"His spats are the colour of a poison jar."
1. I've totally started watching The West Wing after sitting (not literally) on the first season boxset since I got it for my birthday. I wasn't sure if it'd be my thing or not, but it actually is! It's sort of like if Press Gang were American and set in the White House. It's really absorbing and funny and the characters are great, and there's lots of walking down corridors and speaking really fast and non-annoying snarkiness. Sometimes I have no idea what's going on for about two minutes and then all of a sudden I do, because it's like "fuck it, we're not explaining stuff to the audience, they're not idiots, they can work it out" and I dig that. ER did the same thing (I used to watch it with my mum, shut up). I can see myself getting really into it and chugging down seven episodes a day or something like that. I'm already getting a craving to watch another episode AS I TYPE.
2. I've also done a few more Big Finish plays recently. Buying Big Finish stuff is just ridiculously compulsive in a way that buying other stuff isn't. Maybe they put subliminal messages in their audios?
The Harvest - Ooo, it's all modern and shiny and introduces lovely Hex! I'd listened to this several years ago, before I'd actually bought it. Yeah, I know. Its very modern, urban feel is still really refreshing even after the RTD era. And Hex was the best thing to happen to Seven/Ace, because by the time Big Finish started there wasn't much left you could do with that team. Also, I like how interesting the villains are in it - their plan is just ridiculously awesome/gross.
Creatures of Beauty - Disgustingly good. So good I'm still speechless. This isn't Doctor Who I should usually like because it's very sci-fi and there's no humour whatsoever and it's all told out of sequence, but oh my god, it's amazing. Amazing. Listen to it right now.
Forty-Five - Big Finish's third anthology release, and while it's not as epic as Circular Time (or as disappointing as 100), the four stories range from solid to excellent, which is fine by me. The best of the four was undoubtedly The Word Lord, not just because it's got Colin from Press Gang in it as an alternate dimension Time Lord (yes, he's a Word Lord and has a CORDIS!) who's an unpredictable maniac and a bit like a twisted, evil Tenth Doctor. Well, actually mainly because of that, but it's a great story all the same. I demand an appearance from the Word Lord in series six, with Paul Reynolds still playing him, naturally.
Year of the Pig - Urgh, I'm in awe of Matthew Sweet's writing. His subsequent and even better play The Magic Mousetrap was tighter and more "traditional" than this one (still mad as a box of frogs though), but Year of the Pig is still great in all its rambling, rich, wordy glory. I wish we'd got the Peri we get here on telly (that goes for audio!Peri in general, actually). And you've got to love a story where the Sixth Doctor gets the nickname "Battenberg" (after the cake, non-UKers) because of his waistcoat. It's also got Vila from Blake's 7 in it and Adjoa Andoh who is brilliant, far too good for the thankless part of Francine Jones in telly Who.
3. Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
"It's just a Star Trek clone, it can't be any good!"
I WAS WRONG. DEAD WRONG. I put off watching it for ages, convinced it wasn't for me. I was young and naive and Just Didn't Understand. I had no idea that this was, quite simply, the most epic fucking TV series ever conceived by mankind. Because it is. Oh my god. If you've never seen Babylon 5, you're missing out. I know I say that a lot, but I really do mean it. It's like no other sci-fi or television series ever made. It's the wildest ride of your entire life. Plus, Susan Ivanova, AKA God.
Also, rather sadly, one of the reasons why I went off Spaced was because of the whole "Babylon 5 is a big pile of shit!" scene. That and I over-watched it to the point where even thinking about Spaced makes me nauseous, but that was certainly part of it. That's really lame, isn't it?
2. I've also done a few more Big Finish plays recently. Buying Big Finish stuff is just ridiculously compulsive in a way that buying other stuff isn't. Maybe they put subliminal messages in their audios?
The Harvest - Ooo, it's all modern and shiny and introduces lovely Hex! I'd listened to this several years ago, before I'd actually bought it. Yeah, I know. Its very modern, urban feel is still really refreshing even after the RTD era. And Hex was the best thing to happen to Seven/Ace, because by the time Big Finish started there wasn't much left you could do with that team. Also, I like how interesting the villains are in it - their plan is just ridiculously awesome/gross.
Creatures of Beauty - Disgustingly good. So good I'm still speechless. This isn't Doctor Who I should usually like because it's very sci-fi and there's no humour whatsoever and it's all told out of sequence, but oh my god, it's amazing. Amazing. Listen to it right now.
Forty-Five - Big Finish's third anthology release, and while it's not as epic as Circular Time (or as disappointing as 100), the four stories range from solid to excellent, which is fine by me. The best of the four was undoubtedly The Word Lord, not just because it's got Colin from Press Gang in it as an alternate dimension Time Lord (yes, he's a Word Lord and has a CORDIS!) who's an unpredictable maniac and a bit like a twisted, evil Tenth Doctor. Well, actually mainly because of that, but it's a great story all the same. I demand an appearance from the Word Lord in series six, with Paul Reynolds still playing him, naturally.
Year of the Pig - Urgh, I'm in awe of Matthew Sweet's writing. His subsequent and even better play The Magic Mousetrap was tighter and more "traditional" than this one (still mad as a box of frogs though), but Year of the Pig is still great in all its rambling, rich, wordy glory. I wish we'd got the Peri we get here on telly (that goes for audio!Peri in general, actually). And you've got to love a story where the Sixth Doctor gets the nickname "Battenberg" (after the cake, non-UKers) because of his waistcoat. It's also got Vila from Blake's 7 in it and Adjoa Andoh who is brilliant, far too good for the thankless part of Francine Jones in telly Who.
3. Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
"It's just a Star Trek clone, it can't be any good!"
I WAS WRONG. DEAD WRONG. I put off watching it for ages, convinced it wasn't for me. I was young and naive and Just Didn't Understand. I had no idea that this was, quite simply, the most epic fucking TV series ever conceived by mankind. Because it is. Oh my god. If you've never seen Babylon 5, you're missing out. I know I say that a lot, but I really do mean it. It's like no other sci-fi or television series ever made. It's the wildest ride of your entire life. Plus, Susan Ivanova, AKA God.
Also, rather sadly, one of the reasons why I went off Spaced was because of the whole "Babylon 5 is a big pile of shit!" scene. That and I over-watched it to the point where even thinking about Spaced makes me nauseous, but that was certainly part of it. That's really lame, isn't it?