redfiona99 | Entries tagged with sherlock

Saw a Holmes I hadn't seen before (yes, yes, I have a problem), called "A Study In Terror" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059764/), with John Neville as Holmes and Donald Houston as Watson. Not particularly good, with the dialogue letting it down. It does however explain where Moffat/Gattis got the "Mummy" thing from. I knew it wasn't from the books, and quite often they've pinched things from films. Robert Morley played Mycroft in this and him vs Sherlock was brilliant in the film.

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Doctor Who

( Unexpected guest star squee )

Moto GP

It's been a been a bit of a weepie weekend. I foolishly watched the San Marino Grand Prix, and, well I, like everyone else, miss Marco Simoncelli. And I'm so pleased for Gresini and Alvaro Bautista, and I know he won't get the ride next year but please Gresini Honda, please consider Alvaro.

On lighter matters, I seriously become convinced that Jorge Lorenzo is a Bond villain. In between Spies's bad luck, and Pedrosa's terrible luck, there's only been one winner. And Spies's luck is apparently catching, and poor Karel Abrahms caught it. Two bike failures, and the kind of failure that leaves brake fluid on your tyres at that. He looked so down-hearted afterwards.

Pedrosa has also had bad luck but his pre-dates Ben Spies's. Honda are going to go spare, because even if Hector Barbera had yet another crash, it was their fault that he was anywhere in the Barbera zone to begin with.

Valentino Rossi is adorable. But that doesn't really need to be said.

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Question - I need a US equivalent for "jury-rigged". Any suggestions? Or will jury-rigged do?

Having one of those days where I understand the reason why, when my friend was complaining about Sherlock's characterisation in 'Sherlock' because no one like that could survive in the real world, he immediately added, "and science and academia don't count". Dear gods, some people I work with have no social skills or concept of appropriate behaviour.

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Other things that have annoyed me recently include, in the aftermath of the Haye/Chisora nonsense after the Klitschko/Chisora match, people who hate or disapprove of boxing going 'I don't see what the problem is, you lot pay to see people hitting each other anyway'. No, we pay to see people hitting each other in standardised conditions with a referee and medical crew present. There is a difference.

Also, just because I'm retweeting the Summer Sundae line-up does not mean I'm pro-legalisation of cannabis. I mean, I am, but I don't get, nor do I like the automatic assumption that just because I go to music festivals I am automatically assumed to have a particular opinion. Also, the tweet I received was written in best Stonerese (I tend to differentiate stoners from cannabis users) and oh my, if ever there was less of an advert for legalisation.

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I would have said more about 'Against All Odds' except Jesse Sorenson's injury took the shine off. I know it was an accident, and accidents happen but I did wish they'd changed the storyline for the Gunnar vs Garrett Bischoff match later. Other than that ( why do I always love the stupid ones )

I will have intelligible Sherlock thoughts eventually ( that day is not today )

Sadly I fear those thoughts will come before my X-Men: First Class ones, which now take up 6 sides of A5, and I haven't even reached the stage where Xavier and Magneto meet. I can't help it, I have many, many thoughts about that film.

It should be helped by it arriving in the post any day now.

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Both the snooker and the tennis results are annoying me. I think I'm already down to just Neil Robertson in the Masters and Dolgopolov in the men's in Oz.

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TNA:

( Spoilers )

Finally got to see Sherlock's version of Hound of Baskervilles.

It wasn't as good as Scandal in Bohemia/Belgravia. There were a few touches I really liked, such as the Sir Henry Baskerville character of this version becoming Henry Knight. And the mention of the aluminium crutch.

( Spoilers )

Saw the trailer for this week's. Note to the world, I am not in from 9 pm to 10.30 this Sunday.

( Spoilers )

Or, as Sherlock has it, Hounds. Which bodes ... well something. It definitely bodes.

I've just seen the trailer and I am pleased by ( Spoilers for The Hound of The Baskervilles, don't worry, they'll wait till you've read it. You really should. It's good and a quick read. )

Although, however they mangle it*, the important words, 'a giant hound' have been spoken, so I'm set.

* although the words 'writer - Mark Gatiss' have been used and since I'm one of the three people who actually enjoys his work, so I am hopeful of low mangle levels. It does mean I worry about the final one, which is going to be written by the man who ruined 'The Dancing Men'.

I haven't fallen down a well.

My birthday went remarkably well. It must be said, however, that the most useful present I got was this lovely icon from

fileg. He's not only lovely, but he really is an accurate depiction of how I spend my time in RL.

