Vamp

I can't believe people are actually trying to justify the finger as nto being a gaping plot hole. It wasn't just the fact that they confused a man's finger for a womans' finger, it was a painter's finger for the finger of a bloody princess. Sorry, what?

Not trying to be clever? I don't believe that for a second. Even ignoring that, it hasn't stopped people on twitter and so forth proclaiming it's genius, which is more what I was getting at. And that the Daily Mail were right when they said it wasn't clever. Not that I'm saying the rest of the review was. Even the idea that that's how people would react I'm dubious on. For a starter I don't believe that the Prime Minister wouldn't go in public before the event and try to resign for her life instead since at the stage they believe the culprit wants excercise power over the government. And while of course it was exaggerated for dramatic effect, I don't actually believe the streets woud completely empty for it. They wouldn't. Nor that a news show editor would be stupid enough to tell his journalist to run which got her shot. So it certainly wasn't very much about people and how they'd react. That's not me even being picky and pointing at plot holes, those are just basic human reactions that wouldn't have happened. If I was going to point out plotholes they couldn't tell a fucking princesses hand from a painters. Yeah, people are really making this soujnd like it was better written than it was. I'm not saying it was bad, it was decent dark fluff, but it was still fluff. That's not to say some of it didn't have merit. A satire involving government where the government isn't completely inept (bar the fucking finger, but everyone seemed to miss that, that's what makes me weap more for humanity) is nice to have. Even if the plaudits of the show seem to think it was a political satire. I'm not really sure how. And secondly the fact that it was assumed to be a Muslim terroist plot when it came from the mind of a fucked up painter, and actually there was far more intrigue for me in that one subplot than there was in the rest of the show. Like I said, decent, if not great, satire is welcome on my box.

To be fair to the Daily Mail (fuck, I never thought I'd say that) it wasn't really clever. It was decent for what it was, dark twisted entertainment, but it really wasn't anything else. Worth a watch though, especially since there's bugger all else on Sundays, and especially since there's very little satire on, but I don't think it was as clever as it seemed it thought it was. Some of the acting was great though, mainly the PM's wife. I've been on a bit of a downer when it comes to Brooker lately. That's mainly from the slip in quality of his Guardian articles though.

I actually gave up on this game pretty soon after getting to Mexico. It just gets far too repetitive. Maybe I need to load it up again soon and finish the story off.

Well, no, but it is meant to be based on it. To what extent remains to be seen I guess.

Suuposedly you're best off looking for him in the lab.

Providing they don't stuff it up (which would be very difficult to do) the Moffat brigage might just win me back on side with this one. I adore Narnia. And Bailey should be fun. Although does anyone remember when it was just RTD with the 'religious agenda' and it'd all come to an end under Moffat? Yeah, umm...

It's Elder Scrolls, surely there's a few online guides by now?

Having seen the trailers I don't think I could actually play Oblivion now. It'd just feel too clunky. Which kind of makes me wish I hadn't seen the trailers tbh.

Because I enjoyed the odd episode and invested time in the transition year and may as well watch the outcome. Besides, sometimes people don't get into a particular series arc but stay with a series and get into the next one. In fact that kind of thing happens all the time. The Only Way is Essex is different because obviously story arcs are less of an issue.

I did mention that some of the episodes this year were great. You did get that right? *sigh* You can be critical of something and still watch it. I didn't think I'd have to explain that on a fanboard but there you go. Considering I watched a whole series that was essentially just setting things up for the next which seems to be going where Moffat wanted it to go all along it makes sense to give the next series a shot, no? And quite frankly the series didn't offend me. I just found it very underwhelming and quite lame. But well done and thanks for playing. (Edit: That reads harsher than I meant it to, sorry mate. Bad day.) There is no watching bus. I just said that I didn't really think much of this series, would give it another series and then if I mostly didn't enjoy that I probably wouldn't bother with it. Precisely. The answer was in a very lame, predictible manner that wasn't worth the build up. I mean I enjoyed the Doctor's grin when he looked back around the door, and if it hadn't have been an enigma built up for so long and in a season finale I'd have probably liked it, but *that* for a series finale? Meh. It certainly looks like no one said they did so I guess not... I've never really been critical of that plot line, although you show me one other TV show where they'd do that storyline and not hang around long enough to actually let the enmotion of that settle in. Because they didn't. They really should have lingered on that longer. We got a couple of lines and Amy's savagery at the end (which was awful but anyway) and that was it. She should have been outraged at the Doctor for longer, she should have hated the whole time travelling nonsense, she have been stuck between mourning and celebrating the fact that her daughter survived, she should have been conflicted, but we didn't really see any of that much. It's great to do a storyline like that but you've got to dwell on it. Otherwise it becomes just another long running plot in a multitude of them and doesn't really have the emotional payoff you're looking for. OF course the obvious complaint people will have against that is its a kids show that needs to keep running along and that it will make the series too soapy again. I'd argue that underestimatign the kids that watch it, who would have got it, and that it's more about focusing on the meotional impact on characters. I'm actually fine with this potential step in a new direction, it keeps the character changing which is good. I just haven't thought that this series, which has mainly focused on setting up that change, has been a 'great' series and actually think it's been a little disappointing and poorer than it needed to be. And I don't really think, personally, that the new format has worked so well since the series has felt a little back to front. At the end of the day, they tried something new and that was brave. I don't personally feel that the series overall has worked that well and haven't really thought that much of it overall despite thinking that there a few really good episodes in it. That's probably mostly because, as I've mentioned, I didn't really get into the way the series has been formatted and I haven't really been able to get into the payoffs for any of the enigma codes. And as a result I've felt overall disappointed with the series because the sum of it's parts didn't mean that much to me and have said that if next series dissapoints me too then maybe it's not the series for me anymore.

