tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51794606842176875222024-03-14T19:46:16.636+13:00Richard Barnes - WriterRichard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-36656359283894354132014-10-07T16:51:00.001+13:002014-10-07T16:51:49.089+13:00Doctor Who Review: Timeheist<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Time Heist is fast and furious and fun, but
there is still a strange sense that this should have been a Matt Smith episode
rather than a Peter Capaldi one. This has running through corridors in spades
(some very good running through corridors) and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>plenty of manically paced escapes and sudden revelations – all more Matt
Smith style escapades rather than the slower pace of Capaldi.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, Capaldi slots in just fine – in
particular his abrasive relationship with his two new partners in crime (Pippa
Bennett-Warner as Saibra the shape-shifting mutant, and Jonathan Bailey as Psi,
the electronically implanted hacker) – dragging them along (because the
eyebrows put him in charge) at first, but winning their respect and friendship
as they go along. Like in “Into the Dalek”, the Doctor is accused of callous
disregard when he helps Saibra apparently kill herself rather than be captured
by the Teller; but these are really acts of mercy and compassion from someone
who is still trying to understand the concepts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Doctor, Clara and his new friends have
been brought together to break into the impenetrable Bank of Karabraxos, for
reasons that are not immediately clear because they’ve all voluntarily wiped
their memories. They’ve been brought together by a shadowy figure who calls
himself The Architect and from the moment they meet, they are up against time,
constantly having to figure out and escape from their situation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The villain of the piece is the nasty Ms
Delphox, Head of Security, played with style, wit and supremely snooty
sauciness by Keeley Hawes (who might just tip Lena Heady out of the way as my
choice for a female Doctor Who). She takes charge of “the Teller”, being the
monster that can sense the guilt of any potential bank robbers and then suck
their minds out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eventually, the gang (after supposed deaths
and resurrections) make it to the private vault of Madame Karabraxos herself,
who turns out to be the original that Ms Delphox (and all previous Heads of
Security) had been cloned from.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It all turns out to be a bit timey-wimey
paradox-y stuff as the Architect is actually the Doctor in the future, getting
his past self to break into the bank in order to give Madame Karabraxos a piece
of paper that will provoke her, in her old age, to call on the Doctor to get
his past self to break into the bank…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>which was all about realising that the Teller was not a monster, but a
prisoner, pining for his locked-up mate. Teller and Mate are released and all
is sorted – just like last season’s “Hide”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s all fine enough, but I can’t help but
feel the concept of the heist and Madame Karabraxos is not allowed to take
flight. Keeley Hawes is superb but she really just gets to chew the scenery
here – how about making her a serious villain? What if the Doctor and co were
having to steal something with much greater consequences, beyond this episode?
What if Madame Karabraxos had to go after them? What if the future Doctor
carried on manipulating events – no wonder this Doctor seems a bit paranoid and
with a sense of self-loathing? But no, it’s just about freeing some poor
love-struck beastie – noble enough in itself, but I just think things could
have been a little more epic.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And on with episode 5 of the flash-fic-fan
fic (remember, each episode is exactly 100 words, and made up as we go along –
no planning allowed..)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="color: blue;">HungerTime – Part Five<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The Dalek Scientist scanned for life forms
and found none. It spotted the Tardis; , scanned as a source of time energy.
The Dalek reached further, through the disruption caused by the Tardis’s vortex
energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">Behind a wall there were one life form, two
beings shrouded in temporal charge and one being that defied all analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">One of the temporally charged beings jumped
up with a weapon. The sonic screwdriver buzzed, reality shimmered around the
Dalek and it found itself firing at a white-haired, older man accompanied by a
human male with dark hair. The old man crumpled and fell.</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">If you want more Doctor Who reviews, go to <a href="http://reviewthewho.wordpress.com/">http://reviewthewho.wordpress.com/</a> - my reviews of the Matt Smith/ 11th Doctor stories are under Series 5,6 and 7 - and a whole load of reviews covering all 50 years of the show are elsewhere. Go on, you know you want to.</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now go and buy my ebook <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959" target="_blank">The Royal Wedding from Hell</a></span></span><br />
<o:p></o:p></span> </span> </span> </div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-40994093651422719642014-10-01T17:23:00.000+13:002014-10-01T17:25:28.032+13:00Doctor Who Review: Listen<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Listen” is one of the best Nu-Who episodes
of all – up there with Blink, Girl in the Fireplace, Vincent and the Doctor and
A Christmas Carol. It’s really the first proper Capaldi Doctor story – there’s
a nagging feeling that the previous 3 were written without being sure about
what the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor would be like – so his character was worked
into the story. With “Listen”, the story is all about his character. The whole
premise, about whether there could be a silent, untraceable being shadowing
your every move and being the basis of a recurring mass nightmare, comes from
the idle and slightly tortured mind of the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor. Leave the 11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
Doctor on his own and he’ll invent a new recipe for fish fingers and custard,
or go off and get engaged to Marilyn Monroe – leave the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor
alone and he’ll delve all the way into the long, dark teatime of the soul.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This episode is so many things – it is a
dark character study of the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor, it is a straight horror
story, it is a romantic comedy and a romantic drama, it’s a far future time
travel piece of sci-fi. Most of all, it’s simply a great piece of TV drama,
written with all of the skills that we know the Moff possesses, directed to
full on spooky effect and with three principal performances that hit all the
right buttons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jenna Coleman continues to impress in
Series 9, now that she has real material to work with and a better defined
relationship with the Doctor. Clara hung out with the 11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doc
because she fancied him and was swept up in the excitement of it all. Clara
allows herself to accompany the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor because she feels a duty
to him. She knows he’s a good man, she knows he is a remarkable man, but the
Doctor is still struggling to realise it himself. Bringing a romantic element
to her life is a masterstroke. How much longer will she tolerate the fantasy
life over real life? Samuel Anderson as, first of all, Danny and then later
Orson Pink is very good, stepping easily into the main supporting character .
As Danny, his sensitive portrayal of a man haunted by his past and trying to
make a normal life for himself is a contrast to the Doctor’s own struggle, and
maybe Clara’s dilemas too. This slowing of the pace, that we saw so effectively
in the restaurant conversation in Deep Breath, is carried on here. Clara and
Danny’s date cuts between cute comedy and abrasive conflict, but both actors
keep their mutual attraction bubbling along. It’s an adult relationship – two
people working through the surface stuff because they know there’s a deeper
connection; it’s no rush of flowery romance and it’s better because of it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pushing the storyline along, and dragging
Clara along with it, is Capaldi’s 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor. Matt Smith’s 11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
Doctor was the young man, with an almost childlike demeanour, who bore the
weight of ages. Capaldi is the opposite – physically and in much of his
temperament, he’s an old man – wrinkled, grey, thin and cantankerous. But his
personality is so much less mature. He’s a boy, trying to find his place in the
Universe, although aware that his place is so much more than most people’s
places. “Listen” takes us back to the physical boy, with a neat link to the Day
of the Doctor, and reveals a wee slice of what made the Doctor what he became.
According to the “Time of the Doctor”, Capaldi is sort of a brand new Doctor –
the beginning of a whole new cycle of regenerations. This story backs that up –
he’s still new, still coming to terms with himself. Peter Capaldi, with those
eyes, that furrowed brow, those spindly limbs and hissing teeth, is unlikely to
become a cuddly Doctor. Caring squeezes out when it absolutely has to, when he
meets and empathises with the young Danny – the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor is on
your side, but it’s not always easy to see it. It will take growth and
emotional maturity to really empathise with real people and situations. He
knows he has to be outraged by injustice and evil, but he doesn’t necessarily
feel it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor and Clara have
one of the most intriguing relationships that the show has ever produced –
unlike last series, Clara is not a mystery to solve – she’s the Doctor’s
friend, here to help him. He needs her. His abrasive, blunt and merciless
character is covering up his fears. And Clara knows it; she can see the child
within and it’s her responsibility to help him find the man, the Timelord, that
she knows that the Doctor can be. In “Listen” she actually meets that child, but
she’s also starting a relationship where she, once again, will be the one
helping someone find their way out of the dark.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And amid all this deep character stuff is a
monster to be avoided, people to be rescued, mysteries to solve, paradoxes to
be confused by – this is Who at its best; pulp horrors and romance and action,
all mixed in with something far weightier about who we are and where we come
from and how we come together; we have nightmares, but we ALL have nightmares –
and we can all help each other face the fears and come out of the dark.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And now, Flash-fic-Fan-fic:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="color: blue;">HungerTime – Part Four<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The Tardis landed. The Doctor leapt out
brandishing his spoon. “Where is she?” he bellowed at the empty, snow-filled
street. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was a thumping of feet from behind
him. He turned in time to be floored by three Claras.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Doctor!”
said Clara.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“You’re not the Doctor,” said Oswin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“I need a Doctor,” said Victorian Clara.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“This can’t happen,” said the Doctor, “Three
of you. All at once.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Rich coming from you,” said Clara.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Snow swirled, sparks flew. The Doctor
raised the sonic. It screamed and exploded. A terribly familiar pepperpot
shaped formed in the snow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Running time,” said the Doctor.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black;">If you want more Doctor Who reviews, go to <a href="http://reviewthewho.wordpress.com/">http://reviewthewho.wordpress.com/</a> - my reviews of the Matt Smith/ 11th Doctor stories are under Series 5,6 and 7 - and a whole load of reviews covering all 50 years of the show are elsewhere. Go on, you know you want to.</span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now go and buy my ebook <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959" target="_blank">The Royal Wedding from Hell</a></span></span>Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-3686216224975781842014-09-17T16:07:00.000+12:002014-09-17T16:07:21.589+12:00Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood Review
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Clara wants to meet Robin Hood and the
Doctor, grudgingly obliges, although he insists that no such person existed.
