"Fear of the Dark" Fear of the Dark Iron Maiden
"The Call of Ktulu" Ride the Lightning Metallica
(Turn up the bass frequencies for the first 2 1/2 minutes to hear Cliff Burton at his absolute best.)
"Highway to Hell" Highway to Hell AC/DC
"Dazed and Confused" Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin
"Black Sabbath" Black Sabbath Black Sabbath
"Hells Bells" Back in Black AC/DC
"The Right to Go Insane" Endgame Megadeth
(Okay, actually half the songs off Peace Sells would work as well, but I'm addicted to this one.)
"Children of the Damned" The Number of the Beast Iron Maiden
"Welcome to the Machine" Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd
(Odd man out? Just a bit. Tough.)
"The Thing That Should Not Be" Master of Puppets Metallica
"Still Life" Piece of Mind Iron Maiden
"Brain Damage/Eclipse" The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd
(Because songs about going crazy are always good.)
I also understand that the original version of the Doctor Who theme frightened young children.
-James
(Edit: I'm listening to Megadeth Radio's Halloween mix. "Fear of the Dark" just came up. Nya ha.)
(Edit #2: It just came on again. There's a reason it's at the top of the list.)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Barry Letts 26 March 1925 – 9 October 2009
As you might have guesses by my last post, I am behind the times. News takes a while to reach my delicate ears. I found out that Barry Letts died only by reading Paul Cornell's blog, which I was only reading because a link from Whedonesque told me to go there for something completely unrelated.
So, this means that, to the best of my knowledge, the only living producer from Classic Who is Phillip Hinchcliffe. Derrick Sherwin might be, but he was the producer for exactly one serial (Spearhead from Space) before resigning from the post and letting Barry get a shot at it.
Now, the pacing of the show wasn't exactly stellar whem Mr. Letts was producing, and the switch to color meant that it really didn't hold up as well as it used to. The political subtext, as I stated in an older post, I tended to disagree with but didn't dislike. But still, Barry served as producer for 5 years and managed to not get the show cancelled, and nobody else can stake a similar claim (except RTD, if you count this year's specials as an actual season). On top of that, his last important act as producer was to cast Tom Baker. Of course, for most of his tenure, he was producing a show that really doesn't resemble the show that came before or after his term. The Doctor was for the most part stuck on Earth with a solid base of support and can't fly the TARDIS at all, as opposed to barely being able to fly it.
And yet it's easy to look back on those, the dandy-Doctor days, with considerable nostalgia, and we have Mr. Letts primarily to thank for that.
In other news, please please please tell me that this is not the title that's actually going to appear on-screen for the new series.
So, this means that, to the best of my knowledge, the only living producer from Classic Who is Phillip Hinchcliffe. Derrick Sherwin might be, but he was the producer for exactly one serial (Spearhead from Space) before resigning from the post and letting Barry get a shot at it.
Now, the pacing of the show wasn't exactly stellar whem Mr. Letts was producing, and the switch to color meant that it really didn't hold up as well as it used to. The political subtext, as I stated in an older post, I tended to disagree with but didn't dislike. But still, Barry served as producer for 5 years and managed to not get the show cancelled, and nobody else can stake a similar claim (except RTD, if you count this year's specials as an actual season). On top of that, his last important act as producer was to cast Tom Baker. Of course, for most of his tenure, he was producing a show that really doesn't resemble the show that came before or after his term. The Doctor was for the most part stuck on Earth with a solid base of support and can't fly the TARDIS at all, as opposed to barely being able to fly it.
And yet it's easy to look back on those, the dandy-Doctor days, with considerable nostalgia, and we have Mr. Letts primarily to thank for that.
In other news, please please please tell me that this is not the title that's actually going to appear on-screen for the new series.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Fall Break or: Sometimes I Wonder If My Brain Is Doing Drugs Behind My Back
If I could remember a single thing about the drive home, I'd relate it.
Moving on: the average age of the items I purchased at Best Buy: 13.333333. Yikes. This is what happens when you're naturally behind the times, and also short on cash thanks to a speeding ticket. They were, in order of age:
Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (1975)
I'll never tire of this band. Even though I don't own anything from before Meddle, but hey, I'm missing out on the one with the guy who went crazy from the drugs and the several that are meandering experimental wrecks. (I jest. Piper, at the very least, I intend to pick up one of these days, and the band themselves have pretty much disowned everything between Piper and Meddle.) Anyway, the album's only 5 songs long, but damn. These boys could write music. Or, more probably, these boys could jam flawlessly for hours on end and then edit it down to stick it on vinyl.
