Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Starman
And we're back.
You might have noticed the new series of Doctor Who started this weekend and The Impossible Astronaut compelled me to have a word splurge.
To start a series off with a two-parter is more like the old days of the series and it marked the new direction under Stephen Moffat by starting with creatures that were disturbing and, whoa, scary.
Remember the adipose? They were amusing, sure, but at the ultimate end it was just another episode with an alien disguised as a human and a blinky spaceship and David Tennant making lots of 'ohhhhhhs' and funny faces.
It was almost inevitable that every series of Doctor Who should start with some mild peril gambit of the world being in danger via some silly source that you couldn't quite take seriously (autons, aformentioned adipose, a weird translucent floating snake and some cops made of eyeballs).
Of course, these episodes would hint at what was to come, some bigger whodunit to be solved after a 42 minute yarn of mild peril and toasted teacakes.
There's more danger in this year's opener, it's sinister, creepy and confusing, thanks to all the bizarre time-travel whatishappeningidontunderstand in the first 10 minutes.
There's nothing wrong with having an over-riding story arc throughout a series, the feature working in brilliant fashion in the last series with reappearing cracks in time, but there are still things left over from last year to explore. EXCITING.
Who did the crackly voice on the Tardis belong to? Is it these aliens in Burton menswear that are trying to take over America? Or is it someone else?
Suave and scary as
That River Song came back (again) and this time there was someone in a spacesuit shooting death-rays caused a backward glance to her debut with Tennant and the library/computer/simulation/godonlyknows gizmo. Is there a link to that? Did she say anything about spooky dead things in spacesuits?
I can't remember and I won't be going back to check but the very fact the thought occurred makes the show feel a bit more American in tone, which can only be a good thing.
Revisiting old stories within the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith age makes the canon stronger and more believable (and accessible to the chiddlers who haven't seen Tom Baker. Their loss, of course...) and, again, more like an American show.
Self-contained series can be a little bit boring after a while, it certainly got to that stage when Russell T Davies was running the show.
When Doctor Who returned all those moons ago the effects were still very much of the old show, in a way. You sort of laughed. The BBC might have thought a big, shiny monster stuck to a ceiling and bullying Simon Pegg was impressive, but when kids have been spoiled with Hollywood special effects then Doctor Who just wasn't going to cut it.
The Moffat run has started to change that. The (over) ambitious special effects have been reined in (bar that whale thing) to allow the ambition of the stories themselves to show through.
Nobody wants the Doctor to become Schumacher's Batman, impotent and standing in the wings while you look at the OTT villains, but there is a lot to be said for taking a bit of plastic, putting it in a mould and making something bloody scary, rather than seeing what The Mill can produce.
Matt Smith is still the coolest thing about Moffat's Doctor Who
The biggest compliment you can give the new series so far is that it is classic Moffat with scares, disembodied children's voices (a staple) and, best of all, it's the episode 5 and 6 two parter right at the bloody beginning!
It can only get better, too, right?
You might have noticed the new series of Doctor Who started this weekend and The Impossible Astronaut compelled me to have a word splurge.To start a series off with a two-parter is more like the old days of the series and it marked the new direction under Stephen Moffat by starting with creatures that were disturbing and, whoa, scary.
Remember the adipose? They were amusing, sure, but at the ultimate end it was just another episode with an alien disguised as a human and a blinky spaceship and David Tennant making lots of 'ohhhhhhs' and funny faces.
It was almost inevitable that every series of Doctor Who should start with some mild peril gambit of the world being in danger via some silly source that you couldn't quite take seriously (autons, aformentioned adipose, a weird translucent floating snake and some cops made of eyeballs).
Of course, these episodes would hint at what was to come, some bigger whodunit to be solved after a 42 minute yarn of mild peril and toasted teacakes.
There's more danger in this year's opener, it's sinister, creepy and confusing, thanks to all the bizarre time-travel whatishappeningidontunderstand in the first 10 minutes.
There's nothing wrong with having an over-riding story arc throughout a series, the feature working in brilliant fashion in the last series with reappearing cracks in time, but there are still things left over from last year to explore. EXCITING.
Who did the crackly voice on the Tardis belong to? Is it these aliens in Burton menswear that are trying to take over America? Or is it someone else?
Suave and scary asThat River Song came back (again) and this time there was someone in a spacesuit shooting death-rays caused a backward glance to her debut with Tennant and the library/computer/simulation/godonlyknows gizmo. Is there a link to that? Did she say anything about spooky dead things in spacesuits?