However, on arrival in Sherwood Forest an arrow twangs into the Tardis, and the
Doctor takes on Hood’s blade with his spoon. This very much sets the tone for
the whole episode.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s all a bit daft but still jolly good
fun – we get a far more settled Doctor from Capaldi – he is arrogant and ratty
and vain, and some of the best moments deal with his rivalry with Hood, both
men of giant egos unable to let the other take the lead. There’s snappy
dialogue between the pair and Clara gets a few good lines too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When it comes to the sci-fi, it’s pretty
weak. We’re stuck with a bunch of generic robot types who are in cahoots with
the Sheriff of Nottingham so that they can gather up enough gold to launch
their crashed spaceship again. The Doctor, who has continually insisted that Hood,
the Merry men and the Sheriff are all robots created by the spaceship to fool
and enslave the local population, turns out to have been wrong. Which scuppers
a neat idea that could have provided a bit of emotional resonance – what if
Robin Hood the robot believed he was real? But no, Mark Gatiss decides that the
legend of Robin Hood is faithfully true and that there really was a man capable
of splitting an arrow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ship finally takes off but hasn’t got
enough gold to make it to orbit so will explode and take most of England with
it…EXCEPT, our heroes are able to ping a gold arrow at it, which tips it over
the critical level and off the robots go – and then blow up in orbit. This is
just kind of stupid, but I suppose, if you’ve been enjoying the ho ho ho’s of
Robin Hood and chums for the last 40 minute then you can let this go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not actually bad, just somewhat
ridiculous. Capaldi and Hood trade funnies, the Sheriff chews up the scenery,
Clara is wonderful and there’s a sort of bit of subtext about how we all want a
hero to be real. It strays into the same territory as the Time Warrior and The
Curse of the Black Spot – it’s panto Who as opposed to true pseudo-historical.
Matt Smith may have twirled his merry way through this but I’m not sure if this
is a 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor Adventure at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And now, Flash-fic-Fan-fic:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>HungerTime – Part Three<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">Alarms screamed throughout the Dalek
saucer. The rebel ship had been destroyed but the time anomaly remained.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“What is happening?” demanded the Supreme
Dalek.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The Orange Scientist acted fast. The saucer
could not be saved. The time rupture was reverberating back through Dalek
history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“Answer, answer,” shrieked the Supreme.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The Scientist blasted the Supreme. Now it
was the commanding Dalek and could command the saucer’s full systems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">It reversed the polarity of the quantum
drives, sending the saucer into a fatal plunge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The saucer dissolved into space-time. The
Scientist channelled quantum energy to itself, dematerialised and went after
the anomaly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-8840558015918821932014-09-12T16:56:00.000+12:002014-09-12T16:57:07.930+12:00Doctor Who: Into the Dalek review<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Doctor:</strong> “This is Clara. Not my assistant,
she’s ah, some other word.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Clara:</strong> “I’m his carer.”<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Doctor:</strong> “Yeah, my carer. She cares so I
don’t have to.”<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And there we have it – three simple lines
of dialogue which sum up the relationship between the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor
and Clara. My English teacher taught me that the essence of great art is much
in little and this is a great example. It’s funny, sharp and brutal all at the
same time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I say it sums up their relationship,
it sums it up as it is at this moment – 2 episodes into Series 8. Since the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
Doctor is a work in progress right now, so is their relationship. How much you
like his series (so far) is going to depend on how much uncertainty you can put
up with. Or maybe we’ll be on edge with the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor all the time
– when he asks Clara if he’s a good person, we may never get a straight answer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This has some similarities to Season 5’s
“The Beast Below” – which had Amy stepping up to take the role as the Doctor’s
Assistant – helping him to see more than just what’s in front of him. Except
“The Beast Below” was somewhat heavy-handed in the way it shoved the Doctor/
Assistant relationship in our faces at the expense of the story. “Into the
Dalek” is better made.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First and foremost it’s a rip-roaring adventure.
The Daleks are presented in grand style – a Dalek Saucer chasing a spaceship
through an asteroid field, the Doctor saving one of its occupants and landing
on a ship hiding behind one of the asteroids. The Daleks are closing in but the
soldiers on the ship have a captive, “good” Dalek aboard. Can the Doc lead a
shrunken team inside the Dalek to fix it and turn it against his own kind?
Excellent pulp stuff with lots of thrills and spills and action. Inside the
Dalek, the team are chased by anti-bodies, fall into slime, race around its
insides, turn it bad again and then try to make literal contact with its mind.
Outside the Dalek, the ship is breached and a Dalek assault team charges in
with the soldiers fighting a desperate rear-guard action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet with all this ferocious charging about,
there is time for some well-worked character scenes – when the Doctor is first
aboard the ship and his abrasive reaction to anyone with guns, Clara’s sweet
burgeoning romance with Danny Pink, the Doctor’s struggle with his morality
towards the Daleks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Capaldi’s Doctor continues to evolve – he’s
blunt but not uncaring, but a lot of that attitude is fear about himself – he still
can’t work out who he is. Jenna Coleman continues to impress – Clara as the
Doctor’s Carer is far better than Clara as lovestruck fangirl of DESTINY.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All in all a stronger episode than the
debut; I suspect there is still more settling down to come, which is not necessarily
a bad thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">AND – on to our Flash-fic-fan-fic<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">HungerTime – part two<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Run, you clever boy. And remember,” said
Oswin. She could feel the Dalek consciousness closing in, just as weaponry
rained down upon the Asylum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The barriers she’d erected in her escape
pod burst open. The planet roared as it exploded around her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“Come on then,” shouted a familiar voice, “run.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">Oswin jumped up. Smoke billowed through the
door. A short, dark-haired girl stepped through, coughing. “We need to get out
of here,” said Clara.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">They ran, stumbling from the capsule and into
a snow-filled street, bumping into another short, young lady with dark hair.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“This is strange,” said all three.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-81977565995112235742014-09-04T17:02:00.000+12:002014-09-04T17:02:44.681+12:00Doctor Who - Deep Breath Review
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Okay – 12 episodes of Doctor Who Series 8,
12 quick and dirty reviews and 12 episodes of flash-fic fan-fic featuring the
all-new 12th Doctor. Away we go…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Deep
Breath<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We start with a giant T-Rex stomping up
Victorian London. It’s a great special effect shot, looks superb in the
trailers and is frankly just gratuitous in the episode. Either way, the T-Rex
spews up the Tardis and its occupants, the lovely Clara and the newly
regenerated Doctor. The Paternoster Gang (Lady Vastra, Jenny and Strax the
Comedy Sontaran) are on hand to ease the regeneration along, but I really hope
this is the last we see of this lot. There’s a good fifteen minutes or more of
the Doctor struggling with who he is; fifteen minutes too much in my opinion –
it’s a cliché that was done to death back in Classic Who, and when you consider
how the 11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor was thrown into action almost fully formed, it
just grates a bit now. On the plus side, Jenna Coleman is given some decent
material – Clara’s struggles with the new Doctor make far more sense and, for a
large part of the feature-length episode, it’s Clara that carries the story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A story turns up soon enough though;
there’s a nasty cyborg thing going round snatching bits of people. There’s an
excellent scene when the Doctor and Clara are lured to a restaurant (by whom?
That’s another issue..) – where the new Doctor starts to settle down and take
charge and Clara starts coming to terms with him. There’s a tricky moment when
the Doctor leaves Clara to the mercy of that very nasty cyborg with half a face
– is the Doctor a coward, is he just being pragmatic or is he so cunning that
he knows Clara will be OK (if somewhat shaken) and his “escape” provides him
with the cover to come back and sort it all out? Sorting it out comes down to
the Paternoster gang whirling into action against the patch-work cyborgs and
the Doctor having an angry face-off (ahem) with the half-faced cyborg in a big
balloon. But did the cyborg jump, or was he pushed?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall, it’s solid enough stuff – but it
certainly doesn’t match the Eleventh Hour as a new Doctor’s debut. Capaldi is
good but, since his character is kept deliberately on edge, he isn’t able to
own the role and the show like his predecessor did. Hopefully things will
settle down as we go along. As mentioned before, Coleman gets to bring some
real character to Clara – being made to question her attitude to the Doctor and
some form of development from pretty sidekick to someone who really is going to
help. The pace of the episode seemed uneven; this comes across as a transition
piece, moving away from the fast, furious and fun running around of the 11<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
Doctor to something slower and more considered. The episode definitely strays
into Hinchcliffe horror territory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s not great, but it is very good, at
least until Matt Smith’s cameo. This is just awful – surely a huge insult to
Peter Capaldi? Does Capaldi not become the Doctor until Smith formally hands
the role over via the call to Clara? Is Clara so weak and superficial (and
we’ve just spent half the episode proving she isn’t) that she needs the
previous Doctor, HER Doctor to persuade her to stick with the new Doctor? It’s
an insulting and totally unnecessary scene that, for me, sours a perfectly
acceptable start for the 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">AND NOW, the flash fic. The rules are –
each episode is exactly 100 words, I don’t do any real planning – we’re making
it up as we go along -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a bit like
Capaldi’s new Doctor…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">HungerTime
– part one<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">The latest version of the console room was
still not right. It had far more round things but still missed something. He
found the intercom switch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“Clara,” shouted the Doctor, “can you come
to the test console room. I need your input.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">No answer. He checked the Tardis interior display.
