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August 2006

Handwatch! / 31.08.06

So, Deal or No Deal's back. Hurrah! Monday's game was a bit of a damp squib, but Tuesday's and Wednesday's were absolutely superb. Go and download them if you didn't catch them, like if you're one of those people with so-called 'jobs'.

BBC Online release 'Nightshade' / 31.08.06

Continuing the BBC's excellent tendancy to publish out of print Doctor Who New Adventure books online and for free, we now have this.

Nightshade is one of the earlier New Adventures books and written by that fine fellow Mark Gatiss, who's gone and wroted 'The Unquiet Dead' and 'The Idiot's Lantern' for the new series.

So, why not fill in the long and miserable wait for Torchwood with a bit of a good ol' fashioned New Adventures goodness.

Who Series 3 not in HD? / 30.08.06

It's looking that way. See Steven Bagley and Rob Ford's posts. Most of the buzz surrounding Torchwood seems to confirm that that series is still being shot in HD, though.

A shame about Who, if it's true. Still, Series 4 will almost certainly be HD.

"Deluxe Edition," huh Bob? / 30.08.06

So Bob Dylan's newest album, Modern Times, came out today. Expect a review before long...though I want the music to sit, sit, sit and make a proper imprint before I go spouting...

Fake Torchwood trailer / 29.08.06

Just to fill the time until the real Torchwood trailer turns up on BBC Three (whoever made it disabled embedding though, the git).

Helvetica / 28.08.06

Excellent!

Amusing Pride and Prejudice Appearances / 27.08.06

I took advantage of UK Drama's presentation of the whole of the excellent 1995 BBC adaptation of 'Pride and Prejudice' tonight, and I noticed two interesting appearances: Lucy Davis as Maria Lucas and David Bamber as Mr Collins.

Doesn't Lucy look cute?

2006 Hugo Award Winners / 27.08.06

Those of you who know what the Hugos are know that they're a pretty big deal with those in the know about the SF community. As such, at the 2006 WorldCon (LACON IV) in Los Angeles, the following fictional works were voted to be honored with a Hugo Award:

"UK Only Call Centre" / 27.08.06

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that this statement in many adverts now is tantamount to casual racism?

Robots in Disgust / 27.08.06

If you're of a certain age, you might remember a certain character named Megatron looking a lot like like this:

I still function.

UK Gold Being Shit Part #374623 / 27.08.06

Carry On Doctor, as shown today on UK Gold:

(you)Tube Trumpet / 26.08.06

As you may be aware, the third episode of Armando Ianucci's political satire Time Trumpet was last week pulled from the schedule and replaced with Episode 4. Episode 3 was eventually shown this week, but was reportedly missing the following footage for reasons best left to your own imagination:

BBC Terrorism Awards

(Hint, it's either the plane crash or the murdered Prime Minister)

Sticky Load / 25.08.06

Just to let you know that if you've been experiencing problems with the front page loading on NTS, that this has now been fixed. Hooray for me.

Also, due to what's happening with G&T, NTS might be a bit quiet for a few days until the new site up. It's unlikely to slow down completely though, as not everyone here is pathetically Dwarf-obsessed.

That is all.

AOL Search Log dissection / 22.08.06

Here and here. Don't forget to click on the next page links.

And yeah, I know these are linked to everywhere on the net now, but I didn't want you to miss them.

I also feel I should make some serious remark about the privacy concerns here, but I'm too busy laughing. And crying.

The Carrotty Kid - Cosgrove Hall Pilot / 22.08.06

This is really, really good. I hope it gets picked up for a series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvwYTQgmYDg

Filthy, Rich & Catflap / 21.08.06

Nice to see UKTV G2 giving this an airing.

But on the first episode tonight, they cut out the entire first scene. This is a great sequence introducing Richie and Eddie, and lasts about two minutes. It's our first introduction to the characters - and it's just gone. FFS. I gave up watching after that - I couldn't trust that the rest of the programme hadn't been fucked about with.

