TimC

Uh...You're not implying that the Necronomicon was a real occult text, are you TimC?

Um, no. That would be silly.

While it's nice to think that Lovecraft wrote his stories based on things he'd read and vaguely comprehended (sort of the Warren Ellis of his day), I'm yet to be convinced that he wasn't just making it up as he went along.

Why no one seems to think that Lovecraft had gotten access to texts from the Golden Dawn and liberally mixed some of what he read in with the other sources he picked from for his mythos, I don't know.

Probably the strongest argument is that Lovecraft was never one to wear his sources lightly - if he'd been drawing on Golden Dawn texts, he'd have namedropped them somewhere between the Necronomicon and The Witch-Cult in Western Europe.

Unless that's all a cunning bluff, of course.

But, the early Grant never moved too far outside of actual occult sources and into the realm of post-modernism.

There's a difference?

I don't know how the book is, but this is an outstanding cover.

Indeed, though it does rather remind me of a key scene from Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun'.

It's Blarney Cock. The racist Irish supe who kept a taped-up hamster in his arsehole. The one Hughie accidentally killed by punching through his chest.

Oh aye, I'd forgotten about The Legend saying that back in the previous infodump. It seemed a bit arbitrary at the time.

Suppose I should go back and reread everything now we're gearing up for the big finale.

In The Boys 54, Hughie looks shocked when Mallory refers to The Legend's first son, "not that bastard whelp he produced with Maeve." I don't obsessively keep track of comic book characters' family trees, so what's the big reveal here?

It's news that the Legend and Maeve had a child. And, you know, did it at all.

As to who the whelp is, I don't think we know. Maybe Maeve's short-armed cocktail houseboy?

 

And the ending reminded me of Futurama :

 

Fry: Space pirates?

Leela: You know, pirates, but in space!

 

Be fair, Doctor Who had

in 1969. (Not sure that's really a spoiler, but I'll go with the flow.)

But aye, a generally unsatisfying episode for all kinds of reasons. The real Captain Avery was a slave trader as well as a murdering thief, which makes him an odd kind of chap for the Doctor to pal up with - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Avery - though this episode did seem to be playing looser with the facts than most of the 'celebrity historicals'.

Actually, I'm cheating a bit by including that example anyway, since it's one of the things which I actually know is going to be addressed. Moffat mentioned it in a DWM interview last year as one of the things which people thought was a plot hole last year but really wasn't.

Did he say anything about the photo of Rory in Roman dress (that River found in Amy's house) that survived Rory's crack erasure? Cos that's still bugging me.

[ Spoiler : The girl in the spacesuit ... 20 different types of alien technology ... what if that's her TARDIS and someone else had the Silence working for them? Or perhaps it wasn't them who Mr Renfrew was referring to at the Orphanage? "She's just dreaming". Who? The girl?

Talking of TARDISes, what does The Doctor recognise in the Silence's secret lair? What did he say? "Very Amon Road/Rose/Rhodes" ]

I'd question a, at least a bit: some of the McCoy stuff was pretty great, and from the howls of nerd outrage over The Happiness Patrol,your mate Cartmel wasn't quite as keen on catering to the Sheldons in the audience as is sometimes said.

What, some people didn't like 'The Happiness Patrol'? Madness, sheer madness.

It still beats seven bells out of the broadly similar 'The Beast Below', anyway.

That link about the Isherwood production lead me to google to see what sort of person is called Imogen Poots.

She was in '28 Weeks Later', as sister to the equally euphonious Mackintosh Muggleton.

'Christopher and His Kind' is well worth a watch.

I skipped the prose with digital imagery issue featuring the Joker (the one after the Damian arc). Did I miss anything special? I honestly could not get out of the first few sentences it was so dull and flowery.

It sets a few things up for RIP, but it's really not much cop. Worth reading once if you have the patience.

I suspect that the decision to set it in South Africa (and the way a few plot elements are introduced) suggests that the film-makers were aiming for some sort of commentary on apartheid/fear of the other.

Isn't that more to do with the fact that Neil Blonkamp is South African?

The film was a victim of its hype, I think - all those idiots going 'Wow, it's science fiction - with a SUBTEXT!'. It reminded me a lot of early 2000AD in its reliably entertaining mix of things blowing up and very broad satire.

Anyone seen Source Code? I enjoyed it, but there's something about the ending that bugged me. It's actually pretty damn disturbing when you think about it.

