Tabula Rasa lj

Actually, I don't have anything particularly interesting say about episode 4.3 of Doctor Who, I just wanted to use that title.

Though it was interesting that ( mild spoiler )

Having waxed lyrical(-ish) about Blood Ties, I should probably point out Eddie Campbell's latest post as a counterpoint. I tend to ignore Eddie's grumpiness, since it's usual about people and works I know little about, but in this case he is complaining about Bernie Wrightson and defending Fredric Wertham (he of The Seduction of the Innocents, and the 1950s anti-comic crusade) which certainly piques the interest.

I'm not going to argue either point (and couldn't with any authority), but I know there are plenty of people I respect who would do so.

What brings me back to Blood Ties -- and the episode '5:55' about things happening over and over again -- is, well, things happening over and over again. This is a plot we've seen before. (Buffy did a nice bit of dialogue about this in their own version.) But it's more coherent than some BT episodes, and as usual the characters are so likable they carry it off. But is it enough? Is it just 'a monster eating and regurgitating itself' as Eddie would have it? Is it simply comfort-food for the attention span, and is that bad?

Understanding most people haven't seen that specific episode or show, what do you reckon?

It always seems a bit pointless to review new Doctor Who, because I want to make the same points over and over. The frenetic pacing and narrative shortcuts don't do much for me. But -- all that implied -- Fires of Pompeii was pretty good, and Donna is working out.

I was of course shocked (shocked!) by the continuity error with Masque of Mandragora, but I shall recover. One day.

It was nice to see the sets of Rome again too -- I assume that was Atia's villa, looking a little more cramped. (Was it wrong to think of Octavian and Octavia, when the son grabbed his sister's hand?)

Meanwhile, we watched 5:55, the inevitable Groundhog Day episode of Blood Ties -- and that was good too.

We saw the last episodes of Young Dracula S2 and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles S1 this week.

As I think I reported earlier, YD S1 was charming but seemed to be running out of ideas. It turned out this wasn't a problem with S2 -- they amped up the nastiness and weirdness, introduced some story arcs, and managed to make something freaky. It's still the sort of program with a stuffed hellhound on wheels as a character, but likewise you start to wonder if everyone is going to survive the experience.

Terminator is of course already nasty and weird, and we wouldn't want it any other way. My main quibbles are actually with the characters, which is a bit sad. The whole point of T2 was to make Sarah more human, which does make it difficult for Lena Headey to be as memorable as Linda Hamilton -- and she isn't. I don't think she has earned her place in the subtitle as yet (I guess Terminator: Summer Glowers was out). Likewise, I think there were missed opportunities with Derek (I won't go into too much detail here). But still, lots of interesting ideas, and the return of Dr Silberman was indeed special.

(I failed to recognise Lena Headey as the new teacher in St Trinian's, but I shudder to think of the damage if Sarah Connor was in her place.)

What both seasons shared was a cliffhanger ending -- due warning for those who hate them. But I'm looking forward to new eps of each.

I've remembered why I should never go to bed at 11pm, not even to read stuff. I regain consciousness far too quickly, in this case interrupting a dream in which I was doing a tour of London with Neil Gaiman, and ghosts.

Those early hours are usually dead time for me, but maybe there are advantages. I have just come up with a theory that could explain an awful lot about Dexter, and all those plot problems I thought I found in ep 1.6 Return to Sender.

In the meantime I shall muddle about, and am off to the dentist sometime this morning, if I make it that far.

We saw the first ep of the Sarah Connor Chronicles (not to be confused with the Sarah Jane Adventures, though I'm suspicious of the dog). It was pretty good, though I guess I have to recallibrate down from the scale and detail of the movies. We shall keep watching.

I'm relatively sure the use of 1963 in their time travel plot was not an accident. It was a cute touch, and a lot more subtle than the episode of Dexter we saw prior, when we discover Dex uses the cover name Patrick Bateman. Maybe I'm just annoyed at the rather large logic hole in that ep, which I can't really describe without spoiler warnings.

Meanwhile I've been playing the new Dungeon Twister expansion, been thrashed at RoboRally, finished the Empire Strikes Back commentary, designed much of my next RPG character (not unrelated activities) and been told I belong on the crew of Deep Space Nine. I've never seen the show, but I will at least admit to recognising Summer Glau from that other space thing.

Jason Vey, my co-writer on All Tomorrow's Zombies, has just released his latest project: a Doctor Who netbook for Unisystem (the rpg engine for Buffy, All Flesh Must be Eaten and similar games). It's huge, and contains lots of information on the program (through all ten Doctors) with background and game stats, plus a suggested campaign with new characters.

