Random thoughts

My entry for the Big Finish short story competition a few years ago. Okay so it was only a first draft and the prose was over descriptive- not to mention it seemed disjointed narratively but, to date, it is my only piece of fan fiction so I am going to put it on my Blog anyway! “Right Little ones not long now before you need to settle down for the night!” “Oh but Mommy, it’s too early!” sniffed Ratsinger, congealed snot tumbling from his squat green nostrils. “Now now, Ratty, you need to get your sleep otherwise you will never grow up to be as strong as Bulfraser the mighty…” “Huh, I don’t want to be as strong as him! I want to be like the Doctor, come on Mommy tell me about the doctor, Please I want to hear about the Doctor!” Ratina let out a sigh – a theatrical sigh but a sigh nonetheless. How many times had she told her son about the Doctor? Ten times? Twenty? Or more? She suppressed a smirk as she prepared herself to regale her son of the events of ten months ago back to the

Well in the end any ratings fears for season 4 evaporated in the last few episodes. It was rather gratifying to see the show to reach number one in the weekly ratings for the first time in its forty five years. One interesting phenomenon was in the week where Who actually lost out to ITV. People flocked to ITV to watch the finale of Britain's got talent which was a live show. The next day the doomsayers were out in force on the ratings thread of the forum predicting that there was no way that people would bother to watch the second part of Steven Moffat's excellent two parter. As it happened people had caught up with the episode afterwards either on V+, Iplayer or Sky plus. The second parter gained a massive increase of the audience from the week before. I believe this is indicative of a growing trend amongst audiences to select the tine when they watch their programmes. It will be interesting to see how television producers will respond to this particularly in the commercial s

A week ago I was explaining to my year thirteens that traditional reliance on ratings issued by BARB were no longer a strong indicator of a shows success. This is mostly due to differing viewing habits: people watch shows on V+ boxes or sky plus; people use the BBC's I player or similar services offered by other channels. The BBC, of course, isn't reliant on advertising revenue like its competitors- so how do other companies make money? Increasingly spin off sales through merchandising and DVD sales are increasingly becoming more important when producers consider whether a programme is successful or not. The BBC, at the moment, are making substantial sales of DVDs, books and other toy merchandising on the back of Doctor Who. Therefore, I think it is safe to say that the adventures of the Timelord are safe for a while yet!

After the disappointments of Fantastic four and Spiderman 3, I was beginning to tire of the comic book genre. I mean I expect visual scenes to predominate in this genre but I do like an intriguing storyline to sustain me through the visuals. I think some of the superhero comic films had relied too much on visuals and just hadn't worked for me. I must admit that I had been impressed by the trailers and other promotional spots for Iron man so I did have high hopes for the film. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. I thought Downey Jr was superb as Stark- he managed to make a flawed character chariasmatic: you felt you could actually like this character although he was self centred. I enjoyed the humour and the way we saw the evolution of the suit. I thought Bridges was great and Paltrow made a great Pepper Potts. I didn't have the patience to wait through the credits as I was too hungry. If you haven't seen the film yet, I recommend that you wait for the end: there is a nic

A selection of reviews I have written for partners in crime- this is followed by the review I have written for my blog after some further reflection: A promising start. I enjoyed the comedic moments between the Doctor and Donna. My family and I enjoyed it all the way through. I was unsure about the Adipose at first when I saw a clip the other day but they worked well when I saw them in the context of the episode. A good light hearted start. Loved the Rose sequence at the end which elicited gasps of surprise from my youngest step daughter. Yeah Tate was pretty good. Was unsure about the Adipose after seeing a clip the other day but seeing them in the context of the episode I thought it worked. A promising light hearted episode. Just finished watching Partners in Crime with my family and I’m pleased to say that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the comedic moments between the Doctor and Donna. The clip with Rose was a great surprise- I wasn’t exp

Some trepidation before viewing tonight's episode. The trepidation had been caused by the preview clip showing the Adipose. However, I thought I'd wait and see before passing judgement. I'm glad I did: when seeing the episode in its entirety, the Adipose worked. It made a refreshing change to see aliens in Doctor Who who were not intent on savage colinisation! The cynic in me thought that the BBC were seeing the pound signs when they saw RTD's script but what the heck they added to the comedy! If every episode in this series contains this sort of comedy I would soon get fed up but for a season opening, I thought the tone was appropriate. I liked the scene where the Doctor and Donna were reunited and I thoroughly enjoyed the first fifteen minutes where we saw the Doctor and Donna sepeartely investigating the Adipose and kept missing each other- I enjoyed the timing of the near misses. Not all comedy has to be thought provoking simple visual tricks can work just as effect

