Robin Williams RIP

I was definitely not expecting to wake up to the news that Robin Williams passed away. This was way too soon.

Growing up in the nineties, I remember him mostly for his roles in Aladdin, Hook, Jumanji and Mrs Doubtfire. But those were just small parts of a greater career which included adult dramatic roles as a therapist in Good Will Hunting and creepier roles such as Si the Photo Guy in One Hour Photo and a killer who faced off against Al Pacino in Insomnia. He could be funny, melancholy or creepy. A very versatile actor.

I cannot imagine what it is like to suffer genuine depression like Robin Williams did. Perhaps this will force people to look more closely at this condition. People shouldn't die like this.

He may be gone, but he has left behind a generation of people who enjoyed watching his performances and will remember him.

Doctor Who: Life Returns

Forget the World Cup final! The most exciting event of this evening was the release of a third Doctor Who trailer! The BBC certainly one upped ITV with that one. I didn't write about the second one since it was pretty similar to the first. But this one actually contains episode footage.

Of course, some fans are already familiar with scenes from this trailer, thanks to the BBC Worldwide blunder that lead to scripts and actual episodes being leaked online. Nevertheless, there are some people out there, like me, who are trying to keeping away from spoilers as much as possible and are delighted with the new trailer. Back before Series One had aired, Russell T Davies wrote a Production Notes column about the danger of spoilers. He mentioned a friend of his who had avoided pre-publicity about the plane crash in Emmerdale and was surprised and shocked by it when she finally saw it. This is always the best way to watch television. Wasn't it so exciting when Jenna Coleman unexpectedly popped up in Asylum of the Daleks? Or when Professor Yana was revealed to be The Master? Spoilers ruin these moments. If you've read the script then by the time the episode itself airs, you will probably know the dialogue by heart and just be waiting for the actors to speak the lines you know they'll already say. I prefer the excitement of not knowing what is going to happen next, so, for the sake of fans who haven't ready spoilers, I have tried not to add any information I might have accidentally encountered.

....Anyway, rant over. Now for the trailer.

We finally get a proper look at Peter Capaldi's Doctor and he's looking mean. I've always enjoyed the darker Doctors like William Hartnell and Christopher Eccleston so I'm hoping this is what we're going to get. It's also great to finally hear Peter Capaldi saying "I'm the Doctor".

The blue eyed, metal armoured creature. No idea who he is, but he looks cool, though. Probably a villain, judging by the evil eyes, just like...

  

... this creepy Victorian robot man here. Vastra, Jenny and Strax are appearing in the first story, Deep Breath so I have little doubt that this guy is from the same episode.

Another new and seemingly villainous alien. It looks like a robot knight, and the castle-like backdrop behind it suggests that this may be from a historical episode. 

I'm not sure if the particular alien pictured above is a villain. The eyestalks make him look quite funny. I like it when aliens can be allies as well, so I'd be delighted if this was the case. 

Some old monsters will be making a return appearance this year. Yes. The Daleks are back. Again. Inevitable really, since we're getting a new Doctor and Steven Moffat once said that he never felt that the new Doctor was really the Doctor until he met the Daleks. I still hope the Daleks won't appear too often beyond their first encounter with the Doctor.

Another type of creature that the Doctor has met before. We've had dinosaurs on a space ship and now it's time to see them rampaging back on Earth.  Invasion of the Dinosaurs for the 21st century, perhaps?

There appears to be a new library in the Tardis console room. This may be a homage to the William Hartnell version which had an interesting collection of junk in An Unearthly Child. I like it when the Tardis appears t be lived in. I remember hearing rumours that Matt Smith's Series Five Tardis would have a laboratory in it and was disappointing when that turned out not to be true. This makes up for that.

"Where are we going?" "Into Darkness". The dialogue and the overall tone of the trailer seem to support the idea that we're going for a darker tone, hopefully different from the Matt Smith era. This is Steven Moffat's second reinvention of the show.

"Am I good a man?" "...I don't know". The Doctor and Clara definitely seem to have an uneasy relationship, at least in the early episodes.

