tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59238772007-09-14T21:17:45.616+01:00The White RoomcarlBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-13796897125492972942007-09-14T19:52:00.000+01:002007-09-14T21:17:45.648+01:00Peter Horrocks: Everyone else's Madeleine McCann coverage is biased, the BBC's isn't
Link to story
You might have thought that Peter Horrocks would have steered clear of this story on his blog on the bbc.co.uk website. The previous time he brought the subject up, most of the comments were pretty negative (my comment is #19), but this time the response was even more so.
The BBC don't appear tocarltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1160333664017025692006-10-08T19:22:00.000+01:002006-10-11T21:07:47.166+01:00Welcome back, Veronica
Veronica Mars: Welcome Wagon - The CW, 3 October
Contains spoilers
For me, Veronica Mars was the best series on American television last year, and easily the one whose new season I was looking forward to the most. And, with Welcome Wagon, Rob Thomas didn't disappoint.
This was no easy task as Thomas also had to try to introduce the series to an audience unfamiliar with carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1127044221735008672005-09-18T12:33:00.000+01:002005-09-18T12:50:21.740+01:00With the new US TV season under way, there seems to be more series that I intend following than usual.
Heading the list must be last year's top two new series - "Lost" and "Veronica Mars", although the latter isn't even remotely sci-fi or fantasy based (although Kristen Bell is just great as well as being a real cutie). And, despite my usual dislike of hospital-based dramas, I did get quite carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1124651414718187252005-08-21T19:51:00.000+01:002005-08-21T20:10:14.726+01:00In praise of "Veronica Mars"
It's not sci-fi, it's not fantasy, but I thought I'd just say how great UPN's "Veronica Mars" is. It was a toss up between it and "Lost" which was my favourite US series of the 2004/05 season.
Obviously Kristen Bell provides some great eye candy, but far more importantly, she makes Veronica a great character. Throw in a good cast and some ongoing mysteries - the carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1120412620109248742005-07-03T17:57:00.000+01:002005-07-03T18:43:40.136+01:00"Doctor Who" - season 27 (or, if you prefer, season 1)
Although it was great to finally see the Doctor back on our television screens, I was ultimately disappointed by the first season of the new series.
That's not to say that there wasn't a lot to enjoy. Several of the episodes - 'The Unquiet Dead', 'Dalek' and the 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances' two-parter - were highly enjoyable. It's carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1115574081829881922005-05-08T17:57:00.000+01:002005-05-08T19:22:11.820+01:00"Doctor Who" - 7 down, 6 to go
With last night's 'The Long Game', we've now reached the halfway point in Christopher Eccleston's tenure as the Doctor. From now on, he's got fewer episodes left than we've seen him in.
To be honest, I'm not that disappointed that he's going. While probably the best *actor* to play the Doctor since Troughton, his performance hasn't been as good as I'd expected - carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1112902015540332932005-04-07T20:15:00.000+01:002005-04-07T20:26:55.540+01:00"Withnail" star Grant tops "Doctor Who" poll
Okay, so it's just a harmless piece of "fun", but what planet are the people who vote in these things on?
Only seven actors appear to have been included in the poll, which makes it fairly pointless in the first place, but even so those voting appear to have been pretty clueless. Or Ant & Dec viewers, which pretty much amounts to the same thing.
carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1111097058734461232005-03-17T21:45:00.000Z2005-03-17T22:04:18.736ZNew "Dr Who" leaked onto internet
Call me cynical, but you have to admit this sort of "viral marketing" looks pretty deliberate.
The advantages to the BBC are obvious. Not only do they create a "story" about the leak but the episode itself creates a buzz amongst the fans, particularly when, with the exception of the clueless AICN, most reaction has been favourable.
Spoilers follow
carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1104763746259452622005-01-03T14:45:00.000Z2005-01-03T14:49:06.260ZGrrr....why couldn't the BBC have publicised the "Doctor Who" trailer they showed before and after "The Vicar of Dibley" on Saturday night? This is the sort of thing that bbc.co.uk would be useful for, instead of faffing around with sci-fi news, promoting their mates' books and features about series that are on other channels (like you can imagine Sky Onc, sorry Sky One, promoting something on carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1103556164330444332004-12-20T14:42:00.000Z2004-12-20T15:22:44.330ZBBC reins in commercial online functions
According to this report, the BBC's Cult website is either going to be closed or at least severely cutback. To be honest, I'm not surprised.
As a big supporter of the BBC, I've long felt that the Cult website wasn't something that it should be spending the licence fee on - at least in its current form.
I've no problem with the BBC providing carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1098132270076691932004-10-18T21:34:00.001+01:002004-10-18T21:44:30.076+01:00I have to say that I'm quite impressed with the new "Doctor Who" logo.
I never really liked the use of the old-Pertwee logo on the TV movie, although it generally looked okay on the cover of DWM, the BBC Books and video and TV covers. However, it was definitely time to move on, and I'm glad that the designers didn't simply rehash an old logo for the new series (the diamond one from seasons 11carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1097414366202883952004-10-10T14:09:00.000+01:002004-10-10T14:19:26.203+01:00Why are the Americans filming another version of "The War of the Worlds", when all their transporting the action to present-day America is likely to result in is another "Independence Day" clone?
I love "The War of the Worlds" as a novel, and even the Jeff Wayne LP has its moments, but do we really need to have it updated for a modern-day audience in the way that Spielberg and Cruise are carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1093379328636629632004-08-24T21:22:00.000+01:002004-08-24T21:28:48.636+01:00Is it just me or is bbc.co.uk's (and by the way, wasn't BBC Online a much better name?) "Who Spy" becoming increasingly lame these days?
