Posts Tagged ‘TV’

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?

So the second outing for the 11^th Doctor tonight in The Beast Below.

Interesting take on future Britain as a starship.  The sets were nicely dressed and with some interesting colour.  There was a lovely mix of retro, post war, grimy Britain littered with British icons with incongruous details like the rickshaws.  Small quibble if Scotland has its own ship and presumably doing its own thing why does the Union Jack still incorporate Saint Andrew’s Cross?

The scary end of the pier head-in-a-box bad guys were excellent.  I’d like to have seen more of them but the single episode story format doesn’t really let the new bad guys get built up the way the old ones used to.  Being physical objects rather than a CGI effect helps.  The winders becoming smilers using a physical effect in combination with CG was a good choice.

There were lots of nice gags and references littered in the show.  The moment the Woman in cloak (later revealed to be the queen) said “Save us Doctor you’re our only hope”.  The noise in the rubbish dump.  Touches of The Prisoner, Star Wars, Fairy Stories and Douglas Adams.

Liz 10 worked well and was nicely played.  The ruler who is trapped in a perpetual cycle of discovery and denial.  There seems to be a deliberate move to putting children in jeopardy to build tension and both the main child  actors in this episode gave excellent performances.

Amy gets an opportunity to show the kind of companion she is.  The Doctor goes for the dark solution and Amy brings the heart and finds the better solution to the same problem.  The story telling could have just had her hit the button but it showed us the logic very quickly and solve the problem.

Once the excellent story was over they brought out the DALEKs for next week.  Since the revival of Doctor Who that’s become something I dread.  For the first time in several DALEK stories I’m not worried that it will be a disappointment.

• Weather = Yuch so just messin' around with Vue #
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• Comment spammers found my site yesterday and (so far) akismet has caught every single one of em #
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• RT @AllenVarney William Shatner masterfully recites Sarah Palin's farewell speech (Conan O'Brien): via @JamesWallis #
• RT: @jearle Big Cat sighting in Scotland. – it's a Puma, by the look of things, running wild. #
• RT: @KimKnox ooh this looks very cool. Trailer for Waters of Mars – Doctor Who #
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• RT @jearle If you Google "Scottish Cuisine", my Munchy Box blog post is on the front page. http://bit.ly/e640w #
• @jearle Wish I'd photos of the Scottish Indian I had a business trip. Unlike any English Indian I've had. Clearly related to your Munchy Box in reply to jearle #
• @jearle I wish I could work that into my current project. I'm forcing myself to stick to just London so it wont get out of hand in reply to jearle #
• Can it really take an hour and a half to visit the Pencil Museum? Is it twinned with the Hotel California? #
• @KimKnox So how cheesy is Satin Spar's cover or is it classy like Dark Host? in reply to KimKnox #
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• Aarrgh. Basic maths failure. What was I thinking when I wrote a table for a 3d6 roll with the first entry being for a roll of 2? #
• Some really nice entries for the Vue 3D Environment Competition 2009 http://bit.ly/1b7BE9 glad I don't have to pick the winner #
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• Hunting for the early 90s rock cover. This isn't it but hey… ♫ http://blip.fm/~av1x0 #
• And it definitly isn't this one either – I give up ♫ http://blip.fm/~av2gz #
• Thats a tough one RT @mediaguardian: Vote for your favourite TV show of the decade: http://bit.ly/4t5loz. #
• From the Guardian: 'Swine Flu readiness has become a competitive sport'. Will we be hosting the world cup? http://bit.ly/kHmjv #
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But maybe there was a twist of something in the Romulan Ale.

I was pretty happy with J.J. Abrams take on Mission Impossible so I had high hopes for the new Star Trek film. I think I can safely say it didn’t disappoint. The cast played the characters rather than doing impressions of the original actors playing the characters. The effects were impressive. There were lots of nice touches for the fans without making it impenetrable for anyone who hasn’t watched all the gazillian hours of TV series and films plus read the various technical manuals. The plot made sense, which is always a plus point, even though it involved time travel.

It’s late so I’m going to leave it at that. Excellent film.

