"an isolated and disturbed childhood"

Reuniting Madonna’s iconic voguing gang of 1990:
"A moving new documentary called ‘Strike A Pose’ reunites Madonna’s estranged ‘Blond Ambition’ dancers twenty-five years on and discovers what’s happened to them since that controversial tour."

Church 'regret' as trainees hold service in gay slang:
"A Church of England theological college has expressed regret after trainee priests held a service in the antiquated gay slang language Polari."

Twitter accounts really are echo chambers, study finds:
"As in ancient human cultures, users of the social media site interact most with those who share their political views, Demos report reveals."

The Last Regeneration... Hello Biscuits & Blisters!
"Well! Look at this! It’s been a long week of designing, redesigning, googling, swearing, coding, and calling on friends for advice, but finally I have a new blog. Ish."

John Hurt: Imagination’s Victim:
"Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1940, John Hurt’s future career was clearly influenced by his mother, who was an amateur actress when she wasn’t busy being an engineer. Sadly, Hurt endured an isolated and disturbed childhood. Despite having a cinema on their doorstep, his parents didn’t allow him to go and watch films, and he was kept away from interacting with local children."

"best enjoyed out of sequence"

Why fret about a female Doctor Who? The true inequality is in the real world:
"A female Time Lord would be an advance. But what women need is a level playing field to begin with, not special favours."

Meet the artist behind Beyonce's pregnancy photo:
"Beyonce's pregnancy announcement portrait is now the most liked Instagram post of all time. But who is the artist behind the image?"

The Unusual Genius of the "Resident Evil" movies:
"The sixth and final chapter in the “Resident Evil” franchise has just come out in theatres, and you may as well start there. The films are best enjoyed out of sequence, with no prior knowledge of the plot. Your bafflement will spice the feast. Who is this woman with the pair of shotguns and the tight pants? What’s this undead beast that wants to eat her face? When did Washington, D.C., get turned to rubble? Be patient, my friend, and nothing much will be explained."

To Truly Learn Something, Study Until You’ve Mastered It — and Then Keep Studying:
"The good news for all the lazy bums among us: On its own, deliberate practice isn’t enough to turn you into an elite performer, whether you’re talking about boosting your athletic prowess or learning to play the violin. It’s a little bit of a weight off: If you’re not at the top of your game, you can blame something other than your own lack of effort."

UK Regions Compared to US States With Similar Population:
"The map above shows the UK’s regions compared to US states with similar populations. Data for the UK comes from the 2011 Census and data for the US comes from the 2010 US Census."

"I would not have expected a Venn diagram"

This is what a feminist T-shirt looks like:
"Street protesters and fashion designers have fallen in step with their slogans. What are they saying?"

Romola Garai takes on aristocratic role in Queen Anne:
"She'll play aristocrat Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, alongside Emma Cunniffe as the queen."

Marvel's Runaways Finds Its Cast:
"The wait is over. Marvel has found their “Runaways.” Marvel Television announced today the first group of young actors has been set for “Marvel’s Runaways,” the highly anticipated project with popular streaming service, Hulu."

Quirky and peculiar: Unusual customs snapped in the '70s by photographer Homer Sykes:
"From gurning and dunting, to skipping and barrel-wrestling - these strange and unusual traditions are marked annually in towns and villages. Forty years ago, in the pre-mobile phone era - when flared trousers and glam-rock ruled - Homer Sykes travelled across the country to capture special moments from these uniquely British celebrations."

The Case for Dungeons & Dragons:
"I was never a Dungeons and Dragons person, but as a nerd, seems like they’ve always been nearby. I would not have expected a Venn diagram overlapping the D&D nerds I know — delightful, gentle weirdos who like elves and other imaginary creatures — with high security prisoners."

"pure speculation"

Olivia Colman is the most likely next Doctor Who – here’s why:
"Guessing the next Doctor is always pure speculation, but there is a pattern in the history of casting the role."

The Sunday Post: 75 Years of Desert Island Discs:
"Among the many long running series which BBC Radio 4 is home to, one of the longest running is Desert Island Discs, which celebrates its 75th birthday today. Created by Roy Plomley in 1941 as a new way of combining interviews with music, it has now clocked up over 3,000 editions. It remains as popular as ever, often creating headlines with high profile ‘castaways’ such as the guest for the current anniversary, footballer David Beckham."

