Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Resurrection of the Shrivenzale!
I haven't blogged Who-wise for about 3 years. I lost interest as Tennant's Tenth became more and more God-like and painfully broad. The tenth was, for the most part, nothing like the Doctor we know and love. Relative to Tennant's un-Doctor; Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee & Baker seem like peas in a pod. Marvellous Matt is tantalisingly close to being on the money as the Doctor. He's lumbered with the silly predeliction for tangential, semi-expositionary verbal diarrheoa that Tennant seems to have permanently inflicted on the part, but thankfully there's also more of a cerebral, reflective stillness to Matt's Doctor. The alieness (in Matt's case a slightly bemused and beffudled one) that is essential to the part, has also returned. I look forward to his second full season proper. Onward Mr Smith. I will be waxing more frequently on dear old you know 'Who' this year. Talk soon loves!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Doctor Who Season 4 Report Card!
I haven't had a blog in ages. Time to rectify that with one of my lazy one sentence quips about each story in season 4 now that it has finished...
Goodnight Sweet Russ! It was the best of times it was the metwurst of times
4.1) Partners In Crime - Flatulent, fruity & feeble fun...C+
4.2) Fires of Pompeii - CGI monster sinks another potential cracker-toa?...B+
4.3) Planet Of The Ood - I think this sentence must end soon; a boon...B+
4.4) Sontaron Strategem - 'Who's' homage to the SJA & after school specials?...B
4.5) Poison Sky - Sontar-blah! Ok it wasn't that bad, but the pun stays...B-
4.6) Doctor's Daughter - Georgia was a fox, alas, a pair of christmas socks...C+
4.7) Unicorn & the Wasp - GEOS says pile of snot, I say "topping day what!!"...A-
4.8) Silence In The Library - Mister Gold!! go and stand in the corner and think
about what you've done!! Moffat's fresh axe blade may
fall hard methinks...A-
4.9) Forest Of The Dead - Moffatt phones in his conclusion in from RTD's jacuzi?
"Here Stee!, let me show you the reins love!"...B+
4.10) Midnight - "Russell love, can you hold my reins while I try yours?" RTD's
pen??? 9 out of 10!...A
4.11) Turn Left - Poutie Billie hunts down her missing accent with a big one, timey
blimey!...B+
4.12) Stolen Earth - "Phil love! have you seen the kitchen sink?...Oh that's right,
I remember where I put it!"...B+
4.13) Journey's End?..or!.."RTD throws his dartboard at a dart factory" or "Russ
pins a donkey on his tale and shoves a shaken champagne
bottle up its "black hole"". Alright!!! I admit
it! I ate the whole can of condensed milk with a golden
tea spoon. Curse you empty carbs!...B
Goodnight Sweet Russ! It was the best of times it was the metwurst of times
4.1) Partners In Crime - Flatulent, fruity & feeble fun...C+
4.2) Fires of Pompeii - CGI monster sinks another potential cracker-toa?...B+
4.3) Planet Of The Ood - I think this sentence must end soon; a boon...B+
4.4) Sontaron Strategem - 'Who's' homage to the SJA & after school specials?...B
4.5) Poison Sky - Sontar-blah! Ok it wasn't that bad, but the pun stays...B-
4.6) Doctor's Daughter - Georgia was a fox, alas, a pair of christmas socks...C+
4.7) Unicorn & the Wasp - GEOS says pile of snot, I say "topping day what!!"...A-
4.8) Silence In The Library - Mister Gold!! go and stand in the corner and think
about what you've done!! Moffat's fresh axe blade may
fall hard methinks...A-
4.9) Forest Of The Dead - Moffatt phones in his conclusion in from RTD's jacuzi?
"Here Stee!, let me show you the reins love!"...B+
4.10) Midnight - "Russell love, can you hold my reins while I try yours?" RTD's
pen??? 9 out of 10!...A
4.11) Turn Left - Poutie Billie hunts down her missing accent with a big one, timey
blimey!...B+
4.12) Stolen Earth - "Phil love! have you seen the kitchen sink?...Oh that's right,
I remember where I put it!"...B+
4.13) Journey's End?..or!.."RTD throws his dartboard at a dart factory" or "Russ
pins a donkey on his tale and shoves a shaken champagne
bottle up its "black hole"". Alright!!! I admit
it! I ate the whole can of condensed milk with a golden
tea spoon. Curse you empty carbs!...B
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
What's hot & what's snot!!
Fab!(ulous)
Pat & Fraze in a crutch..sorry clotch...no I'm mean cLUtch
'Big' Brig Nick C
Salivatin' Sil
Gilbert, Helen, Jopseph, Priscilla, Daisy, Kandy & all the loves down at Happiness Patrol central
Harrison Chase with his black gloves & briefcase
Borusa # 1's ample opportunity to make mince (pies)
Tilda & Tabby spit roasting Mel (for dinner) {!??}
Trau Morgus with his "resignation" on Krau Timmin's new desk
Cyril & His Funny Valentine Dyall
Pat's underused stovepipe
Pert's motherly cloaks & earnetht lithp
Mary Tamm's dress from Tara
John's Bower-man
The Captain & his Calufrax
The Silurain head wobble
Mike 'Junkyard' Jayston
Sil!(ly)
Lord Kiv
Tryst
Pex
Erato
The Taran Beast
What am I on?
Pat & Fraze in a crutch..sorry clotch...no I'm mean cLUtch
'Big' Brig Nick C
Salivatin' Sil
Gilbert, Helen, Jopseph, Priscilla, Daisy, Kandy & all the loves down at Happiness Patrol central
Harrison Chase with his black gloves & briefcase
Borusa # 1's ample opportunity to make mince (pies)
Tilda & Tabby spit roasting Mel (for dinner) {!??}
Trau Morgus with his "resignation" on Krau Timmin's new desk
Cyril & His Funny Valentine Dyall
Pat's underused stovepipe
Pert's motherly cloaks & earnetht lithp
Mary Tamm's dress from Tara
John's Bower-man
The Captain & his Calufrax
The Silurain head wobble
Mike 'Junkyard' Jayston
Sil!(ly)
Lord Kiv
Tryst
Pex
Erato
The Taran Beast
What am I on?
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The Lucozer's VHS catalouge system!!
Hello dear reader,
I've had far too much to do lately, moving house mainly, so I've been short on time to tome! The place I'm moving to is quite small. One of my vexing dilemmas space wise is that it's been hard to find a place that is out of view of visitors but also rapidly accessible at a nervy nerd's notice to store my idiosyncratically labelled Dr Who VHS collection. I'm happy for the official BBC DVD's to be on view, for reasons I'll explain later, but my VHS collection is another matter.
At some point in the late 80's, I decided it was a good idea to colour code my VHS tapes by Doctor. I already had a folder with the contents of each tape fastidiously documented, so it seemed the next natural slash painfully anal & obsessive step towards perfection. I ran a strip of electrical tape down the spine of each tape cover & in black texta wrote the appropriate Doctor's name & the number of tape for that Doctor i.e. William Hartnell #4 or Tom Baker #27, each Doctor starting from #1 for their era.
My grand plan was for each Doctor to have his own individual colour, until I realised that I only had 4 colours & that Dad was never going to drive his uber geek son to the supermarket to buy electrical tape for Dr Who video catalouging purposes. And of course being a kid I also had to do it all NOW!! So, some doctor's had to share colours, but they had to have at least one other colour between them otherwise it just wouldn't do for the sake of easy differentiation. Hartnell was green, Troughton white, Pertwee red, Tom Baker green, Davison yellow, Colin Baker red & McCoy yellow. Hartnell was green because I randomly started with that colour, but Troughton was the sole 'white' Doctor as he is my favourite. I felt he deserved to stand alone & not share his colour. In fact, he's so cool he got a tone instead. The others were chosen based on my 'must be separated by another colour' manifesto. I think I also vaguely factored in how much of each colour tape I had, knowing that I would need a full roll of one colour, if not more, to complete the voluminous 32(?) tape Tom Baker collection. I must have had a big roll of green.
As luck would have it, all the colours lasted, but there was very little left of each & I think I copped a stern 'Oh Lucozer!! really!!!' the next time Mum or Dad needed electrical tape. I was very proud of my handiwork & they all looked rather grand lined up on my pine book shelf. It was much easier to grab for the correct tape using the number codes from my book & my splendid spine labels rather than craning my neck sideways & straining to read my tiny handwriting on the spine that would say, for example..
Robot 4/4
Ark In Space 1,2,3,4/4
Sontaron Experiment 1,2/2
As fans, I won't have to explain the numerical code to you. The eagle eyed will spot that 'Robot' (the first Tom Baker story) is missing parts 1,2 & 3. Were they therefore on the end of the previous tape with Jon Pertwee's swansong 'Planet Of Spiders' I hear you ask? I also hear you ask whether that awkward 'mixed Doctor' tape would then be considered the final Jon Pertwee tape or the first Tom Baker tape? (or both?) Well, the two doctors on one tape problem did trouble me. I usually decided that whichever Doctor had the the most episodes on the tape could claim it for their colour. Jon would win in this marvellous theoretical case. However, this theoretical tape didn't in fact exist as for some reason I didn't tape the first few parts of Robot. Tom Baker Tape 1 started with Robot part 4.
There was an exception to this 'most episodes' rule though, a case where I had a tape with 'Revelation Of The Daleks' parts 2,3 & 4 followed by 'Ark In Space' 1,2,3 & 4 (again), which I inexpicably taped twice, perhaps by uncontrollable compulsion. It was also inexplicable that the ABC followed one with the other in 1993 during the infamous 4.30am screenings. Anyway, I decided that because Colin Baker only had a very meagre 6 tapes & because I had 'Ark In Space' in its correct place, even though this out of place 'Ark In Space' was in better condition than the one on Tom Baker #1, Colin's 3 episodes would trump Tom's 4.
Other problems emerged with the passing of time. I would buy or record off telly a new story & have to painfully insert it into my inflexible system. Oh how I gnashed my teeth & grimaced! At first I changed each bit of spinal tape onto the next tape & changed the number in my book to accomodate the insertions. Jon Pertwee 6 would become Jon Perwtee 7 with the new one taking the formers number & so on etc etc. This proved intensely frustrating & time consuming, but my obsessive ways would not let me submit to the easy, lazy ignominy of, say, having a Jon Pertwee 6A! It was, to quote the wonderful Stephen Fry, "a thundering nuisance, I don't mind telling you!".
More time passed & through lack of having the correct colour electrical tape when I needed it &, thankfully, eventually getting a life, I ended up with a few 'vanilla' spines. Tapes without tape!? that were merely inserted in the correct chronological position. At this point, I decided to turn them all around to face the tapes own label outwards again. This way, they all looked blandly similar, could have been any old movie or tv show to the casual observer & did not look geekily arranged in any way.
Now, at this time of moving house, they just look a bit too ratty & hodge podge to be on display. Also, the few official BBC tapes look incongruous amongst my far more numerous 'taped off the telly' tapes & also give away my long time fanboy status. The BBC DVD's are ok, they look slick & tidy & don't suggest such an arch obsession. Several have now replaced their VHS counterpart in my affections. Also, the new series has leant the old series a quaint, ironic, post-modern cool. Phew! But only in retrospect though mind you!! VHS really does give the game away. NERD BOY!
I really don't care what people think. I'm being overly silly for effect. But tell me loves that you don't feel a tiny little squirm inside when a new partner looks at a whole bookshelf devoted to your slavish love for a show that more often than not has been sub par & sometimes downright embarrasing over its huge life span. Tell me you don't immediately go into defensive mode & feel the need to madly justify & qualify.
Back to unpacking boxes. Damn. How nice it was to procrastinate for a moment...
xx Lucozer..
I've had far too much to do lately, moving house mainly, so I've been short on time to tome! The place I'm moving to is quite small. One of my vexing dilemmas space wise is that it's been hard to find a place that is out of view of visitors but also rapidly accessible at a nervy nerd's notice to store my idiosyncratically labelled Dr Who VHS collection. I'm happy for the official BBC DVD's to be on view, for reasons I'll explain later, but my VHS collection is another matter.
At some point in the late 80's, I decided it was a good idea to colour code my VHS tapes by Doctor. I already had a folder with the contents of each tape fastidiously documented, so it seemed the next natural slash painfully anal & obsessive step towards perfection. I ran a strip of electrical tape down the spine of each tape cover & in black texta wrote the appropriate Doctor's name & the number of tape for that Doctor i.e. William Hartnell #4 or Tom Baker #27, each Doctor starting from #1 for their era.
