The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

Title: The Sarah Jane Adventures – Invasion of the Bane
Written by: Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts
Directed by: Colin Teague
Starring: Elisabeth Sladen, Jasmin Paige, Tommy Knight, Porsha Lawrence-Mavour, Samantha Bond and the voice of John Leeson as K9.

1. Plot Summary:
Things are not easy for 13 year old Maria Jackson. Her parents have recently divorced, and she has to start afresh with her dad in a new district, a stranger with no friends to rely on. On the first night in her new home she sees her neighbour talking to something decidedly alien and thinks she is either going mad or having a very bad dream. The following day, a local girl, Kelsey Hooper introduces herself and Maria is soon heading off on a trip to the Bubble Shock! factory with her new friend. (more…)

I have bought myself a new razor The Gillette Fusion Power razor has five thin blades on the main shaving surface, and a single trimming blade at the back. If nothing else, the trimming blade is a great addition. What qualifies this a technotoy, and therefore a must buy item is that the base of the handle unscrews, and a AAA battery gets inserted, so that the blades vibrates as I shave. I’m not exactly certain what difference it will make to the shaving process, but I do love a good gimmick.

The new razor had a stern test this morning, as I don’t normally shave on days I am not working, so there was a whole weekend’s worth of stuble to get through. I did get a pretty good shave, very smooth afterwards, but that could have been down to a brand new set of wickedly sharp blades and a new tube of Body Shop shaving cream. However, inital impressions are very good.

Well, it looks as if the juggernaut that is Doctor Who rolls on.  In a desperate attempt to make the dire children’s magazne programme Totally Doctor Who watchable, the Companion’s Acadamy competition has been ditched, in favour of a 13 part cartoon story. The story was broken by the redtop newspaper, The Daily Mirror, which has now been confirmed by the BBC’s official Doctor Who web site.  Each episode of Infinite Quest will run for 5 minutes, meaning that the finished story will be 65 minutes long.

As well as David Tennant and Martha playng the Doctor and Martha, the series will also feature Anthony Head who plays his third Doctor Who villain, Baltazar, the scourge of the Galaxy.  The Executive Producer of Doctor Who, Russel T. Davies has been enthusing about Infinte Quest in the press and on the BBC Web Site.

Of course, this will not be the first attempt to bring an animated Doctor Who series to the screen.  Back in the wilderness years, a woman called Karen McCoy pitched the idea to the BBC, claiming she was working with Canadian animation studio Nelvana.  She had lots of truely dreadful sample artwork, plastered with the Nelvana polar bear logo.  However, when the BBC contacted Nelvana to check her out, the Canadians were as in the dark as the BBC about Ms. McCoy.  It is now generally accepted that she was a fruit loop, and that bid came to nothing.

It has been reported in today’s Daily Mirror and confirmed by the BBC that the actor Derek Jacobi has been cast in Series Three (29) of Doctor Who.  The Mirror speculates that he is playing a character known as the Professor, who helps the Doctor and Martha save the human race at the end of the series.  Given that there is so little known about Series Three (29) in general and this character in  particular, there is already speculation that Jacobi is either playing another  Time Lord, heralding the return of that race and the planet Gallifrey, which was mentioned for the first time in the new series during The Runaway Bride.  Jacobi played Doctor’s polar opposite the Master, an evil renegade Time Lord, in the animated web cast story The Scream of the Shalka, (which also featured Richard E. Grant as an alternative Doctor#9), so speculation is also growing that he will be reprising that role.  Time will tell.

Jacobi is most famous for playing the Emporor Claudius in the BBC’s  classic series I Claudius.  Based on the novels I Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves, this was the story of when the Mafia ruled the World in the first century BC. I sometimes wonder if Sir Derek ever gets bored of the press constantly referring to a piece of work he did thirty years ago and totally ignoring everything he has done since?

