Ben Kirkham

[Ben Kirkham]

Yep, never ceases to amaze me. Which school were you at in Stoke? I live in Stoke, I may know of it.

[Ben Kirkham]

> Alsager Comprehensive?

*Ben Kirkham feels a cold shudder*

Erm, yes actually. 1996-2001. I take it you’re a veteran too?

[Ben Kirkham]

> Oh and they like Star Wars and Japanese stuff (and, presumably, Tintin). Therefore they must be the greatest most untouchable gods alive, right?

Haha, yes that’s very much the case!

Seriously, though, even though this has Iain Lee in it, it may be fantastic. The Inbetweeners is a great show and Peep Show is incredible (Peep Show’s script editor co-created The Inbetweeners), so there’s no reason to doubt that this won’t be.

And the announcement of Karen Gillan as the new companion is terrific. Two virtual unknowns leading one of the most successful shows on TV! She’s beautiful, too, which always helps these things.

I’ve got a few Doctor Who stickers on my fridge. It’s a geeks fridge. One of them is an image of Karen Gillan as a soothsayer from ‘The Fires of Pompeii’! Who knew, eh?

She’s been stuck to my fridge all this time…

[Ben Kirkham]

Alien Resurrection is okay in a sort of ‘hack your own arm off with a meat cleaver whilst drooling at a vacuous TV screen’ sort of way, I suppose.

As for Red Dwarf, they HAVE to do another series after this. ‘Back To Earth’ opened the series up again for new possibilities, so it’d be interesting to see where it goes from here, once little logistical things like… ahem… Craig just happening to be in Coronation Street get sorted out.

[Ben Kirkham]

David Black is the name of my old head teacher at secondary school! If this is whom you are referring to, I strongly disagree with the comment.

STRONGLY

[Ben Kirkham]

Iain Lee? Ugh. I like Adam and Joe, though (they’re big Withnail & I fans, they’re friends with Louis Theroux. Oh, and they can be quite funny).

The best news on this page was ‘Peter Sissons announces retirement.’

[Ben Kirkham]

According to Amazon:

Items dispatched on 11 Jun 2009

But it’s via Royal Mail, not City Link sadly, so probably Saturday!

And I have the new Blackadder boxset on Monday/Tuesday as well! Happy days!

[Ben Kirkham]

> Monty Python spring to mind, trying to overlap the paired commentaries and make it look like they?re in the same session.

The Doctor Who commentaries have not been averse to that also. Both ‘Pyramids of Mars’ and ‘The Hand of Fear’ have done the same due to availability. It worked quite well with ‘The Hand of Fear’ commentary.

>One interesting thing – the film inserts for The Black Adder survive. All of them. And there?s a hell of a lot of film sequences in that series.

If all of those are retransferred on modern telecine equipment – like they do for the classic Who releases, if the inserts survive – then the first series will look fucking gorgeous.

True, the best Who release to get beautifully remastered film sequences is ‘Earthshock.’ The colours are sharper and the whole thing stands out.

[Ben Kirkham]

> The lack of pilot still rankles.

Indeed, that still pisses me off. Even though I’ve watched it on YouTube, to have it on DVD would be excellent. What a strange piece of work. Sort of a bizarre hybrid between ‘The Black Adder’ and ‘Blackadder II.’ Only less funny, I think. I believe a section of the pilot is in the Blackadder Rides Again documentary, which is okay, but what’s wrong with the full episode? This isn’t Red Dwarf USA, is it?

> For every Bodysnatcher Boxset and ?Trial of a Time Lord? we get a Quantum Leap Season (which added an episode of Season 5 onto Season 4 as an extra) and an Only Fools and Horses release (complete with cuts!)

The Quantum Leap sets are a bitter disappointment. Still, at least we don’t quite suffer the music edits (Season 4 aside) that Region 1 do. As for Only Fools & Horses, well, what happened to them on DVD redefines the word ‘travesty.’ Particularly in relation to what happened to ‘A Royal Flush.’

[Ben Kirkham]

Happy Birthday, John!

[Ben Kirkham]

> I think Alien 3 pissed me off from the start by immediately killing off Newt, Hicks and Bishop.<

Yeah, that was something of a shock but actually I was quite pleased about it. It was a different feel, and since the end of the second film you thought they were all going to be fine – Ripley had found her ‘family.’

> Have reappraised it in recent years. I do like it much more, especially the special edition – though it?s annoying that they didn?t tidy up the sound in the re-inserted scenes.<

I think the DVD booklet mentions something about this: “In the end, some of the production audio could not be repaired, and there are certain points where the dialogue does not match or is difficult to hear. Using the best of today’s technology, this extended version has been restored to the highest quality possible.”

I suppose it’s a bit like The Wicker Man Director’s Cut, though that suffers from a drop in picture quality as apposed to sound. But in that case, it improves what is already a superb film.

