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tvmusings

I know i'm a bit late on this, mainly because i only watched the countdown podcast this evening. I've tried to maintain an interest in US politics, but its difficult to do when you are on the other side of the ocean. After coming here i've tried to make up for lost time, but even then my first real exposure to John McCain was in the Iowa debate. I saw someone who made my skin crawl, he honestly struck me as someone "scary beyond all reason", and when he finally rose to the republican leadership i found my inital gut reaction confirmed time and again. But i didn't have the historical depth to know enough about his history, beyond his status as a Viet-Cong prisoner of war and his rather slimy entry into US politics. Comments like a hundred years in iraq, and lack of any knowledge about the world outside his bedroom, his attitudes to people who disagree with him, all helped confirmed my feeling that this is the president we were warned about. The one that would be so insane as to press the button. Then came the "its not important" comment, and after all the attempts to defend the indefensible, Keith Olbermann delivered this commentary. Part 2 Honestly, countdown can at best be called infotainment, it would not be considered news anywhere in Europe, but Keith Olbermann does sometimes channel the person he attempts to emulate. He may not be Edward R. Munrrow, and the republican party is far more calculating and intelligent than Joe McCarthy, but if enough people listen to him, they might start thinking again.

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I do have to say, big muscly assassin may have been a competent fighter, but since when does he win in a fight against Robin Hood. Also did anyone notice how he was very subtly able to escape being killed (or escape with the sheriff) so he can mysteriously and suddenly appear as an unknown factor in a future episode?

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I'm sorry, i've enjoyed this season of Robin Hood for the most part, but its been getting steadily worse. Aside from the fact that they conveniently forgot that Marian was a skilled fighter recently, and seemingly any man could beat her in a fight (wear-as it was a lucky blow that almost cost her life in the first season). But in case nobody studied their history, there is a villan to the Robin Hood myth. It was not guy of gisborne (a flunky) the sheriff (he was a tax collector), it was not even Prince John (a stand in doing an impossible job). It was that evil, self obsessed, self agrandising bastard King Richard, the winner of the most incompetent ruler in history award. The reason for the taxes was not to kill the king, it was to serve his eternal lust for glory. He would have happily sold London, if only he could have found a buyer. On the other hand while John raised the ire of legend (and the noblemen writing the legend) for trying to not only rebuild the country in the wake of his brother's decimation, but trying to fund said sibling's hard on for slaughter and mass genocide, the analysis of his actions suggest an exceedingly competent and capable ruler. Now i know that Richard supposedly was doing this because he was the whipping boy of the current great corrupt chief criminal of the western world (also know as the Pope), but still no King before or after has fulfilled the pointy hatted bastard's wishes so willingly. So with the stage set, i should now explain why i am so upset over the season finale of Robin Hood. Firstly, and quite obviously, the Sherif beating someone who its clearly his superior in training and ability is just frustrating (not once, but TWICE!). Secondly, that the supposedly very educated King Richard, would not find it strange that the man who had told him about the Black Knights would come to kill him on behalf of the Black Knights, and would also dismiss the words of his exceedingly talented bodyguard. Thirdly that Marian would fail to arm herself (everybody else seemed to). Fourthly that even unarmed Marian would still have been able to defend herself (were she to be still in possession of her impressive fighting skills) to a certain extent. Fifthly is more just a general ...

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I had this thought a month ago when i first watched the Sound of the Drums, and that was this symbol everywhere throughout the finale. Admittedly made sense given it was mostly shown on the Valiant, but places like this on the gas mask are not on the Valiant.

The way i see it there are 2 main options, firstly simply since he took the technology from the Valiant, it had the same label, and this was a red herring, which RTD is good at setting up. However there is a second possibility. brought up by mentioning that as Harold Saxon, he was an industrialist, and so presumably in order to build the Archangel technology, he had to have some kind of industrial base. Therefore its entirely possible he took over "V" systems/incorporated/plc, and used his knowledge to create the satellite network. As a result its likely as H C Clements had access to Torchwood technology, Vcorp has access to limited quantities of Timelord technology. My feelings are that this is a red herring, since it would re-hash a previous plotline, but still i thought i should make the observation...

