Quite a bit of nudity in that episode...

... but the prize goes to Jack, who technically was naked for very, very nearly the entire hour.

Not quite as good as yesterday. Just 8/10 instead of 9/10.

Oh, and did anyone else stop to wonder whether the out-of-the-way military base was the same place that Connie used to manage in Spooks?

Torchwood was a bit good, wasn't it?

Nicholas Grace used to boast that he was the only Sheriff of Nottingham who ( Spoiler for 1985 and 2009 ). ( Spoiler for 2009 ) and Lara Pulver can now argue over whether they can join him in that claim.

Do you think the casting director told Clive Standen ( Spoiler for 2010? ) Though as a 4th series looks unlikely, I guess he's dodged that fate.

Wasn't Tuck incredibly active for someone who had an arrow in his shoulder at the end of last week's episode?

They shouted "loose" rather than "fire". Possibly the first historically accurate thing in the entire series (to the best of my knowledge people didn't shout "fire" until after firearms were in use).

Ah, got it now. ARC team = the Doctor and Helen Cutter = Sabbath.

Bring on the Daleks, bugger can't use them, make something up quick, um, how about crystal men?

Which will make sense to the handful of other people in world who read the EDAs and watch Primeval.

So I found this file, last modified 10 June 1997, on a set of back ups and it's a pub quiz that I ran in Balliol bar. In fact considering the date I suspect that this is the night that pink_weasel first clapped eyes on me and thought "nice guy, shame about the jumper".

People on facebook and twitter said that they wanted to see the quiz, so here goes.
( Onwards to the quiz )

Early on during this evening's episode of CSI -
"If he turns our to have been killed by a tortoise dropped by a bird of prey I'll scream."

After this evening's episode of CSI -
"You didn't scream, you laughed."
"I hooted."

But kudos to the scriptwriter for getting the line at the end about probability right.

And someone needs to find Charisma Carpenter a decent part.

Turkey eaten? Presents opened? Queen done her bit?

Good, that means I scheduled this post correctly.

Is it time for Doctor Who yet?

I watched the first episode of The Devil's Whore last week but found my attention drifting. I just couldn't be bother to watch this week's episode. Was it any good?

My main reaction has been a wave of nostalgia for By The Sword Divided. Anyone else remember that one? I think I had an early crush on the blonde daughter but as it was over twenty years ago I'm not quite sure.

There are only a few things that pink_weasel and I disagree on, but one of them is the concept of jumping the shark. Lettice believes that it is a binary event - a show can only jump the shark once; there's a before and there's an after. I believe that it is always possible to find a new and bigger shark to jump over.

This disagreement normally surfaces whilst we're watching or discussing CSI: Miami.

Tonight's episode. In fact the pre-titles sequence of tonight's episode is a perfect example of my thesis.

I'm not going to put a spoiler cut for CSI: Miami, okay?

Horatio gunned down seven gangsters - several armed with automatic weapons, three in or on vehicles - armed only with a pistol without getting a scratch on him; in fact it was nine shots, seven kills. Now, considering that this show jumped the shark a long time ago (Lettice maintains that it jumped, before a single episode had aired, as soon as David Caruso was cast) was this not a new and bigger shark to jump? Will there be a scene next year where Horatio takes out a tank or a helicopter gunship with his trusty sidearm?

Well, no surprises there then.
( How spoilerphobic are you? )

At the time of writing it can still be seen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/ontv/.

( Sigh, still spoilerphobic? )

Spooks has gone all technobabble on us. Nanoparticles activated by microwaves?

But more importantly, tonight's BBC 3 episode (so on BBC 1 next Monday) was substantially filmed in our offices! And tomorrow we'll all be looking at the board room and trying to figure out how they filmed some shots (Ben, you know, the one with no personality, hiding behind a pillar) without removing a window and suspending the camera in mid air outside.

Moffat to replace RTD in 2010.

Steven Moffat should be scared, very scared. If his Who is too much like RTD's he'll be damned, if it's too different he'll be damend, if every episiode isn't up to the standard of 'The Empty Child' he'll be damned. Some fans have built him as the solution to everything they dislike about the show that he can't possibly meet their expectations.

I'm looking forward to the remaining stories that RTD has to tell and hope he continues to write scripts for Moffat; and I'm also looking forward to seeing what Moffat brings to the show when the time comes.

Oh, and the news story above mentions "four specials to be shown in 2009". I think that's just sloppiness and counting the 2008 Christmas special as well, unless anyone knows differently.

