Jacey Bedford's Journal

I just looked back at some of my early blog entries (from the Live Journal days) and had to chuckle. This is my entry from February 24th 2008...

I thought I'd conquered my fear of the DVD recorder. Several times I have set it to record and several times it has recorded the correct programme at the correct time. I 'get' it, OK! But twice in recent weeks I have set it to record Primeval and twice - despite everything checking out - it has NOT recorded. I did everything correctly. My DVD recorder chose not to obey my perfectly clear instructions.

Conclusion? I think my DVD recorder is scared of monsters.

But the upshot is that I don't get to see the final episode of Primeval until next Saturday afternoon's repeat. Bummer. Don't tell me how it ends... or even how it  cliffhangs...

By the way did anyone see the first episode of 'Being Human'? A vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a flat sounded like a recipe for comedy, but it wasn't and I found it strangely compelling. More please.

And did anyone see the first episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Virgin (Freeview)? I was gobsmacked to discover that the actress playing Sarah Connor is none other than Lena Headey. Though she's got a perfect American tough guy (woman) accent she was, in fact, just a few years ahead of my daughter at Shelley High School, West Yorkshire. Yes, she's from 'round here'. When Darling Daughter was doing drama at Shelley High there was a kerfuffle because a film company came round to audition 'unknowns' for the live action version of Jungle Book. DD auditioned but at 13 she was really too young for the part, however Lena - then 17 ish - got it... and never looked back.. Shelley High has a great drama department. Their other recent 'star' is Jodie Whittaker who was a friend of my son at school. Starring opposite Peter O'Toole in 'Venus' seems to have launched her career pretty thoroughly.... Not surprising really.

OK, I admit to being a fan of new Doctor Who (having watched Old Who since the beginning, though I'd drifted away in the dreadful Colin Baker years). I loved Chris Eccleston's interpretation of the tough-but-fragile, war-damaged Doctor. You just knew there was a lot going on under the surface and the wild swings from brooding to brittle-brightness were crazily addictive.

It took me a while to warm to David Tennant. I wasn't too keen on the 'Christmas Invasion' and the pyjama clad swordfight until the 'no second chances' moment, but it only took me three or four episodes to be convinced that here was a Doctor who was probably a bit mad, but was also filled with both passion and compassion fuelled with just a touch of desperation to hold the edges of his frayed life together.

But Matt Smith? Just not loving him so far. Oh, it's still a great programme with many reasons to continue watching, but now a bit flattened by having a Doctor who - frankly - seems to be trying too hard to be quirky, though without substance. I don't see that 'old soul' in him that both Eccleston and Tennant had in spades. He also seems to be without a funny bone in his body. He tries for goofy and fails. Both Eccleston and Tennant delivered the comedy moments with unconscious ease as well as excelling at the drama and emotional content. is it because Smith is too young? I don't know. I thought his odd face might offset that, but I'm not sure it has.

It's not the writing. Steven Moffatt wrote some of my favourite episodes for both Eccleston and Tennant (Empty Child/Doctor Dances; Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead; Blink etc.) It's not the assistant/s. Amy Pond and Rory are fine. I look forward to more of their character development and applaud Moffat's decision to include Rory to make sure that the Doctor and Amy weren't set up for another Rose/Doctor (or even Martha/Doctor) relationship. (I loved the Rose/Doctor thing, but you just can't repeat something like that - at least not too soon.)

No, I'm afraid I just haven't warmed to Matt Smith yet. Can we have a twelfth doctor soon please?

I'm still a Doctor Who fan, but a slightly disappointed one. I really wanted Steven Moffatt to deliver on his promise of a great new Doctor.

And while I'm on with the grumbling... the new version of the theme tune is not a patch on the last one.

Meme: Post a list of the TV series you have on DVD.

(In my own defence a few of these were recorded from the TV and archived to DVD (Like Robin the Hoodie and Heroes) and some were archived to DVD from bought VHS tapes (the first 4 seasons of Star Trek Next Gen f''rinstance) But I have to admit to buying a lot of them. It's only when I look at the list I wonder how much money I've spent over the years. Aargh. But to balance that I don't have pay-TV.)