All in all the trailer hints at good things to come the upcoming series. Peter Capaldi looks great. I'm bored of the Daleks now, but hopefully they will be out of the way as soon as possible so we can get to some of the more interesting new villains seen here.

Now all that's left to do is to try and bottle in my excitement until the new series arrives.

Doctor Who: Not Long Now...

Apart from news of the World Tour, it's been quiet in the Doctor Who world recently. Any scrap of information, however small, was welcome right around now, so I was excited to see the release of a new promo picture above, as well as a new trailer, which can be seen on the BBC Doctor Who page.

The trailer doesn't show very much more than what we've seen before. Capaldi in the shadows, with the Tardis exploding behind him, and Clara worrying about the Doctor's new incarnation. It's not quite up to scratch with the RTD era trailers, or the 3D Series 5 trailer, but it's something, I suppose.

"I feel like I don't know who the Doctor is anymore" says Clara. Could this series be, as some have suggested, a throwback to the Colin Baker era? With a young brunette companion learning to cope with an angrier, more dangerous and unpredictable Doctor? Or could this all just a load of hype for more of the same? At least Steven Moffat would be more likely to pull off the concept of a darker Doctor than JNT and Eric Saward managed in 1984.

Best of all is the confirmation that the first episode will air on 23rd August. The makes the series return feel more certain, more concrete. The episode itself will be called  Deep Breath. An unusual title and more interesting than the predictable "Twelfth Night" stuff that people were expecting.

The only other thing of note is that in the Promo picture, the Tardis appears to have a new lighting scheme. I'm not sure it needed any changing, but I'm hoping it may reflect a more fiery, angry attitude from the Doctor.

Only two months to go now. It's amazing how fast time passes sometimes.

Godzilla (1954)

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Japan's iconic movie monster, Godzilla. The new American version is being released next week, so it felt like a good time to look back at the 1954 original which created a monster legend.

Boats are being destroyed off the coast of Odo Island. The island's native people believe it to be the work of a mthical creature they call "Godzilla". A team of reporters travel to the island and discover that Godzilla actually exists. A team of scientists, including the paleontologist, Dr Yamane, and his daughter Emiko, travel to Odo Island and find out that  "Godzilla" is a prehistoric beast that was woken by atomic tests. The scientists return to the mainland and warn the Government, who then prepare to fight the monster. 

When Godzilla attacks Tokyo, attempts at fighting the monster prove futile. The only thing that could possibly harm Godzilla is the Oxygen Destroyer, a tool created by Emiko's fiance, Dr Serizawa. However, Serizawa is unwilling to use the Oxygen Destroyer, in case the Japanese Government adopts it as a weapon.

Inevitably, Dr Serizawa is persuaded to use the device. Before doing so, he destroys his notes and after setting off the Oxygen Destroyer, he dies along with Godzilla to prevent others.

One thing that marks this out from the other original Godzilla series is the anti-nuclear theme. One of my favourite scenes is when a group of civilians on a train are casually talking about Nagasaki. For a modern viewer like myself, it really does drive home the fact that the people of 1954 had actually experienced these dark times. I doubt this was highly original for the times, and this is still primarily a monster action movie, but the themes help to give it a bit of weight.

There are four main human characters in this film who form a sort of family unit. Dr Yamane's daughter, Emiko, is engaged to Serizawa, but secretly likes the sailor Ogata. Serizawa is distant, but favoured by Dr Yamane. The two young leads, Ogata and Emiko are fairly standard good guys, with little memorable features. The two scientists are slightly more interesting in that they have to change their opinions in light of the Godzilla crisis. Yamane initially wants the Government to capture Godzilla alive for scientific research and is angry at plans to kill it. Dr Serizawa refuses to use the Oxygen Destroyer. The destruction of Tokyo forces both men to change their minds. Dr Yamane heads the Anti-Godzilla movement while Dr Serizawa is finally persuaded to use the Oxygen Destroyer against the monster.