My grand plan was for each Doctor to have his own individual colour, until I realised that I only had 4 colours & that Dad was never going to drive his uber geek son to the supermarket to buy electrical tape for Dr Who video catalouging purposes. And of course being a kid I also had to do it all NOW!! So, some doctor's had to share colours, but they had to have at least one other colour between them otherwise it just wouldn't do for the sake of easy differentiation. Hartnell was green, Troughton white, Pertwee red, Tom Baker green, Davison yellow, Colin Baker red & McCoy yellow. Hartnell was green because I randomly started with that colour, but Troughton was the sole 'white' Doctor as he is my favourite. I felt he deserved to stand alone & not share his colour. In fact, he's so cool he got a tone instead. The others were chosen based on my 'must be separated by another colour' manifesto. I think I also vaguely factored in how much of each colour tape I had, knowing that I would need a full roll of one colour, if not more, to complete the voluminous 32(?) tape Tom Baker collection. I must have had a big roll of green.
As luck would have it, all the colours lasted, but there was very little left of each & I think I copped a stern 'Oh Lucozer!! really!!!' the next time Mum or Dad needed electrical tape. I was very proud of my handiwork & they all looked rather grand lined up on my pine book shelf. It was much easier to grab for the correct tape using the number codes from my book & my splendid spine labels rather than craning my neck sideways & straining to read my tiny handwriting on the spine that would say, for example..
Robot 4/4
Ark In Space 1,2,3,4/4
Sontaron Experiment 1,2/2
As fans, I won't have to explain the numerical code to you. The eagle eyed will spot that 'Robot' (the first Tom Baker story) is missing parts 1,2 & 3. Were they therefore on the end of the previous tape with Jon Pertwee's swansong 'Planet Of Spiders' I hear you ask? I also hear you ask whether that awkward 'mixed Doctor' tape would then be considered the final Jon Pertwee tape or the first Tom Baker tape? (or both?) Well, the two doctors on one tape problem did trouble me. I usually decided that whichever Doctor had the the most episodes on the tape could claim it for their colour. Jon would win in this marvellous theoretical case. However, this theoretical tape didn't in fact exist as for some reason I didn't tape the first few parts of Robot. Tom Baker Tape 1 started with Robot part 4.
There was an exception to this 'most episodes' rule though, a case where I had a tape with 'Revelation Of The Daleks' parts 2,3 & 4 followed by 'Ark In Space' 1,2,3 & 4 (again), which I inexpicably taped twice, perhaps by uncontrollable compulsion. It was also inexplicable that the ABC followed one with the other in 1993 during the infamous 4.30am screenings. Anyway, I decided that because Colin Baker only had a very meagre 6 tapes & because I had 'Ark In Space' in its correct place, even though this out of place 'Ark In Space' was in better condition than the one on Tom Baker #1, Colin's 3 episodes would trump Tom's 4.
Other problems emerged with the passing of time. I would buy or record off telly a new story & have to painfully insert it into my inflexible system. Oh how I gnashed my teeth & grimaced! At first I changed each bit of spinal tape onto the next tape & changed the number in my book to accomodate the insertions. Jon Pertwee 6 would become Jon Perwtee 7 with the new one taking the formers number & so on etc etc. This proved intensely frustrating & time consuming, but my obsessive ways would not let me submit to the easy, lazy ignominy of, say, having a Jon Pertwee 6A! It was, to quote the wonderful Stephen Fry, "a thundering nuisance, I don't mind telling you!".
More time passed & through lack of having the correct colour electrical tape when I needed it &, thankfully, eventually getting a life, I ended up with a few 'vanilla' spines. Tapes without tape!? that were merely inserted in the correct chronological position. At this point, I decided to turn them all around to face the tapes own label outwards again. This way, they all looked blandly similar, could have been any old movie or tv show to the casual observer & did not look geekily arranged in any way.
Now, at this time of moving house, they just look a bit too ratty & hodge podge to be on display. Also, the few official BBC tapes look incongruous amongst my far more numerous 'taped off the telly' tapes & also give away my long time fanboy status. The BBC DVD's are ok, they look slick & tidy & don't suggest such an arch obsession. Several have now replaced their VHS counterpart in my affections. Also, the new series has leant the old series a quaint, ironic, post-modern cool. Phew! But only in retrospect though mind you!! VHS really does give the game away. NERD BOY!
I really don't care what people think. I'm being overly silly for effect. But tell me loves that you don't feel a tiny little squirm inside when a new partner looks at a whole bookshelf devoted to your slavish love for a show that more often than not has been sub par & sometimes downright embarrasing over its huge life span. Tell me you don't immediately go into defensive mode & feel the need to madly justify & qualify.
Back to unpacking boxes. Damn. How nice it was to procrastinate for a moment...
xx Lucozer..
Friday, January 18, 2008
Hello my dears, Co-Pilot here!
Top 5 Unlikely Dr/ Companion Romantic Liasons...
5) Tom & Tegan
4) Sylv & Mel
3) Willy & Sara Kingdom
2) Col & Peri
1) Willy & Ben
Top 5 Atrocious Accents
5) Tryst
4) Theodore Nicolai Kerensky
3) Stor
2) Delilah
1) Dame Billie Piper on Parky recently
Menage-A-Trois?
9) Vivienne Fay, Amelia Rumford & Romana
8) JNT, Gaz & Matthew Waterboy
7) Chris, Capt. Dick & Rose
6) Davros, Nyder & some embryonic Dalek jelly!
5) Gilbert, Joseph C & Kandydarling!
4) Peter, Turlough & Turlough's brother
3) Pat, Jamie & Col!
2) Jon & a lucky dip from any other 2 of the Unit "family"
1) A fab free for all between Glitz, Dibber, Handbag, Balazaar, Broken Tooth, Merdeen, Queen Katryca, Col & Jayston!!!
Nepotistic Ballistic!! - Season 4 casting news!!!...
Beryl Reid's daughter, Graham Crowden's nephew & Eileen Way's kitty as the New Shaboogans!!
Night night!!
Co-P (with a dash of cumin from the 'Cozer)
Top 5 Unlikely Dr/ Companion Romantic Liasons...
5) Tom & Tegan
4) Sylv & Mel
3) Willy & Sara Kingdom
2) Col & Peri
1) Willy & Ben
Top 5 Atrocious Accents
5) Tryst
4) Theodore Nicolai Kerensky
3) Stor
2) Delilah
1) Dame Billie Piper on Parky recently
Menage-A-Trois?
9) Vivienne Fay, Amelia Rumford & Romana
8) JNT, Gaz & Matthew Waterboy
7) Chris, Capt. Dick & Rose
6) Davros, Nyder & some embryonic Dalek jelly!
5) Gilbert, Joseph C & Kandydarling!
4) Peter, Turlough & Turlough's brother
3) Pat, Jamie & Col!
2) Jon & a lucky dip from any other 2 of the Unit "family"
1) A fab free for all between Glitz, Dibber, Handbag, Balazaar, Broken Tooth, Merdeen, Queen Katryca, Col & Jayston!!!
Nepotistic Ballistic!! - Season 4 casting news!!!...
Beryl Reid's daughter, Graham Crowden's nephew & Eileen Way's kitty as the New Shaboogans!!
Night night!!
Co-P (with a dash of cumin from the 'Cozer)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Torchwood Returns!....but first a quick look back...
Hello loves,
Last night the Co-Pilot & I strapped ourselves to the couch with some Gin & Tonics & a vast array of nibbles to re-watch the final two episodes from season 1 of Torchwood. On the whole we were suitably impressed.
I was a restless 'fan in waiting' with Torchwood for most of the first season. I wanted to adore it but felt it was often flawed & rarely worthy of my potentially slavish, slobbering fan love. Of course I was going to watch every episode regardless, but it was very easy to pick at. Slow motion 'strutting in duffle coats' wank, Cardiff tourist video padding, ridiculous plot contrivances, clunky set pieces & some blushingly embarrasing dialouge just to name a few of the constant (but very much repairable) faults. The basic concept of Torchwood is strong & the cast is a winner, the production team just needed to do a lot of tightening up & thankfully they got very near the mark by the end of the season.
The final two episodes are a huge improvement on most of the season up to that point. John Barrowman shows unexpected & much welcome subtlety & humility, particularly in 'Capt Jack Harkness'. The posturing, vaseline grinned cardboard-try-hard man of mystery has given way to a textured, sympathetic & nobly tragic figure. With this change, Jack has become much sexier & more ponderable. The appearance of the real Capt. Jack on the scene makes Jack more mysterious than ever & at the same time much more vulnerable as his fraudulent identity is exposed. This gives Barrowman lots of 'actors meat' to bite into. Barrowman, to his credit, knew what the stakes were in these crucial episodes & he plays the revelation & its aftermath beautifully. When it really counted, after seeming to be coasting at times during the season, he pulled out all the stops. As the 'cockular' (as opposed to titular? ey, ey!) head of the cast, he needed too.
The cocky Captain is rendered relatively shy & awkward by the stunning Mr Rippy as the 'real' Capt Jack. Barrowman wouldn't have had to try too hard to be convincing in his attraction to Rippy though. Rippy is quite possibly the sexiest guest star ever to grace the Who-niverse. He even makes Barrowman look a little homely (only by impossible comparison though!...sorry love!!). Their scenes together are spot on; resplendant with natural intimate chemistry, smouldering sexual tension & careful nuance. Surely Rippy & Barrowman need to spin-off into another spin-off & enjoy all the 'fondant supreme' that a saucy 10.30 evening slot can offer!!!!
Dramatic highpoints were plentiful. Gwen's breakdown as she cradles Rhys' lifeless, bloodied body in 'End Of Days' is gut wrenching. Her anguish, while riskily noisy & frantic, is utterly believable in the hands of such an assured actress. A quite stunning performance. The gunpoint standoff with the team divided over whether or not to open the rift & who to side with was another breathstopper, superbly played across the board.
And who can forget ol' 'vinegar lips'; Bilis Manger. At times sounding like a camp, evil D84, at others reminding one of a more theatrical third cousin of the unblinking, malevolant Morgus from Androzani, he is the best villian that Dr Who hasn't had in its 3 seasons so far. He is the finest 'nasty' in the new Who-niverse. Shifting from posturing eye-brow raising villian to brutally callous monster in a blink (& sometimes with a poisonous purse of his vinegar lips) he is truly marvellous. Hopefully RTD had him put on ice immediately after filming 'End Of Days' so that his advanced years don't prevent a slew of much anticipated return appearances.
Although the huge stomping horned beastie was a d-grade excuse for a lavish season finale showdown, Barrowman's conviction just got it over the line. The Torchwood team friction was the real showdown anyway. That was more than good enough. Jack's resurrection 3 days (?!) after vanquishing the beast was lovely too, the religious inconography that would have soiled any such moment in recent Dr Who is thankfully absent & we have a truly touching & beautifully underplayed scene with Jack welcomed back by the surprised team. No need for sweeping strings; the guilty tear soaked look at Jack from Owen, the excited rush for a hug by Tosh, the trembling, disbelieving lovers kiss from Ianto; they all speak volumes & help the scene to resonate much more deeply than would have been the case with the orchestral mush & stylised emotional manipulation of new series Dr Who. The teacher must learn from the student it seems.
I'm very much looking forward to season 2 & this little freshen up on where things left off has filled me with fan saliva of the finest kind, ready to gush forth...
Lucozer...
Last night the Co-Pilot & I strapped ourselves to the couch with some Gin & Tonics & a vast array of nibbles to re-watch the final two episodes from season 1 of Torchwood. On the whole we were suitably impressed.
I was a restless 'fan in waiting' with Torchwood for most of the first season. I wanted to adore it but felt it was often flawed & rarely worthy of my potentially slavish, slobbering fan love. Of course I was going to watch every episode regardless, but it was very easy to pick at. Slow motion 'strutting in duffle coats' wank, Cardiff tourist video padding, ridiculous plot contrivances, clunky set pieces & some blushingly embarrasing dialouge just to name a few of the constant (but very much repairable) faults. The basic concept of Torchwood is strong & the cast is a winner, the production team just needed to do a lot of tightening up & thankfully they got very near the mark by the end of the season.
The final two episodes are a huge improvement on most of the season up to that point. John Barrowman shows unexpected & much welcome subtlety & humility, particularly in 'Capt Jack Harkness'. The posturing, vaseline grinned cardboard-try-hard man of mystery has given way to a textured, sympathetic & nobly tragic figure. With this change, Jack has become much sexier & more ponderable. The appearance of the real Capt. Jack on the scene makes Jack more mysterious than ever & at the same time much more vulnerable as his fraudulent identity is exposed. This gives Barrowman lots of 'actors meat' to bite into. Barrowman, to his credit, knew what the stakes were in these crucial episodes & he plays the revelation & its aftermath beautifully. When it really counted, after seeming to be coasting at times during the season, he pulled out all the stops. As the 'cockular' (as opposed to titular? ey, ey!) head of the cast, he needed too.