Alias Smith and Jones - season 1 (just bought)
Andromeda  - seasons 1 - 2 + set 1 of season 3
Angel - 5 seasons complete
Babylon 5 - seasons 1 - 5 plus all the made for TV movies
Battlestar Galactica (new) complete
Beiderbeck Collection - complete
Blake's Seven - complete
Blood Ties - season 1
Bones - Season 1
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 7 seasons complete
Cadfael - complete
Carnivale - both seasons
Charmed - seasons 1 - 5
Crusade (B5) - season 1
Dark Angel - both seasons
Deadwood - three seasons
Doctor Who - The Daemons
Doctor Who - Terror of the Autons
Doctor Who - Talons of Weng Chiang
Doctor Who - Pyramids of Mars
Doctor Who - Robot
Doctor Who - Image of the Fendahl
Doctor Who - Robots of Death
Doctor Who - Horror of Fang rock
Doctor Who - Black Orchid
Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks
Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep
Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday
Doctor Who - New Beginings - boxed set
Doctor Who - Face of Evil (still on VHS)
Doctor Who - The TV movie
Doctor Who (New) - Seasons 1 - 4 + Specials (just arrived today)
Dresden Files - season 1
Due South - set 1 of season 1
Dune and Children of Dune (Mini Series)
Farscape - 5 seasons complete inc Peacekeeper Wars
Firefly - complete (2 copies, not sure why)
Friends - seasons 1 -2 selected episodes
Heroes 1 - 3
Hogfather
Hornblower (Ioan Gruffydd version) - complete
I Claudius
Life on Mars - season 1
Life on Mars - season 2
Lost - seasons 1 - 5 ongoing
Medium - season 1
Merlin - seasons 1 - 2 ongoing
Moonlight
NCIS - seasons 1 & 2
North and South
Our Friends in the North
Primeval - seasons 1 - 3
Robin of Sherwood - complete
Robin Hood (Robin the Hoodie) 1 - 2
Rome - seasons 1 - 2
Roswell - 3 seasons complete
Ruby In the Smoke and Shadow in the North
Sharpe's Rifles etc - complete
Smallville - seasons 1 - 6
Star Trek  Next Generation - seasons 1 - 7
Star Trek DS9 - seasons 1 - 3
Stargate SG-1 Seasons1, 9 & 10 (and 2 - 8 on old TV VHS tapes)
Stargate: The Arc of Truth
Stargate: Continuum
Starsky and Hutch - set 1 of season 1
Supernatural - season 1
Survivors (original) - complete
Survivors (new) - season 1
The 4400 - seasons 1 & 2
Torchwood - seasons 1 - 3
Ultraviolet
V - The Complete Series
Wallace and Gromit - complete

Sad to see how many of these are 'complete' insofar as I bought all that was made - but the TV companies exed the series before the story had been fully told, Firefly being the most obvious.

It says here http://syndicated.livejournal.com/og_news/887258.html that Russel T Davies and Julie Gardner are developing a US version of Torchwood for Fox and that John Barrowman is likely to reprise his role as Captain Jack. Any excuse for more Captain Jack is great news. Great news! However... it's being developed for FOX.

Come on guys, you know what Fox did to Firefly. They foxed it completely.

I just looked in Radio Times and spotted the return of Merlin to Saturday night TV schedules. (BBC). The jury's still out on this, but it's marginally better than Robin the Hoodie though probably not quite as good as Primeval. None of them, of course, are a patch on Doctor Who or Torchwood, however. Of course, SF telly has been so grim over the summer that even the return of Merlin is quite a bright spot.

I just bought The Dresden Files on DVD to try it - though I haven't watched yet, so I'll let you know. I tried Moonlight, but I thought it a poor version of Angel. (Vamp detective.) Even Sophia Miles (so good in Girl in the Fireplace - Doctor Who Season 3) couldn't really save it. 

I never saw the last couple of seasons (9 and 10) of Stargate SG 1 so I bought the sets when they came on cheap offer because I like Claudia Black and Ben Browder (Farscape). They did add a bit of life to an old and well-tried concept and were certainly worth watching, though call me cynical, but the casting office seems to have drawn in all the regulars from a host of SF series with Lexia Doig from Andromeda and (name forgotten) the Doctor from Voyager. I may have missed a fair amount of seasons 7 and 8, but it was easy enough to pick up the threads again. I probably need to get Continuum to finish off my Stargate watching. Not sure I can ever afford Stargate Atlantis as I've missed all of it, but I might watch out for Stargate Universe.

Looking forward to Lost. I won't get to see Season Five until the DVD set arrives.

Since we don't have pay TV I hadn't seen any episodes of this and I'd tried (and largely succeeded) to avoid spoilers. So the DVD box set arrived from Amazon on Saturday morning and of course I had to watch it immediately. OK, maybe watching 13 episodes in two evenings isn't the most sensible way to watch it as I have serious mental indigestion, but maybe I'll go back and watch it at leisure now and see some of the extras.

What did I think?

