Archive for the 'science fiction' Category
Torchwood: Children of Mirth
I guess it was make-or-break for Torchwood, and its move to BBC1. Or maybe it was always going to be break, what with almost all of the original cast now culled. When the BBC strip something over five nights in the summer, you wonder what they’re thinking. I sometimes think TV execs would like to [...]
Filed under: SF, TV, Television, sci-fi, science fiction | 2 Comments
Tags: torchwood
Jesus Christ
I was disappointed to see that the atheist bus campaign’s slogan included the word “probably”. Apparently this was at the behest of the advertising agency that produced the posters, who were worried they’d fall foul of advertising rules. What? I thought the whole point of the campaign was that you couldn’t possibly fall foul of [...]
Filed under: Arrested Development, Culture, Time-Wasters, being chippy, science fiction, weasels | 2 Comments
Christmas Telly
I don’t watch telly much when I’m in France. It’s not just because it’s all in French, but also because French TV just doesn’t seem to evolve quickly enough. They’re still doing the same peak time quiz shows they were doing 10 years ago, and those interminable panel programmes in which minor French celebrities make [...]
Filed under: BBC, Entertainment, France, Nostalgia, SF, TV, Television, Travel, arts, media studies, sci-fi, science fiction | Leave a Comment
Tags: steampunk
Time-Warp Techno-Thrillers
I’m reading a book called Gridiron at the moment, by Philip Kerr. It was published in the mid-90s, and is a thriller set in a “smart building”, stuffed with supercomputers which run an artificial intelligence.
I love reading stuff like this that tries desperately to be super-up-to-date and spot-on-authentic, but ends up quickly dating itself. Another [...]
Filed under: Apple, Entertainment, SF, Technology, sci-fi, science fiction | 2 Comments
BBC1 – I couldn’t be bothered to get into Damages, which some (including the Radio Times editor) have raved about. I recorded the first episode, but then didn’t pay attention to it when I played it back. I’ve never liked Glenn Close, and I’m always wary of the things critics rave on about, stuff like [...]
Filed under: BBC, Culture, Entertainment, Luvvies, SF, TV, Television, media studies, sci-fi, science fiction, secret girlfriends | 2 Comments
Whoctor Do
Well, the plot was straight out of The Sarah Jane Chronicles (which is about RTD’s level, I think), but I haven’t laughed so much at anything on TV since I was watching my Seinfeld boxed set DVDs.
The scene where Catherine Tate and David Tenant mime and mug at each other through two sets of windows [...]
Filed under: 1960s, Arrested Development, BBC, Entertainment, SF, TV, Television, acting, sci-fi, science fiction | 5 Comments
Tags: Doctor Who
My daughter (10) asked the other day if she could read some of my science fiction books. She’s big into Doctor Who, of course, and has enjoyed Harry Potter, and I believe has read some Terry Pratchett (The Carpet People and The Wee Free Men), but all of these things are a long way from [...]
Filed under: Entertainment, Family, SF, arts, sci-fi, science fiction | 25 Comments
Tags: reading, recommendations, young readers
Contrary TV
The current crop of TV drama is a little dire. There’s too much stuff on obscure channels that I feel has been watched for me by the time it reaches Freeview. And then there are tons of programmes that come on and I just can’t be bothered to invest time in them. This is partly [...]
Filed under: Culture, Entertainment, SF, TV, Television, acting, arts, sci-fi, science fiction | Leave a Comment
It’s Pancake Super-Tuesday
Photo by celesteh.
We’ve booked our holiday this year, we’re renting a place on the island of Noirmoutier, which is my fantasy place to live if I won the lottery. I know exactly the beach I’d build my whalebone shack on. Anyway, we thought the price for summer rentals was super-excessive, so we decided to go [...]
Filed under: France, SF, arts, omens and portents, sci-fi, science fiction, summer | 2 Comments
Serenity – Shot by Shot
For ‘A’ level media, it’s a requirement that under the “film and broadcast fiction” module, we study contemporary examples. Contemporary is defined by the exam board as having been released in the 5 years prior to the beginning of the course.
This is a little bit of a challenge to me, as I haven’t actually paid [...]
Filed under: Culture, Education, Entertainment, Movies, SF, film, lesson plans, media studies, sci-fi, science fiction, teaching and learning | 1 Comment
Tags: westerns samurai
