Simm would be good, but Paddy Considine would be scarier. And for downright sinister, manipulative and terrifying, I'd go for andy serkis. His portrayal of Ian Brady in the TV film Longford was a stunner. Very chilling.

Out of interest, is anyone likely to be watching the Hellboy animated series when it comes out on Cartoon Network? I'd be curious for an early word.

I'd watch it if it happened to be on, I don't know if I'd go out of his way to find it.

Wizlah wrote:Simm would be good, but Paddy Considine would be scarier. And for downright sinister, manipulative and terrifying, I'd go for andy serkis. His portrayal of Ian Brady in the TV film Longford was a stunner. Very chilling.

I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was ten or eleven years old. I'm not quite obsessed, but I'm way more than the average "fan" (i.e. I own all of episodes on VHS/DVD, a small library of books on the series, etc). I understand that the new show is extremely popular and well rated - but I also understand that, to most Brits, Doctor Who is a "children's show".

Most Americans didn't see it that way, probably because of when it came over (early 80's) and the target audience (science fiction fans).

When I was younger, I'd mention Doctor Who to any Brit I'd meet, in hopes that I had found a kindred spirit or something - I quickly came to realize that, to a few people, being a Doctor Who fan is kind of creepy.

I'm just curious about the differentiation - is identifying oneself as a DW fan akin to saying you love "Sesame Street" (and are probably a pedophile), or is it just being a run of the mill nerd, like admitting "I'm a Trekkie!" stateside?

VoxOrion wrote:I'm just curious about the differentiation - is identifying oneself as a DW fan akin to saying you love "Sesame Street" (and are probably a pedophile), or is it just being a run of the mill nerd, like admitting "I'm a Trekkie!" stateside?

Well, it's an odd one. I think the Whovians (as I think they're called) were more likely to be considered weird because they were the british version of trekkies - I mean know, there' s a ridiculous number of tv-affiliated tribes out there, but if I recall correctly, back in the day it was much rarer, and generally considered to be part of SF-fandom (whereas I know that in the states, SF-fandom and Trekkies are different, althought there's a crossover). Plus I always thought that when it first came out, it was never meant to be aimed at kids.

Anyhow, if you said to anyone in the mid-80s that you liked Dr Who, their first thought was probably sylvester mccoy, not Jon Pertwee. The cringe factor associated with dodgy special effects would have helped none either!

Since all that however, with the new series it has gathered a larger more mainstream adult following, despite shifting its focus towards kids. And its weird too, because reviewers will acknowledge it as kids TV, but tend to describe it more as family viewing - it would be on at 6 or 7 on saturday night, so families could watch it together. I remember a colleague last year (our former sponsorship manager, who's very much a high-culture gal having worked with the Edinburgh International Festival on opera and classic theatre) saying she absolutely loved it, thought it was brilliant.

Then torchwood comes along, which is meant to be the adult version, but it's feels like its directed by somebody high on too much sugar . . . I don't think anyone's too fussed anymore as to what it's classification is meant to be.

Doctor Who and Life on Mars do seem to be the two bbc shows that created the most hype over the last 2 years. Throw in Paul Abbott's State of Play from about three years ago (genius, essential telly) and Channel 4's Shameless (also by abbott, but went badly off the boil in the second series and never really recovered), and that's pretty much the jewels in the crown of UK drama right now.

Wizlah wrote:Out of interest, is anyone likely to be watching the Hellboy animated series when it comes out on Cartoon Network? I'd be curious for an early word.

Didn't know they were making a series, but I watched the movie, storm of the swords, actually pretty good for a straight to video/tv animated film, plus they got ron perlman back as hellboy (but not david hyde pierce or selma blair)...i liked the mythology too, if they bring it back i'll give it a look, can't be worse than the short live fantastic four disaster they had recently.

As for the dr and the master, so all the daleks aren't "really" dead, and all the time lords aren't "really" dead, so did the time war "really" happen?

You're expecting too much from your entertainment again...

I suspect the excuse for the Master will be that he was dead anyway (i.e. was using a stolen body because he ran through his 12 regens).

