It's not quite as bad as the SW prequels with the good bits stuck in with a lot of really awful moments but it definitely shares some of the same failings.

The first of the Star Trek movies is a really interesting mixed bag. Coming off of the heels of an aborted new late 1970's tv series, a lot of the designs had been already run up and characters such as Decker and Ilyia put in place to bolster an obviously aging original cast. The heart was definitely in the right place with the basic story and the idea of the crew getting back together to face this ominous threat but the real problems arose in the execution of the idea and the sloppy writing and design work, including uniforms and mixed interior tones.

The movie should have been cut severely, especially the scenes in the second half with the crew finally reaching V'gr.

If you haven't been reading Grant Morrison's Batman, then you need to dig them up and get into them. Over the last 22 issues or so, Grant has built up a typically intricate collection of plot points, back-story and now with the launch of the ominous sounding 'Batman R.I.P' storyline, we get to see all the threads tie together and some of the most exciting story-telling since 'No Man's Land'.

Grant, as much as he is excellent at any length story-telling, always excels at the longer game and given the chance to unfold a map of story over a generous number of issues, will show his skills and command of the genre and the art-form as few can.

It's that time again. The poor old Doc (still DT, as much as I thought it was time for a change, RTD and kazillions of females and boys who like boys disagreed) is alone again and companion-less. So I thought I'd offer the hapless beeb and relative newbie Stevie Moffat some top tips on how to match up a perfect tag-along for the TARDIS travels!

1) Davros. Julian Bleach's masterfully creepy Dalek numero uno would be perfect as a new approach to the show- combining elements of love/hate will he/won't he (stab the doctor to death, at any given opportunity) and the classic 'The Odd Couple' dynamic. Make up some shit plot about Davros having to help the doc or him being on the run or being fitted with a limiter so he can't kill or some nonsense and he has to take refuge with his most hated enemy- THE DOCTOR ( or the oncoming storm, if he's feeling formal). Like Hitler in a kibbutz, this would offer the chance to show Dav as a real person and a rounded human being. Give him some kooky habits like playing jazz at four am in the TARDIS, driving the Doctor BATTY and wearing a smoking jacket. I guarantee high ratings.

2) A Drag Queen. I'm telling you, it's the way to go. 'Best of both worlds' as the sleazy porno tags say- a drag queen would be perfect for the new companion. Looks fab, great for one-liners and good with the heavy lifting. Plus, bloody confusing to aliens. Daleks would be like 'Exter....hang on...why is the female covered in glitter and foam?'

3) Tom Baker. He can even just be himself. I don't care and either will you. Any opportunity to have Lord Tom of Baker back would be worth it. He could just sit there and make snide comments about hair gel and tiny skinny guys whilst eating chips. It would so work. You know it makes sense.

4) Mel. Ah, Bonnie, we remember you fondly from the days of the BBC bravely struggling to get to grips with the new cheap CGI effects in the late 80's and failing miserably except in the marvellous Seventh doc opening sequence which had the TARDIS materialising in a giant pink bubble..uhmmmm. But here's the thing, we could bring back Mel but as a traumatized tough woman who smokes cigars and spits on the TARDIS floor whilst making comments about how she had to shoot three babies in the head or something whilst fighting a war on another planet.

5) A skanger from Finglas. Just think about it. God, the possibilities. Some teenage girl from the Dublin council estates, badly dyed hair, mobile phone permenantly attached to her hand playing shit speeded up techno and a pink track-suit with hoody top. It would be like Rose but two million times more knackery. She would ask 'Wha's tha' ?' about everything, driving the Doc to distraction but she would also be pretty under her cynical veneer and after a few ciders, she'd be off behind the TARDIS shagging Ice-men while the doc looks embarrased. PLus, the sweet strains of 'Aslan' coming out of the console room would be worth the price of admission alone.

I left out a few bits in my review piece of 'Journey's End' just posted. Rather than edit that post and mess up the flow, I'll just add in this briefer scribble.

Whether it was Russell, Nick Briggs or whoever came up with it, the Daleks in Germany was a stroke of sheer genius. I can't recall, and bear in mind, I've been watching the show since 1977 and have been a writer, reviewer and contributor to various magazines, websites and groups connected with the show for some 15 years, if we've ever heard the Daleks speak another language in any of their adventures. Whether it was brand new or not, it was fantasic and made me almost fall out of my chair laughing as the Daleks flew through the forests of Germany barking instructions and warning in German! My favourite moment had to be the 'Exterminagen!' which I thought was quite charming of the Daleks.

