Stolen Earth

A great first part – but can the second part match it? The thing is - RTD is great at writing these fast paced epics that rattle along – but what he's really very bad at is maintaining the internal logic that that should be in there holding things together. (I've still got a handful of questions about 'the last of the time lords' I want answered. I'll provide a list later, but most people will know what will be on that list anyway.)

So glad the speculative spoilers about Harriet Jones being turned into the red supreme Dalek were proved wrong. She didn't deserve that fate. So in the end she obviously got the RTD seal of approval, because in his world self-sacrifice makes you one of the good guys.



[PS I liked the little detail that she had a series of 'Spitting Image' caricatures of previous politicians on her desk.]

So what's the deal with all the prophesying that's been going on throughout the series? such as:

The Ood: “I think your song must end soon.”

Second Shadow Architect: “I'm sorry for your loss.”

Now poor little insane Caan is in on the act:
"He is coming. The threefold man, he dances in the lonely places."
“The Dark Lord is here." "Unending death for his most faithful companion.”

Mmmmm, Is the prophecy that the Devil made in 'Impossible Planet/Satan Pit' finally going to come true? That whole 'Rose is dead' thing at the end of series 2 never worked for me.

Themery: What's with all these aliens trying to use Earth for their reproduction? We've had the Adipose using the Earth as a breeding planet. The Pyroviles were re-purposing human beings and wanted to re-make the Earth into a new home. The Sontarans wanted to terra-form the planet to make it into a clone-breeding factory. So I'm guessing the Daleks have similar plans?

Have you noticed nearly everybody has teleportation devices now – well, Jack, Martha, and Rose can call 'Control' -which is no doubt her alt-world branch of Torchwood. She's also from a little ways into the future isn't she. She knows more than she's letting on. She certainly knows it's going to take both Donna and the Doctor working together to stop whatever naughty-evil-badness that that Davros is up to. Although she doesn't know who Martha is... (can she be the one to sacrifice herself please? Rose and Donna have done their share now surely?) Anyway - no doubt they'll all come in very useful.

[Oh btw - I bet there is still the odd deluded soul out there that even now still thinks Davros is going to turn out to be Adam.]

So anyway - having to wait a whole week until the next episode - aaaargh. That's hard.

But there's these items to ponder upon:

Handy:


What's this then?



Bubbly-bubble-bubble



Mmmm all re-generate-y - near the handy.

Bad Wolf!

McDonald's Sued By Devo Over Happy Meal Toy

Oh Oh Oh but I want a McD's Devo toy!

Regenerate! Fans revive 60s Doctor Who | Technology | The Guardian

Regenerate! Fans revive 60s Doctor Who via animation.

Cory Doctorow: Big Brother is not watching

Between DNA databases, mandatory fingerprinting for visa seekers, CCTV carpet-bombing, and Oyster card data, we've never collected more "security" information than we do today. But does this really make us secure? Is it possible to know too much?

Outside of dramatically failed experiments like the Soviet Union and East Germany, policing has never been a business of gathering data on every single person and arresting the guilty ones. This doesn't catch guilty people, it ensnares the innocent and acts as a kind of monetary black hole, absorbing all the cash we can toss into it, growing larger and more voracious by the day.

Too much data ruins the investigation, every time.

cool 50s sci fi covers by Powers

Yay - very Yves Tanguy

cool 50s sci fi covers by Powers

Councils warned over spying laws

There's something to be said here about how laws are thoughtlessly rushed through willy-nilly during a crisis and once they're there on the statute books - it's inevitable that they're just going to be abused.



BBC NEWS | UK | Councils warned over spying laws

Soooo...

...there was terrible mad dictator - who terrorised his own population and any opposition was dealt with brutally. Democracy was just a farce. Mmmm - and the last time that happened the US of A stepped in to sort things out. They made and continue to make a complete mess of things mind you - but you know, they said they were doing it to liberate the people and bring about peace and freedom. They got rid of the evil dictator at least. Yet while broadly comparable things are happening in Zimbabwe. We're not hearing a dicky-bird from Mr Bush. Funny that.

'Turn Left'

...spoiler alert...

