Who?

The name’s Hurt. John Hurt.

Well, that was a bit of a let down. I seem to recall being in tears when David Tennant bowed out as the Doctor. This evening I felt nothing. I’d vaguely wondered if Clara would end up being it. Had crazy thoughts about Professor Song.

Serves me right for being an idiot.

Funny, really, on the day when I ranted at the Resident IT Consultant about sexism and ageism for newsreaders on television. Yes, by all means, let the old wrinkly men stay in their jobs. If we only need the news read to us by someone competent, that’s fine. But how come the old wrinkly(ish) women are getting their marching orders?

Give us something pretty to look at.

OK, Matt Smith is no beauty. Cute-ish. Young. John Hurt was quite nice looking once. Now he’s wrinkly. But it’s competence which counts and I am sure he will excel at Doctoring.

NCIS – Damned if you do

That was a little better, although the ending of NCIS season ten will not have me sleepless over the summer. My companion shook his head and said he didn’t quite get it. He also wondered if we’d strayed into Due South. I think being in a boat with someone dead makes it look as if we had. Someone you talk to and who talks back, I mean.

But it was good to have Mike Franks back, even as a dead guy in a boat.

What really doesn’t make sense is how the Directors of two agencies can take personal interest in one agency team, when they must have so much else to do.

Good to see them digging up someone from JAG. I liked him, despite not being a JAG viewer. He drinks tea, if nothing else.

Usually it’s September when we see what happened in the intervening four months. This time we made the jump to September, while it is still technically only May. Time travel?

And that thing we saw, or thought we saw, at the end? That’s bound not to happen. But they want us to worry all summer.

Quite liked the cabin in the woods.

More than Feyn

Serendipity prevented me from reviewing the Challenger documentary a few weeks ago. It was so good and we enjoyed it so much, if those are the right words to use for a programme about something as tragic as the Challenger explosion. But I ran out of time.

William Hurt was the perfect Richard Feynman, or so I thought until Sunday night when the documentary was shown again, followed by an hour about the real Feynman, featuring interviews with friends and family as well as Feynman himself.

I’m glad we saw William Hurt’s Feynman first. That way we knew both about his work to find the reason for the Challenger tragedy, and we knew what the ‘fake’ Feynman was like. A very fine man, and an ill man. After the triumph of finding out that NASA had covered up certain facts, we had to face Feynman’s illness and subsequent death.

But fine as the actor was, Feynman was far better at being him. I was sad to know he died 25 years ago, making it impossible to meet him. That’s not just my fondness for Nobel prize winners, but my general liking for brilliant minds talking. It never ceases to amaze me how much some people are able to think and understand when it comes to really tricky stuff.

One thing I learned on Sunday was that ‘everything’ is electromagnetism, which is a subject we have come into closer contact with than we’d like in recent months. Feynman came up with the term quantum physics (or so I believe), which is another familiar subject. Unintelligible, but familiar.

I take some comfort in the letter Feynman wrote to the mother of a student, telling her not to worry about science, because love was more important. I’ll go for love any day.

It seems a little unfair that such a clever man should be good at more than physics. He played the drums. He could draw fantastically well. He was interested in a great variety of things, while still finding time to be a person, to spend time with his children, the way his own father had spent time teaching him about the world.

Feynman now means so much more to me than the name on the covers of those books certain people leave lying around the house. I am tempted to try reading one, but suspect I might come to regret such an impulse. Maybe I could watch his talks on YouTube?

For anyone who missed The Fantastic Mr Feynman on television, here is the iPlayer version. I can’t recommend it enough. Do watch.

(Lovely to learn that his little sister Joan is an astrophysicist. I wouldn’t mind a programme about her. And the fact that they grew up in Far Rockaway was a fun coincidence for me. I’d been half wondering if it’s a fictional place. Seems not.)

NCIS – Double Blind

Could Gibbs really not think of anything punchier to say than ‘what do you think?’ He really isn’t the same man he was. I know, it’s not realistic to expect people to stay the same, but this was the retort of the child who can come up with nothing better under pressure. (And I know; it’s the scriptwriters who couldn’t. Not Gibbs.)

Although, until then it was going quite well, with plenty to think about for the season finale next week. Bluffs and double bluffs are effective, and can have you change your predictions every five minutes.

Colin Hanks was excellent as the annoying outsider, probing away and irritating the whole team. And was there a suggestion he’s smarter than McGee? We can’t allow that.

After the earlier fears that Ziva is on the way out, I feel the limelight has switched to Gibbs, which is unlikely. Which brings thoughts back to Ziva again.

Or there is more than one double bluff.

(Photos © CBS)

Doctor Who – Nightmare in Silver

Wow! So that’s what it takes to have fully watchable Doctor Who? A ‘real’ writer like Neil Gaiman. Let’s do that again. Please? I enjoyed myself so much I was beginning to regret we are getting close to The End of Matt Smith.

There was a time – admittedly a very long time ago – when I believed all writing for an important medium like television would be good by default. Likewise the efforts of the actors. They are actors, so obviously they do a perfect job. At least if they are famous. (Yeah, I was an idiot.)