Rooms, corridors, whole sectors shifted in and out of being but there was no
way a part could vanish if Clara was in it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">She wasn’t anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">They’d been drifting through the vortex –
it was impossible for Clara to leave the Tardis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">But, he thought, Clara is the impossible
girl.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-65217438103625315602014-01-22T15:35:00.003+13:002014-01-22T15:38:45.770+13:00The Time of the Doctor - ReviewWas there any way that this story could possibly live up to expectations? THIS story, THE last story of the Eleventh Doctor, THE story when Matt Smith regenerates, , THE follow-up to “The Day of the Doctor” with our first look at Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, THE story screened (within a day or so, probably) simultaneously across the globe. Surely it can’t live up to that kind of hype? Um, no, no it seems it can’t.<br />
<br />
On the whole, this is not so much a Doctor Who story, more of a wrapping up of loose ends and an almost episode long drawn-out final scene for Matt Smith. There are various bits of running around but ultimately, not much actually happens apart from the regeneration.<br />
<br />
It starts in reasonably promising style – the Doctor’s appearance at Clara’s Xmas dinner, where he appears fully clothed to us watching and to Clara but then reveals that he’s still actually naked and appearing so to Clara’s family made me laugh like a drain.<br />
But when we head off to Trenzalore, we just begin the long slow end of the Doctor. Yes, we know the prophecy said that this is where he dies so it’s all a bit foreboding. And yes, it is a surprise to have it very simply confirmed that Smith is in fact the 13th Doctor (number 9 was actually Hurt’s War Doctor, Eccleston bumped to no 10, and Tennant managing to be both 11 and 12) and therefore the absolute last one. BUT, we also know full well that Peter Capaldi has been cast as the next Doctor (because there was a live TV special) so there is bound to be some timey-wimey-ness to allow the regeneration to take place, so it’s not like the Doctor’s impending “death” is anything to get too stressed about.<br />
<br />
Coleman is reduced back to the companion that occasionally hangs out with the Doctor as opposed to actually travelling with him. She calls him up, gets sent away, comes back again, gets sent away again and then comes back again. She lets a big old tear run down her face (again), and gets to do the Impossible Girl bit (again) to save the day. Is it a little insulting to her character that at the very end, the Doc still hallucinates one last goodbye to Amy Pond?
<br />
Actually, it’s possibly more insulting that the better companion is an old cyberman head that the Doctor has called Handles. Handles’ final demise as he watches one last Trenzalore sunset is one of the episode’s more touching moments.<br />
<br />
Smith, almost needless to say, is superb, playing his usual manic self, then a slightly less sprightly 300 year older self and finally a near to death self. He does manage to bring a slight tear to the eye as his doddery form makes it to the top of the tower for one last rant at the Daleks.<br />
And then he explodes (thanks to Clara’s plea to the timelords) with an all new load of regenerations and obliterates the Daleks.<br />
Back in the Tardis, young again, briefly, he finally regenerates into a boggly-eyed Peter Capaldi with a suitably wacky cliffhanger “would you know how to fly this thing?”<br />
<br />
The Time of the Doctor would always struggle to follow The Day of the Doctor, I found myself surprisingly unexcited as this episode came round. Whereas the big anniversary episode managed to avoid being a greatest hits of Who, The Time of the Doctor became just that – menacing Daleks, a few Cybermen, Weeping Angels in the snow, hissing Silences and silly Sontarans.<br />
A few nice moments, but otherwise a disappointing end to a great Doctor’s run.<br />
<br />
I’ll get to a more full overview of Matt Smith’s era, but for now, will say that it’s heights were the very best of nu-Who but Season 6, especially its second half, let the whole period down.<br />
Matt Smith, though, was never less than excellent. His final line was beautiful:<br />
<br />
<b> “I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.</b>”<br />
<br />
So will I, Matt Smith, so will I.
<br />
<br />
PS - if you want lots more Who reviews, covering all 50 years, then nip over to <a href="http://www.reviewthewho.wordpress.com/">"Review the Who"</a>, where you will find my, more reasoned, reviews of the Matt Smith era along with a boatload of great writing about the greatest show in the Universe.Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-56154912443623481062013-12-18T14:20:00.000+13:002013-12-18T14:20:01.842+13:00Doctor Who - The Day of the Doctor ReviewWas there any way that this story could possibly live up to expectations? THIS story, THE 50th Anniversary story, THE story with the Tennant/ Smith team-up (with Rose Tyler too), THE follow-up to “The Name of the Doctor” with the scary “new” Doctor played by John Hurt, THE story screened simultaneously across the globe and shown in 3D in cinemas. Surely it can’t live up to that kind of hype? Except it does.
<br/><br/>
I’ve cheerfully criticised much of what’s gone on in the Name of the Moffat (Series 6, for example) but with these 72 minutes of undiluted Whovian fun, the Moff has nailed it.<br/>
Simply watching it in the cinema made it special to start with. First off, we were treated to Strax, the comedy Sontaran, telling us how to behave, then an intro by Smith then Tennant sparring about the wonders of 3D. And then the story began.
Moffat started plucking the heartstrings of the fans right from the get go – we open with the original 1963 titles and music and the opening shot is a copy of THE opening shot, before we open out to reveal full colour and find Clara working at Coal Hill School (Chairman of the Board is I. Chesterton – one the Doc’s very first companions). Applause all round.<br/><br/>
It’s not all nostalgia; there is an actual story going on. It weaves from the “Fall of Arcadia”, the pivotal event of The Time War, where John Hurt’s “War Doctor” has to commit the act that will destroy Daleks, Time Lords and Gallifrey itself and end the universe-spanning conflict altogether. To do this, he must activate The Moment, a weapon so devastating that it has its own conscience – manifested as a character from the Doctor’s future, being Rose Tyler/ Bad Wolf – a slick way of bringing Billie Piper into the story without the complications of picking up Rose herself. It is Rose that stays the War Doctor’s hand and sparks the “timey-wimey” events that bring three Doctors together.<br/>
From here, we catch up with the 10th Doc in Elizabethan England, finding himself involved in a Zygon plot (and getting himself engaged to Queen Elizabeth herself). The 11th Doc dives through time and, at last, the two meet, followed swiftly by the War Doctor (“I’m looking for the Doctor” he says, “You’ve come to the right place,” says No 10).<br/>
Fun and jollies with the Zygons (who are on fairly scary form actually) follow, before we get back to the serious business of hitting the Big button that will wipe out the Time Lords and Daleks. At first, Nos 10 and 11 are simply there to be with the War Doctor to press the button and share the burden...BUT, Clara does what Clara does and persuades them to find another way – saving the Doctor(s) yet again.<br/>
And it’s a way that brilliantly brings in all of the other Doctors – and we mean ALL of the other Doctors including a brief shot of the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi, and provoking a fair few shrieks from the cinema audience.<br/>
The day is saved and, thanks to a very familiar “curator”, the Doctor is given new purpose – to find the lost planet of Gallifrey.<br/><br/>
There’s so much to love here – Smith and Tennant are on OTT form, both firing on all cylinders in a display of constant one-upmanship – when the War Doctor arrives we get a wonderful parallel with the original Three Doctors – I was half expecting Hurt to say “so you’re my replacements, a dandy and a clown.” Hurt is more subtle, as expected from the Doctor that’s suffered 400 years of brutal warfare and must bear the heaviest burden of all.<br/>
The battles on Gallifrey are suitably epic – scenes that could never be conceived back in the Classic era, but they are kept at an appropriate level – the explosions do not overtake the drama.<br/><br/>
This story could have been a weighty, “dark” episode – but instead, Moffat gives us mostly a fun-filled, old fashioned monster (Zygon) romp, fun that is bookended by the darker material.<br/>
There’s a lot of humour – No10 and Elizabeth (after Queenie dispatches her Zygon double she notes that “while I may have the weak and feeble body of a woman, so did the Zygon”), the superb and complex way the three Docs work out how to disintegrate a solid wooden door with their sonic screwdrivers (letting the War Doctor’s screwdriver start the calculations that will take 400 years and thus be completed by the 11th Doc’s screwdriver) before Clara opens it and reveals it was unlocked anyway. There’s great supporting characters; Clara and Rose, Kate Stewart and her UNIT team, Queen Elizabeth. There’s a long, long scarf and a Fez (“Can you not walk past one without putting it on?” quips Clara). The aforementioned glimpse of Doctor no 13 (which means Doc’s 10 and 11 should be moved up to Nos 11 and 12). And then there’s Tom Baker – the man who will always be, perhaps, THE Doctor.<br/><br/>
The way that the Doctors save Gallifrey is truly inspired – presaged by their attempt at door disintegration, they form a plan to make the planet disappear and let the Daleks destroy themselves – but it will take centuries to make the calculations says the Time Lord General. But that’s OK, because when the First Doctor is the first to start working on it, then they have centuries.<br/><br/>
And so, what could have been a very good story of 3 Doctors becomes a truly great story of 13 Doctors.<br/><br/>
This special was described by its Producers as a love letter to the fans; and there’s a lot of love on display. From the Tardis swinging across London, and a full on Dalek planetary assault, and horse rides with the Queen, and Timelord paintings, and sonic screwdriver rivalry, acknowledging the UNIT dating conundrum... to the darkest decision of all, the regeneration loop all wrapped up and the impossible girl reminding us all that the Doctor is called The Doctor for a reason. And, a terribly familiar curator launching the show into the future.<br/><br/>
The Day of the Doctor is many things – it is a celebration of the show’s rich and wonderful past, it is a celebration of its current and hugely successful present and it is a hint of a thrilling future. Past, present and future – it is a show about time travel after all.<br/><br/>
Happy Birthday Doctor Who – it’s been a hell of a ride so far, and who knows what the future holds? Who knows? Who knows.
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-51472989317005838942013-09-18T15:14:00.000+12:002013-09-18T15:16:01.930+12:00Obama pulls a HomerIt strikes me that the recent turn of events surrounding Syria, the Chemical weapons, threatened military action and so forth, have resulted in President Obama “pulling a Homer”. <br/>
<br/>
For those not-so-dedicated Simpsons fans, the phrase is defined as “to succeed despite idiocy” – in the episode “Homer defined”, Homer accidentally causes the nuclear plant to go into meltdown, then, by dumb luck, manages to avert the meltdown and save the plant, Springfield etc.<br/>
<br/>
With Syria, when Obama declared that using Chemical weapons was a “red line” that Assad could not cross, he effectively forced his own hand into action when these vile weapons were deployed.<br/>
<br/>
If only it were as simple as Fox News would like – The US of A could destroy Assad’s Chemical weapons capabilities, deal a crippling blow to his evil regime, and the “good guys” of the Syrian resistance would sweep Assad from power and a new era of peace, democracy and better oil trading with the West would begin.
