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Not to mention it is almost *exactly* the plot of the book "The First Horseman" by John Case http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/009918402 8/202-4781216-1767841.

Actually looking at the screenshots reveals a fact that completely fails to surprise me. To wit, the screenshots suck. And these are the pictures for a "buy me" page. This is their attempt to sell the game. Crappy modelling, poor texturing, mediocre lighting and more composition. Check out the one with the rocket, it's particularly suckalicious.

Based solely on the screenshots I'm predicting an average review score of less than 5.0, dismal sales, and massive warezing as people try to see if it really is that bad without having to spend money.

This is gonna suck. It has the potential to outsuck a Derek Smart remake of Daikatana.

Here's a key point: who's writing the game ? Huh ? They haven't said a thing about gameplay or story since 1997. It's gonna be a Duke Nukem game, so we have a pretty good idea what to expect, but I'm very worried (there's ominous potential for minigames). Silence on this point is a bad omen.

I remember reading a book by Dr.Paul Hauck on Self Discipline. Its titled How to do what you want to do.. The title itself says that when one does what he wants to do, then he is happy. Depression, Set backs, failures everything accompany in the path, but with Self Discipline and a Hard nosed attitude if one treads along towards what he wants, he finds a sort of needed contentment.
Of various self-help books, I have read, this one turned out true to (atleast) me more than once. Recommended reading for anyone here! :-)
If you get hold of a copy, let me know as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions for one or two good comprehensive compendiums of his works?

I recommend the H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus vols 1-3. Here's the first.

Just ask Knuth.

The work which defines computer programming calls it an art. I'd have to agree with that.

Show me a place I can buy, rent, watch or download the entire X-men oringal series cartoon and I will stop downloading it now and buy it.

In fact most of what I download are things that I simple cannot buy or or so expensive that I wouldn't ever consider paying that much money for it (would you pay £180 / $321 USD (£150 now) for My So Called Life which is only 19 episodes long and a one of my faviourate shows from when i was a kid, or would you download load it for free?).

If they would be reasonable about the whole thing I would be happy to pay for old shows and films, but this simply isn't the case.

Want some direct proof? Here is a simple example:

http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/1103/aaa9lo.gif

The explanation is simple. The publisher of this book has opted in to the program to allow some pages of the book to be shown, similarly to the way that pages of the same book can be downloaded from Amazon.

In other words, their early-90s "hits" in the UK weren't, and I never heard any of them.

Hmm. Although your analysis of the UK Indie Chart is factually correct, I think you are significantly underestimating the power of the UK Indie Chart on popular culture in the 1980s and 1990s.

The UK Indie Chart couldn't include radio airplay, because of the strict regulation of UK radio stations during the 1980s and 1990s. All stations other than Radio 3 (classical/jazz) played either mainstream music or no music. There was no XFM, no Kerrang! FM, no MTV2 etc. The closest we got was John Peel. Ergo your statement, although accurate, is highly misleading.

The Indie chart was based purely on sales of records from independent record labels, because that was the only data available at the time.

Chumbawamba were achieving consistent top 5 Indie chart status as early as 1985, and this consistency of performance continued for a decade before "Tubthumping".

The Indie chart was highly reflective of, and influential upon, the nightclub scene. Chumbawamba's "Timebomb", "Homophobia" and "Enough is Enough" received huge play at indie nightclubs throughout the UK. The Indie chart was also a massive influence on popular culture through youth music magazines such as the NME and Melody Maker.

To discount the Indie chart's importance is to discount a huge volume of work by highly influential arists, such as The Smiths, The Cure, New Order, The Sisters of Mercy, The Prodigy et al. In doing so you deny massive swathes of British popular culture including Punk, New Wave, Goth, Crusty, Shoegazers, Grebo, Jungle and others, all of whom were dependent upon the Indie Chart as their measure of success.

I'm not saying that Chumbawamba were as successful or influential as The Cure, but they were a significant band, and their Indie chart positions are evidence of such.

