Doctor Who: Underworld

I think I am on record on stating that Tom Baker is my favorite doctor. In some ways it's because he's the perfect middle of Doctor-dom. He's neither too old, nor too young. Too scholarly or too crazy. He is just wonderfully enough the doctor. He also manages to be sexy to woman while looking like a human muppet and boyo that takes some doing. I think it's his voice, it is both at the same time commanding yet gentle. Everyone's favorite teacher. He's of course aided by able writing that makes him someone who is at the same time both distracted yet highly caring.

This is a lesser part of his saga but fun none the less. The tardis finds itself on the arse end of the universe where they suprisingly find both a space ship and a nebula. The space ship has been on a 100,000 year quest and since the people on it were sort of screwed by the time lords (all a misunderstanding) the Doctor decides to give a hand. It turns out that inside the nebula is a new born planet, and inside that planet is the end of their quest. There are slaves to be freed and plenty of cliff hangers. It is all great fun!

Haven

"Haven" is based on Stephen King's "The Colorado Kid." I have not read "The Colorado Kid," so I can't judge by how it is adapted. However, that's always a rather weak link of criticism. The main event is always how does the work in front of me hold up on its own merits.

Well, better than expected from Syfy. I think they have a different crew for their TV series than their movies. "Eureka," "Battlestar Galatica," and "Warehouse 13," are all fairly decent cable offerings. Based on the first episode "Haven" has a chance to join them.

The story so far is sort of Twin Peaky. The Maine Town of Haven, is pretty normal looking but deep down odd. You don't have to scratch too hard either, if you are just driving around the road has the disturbing tendecy to split open as if trying to swallow you whole.

It's because of one such event that the pretty FBI agent and the local cop (who happens to be unable to feel any pain) have a cute meet with guns drawn. They fast become partners and solve a rather difficult case under difficult and disturbing weather. But there are deeper mysteries in Haven. Can they be solved?

Ok, it's fun enough, my only real kick is folks were too easy in accepting the weirdness. It was like .. "Oh so and so can do that, isn't that weird?" No it is not weird, it is fricking unhuman. People can't do that shit, and basically you just shrugged? Get out of town.

Anyway, I'll watch a second episode at the very least.

Doctor Who: The Chase

I have never seen outside of stills any of the original Doctor Who series. So it was something of a treat that "The Chase" has come out on DVD. Much has been made in fandom about which Doctor is the Doctor you'd call for your own housecall. Let me just say that for me, it is not William Hartnell. He's perfectly good as the Doctor mind you, but if I need a crotchity person calling himself a Doctor I'll vote for "Bones" McCoy thank you very much. For the record it will always be Tom Baker for me, long may his scarf flutter.

With that out of the way, the story is an exciting one. The Doctor is being chased through time and space by the Daleks who finally figured out how to make their own time machine. The chase lands them on both alien planets and New York (Wonderfully funny attempts of Brits to do a Texan and a New York accent), and the Marie Celeste. For the most part the plot and acting are very good for children tv at that time. A view from later on from an older viewer might have wanted a bit more twists in a chase between two time machines. To me it would be a lot more like an aerial dogfight.. "Oh he's going to triassic, ah no he faked us out to the post apocalypse..."

Of course one can't watch this without looking at the production values which are both incredible given the time and cheesy given now. The Daleks for the most part look great, but their time machine is wonderfully laughable. I love the prints with the spinning wheels on the walls. I didn't know daleks were into pop art. As for some of the other races, they are good enough even if their leotards are a little ill fitting.

Over all a wonderful show, that would still engage a child's imagination to this day. Also, it is one of those story arcs that have a very satisfying end for some of the Doctor's friends. If you like Doctor Who watch it for sure.

Daria

"Daria has come out in DVD and I've been enjoying a trip down memory lane. Daria was a spin off of Beavis & Butthead, which is certainly proof that good things can come from unexpected sources. Though Beavis & Butthead can be seen as the progenitor of half of Adult Swim's current line up, it will always be something of a guilty pleasure for me. There is, however, nothing guilty in my enjoyment of Daria who is just too smart for school (possibly the world as well). The series itself is very sitcom-y. Daria has moved to a new high school and has to not fit in again, meanwhile at home she has to deal with over achieving mother and over popular younger sister. Aided only with the help of her equally snarky friend Jane she navigates these pitfalls with a dead pan style. Watching this again, I'm struck by how well the jokes hold up. I'm also interested in that the other characters while stock high school stereotypes do have their own little grow spurts of character. Frankly, it is an incredibly well written show.

