When Geeks Start Businesses....

You get stuff like this:







These are soaps.

And there are a whole lot more to be found HERE

I love that they even embrace their geekdom in the name of their company "Geeky Clean".

There should be a "Geek Entrepreneur of the Year" award.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Web Planet"

The grab bag giveth and the grab bag taketh away. After the stunning "Inferno", THIS is what I pulled from the grab bag.

Urg.

You know there is a chain of used bookstores near where I live and I usually prowl the DVD sections looking for bargains. I've seen box sets of the excellent "The Last Detective" series, Robbie Coltrane's "Cracker" series, even the Patrick Stewart "Eleventh Hour" But something you almost NEVER see are Doctor Who DVD's. The one time I saw one it was this story, "The Web Planet", and whoever it belonged to I had to say that I didn't necessarily blame them for getting rid of it.

Although it sounds like I'm badmouthing the story here the fact of the matter is that it's just... a difficult story. There are some real gems of ideas in here, we're talking Hope Diamond level of gems but then there are elements which don't work so well and points where the program's reach exceeded the grasp of budget and special effects of the time.

The Plot: The TARDIS is pulled down to an unscheduled landing on the planet of Vortis. Once there the TARDIS mysteriously goes dead. The Doctor along with companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki soon find themselves embroiled in a struggle for control of the planet. The Doctor and Vicki must outwit the Animus and her ant-like Zarbi slaves while Ian and Barbara work separately with the butterfly-like Menoptera. The Animus destroyed Vortis and now seeks to extend control over the whole galaxy and beyond but the Menoptera and Optera are determined to reclaim their planet. There is only one thing which can destroy the Animus but with the Animus's power and control will they even get close enough to use the weapon? Or will they become enslaved just like the Zarbi?

My Take: My first time viewing this story I really disliked it. I found it ridiculous and silly and a bit like bad 1960's experimental theatre. Re-viewing allowed me to mitigate that impression quite a bit... although I still think it's a lot like 1960's experimental theatre just not BAD experimental theatre.

The production team really worked hard to try to create a truly alien world populated with familiar but alien creatures. The Zarbi communicate in a series of high-pitched chirps, the Optera have some very expressive language quirks and the Menoptera obviously communicate as much with gestures and body language as they do vocally. In point of fact, a person was even hired to choreograph the Menoptera's movements and teach it to the actors playing the roles. Special filter boxes were also placed over the camera lenses to give Vortis's atmosphere a glazy, shimmery look and the echoing vocal effects were also meant to convey that sound carries differently on this strange planet.

But, as I mentioned, not all of this worked. While I applaud the attempts to create something different the filtering looks smeary and keeps making you want to rub your eyes (or if you're like me, think you need to clean your glasses) because it's blurry. The vocal effects also make it sound more like all the action is being filmed on a big, echo-y sound stage... Of course it didn't help that it WAS being filmed on a sound stage.

Which brings up the next double-edged sword. On the one hand, the sound stage is very obviously a sound stage and careless cameramen actually catch the back supports of the scenery flats and shadows are cast on the backgrounds which are supposed to be 'in the distance'. On the other hand, if they did not shoot on sound stage there would have been no way for them to accomplish the Menoptera's flight as all of that was done with flying harnesses. It is interesting to actually get to see these supposedly flying creatures fly.

The costuming and props are also a mixture of the good and the bad. The Menoptera's costumes have a few flaws but the face paint and appliances are gorgeous -- wiping away all traces of the human actors underneath. The Zarbi don't look too bad as long as the camera keeps away from close-ups. Unfortunately, with modern DVD and TV technology viewers can see more of the constructedness of the Zarbi carapaces. Also, whenever a character grapples with a Zarbi the sound of the fibreglass shell is patently obvious. The Optera and Venom Grubs probably fare the worst with the Optera looking a bit too cartoony and the Venom Grubs looking rather like a tabletop ironing board on top of a tea cart wearing a grass skirt. Also, the Animus works best when it is merely a disembodied voice. Once we see the Animus it becomes too obviously a puppet on strings.

There are some other places where the seams show. Doctor Who is well known for it's 'wobbly sets' and you either embrace this as part of the charm or you simply don't watch the classic episodes if it bothers you. But there are limits to what is acceptable in 'wobbly set syndrome'. For example, in a couple of scenes it is VERY obvious that the TARDIS console is on wheels and this is really just a bit unforgivable.