Also, Julian Bleach and Nick Briggs really made Davros come more alive than ever before, shot through with extra creepiness and wonderful villainous glee. His depressed eyes with the deep tissue scarring, his rotten metal covered razor sharp teeth, his tapping metallic claw and that evil open mouthed grin all combined to give us the best evil character since John Simm's uncomparable Master.

Davros's recognition of Sarah Jane was also a nice touch, and anything that gives Lis Sladen extra lines is always a good thing. As attractive as ever, her experience and older, wiser persona is perfect and welcome back to Who anytime she can do it. All the companions were on fine form with John Barrowman in usual scene-stealing form. Penny Wilton's (premature) death in 'The Stolen Earth' lost us a wonderful female character and really reminded us all of how under-written so many female characters on tv are and just how good some older female actors really are.

As for the David Tennant Double-act, I'm sure it thrilled many of his fan's hearts but for me, it was somewhat tacky and probably one gimmick too far. The genocide issue was interesting and nice to know Russell still refers back to classic Who every so often with the 'Genesis of the Daleks' footnote but it still just came across as a somewhat daft way of having Rose get her Doctor (sort of) and especially with the way Noel Clarke strolled off, the whole plot strand was a bit too forced and iffy for me.

As for DT himself, he did his usual bang-up job with some nice emotional scenes and shouty bits. Having said that, I do think it's time for him to move on to something else. I honestly don't think he has much else to contribute to the show or the character. The excuse for him deliberately staying the same in the regeneration scene was to my mind silly and arrogant ( Russell saying his boy is the best...sigh). Whilst good, DT is by no means the best Doctor ever. Chris Eccleston was a fantastic doctor and brought a lot of energy, passion, anger, intelligence and wonder to the role and to anyone who says DT is the best actor to play the role, I urge them to look at adventures from all of the previous actors, including Paul McGanns tragically cut short reign.

And as much as I hate those critical little bastards who jump onto their grease spotted keyboards and stomp out their own personal nit-picky prejudices and likes the second the show is over, here I am, mere minutes after the season four finale has concluded, sharing my thoughts with you lunatics.

First, like I mentioned in an earlier post, I was mega-pissed with Russell T Davies for farting around with the regeneration schtick. This concept has been central to the show's success and longevity and never before in the history of the series, classic or new, has anyone 'faked' it like RTD just did in the finale two parter just shown. And I think it was a massive cop-out, unnecessary and bloody annoying to any of us long-time fans. You either use it to regenerate the Doctor or you leave it alone; to whip it out like a party trick does nothing but cheapen it and lessen the excitement and impact.

Okay, with that out of the way, I enjoyed the hell out of the episode (and indeed, the first part as well) even though, or perhaps because of, the fact that it had the best and the worst of Russell T Davies' work on Dr.Who since he relaunched it and put his own particular brand of writing and style on the post-classic episodes. Myself and my good friend Lian have differing takes on some of the new Who (which is healthy as we agree on a lot of other stuff and two people thinking like her or I is a kinda scary thought) but I was definitely nodding in agreement watching these last two and thinking of her criticisms of Russell's habit of deifying the Doctor (or rather, his Doctor David Tennant) and his penchant for huge and slightly lazy Deus Ex Machina type endings.

RTD with 'The Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End' set himself an admirably difficult and tricky task, to wit, deciding to throw everything he had achieved over the last four years into the pot with a cast stuffed full of companiony goodness (even adding in a quick CGI clip of K-9) , the (re) return of the ultimate Dr.Who villain with the Daleks, a brilliantly creepy updating of Davros and the 'death' (hem, hem, cheeky) . So all of this plus Russell's farewell to his 'family' of Rose Tyler and co. and typically, at least two teary scenes (the button pushing bastard) .

Having put all of that in the pot and setting it to simmer all season, did it work?