Recommended reading is Dick Hebdige's "Subculture: The Meaning Of Style" which is pretty much mandatory for anyone studying the sociology and roots of the British independent music phenomenon, from Punk to Ragga. The UK scene developed entirely differently from the USA; where the USA had radio stations devoted to genres, the UK, due to tight radio regulation, has those genres develop through underground magazines and nightclubs.

All of which, given the title, is going to make it somwehat ironic if Texas' upcoming CD entitled "Red Book" includes any form of copy protection...

Bottom was class British TV, I'm sure its available on the web. Well worth getting it for the slapstick violence.

[sitting round campfire]
Richie: What was that film where they ate each other?
Eddie: "Deep Throat", wasn't it?

[Eddie standing by fridge, with Richie on all fours, his head in the fridge while Eddie repeatedly slams the door shut on his head]
Eddie: You know, they say television is the reason for so much violence these days, but here I am smashing my mates head in the fridge, and we don't even have a TV.

Except, they had like three red years in a row, and Disney axed Bob and Harvey.

Actually, that was the end of the deal established when Miramax was bought by Disney; it was always part of the plan that Harvey and Bob would be heads until 2005.

Bob has kept hold of Dimension, which is actually much more profitable than Miramax ever was, so Disney have really only kept hold of a name, which is currently synonymous with Oscar success. Harvey's great talent was always in winning Oscars for his films, as well as having a good head for editing them (some would say he's overbearing and sometimes does it to impose himself on his filmmakers, but it's generally recognised that her has a good eye for these things), but Miramax has rarely been a cash cow.

For more info and background on Miramax and the Weinsteins (as well as Sundance and Robert Redford), check out Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind.

Rightly or wrongly, the first version I was familiar with was 'expresso', and I live in the UK. 'Espresso' seems to be far more common now, but that wasn't always the case.

To prove I'm not going mad, Dire Straits have a song called 'Expresso Love' on their album Making Movies (that dates back to 1980, but I remember it from way more recently than that).

We'll see what happens when PS3 pricing is announced. If it's also $400 (or more), as seems likely to me given the sheer cost of all its hardware (and Sony's confidence), then people will likely see the XBox pricing in a better light - similar price & similar features, or a stripped-down version for people who don't need the fancy stuff. Where's the problem?

P.S. I note that Premium system preorders have already hit #1 on Amazon UK & FR (Core system is #197), so I don't think MS are that far off the mark...

Amazon.co.uk

Lookee here!!!

Standard package £209.99
Deluxe package £279.99

It's a slightly different situation in the UK than in the USA. All films must get a classification from the BBFC while games tend to get a rating by the voluntary PEGI (or the older ELSPA). However certain games must also be submitted to the BBFC (e.g. GTA:SA has a BBFC 18 rating). On videos (and I believe also on games) these ratings are legally binding. For films shown at the cinema on the other hand, it's up to the local authority, however these nearly always use the BBFC rating (spiderman was one exception). The voluntary systems aren't legally binding and both Game and Amazon describe them as guidelines and don't give the impression that they enforce them.

On the subject of the R18 rating, this is used almost exclusively for hardcore porn and can only be sold in specially licenced shops (of which there are apparently about 90 in the UK)

Java as noted is a good choice. If your pupils are anything like mine you might also want to pick up a copy of Developing Games in Java by Brackeen et al which is fun, easy to follow, and full of entertaining examples.

Amazon already does this in the UK. Since learning about this from my friends over there, I figured it was just a matter of time before they brought the program over here.

They've been there done that http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Isn't this just US Amazon getting behind the times?

Bank's The Algebraist is just like what you describe, something completely different from real life. Newton's Wake was quite good as well, with the same aspect: it was different than most of the American stuff I read these days.

To be fair, the only new writed I stumbled upon and liked this year was Jeff Noon and he is a british as well.

About all the good guys dying in the end, I was somewhat taken aback with Iain M. Bank's latest where almost everyone actually survives, which is a bummer.

Every time IMB changes the writing style it takes a good 10 minutes to get used to it so that you can stop reading it by actually moving your lips to understand what he wrote down. Very good book, as all of his stuff are.

Companies in other countries had to build their own networks and towers from scratch. If you read this book The Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin, you will learn about the race between British Telecom and Vodaphone (the first to licensees in the UK) to build their networks in the 80s. Obviously they both used GSM. So I don't see your point.