There's a valid point to the argument that not everything should be wrappred up until you consider two things; A) There's things from last series which they hinted at in that series finale but seem to have completely dropped since and haven't even mentioned and B) whe nthe only thing you actually tie up is tied up in the most lame and predictable manner after building it up since the start of the series. I can't help but feel the whole series was back to front and needs to return to the old format. The cliffhanger in the middle was useless and the opening two episodes effectively felt like the finale and made everything else that came later seem low rent. It was a nice experiment but I can't say I felt it worked. If it wasn't a big year next year I'm not convinced I'd bother wit hthe next series, and that's certainly something I didn't think I'd be saying. And that's despite thinking some of the episodes this series seemed great.

Now this was an intro:

Really? Because I felt like I'd been smacked round the head with it. The envelopes were enough, a bit suspect that they were TARDIS blue but I'll let that slide, but the hat? At least that should end any suggestions that the series is more 'grown up', 'intelligent' or 'over complicated' over night. It's not any of them, its just more convuluted and pretentious at times. Still, a fun episode, even if it did get weaker as it went along. That was mostly because it didn't have much of a plot, or a threat or a conclusion. Which, I suppose, is quite important to a story. Still, some of the lines were fun. Although I'm pretty sure a 'fun romp' episode is meant to involve more, well, romping. Moffat seems like a pretty guilty father though. If he came up with the conclusion that is, I don't suppose that it can be a coincidence that the 'father's love' ending was used twice. I'm still not a fan of this series, not because I'm a Moff hater, I think there's been a few great episodes this series, but the rest have been crushingly dull and cheap. The format hasn't helped, opening with a two parter's a decent idea but not if they make the next few episodes come across as cheap as they did. And I haven't really enjoyed the story arc which feels a tad over done. At least with RTD it was just a word dropped into random sentences, with this series it's felt like there's been a constant suggestion that everything will really kick into gear later and that's stopped me from getting into what's happening in the current episode as much. And I feel that at times the twists and turns in time have threatened to overshadow the dramatic heart of stories. Twist in time narratives are good if they're used as a tool for more and they arn't used almost constantly, or if they arn't used just for the sake of it but that hasn't always been the case. So overall I'm left with a feeling that there's been some great episodes this year, but I can't help but feel a good deal of dissapointment. The series could have been so much better. Hopefulyl here I won't get the result I'd get elsewhere on the web with people calling me a 'RTD Fanboy' or a 'Moff Hater' or telling me that I 'don't understand' because none of them are true. I can see why other people might think that this series has been great, I've felt bits of it were myself, but to me it has promised more and not quite delivered yet. I suppose that will be rectified if the constant build up to something more actually delivers next week. Although even then I've got the worry that it's going to be a hideously over stuffed episode. Still, we'll see. I think the suggestion is that it was The Silence.

Now that was a good episode.

That's not what I was talking about. There were about two lines where Rory explained to her that he loved her for more than her looks. That'd have been okay once, but he made that point twice. That was for the audience's sake in case they didn't get it. Or at least that's the way it felt to me. It was just a tad too heavy handed at a point that didn't really need to be made for the audience's sake anyway.

I'm a bit dubious about how when women fancy a 900 year old alien they don't feel a need to show that it makes sense (because, you know, he's hot) but when a woman is in her fifties and wrinkly they have to bash you round the head twice to make sure you see that it's normal for Rory to still love her. I kinda figure we know by now that he loves her for more than her exceptional looks, we don't really need to have him tell us twice that he loves her for more than just what she is. Other than that it was alright. I preferred last weeks to be honest, but at least they got around how cheap an episode it was. It felt like it was trying really hard to be a turning point character wise, or at least an episode that changed the way you looked at characters but it wasn't. We know Rory's insanely in love with Amy and we know he doesn't want to be the Doctor and doesn't really approve of the way he lives his life. But what really bothers me is that they played the 'trying to be a helpful nurse but misunderstands or is misunderstood' card twice in the same bloody series. I wouldn't have minded if it was two following series but in the same one? Really?

