Archive for June, 2010

Above the main door into the Georges Dock Ventilation Tower and Central Station is this statue: Speed – the Modern Mercury.  The relief in Portland Stone (one of my favourite construction materials) is seven meters tall including the base.  It was designed by Herbert J. Rowse and the sculptor was Edmund C. Thompson assisted by George T. Capstick.

It is just one of the details on the art deco structures of the Mersey Road Tunnel that show the egyptian styling Sir Basil Mott, J. A. Brodie and Herbert J. Rowse included in the designs.  For example each of the ventilation shafts takes the form of a stylised obelisk.  The tunnel was constructed between 1925 and 1934 during the Egyptian craze following Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.

I have an incomplete Planet of Danger short story Dirk Dangerous and the Mummy that features a climax in the tunnel.

• @KimKnox Yeh! Gratz! in reply to KimKnox #
• Who do I need to bribe to get the common cold locked up in the Pandorica? #doctorwho #
• Hello Tweety RT @ghostwoods: GENIUS. Every Doctor re-imagined as owls: http://afx.cc/hoo #doctorhoo :: RG @nerdist RG @tavey #
• @xtamsynx lol I was just hunting for that tweet having seen it last night. If I'd waited 5 minutes you'd have saved me looking for it. Doh! in reply to xtamsynx #
• @KimKnox I can see them each on a T-shirt & a game at conventions being to get a line of people wearing them in the right order… in reply to KimKnox #
• That was supposed to be tonight's blog post. My clever idea of scheduling all the posts got tangled in a redirect that broke my site #
• @symatt That's like my need for gardening gloves. Somehow I can't persuade myself. in reply to symatt #
• @SarahDotK Disney were working on the twitter musical to add the lyric "Some Day My Tweets will Come" but its been postponed now… in reply to SarahDotK #
• @jearle Excellent. An hour wouldn't have been long enough to visit the butterfly house at Williamson Park. in reply to jearle #
• @chooseadventure Its a good day for vampires that like a long lie in in reply to chooseadventure #
• 60 spam comments to my blog today (none made it) 30 push links on green terms to an oil slick screen scraped news site with lots of ads #
• @6d6Fireball That must be going round. I was struggling for ideas for posts then last week I suddenly got a list of 5 I want to do… in reply to 6d6Fireball #
• @antallan Na. The Valeyard is going to turn up and insist on a proper trial before they lock The Doctor up in reply to antallan #
• RT @mistygirlph: Sexy Skeletons in High Heels – Photography Inspiration http://ow.ly/21CCw #
• @deadorcs No: roll on the table. If I was going to use one I'd be tempted to build one myself as I've some excellent plans for marble towers in reply to deadorcs #
• Checking a set of standards for web sites I realised the site that holds them doesn't meet their own requirement for friendly urls… #
• @revlazaro Probably the safest set of pin up images you could use for a desktop in reply to revlazaro #
• Tonight I will mostly be experimenting with Texture Convertor 2 for the first time. #
• @MoonWolf95 Thanks for the warning – I think I've got it figured out. Seems best not to watch it too closely in reply to MoonWolf95 #
• New Picture Post: Georges Dock Ventilation Tower art deco Liver Bird
  http://bit.ly/bWRfBK #
• @simplychrista At least its nice and easy to do the update in reply to simplychrista #
• @call_me_salome Are you listening to Pink Floyd's comfortably numb? in reply to call_me_salome #
• @greywulf I'd put it up there with Fly me off the Handel… http://bit.ly/boPg29 in reply to greywulf #
• @call_me_salome Just thought I'd check in reply to call_me_salome #
• @jearle Does that rate a congratulations or a sorry to hear that? in reply to jearle #
• @richard_iorio I'd swap you this heat for a bit of your rain – a light drizzle nothing heavy in reply to richard_iorio #
• @richard_iorio We have the heat and the humidity without the rain but its gone very close the last couple of hours in reply to richard_iorio #
• @Danacea That could be very useful for my alt history novel too thanks in reply to Danacea #
• @buffybot85 As long as the team don't lie down during it you should be OK in reply to buffybot85 #
• @joannastar There ought to be a hash tag for doing our bit for the economy instead of the football in reply to joannastar #
• If Kafka wrote @chooseadventure books ~ Turn to page 101: You are a Cockroach #
• Was that echoing rumble a goal? #