Well, Joss Whedon's work is always worth watching and he's very faithful to his favourite actors, so having Eliza Dushku (Faith in Buffy) headlining was good. Amy Acker (Angel) was a bonus, as was having familiar names from Buffy and Angel on the production credits (Tim Minear, Jane Espenson) but it was particularly great to see Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly) making a repeat character appearance as Alpha. (Is he really a bad guy or not and is it his fault?) There's also an extra bonus in the shape of Tahmoh Penikett, Helo from Battlestar Galactica, who makes a very convincing obsessive FBI agent

I didn't engage with Dollhouse immediately as I did with both Buffy and the very excellent Firefly, but there are certainly strong possibilities and despite a rather flat start it got better as the season progressed and the true story arc began to draw me in. Joss is particularly good at wisecracking dialogue and Dollhouse lacks that (so far) but the story is intriguing and the real question is developing: You may be able to wipe a memory and even a personality, but can you really extinguish a human soul?

The final episode in the boxed set - Epitaph One - was apparently not broadcast on TV, but was included on the DVD release. It's apparently disconnected from Episodes 1 - 12. Set in 2019 in a post-apocalyptic world where the personality imprint technology has run wild. It gives some interesting ideas about where Season Two of Dollhouse might lead. Thankfully, despite being broadcast by the evil Fox network, destroyers of Firefly before its time, Dollhouse has been picked up for a second season.

I'll certainly watch Season Two.

So the digibox (TV freeview box) that we've had for a few years has been a bit sticky for months - especially when newly switched on - acting completely arthritic until it had warmed up. Finally last week it stopped working altogether - telling us there was no signal (possible, but unlikely since non didgi TV was fine). Anyhow the Doctor Who documentary on BBC3 prompted me to do something sensible. I went out an bought another - just £25 from the local electronics shop in Penistone. It was the only one they had,. so no choice. I was surprised, however, on taking it out of the box, to fied thatr it had a 'factory reconditioned' sticker on it. Nothing was said at the time of purchase and the box looked brand spanking new. Anyhow - it works, so no complaints... but I was a bit miffed about the not-toldness.

The big advantage is that we've now taken the second DVD player and the old video out of line, so we no longer need a scart switch box and a long list of accompanying instructions for hapless visitors. And miles of 'spaghetti' wiring has been neatened.

And the Doctor Who documentary? Nothing new except a few interviews and lots of rehashing of old clips, but nice to see in this year of Doctor Who famine.

OK, much as I rabbit on about hating the BBC's newest, teen-friendly incarnation of Robin Hood or Robin the Hoodie I have managed to watch it for three seasons, so the question is: is it really not as bad as I think it is, or is there really sod-all else to watch on TV on a Saturday evening?

I'm really not sure of the answer. It's become the programme I love to hate, but love it or hate it, I am still watching. Something in me wants to like it. i want to be watching on the week that it suddenly gets better and fulfills the promise that should be there. But after two and 12/13 seasons we're approaching the final episode of the third season and... I'm still not sure.

I gather Jonas Armstrong who plays Robin is leaving. I don't know whether they are drawing a line under the whole thing or whether they will pull a switch like Robin of Sherwood did when Michael Praed was replaced by Jason Connery. (i.e. The Hooded Man remains constant even if the person carrying the office changes.) They are definitely setting it up for a new Robin Hood with the gorgeous Guy of Gisborne (the delicious Richard Armitage) now on his way to redemption and a part of the outlaw band - albeit not totally accepted - as one possible successor, or Robin's baby brother, Archer, (a very promising Clive Standen) waiting in the wings.

Radio times promises us that two characters are about to die. They may be counting Alan a Dale who seemingly died at the end of last week's episode, or there may be two new deaths. I'm deliberately refraining from going to the website to hunt for clues. It's on in an hour and all will be revealed.

My guess? Robin dies and Archer replaces him. Who's the other casualty? If it's not Alan then maybe the erstwhile 'bad new sherrif' isabella Gisborne, since this episode sees the return of the panto-sherrif Vesey. It would be a pity to lose Gisborne himself as he's one of the few good things about this production.

But, y'know, it's still not Robin of Sherwood and Jonas Armstrong is not Michael Praed.


POST SHOW EDIT - Includes spoilers:
Sheesh! Predictably they finished off RH and sadly they did not make me care one jot abiout his demise. Pity about Gisborne, though. He was definitely one of the show's few plus points. They've set it up so they can do another season (yes, as I predicted, with Archer,) but will they? I'm kinda hoping not, but if they do I dare say I'll watch it just to see if Archer is a better hero than Robin was.