Just a quick observation - in interviews - even on the official podcast commentary - people have been referring to this as Doctor Who does 'Sliding Doors' but no one's mentioned there's a few bits of 'Donnie Darko'-ness in this episode. Consider: both concern a new universe that's budded off because of some anomaly brought about by time travel. Both have their other worldly messengers in Darko the creepy Bunny calls out Donnie from his bedroom and saves him from the falling airplane engine, in 'Turn Left' Rose tells Donna to take the raffle so she wins the out of town holiday that saves her family from being amongst the nuked in London. In both stories the budded universe ends with the hero (who is otherwise a completely unremarkable and ordinary person) sacrificing themselves. Which by the way, is also how 'Father's day' ended too. I've mentioned before that this has been a recurring theme throughout the Nu Who. Sooooo.... does I wonder who does the deed in this upcoming finale? It's toss up between Donna and Rose isn't it.

Not enough Donna

Is it me or has this current series just sped by? I confess that I've been living weekend to weekend these past months. And for me the whole Doctor - Donna combo has been utterly magical. So many great little exchanges: "ooh too salty!" "oh, it doesn't *do* wood?" that have me Coxhilling. I've adored seeing the Doctor being taken down a peg or two -especially after three whole seasons of all that Doe-eyed admiration from his previous two companions. (Martha cast as 'John the Baptist' was a particular sore point for me last year. But then I just couldn't understand her character. Well, other than that RTD is really big on stories that revolve around unrequited love (that was the big story behind 'Queer as folk' after all) - and might go someway to explaining the theme of self-sacrifice that recurs so often throughout all the stories for Doctor Who he's ever written. [One day I'll get around to watching 'Bob and Rose' - maybe that's a story about requited love against the odds? I won't know until I watch it. That I haven't is mostly testimony to the fact I could never ever see Alan Davies as a gay man. Sorry -but imho the whole series suffered from that one single piece of mis-casting. Not to discredit Alan - who was nothing less than exceptional in 'Jonathan Creek' But Alan as a homo - no way.]

-and tomorrow is the big Donna story episode - even if she has to share the spotlight with that Rose.

(Who's guessing Donna will be simultaneously both 'deux ex machina' AND a reset button. This is an episode written by RTD after all. Mmmmm - just smell those recurring memes. Yum yum.)

But I want more Donna - she's been the best ever companion (so far) to draw out background details from the Doctor's history. I'm already annoyed that the plans have always been that she was only to ever have the one season. With the hints already laid out that at best she's going to end up back at home with a wiped memory - when I want to see her character constantly develops up to the point where she ends up bouncing around the universe with her very own psychic paper and sonic screwdriver having all her own adventures. Her going back to a life of temping just doesn't seem right somehow. Actually it seems very very wrong.

the interconnectiveness of everything... (via Doctor Who) 2

The last episode of Nebulous - Phlegm and Us - guest starred a certain David Tennant playing a Doctor... Doctor Beep - a clown Doctor. Professor Nebulous describes himself as having a brain of fire and ice - 'your brain is like tepid water?' and proclaiming that on this planet he's known as the 'oncoming drizzle'.

(listen again - only valid for the next 7 days)

Iris Robinson - thinks the gays are an abomination

You already know how set against the 42 days without trial thing I was - so imagine my additional dismay at reading this:

from the Pop bitch newsletter:

>> Straight up <<
Bible-basher aids Gordon Brown

Last week House of Commons passed the bill to
allow the Government to detain people without
charge for 42 days, with the help of the
Democratic Unionist Party. One of those MPs
voting with the government was Iris Robinson.
She thinks homosexuality “is an abomination”,
and employs someone to help gays turn straight.
Nice friend for Labour to have. Listen to
the lovely lady here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/realmedia/nolan/radio/178.ram

Pink News articles: one, two.

I knew the Labour Party had swung to the right over the past few years - but this takes the biscuit.

oh hello,

The two main founders of flickr are now leaving.

Wonder how long it'll be before others of the original team start following?

Flickr Founders Flee Yahoo | Epicenter from Wired.com

Panorama: Daylight Robbery

Well, that was one of the most appalling and shocking things I've seen in a while.

We got to see just why Bush and his chums were so desperate to invade Iraq now.

