Bran the Blessed

"A dyslexic man walks into a bra."

Provided this doesn't canonise a certain specific part of

I'll be okay with this.

But yeah, I know the Doctor is trying very hard to forget Daleks in Manhattan, we all are, but well what he said about the Daleks there wasn't true.

It's been alleged that fucking River Song is being trotted out yet again for the Christmas special.

Hopefully not, but if so: fuck this. I'm done with Who until they find another producer, one who can actually kill characters and make it stick.

Well technically she would still be dead probably as she died the first time she showed up.

Unless of course Moffat ndoes that but I'd imagine the Doctor would have probably thought of a way to get her out of the planet database by now I mean it's been years and years for him hasn't it ? At least if one counts his sulky Victorian phase.

This is another one of my long term projects, this one focusing on searching the internet and the available sources I can find for refferences to works of fantastic literature which, despite being in the public domain, have not been digitised and or preserved. I'd like to think it could help get some of these the attention they need, and I do note some interesting examples of tantalising descriptions I found which really make me want to read these.

The list isn't really organised yet based on author or year but is simply extended whenever I find something to add.

http://theweirdandwo...d-fantasic.html

I'm definitely pleased to hear there's more of that in there. (Is that Police!!!? The triple exclaimation marks don't bode well.)

Given the nature of the cryptids in most of those stories, he's probably more sending up lost worlds fiction (and, indeed, Doyle's The Lost World) than pursuing a Fortean agenda. One of these weird examples of fiction being lapped because people have spent a lot of the last twenty years pastiching the sort of story he's subtly mocking...

You will absolutely hate George Hepworth's reincarnation novel "!!!"

Yes, it's a real thing (that I have not read yet) : P

http://www.amazon.co...H/dp/B003XLQCUU

Haven't read it mind you.

And work is making my progress on the Golding so much less speedy then I'd hoped to, tis a bit annoying.

Also on another subject I have just discovered another of those books. The ones you're really interested in but can actually get, accentuated with me due to geographic reasons.

http://www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/143283/miles-steven-southwold/the-seventh-bowl

Another one is Bradford's "Even a Worm" which, despite not going for quite as high a price as the Southwold still is outside of my means.

There's a sort of apologetic introduction by ST Joshi, complaining that Chambers started brilliantly, but was ruined by success. His issue is that the later stories get repetitive, and have romance elements as well as humour to them. I'm not sure that's entirely fair, as the humour in the not-cryptozoology-quite-yet stories works very well. They're not really full blown horror, but they're definitely on the better side of Edwardian sf, so no they're not just humour. They're also clever, well worked out, and told by the type of "sensible man" who never realises just how absurd he looks. They are, however, an awful lot frothier and lighter than The Repairer of Reputations, which might put some off.

(If it's on Gutenberg, the collection is called In Search Of The Unknown.)

Ah I think about that one actually.

And well, I have actually sampled some of Chambers' romantic writing on accident thanks to horrormasters (in it's former incarnation) and their weird tendency of putting up literaly any old shite a named author wrote regardless if it fit the websites' theme or not. And let me tell you, I felt like my head was being punctured with a pneumatic drill while I read it.

On a Chaosium collection of Chambers. Less fun than the Bellairs, but a much funnier writer than The Repairer of Reputations and The Yellow Sign would have you believe as well. There's a lovely collection of stories in here about a thwarted cryptozoologist, which is loads better than Larry Niven's tiresome anthology along those lines. Great fun*.

 

*(As fiction about mind numbing monstrosities that cause insanity should be)

Oh ? I'd like to hear more of that since I never heard of Chambers writing anything of this sort, though if it's just humorous material then I may not really be interested.

Woulda wished Clara would have died because she got offed by the badguy on purpose, instead of doing herself in by means of stupidity.

And the farewell scene, while long, was effective, despite Clara never really redeeming herself in my eyes after Dark Water.

I love the Absalom story in spite of its "ho hum, yes yes, heard that one before and it was juvenile and puerile the first time and doesn't improve as it is repeated" shtick of "the queen and royal family are all pedophile lizard-aliens" weakness.

Never read this but no I definitely won't.

Cause this shit insults me and is old hat.

Do you mean how Kinda led into Snakedance?

 

Watched it recently. Can't remember what happened.

I was kinda confused about what you said is all.

And well

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KTJWhtuRLac/TUhQp3BNyuI/AAAAAAAAMi0/SjloN39OTuo/DVDGr11ab.png

It does look silly. : P

I made the mistake of letting Romana watch some of Kinda, as it has a big snake in it.