Yes and no. Yes, it worked in terms of sheer enjoyment and I applaud the BBC for supporting the show and helping it to achieve and maintain it's current level of success with the general tv viewing public. I thoroughly enjoyed the two episodes, with my annoyance at the gimmicky usage of regeneration aside, and there was no doubt that it was very exciting and suspense filled with Russell's trademark humour thrown in and lightening the overall dark tones very well. The usage of a slate of companions, including Torchwood, Sarah-Jane Smith and Rose, Donna, Martha, Mickey, Jackie could have easily led to 'Buffet' Syndrome with a whole lot of nothing and not much of anything, but Russell managed to make it work well overall, giving everyone something to Ddo and the ensemble scenes were great to watch, with everyone having a good time.

For me, once again, Bernard Cribbons was a stand-out and obviously I'm not the only fan of the coolest man on television as Bernie got some fantastic dialogue and wonderfully heartfelt scenes at the end of the episode. The rooting of the show in the humanity of the companions and their immediate families has always been Russell's strength since he re-launched the show and this really shone through in this story. The return of Rose & co. and the closure offered by the story's events and ending worked as it allowed us to come full circle with the characters and move on to what the future of Dr.Who has to offer us.

Where the show didn't work for me was the ridiculous plot. Yes, it was entertaining; yes, it was thrilling and yes, it was fun. But. It was very sloppy and very broad in it's scope of us having to suspend disbelief. The Earth being stolen is one thing. The Earth being moved along with 26 other planets is another thing. Davros rebuilding the entire Dalek race out of his own DNA is something else. The Supreme Dalek still being in charge despite Davros building the Daleks back up to strength yet another story.

Add to this, the regenerative nonsense involving the hand of the Doctor (hanging around since 'The Christmas Invasion' like a bloody plot device waiting to happen) , the Donna-Doctor mish-mash, the ability of Donna to control all the Daleks except for the Supreme Dalek, the Daleks ability to suddenly strip the TARDIS of all defences and then the really really dodgy Deus Ex device with the Torchwood last stand and you realize just how hit and miss RTD has been playing with the plotting and writing. Yes, the overall effect is one of a great thrill ride and it rounds off a generally excellent season with an exciting, enjoyable and emotional ending, but is it really too much to ask for to have the plot-holes filled in a bit better and a slightly less nonsensical scene than having the TARDIS drag the Earth back home whilst swelling music warms our hearts and makes us all go 'Aww, bless' like the earthlings rejoicing that their planet is back in place (eh? ).

Yes, I'm being a big fan here and nit-picking, analysing (emphasis on 'anal' this time around, I know) and moaning. It was a really fun and exciting show, and one that I will definitely be watching a few more times. To Russell, I will say, if we didn't love what you've done with the show overall since you re-started it, we wouldn't be taking the time to examine it and critique it. I thank you, from the bottom of my long-time fan's heart for restoring the show to it's proper pre-eminent place as a pinnacle of modern British culture and hope you have enjoyed creating and working on the series as much as we have gotten so much joy from watching it (except for 'Midnight' which was just godawful shit and should be forgotten).

Looking forward to where we all go from here with the show.

Er, I've been trying to stay clear of spoilers and so on as to actually enjoy the shows I like and be shocked and /or surprised once in a while rather than patting myself on the back at my cleverness at knowing what was to come. But this really caught me off guard. Damn.

After a consistently excellent season (with the glaring exception of the turd at the buffet table 'Midnight') Russell T really started the ambitious, crowded, noisy and fantastically pure Who three part finale starring everyone and then a few others. Companions galore make this episode, the penultimate and the second of the three, probably the height of suspense and thrilling climax malarky.

As a long time fan, viewer, writer and reviewer of Who related material, I had my own various 'dream' epsiodes of course with various ingredients and this definitely included lots of them. For me, one of the most effective touches was the updating of a classic foe with the return of everyone's favourite wrinkled rubber muppet master of mayhem and mechanical menace, Davros.

With his costume subtly updated and the makeup and facial features altered to be much more realistic looking and sinister gothic in a shocking way with his ruined eye-sockets and rows of rotten sharp teeth, Julian Bleach's Davros is a far cry from Terry 'Oops, my mask is about to fall off' Molloy's classic 1970's and 1980's dog and pony show. The withered yoda paws are also gone, replaced with deadly updated steel claws. Gone too is the over-done pantomime villain screeching and instead we have a beautifully underplayed enemy worthy of the Doctor and containing so much Who history that it's reminiscent of last year's wonderful Derek Jacobi and John Simm moments.

