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"...tell...
...me...
...more..."

Okay, well it's a ten minute BBC2 doohickey that starts tomorrow at five past two, as part of BBC Switch - I'm told the second episode's the best, though I'm not sure what order they're going to be transmitted in.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/meta4orce/" target="_blank">Meta4orce

He wrote stuff like Shade the Changing Man and Human Target for Vertigo, and X-Force/X-Statix for Marvel, as well as sundry script doctoring for Hollywood. Currently working on The Programme for Wildstorm, and a new animated series for the BBC (my best friend's sister is one of the animators).

Bah! Surely Timson getting paid work is a *black* mark against the board, if anything...?

:-P

Umm... but even so, they didn't appear in Pat Troughton's last two seasons, nor the first two of John Pertwee.

No, damn it, must... not... get... sucked... back... in...

I don't often comment on review threads any more, but I just had to say - that ending to Dead Eyes literally made me jump out of my seat (thus banging my knee on the radiator).

Seriously groovy twist there, which for the first time in ages I've got really excited about the comic: actually made me feel like a youth-stylee-type-thing again (OMG! dat woz teh shit! ROFL!, etc, etc...)

Thing is with Future Shocks is that, back in't day, you could probably make your way by sending one in every couple of weeks, as long as you had enough ideas. These days, with fewer people working on the comic, there's less time to deal with the subs pile, and as it's generally considered bad form to send in one before you've had a response on your previous script, which can mean a wait of several months.

So don't think that getting a single FS in 2000AD will suddenly propell you into the Big Leagues, but do stick with it because it can be fun, and a great way of learning the craft - after all, the best way to improve as a writer is to write as much as you can as often as you can. Nothing beats experience. And remember to take feedback on the chin; another important thing writers need to learn is how to satisfy an editor, and Matt is usually pretty good at pointing out the errors in a script (plus, remember you can rewrite a rejected FS if you try and follow what the editor tells you - a lot of people just give up, which is a mistake). Peer feedback can be a useful though steep learning curve, so if you have't already, why not try joining a group like Scriptdroids, where other people - pros and wannabes - can weigh in with their opinions? Just remember not to listen to people who waffle at length on messageboards about subjects they know nothing about...

Anyway, good luck with it, and hope to see you in the prog someday.
















...Oh, and other than Mozart and Puccini, opera is terribly overrated.

"the main character's hair is ugly"

Tsk. You won't be saying that in the future when alien spores have made the majority of humanity bald, and people with follicles of such a prodigious length will rule as all like some kind of hirsute hyperking!

What about silenced pistols though? I always love that THWIPP/THWAPP noise they traditionally make (once PAFF! - with additional exclamation mark - in a comic I picked up in Belgium), sometimes to be found in old copies of Steranko's Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Intriguingly, I've often noticed that guns used to fire gas or poisoned darts of some kind often make the same noise in Italian fumetti digests. And that's before we even get into the whole sticky arena of machine gun SFX (always liked BRAKKA-BRAKKA)...

For my money though, no one does sound effects better than the King: his EEAA! replaced AIIIEE! for me some while back.http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i130/danwall88/kirby_apes_web.jpg">

Good to see peeps old and new at Brizzle once again: highlights include a wankered-on-rum PVS making elliptical comments about 'abstract gynaecology', Timson scoffing biscuits before attempting to sketch Victorian Wolverine, Jock's threats to serenade me shortly after referring to me in terms of a certain part of the female anatomy, John Reppion's 19th Century explorerâ??s 'tasche, Satchmo's excellent mini-comic 'Godzilla - Film Reviewer' (now he *really* didn't like Cloverfield!), thanks to Bart for the offer of sending me his spare students (Go Street Team!), plus John Spelling wins hands down for Best Dave Stone Anecdote of the Con, which also saw the creation of 'Vic Anger - Black Power Man', striking a blow for the homies against cracker-ass honkey injustice as doled out by The Man, with a rogueâ??s gallery that includes the likes of Johnny Cyclops, The Ku Klux Man and his deadly female sidekick Miss Cegenation.

My favourite comic I picked up this year has to be the 1980 Action Annual, in which Hook Jaw takes a bite out of communism; Hellmann of Hammer Force accidentally kills Montyâ??s Double with an Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus; Spinball blows the presidentâ??s noseâ?¦off his face!; David Gower and Daley Thompson are â??Young Men of Actionâ??; we â??hit the adventure trail with globe-roaming Captain Cliff Hanger and his blade-throwing Ghurkha pal Kukri. Share with them their moments of breathless peril! See if you, too, can find a way outâ?¦ WHEN ESCAPE SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE!â??; D.I.6. agent Dredger has become addicted to Cuban heels and is mistaken for a â??murderous yellow pig!â??; and Look out for Leftyâ??s winger â??Leftyâ?? Lampton gains Albert Steptoe as a grandfather and wows a school fete by kicking the head off a bearhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v328/BVirgo01/Action1980_LookOutForLefty.jpg">

"I know ALL!"

Except for that whole 'creating the world in seven days' bit. Obviously.

"But Jenny's surname is 'Who'. It would need to begin with a 'C' for that analogy to work."

Tsk. His surname's not 'Who' (at least, not since people started taking this shit seriously, which coincidentally coincided with the point in time when people stopped watching the show in the first place) - he's simply known as 'The Doctor', though this might have somewhat less portentious cachet if he went about referring to himself as 'The Plumber' or 'The Paediatrician'.

He's only ever given himself the pseudononymous surname 'Smith' before. According to my Etymological Dictionary, 'Smith' roughly translates as 'smei' in Proto-Indo-European, which means 'to carve' - so our stoll down the crazy paved path of deductive reasoning leads us to conclude that the Doctor's Daughter must be called 'Jenny Carver'!

"You don't know that for certain."

I know ALL!

Surprised no one's yet pointed out the allegorical Christian overtones that this episode contained, to whit:

*Messiah born of 'lonely god' via virgin birth

*Christ-child's name begins with a 'J'

*Though born into a society composed of two intractable opposing ethnic groups, the Saviour realises that s/he is 'not of this world'

*'J' decides that 'thou shalt not kill'

*Messiah dies for our sins in order to drive home vaguely hippie-ish anti-violence sentiment: 'why can't we all just get along?'

*Progeny of god is ceremonially laid out after death, but promptly comes back to life before mysteriously vanishing and flying off back to heaven (not the gay nightclub)

Actually Bolt, Mr. Bamforth's lovely cover there reminds me that I must give you that magazine I've been meaning to pass on to you for about four months...

This family issue sounds interesting - got any more info?

"I liked the bit where the airship exploded, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. If it doesn't crash onto the steps of St. Paul's I can't see the problem."

Well, as I think General Scarface said t'other week, the dirty Volgs had made something like 200 Londoners effectively 'responsibile' for the blimp (in order to discourage terrorist attacks), so in the case of its destruction, they'd be executed on the spot.

"I still don't understand why anyone would want to machine gun Neanderthals when there's potentially a lot more to gain by building bridges."

Well, if I understand correctly, the soldier ordering the machine gunning was actually still rather bitter over his previous encounter with said Neanderthal wallahs, and was out for personal revenge, therefore ignoring the direct orders of his political masters (whose immediate aims, beyond the whole energy issue, seem to be somewhat obtuse at this stage).

"The Dog And Collaborator in Soho"

S'on Greek Street, isn't it? Just the other side of the road from The Slaughtered Nun?

Or Robert Towne, apparently.