The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

This is a beginning to look like the number 11 bus.  It has been ages since I have written about what might or might not be happening in the ongoing production of Doctor Who for months, and suddenly two articles arrive together:

At the BAFTA Awards Ceremony last night, Lizo Mzimbo,  BBC News’ Entertainment Correspondent interviewed Hannah Murray, who was at the ceremony because the Channel Four drama Skins had been nominated.  She said that she definitely was not going to be playing the role of The Doctor’s latest companion.  She said that the rumour had no basis in fact, and she was far too busy studying for a degree to become envolved in “anything as big as Doctor Who”.  So everything is back to square one.

If it is not Hannah, then who will be working with Matt Smith in Series Five [31] of Doctor Who?  I would love to see Jemima Rooper cast as the next companion.  She was stunning in Lost in Austen last year.  I have even reworking the manipulated image I made for the previous article, dumping Hannah Murray and replacing her with a picture of Ms. Rooper. (Yes that is supposed to be Matt Smith even if it does look more like Michael York) .  We are all none the wiser.  The news that Billie Piper had been cast as Rose Tyler was released on 24th May, 2004, a full two months before filming on the first block of episodes for Series One [27] started.   As it is unlikely that filming for Series Five [31] will start until the end of July, it looks as if it will be Whitsun before the name is revealed.

Lets start by saying that this whole article is based on rumour and supposition, and a really tacky piece of photo manipulation I have been working on, as seen below.

Lets start with the rumour.  There seems to be a growing number of people who say that actress Hannah Murray, who played Cassie in the first two series of the Channel Four drama Skins has definitely been cast as the companion in the next series of Doctor Who.  Having never seen Skins, and to be perfectly honest, it is not a series that has ever appealed to me, I had no idea how good an actress this young lady is.  It cannot be denied that  she is very pretty.  Also, it is interesting to note that she recently worked with Matt Smith, the new Doctor in a recent West End production of the play This Face.  However, at the moment, Hannah Murray is in Germany, filming Womb, a horror movie starring Eve Green and more importantly Matt Smith.  I think somewhere along the line, the fact that she  has recently worked with him on stage and is currently working with him in a movie has mutated into the idea that she will be working with Matt Smith on Doctor Who. So I think that this rumour is false.

So, having dealt with the rumour, here comes the supposition.  Back in 2005, before the costume that David Tennant would be wearing as Doctor#10 was announced, I got a very strong feeling about what the costume would look like.  I had noticed that David Tennant liked pinstripe, and thought that it would feature heavily in the outfit of Doctor’10.  When I mentioned this on Outpost Gallifrey, it was met with howls of derrision.  So imagine how smug I felt when the first publicity photo of David Tennant for The Christmas Invasion, his debut story as The Doctor, was published.  I am now getting the same vibes about the traditional 1950’s Teddy boy look as the inspiration for the costume of Matt Smith as Doctor#11.  Once again this suggestion has been met with howls of derision from the denizens of Outpost Gallifreys successor, The Doctor Who Forum.  When I said Teddyboy, they assumed I meant the lurid outfits worn by 1970’s pop ban Showoddywoddy, so I produced an image by sticking Matt Smith’s head onto the body of an old Teddyboy. This was recycled into the image above.

This was the first time that I had made it down to the Brewery Field this season, hoping to see the Crusaders first victory in the top flight.  Sadly it was not to be. They say that it is tough at the top, and Celtic Crusaders are certainly finding it so, in their first season in the Super League. It struck me that that whole atmosphere at the Brewery Field is more subdued, as the singing and chanting from the Crusader’s supporters seemed to be muted, with Harlequins’ visiting supporters making more noise than the home crowd.

The Crusaders kicked off, but Harlequins moved out of neutral and  into gear faster than the Welsh team.  They seemed to make more from their possession, getting deeper into their opponents half by the Fifth Tackle than the Crusaders could. Within two minutes of the game kicking off, Harlequins were threatening the try line.  Persistent pressured despite a spirited defence paid off for Harlequins when Tony Clubb opened the scoring after 12 minutes.  Crusaders’ troubles were ratcheted up another couple of notches when  David Howells scored Harlequin’s second try six minutes later, and Danny Orr scored a third try for Harlequins just five minutes after that. A defecit of 18 points seemed to electrify the Crusaders, with substitute Adam Peek opening the scoring for the Crusaders, with a try that was converted by Josh Hannay despite being kicked into a stiff breeze.  The score remained at 6-18 at half time.