The whole film has a much harsher tone than the later Godzilla films. A particularly memorable moment is when a woman is hugging her daughter, telling her that she will "see her father in heaven soon" before they are attacked by Godzilla. It's a grim scene. The scenes in the hospital after Godzilla's attack, with crying children and wounded adults help to remind the audience of that there are human victims in all of this. Many later kaiju films had monsters smashing buildings without showing the effect on human life, and those films suffered for that. The ending, with two human descending into the ocean to use the Oxygen Destroyer, is more mournful than the later, brash attacks of the 60s and 70s Godzilla films.

The Godzilla monster itself one of the more impressive versions. The man in a suit look may look old fashioned these days but it was pretty impressive for its time. The monster is used sparingly and its appearance is built up to. Its trademark atomic breath is not shown until very late in the film, adding an element of surprise to the creature. Setting the scenes of the attack on Tokyo at night help to keep the creature in darkness, making it appear more menacing

Whatever your opinion of monster movies, this is an important pop culture event. Whether or not the new film revives interest in the monster remains to be seen.

8/10

Introducing Danny Pink

The BBC has announced that Samuel Anderson will be joining Doctor Who in Series 8 as the Coal Hill schoolteacher, Danny Pink, a new recurring character. It is not clear yet whether or not he will travel in the Tardis but given that the BBC has made an effort to announce him, it's likely he will have an important role to play in the series.

This news is not entirely unexpected. There have been rumours  going around for a while now that a new male character would be joining the crew. Since the Twelfth Doctor is going to be older then it makes sense to have a younger male lead who can be eye candy for the younger viewers.

I am happy about this. He looks pretty confident in the promo picture and I hope this is true of the character. It would be nice to have someone more self assured than Rory or Mickey were.  As much as I like both of those characters, the show needs to keep trying new thing to stay fresh. A lot of people had assumed that Tom, the teacher who appeared in The Day of the Doctor was going to be the new lead, but he wasn't as he just as gawky as Rory was.

Of course, it's possible that Danny will only be in the show for one series. If he's Clara's new love interest then it may lead Clara away from life on the Tardis . Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to seeing what this character will bring to Series 8.

Rambert 2014

Last week I was able to watch Rambert at the beginning of their tour. It's the second time I've seen them, the first time being 2012, and these performances were just as impressive as the previous ones.

The first performances was a piece called Subterrain. This was a non narrative piece, choreographed by Ashley Page. It was not a bad production, but the dancing started to get very repetitive and I found my interest waned pretty quickly.

The second performance was Castaways, choreographed by Barak Marshall. This was a narrative piece focusing on a group of people, including an emcee, three mean girls and a naive young couple, who are stranded together. Unusually, for a ballet, this piece had the dancers talking in it. They even broke the fourth wall at points, with the mean girls insulting the audience members.  There was a lot of humour in this piece which made it fun to watch. It was definitely more interesting to watch than the first piece.

The third and final performance was Rooster, choreographed by Christopher Bruce. This was another non narrative piece with music by the Rolling Stones to show preening men and also women. The use of pop music in ballet is a common find in Bruce's work. He did the same with a piece called Hurricane. This was fairly good, even if some audience members got a bit carried away clapping to the music.

All in all I would say Castaways was the best, although Rooster came a close second. It is definitely worth looking for if they perform near you.

Vultures: Beauty in the Beast

I finally got round to watching  the Vultures: Beauty in the Beast edition of Natural World on iplayer. I don't normally watch nature programs, but the unusual subject matter intrigued me. Although the program did not persuade me that vultures were beautiful creatures, it did make me realize how necessary they are for our ecosystem.

Vultures are responsible for digesting bacteria from corpses  and removing flesh that would otherwise be occupied by maggots. Without vultures, there would inevitably be an increase in the numbers of wild dogs and jackals, which would be likely to carry rabies into human populated areas. Still, a large number of vultures have been wiped out due to deliberate poisoning by poachers.

It is probably only a matter of time before these birds are killed off. One of the more recent examples being the extinction of the west African Black Rhinoceros, all because some idiots want their horns. We may be living in the 21st century, but some members the human race can still be incredibly stupid.