In such a crowded, complex finale, there's always a danger of over-egging the pie, but Russell seems to be on his full game here and even finds time for some well deserved humourous moments as well as managing to fit everyone in without making the atmosophere too artificial or over-done. Bernard Cribbons is his usual excellent self and all the guests strut their respective stuff with the superb Penny Wilton making a nice closure filled come-back.

The real shocked of course is the ending which I won't go into as it will spoil it for you, but I am still wondering if they're serious or if there's some all new unspoiled secet anyway> **

Ahhh, well done BBC and especially Russell. I'm not quite letting you off the hook for the abysmal horror that was 'Midnight' but 'Turn Left' certainly restores the glory of this almost unblemished season with a rather odd Billie Piper performance complementing Catherine Tate and Bernie Cribbons usual wonderful acting. It's really great to see someone like Cribbons have a regular role in new Who, even beyond the obvious 'oh, he played the movie doctor's companion' references, he's just such a bloody good natural actor it's a joy to watch any scene with him in it, doing what Camille did for Rose Tyler's character, giving such a great solid grounding in humanity and family.

'Turn left' was an interesting alternate time story using some snippets from the new adventures mixed in with modern continuity. The destruction of London and Southern England was particularly powerful with the refugee Southerners being turned away from France (awww, bless) and ending up in glam spots like Leeds and Glasgow.

As good as it was, the previews for next week really hit the gimme gimme spot with all the old familiar faces returning and a Dalek snout getting in there as well for good measure.

Having managed to avoid spoilers for most of the season, it's refreshing and exciting to see what's coming up and I am looking forward to the next two episodes very much.

Ah well, nine episodes without a clunker is a good count. Then we have 'MIdnight' which is decidedly average if I'm being kind. The setting is crap, the cast is bleh, the central 'monster' concept is shit and the whole episode basically comes down to people repeating what other people are saying and a few shots of a pretty crystalline landscape. It's probably more jarring as it comes so soon after a series of particularly good episodes, but whatever the reason, there is simply no excuse for putting a story like this through, especially if you, as the outgoing head-writer commission yourself to write the worst story of the season.

The best part about the whole story was the 'coming next week' segment which promises the beginning of the end of season high-gears shenanigans and the return of La Piper.

Damnit Russell, it was going so well. 'Midnight' my behind.

Buffy's post television adventures continue on as excellent as ever, actually improving as Joss combines the tv personalities and situations with the unique advantages and, indeed, vantage points that comics offer with the unlimited budgetary possibilities of sets, settings and crazy cool big ideas like Dawn being a giant.

Latest issue picks up the consequences of Buffy's sleeping with Satsu in a nice way, with some funny dialogue between Buffy and Willow, a nice glimpse of Will's future and some classic Xander moments, including his relationship with Dracula which gets better with every interaction.

If you love the show but haven't yet sampled the comics season eight- then hop on board. This train is going full steam and doesn't look like stopping anytime soon.

Over in the Spideyverse we see some truly gorgeous art from Martin Marcos who captures the seventies vibrancy a la Tim Sale but combines it with modern sensibilities and story-telling abilities that are amazingly sensitive to detail. Mary-Jane seems to remember more than Peter does about their previous life which is an intriguing tease and despite the new lease of life blown into the comic by shaking up the personal situation, it still reminds us of how much we miss Mary-Jane and Peter as a couple.

No, it doesn't mean I disliked the movie. I actually quite enjoyed it and was relieved to find it wasn't as horrible as it so very easily could have been. It was massively flawed, true- but it also had some nice little scenes in it and was certainly not as bad as the third entry in the series (which was, to my mind, very forced, tiresome and over-precious, not to mention dragging out the whole father/son malarkey to painful extremes).

Cate Blanchett was far too sexy to be the crazy wacko Russian colonel and Ray Winstone and John Hurt were far too under-used. Ford carried it off well, looking much better than most would at his age, although poor Karen Allen did look a bit like a muppet stand-in.

