The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

Just eighteen months ago, ITV were smuggly saying that family drama was dead and the relaunched Doctor Who would get thrashed by their Celebrity Wrestling.  Well for two summers running, Doctor Who has so thoroughly smashed anything that the commercial network put against it, that they have given up. It looks as if ITV is due for another good kicking, this time in the Autumn Saturday schedule, from another dose of Family Drama that will get everyone around the gogglebox on a Saturday evening.  Robin Hood a Tiger Aspect production for BBC Wales will start broadcasting on BBC One on 7th October, and will run in the 13 weeks leading upto Christmas, and from what I have seen of it, it looks pretty damn good. 

Just as Doctor Who was updated for the Twentyfirst Century, so has Robin Hood.  The story starts with Sir Robin of Locksley returning home from the Crusades, a dangerous and morally dubious war in the Holy Land.  He then decides to fight for the poor downtrodden peasants of Nottinghamshire with the help of a bunch of outlaws and his childhood sweetheart Marion.  Of note is the fact that Marion is no longer a Maid, which in the original legends meant she was a virgin (stop sniggering at the back).  Also, there is no Friar Tuck in this version of the legend.

20six Comments

cha0tic / Website (29.9.06 22:44)
Will Clanaad be doing the music?
*sings*… “The Hoody man”

Purple / Website (30.9.06 12:06) This does look like it’s going to be good, hope it lives up to the hype!

Dale Koenig (8.10.06 10:42) I was prepared to give it a chance even though I had an idea how BAD it was going to be from the pre-publicity stills and then previews. Modern machine stitched hoodies, Gestapo style leather coats…as a history buff I was appalled but it’s the BBC dumbing down everything for the masses who need something between Eastenders.

It now seems hard to believe that just three short years ago, Doctor Who was in the broadcasting wilderness.  Today is the anniversary of day that the then Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey announced that the series was returning to prime time television.  Three years since that massive gamble, that has so royally paid off.  SO Happy Heggessy Day everybody, may there be many more to come.

I first did this test when I set up this web log.  Three years later, although the figure has gone up a little bit, I still have a healthy ballance with my Internet use.

At the weekend, I am heading over to Swansea for the Regenerations 2006 convention. This is the first purely Doctor Who convention that I have been to in eight years. The last one was the humongous Panopticon event organised by the DWAS to celebrate the 35^th anniversary of the series. So much has changed since then. Back then the hope of the series ever returning to the screen was a far of dream, now it is back, a massive success and has two spin-offs currently in production.

For some reason, the people organising this event wanted a photo to go on the name badge. I am fairly certain that the one I sent them was taken when I had the beard, so since last Thursday I have been growing the fuzz back. I suspect that I should have started is at least a week, if not two earlier, as at the rate it is growing, by the weekend all I will have on my chin is a dirty shadow.

Don’t they teach manners in schools any more?  Why can children these days not wait their turn, and not expect to be dealt with immediately. 
Also, is there a relationship between rudeness and intelligence?  It seems to me the thicker a child is, the more pig-shit ignorant they are.

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the destruction of the twin towers of World Trade Centre in New York. Five years since that terrible crime against civilisation. And on that fatal anniversary, I began thinking, wouldn’t the World have been a lot safer if in 1979, the World had turned a blind eye and let the USSR roll into Afghanistan.

• Al Queada would never have been armed and trained by the CIA in the first place.
• Osama bin Laden and his rag-tag bunch of nutters would probably have been effectively picked off by the occupying Red Army as it demolished any opposition the creation of the Afghan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• With the nationalisation of all agricultural land, the Afghan Opium Industry would have disappeared
• Lets face it, ten years later Afghanistan would have been freed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is a wet and windy day outside. When a particularly strong gust hits it, my flowering cherry sappling is whipping back and forth like crazy. It is supported by a bamboo cane that whips back and forth almost as badly as the sappling, and gives a little assistance to the young tree. The cane was OK last winter when the sappling was a single branch less than five foot tall, no however, the sappling is touching eight foot tall and has at least four branches in addition to the central trunk. It is nolonger really fit for the purpose intended. I reaaly need to:

1. transfer it from its pot into the ground.
2. get a decent stake and some ties to hold it upright

In a few weeks time the problem should be greatly reduced by the fact that it will have lost its leaves for the winter. Having gone back into twig mode, and will be less of a target for the gusts up the lane.

In a few weeks time the problem should be greatly reduced by the fact that it will have lost its leaves for the winter. Having gone back into twig mode, and will be less of a target for the gusts up the lane.

Never the less, Stephen Moffat’s story thoroughly deserved its victory, as it was a suberb piece of SF as well as being a superb piece of Doctor Who.. (more…)