Example. I've sent 3 mediocre reviews for this product (with at least a month between them), all of which have been shitcanned. Note that some reviews say that it broke within an hour but have slipped through because they still (cleverly, in retrospect) give it a five star rating.

It's clearly deceptive, and I've lodged a complaint with trading standards, which I expect to be equally efficiently ignored, but it's a salient lesson that you should read the reviews, ignore the ratings, and look for any negative points that the censors let slip through.

The classic Design Patterns book is great, and the GOF certainly deserves this award. Still, the book is hard to read. And in daily practice, it's not always clear when to apply which pattern (especially for the less experienced).

I'm reading Head First Design Patterns, published by O'Reilly, right now. It's an fun and easy to read Design Patterns course, which is difficult to put down once you started it. The authors have a great sense of humour, and use a very practice-oriented approach. They tackle day-to-day problems by starting with the obvious solution an inexperienced programmer would use. Then they point out the problems with this solution, and step by step they work to the appropriate design pattern. Patterns are examined from different viewpoints, and the authors try to answer all the questions you might have.

I really recommend this book. In fact, I recommend the whole "Head First" series (I also own Head First EJB). These books are not usable as reference works, but they are wonderful for learning and mastering a subject.

Even if the PS3 is comming out next year, the PS2 isn't going to disappear. In the UK, the PS1 came out in 1995, and the PS2 in 2001. Until last year PSone systems were reasonably easy to find, along with a small trickle of budget titles, or EA Sport shovelware. You can still just about find new PS1 stuff, but it's disappearing fast. So the PS1 got about nine / ten years, and I'd imagine the PS2 could do the same really, the popular consoles often have a long tail off. I don't find the idea of the PS2 (or PS3 if it's sucessful) lasting about ten years that stange, although once the sucessor system is released, I'm not expected many blockbuster games though.

Mate you are getting ripped off: £8.99 from amazon UK

Networking All-in-one Desk Reference for Dummies (For Dummies S.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/076454260 5/qid=1121267178/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202- 7028557-5627019

If you have no experience what so ever it might be a good place to start :)

On the subject of what will happen should humanity spread out into space I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough:

Eric Frank Russell - "The Great Explosion" (see write up on Amazon here)

Bad thing is the only version in stock is £ 10 (I got mine a few years ago for about £ 5 UK) But I'm sure you'll be able to do better at your local bookstore :)

One of my top 10 Sci-Fi books of all time and an absolutely splendid commentary on the way people are !

As the poster suggested, with the huge sales of iTunes it seems that DRM isn't something that a lot of consumers care about too much.

Wrong. People do not know what DRM is; they do know when something they want to do (and assume they can do because they have done it in the past) does not work.

ITMS users never see the DRM in action, because primarily they just play the music on an iPod or the computer or burn a CD. To those people there is no DRM.

DVD's were the same way. In the US people never saw the DRM, because for the vast majority of people they put a disc in and it played. Just about any movie most people cared to see was released first in the US.

But in places like Europe which did not get DVD's as quickly or as cheaply as the US, consumers ran hard into region coding. That's why now you can easily buy region unlocked players in the UK and australia, and Amazon UK even gives instructions (thanks to jimicus for that link) to unlock region codes in your player.

This means that the success of Netflix online movie rentals depends on how closley the DRM matches what people can do already with the service. I could in fact even see a restriction like "only allowed to have four movies at a time" being accepted because people are used to it. I can't see people being accpeting of any kind of time limit on watching the media though.

I also wonder how much people will want just movies vs. the extras that come with DVD's. Some movies I wouldn't care about extras, but even being able to download I'd probably still get the DVD's for a lot of movies just to see what extras there might be.

Now I think you can go into any store in Endland and most of the players are region free by default (someone please correct me if you still need to unlock them).

I'll assume you mean England.

Depends where you shop. Ironically, cheap Chinese players in supermarkets are more likely to ship unlocked than expensive ones in electronics stores like Dixons (though most generally say "Region 2" on the box). OTOH, Richer Sounds (cheap hifi warehouse) regularly advertise players as "region free". Sometimes they get in a job lot of a particular model, unlock the region on some of them and sell them at a £20 premium over the "region locked" version.