This will probably force them to address that awful TV movie, which RTD claims he will at some point.

jemagee wrote:Didn't know they were making a series, but I watched the movie, storm of the swords, actually pretty good for a straight to video/tv animated film, plus they got ron perlman back as hellboy (but not david hyde pierce or selma blair)...i liked the mythology too, if they bring it back i'll give it a look, can't be worse than the short live fantastic four disaster they had recently.

Cheers, that's actually what I'm talking about - I'd thought it was originally a series, but it sounds like they made it a tv film. Word is they're doing a second one, this time with Selma. Still keeping my fingers crossed that the second movie proper does what the first did not - slow brooding pulpy horror. I found Hellboy a bit a let down in that regard.

jemagee wrote:As for the dr and the master, so all the daleks aren't "really" dead, and all the time lords aren't "really" dead, so did the time war "really" happen?

I've not a scoobie - I never watched enough of it. I think Vox is yer man for that.

VoxOrion wrote:This will probably force them to address that awful TV movie, which RTD claims he will at some point.

Yeah, but at least mccoy ended up being shot in that . . .

People who love Sylv LOVE Sylv. Before the new series came out I spent a lot of time posting over at outpostgallifrey, and man - those people are FA-REAKS.

(ps his appearance in that movie is the root of all the problems - if he wasn't there, no one could really make a case that that piece of crap was part of the show's mythology)

My Big Battlestar Galactica Gripe

Okay, so last week's episode sucked like all the rest this season, and from what I understand, we can expect the next two or three episodes to suck too. I was surprised to realize that my friend and I have taken naturally to mocking the show now, compared to last year when we used to silently study each frame like it was the Zabruder film.

On the advice of that friend, I listened to Ron Moore's podcast about this episode (and the previous one) while i was shoveling the other day - and I have to say, it makes me dislike BSG even more, not less. Moore is pretty honest, and from what I understand, he's quick to admit when an episode stinks. He didn't quite go that far, but he kept making excuses for it. "I know we're just doing a 'racism is bad' episode, and you've seen a hundred of these - but it's a respectable TV show presentation", "I know we're doing a procedural and I can't stand them, but it's a respectable TV show presentation", "I know we aren't breaking any new ground here, but...", "I wish we could have made the Sagitarans something you hadn't seen before, instead they just come off as your typical medical drama Christian Scientist characters..."

Originally, the series had a large plotline about the Sagitarians that was going to play into the trial of Baltar, and this was going to be the start of that. They were always the abused colony, and never respected. They were also ground zero for all of Tom Jarik's terrorist activities. Additionally, there was a storyline about something they did/something that happened to them on New Caprica - explaining the Jarik scene with Rosilin in the beginning of the episode.

BUT - there are no spoilers there, because the plotline was scrapped... AFTER the episode was filmed. So they had to cobble together what they could and tell a different story. Yeah, that's going to turn out well. He goes on and on about all kinds of other concepts that were meant to be part of the episode - stuff that was relevant and interesting - stuff that was all removed in favor of this run of the mill "racism is bad" tripe. There was also a running storyline about Helo, and how he was dealing with being bumped down from XO, and how he was overcompensating and trying to impress Adama (which would have made those scenes when no one would believe him a lot easier to swallow), but that was also scrapped. I think it's cool that they wanted to give the Helo actor a chance to carry an episode all by himself, but the didn't do anyone any justice. Oh, and Doctor "Moral Compass" is getting old.

No one could possibly believe the Cylons "have a plan" at this point - the idea that Starbuck is some kind of Cylon or star-child is just silly - just everything about the show seems completely wandering and misguided at this point. What direction is the show going in? Where are they going? When did this turn into talking head television?

The only thing I do agree with is Moore's assertion that the Helo/Boomer relationship is the only realistic and functional one on the series. Showing that was decent storytelling.

The previous week's episode - part 900 in the boring and pointless love square between, ahh - who cares - was also supposed to be a much more interesting episode. The intention was that it was a "light" episode, centered around the creation of Joe's bar. The idea was that it would follow an old MASH plot line about how Joe needed all of these things to get his bar set-up, so people had to keep bartering things to get what he needed. Apollo would make a deal with Chief to get a part that he could trade to Tigh for a bottle of liquor who would then trade that to Boomer for a pack of smokes who could trade the liquor to Baltar who could trade that to .... and so on. Sounded neat. The fact that it ended up being this terribly depressing durge makes me wonder if the show-runners have completely lost their ability to determine what the right direction is.