>It?s still a pretty bloody depressing film, though. The Alien effects are horrible?and overall it feels like Scum in Space, guest starring the Alien.<

It is the most depressing, certainly. Death of a child, locked away with rapists and murderers, alien on the loose, alien growing inside you. Ripley’s had better days at the office! And the alien effects are the most disappointing, particularly after Aliens had gone all out to show us an alien queen so well. That said, I do like that it’s a lone alien, think that works much better.

>It is definitely the end of the trilogy, I enjoy Resurrection a bit but fuck it in it?s stupid pointless face.

Yeah, you can’t bring a character who has died so brilliantly back from the dead and then claim that the trilogy isn’t over. I also love the echoes of sound from Alien at the end: “Ripley, last surviving crewmember of the Nostromo.”

[Ben Kirkham]

>It is, categorically, not a director?s cut. Fincher had nothing to do with its release or inclusion on the DVD.

I think it’s a real shame that Fincher decided not to take part in the DVD at all. Totally understandable, of course. Considering the troubled production (probably THE most troubled production of a film that I’ve ever heard of) I think he did an extremely impressive job.

[Ben Kirkham]

> I take it from this that you?ve not watched the Quadrilogy?s superb Director?s Cut of Alien 3 then?

No, I’d forgotten about that. This is such a mammoth set that I want to watch all the theatrical versions first before watching the special editions, but I’m happy Golic features more heavily.

In fact, I noticed that the Special Edition of Alien is actually shorter than the original, which is interesting. Frankly, the first film was so brilliant I can’t see where or why you’d want to tamper with it, but I’m interested in seeing Scott’s choices.

[Ben Kirkham]

I watched 25 minutes of Resurrection and decided to leave it until I’m in the mood. It didn’t seem very interesting to me. I just think maybe it’s a step too far. In making that, it renders Ripley’s sacrifice at the end of Alien 3 rather pointless. She dies to kill the queen alien inside her, but it’s all for nothing, because they bring her back and just carry on with a clone as though it never happened.

> My big problem with Alien3 is the distinct lack of a single likeable character.

I quite liked Charles Dance’s character, but he got killed off just when you started to like him! And Ripley has gone a bit nuts by this point.

> I especially liked Paul McGann calling the Alien a dragon.

Paul McGann is great in anything he does, he needs to be given a multiple Doctor appearance in Doctor Who (please, Mr Moffat?). I do think they could have used McGann more in Alien 3, actually.

[Ben Kirkham]

Thank you. TBH, the Woolworths situation doesn’t surprise me. I work for Tesco (sadly) and I’ve recently seen exactly how badly Woolworths have been doing. A shame, really, because they used to be the best around.

[Ben Kirkham]

Phrase: deleted
Meaning: I have just said something ridiculous and I cannot bear going back on the forum for fear of being hit by small rocks. I shall, therefore, change my name and get in a hissyfit all over again and repeat this cycle until someone notices me.

[Ben Kirkham]

“…which leads to STONEYBRIDGE!” My dad always remembers that bit.

Have watched most of series 1 now. I love it. Imaginative, colourful, unpretentious, joyous fun! A favourite so far, off the top of my head, the hospital sketch with John Sparkes, Morwenna Banks and “the foot.” I’m paraphrasing.

Banks: He was quite keen on body building.

Sparkes: Well that’ll certainly come in useful now.

The first Callum Gilhooley sketch is brilliant. It’s just Hunter and Docherty at their best. Docherty’s talking to camera has me in hysterics.

I could talk about this for hours it’s so good. But I won’t, because I don’t want this to become an Amazon review.

[Ben Kirkham]

Thanks. I’ve just seen a clip of the job interview on the ‘net, it’s brilliant. I think this is a winner.

Though it was John eloquently saying ‘But It, You Fuckers, Buy It, Buy It Now’ which is what sold it for me, really.

[Ben Kirkham]

Iain Lee is a boring, talentless hack who has never made me laugh. He just hangs on for a bit of fame. Chris Moyles is also blessed with cuntishness. Iain, do us a favour, spell your forename (THAT’S YOUR FIRST NAME) correctly and pick a surname that is actually a surname, then type that into Google because it’d be a FUCK of a lot more interesting.

Cunt (Iain Lee).

[Ben Kirkham]

> you?ve been a great ?inside man? for years

If rumours are to be believed… :-)

[Ben Kirkham]

Andrew,

I’m saddened to hear that news, you’ve been a great ‘inside man’ for years and you’ve done a terrific job with the DVD’s, and have re-ignited my interest in the show. But it’s great to hear that you’re striking out on your own, and I wish you the best of luck!

Don’t lose touch!

[Ben Kirkham]

Fair point, there. BSG is a worthy remake. But The Prisoner was such a classic, I don’t know if you could do it as well. It was so much Patrick MacGoohan’s baby. Likewise, the attempts at re-launching the Twilight Zone have all failed because the original series was Rod Serling’s own vision.

