My Millie screams better than your Millie! (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.2, "The Devil's Chord")

• I watched this the day after the first episode - I'd been out for much of the day on Saturday and generally limit myself to one DW episode a day.
• Jinkx Monsoon eats the scenery like there's no tomorrow in this episode. It's like her volume switch is stuck or something. Also, making Maestro non-binary was a nice touch.
• Going into the title sequence via the use of the piano version of the theme is a good one. However, the tune doesn't really work on one instrument, so cutting was wise.
• The impression that I'm getting from the trailers is that Fifteen will be a lot more varied than past Doctors and to be honest, I'm pretty fine with that. He looks good in all of them.
• Ruby Sunday does rather a lot of screaming in this episode and getting dragged across a floor by her feet. It's like Disney are deliberately trying to ape Stranger Things.
• The Beatles singing rubbish songs was probably one of the best ways to get around the fact that they couldn't afford the rights to any of their songs - indeed, the use of "Ticket to Ride" back in 1965 has caused DVD issues.
• The overall concept of someone stealing music from the universe works well.
• Doing a modern-day take on that 1980 scene in "Pyramids of Mars" is probably needed for the modern audience. I was just too busy knowing it was a homage to appreciate it and wondering when the world got destroyed, as the London Eye is present there.
• Would an American audience have heard of Cilla Black?
• Nice call back to the Toymaker.
• Of course, this is the episode that aired on Eurovision night...
• Frankly by the end of this, I was finding it rather silly. The show has a far-out premise, but good writing generally keeps you from seeing the flaws until a while later. Not this one.
• The musical number at the end was really, really quiet unnecessary and I found myself comparing it to "Idiot Control Now" from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and not in a good way.
• Well, Steven Moffat has done next week's. He has done some good stuff over the years - his RTD1 era work was superb.

Conclusion

An interesting opening concept ended up falling apart by the end of the episode, which just got far too silly.

Frankly, I'd have taken five minutes off this one and given it to the first episode.

I hope this is the only RTD clunker of the season.

4/10

Children and animals (Review: 'Doctor Who' 1.1, "Space Babies")

• They've added a new bit to the title sequence, making it slightly longer and arguably much more enjoyable.
• The opening was rather frenetic. A bit too frenetic frankly. Not sure that info-dumping all the key bits of the lore in the first ten minutes was really necessary.
• Not overly used to Fifteen yet; he's got a rather different tone. Or rather different way of delivering the same sort of lines that other doctors would.
• Ruby seems decent enough, but I would need more time to get used to her.
• The music was rather too loud and distracting in places.
• The butterfly effect bit was a decent short gag, but ultimately unnecessary.
• The CGI animation of the babies was frankly a bit creepy.
• Abandoning the station, but not being able to turn the baby machine off because it's illegal. I think that's a rather pointed comment about American abortion laws.
• Some rather clever science fiction tropes here.
• Ah, the Nannie filter... it's the sort of humour this show loves to do.
• Also, you're not a companion these days until you've been been gunged or soaked it seems.
• And RTD still hasn't outgrown toilet humour gags.

Conclusion

An enjoyable story, but still somewhat flawed. Could have done with being a bit longer to let some bits breathe.

8/10

I feel sorry for the scenery (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.14, "Whom Gods Destroy")

As a general rule, if someone is bursting into laughter at Star Trek because of how ridiculous it is, then it's clearly not a good episode. This one would frankly be really suited to be accompanied by Emily Connor, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot.

• Of course the asylum planet is called Elba.
• Considering that mental illness at the time included homosexuality and some people still think it's one, I'm not sure I'd want an instant cure to all mental illness. It also appears to not have worked that well as I am sure there are plenty of crazy people in Lower Decks. 
• Most insane people don't cackle to the best of my knowledge.
• The chess problem was a good bit of thinking by the Enterprise crew.
• There is a massive amount of hamming it up in this episode, by no means limited to Bill Shatner, although he does have his moments. Steve Ihnat (who died tragically young aged just 37) as Garth of Izar, eats a load of scenery in particular, along with Yvonne Craig.
• Speaking of Yvonne Craig, best known for playing Batgirl in the 1960s Batman series, her character is the sort of "Green Skinned Space Babe" that most people think of when imagining TOS, complete with another skimpy costume from the dirty mind of William Ware Theiss. D'Vana Tendi would not be impressed.
• Instant cellular metamorphosis? Really, that's just too silly even for Star Trek.
• Garth of Izar pretending to be Spock is clever though.
• Real power derives from the masses, not some farcical dining room ceremony!
• An explosive that can be set off by dropping it isn't really a very practical explosive. "Hoist by his own petard" comes to mind.
• The BBC skipped this episode in re-runs until the early 1990s because of the "torture" - I've seen much worse in 1970s Doctor Who.

Conclusion

Leonard Nimoy complained at length about the script for this and I can see why. This like many a work featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a few script passes away from actually being good.

But it really isn't. 

3/10

Easter 2024

When someone has been a Christian for a while, it's not always easy to find something new to cover in the Easter story.

But there is still stuff to find. The Palm Sunday service last week mentioned how Jesus was putting his own twist on the traditional triumphant processions of leaders then and now; coming in on a much more humble animal to symbolise the true way of doing kingship.