BBC News = Stupid Wassocks / 21.08.06

When you're reporting on the non-story (at least, in the sense that it's not national news-worthy, nor is it particularly new today) of Russell T Davies' Doctor Who Magazine-published admission that a Rose spin-off was commissioned and well into the planning stages before being canned, and when there's another, quite well-known and well-hyped spinoff in the works, is it really that wise an idea to put the story under the front-page headline of Doctor Who spin-off "cancelled"

An Unearthly Child / 20.08.06

The first Doctor Who serial. The first episode is one of the finest television programmes ever made, but after that... well, it's just a huge pile of tedious boring old cack, isn't it? It takes a special kind of incompetence to come up with such a great idea for a series, fill it with great regular characters, and then manage to bore the audience half to death.

Not an original opinion perhaps, but nonetheless the CORRECT one.

0 out of 9 people found the following review helpful. / 20.08.06

Searching for reviews of Follow That Bird I was sidetracked into the Amazon listing for Kermit's Swamp Years. I've never heard of this film but, for the most part, the reviews were good.

Ten Books! / 15.08.06

...and a strange man with large teeth.

Following this post asking you all to recommend me one book, my final list is below. Hang on to your wage packets I MUST REMEMBER THIS IS NOT GANYMEDE & TITAN.

Attention Cadbury! / 10.08.06

Today I bought two of your new products - Party Babies ("Fruit flavoured Jelly Babies"), and Dessert Allsorts ("Dessert flavour Allsorts"). I've not tried them yet, but I suspect they will be up to your usual standards of excellence.

Oooh! / 10.08.06

David Tennant returns to his role as the tenth Time Lord and meets his brand new companion, as filming commences on the highly anticipated third series of Doctor Who for BBC ONE.

Lots to take in, here.

Oh Jesusing Cunting Christ / 10.08.06

Remember this? Well, I think I've found one show that I can't defend.

The best I can come up with is "Kelly Packard".

Starburst #340 - Series 2 Who Reviews / 08.08.06

On Fear Her:

"...the moment when the Doctor takes the Olympic torch was just arch, unconvincing and unnecessary."

I loved that!

On Army of Ghosts:

"The Ghostbusters gag induced a cringe; the Eastenders and Trisha skits were crass..."

I loved that an' all!

The point I'm trying to make? That there's a specific type of humour in those instances that I love - indeed, those were the moments that stuck with me after watching the episodes.

Readers' Forum / 07.08.06

Is the new name for the letters page in TV Zone. Nothing wrong with that, you might think. Until you start reading the introduction...

Missed a topic on the Internet?

Yes, I "miss topics on the internet" all the time. It's so easy to do!

Searching through pages and pages of off-the-point comments?

Go to the right forums and threads, and it's all on-topic. But off-the-point comments are often the most interesting stuff anyway...

Firefly to be released in HD! / 04.08.06

Ignore the pathetically-bad HTML and rejoice!

Oh, Dear God / 02.08.06

From the Beeb :

Only Fools and Horses star Nicholas Lyndhurst will return to the BBC in a sitcom scripted by My Family creator Fred Barron.
In After You've Gone, Lyndhurst, 45, plays a divorced father who has to look after his children when his wife leaves the country to work in the third world.

His attempts to be a father are hindered by his mother-in-law, played by Acorn Antiques star Celia Imrie.

New Who Spin-off? / 01.08.06

From the latest issue of Ariel, the BBC In-house mag (as mentioned on the Restoration Team forum):

No more "Brokebat Mountain" jokes, please... / 01.08.06

...seriously, they weren't even funny before the first one was made.

Anyway, as has been pretty widely reported, Warner Bros. have now confirmed that Heath Ledger will be playing the Joker in Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, which will be quite brilliantly titled simply The Dark Knight (let's just hope they don't wuss out on that one like Sony did with The Amazing Spider-Man).