My nephew William was watching Scooby Doo on Boomerang today. During one of the seemingly never-ending advert breaks, they played a trailer for the new style Scooby Doo cartoons that are due to start in February. Dear God it looked awful. I can see why the they waited until after the death of the series creator Iwao Takamoto before unleashing this monstrosity onto the screens. The original designs of the characters and the style of the animation has hardly changed in nearly thirty years, with the heroes of the show stuck in there 1960’s style clothes regardless of what decade the adventures were made in. This is definitely an example of change for change’s sake, like the introduction of the dreadful Scrappy Doo, and will hopefully soon be dropped, just as the the perilous puppy was.

There is a stray cat hanging around the top of Stuart Street. Predominantly white, with a black spot on its shoulder, black tail tip and a black and brown face. He, as I assume it is a tom, I shal refer to him in future as Seamus. There was scraping at my front door on Monday night, the way that George does when he has been out and wants to come back in. However, George was in his basket in my Study when this scraping occured. George got up, bristled to the front door, not a happy cat at all. I opened the door, and there was Seamus, who on spotting George arching his back and hissing, took flight. George followed him, but Seamus showed him a clean pair of heels. This is not the first time that this has happened, though it is the first time that I have identified the feline stranger who was trying to get into my house. He can try as hard as he likes, there is only space in my house for one cat, and that cat is George.

Whilst on the subject of local strays, I have not seen the usual suspects, the two ginger toms Larry and Yuri and the pumpkin Fred(a) for months now. They do tend to be summer visitors though, disappearing to somewhere warm as soon as the leaves fall from the trees. I hope that nothing unpleasant has happened to them, as they did add quite a bit of colour to the summer.

I sure that there are a number of important between two great passions of my life, the television Series Doctor Whoand RISC OS Computers:

• In the 1970’s “Doctor Who was hugely popular, in every school playground the children were talking about them.
  In the 1980’s Acorn computers were popular, in every school computer room the children were using them.
• In the late 1980’s, Doctor Who limped of the screen, a less than loved relic of a bygone age.
  In the mid 1990’s Acorn Computers limped out of production, a less than loved relic of a bygone age.
• Doctor Who had a small and dedicated band of fans who kept the flame alive. Although to the outsider all the fans seem to do is bitch and backbite and complain about the thing they claim to love.
  RISC OS Computers have a small and dedicated band of fans who kept the flame alive. Although to the outsider all the fans seem to do is bitch and backbite and complain about the thing they claim to love.

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Over the the last few day, the weather has been all over the shop, crisp and sunny days alternating with heavy rain and gale force winds.  Generally temperatures have been on the mild side.  This morning has been grey and cold, and the tops of the mountains have a sprinkling of cold white snow.  As I made my way to work, the snow was fallng at street level.  (Although for perspective’s sake, street level in Treherbert is 200 metres above sea level, which would be considered “high ground” in most places). Regular flurries decend as I write this.  Fortunately it is not sticking, but that is only a matter of time. 

Readers of my old web log will be well aware of my ongoing struggle against the Evil Empire of Bramble in my garden. The Empire is subtle, establishing itself in undisturbed or unreachable little pockets before striking out to regain lost territory when least expected. Which is why I have spent the last ten minutes with a pair of secatuers cutting away at the vibrant shoots that are growing through my still dormant lilacs. The Solstice is just one month past, Spring is still a distant dream, and yet already the war starts again.

I don’t know who it was that said “cats don’t have owners, they have employees.”, but they hit the nail on the head. My cat George, who must be coming up to seven years old now, thinks he owns both my mother’s house and mine. He wanders in and out when it pleases him. When he isn’t pleased with the standard of service, he lets me know with a string of miaows. I can remember getting annoyed once, and telling him that he was the pet and I was the dominant one in this relationship. He just turned and looked at me, as if he were saying “you really think so, do you.”
He loved it at the party on New Years Eve, with lots of people making a fuss of him. He thought he was the centre of the universe that night. He even let Maria pick him up and carry him, so he must have been having a good time.