Woman's pet snake got stuck in her gauged earlobe and we're screaming:
"We don't know whether to laugh or cry. Last Monday, Ashley Glawe posted a photo of herself and her pet snake, Bart, on Facebook. Only the snake wasn't in her hands or wrapped around her arms. It was stuck through her gauged earlobe."

This Eye-Popping Grilled Cheese Will Be Your Valentine’s Day Goals:
"Because cheese is the real way to your heart."

‘Serial’ Team Forms Podcast Production Firm, Sets Launch of New Series:
"Serial Productions’ first podcast will be “S-Town,” a nonfiction limited series set in rural Alabama and hosted by longtime “This American Life” producer Brian Reed, with two other series in development. All episodes of “S-Town” will be released simultaneously in March 2017."

Who will be the new Doctor (Who)?

TV For some reason I haven't seen any speculation as to who might be the next Doctor (who) ... on this blog so I think it's high time I made a list. Here are ten actors who'd be amazing choices with a gratuitous video of them doing some acting (because frankly what's the point in me writing a paragraph about their careers because you either know them or you don't and you probably won't read the text anyway). Thanks to @eurovisellie for pointing out #3.

(1) Romola Garai (obvs)



Romola Garai is The Doctor from Stuart Burns on Vimeo.

(2) Hayley Atwell



(3) Phoebe Waller-Bridge



(4) Kate Kennedy



(5) Sacha Dhawan



(6) Zawe Ashton



(7) Catherine Tate



(8) Gina Bellman



(9) Sean Pertwee



(10) Paul McGann

"inestimable value"

Fear and Loathing In La La Land:
"I haven’t seen La La Land yet, but I want to. Trouble is, the word of mouth, glowing reviews, and endless awards have placed it on a pedestal so high I feel the actual experience won’t be able to reach it. The hype is strong with this one. But maybe there’s a way to go in with a clean slate. Maybe there’s a way to slay the hype monster before it can strike."

Miranda July Shares Her Vintage Feminist Film Archive:
"A devotion to women and their complexities is at the heart of all of the creative endeavors undertaken by Miranda July, the artist, writer, filmmaker — and radically motivated movie mogul. The latter gig, begun in 1995, was inspired by the Riot Grrrl scene then raging in Portland, Ore. Frustrated by the casual misogyny of mainstream and indie films, July, who had routinely built communities around herself, launched the feminist video series Big Miss Moviola (later changed to Joanie 4 Jackie); the hope was to offer an antidote to Hollywood’s disinterest in the lives of women, and to open up a dialogue among girls, as music and fanzines were doing in the mid-’90s."

'10 Things That Require Zero Talent' Is a Total Myth:
"I'm sure you've seen the post on LinkedIn or maybe even Facebook or Instagram. The title is, “10 Things that Require Zero Talent,” and your reaction is, “Exactly!”"

What does Loose Women's 'feminist experiment' say about the way female presenters are judged?
"Presenter Nadia Sawalha wore the same top eight times in a row on the ITV show before viewer complaints wore her down."

Packing their talent:
"Exiles from Nazism brought America and Britain something of inestimable value."

Bye then, Peter.

TV There were a few eye brows on Twitter earlier this evening when it was noticed that Radio 2 would be carrying "An Evening With Peter Capaldi" introduced by Jo Whiley. I must confess I didn't listen. I was half way through a Nicholas Sparks adaptation when it started and for the most part I try to avoid pre-publicity before new series in an attempt to keep as spoiler free as possible.

But the whole notion of the programme was interesting.  It's part of a loose series, so it's not a complete set up, but to give the actor two hours of radio felt unusual at this point.  My first thought was that he'd be announcing that he was leaving the programme and sure enough, just before 10pm, social media confirmed as much.  He'll be gone by next Christmas.

The moment when he tells the world is here.  Jo sounds surprised, even though a press release was preprepared.  She doesn't seem like she was expecting the scoop and then goes on to ask the right questions, about the regeneration, why he chose to leave.  In general it sounds like he's had enough of it, in that way that Doctors often do after the now standard three series.

It's not been easy.  Both of his seasons have been a mess, although it has to be said with more hits than misses and never his fault.  He's been a superb Doctor even if the stories being told and the words he's been given to say have been variable.  Perhaps in a few years, once expectations have given way to nostalgia, I'll revisit his era with a kinder heart.

