New Year’s Resolutions

1. Be myself: I like to think in most situations I can pretty much be myself without concerning myself with other people’s opinions of me. This year I would like to make that true far more often. This nicely leads on to…

2. Share More and blog more often.

3. Be funnier: This year I definitely want to write more often. Hopefully this means hilarity in every day life will be within my reach.

4. Eat more sensibly: Michael McIntyre says everyone comes to a point when they realise it’s time to lose weight. For him it was being asked to move to balance the weight of a plane. For me it was when I realised “I’ve had half a bottle of wine and feel no effect whatsoever.”

5. Sort out what to do with the rest of my life and do it.

6. Be less easily pissed off.

7. Be a Trekkie.

Some thoughts on Doctor Who: The End of Time

I watched part one on Christmas day like a good little geek, my expectations high (as well as my blood sugar level… damned mulled wine). For some reason I can’t remember I had missed Waters of Mars and so I watched it earlier in the day and this did nothing but raise my expectations higher!

I hate when people put reviews in context… I do apologise.

The first half seems hardly worth mentioning. It was an average episode (though in all honesty, as good as any other ’special’) which introduced the story but to me, it felt like one bit exposition. It’s almost like they were worried it to too talky and they threw in a few needlessly violent moments for good measure. The ending was kind of strange. Bearable but as it turns out, a little redundant, and speaking of redundancy… Why was the music so loud and so constant? Music can really make or break a Doctor Who episode. There are so many episodes where the cheesiness takes over, all because of the music. If they want to make it so majorly dramatic, the least they could do is make it fit into the episode and enhance it as opposed to completely overpowering everything. I really don’t have much to say about this whole episode. It’s like watching the first half of a movie but waiting a week to watch the end.

And What an end….

It opened with a good old fashioned dose of character development; The Doctor is torn between his resentment of the Master and his captivation with a brother Time Lord. The Master’s madness driving betrays him and he almost begs the Doctor for help. It’s such an alluring scene I was almost sad when the Doctor and Wilf got away!

The episode carries on on a similar vein. They end up in space in the Cactus’s space craft  and in the middle of the hype, they spare a moment for old gramps to stare in wonder at the earth from above- a pleasant reminder of the occasional reality behind sci-fi.I laughed a little at the scene where Wilf tried to convince The Doctor to take his gun. The Doctor considers all the possible situations he might require a gun and refuses (”Never.”), then 5 seconds later he realises that actually, he may need it after all…

A final face-off, where the Doctor decides whether it’d be better to kill the Master or the Gaillfreyan president and after what felt like an hour of suspense I feared might kill me, he ordered the Master out of the way and blew the whole contraption to kingdom come in a moment of “Why didn’t I think of that earlier…”, as the president threatens to take the Doctor with him. Our faith in the Master’s hunaity is once again restored as he forgets his lines and steals someone else’s, demanding the Doctor gets out of the way and buggers up the president before he makes it to hell.

But what’s this? The Doctor is still alive! This is good, and we all breathe a sigh of relief along with the Doctor. Then suddenly, the four knocks and everyone, including the Doctor, thinks “Oh Crap”, as he realises he’s going to die- not to save the world or to bring the end of another, but for one man.

The last 20 minutes are a little odd. Not only does he not regenerate right away. He has a good few hours to pop around his scrap book and say goodbye to some people he will more than likely see again. A lesser doctor would certainly not have been given such a goodbye, but this is freaking David Tennant!

I absolutely adore David Tennant, but I hate him for leaving the roll of the Doctor. Oddly enough, after about 30 seconds of yelling “I don’t want you to go either!” Matt Smith appeared and all was forgiven within his first 5 lines.

I am ridiculously excited about the new series now!

Highlight of my Life.

Well… life might be a slight exaggeration. Wil bloody Wheaton laughed at a joke I made!

It’s still cool that my joke was a quote right?

I kissed a vampire… I wish

I’m so embarrassed to report I’ve become one of the millions of people who are completely vampire obsessed! They’re flying at us from all angles at the minute so I suppose it’s not that difficult to believe. There’s a vampire to suit anyone’s taste at the minute so it doesn’t matter what you’re into! Personally, I’ve always been an Angel girl so hot, broody and reluctant about their fate is how I like ‘em!I miss Buffy…

I watched the first episode of True Blood earlier (honestly, I’m surprised I’ve never watched it before!) and it was awesome. I can’t wait to watch the rest. Also, for some reason I will never remember, I watched the first episode of The Lair. HOW could anyone make a show about gay vampires soooo bad?

