ChrisM

[ChrisM]

I’ve been on a Lost (season 3) watch fest these last 3 days. I’ve now got to the episode I originally missed due to the dropping of Sky 1… and I have to say this is a pretty awesome season.

I stand by what I said concerning the amount of flashbacks in that it would be nice to have some episodes without them, but they haven’t bugged me that much this time round.

I think part of what bugged me was them (season 2,3 spoilers ahead)..

Building up new characters in season 2 (the other half of the plane) then proceeding to kill most of them off at the end of season 2 and the start of season 3.

On sticking with it though, it’s gotten very intriguing. Last one I watched today was the one where Juliette helps cure Claire from a mystery disease…

And the one with the two newbies and the paralytic spiders… warped but interesting.

[ChrisM]

The curious thing is, when I watched episode 1 again I quite liked it. As you say, not the best (I still find the scene at the start between Rimmer and Lister a bit painful for some reason, although the ‘pokey thingy’ gag is good) but not bad at all.

[ChrisM]

I?ve sometimes wondered if I?d have persevered with Dwarf if The End was the first episode I saw.

Interesting you should say that. The End was the first episode I saw, when it was first broadcast in fact. (Shows I’m getting on a bit, but for what it’s worth I was still at school at teh time.) And it actually did put me off of Red Dwarf.

I think part of the problem was, as a kid I was hoping to see whooshy space ships etc, (forgive me, I was young) and the first episode really wasn’t like that. That and I thought it was way cheesy at the time and the Cat stuff bugged me for some reason.(I think I did find Holly’s Kochanski ash gag funny though even then. And let me say my opinions have since changed towards the Cat.) I just thought it was just too silly.

I didn’t watch it any more until I happened to be flicking through channels and Marooned was on. Ironically it’s another episode decidedly lacking the ‘whooshy spaceships’, but I started watching it during the sequence when starbug crashed on the ice moon and I thought, “Hmmmm….”

True, it was another Rimmer and Lister intensive show set primarily in one room, but had me cracking up. It was so funny. I don’t think I watched it religiously at that point but that was when my interest was sparked and I was curious about the new guy with the funny shaped head.

I think it was series 6 where I got really into it. Then I went back and watched repeats of other shows when it was on including series 1. Series 1 still is low in favor compared to other series but it was still ok, great in places. It wasn’t until I got the DVDs (which I purchased from the beginning) that I saw every episode to date. (Minus the new one narrated by Chris Barrie on Bodysnatcher as I’ve yet to get that DVD set, but I will.) Ironically if I’d given Dwarf a chance in the first place and continued, I would have seen Future Echoes which is probably one of my favourite episodes in Dwarf. Not THE best but way up there.

[ChrisM]

Y?know, it really annoys me when I see people saying ?Bah Lost is rubbish nothing ever happens they never answer any questions it sucks? oh yeah, and I stopped watching two years ago.?

Surely, if they were to keep on watching and calling it rubbish; the reply would be ?Don?t watch it then!??

Erm, if that was directed at me, please reread my post. I never said Lost was rubbish. In fact I said I liked it. I did say that I got fed up with the flashbacks (which is true) and that I wished they’d moved the story along quicker, but that’s not the same as saying I hate the show. And yes, I would have continued watching it if Sky hadn’t been removed from my box. (In fact I started rewatching series 3 last night on Virgin on demand.)

It’s interesting how people will take one part of a post and blow it right out of proportion isn’t it? Point is, it’s possible to like a show and not like everything about it.

[ChrisM]

To be fair there aren’t that many period sitcoms. Not in recent years anyway.

Actually that’s probably exascerbating my case but never mind.

[ChrisM]

I guess I was exaggerating Ian. They do move it along but very very slowly, and half the episode told in flashback doesn’t help.

As for the flashbacks, I found them interesting to start with, but it just got too repetitive. And padding as Andrew said.

There are exceptions of course. One of the last episodes I saw (before Sky was removed from my broadbanc) was the one where you find out more of the Scottish guys story. (You know the original keeper of the underground computer thing? Who reset the countdown?)

The flashback for him was genuinely intriguing, and what we find out about him. Then they took the show away….

Still I’ve noticed that they’re showing seasons 1-3 on TV on demand now so I might give it a look. My memory is really rusty at the moment so I guess I’ll need to start at the beginning….

Of season 3 I mean. I’m not going way back to number 1.

[ChrisM]

Ah. My mistake.

