By Jonathan Scutt 30/7/10
“Jump starts the second big bang?” proclaimed Arnold Rimmer with disbelief in Red Dwarf’s BACK TO REALITY episode.
I was similarly disbelieving when I saw the Doctor exploding the Tardis to do much the same thing in the latest series of Dr Who.
I wanted him to visit other planets & get re-acquainted with some old friends & enemies, but this was a bit over the top! Besides, the Draconians wouldn’t want to put the doctor in the Pandorica as he was a friend of theirs & even a noble of the court of Draconia, so there!
But did you notice that as soon as I mentioned the Drahvan in my last blog, they suddenly get a mention in the very next episode! It was just like the time I mentioned Shaun Micallef’s ‘Soto Voce’ character & there he was being mentioned in the very next episode of Newstopia!
It’s like I have a 6th sense. ‘I can see TV characters!’
If only I could harness this power & use it to my own advantage, (or maybe to others disadvantage. Even better!)
By Jonathan Scutt 16/6/10
Once again the new Dr Who has become trapped on the planet Earth yet again! It’s nice to see the return of a character like the Silurians, but Winston Churchill & the Daleks! There are lots of historic adventures in Venice or with Vincent Van Gogh (that’s pronounce van hoch by the way). I’ve been a big fan of executive producer Steven Moffat from his days writing the sitcom ‘Coupling’. I also have no complaints about the new Doctor or his hot little companion Amy. But haven’t we done planet Earth to death by now?
Personally I prefer spaceships & aliens. Why doesn’t the Doctor go to the planet Drahva & have an encounter with those Drahvan women. They kill their men when they get too many in number. That would certainly be a bit of a challenge for the Doctor.
Peter Purvis who played Steven alongside William Hartnell said he loved the historic stories & hated all the space ships! Well damn him! For me Doctor Who is about visiting other planets & meeting aliens on their home turf. I’m getting sick of aliens constantly trying to invade Earth & take over.
What about the Zarbi? The Web Planet was a William Hartnell story involving the planet Vortis, the Zarbi (giant ants) & the Menoptra (giant butterflies). There were no humans on the planet until the Doctor arrived with Ian, Barbara & Vicky.
What about visiting the Dominators? Remember them? They met Patrick Troughton whilst they were trying to blow up the planet Dulkis. They were supposed to have dominated an entire galaxy! Funny how you don’t hear about them much these days. What about the Salacians or the Gonds or the Wirrn? What about the Axons? I’m tired of boring humans. I see them every day in the street. I want to see alien streets on alien planets.
By Jonathan Scutt 27-5-10
I bought the DVD of Family Guy’s take on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK entitled SOMETHING, SOMETHING DARK SIDE.
It looks fantastic! The spaceships, the characters, the music are all really well done. They have made meticulous copies of the original images & scenes from the STAR WARS film. If only it could have been funny as well!
Perhaps you can’t ask for too much, but since it is a comedy then humor would seem to be a bit of a priority. In a parody, they are making a very good copy of the original film & so you know what they are supposed to say but suddenly they deviate from the original film to make a joke. Unfortunately I’m left thinking: ‘Was that it?’ All that drawing & meticulous copying of STAR WARS & the end result is a rather pathetic attempt at humor!
Fortunately I have brand new episodes & endless repeats of BIG BANG THEORY to satisfy me. I’m looking forward to the DVD of series 3 & hope that maybe this time they will have a commentary track from cast & crew.
I won’t be in a hurry to buy the Family Guy’s version of RETURN OF THE JEDI.
By Jonathan Scutt 26-2-10
Yesterday I saw 3 episodes of FAMILY GUY in a row! I’m not really a fan, but I did buy the STAR WARS take off BLUE HARVEST & will probably buy the follow up SOMETHING, SOMETHING, DARK SIDE.
So I was watching FAMILY GUY & the episode finished & they announced another one. So I watched that & then they announced yet another one! They use to follow FAMILY GUY with AMERICAN DAD so it was a double dose of royalties for Seth Macfarlane. Last night was a triple dose.
Channel 9 often has back to back episodes of TWO & A HALF MEN & Channel 10 was always grouping THE SIMPSONS into clusters of 2 or 3.
This raises the question, will the new government reduction in licensing fees really be a boost to local content? A commentator used TWO & A HALF MEN as an example of how an off the shelf sitcom from America was about a quarter of the cost of a brand new Australian made episode of PACKED TO THE RAFTERS. So with all these new channels starting up on digital & the new internet TV, will there be money for my sitcom SHUT UP! to be made?
Will there be a demand for such new local content. For a long time the only comedies made in Australia seemed to be sketch shows. Jim Shomos from FORGET THE RULES said in my documentary FAMOUS FOR 15 METERS! that sketch show comedy somehow counted as drama points for commercial networks! Don’t ask me how.
Now we are getting loads of game shows & panel shows such as TALKIN’ ‘BOUT YOUR GENERATION, ADBC, THE WHITE ROOM & the return of GOOD NEWS WEEK.
The last Australian made sitcom I saw was CHANDON PICTURES (which made me feel very optimistic about my own video production career thank you very much!) But SBS are also making a new series of WILFRED. I should know I was an extra in it. (Can’t say too much, top secret.)
So we shall wait to see if the commercial networks take the 250 million (or is that billion? I must ask Barnaby Joyce) & invest it in local content. Maybe only the ABC & SBS does that. Maybe it will all mean more back to back episodes of US sitcoms!
By Jonathan 8-2-10
Well it’s nice to see Shaun Micallef back on the television with his TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY GENERATION. Why a show with a line from a WHO song as its title has the riff from ‘SMOKE ON THE WATER’ in its theme music I don’t know.
Also, the show was already being shown in 3D! A photo is in 2D but a moving image has height, width & time! Therefore the show with the 3D glasses should have been called 4D! But I won’t go on.
I also enjoyed Shaun’s New Year’s Special. It was very reminiscent of his Channel 9 MICALLEF TONIGHT show: the wheel segment; the Pete Smith voice over & Francis Greenslade. I wonder if Shaun will eventually replace ROVE LIVE with his own brand of variety show. He’s already on Channel 10.
If you heard the commentary on his MICALLEF TONIGHT dvd, he said he wasn’t very comfortable doing interviews, proper interviews. He was often not listening to the interviewee but was preoccupied waiting for the opportunity to insert a joke. Personally I think there are lots of interview shows out there, just as there are lots of game shows. I’d rather watch Shaun doing his quirky, rather surreal version that tends to throw the guest off balance a little with unexpected twists & turns.
I know all the usual expected twists & turns, I want to be surprised!
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