"The idea of this would be to get people to think of Kirk when they think of Spock."

Interesting correspondence suggests Isaac Asimov gave Roddenberry the idea of bringing Kirk and Spock closer together emotionally. The rest is slash-fiction history, presumably up to and including 50 Shades of Grey. Yikes, Ike!

Was it just me, or was it really really dreadful?

I haven't read the book - I had long given up on Douglas Adams by that point, after the dire 3rd and even worse 4th Hitchhiker books. So it may be that the TV adaptation was a travesty of its brilliance: let me know what you think. But blimey, it was knuckle-gnawingly poor. It seemed like the ( Read more... )

Did anyone else catch the 4-part 'Tutu Talks' on BBC4 the other week? It was a series of round-the-table discussions between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and assorted African academics, journalists, politicians, NGO workers etc, under the following titles (which don't very well reflect the themes of the actual discussions -- the summaries here are ( Read more... )

Did anyone see this on Channel 4 last night? I'll try and pick it up on a catch-up service when I have a moment, but this article on the subject by the presenter is interesting reading. Although, being the Telegraph, many of the comments are frankly scary ( Read more... )

The first time I saw Julia McKenzie, I was 15 or so and she was playing Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre. I was sat quite near the front, and when she flung off her mink coat during her big number 'A Person Could Develop a Cold', it made a forceful impression on my youthful mind.

Last night she was playing Miss Marple on TV ( Read more... )

Is anyone else watching The Incredible Human Journey? I'm finding it pretty interesting. Not about two dogs and a cat (or even a human) traipsing across North America, but about the early migrations of the human species. Paleoanthropology is a discipline that has been shaken up so radically in recent years, with the arrival of DNA analysis ( Read more... )

I had a very early start to today, so need to restore some sanity by closing a few tabs on things that have interested me lately.

• Million Dollar Babies -- art made by collaging cut-up dollar bills. But much better than that description sounds -- you can click through the several pieces using the discreet Next button.
  "I love all the process. For ( Read more... )

Just learnt from vicarage that Oliver Postgate has diedHis work will need no introduction to those of you who are Brits of +/- 15 years or so of my age, because it played a large and benevolent part in shaping our childhoods. Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and the Clangers -- any one of them would have made him and the rest of the Smallfilms team ( Read more... )

I thought this clip from a German TV show was very funny. It explains the setup right at the beginning, so no harm doing so here: a cloakroom with a mirror, except it isn't a mirror, it's plain glass with an exact mockup behind it, and a set of well-choreographed identical twins. It's the way they all plaintively say things like "Sehen Sie mich im ( Read more... )

( And why? )