Line of Duty

April 25th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink

Anti-corruption’s generally a subject of police drama that’s too steeped in realism for my interest, and most of my series have focused on the pursuit of serial killers (Der Pass being an excellent recent example), but do they ever manage to deliver on the suspense in spite of the one in belief required for a criminal conspiracy to go for as long as it has. Or the good guys, depending how cynical we want to be. I like how effectively the rousing credits theme elevates the gravity of the situation, reminding me of the episode breaks in classic Doctor Who, even if the self-serving behavior of a “bent copper” or the whole OCG for that matter doesn’t necessarily warrant it. Without my nightly excursions to 7-11 for a Super Big Gulp and a jalapeño-covered hot dog or Gansitos, I’ve learned to live without the need to feel part of something bigger going on out there, unlike those poor targeted individuals paranoid schizophrenics whose lunatic rants will occasionally grace even my local Twitter searches, and prefer to watch it all play out in a thankfully controlled environment. Annoying that the live broadcast airs only half-an-hour after my second Moderna dose tomorrow, leaving little time to gauge side effects.

Somewhat related dream took place at night-time on a street in what might have been London, too, where I had just picked up some warm food but without suitable containment struggled to keep it together against my body. The lyrics to this time-traveling show were more reminiscent of Inspector Spacetime: “What have you seen, who have you been/Not so much where but more of when.“

Space: 1999

July 16th, 2015 § 0 comments § permalink

I didn’t notice it as a kid, but boy, is that shift in tone for the second season ever so noticeable. The gloominess of their predicament is gone, and they seem to all but forget about the day’s events after that last commercial break before the end credits—to bring myself up to current events (because of that IP issue at home), like DC movies “v” Marvel’s. That refreshed theme reminds me a lot of recent music from the BBC, and make no mistake about it, the Alphans aren’t pussies anymore, even if their weapons work on aliens only 5% of the time.

False Imprisonment

January 3rd, 2015 § 0 comments § permalink

Was fifty degrees inside last night, so my sleep must’ve been especially deep, because the story went on for longer than usual, and even picked up after waking once. I was visiting a new company, not necessarily interviewing with any intent of being hired, but there in a group assisting them with their procedural deficiencies. Vera and I walked off and found an exhibit or something, then an indoor stadium in a full hall painted white where the Houston Rockets were playing the “Run”, a new franchise from Louisiana or Lemonade-Land. My explanation for our unauthorized tour would be getting lost going from one place led to another; our last stop was the cafeteria. I told the suspicious woman from the register that I misplaced my employee ID card, and though she took a ten dollar bill for my plate of meat, she probably alerted others, because just then the CEO’s voice appeared on the PA. We were already on our way out but split up at the restrooms. Mine, as usual, went from a single door into a series of antechambers with four more, with only one leading to the next. Inside I could hear her flushing through the wall, so I produced my phone (thinner than the 6 Plus, with the touchscreen obstructed at the bottom) and messaged her to time our exits so we can leave together. At this point I got up, and for lack of any visual aid, I’ll include a screencap from the Doctor Who Christmas special, which really wasn’t much better than any of their recent stuff, but did have a nice scene with his aged companion, about whom I had a whopper of a dream about, too:

Later I was back in a room with other applicants, as we were, mostly young models, and I insisted on leaving. Apparently this made me a fugitive, so when the elevator stopped abruptly, I told the speaker to let the rest go and I’d turn myself in. Their security interviewed several of us separately, but while I waited on my turn, I prepared a false imprisonment accusation from a legal text I found on a chair. Interestingly I thought, pertinent pages had been torn from it, and others seem to be duplicates rather than leave in support for my case.

Day of the Doctor

November 28th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Time-delayed from the actual 50th anniversary of the show—referring, of course, to the time a broadcast takes to be uploaded to a PB torrent, then for me to get around to it—which meant so much in middle school, but now seems like any other Hollywood hokum. (This, from a middle-ager who digs what they’re doing on Arrow. It’s all Alan Moore’s fault.) Still, it’s nice to see Tom Baker acknowledged for his contribution, not only to the character’s universal appeal, but in the end, to my childhood imagination. “Who knows?” he asks.

The Caves of Androzani

July 8th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Was always curious why this Davison finale had received the accolades it does, so I gave it a go instead of looking for the Stargate SG-1 episode that followed up the one I watched on 5.3 earlier in the evening (seems Netflix took them all down, anyway; they’re unpredictable like that). And I still get nothing out of his era, with or without Tegan. This serial in particular struck me as poorly made: laughably bad villains, including the head of a corporation, a Phantom and a guy in a monster suit, I’m not sure which was worst; set design and special effects that really stand out as examples of budget casualties where they already didn’t need any more; and painful scenes, of mercenaries who can’t hit their fleeing target with automatic weapons from a few yards away, much less the whole tawdry premise that the Doctor and his companion are doomed from the beginning by toxic illness, the lone legacy of this being Peri’s cleavage.This compares to “Pyramids of Mars” and “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” how?