• @GeekyLyndsay It is struggling a bit although I'd not say 56K except for the images… in reply to GeekyLyndsay #
• Don't need to listen to the game on the radio I can hear it echoing from all the pubs near our office when exciting things happen #
• @GeekyLyndsay If I was making suggestions without knowing how the site works I'd suggest combining CSS files, reducing redirections… in reply to GeekyLyndsay #
• @GeekyLyndsay … Use the new asynchronous Google Analytics code and minify CSS, JS and HTML … #
• @GeekyLyndsay …. most importantly not scaling images with html could save 4.5MB on your homepage. #
• @GeekyLyndsay My appologies I scanned too quickly your GA code is the asynchronous version so thats good in reply to GeekyLyndsay #
• @GeekyLyndsay That's the big one to fix so if you sort that out it should be a lot better. The other things are tiny by comparison. in reply to GeekyLyndsay #
• @GeekyLyndsay Just checked in on a computer it wasn't cached on and it seems very good now in reply to GeekyLyndsay #
• Too hot and full of cold to face #WiP #
• And today I will mostly be working with… Umbraco / XSLT #
• Newly released GCHQ files: UKUSA Agreement & Cold War intelligence http://bit.ly/b9GjeP #
• @PenguinBooks Calm down or teacher will send you for to lie down for a bit of quiet time on the reading mat in reply to PenguinBooks #
• @KimKnox 1 iRing to rule them all, 1 iRing to find them, 1 iRing to bring them all & in the darkness (contractually) bind them in reply to KimKnox #
• RIP Alan Plater – A Very British Coup is one of my favourite adaptions http://bit.ly/bz1OWw #
• Picture Post: Georges Dock Ventilation Tower art deco Liver Bird http://bit.ly/bWRfBK #
• @grahamwalmsley Is it a constant hiss or only when you speak? And I'm not being rude although that could sound rude #
• @GeekyClean Morning. in reply to GeekyClean #
• @grahamwalmsley Sorry I don't know Cakewalk I use Audacity. I'd been going to say check for mains buzz or fan noise if it was constant. in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• @grahamwalmsley Cool. What was it? in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• Really nice Lapwing photographs taken by a friend of mine… http://bit.ly/d0FV4R #
• @Chris68005 Thanks for the #ff in reply to Chris68005 #
• @ghostwoods Thanks for the #ff in reply to ghostwoods #
• @6violet9 Thanks for the #ff in reply to 6violet9 #
• @call_me_salome Thanks for the #ff it wasn't me the imps escape sometimes: I've had words with the guards. in reply to call_me_salome #
• @simplychrista Thanks for the #ff in reply to simplychrista #
• Sharp and blunt implements applied to garden mostly by brute force. Time to exercise my brain a bit now… #
• Daleks in a museum love it #
• Dom da dom. Dom da dom… #DoctorWho #
• What is Matt Smith wearing in NY on confidential? Anyone who hates the bow tie should be glad he doesn't pick his own costume #
• @MoonWolf95 lol in reply to MoonWolf95 #
• Feel (almost) human today so opening the #RPG #WiP #
• @TrapCast_Jenn Is the other one Western? in reply to TrapCast_Jenn #
• @call_me_salome Unfortunately he'd be playing for Wales #worldcup in reply to call_me_salome #
• If we don't get goal mouth cameras now… #
• @richeym They should go for Sepp Blatter and FIFA first in reply to richeym #
• A couple of tweaks to my website. Might recode it into HTML5 this summer. #
• At least we can win at cricket… #
• @deadorcs 140 chars won't be enough for me to explain it. Look at it this way: its an excellent backdrop to a 1 to 5 days of drinking in reply to deadorcs #
• @deadorcs Three pints might be just enough to explain it lol in reply to deadorcs #
• @greywulf Is the Guardian not fact checking on Sunday? Comment is free: research & editing cost. Are they still in the pub after the game? in reply to greywulf #
• @MoonWolf95 To misquote Jim Steinman's lyrics for Meat Loaf "One Out Of Three Ain’t Bad" in reply to MoonWolf95 #
• @richeym The two guys who have to operate the cameras suspended above the goals are not so keen but everyone else wants goal line tech in reply to richeym #
• Started and finished a 3 page chapter for the #WiP #rpg today. The list keeps getting shorter. Yeh! #

Tonight’s Doctor Who, The Big Bang, was farce.  Not quite pure farce.  More like 90% farce.  Not bad farce.  Proper farce.  Farce in a good way.  In a The Importance of Being Earnest or Noises Off kind of way. It could take its spiritual importance from the second half of The Importance of Being Earnest’s full title: Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.

