Continue reading "Alternate Cover - 28th February 2007" »

Appreciation of comedy is a deeply subjective thing, but it is my honest belief that anyone who can sit through more than five minutes of the National Theatre of Brent without laughing is officially humourless.

Continue reading "The National Theatre of Brent - coming back to a radio near you soon" »

"Yeah, you wanna taste my discharge?"

Not if you're calling it discharge, no.

Just a quick one to notify you that Dreamwatch Sci-Fi has spilled the beans as to the airdate of Doctor Who's opening episode of series 3, Smith & Jones.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to this more and more as the days tick by, and with David Tennant showing the best form of his tenure in the 2006 Christmas Special, Freema Agamemnon (call her by her name) looking at least 60% more delicious than Billie, the excellent CAPTAIN JACK and some extremely promising story lines leaking out of the wood work (more on that later, I shouldn’t wonder) we could well be in for the best series yet.

Anyway, the date is Saturday 31st March and the time is (presumably) 7:00pm, so mark your calendars and prepare your best Doctor outfit for one of the television highlights of the year.

DO IT NOW.

I'm currently putting one together. My first one, actually. It's going to contain loads of jingles, computer game music, and TV themes, so is probably UNLISTENABLE TO to anyone else, but fun for me.

What's the last compliation you put together?

Reno 911: Miami opened last night...and it broke at least two barriers the characters have been facing since their television debut: their isolation in Reno, and their confinement to the small screen. Which means that on at least a few levels, this film should seem like a breath of fresh air. Should being the operative word here...

Continue reading "Reno 911: Miami review" »

Go here to participate in the Moral Sense Test, a project spearheaded by Marc D. Hauser, author of Moral Minds, who is almost single-handedly opening up the field of moral philosophy. To say any more would probably interfere with your honest responses to the questions on the test, so I'll just assure you that Moral Minds is a fascinating read, the test will definitely get you thinking, and that your results will be used for the direct purpose of expanding the field.

Come on, it's more productive than circulating another myspace music meme.

This is a story of two great men. In 2004, Philip J Reed VSc, wrote a short story cataloguing the implosion of a group of friends, brought about by a ping-pong table. In 2006, Andrew Edmark brought it to the medium of film.

Continue reading "Somos Las Bolas" »

Matt Groening has clarified the future of Futurama. As previously reported, it will be returning as a series of four films. As also previously reported, it will be returning as a new season of episodes on Comedy Central. To whit:

We're writing them as movies and then we're going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and try to make them work as separate episodes. Chopped up is an indelicate way of putting it but we are doing them as movies and then we are reconfiguring them and writing new material and narration and this that and the other so that they'll stand on their own as episodes.

In which I make hot, raunchy criticism up Rocky Balboa, The Prestige and Neil La Butes infamous remake of The Wicker Man. SPOILERS: It may be the actual worst of all films.

Continue reading "And Finally, Roundup 5" »

Tenacious D, the School For Scoundrels remake, Van Wilder 2, A Scanner Darkly, Idiocracy and United 93 enter my critical passageway.

Continue reading "Film Roundup 4" »

Casino Royale, Stranger Than Fiction, Pan's Labyrinth, Hot Fuzz and Little Miss Sunshine are probed by my critical appendage.

Continue reading "Films Roundup 3" »

That's right everybody, this is my Friday night. Bringing you the FACTS (opinions). This entry, I turn my critical japseye towards long-awaited adaptation Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer, Michel Gondry's The Science Of Sleep, US TV sensation Heroes and Terry Zwigoffs third collaboration with Daniel Clowes, Art School Confidential.

Continue reading "Films Roundup 2" »

Film coverage on NTS has been a bit occasional of late. I've found myself watching some excellent things at the cinema and on DVD, including a particularly pleasing amount of the kind of well produced genre properties that are of interest to the NTS faithful but also some fairly rotten things that I'd expected better of. So here follows a list of recommendations and warnings, in the form of "capsule reviews". I might review some albums and telly programs too, because I'm fucking mad, me. Woooaaay. In fact, I'll probably break this up into a few entries, so there's not twenty odd things being discussed in one thread.

Continue reading "Film Round-up 1" »

From this Marvel Press Release, as seen on Newsarama:

This the mysterious first re-appearance of [Spider-Man's] black costume

Interesting way to describe the truth, which is that the comic that explains why Spider-Man is wearing the black costume is incredibly late due to delays plaguing the entire Civil War crossover.

Still, you've got to give them credit for trying.

Continue reading "Hot Fuzz" »

Read the reviews.

WHY!?"?!£?"!£?!"£?"!£?!"?"!$/.324.3/4.43534UJWREHFSUFHGWEIURGWEIFGSIEFP etc.

Oooh, lovely.

Off The Telly reckon they've taken their lead from the current Channel 4 ones, and it's a fair point, but I think they're distinct enough that it's not really any kind of wholesale filching. And if anything, it's simply more of a continuation of the fine heritage established by the 1991 set (still, for my money, the finest set of channel idents ever created). Indeed, the new colour palette seems a deliberate attempt to evoke the 1991 colour scheme, which is no bad thing. BBC2 have got a tradition of great idents - and that big 2 still looks great in any context - and this new set seems, at first glance, to uphold that, although obviously we'll have to wait until Sunday to get a true sense of them in motion.

They piss all over the current BBC ONE ones, though. Oh, and :

Viewers can also create their own versions - citizen idents - of the new BBC Two look by downloading the 2 template from the channel website - bbc.co.uk/bbctwo.

YES PLEASE.

Fat Woman Contemplating.

"An overweight woman sits looking out over a garden, perhaps contemplating a diet."