I even looked up Dark Ages on wikipedia and the episodes seemed familiar (although for some reason I was sure there was a number in the title ;))

Never mind.

[ChrisM]

And I?d say that J.J. Abrams was pretty hot property at the moment, which is why his name figures so heavily in promotional material for his films.

I’ve heard Stephen King gave him the rights to the filming of The Dark Tower too.

Whether or not it happens though is another thing. Part of me hopes it doesn’t… Not because of JJ Abrams. (I quite liked Lost although I wished they dropped the flashback thing and moved the story along.) I’m just not sure how well it would translate to film.

[ChrisM]

You?re mixing him up with Data.

No I’m not, but I understand where you’re coming from, I watched that next generation episode too.

I’m referring to a book I read, something that never made it to TV so likely wouldn’t be considered canon. For one thing the original series (humanlike) Klingons made an appearance.

It was an interesting read though. And the 2 stories have strong similarities. That whole crashland-lose your memory etc has become a bit cliche hasn’t it? I’ve saw an episode of New Adventures of Superman that had a similar premise. I think they might have done it in Smallville too.

[ChrisM]

I remember the computers being very big, but maybe that’s just compartively speaking.

As for text games, I used to sometimes play the Hitchhiker’s Guide game, but that was on the PC. Considering they had no graphics and probably wouldn’t be brought out nowasdays, they were good fun though. There was also a ZX Spectrum fantasy game I used to play which was similar in concept except you had rudimentary graphics and animation with that one.

I thought it interesting that they referred to those old text adventures in the psi-moon episode of season 5 (I forget the name now.) You know the one when Kryten get trapped under a girder in a damaged Starbug and he sends his hand walkies….

Brilliant scene that.

[ChrisM]

I actually read a Star Trek story where on travelling back in time to the Old west (I think) spock was wounded and lost his memory of who he was, where he was from etc.

[ChrisM]

I quite liked transformers mainly for the big robots and effects. (Sad I know. The story actually wasn’t too bad but there was some major cheese in there.)

I found the Shia La Beouf character irritating though. That not to say that he was poorly acted, in fact his acting was pretty good. I just didn’t like the character much.

I haven’t seen Shia in much else that I remember, so it’s probably not fair to judge him until I do. (I’ve seen Constantine, but I didn’t know the actor and just didn’t recognize him.) From the interviews I saw on the transformers DVD, I admit my reaction was kind of like Marleen’s. Not that he was particularly nasty, but you know how some people can just rub you up the wrong way? To be fair that may be a fault with me rather than him though.

Oh funny thing (well not that funny) when I first saw his name advertised in connection with Transformers I thought it was female. I thought it was the name of the actress who played the hot girl.

[ChrisM]

I thought the period gag was one of the funniest scenes in series 8. And the little package with the ribbon. The fact that it involves an embarassing subject is part of what makes it so funny I reckon.

Mind you a lot of the lines people list here I found funny. I agree concerning the rewinding Hollister scene. The gag wasn’t too bad, but they repeated it a bit too much.

There was also a line when Rimmer mentions something about “Lister’s old underpants.” The line itself was quite good, but the way he delivered it felt hokey somehow.

[ChrisM]

I don’t remember the binary scrolls at the start. I liked the gag in the closing credits though where the end credits are green 80s computer text with a flashing cursor at the end. Like those old BBC computer maybe.

We still had those at my secondary school although they were considered old tech even then. We basically had 2 computer rooms one full of Nimbus PCs and one full of huge slab BBC computers.

[ChrisM]

I think Jimbotfu might be pulling our legs actually.

That being said, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if such a storyline occurred.

[ChrisM]

In Dark Ages?!?!?!

Ok, I just double checked it was the series I was thinking of, 999AD, turn of the previous millenium, and yes that one.

It’s not surprising you missed that scene though. It’s way in the background in a country scene. I think the main characters are talking in the foreground, and you see a police box appear behind them. Then it fades away, and I seem to remember the classic Whap! Whap! sounds too. Nobody in the scene notices of course, and it has no relevance whatsoever to the story. Just a little in-joke type of thing. The fact that it just comes and goes makes it all the more funny somehow…

I didn’t watch all the series (didn’t really take to it) so I’m pretty sure this happens quite early on, possibly even the first episode.

[ChrisM]

I wasn’t over keen on Dark Ages either, although I liked the set-up, A-S England.

There was one gag that made me chuckle though. The Tardis appearing then dissapearing in the background.