Also, due to the shoestring budget at this time period the episodes were basically shot live with as few retakes allowed as possible. As a result, just like in live theatre, if something went wrong the actors were supposed to cover for it as best they could and keep going unless it was something that wouldn't get past the censors (Carole Ann Ford, in fact, once recounted a story where William Hartnell advised her that if there was a scene that she thought she did just terribly and she wanted a chance to retake it then she should pretend to "accidentally" swear in frustration. Since the swear words would not be allowed the scene would have to be reshot). William Hartnell, due to his arteriosclerosis, often had memory problems and would occasionally forget or flub a line. This episode has one of his most famous instances -- forgetting and stumbling over his lines for several seconds before finally just skipping the sequence altogether. It is actually rather painful to watch and it seems a crime that it was not re-shot.

As for the rest of it... well... William Hartnell as the First Doctor is something of an acquired taste. His performance was a mixture of cheerfulness and whimsy, arrogance and irritableness, wisdom and anger and this story showcases all of that and more. There are some great lines of dialog but also some poor ones.

The rest of the regular cast gets along swimingly. There is really a lovely moment between Jacqueline Hill's Barbara and Maureen O'Hara's Vicki in which the futuristic Vicki has a time clash moment with the 1960's Barbara. It is handled well, though, and Hill plays Barbara with a genuine sense of humor. Likewise, Hill's scenes with William Russell's Ian have warmth and even a touch of what borders on flirtatiousness. It's no wonder writers of the books in the Doctor Who expanded universe would have Ian and Barbara marrying after returning home. There is also a nicely played moment between Ian and the Menoptera Vrestin which is really just lovely and it provides an info dump of a back story for the Menoptera but manages to still seem conversational and natural thanks to the performances of the actors. It also must be pointed out that, for all of the sexism which does show up in the series in the early days Barbara was fairly routinely badass. She often rescued herself, she often out-thought her enemies, she verbally took the Doctor down a couple of pegs once, and here she steps up to the plate and becomes a strategist and battle leader.

The story itself also has a wealth of interesting images and metaphors. There is the moment where the Zarbi remove the wings of one of the Menoptera and the cruelty of pulling the wings off a butterfly is magnified tenfold. In addition to all of the obvious insect imagery and metaphors there is a sub-metaphor running through of cancer imagery. For example, the home of the Animus is called the Carcinome and the device the Meoptera intend to use to destroy the Animus is called the Isoptope (because Vortis is in the Isop galaxy). It is fascinating and interesting. And then, as if that were not enough, there is another layer of imagery borrowed from fairy and folk tales -- the battle between the Menoptera and the Animus is consistently framed as 'good vs. evil' and there are references to the land once being beautiful and lush but blighted by the Animus and the way the Mentoptera describe paying tribute to the time travelers by remembering them in story and song all fit into that kind of tradition.

In the end... "The Web Planet" is just going to be an acquired taste. If one can look on the story kindly and see the gems it's worth a viewing but if you simply cannot overlook the flaws then it's best to stay away from this story. It's okay to skip this one since it's not a tale that has ever tied very tightly into the rest of the series as a whole. It's definitely an odd little duck in the flock.

Grab Bag Reviews: "Inferno"

And now we go to the Third Doctor's era.

Surprising everyone, Jon Pertwee, who had been known as more of a comedy/musical actor, chose to play the role of the Doctor as a kind of cross between Errol Flynn and James Bond. Simultaneously, there was a push by the production team to make the stories more adult in tone to appeal to a wider audience. As such the stories featured quite a bit more action and adventure as we well as a darker tone... and you don't get much darker than "Inferno".

The decision was made to end Pertwee's first season with a bang... a seven part story. This made it the fourth longest story in the history of the program -- behind "The Daleks Master Plan" at 12 installments, "The War Games" with 10, and "The Invasion" with 8. The story was also given a unique title card -- something rarely done in the show.

The episode would also mark the last for actress Caroline John playing companion Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw. Script editor Terrance Dicks and producer Barry Letts had done their work too well; they had crafted an intelligent, independent, modern woman for a companion and then didn't know what to do with her. Up to that point the role of the companion was to ask the questions the audience was asking -- giving the Doctor a chance to explain things. Liz Shaw, created as a Cambridge University scientist with several Ph.D's to her name, was too much a scientist in her own right to ask the basic questions and Dicks and Letts felt that they were doing the character a disservice and so decided to write her out and write in a new companion. It turned out for the best as John was secretly four months pregnant and had not yet told any of the cast or crew. Her impending bundle of joy would have made it difficult for her to continue on in the role.