And if that didn't put the final nail in the coffin of DVD region coding, Amazon UK even put instructions on their website for "how to unlock your DVD player".

"[The USA went on] in Cuba to support Flgercio Batista and create Fidel Castro; in Vietnam to support Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngugen Van Theiu and end up with Ho Chi Minh and his successors; in Iran to support the Shah and find itself opposed by Ayatollah Khomeini. By taking a militant [...] position, the United States has repeatedly found itself on the side of the oppressors and against the people, or, in other words, against local nationalism.

Paradoxically [...] is seems that the more strenuous are America's efforts to restrain insurrection abroad, the less likely are democratic institutions to flourish."

"American Foreign Policy" by Kegley & Wittkopf, p71

Sectarian policies are already showing up in northern (kurdish) and southern (shiite) Iraq that do not follow the proscribed rule of law in Baghdad. It is foolish to think that these changes will not grow so great in time as to make the tapastry of law and justice dissolve completely as groups choose to ignore the provisional government or rally against it as being illegitimate. Unless the US begins thinking in terms of Kurdistan and talking to the EU about getting Turkey to hand over parts of its country to it than they will fail. Maybe not now or in 10 years but without a solution that establishes countries of peoples united more by idealogy than geography no measure of liberty from our bloody actions will stand the test of time.

I think you'd be interested in Coalescent: Homo Superior if you haven't already read it of course.

Human hives possible?

There's a great book out there that I just got finished with. Eats, Shoots, and Leaves Here's a brief review ripped off Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/18619761 27/202-3943141-7985460) Book Description Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, surely? Aren't we all taught at school how to use full stops, commas and question marks? And yet we see ignorance and indifference everywhere. "Its Summer!" says a sign that cries out for an apostrophe. "ANTIQUE,S," says another, bizarrely. "Pansy's ready", we learn to our considerable interest ("Is she?"), as we browse among the bedding plants. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered, it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them for the wonderful and necessary things they are. If there are only pedants left who care, then so be it. "Sticklers unite" is her rallying cry. "You have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion--and arguably you didn't have much of that to begin with." This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset about it. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to Sir Roger Casement "hanged on a comma"; from George Orwell shunning the semicolon to Peter Cook saying Nevile Shute's three dots made him feel all funny", this book makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with. Make you want to buy it yet? ;)

For those of you looking to improve your punctuation I'd highly recommend Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" (ISBN: 1861976127). It's a surprisingly funny book that's equally applicable to British and American English, although it's written with a British slant as Lynne's from London. If you've ever struggled with the humble apostrophe -- as the Angry Flower so eloquently observed that many people have -- and wish you knew the full rules of its use, this book's for you!

Well, you're dealing with a narrow sample :)

The "drum and bass" thing is misleading in many ways. Come to a show or listen to the whole album, and you'll realise the mixture includes breakbeat/dnb, rock, funk, jazz, folk, trance/techno/house, salsa/latin and a few other bits and bobs. It's really "all genres and no genre, all the time".

The "live drumnbass" tag is really just something we settle for in promotional material, because saying "we play all genres" isn't informative, listing 30 looks stupid, and we're sorta trying to cash in on the recent mini-fashion for live dnb bands in the wake of London Elektricity.

Our gigs arent restricted to a dnb audience - in fact they're more often not - we play at live band showcases with rock bands, funk bands, hiphop bands, etc. We play festivals with a folk/roots/world focus. We've done club nights with a 4/4 techno focus. And people have dug it all over the place. So I dont think its really a very narrow niche as you say - the band seems to appeal to pretty much anyone into electronic dance music of any kind, because we give them bits of that, but with a live performance they're not used to in the scene - as well as fans of jam bands, and all sorts.

What you guys have to do is try and connect with the audiences that might see you. I'm sure you know of all these names, but look at artists like Greyboy (and Greyboy Allstars), the New Mastersounds, LTJ Bukem, Disco Biscuits, and other artists that are in a similar genre. Find out where they play live and follow them there. Play in that same club.

