Dot points of Doom!

So I've not been near the net for a week or so. Various reasons but major contributing factors were -

- I hurt my back picking up Lex. No seriously, really buggered it. Normally on the rare occasions when I do something like this, it takes a day to go back to normal. This took until yesterday.

- Obviously having to deal with Lex slowed the healing. This is the first time I've jiggered my back since he's been around. Having to regularly lift and deal with a wiggling 10 kilo weight slowed things, and left me very tired when he decided to give me a break.

- So yesterday was my first day without pain and I thought I should probably still take it a little easy. Then I got distracted looking for something, and... well you can probably guess the rest.

- Bugger!

- I've had a quick look back through LJ, but feel free to fill me in on anything I may have missed that is worth knowing. For instance, mrs_roy reminded me that the Doctor Who - Children in Need preview has screened!

In other news...( Read more... )

The 2009 Chronos Awards

The Chronos Awards for 2009 will be presented at Continuum 6: Future Tense and nominations will be opening in mid December.( Read more... )

Doctor Who Original Series - The Crusade (2.22 - 2.25)

( Spoilers below the cut )

8.5/10 The Crusade

As you can tell by the score I've given it - Crusade rocks! Which is funny because if you'd asked me before I listened to it for an overall rating, I probably would have gone for seven out of ten. Eight just would have felt too high! As for eight and a half... But it earns this score well, due in no small part to fabulous writing by David whitaker.

Of particular note is the even-handed approach he took to the two warring leaders. A lesser writer would have been tempted to make Richard the Lionheart two dimensionally good, and Saladin just another bad guy. As it stands, Richard can be a bit of a prick, and must occasionally act unfairly in the name of court politics, while Saladin is shown to have just as many shades of grey as his English opposite number.

In fact most of the characters in the story are quite well written. Good or evil, they all get their moments. Ibrahim the thief is a particular delight. While not a subtle character, nor one lacking in the tropes of a stereotype, he's wonderfully written and enjoyably played.

The regulars all do a good job, and Whitaker makes sure that each of them gets their moment within the story. This is especially nice with Vicki, a character that was initially ignored by the show's writers, when we suddenly see how afriad she is of losing her new family. ( Spoiler! )

This is a great story, well written, well acted, and enjoyable. Even the weaker episodes have strong finishes. You may also notice that the two weaker episodes (in my opinion) are also the ones that only exist on audio - this is coincidence. Whereas episodes one and three start strong and build, episodes two and four are good, but each only really improves towards the end.

Even so, that's damning with faint praise. The overall quality is very good and every episode has a strong or enjoyable finish. It's stories like this that show the true strengths of the pure historical when well crafted.