Harlequins kicked of the second half, and despite a pair early try from Harlequins, the Crusaders were making more progress when they had possession, being able to put some pressure on the Harlequins’ try line.  This pressure paid off with an impressive try from Marshall Chalk in the 64th minute of the game, which was converted again by Josh Hannay, bringing the score to 12-30. The game then ping-ponged between both sides, with Harlequins stretching their lead, only to have it pinned back when Mark Dalle Cort intercepted a mistake by the Harlequins and almost ran the length of the pitch to score a magnificent try.  Sadly for Crusaders, this was not be the last try of the match, as Luke Dorn scored his second try of the match which was almost a duplicate of Dalle Cort’s earlier effort. This was the only try of the match not to be converted by Rob Purdham.

So, another game with the Celtic Crusaders looking for a victory.  On the possitive side, the Crusaders have not been whitewashed in any of in their games in the Engage Super League, and there are definite signs that they starting to make the transition, in a game that entertained the crowd of 3,009 fans at the Brewery Field.

I am always ready to try something new.  On Friday night, I had a lovely meal, fired River Cobbler with spicy noodles.  A few weeks ago, the fishmonger in my local ASDA supermarket recommended that I try River Cobbler, a Vietnamese catfish.  He said that people could be put off by the fact that it is a catfish, I could not see a problem.

Given the south east Asian origin of the fish, I decided that it would be best served with some stir fried noodles. I decided to mix the sauce for the noodles myself instead of relying on a premixed sachet. On previous occasions I have used this recipe, I added too much Soy Sauce, and this drowned out the other delicate flavours in the mix, because soy sauce has such a strong flavour.  The noodles had just the right amount of chilli flavouring and using the preprepared pack meant there was one less pan to wash-up afterwards.

As I could only find a green pepper when I was shopping before cooking, I used red onions to give the finished dish a variety of colours.

Stir Fried Spicy Noodles (Serves 3)

• 1 pack of pre-boilled noodles infused with Chilli
• 2 tablespoons of Orange Juice
• 2 tablespoons of Pineapple Juice
• 4 tablespoons  Oil
• 2 tablespoons of Rice Wine
• 1 tablespoons of Rice Vineagar
• 1 tablespoon of Soy Sauce
• 1 teaspoon of Chilli Powder
• 1 teaspoon of  Cornflour
• 1 Bell Pepper
• 1 Medium Onion
• a pack of Spring Onions
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• Root Ginger

1. Combine the fruit juice, soy sauce, chilli powder rice wine and rice vinegar in a jug and place in a refrigerator over night.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil with one finely chopped Spring Onion, 1 finely chopped clove of garlic and the chopped ginger.  Then add the red pepper spring onions and onions and stir-fry for three minutes.
3. Rinse the noodles in cold water and seperate before adding to the wok..Mix with the vegetables and heat through for a minute.
4. Dissolve the cornflour in some water.  Add to the sauce and mix into the wok, coating noodles and vegetables. Allow a minute for the sauce to cook.

Served with the fish that had been coated in seasoned flour and shallow fried for 4 minutes on each side. and garnished with a knob of butter flavoured with ground black peppers and lemon juice.

I  have recently finished re-reading David Eddings’ fantasy epic The Belgariad. It has been nearly two decades since I first read the chronicles of Garion, Ce’Nedra, Belgarath, Polgara, Silk, Barak and all the other fascinating character in the rich world he (and his wife Leigh, who was later credited as a co-author) created.  I have never managed to get much further than Frodo leaving the Shires is  The Lord of the Rings,  and  I don’t read fantasy very often. When I do chose to read Fantasy,  Pratchett and Bujold are usually the authors I reach for.

I remember way back in the 198o’s when I read the Belgariad, that it would be unfilmable.  However the adaptations of both Tolkein and Lewis in recent years has made me revise that opinion.  Although after those massive live action movies, I think that the Belgariad would work better as a mixture of live action, cel animation and cutting edge CGI techniques. Also I would adapt the books into epic television series and not feature films.

Which brings me to the question of who would I cast.  Well my first choice would truely be fantasy casting, as William Hartnell is for me the ultimate Belgarath the Sorcerer, and he has been dead for over three decades, so the only viable alternative would be Patrick Stewart.  Polgara the Sorceress can only be Elisabeth Sladen.  For the role of Garion, I  would cast Rory Jennings, who impressed me is the Doctor Who story The Idiot’s Lantern.  And one other thing, Drasnians all Glaswegian Accents.