On the upside it means Chibbers can head off into his version with a completely clear creative slate and like RTD and Moffat before make it his own thing.  You never know, it could be good.  And if it isn't we could always protest by turning up at conventions cosplaying his younger self's appearance on Open Air, in a grey suit and lemon tie.

Now we have the joy and wonder of the endless speculation about who's taking over and how they're going to announce it.  Last time there was a whole year between Capaldi being announced and Smith sodding off, but the chances are it's going to be a bit tighter.  After the success of the last announcement, there'll probably be another live show.

Please, please, please let it be a woman.  Please.  Assuming Romola Garai isn't interested (and why wouldn't she be?) Hayley Atwell's said she wants to do it and is available again now that her latest US series has been cancelled.  Zawe Ashton's probably available too.  It'd be nice to have someone young if only as a contrast to Capaldi and also to shake up the dynamic.

Unless they bring Paul McGann back.  As The Day of the Doctor shows, it's entirely possible for him to return to some old faces.  I'm sure he'd be up for it.  The problem is he wouldn't be the eighth Doctor.  He'd be fifteenth.  Which isn't the same.  Yes fifteenth.  I'll have none of your War Doctor and 10.2 don't count.

Bye then, Peter.  It's been a time.

My Favourite Film of 1914.

Film Back to animation, and even further in time to Gertie The Dinosaur, Winsor McCay's thrilling animated short in which he attempted and succeeded through a series of drawings to recreate what he thought a Brontosaurus must have been like and getting the beast to perform for the camera. The Wikipedia has an incredibly detailed production history for the film and the fascinating release.

A vaudeville man, McCay effectively achieved the same showmanship as Hammond in Jurassic Park, but utilising a technology which is a distant forerunner to how the dinosaurs were partly created for the Spielberg film.  While project the film before the audience, he'd interact with the animation, coaxing Gertie to do tricks much as a circus trainer might.

You can see how this would work from the intertitles in the later theatrical release version.  He'd ask the animal to raise its left and right leg, to eat some fruit and so forth and eventually take a bough.  The animation falls into some repetition here and there presumably to cover audience reaction and allow for some verisimilitude in the performer's improvisation.

Over a hundred years later the effect is being somewhat recreated through Walking With Dinosaurs Live with another human introducing big beasts, albeit animatronic and with a more palaeontological approach.  But its just the same sort of showmanship and with the same motivation to engender a sense of wonder amongst those watching.

"the sinister implications of surveillance"

From Joni Mitchell to Laura Marling: how female troubadours changed music:
"Singing about drugs, politics and disappointment was once seen as a male pursuit – and almost half a century after female artists began to defy convention, many are still trying break the mould."

Celebration of women filmmakers triggers heated debate among Salma Hayek, Jessica Williams and Shirley MacLaine:
"Is your coat wool?” Alfre Woodard asked as she sat at a long, flower-filled table draped with purple paisley Italian linen. “I’m allergic to wool. I can never wear anything nice.”

A Dizzying Tour of London:
"Aerial photographer Jason Hawkes has seen London from just about every angle. For the last 20 years, he’s been photographing Great Britain’s capital from an AS355 twin-engine helicopter, capturing the cityscape from as low as 450 feet to as high as 3,000 feet."

The Invisible City: The Cinema Of Surveillance:
"In this essay commissioned by Heart of Glass, Laura Robertson considers what cinema has to teach us about the sinister implications of surveillance in domestic and corporate life. What is our awareness and understanding of surveillance today? And have our attitudes towards it changed at all since the 1950s?"

19 Starbucks Meals From Around The World:
"America really needs to step up its croissant game."

"our evolution was just beginning"

The (Real) Story of the White House and the Big Block of Cheese:
"It turns out, however, that the Big Block of Cheese, this most American of American cheeses, is misunderstood—as a piece of history, as a piece of pop culture, as a piece of dairy. Jackson, who one historian notes "didn't think he should be guided by public opinion," offered the cheese to the public not so much in a spirit of open conversation as in one of desperation. Nor was he the first chief executive to receive an enormous cheese as a gesture of the relationship between the president and the people. The Big Block of Cheese was, more than anything else—perhaps just as it is today—a political tool, earnest and cynical in equal measure."

Watch Margot Robbie, John Cho, and More Stars Read Powerful Stories from Refugees:
"Anna Camp, Minnie Driver, Gael Garcia Bernal, and more share the stories of people in refugee camps, for Oxfam’s “I Hear You” campaign."