[ChrisM]

The Dalek’s voice always grates on my nerves when I hear it, which is fitting I suppose.

As for their design, whilst it is pretty simple and, well, a bit rubbish in some ways, it does kind of make sense doesn’t it? Mass created drones for a self proclaimed master race…

As long as their anti-gravity device works of course. Otherwise they’re easily escapable.

[ChrisM]

Is the difference noticeable?

I didn’t notice, but then I wasn’t really looking out for it.

As for a terminator being a teenage girl, well what better? The original idea for the terminators was that they were infiltrators, machines that blend in with humanity. Then a man/woman steps out from the crowd and blows you away…

In the case of the Summer Glau schoolgirl design, if she is doing what she is designed for, then a schoolgirl terminator is ideal to get close to John Connor and kill him. If she is the protector, then again she can get close and give him something he can relate to.

They obviously deviated from their original idea with Arnold Schwazenegger (and his version definitely works cinematically and is iconic.), but I’m glad that they’ll be getting back to the original idea as it does really make more sense from a story point of view. I remember hearing that the original idea was to cast Lance Henriksen in the roll of the Terminator in the first film. Much as I thought Arnold was great, I think it would have been an interesting prospect to step into the parallel universe where that was made. Apparently his version was more like a humanoid praying mantis rather than the tank Arnold played.

[ChrisM]

I’m very much looking forward to this new series, not long now.

First episode spoilers (I haven’t seen it but this is based on what I’ve read..)

I’m not too keen on the idea of time travelling to the present day from the 90s. I understand they’re doing it to make it easier for themselves but… the 90s wasn’t all that different from today. Sure you’d have to be careful what technology is shown but I reckon thats easy enough. If a British Tv Show like Life On Mars can set an entire series in the 70s (granted there are less episodes, but even so…) I’m sure the rich companies that create US shows wouldn’t have a problem depicting the 90s. Apparentlly there are errors in LoM but I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read about them on Wikipedia.

Never mind, I haven’t seen it yet so we’ll see how it goes.

Andrew, my Terminator DVD stopped working too. (Couple of years back now.) I guess it must have been part of the same batch. I didn’t know about the free replacement however, so I bought the Ultimate Edition DVD. Glad I did though, I prefer the total DVD content, although I doubt I would have bought it especially if the other handn’t messed up.

[ChrisM]

A curry cake? Covered in icing? Sweet and sour?
Mmmmmmm.

[ChrisM]

As for the balance in Ashes to Ashes, I have a feeling it might be the Gene show too. I’m not sure Alex will provide the moral counterpoint that Sam did, partly because a)she’s certain it’s all in her head and he was never that certain… hence no real people to hurt, and b) she’s a different character from him, a psychologist. Not to say psychologists aren’t moral, I just mean that I think that analysis of the way people tick will be what she brings to the mix rather than a strict following of police guidelines.

Of course it’s probably also fair to point out that Gene might not be exactly the same as he was in the previous show. At his core he’s pretty much the shame, but I remember that when he actually set out to capture the main suspect he seemed to use his mind and deduction, more so that he did in the previous show, rather than just jumping to conclusions (although he did a bit of that at the start.) In short, he might have learnt something from Sam (although I know he’ll be using plenty of his own brutal methods, from what I’ve seen in this episode and a clip I’ve seen from the next where he apparently drags an old man down some stairs. Yikes.)

I saw the actor (I forget his name) interviewed on Jonathan Ross and he said it’ll be quite a toungue in cheek show and that those hoping for another Life on Mars will be disappointed. Whilst I’m glad that there’ll be differences (otherwise it could get a bit boring and formulaic) I’m not so sure of the humor side. I love humor in shows, don’t get me wrong, but I hope that it doesn’t go too far down the farce route. There was a small element of that in the other show too, but it still felt like a world complete in itself, and I hope they keep that aspect in this show too.

[ChrisM]

It could be interpreted that way. It could just be interpreted as Sam’s preference though, i.e. in the end he liked it better back there, that was when he was most alive (ironically). However I agree, it seemed to be suggesting that in modern policing we’ve lost something with a nostalgic “Those were the days….”

That last post of mine was like a mini novel wasn’t it? Funny, when I’m actually sitting with a group of people, I’m nearly always the quiet bloke listening to everyone else (or zoning out) sipping a beer. It’s like I over compensate when I post or something.