Of course, Obama found himself in a far more complex situation. IF, it could be proved that Assad deployed the chemical weapons, IF it were possible to locate the weapons, If it were possible to destroy them without civilian casualties, IF the US could do this as part of a truly International effort with a UN mandate...then, just maybe, all would work out fine.<br/>
<br/>
But, with his major ally showing no stomach for any action (being Britain, and I suspect a possibly relieved David Cameron who may have looked weak when he lost the vote, but at least avoided getting sucked into conflict), Russia and China certainly not letting any use of force to pass through the UN, and the US Congress being mighty reluctant to authorize military action – Obama found himself looking ineffective and guilty of making empty threats.<br/>
<br/>
This is where dumb luck (for Obama) comes in – a casual remark by John Kerry suddenly becomes a Russian Peace initiative.<br/>
<br/>
On the surface, you could say that Obama comes out of this looking terrible - the Russians bat the useless American efforts at sabre-rattling aside, prevent escalating violence and bring Assad to the peace table. And a humiliating address to the American people by Putin in a US newspaper can never be a good thing to happen under your Presidency.<br/>
<br/>
However, looking at this in another way....<br/>
<br/>
With the threat of American force, Obama has made Russia, who have long stood in the way of any sanctions that might have curbed Assad’s brutality, come to step up and actually take some responsible action. Russia may score a few points right now, but if/ when Assad fails to comply with demands to surrender his chemical weapons, they will surely be forced to take a harder line.<br/>
<br/>
So – Obama may succeed in removing Assad’s WMDs, he also may have neutralized future Russian blocks to meaningful further action against Assad; which also means Assad loses a lot of the support of one of his biggest allies. Obama has not handed Syria to a bunch of extreme Jihadists by just cutting Assad’s regime away – and he’s managed to do this without firing a single American bullet.<br/>
<br/>
Bush used shock and awe (and billions of dollars and thousands of lives) to achieve only worldwide contempt for the US and plunge Iraq into bloody civil war. Obama made a threat and may have neutralized a brutal and oppressive regime.<br/>
<br/>
Time will tell of course – I think there is, sadly, a lot more blood still to be shed by the people of Syria. While the various deals/ proposals etc being bandied around at the moment may offer a glimmer of hope that, at least, the Chemical weapons may be taken out of the equation, history tells us that strong words frequently mean nothing.<br/>
<br/>
But, if this does turn out to the good – ie Chemical weapons removed and destroyed, Obama may well have scored a significant victory – even though it might come about in spite of, instead of because of, his actions.
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-25033912458438489242013-08-08T14:34:00.000+12:002013-08-08T14:34:13.538+12:00Doctor Who - Season 7 Review/ rambling....First things first Season 7 was way better than Season 6. A quick and dirty recap of Season 6:<br />
Impossible Astronaut/ Day of the Moon – a cracking start, nasty aliens, clever resolution with intriguing hints of the larger story to come.<br />
The Curse of the Black Spot – the worst episode since Love and Monsters. Down there with The Twin Dilemma awfulness.<br />
The Doctor’s Wife – sort of interesting, but over-indulgent<br />
The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People – actually, quite good<br />
A Good Man goes to War – a long way up itself, but with enough thrills and spills to be fun, a good twist but let down by the revelation that River was Amy’s daughter<br />
And then came the second half....<br />
<br />
Let’s Kill Hitler – Poor<br />
Night Terrors – seen it all before<br />
The Girl who waited – YES, Amy loves Rory, how many times do we have to be told? And look, a robot thing with a catchphrase.<br />
The God Complex – seen it all before, in fact, two episodes ago.<br />
Closing Time – oh please...<br />
The Wedding of River Song – and reset.<br />
So overall, a decent start which nose-dived in the second half. Which brings us to Season Seven. We’ll ignore the 2011 Xmas special because it was terrible.<br />
<br />
<b>Asylum of the Daleks</b> – superb, best NuWho since...possibly since Who returned.<br />
<b>Dinosaurs on a Spaceship</b> – almost daft, but they pull it off. A decent villain for a change.<br />
<b>A Town called Mercy</b> – predictable but good stuff.<br />
<b>The Power of Three</b> – surprisingly good despite being yet another sodding character piece.<br />
<b>The Angels Take Manhattan</b> – Weeping Angels have jumped the shark, although the Statue of Liberty as Angel was impressive. But this was good because we finally saw the back of Amy and Rory who had gone on way too long.<br />
<b>The Snowmen</b> – superb, best Nu Who since...oh, Asylum of the Daleks.<br />
<b>The Bells of St John</b> – watchable but not what you’d call good.<br />
<b>The Rings of Akhatan</b> – oh dear, is it Season 6B revisited?<br />
<b>Cold War</b> – thank God NO – Ice Warriors return in style.<br />
<b>Hide</b> – haunted house stories are getting a bit tired, but solid work.<br />
<b>Journey to the Centre of the Tardis</b> – bleuurgh.<br />
<b>The Crimson Horror</b> – Another good villain – that’s two in one season.<br />
<b>Nightmare in Silver</b> – the best Nu Who since....The Snowmen<br />
<b>The Name of the Doctor</b> – a bit of a reset but a good tease for the 50th Special.<br />
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My overall gripes are Amy and Rory dragging on and how the mid-season break distorts the flow of stories – we’re just waiting for the mid-season “event”, the rest is almost filler (if sometimes very good filler). Clara was superb in Asylum and the Snowmen but took a few stories to pick up again. Cold War saved the second half and Nightmare brought it home with gusto.<br />
All in all, a great improvement and a great new companion gee’d things up nicely. Season 6 just bogged itself down in too much Amy/ Rory-ness – Season 7 was a return to plain old villains and monsters (and returning villains and monsters), with Daleks and Cybermen getting their best outings for a long while, the revived (should we say defrosted) Ice Warriors and reintroduced Great Intelligence. Matt Smith continued to rise above some mediocre material, but thankfully, not too much mediocre material – in Nightmare in Silver, I’d argue he hit his highest notes yet. Sadly we’ve only got two more adventures with him – the Big Special and then the Xmas episode.<br />
Coming up, though, is even greater excitement – we hope. Who is this “other” Doctor played by John Hurt? What fun and jollies will go down in the 50th Anniversary Special, with Doc no 10 and Rose Tyler returning? And how will No 11 regenerate into No 12 – in the form of Peter Capaldi?<br />
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My personal hopes for Season 8:<br />
No mid-season break – 13 straight episodes, please.<br />
Slow down a bit for longer two-parters. Maybe even try for a meaningful three-parter.<br />
Enough of the mysterious companion nonsense. Clara’s role is to have stuff explained to her (and thus, us), lose the Doc and meet the locals and tell the Doc where he is going wrong. She is along for the ride because it is fun; not because she is in love with the Doc or getting over something, or because the Doc is finding out who she is. Note how I have refrained from saying that her role is to look pretty. This is 2013, you know....<br />
How about a nasty, villainous villain doing something nasty that the Doctor will sort out? No need for paradoxical timey-wimey-ness.<br />
New villains and new monsters – once we’re past the Big 50, let’s put the old stuff on ice for a while, shall we?<br />
An episode (or two) commissioned from a bright new writer based in New Zealand, shot in Wellington and directed by my chum* and almost neighbor, Peter Jackson.<br />
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Anyhoo - that's my wrapping up. Now, go and buy my ebook, ideal for Dr Who fans - <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959</a><br /><br />
*When I say chum, I have seen him drive past my bus stop several times in his lovely silver Aston Martin DB5. If he stopped and said Hi, I’m sure we’d get on like a house on fire. Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-5615385279252732232013-06-25T10:34:00.000+12:002013-06-25T10:34:40.634+12:00Iain M Banks - a wee tribute<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Iain Banks, one of our finest sci-fi writers, indeed one of our finest writers, died on June 9<sup>th</sup>, 2013. It’s always sad when one of your favourite artists passes – the notion that I won’t get to read another new Culture novel, or enjoy the jet black humour of his, supposedly, mainstream fiction is heartbreaking.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Excession” was the first of his books that I read – a terrific piece of space opera that, for me, blew the genre apart. At the time, to my shame, my sci-fi reading had largely deteriorated to Star Trek and Star Wars levels, in prose at least. In comics I had soared with Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman (among others), but my novel reading remained distinctly pedestrian.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And my rambling attempts at writing had been at wonky, quest based (Tolkien rip-off) sword and sorcery, and a space war-based (Star Wars rip-off) sci-fi.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then, I picked up “Excession” from the library and realised that imagination could fly so, so much farther.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Culture (Bank’s super-advanced space-living, egalitarian, super-liberal society) was light years away from the simplistic societies envisaged by the two big sci-fi franchises. Let’s face it, much as I still love Trek and SW, they are really just Earth bound stories and characters thrown into space. They are hardly “real” sci-fi in that they hardly deviate from modern Earth technology. A gun with a laser beam is still just a gun.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Banks took a step back and really thought about where technology could take us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The stars of the Culture are not boldly going humans – it’s the vast “minds” that are the heart and souls of the city-sized starships. In Excession, the villains of the piece, for want of a better term, are not sinister megalomaniacs intent on conquest and power, it’s a bunch of many legged gas balloons whose whole society revels in cruelty and oppression. And even the “Afront” pale in comparison to the grim society of “the Player of Games”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The “humans” in the Culture can simply “gland” mood enhancing drugs into their systems, they can transfer their minds into other bodies (alien, human, whatever), they can change gender, they don’t die - unless they choose to, and even then they may be uploaded to a virtual heaven long before they finally decide to switch themselves off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After reading Excession, my Star Wars rip-off was retired. My Tolkien rip-off is not quite dead, but if it is ever resurrected it will be in a radically different form.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can’t claim that my writing will ever reach Bank’s giddy heights of imagination, but the lesson learned is that I have to try.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And his so-called mainstream work? Read “The Wasp Factory” and ask yourself how mainstream that is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I see yet another sodding vampire/ werewolf/ shadow world beneath our world/ kids of destiny with exceptional powers story on the shelves – I wonder how those writers live with themselves. Of course, my own work is probably a pale rip-off of Iain Bank’s so I can’t get too judgmental.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have few regrets in life, BUT – on the one time I actually got to meet the great man, I didn’t ask him anything. He was signing copies of “Dead Air” in a bookshop near my work one lunchtime – I bought a copy in a rush and got it signed for my brother as a Xmas prezzie – I was rushing so much I didn’t think to ask him to explain what the hell “Walking on Glass” was about, or just what that thing was in “Excession”, or at what point in writing “Use of Weapons” did the big twist come to him....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was lucky enough to meet his one-time publishing editor, John Jarrold*, who explained how he handled the big twist in the publicity and just why “Inversions” is actually a Culture novel, NOT sword and sorcery as my non sci-fi reading friend once thought.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those who have not read Iain Banks, I’d suggest starting with “Consider Phlebas” as a first Iain M Banks – it’s the first Culture novel and a great trip around how it works. As for the equally superb Iain Banks (without the M) work – maybe try “Espedair Street” as it’s not as jarring as “The Wasp Factory”. Frankly, anything with his name, with or without an “M” will take you places that you never thought you’d go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To those who knew and loved Mr Banks, their loss must be immeasurable and my thoughts are with them. One hopes it is a small comfort that his work will live on, and continue to excite readers forever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A wee bit of Culture fan-fic/ flash fic.....