Greater Purpose

June 3rd, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

The day’s come and gone, and I’m writing this through the “Red Wedding” episode of A Game of Thrones, but I do remember this much: I returned to my last job, where I had been nurturing something of minor significance (in a jar, of all places, but then that’s just like me), but would reveal itself in its fully grown form to be an alien that resembled a green MCP or The Face of Boe.

It recognized my kindness and now asked for my company on a cosmic journey to carry forth to all worlds the word of peace. Or love and understanding, I forget.

The Doctor

May 9th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Some kindly soul’s been putting up every Doctor Who episode ever (which doesn’t remind me in the least of what a pirate might actually do, so we know where that particular epithet came from), so I got all of Tom Baker’s and Peter Davison’s eras as quickly as the handful of seeders allowed. The latter, of course, only to relive my infatuation with the comely companion for almost the entire run, because by then all other appeal from the Sarah Jane and Leela serials truly was gone. And it’s still not there, even in today’s popular incarnation. Sure, everything’s packaged better—including Jenna-Louise Coleman—as one would hope after forty years, but for all the accelerated storytelling and outrageous performances, hi-res audio-visuals and overarching plans for cosmic significance, there’s none of the simmering dread that something horrible was about to happen within 25 minutes… ushered in by any combination of thud, unearthly gurgling sound and excruciating scream. Often the Doctor’s very own.

Superfriends

April 28th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

The latest chapter of my past-blasting, courtesy of 남재’s Demonoid booty. All the Tom Baker Doctor Who’s are almost done (although I’d rather someone upload the Peter Davison era, so I can save myself from one day having to reunite with my beloved Tegan on VHS), Community recently reminded me of missed opportunities on the 90’s dance floor, and surely holding this in my hands again will force me back through time. Or into an institution.

I had forgotten how each year they’d introduce only a few new episodes with revamped opening sequences, then soon enough one Saturday morning you’d start seeing reruns from previous seasons. And you would think that with that many names in the credits, someone could’ve come up with more memorable stories, though that alternate universe one where the Superfriends were evil did get to me at an early age. They were going back to clean it up, but never showed it! Oh, and “Colossus”, the cosmic giant who flicked the Earth like a marble and then pocketed it; Apache Chief grew to the size of Jupiter and wrestled him in outer space while his duo partner, Superman, pushed the planet back into place. Madness. Total madness.

Torchwood

June 29th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I didn’t think much of this new-Who spinoff when I first read about it, nor the lead after sidekicking for Christoper “Fantastic!” Eccleston (whom I always thought should’ve been cast in a better Prisoner remake), but after being impressed by some of the other new concepts on television from across the pond, e.g., the Weeping Angels, Sherlock, Karen Gillan… I ventured into the series on Netflix over the weekend, and it wasn’t until the “Children of Earth” serial-season that I was with the Internet when it went out at 3:30am. The music is loud and bombastic like a Taiwanese soap and only worsens any dramatic effect, and the ADHD-catering hour-long format makes me miss my glory days with Tom Baker’s Doctor—though to be honest, many of those stories only ran long because Sarah Jane/Leela was constantly splitting up with him and getting into some mess—but I like how they don’t pull any punches when it comes to mortality and gender relations. You’d expect some dying fighting aliens and shit, and for a guy from the 51st century to have a different attitude towards sex.

Governator

June 9th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Wasn’t quite sure this one was worthy of a write-up, though the details are still quite fresh, until I saw this during my morning surf:
I was returning to my hotel room on the second floor, but for some reason the elevator required I first go to the party on the ninth, so I shared it with a young couple (much like Amy & Rory from the new Doctor Who I’ve been trying to see what the fuss is all about) on their way to the eighth. At their stop, they removed a bunch of their things from the closet behind a sliding door, and I was less startled seeing a closet behind a sliding door on an elevator than learning people actually trusted their personal belongings in it. Finally on my way back, there was a PA announcement that former governor Schwarzenegger was in the building, and as luck would have it, he and his entourage were approaching my car. He wore an oversized tan suit, with a red stain on his white shirt like movie-prop blood. They got in, and the star was huge, towering even over my 6-foot height; I shook his hand nervously and told him it was an honor, and he snickered to his bodyguard, another Teutonic giant. The “car” became a bus, and the lot of us were pressed against each other—me, in Arnold’s crotch—for the ride across the city, with armed escort readying their M-16’s at every stop. I soon decided I’d had enough of this, if not to be rid of the poor example of a family man, then to stop even him from making me feel so inadequate, and shut down the dream as I would my PC. Windows closed, applications were forced to exit and I awoke.

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