Here is a cross section of some of the comments I have posted in the Doctor Who forum relating to the final three episodes of Torchwood season two. Adrift: Enjoyed that episode- seemed to highlight to me that being the leader of Torchwood is fraught with difficult decisions. I liked the ending: not everything in life can be resolved happily. I think the episode was highlighting that sometimes there are no easy answers and being a leader in an organisation such as Torchwood is littered with tough decisions to make. I don't think the answer to what the right course of action to take on this issue is an easy one: parents need to know what happens to their children when they disappear but sometimes the knowledge of what happened could be soul destroying. Seriously I think that is a tough call to make. Interestingly, I watched an old episode of X files the night before when a serial killer suggests that he killed Mulder's sister. When they tell another victim's father what happe

Hmm. Trying to resist the temptation to mention Sapphire and Steel just because the episode is written by PJ Hammond, the creator of aforementioned programme, and fails in the first sentence. The reason for my failure is that I was reminded of the show or should I say what I remember of the show. It has been over twenty years since I watched the show and my memory of that particular programme is limited. Therefore, I suspect I'm making connections with it merely because when I first read about PJ Hammond I read that he was the creator of Sapphire and Steel.If you are a big fan of that particular show and disagree with my first sentence then feel free to correct me! I appreciate the writer's intentions in this episode: using the supernatural and the magical realm to create a different challenge to the team. I've always enjoyed tales of the supernatural (even if I don't belive in ghosts)and always relish the prospect of such stories in Torchwood. I liked the idea of the

I'm glad my wedding wasn't like this. Comedic moments throughout with Nerys Hughes looking like somebody had played half man, Half Biscuit at the wedding disco! I'm still unconvinced by the sexual tension between Jack and Gwen and quite frankly wish they would quietly jettison that particular sub-plot. However, I didn't let this particular quirk ruin my overall enjoyment of the episode. Predictably, I loved the moment whe Jack insulted Nerys' character believing her to be a shape shifter. I say predictably what I mean is if you knew my sense of humour- it is predictable that I enjoyed such a moment even though it was an obvious joke and could be seen a mile off. A mad romp. Seeing this episode reminded me that one of my wife's relatives turned out quite similar in personality to the shape shifter but thankfully didn't ruin our day!

Wow! The best one for me! Burn Gorman seems to really relish the challenge of playing um a dead man! I found the episode gripping. I mean okay I suppose the story itself was slight but that was the point. The episode was all about Owen and the team's reactions to him. We see him go through a whole range of emotions: anger, apathy, despair and finally a contentment, a realisation that this may be all that we have and we should make the most of what we have. I think the message in this episode is very much a reaffirmation of RTD's belief that Doctor Who is a positive series and I really belief deep down after the rather fraught series one, that Torchwood is ultimately beginning to reflect that philosophical view of life. I like the way the story was structured with Owen's past three days since defeating Death shown in flashback whilst in conversation with a woman contemplating suicide. I also liked the positive spin on life at the end of the episode. I really enjoyed Joe Lid

Spoiler alert: contains comments on Dead Man walking. After the initial shock of seeing Owen die last week, I immediately expected him to be fully resurrected the following week. Okay strictly speaking this does not happen. It would appear that by the end of the episode that Owen on a half life form will be about for a while longer. In a way this raises an interesting and intriguing question: what is life? If you cannot do the things you normally take for granted, how would you react?. The teaser for the following episode appears to attempt to answer that question. However, back to Dead man walking. Jack rather predictably jeapordises the future of everyone for the sake of a friend. With some characters I would expect that to happen but somebody who has seen the consequences of time travel and the actions of others would surely resist the temptation? We see Jack in some sort of Hellfire club- I was a little disappointed with this scene- I'd like to have seen more of it and the char

I have no idea whether it is correct to apply the above title to the workings of the subconscious but what the heck- it sounds good! Why have I started off with such a title? Well because I'm basically trying to work out the inner workings of the character Alex's , protagonist of Ashes to ashes, mind. In this episode she falls out with her mother- a subconscious resentment of her mother's relentless career progression? (Is that remark I've just made an unfair one in which women are supposed to feel guilty for pursuing careers as well as being mothers?) Is her anger directed at the fact her mother died when she was young? Who says the mind is rational? What do we make of her the elevator scene? Is this all going to be the dying thoughts of Alex or the thoughts of someone who is fighting to survive? Will the production team try to make a twist where all this turns out to be an alternative reality. Probably best if it doesn't. If my memory serves me correct the idea b

