By Roy Mathur, on 2025-01-01, at 23:01:49 to 23:45:03 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
Welcome to the second pod of the year.
For those of you who (after 12 long years) are new to the show and are wondering what the hell this is? It is a review show, in addition to my experiences of being a UK geek; an ageing UK geek; a brown, ageing UK geek. Consider it a nerdy, informal chin-wag.
2024 sequel to Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Joker and Lady Gaga as manipulative femme fatale, Harley Quinn. Joker, awaiting trial in Arkham, is seduced by fellow patient Harley (Lee), in this musical trial drama.
I always thought that Joker (2019), though a bit derivative of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, was artistically fantastic for reasons completely missed by the filmmakers (particularly in that famously cringe worthy interview). I.e., it was much greater than a sum of its parts and was a phenomenal meditation on despair. Particularly ironic is Harley upstaging Joker, which is exactly what Lady Gaga does to Joachin Phoenix. The old standards they sang were touching at first and then curdled when you realised, oh my god, they are never going to stop. The film builds and builds and builds and ends up exactly nowhere. And yes, yes, yes, Harvey Dent is the prosecutor, blah, blah, blah, I don't care. I stupidly watched this when I was already in a low mood. Don't do that and don't hold your breath for a third film.
Folie-a-Deux: literally the madness of two; how some partnerships can create a mutual-fantasy. If you want to learn more, search for the tragic cases of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme (Heavenly Creatures), Ursula and Sabina Eriksson, or June and Jennifer Gibbons (Silent Twin: Without My Shadow and The Silent Twins).
Great piratey title, have I said that yet?
Do you think At Attin's supervisor is a Sith overseeing a secret Imperial stronghold?
Julliet's goes diving twice, gets the bends, is perforated with a big arrow, and is generally having a rum time of things. Give the lady a break!
Ncuti's Christmas Special had him stumbling on a mysterious light emitting briefcase, that lethally jumped from host to host in a time travel hotel, he also made a good friend, finally the weird creature trapped in the case is freed by the willing sacrifice on an innocent.
I thought it was forgettable, though I enjoyed watching the Doctor making a friend and living a mundane human-type life for a year.
The case is, of course, another tribute to the noir, Kill Me Deadly (Pulp Fiction uses the same McGuffin).
13 (Jodie): Segun Akinola's pulsating, alien, and ominous, 15 (Ncuti): Murray Gold's epic and adventurous.
I prefer 13's because it imparts the idea of the Doctor's strangeness, something overfamiliarity with this fascinating alien being's friendly demeanour frequently masks. As someone who craves difference and novelty, that appeals to me. Though I respond too, to the raw speed of the Tardis rocketing through space to far off places for much the same reason. My favourite theme is, of course, the 1963 original.
Let me know what's your favourite and why.
Super brain autistic archivist solved murders in York. Good, but where do I even start? (C4).
Acting good, murder mystery not terrible, and it's good to see GoT's Natalie Dormer again, but though set in South Africa, we don't get to see enough of it, stop inserting "White" into everything, it's old hat since White Mischief. (C4).
You've heard me tell you what a trial Christmas was, but on Saturday, freezing cold as it was, I had a great day.
Mum and I travelled to and from London largely without incident and incredibly without delay, despite the inevitable Avanti cancellations.
We walked around the West End, decided not to spring for a hundred quid tea and a ten minute wait at Selfridges and instead a had twelve quid tea, cake, sandwiches, and crisps at Sparks. I accidentally forgot to pay for the food, told the self check-out assistant, who said I was, "very honest". So there.
I left Mum for a couple of hours and finally tipped a waitress (sorry it took so long) I have watched grow up and has been serving me and some colleagues for the last half a decade.
The point being, if your Christmas wasn't dazzling, there's still time to have a good time.
Lately, this geek has been up and down, like a bloody yoyo, and very busy to boot, so I'm sorry podcasting took a back seat for a few days.
That is because I have been sorting out podcasting equipment changes, not so much to upgrade, rather to make my setup less creaky. By the way, forget what I said before about letting it have a nap, I'm back on the Shure SM7B. BTW, if you are considering podcasting, my advice is use your phone. For improvement, buy an audio recorder, and maybe a mic later on. Stick to well-known brands. While editing on a computer is necessary, recording isn't and bitter personal experience has taught me how often it can go wrong.
I've also been in the middle of working out how to use and mount an action cam for the car and bikes.
Leap-frogging onto the technological bandwagaon from zero would have been much harder had I not had oldschool analogue audio and film photography skills to all this digital malarkey. In other words---positive spin, my fellow elder wizards---vintage skills are never obsolete.
I'm still working on how to combine relatively deep-dive single topic revisit shows with magazine-style multi-topic shows because the shows are so different. What's important is I'm back and podding and this year is the year we finish revisiting classic Doctor Who and start talking about books again.
If you want to talk to me on the socials, I'd prefer Mastodon or email (link via my website), rather than stinkholes run by infantile Nazis or Nazi apologists.