Today pink_weasel has been visiting her brother in his new flat. As said flat is in Bracknell, I declined. ;-)

Though mostly I was just too knackered from a frustrating week at work and a lack of sleep. So I stayed at home and cleared out a cupboard, played some computer games (the final cut scene in Unreal Tournament 3 reminds me of the end of Blake's 7) and chilled out.

The farmers' market in West Norwood seems to be struggling. Only six stalls this week - two meat, one veg, one bread, two pointless.

My computer runs a lot better with the case open. This probably isn't a good sign. Still, soon I'll have a Wii to play with so the damn PC will be relegated to email checking only.

A puzzle: I got a £50 cheque from YouGov. I thought I only had half that amount on my account there and as I haven't been able to log in for a few months (I've requested password resets but the email never arrives) I really don't know what's going on.

Hmph.

Just watched the first episode of Ashes to Ashes. Fun, in a slightly different way to Life on Mars and not sure whether it's quite as good.

The fact that it doesn't just replicate the previous serious but is taking the climax of that as a starting point is refreshing; it means that this time around the historical inaccuracies can be more openly incorporated into the storyline and played with. This may nominally be 1981 but it's really an amalgam of all of Alex's memories, accurate or otherwise, of the 1980s in general. For example, whilst I wouldn't rule out the yuppie banker drug dealer he does seem to belong to a slightly later part of the decade, and more concretely - all those posters for Prince Charming? It was released six months after this episode was set.

And Gene Hunt is back. :-)

Dreadful first half. Much more promising in the second half.

Why is the South Africa match on ITV1 and the Wales and Scotland matches on ITV4? I don't think I've ever watched ITv4 before, the reception is, predictably, only adequate. (I live very close to the Crystal Palace transmitter, is my dreadful digital reception due to interference from analogue signals? In other words will things get better or worse when they switch the analogue signal off?)

Oh, and itv.com need to get a clue. System requirements to watch the match online are:

• Windows
• Internet Explorer
• Flash 8
• Windows Media Player 9

I have all that, but why should I need to use IE and WMP when I have far superior alternatives? This is 2007 and insisting that people use a precise combination of four proprietary technologies is so last century...

Do ITV actually want anyone to watch the Rugby?

I'm watching the first episode of Dirt on the telly, and suddenly realised that Don the paparazzo is played by Ian Hart and not, as I thought, Max Perlich.

Oh, and last night I was apparantly saying "stupid, stupid, stupid" in my sleep. I wonder who I was dreaming about, but where do I start drawing up the short list?

Managed to watch some Battlestar Galactica last night. I'm still in the middle of season two (and my brother gave me West Wing season seven last weekend so I've got enough DVDs to last a fair while). Anyway, it was the "Resurrection Ship" two parter (which with "The Pegasus" really makes a three parter).

Wow.

Wow.

Let me see if I can explain. In almost any other SF show the battle between the two battlestars and the two basestars would be at the centre of these episodes. But here it's a background element. We're treated to a series of brilliant chararcter moments that build and then destroy and rebuild the plot with a few softly spoken words. This is what all television should be like. The closest comparison I can think of is The Sopranos. It's really that good.



But minor niggle... (and this applies to much of the Boomer storyline in season one as well) ... are CCTV cameras somehow subject to Cylon infiltration and thus distrusted by the Colonials? Otherwise Baltar should be in a lot of trouble.

And a digression: it's been said by other people that American fiction is obsessed with father-son relationships in a way that British (and European in general) fiction isn't. And the Adama family saga certainly fits the bill. But look at cop shows. US cop shows are all about more or less equal partners, but UK cop shows are often about an older detective and his younger sidekick (i.e. a substitute father-son relationship) and I can't think of many US cop series that fit that model and no UK shows based around equal partners. (Oh, and then there's CSI where Gil is a clear father figure, but does that make his relationship with Sara substitute-incest?). Thinking about it, this may in part reflect the way police forces are organised in the two countries but seeing as how TV rarely cares that much about realism I think there's something a bit more to it. Am I seeing made up patterns or is there something here?

So pink_weasel has picked three interests from my Live Journal Profile and asked me to explain them. Those of you reading this on LJ can comment and I'll pick three from your list for you to do likewise.

Savlon
This was added to my interests by a hackerpink_weasel and reflects the fact that there's rarely any time when a tube of Savlon isn't handy in our flat. And why not? It's useful stuff. Unless she wants me to tell everyone about the time her *** ****** ******* and she asked me ** *** Savlon ** ****?

Alyson Hannigan
Cute. Funny. Always gets the best lines. Played one of the greatest characters ever.

Wine gums
Actually, I'm going off these a bit now.