Serenity (even though the collector's edition came out in 07, I'm crediting this one as 2005, otherwise I have to go back and do the math again.)
It's one of those movies I honestly wish I hadn't known who was going to die beforehand. Oh, by the way, for anyone who hasn't seen it (and you're seriously depriving yourselves), spoiler alert: people die. Well, it's Joss Whedon. I won't claim to be surprised. Anyway, it's good. Really, really good. And for someone who grew up on Star Wars and felt badly cheated by the prequels, really really good is good enough for me.
Super Mario Galaxy (it says (C)2007 on the title screen, so I'll assume that's accurate).
Finally, I got a Wii game that requires the use of the Wii-mote and did not cause me to throw said Wii-mote down in frustration within two minutes. I'm considerably less apprehensive about the sequel now. Having said that, I hope they iron out the difficulty curve; the levels alternate between "I could have done that in my sleep" and "screw this, let's watch Serenity again." And back again. There is no middle ground. The Deep Dark Galaxy, for example, there's a trick you can use with the cannon to make levels one and two (and possibly three; I can't remember it) much easier. Otherwise in level two you're supposed to do this... you know what? I'm not even sure what you're supposed to do in level two. Oh, and they're not "galaxies;" they're star systems at best. Then again, "Super" Mario Sunshine proved that the developers never passed a 200-level Physics course, so I'm not really surprised that they got the nomenclature wrong here.
Okay, what else did I do? I did not do what I'd intended to do, which is get my guitar serviced. I decided to save that for Thanxgiving/Xmas instead. Good luck... I probably learned a new song, but at this point I don't remember what is and isn't in my repertoire. This may have something to do with the fact that I automatically assume that I can work out anything in my iTunes library that's lighter than Iron Maiden in less than three minutes. But enough about me; let's talk about me for a while.
On the way back the three noteworthy things were the three police cars pulling three people over in the construction zone on I-90. Rockford's getting a fat paycheck...
Also I did the bare minimum of homework.
-James
Moving on: the average age of the items I purchased at Best Buy: 13.333333. Yikes. This is what happens when you're naturally behind the times, and also short on cash thanks to a speeding ticket. They were, in order of age:
Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (1975)
I'll never tire of this band. Even though I don't own anything from before Meddle, but hey, I'm missing out on the one with the guy who went crazy from the drugs and the several that are meandering experimental wrecks. (I jest. Piper, at the very least, I intend to pick up one of these days, and the band themselves have pretty much disowned everything between Piper and Meddle.) Anyway, the album's only 5 songs long, but damn. These boys could write music. Or, more probably, these boys could jam flawlessly for hours on end and then edit it down to stick it on vinyl.
Serenity (even though the collector's edition came out in 07, I'm crediting this one as 2005, otherwise I have to go back and do the math again.)
It's one of those movies I honestly wish I hadn't known who was going to die beforehand. Oh, by the way, for anyone who hasn't seen it (and you're seriously depriving yourselves), spoiler alert: people die. Well, it's Joss Whedon. I won't claim to be surprised. Anyway, it's good. Really, really good. And for someone who grew up on Star Wars and felt badly cheated by the prequels, really really good is good enough for me.
Super Mario Galaxy (it says (C)2007 on the title screen, so I'll assume that's accurate).
Finally, I got a Wii game that requires the use of the Wii-mote and did not cause me to throw said Wii-mote down in frustration within two minutes. I'm considerably less apprehensive about the sequel now. Having said that, I hope they iron out the difficulty curve; the levels alternate between "I could have done that in my sleep" and "screw this, let's watch Serenity again." And back again. There is no middle ground. The Deep Dark Galaxy, for example, there's a trick you can use with the cannon to make levels one and two (and possibly three; I can't remember it) much easier. Otherwise in level two you're supposed to do this... you know what? I'm not even sure what you're supposed to do in level two. Oh, and they're not "galaxies;" they're star systems at best. Then again, "Super" Mario Sunshine proved that the developers never passed a 200-level Physics course, so I'm not really surprised that they got the nomenclature wrong here.