How Arrival’s Designers Crafted a Mesmerizing Alien Alphabet:
"Arrival is, to be sure, an alien flick. But under that sci-fi veneer is a film about communication, and the effort required to understand someone (or, in this case, something) who looks and speaks differently than you do."

Watch four alien worlds orbit a distant star:
"Star HR 8799 was born about the same time as humanity's ancestors — 60 million years ago, after the dinosaurs went extinct and the age of animals that would lead to our evolution was just beginning here on Earth. It's 129 light years away from us, tucked toward the front legs of the constellation Pegasus. It's so close and so brilliant (five times brighter than our own sun) that on a clear night it can easily be spotted by the naked eye."

You, Too, Will Love Big Brother: A Life Of Reading And Rereading '1984':
"It was a bright hot day in June. Or possibly July. And the clocks almost certainly weren't striking thirteen, because they don't do that in this country."

"the promise of great discoveries"

I’ve had two abortions: This is what I want you to know about shame:
"I have had two abortions. The first was after graduating from uni. The second was just over a year later. I am not the only woman to have had multiple abortions and I am not the first person to make the same mistake twice. Yet for a long time I felt very alone and ashamed about this."

Ghent Library moves home via human chain:
"Volunteers in Ghent, Belgium, have helped their local library move down the road."

After five years, Juno is showing us Jupiter as we've never seen it before:
"There was much excitement when the Juno spacecraft successfully arrived at Jupiter in July, after a five-year journey through the solar system. A perfect engine firing placed the solar-powered spacecraft into just the right orbit around the gas giant, with the promise of great discoveries to come."

How author Timothy Tyson found the woman at the center of the Emmett Till case:
"With a renewed cultural interest in the 1955 murder that catalyzed the 20th century civil rights movement, an interview with the author of a new book who tracked down the long-hidden woman at its center."


Tulip Siddiq: I’ve quit as shadow minister over article 50 to follow the true will of my people:
"Sleepless nights, cold sweats, recurring nightmares. No, not pregnancy this time – it’s the emotional turmoil that has accompanied so many votes in the House of Commons. Maybe I was naive. Before being elected as an MP, I knew there would be difficult decisions to make – policy compromises or funding trade-offs with no way of satisfying everyone. But I hadn’t realised how emotional it would be."

"Sugababes were always a guilty pop pleasure"

Brexit and EU academics in the UK – breaking up is hard to do:
"Which makes it all the more strange why the Government should be, accidentally or deliberately, undermining our Universities. Most of the commentary on Brexit will have on UK Universities has concentrated on issues of funding, research cooperation and students. Much less attention has been paid to what keeps Universities running – academic staff – and what Brexit will mean for the thirty-thousand plus EU academics in the UK. Here are some of their personal experiences and what it means for our Universities."

Meadowlark Announce 'Nocturnes' EP Ahead Of Amber Run Support Tour:
"Speaking about their choice of cover track, Kate McGill said: "Sugababes were always a guilty pop pleasure and About You Now was no exception, but underneath its cheesy noughties pop front the chords and melodies speak of a darker tone which is everything we love about songwriting."

25 Years of Alien 3:
"This year (May 22 to be exact) marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Alien 3. Following Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, the third movie, helmed by music video director David Fincher, was poorly received by critics and fans of the franchise. But is it really such a lame duck in the series? James Cooray Smith reassesses the cubed sequel..."

Huawei could rescue Amazon's Alexa from the smart home:
"In the car, its initial partner is Ford, which will integrate Alexa into its vehicles from this summer, allowing drivers to start their cars using their Amazon Echo, play Kindle audio books and order items on Amazon while travelling – as well as more generic search and navigation functions. Ford is working on adding Alexa home-to-car integration for vehicles with Sync Connect in the future. Steve Rabuchin, vice president for Amazon Alexa said: “We believe voice is the future, and this is particularly true in cars.”"
[Editor's Note: KITT.]

An Ode To The Greatest Hero Yet To Appear In Any Superhero Movie:
"The camera then does a funny thing. As it pans across the kneeling crowd with their meek, understandably downcast faces, it lingers on an old man (Kenneth Tigar), straight-necked, staring off to the right."

"recommendations to his daughters"

Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency:
"Whether he’s reading to kids at the White House, hitting up local bookstores on Black Friday, or giving recommendations to his daughters, President Barack Obama may as well be known as the Commander in Books."