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I need to sublime.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Ahem, the Culture does NOT sublime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Ok, how can I shuffle off this mortal coil?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-There’s always the after-life. And there’s lots of options.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“No. That’s just a different kind of physical plane. I want out. Altogether.”<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Tricky. No one has died in the Culture for millenia. Ten thousand years ago, some guy managed to get his body dropped into a star from a non-Culture ship a long way from any Culture influence. Even then, we were able to reconstruct him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I know. And I wish you’d never bothered.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Heh. No one f**ks with the Culture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And at some point I will do my Doctor Who Season 7 summing up – hell, what about the Doctor meeting the Culture? Now that would be a Who story and a half...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">*And if it wasn’t for John Jarrold, I probably wouldn’t still be trying to write to this day – but that’s another story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-59444832258046252132013-06-11T15:14:00.000+12:002013-06-11T15:14:14.350+12:00DOCTOR WHO REVIEW - The Name of the Doctor<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I feel a little conned. I did NOT learn the Name of the Doctor. River Song knows it, and seems to be the only one that does. When did he actually tell her?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">However, apart from a niggling manipulation of our expectations, this episode was almost an epic conclusion to the series and prequel/ lead-in/ cliffhanger for the 50<sup>th</sup> Anniversary story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I say “almost”. This is a story that you don’t want to step back and think about too much. Motivations for the Conference call between Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax, Clara and River seem somewhat spurious. The whispermen are not really explained. The Great Intelligence’s Great scheme to wipe out the Doctor seems a little simplistic and considering how terrible and dangerous mucking about with time is, the Doc seems to make easy work of doing just that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">On the plus side – there is tremendous pace – the Whispermen can’t be stopped by a wave of the Sonic screwdriver so when they’re after you, you’d really better run. Trenzalore is brilliantly realised and the colossal expanded Tardis is a sight to behold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The opening is one for old fans (such as myself) to love – the scene where the First Doctor goes to steal a Tardis with Susan (which surely tells us that Susan is a Time Lady – could she regenerate at some point?. One assumes she still lives on future, post Dalek Invasion Earth). And then, fleeting glimpses of the other Doctors and Clara – she is The Impossible Girl, destined to save the Doctor over and over again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The explanation is a classic bit of Moffat timey-wimey-ness; she has to throw herself into the Doc’s timeline to counter-act the Great Intelligence’s effect after he threw himself into the Doc’s timeline, which is why she can keep on turning up to save the Doctor’s life. Which begs a paradoxical question – so where has she been all this time?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And then, the explanation of the episode title – not the Doctor’s name as in first name and surname, but “IN” the name of the Doctor – all of which sends us charging into the forgotten Doctor, as played by John Hurt (and with a big shiny caption to make sure we understand who he is), which will roll into the BIG 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I could criticize this episode – essentially it’s a load of running around heading ever closer to a terrible place with terrible consequences – but when they get to the terrible end, it’s really a chance for a load of exposition and it’s all sorted out by a leaf. But it’s done with a lot of style, so we’ll let it go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And now that we know who Clara is, hopefully she can stop being a story arc and finally step up to being the sassy and saucy wonder that we loved in Asylum of the Daleks. With the announcement that Matt Smith will be leaving us after the 50<sup>th</sup> Anniversary story and then the 2013 Xmas episode, we should get to see Clara usher in a new Doctor. Exciting stuff ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Next week, I’ll chuck together a rambling appraisal of the whole of Season 7. In the meantime, we’ll bring in the last episode of our flash-fic/ fan-fic. I was completely stuck for an ending, having written myself into a total hole. BUT, hey, we have a fresh new slice of Who canon to work with now....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Consequences of Time Episode 8<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“What about reversing the polarity flow?” said Clara.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor paused. Had Clara always been there? Did she get out of the van with Graf? No time to care. Graf didn’t seem fazed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor ran to the big box. Graf took a step, Clara caught him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“STOP NOW!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“This won’t hurt a bit,” muttered the Doctor. He made an adjustment, fired up his sonic screwdriver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The thundering soundwave floored them all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Time flickered. As the Doctor, Graf and Clara stood, a crowd of bewildered people stood around the machine. The wind was rising. No-one was dying. No-one had died.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And there we have it. Once again, the value of pre-planning comes to the fore and would have meant me not having a colossal cop-out, reset button ending. However, if it’s good enough for Steven Moffat, it’s good enough for me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tomorrow – a wee tribute to the Great Iain Banks, who has sadly passed away, although one assumes he has been uploaded to the Culture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-48103614462993471552013-05-31T15:59:00.001+12:002013-05-31T15:59:05.785+12:00DOCTOR WHO REVIEW - Nightmare in Silver<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nightmare in Silver<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now we’re cooking with gas, or to be more accurate, Neil Gaiman is. I said in my review of Cold War that it was nudging The Snowmen and Asylum of the Daleks in quality. Nightmare in Silver is right up alongside those two – rating as one of the best Nu-Who’s of them all, and definitely the best Nu-Who Cyberman story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This season has been a little uneven, but the consistent note of excellence has been Matt Smith – and in this story he is better than ever. He gets to play the Doc (of course) but is also on fire as the Doctor possessed (implanted?) by the Cyber-planner consciousness. I’ve often found a lack of strong villain characters in Nu-Who, but this season has made amends (Daleks being supremely villainous, that nasty sod with the Dinosaurs, The Great Intelligence, Celia Imrie, the Ice Warrior, Diana Rigg) – and Smith, himself, provides possibly the best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is strong support all round – the soldiers are great, Warwick Davis is wonderful and Jenna-Louise Coleman’s Clara is now firing on all cylinders – being put in charge by the Doc, and making sure that no one blows up the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Cybermen get a thorough upgrade (naturally). Part of me worried that they were turning a bit Borg, especially the implants and ability to upgrade on the fly. However, as we Who fans all know, the Borg were ripped-off Cybermen in the first place (I’m ashamed to say that the Borg were the Cybermen done right) so I see this episode as just the Cybermen retaining their place as THE sci-fi cyborg/ robot men type of villain. Frankly, even The Terminator would have trouble against these Cybermen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story has mystery, then pace, then action, then scariness, then a big reveal, and then a big explosion. What more do you want?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next time – The Name of the Doctor. Which has some of my UK chums in a right tizzy – in a good way....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now, can I possibly make some sense out of this flash fic story?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Consequences of Time - Episode Seven<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Would you be the Frozen Terror?” asked the Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“LET THE SACRIFICE PROCEED.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Graf started walking forwards. The wind began to pick up again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Stop,” shouted the Doctor. Graf halted. The wind died.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“IF THE SACRIFICE STOPS, THE WIND STOPS,” said the Black Box.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“So?” shrugged the Doctor. Beside him, Graf gasped.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“THE WIND WILL STOP.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“All wind stops,” said Graf. “No wind, no power, no people.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Wind happens naturally. You don’t need people to fuel it,” said the Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“THE WIND IS CONTROLLED. THERE IS NO NATURE.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Doctor used the Sonic Screwdriver. Not good, not good at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-28206619127236066692013-05-24T16:33:00.000+12:002013-05-24T16:33:51.060+12:00Doctor Who - The Crimson Horror Review<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Crimson Horror<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And to think, I wasn’t looking forward to this one. How wrong can you be? This was an absolute corker. Mark Gatiss, who wrote the earlier corker “Cold War” produces the goods again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was ready to hate Strax – but he wins me over, he is a comedy character but he is let loose to be a proper warrior as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps the Victorian era is overly used in Nu-Who, but the Doc has a very solid reason to go there as part of the quest to figure out what/ who Clara is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our Silurian and her lady-friend are on good form investigating the weird goings-on, and actually rescuing the Doc (to some extent). Smith, as always, is on excellent form, and JLC finally gets a decent outing as Clara – bringing the sauciness and sassiness of her debut stories.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With Diana Rigg, we have a proper villain – a thoroughly nasty piece of work, perfectly willing to do nasty experiments on her own daughter (played by her actual real daughter, Rachael Stirling). Stirling is superb, blind, disfigured, abandoned yet still capable of compassion and fury. And Rigg is a villain to the end – as she dies she asks her daughter “Can you forgive me?” The daughter replies “never”. “That’s my girl,” says Mum with pride before her last gasp.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All that AND a sort of cliff-hanger/ lead-in to next week as the kids that Clara nannies for discover her time-travelling antics (although Clara seems bemused by the pic of her in Victorian London...) and insist she takes them along...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">....along to meet the Cybermen in the next episode it seems..<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now, fanfic/ flashfic..</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Consequences of Time – Episode 6<o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The wind stopped. “That’s better,” said the Doctor. He looked up, but didn’t let Graf go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“What have you done?” grunted Graf, his voice muffled with his face in the snow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The snow, which had obscured everything, was now settling. A dark shape ahead was materializing as the view became clearer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“Your frozen terror,” said the Doctor, letting Graf raise his head.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“What is it?” he asked. The Doctor climbed off. Both men stood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“No idea,” said the Doctor as he walked towards the large, black cube.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“STOP RIGHT THERE, OR DIE!” boomed a huge, electronic voice. The Doctor stopped.