Posts Tagged ‘tv’

The Return of “Yes Prime Minister”

Posted: May 9, 2010 by datechguy in fun
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Years and government might change but the intransigence of the government and civil service bureaucracy remain eternal hopeless. Or at least it will be on screen as the original creators of the spectacular British series Yes (Prime) Minister are going to have another go at it.

They say that whoever you vote for the Government always gets in. That was the running joke behind Yes, Prime Minister, the Eighties comedy that did its eloquent bit to undermine our faith in the possibilities of political change. And now, whoever we voted for yesterday, Yes, Prime Minister is itself back, this time as a play receiving its first previews in Chichester next week.

Unfortunately for us in the states this will be unlikely to cross the pond. With the base writing team on the job we know the quality will be there. Will this lead to a new series? Time will tell.

Here is a glimpse of the old one if you haven’t heard of it:

This is a tough act to follow. I wish them luck

I was re-watching: The Eleventh Hour when something hit me…

Posted: May 8, 2010 by datechguy in doctor who, hobbies, oddities
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…the reason why I enjoyed this episode so much, I mean in addition to the fact that Matt Smith makes a simply wonderful Doctor who unlike the 9th and 10th is not constantly tortured in the way he looks at things.

What made the episode special is the Doctor dealing with young Amelia Pond.

After these scenes with young Amelia the Doctor is getting ready to leave

With glee she runs to her room, packs a bag and waits for his return.

Since 1963 little kids have dreamed of having the doctor land in their yard and visit them. They have imagined that the doctor would take them away in the TARDIS to see all of time and space. Millions upon millions of Britons and people from the Commonwealth have dreamt those dreams.

And in that moment watching that scene they smiled and ever so briefly imagined that they were kids again and it was them sitting waiting to go.

I must admit I imagined it too.

Radical Islam threatening murder is “News you Can’t Use”?

Posted: April 22, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, opinion/news
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Morning Joe gets full marks for reporting on the South Park business, pointing out the threats, the difference between the way Mohammad was treated vs Christ, the foolishness of pretending that what was said wasn’t a threat, and the extra censorship on the rebroadcast. All very important, glad to see it happen.

However it was put under Wille Geist’s “News you Can’t use” section.

News you can’t use? Let me get this straight, Bill Clinton tries to link the Tea Parties to Tim McVeigh, that is fine. Radical Islam who you might have heard has a bit of history, “warning” south park is News you can’t use?

I suppose I should take what I can get from MSNBC, ya gotta walk before you run.

Update: Glenn has the line of the week: “Those who have no backbone will do the bidding of those who do.”

The first of thousands to come…

Posted: April 18, 2010 by datechguy in oddities, tech
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During the Doctor Who special I mentioned yesterday they showed a clip from episode 4 of this year. (Not broadcast in either England or the US yet). The episode features the return of Alex Kingston as professor River Song who keeps meeting the Doctor in different relative timelines.

In the clip she points out something called “blue stabilizer” and insists they are needed to land TARDIS. When the says the ship has landed the Doctor disagrees pointing out there was no “Woosh, Woosh”. Song replies “It’s not supposed to make that sound, you leave the breaks on.”

Now this post isn’t about the canonity of that statement (Cough: episode 1 of the Pirate Planet 4th Doctor and Romana: Cough) nor the fact that the sound is the most unifying item in the show, constant since that first episode back in 1963. it’s about something more interesting.

Update: Well Luke cancels out the hole premise of the post in comments, but he’s right.

Shortly after the show I googled the phrase “you leave the breaks on” and the word “Tardis” to see what people were saying about it. Nothing, no results at all. I ended up falling asleep on the couch waking up just before 5 a.m. the next morning, the machine was on standby so I logged back in and repeated the search and this blog entry came up:

There’s a section in the special where they talk about the TARDIS, and they inserted the cutest scene where River lands the blue box and Eleven starts wondering where a certain noise was and he made the little sounds. Then River was like, “It’s not suppose to make that noise. You leave the breaks on.” Eleven replies, “It’s a brilliant noise.”

Mind you this was the ONLY entry that came up. Nothing else. Now I don’t know this blog from Adam but I do know that within a few weeks there will be hundreds upon hundreds of web sites with that phrase in it and by the end of the year it will be thousands or more.

It’s very rare to see the very first entry on something that will become part of Science Fiction pop culture, so proprietor of the blog Timey wimey, take a bow you, are the first ever blog to use the phrase. It’s an odd and in the scheme of things unimportant distinction; but it’s all yours.

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