The Plot: The Doctor, stranded on Earth by the Time Lords, manages, through his connection with UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Task Force) to wrangle permission to tap an atomic reactor built to power a project to drill deep into the Earth's crust in search of a new energy source. The Doctor hopes to use the nuclear energy to try to get the TARDIS console working again. Along the way he tries to advise caution in the drilling project but runs afoul of Dr. Stahlman -- the arrogant head of the project.



Unknown to all of them, the project has started to bring a strange green goo to the surface. Anyone coming into contact with the liquid slowly begins to transform into a violent creature radiating intese heat and intent of getting more heat... by any means possible... and Stahlman in infected!



The Doctor is determined to continue his experiments but when Stahlman cuts the power at a crucial juncture the Doctor and the TARDIS console vanish right before the eyes of his assistant, Dr. Liz Shaw, and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. The accident sends the Doctor to a parallel world where the government is a cruel, repressive, dictatorship and he finds dark copies of all of his friends and acquaintances. He also finds that this world is running slightly ahead of his own. When Stahlman's project finally succeeds the result is catastrophic. A chain reaction is set off, dooming this Earth and it's inhabitants. The Doctor may still escape, though, and warn his Earth... that is if he can survive.



My Take: There are many who consider this story a masterpiece.... and it really is darn close to it! The director on this one was Douglas Camfield who directed many Doctor Who stories from the 1960's through the 1970's. He was known for his excellent work with action sequences and a great knowledge of military subjects -- giving most military sequences a dash of realism. Not only is the camera work here noticably good but the cuts made in editing are first rate and give the story a visual style all it's own.



The Pertwee era was marked by rather topical stories -- dealing obliquely with issues such as war and peace, authority and protest, and environmentalism. While there is a sly political message here with themes of protest and rebellion much more of the focus is on the environmental overtones -- of those who would damage the Earth in search of more and cheaper energy instead of conserving what they have or searching for more renewable sources.



The sub-plot of the alternate universe was added in oder to pad out the episodes as the story was falling short but the result works surprisingly seamlessly. It gives the cast a chance to examd their range and in particular it gives the regular cast a chance to play against type -- and they do so with relish. In particular it is fun to see the usually upright, strong, Brigadier become the brutal and then cowardly brigade leader and it is obvious that actor Nicholas Courtney is having a ball as well. The alternate universe also adds to the story's deeply pervasive sense of doom and nail-biting tension. There is a streak of darkness as the audience realizes that this world is doomed. It really gave the writers a chance to show how high the stakes were by destroying the Earth without destroying the Earth. Sure, this is a darker Earth but it is still close enough to our own to be uncomfortably familiar and it is populated with some good people. There is a bit of a cheesy sense of "a Christmas Carol" here, though, as the Doctor realizes that fate can be changed.



The rest of the characters also really fill their space in the story... for the most part. Stahlman's assistant, Petra, is a bit of a cypher in both worlds and the stalwart Sutton is likewise a a paint-by-numbers square jawed hero. Stahlman however, suffers from the classic Greek Hubris -- that overweening pride and desire to set oneself up above the gods -- and viewers know he is heading for his fall. Although his arrogance is annoying there is still a sense of tragedy at his fate -- an idea that no person deserves THAT.

Kudos also have to go out to regular composer Dudley Simpson. Simpson was the composer for the series from 1964 until 1980. While he didn't always hit the ball out of the park with every episode his work his is notable for he plays against type. In action sequences he actually goes with minimalistic music instead of the usual bombast modern viewers are used to and he allows some sequences to go completely unscored to great effect.

As good as the story is it is not perfect. There are several scenes and sequences which show the padding, the faces Pertwee makes to indicate the Doctor's pain and fear while crossing between dimensions are laughable instead of dramatic and the green screen work is really very obvious to modern eyes.

"Inferno" stands up to the test of time and remains gripping, dramatic, and a dark ride but, as the Doctor himself says: "Nothing like a nice, happy ending, is there?"

Some People Have Too Much Time on Their Hands

And God bless them for it!








Happy and Humorous Friday!

