By Roy Mathur, on 2025-12-23, at 23:09:37 to 00:42:51 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
My journal is now solely contained in this pod; no longer maintained in a separate text file. Christmas is only... and I still haven't finished with the old DW revisit, so maybe this will speed things along. Anyway, here are some of my incredible excuses for the podcast delay from my journal.
I had to wrangle a particularly stubborn crab apple jelly.
A belated happy Doctor Who Day. The 23rd November went by unnoticed because of the usual stress, tiredness, pain, blah, blah, blah, but in any case, compliments of the day. Regarding the aches, my X-ray was recently cancelled due to a broken machine, so don't get me started on NHS faff-ups (documented in numerous pods). Bevan would be spinning in orbit. Update: a call from the GP yesterday confirmed vitamin D deficiency, but today they managed to screw up the prescription.
Motorcycling? Not as much as I'd like because cleaning Winter crap off the bike is painful. To wit, I was menaced by a robin, while ACF50'ing the bike.
London flaneurie continued on December 13th, accompanied by pain and paracetamol. Mum joined me until Euston, where after lunch she departed by bus to Victoria. Our day was only partially upset by a scary crazy cabbie on the way home. Reports have been filed. Google Fit: 8904 steps, 22 heart points, 5.69 klicks.
I hacked a Windows 7 32 bit to Windows 11 64 bit OS change because I couldn't edit video and Kdenlive only works on modern Windows, Linux, or MacOS, and this was the cheapest way to do it without a new computer because Kdenlive doesn't need a graphics card. For retro Win16 apps, I now use OTVDM and for even older MS-DOS progs, DosBox (sometimes seamlessly from the command line) rather than NTVDMx86, which is a faff to install. Happy DOScember.
Books stored for years in the garage have been brought in from the cold. Doctor Who, Ladybird, Viginia Andrews, Dan Brown, and miscellanea add to the teetering chaotic literary mountain ranges threatening every corner of the home. We live in the stacks.
Finally, seasonally, I burned myself failing to surgically re-attach a decorative snowman's leg with a soldering iron. Of course, there're the endless repairs, cleaning, shopping, decorating too. Actually, today's last minute shoppping wasn't too bad because, as I shared on antisocial media,
I braved mostly miserable drivers, miserable stallholders, and miserable shoppers to buy last minute prezzies for Ma and Pa. Positives? I got one or two smiles and even a "Merry Christmas" from some of the nicer people. Also, I gloated with unseemly delight as I zipped right through the traffic and parking jams on my motorcycle. Hohoho!.
Exordium, meaning the beginning in Latin, is a 2013 rotoscope animation short/demo reel/prequel of The Spine of Night (2021, pod 501) by same the filmmaker, Morgan Galen King. It is a violent sword and sorcery film about warriors fighting a seemingly unstoppable guardian of a ruin.
Fantastic and available on YouTube.
I swear is a 2025 autobiographical film by Kirk Jones about Tourette's campaigner John Davidson MBE. At age 17 year old Davidson was the subject of the BBC documentary John's Not Mad (1989) and a number of follow-up BBC documentaries throughout his life, none of which are familiar to me. He has tics, coprolalia, echolalia, sudden body movement, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); all of which, except copralalia and echolalia, I also have. The corresponding book is out soon. The film has had plaudits, scintillating reviews, and has been nominated in several different categories of the British Independent Film Awards.
I have seen a few films either about Tourette's or featuring someone with it. E.g. Michael Sheen's Dirty Filthy Love (518), which I reviewed favourably and Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn (352), which I did not. Both star non-Tourettic actors. Unlike those, I have not yet seen this film. I know how hypocritical it is of me as media reviewer to talk about something without seeing it, but I can't bear to, not yet anyway.
You see, my attitude about media representation of Tourette's has changed. The appalling lack of support from both the NHS and charities purported to assist those with Tourette's are factors. I'm also angry about my initial misdiagnosis as a child and subsequent medical abandonment, leading to years of confusion about my twitchiness, "bad habits", and pain. It was only the stress of a depressing 2016 Christmas and flu that set off a spectacular bout of tics, and a fortuitously timed documentary about an American man with Tourettes, that led to my light bulb moment, after which I sought secondary diagnosis. Credit goes to the GP who referred me to a specialist at the Radcliffe. While the consultant confirmed I had "textbook" Tourette's, he also managed to annoy me by asking if this was to do with a benefit claim. No, it wasn't.
Aside done, here are my views about a film about Tourette's from a person with Tourette's. For all its critical acclaim, the simple fact is that Kirk Jones chose a handsome, non-Tourettic star. Yes, Robert Aramayo is talented, he plays Elvish King Elrond very bloody well in Rings of Power, but that isn't the issue. The question isn't if he's a good actor, it is that there are a lot of us with Tourette's around, so why wasn't one cast? According to The Guardian interview with Aramayo from October by Simran Hans, the casting tests using Davidson as a guinea pig were, "nothing short of a disaster". In the end, his casting had the approval of John Davidson, but so what? No matter what his considerable achievements are, Davidson doesn't represent every single person with Tourette's in the world, the UK, or even me.
If you want to hear what my Tourette's is like, listen to pod 341, which are all the tics I edited out of 340 (not 240 as stated in the the pod).
2016 Potterverse prequel is average and what is Eddie Redmayne doing? Is he going method again (god, remember Jupiter Ascending?) and deciding his character is a bit disengaged; a bit of a crap acting choice for the lead.
Elle Fanning as hyper android and alongside a contrastingly laconic Predator runt are an engaging, kinetic, and hilarious double-act in this 2025 Netflix movie.
Brilliantly entertaining, though Death Planet is ripped off from Harry Harrison's Deathworld series.
Guillermo del Toro's 2025 take on Shelly's gothic romance.
Very good story, acting, and unsettling effects (well, Guillermo, you know). Strongly reminds me of Branner's Frankenstein.
2022, Channel 4, in which SciFi horror ensues after romantic proposal in the woods is spurned.
Takes liberally from Predator, The Thing, Terminator, and The X-Files, but still manages originality, though the budget gives it an Outer Limits TV episode vibe; not necessarily a bad thing.
I've read the 1982 novel, seen the 1987 film, and now I've seen the 2025 Edgar Wright movie.
It's more in keeping with King's novel, better than Colin Farell's Total Recall remake of another Arnie film, but like that also not quite up to Arnie's camp crazy from '87.
Diehard unofficial 2022 remake with delightful brute, David Harbour (Stranger Things tough sheriff) as actual Santa stuck in the same mansion as violent heist gang intent at robbing rich family. "How could the same shit happen to the same guy, twice." It does and in this rip off/homage/parody, Santa is John McClane, a little girl is Sergeant Al Powell, and Hans Gruber is John Leguizamo's "You can call me Mr. Scrooge."
The bad guys, led by the cartoonishly villainous Leguizamo, get much much, more than they bargained for when it transpires that Santa is psychopathic ex-Viking, Nicomund the Red, famed for being handy Andy with a hammer called Skullcrusher. His proficiency in dispatching the naughty with a Christmas tree decoration, candy cane, and the hammer is a pleasure to behold. A cruder, bulldozer version of William (Marathon Man) Goldman's Nick Escalante from Edged Weapons springs to mind (adapted badly twice; first starring Burt Reynolds, then Jason Statham).
Diehard and a bit Home Alone, Christmassy as hell, and extremely violent and gory, it is simply fantastic and I wished I'd seen it sooner. Minor criticisms: isn't Santa based on a Lapland reindeer herder, not a Norseman? And that bit in Bristol at the beginning is bollocks. The sequel will be released Xmas 2026.
Much anticipated 2025 Apple TV thriller about arty art expert, Ruth Wilson, and hard-boiled but gross detective, Emma Thompson, investigating suspicious Oxford deaths.
The awkward dialogue veers uneasily between comedy and action in this risible government conspiracy.
I was very excited when S05E01--04 was released on November 26 and exhausted myself boxsetting them over two days, interspersed with upgrading my PC. This was the first half of the final season, with the last four episodes released on Christmas Day (3 episodes) to New Year's Eve (finale).
Season 5 sees Hawkins, Indiana under military jurisdiction as the army, under Linda Hamilton, messes with the Upside Down. Max is still in a coma, Vecna (One and Henry Creel) continues kidnapping kids to use as batteries to increase his power so that he can destroy the world, and all our heroes from the previous season are back in Hawkins working as a team to kill him. Eleven is becoming more superheroic and can now leap some buildings (as long as they aren't too tall and not in a single bound), while Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) can now see through Vecna's eyes, suspiciously like Bran Stark's greenseer ability or Harry Potter's link to Voldemort.
It's lovely to see the cast back together again in this enjoyable and action-packed final season, though the script veers frequently to cliche this season. E.g. the silly the dick jokes that are far too juvenile even for teens. Hyper quirky and short-fused Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) is a delight. If you want to hear me talk more, I've already discussed ST in at least pods 148 ,183, 193, 278, 400, 443, and 450. Other than that, it's filling the gap that (The War... notwithstanding) New Who left this Christmas.
2025 BBC 5-parter co-written by Kerblam!'s Pete McTighe, in which likeable everyman (Davies' regular, Russell Tovey) is thrust into war between us and DW's Sea Devils.
A bit Man from Atlantis, Splash, The Little Mermaid, Sphere, Spawn, Splice, Aquaman, and topically relevant to our poisoning of the oceans. Lorne Balfe's bombastic, overbearing, deafening music is even more dialogue-drowning than Murray Gold's. Jemma Regrave's Kate is a powerful screen presence, but now that she's used up her store of despair and rage acting in New Who, i.e. voice seemingly permanently wracked with emotion, where does she go from here when she genuinely has grief and rage to contend with? Finally, like most spinoffs, the Doctor's absence if sorely missed, but a Whovian would say that.
Otherwise, not bad environmental SF, with great shock scenes of sea garbage returned en masse to sender and dogs being netted to eat. Poor Sea Devils, they should have learned from the fate of their subterranean brethren in Doctor Who and the Silurians (pod 182).
In November, Tom Baker was awarded an MBE in recognition for his services to TV. He said graciously, "it was a real honour for me to play Doctor Who for all those years." And not so graciously, "Nobody failed as Doctor Who, did they? Well, we mustn't be ungenerous to anyone. But certainly I didn't." (Quotes from Louise Griffin's Radio times article 2025-11-18).
YouTube puppet vanlife RC driver's wheelie wheelie good.