I missed this news a few days ago. So sad, Andy Hallett whho played Lorne on 'Angel' died age 33 after a five year battle with heart disease.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/02/2533045.htm?section=entertainment

Did you see 'Being Human' on BBC 3 on Sunday night? No? Well catch the repeat or watch it on i-player because it was good. I enjoyed the pilot for this, last year, and have been looking forward to the six-part series ever since I heard they'd given it the go-ahead. I was not disappointed. No spoilers in case you haven't seen it yet, but I thought it even better than the pilot. I was a bit worried about cast changes, but I like the new actors playing the ghost and the vampire.

When Demons (with Philip Glenister) gets worse by the week it's great to have some quality telly.

Is it just me or was anyone else a bit unimpressed with Demons? I like Philip Glennister, but why, oh why, the terrible American accent? It's British made and set in Britain so why cast a Brit as an American?

Saturday night TV is almost bad enough to wonder if they're doing a third season of Robin the Hoodie.

And we haven't even got a full season of regular Doctor Who to look forward to in spring.

Matt Smith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

My first reaction is that he's way too young. (Age 26) I hope I'm wrong.

RIP Mrs Troi
18th December 2008
www.accesshollywood.com/star-trek-creators-widow-passes-away_article_12706

[Error: unknown template qotd]Firefly - Joss Whedon's cowboys-in-space series that dies befre it was born leaving 14 brilliant episodes and the movie 'Serenity'.

I finally managed to catch the first ever episode of Star Trek Voyager on Virgin re-runs. Okay, okay, so it wasn't necessarily worth the wait in terms of science fictional goody-goodness. I mean, since then there's been Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, New Who and Firefly... dammit there's even been Buffy the Vampire Slayer though that's not in quite the same genre, but on a cool August Monday evening Voyager 1.1 was certainly better than a smack in the nose with a wet kipper.

Then immediately following it was an episode from somewhere in the middle of season two of Enterprise. Oh dear. More ploddy ploddingness. What ever made the Roddenberry empire think that prequels were a good idea? Oh wait a minute... Having had Enterprise die after struggling on for four seasons they're doing a movie prequel to The Original Series. Oh yeah, right. This is going to ge good...

Are there any more Trek fans out there holding their collective breaths?

They had a great opportunity after 'Insurrection' to explore the darker side of the Federation, but... possibly a road Uncle Gene would have disapproved of.

I have had friends over from Canada who've never seen Doctor Who before, so we're watching New Who from the beginning again. Whoo-hoo. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is just as good eleventh time round... (lost track of how many times I've watched it with other people). We're into the second season now. 'School Reunion'  was great fun.

Been doing some more family history and I've broken the 1600s barrier for the first time on one of Best Beloved's family lines, but one of mine (George Crow/Crowe and Eliza Lindley) stubbornly refuses to reveral itself beyond my g-g-granparents who were born 1837 and 1840. I've sent for their marriage cert (1860) so in another few days or so I might find out what each of their fathers was called and where they lived at the time of the marriage.

Though this page is about telly tropes it's a great quiick guide for writers in terms of what to avoid. I shall now be more aware of when I'm 'delivering a Double Aesop.'

Well worth checking out.

From klwilliams
Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows" ever. Below is the list and here be the rules.

1. Bold the shows you've watched every episode of
2. Italic the shows you've seen at least one episode of
3. Post your answers




My telly watching is very specific and I catch up with a lot on DVD since some of the SF series are only available on Sky TV in the UK which I do not have and probably will not get. My top ten so far would be:

1) Firefly
2) Doctor Who (New)
3) Buffy
4) Farscape
5) Robin of Sherwood (surprisingly still far up the list after 25 years)
6) Torchwood (this is much higher up on the list currently but when the dust settles i think this is where it will end up)
7) Lost
8) Battlestar Galactica (New)
9)Sharp's Rifles
10) Blakes 7
11) Babylon 5
12) Dark Angel
13) Star Trek TNG
14) Heroes - season one (Season two is not avail to me yet)
15) Survivors (excellent for its day)

Oops it had to be a top fifteen because there were just some I couldn't miss out of the list - and I'm not absolutely sure about the order. I still haven't mentioned: Alias Smith and Jones (fondly remembered);  Inheritance (There's trouble at t' mill, Mester Oldroyd'); Doomwatch (first season only); Doctor Who (Tom Baker Years); A for Andromeda (the original one - which I've never been able to get out of my head, though if I saw it again I would probably be hugely disappointed); Star Trek DS9; Stargate (a potboiler but what the hell); Smallville (good in parts); Primeval (growing on me); Supernatural (first season started out well, missed the second, third may have jumped the shark); and the rest of Doctor Who - old - which still has some amazing high points (as well as low points). Thumbs down for Colin Baker. Have been watching the new Bionic Woman and Sarah Connor Chronicles, but so far have failed to really care much about either. And what about Life on Mars, Poldark and The Onedin Line? And then there's 'The one I'm sure to have forgotten about'.

