redfiona99

Which I have now seen 2 episodes of. And enjoyed. I might not like it as much as proper Thunderbirds, but it's great fun.

It has more Gordon, but only because they have turned him into Alan (blond and excitable is Alan's thing). John, meanwhile, is suddenly red-headed.

Other than that minor confusion, everything and everyone else is present and correct. (Except Jeff Tracey who is spoiler).

It's done in a mixture of CGI and models so there's still some solidity to the action. I think it's WETA who have done some of the CGI. There's a distinct NZ twang to several of the actors as well.

And, in the most recent episode, they used bearded lizards to play giant lizards, which made me think of Attack of the Alligators and squee.

It's not perfect, but it's fun.

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not because I am in any denial about my sexuality (I like sex, I like sex with men and women) or because I am a century out of date.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 )

The heat lump on my foot is still yellow but I'm going to the walk-in centre tomorrow so hopefully something will be done and it will clear up. In the meantime I'm considering a tourniquet so it'll stop itching.

I was reading the foreign newspapers section of Ceefax, and there was a snippet from on of the Hungarian papers. This doctor is having to ask people to donate rubber gloves and tissues for his surgery. And then the paper says at least it's not as bad as in the UK.

There is something either heartwarming or worrying about that and I haven't decided which.

On a happier note - I really like the new Anthrax song, even if I can't watch the video without wondering if that is Keanu Reeves.

I must get this month's edition of Total Film, because not only does it have an interview with Joachim Poenix, but it also contains a photo of the new Thunderbirds film.

Ben Kingsley is playing the Hood, and looks so right for the part. Plus Jonathan Frakes is directing and whatever else I say about him, he's a good director.

But best of all, they've got the brothers more or less right. Okay so I guessed which one was Scott and John because one of them looked way older than the rest (Scott) and one of them had sticky-up blond hair (John). Allan was easy because he's the young cute one. That left Virgil and Gordon, and there's one non-descript guy who'd be perfect for Virgil and another guy who is almost cute enough to be Gordon.

Yes, my first crush was a puppet. But Gordon was fun.

Knowing my luck of course, they'll all be different to what I've guessed them as. And if you think I've been hard on the Potter casting director, you ought to have heard me in RL about this film.

If I find any pics on the net, I'll post links.
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Firefly made me cry. Now in all the years of Buffy never once has that happened. Hence I'm feeling particularly bitter towards TV execs at the minute.

Except they've just shown an episode of 'Dinnerladies' which is one of the best comedy shows ever. If you get the chance, catch an episode. Some of it is quite North of England centric but most of it is easy to follow.

On a related note, to those Yanks finally getting into football thanks to the Manchester United moneymaking shindig, shouting 'go Manchester' is inappropriate due to there being two Manchester teams. It would be like watching baseball and shouting 'Go New York'. Plus, don't cheer for United, they are evil.

Okay, so they're not, but they have just been charged with shirt price fixing, along with JJB Sports, who just happen to sponsor Wigan, Saint's arch-rivals. Mass jubilation followed.