Okay, what else did I do? I did not do what I'd intended to do, which is get my guitar serviced. I decided to save that for Thanxgiving/Xmas instead. Good luck... I probably learned a new song, but at this point I don't remember what is and isn't in my repertoire. This may have something to do with the fact that I automatically assume that I can work out anything in my iTunes library that's lighter than Iron Maiden in less than three minutes. But enough about me; let's talk about me for a while.
On the way back the three noteworthy things were the three police cars pulling three people over in the construction zone on I-90. Rockford's getting a fat paycheck...
Also I did the bare minimum of homework.
-James
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Who Review! The Deadly Assasin
The Deadly Assassin begins with a Star Wars-esque caption scroll providing a general background, segues into a Manchurian Candidate-esque political thriller, and then goes into a virtual reality world called the Matrix. It was first broadcast in 1976, meaning that it pre-dates both Star Wars and The Matrix.
Blah blah Time Lords blah blah boring MP soundalikes blah blah. The serial came under fire at the time for two reasons: 1) the third episode, which I'll get to later, and 2) the fact that it turned the Time Lords from the mystical all powerful race that they'd been ever since their introduction in 1969, into a bunch of doddering old men. This revision certainly goes a long way towards explaining why the Doctor left their society, but it left a lot of viewers upset that the great and powerful Time Lords had been reduced to a bigger version of Parliament.
The setup is excellent: the Doctor's coming back to Gallifrey because the President (not the Prime Minister! odd for a British show) of Gallifrey is resigning. En route he gets a vision of the assassination, and the astute viewer will note that in this vision, the Doctor is the one holding the gun. He gets to Gallifrey, sneaks past the guards for no adequately explained reason beyond the fact that the Doctor sneaks past the guards on every planet he ever goes to, and arrives in what appears to be the only large room on the planet. This is where the President will resign, but the Doctor notices a rifle protruding from the shadows up above. He goes to investigate, picks up the rifle, aims, fires, and the President drops dead, and the credits roll on Episode One. Brilliant! Did the Doctor just assassinate the President of Gallifrey? Tune in next week and find out!
Episode two: no. No he didn't. In fact, in a shot added to the reprise from the previous episode, we find that he was actually aiming at the real assassin. After being arrested and using a legal loophole to wriggle his way out of being vaporized on the spot, he enlists the security chief who arrested him to help prove his innocence, which he does by entering the Matrix. It's right about here that all the credibility of this serial begins to wash away.
Episode three is a big filler episode set in the Matrix, with the assassin hunting the Doctor. It ends with a "violent" fight and a freeze-frame of the Doctor's head being held underwater. This drew fire from some people who thought that children couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
Episode four contains a revelation that the New Who writers must by now be desperately wondering how to wriggle out of: Time Lords have a total of 13 lives. Also, the Master, who is the villain of the piece (this isn't a spoiler - he's called "Master" in the first episode and they find a trademark shrunken doll in episode two), holds a gun on the Doctor, says something along the lines of "No more delays, now you die," and stuns him. Stuns. Him. After saying he wouldn't delay the Doctor's execution any further. Then he returns to the aforementioned only big room on the planet where he raises a monolith that nobody noticed before, ever. He and the Doctor fight while the camera shakes a lot and styrofoam falls from on high, and then he falls down a big crack in the floor. End of story.
Rrrrgh.
Long story short, if he were still alive, Robert Holmes could probably sue the Wachowskis for $zillions, and the story goes all wonky about halfway through episode two and never really recovers.
I'm trying to figure out why this story is held in such high regard. It derailed the Time Lords forever, featured Tom Baker talking to himself because he didn't have a companion, and reintroduced the Master in his most absurd plot ever (I'm going to lure the one man who knows I exist to Gallifrey, frame him for a murder he can easily prove he didn't commit, and then while nobody's looking, steal stuff from the dead President, enter the grand chamber and blow up the planet).
Okay, the Master's mask is good by 1976 standards. Hell, if they could have just made the jaw move a bit more when he spoke, it might have even been good by 1977 (read: Star Wars) standards. It had tubes for pumping blood over the face and everything, but this wasn't used because of the poor lighting. It's the "the regeneration limit is capped at 12" story, the continuity fans' favorite story. I kinda like the sets on this verison of Gallifrey better than all the subsequent ones (espcially Arc of Infinity). And it's a story of political intrigue first broadcast in a time of political intrigue. We got a companion-less story, and the first story set mostly on the Doctor's home planet. And the acting, which is usually fairly good on Doctor Who, is better than average here. Is The Deadly Assassin well-remembered for the sum of these perks?