I've enjoyed this right from the beginning of season one despite conceding that some of its critics had the occasional point. Yes, OK, there were plot holes I could drive a Cardiff bus through, but I didn't care. I enjoyed it anyway.  I'm a big Captain Jack Fan and have been right from his first appearance in The Empty Child (one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever I think)

 Torchwood season two has fulfilled the promise of season one and tonight's final episode really delivered.


Does anyone know whether the BBC have committed to a third season? They'd be mad not to, especially with Doctor Who not doing a full season five in 2009

Final episode of Torchwood Season Two (tonight).

First episode of Doctor Who Season Four (tomorrow).

Great night at the Village Hall with Roger Davies. We had an almost capacity crowd and were so impressed that we've invited him back to do a short spot on the Saturday evening festival concert in July.

But that's not what this entry's about.

I thought I'd conquered my fear of the DVD recorder. Several times I have set it to record and several times it has recorded the correct programme at the correct time. I 'get' it, OK! But twice in recent weeks I have set it to record Primeval and twice - despite everything checking out - it has NOT recorded. I did everything correctly. My DVD recorder chose not to obey my perfectly clear instructions.

Conclusion? I think my DVD recorder is scared of monsters.

But the upshot is that I don't get to see the final episode of Primeval until next Saturday afternoon's repeat. Bummer. Don't tell me how it ends... or even how it  cliffhangs...

By the way did anyone see the first episode of 'Being Human'? A vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a flat sounded like a recipe for comedy, but it wasn't and I found it strangely compelling. More please.

And did anyone see the first episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Virgin (Freeview)? I was gobsmacked to discover that the actress playing Sarah Connor is none other than Lena Headey. Though she's got a perfect American tough guy (woman) accent she was, in fact, just a few years ahead of my daughter at Shelley High School. Yes, she's a Yorkshire lass from 'round here'. When Darling Daughter was doing drama at Shelley High there was a kerfuffle because a film company came round to audition 'unknowns' for the live action version of Jungle Book. DD auditioned but at 13 she was really too young for the part, however Lena - then 17 ish - got it... and never looked back.. Shelley High has a great drama department. Their other recent 'star' is Jodie Whittaker who was a friend of my son at school. Starring opposite Peter O'Toole in 'Venus' seems to have launched her career pretty thoroughly.... Not surprising really.

Bummer. It didn't stick.

Spoiler behind cut

Spent all of today very productively revising the multi-titled novel. I think I'm leaning towards Empire of Dust  - a combination of Written in Dust and Empire of Dirt.

Anyhow, it's coming along nicely, though this started out as a not very big revision and it's become huge. I'm going to have a new ending to write and I'm going to need to make sure it's compact enough that I can lose at least 20k from what's currently in the file. I don't think that will be a problem as the way it's shaping up, the ending will be much snappier and less convoluted.

I'm also still agent hunting and have discovered a new one, just taking on, whose quoted likes very much parallel my own. I'm going to send a query. It's several years since I parted company from the last agent and about time I got my act together to get a new one.

And this evening I spent staring at a different screen. You probably already know I'm a self-confessed Torchwood fan, so tonight I watched not only this week's episode on BBC2, but also the 'next week's' episode on BBC3. If you haven't got digital I won't include spoilers but... I am a happy bunny for reasons that maeve_the_red will no doubt appreciate.

Another good day today, work-wise (both writing and music-agency). I've given myself permission to take the evening off to watch Torchwood. Note to maeve_the_red, Doctor Frog Boy has seen the error of his ways this season, apparently. He's almost human and appears to have stopped jumping on anything female with a pulse.

I'm finally clearing some of the backlog of work. My desk isn't clear yet, but the archaeology is much reduced.

On the r.a.sf.c. group someone, Gruff, I think, suggested that working in 40 minute (or was it 45 minute) bursts was a good way to stay at peak efficiency, so I'm putting it to the test. I'm recording episodes of Star Trek TNG from bulky commercial video tapes to DVDs. (I've found some cases that take up to 10 disks in a case so I can get a whole season into the shelf-space previously occupied by one videotape - thus reducing shelf space by 8x). How does tape transfer affect my time management? easy. Episodes are approximately 40 minutes long, so I press start, set the kitchen timer and get a burst of work done for 40 minutes... and then another 40 minutes... and another.

So far it seems to be working.