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I'm shocked, the BBC seems to have ended its trial of video podcasts.. as someone who has a hectic schedule i'm somewhat limited in my ability to get my weekly dose of newsnight, question time and even panorama at times... I thought at first it was because i was traveling outside the UK at the time, but it turns out the trial has been discontinued... It wasn't a perfect substitute for watching the show, but it was a good dose of BBC current affairs i could watch when its convenient (one of the advantages of a video ipod). If the BBC does choose to continue (which i hope they do), it would be good if the full versions of these shows were available. However i do appreciate the edited versions of these shows, since they give me a chance to watch highlights when i'm taking a quick without the full blown program. The today program is a staple of my early morning wakeup ritual and the 10 minute chunk works well as a digestible piece of current events.

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One of my favourite characters this season of Doctor Who has been Professor Yana, this brilliant, compassionate, idealistic scientist doing whatever he could to help his fellow humans... Here was an inventor who took the idea of a stamping boot, and turned into a method of hope, built out of bits of string, food, and stationary supplies... I know he was a now buried aspect of the Master, but i hope if they bring back the Master, then somehow that aspect of him is remembered or relavant.

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...okay this isn't my thoughts on the finale, because i can't exactly put it into words yet, I can just say i was blown away.

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Side note, from utopia, given the doctor regenerated after the war, and after holding the power from rose, he had to regenerate again. Maybe he was speaking from experience about being a vengeful god, (The master referred to him as a godlike during the war) however Rose had enough control to kill the daleks and resurect Jack, so if thats the case why could he not destroy the daleks and save Galifrey?

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There has been this sense all this season that Galifrey is very important, all the way from the Racnoss, to now, i wonder if this is all significant to the end of the season, after all badwolf, and torchwood were somewhat subtle, saxon was about as subtle as a brick shaped, city sized meteor hitting london at near-luminal speeds. I doubt the capitol is about to be rebuilt, but i think next season, we may see the begnings of a new galifrey. Under burnt orange sky, phoenix like, the new capitol will rise from the ashes of the old.

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Looking at the Master, i can't help but think he's in 2 minds, there is the genuine Master, and the evil Mastermind, there is an underlying sense of he is being forced down the route he is taking, and can't turn back, that said he doesn't object being evil and all. It seems a shame, the Master, despite the name always seems to be working to someone elses masterplan, unless of course he's exploiting the Toclafane for his goal of domination. Whatever the drums are, i don't think they are to do with the Toclafane, unless they really are the gallifreyian bogeymen. I'm also confused entirely who Mrs Saxon is, she clearly knows at least most of the Master's plans and seems willing to go along, its possible she's under some kind of mind control. On the one hand she seems very ruthless, and the other hand very childlike. One final thing that i'm thinking is Professor Yana was a good, idealistic man, and the Doctor claimed that everything John Smith was capable of, so was he. Maybe burried under the layers of repression and evil that same good man might still exist in part.

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The Doctor didn't let him go, The Doctor wasn't responsible for the Master's humanisation, The Doctor didn't implement appropriate security measures on the Tardis, The Master, while being generally geniuslike has not shown any greater level of knowledge than the Doctor so far. I have to say i thought the scene of the Capitol did look beautiful, first scene of galifrey in a generation. Speaking of the toclafane, the Master said that it would break the Doctor's heart to know who they were, which gives me a few ideas, but nothing very solid. I think they are related to utopia, either this is the way that the utopia project intended to survive, or this is the previous universe's utopia project, where they came from was definatly somewhere in turmoil, like perhaps the end of the universe...

