Malin

I haven't really been paying much attention to what's going on on the forum lately, busy busy with work (and job applications, in case they can't keep me on at the school I am now next year), so I hadn't seen Jessie OR Mick's news.

Again, Jessie, winning an award is NOT minor. Congratulations! I'm still sorry I didn't get to meet you last year, when I was off doing my own travels.

Mick, congratulations on the new job. Better pay and bonuses are not to be sniffed at.

I'm very glad that the new season so far has lived up to my really quite high expectations. "The Eleventh Hour" was a good season opener, and I thought young Amelia especially was very good. The tasting the food bit went on a bit long, but "Fry something, you're Scottish!" amused me, as did "I'm the Doctor, I'm worse than everybody's aunt".

Amy showed promise last week, and I thought she was even better this week. She is obviously running away from her marriage to Rory, the rather wet nurse who adores her (cause who wouldn't). Managing to pretty much keep one's cool while running around in a nightie, covered in sick is also good.

Liked the Doctor last week, think I may really grow to love him if this keeps up. A few more episodes like this, and he will totally be my favourite Doctor of the new series, possibly ever. He was a lot less like Tennant this week, and has put to rest all my fears that Matt Smith was just to young to be a convincing Doctor.

I also think the relationship between the Doctor and Amy is good so far, no lovey dovey, and [ Spoiler : the bit where the Doctor is trying to explain that they're standing on a tongue ] was especially good. This is two weeks in a row where they've had some rather big plot holes though. Last week, there were the patients in the hospital calling for the Doctor, which they really oughtn't have done if they were being used as anchors by Prisoner Zero. And this week, Amy and the Doctor were apparently [ Spoiler : in the belly of the space whale and then got vomited out into a corridor ]. But at the end of the episode [ Spoiler : we clearly see that the mouth of the space whale is WAY below the city, and they (and the kids it refused to eat) would have been spat out into SPACE! ]

The trailer for the season was absolutely awesome, and filled me with anticipation. There's clearly just so many cool things to come. I may have watched it into double figures by now (blame Mark who went out to a gig last week, leaving me all alone with nothing to do but watch Doctor Who by myself) and while trailers frequently lie, I think this season looks extremely promising.

I think I'm developing a bit of a girl crush on Amy Pond, the new companion. She's just so pretty. I want her to be my friend, and I can braid her hair and we can eat cake and talk about boys. I feel the same way about Felicia Day.

I will probably also get around to watching Alice in Wonderland at some point, but have been a bit skeptical since I saw the first trailer, so will also keep my expectations low. One of my colleagues hated it, but mainly because he felt it was too far removed from the book. I never really liked the book, so I may like it more than him.

 

Malin is my barometer for the casual Who fan, and while she's enjoyed a lot of the BF plays I've given her in the past, I can't think of too many stories from the main range in the last few years which she'd get a lot out of. Part of it's down to the quality - it's been a while since they produced anything of 'Spare Parts'/'Jubilee'/'Kingmaker' calibre (Paul Cornell's 'Circular Time' was probably the last exceptional standout, to my mind, and that was a few years ago now), but there also seems to have been a shift in editorial focus towards more diehard-friendly material, which is a bit of a shame.

 

So, The Girl Who Never Was, Kingdom of Silver, The Condemned and Assassin in the Limelight don't count?

 

Are you really suggesting that a casual listener who hasn't listened to several seasons worth of Paul McGann audios and knows who Charley is would be able to listen to and understand The Girl Who Never Was and The Condemned? Cause I have listened to a lot of them (got REALLY sick of Charley in the end), and even then, The Girl Who Never Was didn't make a whole lot of sense. Also, WHY in blazes, when she could finally have been gone - did they let her continue with the 6th Doctor?

Have sought refuge in the bedroom with my computer, as Mark seems to be insisting on determining what the worst Doctor Who story ever is. He watched Time Flight (or as I like to think of it, that one with the Concorde) not that long ago, and has now decided to watch The Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani to decide which is the worst.

Once Colin Baker had smugly pinned a tiny cat pin to the lapel of his truly awful coat, I just couldn't take it anymore and decided that the bedroom was a better place to be.

Having a cold. Especially the hacking and really painful cough.

Anyone else spot the metallic blue vibrator on the bookshelf?

Dude, that's a can of hairspray. You have such a filthy mind.

Also, I am forced to admit that I'm the person who actually took the photo.

"You're a magic, magic man. Your chair has wings when you speak."

I like the batlogo on her tiny pants.

Mark when he's been drinking martinis. I rather suspect Mickey Eye will agree with this, and possibly Pål too.

Condolences, Avaunt. I really do understand your anger as well, but in such a terrible time, the best thing you can do is probably just try to be there for the poor families.

Generally liked the second part of End of Time, and will reserve judgement on Part 1 until I see the two episodes together, in one go.