Steven Moffat had real fun playing with the timelines this week.  Each of the characters in the story has a timeline that we dip in and out of.  The Big Bang shows the power of the point of view in a story.  We have the camera’s time line which starts out following Amelia Pond.  The Doctor keeps steering her to be in the right place at the right time for the Pandorica’s opening.   When did he put the postit on the Pandorica and when did he write it?

Then it swaps to Rory in 102AD (1894 years ago) anchoring us to the love story and to the Previously.  Then we get the first view of the farce.  One of the Noises Off sections where the Doctor gives Rory his instructions so he can escape from the Pandorica.  I’m not entirely sure there isn’t a paradox there.  Given the Doctor is trapped in the Pandorica with the sonic screw driver how did he escape the first time?  That’s really going to play with the heads of anyone who takes Who too seriously.  However he did it it was soon enough that he could still get River Song’s time travel doodad.

Then we get the Doctor’s alternative way of looking at life.  He can put Amy in the Pandorica for 1894 years to get healed.   Rory guarding Amy for 2000 years sets up his love and allows his dramatic entry to save the day.

Once the Doctor hops forward using the doodad we begin to follow him almost immediately.  We get a brief moment of Amy to set up her knowing of Rory’s 2000 year vigil that sets up their reunion and his coming to the rescue.  That lets us tie up the earlier action with Rory and Amelia.  We follow him up to the point where he is shot by the Dalek then it switches to Amy except for an excursion to River Song in the exploding TARDIS.

River Song’s time line trapped in a loop but unlike Groundhog Day or the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Cause and Effect this is an unvarying time loop of just a few seconds that she has been trapped in for an eternity.  2 billion to 10 billion times.  No wonder she says “And what sort of time do you call this?”

Amy then has to sell the sadness of the Doctor’s sacrifice.  That no one will remember him.

Then its back to the Doctor as he rewinds back through his timeline.  The moment he checks himself echos a post regeneration.  He knows he’s escaped but isn’t 100% sure he hasn’t been regenerated.  He discovers Amy can hear him and before sacrificing himself to close the crack he plants a thought in her head and reinforces it before he does.  The line in Flesh and Stone which didn’t make perfect sense at the time is explained now we see it wasn’t the Doctor from that episode but the Doctor from this episode who spoke it.  Then he sacrifices himself into the crack.

So finally to Amy again on her wedding day.   Slightly confused.  Trying to work it out.  Glad they avoided the wedding and skipped to the reception.  TV weddings have a way of feeling artificial.  The River Song, the blank diary, the bow tie and the man wearing braces.  The embarrassed guests at the reception.   All of that to set up the TARDIS makes its big entry.  Love the way the TARDIS makes its big entry.  Karen Gillan really sells her delivery of a cliché that takes on a whole new meaning.  The dramatic incidental music becomes more and more powerful each time its used.  Its almost more powerful than the main theme now.  In combination the two of them can be played as a double emotional whammy as they use it at the end.

All of this took a lot of plotting, writing and planning to make it make sense.  The camera is clever and it helps us follow the story and play some tricks on us but we’ll forgive it for that.

There are just some really fun things in the episode…

A Dalek in a Museum

Someone had fun dressing the set putting the time anomalies together leading up to the Pandorica.  Plus a certain someone as the leader of a star cult.

The Pandorica looks so cool.  It opens and closes in such a fun way.  Need Pandorica dice.  And again – one broken down DALEK scarier and cooler than an army of DALEKs.

“I dated a Nestine duplicate once swappable head, did keep things fresh.” River gets such good lines.  Then the moment, just a glance, between Amy and River when they destroy the Fez.

The writing has a wonderful knowingness without being smug.  A universe reboot not just a figurative or cynical, marketing ploy.  A character plotting one.  A literal one.  To save the universe.  It adds onto River’s work to avoid spoilers.

The Doctor dancing like a drunk giraffe.  Fun and reminding us he doesn’t entirely fit in.