 

I've now had to watch that fucking snake 15 times in two days.

 

I'm going out today her dad can deal with it.

I'm a bit confused about how Part 1 lead into Part 2.

Also was it the shitty prop version ?

Well that was the best thing this season. It's basically "what Under the Lake would be like if the Moffat pulled his head out of his ass".

And while it is disappointing that the only time the season improves is after it stops doing constant two-parters which was something I really forward to when the season started, and while this was "The Seeds of Doom"-lite basically, I'll take this over bullshit enforced moral very special episode dilemma, or the big bad getting beaten via a big wooden horse and some continent hopping eels. And hey, Capaldi was not Smithing up the place this episode so massive bonus points there.

So is this gonna be like that one Tennant episode where a Science Thing makes that old fart turn into a monster ?

Cause I'm willing to bet it's gonna be executed a lot worse. Mainly because Capaldi will probably be told to air guitar at the monster because "it's funny".

And as for Heathen:

Clara's whole thing since Dark Water has been that she's stuck in manipulative bitch mode. See her being angry because SHE wouldn't like if the Doctor died, not, ya know, for his own sake, that's why she said he can pop his clogs after she's done having her fun with him.

And I know it's a "bodyswap" story but it's a super lazy shortcut I'm getting tired of as of late.

Mind you, as much as I rant about this last season being a box of old 2013 scripts the BBC found behind a cupboard and insisted they be used since they were already paid for, I have taken solace with the fact that the worst this season has done, aside from Smithifying the Doctor something fierce, was being boring and underwhelming as tarr, with "Dying of bordedom in tight corridors under a lake". Nothing has reached the status of something like "The Girl who waited" or "The Beast Below" where the thing that sets the entire plot in motion is one big ten car pile up of contradictory illogical nonsense.

In prepared to give it a go based on it having Reece sheresmith in it.

 

Although who the fuck would want to go without sleep for a month? Stupid idea.

Just the idea of not getting to stop and rest for a month is painfull.

Let me break it down then:

+ More action then we've had in this snoozefest of a season so far

+ The pacing was consistent and it wasn't like previous stories this season where the first part was maybe 20 % the of content.

+ Clara was not a clingy narcissistic bitch for a change

- Twelve is still very much channeling Smith and though it was far less annoying in the climax of Part 2, I'm still not seeing the angry old man we were promised and had around for the previous season

- A main character got copied perfectly by a villain so they didn't have to actually get another actor for the part

- Expected a bit more from the flashback scene with Kate, not just a literal five second shot of her rigidly shootinh a gun at somthing offscreen

- The main bad guy's plan made no sense as it involved intentionally starting a war they couldn't win so they'd all get slaughtered....but she still was somehow talked out of pressing the button.

- They really could have spared the expense of having at least one other face type for the Zygons, it's annoying how they all look completely identical

I wish they'd try and develop Unit more so we'd know more then just Kate and Osgood. Have someone else on there be a character we can actually give a shit about if it's going to be featured more.

Next story seems boring simply because it's another spaceship/space station romp. "All of Time and Space" my ass Doctor.

I love good "lost race" fiction. No one did it better than A. Merritt!

I'm not familiar with GBB though.

I've only read his "Metal Monster" and "Dwellers in the Mirage" but that has been quite a few years back. But if you like that, then I suggest this and "City of Endless Night" for a bit of a different take on the subject. And maybe even "The Finding of Lot's wife" even though it's mostly classed as Lost Race erroneously, but it still has a lot of the elements, plus a really unusual way of handling the subject.

I wish I could find Labyrinth somewhere but no one's bothered to get the All-story text.

Well I finished "Citadel of Fear". I advise anyone who likes lost race fiction and the likes of Lovecraft or Machen to give this one a read. I liked it just as much if not more then Claimed.

I kind of thought that whole moment was a bit ruined because the guys mom kept hesitating about basic shit that most moms would know. I know I can say that "Maybe it was the stress." but even under stress the guy should have just opened fire on her. Granted, then the episode wouldn't be very long.

 

"Kill anybody that doesn't remember important dates."

I'd be kinda screwed then cause I am terrible with that. XD

None of this season has felt like Doctor Who to me. It's really not my cup of tea.

 

And yet it's more like Doctor Who than any series since Colin Baker took the reins.

Funny that.

What ?

Also are you dissing my man Colin ? >: P

As for this episode well, there were really silly bits there especially the church scene cause you know, mothers usually don't forget the day when they spent several hours pushing a big wet object out of a really tiny hole. Either way, you'd think they'd keep a few sociopaths around for just such an occasion.

