Xenon's Seventh Circle

Look at this - three posts in less than a week. It must be some kind of record! But I saw a picture on Twitter which is true excitement in .jpg form, and now I have to bother everybody else with it. How have I never seen this until now?!

Robin Of Sherwood and Return To Treasure Island were made by the same people at the same time. So far, so common knowledge. But at some point, this happened: ( ... )

It took effort (and I admit that I did skip some of the longer and more impenetrable chapters), but I have finished The Brothers Karamazov. Damned if I know what it's about though. I mean, certainly it's the tale of three brothers, and their father is murdered by somebody, but this apparently major event is probably only about a third of the narrative. The rest is wandering down lengthy side trails, talking of ailing schoolboys, boring monks, a veritable barrage of people with assorted ailments, and some people who may or may not be in love with each other. It must surely have been written whilst high. It's the only sensible explanation. (I'm guessing there's at least one level of allegory going on, and certainly there's comparative examples of fatherhood, and the importance of father figures, but jeepers). This is one book I'm not recommending! I've gone back to Sherlock Holmes now, and have just started The Hound Of The Baskervilles. It's a much better story, and Conan Doyle manages to tell in a dozen pages what Dostoevsky needs four hundred to even begin getting around to.

Boy Dominic remains entertaining, although it must be said that Richard Todd's bit of the plot (a short scene at the beginning and end of each episode) is infinitely more engaging than his wide-eyed son, still getting into assorted scrapes in the Yorkshire countryside. Each episode is only half an hour long though, and Brian Blessed is there, so it's enjoyable enough. Just had another Return To Treasure Island alumnus turn up, which was nice. Also falling in love with Sleepy Hollow all over again. Season four has been absolutely splendid so far.

Making use of last.fm's glorious statistics capabilities while it's still there (it seems forever in danger of falling before the unappealing juggernaut of Spotify), I see that my top five artists for the last seven days are:

1. George Harrison (14 plays)
2. The View (13 plays)
3. Kaiser Chiefs
3. Mika
3. Pulp (12 plays each)

I do like a nice list. Elsewhere I am mostly thinking about dragons for I Surrendered, and trying not to get sucked into the world of temptation that is Prompt Amnesty Week over at 100words. Every ten weeks you get to choose any of the previous prompts. They are very prompty.

I have finished my cup of tea. Woe.

Bye.

So, American television was kind enough to make a pirate series. I wanted to wait until I'd got my pretend pirate show all figured out and posted before I watched it, so I finally got around to seeing the first two episodes last night. Obviously, because it's mine, I think my show is better! But, quite honestly... boy is my show better. If only by virtue of not really existing, but still.

( Ouch. )

Day seventeen, your favourite mini series. An easy one at last! This one doesn't even require thinking; it's obviously Return To Treasure Island. Yes, it's true that Sleepers is perfect in every way, and it's also true that Edge Of Darkness is spectacular, but - and this is very important - neither one of them is Return To Treasure Island. So that's that question settled.

Everybody should watch Return To Treasure Island. It should probably be compulsory. Not only does it have pirates, and buried treasure, and swords, and sailing ships, and everything that's good except dinosaurs and sharks, but it's really, really good as well. The only bad thing in the whole series is a painfully bad actor cast as a pirate in episode one, but he dies by the end of the episode, so even he doesn't get to ruin much. Everything else is perfect. Brian Blessed is the best Silver there could ever be, and his relationship with the grown up Jim Hawkins, played by Christopher Guard, is excellently realised. Peter Lloyd, as the Jamaican slave Abed, is a study in desperation and misery, growing into freedom. The bad guys are hissable, the fight scenes are excellent, and the whole thing is carried along with this wonderful spirit of adventure. Also, some stuff explodes. And did I mention the swords and the pirates? It's brilliant, basically. Just go and watch it.

In other news, I have been attempting to eat some chocolate, but it's melted. I had forgotten about summer. I haven't seen one in years. They're pretty good, aren't they. We really ought to have them more often.

A fun episode, made up almost entirely of guest stars, with the regulars pushed very much into the background. Doesn't seem to matter, though. The guest cast is of a very high calibre, and I get a good bit of Tarrant and Dayna adventuring, which generally keeps me happy anyway. It builds up to a fine bit of intrigue, too. Yet one more explodified bit of the old days, recovered for series four.

( ... )

Episode 1x09: "The Fanatics"

It's Adam Adamant! He's being evil, but I imagine that he's only working undercover. Because he's Adam Adamant! And Adam Adamant would never be evil. Being evil is naughty. Anyway. Adam Adamant and some friends are watching newsreel footage of a sheikh arriving in London. Shortly after, Adam chats on a radio to a man, who gives an affirmative, then pulls the pin out of a grenade and races towards said sheikh, who appears to be making some sort of official visit to an abandoned shed. Despite having been shot a dozen times by the sheikh's guards, the man gets near enough to throw his grenade. He then collapses and dies. So does the sheikh, the guards, and probably the cameraman. ‘Tis a massacre. Send for the Champions! But tell them not to be horrible to Adam.

( ... )

Well, the internet pixies repented in the end, and gave me 95.2% of Jack Holborn, before finally crashing, and swearing blind that that was it. Still, it's most of it. And with luck there's a DVD release in the offing, so who's complaining!

( Piratical rambling beneath )