[ChrisM]

I think the main point was that there was a requirement for balance. I.e. in a lot of the episodes it was Sam’s modern policing which solved the case, yet he learnt that sometimes you had to follow your gut instinct too (not that it’s always right). That and that the old days were more ‘fun’ somehow rather than the clinical policing of today, or at least the way it was put across. Even the buildings in the present day looked cold and sterile (although they were beautiful in a way) whilst the offices of yesteryear (although the same building) were dingy.. you could almost smell the b-o in the room.. but there was character there too.

Interesting to see the 80s office -albeit London based now- has a kind of in between look, quite clinical but not the dingy look of the 70s version.

As for the torturing of prisoners, I don’t think they were trying to say that was right, but stopping or at least decreasing that is Sam’s contribution, hence the balance I mentioned.

As for the iconisation or lionisation of Gene(whatever the term is) I pretty much agree, although I don’t think they really portrayed him that way in LoM. In fact they showed him to be a bit of a thug. A likeable thug, a great character and a sourse of great comedy but pretty narrow minded, quick to jump to the first choice. He was almost a party to murder in one episode when he might have allowed the NF to take an Indian guy to play out their own brand of justice if Sam hadn’t stepped in. (Ok he might not have gone through with it, but point is we’ll never know.) True he is ultimately heroic, but not quite the way he’s built up to be in the new series.

As for the truth of the situation at the end of LoM, whilst the second series in particular seemed to support that it was a dream to a large extent (i.e. the surgeon having the same face as the officer from Hyde) I never thought that was certain. And even if it was all a coma dream, in these days of twist endings, there not being a twist is kind of a twist in itself.

My personal theory is that the past world is real, but I’m not convinced they are actually travelling into the past of the world they left, albeit it’s right next door and connected to the ‘real’ world. (You know there are themes in these series that remind me of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books, but I won’t go into that in this post.) That being said they (be it Sam or the new lady cop.. is it Ashley?) are still simultaneously in a coma in 2006/8. I think maybe a translocation of consciousness is occuring.. although it makes you wonder what happened to the original mind that existed in their past selves’ body.

Yeah, I know that doesn’t make much sense…

Got a bit carried away there.

[ChrisM]

Whoops. I just editted a spelling mistake I noticed in the above post and it’s move it out of sequence to John and Andrew’s responses….

I didn’t realised it worked like that. Never mind.

[ChrisM]

Ok. Obviously got a bit mixed up there :)

Anyone seen Two Hands?

He was in that, and it was quite quirky and interesting. It is essentially an Australian gangster film but it had some strange surreal parts as it’s narrated by the main character’s dead brother.

[ChrisM]

I?ve eaten several triple fried egg, with chili sauce and chutney, sandwiches. Not all at once, of course.

Yes I tried that too! I’m not sure I made it to the exact ‘triple’ spec but I did a fried egg sandwich with some mango chutney with a sprinkling of Thai hot sauce.

It was very good.

[ChrisM]

I thought they had finished filming all the joker stuff.

It’s sad, definitely, but I reckon the film will still get released. And so it should.

[ChrisM]

Bear in mind though that whilst Sam was present in every scene of LoM in some form or other (even when he wasn’t ‘there’ he was observing on monitors etc) this isn’t the case with the main character in Ashes to Ashes. There are at least 2 scenes where she is not present. First, when Gene and the other guys are chatting in the hall. Second, when the other 2 cops (I’m bad with names) are staking out a perp and the girl get’s kidnapped.

In other words we’re seeing the point of view of other characters. This suggests that it’s not all in her own mind.

Then of course we have that other scene at the start when she is threatened by the criminal who apparently knew her. But that’s already been mentioned by someone above…

I thought it a bit of a shame in LoM that Sam made no attempt to check out the history of the station and research if the other characters exist. I can understand them wanting to leave it ambiguous but you’d think he would have checked, even if he found nothing conclusive.

[ChrisM]

People are saying LOTR is a step back from Brain Dead?

Don’t get me wrong. I liked Brain Dead. It was trash, but it was enjoyable trash that didn’t take itself seriously… and hence worked.

I’m not sure it’s fair to compare it with the LotR films as they’re two so completely different genres…(well ok their are elements of horror in LotR, but I’m sure you know what I mean) but a step back?

I did find the LotR films dragged a bit in the cinema (the story was good but it was so very long). Didn’t stop me getting the expanded editions, though, and, strangely it dragged less on the rewatching. Their probably the most rewatched DVDs I have in fact.

Oh, ditto King Kong. Good CG, and it was watchable but… meh.

[Author]

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