It does strike me as a shame that such a quintessentially interesting American cinematic character has to be reduced to ridiculousness in order to still have 'mass appeal'. Why do we have to have utterly foolish and unbelievable scenes all through the movie? 'Raiders of the lost ark' wasn't this foolish- I watched it the other day again and was still impressed by it. Why do we have embematic characters like Indy reduced to cartoon nonsense and banal catchphrases like 'I have a bad feeling about this?'.

Why couldn't we have had a movie that contained the wit, action, charm and cleverness that the original movie had without sacrificing the 1930's adventure serial feel? What's interesting about this is that we did have touches of a much more adult and interesting story at the beginning and in a few places when we see Ford filling in the back story and describing what he did during the war and how he fought with the oSS after the war. If we could have continued on in that vein and developed the back story into his present situation, it would have made for such a better movie and a more elegant and fascinating continuation of the saga.

And just like I don't understand the two teenage boys sitting near me who couldn't stop playing with their phones, texting, sending pictures whilst the movie is playing, I just don't understand why everything in a movie like this has to be reduced to such stupid slapstick obvious nonsense? Are people really that stupid? How come 'Iron Man' managed to not stoop that low and still be a huge blockbuster?

Battlestar Galactica 4.7, 'Guess what's coming to dinner?' just raised the bar again in terms of what future tv is up against. Note that I'm not talking about sci-fi tv or action tv or drama or military shows, but tv in general.

That's what great tv shows do. They take some basic ideas and they interrogate every last drop that the premise has and then they throw all kinds of unexpected stuff at us. Shows like 'The Sopranos' did it, BSG does it, Dr.Who at it's best does it, House M.D does it. They take away all the trappings of comfortable staid boring tv and they throw us into a maelstrom of activity that drowns us in verisimilitude and convinces us that these characters and events are real.

With the latest season of BSG, just like the last season of 'The Sopranos', every episode counts because, like the dying president in BSG, every minute is now precious. We know the show's days are numbered. We know it'll all come to an end. And so suddenly the cast and crew are having to raise their already impressive game to squeeze everything in there and get every last second of plot onto the screen without sacrificing the scope and feel of the show, which extends way beyond expositional dialogue or unecessary character interaction. Instead, we have a man who just had his leg cut off singing mournful ballads, a shared dream drawing people together, Gaius Baltar's religious cult expanding.

All this from a re-imagining of a crap 1970's show. Unbelievable. It's like the A-team coming back and being a literate well written show that explores the boundaries of society and where the criminal lifestyle meets the corruption of the underbelly of the force and how war changes everything.

Classic Who. Best way to sum up the latest episode in season four. It could easily have been a gimmicky rehash of an old who structure but instead, with wit, charm and some great story-telling it reminds us of how and why Russel's relaunched Doctor Who has won the hearts of Family viewers everywhere in the UK and even amongst our Colonial US cousins as well.

Plot-wise, it set up the classic Doctor and companions land on a planet with two sides in a conflict. Then we have them divided, we see both sides, the Doctor gets to the bottom of the conflict shenanigans and taah daah, an ending where the conflict is resolved. We also get some classic Peter Davison era fish-faced characters in the Haath (from Hoth or maybe Howth?).

But Russell era Who has never just been about the plot, thankfully but rather about the spirit of the characters and the continuing drive to explore and uncover new and interesting things in life.

Donna continues to prove her worth story-wise and her growth as a character beyond just acting as the Doctor's Rose like consciousness and it's nice to see Martha in there again but the real shining stand-out is the titular Doctor's daughter. A pretty blonde with a swishy pony-tail and a body nobody can argue with, she is a fascinating addition to the new and shiny who-verse. What's interesting is that she could have been dreadful, if handled wrong but she's really taken off and come across as likeable and 'spunky' to use a horrible word to describe anyone.

Of course the brilliant thing about all this is that in an episode titled 'The Doctor's Daughter' we have the wonderful Ms Georgia Moffet (definitely the most striking female in the show since Carey Mulligan entranced us all last season as the incredible Sally Sparrow in possibly the best single Who ep ever, 'Blink') who is, of course, the real life Peter Davison's daughter acting as her dad's old character's latest incarnation's daughter with the daughter of Patrick Troughton directing the episode. And the fact that her first lines are 'Hello, Dad!' just adds a wonderful frisson to the piece.