Other than that, thank you BBC, A Scandal in ~~Bohemia~~ Belgravia was a wonderful early birthday present :)

As it was on BBC One last night, my much belated Sherlock thoughts:

( The Great Game in entirely excessive detail )

Please bear in mind that this was all watched with Dutch commentary and Dutch is a language I cannot speak. Also, I saw none of the women's, which makes me sad because I love Beth Tweddle (she and Dan Purvis are walking examples of the saying, if you want something done, send a Northener). I also didn't get to see a lot of the men's finals.

All that being said ( Some points )

TV Meme - Day 29 - Latest TV show obsession

You may have noticed my high pitched and squeaky posts about Sherlock. There will, eventually, be a high pitched, squeaky, excessively detailed recap of episode 3. It's just one of those shows that plays to the things I like, particularly Sherlock himself.

This is not one of these blind, oblivious loves, the second episode was chronically bad in parts, but it's pretty total.

( The Other Days )

The DVD has arrived.

Yes, I know, a grand extravagance, but I thought, since I'd downloaded all the episodes and enjoyed two of them (and bits of the third), I ought to buy it. See, people who don't believe in file-sharing, I buy if I like what I download.

From the DVD extras, it looks like the production crew are choosing to ignore episode 2 as well.

Firstly, a bit of a rant about Sherlock fandom.

Yes, the *only* reason why anyone would not be interested in romantic relationships would be because their in denial about the sexuality. And certainly, if you're going to update a character who is described as follows by his dear biographer - "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his." - then it only makes sense to make him gay, because *obviously* it's only women he doesn't want to romance.

Now, admittedly, this cheeses me off because I mostly abstain from romantic chaos because it disagrees with me, not because I am in any denial about my sexuality (I like sex, I like sex with men and women) or because I am a century out of date. It also annoys me because it reminds me a lot of various family members assuring me that I would grow out of this. I am now 25, I am not likely to be growing out of anything right now. If fandom would be so kind as to not join in with my now ex-Auntie, I'd be obliged.

(There will also be a rant about how no, just because Mark Gattis is gay, it doesn't oblige him to write only saintly gay characters, and that given that supervillains lie, Moriarty lying about his sexuality would not be that unexpected. But it gets long and swear-filled.)

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After that, on to happier things. TV meme time.

Day 13 - Favorite childhood show

Once again I'm going to cheat.

For those who don't know, from when I was about 5 till I was 18 (and okay, in a very basic sense, still now) I was brought up by my grandmother.

Every Friday, in order that their parents might get one evening's peace, my two cousins came over. That my grandmother could put up with three sugar-cranked 6-9 year olds is a sign of her awesome.

Along with having my beloved cousins with me, one of the other fantastic things was Friday night TV.

It would start with a Supermarionation show, Thunderbirds for preference but Captain Scarlet or Stingray are reasonably adequate replacements. I am very much the Blue Peter Tracy Island generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U6eY3ZA5XQ

This was followed by an episode of Doctor Who. This was how I started my Whovian-ness.

(Absolute glee - someone has linked together all the continuity announcements for Doctor Who and the Daemons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70QEdmtioUs so you can see what I mean by the collection of awesome.)

Following that, there'd be something in the 60s spy family. Man From UNCLE was always the favourite, and Ilya Kuryakin was, and still is, my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoSTox8IB4

Then we'd play games until bed time.

Saturday mornings started with the kids shows, either Going Live or Planet 9 or whatever the ITV one was called.

Then, and this was important, if we weren't already on ITV, we'd switch over for what is still my favourite cartoon ever, Batman: The Animated Series. Above and beyond anything else, I loved the art style, all art deco lines and sharp edges. The scripts and plot and everything else was equally awesome, but the art, dudes, the art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk

If we were very lucky, that would be followed by Zorro. See, I've always needed an RDA of sword-fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9z3pLJc7RY&feature=related

(Reasonably sure that's the right one, it's a lot better than it looks.)

( The Other Days )

I have half a thesis to hand over on Saturday so I shall be very absent.

In short:

cat evil, but safe, and no longer my responsibility. I have been paid in fudge.

Sherlock episode 3 was squee-inducing.

I have my tickets for Summer Sundae!!

And I will have an icon one of these days but I can't find the right photo. Damn it.

My thoughts can be summed up thusly, plot was cack (and that is me being polite) but there were some interesting character bits.