Yeah but you're kind of ignoring the whole Time War narrative. The 9th Doctor was different, partly because he needed to be to ease an audience back into the show but also, in character terms, because he'd committed genocide, something so totally at odds with his character. He was forced into doing it because he knew it was the right thing, but there's no way something like that doesn't change you. The whole course of the first series is essentially about the Doctor realising that he can still be the Doctor and forgiving himself for what he's done. Admittedly it then gets dragged into later episodes and he never really gets over it but I don't suppose you would. He does become himself again though. And I don't even get what you're saying about how he's an idiot for not realising him and his arch enemy, the ultimate killing machine, are the same. I mean, who the hell would want to? Personally I think he knows subconsciously, the effects of trauma on him are pretty clear to see, and by the end of the episode he has to confront it. Its fine writing. Good even. Even as an introduction to the Daleks its fine. I mean, they haven't been written at all well in the New Series overall, but that's because they've appeared to many times, but the episode could have done a far worse job with them. They did something different with them that focused numerous themes beyond 'evil machine vs. clever guy'. Even beside that we see that one sick Dalek is an utterly destructive force, which leads a six year old to think that when a load of real Daleks come along they're going to impossible to beat. And by the time we get proper Daleks, which doesn't really happen to a Stolen Earth (I suppose you could count the Cult of Skaro but I don't since they're designed to be different from the average Dalek), you see the Doctor completely shut down because he doesn't think he can win. And in the end he ultimately needs three time lords to beat them, including a human timelord that's never happened before. If you'd have introduced a normal plain Dalek right from the off then you would have had them defeated right from the off. And that'd set them up as easy to defeat. They ended up become that way too soon as it was. Instead the Doctor didn't win in 'Dalek', but the Dalek gave up. Again, I don't think you've got much to stand on with this argument. People didn't think the Daleks could climb stairs because they were pepper pots on wheels. Because they didn't have any legs. You've got a bunch of humans who have never seen an actual live alien before and see a great big killer pepper pot which is chasing them. They're minds aren't working right to begin with. And desperately they hope that now they've climbed up the stairs there's nothing this thing can do because he doesn't have any legs, because they've never seen a giant pepper pot fly before. And so they're relieved. Its fine. It makes psychological sense. The whole point of Van Staton's people in the episode is that they've never actually had a real alien before. They don't know how to treat them. The whole point of the musical instrument was to prove that despite collecting all the equipment they knew totally nothing about any of it. That's set up the whole way through the episode. So they don't think "hey this alien could fly" because they know sod all about aliens. But then, as you later point out, the public already knows how stupid the Dalek design is. Its pop culture. Everyone knows the jokes. Which brings along two points. A) The slightly kitsch value is still a big part of the show. The Doctor even saves the world from Cybermen with the use of a mobile phone. It's not serious sci-fi, and is all the worse when it attempts to be. Some of the appeal of the show is that little bit of lameness you don't get from the adult science fiction series. B) By having that line so early on in the episode it voices what every child watching it probably thought of the Dalek. The Dalek then proves to be an incredibly destructive force. Without the line you might think "well yeah, but its only a dustbin" but because of the line the effectiveness of the killing machine entrapping the dalek becomes all the more prominent. Effectively the line is rubbished. Yeah, it does look like a dustbin, but so fucking what, is the script's message. And considering the budget, the need for Doctor Who to have the odd lame alien to still be what it is and the often used monster of the week format it's very important they establish that message early on in the new series. That and the fact that Daleks are fucking hard to write for. They've done everything, and most of the time their episodes haven't been all that great. That's mostly why Moffat doesn't really want to write them yet. There's things you can knock about the first series, comparing it to later series proves just how much of it was an experiment to try and find a style, but Dalek did pretty much what it had to.

I thought it was good. Maybe that's just because I enjoyed having an episode which wasn't; how many twists can I do in an episode or how many potential new viewers can I alienate in one sitting? Its not the best of this series, but its up there. Edit: I should explain that I quite enjoy the odd episode like that, I'm just getting a bored of most of the episodes feeling like they follow this template. It was just a nice change of pace really.

Has anyone ever bothered to play through it again for the different endings? Its been so long I can't actually remember the choices I made the first time.

I like Stardust. I wasn't too fond of the film, it was alright just nothing special, but the book is pretty good.

I've read forums where people appear to have pretty much that opinion. I agree with you, Doctor Who should be goofy, but there are those who would prefer Doctor Who take a more 'serious' approach. That's what I think helped inspire the producers of the movie to make it the way they did.

I almost feel that the film tried to hard to please fans. People might disagree with me on this but it really did feel like it had taken fan wishes into consideration but had ignored the essence of the show. McCoy's death, while nice and touching didn't really do the film many favours, it had the harder and gritter edge that fans often harp on about, Paul McGan (who was fantastic) had a costume that definately seemed designed by a fan and there was a whole emphasis on making it less goofy, less eccentric and more adult which a lot of Dr Who fans seem desperately to pine for. But when taking these factors into consideration they ignored the heart of the show.

You know what would sell me a new NHL game? If I can play the season/franchise mode but pick the number of games in a season. And I know someone's going to tell me that I can do that in the current one now and I'm just an idiot who can't find it.

I thought about getting a Fall Out game the other week but before I do, what's the chances of me liking one of these if I didn't really get into Elder Scrolls. I know they're entirely different settings and so forth but I'm under the impression that otherwise they're somewhat similar games.