Piece of crock vs. dynomutt or something silly like that

Oh syfy.

This was one of the last films to feature David Carradine. I can't help but to feel it might have something to do with how he ended his life accidently. After being in this flick, choking one's self for pleasure might seem a lot more logical. I'll give him this there was about 20 seconds of acting that made this film good. His nurse forces his heart pills on him and he takes them with a semi sneer. He takes the glass of water from her hand. He then flicks the water out into the pool. He dry swallows the pills and fill the glass with jack daniels and as she pouts with disapproval downs it after the pills. Good show Mr. Carradine.

The rest of the film is a waste, and is only fun if one is wasted or can mentally fake it. The plot is pulp, and the characters are sap. The writing is cliched and dumb: "First you said I stink, now you call me a hillbilly, you must really be flirting with me." The special effects are not special, are bad, and have no character. In short this is a bad film that isn't even a good bad film.

So Sad.

Unnatural History

"Unnatural History" is a new series on Cartoon Network. It is a live action series. On Cartoon Network. Yeah. I hate this tendency for "mission creep" in our tv channels. I want my MTV back, you know the channel that had MUSIC. I want science fiction on the SF channel not the SYFY channel. I want American Movie Channel to go back to being American Movie CLASSICS.

Oh well. Bitching aside, "Unnatural History" isn't bad and has promise. Two very different people team up to do an encyclopedia brown. One is a world traveller, martial artist, hero in training. The other is a scholar and bit of a wet blanket. The mysteries will mostly come from the rather odd collection of odds and ends in one section of the musuem.

There is good chemistry between the leads, and it moves lively.

Going for Breaking Bad

So it is the end of the third season of "Breaking Bad," and I'm feeling so sad. After 3 seasons of Jessie not crossing the final line, well... it was crossed and then crossed out. Our heroes/protagonists/anti-heroes have finally reached the point where they can say honestly to themselves that they are the bad guys. This is a massive change from season 2 where Walt would deny he was the bad guy even as bodies literally rained down from the sky because of his actions.

AMC has finally announced that there will be a fourth season and one can only wonder where things will go.

Will Skye follow her husband deeper into crime. Will it excite her? Bring some sparks back into their marriage?

Can Jessie survive being on the Chicken Man's short list for a long box? Is he going to go back on the meth?

Will Hank walk? Can Marie keep his "ground hog" interested?

And Walt, Walt, Walt. Will you continue to grow as the bad guy? Maybe you'll take over the drug empire of New Mexico. I have no reason to like you. You are anal to the point that if aliens kidnapped you they'd need a probe the size of the empire state building. You are a user of people. You have dragged down your family in with your problems. Despite all that, I love watching Breaking Bad and I find myself routing for you everytime you pull off some feat of super bad assery.

This is certainly a dangerous show to watch. Dangerously addictive, and just dangerous to those in the audience who are a little dumber than average and want to break their own bad. Seriously, at one point in the show someone disabled a security system with a bunch of mylar balloons. Who wants to bet that in real life some one will try this. I don't know if it will work but it should make an amusing news story when it happens.

Small Island, Smaller World

Small Island is a Masterpiece Theater production, which means it looks rich for television. I'd love to be an extra in one of their shows, but alas too too american. This particular production was about some kindly folk from Jamaica who decide for reasons of their own to go to England and help the war effort.

Oh they were black, that's slightly important.

One joins the army and has an affair with a white woman, the other just wants to be a female school teacher with the house and the garden. Well they find out that things aren't as easy as they seem. As the narrator points out, she may be the mother country but that doesn't neccessarily make her a good mother.

It all makes for soppy english romance so you have to have a taste for that. Specially a 3 hour long taste for it. I admit I sort of coasted in the middle. But it is a good strong drama and I loved the child birth scene near the end. If it wasn't the other side of the child birth scene from "Gone With the Wind" then Bob's my uncle.