Update: Dark Dwarf has posted his impressions of Star Trek.

…Great British Menu. Microwaving a land mine might be an original way to diffuse it (and inverts the microwave as bomb from Under Siege) – unfortunately it was a dastardly French landmine so it would fail the test of being regional. Not sure if it would count as seasonal either. The Bondish technobable element (like the localised EMP last series when a few well disguised tire bursters would have done the job just as well) crept in again – a bit of a shame since they could have just skipped it and then tracked the snatch car using a technobable CCTV / car number plate tracking system.

There are few things that lure me to watch ITV and few things that lure me to costume drama. I missed the original Sharpe’s and only discovered them as a bright spot on day time television when I was sick a few years ago. So I’m very pleased that the latest episode Sharpe’s Peril was up to the usual standards tonight and I’m looking forward to next weeks conclusion.

Now if someone could persuade Ioan Gruffudd back to play Hornblower again I’d be really happy.

Jonj1611 asked on Renderosity how to create a searchlight like effect in Vue – if this is what he’s looking for I’ll post an explanation here soon.

Edit: Its now up as: Making a Searchlight in Vue

Its funny, its got quality slap stick and its definitly Get Smart.

You want more detail? OK. Far too many TV remakes have become cynical, star vehicle exercises. Shows which wern’t comedies reduced to a series of punch lines, some "funny" period references (drugs, flared trousers, sexism, bad haircuts or whatever) and a manufactured gag reel for the end credit because Jackie Chan had great end title gag / accident reels.

Get Smart isn’t one of those remakes. Yes its a star vehicle for Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and the rest of the cast but their all playing their part not just playing for cheap laughs. Thats not to say there is a shortage of laughs. There are plenty of them. Not say Airplanes constant in your face assault but a high enough count for a comedy film. Theres enough slapstick without it becoming heavy handed. Then again it ought to be hard to mess up a comedy origally created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry – just distil out the best gags from the original and use them in a well constructed story.

My final verdict – funniest film I’ve seen in 2008 so far.

Went to see Walk the Plank’s The Emperor and the Tiger in Newsham park in Liverpool tonight. It seemed to have drawn a reasonable crowd. I’d thought it might not because I’d only seen the poster at the start of the week but coverage on the front page of the local papers and the regional TV seems to have worked.

I was interested to see how the show was put together. I tend to find that in the last ten years firework displays try to cram more and more wows in to less and less time. While I like a big finale I also like a chance to enjoy some of the individual fireworks so the idea of adding dance, lighting and story telling to fireworks appeals to me.

The first problem with the show was that the very long stage wasn’t high enough. I’m quite tall so I could see some of what was going on but anyone shorter than me was struggling. The length of the stage also created problems because there were times when everything was happening at the far end of the stage and so it was hard to see what was going on. This ment that the opening was underwhelming and so the crowd thinned a bit making seeing what was happening later easier.

Then the story proper began. The two biggest sculptural elements of the show, the Tiger and the Emperor from the title were dramatic and large enough to be easily seen. The story itself could do with a little expansion as an editor for a ladybird early learning version would have sent it back as too short but the basic idea wasn’t bad.

As the production went on the quality of the effects improved. The floodlighting of the trees behind the stage to create different looks with simple colour changes created effective backdrops. Using skytracker/searchlight effects combined with the smoke from fireworks worked well and the later firework effects were effective (including the big finale).

So it turned out to be not a bad show after all. With a bit of work to liven up the opening, a bit of expansion on the story and more thought about sightlines for the audience I’d say it could become an excellent production.

I think the Radio Times had it right when it points out that Bonekickers includes the word Bonkers. Although as anagrams of the title go Obscene Kirk has something to be said for it. While it has something of Time Team about it and a touch of A Very Peculiar Practice too you can tell they would never make proper TV archaeologists: yes they go to the pub, do some geophys, drink, use a trowel and did I mention the pub already. However after two whole episodes I don’t think one of them has suggested something was ritual once. Oh well I wonder what next weeks hint about the sword will be and if we’ll get another mysterious room somewhere near Bristol…