Posts tagged ‘Doctor Who’

Yesterday I heard the absolutely splendiferous news that there’s a JB Hi-Fi opening in Southland soon! And then, of course, I talked to a bunch of people who already knew and hadn’t gotten around to telling me, but sometimes friends are just useless like that. This is the answer to one of my top ten prayers. Another, of course, is that the super-lame Collins Bookseller stores in Southland disappear and are replaced with a massive Borders store. I just don’t know where they’d put it.

I mean, I know where I’d put it. They’ve got a whole damn corridor of clothes shops on their second floor. That seems a bit extreme. Or maybe somewhere on the other (original) side there’s a place that isn’t being used efficiently. After all, I never go there, so it can’t be that useful.

Observant people will have noticed that the new look is spreading to the blog. Later this week when I have some more spare time I’ll be making all the swirl pictures here blue, in the manner of the pic on the left. This seems a good idea but I don’t know what colour to make the forum. Grey? Hmmm.

The final Doctor Who review for the 2005 season should turn up soon as well, for those who are eagerly anticipating. And, of course, a review of Serenity. Actually, the experience of seeing Serenity is worth a blog entry. If only I’d thought of that earlier, I could have spared you all endless Southland-waffle. But I didn’t! Bwa ha ha.

Speaking of maniacal laughs, it seems to have been confirmed that Anthony Stewart Head will not be playing the Master in Doctor Who‘s second season. Which is a shame, but as the episode will feature Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 it might have been considered a bit overcrowded anyhow.

Sorry about the downtime, folks. Well, sorry to those that noticed it.

I’ve been using the time to sit around on my arse vaguely studying. “Vaguely studying” is when you’ve got all the study material in front of you, and occasionally you draw half a concept map, or attempt to summarise some points.

I’d be nervous about the exam but now I’m more anxious about the link between meat-eating and cancer. And I’m insanely excited about the upcoming Doctor Who season finale. And even more excited about the news emerging today concerning the show’s future. Just a quick summary for those who can’t be bothered clicking the link (and a much more reliable way to avoid spoilers:

• Both a second AND a third season have been commissioned. As well as a Christmas special for this year and for the next. That’s 28 new episodes.
• Piper will be back for ALL the episodes of season two.
• Barrowman will be back for SOME of the episodes of season two, and is willing to get naked again. I wish I could have typed that about Piper.
• Nerd news: the director of The Empty Child and the director of The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead will be returning to direct the first two blocks of filming in season two.
• Nerdier news: the director of The Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks will be directing four stories in season two.
• The Cybermen will be returning for season two! I’d say they were replacing those bloody Slitheen but in a way, they’re replacing the Daleks, who won’t be appearing in season two. They’re expensive.

This has probably been happening to all sorts of TV shows and I haven’t noticed, but I’m observing a peculiar trend in Melbourne’s ‘Green Guide’ when it comes to Doctor Who.

Last week, they got someone to review it who admitted she’s never liked any sort of TV that involves any ‘un-real’ elements. Thus the brilliant ‘The End of the World’ gets a pathetic write up, being criticised presumably for not being about policemen or nurses. And now this week, the reasonably good ‘The Unquiet Dead’, lauded in the UK by one critic for being the best piece of television that year (which was a bit over-the-top, I’ll admit) is called “a bit crap”.

Of all the places to go, the reviewer asks, why a 19th Century morgue? Erm. Why not? I can’t be sure if it’s the morgue bit or the 19th Century she’s not interested in. Did she notice that last week they blew up the Earth? It seems she was hoping for cross-dressing, given Mark Gatiss’ Leage of Gentlemen work.

Most irritatingly, she claims that Doctor Who is one of those things, like Star Wars, that if you didn’t see as a kid you won’t get, and comments that as Eccleston and Piper are both probably leaving, the show is most likely doomed anyway. She couldn’t have fitted in more off-putting TV reviewing language if she’d tried. Neither reviewer even vaguely alluded to whether children — you know, the “target audience” — would enjoy it. And I know I haven’t either, but Grapefruit is a genre site. The Green Guide is a popular TV guide for everyone, but most of the critics seem more interested in proving their wit and turning people against shows which irritate them for spurious reasons.

Ahem. I didn’t expect that to go on so long. Hmmm. Sorry.

Ah, what could possibly distract from the important task of writing essays and studying? Bearing in mind that these things must be accessible from the same places that I’m supposed to be doing work; i.e. my room.

Trailers. I’ve always enjoyed movie trailers but now Apple has high resolution trailers on their QuickTime High Resolution Gallery. QuickTime 7 introduced a new codec, eloquently named H.264, which makes the movie muchas smaller. The awesome Serenity trailer comes in a resolution of 1920×816, which is even bigger than my rather big 20″ LCD screen. Scary. Obviously these are only for people with bandwidth to burn.

TV. Doctor Who is nearing the end of its first season in the UK and is going from strength to strength. Alias finished with yet another of its trademarked irritating cliffhangers. Frankly, I’m getting a bit weary of the show. If Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber weren’t in it I’d probably abandon it at this point.

Games. Having seen Revenge of the Sith, I’m now able to play through the last third of LEGO Star Wars which is great fun. What I’m itching for is a game that makes some use of my new iMac though. I may have to order Neverwinter Nights quite soon.

Domains. The grapefruits.org domain is up for renewal soon. I’m vaguely tempted to change it to something like thegrapefruit.org given that grapefruits is completely wrong from a grammar point of view. But then, people are pretty used to grapefruits.org. It might well be the most spurious reason I’ve ever had for doing something so complicated.

Web Design. I don’t know how it happened but I’m working on a new grapefruit design. Semi new. Still the same header pics obviously as they’re a lot of work. It started when I dropped the yellow sidebar and as it hasn’t looked that good since I’ve decided to really go for it. Foolishly. But it wouldn’t be swot vac without a grapefruit redesign. It’s like a biological imperative.

I apologise for the steady stream of Doctor Who reviews, to all of you who don’t give a rat’s arse. I promise to have a Hitchhikers and a Star Wars review out at some point. That second one isn’t necessarily mine. Or maybe we’ll all do one. I don’t know.

Doctor Who premieres in Australia this weekend. It’s getting a good amount of publicity it seems.

I’m all anxious waiting for my iMac. 2-3 weeks, they said. Well it’s 2 weeks and one day and I can’t stand it. If it comes the day before my Optics assignment is due there’ll be hell to pay. I’d better do it in advance. Oooh yes I will.

Having been reading Darth Vader’s blog, I’m all hyped up for Revenge of the Sith. Not that I’ve got unrealistic expectations, mind you. The only things I’m looking forward to are:

• Darth Vader’s voice.
• Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine, the star of the show.
• The cool lightsaber fights.
• The tying into the old films.

Screw quality dialogue, good acting, any of that crap. Who needs them? I don’t. Well, I do, but for one day only I’m suppressing that part of my brain. Father’s Day gave me plenty to chew on while I’m watching Hayden Christiansen struggle through Lucas’ dire words.