The solution to the destruction of time and space has a mad logic that has been set up over thirteen episodes.  It’s crazy but it was set up.

The fez: that is going to really upset the hate the bow tie crowd.  It’s a really clever technique to let us keep track of the timeline.  If there is a Fez craze for kids next Christmas I’ll have a good laugh.

Having the Doctor have to work it out as he is going on.  Setting out each leap, no matter how fantastic, as logical.

Once its all over and we’ve had a moment to enjoy their success we have the set up for the Christmas special.  Alongside that we’ve the next series mystery – why did the TARDIS go then?

Who is River Song.  River casual high noon moment with the DALEK.  Is there a hint there when she tells the Dalek to recheck his records about her being one of the Doctor’s companions?  The Dalek’s fear moments later after, presumably, rechecking and discovering something.  Is it just that she will kill or that it finds something more?  Anyone that can scare a Dalek is emphatically someone to take seriously.  Yet on the flip side she nudges Amy to free the Doctor and her unguarded “I’m sorry my love.”  Whoever she is I don’t think she’ll do a sixth season Buffy Bad Willow on us.

And of course what is The Silence?  Is that a reference to Silence in the Library?  Is that just a red herring.

All in all both an excellent finish to the two part story and an excellent end to the series.  Do you agree?

I’ve not had a chance to take my camera out at lunch time at work recently so here is a picture I took a while ago.  It’s of a decorative Liver Bird on one side of the art deco Georges Dock Ventilation Tower (sometimes called the Mersey Tunnel Building) in Liverpool near the Three Graces.  The detail on the bird itself appears to have been eroded by the elements but other elements are still crisp.

I’ve been exchanging emails with Paul, a Vue user, who was having difficulty visualising how big objects should be in Vue. He uses real world measurements but his pictures didn’t look right because he was struggling to get the objects to be the right size and making the distances between them realistic. That was messing up the quality of the lighting and making things look a bit weird. He mentioned the Father Ted episode with the Cows…

“Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These (Father Ted points to some plastic cows on the table) are very small; those (he points at some cows out of the window) are far away…”

I’d suggested he use a cube and make it about the right size for a real world object and then size the model to match. Similarly using a cube sized to a distance to help lay out things. He wasn’t really comfortable with that. It was helping but it was slowing him down.

Then I realised he was a football fan so to help him get a sense of scale in his scenes I made him a quick football pitch model. Nothing fancy just two squashed cubes. He knows how big a football pitch should look and can size and space objects using it as a guide. Once he’s happy he can delete it and render the scene.

Since it worked for him I’ve expanded the set to include thirty-four sports grounds and pitches and posted them here tonight for anyone to download. I’ve made a page for them Vue Scaling Objects.

If there is interest I’ll do some more packs: vehicles, people, plants, buildings, planets and animals all strike me as possibly being useful. Leave a comment if you’d like any of those or something else saying which one(s) you’d find helpful…