The cocky Captain is rendered relatively shy & awkward by the stunning Mr Rippy as the 'real' Capt Jack. Barrowman wouldn't have had to try too hard to be convincing in his attraction to Rippy though. Rippy is quite possibly the sexiest guest star ever to grace the Who-niverse. He even makes Barrowman look a little homely (only by impossible comparison though!...sorry love!!). Their scenes together are spot on; resplendant with natural intimate chemistry, smouldering sexual tension & careful nuance. Surely Rippy & Barrowman need to spin-off into another spin-off & enjoy all the 'fondant supreme' that a saucy 10.30 evening slot can offer!!!!
Dramatic highpoints were plentiful. Gwen's breakdown as she cradles Rhys' lifeless, bloodied body in 'End Of Days' is gut wrenching. Her anguish, while riskily noisy & frantic, is utterly believable in the hands of such an assured actress. A quite stunning performance. The gunpoint standoff with the team divided over whether or not to open the rift & who to side with was another breathstopper, superbly played across the board.
And who can forget ol' 'vinegar lips'; Bilis Manger. At times sounding like a camp, evil D84, at others reminding one of a more theatrical third cousin of the unblinking, malevolant Morgus from Androzani, he is the best villian that Dr Who hasn't had in its 3 seasons so far. He is the finest 'nasty' in the new Who-niverse. Shifting from posturing eye-brow raising villian to brutally callous monster in a blink (& sometimes with a poisonous purse of his vinegar lips) he is truly marvellous. Hopefully RTD had him put on ice immediately after filming 'End Of Days' so that his advanced years don't prevent a slew of much anticipated return appearances.
Although the huge stomping horned beastie was a d-grade excuse for a lavish season finale showdown, Barrowman's conviction just got it over the line. The Torchwood team friction was the real showdown anyway. That was more than good enough. Jack's resurrection 3 days (?!) after vanquishing the beast was lovely too, the religious inconography that would have soiled any such moment in recent Dr Who is thankfully absent & we have a truly touching & beautifully underplayed scene with Jack welcomed back by the surprised team. No need for sweeping strings; the guilty tear soaked look at Jack from Owen, the excited rush for a hug by Tosh, the trembling, disbelieving lovers kiss from Ianto; they all speak volumes & help the scene to resonate much more deeply than would have been the case with the orchestral mush & stylised emotional manipulation of new series Dr Who. The teacher must learn from the student it seems.
I'm very much looking forward to season 2 & this little freshen up on where things left off has filled me with fan saliva of the finest kind, ready to gush forth...
Lucozer...
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
RTD's bucket of warm ego nog!... 'Voyage Of The Damned'!!
Oh Russell! You've put on your naughty apron haven't you love?! You know, the one with the big plastic knockers on it. You've served up for chrissy dinner just what I expected really; a fat, greasy turkey. However, it must be said, a relatively tender & juicy one (compared to Runaway Bride) with lashings of salty luke-warm gravy on a table laden with glittery party poppers full of quick bangs (& cheap plastic crap of course).
The first 10-15 minutes were actually rather good. There wasn't too much to fault. The set up & lead up to the asteroid hits was handled with Russell's trademark casual, off-handed (over)confidence backed up by some marvellous FX. The Titanic looked great hovering above Earth & the TARDIS walls re-aligning looked fab. I liked the sonic screwdriver/ champagne cork gag too. Oh how we drunkenly tittered. Geoffrey Palmer was the other great thing about the opening minutes. He invested his small part with subtetly & depth. He was sadly underused though & shamefully killed off after only 15 minutes at most.
The re-jigged theme tune! I almost forgot. Wonderful. I've never been a huge fan of Mr Gold's OTT orchestral version but the drum heavy remix with new string stabs & synth pads has well & truly polished the turd. It's now the sweetest poo brown you've ever heard. It's the best version since the marvellous 1980 Howell version. I know the Co-Pilot is a big softie for the '86 mix though. If Murray re-mixed this himself, then, well, I'm his newest tolerator!
From about the 15 minute mark on though, Russell's writing lapses into trademark laziness; too much running around, adolescent lovey dovey mush, theft of ideas (I'll only call it homage when it's done well) such as the second rate 'Robots Of Death' schtick, silly psuedo religious claptrap AGAIN!!! (the Doctor summoning the angels) Really Russell! Come on!!...just to name a few of the flatulent faults. I did however like the flabby fancy dress couple & when dear old 'Buckingham Bessy' waved off the Titanic with her cheery tidings, I did want to give Russell a big bear hug. If you're going to be silly, then be operatically silly like that. Don't go half way. Much of VOTD goes half way; it's half way silly, half way dramatic, halfway credible & halfway scripted.
Kylie was 4 parts cheap bubbly white to 1 part chartreuse (I HATE chartreuse, it tastes like dishwashing liquid). Not too bad I suppose, but when we could have had a Martha or a Sally Sparrow aiding the Doctor, it really wasn't good enough. Clive Swift does quite well despite some lame dialouge.
'Voyage Of The Damned' is the huge fart that just won't come out when you're lying face down on your bed christmas night after eating & drinking far too much all day. You know it will stink but you know it's the only thing that will make you feel better. VOTD is that kind of awkward contradiction. It is as awkward as the metaphor I've just coughed up like a furball in an effort to capture this unweildly slab of christmas pud.
For the Co-Pilot, who had his birthday on the day of viewing & assembled his family & friends in a marvellous 'Anethian tribute' to himself, it turned out to be the token gift inside the huge, flashy package with golden ribbons & bows. Better than 'Runaway Bride' but a few mince pies short of 'Christmas Invasion'
'Weakling Scum!!!!'...Lucozer....
The first 10-15 minutes were actually rather good. There wasn't too much to fault. The set up & lead up to the asteroid hits was handled with Russell's trademark casual, off-handed (over)confidence backed up by some marvellous FX. The Titanic looked great hovering above Earth & the TARDIS walls re-aligning looked fab. I liked the sonic screwdriver/ champagne cork gag too. Oh how we drunkenly tittered. Geoffrey Palmer was the other great thing about the opening minutes. He invested his small part with subtetly & depth. He was sadly underused though & shamefully killed off after only 15 minutes at most.
The re-jigged theme tune! I almost forgot. Wonderful. I've never been a huge fan of Mr Gold's OTT orchestral version but the drum heavy remix with new string stabs & synth pads has well & truly polished the turd. It's now the sweetest poo brown you've ever heard. It's the best version since the marvellous 1980 Howell version. I know the Co-Pilot is a big softie for the '86 mix though. If Murray re-mixed this himself, then, well, I'm his newest tolerator!
From about the 15 minute mark on though, Russell's writing lapses into trademark laziness; too much running around, adolescent lovey dovey mush, theft of ideas (I'll only call it homage when it's done well) such as the second rate 'Robots Of Death' schtick, silly psuedo religious claptrap AGAIN!!! (the Doctor summoning the angels) Really Russell! Come on!!...just to name a few of the flatulent faults. I did however like the flabby fancy dress couple & when dear old 'Buckingham Bessy' waved off the Titanic with her cheery tidings, I did want to give Russell a big bear hug. If you're going to be silly, then be operatically silly like that. Don't go half way. Much of VOTD goes half way; it's half way silly, half way dramatic, halfway credible & halfway scripted.
Kylie was 4 parts cheap bubbly white to 1 part chartreuse (I HATE chartreuse, it tastes like dishwashing liquid). Not too bad I suppose, but when we could have had a Martha or a Sally Sparrow aiding the Doctor, it really wasn't good enough. Clive Swift does quite well despite some lame dialouge.
'Voyage Of The Damned' is the huge fart that just won't come out when you're lying face down on your bed christmas night after eating & drinking far too much all day. You know it will stink but you know it's the only thing that will make you feel better. VOTD is that kind of awkward contradiction. It is as awkward as the metaphor I've just coughed up like a furball in an effort to capture this unweildly slab of christmas pud.
For the Co-Pilot, who had his birthday on the day of viewing & assembled his family & friends in a marvellous 'Anethian tribute' to himself, it turned out to be the token gift inside the huge, flashy package with golden ribbons & bows. Better than 'Runaway Bride' but a few mince pies short of 'Christmas Invasion'
'Weakling Scum!!!!'...Lucozer....
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Peter Davison in 'Time Crash' - the hard stats!
There are so many reviews around for 'Time Crash', many of which cover the same ground & many of which have already covered in blushing detail the ground I would cover, so I think it would be painfully redundant at this point to add another generic review to the slew!
What I have decided to do instead is crunch some numbers relating to Time Crash & Peter Davison in particular, hopefully in a fabulously insightful & didactic manner that will contextualise Davison's return to Dr Who & his performance in Time Crash in a fresh & enlightening fashion...Then I will loudly sigh, smoke a cigarette, roll over & go to sleep with my stuffed yeti...
Anyway,
Peter Davison returns to the role 23 years after his last regular appearance in 1984's 'Caves of Androzani' (no I'm not counting his 90 seconds of inane running around in that dog's dinner 'Dimensions In Time'). I also don't count the 'Big Finish' stuff; not because it's not great or because I contest its canon status (actually I do - but another time!), but because the voice is only half the performance, maybe even less. Davison slots his voice AND his body into the canon, as the 5th Doctor, for the first time in 23 years.
Why am I harping on about 23 years??. Well, it is by far the longest gap between drinks from the furry gallifreyan cup??!! (both as it were AND so to speak) for a returning Doctor. Believe it or not, in the case of Patrick Troughton, the previous record span holder, there was (only) a span of 16 years!! between his last regular appearance in 'War Games' (1969) & his third & final return in 'Two Doctors' (1985). Seven years short of Peter's mammoth 23 years & broken up twice. Pat's gap was divided thus, 3 years forward to the 'Three Doctors', ten hence to 'Five Doctors' & finally a brief 2 years to the 'Two Doctors'. In terms of 'keeping his eye in' as the Doctor, Pat's longest break without dusting off his giddy aunt & stroking his recorder was just 10 years.
The only other returning Doctors, Hartnell & Pertwee, had relatively brief spans of 7 years ('Tenth Planet' in '66 to Three Doctors in '73) & 9 years ('Planet of Spiders' in '74 to 'Five Doctors' in '83) respectively. This seems really quite bizarre to me. At the time of Pertwee's return in 'Five Doctors', it must have seemed aeons since he was the incumbent (let alone Troughton!), years stretching back through the two seasons of Davison & the entire Tom Baker era. 9 years is but a blink compared to Peter Davison's 23 year span. Whoops, I forgot the return of Sylv (a mere 7 years: Survival '89 to 'The Movie''96)...but who cares? The movie was shizen & after watching 'Silver Nemesis' last night, I don't want to think about Sly McCoy at the mo anyway.
Where is all this going? Well I guess I'm saying that for Pat & Jon to have been wonderful & effortlessly slip back into the role was not really such a feat. They were both superb of course, but it really shouldn't have been any other way. They had much shorter times away from the role & were always 'older' Doctors, so the change was never going to be too jarring. Davison however, who through his era embodied youth, vitality & often naive innocence in a refreshing slant on the character, is stuck with the problem of trying to authentically capture the same youthful spirit, 23 years on, lumbered with a (albiet well kept) 56 year old body. The tough question is how to pitch it? By far the youngest Doctor cast in the role in the original series (29 years in 1981), he is now one year older than William Hartnell was when Hartnell, the all-time oldest doctor at the time of his casting, was originally cast in the role. Considering all this, Peter does pretty well with the help of a mostly pretty tidy bit of fanboy fluff from S Moffatt.
The 'time differential' explanation was deftly tossed off so that it didn't seem too pointedly the fix up the 'older doctors' solution that it was. Perhaps with the 'time differential-ed' older body & older voice came the (somewhat out of character) grumpiness as well. I feel Davison's vibe was more 'impotent frustration' than 'stern grumpiness' when under stress during his tenure. However, considering his newly flagging middle aged hormones & 'greying' cells, Maybe the 5th Dr couldn't help being crabby & cantakerous when thrown into a desperate paradox situation with Tennant's charming (in this instance at least) boggle-eyed geek blabbing at him. It was also good to see the character stretched & developed just a little, rather than having it stunted by continuity fascism & the variable & limited writing of the 5th Doctor's own era. Such things should never be allowed to get in the way of good TV & more importantly, good Dr Who. Apart from having to say 'TARDIS' about five times too many for a 7 minute vignette & his first few technobabble lines seeming a bit forced through his smokers husk (not sure if he does?), Peter settles nicely & I smiled broadly watching Dr's 5 & 10 huddle over the console together in feverish Doctorisheness!