Rather embarrassingly, what started me in this current obsession wasn’t the Twilight ‘Saga’ or anything vaguely sensible. It was a little known Internet Musical called I kissed a Vampire. Originally I watched it because Lucas Grabeel is in it who I like an appropriate amount. It’s one of the cheesiest things I’ve watched in ages (and I’m always open to cheesiness) but there was something about it I really liked! It doesn’t take itself too seriously, unlike almost everything else vampire related, which is probably why I find it so appealing. Also, did I mention it’s a musical? Now, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that I only liked it because it was a musical but, as Dreamgirls proved only hours ago, I don’t like all musicals. There are only four or five songs in it, but they’re so annoyingly catchy, they’re all I’ve been thinking about for days (except for Data swearing in ST VII, but I’ll get to that another time). I’m actually annoyed there’s so little of it. It’s only like, half an hour long and hasn’t got all that much music in it, but what’s there is great if you’re not too easily put off by cheese!

So thanks to this completely insane internet musical, I intend to spend the next couple of days re-reading some Twilight! I’m such a loser, but fortunately at the minute I’m one of many!

The Star Trek Marathon

I’m currently in the middle of a Star Trek Marathon! That means all the movies and all the series (except for the animated series… it freaks me out and isn’t strictly canon!) which I had originally intended to have completed in time for the new movie coming out on DVD. For some strange unknown reason, I’ve managed to go my whole life without ever having watched ANY Star Trek. I knew I’d like it if I sat down and watched it, but I just never really managed it. Now in a world of downloads and online episode guides, it’s a much easier task than it used to be! It’s been going on for a good couple of months now and I’m almost half way to nearly finished the Next Generation.

I’ve been having quite an unusual ride! I’ve been living in what I would describe as a rather geek-orientated world and I hadn’t really considered being Trek free to be a disadvantage. All of a sudden however, I get all the jokes, I understand all the references and I can hold a fairly technical conversation about the inner workings of a FTL drive! It also means I’ve had a lot of friends accidentally telling me spoilers, which is less fun.

The Original series passed without much event. This was where a lot of the references I never understood came from! So much of the culture of the geek and so many sci-fi story lines are indebted to these three series that it’s impossible not to feel an instant familiarity, even when watching them for the first time. It’s fun sometimes to watch a show made when certain…. cinematic techniques, hadn’t yet become cheesey, like the dramatic zoom in on the actor’s face (made all the funnier when it’s accompanied with dramatic music!). The dodgey sets, crappy props and downright strange special effects (the ‘alien’ in the The Enemy Within being a personal favourite!)  just make it all the more endearing.

I was ridiculously excited about watching the movies, and when the glorious day actually came I locked myself in my bedroom and sat in a Trek induced delirium for the following 4 hours.  I remember the first comment I made after ‘The Motion Picture’ was, “Dr McCoy didn’t do a damn thing in that film!” and I think that sums it up well enough! ‘Wrath of Khan’ on the other hand was awesome… I cried like an idiot. A lot. The time travel annoyed me slightly, but it would take a hell of a time travel movie not to!It’s kinda funny how, no matter how hard they try not to be sexist, there’s always that little bit of misogyny! One of the first times they show a woman in command of the Enterprise she gets everyone killed! Even if it is only a simulation… it’s a miracle she didn’t cry!

One line movie reviews are kinda my thing, so here goes!

The Motion Picture: Act your age and wear some trousers. Good if you don’t know how much better they become!

The Wrath of Khan: Made me cry! Where did the glasses come from in the first place!?

Search For Spock: I wasn’t allowed to watch this one, but I probably will anyway in the not too distant future!

The Voyage Home: Did Kirk just swear!? Freakin hilarious! Stupid ending.

The Final Frontier: Not as bad as everyone told me it’d be! In fact…. kinda good character-wise!

The Undiscovered Country: They reeeeeally like trials in Star Trek. Odd/Even number rule applies. “Other’s will continue…”

Like I said, I’m getting near the end of The Next Generation now, and I really can’t wait to get to the next batch of movies!

Obscon Levels

I get obsessed with stuff fairly easily, and my friend Dave gave me this handy guide so save me from myself if it became necessary:

5 is no obvious obsession, 4 is stirrings of obsession but nothing to worry about, 3 is high likely hood of major obsession but possibly avoidable. 2 is either good major obsession or unavoidable bad major obsession, 1 is bad major obsession where you may kill if distracted from obsession.