Teasing fans' desire to know everything about the new "Doctor Who" series with a silly behind-the-scenes photo was mildly funny the first time, but after six weeks it's just taking the piss. No doubt the bbc.co.uk lot think they're hilariously funny, but carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1091303608055189722004-07-31T19:23:00.000+01:002004-07-31T20:53:28.056+01:00When rumours of a "Doctor Who" 'missing episodes' collection began to surface, I wasn't overly keen. Obviously I wanted to see the recovered 'Day of Armageddon', but given the choice between, say, the first 13 episodes plus the pilot or a collection of odd episodes from otherwise missing stories, I'd have taken the former.
However, the specs for the 'Lost In Time' collection are far more thancarltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1089468386802871272004-07-10T13:58:00.000+01:002004-07-10T15:06:26.803+01:00Given the circumstances, I can't say that I'm that disappointed that the Daleks aren't going to be in the new series of "Doctor Who".
Despite being the series' most famous monsters, many of their stories haven't been great. In some ways this has been down to the series' notoriously low budget, as stories such as 'Day of the Daleks' and 'Destiny of the Daleks' have struggled to convince carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1086811532372412852004-06-09T18:09:00.000+01:002004-06-09T21:05:32.373+01:00Summer in the Sixties on BBC4
I know it wasn't sci-fi/fantasy (but there's a night of that coming towards the end of the season), but what a cock-up Saturday night's "Summer in the Sixties" was.
First up, we have the usual BBC4 aspect ratio problems. Not only is having to manually change picture settings bloody annoying, but it's also unacceptable. If you're not watching the channel live carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1086018760075170852004-05-31T15:34:00.000+01:002004-05-31T16:52:40.076+01:00The Return of Sapphire & Steel
"Sapphire & Steel" has long been one of my favourite sci-fi/fantasy series. I can remember watching the original run in 1979-82, bought the ITC videos back in the early 1990s and the Carlton DVDs a couple of years ago. At the time of the DVD release I thought it was pretty unbelieveable that the series had been released at all - after all, it was over 20 years carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1085513103537649862004-05-25T20:09:00.000+01:002004-05-25T20:26:22.536+01:00Billie Piper is Rose Tyler
Well, after correctly predicting that the new "Doctor Who" companion would be announced this week, I suppose I should say what I think about the casting of Billie Piper as Rose Tyler.
To be honest, I'm not that impressed. Part of the reason is that I never say "Canterbury Tales: The Miller's Tale" (it starred James Nesbitt, so as far as I was concerned, that was carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1085318333988713492004-05-23T14:08:00.000+01:002004-05-23T14:18:53.986+01:00New "Doctor Who" companion to be announced next week?
With issue 344 of "Doctor Who Magazine" hitting the shelves next week, we could finally learn who's going to play Rose Tyler in the new series of "Doctor Who". "DWM" missed being the first with the news of Christopher Eccleston's appointment, but it's quite possible that the new production team would want to give them the chance to be carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1084568140203634002004-05-14T20:45:00.000+01:002004-05-14T21:55:40.203+01:00"Doctor Who" set for Christmas Day?
Personally I don't think this is a good idea.
Of course, this wouldn't be the first time that "Doctor Who" has been shown on Christmas Day. Back in 1965, 'The Feast of Steven', the 7th episode of the 12-part 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was shown on the 25th. However, that didn't really advance the plot, being a fairly self-contained episode that viewers carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1082909735833236032004-04-25T17:15:00.000+01:002004-04-25T17:19:47.576+01:00For the first time in years the series that I'm getting the biggest buzz from these days is "Doctor Who".
It's kinda weird really. It was the first series I was really "into" in a big way. As a kid I watched it religiously, had the Target novelisations on an almost permanent loan from the library, even had the Typhoo tea cards and the game on the back of the Weetabix boxes. (Wish I'd kept carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1082221589279415062004-04-17T18:06:00.000+01:002004-04-17T18:43:30.390+01:00Sky One likes to advertise itself as the place to watch the latest US imports. If you want to watch the likes of "Angel", "Jake 2.0" or "24" first then you have little alternate but to subscribe to pay television, and the dominant platform is Sky's. Even if it isn't, there's no way that you can get away from subscribing to Sky One if you want pay television because you can't subscribe to carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1081525264278908772004-04-09T16:41:00.000+01:002004-04-09T16:44:53.576+01:00Siobhan Hayes
Another day, another Rose Tyler rumour.
Rubbish BBC One 'comedy' "My Family" (how is this show still on the air when it's a complete waste of acting talent?) seems to have produced another possible Rose Tyler. First of all we had ex-"EastEnders" star Daniela Denby-Ashe, now we've got Siobhan Hayes.
At least if it is her, we can assume that Russell T Davies and the other carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-1081103821222516922004-04-04T19:37:00.000+01:002004-04-04T19:40:43.873+01:00Piper in line for "Doctor Who" role
The fact that the BBC no longer seem to regard "Doctor Who" as a kids' show will quite probably allow for a more "'FHM' friendly" companion that most of the others have been (although there was nothing wrong with the likes of Polly, Zoe, the first Romana and Peri on that score, even if they didn't get their kit off for magazine photoshoots), but I'd hope carltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5923877.post-108059407061707492004-03-29T22:01:00.000+01:002004-03-30T21:43:25.746+01:00Speaking as a fan, I have to say that opening the new series of "Doctor Who" without a regeneration scene is the correct move. Yes, it's annoyed some - but not all - fans, but for the general public this is the right decision.
I first started watching "Doctor Who" in the mid-1970s. I'm fairly sure that the first story I ever saw was 'Planet of the Spiders', but I can't remember enough of it carl