BBC - Press Office - Panorama: Daylight Robbery

the interconnectiveness of everything... (via Doctor Who)

Tom Goodman-Hill plays a copper Phil Collins in 'Ideal' - Moz's next door neighbour Judith (played by Jo Neary) has a storyline where she ends up wearing a wasp mask permanently super-glued to her face. Curiously Tom Goodman-Hill played the Vicar Reverend Golightly in the Doctor Who episode 'The Wasp and the Unicorn' - where it turns out he is also a 'Vespiform' - an alien giant wasp. Meanwhile Moz's other rather sinister neighbour 'Fist' turns out to be a vicar...

I could also mention the writer of Ideal also wrote a Doctor Who audio play - - for Big Finish. 'The Faith Stealers'

Review: Polaroid PoGo Printer Spits Pics on the Quick

mmmmm - mini printers. maybe print out web pages and whatever - mmmmm. nice.

Review: Polaroid PoGo Printer Spits Pics on the Quick | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Russell T Davies - OBE

Back when 'Queer As Folk' was on air - I bet no one - especially not the moral-majority people who were up in arms about it - would have ever foreseen Russell T. getting a gong like this!

And Paul O'Grady, Victoria Wood, Dot Cotton all getting awards too.

The world sure has changed.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Profile: Russell T Davies

Midnight

Verdict:
The weakest episode of the Season – just when I thought we were going to escape having one this year. But at least it wasn't as bad as '42' or even (*shudders*) 'Fear Her'.

Not that it wasn't without it's interesting points: IE the main one being that RTD broke one of his own cardinal story rules. Ever since he brought the Doctor back there's been the consistent theme throughout that whosoever the Doctor meets – he acts as an example for them to better themselves. Well, nearly always – unless they're the baddies of course, or just plain dodgy. For example – the way Adam fell victim to his own selfishness and got left with a hole in his head. In Midnight - no one was improved or even saved by the Doctor. He effectively lost this one.

The second interesting point was that the Doctor couldn't talk himself out of trouble this time. His main weapon of choice - his gob - got turned against him.

___ ____ ____ ____

This season's list of self-sacrifices so far:

(I'm thinking – mmmmm – I hope the next batch of writers will be able to think up some new ideas – because this one has really been done to death - (hur-hur-hur) now.)

The Poison Sky.
Rattigan – half petulant revenge on those double-crossing Sontarans – half doing the right thing after meeting the Doctor.

The Doctor's Daughter
Hath Peck saving Martha by drowning.
Jenny taking the bullet for Daddy.

Forest of the Dead.
River Song – even if a digital copy of her consciousness lives on in the library's Matrix along with her mates.

[It's no wonder he's going to end up meeting up with her in the future – and getting all intimate (possibly even married) since she's already fulfilled the main thing he likes in anyone. The willingness to self-sacrifice to save other lives. It's like a fetish with him. Maybe this explains why we've never seen him in a proper relationship before...]

Midnight.
The Hostess.

... and from the very drama-filled trailer for 'Turn Left' the implication is that Donna is up to some big time self-sacrificing (I bloody hope not – because I'll be devastated if she does) but it looks like she's playing this season's 'deus ex machina'/reset button a couple of episodes early. (and that's something else I hope the new writers find new ideas to replace when the show comes back the year after next.)

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol - Times Online

Gay-liens

(I've been meaning to do this for ages)

the Thals



the Axons



the Movellans

Leaked Pic

Leaked Pic
Originally uploaded by Cameron K McEwan

You know - there are STILL going to be a few fans out there who are going to say this is Adam from the first season's episodes 'Dalek' and 'the Long Game'.

Sigh

One of the more annoying things about fandom is the forums (and comments on other people's blogs) ... because you soon get see how unbelievably thick a lot of people are.

So there's been this one theory that's been hanging around since series one from the Dalek and the Long Game episodes – back when one blogger (I wish I could remember which one now) had first picked up on the Bad Wolf references... and his comments boxes became the home for wild speculations as to what it could all mean. This was were I first came across the 'OMG! Adam is Davros' theory'. This was when it had leaked that the 'Big Bad' was going to be Daleks but no one could guess how they were going to return – having seen what was supposedly the last ever Dalek commit suicide. Even up until the last episode some people people were still expecting it to be Davros. Of course they were wrong since it turned out to be the Dalek Emperor who'd survived the 'Time War'. D'uh.

You would have thought that would nailed that stupid theory on the head then and there – but no, it keeps returning like a bad smell with someone new enthusing over it like they've discovered the real genuine Holy Grail. Especially now with the return imminent of the real proper Dave Ross.

