davros72

Hey!! I'm looking forward to this one myself. Been a Muppet fan since I was a kid in the 70s/80s. The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, and The Great Muppet Caper mainly, I like some of the "spin-off" stuff too (Fraggle Rock, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, etc). Not sure the wife'll wanna go. She makes fun of me because occasionally a Muppet song pops up on my iPod during shuffle mode. Whatever. If our daughter was a few years older, I'd probably have no trouble convincing her to go. I have a feeling it's in good hands, though, with Jason Segel behind it. All the interviews I've read where he's talked about the film, he sounds like he wants to be incredibly faithful and true to the whole Muppet universe. Not a reboot, not a reinvention, just good ol' traditional Muppet stuff.

Even with the massively awesome talent behind this film (Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, John Williams, etc), I have almost zero interest in seeing it. I am almost totally unfamiliar with the "franchise" (can't think of a better word for it at the moment, sorry), apart from generally knowing it exists. Maybe the creepy horribleness of the Zemeckis motion-capture films are detracting from any desire to see it, too. I don't know, it just does nothing for me. I'll probably try to listen to the soundtrack at least, and maybe one day it'll be a rental, but I just have so little interest. Which is somewhat strange, considering how big a fan I am of a lot of people involved.

Hmmm. Well, I guess we won't find out til fall who the new boss is... source Is this to give them time to find out who generates the best buzz during summer after the audience sees the candidates? I think this smacks of cowardice. They've pretty much teased us for weeks/months about this finale and "who's gonna be the new boss" and then to turn around and NOT tell us in the finale... well, that stinks. Granted, I don't remember every bit of PR they've released over the last season, so I can't say "officially" whether or not they stated it would actually be revealed in the finale, but even so, this is lame.The whole thing is an annoying circus now.

I thought The Doctor's Wife was fantastic. Wonderful to see the interaction between Idris and the Doctor, with the whole history between them, and the emotions involved, just amazing. Nice little throwback to The War Games, and I liked the reference to the Eye of Orion. Matt Smith continues to impress, and I was sold on him from the end of The End of Time Part 2. Loved seeing the "coral" console room (even though my heart of hearts would've loved a classic series console room but I know that was pretty much impossible). The spin about the TARDIS "stealing" the Doctor from her point of view too was really nifty. My one reservation was the "running around corridors" thing, which felt a bit like padding. It was performed and directed well, it just felt like it added very little. Overall a big improvement on the really-quite-average The Curse of the Black Spot. Do we really only have 3 weeks left til the summer break?

Well, after not bothering to watch the final Deangelo episode, I did watch last night's episode. I got some chuckles out of it, but it sure feels like it's lost its way without Michael. The situation used to get Dwight removed from the position felt very contrived and much too quickly resolved. I did get a kick out of who the new "acting manager" was revealed to be at the end. I also got a nice giggle out of the very last scene, of Kevin screwing up the copier code. The quick ad for next week...Disappointed that it looks like David Brent's appearance isn't in person but on a webcam. Also kind of annoyed that when they showed all the guest stars who'll be vying for the job, it looked like they didn't flash Catherine Tate's name, which they did for everyone else. That was a bit rude. Now I really hope she gets the job. I have a feeling the final scene of the episode/season will be someone saying "So when can you start?" and the camera then revealing who's got the job, and it being none of the touted guest stars, but someone completely unexpected. I could be totally wrong, and probably am/will be. But whoever it is, that's gonna be make-or-break for me. I think the only way I'll keep watching is if it's either Catherine Tate (unlikely, IMHO), Ricky Gervais (very unlikely), or Will Arnett (possible). Or a surprise guest star, possibly. If it's Jim Carrey (no way would he do weekly series TV now), Ray Romano (possible), or James Spader (possible), I'm gone.I think if it's any of the regulars, I'm still gone. Sorry.

Sorry, but aren't you contradicting yourself? It's nice to be surprised, so you wish they wouldn't have surprised you? Weren't you just surprised? Not meaning to be harsh, but it just struck me as sounding awkward. I think I know what you meant, you wish it'd been closer to the actual pre-order/release time with track details etc., I'm guessing. It just sounded goofy.

I thought the middle episode was the weak one. Got a bit boring in the second half, IMHO. The first and third episodes, excellent. Again, IMHO. Mark Gatiss twittered a pic today of of Benedict and Martin at what looked like a table read. http://twitpic.com/4vx025 (On a side note, nice to see Sylvester McCoy directly and pretty-much-officially referred to as actually being in The Hobbit. I haven't been watching things too closely, but every time I'd read about Sylvester, it was always "unofficial", I never saw an official press release specifically stating Sylvester was in it. Not that I doubted he was gonna be in it, just that it all still felt weirdly unofficial. It's gonna be sooooooooooo weird seeing the Seventh Doctor in Middle Earth...)

