Thursday, May 25, 2006

Bits and bobs

Oh, friends trade blows over Doctor Who shocker! Ok, I exaggerate but as Sam nearly never reads my blog I can do that and not get caught. The controversy is this, I reckon 'Life on Mars' is the equal of the new 'Doctor Who'. Sam is a massive Who fan and has trouble with this even though he rate LOM very highly. Anyone else go any thoughts?
Back when I first wnet online I signed up for all sorts of newletter stuff I never look at now, but an email from Universal caught my eye. The have a new site called BrilliantButCancelled, which is probably not much use to my nonbroadband connection. Not sure what I think about that. There's been far too many shows that've fitted that bill and it's brilliant that DVD popularity has allowed some of them a better chance (Firefly's been an obvious winner, but so has the excellent Wonderfalls (thanks for the heads up Danny)), but it's bittersweet to watch something that was never allowed to grow. Still, nice to be able to see this stuff.
Had hoped to have some Simian Smith artwork done to post but haven't managed it and as family are visiting to look at my wife's belly it'll probably be a couple of days before I do. Best hurry up though as I'm planning to send Simian off to some publishers in a week or so.

9 comments:

I. N. J. Culbard said...

LOM or Doctor Who? Hmmm. Couldn't find a dud LOM episode. Doctor Who on the otherhand, though boldly striding forth has stumbled once or twice.

But I think a fairer comparrison would be LOM vs. Torchwood since they're both aimed at the same demographic. I wouldn't have said LOM was 'family' viewing you could sit and watch with the four year olds. In terms of what Doctor Who did culturally, it brought back saturday night, and that's more important than a couple of dud episodes. If anything that probably dilineates the difference in 'function' as it where when comparing the two shows. they both punch entirely different buttons, and aim to and for the most part in both cases succeed.

I. N. J. Culbard said...

and I mean when Torchwood eventually airs of course (don't worry, I'm not a Timelord in disguise;) ) I mean it'd be fairer then to compare LOM to that rather than Doctor Who.

Nimiwey said...

I always enjoy your artwork :-)

Danny said...

LOM is the equal of Doctor Who 2.0 but only in the same way as I think garlic the equal of choclate. They do different things equally well

paulhd said...

Glad you like Nim, more on it's way.
Yeah, LOM and DW are two different things doing their things well. Think the 'argument' went with me saying LOM was as good as DW then my friend getting a bit staggered at my shocking over endorsement and claiming LOM didn't have the same emotional depth as DW. It degenerated into (friendly) name calling from there.
Looking forward to Torchwood too. It's a great time to be a geek!

I. N. J. Culbard said...

I love the Garlic Chocolate thing. Well said.

LOM didn't have the same emotional depth because it was a different emotional depth. That's the way I see it. I recal a very emotionally rich episode in which a football hooligan got a rather brilliant closing speech from Sam Tyler... and I can't stand football, yet still I was moved.

And yes, it's a great time to be a geek. But with climate change and wars in foreign lands and threats of terrorism, the need for escapism is probably a given.

Wouldn't be surprised if somewhere out there someone had written a thesis on the connection between people being disillusioned with their governments and increased interest in science fiction and fantasy.

paulhd said...

Loved Sam seeing himself as a young boy in the football episode, real lump in the throat stuff. I had the same reaction to the footbal speech even though I don't like footie either.
The escapism/real life misery ratio is true enough I think. It's definitely strange seeing the kind of things that earned me the 'geek' label being embraced by larger audiences.

I. N. J. Culbard said...

People start thinking outside of the box when they realise the stuff in the box is either not very interesting or not very pleasant.

On a drive into town I noticed an abundance of copper coloured cars. LOM influenced purchases perhaps?

There's a lot of browns and oranges in fashion at the moment too. It feels an aweful lot like the seventies again. My memories of my childhood were all orange and brown, and I'm certain my sons will be too.

What goes around comes around.

paulhd said...

Ah, orange and brown, throw in bottle green and purple and my 70's experience is complete.