Day 6
TV Meme day 6: Favourite episode of your favourite show
Damn I wish I’d thought of this before picking the Doc. There are so many I just love. ‘Vincent and the Doctor’, ‘Turn Left’, ‘The Caves of Androzani’, ‘Pyramids of Mars’, ‘Talons of Weng Chiang’, ‘The Five Doctors’, ‘The Unquiet Dead’, ‘Battlefield’ and oh so very many more… but, once again, home is where the heart is…
Blink
It’s so creatively put together. Event being out of sequence tends to throw some people, but this is from the pen of Steven Moffat. As a long time Moffat acolyte I’ve seen him fiddle with time lines many times over the years. I saw it in ‘Monday- Tuesday’ (Press Gang), and plenty of times in ‘Coupling’.
In Sally Sparrow he gives us a character who not only has to fill in for the companion, but also for The Doctor himself. Cathy’s disappearing is handled beautifully.
(As an interesting aside, during the read through they got to the scene where Cathy arrives in the past. Producer Phil Collinson stopped everything and said to show runner Russell T Davies “One man sitting on a wall in a field. THAT’S how you write historical settings on a budget!”)
At the end of the story you can’t help feeling sorry for Larry and frustrated that Sally still won’t let him in. Billy Shipton is another great character. He’s there long enough for Sally and us to like him… then he’s zapped back to 1969. Minutes after first meeting him, Sally sees him again, but now he’s an old man in hospital, waiting out his final minutes. For her it’s been the length of one rain shower. For him it’s been thirty eight years!
I just love the idea that the world could be saved by a DVD extra. That confusing, one sided conversation suddenly slots in perfectly and would have you leaping with delight, if it didn’t lead straight into an encounter that is pants wettingly tense. The reveal of the other side of the DVD conversation is great, quickly followed by the solution to the threat, and finally to the revelation of how the Doctor knew every detail of what was going to happen 38 years before it happened.
Then, of course, there’s the Weeping Angels. Moffat based them on the old playground game Grandmother’s Footsteps, which he always found unsettling. Using the image of angels, which are supposed to be uplifting, as a scary thing works so well. Is there anything scarier than a killer who looks kind? The thought that you know they’re there but you can’t do anything to stop them is tense. Then you learn just how lightning fast they move. It’s not so bad though. If they are seen they turn to solid stone. The fact they can’t hurt you so long as can see them seems simple enough… but then you turn your head… or blink.
Moffat has said that one of his formative moments as a child was the sight of Auton smashing their way out of a department store. For a long time afterwards he was scared of mannequins. And that’s what he was trying to capture for modern kids. And it lead him to add the final sting in the tail. As Sally and Larry walk off together to a new life it feels like the episode is over… but it goes on for just a little longer. (link below to see what I mean)
It’s another bit of gold from the man who gave us ‘Are you my mummy?’, The Giggle Loop, The Sock Gap, the Nudity Buffer and Colin Matthews.
“Don’t blink. Blink and you‘re dead. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away, and don’t blink! Good luck”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmJSfydILA
Movie Meme day 6: Favourite made for TV movie.
The Rat Pack
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/The_Rat_Pack_%28film%29.jpg
In the opening scene an aging Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta) is about to go on stage. The crowd is cheering, his entourage is pumped, the band is swinging. Frank pulls out a cigarette and, before anyone else can react, a pretty young woman leans in with a lighter. He’s still a huge star, surrounded by people who admire him… but waiting in the wings he gets sullen. When asked if everything’s alright he just says
“I miss my guys.”
The music swells up, he strides on stage, grabs the microphone and instantly he’s back in his prime, with the rest of the Rat Pack.
That’s just the opening. The story deals with many parts of their lives, both individually and as a group. From Marilyn Monroe’s antics and death, to Frank’s declining friendship with JFK, accusations of involvement with the mafia, Sammy being the butt of racist jokes and his marriage to May Britt… a white woman (the two stayed loyal to each other till his dying day), Sammy’s conversion to Judaism, the accident that cost him his eye, Peter Lawford’s troubled marriage, Frank’s marriages/divorces, and the filming of the original ‘Oceans 11’.
Ray Liotta plays a great Sinatra. Don Cheadle won an Emmy for his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr, but to me the best performance is Joe Mantegna (Fat Tony from ‘The Simpsons’) as Dean Martin. He seems to be the balanced one of the group, enjoying the fame and luxury, but never letting it go to his head.
In one scene Dean is sitting at the bar in a Vegas casino having a conversation with someone. He says that fame is fickle, and then demonstrates it. He turns to two passing glamorous young women and says
“Excuse me ladies… a bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh…”
The women giggle at his charming drunk act, then move on. Dean turns back to his companion and says
“You see? It’s like the whole world is drunk and we’re just the cocktail of the moment. Some day soon everyone’s gonna wake with a hangover, take two aspirin and a tall glass of tomato juice and wonder what all the fuss was about.”
Another scene plays right through Dean’s classic song ‘Ain’t Love a Kick in the Head’. The scene starts looking through the window of Sammy’s hotel room were he and May are passionately making love. The camera continues up to the hotel room above, where Joey Bishop is lying in bed with a random naked woman on top of him. Moving up again to the next floor we see the bed is made and empty… until Peter Lawford and another random naked woman are up against the wall in the bathroom. The camera raises again to Frank’s room where he is in bed with two random women. And finally we move up one more floor to the final hotel room, where Dean is sitting on the bed in his pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers, watching TV and drinking a glass of milk!
It’s the sudden shift in mood that makes this scene one of the best for me.
On top of all that, naturally, is a soundtrack of some of the best songs ever.