Still it was miles above the last two stories cause, gasp, stuff actually happened in the first part, and the first part wasn't completely unnecessary and pointless to boot ! And we have like, an actual invasion and stuff as opposed to "let's scare off space vikings by random continent hopping eels and threaten them with space youtube".

Because it's an interesting story, with some decent characters, and with TV values and updates it could be as compelling as it was back in the day.

Not sure if "Let's look for god but first lemme beat up some rednecks oh no we ran out of time here lemme write a letter covering my ass" qualifies as interesting.

I mean, I was really interested about the entire concept of the L'Angelles family but Ennis did barely anything with it before redneck punchup and house burning finale.

I mean, watching Arseface get conned out of his money or Custer kick the shit out of a bunch of KKK guys who were a total joke despite an issue of build up, or seeing how messed up Cassidy really is, that's fine and shit but it's not what the actual series was supposed to be about.

I'd agree that Preacher has not aged well. I was never the biggest fan of the book. I always found it very over-rated. It's an interesting premise that goes nowhere interesting. But, yeah, I'd say it has not held up in the least since it was published. I wonder how many people who read Preacher when it was being released have gone back to read the series? I think they'd be surprised how badly it's relevant as a comic book in 2015.

I don' know if I care so much about the supernatural elements, outside of the religious. But, yeah, the idea of a minister who loses his faith, and then finds out that he, literally, has to look for God, since God is gone....that's a damn good premise. What we got was a lot of immature humour, extreme violence, and mocking of "red necks".

 

Having finished reading Ennis' Where Monsters Dwell series, which started out a s a cool "warplanes fighting dinosaurs" plot and quickly devolved in to dick jokes....I wonder exactly what year Ennis is living in anyway. He's still using jokes about lesbians. Gee, they were pretty shocking in 1991, but in 2015, most people just think, "OK. She's a lesbian. What's the big deal? That's not shocking. Lesbians do exist". Outside of some Christian Right-Wingers, I'm not sure that anyone is shocked by the existence of lesbians in 2015.

That's a series Ennis wrote in 2015 too. I hate to think how dated most of that Ennis humour from the days of Preacher will seem to readers in 2015.

I've not read anything new from him in years so it's kinda sad to see he's still doing that. I remember people used to praise him in the 90's for being the comic book equivalent of Tarrantino.

Honestly my question is, why bother with Preacher ? The "franchise" has literally been dead for fifteen years with nary a single one shot since then.

Really ? The series ended fifteen years ago ! And it was never really that good to begin with. Mostly because it ignored all possibly interesting things that could be done with the supernatural (something Ennis became very good at when he wrote, well, Hellblazer) and instead focused on Custer being a prick who fucked around with hillbillies and never really got off his ass to look for God in the first place and then decided to try and cover his rear by writing a two page bloody letter about how he could "never find him, not in X lifetimes".

Because admitting you totally screwed up the premise of your series in the finale, that makes it a-Ok.

And good lord was the Saint just the dumbest most overpowered and boring nonsense ever. Yep, he's so badass he can literally kill God and there is literally nothing in the entire fucking afterlife/universe which can do anything to him, despite the Devil beatong the ever loving shit out of the bastard the moment he stepped into hell.

Seriously the Saint has not aged well at all and he feels like a ten year old came up with him.

If this project is gonna happen and is gonna be any good they'll have to actually bother to do something interesting with the supernatural instead of "Cassidy's a vampire so he can drink a lot and the Saint of Killer can kill God in a single shot."

The dubbed series I particularly remember are either older than your bailwick (Monkey, where the translators were obviously having a whale of a time) or more recent. I remember one (deeply bad) SF soap opera based on some daft project the ESA probably weren't running around the turn of the '90s*, where the (obviously multinational) cast had been dubbed into Allo Allo style comedy accents for the UK version. Unless I misremember (and I probably do, to be fair), they did something similar to Eldorado.

 

*(Involving a wheelchair case who was working on a molecular computer, and some sort of rocket)

I'm sort of curious about that now. Mainly because I love Allo Allo XD

Wasn't it mostly Michael Grade being a douchebag singularity that caused that ? Well that and whatever moron decided to try and run Doctor Who against Coronation Street.

As for The Girl Who Died, it was a pretty lame story. And Maisie Williams is really not pulling off the role. Why was this even a two parter if it's just two one offs ? Unless the Mire show up in the second part, I fail to see the reason.

Finally getting to reading "Citadel of Fear" by "Francis Stevens"/Getrude Barrows Bennett. I really loved Claimed! though I barely remember it so looking forward to this one.