Yes! That's the one I was trying to remember, thank you! I adore Always. The music is beautiful, the whole film just really works for me. Can't even quite put my finger on why. I just do. Of course, I'm a total sentimental romantic, so that might be a factor.

MediaCoder. Been using it for a few years now, works pretty dang good for a freebie. http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

Well said. I want the films I grew up with, too. I was born in 1972 and was lucky enough to see each film, even the first, on their original theatrical release. I want the version of Star Wars that I went to see in the theaters with my Dad before he died in 1980. I want the versions that got me into film scores, that had me playing with action figures, reading the novelizations, learning about behind-the-scenes film making. I at least want the *option* to be able to have those original versions, and if I have to get the twelve thousand versions of each film we've had since 1997, fine, so be it.

International box office, maybe. US box office, I don't think Tintin will do that great. General awareness of the Tintin brand is pretty low in the US, I would have to think. Even the combined talents at work on Tintin won't push it to mega-success in the US. My two cents, anyway. I could be completely wrong.

I doubt we'll ever see the original, original, untinkered OT again. At least not in a pristine, cleaned up, properly formatted version. What a wasted opportunity that DVD release from a few years ago was.

I gotta say Cars 2 for first place. Almost went with Pirates til I saw the Pixar film listed. Transformers, sadly, might pop up there. I think Harry Potter will do well, but I don't think it'll be first place. I really don't see Captain America or Green Lantern being that huge, though. I don't think Super 8 is gonna be very successful. I could be completely wrong on all of this, though.

I pretty much agree with you 100% on just about all you've said. It was GREAT seeing Julian Glover, my word he's looking old now isn't he? And I couldn't place James Cosmo so I had to Google him to figure out it was Braveheart I knew him from. I keep wondering how well the show is keeping fans who've not read the books and have no idea of the great stuff coming. Speaking of which... Spoiler alert! Peter Dinklage as Tyrion has that character nailed perfectly. Just the right touches of sarcasm, pride, resentment, teasing, whatever is called for, he's great. Maisie Williams playing Arya I think has that character down pretty dang good, too. Wonder when they'll start announcing casting for Season 2, as there are a few new and important characters debuting in A Clash of Kings. Supposedly starting filming in June, so it's pretty close now. Here I am, 3 episodes into Season 1 and I'm already anxious for Season 2.

It's not that I'm upset about all the unresolved questions, more that it just doesn't satisfy as a two-parter, and that there were too many questions left. Having some strands hanging around is fine, but this many? Which leads me to... I also worry that with the level of season-long story arcs and unresolved questions and internal continuity things that they aren't shooting themselves in the foot like what happened back in the 80s under JNT. The show got soooo internally focused that it was hard for a "non-fan" (i.e., not a hardcore gotta-watch-it-every-week fan) to just drop in and just plain enjoy a Doctor Who story. The strands and story arcs and everything are great, it's incredible television, I'm totally digging the Moffat era much more than the RTD era (and not just because of Karen Gillan), don't get me wrong. I just worry if the not-we don't have enough of an easy "entry point" to just jump on whenever. I hope I'm wrong.

I don't think the girl is going to be anyone from the classic series (at least, not anyone that's only been exclusive to the classic series, i.e. has not been brought back in the new series). I think she'll be something new from the twisted mind of Steven Moffat.

Of course not, not absolutely everything, but the amount of unanswered stuff just seemed excessive this time round.

Good part 2. US locations looked fab. Amy looked amazing as always. The orphanage was nicely creepy. The Silents are really cool looking aliens. Rory looked funny in his 60's getup, loved him breaking the model of the lunar lander. Enjoyed the gag about Nixon showing up as a "get out of jail free" card, even though it could've gotten extremely tiresome. Matt Smith continues to amaze me. I completely do not miss David Tennant. In the end, however, I think it unfortunately leaves too many unanswered questions to be a completely satisfying "part 2 of 2". But hopefully they'll be answered eventually, sooner rather than later. Especially the last 30 seconds, holy frickin' cow! I don't quite buy Moffat's explanation in Confidential about the TARDIS from The Lodger showing up here. I think it's less a matter of "See? It all fits together, we didn't forget about that mysterious TARDIS" and more a matter of "We need an interior, let's do the TARDIS from The Lodger and say it's connected." Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Wow, what a flat, underwhelming episode for Michael Scott to leave on. And I don't buy any "oh but it was understated" excuses, it was just lame. I think I'm finally done with this show. This episode finally woke me up to that realization. The non-Michael bits lately have been painfully dull and unfunny. Pam & Jim are now totally useless and almost unlikeable. Erin and Andy could be a fun storyline but nothing is really happening there at all lately, apart from the uncomfortable breakup of Erin and Gabe. The only (slim) chance this show has of keeping me as a viewer is if either Will ("Illusion, Michael! A trick is something a whore does for money... or, candy!") Arnett or Catherine (Donna Noble!) Tate becomes the new boss. Any of the other choices from the guest stars in the finale I really do not want to see at all, apart from Ricky Gervais but can you really see him becoming a regular? I really don't see him tying himself to this show for an extended period at all. Steve Carell, you deserved better. But I think you were wise to get out now.

