This Is The Post

…where we can all laugh at the US Grand Prix.

And Gavin, my opinion of Martin Brundle has improved a little...

currently playing: The New Pornographers — Use It

Live Aid 20 Years Old

Well, if nothing else, watching the BBC’s retrospective has got me interested in an Annabel Giles/Bob Geldof cagematch. For the heart of Ure! To the death!

currently playing: The Slits — Shoplifting

Yay! Not Adam!

But…I think we should start a campaign here and now to prevent RTD from writing the second parts of any more episodes.

Okay, first ten minutes: AWESOME. The Emperor Dalek (thus dredging up old continuity but yet avoiding fun Davros scenes), "DO-NOT-BLAS-PHEME!", and so on. But as soon as the Doctor sent Rose back through time, the episode fell apart, flicking between present-day Earth and Captain Jack's team in the future, while the Doctor…fiddles with some wires for half-an-hour.

(anybody else think it amusing that the best special effect this series has had was a small child with a gas mask?)

Then there was the resolution, which, if you're kind, stole considerably from The Phoenix Saga, and if you're being cruelly honest, rewrote some portions of Buffy's dialogue in Season 4's Primeval episode and stuck it on-screen. And yes, completely wrong about Bad Wolf, although as soon as the Emperor said it wasn't him, I knew it was Rose. Perhaps next time, she could send herself something less oblique, like "Stick a recovery lorry on the TARDIS! And get some jellybabies!" Plus, given the choice between killing everybody left on Earth and destroying the Dalek fleet, or dying and letting the Daleks harvest Earth for a new army to conquer the universe, I would hope that he would have set the Delta-wave in motion (as Bonnie and I are at pains to point out - the Seventh Doctor would have done it in a heartbeat; or more accurately, make the Daleks think that it would be a great weapon for themselves to set off). I guess that we're supposed to think that he's already killed his own race to stop them once before, and that didn't work.

Okay, I think all my problems with the episode can be summed up in one sentence: The Doctor did not save the day.

Also, hopefully, with the amount of technobabble in tonight's episode, the writers/producers will stop being all superior towards the previous incarnations next year as well.

Ehh. After spending the week looking forward to it, the episode was something of a let down. But I did like the Ninth Doctor's final words:

Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I.

The Christmas Invasion! Any bets on seeing the Paul McGann-Eccleston regeneration?

currently playing: Interpol — Obstacle 2

More Misc-y Things

Firstly: a prize to Lush for naming their new shower gel Sonic Death Monkey. I don’t know, or care what it is, all I know is that I need some Sonic Death Monkey shower gel in my life…

Secondly: people who are complaining about the harmonies in the new Saint Etienne album: You. Are. Wrong.

Thirdly, fun stuff with After Effects!

currently playing: Saint Etienne — Stars Above Us

Micro-Updates!

A slight change to the index page. Yes, it’s a home page — party like it’s 1997!

currently playing: The Raincoats – Lola

Happy Birthday Pac-Man!

Powerpills for everyone!

currently playing: The Mighty Wah – Sinful

Live 8: Circus Edition

I’m sorry, Bob, but if you’re going to hold a lottery for a big event like Live 8, then you should expect this sort of thing to happen. And I can’t see the problem, really. Live 8 has got the money for the tickets, it’s not supposed to be a fund-raiser anyway, and eBay has promised to give any profit to charity. As far as I can see, nobody loses out, except the person who pays £1,000 to see a Sting / Madonna duet…

(although, one thing: eBay say it's not illegal to resell charity tickets. Doesn't this also apply to normal concert tickets? In which case, why does eBay seek out and remove Glastonbury tickets, hmm?)

currently playing: Altered Images – Forgotten

Richard, Up For A Surgical Strike?

…before she falls into the hands of L. Ron Hubbard?

currently playing: The Slits — I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Well, technically, *not* a complete reunion…

So, Richard, got your tickets yet? ;)

currently playing: Saint Etienne — Let's Build A Zoo

The Parting Of The Ways

My current theory (note: I really don’t want this to be true, but I have a bad feeling about some of the ‘previously’ scenes, and RTD’s reluctance to use older continuity):

Adam is behind the new Dalek fleet. After the Doctor returned him to 2012, Adam still retained all the information that he downloaded from Space Station 5. Given that SS5 was in the planet's far future, it's quite feasible that the station contained information about the Daleks from other incursions (such as those in Remembrance and the invasion of the 22nd century). Using this, plus what he learnt from his time with van Statten, he turned himself into a proto-Dalek, making him immortal. He then hides out on Earth for the next 200,000 years, possibly in the Utah compound. When the news channels of Space Station 5 crash, he takes advantage of the confusion to buy SS5 (after 200,000 years and knowing how the stock market will turn out, I'm sure he could raise the funds). He converts it to The Gamestation, picking people off Earth at random. The losing contestants are not killed, but instead turned into Daleks. After 100 years, 400,000 people have been converted into Dalek soldiers.

Problems? Well, it doesn't explain Bad Wolf. Rose is told during The Unquiet Dead that she's met the Bad Wolf already, but that's before she meets Adam. Secondly, sure, Adam might be angry at being left on Earth, but enough to create a whole new race of Daleks? Seems a bit odd. But the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the voice belongs to him…

(still think it'd be great if it was Paul McGann though)

currently playing: ESG – My Love For You