Tom Charman

Channel Ten is promoting their new US import, Supernatural as coming from “The Director of X-Files“. So, just who is the director of The X-Files, given that the show ran for nine seasons with the usual cycling of directors? Is it writer/creator Chris Carter, who directed a about an episode a season? No. Is it Rob Bowman, the director of numerous episodes as well as the 1998 movie? No — he’s too busy making quality films like Elektra.

So who is it? Well, it could be David Nutter, but it seems that Channel Ten mean be Kim Manners — who has directed boodles of times for The X-Files and twice for Supernatural, and is also co-executive producer on both shows. So it’s “from” him. And not, say, “from” Eric Kripke, the creator and writer of the show. Why not? Why, because then they’d have to say “From the co-creator of Tarzan” and I think we can all see that that’s not so impressive.

A few random points of TV interest:

• I’ve watched the first two episodes of Battlestar Galactica season one, and they’re awesome. I doubt all the episodes will be this tense — I don’t think I’ve been closer to the edge of my seat since the first season of 24. I’m particularly looking forward to getting to the final five episodes of the season, because there are downloadable commentaries from SciFi.com.
• Speaking of which, there was a downloadable commentary for ‘The Christmas Invasion’ as well, where Russell T. Davies revealed that Doctor Who‘s second season will show us the establishment of ‘Torchwood’. Hopefully, it’ll be an historical episode, just because that would be much cooler. How much cooler would it have been if The X-Files had been set in 1897?
• And while I’m on The X-Files — I’m on a segue-roll here — I’m halfway through season two, and I’ve just seen the two-parter that introduced the shapeshifting alien bounty hunter. Which reminded me just how awesome we all thought face-morphing was in the nineties. We’ve come a long way.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent today wrestling with Word. In a 53 page document, I changed one group of bullets to roman numerals, and went on to find that every other set of bullets in the document had suffered a similar fate, and had to change them all back. Even the ones that were supposed to be roman numerals refused to reset their numbering for different lists, greying out the option to do so. This is tremendously uninteresting, I know, but I’m writing it down as therapy. Just ignore me.

Everything’s a bit quiet around here at Christmas time. I’m busy, of course, buying presents, and relaxing, and watching The X-Files, and gleefully anticipating Doctor Who‘s ‘The Christmas Invasion’. But I thought I’d just blog about a few random things to keep things ticking over here.

• There’s a bit of a TARDIS invasion going on in the ‘Recent Weblogs’ section. Can no one save us?
• Talkback callers continue to whinge about Christmas not being as Christmassy as it usually is. I haven’t actually noticed anything different, but if there is I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a reaction against the commercialisation of Christmas.
• But then, Southland has been insanely busy all week, so that’s not likely.
• I’m rubbish at watching proper television now. I need to get an EyeTV, or a DVD recorder, or something. I have only the vaguest of awareness of what day it is at the best of times.
• I’m in the next St Leonards Old Collegians Association musical, in the chorus, but I have one scene as a crazy spiritual therapist called Dr Mandril. And I’m supposed to do it in an American accent. If Jess or Sara are reading this they’re probably cringing already.
• Speaking of, where’s the Harry Potter review, Jess? Don’t give me that “I’ve got a full time job and a life and it’s Christmas and I’m busy” excuse. Do you know how often I hear that?
• Finally, Andy and Matt have gone to Perth for the holidays to be with their families. This slightly reduces the number of gaming systems Andy has access to, and it’s my fervent hope that he might write something for Grapefruit again.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

So, we let someone turn our power off today, in order to upgrade something. I’m not sure of the details, they’re not important. What amused me was just how stranded I was without power. But my brain kept trying to make the oddest compromises with my situation.

When there’s no power…

• You can’t use your computer, not even just for offline stuff.
• You can’t cook hot food — not even toasted cheese sandwiches.
• You can’t play Xbox. Not even the free, crappy version of Top Spin you got with it.
• You can’t watch DVDs. No, not even if you don’t want to see any of the special features.
• You can’t make a coffee. Not even instant coffee.
• You can’t vaccuum. Every cloud has a silver lining.

In other news, the rating sticker on my Doctor Who Box Set did come off, but the first disc is damaged and I think I need to take it back. Which is a pain. I think I’m also going to have to spend $120 to get both the Neverwinter Nights expansions for the Mac. I could hack it and spend $40 on the PC versions but I’m uncomfortable with hacks.

Warning: the following review may contain coarse language, and puppet sex. Continue reading at your discretion.

No, no, not that Jackson. This one. Peter Jackson was interviewed recently by Paul Fischer about the upcoming Halo film (which he’s producing) and gave some really straightforward replies:

Question: You’re still producing Halo?
Jackson: Yeah.
Question: What attracted you to Halo?
Jackson: I’m a fan of the game.
Question: But video game movies suck.
Jackson: They do.
Question: So what will be different?
Jackson: Hopefully it won’t suck.
Question: But why not direct?
Jackson: I want a break. I want to have the fun but not the hard work. I just want to be part of the creative team but not actually have the pain.

He may have screwed up The Return of the King, but he’s a good apple. I feel reasonably confident that a Halo film with him involved will rock considerably. Mind you, I’ve chosen not to read the (well received) leaked script. Some people out there probably know whether it’ll suck or not. But not me.

Oh, and just a quick mention that there’s an X-Men 3 trailer out. It’s… loud and impressive looking, but there’s not much hint at plot. Ah, it’s useless to try and work things out from trailers sometimes. I’ll just wait patiently.

Bloody sound issues bloody packed cinema bloody quiet bloody broken bloody one stinking free ticket bloody half-way though bloody opening night bloody near-riot bloody stupid bloody.

Every now and then I wander around the interweb looking to see if any Australian phone companies are offering bluetooth mobiles that work with Salling Clicker. This sweet little program allows me to go past the usual address book synchronising etc, and do some nifty stuff like:

• Allow me to use the phone as a remote control for my iMac (i.e. watch a DVD in bed and turn the computer off without getting up — laziness perfected).
• Pause iTunes when I leave the room and restart it when I come back. Actually, I wouldn’t use this so much because it’s always a pressure to remove my phone from its prime sterilization position.
• Change my Adium (chat program) status. Okay, this one’s pretty useless too.
• Remote control of PowerPoint, while showing me the slides on the screen as well — so I can face the audience proudly! Yes, yes, also unlikely to be used.
• Did I mention the remote control business? It can browse my entire iTunes library remotely, and even scan through songs.

Having written those out, it all seems a bit superfluous, doesn’t it? Certainly not worth spending a heap of money on. So it’s lucky that that’s not my plan. Enter the Panasonic X700, for just $1 on Optus’ $25 plan!

There’s drawbacks, of course. Apparently the camera ain’t so good (not really an issue for me) and the battery life isn’t brilliant either (more of an issue). Apparently it’s well behind other phones technologically speaking; but then, it’s way cheaper, so that checks. I’m as yet undecided. Advice?