He asked me to write a story to introduce the book, so that's included as well. As befits the nature of the beast, it's basically an excuse to get multiple Doctors and companions together, and maybe spark ideas for a different type of campaign.

All this is to be found on Jason's Doctor Who RPG page.

(I was particularly interested in reading through the summary of all the New Adventure books. Although peripherally involved at the time, I lost track of the big picture so I liked this succinct coverage.)

I've just watched A Very Dead Zone Christmas, perhaps because its legendary badness might cast Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned in a better light. I'm not so sure it succeeded, if only because Jennifer Finnigan (psychic buddy) is cuter than Kylie Minogue.

I was going to comment that the scariest Christmas ep ever was done for The Sopranos (yes, even more than Millennium). That lead me to this, which is really scary.

(I didn't mind VotD that much, though I do get the feeling I'm mostly watching it because I liked this show twenty years ago.)

I've been home with the flu most of this week, which has hopefully cleared up in time for our trip to Melbourne for Christmas (and Spamalot somewhere on the way). In the interim I managed to watch a bit of Doctor Who, from The Crusade and The Last of the Time Lords, which is indeed a fair range. This was in aid of a story I have been asked to write -- my first bit of fanfic in over ten years apparently. I managed to send it off this afternoon, so cross fingers.

Nick Cave is obviously enthused by the entire thing (that's him at the screening of the Christmas ep, kiddies in tow).

As a bit of a change, we've been looking through or R4 DVDs for something suitably festive to take South with us. Ed Wood and Fire Walk With Me being the obvious choice...

And so that was the end of The Sopranos. I can safely say it was stunning, in that I am stunned.

Is good.

I feel weird about this show. Sometimes I think it dragged me away from safe tropes of horror and fantasy into a wider world -- and then sort of dumped me, unsure where to go from here. The show itself evolved, and never really captured the sheer strangeness and wonder of the first few seasons. But they still had things to say, in their own strange fashion.

Also, I've finally seen the Hillary take-off, which is indeed very funny.

ETA: I'm really not sure about the 'Making of Cleaver' featurette on the dvd, but this season ad is good (with lots of spoilers for proceeding eps).

With all that snow, 30 Days of Night must be the whitest vampire movie ever, and possibly with the least nudity. But don't let that put you off -- more problematic is that the script is too busy and underdone to make a great idea work. It does look fabulous though.

In the meantime, we're taping this off SBS tonight:

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
Modelled on an old-style silent movie, director Guy Maddin's 75-minute TV feature of the ballet Dracula is filmed in black and white with only the occasional splash of colour. Title cards tell the story of Dracula, who turns the glamorous and wealthy Lucy Westenra into a vampire, the murderous 'bloofer lady' (Cockney for beautiful lady). The vampire hunter, Dr Van Helsing, had tried in vain to save Lucy and when he finds out from Dracula's insane servant that the next victim is to be Lucy's friend Mina, he enlists the help of Lucy's former suitors to find and destroy Dracula. In the meantime Mina's fiancé, Jonathan Harker, has found Mina, who tries to seduce him.

No warning for nudity I'm afraid, but it is rated M for 'Adult Themes or medical procedures'...

Did I mention I'm going to London on Wednesday? And only two episodes of The Sopranos to go.

I enjoyed last year's Heroes but, after the season finale, I found myself with no enthusiasm for S2. Now even the creator has apologised for it. Sounds like a good idea -- maybe I should try S3. (Not so sure I can manage enthusiasm, but we shall see.)

Our sedentary lifestyle has been shaken up a bit recently. Last week we went off to see episodes of the excellent Dexter at a cinema, plus interview with the star (courtesy of jack_ryder in fact). I was a bit taken aback by the apparent popularity of Michael C Hall, but then, we never got into Six Feet Under. And amused when literally half the audience left after the interview, having obviously already watched the second ep.

Last night it was back to Popcorn Taxi for the premier of Rogue, the follow-up to Wolf Creek -- this time with giant crocodile. It was good fun, with some good suspense and effects, if ultimately a bit underwhelming. This was also accompanied by an interview, with the director, producer and more. Greg McLean said he really didn't have anything against the Northern Territory tourism industry, and there was some interesting discussion about films made -- and funded -- in Australia.

Speaking of which, despite having watched the shorts a couple of times, I had completely failed to realise Gabriel is a no-budget Australian flick. We'll be angling to see that soonish. Apparently I have also won myself tickets to see 30 Days of Night (complete with t-shirt, soundtrack and novel(!)), so it's all happening.