Obviously I do sniff a lot of future potential, franchise possibilities and also cross-over pollination material but there's nothing wrong with that if it's fun and enjoyable and so far, despite the usual bunch of unwashed internet obsessives who are no doubt peeing themselves with horror at her character, it all seems to be going well.

I know I'll be keeping my eyes open as to where she'll pop up again.

'Abbey Road' by the Beatles is such a strange and almost accidental creation that it always makes me stop and think. It's also fascinating to me because the whole is so much different than the pieces. It's one of those albums that always offers something different.

The first piece of weirdness is in it's placement. Although it was recorded after 'Let it be', it was released before it, even though it was the actual last Beatles album recorded which adds a level of artistic frisson as it was, in many ways, far beyond the messiness of LIB and was a return to form, for one last time, which was the whole purpose.

The Beatles as an entity had been crumbling for some time and for many reasons (Brian's death, John's growth as an artist and activist) had reached a crossroads with the over-ambitious recording shenanigans of 'Let it be', wherein they decided to record the process of making an album and everything that it entailed in a proto-type version of one of today's reality tv shows, except that that was actually real and therein lay the problem. They were falling apart, obviously and almost irrevocably and it was all laid bare there on the soon abandoned film project of LIB. The album itself was messy with John and Paul mainly using it as a sounding board for directions of future solo projects and the absence of George Martin as producer lending a distinctly chaotic air to a group of people and a huge pile of recordings that were not being dealt with as they were produced and not being re-recorded as they should have been to clear up mistakes and perfect various tracks into final versions.

'Let it be' almost did that to the Beatles. The bad feelings and chaos that resulted ended up with the group falling apart and it was only when pushed to the brink that they realised that this was it and that it had ended badly. None of them wanted this and so it was discussed and agreed that they would get back together for one album and do it properly, this time recruiting George Martin and agreeing to let him be in charge of putting the album together. What was amazing here is that they could all see that the end was inevitable but were able to put the fractious working atmosphere of 'Let it be' behind them and keep it together for long enough to put together a truly exceptional and remarkably structured album and send the Beatles off with a happy finale that looked at everything that they had been, where they had come from and left us with a snapshot of a band at it's creative height calling it quits and going their separate ways .

The other really fascinating thing about 'Abbey Road' is that despite the inclusion of so many fantastic and (now) classic tracks, it's not a collection of pieces but rather a single work of many different chapters or like a quilt with different pieces seamlessly stitched together to make one incredible overall work.

None of the songs on AR work even half as well when taken out of context. Like the earlier 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' abandoned theme so AR presented an ambitious idea of unity and looking at music in a different way, especially taking the idea of previous Beatles albums and using various techniques and approaches that this one could differ from them. With side one, the unity is more thematic with the songs representing how LIB could and should have been if a single strong creative producer had been in charge with Martin taking the many disparate strands and weaving them together into something remarkable. The sudden cut-off point at 7:44 minutes of 'I want you (she's so heavy)' into sudden silence is almost a cut point of the Beatles career and suddenly we're into the last run and with the beginning of side two all the way to the end, we're experiencing something different as the Beatles and Martin stitch many tiny songs together with the continuing royal and sun-like imagery abounding and creating one amazing shimmering tapestry of sound that coasts across genres and moods to reach a very definite end-point with the last lyrics on 'The End' effectively closing off an era.

The triumphant optimisim of many of the songs is fascinating, especially as the reassuring 'Here comes the sun' seems to be telling the fans as well as George himself that it'll all be ok after the Beatles and that life will go on and to look towards the future. 'Because' , with it's stunning harmonies and orchestration is another hopefuly look ahead with the Beatles and Martin musing on where life will take them next. As this flows into the patch-work pieces, we know that whilst the Beatles are moving on, the world of music has been irrevocably changed forever and that these last few pieces celebrating this legacy together are not a cause for sadness but rather a chance to celebrate with them in enjoying where popular music has gone and the part that the Beatles themselves played in such changes. MacCartney's 'granny music' as Lennon once deemed Paul's foray's into 1920's structures and tunes would prove to be a direction that he would explore alongside his more 'rocking' pieces with solo work and wings in the future. Harrison would continue to concoct progressive rock pieces of guitar beauty and perfect production whilst Ringo would go on to enjoy pure rock and roll with country tinged pop providing him with a few nice juicy hits in the early 1970's.

