain spoilers for the Day of the Doctor, so definitely only watch this after that.)


...you know what... this was far more fun, and a better celebration, than the actual episode proper was! This was amazingly well crafted by Peter Davison, with a lot of references to stories and characters. And it shows that people are willing to make fun of themselves, they got Moffat and RTD in this... and, hell, Sir Peter Jackson and Sir Ian Mckellan!!!

Sure, fine, this is comedy by mocking... but it's mocking from people who know, and it's mocking with love and inclusion. This is the kind of celebration we want to see!

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DW: The Day of the Doctor

I don't know if I should put spoiler space in, because most people would have had a chance to see it by now... but I will anyway. (Reminder, if you see a lot of blank space on the main page, like below, then I have hidden text you need to go to the full post to see.)

Overall... uh, rather odd, and makes a complete mess of continuity. And... actually, I rather prefer the Five(ish) Doctors Reboot... but I'll talk about that later.

So we have a rather prosaic view of a battle on Gallifrey. Yes, we know the Daleks = Nazis, but did we really need the World War II, attack on the city, imagery? If you remove the 'pew pew' laser sounds, that sequence could easily fit into generic action war story of any time. Where was the Never Child and all that stuff? Instead, just 'zap zap'. And then we get the War Doctor... who's done terrible things? We are told? He doesn't seem that broken up about it, except when the script calls for him to remember that he'll be killing a lot of people. And 'Bad Wolf' girl? Really?

Then Tennant and Smith, and ho-ho-ho Queen Bess. And Zygons. Because the Zygons are threatening. Really. Honest. Not at all useless, even when there was over an hour dedicated to them. I suppose we should be glad there wasn't a Skarasen and it's milk. But that whole Zygon plot was just stupid. And pointless. And at the end, just dealt with off-screen, that's how exciting and important it was.

So there was plenty of time to retcon the entire Time War... I guess. So he did blow up the planet until he changed time so he didn't, and all his selves were involved... how did he pull that off? "Hey, past selves, just pop over here to save Gallifrey in your future, but try not to know about it when you become John Hurt." What? And I guess this counts as the first on-screen presence of Peter Capaldi. I have no idea if they'll explicitly address that 9th, 10th and 11th are now 10th, 11th, 12th... I can see it not being addressed, but I supposed Moffat will give some off hand comment about it. I don't mind that Hurt had to regenerate as part of the price he had to pay, but did they really need the comment about the ears?

So some decent performances, but you might be able to guess that I'm not that impressed about it. Some nice moments... but they were just moments. Overall... it feels like another Moffat near miss-fire. Close,but not quite...

Next time: You know what... I hope the regeneration happens earlier than in the last second, but later than the opening act (as per the movie). Give us a nice mix of Smith and Capaldi... but it probably won't happen like that.
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An Adventure in Time and Space

With the 'celebrations' going on, this is a pseudo-documentary, a 'dramatisation' of the time of William Hartnell on Doctor Who. David Bradley rather brilliantly portrays Hartnell, and many scenes from episodes are recreated (at this point, I'd be willing to accept replacing the missing episodes with recreations).

However... most of this was just boring. I already know the stories, and they are played out rather straightforwardly. We need to explain why Valerie Lambert is in charge, why they needed to remount the first episode, how the Daleks saved the series, how William Hartnell was no longer able to play the role... to be honest, it wasn't until we got near the end, and had David Bradley show some real emotion, that the story became watchable. (And just how many leaving scenes mimicking the end of The Green Death do we need?)

Still, this is preferable to The Ultimate Guide to Doctor Who, which was just another potted history of the past 50 years. And then there was the '10 greatest monsters and villains', which was just an excuse to show old episodes again with new five minute introductions.

In some ways, despite some of the more dubious elements, the BBC Doctor Who Night was more celebratory...

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