So my casting so far (and this is just the Good Guys):

Belgarath the Sorcerer -  Patrick Stewart (William Hartnell)
Polgara the Sorceress – Elisabeth Sladen
Garion/Belgarion of Riva – Rory Jennings
Durnik the Smith – Ewan McGregor
Princess Ce’Nedre – Yasmin Paige
Barak, Earl of Trellheim – Colin Baker
Silk/Prince Khelar of Drasnia – Peter Capaldi
Mandorallan, Baron of Vo Mandor – Don Warrington
Lord Hettar – Daniel Craig
Relg the Ulgo Zealot – Andy Serkis

King Anrheg of Cherek – Brian Blessed
King Rhodar of Drasnia – Robbie Coltraine
King Cho Hag of Algaria – Richard O’Brian
King Fulrach of Sendaria – Peter Sallis
King Korrodulin of Arendia -  still thinking about it
Emporer Ran Borune XXIII of Tolnedra – Pete Posselthwaite
Gorim, High Priest of Ulgo -  still thinking about it

Merel, Duchess of Trellheim – Miranda Richardson
Queen Islena of Cherek – Jane Horrocks
Queen Porren of Drasnia -  still thinking about it
Queen Sillar of Algaria – Michelle Ryan
Queen Layla of Sendaria – Mirriam Margolis
Queen Mayaserena of Arendia -  still thinking about it

As you can see, by the serious lack of American names, my production is very definitely for the  BBC.

This is one of the funniest thing I have seen on You Tube for a while.  It absolutely rips the piss out of Planet of the Dead.

Written by : Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts
Directed by : James Strong
Produced by : Tracie Simpson
Starring : David Tennant
Guest Starring : Michelle Ryan, Lee Evans, Nona Dumezweni, Paul Kasey, Ruari Mears, Victoria Alcock, David Ames, Glenn Doherty, Adam James, Daniel Kaluuya, James Layton, Keith Parry,  Ellen Thomas and Reginald Tsiboe.

1. Plot:
International Jewel Thief Lady Christina da Souza has just stolen the priceless Cup of Athelson from a museum.  Unfortunately for her, things go a bit pearshaped and to avoid capture by the Police she hops onto the on the #200 bus to Victoria.  The Doctor is tracking a rogue space-time wormhole and follows her onto the bus.  As the old Bristol VR double-decker bus is being perused by police through a tunnel, the bus vanishes through the wormhole.  The police are completely baffled and call for assistance from UNIT.

The bus arrives on a desert world that is completely devoid of all life.  Miles and miles of empty sand that have formed into a sea of impressive dunes.  Traveling through the wormhole has mangled the vehicle completely, fortunately the engine is still running and the axles are still in tact.  The problem is that the axles of the nine and a half ton bus are deeply embedded in the sand, and without the protection of the bus, anyone passing through the wormhole will be fried.

The Doctor and Lady Christina go to explore their surroundings and are captured by two surviving Tritivore merchants who’s ship has crashed into the desert.  When their ship left their home-world to travel to Sehelios, the planet was a heavily populated with a  high tech civilisation built on a lush and verdant ecology.  Something had reduced Sehelios to an empty desert in just one year.  The Doctor and the Tritivores discover that the swarm of semi-metalic flying creatures that is approaching the bus and the crashed ship are responsible for the destruction of this world, and they are now generating a wormhole that will take the Swarm to Earth…

End of the Line

2. Thoughts:
This was Doctor Who’s first ever venture into the Vistas of High Definition television, and it featured the most ambitious foreign location shoot since The Two Doctors back in 1985.  Was it worth the effort.  Oh yes!  Most definitely.  Even on my increasingly decrepit SD television, the whole thing looked amazing.  The scenes on the desert world could only possibly have been achieved in Dubai, or somewhere with a genuine arid sand dune environment.  (Although there are still a couple of idiots on the Doctor Who Forum who think the same effect could be achieved on  Aberafan beach with CGI augmentation.)  The emptiness of the ravaged world was breath-taking.

The story was co-written by Russell T. Davies and Gareth Roberts.  Elements of Roberts 1984 novel The Highest Science are plainly visible. The Highest Science was one of the very few entries in the Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who series of novels that is worth reading because it is one of the few book in that series that actually works as a Doctor Who story. In that novel a carriage from a comuter train heading to London is transported down a wormhole, and the passagers face an implacable foe on an inhospitable world.  In Planet of the Dead, the train carriage has been replaced by a bus, but the rag-tag group of survivors remain.  It is a shame that the militaristic and xenophobic cyborg turtles, the Chelonians that featured in that novel still seems to be beyond the limits of a BBC television budget.

