The PerformingMonkey

[The PerformingMonkey]

> I have swine flu!

What do you want, an engraved invitation?? Er, I mean a medal?? Don’t die.

[The PerformingMonkey]

Ben, I was being sarcastic with that comment. I must have watched around 200 episodes of television on my PC this year.

[The PerformingMonkey]

Everyone here would love to see this, I’m sure. It’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere, so get in a car and let Bobby drive you around an undisclosed location for an undefined period of time. What could be better??

[The PerformingMonkey]

> Moffat thinks that Colin Baker was wrong for the part of the Doctor, I don?t trust him so much.

EPIC SELF-PWNAGE

[The PerformingMonkey]

> I feel like we?re dissecting the Easter Bunny?

I did that once. All I found inside was some jelly beans.

[The PerformingMonkey]

Personally I think he sounds all right. His performance could very well be a bit like a younger Troughton style. What IS the Doctor supposed to sound like?? We know Matt can act and that he LOOKS great as the Doctor. I have plenty of faith if some others don’t. This episode is gonna be fantastic too.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> how I did it and how you can do it too

Well, anyone with a video camera on a tripod and some good video editing software COULD have a good stab at doing it, but not live (I don’t think). It would never look as good as Derren’s though.

The way he’s talking in the trailer for the ‘reveal’ show makes me think he WILL give the real explanation. It’s a shame everyone’s got it sussed tbh. If it wasn’t for the ball moving there’s no way we could be 100%. Even with that giveaway I’m not sure we can be. 99% perhaps. It IS split screen, there’s just a few of the details we can’t know for sure till he tells us.

[The PerformingMonkey]

I’ve forgotten why I even thought the TV had to be greenscreened/superimposed. Derren doesn’t act like he’s actually watching the broadcast. He doesn’t react to the numbers appearing. Though there’s no way the Lottery audio we hear is from the speakers of the TV. We would also be able to hear the crew fumbling about with the balls (ooh er).

This was so brilliantly put together, though I highly doubt he will ‘reveal’ the real explanation on Friday. If he starts going on about odds and patterns I’m gonna be pissed off!

[The PerformingMonkey]

Figured it out, I think, with the aid of other posters on DS. Personally I don’t think it ruins it knowing how it was done, especially with Derren, because how he pulls off illusions is fascinating enough in itself. It’s more interesting than him actually being able to predict the numbers, which we all know is impossible. Everyone on here surely appreciates a great piece of television.

Split screen with a motion control camera and a greenscreen TV. The unnecessary cut to the long shot where he’s waving his arms, when it cuts back it’s NOT the handheld camera, it’s a motion control camera doing slight movements to stop it looking fixed. When he walked in with the hanheld camera that was pre-recorded. Derren is live only after he’s waved his arms. He’s looking at a greenscreen, not the draw, though he can obviously hear it or is being prompted in his ear. The left side of the screen (the ball stand) is a pre-record. When the draw is happening Derren stops speaking, not just for dramatic effect, but so they can lower the audio so we don’t hear the balls being swapped, and so the people doing the swapping can concentrate.

If you watch it back, just as Derren says ’23’ when he’s listing off the numbers at the end you can see that’s the exact moment the wipe is done on the left side of the screen (the ball stand) from pre-record to live picture. Watch the far left hand ball (39) at that moment, it ‘moves’ ever so slightly upwards. They didn’t push the ball in far enough. Dwarf was doing stuff like this 20 years ago! The technology now can make it even less noticeable (and it would have been completely undetectable if they had only pushed the ball down further, amateurs!!).

[The PerformingMonkey]

He’s done plenty of decent writing over the years. Please let Rowan Atkinson be in the episode. Failing that, Hugh Grant would also be great! It was rumoured ages ago that Hugh was almost going to be Jackson Lake in The Next Doctor (the part that David Morrissey played).

[The PerformingMonkey]

Lol they would NEVER have done that. Imagine the complaints!! Nationwide panic as a million people think Derren has just killed himself. It would have been great but that’s the kind of thing that could have killed his TV career.