• @mouseferatu That's true of an awful lot of drama TV from the 50s/60s except they keep most of it locked away in vaults in reply to mouseferatu #
• @GargoylePhan I bribed twitter so with 835 (which was 2500) I have suddenly almost caught up with you in reply to GargoylePhan #
• Back from London trip. Would have fallen asleep but for BBC1 – could we have BBC1 commentary with BBC Radio 5 sound mix please… #
• I go to London for a day and they sneak Joomla 1.6 Beta 3 out while I'm away #
• @undeadbydawn Congratulations on getting the flat in reply to undeadbydawn #
• @KimKnox That's taking research one step too far. Why did you need to know what they tasted of on their own? in reply to KimKnox #
• Comic Relief's next song should be Right Said Fred+Amy Pond Too Sexy "I'm too sexy for my skirt, So sexy it hurts" #
• @grekwood Sounds like you need to step away from the computer and have five quiet minutes in reply to grekwood #
• A Taste for Murder by @grahamwalmsley came in the post today. Love the clever cover design. Now to explore inside. #
• @grahamwalmsley Will do in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• @daneofwar Morning. Hows life? in reply to daneofwar #
• @mouseferatu Did you have a joke including a Tarasque? in reply to mouseferatu #
• A woman was carrying a large sack of extra large, plastic ducks this morning. Is there a bath loving giant convention in Liverpool today? #
• @mouseferatu Unfortunately I'd need Terry Gilliam and a budget of millions to do it justice in reply to mouseferatu #
• @symatt There are plenty of other TV shows you could watch to qualify… in reply to symatt #
• @symatt Sorry. Dice AND D&D – you're in. in reply to symatt #
• An Ambiguous Sign near where I work http://bit.ly/cKgLJO #
• @epiphling I'm not sure I know you well enough to write a reference for your criminal past. Oh sorry that wasn't what you meant… in reply to epiphling #
• @epiphling Any particular countries your interested in? in reply to epiphling #
• @epiphling On the criminology side the Howdunit books from Writers Digest are good for the US (check the reviews though as quality varies) in reply to epiphling #
• @simplychrista That sounds more fun than being trapped in the office in this heat in reply to simplychrista #
• @simplychrista Now your just torturing those of us trapped in work… in reply to simplychrista #
• @JamesWallis Reminds me of the parasite that makes grasshoppers seek out bodies of water. in reply to JamesWallis #
• @adaen I'd been going to ask if Ninja Pirates or Pirate Ninjas were permitted but got sidetracked… in reply to adaen #
• Its the summer. The weather is hot. That's why I'm going down with a cold #
• Six hours of extra sleep + shower + lunch and I don't quite feel like an understudy to Gollum #
• @StargazersWorld Morning in reply to StargazersWorld #
• #productplacementmovies Mr. & Mrs. WH Smith #
• @ghostfinder A lot of small press gaming publishes chapbook style. Established pubs can do 500+ copies. Format is nice and portable. in reply to ghostfinder #
• @KimKnox Would that be a ninja plot bunny or a giant, black, triangular B-2 Spirit plot bunny? in reply to KimKnox #
• @KimKnox Do authors need to install uguisubari as a defence against ninja plot bunnies? in reply to KimKnox #
• @ghostfinder I think it was Ramsey Campbell who said his sales increased by a factor of 10 when he was listed as fiction instead of genre in reply to ghostfinder #
• @KimKnox Sorry Just remember the electric light pretty much defeated real ninjas… in reply to KimKnox #
• @jearle And there was me just thinking you were home sick. Good trip? in reply to jearle #
• @SteveHills Mine were back this morning and I'd not noticed passing 2500… in reply to SteveHills #
• @greywulf @very_true_thing Really looking forward to trying out some of the tasty new features in 3.0 in reply to greywulf #
• @dbridger They might scare ninja off Uguisubari (nightingale) floors were built to chirp when walked on to stop people sneaking around in reply to dbridger #
• @CraigWFSmith Looks like they're rolling out a fix – mine was back to 2500+ this morning in reply to CraigWFSmith #
• @greywulf So your leaning towards Bonnie Tyler and Holding Out For A Hero? in reply to greywulf #
• @paullancashire Congratulations #
• #FF Pushing D6s: @natalief @jearle @xtamsynx @pookie_uk @NeilCFord @ghostwoods @Adrian_RG @richard_iorio @daneofwar @shouit @antallan #
• #FF Pushing D8s: @GRIMACHU @thedeadone @aeonofdiscord @GameCouch @revlazaro @AmpTheBard @gamefiend @Level30yinzer @deadorcs @WastexGames #
• #FF Pushing D10s: @d20monkey @grahamwalmsley @6d6Fireball @DMSamuel @JonBrazerEnt @athousandhats @simonjrogers @adaen #
• #FF Pushing D20s: @SarahDarkmagic @newbiedm @GeekyLyndsay @stargazersworld @symatt @GeekyClean @d20monkey @mouseferatu #
• #FF Pushing Words: @KimKnox @antoniapearce @beltonwriter @mdlachlan @RFLong @RowanLarke @ghostfinder @ellenscult #
• #FF Pushing Polygons: @scott2753 @KeremGogus @simplychrista @greywulf @MoonWolf95 #
• #FF Pushing Lead: @very_true_thing @SFSFW @KeeperOfTheHDB @grekwood #
• #FF Because… @Danacea @cha0tic @call_me_salome @minapop @FACT_Liverpool @johnmcc @DanDiplo @richeym @sciamannata @undeadbydawn #
• (Sorry if I missed you) #
• @thedeadone I had to stop myself somewhere too #
• @cimota Powering at this time of night? Your not near one of the big cities then… #
• @cimota At least that's one bad jam you've missed then hope Brums not too bad *shudder* in reply to cimota #
• That's it for today. Home time #
• @deadorcs Pushing d8s wa just a random replacement for #rpg because I was feeling silly in reply to deadorcs #
• @cimota Fingers crossed you had a better run south. in reply to cimota #
• 3 WordPress installations updated while watching the football. Lets hope England find the match as easy. #
• The Nike ad with bad as well as good is so much better than the all good version they keep showing on TV #
• @johnmcc All three site I've done so far went smoothly with the auto update. Longer to back-up first than update. in reply to johnmcc #
• Bringing Stuart Pearce on right now wouldn't be such a bad idea. Give #eng some sense of the play, some backbone & some balls #worldcup #
• @xtamsynx Think you made the smarter choice in reply to xtamsynx #
• Thanks to @ghostwoods @JonBrazerEnt @beltonwriter @TinaLynn_ @RFLong for the #FF #followfriday #ff #
• @ghostwoods I keep those little demonlings chained up at type writers in the basement – they're less random than monkeys in reply to ghostwoods #
• Bleh! Should open #WiP but just want to sleep… #
• That's the way you do it. #doctorwho #
• Tonight's Blog Post – my thoughts on The Pandorica Opening http://bit.ly/9Ec4yG #
• The five scariest words a TV announcer can say: Now on ITV3 Heartbeat Week #
• @grahamwalmsley Og. TWERPS. Kobolds Ate My Baby. Ninja Burger. It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show. #
• Last Night's Blog Post – my thoughts on The Pandorica Opening http://bit.ly/9Ec4yG #

