Doctor Who "Cold Blood"

Just time for a few quick thoughts about last Saturday's episode. It was an entertaining follow-up to the first part with the threat of a human/Silurian war hanging over proceedings, especially when the lizard lady on the surface doesn't survive the human mother's questioning.

But the real "wow" moments of the episode come right at the end.

Firstly that "crack" reappears, the one that is a rip in the fabric of time and space, the one cause by some unimaginable release of energy.

The Doctor concludes that there must be some "shrapnel" from that explosion in the crack and reaches in. As he does so the other lizard lady (also played by Neve McIntosh) fires at the Doctor. Rory pushes the Doctor aside and get shot. The crack energy reaches out for Rory and the Doctor and Amy realise that he will be wiped from history and will hever have existed. Amy tearfully struggles to hold on to his memory but by the time the Tardis reaches the surface she has forgotten him.


And the other "wow" moment? It's a good one.

The Doctor unwraps the piece of shrapnel to discover it's a piece of the Tardis.

Oh. Dear.

Luther episode 4

Another enjoyable episode of this show. This one features another serial killer who uses a taxi to catch his victims.

Early in the episode Luther is told that the serial killer he put in a coma (at the start of episode 1) has woken up. He goes to Alice to tell her he can't see her any more because his phone and email will be monitored. Alice doesn't take it very well.

Alice disguises herself as a doctor and manages to get the policeman guarding the serial killer to go to another ward. Then she smothers the killer so she and Luther can be together.

When Luther finds out he Smashes Stuff again. Brilliant.

She also breaks the news to Luther's ex-wife's boyfriend that the ex-wife is cheating on him (the boyfriend) with her ex-husband. Yes it's complicated.

Once again Ruth is great as Alice Morgan, coldly calculating and just on this side of barking mad.

As an added bonus here is a nice photo of Ruth from the new issue of the Radio Times.

Doctor Who "The Hungry Earth"

I was a little lukewarm about the last couple of stories but I'm happy to say I enjoyed last night's episode very much.

The Doctor and gang arrive in 2020 Wales where a drilling project has passed 21 km under the earth. As a result something has been awoken. Amy get sucked into the earth in front of the Doctor's eyes and he's reduced to making vague promises about getting her back. Later after a creepy scene in a church graveyard where something is prowing around a small boy similarly vanishes. The Doctor realises he was the last one to see him and had absent-mindedly let the boy leave the church.

However the Doctor manages to capture his own "hostage" and it turns out to be a Silurian, a creature that I believe Jon Pertwee first encounted as the Third Doctor. These lizard people are interesting characters because they evolved on Earth millions of years before us ape-people came along and messed everything up. One could understand them being a bit annoyed at the apes running around on the surface.

Doctor Who makeup has improved greatly over the old show and the makeup on the lead Silurian lady is impressive. Speaking of which I noticed the actress who played said lizard lady was Neve McIntosh who played nurse Donna Rix in Bodies a few years back on BBC3. Talk about unrecognisable.

I also feld that there was more than a hint of the BBC's old Quatermass shows in this episode. In particular Quatermass and the Pit where an ancient alien spaceship is found buried under a London tube station. It was remade as a Hammer movie in the 1960s if you want to check it out.

A good episode and I look forward to the next part.

Felicity Jones The Chalet Girl and Cemetery Junction pictures

The Chalet Girl



Cemetery Junction



Thanks to Enrique

Ruth Wilson, Here’s a face to remember

And another Ruth Wilson article appears this weekend. This one focues on Luther, The Prisoner and her upcoming play Through a Glass Darkly.

Are you saying I might be a nutjob?” I had, in fact, been suggesting that Ruth Wilson is becoming something of a specialist at playing nutjobs. The term was a little brusque, perhaps, but, given her high-profile role as the flint-eyed psychotic Alice Morgan in BBC1’s Luther, as well as her forthcoming turn at the Almeida as an asylum-bound woman, it didn’t seem out of place. Even her Olivier-winning performance as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar last year was a character surrounded by madness, if stoically unaffected herself. Some would argue there is even an element of madness in Jane Eyre, Wilson’s breakthrough television role four years ago.

Read the whole article at

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article7131150.ece

Black Widow 12 inch figure catches my eye

I've mentioned before how Black Widow is one of my favourite Marvel comic characters. Well, I've discovered that Hot Toys are doing a 12 inch figure based on Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2 and she has caught my eye.



Here's the "blurb":

Iron Man 2 - Black Widow 12 inch Figure

The movie-accurate Black Widow collectible is specially crafted based on the image of Scarlett Johansson in the movie, highlighting the newly sculpted head, hair implantation, highly detailed costume and accessories.

* Authentic and detailed likeness of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in the movie Iron Man 2
* Newly sculpted head with movie-accurate facial expression and make-up
* Real fabric hair implantation
* Newly developed female TrueType body
* Approximately 28 cm tall
* Over 28 points of articulations
* Two pairs of interchangeable gloved palms (one pair of relaxed palms; one pair for holding pistols)
* One extra right gloved palm for posing on waist
* Each piece of head sculpt is specially hand-painted
* One-piece tight dark blue coloured jumpsuit with one belt included
* One extra greyish black coloured belt with pouches and pistol holster
* One pair of leather-like greyish blue coloured platform boots with buckles
* Two pistols
* One pair of bracelets with multiple-bullet design
* Figure base with Black Widow nameplate and the movie logo

Expected 18th December 2010

All well and good. Except for the price; Forbidden Planet are listing it at £149.99!!! Just a wee bit out of my price range.

Royal Mail crushed my posters!

In a diversion from my normal posts let me present this tale of woe. I ordered a couple of James Bond movie posters from a seller on ebay. They were packed well in a good sturdy poster tube but despite this Royal Mail somehow managed to crush the end of the tube. This resulted in my brand new posters being all creased down one side.

I took a few photos for my compensation claim and here are a few of them.

Licence to Kill came of worst.



Thunderball was not as bad but was still creased.



I'm not a happy camper about this. I want to get some replacements but it should be Royal Mail that has to pay for them so I put in a claim. I'll let you know how it goes.