I can't remember and I won't be going back to check but the very fact the thought occurred makes the show feel a bit more American in tone, which can only be a good thing.
Revisiting old stories within the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith age makes the canon stronger and more believable (and accessible to the chiddlers who haven't seen Tom Baker. Their loss, of course...) and, again, more like an American show.
Self-contained series can be a little bit boring after a while, it certainly got to that stage when Russell T Davies was running the show.
When Doctor Who returned all those moons ago the effects were still very much of the old show, in a way. You sort of laughed. The BBC might have thought a big, shiny monster stuck to a ceiling and bullying Simon Pegg was impressive, but when kids have been spoiled with Hollywood special effects then Doctor Who just wasn't going to cut it.
The Moffat run has started to change that. The (over) ambitious special effects have been reined in (bar that whale thing) to allow the ambition of the stories themselves to show through.
Nobody wants the Doctor to become Schumacher's Batman, impotent and standing in the wings while you look at the OTT villains, but there is a lot to be said for taking a bit of plastic, putting it in a mould and making something bloody scary, rather than seeing what The Mill can produce.
Matt Smith is still the coolest thing about Moffat's Doctor WhoThe biggest compliment you can give the new series so far is that it is classic Moffat with scares, disembodied children's voices (a staple) and, best of all, it's the episode 5 and 6 two parter right at the bloody beginning!
It can only get better, too, right?
Sunday, 21 February 2010
What More Can I Say
The clue's in the title; there isn't a lot more anyone can say about Vampire Weekend that you haven't already read or seen elsewhere. Where the first album was a bit of a mess, the band don't sound like they're competing with Mark Mothersbaugh to score a Wes Anderson film on Contra. If it ended with the final strains of Giving Up the Gun, then Contra would be an early contender for album of the year (not that this will actually stop it...) but Diplomat's Son is just too long and I Think Ur A Contra sounds like the start of Chores by Animal Collective without becoming anything like the madcap bounce of anything by the Baltimore four-piece.
The rest of Contra is solid, with lead single Cousins providing a spark akin to A-Punk and the debatable 'afrobeat' stuff that always accompanies any review of any Vampire Weekend album is really good this time instead of a distraction, as the opening salvo from Horchata through to Holiday is a freewheeling ode to the ghost of summer future. The autotune makes sporadic appearances and isn't as bad as it sounds. They still sound like they're fumbling with the keys to open the front door, but once Vampire Weekend get in to the house, they'll throw a good party.
***
They should use a pic like this for the front of Marina and the Diamonds' album instead of those weird popart things, they just make her look a bit plastic. There's a lot of girls in the 'pop' market today, they've managed to keep it just on the right side of over-saturation but things always get overplayed in music these days so rather than mill through them all, I'll settle with Marina. She reminds me of Ladyhawke but with more than one good song and there's a cattiness that isn't quite as grating as Lily Allen. GLOVES OFF!
Thursday, 18 February 2010
The Ego's Last Stand
Kevin can't hide his disgust.Those clever-dicks at the Premier League have decided that Wolves can have a suspended fine of £25,000 dished out because they thought they'd have more chance of beating Burnley than Manyoo, so kept their first-team spare, put the reserves out and got smashed 3-0. Fair enough, you might think, after all, they should try to win every game, but what's the difference in losing 1-0 with your first team and 3-0 with the reserves? Especially if the first-team lose the subsequent (winnable) match as they're knackered from chasing shadows at the theatre of ritual humiliation/disembowelment? The loss to Wolves' goal difference was fixed by beating Burnley 2-0, so who really loses? Not even Burnley, because they don't win away games.
The big issue (and the controversy. Hi!) stems from the fact that some teams (Liverpool) rotate all the time but just seem to avoid this punishment... Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Rafa Benitez rotate his team at Craven Cottage in a match towards the end of the 07/08 season to save his key players for a Champions League game? Fulham won. Without those three points, they wouldn't have stayed up, and Reading would have. Perhaps Reading should write to the Premier League; kicking up a fuss worked for Sheffield United. Sort of.
People harp on about the fans getting little return for their money on a trip but maybe they should take their beef up with the Premier League too. Such a sour taste would be considerably lessened if the ticket prices weren't obscene. As a Newcastle fan, this sort of piss-taking is par for the course, which the Premier League seem to delight in.
Best league in the world? I take it you don't watch La Liga.
Monday, 15 February 2010
They Always Knew
All I can say is that I hope my Steve Rogers is the new Iron Man prediction works out.
Monday, 8 February 2010
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