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"></span>Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-73868290402079631782013-05-16T15:26:00.003+12:002013-05-16T15:26:51.378+12:00Doctor Who Review - Journey to the Centre of the Tardis<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At first glance, there was a lot to like here. Creepy monsters chasing our heroes (and villains) around the surreal depths of the Tardis – all very well realised and managing to overcome a severe case of “running down corridors”. Alternate console rooms, a library with the “History of the Last Great Time War” and the Eye of Harmony itself. Unfortunately, it’s all too obvious for a story set on the Tardis to go nowhere – and that’s precisely where this story goes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A gormlessly contrived reason for the Tardis “crashing” on a salvage ship (they turn off the security settings so Clara can have a go at flying the Tardis, in an attempt to get the Tardis to like her). Three brothers (or rather two and an android) who come from a long line of grubby workmen in space (Alien, Darkstar, The Impossible Planet, 42 and so on...) decide they will tear the Tardis apart. Oh come on – seriously, a bog-standard salvage crew try to take on the Tardis?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be fair, I quite liked the brothers – they were interesting enough, enough amorality without being actually evil and even a fair bit of genuine good.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith, as always, on excellent form. JLC, on good form, but again given little by the script. There’s a possible revelation in the library, a neat plot twist about the salvage crew, a thundering confrontation between Clara and the Doc, a rip-roaring cliff-hanger as the monsters trap the Doc and Clara on a bridge across a seething fire or vortex or something....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then, as too often happens with nu-Who, especially the Moffat version, the Doc hits the reset button and everything is sorted out again. Tardis goes merrily on its way and so do the salvage boys with never the twain having met.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I assume this Clara storyline is going somewhere – despite Clara being none the wiser, I guess she has to have some important timey-wimey place in the scheme of things. Maybe she’ll turn out to be Amy’s mother or something.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next week we have The Crimson Terror – with the ridiculous comedy Sontaran, Strax. I don’t like Steampunk, and I’d rather have my Sontarans being Born to Fight warriors instead of jokes. I am looking forward to it, honest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, it’s all very well for me to criticise – can I do any better?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;"><strong>Consequences of Time – Episode Part 5<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;">The people started running, into the storm and where the severed head had come from.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;">“Stop,” screamed the Doctor but his voice vanished in the howling of the wind. More body parts were flying back, blood sprayed through the swirling snow, red and white stripes flew through the air.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor ran after them. Graf, the last in the line stumbled and looked back at the Doctor. “I must,” he shouted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue;">“No, you don’t,” shouted the Doctor. He hit Graf with a rugby tackle and the two slammed into the icy ground. “Now, what happens if we stay here then?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-41237635926011616362013-05-10T14:02:00.000+12:002013-05-10T14:03:27.121+12:00Doctor Who Review - Hide<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hide” starts off as a ghost story, and a good one too. The ghost is suitably whispy and creepy and even quite scary. The streams of fuzzy photos with the ghost’s face in full Scream mode are very good at making the point.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Doctor and Clara wander in; Matt Smith is superb as usual, Clara still seems to wonder why she is there (the character, Jenna-Louise Coleman is a great actress but the character seems a bit stuck).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, this is Doctor Who, so the supernatural isn’t supernatural at all. The story flips direction as the Doc reveals what’s really going on – a traveler trapped in time is providing the ghosty-ness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The monster chasing the time traveler is suitably horrible, although the time-traveler doesn’t get a character at all. The whole story has a final twist when the Doc realizes that the monster isn’t being monstrous at all, it just wants to get back with its mate that has been trapped in “our” universe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solid stuff, scary when it needed to be, neat sci-fi twists and a pretty smart resolution. I can’t see this becoming a classic, but it is a decent story that continues to put this season on track after its first couple of stuttering episodes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And on...</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><strong>Consequences of Time Part 4<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor stumbled in snow, followed by Graf, the terrified sacrifice. The truck sprayed ice as it sped away. The others staggered in hysterics, all with no place to go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">A howl echoed around them. Ppeople starting walking towards the sound.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“Maybe we should head away from the terror?” shouted the Doc. Graf stopped. He was very conflicted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“I don’t want to die,” he screamed, “but I must go”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Another howl came with a ground-shaking thump. A dark flurry swished through and a woman vanished with a scream.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Moments later, the severed head flew back, bouncing at the Doctor’s feet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-40885692575973630892013-05-01T16:34:00.001+12:002013-05-01T16:34:42.762+12:00Doctor Who Review - Cold War<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now this is more like it. The very welcome and excellent return of the Ice Warriors (well, one of them anyway). A serious villain, with serious power and strength in a smart setting with a great bunch of supporting characters. Definitely the best episode since Xmas, and only a smidge behind The Snowmen and Asylum of the Daleks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s to like?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The setting – in the midst of the cold war, and trapped on a Soviet, nuclear submarine, with the Tardis deciding to do a bunk just as the sh*t hits the fan. The submarine is suitably claustrophobic, and also starting to come apart. Water is sloshing everywhere and reminding everyone of just where they are – trapped a kilometer or so underwater.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supporting characters – the Captain, played by Liam Cunningham and fresh from a great role in Game of Thrones, is superb. He’s loyal to the motherland but also fully aware of the threat that his vessel represents. The second in charge is far more ideologically driven and you know he is bound to be the one who will be plunging the situation towards a full-on nuclear war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And of course the GREAT David Warner – playing a cynical Soviet scientist with a love for Western 80’s syntho-pop. Warner is someone that would play a superb Doctor (and has on the “Unbound” Big Finish audios). He’s on good form here, although it would have been better to have more of him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith is, as usual, terrific. Clara is warming up nicely – stepping up to face the Ice Warrior alone (shades of Rose and the Dalek) but there’s no cozying up to the monster here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Ice Warrior – Skaldek is his name and he’s apparently a 5000 year old Martian legend. The Ice Warrior design is subtly updated, and retains its bulky power and strength. Skaldek has character too – he has warrior’s code of honour, he’s smart, devious and brutally murderous when it’s called for. A great touch was letting us see a full Ice Warrior’s face for the first time (and was it slightly Silurian-ish? But then, both species/ races are reptilian – maybe a distant evolutionary connection?).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cold War is a terrific nod-wink to the old base-under-siege of Troughton’s time – but has enough additional oomph to make it solid 21<sup>st</sup> century Who.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next time – “Hide” – hmmm, haunted house....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And on with the flash-fic/ fan fic:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><span style="color: blue;">Consequences of Time – Episode 3<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“We’re going to the Frozen Terror?” asked the Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“Yes,” the terrified man replied. “We must go. Sacrifices are needed to keep the Terror from consuming the world.” The other, scared people nodded.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The Doctor checked his sonic screwdriver. It would be easy to stop the truck. Probably not hard to disable the guards, turn around and rescue the “sacrifices”. But that wouldn’t stop this terror thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“Is it much further?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The scared man checked his watch. “Should be any time now.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">The truck lurched to a halt. A howl, that made the steel walls vibrate, screeched through the air.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-59005054204244098432013-04-24T12:42:00.000+12:002013-04-24T12:42:38.274+12:00Doctor Who Review - The Rings of Akhatan<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An episode of a few neat little bits, but an overall sense of ho-hum, another character piece...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What was to like? As always, Matt Smith brings the weight of ages and childlike wonder to his portrayal of the Doc, usually all at the same time. Space moped thing was fun (although, with an anti-grav bike in the previous episode we have a danger of repetition – hopefully there won’t be more bike riding shenanigans coming up). Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara continues to be almost impossibly pretty, but is yet to turn into the sassy, confident girl of her first two outings. But it is coming, she’s a good assistant, her heart is most definitely in the adventure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was good to see it was Clara’s regular, human experience bearing the enormous sense of wonder and possibility that defeated the...uh...thing at the end. While Matt Smith delivers his declaration of the Doctor’s awesomeness with great oomph, it is, again, something we are seeing a bit too much of. Yes Doc, we know you’ve been everywhere and done everything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this brings me to the “what’s not to like?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Defeating the “thing” (we’ll get to that) by just talking to it. Is that it? Seriously, does the Doctor not need to reverse the polarity flow? Is there nothing technical that he can do? Does he not need to outwit the villain? At least last week, the Doctor did show how smart he is by blind-siding the villainess. Nothing so clever and subtle here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe we’ll let this go – I suppose this is an example of what makes Clara a good assistant, as it was she that provided the “real” experience to overwhelm the thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ok, The thing – a big red, planet thing was the villain of the piece. For most of the episode they had us getting worked about a big mummified, scary monster that was waking up and trying to break out of its cage – which then turned out to be just a stepping stone. There was, as usual, some faceless goons stomping about for the sake of it, but otherwise, just a big churning, planet thing. Ho hum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, Clara was just so human and tragic and tearjerking and caring and everything (although the Tardis doesn’t like her..) – oh, was this just another sodding character piece?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the problem with these character driven story arcs – ultimately it’s all about what/ who Clara is, the individual stories just lose their impact beneath the weight of the BIG story – similar to that big crack in time/ space and what it had to do with Amy (and frankly, I still don’t know. Apparently the Silence is coming. Did it come? Are we still waiting?).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bring on Episode 3 (or is it episode 8, or 9 if we count the Xmas Special...) – Ice Warriors, a big, fat nasty villain/ hardcore monster.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And on with out Fanfic flash fic:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Consequences of Time - Episode 2</strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cold. Couldn’t the Tardis land somewhere nice? As a flurry of snow landed on his tongue, he could tell it wasn’t just water ice. A hint of something, but what?