Xenon's Seventh Circle

I have been busy, and have been neglecting the meme. Sorry, meme. It's nothing personal. I have been busy digging, which is much more entertaining than it sounds, especially since I keep finding fossils. Everywhere there are fossils. The garden was apparently the scene of some ghastly mollusc massacre some time during the Jurassic. But anyway.

Day twenty-one, your favourite ship. A close run thing, this one. Obviously there's the TARDIS, and also my beloved White Star (the original and best) from Babylon 5. I never did quite forgive Sheridan for crashing her into a planet, even if it was in the act of probably saving the universe. But in the event, neither of them wins. Instead I'm going with the Charming Molly, the eighteenth century sailing ship from Jack Holborn. A 1982 adaptation of the book by Leon Garfield, Jack Holborn tells the story of a small orphan boy caught up in the affairs of the dread pirate Captain Sharingham, and his danger magnet brother, Sir John. The Charming Molly is Sharingham's ship, a rather characterful and exuberant three-master with a talent for atmospheric lurking. She doesn't last long, sadly, as she gets pounded to driftwood in a storm halfway through the series, but she lives on in young Jack's dreams, haunting him with memories that he can't quite reach. I love Jack Holborn. It's a terrific family adventure serial about pirates and stolen jewels and adventuring and things like that; and the Molly, and especially her red-haired figurehead, is key to a big chunk of the story. So she wins, for adventuring and excitement, and assorted escapades, and for haunting Jack's dreams all his life. And also for the opening credits, with perfect adventuring music, and her being a shameless camera whore. Why don't we have sailing ships these days? Everybody should have one. They're so much more fun than cars.

Woe is me, for I have run out of episodes of Jack Holborn. By 'eck, episode five's a corker, though. With battles and fires and dashing about, and jewels and gold coins and dodgy merchants, and sailing ships and dastardly slave traders and the fabulously nasty Captain Downs. And then episode six has more sailing ships, and pirates, and a nice piece of who's who, and the fabulously nasty Captain Cox. No fighting to speak of, though, which is a shame. It does have the scene where a newly bearded Judge Sharingham is carted off to a real hellhole of a prison, though, and emerges for his trial all shiny and clean, and neatly shaved to boot. Given the way prisons were in those days, doing all that lot with enough money to back you up wouldn't have been all that hard - but it's already been clearly established that he doesn't have any money. Still, it's bad form to poke fun at the second greatest piratey thing ever. Even if it is bad mannered enough to be only six episodes long, and end too damned early. On the plus side, the greatest piratey thing ever should be out by the end of the month, unless the release date gets put back. And I fully intend to bore for England on the subject, as soon as I've got it in my possession. Brian Blessed hopping about on a crutch; Christopher Guard being brilliantly swashbuckly; lots of swords, sailing ships and flintlock pistols; and a good dash of piracy, treasure and gadding about on horseback. Hurrah! Although poor Jim does end up with the wrong girl, even if he does seem to think that she's the right one. He gets hit over the head that many times, though, that his judgement isn't necessarily to be trusted. And admittedly the right girl winds up dead, so isn't really an option anyway. Nonetheless, that was not necessarily any reason to pick Little Miss Winsome. Maybe he should have listened to the other prisoners of Superintendente Garcia, and gone with Abed instead. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Way, way ahead of myself. So I shall shut up. Approximately now.

After yesterday's Jack Holborn rambling (crossposted to MySpace) I got a string of faintly scary e-mails, all about chains. That's never happened before. Actually that's not strictly true, but that was a conversation about the relationship between Methos and Kronos, so you'd expect chains - pretty much - and just about everything else. Here I am, though, and I'm getting e-mails about chains, and yes, MySpace is officially scary. :D E-mails #1, #3 and #7 were to ask if Judge Sharingham's chains have changed, hinting at either a: frightening powers of obervation, or b: clinical insanity... Between the scene where Jack and the others see that he's in the slave train, and his arrival at the auction, he's apparently been fitted with a replacement set. Actually, that's being a little unfair, as we don't get a very good look at him when he's in the train, and the picture is pretty wobbly. And I can't believe I've expended so much energy on this. I'm not saying what e-mail #4 was about, but the others were mostly just appreciative of the handcuffs.

I do have to say, though, that it's a fascinating pair that he's wearing. Totally different to what the others have on, which leads me to wonder if the prop man found them in a cupboard somewhere, and couldn't resist showing them off. Absolutely charming padlock, too. And yes, there will be pictures, in just a minute. After that there will be no further posts about bondage. Probably.

So where are we. Fabulously clunky handcuffs, apparently nicked from a museum by a very enthusiastic props man. They look lovely on camera, but they don't half chafe. As you can see from the pictures, before anybody gets ideas...


Fabulous padlock, with chafing and Scandanavian subtitles.


Interesting stylistic crossbar, also with Scandanavian subtitles.

Argh... family get together *grumble* boring natter about children *grumble* supposed to be interested in people who aren't remotely interested in me *grumble* yes I'm being childish *grumble* I shall get told off again for having avoided the group for much of the day, but there were just Too Many People. It makes my head do flip-flops.

( More of Jack Holborn beneath )