The theory goes when Adam was taken to the future – and sneaked off to have the quick operation to have himself a computer chip implant to be able to access the full extent of year 200,000 human knowledge and history. Then using Rose's super-phone to ring his parents ansaphone in 2012 and leave himself a message containing some of that knowledge.

Now what's the link between him and becoming the creator (or even re-creator) of the Daleks?

Er... Merely having that hole in the centre of his head and the fact he once met a Dalek. Because Davros has a glowing eye-thingy in the centre of his head – which acts as a replacement for his busted eyes – this is supposed to be the same thing as Adam's brain hole. And... and... and... Er, no, that's it.

So he's supposed to have all that Earth knowledge (but he hasn't) – and such seething hatred of the Doctor for dumping him back home - he's somehow able to recreate the Dalek race to act as revenge...

The theory ignores the fact that Adam doesn't actually have any of that knowledge from the future – his hole-in-the-head just meant he could interpret it from the tape he downloaded onto and the Doctor destroyed that.

The theory also doesn't explain as to whether he was supposed to get over to Skaro somehow and become Davros and create the Daleks... or -what start building them in the garage?

It also wouldn't make any sense dramatically..

How would that play?

From out of the shadows rolls the Doctor's old nemesis...

“Davros!”

“Aaah, Hello Doc-tor you've changed – but er... actually no. No, I'm not Davros, remember me? – I'm Adam...I've changed a bit too...”

---

But you know what ... from this picture - it looks an awful lot like the 'old' Doctor after the Master had aged him...

The Doctor as Davros - mmmm, well there have been a few rumours of 'botched regenerations'.

But then there might have been a bit of human-timelord- dalek hybrid spare after the 'Evolution of the Daleks' episode last year... mmmm cloning...

Update - But you know, after looking at this pic for a while - with it looking SO much like the aged 'Beating of Drums' Doctor - I'm starting to wonder if it isn't a photoshop mock up...

A complete farce

This is like something out of an old Ealing Comedy film. Only without any loveable barmy eccentric characters.

BBC NEWS | UK | Secret terror files left on train.

well - I'm appalled

So Gordon got his way did he? And it just points out to me what is wrong with the whole political system in this country. It annoys me because a whole raft of things - plain good old fashioned common sense, issues of human rights and civil liberties, even public relations, etc. etc. have been jettisoned all because Gordon Brown wanted to be seen as a tough leader. No - Mr Brown - error - you've only shown yourself up to be an stubborn thick-headed idiot - one who can't see when they're wrong - again! That's not what counts as good leadership skills. Moreover by continually fighting this on-going "war on terror" - against a fantasy villainous non-existent organisation - by demolishing civil rights laws and freedoms which where fought for by our ancestors is not a good path to be heading down. By going against a cross-party revolt to get your own petulant little way has sealed your fate. It's pretty much guaranteed you won't be re-elected at the next election - you may just as well have walked across the floor and handed over the keys to number 10 to Cameron.


BBC NEWS | Politics | Was victory worth it for Brown?

When I start agreeing with a Tory who has this to say:

"This cannot go on. It must be stopped and for that reason today I feel it is incumbent on me to make a stand," he told reporters.

"At least my electorate and the nation as a whole will have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of our day - the ever intrusive power of the state into our lives, the loss of privacy, the loss of freedom and the steady attrition undermining the rule of law."

David Davis' resignation speech.

There's something really wrong going on.

45's - a set on Flickr

45's - a set on Flickr

Picture Sleeves

Compare and contrast

Number of children and pensioners living in poverty rises

with

The boardroom bonanza

and

What credit crunch? City bankers receive £13bn bonuses this year

proving there's still actually money around - it's just not being spread around equably.

Funny that.

The Ciak: Handmade in Italy

Mmmmm - I bought a plain paper sketchbook one of these - and wasn't impressed. The paper was too thin and any pen I used resulted in lots of blotty/show through. And I wish people (especially online retailers) would stop confusing leather with plastic. Anyhoo - I've ended up going striaght back to moleskines.

The Ciak: Handmade in Italy

Americans take 41 million fewer flights

I'd wager it isn't the fear of terrorists being onboard which is stopping people flying, but all the insane amount of utterly pointless 'security' measures imposed on them. Which when you think about it - isn't bad going for a terrorist organisation that doesn't really exist.