How Hitler set out to destroy ‘degenerate’ art:
"In 1937, two competing exhibitions caused a dramatic split in the art world. In one, traditional German art held sway. The other featured the ‘degenerate’ modern art hated by Hitler. Eighty years later, WILLIAM COOK considers one of the most important clashes in 20th Century art."

So When Exactly Does Wolverine’s ‘Logan’ Take Place?
"... as fans get ready for what could be Wolverine’s final bow in Logan, where exactly does all this fit in with everything else we’ve experienced to this point? Star Hugh Jackman told Digital Spy that director James Mangold has made it easy."

Christina Ricci: 'I thought I'd do better as I got older':
"The once child star has struggled to land grown-up roles, so now she has created her own. She talks about her angry teens, Hollywood creeps – and bringing Zelda, the hard-partying wife of F Scott Fitzgerald, to the screen."

Consequences of twenty-first-century policy for multi-millennial climate and sea-level change:
"Most of the policy debate surrounding the actions needed to mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change has been framed by observations of the past 150 years as well as climate and sea-level projections for the twenty-first century. The focus on this 250-year window, however, obscures some of the most profound problems associated with climate change."

"unnatural fluctuations in brightness"

A strange new theory may finally solve the mystery of an “alien megastructure” that has confounded scientists for months:
"There isn’t a star like KIC 8462852. For the past 18 months, ever since a group of astronomers introduced the world to its strange, seemingly unnatural fluctuations in brightness, scientists have been obsessed with it."

Playing dead: my part as a corpse that came back to haunt me:
"When Olivia Williams was starting out as an actor, one of her first roles was as a dead body in Poplar morgue, providing her with a darkly funny anecdote. But 20 years on the story took a poignant twist…"
[Editor's note: Was Olivia Williams the secret actor all along? The series would appear to be Amanda Redman vehicle Beck from 1996, dodgy recording of the opening credits above.]

Did Stranger Things Steal Its Theme Song?
"Respected internet movie personality Film Critic Hulk recently tweeted about how the beloved smooth and spooky synth tones of the Stranger Things theme song sound suspiciously familiar to the beloved synth tones of composer and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Cliff Martinez. When writing their score, did Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein rip off this track “Wanna Fight” from 2013’s Only God Forgives? Listen for yourself."


How 'Supergirl' Mirrors My Own Coming-Out Process:
"For as long as I can remember, I've loved superhero stories. As a kid, I watched the cartoons. Later on, I rarely missed a major superhero movie midnight release. Eventually, I read comics and graphic novels, too, but most of my early superhero intake happened in front of screens. But the superhero movies and shows I loved so obsessively never told stories about women like me, never told stories about women who fell in love with other women."

How LA LA LAND is made:
"Not how it was made. We’ll get “The Making of La La Land” as a DVD bonus, and there are already behind-the-scenes promos. No, this is about how it is made. On this site, we mostly practice a criticism of enthusiasm. We write about what we like, or at least about films that intrigue us from the standpoint of history or aesthetics. Sometimes, what interests us intersects with a current controversy. Take La La Land."

My Favourite Film of 1915.

Film Let's return briefly to the subject of film durations. Les Vampires was originally released across seven months from the 13 November 1915 – 30 June 1916, has ten episodes and a running time of 417 minutes or just under seven hours. Over time there's been some discussion as to whether director Louis Feuillade's meisterwerk constitutes a single film or a series of them and having watched the whole business in just under a week last Summer, I'm on the side of it being a series.

Structurally it has everything you might expect from a modern television series with a clear protagonist, A and B plots, recurring characters and stories which last a single episode undercut with ongoing storylines. Viewing the series was akin to working through a modern boxed set, even though some episode durations vary wildly between installments, even more so than an HBO or Netflix series which aren't pinned to the traditional network television advert structure (or scheduling requirements in the case of the BBC).

At the risk of providing a review, as with television series too, some elements are more palatable than others, some storylines more exciting or involving. There's a lot of running around and superfluous moments designed to create empty tension and a fair number of false cliffhangers in the Doctor Who mode. As Time Out identified in their review "if shown, as it often is, in one great unnatural marathon, it can be sheer torture. Best viewed on tape." Treated as one long film it's unpalatable. Treated as a series it's mainly quite wonderful.