[The PerformingMonkey]

I find that I can pretend I’m doing something productive if I’m watching, say, the Merlin repeats on iPlayer. If I was watching it on the PS3 through my TV I would get shouted at.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> It was morbid curiosity that made me watch it, in honesty.

The way he made it look like he’d messed it up was the masterstroke. When he pointed it at the bag but it didn’t fire… anyone who wasn’t biting their nails or otherwise from that point on is a liar.

[The PerformingMonkey]

I really don’t think it will return to television, at least not for a LONG time. If a cheap crappy version of it was made (this is what it would be even if Sky or Five took it) the majority of the fanbase would ditch it anyway.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> only the Russian Roulette show ever disappointed me.

Why? At the time I thought it was great, really gripping, even though in the back of your mind you know he’s in no danger. The build-up to it was a tad boring maybe, and the whole thing seems lame in retrospect (it’s a shame it was ruined later by the police having to confirm that no live rounds were used), but I could watch the ‘live’ scene again and again. Saying that, I can’t find it on youtube anymore, at least not the proper version that was on Ch4. What lunacy we have to endure.

[The PerformingMonkey]

This is perhaps a similar dilemma to sweaty old men like myself fancying Rani from Sarah Jane Adventures. The actress is obviously 19 or so but we can assume Rani is only supposed to be 14 or 15. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a school uniform… Just lock me up.

That’s not as bad as people on the OG forums fancying Yasmin Paige who actually WAS 14!

[The PerformingMonkey]

> The point at which the show became good was when all the questions stopped being about what had ALREADY happened, and instead became about what was GOING to happen.

Right. They realised they couldn’t just keep stringing people along with the original mysteries like ‘what’s the smoke monster?’ ‘why did the plane crash?’ etc. they had to get a few answers out of the way so they could move on. They may have only been partial answers but it was enough for viewers to put the big questions to the back of their mind and concentrate on enjoying the drama.

A big copout conclusion of them beind dead or dreaming would be unforgivable and Lindelof and Cuse know it, they have said the ending isn’t like that.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> Nope, 25 from Yorkshire. Grrr..

[The PerformingMonkey]

> and I think I may have to buy either The Invasion or The War Games

The Mind Robber and The Seeds of Death are bloody brilliant too. I never fail to enjoy Troughton as the Doctor and it’s a huge tragedy that so many of his stories have episodes missing or are lost entirely. I’m guessing they’ll do more animated releases later on in an attempt to complete the collection, but it won’t be the same. The fans will buy them, there’s no doubt of that.

[The PerformingMonkey]

The Doctor has a daughter out there. That’s too juicy a loose end for Moffat not to want to deal with. Georgia Moffat is too juicy a loose end, at any rate. It would be very interesting to see how Georgia acted with Matt Smith, who looks almost the same age as her and yet is playing her dad. Tennant was just old enough for it to work last time. I wonder if she calls him ‘Daddy’ in real life. Or, perhaps more disturbingly, ‘Doctor’. Her dad WAS the 5th Doctor after all.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> That Could actually BE me though, couldn?t it?

Sadly not. If you were him you would already know who I was, if that makes sense. Anyway, the other Daniel would be about 22 and I’m guessing you’re a little older, and presumably not from Lancashire. That Daniel could be the Danny following you on Twitter though. You know, I really don’t like ‘Danny’ that much, it gets on my wick, it’s just not me. ‘Dan’ I can put up with (unless it’s someone doing the Partridge ‘Dan’ scene for the millionth time). All you ‘Danny’s can keep it.

[The PerformingMonkey]

No, people don’t want to watch shows on their PCs, definitely not.

Btw SingingPotato1979, your party looked great.

[The PerformingMonkey]

A brother of someone I used to know is called Daniel Stephenson and I think of him every time I see your name. So…there.

[The PerformingMonkey]

There’s one more celebrity series (presumably in January as usual) and one final normal series next summer. Then that’s IT, on Channel 4 at least. Though I can’t see it being picked up by any other broadcaster, and even if it was it could never be as good.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> 1st – Sophie (Meh)

1st – Sophie (Yes!)