Now, if we can only find somewhere where we can reliably eat...

Our hallowe'en party fell through, so as a substitute we went around to shellshear's place yesterday for videos and games (he is currently doing Darths & Droids for those who haven't seen it).

We brought along Young Dracula, which is an odd and fun little program. I've just discovered that a second season is starting soon. Admittedly the first season runs out of steam before its episodes are up, but I'd recommend it.

We saw the season three finale of Doctor Who.

Um, yeah...

I guess there was even some good stuff in there, amidst their usual problem of hiding plot holes with motion blur. The Master was one of them, channeling the Joker. Perhaps the climax could have been, with a bit more narrative logic. Perhaps the revelation about the Face of Boe could have been, if not caught up with the silliness of Professor YANA.

Perhaps Martha's year in the wilderness was in fact a good thing, but I just don't trust the writer enough to tell. Certainly it has been done before.

In the end it was mostly bemusing. I didn't hate it, as seems a common reaction, though Season Three has made me appreciate Christopher Eccleston's Doctor more than when he was actually on screen.

Meanwhile, I guess that wasn't the Rani there at the end, but that would be amusing.

There is a common conversation that goes something like:

This book/film/game is unrealistic. This character or plot point doesn't make sense.

Yeah, but it has dragons/vampires/superheroes/whatever. Of course it's unrealistic.

I never had much time for that argument, because you want something to feel real, even amidst the fantastical elements. It struck me whilst watching Neil Jordan's The Brave One yesterday that there is more to it than that. In a story which is meant to be strictly realistic, any plot contrivances just stick out more -- the supernatural can smooth over quite a lot, and so get to the heart of the matter. The Brave One is a really interesting and well made movie -- I would recommend it, but I'm not sure I believed it. Given they are basically taking a pro-vigilante stance, that might even be a good thing.

(I thought of Agent Starling twice. Once was when Jodie Foster was in the cellar with the gun. The other time was when she was in the fish market, and that scene was actually filmed with Julianne Moore.)

I didn't believe Resident Evil: Extinction either, but it made for a funky double bill. Looking back, there was an awful lot of stuff set-up, and most of it came to some sort of conclusion, but there wasn't much of substance to link one end to the other. Ali Larter was basically ignored, for example. It was fun, nonetheless.

(As far as I could tell, they were doing something weird with Milla Jovovich's face. Every close-up looked like a photoshop effort. I'm not sure if that was a comment on Alice's artificiality, or just the state of modern movie-making.)

In the meantime, I saw Blink. As people have said, it's good -- not sure it made a lot of sense, but rather more so than most of this season of Doctor Who.

I just read Jim Butcher's Fool Moon. Since I quickly recognised the episode of the Dresden Files which was based on this novel, I thought I knew what I was in for — but no. For a start, there was a lot more werewolves. As with the first Dresden novel, he conveys a large scale and pulls it off pretty well, not really explaining how all this weirdness is supposed to fit together, but keeping the magic grounded nicely. Good fun.

In the meantime, the first Bionic Woman episode was pretty rough and mostly through the motions, but has potential.

At least Section One is a lot better organised, as Kyla said. It was nice to see Miguel Ferrer again (putting me in mind of that other Nikita remake, just to complicate matters). And since we're being all referential, Jamie Sommers as a name seems rather close to another tv heroine, although that isn't exactly its fault.

We've just seen Primer. Freaky, man.

But I'm suspicious. It is the tenth anniversary of google being registered (more or less). A couple of guys in a garage take over the world... Did they really use a search engine?

Also, I read the chapter on time travel in The Science of Stephen King today. Mere coincidence, of course. But in any sane world, would I have wandered into a video shop this week to see Steve's wacky time travel romp, The Langoliers, being played?

I think not.

If nothing else, somebody should go back in time and tell the editor to make it half the length, and perhaps make a decent movie. (The Langoliers. I don't think cutting Primer in half would help.)

The Science of Stephen King isn't much good, alas. It manages to improve after the first disastrous chapter (on ESP), but still doesn't provide a particular coherent look at either science or Steve's work. A shame because, now I think about it, there could be potential in such an odd idea.

It did manage to equate two branes colliding with a certain Buick, which was a good trick. Made me regret yet again I couldn't get any brane-eaters in All Tomorrow's Zombies.

Nice to see someone cares:

Who is David Carroll?

Thanks jack_ryder. I think.