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">A truck, with wheels taller than the Tardis, thundered out of the snow and squealed to a halt. Two big, armoured figures jumped down and grabbed the Doctor’s arms. “Get in,” screeched a voice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">He was hurled into the truck. The interior was crammed with scared people. The hatch was shut and the truck roared off.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">“Anyone know where we’re going?” asked the Doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: blue;">A man wailed “To Frozen Death.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-31306146275995097212013-04-17T15:30:00.002+12:002013-04-17T15:30:41.340+12:00Doctor Who - The Bells of St John Review<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who returns - and as such, I'm going to try to record my review on this blog each week, with a stab at a wee bit of Fan fiction in the form of a Who story told in by Drabble episodes(100 words, exactly) each week. In theory, there's eight episodes of the series, so we should get 800 words of Who story.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On with the review: The Bells of St John</span></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At long last, Series 7 continues. I was not a fan of splitting up Series 6 (to be honest, I was not a fan of Series 6 overall) – knowing the split was coming turned the first bunch of episodes into just a series of fill-ins, with little larger story arc hints, which would reach a big cliff-hanger at the end of them. If the second half had been more impressive then maybe the approach could be forgiven. Unfortunately, the rest of the series was largely forgettable. In fact, sitting here writing, there’s no stand-out episode that I can think of. I can think of plenty of stuff that annoyed me - another haunted house story, another story where people are snatched from the real world, another bunch of “monsters” that lurch around being scary with their one scary line repeated over and again and so on. The Cyberman story was very poor and the finale made even less sense than the previous series. And the ensuing Xmas special (The Doctor, the Wife and the Wardrobe) was the weakest yet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so we come to Series 7, part 2. Thankfully the first part of this series was way, way better. The incredible “Asylum of the Daleks” was the best Dalek story since...”Genesis of the Daleks” (THERE, I’ve said it!), and the best NuWho since “Time of the Angels” back in series 5. Amy and Rory, who so totally outstayed their welcome, are finally gone. The Xmas episode (“The Snowmen”) was possibly the best Xmas Special of them all. So here we are with new companion Clara (despite being killed, again, in the Xmas Special) keyed up for her “proper” debut. Everything is going fine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Except, “The Bells of St John” is a somewhat seen-it-all-before adventure. People being snatched from reality; a repeated line ("I don’t know where I am.."); a cold-hearted woman in charge of shady organization behind it all; unexpressive robot/ monster goons lurching around, which also crossed-over into the spooky kid area. These are all Moffat-isms which have been around since “The Empty Child” – and it’s all getting a bit tired to me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clara, so flirty and smart and hot in Asylum and at Xmas, is nowhere near as exciting this time round. I’ll let this go, even in the space of this episode she was transformed from computer illiterate to genius so the version we caught up with in “Asylum” could be where she is headed. We could be in for quite a journey.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were things to like – the Doc’s anti-grav bike riding up the side of the Shard; his cunning switch with the “spoonhead” that impersonated him, in fact Matt Smith in general keeps even the poorer episodes watchable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was great to see the Great Intelligence turning up again, and turning Celia Imrie (always great to watch) back into a child was genuinely chilling and showed what a ruthless villain he is.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll call this episode solid, but not good. If Clara can return to the form she had in her previous two outings, then one hopes for better things to come. And please, can we give the mind-control, spooky line, boring monster stuff a rest now?</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, Drabble time - we need to give this adventure a name.. so, in keeping with the fact that it is made up as we go along we'll call it:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">Consequences of Time - Episode 1</span></strong></span></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-3444533464971157852013-03-05T16:57:00.001+13:002013-03-05T16:59:14.993+13:00Long time - no blog....<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Long time no blog –</strong> fortunately Cassie Hart (go read her <a href="http://just-cassie.com/2013/03/01/another-month-done/" target="_blank">superb blog now</a>) wondered where I’d been so I’ve hit the keyboard again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The usual worthwhile distractions (work/ family/ exercise) and the usual worthless distractions (TV/ Internet) have kept me from blogging – I will also claim that some actual writing has even been getting in the way. We’ll get to that, but first, my rundown of what media I’ve been sucking up recently-ish:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Morrissey at Wellington Town Hall – yes, the Miserable One himself graced the coolest little capital in the world (says Lonely Planet). A cracking gig in a reasonably small venue – having seen him at the cavernous Albert Hall and massive Glastonbury Festival this gig was a far more intimate affair.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And being this intimate, I was able to witness every ounce of anguish that poured from the Moz’s sweating brow. As he wailed “and you go home, and you cry and you want to die” it was every bit as powerful as the lyric he laid down nearly 30 years ago. The shirt was torn off, the followers were touched, a painful departure from stage was made. In an interview the Great man stated that “it’s never a performance”. If that’s true, it must be mighty painful being Morrissey. However, I’m certain I saw a smile crack his face at one point (probably when he told an audience member that she couldn’t be his eighth friend). Heaven knows, not so miserable now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings me to....<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>I’ve been reading....<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Morrissey and Marr: The severed alliance – THE biography of The Smiths. Their backgrounds, their childhoods, their teens, their coming together, their four or so fiery years in the spotlight and eventual break-up. Does this book explain the, surely, traumatic event(s) that marked Morrissey out as the patron saint of the outsider and the loner? Do we understand how he came to be filled with such outraged angst? To be honest, no. This makes it no less a fascinating read, but my conclusion is that he’s simply a miserable, full-of-himself sod. However, he is also an enormously talented and charismatic sod.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>I’ve been watching....<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doctor Who Xmas special – In which we return to the wonderful Osman from Asylum of the Daleks, called Clara now and inexplicably (so far) living in Victorian London. A huge improvement on last years miserable Xmas special, a great intro to the new assistant who has instantly erased the long overstayed Amy and Rory from my mind. Geronimo, as the Doc might say.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Campaign – an almost very good Will Ferrell send-up of US politics, pitching two congressional candidates at each, with both stooping as low as possible in the hunt for votes. It suffers from what many US movies suffer from – it wimps out at the end. Imagine if Brian got rescued at the end of Life of Brian to give the film a more fuzzy feel? That’s what happens here. They were almost on the point of greatness, skewering the warped values of US elections but can’t bring themselves to go all the way – let the warm fuzzies come in and spoil the ride. To be honest, a quick glance at Fox News shows that the actual US political process is so twisted it should be impossible to satirize, but this film ALMOST went there...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looper – not half as clever as it thinks it is. Washed out, grainy graphics and odd CGI facial enhancement does not disguise some enormously contrived circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Argo – a very well made film, but essentially, it all comes down to whether or not our heroes can walk through passport control. What if the focus were reversed? This could be a story about the desperate hunt by the security forces to capture a bunch of devious foreign spies? I don’t know, in this day and age it’s hard to be on America’s side about anything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Django Unchained – at first, I quite liked it but then got thinking...no, sorry, Tarantino is in danger of becoming a one-trick pony. Lots of stylish, slick and darkly witty dialogue, lots of characters on the edge of fury and violence, lots of opportunities for actors to prove just how good they are – and way too much bloodthirsty, unnecessary violence. I wouldn’t mind so much if Tarantino had something to say, but there’s nothing here beyond telling us that the slave trade meant wicked people did wicked things. I know that without having to put up with the protracted screams of a man being ripped apart by savage dogs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hitchcock – two brilliant actors (Hopkins and Mirren) play fascinating characters in a portrait of the great Director and his equally great (but much unsung) wife – while making the slasher movie of slasher movies, Psycho. And it’s got Scarlett Johansson.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>I’ve been writing...<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve finally got sat back at the PC and continued Ken’s miserable journey to “The Camp”. I’ve also been fleshing out back story and a few plotlines for my possible space opera/ alien invasion saga. I had a sudden bolt out of the blue last night when I realized that revenge is always such a great motive – I need some of that in the story. Simply finding stuff is never enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>This blog’s drabble – Tarantino in 100 words:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">I seeing you, sitting there, being all charming, enjoying my fine wine and my fine women and being just the finest gentleman there is on God’s clean Earth. But you know what else I seeing? I seeing a dirty sombitch who’s wanting to take my money and my bitches and stab my honest soul right through my honest heart. Ain’t that the f**kin truth? Ain’t it? BANG BANG BANG, AAAGH, AAAGH AAAAAGH F***IN SOMBITCH AAAGH BANG BANG GLUG, PLOP, GLOOP BANG. (Pause) Now that’s how we do it down south. Elroy? Get your sh*t. (Cool record plays, roll end credits)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-57019403246194442322012-11-10T18:35:00.000+13:002012-11-10T18:38:40.342+13:00So Hard it could crack an egg<div>
I’ve been writing…</div>
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My first draft of my “Regenerations” story is complete – and frankly it needs some serious work. The ending is awful, it’s there because something had to be – I sort of knew what had to happen in the end but wrote myself into a contrived confrontation. Still, it’s seven thousand odd words actually written down, which is better than nothing – though I’m not sure what it’s rambling about. Hopefully a week or so away from it may give a fresh perspective and help me figure out just what these people are doing. Rampaging Moas, errant teens, strange, super-powered girls? What the hell is going on? And I’m the writer.</div>
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As a kind of back-up, I’ve returned to an earlier story that could well fit the bill for the Regenerations book – a story I was convinced was definitely complete. A new look at it does reveal the need for a little more oomph and a bit of restructuring. I’ve been using my “technique” that I used for “The Royal Wedding from Hell” – which uses the Lester Dent Masterplot concept of looking at your story in 4 parts – which I think of as:</div>
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Intro – where we meet the characters and situation, and problems</div>
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Build-up – where we throw more problems in their way and reveal what’s going on</div>
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Blow-up – where the poor buggers get even more crap thrown their way and we reveal what’s REALLY going on</div>
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Finale – where everything gets sorted out</div>
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It’s not overly dissimilar to structure ideas explained superbly by Larry Brooks – his latest <a href="http://storyfix.com/mastering-the-fabulous-f-word-in-fiction" target="_blank">blogpost</a> lays it out very well (he refers to the 4 parts as Setup, Response, Attack, Resolution). And I heard of Larry via <a href="http://deberelene.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Debbie Howell</a>, interviewed in <a href="http://richardbarneswriter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/specficnz-blogging-week-day-2.html" target="_blank">my previous blog</a> as part of SpecFicNZ blog week.</div>