Probably the ONE really fun thing George Lucas did with Star Wars

Was this:



And the two follow ups for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Although most people consider Empire the superior of the original film trilogy when it comes to the radio dramas Star Wars is the best and the quality would go down quite a bit from there. Return in particular suffers from the fact that it was made at a *much* later date than the other two and has almost no members of the movie cast represented. In the first two Mark Hamill provided the voice for Luke Skywalker and Anthony Daniels the voice for C-3PO and for Empire Billy Dee Williams reprised his role as Lando Calrissian. By the time Return rolled around neither Hamill nor Williams agreed to be involved and both roles were recast... and it just wasn't quite the same.

As someone who really, truly loves the old radio shows, discovering this when the Star Wars edition was remastered, packaged and sold back in the 1990's was a Godsend. The story actually comes off very well even when you can't see the visuals and it expands upon the events in the movie. Some of the extra stuff is padding but others of it deepen motivations and characterizations. For example, we get a scene where the data tapes are delivered to Princess Leia and we get to actually meet Leia's father, Bail Organa (long before Jimmy Smits played him in the prequels). We also get several scenes with Luke and his friend Biggs which give greater weight to Bigg's death later on.

And here's an interesting trivia fact -- Biggs had a greater role in the movie version of Star Wars as well but all of his scenes hit the cutting room floor (only one was later restored for the "Special Edition" release) and if you listen to John Williams' soundtrack for the movie, the music builds to a crescendo culminating in Biggs' death -- which was supposed to be a dramatic moment as Luke's friend, and his last tie to Tatooine, died. Even though the character ended up mostly excised from the movie the crescendo stayed in the score.

At any rate, the trilogy is, on the whole, delightful to listen to. For years I've used them on long driving trips to entertain myself but it's also fun to listen to after dark. Turn off the lights, stretch out on the couch, and let your imagination paint the scenes.

Grab Bag Reviews: "The Moonbase"

It is fair to say that "The Moonbase" is 'not all there'. In fact, there are a number of Doctor Who stories which are not all there.

Back in the late 1960's and continuing through much of the 1970's the tapes and film containing many programs were seen as having limited usefulness. Once shows had been sold to other countries for overseas broadcast they were largely considered "done". As a result the tapes and films were either wiped or destroyed to make way for more programs.

In the late 1970's this practice changed at the BBC and not long after the home video market and syndication changed the face of recordings forever. Unfortunately many Doctor Who stories had been partially or completely lost... after a fashion.

Doctor Who fans were a passionate bunch and many would place tape recorders near the TV set and record the audio off the episodes. A few fans went the extra mile and kept those audio tapes for decades.

In more recent years the BBC reached out to those fans and collected those audio resources; remastering them to create audio adventures and even using them to reconstruct old episodes.

"The Moonbase" was missing the first and third installments. For the Patrick Troughton volume of the Lost in Time DVD the audio for the missing episodes is included along with the film for the remaining two episodes. This audio, combined with a slide show using still pictures on the BBC's Doctor Who Classic website, allows one to sort-of recreate the missing installments.

"The Moonbase" is notable for being the second story to feature the Cybermen. The baddies were introduced in William Hartnell's final story, "The Tenth Planet", and were well received by fans. As it was thought the Daleks were becoming old hat it was decided to push the Cybermen as replacements. Their look and voices were redesigned, going from this:















To this:















Their look would continue to be changed and tweaked over the next several years.

The Second Doctor would also face the Cybermen four times -- more than any other Doctor (and as a bit of trivia, the Third Doctor NEVER faced the Cybermen, making him the only Doctor to do so).

The Plot: The Doctor tries to take his companions Ben, Polly, and Jamie to Mars but instead winds up on the Moon in 2070. When Jamie is injured on a Moonwalk the time travelers find themselves guests at a base which uses a machine to control the weather on Earth.

Tensions are running high, though, as members of the base crew are falling victim to a mysterious illness. The Doctor battles suspicion to try to find the real cause. When the enemy finally stands revealed things go from bad to worse because the base is being targeted by the cold, emotionless, implacable Cybermen!

My Take: The fact that I love Patrick Troughton's Doctor does not blind me to the fact that "The Moonbase" is sadly a flawed story. It isn't a bad story - not by a long shot - but it's something almost worse than that... it's a bit boring.

