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Half dalek, half human and six part vibrator, from the look of that cover...


-pj

NNNNOOOOOOO!

I really like Norton, but after the ponderous philosophical deliberations of the last hulk, I had high hopes of a non-star + lots and lots of hulk smash for this.

- pj

Hey, I didn't write it!


-pj

MASSIVE, MASSIVE SPOILERS...

The Dr takes Martha to New New York - about 25 years after his last visit - where, almost as soon as they arrive, she gets kidnapped by a couple who need a third passenger to move from the motorway (a massive tube containing thousands of vehicles that move forwards so slowly people have been there years) to the fast lane (which, it turns out, is populated by devolved Macra - massive, stupid, crabs). The Dr, while trying to find Martha is taken by a cat-nun to the face of Bo in New New York's parliment. Where, it turns out, everyone except those in the undercity and the motorway died 25 years ago due to a drug that evolved into an air born virus (which, handily, has since died out). The face of Bo and the cat-nun have been supplying enough power to let the motorway run on its own, the Dr uses some patented Dr who magic to release the vehicles and everyone ends up happily ever after.

There's some other bits thrown in about the face of Bo's last words ('You are not alone Dr') and Gallifry and Martha feeling like the rebound girlfriend.

And ..er.. that's it.. (I think)

Next week: 1930s Manhatten, pig men, Daleks.

- pj
 

It was a real case of spot the reference: old couple at start=american gothic. News announcer=Swifty Frisco, in fact the entire look of the motor way seems to have been lifted from the first couple of pages of Halo Jones.

Liked the plot twist but seemed like an episode that doesn't go anywhere.

What opaque forgot to say is that the MC1 and Max Normal are mentioned in the commentary.

- pj

http://viciousimagery.blogspot.com/'>Dave Bishop's blog has turned up this http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html'>great interview with the creator, where in he says:

SPOILERS (well, ok the entire thread is a spoiler really, but this is definitive and some people may not want that...)

â??I think it does,â? agrees Matthew. â??The truth is, when I wrote it, what I was trying to say is thatâ??s heâ??s died, and that for however long that last second of life is going to be, it will stretch out for an age, as an eternity for him. And so when he drives off in that car, heâ??s really driving off into the afterlife.â?

-pj

Ah come on Gary, that's piss easy to rationalise away ... maybe he flicked his eyes open briefly and saw the surgeon (which, happily, explains why he doesn't see Frank until well into the second series) - who knows in the coma time may be travelling much faster for him than in real life - allowing him to include all sorts of outside stimula into his entire dreamscape.

The question is: how did he know he'd slip into a coma by jumping off a roof - why didn't he just die?

Who cares... it's not about that ... it's about the Gene Genie...

- pj

I have a theory about life on mars and the last episode really confirmed it for me. Essentially, the entire series is a meta commentary on tv; the last episode is a meta-meta-commentary on the commissioning and writing of the thing.

Here's how I see the show: Sam Tyler was trapped, not in his idea of the 70s, but, rather, a 70s tv cop show that his psyche carefully crafted for him (which he lived through but we were watching as an 80s style Glen A. Larson production type thing)

I imagine the writers sat down in the pub, got pissed and had a conversation along the (drunken) lines of:

'Wouldn't it have been brilliant to have been writing for the sweeny in the 70s?'
'Ah, I'd love to have done that - just a bunch of hard as nails coppers battering done doors and being all un-pc'
'Tell you what... why don't we pitch that tomorrow...'
'That's effing brilliant - you're my best mate'
'I love you'

The next morning

'Right lads, I believe you have an idea for me...'
'Yeah. It's the Sweeny'
'The Sweeny? that's a great idea - the modern Sweeny, the flying squad, a police procedural like CSI but british'
'Uhm... no, er... the actual sweeny...'
'No, I don't follow you... the ACTUAL Sweeny?'
'Yeah... uhm... just like it was the 70s.... er...'
'Uhm... yeah... but ... uhm... we... ah... I KNOW I KNOW... we have someone sent back in time to the 70s - a modern copper... yeah, that's it.. is he back in time or in a coma... who knows...'
'Brilliant. I'll have two series please'

The first script meeting...
'So, coma or back in time?'
'How the hell should I know... who cares... it's the sweeny... no, is there one or two Ns in Ponce?'

The end.

The last episode is just how I imagine the writers feel, a kind of 'Well, I suppose we'd better deal with this coma/time travel thing ... ok, there's that resolved ... but wasn't it so much more fun just writing it as the sweeny in the 70s?'

-------

It was a fecking great piece of telly (sometimes a little off, but worth watching and I'm glad I made the time to watch it when it was on)

- pj

I think you're all tilting at windmills here; RTD seems to have a general downer on relationships in any shape or form (which, you know, for a TV show is pretty much is par for the course). The racial matter seems something of a red-herring - what relationships in Nu-Who have worked out perfectly?

- pj
 

If you've paid with a visa card visa will often intercede where a shop is refusing a refund.

- pj

perfek.

- pj

Looking for a decent scan of Burt-1 - for the Bristol comics convention (pick a character and add 30 years).

Can anyone help?

- pj

Shant be there, on the plus side though I will be at Bristol.

- pj

Ah, that explains it then.

Not being a massive gamer I have to say ... well... that looks a bit rubbish, doesn't it? Unless, you know, the reason for the simplistic figure is because you will see 300 spartans and thousands of persians on screen at once it really doesn't scream high-quality at all.

- pj