Really enjoyed episode 2, maybe a bit more than episode 1, perhaps since the anticipation/hype has died down a bit. Also perhaps because we're seeing more of the world instead of (mainly) Winterfell. Great fun seeing events from the book unfold on screen. Even though I knew what was coming, when Ned went to do what he had to do at the end of the episode (no spoilers), it was still heartbreaking. It almost feels like 10 episodes isn't enough to cover this first book... though part of that may be because I have events from books 1 and 2 running together in my head. (Just started reading book 3 this week, hooray!) Aha! I knew Maester Luwin seemed familiar. He was in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. (speaking of heartbreaking, RIP Lis Sladen )

To me it looked like they weren't exactly "wearing" suits, but were somehow emulating a suit. The suit looked rather "formed" and artificial, sorry I'm not describing it well, but look at it when they're in closeup. The material of the suit is kind of wet and/or shiny looking. Not very fabric-y. At least IMHO. As if it was their attempt at crafting a suit of some kind.

Don't forget, US viewers can tune in to CBS tonight as Karen Gillan is on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. 12:35am ET/11:35pm CT. From the description of her attire one audience member at the taping gave on the Gallifrey Base messageboard... should be very nice viewing for Karen Gillan fans!

I agree the singing was rather awkward to see. That felt very forced and unnatural. (I always hear "unnatural" in Ian McDiarmid's voice, for some reason...) The best part was, like you said, seeing how choked up Michael was getting. But I think Michael Scott actually was more of a friend to his employees than David Brent ever was. Over the years, he did once in a while do nice things for them (or at least try). He was still incompetent and insensitive, but there were times when he really did try to do nice things for his employees. With varying degrees of success, of course. David Brent was far and away much more of an ass to his workers than Michael Scott. Not sure I like Deangelo Vickers, and not just because I can't stand Will Ferrell, though I will admit for the most part he is nicely restrained from his usual over-the-top Will Ferrell-ness. I think we're not supposed to like Deangelo, from what little I've heard about the next few episodes, but we'll see. Glad Erin finally dumped Gabe. (Man, is she a cutie, or what?) *ahem* Um, anyway, yes, it was about time she realized how lame he is. I'd still love to see Catherine Tate be the chosen one.

The CD has been released, copies are arriving, including mine. (I got a signed copy, yay! Signed by both Nick Glennie-Smith and series creator Gavin Scott!) The booklet is indeed very well done, sadly no pictures from the series other than what's on the (admittedly "OK but not great") cover, but that's explained in the booklet because so few good promo photos survive. It's a lot of illustrations from Jules Verne books. Nice little history on the show too, highlighting Nick's work on it. Haven't been able to listen to the CDs themselves yet, being at work kinda precludes that currently. I see that two tracks ("Southern Comfort" and "The Black Glove of Melchizedek" are noted as "Taken from a mono source" which is sadly not explained in the booklet. Considering the time between the series' airing and now, and the fact that one episode's tracks are completely missing, and the production company behind this show barely seemed to care about it, I guess it's understandable. Sad, but understandable. I'm assuming it means the entire track is mono, but can't confirm this yet.

The BBC has apparently confirmed a tribute caption of some kind at the beginning of this week's episode for Elisabeth Sladen. I really, really hope they include something for Nicholas Courtney, he's just as much a huge loss to the Who universe as Elisabeth Sladen. I am somewhat gladdened by the news that 3 stories (i.e. 6 separate episodes) from Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures were filmed (alongside Series 4), so at least we'll have a little bit more Sarah Jane to see in the coming months. Oh, and there's a 15-minute Elisabeth Sladen/Sarah Jane Smith tribute program airing on CBBC on Saturday after Doctor Who ends and before Confidential begins.