Also, I recently learned how the fact the son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son having to feed the pigs was the lowest job he could get - remember pigs are unclean in Judaism.

Jesus came to free us from the heavenly consequences of our sin, although that doesn't necessarily mean getting off scot-free on earth. Not by a long chalk in some cases. We are still expected to act in a just and right way, which can mean owning up to our mistakes sometimes. Regardless of how many mistakes we make though, he still loves us. 

Happy Easter everyone.

So, this 15-year-old girl puts on a proton pack... (Review: 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire')

I saw the new film yesterday at a rather different venue to my usual one - the Vue in Leicester Square, which has handprints of some famous actors at the entrance and a time capsule not to be opened until 2093.

The screen was much smaller than the ones in Romford, but all the chairs reclined.

Anyway, my comments on the film:

• Mckenna Grace is again the MVP, as she was in Afterlife. She ends up on her own arc for much of the movie as Phoebe's forcibly benched on the grounds that she is, well, 15. However, she gets to demonstrate the fact that she's a real genius several times, including in the third act. Ghost Corps see Phoebe as the main character going forward and they're not mistaken in that choice.
• Emily Alyn Lind's character is entirely absent from the trailers, but plays a vital role in the overall story.
• Finn Wolfhard isn't frankly one of my favourite actors and I'm not really keen on Trevor Spengler in general. His most notable moment is an encounter with Slimer and that's saying something.
• Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon have a good double act going, with his funny man to her straight woman. The "Busting makes me feel good" bit in the trailers is part of a longer and actually pretty good gag.
• The old gang get some good material to work with, although Venkman doesn't really do all that much in the picture. Winston Zeddemore's overall leadership role works very well and I'd be happy to see him in other movies.
• Kumail Nanjiani as Nadeem is arguably the comedy heart of the movie, with some great gags involving him, especially one bit in the climax.
• Walter Peck is back and is a rather cartoonish foil for the Ghostbusters. The main villain of the piece is far more chilling, pun intended.
• The visual effects look great throughout, although they might have driven the movie's budget up beyond the point it can be profitable.
• The movie doesn't outstay its welcome, although there are some pacing issues in the first half with the climax somewhat rushed. The fact they had to do principal photography with the writers on strike - before the actors walked out themselves - meant that the opportunity The trailers are pretty misleading, but when are they not?
• The 1984 score makes several welcome appearances in this movie.
• The ending is a nice call back to the original movie too.

Conclusion

A highly enjoyable popcorn movie, or whatever your choice of foodstuff is, because I don't eat popcorn. It's not got the greatest plot in the history of movies, but does everything have to?

8/10

Persian Incursion Playthrough Notes

 As promised, please see my playthrough notes here.

Some pages are missing as I forgot to save the scan and others didn't scan very well. Sorry for that.

Insert Kai Pun Here (Review: 'The Karate Kid', 1984)

Watched this on Netflix over the last three days; that streamer of course is responsible for Cobra Kai, one of their longest-running shows at six seasons. Although some wags may remark that getting a second season is long-running for Netflix.

Anywhere, my thoughts on a very 80s movie:

• It takes 41 hours of non-stop driving to get from Newark in New Jersey to Reseda in California. How long would the journey take with all the stops in a car that needs jump-starting on several occasions.
• As is common with many a movie teen, Ralph Macchio was in his early 20s when he did this movie. He manages to look convincingly younger in this, demonstrating the right sort of 'I know more than you, old man' attitude that works for a coming of age piece like this. You do sympathise with him and want him to be happy. He's mentioned in Stranger Things as someone Max Mayfield finds to be hot and I can see why.
• Speaking of attractive people... Elisabeth Shue as Ali. Now I'm more familiar with the older Ms. Shue from her role in the latter seasons of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, but I can see that she must have been popular among certain female-liking types in the 1980s. The term "girl next door" springs quickly and she's definitely got the outfits for it.
• Mr. Miyagi. Now this is a case of "it's trope-y because it wrote the tropes". I'm sure I've seen quite a few characters like him over the years. The broken English, Japanese accent stuff definitely would not fly in this day and age, but the character is more than just a stereotype; he's got a sad backstory involving a darker side of American history not really explored at that point.
• "Wax On, Wax Off". Having not seen this movie before, I figured there was some sort of point to that, but I wouldn't have waited for four days before asking what it actually was.
• My experience with Asian martial arts consists of precisely one judo lesson, but they make the rules fairly clear here. Although my own research seems to suggest under-18s don't get black belts. Not these days at any rate.
• However, I did do fencing at university. The earlier fights in the tournament are over quickly and much more realistic for actual combat. The final showdown... well, that's clearly choreographed.
• Bullies in 1980s movies are particularly creative in their cruelty, while simultaneous being as dumb as a box of rocks. Hey, it comes with the genre.
• Cobra Kai do not seem as a whole to be very nice people, but we get some depth near the end, where they're reluctant to follow instructions from their sensei.
• I see Bill Conti did the music for this - he also did the Rocky series and the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, one of Moore's better movies. It's good, but I can't say it's memorable, bar some of the other songs.

Conclusion

A pretty enjoyable slice of pure 1980s teenage movie with some good performances and generally well-made.

8/10