The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

After weeks of speculation, the BBC has released the first images of the latest incarnation of the Doctor, as played by David Tennant.

Excuse me for being more than a little smug, but I have been saying for weeks that David Tennant looks good in the pinstripe suit he seems to be wearing in all his publicity material, and if the costume designers at BBCWales have any sense, that is what the will having him wearing as Doctor#10. So I got the colour wrong, I was expecting it to be a black pinstripe suit, not a brown one. However, hopefully they will vary the colour of the suit on a regular basis, maybe even drop the stripe every so often, just to avoid the tendency towards an uniform for the Doctor that became prevelent in the JN-T years. Once the sense of smugness had worn off, I got the distinct impression that I had probably seen Nicholas Lyndhurst wear a similar outfit in the time travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, that the whole ensemble, with the exception of the white trainers had a very 1940’s feel to it. Needless to say, I like the new outfit, it is more like what the Doctor would wear, although I really liked Doctor#9’s more casual outfit as well.

Other interesting titbits that came from the BBC press release is that The Christmas Invasion will feature the return of Penelope Wilton as Harriet Jones MP, who according to Doctor#9 is destined to become Prime Minister, although it is not yet known if she has reached that exhalted office in this story. Also, it was announced that in Series Two (28) Rose and the Doctor will meet Queen Victoria and a race of evil catlike women. Definitely sounds like good stuff.

I cannot believe that it is Friday already, that I graduated four days ago. And I still have not posted to my web log about the day.

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James Montgomery Doohan

1920 – 2005

James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful, the Number One best selling single in the UK this week is the dreariest dirge to top the Charts since the 2003 Christmas Number 1. James Blunt meandering on about how he has fallen in love with a complete stranger he saw for a few seconds, and no other woman will ever come close. Well James, there is a word for people like that, its LOSER! If someone I knew told me what is said in the lyrics of Your Beautiful, I would tell them to get a life. The rest of his best selling CD is just as bad, he sings songs about people and situations that nobody else gives two stuffs about. What is worse, James Blunt has a voice that sounds like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard. People get very snotty about the Crazy Frog, yes it is the product of Jamster an organisation with very dubious business practices, but at least the Frogs versions of Axel F and Popcorn bring a smile to your face.

Today I went to Cardiff to buy a new white shirt to wear with my suit on Monday. Early start, as I caught the 9am train with my mother, who also had a few things she needed in town. She wanted to get there, do everything that needed to be done and get home before the city centre got too hot and crowded. Also, I wanted to get back quickly, as the postman delivered my copy of Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince as I was leaving, and I wanted to start reading that.

They say shopping on an empty stomach is a bad idea, as you end up buying more than you planned to. I thought that only applied to food shopping. Somehow, I ended buying a new suit. Very dark navy with the hint of charcoal, no pinstriping. My other suit would have been OK, however it will be nice to have a smart new suit as I graduate on Monday. The big advantage of this particular suit is that the jacket can be washed in it special bag in a washing machine, my other one is dry clean only. Naturally, I got the white shirt as well, but not before I came home, I am not that vacuous.

On the way home, I called into Kristian Barry’s shop in Cardiff to get a copy of the Serenity comicbook Dark Horse are publishing as a bridge between the end of the series Firefly and the start of the film Serenity. All in all, not a bad day.

As I write, there is less than an hours and twenty minutes to go. At 00.01am the publication Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince, the penultimate novel in J. K. Rowlings remarkable series about a young boys time at a very special boarding school. Who would have thought in the early years of the twenty first century, an author would still be able to sell books set in a boarding school? Of course, the fact that it has wizards and magic, with heavy fantasy makes all the difference.

I didn’t get into the series until the paperback publication of the fourth book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and was instantly hooked, devouring the series, and then like three quarters of the literate population of the World, waited patiently for book #5 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to be published, cursing Ms. Rowling for daring to have a private life which took time away from writing the book, So, two years ago, book five is published, and I end up getting two copies from Amazon, one for myself, and one as a birthday gift for my sister Janet. I read it with indecent haste and enjoyed it. However, I began to wonder if Ms. Rowling was beginning to over egg the pudding, as book four was twice as thick as the first volume in the series, and this one was thicker yet, that in addition to all the wonderful prose she was adding just a hint of lucrative padding. In the gap between this book and the last, J. K. Rowling has had a baby. The first book was written when her son was a babe in arms, so maybe the pressures of looking after her new daughter will lead to a reduction in the padding, that she will cut to the chase more rapidly.So, I would not like to be a postman tomorrow morning. All those pre-ordered copies of Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince to deliver. I ordered mine through Amazon, so the postman will be cursing me. Although as it turns out, I will be in Cardiff tomorrow, as I want to get myself a new white shirt for my graduation on Monday. Then again, I doubt there will be many copies left on the shelf by the time I get into town, as some shops are opening just before midnight, so that the eager can get their copies as soon as it is legally available.