Actually, I don't know those names, except Bukem. I guess its a US/UK divide. I will check em out.

This is something we're already doing - we've played on the same bill as drumnbass djs like Mickey Finn, Nu:Tone, Cyantific, London Elektricity; breakbeat acts like Lo-Fi Allstars, General Midi; bands like the Ozric Tentacles... We're working on it :)

(I just looked on your site and you have one show in June and one in July --- you need to have two a week at least).

So true, and we all know it. The trouble is we've been geographically disparate for the past few years - some right up in Newcastle, some way down in London. Right now half the band is moving house so we're united in London, and can gig much more regularly.

Blogs aren't the end-all and be-all... I can't stress live shows enough. Over here in the US, if you "make it" as a DJ, you are making money off of live shows, not CD sales.

Preaching to the choir my friend :)

One of the main intentions of my post was to point out say that we sell a lot more CDs in person at gigs than we do online. In fact I'd guess we sell more at any ONE of our gigs than we ever do from the combined weight of a website/blog, internet radio, sharing it on p2p, etc, etc, for 6 months. And that's just comparing CD sales online vs IRL. As you say - the actual money from the gigs themselves (ticket sales, etc) is often better than the CD sales again. So it's definitely all about the real world, and the internet is really just PR backup.

That's what I'm getting at - the internet won't "save the music industry", and magically put money into artist's hands. It's technologically POSSIBLE today, sure, but it's not quite happening now, and it won't suddenly happen overnight. The real game still lies in the touring.

Which is all well and good for a live band like ourselves, but it raises trick

The GPL is a license - "General Public License". The code is copyrighted. When you use copyrighted material you must agree to abide by the terms of the license that is attached to it. In the case of GPLed code, you have agreed to release source code of the software that you distribute if it is a derivative of GPLed code.

This is a choice that the author of the original work has made. Other authors choose to keep the source code and release binaries for money, others choose other licenses, such as the BSD licence, which may or may not require you to acknowledge the work of the original author.

It is not a contract violation to ignore the terms of the GPL, it is a license violation. Without agreeing to the terms of the license you have no right to use the code - it is copyrighted.

The GPL protects the rights of the author just as any other license would in this kind of circumstance. Yes, a licence allows you to impose control over your creations. This is the case unless you place the work in the public domain or use a licence which allows for the code to be used in derivative works without any strings attached.

By placing works under the GPL an author is trying to ensure that everyone using his works gain from the effort made by anyone improving on his works. This is a "scientific" approach, "Standing on the shoulders of giants"-Isaac Newton. Alternatively it is the ethos which drove the early hackers in the homebrew computer computer club, before it was wrecked by some idiot named bill gates. If you don't believe me maybe you should spend some time reading?

That said it must also be noted that I believe that it is the authors right to set the terms under which his work can be used. Their rights should be respected regardless of whether this means that you have to release any derivatives under the same licence or whether the license requires you to pay to use the work and expressly forbids the creation of derivative works.

I don't know if you can find the DVD at your local rental store (I haven't been to one of those for a while).. but that might be an alternative.

And it works just fine, too - it certainly embiggens my DVD viewing experience.

According to the Amazon description, this book covers HTML 4, XHTML 1, and CSS 2.1...

Indeed, can we blame Net Nanny and the like for our children's lack of knowledge about sex, the human body, and the Arsenal football club?

indeed. the only 'sleeper cells' in europe were set up by the US and UK secret services in collaboration with far-right terrorists in every Western European country just after WW][. Called Operation Gladio in Italy and other names in other countries - this network was kept secret from even their own Governments. It was exposed in the 1990s. see the book on Gladio or just google for Gladio + NATO. The book describes a litany of murder, coups, 'false-flag' operations and more, all comitted by Gladio operatives with the blessing, and protection of the US and UK - meant not to prevent a Soviet occupation of NATO countries, but to make sure that 'left-leaning' parties stayed well out of power. democracy be damnned.

Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester Macoy never had any decent scripts to work with

Not true; Peter Davison had The Caves of Androzani which I've heard is considered one of, if not *the* best Doctor Who stories by fans. I'm no diehard fan, and I came to the same conclusion myself (bought it after early-1990s repeat, in turn after good memories of the original transmissions).