*sigh* when is America (and by extension the UK) going to return to some semblance of sanity and stop being so stupidly, childishly paranoid?

Americans take 41 million fewer flights, survey shows - CNN.com

I forgot to add...

what with regard to the Hollywood War of the Worlds films, the George Pal one and the more recent Spielberg version (which I haven't got around to seeing yet - thanks to my allergy to Tom Cruise), and the aforementioned TV series -- what I don't understand is why anyone hasn't ever made a true-to-the-original-novel adaptation and set it in period England. We in the UK are usually falling over ourselves to make period pieces. And these days with the growing interest in steam-punk it could be quite an awesome thing.

I wonder if it's because Paramount bought up all the rights to the book or something?

1st Update: I read 5 minutes later that that's exactly what happened. Back in the 1930s H G Wells sold the rights to Paramount in perpetuity. Tsk. To think there might even have been a 'War of the Worlds' film directed by Alfred Hitchcock - or even by Orson Welles.

2nd Update: Oh. Someone called Timothy Hines did make a period version in 2005. Apparently it wasn't much good. *sigh*

Dimly remembered sci-fi. Part 1. War of the Worlds - the TV series

[This is the part I'm writing without the benefit of any prior research – relying on my dodgy memory alone.]

I remember watching a TV series in the late 80s - early 90s that was based on the classic 1950s film 'the War of the Worlds'. (There was this 'cool' logo of a three-fingered reptilian-like hand grasping the Earth.)

Now the film itself was an odd riff on the classic H. G. Wells novel of the same name. I say riff because it changed so much from the original – such as transplanting the original time and place of the original -which was Victorian England and relocated them off to what was then contemporary Hollywood.

The 1980s TV series took the riff even further off the tracks of the original. Although it was supposedly a follow on from the devastating events of the film – everyone in the world had undergone some sort of collective mass-amnesia and no longer remembered anything about any invasion. Which had to have been some feat considering the destroyed cities, the scorched earth and reduced-to-rubble landmarks and sheer masses of dead bodies they must have had to contend with. That's even without the huge numbers of fallen alien spacecraft and actual alien bodies which must have been laying around all over the place. I mean - it's not on the scale of where a postit note had fallen off whatever it had been stuck to and got lost under the sofa... this is denial on a global scale – and that's what the series proposes and yet, unless I missed something, never bothered to explain properly.

Notice how I keep saying aliens rather than Martians? That's because in the show they'd decided they weren't Martians – they were called something else -some nonsense made-up word beginning with M and they now came from deep space. I guess by then current scientific knowledge meant no one believed life on Mars was plausible any more. Which is a bit rich considering the many other implausibilities in the story lines.

So this was a world where although slightly darker and mildly dystopian isn't too dissimilar to ours. Apart from no one remembering that huge alien invasion - no one believes in aliens either. Well, except for a tiny handful of people, and luckily for humanity - a small handful of scientists who are the heroes of the series. Since they were just about the only thing standing between us and a plucky group of eeeeevil aliens who'd somehow managed to survive the nasty cold virus that had killed off their first invasion fleet and were now living hidden deep underground somewhere – dressed up in gas masks and rubber cloaks and tubing which they must have managed to steal from a fetish rubber wear outfitters. They had lots of TV sets and computer monitors too and hundreds of minions at large in the world (well California, or maybe Canada – or wherever it was supposedly set) the minions were aliens who had taken over human bodies and they were generally up to no good. They're seemed to involve lots of genetic experiments making alien-human hybrids the way they do... and um other stuff I can barely remember. Probably making various weapons and terraforming and other over-complicated ways of taking over the world.

The heroes where some head scientist bloke, some girly girl
and a super-intelligent computer expert African-American who was wheelchair bound (if they'd have made him gay too they'd have covered all their token bases in one), and some Native American Indian military man (I think.)

I vaguely remember that the head scientist's mother or grandmother or some close relative was in an old people's home and everyone thought she was extreme schizophrenic nut job and kept having visions of what the naughty aliens were up to... having some sort of telepathic link to them for no readily explained reason. Of course no one believed in any of her visions and dire warnings – except for the head scientist... As is the stereotype in these things her room was covered in her drawings of her various visions... (I should compile a list of where this happens in various films and TV series sometime.)