So here are my random thoughts on tonigh’s Doctor Who episode The Pandorica Opening but first a little sillyness…

This week’s episode could have been titled: How do you solve a problem like the Doctor?  Now I know my theory about Graham Norton as the series bad guy and the crack being the gap under the curtain is rubbish but see it fits.  Really it does

And now with that out of my system let’s get down to The Pandorica Opening…

The opening worked well pulling together the disparate threads from the series through vignettes to pull the Doctor, River Song and Amy together and then make the revelation of Vincent’s painting.  River Song gets a moment to shine showing she is the best female rogue since The Stainless Steel Rat’s Angelina diGriz.

Tonight showed one broken down Cyberman scarier than all the ones in the new series so far.  The arm; the head with tentacles, skull, poison dart and added snappy front action; and then the headless body.  The original series could have gotten an entire episode out of that.  There would have been lots of screaming and running.  It would have been glorious.  Even the potted version was excellent.  Several reports on Twitter suggest it was a proper old fashioned Doctor Who hide behind the sofa scare for the kids.

Then we get the Big BADDS (Bads Amalgamated Doctor Defense Society): an alliance of lots of old enemies who are unfortunately working on a mistaken assumption.  A great excuse to bring all those costumes and prosthetics out of storage.  It would be silly but I’d love a Reservoir Dogs style slow motion shot of one of each of them walking towards camera.  Instead we got a nice panning shot across them.  By avoiding a dodgy CG battle they weren’t made into a disappointment.  They got to be ominous.

The crack in time was always going to be a hard sell as a season bad guy.  It has the same problem as Sauron in Lord of the Rings:  it can’t do a dramatic scene.   The Big BADDS working together is a nice touch as something so awful that it can unite all of them really must be a really Massively Big Bad.

I think I spotted a couple of passing references to the old series (along with a little Star Wars Cantina action)…  a fleeting reference to Ghost Light when the Doctor comments about ghosts?

“I hate good wizards and fairy tales they always turn out to be him”.  In the old series story Battlefield the Doctor is mistaken for Merlin. Now there is a myth started by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae that attributes the construction of Stonehenge to Merlin.  Looks like Geoffrey got it wrong.  Looks like the Big BADS built it to mark the location of their trap. 

The monsters weren’t the only risky moment.  The CG space fleets was also handled well where an overstretched budget could have left it looking ropy.   “If you bury the most dangerous thing in the universe you’d want to remember where you put it”.  The risk with Stonehenge is Spinal Tap; it’s like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and coconut shells for horseshoe sound effects; I think they got away with it.  Using the real location for establishing shots definitely helps.

