For some reason, this feels appropriate

It's at times like this that I take inspiration from Zombie Mr Grimsdyke. Unfairly blamed for the ills of the neighbourhood, and character assassinated by his rich snobby neighbour, Mr Grimsdyke ends up in a box and six feet under. Everybody thinks it's the end of him, but it's not. He rises up and seeks justice (with bad poetry).

Zombie Mr Grimsdyke is up there with Batman and Dredd in my pantheon of superheroes. He didn't let a little thing like death stop him. He stood up and did what was right, and damn the grave moldering.

Why yes, I have had beer. What makes you ask?

The Blood is the Life: 7-5-2011

• On being a Lib Dem amidst the "victorious crowing of Lab/Con supporters for the next month"
  (tags: libdemmery)

Doctor Who series 32 Episode 3: a Black Spot on the series so far

So, this episode, falling in between the two set-up-the-big-story-of-the-series opening eps and the ep everyone's been salivating over because it's written by Neil Gaiman, was always going to be a bit of a filler. Add to that the fact that it was written by the guy who wrote the horrendously racist, sexist and clichéd second ep of Sherlock last year, and my hopes for it were not exactly high.

After the shock ending of last week's episode, it felt like something of a jolt to leave that story behind totally for a standalone episode, and the script did nothing to ease the transition. We just got plonked into the new story, ( SPOILER! )

and ( SPOILER! )

. The clichés were thick and fast. It felt very much like a shopping list, in fact Moffat actually listed the ( SPOILER! )

clichés you've got to have for us in the confidential.

And... well, you know what I'm going to say here, don't you? The only original female character in this episode was ( SPOILER! )

, Amy got to do a bit of ( SPOILER! )

, but only if she ( SPOILER! )

while she did it, and there had to be willy-waving between the doctor and ( SPOILER! )

. Now, I realise that the period and setting would usually necessitate something male-centric, but Doctor Who is fantasy, and nothing else in it is realistic, so why the blue buggery fuck does the sexism have to be? We can suspend disbelief long enough to believe that a guy can travel through time and space in a blue wooden box (which should be concrete anyway), and that every three years or so he completely changes size, shape, and personality but is still the same person, and that's fine, but a female pirate would be pushing it too far?

As usual for Doctor Who, the production values, set dressing, acting, etc. were all marvellous. The fault with this episode, like the episode of Sherlock by the same writer, was entirely with the script.

But ( SPOILER! )

was awesome.

(if you're wondering where my review for Day of the Moon is, by the way, I don't think it gave us enough answers to tell how the story is going to end yet. I hope we're not going to have to wait till the end of autumn...)