If Davison's 5th Doctor was a few yards of scarf & a few teeth & curls short of iconic prior to Time Crash (pretty much only Tom is truly iconic in the role, with the 'twee a distant second) he is now, at least in Britain. The biggest small-screen star in Britain, David Tennant (although I'd listen to you if you argued Davison himself is, or perhaps 'best loved' is more his mantle?), deliciously fetishised the 5th Doctor before the eyes of a mammoth 11 million viewers. He reminded us of Davison's very own 'teeth & curls'; "the hat, the coat, the crickety-cricket stuff, the stick of celery". This was done very pointedly. Moffat (ably helped by Mr Harper) has now lovingly established the 5th Doctor, his own favourite, as the charming british flavoured small screen sci-fi icon that he wasn't quite. Probably I didn't need quite so many qualifiers, 'Iconic' is perhaps enough on its own now when it comes to Davison's 5th. All done in just over 7 minutes.
Well done loves. The Doctor AND the TARDIS!! Congratulations & well played!!
What I have decided to do instead is crunch some numbers relating to Time Crash & Peter Davison in particular, hopefully in a fabulously insightful & didactic manner that will contextualise Davison's return to Dr Who & his performance in Time Crash in a fresh & enlightening fashion...Then I will loudly sigh, smoke a cigarette, roll over & go to sleep with my stuffed yeti...
Anyway,
Peter Davison returns to the role 23 years after his last regular appearance in 1984's 'Caves of Androzani' (no I'm not counting his 90 seconds of inane running around in that dog's dinner 'Dimensions In Time'). I also don't count the 'Big Finish' stuff; not because it's not great or because I contest its canon status (actually I do - but another time!), but because the voice is only half the performance, maybe even less. Davison slots his voice AND his body into the canon, as the 5th Doctor, for the first time in 23 years.
Why am I harping on about 23 years??. Well, it is by far the longest gap between drinks from the furry gallifreyan cup??!! (both as it were AND so to speak) for a returning Doctor. Believe it or not, in the case of Patrick Troughton, the previous record span holder, there was (only) a span of 16 years!! between his last regular appearance in 'War Games' (1969) & his third & final return in 'Two Doctors' (1985). Seven years short of Peter's mammoth 23 years & broken up twice. Pat's gap was divided thus, 3 years forward to the 'Three Doctors', ten hence to 'Five Doctors' & finally a brief 2 years to the 'Two Doctors'. In terms of 'keeping his eye in' as the Doctor, Pat's longest break without dusting off his giddy aunt & stroking his recorder was just 10 years.
The only other returning Doctors, Hartnell & Pertwee, had relatively brief spans of 7 years ('Tenth Planet' in '66 to Three Doctors in '73) & 9 years ('Planet of Spiders' in '74 to 'Five Doctors' in '83) respectively. This seems really quite bizarre to me. At the time of Pertwee's return in 'Five Doctors', it must have seemed aeons since he was the incumbent (let alone Troughton!), years stretching back through the two seasons of Davison & the entire Tom Baker era. 9 years is but a blink compared to Peter Davison's 23 year span. Whoops, I forgot the return of Sylv (a mere 7 years: Survival '89 to 'The Movie''96)...but who cares? The movie was shizen & after watching 'Silver Nemesis' last night, I don't want to think about Sly McCoy at the mo anyway.
Where is all this going? Well I guess I'm saying that for Pat & Jon to have been wonderful & effortlessly slip back into the role was not really such a feat. They were both superb of course, but it really shouldn't have been any other way. They had much shorter times away from the role & were always 'older' Doctors, so the change was never going to be too jarring. Davison however, who through his era embodied youth, vitality & often naive innocence in a refreshing slant on the character, is stuck with the problem of trying to authentically capture the same youthful spirit, 23 years on, lumbered with a (albiet well kept) 56 year old body. The tough question is how to pitch it? By far the youngest Doctor cast in the role in the original series (29 years in 1981), he is now one year older than William Hartnell was when Hartnell, the all-time oldest doctor at the time of his casting, was originally cast in the role. Considering all this, Peter does pretty well with the help of a mostly pretty tidy bit of fanboy fluff from S Moffatt.
The 'time differential' explanation was deftly tossed off so that it didn't seem too pointedly the fix up the 'older doctors' solution that it was. Perhaps with the 'time differential-ed' older body & older voice came the (somewhat out of character) grumpiness as well. I feel Davison's vibe was more 'impotent frustration' than 'stern grumpiness' when under stress during his tenure. However, considering his newly flagging middle aged hormones & 'greying' cells, Maybe the 5th Dr couldn't help being crabby & cantakerous when thrown into a desperate paradox situation with Tennant's charming (in this instance at least) boggle-eyed geek blabbing at him. It was also good to see the character stretched & developed just a little, rather than having it stunted by continuity fascism & the variable & limited writing of the 5th Doctor's own era. Such things should never be allowed to get in the way of good TV & more importantly, good Dr Who. Apart from having to say 'TARDIS' about five times too many for a 7 minute vignette & his first few technobabble lines seeming a bit forced through his smokers husk (not sure if he does?), Peter settles nicely & I smiled broadly watching Dr's 5 & 10 huddle over the console together in feverish Doctorisheness!
If Davison's 5th Doctor was a few yards of scarf & a few teeth & curls short of iconic prior to Time Crash (pretty much only Tom is truly iconic in the role, with the 'twee a distant second) he is now, at least in Britain. The biggest small-screen star in Britain, David Tennant (although I'd listen to you if you argued Davison himself is, or perhaps 'best loved' is more his mantle?), deliciously fetishised the 5th Doctor before the eyes of a mammoth 11 million viewers. He reminded us of Davison's very own 'teeth & curls'; "the hat, the coat, the crickety-cricket stuff, the stick of celery". This was done very pointedly. Moffat (ably helped by Mr Harper) has now lovingly established the 5th Doctor, his own favourite, as the charming british flavoured small screen sci-fi icon that he wasn't quite. Probably I didn't need quite so many qualifiers, 'Iconic' is perhaps enough on its own now when it comes to Davison's 5th. All done in just over 7 minutes.
Well done loves. The Doctor AND the TARDIS!! Congratulations & well played!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Co-Pilot's in the kitchen with a spatula & he isn't afraid to use it!
Loves! The Co-Pilot is with us again to cast his keen culinary eye over seasons 1 & 2. What will he find? some hands down cheese & chive crackers? some out and out caviar & champagne corkers? or perhaps some cheap mouldy cheeses?...Over to you Co-P
Rose - Fairy Floss (6/10)
End Of The World - A cheese platter (7)
Unquiet Dead - A lovely glass of red (9)
Aliens Of London - A cheap surprising glass of champers (7.5)
WW3 - A cheap unsurprising glass of champers (5)
Dalek - A spectacular gateau that looks better than it tastes (7)
Long Game - Some toffees, mint creams & licorice that has gone hard (5.5)
Father's Day - Cordon Bleu! (9)
Empty Child - A cellar full of winning vintages (10)
Doctor Dances - A second cellar full! (9.5)
Boomtown - A cellar full of tomato juice :( (5.5)
Bad Wolf - Fabulous champagne & wonderful hors douerves (10)
Parting Of The Ways - ...Followed by a thoroughly wonderful meringue (8.5)
(insert ten-inch)
Christmas Invasion - A fun xmas bon-bon containing crappy jokes, a silly paper hat &
a hom-hum plastic trinket
New Earth - Artificial sweetener (4)
Tooth & Claw - A heart sunday roast (8.5)
(From this point on, the Co-Pilot gives a big contemptuous yawn to scores out of 10. Scores are for books fools!)
School Reunion - A favourite pasta recipe...overcooked
Girl In The Fireplace - A deliciously opulent tiramisu enjoyed amongst tender
embraces & longing sighs with your beautiful lover!
(oh Co-Pilot you old silver tongue you!!)
Rise Of The Cybermen - A hot cup of instant coffee
Age Of Steel - A (Lucozer?)-warm cup of instant coffee
Idiot's Lantern - Brussel sprout & anchovie pie
Impossible Planet - An exotic goulash
Satan Pit - Fondue!
Love & Monsters - Soggy chips
Fear Her - Burnt toast
Army Of Ghosts - The keys to the candy store
Doomsday - A delicious but unsatisfying feed from the candy store
Runaway Bride - Christmas turkey - in the figurative sense & no other!
Thanks Co-P!
I'm off to the fridge....
x Lucozer.
Rose - Fairy Floss (6/10)
End Of The World - A cheese platter (7)
Unquiet Dead - A lovely glass of red (9)
Aliens Of London - A cheap surprising glass of champers (7.5)
WW3 - A cheap unsurprising glass of champers (5)
Dalek - A spectacular gateau that looks better than it tastes (7)
Long Game - Some toffees, mint creams & licorice that has gone hard (5.5)
Father's Day - Cordon Bleu! (9)
Empty Child - A cellar full of winning vintages (10)
Doctor Dances - A second cellar full! (9.5)
Boomtown - A cellar full of tomato juice :( (5.5)
Bad Wolf - Fabulous champagne & wonderful hors douerves (10)
Parting Of The Ways - ...Followed by a thoroughly wonderful meringue (8.5)
(insert ten-inch)
Christmas Invasion - A fun xmas bon-bon containing crappy jokes, a silly paper hat &
a hom-hum plastic trinket
New Earth - Artificial sweetener (4)
Tooth & Claw - A heart sunday roast (8.5)
(From this point on, the Co-Pilot gives a big contemptuous yawn to scores out of 10. Scores are for books fools!)
School Reunion - A favourite pasta recipe...overcooked
Girl In The Fireplace - A deliciously opulent tiramisu enjoyed amongst tender
embraces & longing sighs with your beautiful lover!
(oh Co-Pilot you old silver tongue you!!)
Rise Of The Cybermen - A hot cup of instant coffee
Age Of Steel - A (Lucozer?)-warm cup of instant coffee
Idiot's Lantern - Brussel sprout & anchovie pie
Impossible Planet - An exotic goulash
Satan Pit - Fondue!
Love & Monsters - Soggy chips
Fear Her - Burnt toast
Army Of Ghosts - The keys to the candy store
Doomsday - A delicious but unsatisfying feed from the candy store
Runaway Bride - Christmas turkey - in the figurative sense & no other!
Thanks Co-P!
I'm off to the fridge....
x Lucozer.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
More Delphonic delights from the Co-P!
The eyebrows are blazing again....
20 Superb Scores
The Daleks
Dalek's Materplan
Evil Of The Daleks
The Invasion
Seeds Of Death
Sea Devils
The Silurians
Death To The Daleks
Terror Of The Zygons
Pyramids Of Mars
Seeds of Doom
Deadly Assassin
Ribos Operation
City Of Death
Leisure Hive
Earthshock
Enlightenment
Five Doctors
Resurrection Of The Daleks
Caves Of Androzani
5 Best Music Makers
Tristram Carey
Dudley Simpson
Geoffrey Burgen
Malcolm Clarke
Peter Howell
hon mentions: Roger Limb, Jonathon Gibbs, Carey Blyton
dishon mentions: Murray Gold (90% of the time) & Keff McCulloch (without exception)
(Dishons interjected by the Lucozer :) )
12 Fantastic Directors
Dougie Camfield
David Maloney
Lovett Bickford
Paul Joyce
Micheal E. Briant
Paddy Russell
Derek Martinus
Graeme Harper
Peter Grimwade
Timothy Combe
Rodney Bennett
Joe Aherne
Stay tuned for part three where the Co-Pilot, 'All Creatures Great & Small' style, sticks his arm up the 'new' series & pulls out, among other things, a tiramisu, soggy chips, an anchovie pie & goulash!! Intrigued?, so am I!!!
Lucozer.
