Doctor Who: The Beast Below

The Beast Below was the second episode of Matt Smith's first series of Doctor Who and, as a Whovian, I have to say I bloody loved it!

Firstly... how eighties was this episode? Dark, industrial, a little quirky with a Doctor who is a pronounces words a little funny and is a bit disparaging of the human race occasionally. As a Seventh Doctor obsessive (BRING BACK ACE!) I smiled.

Secondly... Star Wars references. We'll take the 10,000 smileys I could just put here as read.

Thirdly... the story wasn't all that bad with the Doctor hot on the trail of a nasty little secret whilst Amy is trying to forget it.

Fourthly... Amy and the Doctor work very well together.

Fifthly... the end scene (not related to main story) in which Amy picks up the phone to Winston Churchill was awesome... DALEKS!!

I'm way too excited about next week now!!

Clash Of The Titans

Last weekend Jim and I had a nice day out in London, which we ended with a trip to the cinema to see Clash of the Titans. 

I was expecting great things. A film steeped in Greek mythology (well themes thereof), with great special effects and hot men. How could it go wrong? 

By being dull, derivative and plain. This is not a BAD movie. I wasn't sitting there cringing and I didn't find the act appalling. But I was sat there wondering when the movie would get going. It never did. It was one boring scene after another and no reprieve. 

The ending was ridiculously simple, the Kraken being defeated so easily that any possible tension or excitement was completely lost. 

Avoid this movie if you can!

A Weekend Of Sci-Fi

Despite the unwelcome absence of Caprica following last week's awesome episode, us sci-fi geeks were not without our pleasures. In fact, this week saw the welcome return of several US shows that been on hiatus and one British show which has the status of most eagerly awaited new season of the year!

Fringe - Peter

An episode of awesomeness. We are treated to flashbacks into Walter and Peter's past. Excellent acting from John Noble who really captured the youthful, sane Walter and his feelings over the death of his son. Tough choices and some wonderful little pieces of information drip dropped throughout and it was one hell of a return for Fringe. Sadly it looks like it wasn't so lucky ratings wise, which is a real shame.

Stargate Universe - Space

Space battles, new aliens, political intriuge aboard the Destiny. This was a great start to the second half of the series and adds some much needed extra excitement to the formula.

V - Welcome To The War


I have been trying to give this series a chance, and episode 5 marks it's return to our screens... it's good but it just isn't holding my interest. There's enough to keep me watching right now, but I'm a sci-fi geek. I don't know if there is enough to keep the main bulk of the audience interested. However the liberal use of half naked men throughout the episode may keep certain elements glued to the action!

Doctor Who - The Eleventh Hour 

OMG! That is of course, my obligatory statement. A new Doctor. A new companion. A new adventure. Let's go. And this episode was excellent, awesome and amazing. Matt Smith will be a great Doctor, Amy will be an interesting companion and a little sneaking part of the Time Lord Victorious shone through in the moment the Doctor stares in the giant Eye of the alien ship and simple state "Run". :)

And there was an epic moment when all the past Doctors were shown, and past enemies too, and I couldn't help but squeal with joy like some schoolgirl seeing her crush for the first time.

But... it's a minor thing but I always find the first episode of a new Doctor Who series to be a bit of a let down. Mainly because I've built it up so much, and it can never met my inflated expectations. As this happens every series, I know now it's me and not the episode that is the problem so I look forward to next week with my expectations firmly grounded in reality (i.e. no original series Cybermen, no half naked muscled adonis drapped over every scene nor Daleks in World War II.... ;) )

GLEE!

I know. I've come late to this party. My other half watched the first episode, without me, ages ago and reported back that it was rubbish. Loyally I ignored all information and anecdotes to the contrary until I found I was unable to even talk to someone or read my Twitter feed without the word "Glee" appearing somewhere.

So I watched the first episode. Then the second. Then the third. Then the fourth. I'm totally hooked! Sure, it's absolutely and totally wish fulfilment. What self respecting human being wouldn't wish to live in a musical high school, in which gay guys can be the saviour of the football team and footballers can be the saviour of the choir???

But it's also funny, clever and entertaining. I feel so bad for not getting into this earlier... but I shall make up for it!

Dinoshark

Eric Balfour - The Only Good Thing About This Movie

You see something titled "Dinoshark" and you hope for a truly awesome B-movie. You're thinking Jaws meets Jurassic Park, and you get overly excited at the prospect.

Alas. I have very low standards. I love B-movies! LOVE 'EM. I accept a certain level of bad special effects and terrible acting.

But... Dinoshark mixes the very worst special effects money can't buy and awful acting little seen since "Leeches"  and comes up with diddly squat. There's no tension, no suspense, nothing. If it had simply straight copied the scenes from Jaws it would have been better. Instead we get simple attack after uneventful attack. Boring

Eric Balfour is the only good thing in this movie, but that makes it even worse... when you have someone actually acting talking to someone trying desperately to act it only shows the flaws up even more clearly.