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So having done the “pantser” bit with both stories – in other words just getting some bl**dy words down which, at least, give me characters, places and some kind of idea – I can move on to the rebuilding bit, where we turn all that raw material into a coherent and (hopefully) engaging story.</div>
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In addition to all that, I’ve started plodding along with a novel – “The Camp” – I have a rough structure of 4 parts laid out, but am feeling my way forward, finding out what makes my main man tick to start with. 5000ish words so far, only about 45000 or so to go.</div>
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I’ve been watching…</div>
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Dr Who – the latest 5 episodes (Season 7, part 1) were an improvement on last season (“Asylum of the Daleks” was the best episode since Time of the Angels/ Flesh and Stone from a couple of seasons ago) – but, when you know that the Ponds are leaving at the end of episode 5, then the other 4 episodes have an air of just being there to fill up time waiting for the important one. Thankfully, Amy and Rory are gone now, as far as I’m concerned they royally overstayed their welcome, the new girl seems interesting (at least from her intro in Asylum of the Daleks) so we wait for Xmas and the other 8 episodes to come along. And it’s the big 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary next year so who knows what excitement is planned?</div>
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The fun and jollies of the US Election - like most of the rest of the world, I feel relieved that our man Obama won. Romney, himself, doesn't seem like an idiot (unlike say, George W Bush, Sarah Palin or Rick Santorum) BUT, he has to swallow the rest of the party line to keep the support of all the other red-neck loons that make up his party. I've got more to say on the warped ideology of the American right, but it will take another blog for that.</div>
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With the weird atmosphere of untruth that surrounded the US election, I found myself re-reading 1984 - I read when I was about 18. It was superb then, but with the wisdom that comes with age, it is simply staggering today. I will bring these threads together in my next blog.</div>
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Okay, and now, this month’s drabble is more of a sort of prose poem – compiled from the subject lines of the spam I get about various pills and, uh, “enlargement” products. Do they form some kind of art work? I’ll let you judge. If anyone wants me to forward one of the spams, please shout. I offer no guarantees about their products….</div>
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“So hard it could crack an egg.</div>
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Saucy young college hotties.</div>
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Germany gets first strike with extra inch</div>
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Vids from Yacht party</div>
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Your love tool is set to thrill</div>
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Butts that look awesome</div>
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Girls at $200 a pop</div>
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What really happened on the Tonight show?"</div>
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So - has anyone else written several thousand words of story, get to the end and decide that it really makes no sense at all?</div>
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What did everyone else think of the latest part-series of Dr Who? Are you glad the Ponds have gone?</div>
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And can anyone see art in spam? Probably not.</div>
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Now - go and buy <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959" target="_blank">"The Royal Wedding from Hell"</a></div>
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Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-8069679743196169142012-09-23T22:23:00.002+12:002012-09-23T22:23:43.441+12:00Spec Fic NZ Blogging Week - Final EpisodePhew, this is sneaked in at the last minute but we made it. 7 days, 7 drabbles, 1 story. Ladies and Gents, I give you the finale:<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy - Episode 7"</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Grunt was
knackered. Another food riot supressed, another few hundred dead. He stumbled
in to see Panathea.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Grunt sat.
"It was never this bad before."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"Before
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"Before
they had <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hope," he replied.
"Too many people hoping for too much."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Pan looked
out upon her city. Grunt was right. The numbers didn't add up. But she was the
Bunyip Girl, here to bring the age of plenty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Plenty was
relative, however. If you can't increase supply, then reduce demand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"Is
that it?" she asked, "Am I prophesised to kill half the
population?"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Grunt shook
his head. Prophecies were just crap.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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And there we are. The fun part about making it up as you go along is that you really don't know where it's going to go - and I really didn't think it would end up like this. Far bleaker than I was expecting, but then, maybe just beating the bad guys can't be the end - it really just gives something to start with. Beating the bad guys is the easy bit.<br />
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So Good Luck Pan, I hope you don't have to kill half your people but I leave it in your hands.<br />
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<span style="color: black;">If you enioyed this - go check out the other blogs at <a href="http://www.specficnz.org/?page_id=3367" target="_blank">SpecFicNZ</a> .</span><br />
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And when you're done - go to Smashwords and buy my awesome ebook:<br />
<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178959" target="_blank">"The Royal Wedding from Hell"</a><br />
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As Mrs Doyle would say "Oh go on, go on, go on then...."<br />
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<br />Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-8351637044071680352012-09-23T17:14:00.000+12:002012-09-23T17:14:00.870+12:00SpecFic NZ Blogging week Episode 6Okay, maybe not posted every day...but, I WILL do the final episode by the end of today. So, on with the show:<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy - Episode 6"</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">The Big
Kahuna dangled high above the city.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"Where's
the food, Kahuna?" said Pan, "People starve, a bag of rice costs a
week's wages. Release the food. Let us live."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"There's
no more food, there's too many bloody people," he screamed, "the few
eat, the rest barely survive. If it was fair, everyone would starve."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Pan looked
down to her gang. They couldn't hear the conversation. The city sprawled out
around them. Taking charge of it was a big ask of a street gang. But she was
the girl of Prophecy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: blue;">Pan cut the rope and the Kahuna went down.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: blue;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: black;">So what will Panathea do now?????</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Find out later!!!!</span>Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-85607127151880755302012-09-22T09:23:00.002+12:002012-09-22T09:23:46.508+12:00Spec Fic NZ Blogging week episode 5I'm really enjoying Spec Fic Blogging week this year. The genius who got us all to interview each other should be rewarded - it's great to read about the different Spec Fic writers, what they're up to and how they do it.<br />
<br />
For example, <a href="http://dariansmith.blogspot.co.nz/2012/09/paul-mannering-man-who-can-climb-stairs.html" target="_blank">here's</a> a great interview with Paul Mannering, who was good enough to publish my story in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-Bell-Club-ebook/dp/B007IVQ7BK" target="_blank">"Tales from the Bell Club".</a><br />
<br />
And <a href="http://www.specficnz.org/?page_id=3367" target="_blank">this link</a> takes you to the Spec Fic website with all of the great postings.<br />
<br />
And on with the show:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy - Episode 5</span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"You
killed my parents, and pretended to kill me," said Panathea to the battered
form of Inspector Grunt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"There
was some prophecy," said Grunt, "I assume you know about that."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Panathea
sat back. The record had said she would bring down the Big Kahuna and usher in
a new age of plenty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"I'll
help you get the Kahuna," said Grunt, "I can use my security
clearance, get you close, you can take him out."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">Panathea
looked to the gang. The Roos seemed keen. The Wallabies were angry. Tangi the
Moa was determined.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: blue;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">"Betray
us," said Pan, "and you will die."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Hmm, 200 words to wrap this up.....</span><br />
<br />
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-6506263025989481392012-09-20T20:33:00.001+12:002012-09-20T20:33:28.975+12:00SpecFicNZ Blogging week Episode 4And on we rush....seven days, seven drabbles, One story.....<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy - part 4</span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;">Another city block collapsed but Grunt wasn’t bothered. If he caught the Bunyip girl, all would be forgiven. He ordered the copdroids on, but the Street scum were putting up one hell of a fight.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
</div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;">The gang made their last stand at the last block. Most copdroids assaulted the front. Grunt took a smaller squad to the rear to capture any escaping Bunyip girl.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText" id="yui_3_2_0_1_1348129614986161">
<span style="color: blue;">Suddenly, the copdroids fell silent. A gun was pushed into Grunt’s ear.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;">“Override command for copdroids; takes a while to work, eh?” said Panathea.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;">“You’re under arrest,” said Grunt.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;">“And you’re going to die,” said Pan.</span></div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: blue;"></span> </div>
<div class="yiv322755376MsoBodyText">
<span style="color: black;">3 episodes to go...but what has been prophesised? And have I thundered towards a finale way too soon?</span></div>
Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5179460684217687522.post-67058079882827574042012-09-20T08:39:00.001+12:002012-09-20T08:39:44.966+12:00SpecFic NZ Blogging week - Episode 3Oops, missed yesterday so will have to do two today...<br />
<br />
Seven days, seven drabbles, ONE story: Episode 3 of:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">"Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy"</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">Inspector Grunt was called to Big Kahuna himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“We got it sweet right now,” he said, “Them poor, they is oppressed, they is hungry, they is broken. Which means they is happy. Which means us one-percenters is happy. Whole world is happy, eh?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">Grunt said nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“ ’Cept for this Bunyip gang!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“Just a bunch of kids, boss,” said Grunt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“They busted the Records Office. Kid’s stuff, eh?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“OK, they’re organised kids?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“Zat so? How ‘bout that bunyip kid prophecy? Prophecy you was supposed to have nixed, like years ago.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: blue;">“We’ll nix it now,” said Grunt, “Nix it real hard.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
More later...Richard Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16257274466336566247noreply@blogger.com0