Xenon's Seventh Circle

A couple of you have done this, and I thought I'd join in, as once again I haven't posted in ages. And this is easy!

List the first sentence (or two because a couple of those first sentences are quite short) of each of the last ten fics you posted.

The sky screamed with the fury of a thousand owls.
Growth And Decay (The Gormenghast Trilogy)

"Hove to, and prepare to be boarded!"
Never A Dull Moment (Blake's 7)

"I don't think this is London," said Ian, from the doorway of the TARDIS.
Tomorrow (Doctor Who)

They stood together at the end of it all, in a pool of black light, watching the last of the stars fade.
Ebb And Flow (Sapphire & Steel)

Cutter still blamed Helen.
Toothmarks (Primeval)

Sometimes the Earth died in fire.
Fire & Brimstone (Captain Jack)

There was green upon the air once again.
The Green Woman (Robin Of Sherwood)

"It's Christmas," observed Sapphire, with a trace of wonder in her tone.
Assignment 3½ (Sapphire & Steel)

For all the undoubted blessings and benefits that he had discovered in the 1960s, there were, thought Adam Adamant, one or two definite failings also to be found in that august decade.
The Violet Viper (Adam Adamant Lives!)

Clocks ticked. So many clocks, lining the walls, ticking and tocking away the seconds of inexorable time.
Drabble (Doctor Who)

Title: Toothmarks
Fandom: Primeval
Rating: G
Word Count: c. 2000
Characters: Stephen Hart, Abby Maitland, Captain Ryan

( ... )

Day eleven, a show that disappointed you. Oh, Primeval. For about six weeks, I loved Primeval; the entire, insanely short length of the first series. It was pretty much everything that I wanted to be watching. A fun gang of university types (three boffins and a student) find holes in time that lead back to various prehistoric ages. Giant prehistoric beasties! Rampaging through the Forest of Dean! Gods, it was wonderful. Giant monsters prowling through school corridors; enthusiastic amateurs thrown into the thick of things; gorgonopsids and pteranodons and dodos and mosasaurs and giant centipedes and basically many things with big teeth. Except the dodos. And the centipedes. And a few other things, but anyway. I loved Primeval, is basically what I'm saying. I liked the characters, too. Okay, so the student (Connor) was irritating, and could have done with a bit of being eaten. But the three boffins were brilliant. We had a good head boffin, called Nick, with a pleasing fondness for ammonites. We had a tough and capable lizardy boffin called Abby. And best of all we had a main assistant boffin called Stephen who, when he wasn't doing things in laboratories, turned out to be brilliant with guns, and spent much of his time chasing giant monsters. Also he was blatantly obviously in love with Nick, but that's by the by.

And then they "reinvented" everything for series two. Nick fell into an alternate universe, in order to rid the show of all the stuff that the producers didn't like (and, as it turned out, everything that I did). No more were the team enthusiastic amateurs. The university was gone, and in its place was a big government department. Political conspiracies abounded, where once had been boffins being pleasingly boffiny. Logic had been thrown out of the window, and in its place was brooding in shadows, and people being blazingly stupid, just in order to get them somewhere where a big monster could create a bit of peril. Central relationships, which helped the stories tell themselves, were all destroyed. Characters need relationships, but every single one of those that existed in series one was now gone, except the twee romance between Abby and Connor. Worst of all, the show didn't even make sense anymore. In series one there were soldiers around, to guard against prehistoric beastie incursions, and to protect the scientific department. In series two there were no soldiers. Presumably good sense gets in the way of big monsters creating a bit of peril. Or possibly the faceless government department had spent so much money building itself a giant glass skyscraper to base itself in, that it didn't have any money left for soldiers. It was stupid. And they ruined Helen, the brilliant evil genius who was busily being Up To Things in the background. That sucked a whole lot too.

British sci-fi has a long tradition of enthusiastic amateurs. Maybe it's an overused trope, but it allows for good characters. Switch to a faceless governmental department, and you've got... well, you've got a faceless governmental department, haven't you. Quirky, original characters give way to cookie cutter types. Also they killed Stephen. Really, really stupidly.

Oh, Primeval. I loved you, I really did. And then I didn't. And I still really regret everything that was lost. For such a brief time it was all so much fun. And then, all of a sudden, nothing.

Slave traders are a weird bunch. Not something you might ordinarily ponder, but bear with me. Or... well, whatever.

At this point, I would usually waffle at length about Primeval. But I can't, as I didn't watch it. It was on too early, so I couldn't see it at the time; so I was going to download it, but I forgot. And now I couldn't be bothered, so "Primeval 2x07 - Future beasties, giant scorpions, and everything else as well for that matter", will have to wait. Probably indefinitely. Maybe there'll be some news about series three that will renew my interest in the show, as right now it's registering pretty low, but I have to say that I doubt it. Series two was not what I want to be watching, and I see no evidence that series three will be turning things back to where I want them to be.