Then there is the slight fear that an author can be too famous for his own good, and end up being a not terribly capable writer. But for all his fame, not to mention riches, Neil Gaiman simply does a great job whenever he writes stuff. Yes, you can hate the man and what he stands for if you like. But he can write. And he’s pleasant to talk to. That’s enough for me.

Cybermen! Because I’m not a real proper Doctor Who nerd I hardly ever muse over what is possible and what might happen. Cybermen are too scary not to let them return, so naturally they had to come back at some point. You don’t invent Daleks and Cybermen or those Angels and then ‘kill’ them off, never to be seen again.

Nightmare in Silver was a dream, and I’m struggling to think of anything that wasn’t good. The plot was excellent. The characters and their actors were all fantastic. Not a single one I would have different. Warwick Davies in particular was marvellous, as you could sense the minute he turned up.

Clara made a surprisingly good commander, and her child charges were just right. I’d be happy to have these children in the Tardis again.

It would obviously help if I understood chess, but like Harry Potter I’m happy to leave my fate to the hands of someone Who does.

NCIS – Revenge

It wasn’t bad. Nor were Tony and Ziva dead. But it wasn’t marvellous, either. Let’s say it was an adequate ending to an exciting start.

This revenge thing is almost getting too big. It’s the ‘he killed my wife so I have the right to kill him’ syndrome. It was for the best that Director Vance didn’t shoot anyone. As I said last week, lovely to see ex-Director Morrow, but why did he have to act so impatient?

The fact that Ziva is not yet dead, doesn’t guarantee her presence next season, unless Cote de Pablo has signed in the interim. It could be a Kate Todd all over again. Someone has to go, so let’s tease them with who it might be, kind of thing.

I for one would welcome some ordinary decent Marine/Navy killings/mysteries. Maybe a week or two without personal connections to the cases? Let DiNozzo fondle some more implants and be rude about McGee’s driving, by all means. But let’s go for plain NCIS crime.

And remember the humour. More of it. (I suppose the plunger was OK.)

Please.

More bridges everywhere

Not that I liked The Bridge, as some of you might recall. But I was quite interested to read that they are making more bridges. And I don’t mean the second season, which you are probably already waiting for.

What is happening is they are making other versions of The Bridge. A bit like they did with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, where the Americans either felt they could do better, or that the world needed an English speaking version. But in this instance it’s the same people (i.e. the SweDanes) who are making the alternatives as well.

There will be an American ‘Bridge’ – naturally – set on the Mexican border. Another will be British/French, complete with corpse of politician in the Channel tunnel. That one will feature people trying to enter the UK, while the US version will cover drugs and trafficking and things.

They have kept some of the characters, and changed others for what will work better in the respective countries.

I will sit back and await the verdict on these new ‘bridges.’

Who – Hide

Do they really have no idea when they’ve written a good episode of Doctor Who, and when they haven’t? Don’t they care? That could be the reason for so many merely tolerable adventures. Because once you hit facebook afterwards, there never seems to be any doubt when it’s been a good one.

Hide was good. And that was good, as I’d begun wondering if it was going to be mediocre all the way now. Perhaps the Clara factor. That’s mean, actually. She is half beginning to grow on me. Even the Tardis is feeling doubtful, so I’m in good company.

(I do wonder how old they thought the ghost hunter was, though. He looked a little young to have been in ‘the war.’)

Here’s hoping we’ll have one or two more good episodes. It would be ‘nice’ to have something to miss when the Doctor leaves/arrives.

She’s probably not dead

And neither is he. Probably.

It’s funny how when other television shows have just screened, facebook is awash with people commenting. For NCIS I have to sit in silence, except tonight when one of my favouritest crime novelists shrieked with worry about the fate of Ziva and Tony. And she clearly has the right kind of friends. Ones who know what it’s about.

But last year’s season finale bomb was worse. And people survived that. On the other hand, actresses of a certain age have to chose between having babies or playing their screen part, when shows run for years. S’not easy, as Abby might say.

Whatever happens later, this was one of the few worthwhile episodes of season ten. One where – thanks to fb friend – I sat stiff with excitement the whole way through.

And I love it that ex-Director Morrow is back!

Here are a couple of links.

Arne Dahl

Perkele, that was bad.

Besides, why would one want a television programme/series/show whatever named after the author? ‘Hey, want to watch Henning Mankell tonight?’ That could lead to misunderstandings.

Not only was it bad and embarrassing, but we never got to the end. BBC4 didn’t say how many episodes, but we saw 90 minutes of it, and IMDb says it’s a 180 minutes long film. So ‘just’ one more Saturday? Can we take it, or do we leave ourselves ignorant of what the Russian mafia did?

Took a strong dislike to Paul Hjelm; both the role and the actor. The boss lady was reasonably brisk, and the ‘Finn’ was fun. Calling your children by number is efficient, although leaving one behind on the pavement less so.

But honestly. This left me ashamed to be Swedish. If you’re seeing red, that will be my cheeks.