Sadly, I just don't think the series poor ratings has anything to do with its timeslot or network - the show just isn't that good anymore.

I just want them to go for Earth goddammit! And explore the freaking Cylons!

pacino wrote:I just want them to go for Earth goddammit!

That's what's so lame - are they even driving toward Earth? There's been like, no discussion of what they're doing since they left that temple four episodes ago.

I have a bit different take from you guys. The last few episodes haven't bothered me so much, though they certainly aren't near the level of the first Pegasus arc or the mind-blowing stretch of seven or eight episodes between "Downloaded" and when they got off New Caprica.

The ones I thought sucked were from after that through the "algae planet." And at that point they were relentlessly pushing the Cylon storyline. I found the Cylon basestar sequences incredibly disappointing; that would have been better left to the imagination. And I didn't feel any real stakes when they were debating whether or not to spread the disease through the Cylon fleet, etc.

The romantic storyline has no interest for me, and I'm ready for Starbuck to get airlocked. But I'm glad they're at least showing life outside the military; it's always good to see Zarek show up because he's not all that interested in the military.

They've lost something off their fastball, but there was a stretch of last season (after the hiatus) that relatively sucked too, between when they blew up the resurrection ship and when Apollo got the command of the Pegasus. Hopefully they'll find their stride again.

You posted that just to make me look like a poser for thinking his name was Jarik.

And yes, you're right - lots of last season blew too. BSG is like the anti X-Files to me - I don't want to see stand-alone episodes, they're boring and add little to the storyline, whereas the stand-alone episodes of the X-Files were the only ones with any redeeming qualities.

That's why I said the next few weeks will suck too - Moore mentions that the next few eps are "stand alones". I get the distinct impression they're trying to pad out the story till they get to the trial of Baltar.

dajafi - as big a fan of the show as you are - I think you probably would dig the commentary - I'm assuming big NYC life would provide you adequate iPod time to consume a few.

Here's my peeve of the week. I never watched Six Feet Under until HBO announced it was making the first seasons of a number of their better series available on On Demand towards the end of last year. Having listened to a number of people rave about it, the FullCountess and I decide to give it a view. On Demand is a pretty nice option, we can take in an episode or two as our schedules permit and it comes free with our HBO subscription. It also lets us know how long those episodes are available. As soon as the first season offering ends, they put up the next six episodes which lasted until 2/5. We watched those and now.... nothing!

So now what are we supposed to do? Bravo is in the middle of season 4 I think. We don't want to jump forward like that. It would be nice if someone was minding the store on this.

from today's DN:

Fox will televise a game each Saturday this season. Four teams are scheduled to be on nine times each: the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs... and your Philadelphia Phillies. That's more than the Dodgers, Angels, defending world champion Cardinals, defending AL champion Tigers and Mets, each penciled in for eight appearances.

Well, except for the Dodgers, it makes sense. Philly is the sixth largest media market.

FullCount wrote:Here's my peeve of the week. I never watched Six Feet Under until HBO announced it was making the first seasons of a number of their better series available on On Demand towards the end of last year. Having listened to a number of people rave about it, the FullCountess and I decide to give it a view. On Demand is a pretty nice option, we can take in an episode or two as our schedules permit and it comes free with our HBO subscription. It also lets us know how long those episodes are available. As soon as the first season offering ends, they put up the next six episodes which lasted until 2/5. We watched those and now.... nothing!

So now what are we supposed to do? Bravo is in the middle of season 4 I think. We don't want to jump forward like that. It would be nice if someone was minding the store on this.

Actually, the show starts to stink like feet after the second season, you might be better off.

VoxOrion wrote:

pacino wrote:I just want them to go for Earth goddammit!

That's what's so lame - are they even driving toward Earth? There's been like, no discussion of what they're doing since they left that temple four episodes ago.

I haven't finished season 2.5 yet so i'm not up to season 3.

Now here's my question, do they somehow think the cylons will magically 'give up' once they find earth? Sure they get to earth, but then the cylons just wanna blow the holy bejeezus out of the lost tribe.

I think they should be all dark skinned, like the lost tribe of ham.