Lady Sheherazahde's Journal

I'm into the Sylvester McCoy years and I have to say I don't like the music or the special effects much at all. The music is too high pitched and tinny. And explosions and special twinkling lights are more cheesy then the old stuff. Although there is a very good rubber masked villain in this one. I mean the rubber mask and dental appliance are up to modern standards. The character is still pretty lame.

I didn't like Ace much in "Remembrance of the Daleks" but she is growing on me.

"Battlefield" is an Arthurian story with aliens whose technology looks like magic. Although the Doctor actually says that "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology". (The inverse of Clarke's third law)

Coincidentally, having insisted in my previous post that "all movies should have multiracial casts and strong female characters" it was amusing to see that this story had both. That is why I love the BBC and Science Fiction.

I watched the whole series. Someone suggested that it is a parody of the Lord Peter Wimsey series and I can see that. I can also see parelels to Jeeves and Wooster. But I''m not sure how much of a trope "the aristocrat and his manservant" are in British literature.

There is a bit of a problem with Campion's name: he says "Albert Campion" is not his real name but he keeps meeting people from his school days and old family friends. So it is sort of odd that they don't call him by his real name. Of course it is possible that everyone knows that he changed his name. There is something about him having a falling out with his aristocratic family. So the name change could be public statement rather than a disguise. It might be clearer in the books.

In the Campion episode "Look to the Lady"

There is wonderful curse by an old village witch:

"I curse you!
I curse by a right line, a crooked line, a simple and a broken,
by flame, by wind, by water, by a mass, by rain, by clay,
by a flying thing, by a creeping thing, by a serpent,
by an eye, by a hand, by a foot.
by a crown, by a crush, by a sword, by a scourge, I curse you."

There was bit of gibberish after that, but the part I could understand was quite impressive. I have to try to remember that if I ever need to curse someone. I tend to be too literal in my spell writing.

In "Sweet Danger" there is a ancient inscription they have to decode:

"If Pontisbright would crowned be, three strange happenings must he see:
The diamond must be rent in twain before he wear his crown again.
Thrice must the mighty bell be tolled and then thrice more the truth to unfold
and ere he to his birthright come, stricken must be Malplaquet drum."

I started watching the "Campion" series. It's a BBC period mystery drama. That is why I chose it. Then I noticed that Peter Davison plays the main character. He is a very Whovian detective. Odd and funny. Always saying and doing strange things.

So, if you are interested in odd and humorous BBC period mystery dramas, this is a very nice one.

"Everything is illuminated in the light of the past."

I just watched "Everything is Illuminated". I put it on my list because it looked strange, and won awards. But was not quite strange enough for me. It is a very quiet and slow movie about two modern young men learning about the history of their families and the holocaust. Very slow, very quiet. Touching but not traumatic. Leavened with humor.

The soundtrack was very odd... Gogol Bordello are a "gypsy punk music band" from New York City
Watch this video!
Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

I hate being lectured in fiction. Stories that lecture are so bad at it. The moral keeps being contradicted by the actions. The Seeker is supposed to be an example of freedom but he is fated to be the Seeker so even though he thinks he is free he really isn't. They should just let the Seeker do whatever he wants since whatever he does is destined to defeat Darken Rahl. The whole Fate thing negates any of the issues of Free Will.

I had hoped that Darken Rahl was a male Confessor. That would make sense. But some of the people close to him really hate his guts so he can't be a Confessor. But Darken Rahl is a real hotty.

Confessors are really creepy. I can see why people are afraid of them. They are just too powerful.

And if love deprives people of free will doesn't that mean love is bad?

Why does the Seeker insist on leaping into battle chest first? Someone should just tilt a pike and impale him.

The costumes are still very pretty.

If Emma's power effected her husband because it is activated by love then she must not love her children because her power didn't effect them.

They keep saying that the Seeker and his Confessor can't have sex because then he will care more about her than his "mission". But he already cares more about her than his mission.

Torturing a Mord'Sith seems redundant.

Doppelgänger episodes are good for comic relief. Especially if you think of them from the actors point of view. When I suspend disbelief and look at them from the character's point of view they are not as funny. but the actors are clearly having fun playing against type.