[Ben Kirkham]

>What?s wrong with Being Human?

I wouldn’t know.

I’m not.

[Ben Kirkham]

Re: The Prisoner,

I looked up on this today. The project has been abandoned by Sky, as they thought that it was in danger of becoming too ‘Americanised.’

ITV have picked up the idea and are currently filming in Libya with American actor Jim Caviazel. But apparently it’s going to be very British. Mmmm.

Can you really re-make classic television well?

[Ben Kirkham]

No, only about as much time as the Sun spends getting its “facts” straight. :-)

[Ben Kirkham]

A new headline from the ever-reliable Sun:

SHOCK HORROR SHOCK SENSATION SHOCK: ANDROIDS in computer VIRUS story!

IN the latest bid to REGAIN viewers for the TROUBLED soap opera Androids, a mass CAST CULLING is planned for Christmas. Over 30 CHARACTERS are reported to PERISH when a metal eating VIRUS invades.

A highly-trusted and totally real SOURCE told us: “It’s SHOCKING! The producers have decided that the way to GRAB the viewers’ attention is to bring in more SEX, more OTRAZONE addiction and more DIVERSE robots! But first this lot have to go! It’s going to be UNMISSABLE viewing!”

A spokesman for the show refused to comment.

[Ben Kirkham]

I have quite a broad taste in comedy. I love the jet black comedy of Nighty Night and Human Remains, and completely adore all of Blackadder (the best sitcom ever with RD second IMHO). But madcap stuff like Monty Python is also gold.

It’s all really a matter of taste. I know somebody that claims to hate comedy. He is either a) lying or b) mentally absent.

“DON’T VOTE SAXON!”

[Ben Kirkham]

Arlene, if you really start to love the new series (they’re excellent), then maybe you might want to give the classic series a go. I can suggest one quality story from each Doctor now out on DVD.

William Hartnell – The Aztecs
Patrick Troughton – The Mind Robber
Jon Pertwee – Inferno
Tom Baker – (tough one, there’s a lot of classics, here) City of Death
Peter Davison – The Caves of Androzani
Colin Baker – Revelation of the Daleks
Sylvester McCoy – The Curse of Fenric
Paul McGann – The TV Movie (it’s not brilliant but McGann is)

Also, I’d suggest The Empty Child for more Christopher Eccleston as Seb says, also Dalek. Check out Tooth and Claw and The Girl in the Fireplace for David Tennant. Hope this is useful.

[Ben Kirkham]

A Whoket, I love that!

Un/fortunately, I don’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Red Dwarf… yet.

[Ben Kirkham]

> Anyway, it said ?Doctor Who? in classic episodes.

Hartnell to Tom Baker were ‘Doctor Who’ and Davison to McCoy (and McGann in the TV Movie, I think) were ‘The Doctor.’

[Ben Kirkham]

A brilliant review that just *nails* everything about the episode.

[Ben Kirkham]

> (See also: ?I think you need a Doctor??)

I thought it was cheesy but thank God for Christopher Eccleston (the unwilling), who delivered it in the best possible way he could. I bet he nearly keeled over when he read that one…

[Ben Kirkham]

> “The only post I bothered reading here was Ben?s, this was because he has Paul McGann as his avatar and is from Stoke, thus he is vastly superior to you all.”

Well, *blushes*, thank you. But substitute ‘superior’ for anally retentive Doctor Who fan!

As for McGann, his avatar works best and he is a brilliant, brilliant Doctor. Especially in the audios.

> “But I have a potato in a fish bowl??anyone??”

I love potatoes and fish bowls!

[Ben Kirkham]

>”Footage of Chloe Annett?s foaming twat.”

Remastered, of course.

[Ben Kirkham]

Love and Monsters was carrying on a long Doctor Who tradition to try something different. I loved it.

As for Smith and Jones, I loved that too. I was worried about the new series after Army of Ghosts. I thought it seemed as though it had let the effects and spectacle take over a bit. The Runaway Bride was fun but disposable.

Martha seems like a much better companion than Rose. I liked Rose, but Martha is much more switched on, very intelligent, sexy, and seems to fit so well with the tenth Doctor. In fact, Martha reminded me of some of the best companions from the classic series but updated. Certain companions work better with some Doctors than others (like Adric and the fourth Doctor).

David Tennant was also absolutely terrific, his best performance yet. I’ve always loved him, but here he just seemed to nail everything so well. All of his humour and energy was perfectly in tune with the script.

The script itself was a clever little piece by Russell T Davies, and Martha’s family seem loaded with possibilities for storylines. Anyone who has followed the development of this current series will know that it is going to be brilliant.

A breath of wonderful fresh air, frankly.

[Author]

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