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Get in touch with me off-line and I'll get you in touch with the folks you need to speak to.

mike_collins@ntlworld.com

Ah... I used to have two phone numbers (didn't get rid of the BT one when we went to NTL as too many clients had it, just made it incoming only)- but for some reason the numbers were seperated by about six others in the phone directory.

When I worked at home I'd regularily get cold called, then five minutes later cold called by the same firm. Actually made one woman shreek in alarm when I answered the phone with 'You are Diamond Windows, and I want NONE of your special summer discount offer!').

Cruel but fair.

damn... spent ages watching moronic breakfast shows on the US networks...!

Forgot about the sheer nasty snideness of US ads- and the 'may cause death' warnings.. fabulous toy!

'And it?s funny the lengths they have to go to to keep characters hovering when they can?t fit them in'


I read that as hoovering... now THAT comic I want to see.... Justice League of Dysons!

Welllllll....

back, way back in the day, pre-Vertigo, Neil and me both had proposals in for horror series- mine never made it over the final hurdle (as so many don't) but we'd been swapping notes on our ideas- Neil was very excited about his plans for the book... he said 'I've got a WHOLE ISSUE where Sandman and his sister sit on a park bench and talk!' I think I said something like 'Jesus, Neil- no one will buy that!'

Cue: One of the most over-ordered and significant books in modern DC.

I think I may have turned down the option of Apple stock at some point too...

'condesensed'.. gawd, you can tell it's a Friday, can't you?

Edge was telling me that the planned 5 isue epic had to be condesensed to 4, so a LOT had to go on at the end, so it's unfortunate that it was all compressed- still, in this world of 'decompressed' storytelling when you get a 5 pages plot wallowing out over 20 pages, you're getting more plot for ya dollar...


and of course, some lovely staggeringly good art...

Edge has just been on the phone to say he's gotten through his comp copies of part 3 so it should be in the shops this or next week!

Let the rejoicing begin! All you chaps wave your caps in the air! Huzzah!

Matt has excelled himself on this-- the launch sequence at the end is breathtaking. I love the kettle too!

...and Ian's script effortlessly bridges H.G.Wells and Nigel Kneale. One of the few comics I've actually sat down and re-read as soon as I've finished it. Just fabulous.

.. Children of the Stones god.. but the show that stayed with me from the 70s was Marianne Dreams- book is pretty creepy too.

How about Ace of Wands?

Show I've been enjoying most lately is Coronation Street-- Jonathan Harvey has been writing some of the most bizarre dialogue for the characters.

 Two recent favourites: "Oooh, the Turin Shroud, always thought that'd make a lovely design for a shower curtain" and " well, so I rented Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, and-"

And Deidre's mother's ramblings about a friend who locked her heroin addicted grandson in a box room to send him cold turkey was genius -"How could she do that? Wasn't she in a wheelchair?"/"Not since Lourdes..."

Genius....

>as I understand it, the viewing figures over the past several episodes have been dropping down to their lowest since the series returned.<

Actual figures might be down but they're WAY down across the board, and as I've seen the breakdown, the audience SHARE is up- so last week's Peter Kay show might've got less viewers than another ep, but still 'won' the top spot for percentage of those watching telly - beating Casualty, I think.

Oh, it's all magic tricks with numbers... a couple of newspapers seem to be gleefully predicting the slide of Who just because it's always good to bash something after you've lauded it.

More interesting is Mitch Benn's comments at Bristol where he said that when Who beat Ant and Dec they STILL had about the same number of viewers as before-- which means the audience for Who is mostly folks who WEREN'T watch telly on a Saturday night before...! (ie, Me!)

>cough cough 'Paperhouse' cough<

Pah!

Poor, poor version of the fabulous MARIANNE DREAMS book (somethines published as 'Marianne and Mark) which missed all the key bizarre fantasy elements and added a nasty and inappropriate child abuse theme. It got made into a TV serial by ATV in the early 70s and scared the bejesus out of me. Hasn't been issued on DVD so maybe it got wiped for episodes of The Golden Shot.

Hmmm, wonder if the rights are up for that? Would make a great strip....

>Much as I'd enjoy it, I really don't see how they can bring Trigger/ Lumic/ Mastermold over to our universe for a repeat engagement, they were pretty final about the whole closing off the alternate dimension never to return thing...

But as it was established that the timeline only diverted from ours about 20 years ago (there is a Mickey/Ricky but no Rose) presumably there's a Lumic on 'our' Earth working away at the same thing... and possibly with the co-operation of Torchwood if they're going to go against the Doctor.
And on that thought-- we know Captain Jack had two years of his life erased... do we figure they're the two spent in Cardiff fighting off wee timorous beasties and that Torchwood will actually pre-date his adventures with Eckky-thump?

Do I think about this too much? Yes.
...back tothe drawin' board...

Got me thinking about the family issues that EVERYONE has....

watching eps 1 and 2 of the new season back to back last night is it me or is it that....


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...they're all recalling FALSE memories, implanted as part of an experiment and that actually they AREN'T the people they think they are?

Ie- Locke can now walk because he was NEVER a cripple?

Dunno- insane speculation on my part-- but that polar bear toy that younger Mike givesd to baby Walt is too much of a recurring storybeat.

... the prehistoric horror that gets revealed in Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape scared the crap out of me as a kid-- you don't really see anything but there's an amazing sense of dread and unforgiving evil.

When they repeated it last year on BBC3 (or 4?) still scared me....