20 Superb Scores
The Daleks
Dalek's Materplan
Evil Of The Daleks
The Invasion
Seeds Of Death
Sea Devils
The Silurians
Death To The Daleks
Terror Of The Zygons
Pyramids Of Mars
Seeds of Doom
Deadly Assassin
Ribos Operation
City Of Death
Leisure Hive
Earthshock
Enlightenment
Five Doctors
Resurrection Of The Daleks
Caves Of Androzani
5 Best Music Makers
Tristram Carey
Dudley Simpson
Geoffrey Burgen
Malcolm Clarke
Peter Howell
hon mentions: Roger Limb, Jonathon Gibbs, Carey Blyton
dishon mentions: Murray Gold (90% of the time) & Keff McCulloch (without exception)
(Dishons interjected by the Lucozer :) )
12 Fantastic Directors
Dougie Camfield
David Maloney
Lovett Bickford
Paul Joyce
Micheal E. Briant
Paddy Russell
Derek Martinus
Graeme Harper
Peter Grimwade
Timothy Combe
Rodney Bennett
Joe Aherne
Stay tuned for part three where the Co-Pilot, 'All Creatures Great & Small' style, sticks his arm up the 'new' series & pulls out, among other things, a tiramisu, soggy chips, an anchovie pie & goulash!! Intrigued?, so am I!!!
Lucozer.
Monday, October 29, 2007
5 & 10! - Davison & Tennant have a 'Time Crash'
So we now know that Peter Davison will be appearing in the special 'Children In Need' Dr Who episode as has long been rumoured...
Firstly, Peter looks pretty damn good for 56. Unlike Tom & Colin, he will get away with the extra years as Pat & Jon did in their anniversary returns. Remarkable considering he was by far the youngest Doctor in the original series & that changes from early 30's to early 50's are much more noticeable than say mid 40's to mid 60's.
Of all the previous Doctors, Tennant is really more like Davison than any other (albeit with more gurning & manic moments) It will be fascinating to see Moffatt play out the differences & find a dynamic between them.
Hopes/ Fears etc....
I hope we get a 25 minute story ala 'Curse Of The Fatal Death' & not just a 3-5 minute insubstantial bit of fluff like the 9-10 post regen scene & the excerable 'Dimensions In Time'. I'm betting we will get 8-10 minutes, 15 at the very most. If they've got Peter in & shoehorned him back into his costume, they should let him get his feet wet. I don't want him to get settled then see the credits roll.
A special Davison era influenced title sequence would be nice. I'm sure they'll just bung his name on the existing credits as happened with Tate/ Barrowman etc.
A few salty Troughton/ Pertwee style barbs would be fun, as long as they don't degenerate into RTD Cyber/ Dalek Doomsday-esque 'don't go there girlfriend' clunkers. I wouldn't mind a bit of...
5th Dr (with sighing disdain) 'oh dear, a cockatoos crest & chatter to match'
10th Dr (cutting & dry with a smirk) 'still a vision in beige I see'
or perhaps this...
5th Dr (flabbergasted) 'What's with all the tics?, you're like a hormonal teen on
uppers'.
10th Dr (gurning & scruffing hair) 'Weeeelllll!, we finally hit puberty at 956 & get interested in chicks. I can't seem to focus sometimes'
I fear that my dialouge, although patently fabulous & fun on paper will actually be close to the truth!
Hmmm, let me digress for a moment. Presumably Davison will emerge just after the Titanic crashes into the TARDIS & just before Tennant runs off to step back in time with Ms Minogue. What will happen? Or unless, oh my god!, could they?, no!, they couldn't!, OMG!!!, maybe the scene will be unto itself, maybe it WON'T have a clear point in chronology, AAAHHHH, gulp, maybe it won't even really be CANON. Could it be another DIM? Grimace, gurn, scratch, gurn, gurn, grimace. I think it will be canon & will be taken seriously with Moffatt writing. Let's pray daily to RTD to make it so.
Fabbo then!, bring on Nov 16th.
Lucozer.
Firstly, Peter looks pretty damn good for 56. Unlike Tom & Colin, he will get away with the extra years as Pat & Jon did in their anniversary returns. Remarkable considering he was by far the youngest Doctor in the original series & that changes from early 30's to early 50's are much more noticeable than say mid 40's to mid 60's.
Of all the previous Doctors, Tennant is really more like Davison than any other (albeit with more gurning & manic moments) It will be fascinating to see Moffatt play out the differences & find a dynamic between them.
Hopes/ Fears etc....
I hope we get a 25 minute story ala 'Curse Of The Fatal Death' & not just a 3-5 minute insubstantial bit of fluff like the 9-10 post regen scene & the excerable 'Dimensions In Time'. I'm betting we will get 8-10 minutes, 15 at the very most. If they've got Peter in & shoehorned him back into his costume, they should let him get his feet wet. I don't want him to get settled then see the credits roll.
A special Davison era influenced title sequence would be nice. I'm sure they'll just bung his name on the existing credits as happened with Tate/ Barrowman etc.
A few salty Troughton/ Pertwee style barbs would be fun, as long as they don't degenerate into RTD Cyber/ Dalek Doomsday-esque 'don't go there girlfriend' clunkers. I wouldn't mind a bit of...
5th Dr (with sighing disdain) 'oh dear, a cockatoos crest & chatter to match'
10th Dr (cutting & dry with a smirk) 'still a vision in beige I see'
or perhaps this...
5th Dr (flabbergasted) 'What's with all the tics?, you're like a hormonal teen on
uppers'.
10th Dr (gurning & scruffing hair) 'Weeeelllll!, we finally hit puberty at 956 & get interested in chicks. I can't seem to focus sometimes'
I fear that my dialouge, although patently fabulous & fun on paper will actually be close to the truth!
Hmmm, let me digress for a moment. Presumably Davison will emerge just after the Titanic crashes into the TARDIS & just before Tennant runs off to step back in time with Ms Minogue. What will happen? Or unless, oh my god!, could they?, no!, they couldn't!, OMG!!!, maybe the scene will be unto itself, maybe it WON'T have a clear point in chronology, AAAHHHH, gulp, maybe it won't even really be CANON. Could it be another DIM? Grimace, gurn, scratch, gurn, gurn, grimace. I think it will be canon & will be taken seriously with Moffatt writing. Let's pray daily to RTD to make it so.
Fabbo then!, bring on Nov 16th.
Lucozer.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Co-Pilot's message from the Vasmasphere (as told to the Lucozer in Delphon) Part One!
People's of Aneth, please attend carefully, the message that follows is vital the future of you all....
5 Best Dalek Stories...
1. Evil Of The Daleks
2. Dalek's Masterplan
3. Genesis Of The Daleks
4. Power Of The Daleks
5. The Daleks
Best Stories Not Yet Released on DVD...
Deadly Assassin (Oh Lucothther!, 9 out of 10!!)
Seeds of Doom
The War Games
Terror Of The Zygons
The Daemons
Silurians (next year!!! - ed)
Enlightenment
Sea Devils (next year w/ Silurians - ed)
Kinda
21 Wonderful Story Titles...
Talons Of Weng-Chiang
Pyramids Of Mars
Inferno
Fury From The Deep
Horror Of Fang Rock
Green Death
Masque Of Mandragora
Mawdryn Undead
Ribos Operation
Vengeance On Varos
Leisure Hive
Snakedance
Faceless Ones
Edge Of Destruction
Nightmare Of Eden
Claws Of Axos
Terminus
Keys Of Marinus
Armageddon Factor
Arc Of Infinity
King's Demons
25 Woeful Story Titles...
Deadly Assassin
City Of Death
Robots Of Death
Seeds of Death
Seeds of Doom
Mysterious Planet
Planet Of The Daleks
Planet Of Evil
Mind Of Evil
Mindwarp
Time Monster
Time-Flight
Time & The Rani
Invasion Of Time
Hand Of Fear
Enemy Of The World
Invisible Enemy
Attack Of The Cybermen
Revenge Of The Cybermen
Terror Of The Vervoids
The Rescue
The Chase
Colony In Space
Silver Nemesis
Delta & The Bannermen (the all-time clanger? - ed.)
Elocution!!!!!!!!(?)
Gilbert M "I was EGG-ziled from Vas-il-yip" "You need me & I need me!!"
Valentine Dyall "You wretched BOOUUUYYY!!" "rasp, cough, burn, melt, rasp, cough"
Soldeed "Lord Nimon, Lord NIIImmon"
Garron "Don't let me lose faith in you my boOOUUUyyy"
4th Doctor "You're a very beautiful woman..probably"
Borusa #1 "Runthible The Fatuouth" "Oh Doctor!...9 out of 10!"
David Collings
Kevin Stoney "MmmmmPppaacker"
Borusa #2 "The teacher..learns..from the student!!!"
Borusa #4 "it was a game, within a game"
And the winner is!!!!.......Gilbert M...."You don't know his mOOOOOds!"
Doctor Who's 20 Golden Greats (out now on Dino Beta Video? - Ed)
The Daleks
Dalek's Masterplan
Power Of The Daleks
Evil Of The Daleks
Tomb Of The Cybermen
Abominable Snowmen
Web Of Fear
Fury From The Deep
Invasion
The War Games
Spearhead From Space
The Silurians
Inferno
The Daemons
Genesis Of The Daleks
Terror Of The Zygons
Pyramids Of Mars
Seeds Of Doom
Deadly Assassin
Robots Of Death
Talons Of Weng-Chiang
Horror Of Fang Rock
City Of Death
Leisure Hive
Logopolis
Kinda
Earthshock
En....zzzzzzzzzzz...gurgle...zzzzzzzzz!
At that point the Co-Pilot's eyebrows fell silent. Nothing like impending contemplation of latter-day JNT-era fare to send you to sleep....
When he wakes up & transmits further, you will all collectively be the first to know...
Night night Co-Pilot, sweet dreams...Lucozer
5 Best Dalek Stories...
1. Evil Of The Daleks
2. Dalek's Masterplan
3. Genesis Of The Daleks
4. Power Of The Daleks
5. The Daleks
Best Stories Not Yet Released on DVD...
Deadly Assassin (Oh Lucothther!, 9 out of 10!!)
Seeds of Doom
The War Games
Terror Of The Zygons
The Daemons
Silurians (next year!!! - ed)
Enlightenment
Sea Devils (next year w/ Silurians - ed)
Kinda
21 Wonderful Story Titles...
Talons Of Weng-Chiang
Pyramids Of Mars
Inferno
Fury From The Deep
Horror Of Fang Rock
Green Death
Masque Of Mandragora
Mawdryn Undead
Ribos Operation
Vengeance On Varos
Leisure Hive
Snakedance
Faceless Ones
Edge Of Destruction
Nightmare Of Eden
Claws Of Axos
Terminus
Keys Of Marinus
Armageddon Factor
Arc Of Infinity
King's Demons
25 Woeful Story Titles...
Deadly Assassin
City Of Death
Robots Of Death
Seeds of Death
Seeds of Doom
Mysterious Planet
Planet Of The Daleks
Planet Of Evil
Mind Of Evil
Mindwarp
Time Monster
Time-Flight
Time & The Rani
Invasion Of Time
Hand Of Fear
Enemy Of The World
Invisible Enemy
Attack Of The Cybermen
Revenge Of The Cybermen
Terror Of The Vervoids
The Rescue
The Chase
Colony In Space
Silver Nemesis
Delta & The Bannermen (the all-time clanger? - ed.)
Elocution!!!!!!!!(?)
Gilbert M "I was EGG-ziled from Vas-il-yip" "You need me & I need me!!"
Valentine Dyall "You wretched BOOUUUYYY!!" "rasp, cough, burn, melt, rasp, cough"
Soldeed "Lord Nimon, Lord NIIImmon"
Garron "Don't let me lose faith in you my boOOUUUyyy"
4th Doctor "You're a very beautiful woman..probably"
Borusa #1 "Runthible The Fatuouth" "Oh Doctor!...9 out of 10!"
David Collings
Kevin Stoney "MmmmmPppaacker"
Borusa #2 "The teacher..learns..from the student!!!"
Borusa #4 "it was a game, within a game"
And the winner is!!!!.......Gilbert M...."You don't know his mOOOOOds!"
Doctor Who's 20 Golden Greats (out now on Dino Beta Video? - Ed)
The Daleks
Dalek's Masterplan
Power Of The Daleks
Evil Of The Daleks
Tomb Of The Cybermen
Abominable Snowmen
Web Of Fear
Fury From The Deep
Invasion
The War Games
Spearhead From Space
The Silurians
Inferno
The Daemons
Genesis Of The Daleks
Terror Of The Zygons
Pyramids Of Mars
Seeds Of Doom
Deadly Assassin
Robots Of Death
Talons Of Weng-Chiang
Horror Of Fang Rock
City Of Death
Leisure Hive
Logopolis
Kinda
Earthshock
En....zzzzzzzzzzz...gurgle...zzzzzzzzz!