The threat in this story is a swarm of ravenous metalic flying sharks that hop from planet to planet via wormholes they generate as it flies around a planet, devouring everything in sight.  The Doctor calls the swarm “A force of Nature” but for me there is nothing natural about them.  This Species just screams to me some sort of biological doomsday weapon that has destroyed its creators and gone feral.  I cannot see evolution, no matter how screwed up the creature’s home-world might be, ever producing anything that destructive.  Evolution favours the fittest, who pass their advantage on to the next generation and  the Swarm leaves absolutely nothing behind to nurture the next generation, so cannot survive for long enough to develop their bizarre method of moving onto their next target naturally.

Another thing I cannot see evolution producing is a race like the Tritivores.  Heads and digestive systems like houseflies and humanoid bodies, nope never in a billion years. If they had that shaped head and guts, the creatures should have had fly shaped bodies with six legs and wings.  Which leads me to the biggest gripe about this story.   If the ship was  crewed by insects, why did it have a communication system that fitted so neatly into a humanoid ear. It just does not make any sense. I honestly do not see the narrative necessity for the Tritivore survivors on the planet either.  The Doctor could have gained all the information he needed about the situation from the equipment on the ship.  It seems that the Tritivores were either there simply to give Character Options something they can market as an action figure, or as a way to bulk up a standard 45 minute script to the required 60 minutes.  .

After the events of Journey’s End, The Doctor is once again flying solo, terrified of the effect he has on his companions’ lives.  In this story he is teamed up with Lady Christina da Souza, an upper class thrills junky who does really stupid things, like stealing a priceless artefact from a heavily guarded museum, just for kicks.  Christina was played by Michelle Ryan who recently starred in the ill fated remake of  The Bionic Woman in the US, but who is best remembered in the UK playing Zoë Slater from the soap opera EastEnders.  Her character is so utterly annoying, automatically assuming that she is the born leader because she is an aristocrat and everyone should follow her instructions implicitely.  And yet despite all her airs and graces, she is still a criminal who flouts the authority of others without a second thought.  I was so glad that in the end, the Police caught up with her, and really annoyed at the Doctor for helping her to escape.  I suspect that had this been the start of a normal series of Doctor Who, then Christina would have run into the TARDIS and spent the next few years of her life (one series on TV) doing the cosmic equivalent of Community Service with The Doctor to pay society back for her past crimes.

The people on the bus showed the better side of Human Nature in a crisis. A vast improvement on the unpleasant Daily Mail reading mob who featured in last year’s story Midnight who showed the nasty side of Human Nature in a crisis. On their own, they were a bit wishy-washy but as a team, that quickly bonded under difficult circumstances, they proved to be unbeatable.  My favourite character was Carmen, the mild psychic woman who had her powers enhanced by the proximity of the wormhole.  Her occassional pronouncement added just the right amount of creepiness to the proceedings.  Her final warning to The Doctor underlines the fact that he is soon to regenerate, although he has no idea about this yet.  It certainly ramps up the excitement level for the remaining specials.

It is nice to see that UNIT is making a more regular appearance in the series. I hope that when Steven Moffatt takes over full production of the series, he will continue to use the new UNIT command structure that Russell T. Davies has introduced. In this story we saw a squadron under the command of the no nonsence Captain Magambo, who first appeared in the alternate time-line of last year’s story Turn Left.  Although the decision to leave The Doctor and the bus stranded on the wrong side of the wormhole was a little bit short-sighted, It is a good thing that the civilian scientific advisor, refuses to follow the order.  Magambo gets one of the best lines for a member of UNIT ever, when she comments “at last, guns that work.”.

And on the subject of Dr Malcolm Taylor, as portrayed by comedian Lee Evans, why did he have to speak with such a clichéd Pontypandy Welsh accent?  I expexcted  better from BBC Wales, and from an actor whose family originated in South Wales, who was born just across the Bristol Channel in Avonmouth and knows exactly what a real Welsh Accent is supposed to sound like.  Apart from that, I thought Malcolm was a great addition to the series, doing exactly the same job that The Doctor himself did for UNIT back in the 1970’s, with a similar blasé attituded to military authority.

Despite its faults, I enjoyed this story, but for me there was nothing really special about it.  Yes it was nice to see the series finally entering the age of High Definition filming and broadcast, but it struck me as being a bit pedestrian.  A good story to start a regular series with, but nothing above and beyond that.