I'm also remembering the second series was a quite a bit different from the first – they killed off a few of the heroes (notably the black wheelchair guy – which was a mistake what with him being one of the most likeable characters) - and the aliens were now squabbling and having political power struggles among themselves for no very good reason – since they seemed to be coming along quite nicely in their plans of messing up the world.

It was quite gory too for a TV series. There were melted bodies and gouged out eyes and other 'yeeesh' moments.

It even had an cliff hanger ending of sorts – where a super-soldier dancer alien lady with a gigantic big hair perm and Rayban shades made weird shapes and shot light rays out of her hands and was able to dispatch any bad aliens with ease. She teleported in from nowhere and joined forces with the hero team – kicked alien ass and then beamed back home again – but not before sending a quick message to her home world. Muttering in her alien language something along the lines that the only reason she and her race where willing to help us get rid of the Martian aliens was that they wanted to herd us as a food supply for themselves. Yikes! Taking about leaping out of the fire into the frying pan.

I get the impression that it wasn't a particularly loved series - I certainly never saw it repeated anywhere - (and dammit isn't that what the UK sci-fi channel is for?)

---

Now this is the bit where I actually do some research and provide a few links:

Wikipedia Entry.

Oh look - It's actually out on DVD. Anyone going to buy it me as a present? Wonder if there's a region 2 pal version or if there'll ever be a season 2?

War of the Worlds Episode Reviews.

TV series.

A Picture Of Something Chillingly Orwellian (from The Herald )

A Picture Of Something Chillingly Orwellian (from The Herald )

Remote Control Talking Davros

Toys as spoilers - cool.

Remote Control Talking Davros

Making Sense of the Rising Cost of College | OurFuture.org

And who had the bright idea in our country to replace a grants system with student loans - meaning only the wealthier middle class families could send their children to University - and meaning working class kids had a lot less chance of getting themselves out of poverty?

Seriously - i don't even know why we even bother to have our parliament -except as a showy tourist attraction and to keep quite a few people in a cushy job - when all we ever do is blindly copy whatever the USA do - or do what the EU tells us to...

Making Sense of the Rising Cost of College | OurFuture.org

Silence in the Library

Of course the trouble with having a two-parter is that it gives you plenty of time to think as to what might happen before the nest episode shows.

So here's what I'm guessing...

Well – we know it being only half way through the series – Donna is in no way going to be dead for long. She was hijacked mid-transportation for her own safety – just before the Vashta Nibblers were able to grab her...

Indeed -from the horse's mouth as it were, she has been saved. Saved like a computer program. I know from spoilers that Donna pays a little visit to her own past – where she chats to a certain Miss Evangelista who's wearing a black funeral veil and is seen in a playground with some young girls all dressed in identical red coats – at one point even wearing her wedding dress again.

We know they're on the biography section of the Library planet... I'm guessing that all the information that makes up Donna (her soul if you like) -her Data Ghost - has been stored within her own biography file (good filing) – which is why she's visiting her own life. Bet you gets a few spoilers of her own from that – this is foreshadowing on steroids.

We also know the Library has flesh banks – where the donated faces are stored. I'll guess the rest of her body is stored there... apart from her fce... yeeeesh.

Which is all pretty gruesome really... ew. But better than being nibbled to death by shadow-dwelling dust motes.

But after the Vastna whatsits have been vanquished by next week – there's a way CAL can rejoin the two again – along with the other 4022 Library people who were saved.

What's CAL? I think it's the Library's security computer system – which is so mind-bogglingly vast – that it's developed sentience – it's even dreaming – and it currently believes it's self to be a little girl. I don't know what her father represents but I doubt if it's up to any good. Although he and Dr Moon could represent other aspects of the computer's OS. Yeah. It's all very 'matrix-y' but what you gonna do?

How's the Doctor going to thwart the Vashta Nerada? Not got a clue – but zooming through some sort of vortex with his sonic screwdriver will have something to do with it...

These shadows - mmmm just wondering if they have anything to do with that there coming darkness Rose mentioned in the trailer.

Quibbles:

I hope Stephen Pembleton has a lot more to do next episode – because he had so little to do in this one. It seems a waste him even being there otherwise...

Why bananas are a parable for our times

Why bananas are a parable for our times

...and this is why capitalism can not save the world...