John Lennon would do whatever he wanted, whenever and with whomever. His experimentations in music didn't always make for the prettiest sounding songs but the genius of John was that he could pull out crowd pleasers at any time as well as doing his more activist/psychological/avant garde pieces. Never satisfied with the same thing, John would continue to go back and forth from hardcore full-on teddy boy rock, deep south grungy blues right through to production drenched harmony perfect songs like 'Imagine', 'Woman' and 'Watching the Wheels go round'.

If you haven't listened to Abbey Road in a long time or somehow never listened to it then it's time that you did. Give it a try and see what you think- and let me know.

Season four. Well, season four and a half kinda sorta if you count the mini-series that rebooted this whole affair some five -six years ago. And what a ride it's been! From laughable seventies disco sci-fi with monkeys in dog suits and cute mop haired children through to hard as nails military drama with giant killer robots, sentient cylon ships, drunken fist-fighting hottie female starbuck and full on sex with Baltar, BSG has honorably fought, drank and cursed it's frakkin' way to the top of the pile and peed over many a competing show with it's uniquely brilliant brand of hard-core funky camera angles playing up the more realistic aspects (as realistic as it could be) whilst choral music shows us the weird religious machine vibe of the Cylon ships, all bathed in 1970's drenched post baby-boom design with religious robot retro chic.

Glorious.

Episode one of season four was good, mainly because it meant that the show was actually back and not just an excellent one-off about a lesbian admiral and her murderous decisions like 'Razor' was but it's in episode two when we really see the good stuff and are reminded why we have grown to love, enjoy and above all trust this show. You have to be so good to build up a layer of trust with the core audience, a trust that gives you leeway and a viewership who will stay with you even through the iffy, 'where are we going with this malarkey' bits. That trust will be stretched if not reinforced but with the sheer quality of BSG in it's run so far, thats never been an issue.

The ongoing Cylon meetings on board the Galactica is really starting to grate on the newly discovered models nerves. Baltar is ascending to a messianic status and getting to shag the remarkably beautiful Cylon/human spy who seems to have fallen for him whilst trying to ...er...pump him for information.

And the showdown on board the Cylon ship is excellent, political, religious, just another example of modern tv cool applied over damn good story-telling and some fine acting.

Keep tuned for the rest of this gripping final season. DOn't be the sucker who latches onto this late when all the surprises have been revealed- eat it fresh, enjoy it hot, spread that suspense butter over the choice sweetmeats available.

Here's the craziness:

1) you must come up with fourteen new names for a musical group/band
2) you must name at least two albums for each group
3) you must name the type of music each band does
4) you must name five songs from each band


okay

the bands first:



1) 'Detritus Junction' (whiskey-town alt.country meets high-pitched bono from the nineties)

(albums: 'Catch the first train' , 'Shoot the bad guys down')

2) 'Horrible Intent' (punky neat short songs- basic dark material stuff)

(albums: 'The Y-Chromosome Trap', 'Sticky assholes' )


3) 'Rape Camp' ( think versatility of foo fighters mixed with piano of ben folds)

(albums: 'Songs from a summit' , 'Beauty in all things')

4) 'Snow Shoes' (Elecronica remix trickery- some rap techniques)

(albums: 'Elton John Robots vol iv', 'Tales of a pirate tranny')

5) 'A meeting of miners' (electro camp pop- mika,JT,electric six)

(albums: 'Malleable pop concept' , 'Happy Modern kids')


6) 'Something else' (r&b stripped down)

(Albums: 'Up is all that's left', 'Her name was Katherine')


7) 'Screams of boys' (loud bluesy rock)

(Albums: 'Naming Dogs' , 'Shattered at Birth')


8)'Lemon Meringue Eye' (obscure half-finished FOB style indie pop)

(albums: 'If I had a budgie, I would let it go', 'Symphonies at night, written really quickly')



9) 'Over her Shoulder' (girls singing about female perspectives)

(Albums: '(Don't) Make me laugh' , 'Suffer the little children')


10) 'Boys for the Forest' (american blur)

('Peacocks and Poppinjays' , ' A perfect Resolution')



11) Little Red Riding Ho (pop meets soul)

(albums: 'Looking for a wolf', 'What my Grandma warned me against')