3. Stars:
3 out of 5

On Wednesday, I will be spending a day in the University Hospital of Wales, in the Heath district of Cardiff.  I will be spending the day hooked up to an EEG machine that will monitor brain activity over a twenty four hour period.  And before any one says anything, it is not to prove that there is actually a brain in there. Hopefully these tests will explain why I get so many short lived periods of overpowering drowsiness, and why I have the tendency to wake up in the morning feeling as tired as when I went to bed the previous evening.  The current prime suspect, for me at least, is Sleep Apnia, a condition where involuntary nocturnal  interruptions in breathing prevents the sufferer from ever getting a decent night’s sleep.

Naturally, with an array of electrodes stuck to my head, I will not be able to wear any item of clothing that  I would have to pull over my head to put on or take off.  So I have had to invest in a new pair of pyjamas that button up the front.  As the people doing the tests want to reproduce as normal a day as possible, this test will take place in a special constructed unit and not on a general ward.  It will be more like a night in an hotel than a night in hospital. Once I have had all the electrodes fitted, I will not be able to leave the room where the tests are taking place.   This means that I can’t pop down to the shops in the foyer, and have to bring things like books, magazines and videos with me, to keep me busy during what will probably turn out to be a very long day.

Standing by the Caravan

My sister and her husband opened up the caravan for the first time since last October a week ago.  So despite the fact that the site has been open since the begining of March, this weekend is the first time that I have been down to Janet’s caravan in Fontygary.

I travelled down on Saturday afternoon.  My long weekend coinciding with the start of the Easter Holidays, so we were all able to stay until Monday morning, giving the weekend a more leisurely feel.

On Saturday evening I  went for a walk with my sister and her son James on walk  from the caravan to Rhoose Railway Station along the cliff-top footpath, and then back to the caravan along the main road.  About two miles all together.  Everything was still a bit damp on the path, but there was a definite promise of summer.  The first leaves on the trees were far more advanced down on the coast than they are up at the head of the Rhondda Valleys. I spotted a pair of ducks looking for somewhere to build a nest in the rill that runs down from the railway station to the sea.  Spring has definitely sprung in the Vale of Glamorgan.

View from the decking

It has been a gorgeous weekend.  blue skies, fluffy white clouds and sunshine.  I really relax down here, I think the proximity of the sea has a lot to do with it, as the caravan is only one row back from the cliff-top and at night when everything is quiet I can hear the sound of the sea on the pebble beach at the foot of the cliff. What surprised me was that the grass outside the caravan, which I was planning on mowing on Sunday morning was still damp and I had to wait until the afternoon before I could do that particular job.  It has not rained down here all week.  I suppose that the clear skies the previous night had caused a heavy dew to form on the grass, which was enough to make it too damp to cut.

So I headed off down to the swimming pool  on site with the family to have a dip before coming back to do the chores.  After a pleasant hour in the pool, and with it being a Sunday we headed across to the Raj Kimura for lunch.  Of course, having eaten far too much Indian food at the lunchtime buffet, I had a bit of a nap in the caravan.  Last weekend saw the start of British Summer Time, so it meant that after finishing the grass, there was still enough daylight left to get the jet-washer out and clean the accumulated grime of the winter off the decking and the van.  Having gotten myself thoroughly soaked a fortnight ago when I power washed my mother’s patio, I took the precaution of changing back into the swimming trunks I had taken to the pool and a pair of flip-flops for my feet.  This was a job well worth doing, even if I did get thoroughly wet again, as it is something that only really needs to be done once a season.

The Caravan on Saturday Afternoon

Filming on the  David Tennant’s final Doctor Who story is now well under way.  Tredegar  House outside Newport is currently hosting location filming featuring David Tennant and Bernard Cribbens.  This has been common knowledge all week on the Doctor Who Forum, thanks  to the efforts of people like   Scott Frankton, aka Scooty a student at Cardiff University whose hobby is searching out location filming and chronicling it.  Which is fine if Doctor Who was only of  interest to a few thousand fans on  the Internet, but since the series returned to the screen in 2005, it has been a major media news story, and not for the first time, one of Scooty’s photos has been poached by The  Sun.   What really annoyed the people who use the Doctor Who Forum is that if you were to right click on the picture to save it to your hard drive, then a message telling you that  News International, the company that publishes  The Sun, owns the Copyright on the image, which clearly is not the case.  Under  UK Law, the photographer  owns the Copyright on any photograph he or she takes.  News International are obviously abusing their position as a large Multinational  corporation, they know that as a student, Scooty cannot possibly afford the sort or legal representation needed to do anything to punish their blatant breach of Copyright.   The Sun’s actions have been diabolical, but I suppose it is  par for the course for them.