This is the first time in ages I’ve not shouted ‘Noooo!!!’ at the winner’s announcement. I’m so so pleased that she won, though she really should tell Kris to piss off. My gelf wanted Rodrigo, dammit, and my mum Charlie or Rod. When will these women ever learn?? Best result there could have been!

On another note, how cunning have Endemol been with the prize money? Oh we’ve got ?28,000 going spare so we’ll give it to charity, look how good we are! They stop giving a percentage of the phone votes to charity but use money from the winner’s prize fund! Not that Sophie won’t make that money elsewhere. They usually get a cool ?10,000-20,000 for media deals.

[The PerformingMonkey]

David would have been so much better without Lisa being there. He’s the type of character who’s never going to be universally liked (his general loudness) but he IS likeable and IMO doesn’t have a bad bone in his body (unless he has some kind of disease he’s failed to mention).

Sophie will win but she’s not been as entertaining and value-for-money as David, Rodrigo and Siavash have been (Charlie is such an annoying baby he doesn’t even figure). She’s a really nice girl and I’m sure most people will be pleased if she wins, BUT she’s gonna make shitloads of money from photoshoots regardless so I wouldn’t mind the prize money going to any of the others – bar Charlie. His mum’s ill, it doesn’t mean he automatically deserves the ?70,000 or whatever it’s up to now. What he has failed to see throughout the weeks is that if he had simply acted like less of a nasty, attention-seeking tosser he maybe COULD have won. They’ve never shown him doing ‘Nana’ on the highlights either. Imagine if any of the others behaved in that way? They would have shown it straightaway, I don’t know why they’ve protected Charlie there.

Oh, and I recommend everyone make sure they get their five a day, it helps to relieve stress, you know. Just something to consider.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> Why don?t you stick to the one account, prick?

Why don’t you stop insulting people and keep the discussion on topic?

> I really hope he doesn?t win now

I second that. Going into the diary room for a drunken rant about leaving definitely wasn’t part of any gameplan, definitely not… Of course, we don’t know what Big Brother said to him during the hour+ he was in there. For all we know he really could have seen the doctor as well, like he said. He could have walked out the door, had a 20 minute chat with the producers in the portakabin next to the house, then gone back into the diary room. We would never know.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> Care to clarify, The PerformingMonkey?

Anyone who uses the phrase ‘unquestioning subjugation’ gets my vote. He’s also right about keeping the discussion about the show. Is all.

[The PerformingMonkey]

I hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am. Andrew is right, after all.

[The PerformingMonkey]

The Starbuck piano episode was excellent, and the mutiny episodes. Those and the finale aside I find it hard to even think of any other truly great moments. The first episode back after the break was pretty good, I suppose, with the revelation that the Five were on ‘Earth’ before the nukes hit and giving us the identity of the Fifth once and for all.

Moore got completely lost though. Trying to tie in the Caprica series AND a 2,000-year-old Cylon history. The exposition episode with Ellen and Cavill was pretty unforgivable. It’s like they went ‘oh shit, the plot, the BACKSTORY!!! We forgot to tell it, let’s cram it into one episode, that’ll work!!’

[The PerformingMonkey]

I know someone who voted for Marcus 4 times, Noirin about 8 times and Bea even more than that. The whole show is geared towards giving the core viewership motivation to pick up the phone. The vote to win is a different matter, of course.

As much as I like Sophie I don’t feel like I want to vote for her to win. I would rather vote for Siavash because he’s been more of a character throughout the series and has been through more shit than anyone else left in there. If he hadn’t played up the victim act and ‘taken himself out of the game’ IMO he would have been the perfect winner. He probably won’t win in the end because of this.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> She doesn?t have friendships so much as people she knows will agree with her and will do, vaguely, what she wants them to do.

Precisely, and she hates being called out on this behaviour. I think she would even screw David over if it came down to it.

> As was Charlie banging a pan like a gong over a sleeping Lisa

This is the only time I have ever laughed at his antics. He’s probably still the worst person in there though.

[The PerformingMonkey]

> Eat my anus and all that dwelleth(ed) within, you lovely man.

What an awful idiot this guy is. He really should just do everyone a favour and go away.

[Author]

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