Seriously, don't read the following if you've not seen it and have any plans to do so.

Fair point?

Que? Donna? Clearly the best companion since the reboot?

Yes, exactly.

Why? Do you know what part he'll have, and have you seen him act it?

He's a 'mole-like alien', apparently. Obviously, I've not seen him act it - I don't think I've seen him act in anything since 'Attachments', though I've seen him do comedy turns in various things, with various degrees of success. Still, I shall wait and see how it turns out.

Like Mark says, there's been a few unfunny comedians who've put in decent enough performances in new Who. Simon Pegg, for instance.

He's a fairly talented actor who did some shit comedy, let's say. Much like Catherine Tate.

I'm more concerned about David Walliams, to be honest.

Either way, though, there's bound to be more going on than a simple death, otherwise they wouldn't be hyping it up in advance. I'd hazard a fairly obvious guess that the 'death' in question will be something that our heroes witness taking place in what is, from their perspective, the future, and their timeline over the course of the season will be leading them inexorably towards it. The dilemma then becomes "can/should they avoid it, and if so - how, and what are the consequences"?

I'm guessing something similar. As for the 'death', I suspect some of the hints previously dropped about River (eg why she was in that prison) will come into play.

This, or something like it, would have the added benefit of explaining/justifying the increasingly heavy predominance of apparently consequence-free messing around with established timelines in Moffat's Who - I've never been especially keen on that particular narrative device, but it could make for an interesting character arc if it later turns out that the Doctor has been setting himself up for a fall by over-indulging in it.

Rather similar to 'The Waters of Mars', though.

Ah well, obviously it will be Rory, because, male.

Given he's already been killed several times on screen, that would be rather underwhelming.

If we're doing a sweepstake, I'll have the (bearded) Doctor.

Just checked if the next LoEG was still due next month, and according to Amazon it's been pushed back to July 28. Bah.

In the meantime, Neonomicon! Just read the last issue, and it's a solid little piece of meta-Lovecraftiana. A rather low-key ending, considering all the seedy unpleasantness earlier on, and not anything you wouldn't have been expecting if you'd been paying attention, but still quite satisfying.

Plus, of course, re-using existing costumes (and sets...did you notice a brief shot of the Eccleston/Tennant-era TARDIS in there?) is a great way for the production crew to save money which can be spent on important stuff like nice-looking sets and fancy CGI landscapes

If they could find some money to spend on a decent script editor, I'd be happier.

If I didn't already have them all*, I might be getting a few of these. Especially good to see the Achilleos covers again, even if they're not the original covers in the some cases.

There's a few others that also deserve reissuing - especially 'The Daemons' and 'The Doomsday Weapon' ( ie 'Colony in Space' - the classic example of the inverse relationship between the quality of the book and the watchability of the original series).

* - including '... in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks' and '... and the Crusaders' in original editions as well as Target reprints. Actually, I only finished my collection a couple of years ago - I'd been missing 'Paradise Towers' for many years. Yes, they're on a shelf.

Saw the film of 'Norwegian Wood'. It did make me want to read the book again, because I don't remember everyone being so whiny and annoying. As an adaption, I think it also suffered from losing the framing sequence.

Some nice use of Can, though.

That blonde lady, who's the partnet of the P.I., is .... unattractive in a very off-putting way

I would like to entirely refudiate this claim about the lovely Fenella Woolgar. She's the second most attractive Fenella I know. (After Fielding, obv, not after the Kettle Witch.)

There's a lot to like in Jekyll, but overall it fell a little flat, and ultimately really didn't make much sense at all. Standard Moffat, really.

I dunno, I don't like being hectored about how TV ruins your life by someone who has based his whole career on appearing on TV and talking about TV, and who has married one of the prettier Blue Peter presenters. TV seems to have done well for his life.

Also, Brooker has a whingy [over-used word]'s voice, and worse hair.

Apart from that, I do like him.

Anyone else watching 'Outcasts'? It's not exactly good - actually, it makes the first season of 'Torchwood' seem like a consistent masterpiece of subtle and original writing - but it is strangely compulsive.

RTD's plotting is, with a couple of glaring exceptions, every bit as cohesive as Moffat's, albeit a lot less showy about it?

Nonsense - RTD was far more cohesive than Moffat (a man whose season finale, let's not forget, involved the universe being actually destroyed for no apparent reason, then brought back by ex machina magic dust and wishful thinking).