Hello all! When my blogging lessens, either something’s not right in my personal life, or actual work is taking up my time. Happily, right now it’s the latter – I’ve been making very good headway with my manuscript Saint, as well as taking some time for video games and TV, which is quite a rare event when most of my time is taking up with the day job (IT Support) or the night job (writing).
Having a bit of writer’s block right now though, which brings me back to blogging. But hey, it allows me to talk about all the TV I’ve been neglecting to mention!
First as always, Doctor Who. I didn’t blog about the weeping angels two-parter (“The Time of Angels”/”Flesh and Stone”) because I honestly had nothing worth criticising about it. I thought it was the best two episodes so far, and it finally got me liking Matt as the Doctor. Also, the fact that they’d combined the church and military in the future was brilliant, and I wish we’d seen a bit more of that world’s quirks.
“The Vampires of Venice” I enjoyed as a comedy episode – if I’d expected more of a dramatic episode I’d have been dissappointed, but as a light-hearted story it worked quite well, with lots of fantastic little references (the first Doctor on the library card and what sounded like a Star Wars Kid parody with the broom). However, it was let down a bit by poor special effects on the Doctor’s climb, and a cop-out death with the hand-mirror. Still, a good use of an hour.
Possible spoilers ahead! “Amy’s Choice” I’ve just watched, and I’m on the fence about. It was perfectly enjoyable and I had a good time watching it, but a few things bothered me. Having a story based around dreams is guaranteed to make be a bit twitchy (a very writer-ish part of me goes into a blind rage at even the thought of “and then they woke up, and it was all a dream”, heh), and I thought they could have done a better job at making the viewer the question which reality was real when I think everyone had a decent idea from the start which was more likely.
Aside from that, I speant a lot of the episode getting excited by an interesting original character, then wondering if it was the Master, and then feeling a little put out by the end twist. We already have the Master and the Valeyard, not sure what adding a ‘Dream Lord’ into the mix achieves.
On a non-Doctor Who note, I’ve watched some of sci-fi/western mix, the cult classic TV show Firefly – I watched the first pilot, “Serenity”, and the second pilot/second episode “The Train Job”. I much preferred “Serenity” for some brilliant dialogue and characterisation, but fiance Dave had the opposite opinion. He found all the characters in “Serenity” either unlikable or boring, and only started warming to them in “The Train Job”. I’m not sure which I’d recommend to new viewers – I think “Serenity” appeals more to people with long attention spans or a leaning towards character-based stories, while “The Train Job” is much more of a story for standard viewers.
“We’re not gonna die. We can’t die, Bendis, and you know why? Because we are so very pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die. Look at that chiselled jaw!”
Last but not least, I’ve been getting in some video game time. I’m still loving “Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth“, a light-hearted game series for the DS which I love quite ferociously. It’s based around piecing together evidence to solve the ‘puzzles’ surrounding murder investigations, and has a huge variety of characters.
There’s also an ‘unlimited rentals for one month when you pay £19.99’ deal going on at Blockbusters, which is proving good value for Dave, who often manages to burn through games in all-night sessions. We’re both playing “Final Fantasy XIII” (the newest one, for XBOX360/PS3). It’s a lot liker a very pretty, slightly interactive movie so far. I’m hoping I’ll get a bit more strategy out of it when I get into using character classes and the stagger bar, so until then I’m quite happy to just stare at the pretty things. Then after that, I can pay Bayonetta and stare at more prettty things while frantically mashing buttons.
Sparky says
FIREFLY IS EPIC :D My favourite show by a long shot. <3