Another thing I noticed was that I didn't like the directing as much for this episode. So I looked up who it was, and it was Euros Lyn, which confused me because he normally does a solid job on Doctor Who and Torchwood, and then I realised that was the problem. He was direct it like it was Doctor Who, but Sherlock had already got its own visual identity established and so the Doctor Who style just didn't fit.

There were many things that made the plot terrible, even beyond the stupidity of the sinister Oriental conspiracy (really, why, even if it hadn't been hideously offensive, there are no Holmes stories with evil Asians. If you're looking for groups that tend to be evil in Holmes canon, look for Australians or Americans.)

( The plot, it was terrible )

But, let me be honest, even if they hadn't screwed up all of that, the background of the plot would still have left a bitter taste in my mouth.

( Now onto the interesting character bits (again with the numbered lists) )

There will be Sherlock thoughts later, because despite not liking episode 2 as much, I still have a lot to say about it and I'd rather have two medium sized posts than one ginormous post.

Probably my last ponderings on Inception

I think some of the reason why I wasn't blown away by Inception was because I didn't much like the main character (which given that I didn't mind Borden or Angier in 'The Prestige' probably says bad things about me, except that was a revenger's tragedy, so you don't have to like them). Lots of Nolan's films have unlikable protagonists, which is what I like about them, but I think this needed someone less absent that Cobb was. Opinion amongst my RL friends varies as to why (oddly, given what a disperate bunch they are, none disagree with the overall conclusion), but I've plumped for the writing, other people have plumped for the premise and a couple of people (of who I am not one) are blaming the actor.

Your opinions are being canvased.

TV Meme, Day 8 - A Show Everyone Should Watch

There was a time, not so long ago, when I would have said the news. Because you really should try and keep informed about stuff and life in general. It will help you in the future. That's why editorial type news such as Fox News (and, in the interest of fairness, Channel 4 on the liberal/left-wing end) annoy me so much. You're not news anymore, you're a programme that discusses the issues from a particular view-point, and that's fine, I don't care, but don't claim that you're news.

I have to admit that the one thing I do like about the Channel 4 news is that, because of it's political bent, it will at least cover stories that the others won't, and 9/10ths of it is without bias, there's just those occasional moments, which are mostly Jon Snow, where it's a bit 'dudes, I agree with the point you're making, but I want news, not opinions'.

( The Other Days )

No actual spoilers though.

Hey TV writers, how about we come to an agreement, for every episode that features Chinatown or a sinister Oriental conspiracy, you have to have one character in another episode be of Chinese descent. I'd like to think you're not using people just as local colour, because I haven't seen another character of south-east Asian descent in any of the other episodes. It is very vexating when you keep doing this.

I'm still all fizzy-brained over Sherlock. I keep forgetting what it's like falling for a TV show, even though I do it all the time.

Which leads me to my problem with today's question on the TV meme (Day 04 - Your favorite show ever). It's so hard to choose. It's like, well I love my krimis, with the obvious exceptions of Law And Order: Criminal Intent and CSI:Miami. And I love my action adventure ones like The Professionals, or The Saint and The Man from UNCLE. I love my wacky spies like the Avengers. I also like sci-fi, be it Babylon 5, various Treks, Farscape or Doctor Who. I love a lot of kiddie TV, my favourite always being Jackanory.

Basically, give me something interesting and I'm all yours.

I am far too fond of TV.

( The Other Days )

Oops Edit: The film part of the post is that I'm going seeing Inception tonight. I'm looking forward to it because I <3 Christopher Nolan and I like how he does things, even if I'm a bit leery of Di Caprio, because yeah, even now, he has the sort of face that makes me want to slap him.

Chronological order, point by point.

( I'm not joking about the excessiveness. )

I mean, there's things I didn't like about it, mostly the music, and I'm interested to see where they're going with the whole psychosomatic thing, and I'm so glad they've gone for an hour and a half rather than hour longs, but mostly, I'm asquee!

Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)

Last night solved this one for me.

The Sherlock Holmes update, written by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gattiss, starring Benedict Cumberbach as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson.

It is awesome in so many ways. The writers obviously love the source material and know how to update it. The London in it is the London I know not the blatently fake one of most shows, and oh they've given me a Holmes who, if he isn't exact, is more than passable, and has more or less the right look.

For those who can, the BBC I-Player link is here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t8wp0/Sherlock_A_Study_in_Pink/

You should.

It is awesome.

( The Other Days )