You know for someone who is addicted to spoilers I was surprised last night. Well things started off in a manner I am accustomed to: My wife and Step-son asking me, very politely, not to spoil anything from the episode. Admittedly, I didn't know too much but I had seen the flashbacks to the Boeshane peninsula photos on a spoiler thread some months ago and I had also surmised by a poster on a forum that the character, Adam, would be someone who was capable of manipulating memories. I surmised this mainly due to the fact that the poster was complaining that the plot of the episode was too similar to Border Princes, one of the tie in Torchwood books. I admit there were one or two similarities between the two texts but there were enough differences to keep me intrigued. I enjoyed the scenes between Rhys and Gwen when she had no memory of him: this was an interesting and slightly disturbing premise- how would one react to this in real life? Quite powerful stuff! I am still not convinced

Last year whilst watching the dramatic reveal of Professor Yana being no other than the Master in disguise and then witnessing his subsequent regeneration, it made me vow that I'd never read spoilers again. So what did I do the next day? I went on the spoiler section of the then still titled Outpost Gallifrey! The dramatic and exciting events of Utopia had been known to me since February! Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not- there are far more important things to be concerned about in life- or so they tell me! However, after that episode I went to a friend's wedding reception where I spoke to another friend who was positively excited about it all- I've known since February was my rather sour reply. It was at this point I began to understand why RTD and the rest of the production team go to great lengths to keep things secret: they want excite and surprise us. Another friend of mine at the wedding asked me not to reveal what happened on that epi

Personally, I was really impressed by this film and found it impressive. However my step son and daughter hated it and thought it was really lame. I found it gripping particularly when the monster first hit New York. Not the greatest movie ever but a ...( read more ) refreshing alteration of some of the codes and conventions of Blockbuster monster movies. This is what I wrote in a review for flickster movies on my facebook account. My step-son found the whole idea preposterous and complained that it was Blair witch meets Godzilla. At this point I had to point out that was the point of the film. To be fair on him, I think his argument that they should have just got out when the big monster thingy started bashing the army was a logical one. What won the film over for me was the sequences at the beginning of the rampage, I really felt tense and that is something I haven't felt whilst watching a monster movie in years- I genuinely felt unsettled by the visuals which came over like a p

When I first heard of this idea my heart sank: What's the point of creating a drama around characters who have been established as the figments of an unconcious man's imagination? How can one worry and feel for characters who in effect cannot die? Would a third season of Gene Hunt result in the character becoming a parody of himself?It was with a mixture of trepidation and intrigue that I sat down with my wife to watch the episode and you know what? I found myself enjoying the episode and thinking my God! it works! I confess that I do miss Sam- indeed I ended up rewatching the final episode of Life on Mars on BBC4 straight after the ending of the show. However, I think it is to be expected that the character of Alex Drake is always going to pale when compared to a character who we have grown attached to over the last two years. I am also willing to give the character time to grow before making a more definitive judgement on her. The winning point of the show: Gene, Ray and Chri

Rhys returns in this episode. Initially, I found the premise of this story rather dubious: the boyfriend of an operative in an alleged secret organisation helps the organisation out! Mind you I had forgotten, ironically enough, about the retcon drug. This particular plot device has its uses and provided an interesting emotional and moral dilemma for Gwen at the end of the episode: does she wipe her fiance's memory or not. The resolution elicits an interesting response from Jack. I must confess, I was unaware he had such strong feelings for her and felt as if this did come somewhat out of the blue. Mind you one of the reasons why I am enjoying season two more than season one, is that the characters do appear to be more likeable. I can remember reading somewhere that the producers of Torchwood were brave in creating characters who were unlikeable. However, I have to disagree: I prefer being able to create some sort of empathy with the characters. Don't get me wrong: I like anti-h

Too tired to think of anything profound or even mildly entertaining. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say in the future!- Mark Richardson 3rd February 2008. Probably not the most inspiring way to start a blog.  So 12 years later, I will start again. Welcome to my Blog.  In this blog I will publish short stories, reviews, extracts and blurbs.  I'm mainly interested in Genre fiction covering Science Fiction, History, Fantasy and Crime.  I don't get many readers but if you are having a read, pop a comment in the comments box below!  Enjoy :) Mark Richardson 25th February 2020.