I really enjoyed The Pandorica Opening and it will be a long week waiting for The Big Bang.  That’s where I’d usually leave this except I was thinking how the other episodes this series tie up with the story (and a few from earlier series by Steven Moffat)…

Blink – Introduced the Angels

Silence in the Library – Introduced River Song and her non synchronous timeline with the Doctor.

The Eleventh Hour – Established the crack in time, the new Doctor, Amy and Rory.

The Beast Below – Liz 10 having the picture in the future.

Victory of the Daleks – Churchill’s phone being able to call the TARDIS.

The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone – The crack in time, the Angels and more River Song.

The Vampires of Venice – The crack in time being really scary to Monsters.

The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood – Rory vanishing.

Vincent and the Doctor – The Painting to set up the picture being sent along with the impact of Rory being wiped from time.

I’d say it’s a safe bet that time machine causing all the problems in The Lodger is going to turn out to be TARDIS.

That leaves Amy’s Choice as the one episode this season that doesn’t seem to tie in.  So is there something I missed, is it a set up for something past this series or was it just a one off?

This sign is on the boards which cover the ground floor of an empty building a short distance from where I work. Whenever I walk past it amuse me in the same way that a sign on the side entrance to Wollaton Park in Nottingham amused me in my youth. It read simply “Escaping Dear Please Close the Gate”.

• Set up a little Google Analytics / WordPress experiment on Friday and it seems to be tracking properly #
• Tokyo @ DEFCON 1 for Godzilla attack RT @spacefuture: Buried Prehistoric Antarctica Lakes May Yield Ancient Life-Forms http://bit.ly/awIYxM #
• @JonBrazerEnt Have you watched Angel? in reply to JonBrazerEnt #
• @JonBrazerEnt I'm hopefully not spoiling it by saying the answer to your question can be found in Angel. in reply to JonBrazerEnt #
• @JonBrazerEnt Ok. Spike joins the Died and Got Better Club (sort of) in Angel season 5. And Muppet Angel is a must see. in reply to JonBrazerEnt #
• All the flat screens in a high street electrical store were showing 1966 World Cup in Black and White. Big Dark Conspiracy vibe. #rpg #
• Thinking of founding the Społeczeństwa Angielskiego for the Defence of Greengrocers Apostrophe's from Sad Pants Pedants #
• @jearle I thought that was one ' too far but I'm open to being persuaded. At SAD-GASPP we're open to new ideas. in reply to jearle #
• @DanDiplo Feeling any better today? in reply to DanDiplo #
• @jearle A pro told me he always has a solid little camera for when he saw something interesting, newsworthy or when the good one broke in reply to jearle #
• @KimKnox If you think a cake box is dangerous The Chocolate Tasting club is evil… http://bit.ly/cFwhgj in reply to KimKnox #
• @natalief Now I'd kill for a mixed bag of beetroot and parsnip crisps. Or just parsnip crisps. Those would just hit the spot. in reply to natalief #
• @nerdlunch You are not cleared for this level of Fnord. in reply to nerdlunch #
• @johnmcc Oh dear. Fortunately the ledges on our building are narrow but I can see them on the rooftops across from here in reply to johnmcc #
• A stat site says my most influential tweet was "@Danacea Cheers " RTd by spam bots. No more originals tweets then just drink drink drink. #
• @johnmcc Had that at our last but one premises. They do make a racket. Here the busses drown it out most of the time. in reply to johnmcc #
• @grahamwalmsley Or to do it all exactly the same up to the hop over the bin, land with both feet in it and go completely John Cleese… in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• Must be be TT week flocks of motorcycles passed my bus on the way home. Serendipity as I'm working on motorbikes for the #WiP #rpg tonight #
• @KimKnox It's the book fairies who come in the night & shelf space for books funded by the tooth fairies' ivory business surplus. in reply to KimKnox #
• Here I will use the words Frison and Aping, talk about an RSM and mention telegraph codes in one blog post http://bit.ly/cI5JOc #
• @KimKnox Only way I can explain all my books… in reply to KimKnox #
• @daneofwar Forbidden Planet list them & so do amazon. I'll ask on the SFSFW mailing list see if anyone knows if they're still in production in reply to daneofwar #
• @daneofwar I've asked on the SFSFW list. The feeling is that there haven't been new releases for some time & has been quietly dropped. in reply to daneofwar #
• @DaveBartlett1 Bots are stupid – just tweet about online marketing, quilting or even blacksmithing and you may gain followers in reply to DaveBartlett1 #
• RT @spacefuture: Starship economics and interstellar vehicle cost (Project Icarus) #space http://bit.ly/bgUjQo #
• e-on launch Cornucopia 3D membership scheme http://bit.ly/cdZ59l #
• RIP Martin Gardner http://bit.ly/cPYw54 http://bit.ly/crAWfJ #
• @DaveBartlett1 Given the ingredients list what proportion were porn bots? in reply to DaveBartlett1 #
• @DaveBartlett1 A close escape (other than the mushroom thing) I'd expected pork &loins to be picked up, maybe the bots are getting smarter? in reply to DaveBartlett1 #
• @simonjrogers Yeh but she'll drop you once you've served her cartographic needs in reply to simonjrogers #
• @StargazersWorld @simonjrogers Would there be a sudden surge of interest if she came out as a role player? What games would benefit? in reply to StargazersWorld #
• @symatt I'll do it as long as you don't mind me working from home and counting my gardening time as work done in reply to symatt #
• @simonjrogers @stargazersworld If she does just tidy up the before cause rolling onto 200d4 on the floor may cause real damage in reply to simonjrogers #
• @grahamwalmsley Remind me – where do I order A Taste for Murder? I kept seeing the promo at work and forgetting by the time I got home. in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• Thanks to @daneofwar @Chris68005 @MoonWolf95 for the #ff #
• @grahamwalmsley Thanks in reply to grahamwalmsley #
• RT @pookie_uk: You know, if the Queen wanted a break, Fergie would have done Trooping the Colour for £10. Staged the whole thing for £20. #
• @Kdark74 Thanks for the #ff in reply to Kdark74 #
• Enjoyed Doctor Who last night but I don't think I've any earthwimpering insight to share so no blog post this week. #