Damn I wish I’d thought of this before picking the Doc. There are so many I just love. ‘Vincent and the Doctor’, ‘Turn Left’, ‘The Caves of Androzani’, ‘Pyramids of Mars’, ‘Talons of Weng Chiang’, ‘The Five Doctors’, ‘The Unquiet Dead’, ‘Battlefield’ and oh so very many more… but, once again, home is where the heart is…
Blink
It’s so creatively put together. Event being out of sequence tends to throw some people, but this is from the pen of Steven Moffat. As a long time Moffat acolyte I’ve seen him fiddle with time lines many times over the years. I saw it in ‘Monday- Tuesday’ (Press Gang), and plenty of times in ‘Coupling’.
In Sally Sparrow he gives us a character who not only has to fill in for the companion, but also for The Doctor himself. Cathy’s disappearing is handled beautifully.
(As an interesting aside, during the read through they got to the scene where Cathy arrives in the past. Producer Phil Collinson stopped everything and said to show runner Russell T Davies “One man sitting on a wall in a field. THAT’S how you write historical settings on a budget!”)
At the end of the story you can’t help feeling sorry for Larry and frustrated that Sally still won’t let him in. Billy Shipton is another great character. He’s there long enough for Sally and us to like him… then he’s zapped back to 1969. Minutes after first meeting him, Sally sees him again, but now he’s an old man in hospital, waiting out his final minutes. For her it’s been the length of one rain shower. For him it’s been thirty eight years!
I just love the idea that the world could be saved by a DVD extra. That confusing, one sided conversation suddenly slots in perfectly and would have you leaping with delight, if it didn’t lead straight into an encounter that is pants wettingly tense. The reveal of the other side of the DVD conversation is great, quickly followed by the solution to the threat, and finally to the revelation of how the Doctor knew every detail of what was going to happen 38 years before it happened.
Then, of course, there’s the Weeping Angels. Moffat based them on the old playground game Grandmother’s Footsteps, which he always found unsettling. Using the image of angels, which are supposed to be uplifting, as a scary thing works so well. Is there anything scarier than a killer who looks kind? The thought that you know they’re there but you can’t do anything to stop them is tense. Then you learn just how lightning fast they move. It’s not so bad though. If they are seen they turn to solid stone. The fact they can’t hurt you so long as can see them seems simple enough… but then you turn your head… or blink.
Moffat has said that one of his formative moments as a child was the sight of Auton smashing their way out of a department store. For a long time afterwards he was scared of mannequins. And that’s what he was trying to capture for modern kids. And it lead him to add the final sting in the tail. As Sally and Larry walk off together to a new life it feels like the episode is over… but it goes on for just a little longer. (link below to see what I mean)
It’s another bit of gold from the man who gave us ‘Are you my mummy?’, The Giggle Loop, The Sock Gap, the Nudity Buffer and Colin Matthews.
“Don’t blink. Blink and you‘re dead. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away, and don’t blink! Good luck”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmJSfydILA
Movie Meme day 6: Favourite made for TV movie.
The Rat Pack
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/The_Rat_Pack_%28film%29.jpg
In the opening scene an aging Frank Sinatra (Ray Liotta) is about to go on stage. The crowd is cheering, his entourage is pumped, the band is swinging. Frank pulls out a cigarette and, before anyone else can react, a pretty young woman leans in with a lighter. He’s still a huge star, surrounded by people who admire him… but waiting in the wings he gets sullen. When asked if everything’s alright he just says
“I miss my guys.”
The music swells up, he strides on stage, grabs the microphone and instantly he’s back in his prime, with the rest of the Rat Pack.
That’s just the opening. The story deals with many parts of their lives, both individually and as a group. From Marilyn Monroe’s antics and death, to Frank’s declining friendship with JFK, accusations of involvement with the mafia, Sammy being the butt of racist jokes and his marriage to May Britt… a white woman (the two stayed loyal to each other till his dying day), Sammy’s conversion to Judaism, the accident that cost him his eye, Peter Lawford’s troubled marriage, Frank’s marriages/divorces, and the filming of the original ‘Oceans 11’.
Ray Liotta plays a great Sinatra. Don Cheadle won an Emmy for his portrayal of Sammy Davis Jr, but to me the best performance is Joe Mantegna (Fat Tony from ‘The Simpsons’) as Dean Martin. He seems to be the balanced one of the group, enjoying the fame and luxury, but never letting it go to his head.
In one scene Dean is sitting at the bar in a Vegas casino having a conversation with someone. He says that fame is fickle, and then demonstrates it. He turns to two passing glamorous young women and says
“Excuse me ladies… a bluh bluh bluh bluh bluh…”
The women giggle at his charming drunk act, then move on. Dean turns back to his companion and says
“You see? It’s like the whole world is drunk and we’re just the cocktail of the moment. Some day soon everyone’s gonna wake with a hangover, take two aspirin and a tall glass of tomato juice and wonder what all the fuss was about.”
Another scene plays right through Dean’s classic song ‘Ain’t Love a Kick in the Head’. The scene starts looking through the window of Sammy’s hotel room were he and May are passionately making love. The camera continues up to the hotel room above, where Joey Bishop is lying in bed with a random naked woman on top of him. Moving up again to the next floor we see the bed is made and empty… until Peter Lawford and another random naked woman are up against the wall in the bathroom. The camera raises again to Frank’s room where he is in bed with two random women. And finally we move up one more floor to the final hotel room, where Dean is sitting on the bed in his pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers, watching TV and drinking a glass of milk!
It’s the sudden shift in mood that makes this scene one of the best for me.
On top of all that, naturally, is a soundtrack of some of the best songs ever.