Nick R

Titles and plot synopses for episodes 5 and 6: http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/doctor-who/news/a868452/doctor-who-series-11-episode-5-6/

Apparently the team that worked on the Shenmue 1&2 remaster were previously working on a full remake: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-segas-cancelled-shenmue-remake

It's from a particularly cringeworthy Chibnall-written episode of Torchwood's first series.

Regeneration doesn't mean the Doctor can never die. I always assumed that regeneration has its limits in the sort of injuries it can help a Time Lord survive - and at least in modern Who, it also seems to rely on the TARDIS being nearby. The Doctor is not Captain Jack or Wolverine! She can be brought back from things like being bathed in radiation, shot by a Dalek, or drowning - but not from, say, falling into a star, or any number of deaths too vicious to be broadcast before the watershed. (Although the event that caused the Capaldi > Whittaker regeneration was a fairly extreme one to survive!) So what she said in this episode was true, even for her. Eventually, she'll encounter something so bad that regeneration can't help her.

If Predator was last week's sci-fi movie template, it was Pitch Black/Riddick this week. And also this, of course:

New TARDIS: I like the "porch" area. (Which doesn't get mentioned in the making of video below.) Not so sure about the Fortress of Solitude crystals - and it does seem a little too dark and unwelcoming; when they walked in at the end of the episode, I wondered if the room was going to light up! Also: bit awkward how we get the next episode teaser within the credits before the end title card, followed immediately by a fuller next episode trailer (that repeats some bits) as part of the BBC presentation.

I haven't seen Suicide Squad. But I watched Green Lantern earlier this year and can confirm that Man of Steel, BvS, Wonder Woman and Justice League are all better than it. Where the more recent DC films have failed, they've at least failed in interesting ways. Green Lantern is just nothing. Nothing to like about it, nothing to hate. Nothing remarkable about it at all. It's just there. Existing.

David Gibbon, is that you?

Safe as Milk, Clear Spot and The Spotlight Kid are the three Captain Beefheart albums I'm most familiar with, and I really like most tracks on all three. (I've also heard Unconditionally Guaranteed by the "Tragic Band", and it's as poor as its reputation suggests.) As for Trout Mask Replica... I do believe that it was all deliberately constructed rather than random chaos, I think that buried within it are more catchy hooks than it generally gets credit for, and I find the story of its creation fascinating. And despite the tales of the horrendous abuse Van Vliet put his musicians through in the name of his Art, I think the album has more of a sense of humour about itself than people give it credit for: there are moments on it (e.g. "The Blimp" and the "that's right, The Mascara Snake!" announcements) that are probably funnier than almost anything else I've heard involving Frank Zappa, and it doesn't have the vague air of smug superiority that so much of his stuff carries. (I often find Zappa more interesting and entertaining to read about than he is to listen to.) But still... eighty minutes of intentionally clashing noises is a lot to take in. I think it's been about ten years since my first listen to the whole thing from start to finish, about five years since my second, and I'm quite happy to leave it a bit longer before I give it another go!

This is accurate: ... And there's another one!

From the co-creator of probably the nerdiest video ever put on the internet...

Arthur TriDent "Can you help me find a decent cup of tea, mah man?"

If you're an arranger with access to an orchestra and choir, why not use it to do something like this? All the sound effects are notated to be in sync with the gameplay, and played live as samples triggered by drum pads! Via Adam Neely's video on how it was orchestrated:

I liked this phrase from Elisabeth Sandifer's review: http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/the-woman-who-fell-to-earth-review/ And on Whittaker: I think Darren Mooney's review of this episode is fair: https://them0vieblog.com/2018/10/07/doctor-who-the-woman-who-fell-to-earth-review/ He too makes a link back to Ten's "I'm so sorry" catchphrase, as well as a more general shift in character back to Ten and the Davies era: He also finds the episode's apparent emphasis on the fact Tim Shaw cheated in his trophy hunting game to be troubling: And on the Predator comparisons, he suggests that, given the episode's timing, Chibnall might have been "counting on The Predator to be a bigger hit than it became", and posted this: