By Roy Mathur on 2014-07-20 at 22:40:00--23:07:00 BST for Roy's Rocket Radio
Working hell-for-leather, in spite of all these other commitments.
Cider!
1st Doctor, Series 3, 2 1, 1965
Broadcast: 9 October 1965
Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Derek Martinus
Producer: Verity Lambert
Cast: Edward de Souza as Space Security Agent Marc Cory.
Synopsis: Marc Corey's on a secret mission to tell the rest of the galaxy that the Daleks and their allies are about to attack earth. It all takes place on a jungle planet (I know now that it's 'Kembel'. Couldn't for the life of me remember that in the podcast. Or maybe that was the cider?) It isn't a happy ending.
My View: One of the lost stories patched into a single episode and unique in not containing the main cast. Definitely a grim taster of B7 type stories with ruthless agents, weird worlds and hideous death lurking everywhere. There were more episodes, but this is as much as they could recover. The episode is bookended by and older de Souza. It sets the scene for Terry Nations The Daleks' Master Plan.
The earth needs a cure for a horrible virus and only a US ship carrying a brilliant scientist can saves us. Okay that sounds bad, but no that's not the worst of it. What's bad is just how gut-wrenchingly gung ho this nonsense is. There is a scene where the Master Chief asks permission from the captain to salute him. This this is just brimming to the gills with poisonous levels of testosterone. Awful.
Basically, Dracula rebooted with a plane reaching New York instead of a ship reaching Whitby.
Great story, let down by the creaking script and some of the acting (and it's not often, if ever, that I say that). Pretty good effects and I'm intrigued by David Bradley (Harry Potter's Filch) as Professor Abraham Setrakian, a sort of modern Abraham Van Helsing.
The Hundred on E4 continues and fairly interesting, though I still fail to see how centipetal force on the space station can simulate 1G (see http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/rockets/why-dont-we-have-artificial-gravity-15425569).
It's all turning into a relationships thing that bores me a little, but I am interested to see what the apocalypse survivors down on earth are like.
C4's series is much more enjoyable than last season, especially the sequel. Possibly because I dig all that retro-malarkey. Rose Leslie (GOT's Ygritte) is excellent as sinister Milner.
What cracks me up is that HBO is idiotically and pointlessly remaking Utopia for US audiences!
It is tripe. Pointless, awful rubbish. Quasi-religious pantomime.
I am not anti-religious, just anti-rubbish. I you want a nice fantasy spin on the Biblical creation story, check out Karl Edward Wagner's Kane the Mystic swordsman books.
Again, awful, but without the benefit of hiding behind religion. Complete and pointless waste of time watching.
Joined Pottermore just to read the new Rowling story which I supposed was the point. Story in the form of Rita Skeeters' gossip from the reporter's box about Harry and friends, who are visiting VIPs for a world-cup Quidditch match between Hungary and Brazil.
It was okay, but hardly amazing.
Nokia X dead hardware to run Windows Phone.
I listened to Nokia staff saying how great it was that Microsoft have taken over.
Finnish government is not amused.
Let that be a lesson to you all - no matter what a corporation says, the bottom line is making money.
I heard another podcast saying something about MS cutting middle-management, but then I read a Time article saying that the 12,500 job cuts in Nokia would come from "professional and factory roles". Doesn't sound like middle-management does it?