Which then makes me wonder about the number of films which benefit from being watched in shorter installments. The Hateful Eight feels very long, too long, with much padding and not many likeable characters. But I wonder now what my attitude would have been if I'd approached it as a television series, watching each of the different "chapters" as separate entities over a number of sessions. How would that have changed my attitude to the piece? Are we more relaxed about episodic drama having a meander?

But why do we persist in suggesting that some films are too long whilst happily graze through thirteen episodes of some Netflix drama telling one long story? Is it because by its nature episodic television provides breathers and a certain pacing which allows us to mentally detox between incidents whilst a film forces us to keep watching and be engaged with the characters and story for a much more intensive period? The Hobbit films seem very long, but collectively there's less screentime than an average series of Game of Thrones.

Perhaps, as the demarcation between film and television becomes ever unfocused, especially on streaming services we'll become more relaxed about film durations too. How long can it be before Peter Jackson releases yet another version of his Tolkien films which increase his vision yet further. Or perhaps it is that the filmmakers think they can take advantage of our extended attention spans even though they don't have enough story or their characters aren't complex or compelling enough to justify the story they're telling.

"A drab newspaper turned into a cutting-edge magazine."

For Jo, My Dear Friend:
"In her speech, Jo was full of fire and passion about what Impact could become. A drab newspaper turned into a cutting-edge magazine. We’d give the students what they wanted – the first thing she would do is carry out a survey asking them. No more dull-as-shit stories about the hall presidents; we would hold the university to account. We would reach outside campus and find out what was going on in Nottingham – and across the Midlands. We’d be as good as any newspaper from any other university." [via].

The English vet saving Sri Lanka’s street dogs:
"A vet has left behind her home in England to care for Sri Lanka’s street dogs. Janey Lowes from Barnard Castle, County Durham, has spent the past two years caring for the neglected animals."

60% of primate species now threatened with extinction, says major new study:
"Primates are remarkable. We’re all familiar with chimpanzees, monkeys, and ring-tailed lemurs, but have you heard of tarsiers, with their big eyes? Or Cleese’s woolly lemur, named after John Cleese? Or the fabulous red-shanked douc? What about the scary-looking red-headed bald uakari? Or did you know that primates can be as small as mice?"

This Video Reveals The Easter Eggs In Every Disney/Pixar Movie:
"As if we needed anymore evidence that these films are solid gold, here’s a compilation of all the easter eggs hidden within every Disney•Pixar movie. Spoilers: it goes way deeper than just the Pizza Planet truck. Prepare to have your mind blown."

It’s Not Heat Vision: Why Scott Summers Always Left Me Cold:
"Who is Scott Summers? It’s a question that until Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men I didn’t care to answer. Scott reminded me too much of the people who’d ignored me at school, never the bullies, but the ones complicit with their silence. The kind who see themselves as better than every other person in exactly the same situation. As a disabled teenager learning to live in an abled world, I resented Scott’s desperation to hide who he was and what he could do. I couldn’t help but find something sinister about trying to be the most normal mutant in a room full of them."

Ghost of Christmas Past (Twelve Doctors of Christmas).

Books It was inevitable that an anthology in the style of the old Big Finish Short Trips books particularly their annual Christmas number would include an Eighth Doctor story to make up the numbers and like The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who this is set in the Time War. Night of the Doctor having given BBC Books and their authors something official to fix their eye on which doesn't involve dodging the decade or so's worth of licensed material else to point of blandness. In this the Doctor finds himself trapped in the final second before Christmas Day 2016 in temporal orbit around the Earth and isn't quite sure why. Stop reading here if you haven't run your eyes across the story yet because it's worth a brief discussion and I don't want to spoil things for you. Having said all of that about the licensing, writer Scott Handcock, perhaps emboldened by Eighth's regeneration speech has written a poignant epilogue to Big Finish's With Lucie adventures and particularly Relative Dimensions, the story in with the Doctor spends Christmas with Lucie, Susan and her son Alex, who in what's becoming increasingly the case in terms of how continuity has recently been treated across the franchise, is named as such here. Anyone who hasn't kept up with those stories will probably just treat her old hypercube's message as new information, but the rest of us will recognise it for the emotional gut punch it must be for the Time Lord remembering Alex's fate.  Handcock has written for Eighth and Charley before and in a Christmas Short Trips book, one of the massively expensive ones, and for Big Finish in general which would account for his fidelity with the material, but it's such a welcome change to have even a short piece of fiction in a BBC Book about Eighth which is deepened if the reader is aware of another corner of the franchise.  Oh and I choose to assume that I was right about the companion's rooms; that the Doctor thought he'd deleted them in Relative Dimensions but the TARDIS later revealed that she'd kept them saved anyway, rather like Lorelei Gilmore putting Rory's Dean box in the closet knowing that they'd be needed again later.  Placement: The descriptions of the Time War are similar to Natural Regression from The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who so it seems right to put them together.

