tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post362648826788316639..comments2023-06-18T05:48:52.971-07:00Comments on Prefect Slog: Times TwoSAFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-85762068188867282442008-03-05T05:28:00.000-08:002008-03-05T05:28:00.000-08:00SAF: "It's out some time this month."Excellent, ti...SAF: "It's out some time this month."<BR/><BR/>Excellent, time to get the credit card out and get myself off to Amazon!Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-36499826093932022772008-03-05T05:21:00.000-08:002008-03-05T05:21:00.000-08:00Stuart: "When's your new book out again? I'll let ...Stuart: "When's your new book out again? I'll let you off if it's any good :-)"<BR/><BR/>Oh crap, you really know how to pile on the pressure ;)<BR/><BR/>It's out some time this month. 10th March, I think. I should probably make another announcement here when I sound a bit more sure of my facts :)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-80554783119840436752008-03-05T02:23:00.000-08:002008-03-05T02:23:00.000-08:00SAF: "Oh no, how can I make amends? ;)"When's your...SAF: "Oh no, how can I make amends? ;)"<BR/><BR/>When's your new book out again? I'll let you off if it's any good :-)Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-51378998666807316532008-03-04T12:44:00.000-08:002008-03-04T12:44:00.000-08:00Stuart: "Too late - my feelings are wounded!"Oh no...Stuart: "Too late - my feelings are wounded!"<BR/><BR/>Oh no, how can I make amends? ;)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-69641824845048577862008-03-04T08:29:00.000-08:002008-03-04T08:29:00.000-08:00SAF: "Amen to that. Er, not you toning down your p...SAF: "Amen to that. Er, not you toning down your presence. "<BR/><BR/>Too late - my feelings are wounded!Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-15464868875449588722008-03-04T07:16:00.000-08:002008-03-04T07:16:00.000-08:00Stuart: "Though the desire not to argue endlessly ...Stuart: "Though the desire not to argue endlessly over every single minor thing I say is one reason why I'm toning down my presence on the mailing lists we both frequent for a week or two..."<BR/><BR/>Amen to that. Er, not you toning down your presence. I'm toning down mine - still skimming the digests, but I really don't feel inclined to get bogged down in 'those kinds of debates' right now.<BR/><BR/>Proof if any was needed, we're the sensible ones :)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-81988965773549619492008-03-04T07:05:00.000-08:002008-03-04T07:05:00.000-08:00SAF: "On the plus side, when they got home they pr...SAF: "On the plus side, when they got home they probably got a good ear-bashing from their wives, demanding to know what they'd been up to on that overseas trip."<BR/><BR/>Ah, the 11th century equivalent of the European football trip!<BR/><BR/>SAF: "As to the rest: what Stuart says. I'm glad to say that's something that in any Doctor Who debate, I can fall back on quite often. :)"<BR/><BR/>Shucks, I'd blush if the opposite wasn't equally true :) <BR/><BR/>Though the desire not to argue endlessly over every single minor thing I say is one reason why I'm toning down my presence on the mailing lists we both frequent for a week or two...Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-13578148806596222582008-03-04T04:34:00.000-08:002008-03-04T04:34:00.000-08:00Stuart: "That's also the reason we Scots are more ...Stuart: "That's also the reason we Scots are more successful with the ladies than our Southern neighbours. A little personal hygiene goes a long way :)"<BR/><BR/>Hey! ;)<BR/><BR/>iC: "Magnus Magnusson (who might just be a little biased) said that the Vikings got a bad rep in England because they were romantically more successful with women"<BR/><BR/>I think it had more to do with their picking up women actually involving picking them up. :)<BR/><BR/>On the plus side, when they got home they probably got a good ear-bashing from their wives, demanding to know what they'd been up to on that overseas trip.<BR/><BR/>Stuart: "Re doing epics on panto money...The writing more than makes up for the lack of cash, imo."<BR/><BR/>As to the rest: what Stuart says. I'm glad to say that's something that in any Doctor Who debate, I can fall back on quite often. :)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-47919157180824387922008-03-04T02:37:00.000-08:002008-03-04T02:37:00.000-08:00iC: "they did such unEnglish things as combing the...iC: "they did such unEnglish things as combing their hair and having baths."<BR/><BR/>That's also the reason we Scots are more successful with the ladies than our Southern neighbours. A little personal hygiene goes a long way :)<BR/><BR/>Re doing epics on panto money, I think Pertwee maybe suffers from the introduction of colour, which is obviously less forgiving of shortcuts and cheapness in sf costumes and sets (the delegate scene in Dalek Master Plan looks immense, for instance, but would look quite shoddy, I suspect, in full colour). <BR/><BR/>Of course I love Pertwee - I think they rarely try for epic in the Pertwee years but when they do (the Frontier/Planet 12 parter) it doesn't work as spectacle but does work very well both in portraying the mundanity of life in an interstellar space empire, where sheer distance is the main factor, and in showing the most realistic basis for a war between species seen in Who. The writing more than makes up for the lack of cash, imo.Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-78061457303789167292008-03-04T01:08:00.000-08:002008-03-04T01:08:00.000-08:00iCowboy: "And I think that's why I generally don't...iCowboy: "And I think that's why I generally don't like the Pertwee era - it was trying to do epic on panto money and sadly I don't think it pulls it off."<BR/><BR/>The potato thing and panto money, I'll grant you, but for one thing "Time Warrior" isn't trying to be epic, for another I'd wonder why that criticism would single out the Pertwee era, and for another I'm more generally inclined to admire the ambition that such a criticism serves to highlight.<BR/><BR/>"Claws Of Axos", to cite another relatively recently viewed adventure, fails not because it's cheap, but because it blows it's big reveal in the first 30 seconds. "Invasion Of The Dinosaurs", I think (although it's not one I've seen recently I know the story well) is *let down* by the dinosaurs, but the story falls far short of failure. "The Web Planet" (Hartnell), meanwhile, is very much a theatre production with a camera stuck in front of it, but what I'm getting from that at the moment is a scope of ambition, fearless inventiveness and a bold effort to tell a sweeping, atmospheric story of a hidden invader on an alien world that blows something like the presumably quite expensive "Gridlock" out of the water.<BR/><BR/>Obviously it all comes down to a case of mileage varying as to what makes a story fall down. Me, I can forgive even the "Time Warrior"'s anachronistic potato. :)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-89044780384185883902008-03-03T10:11:00.000-08:002008-03-03T10:11:00.000-08:00I think you're being far too hard on the Vikings. ...I think you're being far too hard on the Vikings. That poor lady in the Time Meddler could just have been having a nice-lie down after helping Sven and Ragnar assemble a piece of Ikea furniture. All of which makes me wonder why the Vikings got such a reputation - were they really any worse than any of the other invaders that took a fancy to the East Coast of England. <BR/><BR/>Magnus Magnusson (who might just be a little biased) said that the Vikings got a bad rep in England because they were romantically more successful with women - in part because they did such unEnglish things as combing their hair and having baths.<BR/><BR/>Ooops but back to DW. I don't remember Time Warrior when it was first shown, so I guess I must have first seen it after reading the Target novelisation and being horribly disappointed. Not by the setup (a sort of dark Yankee in King Arthur's court) and certainly not by the Sontarans, but by the lack of scope onscreen. And I think that's why I generally don't like the Pertwee era - it was trying to do epic on panto money and sadly I don't think it pulls it off.<BR/><BR/>And I still remember being annoyed (aged about 11) that someone in the DW office let a reference to potatoes appear in a medieval plot. Compared to that, the Time Meddler's viking helmets with horns appear almost authentic.<BR/><BR/>As you can see, my inner pedant got off to an early start.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-82428582194195044352008-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:002008-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:00Stuart: "Now oyu point it out though it's blinding...Stuart: "Now oyu point it out though it's blindingly obvious."<BR/><BR/>Well, a more innocent interpretation sits better with the story, and I kind of wish I hadn't seen it that way. She does seem to take it in her stride, rather, and recovers well. Resilient sort.<BR/><BR/>Stuart: "shoddy looking cgi is no tinherently better than shoddy 70s model work - neither is brillian tbut at least the 70s stuff fits with the rest of the surrounding scenes."<BR/><BR/>Oh, the gateway explosion is, um, crap, I think is the word I'm searching for. Really crap. Definitely worse than if they'd just left well alone.<BR/><BR/>Stuart: "My quest to convince someone that the first episode of Timelash is brillaint has yet to bear fruit though, I see :)"<BR/><BR/>Heheh. To be fair, it's not one I'm likely to rewatch, like, *ever* so you can take comfort in the fact that your review is fresh, whereas my impressions of it will be forever based on a twenty (?) year old memory. Which will hopefully fade in time. ;)SAFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07654559289732417538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11095653.post-35544146068210251702008-02-25T11:25:00.000-08:002008-02-25T11:25:00.000-08:00I;ve never been called practically a one-man board...I;ve never been called practically a one-man board of certification before - and I suspect I may not deserve the title now either, since I never realised that that scene was the aftermath of a rape, but instead just assumed she was meant to be dead but then myteriosuly recovered. Now oyu point it out though it's blindingly obvious. <BR/><BR/>Also nice to see someone agree with me that shoddy looking cgi is no tinherently better than shoddy 70s model work - neither is brillian tbut at least the 70s stuff fits with the rest of the surrounding scenes.<BR/><BR/>My quest to convince someone that the first episode of Timelash is brillaint has yet to bear fruit though, I see :)Stuart Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07232782649771676547noreply@blogger.com