I suppose, to be fair, the biggest issue is that it hasn't aged well. Although supposedly set in 2070 the base's computers use tape drives and the characters mention radio telephones (RT). There are also problems with the characters. The crew is 'international' in that old-fashioned way that was meant to be 'inclusive' but does so by making everyone a stereotype. The Frenchman, Benoit, lapses into French when not speaking with a ridiculous accent that would make Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau blush and the character of Nils is referred to as the base's "Mad Dane". The pseudo-science is laughable and the medical information is equally worthy of ridicule (since when does getting a mild concussion lead to a fever all in the space of less than half and hour?!).

The story also, through no fault of its own, suffers from what would come after it. You see Doctor Who had a habit of using and reusing certain plot devices. One of those devices was to gather a group of characters together, isolate them, and then have them come under attack from their enemies. These types of plots commonly became known as "Base Under Siege" stories since most of them tended to feature military bases or encampments of some type. Troughton's tenure as the Doctor tended to overuse this plot convention leading to a LOT of Base Under Siege stories. "The Moonbase" kind of gets lost in the crowd. Plus, you know what they say about familiarity breeding contempt?

On top of all of that there are issues with the script -- for example, the audience learns the Cybermen are behind everything by the end of the first episode but it takes the characters until into the second episode before THEY learn the Cybermen are behind it all. This leaves the audience knowing more than the other characters -- rarely a good idea for maintaining dramatic tension. There is a lot of padding as well as things take entirely too long to get going and there are constant false starts and reverses which are overused.

The regular cast also got squeezed here. Actor Frazer Hines, who played companion Jamie, had been a spur-of-the-moment addition to the cast. As a result scripts which had already been written and approved had to be re-written to include Jamie. One of the reasons why his character spends so much of the story "sick" is because they simply didn't have lines for him. They also had to shuffle and reparcel lines to fit the character of Jamie in.

All is not lost for the story though. Troughton turns in his usual brilliant performance as the Doctor -- his innocuous, occasional con-man turn hiding the Doctor's intelligence and determination to see evil repulsed. In point of fact, one of the show's most famous lines is uttered here: "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which go against everything we believe in. They must be fought." There is also a really interesting internal monologue the Doctor has with himself -- the only instance of it's kind as viewers get a little sneak peek into how the Doctor's brain works. We wouldn't get quite as intimate a view again until this year's "The Eleventh Hour".

There are also some hints of conflict between companions Ben and Jamie which are quite intriguing here but sadly disappear by the next story. It would have been interesting to see the show deal with companions who maybe didn't always get along so well at this early stage in its development.

"The Moonbase" is entertaining enough but it definitely isn't one of the show's 'edge-of-your-seat' adventures. It can be amusing at times... but not enough to keep you awake so definitely don't put this one in your DVD player if you're sleepy.

Getting Cook-y With It...

So, surprise, I actually like to cook.

Within reason.

I'm no gourmet and I generally don't like to cook anything that takes a long time to prepare. My two favorite appliances are my food processor and my slow cooker. If you ever see anything on my table that looks fancy and like I spent a lot of time on it likely it's a lie -- and by that I mean it LOOKS like I spent a lot of time on it but in actual fact it didn't take much to prepare at all.

All that being said, sometimes I experiment... and sometimes my experiments pan out.

Like tonight.

stuck with making a meal out of 'stuff I had in the freezer and refrigerator' I came up with the following. I'm calling it my Sloppy SandWHAT rather than a sloppy sandwich because... well, it's more a "what" than anything else. Keep in mind that all measurements given here are approximations because I just threw stuff in my skillet. Put in what looks right/tastes right for you.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1/3 to 1/2 cup diced carrots
1/4 to 1/3 cup diced celery
Onion flakes to taste or fresh diced onion to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Two 8 oz cans tomato sauce

Cook ground turkey thoroughly with onion and garlic
drain any remaining grease
Add carrots, celery and two cans of tomato sauce. Stir until well mixed.
Reduce heat and simmer mixture until carrots and celery are tender and until tomato sauce is reduced and mixture is thick and bubbly.
Add sugar (this reduces some of the tomato sauce's bitterness) and mix well. Might want to go easy on the sugar and keep taste testing to make sure you get the bitterness out but do not make the mixture too sweet.

Lightly toast whole wheat buns or rolls or bread product of your choice.

Serve mixture up on bread or rolls.