( Back to the pirates instead, then. )

Well, that was... nearly fun. Would have been mroe so if it hadn't been for the annoying child; and she really was annoying, too. Off she goes to play with her dog outside, without taking a lead, and of course the dog goes barrelling off through an anomaly hidden in a tunnel. Learn your lesson, annoying child. Get a lead! And she was whiny and wooden, and she had some terribly clunky dialogue. And Cutter's being a prat again. Other than that, it was a fun episode. And hey - giant scorpions! I was assuming that they were Eurypterids from the publicity photos, but there didn't seem to be any water in evidence, so "giant scorpions" will have to do instead. Uropygids, maybe? At any rate, they were big, and they were awesome. Though the giant-ish millipedes were a bit rubbish in comparison.

( More of episode five under here... )

Before we begin, let's just get one thing clear. Sabre-tooth cats are good. They're not as good as dinosaurs, or indeed many other types of ancient and long gone reptile/mammalianish, reptiley prehistoric creatures - but they're still bloody good. A Smilodon on the rampage in a theme park is verging on genius.

( Spoilery stuff this way.. )

It's good to have Primeval back. Fifty minutes of watching the cast chasing a dinosaur around a shopping mall, and being chased by a dinosaur in turn. With blood and gore aplenty, and lots of mall employees being munched. Hurrah! It's not the most demanding or meaningful show on television, but it's buckets of fun, and it's got dinosaurs in it. And daft jokes and general good fun. And I like it, a lot. :)


( Pictures this way... )

Primeval season one revisited, part one.

I've been rewatching Primeval. We're due a second season in the new year at some point, and it's been ages since I watched season one, so I dug out the DVD set earlier. I wasn't sure about the first episode back when it was screened. I seem to remember rambling on about not being entirely sure what to make of it. It soon became clear that it was glorious fun for a Saturday night, though, and rewatching episode one for the first time, my opinion hasn't changed. Episode one isn't brilliant, but there's necessary setting up stuff, and that's okay. Ben Miller is fabulous as the thoroughly oily James Lester. Even his body language screams "git!". I hope we see more of him in season two. Claudia seems more annoying second time around. She's the winsome type. All grins and fluttery eyelashes, and a soft voice that screams "I'm the love interest!" at you. I never was interested in her allegedly romantic subplot with Cutter, though, which might explain why I never really warmed to her. She didn't seem to have anything much going for her beyond that subplot. And Cutter and Stephen make a far better couple. Sorry, but they do. Stephen's clearly interested, and it's impossible to ignore that. I do wish ITV would jump on the bandwagon, and take a leaf out of RTD's book on that score. But anyway. Claudia's annoying. Happily she doesn't do much in episode one except flirt with Cutter, and be winsome and eyelashy-fluttery.

( More rambling this way... )

*Sighs contentedly* Flying reptiles. They're great, aren't they? There are big ones and small ones, and flappy ones and glidey ones, and they're lovely, every one. Though the big ones are best. The bigger the better, really. They're not as cool as a nice big allosaurus, admittedly; it's still the walking ones and the swimming ones that come top of my list... but still, a nice flying reptile is tough to beat, and they were all over the place in Primeval tonight. This show is shaping up to be so much fun. Damned shame there's only one more episode left to go.

( Episode stuff beneath the cut... )

Saturday is now Primeval Day, I've decided - and not just because I like rambling on about television shows. Well, okay, largely because of that. Really, genuinely good episode tonight. I wasn't entirely happy with last week's, but this week's more than made up for it. Firstly, the mosasaurs, which did look a bit dodgy in places, admittedly, but most of the time looked bloody lovely. Fabulous scene at the beginning, when one whooshed up out of the bottom of a swimming pool, and caught a diver as he leapt off a board. Secondly, the plot. We had actual intrigue, and following up of previous plot strands, which is the kind of thing that Robin Hood failed to do much of the time. The missing wife storyline was fleshed out well tonight, and didn't annoy me anything like as much as it did during the first two episodes. Having her being arrested by government agents was a nice twist, especially given how upset Cutter and Stephen seemed to be about it. Also, extra points for slipping in some history between Stephen and Helen (the missing wife). At a stroke that deepens the relationship between Cutter and Stephen, and hints at other things. Connor the annoying student is still annoying, but they are acknowledging this more in the script now. A character who is intentionally annoying is infinitely better than one who is annoying by accident. His two university friends really are appalling, though. Bad lines and bad delivery, particularly the short one. And what's with the weird girlfriend thing suddenly shoehorned in for Stephen?! Seems bizarre.

Still, for the most part, this was highly entertaining. Lots of giant reptile action, and anything from the Cretaceous is always going to be welcome on my television. Giant reptiles! Giant, prehistoric reptiles! How can you fail to love that?! With the big teeth, and the big claws, and the big... bigness. More please.


Waiting for you to dive in...


He's lovely, isn't he.
Next week's preview shows Stephen hurling himself into a portal, which just about had me cheering. I've been wanting to do that myself since episode one.