My Favourite Film of 1916.

Film As I discussed this time last year, the film documentary, Visions of Light, introduced me to a great deal of classic film and more particularly its cinematography. Hidden amongst one of the key montage sequences underscored by Saint-Saens Aquarium from The Carnival of Animals is the shot from Griffith's Intolerance in which a 100 foot camera crane swoops through the massive sets with their massive statues and thousands of extras.  A hundred years later, even with modern special effects technology, few shots in any film quite have this grandeur and thanks immeasurably to the verisimilitude of the ancient camera, the sense of watching history unfolding on a grand scale.

When I'd see the film a few years later it was on a tiny screen when I was going through a phase of thinking that the best venue for "old" films was on the old CRT 14" Sanyo portable on our back balcony.  But even in that context, and despite realising it's not a perfect film by any means, the whole of the Babylon section of the film lost none of it's allure even if the ropey, unrestored dvd copy with its plonky Mickey Mousing electronic piano music which ScreenSelect had sent did draw away from the experience somewhat.  Aquarium still feels like the perfect accompaniment with its mysterious, searching themes and drooping scales.

But these films were designed to be seen on massive screens in huge auditoriums, the IMAX experience of their day, and for anyone outside London, seeing a work like this in that context is an impossibility for perfectly sound commercial reasons.  Despite the slight uptick in interest in silent film, there probably isn't the market for a revival of Intolerance with its three hours of piety and dislocated structure.  I'm amazed even Metropolis managed to be something of a success a few years ago, but at least that exists in the context of being an antecedent to a great number of later films and so has an in-built curiosity value.

Nevertheless imagine my surprise, a few years ago, to see this sequence on a massive screen anyway because Martin Scorsese included it in his film Hugo which I saw in screen one of Picturehouse at FACT almost exactly five years ago.  As I described in the ensuing review, throughout the film I found myself removing the glasses and enjoying the visuals without, especially during the sequences when the director cut in pieces of film history, suggestions for Georges Méliès's legacy.  In one moment we see the very same swooping Babylon sequence, and Scorsese doesn't retrofit the shot in 3D, realising that it requires no tampering for it to envelope the vision of the audience.

Finally seeing it at this scale even for a few brief seconds was breathtaking.  As I said then, "it’s not until you can see every figure on that ambitious set that you can fully understand the grandeur of what Griffith was trying to accomplish."  You are indeed transported and in a way which isn't necessarily the case even with 3D films, thanks to the distancing aspect of the technology as it is now.  However beautiful Hugo's visuals are, it's entirely possible that it was the shots from Intolerance I was thinking about most as I left the cinema that day and even as I wrote that review.  Not that any of this excuses Birth of a Nation.

Soup Safari #76: Curried Carrot at the Cellarium Café and Terrace.

Lunch. £6.00.  Cellarium Café and Terrace, Westminster Abbey, 20 Dean’s Yard, Westminster, London SW1P 3PA. Phone: 020 7222 0516. Website.

The Man Who Wasn't There.

Audio Utterly superb. One of those Short Trips whose scope belays its duration, this epic yet intimate story just goes to demonstrate how there was much more to be said about the Eighth Doctor and Charley in the early days and that they more than deserve to have some more stories recorded by a full cast set in that era, and like the Mary Shelley trilogy as part of the monthly release schedule.  The TARDIS travels back in time so that the companion can meet one of her heroes, a Victorian explorer and author of a famous diary, only to find he isn't there (as per the title). A tale about self-fulfilling prophesies, there's a moment in the middle which is simply jaw dropping in how it embraces that era presenting a conversation which was always implicit but never enunciated, until now, Ian Atkins perfectly evoking the atmosphere of that period. His expository prose is often spectacular too, capturing the fundamentals of a character and their environment in just a few words. India Fisher is now entirely in the groove of reading these talking books, with the younger Charley resurrected and dimensional. Placement: Between the 1st and 2nd season I suppose.