Liked the cactus aliens. Really laughed at "Worst. Rescue. Ever". Thought John Simm was better this week, and it was nice to see that his special X-man lightning powers were used for something in the end. Liked the bits with Donna, especially the last one. Both exchanges of "Move out of the way" were well done. I was very moved by the scene with Wilf and the Doctor before they trade places, and would probably have cried if the episode had not then gone on to have more endings than The Return of the King.Did like the one with Jessica Hynes, though. And the space cantina bit was possibly a bit shameless, but very funny.

Still don't know why the Master needed super-jump powers. Have no idea what made the Doctor think that

would be a good and sensible plan. While it was nice to see Mickey and Martha, I did not like

Having seen the Doctor say goodbye to Sarah Jane not that long ago, they could possibly have skipped that scene too.

Not sure what I think of the Fetus yet, but liked the "Am I a girl?" The trailer for season 5 looks pretty fun. The new companion sure is pretty.

Have actually managed to see four new films over the Christmas holidays:

Sherlock Holmes - had hoped it would be more of an action romp, as suggested by the trailers. It was amusing enough, if a bit slow in places, and as always nowadays, the running time could have benefitted from being shorter. Thought both Downey Jr and Law were very good though, McAdams was lovely, if a bit underused.

Avatar - I'm left to wonder if all the film reviewers who gave this film 5 stars or the equivalent high rating saw a different movie which had both spectacular and imaginative visuals, as well as a nuanced and original plot. 'Cause the film I saw was Pocahontas in Space. Although luckily they didn't sing. I thought the film looked absolutely stunning, but the plot really was abysmally poor. Cameron might have wanted to spend some of those 12 years making the film actually thinking about the plot, not just how to get 3D graphics onto film.

District 9 - I knew very little about this film, except that it was about aliens, set in South Africa, and made on a miniscule budget. Thought it was really good, although some of it grossed me out a bit. Especially liked the alien.

Moon - another film I knew very little about, except that it was sci-fi and featured a one-man performance by Sam Rockwell. This was a really excellent film, and Rockwell was just absolutely amazing, getting to show a lot of range.

Both of the latter sci-fi films show how great films can be made on a tiny budget, which again makes the flimsy, clichéd plot of Avatar, which is the most expensive film ever made (so far) even more insulting.

Having to take one's work with one on Christmas vacation. Have now corrected more than half of the essays I took with me, but I still have 30 essays left that I need to correct, grade and fill out a detailed feedback form about.

This is the time of year when everybody seems to have stress-induced physical ailments--backaches, colds, eye strain, that kind of thing.

I'll raise you tendonitis in both arms, with the prospect of 95 essays, 15 English portfolios and 25 Home Ec assignments (and probably other assorted essays by slackers who hand in their stuff late) to correct before I go on holiday to England on the 20th. Pre-Christmas time is NOT fun when you're a language teacher.

Yes, the animation was painfully eye-gougingly bad, but the story really was quite good. And once you watch an episode or two, it seems to numb you enough that you hardly even notice the awful animation or Georgia Moffett's less-than-ideal American accent. I was very dubious about watching it at first, but Mark convinced me, and it was a lot of fun. A lot better than Bus in the Desert with Lady "Oh how I want to rip her head off" Christina Whatsherface, certainly.

30 Rock is sadly not funny anymore, but on recommendation from an American friend, I downloaded the first 8 episodes of Modern Family, an proceeded to watch all of them last night, while Mark was at his office Christmas do. It's a very funny show, and can be recommended.

How I Met Your Mother has been really solid this season as well.

My brother saw it a while back, and has told me Mark and I are likely to love it. It's the list at our DVD rental service.

I loved the Halloween episode of Castle especially the costumes, it was great to see him dressed as Mal Reynolds again and I liked that Esposito was dressed as a US Marine from Generation Kill and I guess that the actor that plays Ryan had played a doctor in another show if they were going with that theme as an in-joke.

Seamus Deaver, who plays Ryan used to play a doctor on General Hospital. Stana Katic, who plays Beckett, was also in The Spirit, hence the Frank Miller reference. My absolute favourite bit of that episode (which was one of my favourite ones so far) was not even the Firefly or Buffy references, but Castle talking about the vamps and lycans in Underworld.

No, Russel is clearly an Asian-American little kid.

Castle is a very entertaining little show, and I love the entire cast. Mark recently brought my attention to this: Heat Wave

At least half the novel is available for download in PDFs on ABC's website. I've only read the first chapter so far, but may have to check out the rest as well.

Tomorrow is the annual Cinema day here in Norway, where all cinema tickets are half price. This year I'm going for a new record, seeing 4 films. May review them here afterwards.

I hate Yes and King Crimson.

Consequently, according to my husband, I cannot enjoy the latest episode of the Venture Bros. on as many levels as him.

Malin is...displeased.

Displeased is such a small word. Depressed and horrified describes my mood better, I feel.