At that point the Co-Pilot's eyebrows fell silent. Nothing like impending contemplation of latter-day JNT-era fare to send you to sleep....
When he wakes up & transmits further, you will all collectively be the first to know...
Night night Co-Pilot, sweet dreams...Lucozer
Sunday, October 21, 2007
A radar blip from Vasilip!!!
Loveys!!!! It seems that the Co-Pilot has re-stablished contact with Wuundanoogoo HQ!!! For the past several weeks he has been on a desperately dangerous covert mission to return Gilbert M from exile to his home planet of Vasilip & help him to rouse a 'revel-you-shhnn' & seize power. Nothing has been heard from the Co-Pilot since he was 7 days out from our HQ on Aneth. Until now!!
The message we have recieved has no sound & the picture is badly affected by astral static & solar flares, but we believe it is indeed the Co-Pilot trying to communicate with us. Luckily the Co-Pilot is fluent in at least 58 alien dialects & body languages; including Delphon!. The lack of sound is therefore only a minor hindrance. Our translators are reading The Co-Pilot's feverish eyebrow undulations as I write.
It seems that the mission was thrown into chaos & disarray when The Co-Pilot's Skonnon Star-Cruiser crash landed on entry into the Vasmasphere. Sadly, from the early part of the message we have assertained that Gilbert M's own long time & long in the tooth """Co-Pilot""", Joseph C, perished in the crash.
The Co-Pilot's Delphon message is hardly revealing what would be expected. No detailed damage reports, no escape plan. His eyebrow elocution is also proving erratic. He seems to be reeling off blushingly nerdy cum exquistely wondrous "top" lists with head spinning speed! Has the crash affected his mind? Or is it a masterfully disguised code? Has he in fact been captured, & not want wanting his true identity to be discovered, been forced to encrypt his true message in the frothiest of fan boy foam. Stay tuned folks........
The message we have recieved has no sound & the picture is badly affected by astral static & solar flares, but we believe it is indeed the Co-Pilot trying to communicate with us. Luckily the Co-Pilot is fluent in at least 58 alien dialects & body languages; including Delphon!. The lack of sound is therefore only a minor hindrance. Our translators are reading The Co-Pilot's feverish eyebrow undulations as I write.
It seems that the mission was thrown into chaos & disarray when The Co-Pilot's Skonnon Star-Cruiser crash landed on entry into the Vasmasphere. Sadly, from the early part of the message we have assertained that Gilbert M's own long time & long in the tooth """Co-Pilot""", Joseph C, perished in the crash.
The Co-Pilot's Delphon message is hardly revealing what would be expected. No detailed damage reports, no escape plan. His eyebrow elocution is also proving erratic. He seems to be reeling off blushingly nerdy cum exquistely wondrous "top" lists with head spinning speed! Has the crash affected his mind? Or is it a masterfully disguised code? Has he in fact been captured, & not want wanting his true identity to be discovered, been forced to encrypt his true message in the frothiest of fan boy foam. Stay tuned folks........
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
'Last of the Time Lords' Oh my giddy aunt, oh crumbs!!
I have held off on reviewing 'Last Of The Time Lords' for several weeks. I have now seen it twice & have had several weeks to sit with it & ruminate over it. My considered opinion? An inept, embarrasing & deeply frustrating travesty!
Here's why...Firstly; the casual off-handed nastiness of it. The Doctor has a dog bowl & lives in a tent with hay on the floor...Fabulous darlings!!...thought the Production Office! How wonderfully degrading! Oh! I know!... let's chuck a plastic pop song over it & have a whole glitzy montage of the Doctor's miseries inflicted by the Master. If you have to show the Doctor suffering (which is fine because it creates drama & makes his final victory sweeter) don't be so damned flip about it Russell & Co! Also, the shrinking Doctor looked utterly ridiculous. He was shrunk basically to make the Master seem more intimdating by comparison. This is lazy writing. Make the Master seem more intimidating by his deeds, his words & by the acting performance. As if the Doctor would shrink with age anyway? This is just arrant silliness. A chance to create a second rate Yoda/ Lord of the Rings type of gimp. And what was with the big eyes? "Oh we have to make him look REALLY sad because the viewers won't be able to just imagine that or draw their own conclusions". Why the oversize head? "oh we have to make him look tragic yet also strangely cute of course!"
The most disappointing thing however was the inexcusable laziness of the """RESOLUTION""" of Martha's character. If the unrequited love storyline was going to prove such an unresolvable problem, why push her character that way all season? We are robbed of the chance of watching her character develop slowly in confidence & wisdom next season by having her turned into a cliche no-nonsense action woman on a quest for "oh I don't know...a year?!, Let's make it seem REALLY dramatic" & writing her out for the lions' share of next season. A one minute montage of Martha sludging through snow & sleet for a year doesn't cut it for character development I'm afraid. Lazy, lazy, lazy. It seems the Production Office believes nothing gives a greater sense of drama than casually upping the scope?! A silly slitheen attack? Let's call it WW3!, Dalek & Cybermen trouble?, it's Doomdsay!!! Also, as the Co-Pilot pointed out, the casual reference to Japan burning after the Toclaphane attacks; show it damn it!! Big words, no action.
I won't delve into the ridiculous religious iconography & "magical" conclusion that 'flipped the bird' to hard science & credibility. Suffice to say it was rubbish. The delicate Paradox machine that the Doctor didn't want to breathe or even think too hard near lest he rattle it & break its concentration? Let's get Captain Jack to shoot from the crotch at it like a bi-sexual John Rambo. Everyone will have forgotten it's so delicate after the fabulous diva like re-birth of the Doctor & Murray Gold laying on the gluggy treacle. Anything's possible with magic! (and when you need to wrap up a ridiculously convoluted plot, a character (Martha) & a whole season in about 4 minutes)
'Sound Of Drums' was flawed, but fun & I really hoped the game would be lifted for this, alas it was an absolute fizzer. :( :( :(
A grumpy Lucozer...
Here's why...Firstly; the casual off-handed nastiness of it. The Doctor has a dog bowl & lives in a tent with hay on the floor...Fabulous darlings!!...thought the Production Office! How wonderfully degrading! Oh! I know!... let's chuck a plastic pop song over it & have a whole glitzy montage of the Doctor's miseries inflicted by the Master. If you have to show the Doctor suffering (which is fine because it creates drama & makes his final victory sweeter) don't be so damned flip about it Russell & Co! Also, the shrinking Doctor looked utterly ridiculous. He was shrunk basically to make the Master seem more intimdating by comparison. This is lazy writing. Make the Master seem more intimidating by his deeds, his words & by the acting performance. As if the Doctor would shrink with age anyway? This is just arrant silliness. A chance to create a second rate Yoda/ Lord of the Rings type of gimp. And what was with the big eyes? "Oh we have to make him look REALLY sad because the viewers won't be able to just imagine that or draw their own conclusions". Why the oversize head? "oh we have to make him look tragic yet also strangely cute of course!"
The most disappointing thing however was the inexcusable laziness of the """RESOLUTION""" of Martha's character. If the unrequited love storyline was going to prove such an unresolvable problem, why push her character that way all season? We are robbed of the chance of watching her character develop slowly in confidence & wisdom next season by having her turned into a cliche no-nonsense action woman on a quest for "oh I don't know...a year?!, Let's make it seem REALLY dramatic" & writing her out for the lions' share of next season. A one minute montage of Martha sludging through snow & sleet for a year doesn't cut it for character development I'm afraid. Lazy, lazy, lazy. It seems the Production Office believes nothing gives a greater sense of drama than casually upping the scope?! A silly slitheen attack? Let's call it WW3!, Dalek & Cybermen trouble?, it's Doomdsay!!! Also, as the Co-Pilot pointed out, the casual reference to Japan burning after the Toclaphane attacks; show it damn it!! Big words, no action.
I won't delve into the ridiculous religious iconography & "magical" conclusion that 'flipped the bird' to hard science & credibility. Suffice to say it was rubbish. The delicate Paradox machine that the Doctor didn't want to breathe or even think too hard near lest he rattle it & break its concentration? Let's get Captain Jack to shoot from the crotch at it like a bi-sexual John Rambo. Everyone will have forgotten it's so delicate after the fabulous diva like re-birth of the Doctor & Murray Gold laying on the gluggy treacle. Anything's possible with magic! (and when you need to wrap up a ridiculously convoluted plot, a character (Martha) & a whole season in about 4 minutes)
'Sound Of Drums' was flawed, but fun & I really hoped the game would be lifted for this, alas it was an absolute fizzer. :( :( :(
A grumpy Lucozer...
Sunday, September 23, 2007
'Sontaron Shit-Sandwich' or 'A Vardan Pardon'? 'Invasion of Time' gets the once over.
The Co-Pilot & I bunkered down to watch 'Invasion of Time' with some take away Indian last night. We've decided to re-appraise some of the Tom Baker stories we have written off as a load of old tosh & try & come at them with open (but lubricatingly alcohol impaired) minds. We'll probably tackle the blandarama 'Underworld' next, but for now... 'Invasion of Time'
We had to start with episode 2 as episode 1 was on another tape & I didn't notice when I hurriedly grabbed it to take to the Co-Pilot's house. We took up the story with the Doctor accessing the Matrix with the coronet on his head....
Despite evidence of a tired & penniless production at this point, even before the revelation of the risible tin-foil Vardans & some other blushing set design disasters, it is actually quite involving & mercifully played pretty straight. I was immediately struck by the powerful performance from Tom & John Arnatt's beautifully underplayed Borusa. They have some wonderful scenes together; the scene where Borusa realises he has learned from his old student & also when Tom bellows at him with shocking intensity come to mind. Sadly, after episode 2, a cheap looking but seemingly worthy story degenerates rapidly into a panto runaround & not even the brilliance of Baker & Arnatt can save it from ho-hum ignominy.
On a brief tangent; Toms' lines to camera have been criticised, but I think they're quite fab. Also, in terms of them damaging the dramatic credibility, you can almost excuse them as part of the Doctor shielding his thoughts by distracting himself with silliness & talking to himself. I might be drawing too long a bow there though? You could almost say this story is the turning point for Tom in terms of his Hinchcliffe-era versus Williams-era performance styles. He seems as if he is valiantly trying to deliver one final 'Hinchcliffe-era-worthy' performance before finally giving in to the seemingly inevitable panto silliness of the Williams era by the end of the story.
Apart from TB & Arnatt & to a lesser extent Milton Johns & Louise, just about everything & everyone is diabolical. Firstly, just how bad is the design? oh let me count the ways! shabby brick wall Tardis corridors, Tardis keys that look like failed year 9 Tech Studies plastics projects, control boards that look like kindergarten play-dough models, 'Gallifreyan' banana lounges on loan from the local pool, The Tech Studies workshop where they found the 'keys' doubling for the Gallifreyan Defence shield control room!? Just a sample of the many breathtaking design wonder-blunders that Invasion of Time has to offer. Only 'Underworld' arguably looks cheaper & this makes 'Nightmare Of Eden' look like it had millions thrown at it. The nadir of drab povvo Dr Who set design? Just maybe.
& then there's the Vardans; crap as shimmering tin foil, arguably worse in humanoid form with their ridiculous space soldier outfits & backpack rocket boosters. The performance of the lead Vardan is excruciatingly stilted & to make things worse his fellow Vardans just stand there looking bored (& don't even pull that off) & then there's the Sontarans!! Everytime I think I've mentioned the shoddiest thing, something even more crap springs to mind. Derek Deadman's Stor is unforgiveably woeful & his lieutenant? is worse... "They seem...to have sealed the door...with some kind of...locking...device!" One of the worst delivered lines in the history of the show. All their lines are stammered out in constipated emphysemic Cockney drawls. Dreadful. The superb Sontaron mask that looked convincingly like creepy alien flesh in 'Time Warrior' looks here like the ill-fitted papier mache travesty it was. Come back John Friedlander!!! Even the helmet that once looked like a tough polished metal now looks like poorly painted foam with eye holes poked through & the 'Sontaron Emblem' seems to have been coloured on with chalk in about 5 seconds. Uugh!
Yet more shizen!..Andred is wobbly when he's not wooden. The Shaboogans are laughable; they've managed to fashion clothes, find food & shave themselves in the barren wasteland? Despite Louise Jameson's best efforts, Leela teeters on charicature of her earlier self & her falling for Andred was not even hinted at. How late was that decided? During the filming of the last scene? Whoops! I suppose she looked into his eyes when putting the bandage on his wounded arm & fell hard for the dorky Gallifreyan guard. Well it was obvious wasn't it! Louise deserved better for her swansong. What else....Run, run, pad, pad, pad. Pretty wretched. But for Tom & John Arnatt; Laurels darling! laurels & wreaths!