 Lesson learnt: SyFy (don't you hate their rebranding??) TV movies are just never going to get any better.

Eurovision Song Contest 2010 - Oslo, Norway

On my main blog it is a yearly tradition that I maintain a Eurovision post in the months leading up to the Final. It is kept updated as and when new selections are made and news comes out. Now that tradition moves here, where it truly belongs... 

Location

The Telenor Arena, Greater Oslo, Norway.  

Presenters

Erik Solbakken 

Haddy Jatou N'jie

Nadia Hasnaoui

What's Different

This year the 2 Semi Final shows will introduce the same voting system as used, with quite some success, in the 2009 final. This means the votes shall be split 50/50 between a phone vote and jury vote. For more see Wikipedia

Countries, Singers and Songs 

Albania - Juliana Pasha "Nuk mundam pa ty"
Armenia - Eva Rivas "Apricot Stone"
Azerbaijan - Safura Alizadeh "Drip Drop"
Belarus - 3 + 2 "Butterflies"
Belgium - Tom Dice "Me And My Guitar"
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Vukašin Brajić "Munja i grom"
Bulgaria - Miro "Angel si ti"
Croatia - Feminnem "Lako je sve" 
Cyprus -   Jon Lilygreen and The Islanders "Life Looks Better in Spring"
Denmark - Chanée & N'evergreen "In a Moment Like This"
Estonia - Malcolm Lincoln "Siren"
Finland - Kuunkuiskaajat "Työlki ellää"
France - Jessy Matador "Allez Ola"
Georgia - Sopho Nizharadze "Shine"
Germany - Lena Meyer-Landrut "Satellite" 
Greece - Giorgos Alkeos and Friends "OPA" 
Iceland - Hera Björk "Je ne sais quoi"
Ireland - Niamh Kavanagh "It's For You" 
Israel - Harel Skaat "Milim"
Latvia - Aisha "What For?"
Lithuania - InCulto "East European Funk"
Macedonia - Gjoko Taneski "Jas ja imam silata"
Malta - Thea Garrett "My Dream"
Moldova - SunStroke Project and Olio Tira "Run Away"
Netherlands - Sieneke "Ik ben verliefd, Shalalie"
Norway - Didrik Solli-Tangen "My Heart Is Yours"
Poland -  Marcin Mrozinski "Legenda" 
Portugal - Filipa Azevedo "Ha dias assim"
Romania - Paula Seling and Ovi "Playing with Fire"
Russia - Peter Nalitch Band "Lost and Forgotten" 
Serbia - Milan Stankovic "Ovo je Balkan" 
Slovakia - Kristina "Horehronie"
Slovenia - Ansambel Roka Žlindre and Kalamari "Narodnozabavni rock"
Spain - Daniel Diges "Algo pequeñito"
Sweden - Anna Bergendahl "This Is My Life"
Switzerland - Michael von der Heide "Il pleut de l'or"
Turkey - maNga "We Could Be The Same"
Ukraine - 
United Kingdom - Josh Dubovie "That Sounds Good To Me" 

Eurovision Selections: Two Very Different Shows

This weekend has seen two national selection contests for Eurovision (alright there has been more but I only watched two!). One was Your Country Needs You, which selects the UK entry. The other was Melodifestivalen, which selects Sweden's entry. They were very different entities... 

So this year we went back to the old "all on one day" format of Your Country Needs You. Last year's format of having 6 contestants who were gradually voted off by the public and the judge (Andrew Lloyd Webber) was great especially as Webber hadn't written the song until he saw who was in the final and who might be able to carry it off best. 

This year Pete Waterman was in charge of the song, and after some truly abysmal performances of Waterman classics and then a final 3 set of performances of the "winning song", we ended up with Josh Dubovie, 19 from Essex as our performer singing "That Sounds Good To Me". I can't say I'm inspired by the song. Given Waterman's record it is actually pretty awful. Couldn't we just have sent Steps??? 





Anyway, if you wish to hear the winning entry a video is here. I just wish we had an open competition in which actual artists could compete with their own songs and allow the best one to win. Alas... we must leave that for: 

Melodifestivalen is less a televisual event than it is a Swedish religion. Weeks of musical shenanigans in a large arena resulted in last night's final in which ten songs competed for the glory of Eurovision stardom. Not only were the songs and singers all of a higher calibre than our lacklustre one's. but the voting was done on a semi international basis with foreign juries and Swedish public votes all leading to the final result. That left them with the far better "This Is My Life" by Anna Bergendahl

Although I have to say I really enjoyed Eric Saade's Manboy:

Roll on Eurovision!