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Its being reported by the mail that it is an issue that teachers promote marriage as the best role model for future happyness. Academics are saying that by doing this, it makes non-conformist lifestyles seem lesser by comparison. To put this complaint at the feet of teachers, seems a little bit unfair given the fact that it happens everywhere. When gay and lesbian characters pop up in television, the majority of plots seem based around shock and comedy, rather than the more complex plotlines that feature for straight storylines. There are certain exceptions, such as Willow in Buffy, but most of what we are bombarded with is straight people getting married, according to statistics 1 in 10 people at least are what we would term gay or lesbian, ignoring those who are secretly bisexual, surely that means 1 in 10 characters on television should be Gay or Lesbian? Yes there is both L-Word and the former (but very good) Queer as Folk, but there should not be "special" programs to deal with "special" issues, on mainstream television. Looking at other minorities in similar proportions to the LGBT comunity, there is no need for Jewish or Pakistani specific programing, despite each has differences and complications of interaction, but they can be integrated very easily into conventional programs. I think the time has come for the entertainment industry to stop playing it safe, yes with programs like Big Love, they are pushing the envelope, but bring what you have learned back into the mainstream. Relationships and attraction are part of nearly every show on television, stop with the obvious choices, with Doctor Who and Captain Jack, we have seen that bisexuality can be shown to be something that viewers can take in their stride. Stop making characters like him odities and talking points, and instead make them part of the normal fabric of the world we see on our tv screens. Then our children will stop being infused by our unconcious bigotry and start to open their minds, and the 50th century may seem a little closer.

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I know i'm an outspoken critic of the cliffhanger and the end of the season, but unless its done very well, its utterly frustrating. There are few cliffhangers that just work, and don't feel forced. But this is the smallville cliffhanger, so lets check the checklist

• Lex in trouble, caused by his own actions - Check
• Clark loosing battle to kryptonian oo-nasty - Check
• Chloe dead - Check
• Extraordinary forced revealation - Check
• Father figure in critical condition - Check
• Future love interest in mortal peril - Check
• Lex or other character missing the fact of Clark - Check
• Clark ignoring everyone's advice and going off on one - Check
• Lana dead/or in big trouble - Check (okay technically she escaped in the mail van, but according to the information the characters are using, she's dead)

I have to admit, i was expecting either something to go wrong with Ares (which kinda did), or Lex to go big bad, neither which really happened. A kryptonian big bad wasn't what i was expecting, rather that Clark would finally get off his arse, find the phantoms and others, before joining up with the JLA to take on lex, but thats too much to rush in a season really. However this is where what praise i give, ends, because while annoying, Bizarro has been more of a joke character from what i've seen, deadly yes, powerful yes, actual apocalyptic threat... no. Admitedly the fact that he has anything to do with kryptonite suggests something different about him. When i heard the words "kryptonian experiment" i thought maybe Doomsday, who would be scary beyond all reason... but still would have probably been a fairly weak character. Maybe its expecting too much, but with good planning, you give people a storyline over a season, you run them ragged with plot, give them some kind of closure, and then you give them a taster for the next season. Angel was good with this, the second and fourth season finales were good like this, and both times i felt glad of the break, but looking forward to the next season. Maybe people tell them its good marketting, but when you have to wait a whole 6 months to find out what happened, i just feel annoyed and a bit let down.

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Okay i'm taking a small issue with doctor who at the moment, but i have to say i'm getting interested in Mr Saxon, I already got the "Harold" reference to the last saxon king, but thats a little too obvious i think. However since in the previous 2 seasons the doctor has had a hand in the creation of the Bad Wolf, and Torchwood, it follows that Mr Saxon may have been brought into existance, or is reacting to the Doctor in the past. My personal feeling is that he might be in some way related to the children of galifrey but then its all a tenuous link. We'll see what happens.

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I had the strangest thought watching "The evolution of the daleks", that while they were not true timelords, or even true gallifreyians, but in some way they were the "Children of Gallifrey".

The Face of Boe talked about not being alone, and if anyone could bring the timelords back it would be the Doctor. Maybe the Face of Boe has seen what the Doctor will do...

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