To be fair to Graham Williams (who co-wrote it) Tom does have some great lines & the CONCEPT of the Vardans is a good one. It was also made with his tiny production wallet empty & had to be written, designed & played at the 11th hour due to another story falling through. However, excuses don't make good Doctor Who chums &; like wet gun powder, leave a sticky mess in the canon!
"Get out!! Get out!!!!"...Lucozer
We had to start with episode 2 as episode 1 was on another tape & I didn't notice when I hurriedly grabbed it to take to the Co-Pilot's house. We took up the story with the Doctor accessing the Matrix with the coronet on his head....
Despite evidence of a tired & penniless production at this point, even before the revelation of the risible tin-foil Vardans & some other blushing set design disasters, it is actually quite involving & mercifully played pretty straight. I was immediately struck by the powerful performance from Tom & John Arnatt's beautifully underplayed Borusa. They have some wonderful scenes together; the scene where Borusa realises he has learned from his old student & also when Tom bellows at him with shocking intensity come to mind. Sadly, after episode 2, a cheap looking but seemingly worthy story degenerates rapidly into a panto runaround & not even the brilliance of Baker & Arnatt can save it from ho-hum ignominy.
On a brief tangent; Toms' lines to camera have been criticised, but I think they're quite fab. Also, in terms of them damaging the dramatic credibility, you can almost excuse them as part of the Doctor shielding his thoughts by distracting himself with silliness & talking to himself. I might be drawing too long a bow there though? You could almost say this story is the turning point for Tom in terms of his Hinchcliffe-era versus Williams-era performance styles. He seems as if he is valiantly trying to deliver one final 'Hinchcliffe-era-worthy' performance before finally giving in to the seemingly inevitable panto silliness of the Williams era by the end of the story.
Apart from TB & Arnatt & to a lesser extent Milton Johns & Louise, just about everything & everyone is diabolical. Firstly, just how bad is the design? oh let me count the ways! shabby brick wall Tardis corridors, Tardis keys that look like failed year 9 Tech Studies plastics projects, control boards that look like kindergarten play-dough models, 'Gallifreyan' banana lounges on loan from the local pool, The Tech Studies workshop where they found the 'keys' doubling for the Gallifreyan Defence shield control room!? Just a sample of the many breathtaking design wonder-blunders that Invasion of Time has to offer. Only 'Underworld' arguably looks cheaper & this makes 'Nightmare Of Eden' look like it had millions thrown at it. The nadir of drab povvo Dr Who set design? Just maybe.
& then there's the Vardans; crap as shimmering tin foil, arguably worse in humanoid form with their ridiculous space soldier outfits & backpack rocket boosters. The performance of the lead Vardan is excruciatingly stilted & to make things worse his fellow Vardans just stand there looking bored (& don't even pull that off) & then there's the Sontarans!! Everytime I think I've mentioned the shoddiest thing, something even more crap springs to mind. Derek Deadman's Stor is unforgiveably woeful & his lieutenant? is worse... "They seem...to have sealed the door...with some kind of...locking...device!" One of the worst delivered lines in the history of the show. All their lines are stammered out in constipated emphysemic Cockney drawls. Dreadful. The superb Sontaron mask that looked convincingly like creepy alien flesh in 'Time Warrior' looks here like the ill-fitted papier mache travesty it was. Come back John Friedlander!!! Even the helmet that once looked like a tough polished metal now looks like poorly painted foam with eye holes poked through & the 'Sontaron Emblem' seems to have been coloured on with chalk in about 5 seconds. Uugh!
Yet more shizen!..Andred is wobbly when he's not wooden. The Shaboogans are laughable; they've managed to fashion clothes, find food & shave themselves in the barren wasteland? Despite Louise Jameson's best efforts, Leela teeters on charicature of her earlier self & her falling for Andred was not even hinted at. How late was that decided? During the filming of the last scene? Whoops! I suppose she looked into his eyes when putting the bandage on his wounded arm & fell hard for the dorky Gallifreyan guard. Well it was obvious wasn't it! Louise deserved better for her swansong. What else....Run, run, pad, pad, pad. Pretty wretched. But for Tom & John Arnatt; Laurels darling! laurels & wreaths!
To be fair to Graham Williams (who co-wrote it) Tom does have some great lines & the CONCEPT of the Vardans is a good one. It was also made with his tiny production wallet empty & had to be written, designed & played at the 11th hour due to another story falling through. However, excuses don't make good Doctor Who chums &; like wet gun powder, leave a sticky mess in the canon!
"Get out!! Get out!!!!"...Lucozer
Friday, September 7, 2007
Doctor Who & the 'Web of jolly-well-not-very Clear'!!!
Oh that it were true! That 'Web of Fear' could be returned to the BBC vaults from where it was so cruelly cast out back in the late 70's!
Even if this rumour turns out to be a particularly nasty hoax, I am amazed at the timing of it. Reason being that the Co-Pilot & I, a mere 5 nights ago, sat down to watch the two (until now?) remaining Yeti episodes together. We had never watched those episodes paired in a 'Yeti fest' sense. In fact, of the two eps, the only one we'd seen together was Abom 2 & that was about 15 years ago on 'The Troughton Years' VHS. Our little Yeti moment may now be followed by a Yeti bonanza!! Pure chance?, spooky coincidence?, or something much more fabulous?? who knows!!
A few thoughts on:
Abominable Snowmen 2 -
Fairly slow moving but marvellously atmospheric. Well acted, superb set design. The outdoor film shots look superb; so crisp. An underrated, quiet gem.
Web Of Fear 1 -
Some great moments. The Hammer Horror style scenes in the museum are striking. Pat, Frazer & even Deb are all on good form. The tunnel scenes look superb. The letdowns are Jack Watling's wretched 'huffing old man' turn & the stilted scenes in the military base. I'm sad to say the episode overall is a middling effort from the otherwise masterful Mr Camfield. I hope it gets better after the somewhat shaky start & I certainly hope we will soon find out!!
The Lucozer (plugging up his fan boy saliva ducts, but hoping to soon let them flow!)
Monday, September 3, 2007
"What You Talkin' 'Bout Bilis!!???"
The Co-Pilot & I are very proud to announce the launch of a brand new addition to the 'wonderful worlds of Wuundanoogoo'. A new semi-regular segment; "What You Talkin' 'Bout Bilis!??".
It is in this 'domain' that we will discuss the more strange & contentious issues relating to the 'classic series' & also the frankly bizarre rumours that are sifting through to fandom regarding the forthcoming season 4...
Will ancient soap-sud Joan Collins steal the Rani's """sonic screwdriver""" from Kate O'Mara in a nasty Dynasty-esque cat-fight? Has RTD realised that he unconciously wrote 'Love & Monsters' as a particularly vicious satire on himself & his relationship with the show & fandom? Further to this; has RTD now absorbed Peter Kay so that he can assume his rightful role as the 'Abzorbaloff' in a season 4 return appearance?? It does seems rather likely to us here at Wuundanoogoo.
Stay tuned...and remember...if someone is talking absolute s@*t, you'll hear about it, at...
"What You Talkin' Bout Bilis!??".....
It is in this 'domain' that we will discuss the more strange & contentious issues relating to the 'classic series' & also the frankly bizarre rumours that are sifting through to fandom regarding the forthcoming season 4...
Will ancient soap-sud Joan Collins steal the Rani's """sonic screwdriver""" from Kate O'Mara in a nasty Dynasty-esque cat-fight? Has RTD realised that he unconciously wrote 'Love & Monsters' as a particularly vicious satire on himself & his relationship with the show & fandom? Further to this; has RTD now absorbed Peter Kay so that he can assume his rightful role as the 'Abzorbaloff' in a season 4 return appearance?? It does seems rather likely to us here at Wuundanoogoo.
Stay tuned...and remember...if someone is talking absolute s@*t, you'll hear about it, at...
"What You Talkin' Bout Bilis!??".....
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Lucozers' DVD release wish-list
Doctor Who stories that should be released on DVD asap (with asterisks to indicate pressing urgency of release!!)
** Decent story. A worthy addition to the DVD shelf
*** Good story. slightly surprising it has been passed over thus far
**** Get it the #%&* out on DVD already!!! &*^%# to the wall classic!
In chronological order...
TIME MEDDLER **
A snappy little 4 parter & it would be the first full Steven/ Vicki release
WAR MACHINES **
A modest charmer & the only complete Ben/ Polly adventure
ICE WARRIORS ***
With animation (or preferably CGI) for the missing episodes 2 & 3
WAR GAMES ****
The extra star for the lavish packaging & bonus feature possibilities. The story perhaps only worthy of 3 & a half
THE SILURIANS ****
!!!!! My most anticipated release at the moment
TERROR OF THE AUTONS/ MIND OF EVIL/ CLAWS OF AXOS/ COLONY IN SPACE/ DAEMONS ****
A masterful Master box set. He appeared in every story in Season 8 so it makes perfect sense. A fitting tribute to wonderful Rog. This is really the only way I would buy Axos & the best way to flog off the dreary Colony
FRONTIER IN SPACE/ PLANET OF THE DALEKS ***
As the double header it really is, this 12 part space opera would be a superb anorak filler
DEATH TO THE DALEKS ***
Can't wait to hear the striking incidental music restored!
TERROR OF THE ZYGONS/ ANDROID INVASION ****
Linked by being the final two appearances for both Benton & Harry & also the final UNIT story proper (not including the brief scenes in 'Seeds Of Doom'). Zygons contains some of the finest incidental music in the shows history, as does the wonderful...
SEEDS OF DOOM ****
All hail Geoffrey Burgen! Best TB story not out on DVD as yet
FULL CIRCLE/ STATE OF DECAY/ WARRIOR'S GATE ***
A superb set that would be more than the sum of it's parts. The only way I would buy Full Circle
MAWDRYN UNDEAD/ TERMINUS/ ENLIGHTENMENT ***
A fab triple set of the Guardian trilogy. Enlightenment is the only individual story I'd rush out for, but together they are almost a match for the E-Space trilogy
PLANET OF FIRE **
A modest story. A polished production if a little bland. Certainly one of Ainley's best showings
TRIAL OF A TIME LORD ***
The bonus features & packaging will lift this one above its station
HAPPINESS PATROL ***
This should be considered the 'Rocky Horror' of the Who canon. People should have dress up parties to watch it & lay on hors d'oerves & champers!
Cheers, The 'Cozer
Oh..and as for the Animated/CGI Hartnell/ Troughton missing story reconstructions. GET MOVING BEEB!!!!PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
Power, Evil, Masterplan, Fury, Web...the palette waters!!!
** Decent story. A worthy addition to the DVD shelf
*** Good story. slightly surprising it has been passed over thus far
**** Get it the #%&* out on DVD already!!! &*^%# to the wall classic!
In chronological order...
TIME MEDDLER **
A snappy little 4 parter & it would be the first full Steven/ Vicki release
WAR MACHINES **
A modest charmer & the only complete Ben/ Polly adventure
ICE WARRIORS ***
With animation (or preferably CGI) for the missing episodes 2 & 3
WAR GAMES ****
The extra star for the lavish packaging & bonus feature possibilities. The story perhaps only worthy of 3 & a half
THE SILURIANS ****
!!!!! My most anticipated release at the moment
TERROR OF THE AUTONS/ MIND OF EVIL/ CLAWS OF AXOS/ COLONY IN SPACE/ DAEMONS ****
A masterful Master box set. He appeared in every story in Season 8 so it makes perfect sense. A fitting tribute to wonderful Rog. This is really the only way I would buy Axos & the best way to flog off the dreary Colony
FRONTIER IN SPACE/ PLANET OF THE DALEKS ***
As the double header it really is, this 12 part space opera would be a superb anorak filler
DEATH TO THE DALEKS ***
Can't wait to hear the striking incidental music restored!
TERROR OF THE ZYGONS/ ANDROID INVASION ****
Linked by being the final two appearances for both Benton & Harry & also the final UNIT story proper (not including the brief scenes in 'Seeds Of Doom'). Zygons contains some of the finest incidental music in the shows history, as does the wonderful...