Way back in August 2003, one of the first things I wrote in this web log was a rant about the Forestry Commision. Here is another one. Going for a walk up the mountains now is a complete waste of time as all you see is trees, blocking every view and vista, and destroying the grandeur of the mountain tops. The sweep of the top of Cwmsaerbren, the corrie opposite my house has been destroyed by the line of filthy arboreal weeds that the Forestry Commission has planted on the moorland between the valleys. On the mountain above my house, the Commission is busy harvesting the trees that have blotted the landscape for most of my life. These trees are being turned into tonnes of timbre, and the mountainside is left brown and scarred because the needles from the Scandinavian pines have poisoned the soil. The sad fact is that instead of restoring the ground to its native glory, the Commission will probably replant with more repellent fir trees

It is interesting to note that the Commission has been forced (probably with a gun against its head) to try to recreate the swathes of ancient woodland in England that these environmental vandals have destroyed with their artificial plantations. It would be nice if someone in government had the courage to wind this bunch of dangerous numpties up, establish a decent environmental control agency, and start the long process of reversing the madness that these ecological vandals have inflicted on the landscape of the British Isles.

In the new series of Doctor Who for the first time since 1963 the TARDIS interior was magnificent. Although we only saw the console room, it had a grandeur that was second to none. It looked like the impressive control centre of an alien time/space vessel. The gold and coral of the domed console room had an underlying solidity. Needless to say, there is a vocal minority of fans who hate the new TARDIS layout, who long for a return of the obviously fake white walls with nice glowing roundels. In my opinion, the old TARDIS interior decor was the weakest element of the old series. With the notable exception of An Unearthly Child and Edge of Destruction back at the start of the series first run, it has always looked like a corner of a television studio. The problem was that the set had to be dismantled and reassembled due to the limitation of space in the studio. Well, as far as I can tell, in the new series the TARDIS Console Room is a standing set, it remains solid in a section of Unit Q2, the warehouse in Newport that the BBC has converted into studios.

I would however, like to see a few more rooms inside the TARDIS. It is supposed to be a huge structure, stretching off as far as the eye can see. Just showing us a single room is deeply disappointing. The TARDIS’ cavernous wardrobes have been mentioned, as has the tortuous route required to get to them, but this is television, in this most visual of mediums it should be show, not tell.

20six Comments

Kate Evans / (11.7.05 23:39)

Imagine if you really really need a wee, and you just can’t find the toilets anywhere because the TARDIS is so big. Or if you are having a poo in the TARDIS loo, and there’s no toilet roll, and Dr Who stores it like in a cupboard at the end of another long corridor. I don’t like this TARDIS place.

Vorcampbel / (12.7.05 09:45)

It has been established that the TARDIS is telepathic. In that case it would subtly lead you to the nearest WC, which would automatically be restocked with loo roll.

I had a very nice Chicken Korma for my tea tonight. Ate it al fresco on the terrace in my mother’s garden. It seemed appropriate given the weather we have been having recently, a nice mild curry on a hot and sultry evening.

20six Comments

(11.7.05 18:45)
yum

(11.7.05 23:44) And apparently life-affirming as well, with the news today that turmeric beats cancer. Is there anything curry can’t do?

Less than 24 hours after the ecstasy of winning the right to hold the the Olympic Games, the great metropolis was thrown into the agony of a terrorist atrocity. However, London and Londoners did what they always do in times of adversity, endured with a quiet stoicism. One of the first cities to be bombed by aircraft in time of war, and badly hit by the Blitz in World War Two, London knows all about being attacked with high explosives. During the 1970’s and 1980’s it was attacked by IRA terrorists and continued. So when a group of madmen with a twisted notion of what Islam means attacked on Thursday morning, the great city just carried on, dealing with the injured, mourning the dead, and clearing away the mess. London is a remarkable city.