Bottom line: it's a good story, but it's no Talons of Weng-Chiang, which was broadcast only a few months later. I'm not entirely sure Deadly Assassin deserves to be on the top 10 list. Top 20, absolutely. Top 15, probably. Top 10 intact stories, maybe.
Blah blah Time Lords blah blah boring MP soundalikes blah blah. The serial came under fire at the time for two reasons: 1) the third episode, which I'll get to later, and 2) the fact that it turned the Time Lords from the mystical all powerful race that they'd been ever since their introduction in 1969, into a bunch of doddering old men. This revision certainly goes a long way towards explaining why the Doctor left their society, but it left a lot of viewers upset that the great and powerful Time Lords had been reduced to a bigger version of Parliament.
The setup is excellent: the Doctor's coming back to Gallifrey because the President (not the Prime Minister! odd for a British show) of Gallifrey is resigning. En route he gets a vision of the assassination, and the astute viewer will note that in this vision, the Doctor is the one holding the gun. He gets to Gallifrey, sneaks past the guards for no adequately explained reason beyond the fact that the Doctor sneaks past the guards on every planet he ever goes to, and arrives in what appears to be the only large room on the planet. This is where the President will resign, but the Doctor notices a rifle protruding from the shadows up above. He goes to investigate, picks up the rifle, aims, fires, and the President drops dead, and the credits roll on Episode One. Brilliant! Did the Doctor just assassinate the President of Gallifrey? Tune in next week and find out!
Episode two: no. No he didn't. In fact, in a shot added to the reprise from the previous episode, we find that he was actually aiming at the real assassin. After being arrested and using a legal loophole to wriggle his way out of being vaporized on the spot, he enlists the security chief who arrested him to help prove his innocence, which he does by entering the Matrix. It's right about here that all the credibility of this serial begins to wash away.
Episode three is a big filler episode set in the Matrix, with the assassin hunting the Doctor. It ends with a "violent" fight and a freeze-frame of the Doctor's head being held underwater. This drew fire from some people who thought that children couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
Episode four contains a revelation that the New Who writers must by now be desperately wondering how to wriggle out of: Time Lords have a total of 13 lives. Also, the Master, who is the villain of the piece (this isn't a spoiler - he's called "Master" in the first episode and they find a trademark shrunken doll in episode two), holds a gun on the Doctor, says something along the lines of "No more delays, now you die," and stuns him. Stuns. Him. After saying he wouldn't delay the Doctor's execution any further. Then he returns to the aforementioned only big room on the planet where he raises a monolith that nobody noticed before, ever. He and the Doctor fight while the camera shakes a lot and styrofoam falls from on high, and then he falls down a big crack in the floor. End of story.
Rrrrgh.
Long story short, if he were still alive, Robert Holmes could probably sue the Wachowskis for $zillions, and the story goes all wonky about halfway through episode two and never really recovers.
I'm trying to figure out why this story is held in such high regard. It derailed the Time Lords forever, featured Tom Baker talking to himself because he didn't have a companion, and reintroduced the Master in his most absurd plot ever (I'm going to lure the one man who knows I exist to Gallifrey, frame him for a murder he can easily prove he didn't commit, and then while nobody's looking, steal stuff from the dead President, enter the grand chamber and blow up the planet).
Okay, the Master's mask is good by 1976 standards. Hell, if they could have just made the jaw move a bit more when he spoke, it might have even been good by 1977 (read: Star Wars) standards. It had tubes for pumping blood over the face and everything, but this wasn't used because of the poor lighting. It's the "the regeneration limit is capped at 12" story, the continuity fans' favorite story. I kinda like the sets on this verison of Gallifrey better than all the subsequent ones (espcially Arc of Infinity). And it's a story of political intrigue first broadcast in a time of political intrigue. We got a companion-less story, and the first story set mostly on the Doctor's home planet. And the acting, which is usually fairly good on Doctor Who, is better than average here. Is The Deadly Assassin well-remembered for the sum of these perks?
Bottom line: it's a good story, but it's no Talons of Weng-Chiang, which was broadcast only a few months later. I'm not entirely sure Deadly Assassin deserves to be on the top 10 list. Top 20, absolutely. Top 15, probably. Top 10 intact stories, maybe.
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