Sylvester McCoy's era I had some bad memories of... I've heard he's a really good actor hobbled by some less than brilliant scripts. I rented Remembrance of the Daleks, and remembered why I was unhappy with the show towards the end. Since I hadn't seen his stuff (with one exception) since its original transmission, I assumed it was because I was growing up; but 'Remembrance' *does* have bad dialogue, *really* poor (and now dated) music, and if anything looks cheaper than the early-80s shows I grew up with (yeah, Peter Davison was 'my' canonical Doctor if anyone was). It used one of those plasma balls as a prop- even then, I'd seen the things on sale in high-street shops and it really stuck in my mind in a negative manner. Overall, it *felt* like watching a children's show.

But... I remember enjoying 'Survival' a lot at the time (this is before I realised the show had been cancelled; because of that, it never stuck in my head as the "last story shown"- I just enjoyed it).

More importantly, I recently rented Ghost Light. Although I don't remember much of this from the original transmission (for some reason), it turns out to be pretty good. Pretty hard to understand on first viewing (the DVD extras explain a lot, although they shouldn't have to), partly because it was cut from 4 to 3 episodes. But it's creative and well-made; for all its flaws, it's way better than 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. McCoy's Doctor is more interesting (less comical and darker) here. Notably, this was also part of the final series.

Well, I've heard Doctor Who was getting better again towards the end, and I can believe it...

WRT John Nathan-Turner; *he* wanted out of the show, and the BBC forced him to stay. It's now out in the open that Michael Grade (then controller of BBC1) hated the show, and the fact it was being shown against 'Coronation Street' (very high viewing figures) suggests they wanted it to fail.

As I said, I'm prepared to believe the fans when they said it improved in the final series; given good faith within the BBC, and a larger budget, it may have survived and prospered. I won't claim that JNT was perfect, but my hunch is that it was convenient for the BBC to have him in place when they wanted to axe the show.

Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester Macoy never had any decent scripts to work with

Not true; Peter Davison had The Caves of Androzani which I've heard is considered one of, if not *the* best Doctor Who stories by fans. I'm no diehard fan, and I came to the same conclusion myself (bought it after early-1990s repeat, in turn after good memories of the original transmissions).

Sylvester McCoy's era I had some bad memories of... I've heard he's a really good actor hobbled by some less than brilliant scripts. I rented Remembrance of the Daleks, and remembered why I was unhappy with the show towards the end. Since I hadn't seen his stuff (with one exception) since its original transmission, I assumed it was because I was growing up; but 'Remembrance' *does* have bad dialogue, *really* poor (and now dated) music, and if anything looks cheaper than the early-80s shows I grew up with (yeah, Peter Davison was 'my' canonical Doctor if anyone was). It used one of those plasma balls as a prop- even then, I'd seen the things on sale in high-street shops and it really stuck in my mind in a negative manner. Overall, it *felt* like watching a children's show.

But... I remember enjoying 'Survival' a lot at the time (this is before I realised the show had been cancelled; because of that, it never stuck in my head as the "last story shown"- I just enjoyed it).

More importantly, I recently rented Ghost Light. Although I don't remember much of this from the original transmission (for some reason), it turns out to be pretty good. Pretty hard to understand on first viewing (the DVD extras explain a lot, although they shouldn't have to), partly because it was cut from 4 to 3 episodes. But it's creative and well-made; for all its flaws, it's way better than 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. McCoy's Doctor is more interesting (less comical and darker) here. Notably, this was also part of the final series.

Well, I've heard Doctor Who was getting better again towards the end, and I can believe it...

WRT John Nathan-Turner; *he* wanted out of the show, and the BBC forced him to stay. It's now out in the open that Michael Grade (then controller of BBC1) hated the show, and the fact it was being shown against 'Coronation Street' (very high viewing figures) suggests they wanted it to fail.

As I said, I'm prepared to believe the fans when they said it improved in the final series; given good faith within the BBC, and a larger budget, it may have survived and prospered. I won't claim that JNT was perfect, but my hunch is that it was convenient for the BBC to have him in place when they wanted to axe the show.

Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester Macoy never had any decent scripts to work with

Not true; Peter Davison had The Caves of Androzani which I've heard is considered one of, if not *the* best Doctor Who stories by fans. I'm no diehard fan, and I came to the same conclusion myself (bought it after early-1990s repeat, in turn after good memories of the original transmissions).

Sylvester McCoy's era I had some bad memories of... I've heard he's a really good actor hobbled by some less than brilliant scripts. I rented Remembrance of the Daleks, and remembered why I was unhappy with the show towards the end. Since I hadn't seen his stuff (with one exception) since its original transmission, I assumed it was because I was growing up; but 'Remembrance' *does* have bad dialogue, *really* poor (and now dated) music, and if anything looks cheaper than the early-80s shows I grew up with (yeah, Peter Davison was 'my' canonical Doctor if anyone was). It used one of those plasma balls as a prop- even then, I'd seen the things on sale in high-street shops and it really stuck in my mind in a negative manner. Overall, it *felt* like watching a children's show.

But... I remember enjoying 'Survival' a lot at the time (this is before I realised the show had been cancelled; because of that, it never stuck in my head as the "last story shown"- I just enjoyed it).

More importantly, I recently rented Ghost Light. Although I don't remember much of this from the original transmission (for some reason), it turns out to be pretty good. Pretty hard to understand on first viewing (the DVD extras explain a lot, although they shouldn't have to), partly because it was cut from 4 to 3 episodes. But it's creative and well-made; for all its flaws, it's way better than 'Remembrance of the Daleks'. McCoy's Doctor is more interesting (less comical and darker) here. Notably, this was also part of the final series.

Well, I've heard Doctor Who was getting better again towards the end, and I can believe it...

WRT John Nathan-Turner; *he* wanted out of the show, and the BBC forced him to stay. It's now out in the open that Michael Grade (then controller of BBC1) hated the show, and the fact it was being shown against 'Coronation Street' (very high viewing figures) suggests they wanted it to fail.

As I said, I'm prepared to believe the fans when they said it improved in the final series; given good faith within the BBC, and a larger budget, it may have survived and prospered. I won't claim that JNT was perfect, but my hunch is that it was convenient for the BBC to have him in place when they wanted to axe the show.

older ones (back to 1963!) are very poor duplications of black and white episodes.

The Aztecs is in pretty respectable condition (they spent a lot of time restoring it, even to the extent of 'putting back' the look of the original video which was lost in the transfer to film).

Story's not bad either, considering its era; British TV was still quite new then. The productions were often theatrical in style, and either live, or recorded straight-through in a similar manner.

The Aztecs *is* like that, but it's reasonably entertaining bearing all that in mind. I'm not sure I'd show it to a 7-year old to get them into Doctor Who though...

In the UK, they are all being released immediately. In fact, the first half of the season has already been released.

In the US, no luck so far besides BitTorrent.

I don't like violating the copyright on most TV series, but I feel that Doctor Who is special - the BBC deliberately destroyed most of the older episodes to make room in their archives, and most of that content only exists now because people violated their copyright or otherwise illegitimately acquired the film. The BBC actually had to go out and hunt illegitimate copies down in order to make the DVDs that they're now selling.

Kinda ironic, doncha think?

It appears I'm not alone in thinking this, either. Check the Wikipedia entry under "Criticisms", which references The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain. Several medial professionals I've spoken with have had very strong opinions on this, to the effect that kids who are simply smart and a tad shy are being labeled as 'mildly autistic', when autisim is a much more serious problem. While it's good to point out to someone that they're likely to do better if they improve their social skills, and give them the tools and guidance to do so, it's possibly detrimental to label them as having a mental disorder when they're just at one end of a personality spectrum.

Sorry, had to rant. This stuff is starting to piss me off. People suck. ;-)

*sigh*

Season 1 DVD, or would you prefer the Mini Series first?


Playaholics: Play LightingPool

Oh, and this crappy capatcha system is b0rked, ffs

*sigh*

Season 1 DVD, or would you prefer the Mini Series first?


Playaholics: Play LightingPool

Oh, and this crappy capatcha system is b0rked, ffs