Carroll Spinney's played the roles of both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch in every episode of Sesame Street since 1969, all well as in various specials, feature films and promotional appearances. In 2003 he published a book of his memories and anecdotes, which I review now in my tradition of well-after-the-fact Muppet reviews. Read on.

Continue reading "The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch) review" »

Right, you all know how I bitch about TV programmes being edited by yer UK Golds and the like. But I came across an example yesterday which should make even the most carefree of souls CHOKE ON THEIR TV LISTINGS MAGAZINE AND DIE.

Continue reading "Masterwhined" »

It's funny what occurs to you when you're lying in bed on a Sunday morning. I was idly thinking about how bloody good the Innes Book of Records was when I realised; isn't Neil Innes arguably one of the pioneers of music video?

Continue reading "I Want My MTV..." »

I am, of course, talking about Primeval, ITV's new Torchwood ripoff. Yes, technically it's a Who ripoff (produced in response to the popularity of New Who), but the makeup of the programme is essentially the same as Torchwood. And as we all know, Torchwood was shit. I'm sure you can work out the meaning of the rest of the title yourself.

What, you want proof of its shitness? Read on, my friends...

Continue reading "ITV ripoff of BBC programme in "almost as good as real thing" shocker" »

Despite the fact that Aja isn't helming the production, I really think this one has some potential.

Check out the HD trailers here. Courtesy of Yahoo Movies.

Anna Nicole Smith this morning, Ian Richardson this afternoon.

Despite his age, the latter is quite saddening - a fine, fine actor, who was still working hard right up to his death. It also means that he'll never get to appear in Doctor Who (despite the fact that every Who novel that Lance Parkin's ever written features a character based on him in some way), which is a shame, as you always suspected he'd be perfect for some villain or other at some point.

Popjustice have come up trumps again for linking to the video for 'Alfie', by far my favourite song on Lily's album 'Alright, Still'.

God, this is great. The puppetry looks faintly familiar as well, so I'd love to know who made the puppets. The birds in particular made me laugh out loud. Horrah for Lily!

Just a quick heads up to let you all know that our Lord and Master is back on telly tonight, BBC FOUR, 10pm. Repeated at half past midnight if you're, I don't know, pissing off to watch some comedy bollocks or something.

Oh, and he's also right about Macs.

Not sure how long this has been up, or how many of you may have already seen it, but I thought it was more than worth drawing attention to.

A bootleg recording of the studio performances of episode two of series two of I'm Alan Partridge.

Evidently this phantom bootlegger wanted the entire thing (for obvious reasons) but his minidisc died after 75 minutes. Those surviving 75 minutes were edited down to what you see as the first 8 minutes or so of that episode, which gives you some idea of how much was cut for time or quality.

Dead minidisc or not, this is fascinating stuff.

Please.

Even if you use Windows, it's important for the BBC not to go down the route of creating a service that only Windows-users can use. Not only for the people who don't use Windows, and not only because the BBC shouldn't do anything that ties themselves to Microsoft anyway - but because otherwise, it's locking you in. There might come a day when you might want to change operating systems, to OS X, Linux, or anything else.

*jaw drops*

No, I'm not talking about The Black Dossier. We know about that, that's the weird cross-media experimental one that keeps getting delayed and will be the last one to be published by Wildstorm/DC. No, I'm talking about this (scroll down, just below the From Hell hardcover).

The third volume detailing the exploits of Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her extraordinary colleagues is a 216-page epic spanning almost a hundred years and entitled Century. Divided into three 72-page chapters, each a self-contained narrative to avoid frustrating cliff-hanger delays between episodes, this monumental tale takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own current twenty-first century.

Beginning in 2008. Holy fuck.

Well, our regular series of Torchwood reviews dried up on account of the series turning out to be a lot more bollocks than we'd predicted. Nonetheless, here is a verdict on the final episode, and some thoughts on the series as a whole. It gets a bit sweary.

Continue reading "Torchwood - End Of Days" »

For almost three years now I've been living a double life. By day I'm Jeffrey Lee, mild-mannered computer programmer. But by night, I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Oursulaert. I watched corpses glitter in the dark near the Tanoo gate. I've killed miners with their ore cans, I've killed great philosophers, proud young warriors and revolutionaries. I have killed the good, the evil, the weak and the beautiful. I have done this in the service of the Minmatar Republic, and for the billions of enslaved Matari everywhere. I am a Minmatar freedom fighter, and I play EVE Online.

EVE Online is an MMORPG. But it is an MMORPG like no other. It dared to go where few had gone before - into space - and to do it in ways none had imagined before. Compared to World of Warcraft, the player base is tiny - with only a hundred thousand subscribers - but the community is immense. Many people liken it to Elite, for in EVE you are free to do whatever you wish - be it mining, trading, pirate hunting, or being a pirate yourself. So, strap yourself into your goo filled pod and join me as we take a closer look at the game.

Continue reading "EVE Online: Space Opera Extraordinaire" »

Roy of the Rovers bought for £150 by a group of fans who plan to produce new strips.

As someone who bought the comic every week between late 1990 and 1993, who trawls car boot sales and charity shops for annuals, who has a Melchester Rovers Subbuteo team and created a new cast of characters in order to play as them in Pro Evo 5, and who turned the Wikipedia entry from a stub into a Featured Article, this news should make me very happy.

And yet... I'm not sure.

Continue reading "The Rover Returns" »

And so, at long last, to Noise To Signal's review of the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Apologies for the delay, expect an article on the Torchwood finale and general wrap up of the whole sordid affair soon.

Continue reading "Doctor Who - The Runaway Bride" »

No, I'm not kidding.

Continue reading "Aqua Teen Hunger Force linked to terror attacks" »