I’ve been thinking of founding the Społeczeństwa Angielskiego for the Defence of Greengrocer’s Apostrophe’s from Sad Pants Pedants. Here is an explanation why…

News of the self appointment of a Queen’s English Society at once annoyed and amused me. I’m sure the founders are eminently qualified to talk about our language or at least think they are. Their stated aim (at least as far as the media reports go) that it needs protecting does bother me. Maybe they should go back in time and protect it from other bad influences – all the nautical phrases, bits of French and every other impurity that has crept in over hundreds of years.

Speaking of the French, who I quite like really, we can no longer enjoy a little frisson of delight that we didn’t feel the need for someone to protect our language. All because someone thought they had a good idea while the rest of us were trying not to laugh.

They object to text speak. Text speak isn’t what we utter it’s like a telegraph code. Those were popular in the last 19th Century to save money and stop other people reading your telegrams; a way of shortening communication in some situations. There was even a spate of, now long forgotten, novels written in it that were best sellers at the time. Some of it may slip into general usage. That is how our shared language has grown over hundreds of years. The rest will be a fleeting visitor to our language that will vanish like other fashions as quickly as it came.

The very fact that they are the Queen’s society in this day and age bothers me too. First they’re giving themselves a bit of royal status without having to go through the hoops that professional bodies do. Second, I’m no republican, but really is it the Queen’s English? It’s a naff phrase (sorry to them for using naff which I’m sure if they went back to naff’s suggested Polari origin would upset them) that assigns ownership of the language to someone who doesn’t own it. Third most people don’t speak the dialect of English known as Queen’s English – we have a broad church of versions. As a Glasweigan Scottish Regimental Sergeant Major told me on a long train journey everyone speaks English wrong except his mates from Glasgow. He also insisted that drinking wine with food rather than ale was a bad case of aping the French, who he also liked but felt no pressing need to steal ideas from.

This isn’t about education. I want children to be taught how to write and spell properly. I don’t want someone cleaning up our language in the guise of protecting it. That’s why I’m dissolving the Społeczeństwa Angielskiego for the Defence of Greengrocers Apostrophe’s from Sad Pants Pedants before I found it. My only plea is to allow the self appointed guardians to carry on in their own way with no official status and no official funding. Should they get a penny of public money in these times when we are being told that public funds must be squeezed then I really would think it was time for a large collective SAD GASPP.