SEEDS OF DOOM ****
All hail Geoffrey Burgen! Best TB story not out on DVD as yet
FULL CIRCLE/ STATE OF DECAY/ WARRIOR'S GATE ***
A superb set that would be more than the sum of it's parts. The only way I would buy Full Circle
MAWDRYN UNDEAD/ TERMINUS/ ENLIGHTENMENT ***
A fab triple set of the Guardian trilogy. Enlightenment is the only individual story I'd rush out for, but together they are almost a match for the E-Space trilogy
PLANET OF FIRE **
A modest story. A polished production if a little bland. Certainly one of Ainley's best showings
TRIAL OF A TIME LORD ***
The bonus features & packaging will lift this one above its station
HAPPINESS PATROL ***
This should be considered the 'Rocky Horror' of the Who canon. People should have dress up parties to watch it & lay on hors d'oerves & champers!
Cheers, The 'Cozer
Oh..and as for the Animated/CGI Hartnell/ Troughton missing story reconstructions. GET MOVING BEEB!!!!PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
Power, Evil, Masterplan, Fury, Web...the palette waters!!!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Peter Davison Returns!!!!!!!!! (?)
I'm just a little bit excited if this is all true. I'm biting my fist & salivating fan boy saliva by the bucketload.
Thoughts that are making me salivate:
- The thought of Dr's 5 & 10 meeting & interacting
- Steven Moffat warming up his typewriter/ keyboard/ quill/ scribing tool of choice
for said meeting
- A companion with Dr 5?
- The (unlikely it seems) potential of a grand multi-Doctor 2 parter in Series 4.
Thoughts that are making my saliva dry up:
- If this is for 'Children in Need' it will be 15 minutes? at best? Probably chopped
into two 6-8 minute 'blink & you'll miss them' 'fun-sized' chunks. This would be a
cruel tease surely?; a sexy wink across a crowded fan convention without a
follow through of some heavy petting...
- 'Dimensions In Time'
- Frothy 'specials' in general
- 'Dimensions In Time'
- A School Reunion/ Sarah-Jane Adventures-esque out-of-character 'sassying up' of the
5th Doctor. Unlikely from Mr Moffatt though thankfully.
But really, I'm just very excited. Peter was 'my Doctor' as I was first hooked back in 1983.
Bring on the bells & whistles.....
Lucozer
Thoughts that are making me salivate:
- The thought of Dr's 5 & 10 meeting & interacting
- Steven Moffat warming up his typewriter/ keyboard/ quill/ scribing tool of choice
for said meeting
- A companion with Dr 5?
- The (unlikely it seems) potential of a grand multi-Doctor 2 parter in Series 4.
Thoughts that are making my saliva dry up:
- If this is for 'Children in Need' it will be 15 minutes? at best? Probably chopped
into two 6-8 minute 'blink & you'll miss them' 'fun-sized' chunks. This would be a
cruel tease surely?; a sexy wink across a crowded fan convention without a
follow through of some heavy petting...
- 'Dimensions In Time'
- Frothy 'specials' in general
- 'Dimensions In Time'
- A School Reunion/ Sarah-Jane Adventures-esque out-of-character 'sassying up' of the
5th Doctor. Unlikely from Mr Moffatt though thankfully.
But really, I'm just very excited. Peter was 'my Doctor' as I was first hooked back in 1983.
Bring on the bells & whistles.....
Lucozer
Sunday, August 19, 2007
A little spelunking in 'The Caves of Androzani'
Oh wondrous Caves! How deep & dark thine are!
I watched the DVD of Androzani a couple of days ago while I was in bed with a heavy cold (or perhaps lite-flu would be a more apt description). It was a first time viewing of the story on DVD for me & the first time I've watched it in several years. I was impressed at how well it held up. I was worried that its high standing in fan esteem was largely due to the ho-hum quality of many of the stories surrounding it. Thankfully, it seems, not so.
Firstly the faults. Nicola Bryant struggles with some awkward & unlikely dialouge. The scene early in episode 1 examining the lumps of fused silica where she fumbles with the terrible 'reticular vector gauge' joke, to which the Doctor replies sarcasm is not her stong point, is particularly cringeworthy. Her accent falters at times too, in that same 'joke', a very English sounding 'glaa-ass' grates in her faux-yank drawl. The characterisation of Peri was a troubling mess from the start really. The production team didn't seem to know what to do with her. There was half-baked botany bollocks, clunky American cliche crap & not much else. That aside, she does quite well in Caves & I much prefer her here than in 'Twin Dilemma' & most of season 22. She is quite sweet & innocent, a far cry from all the dreadful nagging & sarcasm she was lumbered with later.
The greatest fault however is the 'Mire Beast'; an absolutely wretched creation. It serves no important purpose & could just about be excised from the story all together by a nifty re-edit. It wears a cloak too?! What were they thinking? The caves themselves don't quite convince either. Studio floors with a bit of dirt thrown about don't cut it I'm afraid.
The pros? There are a wondrous multitude. Morgus is simply superb. Every deadpan line is a sweetmeat delicacy! Lines to camera almost never work, but Normington not only gets away with it, he leaves me wanting more. He turns the dastardly villian cliche inside out. There is no maniacal laughter or rubbing of hands; just simmering, unblinking malevolence. Stotz, Chellack & Salateen are all suitably shifty & self interested to varying degrees. The scene where Salateen laughingly realises his life will be spared by the Doctor & Peri having contracted Spectrox Toxaemia is particularly striking.
As with 'Resurrection of The Daleks', we have here a very dark story with very few (if any) sympathetic support characters, but Caves is all together more involving. Holmes' characters are more deeply textured & far more fascinating. Resurrection's convoluted nastiness just leaves me cold, but the unrelenting bleakness of Caves draws me in & leaves me breathless at times. Even the smaller parts add further richness to the piece; the icy & viciously efficient Krau Timmin a case in point. Her little side-plot victory over Morgus, dressing him down with her feet on his desk, is a marvellous touch.
Jek, like Morgus, is a masterful villian. Gable's voice & gestures are perfect. He conveys the complex character & its many contradictions using only these things & one eye. Once or twice he teeters on the edge of OTT, but always pulls back just in time. He & Morgus are a formidable duo. It is so rare in the history of the show to behold two classic humanoid villians in one story. Most stories have trouble raising one that is in any way memorable. Jek's love for Peri's innocence & beauty, which in the end almost redeems him, is beautifully played & utterly believable as she lays sweating, suffocating & barely conscious. Gable plays the desperation wonderfully; feverishly mopping her brow & trying to comfort her while the Doctor hunts for the bats milk.
Which brings me to Davison. I hope I haven't exhausted my superlative supply because he deserves to have lots of them shining on his sitting room mantle. The smiling, optimistic & energetic Doctor of early Davison era has been replaced by a stone dry, impatient, dour & no-nonsense demeanour that suits the story perfectly. Davison gives his swansong absolutely everything he has. His ailing Doctor, whether spitting out a very hard to deliver (but stunningly believable) "I'm not going to let you stop me now!", or panting & staggering through endless dunes while being chased & shot at, is compelling to watch.
I was impresssed by the effectiveness of the scenes of the Doctor being chased through the dunes & later carrying Peri back to the TARDIS. The grainy film stock & grey skies combine with the rumbling soundtrack to conjur some of the most striking scenes in the history of the show. This in an era that generally suffered from cheap glossy videotape, garish costumes & ham-fisted overhead lighting. Hats off to (Graeme) Harper! You forget for several minutes at a time this was an early/mid 80's JNT story! The incidental music, although uniformly strong through JNT's first few seasons, is particularly atmospheric & foreboding in Caves.
The Davison/ C. Baker regeneration is probably the greatest in the history of the show. The tension of the moment was never greater before or since. The Doctor saves Peri on the point of death & collapses with the immortal, fearful line that Davison nails; "Is this death? feels different this time". The Master's malicious taunts followed by the 'white noise' cacophany is the stuff of fan boy foam & froth. Stunning. Even Colin's brief moment shows qualified promise. He is immediately arrogant & salty, but with no warning of the mugging, bickering buffoon that would emerge in the worst moments of the following season. So not even the last scene can spoil the grandeur of Caves.
Caves...thou art shining with glowing phosphoresecent glory!....
Lucozer..
I watched the DVD of Androzani a couple of days ago while I was in bed with a heavy cold (or perhaps lite-flu would be a more apt description). It was a first time viewing of the story on DVD for me & the first time I've watched it in several years. I was impressed at how well it held up. I was worried that its high standing in fan esteem was largely due to the ho-hum quality of many of the stories surrounding it. Thankfully, it seems, not so.
Firstly the faults. Nicola Bryant struggles with some awkward & unlikely dialouge. The scene early in episode 1 examining the lumps of fused silica where she fumbles with the terrible 'reticular vector gauge' joke, to which the Doctor replies sarcasm is not her stong point, is particularly cringeworthy. Her accent falters at times too, in that same 'joke', a very English sounding 'glaa-ass' grates in her faux-yank drawl. The characterisation of Peri was a troubling mess from the start really. The production team didn't seem to know what to do with her. There was half-baked botany bollocks, clunky American cliche crap & not much else. That aside, she does quite well in Caves & I much prefer her here than in 'Twin Dilemma' & most of season 22. She is quite sweet & innocent, a far cry from all the dreadful nagging & sarcasm she was lumbered with later.
The greatest fault however is the 'Mire Beast'; an absolutely wretched creation. It serves no important purpose & could just about be excised from the story all together by a nifty re-edit. It wears a cloak too?! What were they thinking? The caves themselves don't quite convince either. Studio floors with a bit of dirt thrown about don't cut it I'm afraid.
The pros? There are a wondrous multitude. Morgus is simply superb. Every deadpan line is a sweetmeat delicacy! Lines to camera almost never work, but Normington not only gets away with it, he leaves me wanting more. He turns the dastardly villian cliche inside out. There is no maniacal laughter or rubbing of hands; just simmering, unblinking malevolence. Stotz, Chellack & Salateen are all suitably shifty & self interested to varying degrees. The scene where Salateen laughingly realises his life will be spared by the Doctor & Peri having contracted Spectrox Toxaemia is particularly striking.
As with 'Resurrection of The Daleks', we have here a very dark story with very few (if any) sympathetic support characters, but Caves is all together more involving. Holmes' characters are more deeply textured & far more fascinating. Resurrection's convoluted nastiness just leaves me cold, but the unrelenting bleakness of Caves draws me in & leaves me breathless at times. Even the smaller parts add further richness to the piece; the icy & viciously efficient Krau Timmin a case in point. Her little side-plot victory over Morgus, dressing him down with her feet on his desk, is a marvellous touch.
Jek, like Morgus, is a masterful villian. Gable's voice & gestures are perfect. He conveys the complex character & its many contradictions using only these things & one eye. Once or twice he teeters on the edge of OTT, but always pulls back just in time. He & Morgus are a formidable duo. It is so rare in the history of the show to behold two classic humanoid villians in one story. Most stories have trouble raising one that is in any way memorable. Jek's love for Peri's innocence & beauty, which in the end almost redeems him, is beautifully played & utterly believable as she lays sweating, suffocating & barely conscious. Gable plays the desperation wonderfully; feverishly mopping her brow & trying to comfort her while the Doctor hunts for the bats milk.
Which brings me to Davison. I hope I haven't exhausted my superlative supply because he deserves to have lots of them shining on his sitting room mantle. The smiling, optimistic & energetic Doctor of early Davison era has been replaced by a stone dry, impatient, dour & no-nonsense demeanour that suits the story perfectly. Davison gives his swansong absolutely everything he has. His ailing Doctor, whether spitting out a very hard to deliver (but stunningly believable) "I'm not going to let you stop me now!", or panting & staggering through endless dunes while being chased & shot at, is compelling to watch.
I was impresssed by the effectiveness of the scenes of the Doctor being chased through the dunes & later carrying Peri back to the TARDIS. The grainy film stock & grey skies combine with the rumbling soundtrack to conjur some of the most striking scenes in the history of the show. This in an era that generally suffered from cheap glossy videotape, garish costumes & ham-fisted overhead lighting. Hats off to (Graeme) Harper! You forget for several minutes at a time this was an early/mid 80's JNT story! The incidental music, although uniformly strong through JNT's first few seasons, is particularly atmospheric & foreboding in Caves.
The Davison/ C. Baker regeneration is probably the greatest in the history of the show. The tension of the moment was never greater before or since. The Doctor saves Peri on the point of death & collapses with the immortal, fearful line that Davison nails; "Is this death? feels different this time". The Master's malicious taunts followed by the 'white noise' cacophany is the stuff of fan boy foam & froth. Stunning. Even Colin's brief moment shows qualified promise. He is immediately arrogant & salty, but with no warning of the mugging, bickering buffoon that would emerge in the worst moments of the following season. So not even the last scene can spoil the grandeur of Caves.
Caves...thou art shining with glowing phosphoresecent glory!....
Lucozer..
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