12) 'OZymandius,king of kings' (glorious heavy pearl jam/nirvana style)

(albums: 'Plymouth Rock', 'Unfinished Tarnish')


13) 'English-Town' (folk songs)

(albums: 'A sack full of secrets' , 'The Mountain and other stories from long ago')


14)'Instant Initiation' (german style prog rock)

('Upon Joining the navy' , 'Three Cds about nothing' )

This is fantastic. I'm watching 'The Paradise Syndrome', a third series original series 'Star Trek' episode and it's just sheer class. Kirk falls into a monument on an alien planet and loses his memory and ends up with an Indian tribe who call him 'Kirrok' and make him medicine man.

So you have Bill Shatner hamming it up as the tortured amnesiac dressed like an Indian dealing with tribal members who think he is a God. Until a jealous brave fights him and cuts his hand and shouts 'You bleed, Kirrok! Behold the God who bleeds!' . Magnificent stuff.

'Ashes to ashes' made it's debut on BBC1 last night with the delectable Keely Hawes stepping into DCI (or DI) Sam Tyler's shoes and arriving back in 1981 with three faces familiar from her readings of DCI Tyler's notes, Gene Hunt and the boys now relocated to London and ready for everything this brash new decade can throw at them, including fashions, music and a new nasty breed of villain from a city ready to embrace it's most opportunistic and greed-driven decade ever.

Was it any good? Yes, of course. It was a good cracking start to a new series. My one niggling fear is that it's slightly over-reliant on the success of 'Life on Mars' so far, with a tonne of references to Sam and DI Drake slightly overdoing the same 'this isn't real' malarkey when she first arrives, this time armed with the knowledge that she gleaned through Sam's notes he left behind. Another slight annoyance is the pumping up and deliberate over-glamourization of shots of (especially) Gene Hunt and the boys, notably the slow-mos of the speedboat scene and the God-like music building to a crescendo as we pan to Gene's office door and camera zooms in.

But these are small criticisms. Overall, the show has just started and it would a dreadful mistake, as well as being terribly unfair, to judge something by the premiere episode. I can see it settling down nicely now that Keely has gotten over her initial shrieky reaction and has started to get to know Gene on her own terms and experience her very own version of whatever world this is that first Sam, and now her find themselves in as a result of severe trauma.

The freaky aspects that so envlivened LOM are still present, though this time reflecting the updated time setting, we have the puppets from Rainbow and a very odd Pierrot Clown like figure haunting Alex's stay in this police officer's Valhalla or wonderland.

I am eagerly looking forward to where they're going with this and will meanwhile continue to enjoy, whilst being slightly freaked out at, the music, the cars and remembering the truly awful decor and clothes that we didn't blink an eye at back then.


Similar responses from the reviews this morning as listed at the bottom of this wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashes_to_Ashes_(TV_series)

Royal Icing #1

by JoAnne Shweid

In this kid friendly manga, Emily gets more than sugar and spice when she bakes a cake; she is transported to another world!

What?

Now that would be a great idea for a theme restaurant.

All the servers dressed up like monkeys from the movies with the maitre d as a gorilla.

The menu could have classics such as 'Casear's Salad'

'The Forbidden Zone burger'

'Escape from Fajitas'

'Stinking paws platter'

SOme of the serving girls could be dressed like Nova from the first movie.

and they could have shows playing on the etc.

After a thoroughly disappointing second movie involving telepathic radioactive mutant humans worshipping a bomb underground (I'm serious), the monkey magic returns with a thoroughly dated but charmingly fun piece of nonsense with a surprisingly tragic ending and an interesting back-story finally given to the Apes saga.

The ending is tragic and then contains a clever though cheesy denouement, setting up the remaining two films nicely, recovering a franchise that could so easily have died after an apalling second movie.

Heroes ep 10 of the 2nd series continues on with interesting revalations, full Sylar on Maya action, HRG histrionics, more Mohinder moaning, Claire mourning and threatening to beat up Veronica Mars and Peter and Adam road-tripping it biggie stylee. We also get to see Micah reunited with his mom.

I believe this was the last ep written before the strike hits so it's gonna be a while before anything new hits us.

Oh well, time to catch up on my stockpile of movies and tv shows, and books, comic books, audio dramas and graphic novels!