Waters of Mars

The Christmas adverts have come out in force. After reading Charlie Brooker's excellent piece on the latest awful crop of "seasonal" advertising I've find myself with the theme from the Morrisons advert stuck in my head. I'm blaming you Charlie.

One advert that at least 9 Million people watched last night was on the BBC. Doctor Who had a sixty minute pitch for its apocalyptic Christmas episodes. It was intriguing, somewhat baffling and pretty terrifying. I'm not going to attempt to filter my following comments for spoilers, so go away if you haven't watched and don't want to know what happened. That was your only warning.

Why do I describe the episode as an advert? It certainly wasn't light bright and fluffy. But I wouldn't mind betting that the key word in the preparatory tone meeting for this episode was "Foreboding". We were foreboded in spades. From the early moments when the Doctor says "I shouldn't be here" we were left with a sense that something is coming. In the early moments of the episode we're shown obituaries for all the guest characters to flag up early that things won't end well. Several times throughout the action the Doctor's face is clouded with doubt, as if he's wrestling with his conscience. He wants to save these folk, but knows that he mustn't.

The actual threat faced by the Martian settlers isn't explained. At the end of the episode we have no more idea what it was that the broken water filter let through. All we know is that it turned crew members into zombies and that it was highly infectious. The story wasn't about this particular struggle; it was about the Doctor. He's clearly been travelling alone for some time now with no one to check the god complex that's been bubbling along under the surface since his last regeneration. We saw aspects of it back in The Christmas Invasion when he was clear about his "No second chances" rule. In the same story he brought down Harriet Jones' government with six words: "Don't you think she looks tired?", even though he'd previously described her premiership as a golden age that lasted three terms. In New Earth he declared that there was no higher authority than himself. There are many other examples throughout the tenth Doctor's era.

We need only look to later Christmas specials for more portents of the Doctor's superiority complex. In his first meeting with Donna Noble she begs him to find someone to travel with him because he needs someone to stop him from time to time. On the starship Titanic, Mr Copper sees the Doctor's expression at Rickston Slade's survival and notes that if he could choose who lived and died that would make him a monster. This is a line he crosses in Waters of Mars, and it's terrifying. The nightmare stuff with the water zombies is trivial compared with the prospect of an all powerful Doctor and a pitch perfect delivery by Tennant made the hints at what's to come seem most distressing. The Doctor has crossed a line and there's no going back.

There was an echo of a similar decision made last series when the Doctor discusses his time in Pompeii, when Donna begged him to save someone, anyone to make their time there have some meaning. We're left with the impression that saving Caecilius' family was the right decision, but how that coloured the Doctor's snap decision to save the three remaining crew members of Bowie Base 1 makes me wonder in retrospect. Were we reminded of that episode to show the contrast between saving "some little people" compared to saving Adelaide Brook? Or was it to remind us that the rot set in much earlier?

We're left with no doubt that there will be consequences for the Doctor's actions on Mars, and that these will inevitably lead to the death of the tenth Doctor. Although I'm also left wondering about some of his previous actions too. What about his changing of history to curtail Hariet Jones' government? What about triggering the Cyber invasion of The Next Doctor by sending cybermen and daleks tumbling through the void in Doomsday? His dismissal of the appearance of teh Cyber King in Victorian London with a simple "Funny That", seemed loaded at the time. Have we been witnessing a Doctor out of control for years, making a swiss cheese of time with catastrophic consequences? He said in this episode that his theory of fixed points in time with the rest being flux was "only a theory". What if every change has had repercussions? What if Time has only just been able to absorb the Doctor's actions for so long and now the straw has broken the camel's back? The Christmas double episode bears the weight of some very high expectations indeed.

Casual viewers got a bit of a run around with some water monsters and beautiful martian vistas. Fans were rewarded with a deeper story that challenges the heart of Doctor Who itself: What if the worst monster the Doctor ever came across is himself?

Stephen Fry

Every day brings some kind of sad news. There are disasters, deaths and destruction around the world, but sometimes it's the trivial stuff that gets to me. I was very saddened to hear today that Stephen Fry is practically resolved to give up Twitter. He's a personal hero of mine who got me interested in Twitter in the first place. I sincerely hope he changes his mind in future.

Fed Up

I'm trembling. I feel sick. I feel exhausted. I'm lying in bed to try and recover. I feel this way because I over exerted myself. By having a bath.

I have work I must do before tomorrow because we're going away and I can barely think straight. I need to walk the dog. I've arranged a group watching of Doctor Who this afternoon via Twitter which I can't really call off. I spent last night listening to a friend telling me how indolence leads to tiredness and I've brought on a vicious circle of my own laziness.

I am fed up to the back teeth of pretending to be less unwell than I feel because I feel that people don't understand. I hate having to excuse myself from things because I feel unwell. Begging to defer deadlines because I'm not well enough to write. I know I can't use health as an excuse so I try not to, but avoiding mentioning it is so bloody tiring. I know people think I'm lazy and I make this condition up. I just wish my imagination could come up with something more original than feeling exhaused and depressed most of the time.

This is ME and if you don't have it you don't have a bloody clue what I'm talking about. If only that could stop people having opinions and needing to voice them in such an unhelpful way.

Oh Dear, Boris

I've emailed Boris Johnson's office regarding his proposed hike in transport fares.

Dear Mr Johnson

Please rethink planned above inflation rises for London Transport fares. I have read your explanation and agree that investment is necessary to improve the system. However I am sure that the money required can be raised by other means. What about re-instating the scrapped Western congestion charge? What about your massive efficiency savings? Public transpost is a vital support to the battle against global warming. Above inflation rises discourage people from using public transport and encourage the use of private cars. Londoners deserve affordable, civilised transport. I applauded your ban on alcohol on the tube. Please don't price it out of the reach of poorer Londoners and visitors.

Yours sincerely

Joe Cassels

Please consider emailing him at mayor@london.gov.uk and check out the Campaign for Better Transport site. Britain really does deserve better public transport.

Mum, Dad and the NHS

Mum and Dad were recently asked to contribute to a video that was aimed at people in the states to set the record straight about the NHS. Reaction to the prospect of universal healthcare in the US has seemed quite irrational to those of us on this side of the pond.

Mum and Dad talk well, but I think the real star of the show is Vi, who comes in towards the end of the second part. She's 93 now and talks about her recent experiences with the NHS.

Part 1



Part 2

Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a weekly event on Twitter where users recommend new people to follow, marking their posts with #followfriday so that they can be easily found in searches. It's a nice idea, but doing it weekly takes its toll, and if you've seen how regularly I've been updating my blog, you'll realise that being arsed isn't something I'm accustomed to.

I've found that I regularly recommend the same folks, so thought I'd take a leaf out of the great @mattimago's book and put my regular follow Fridays on a web page, so that I can point people to it each week and save what little energy I have left for recommending genuinely new people I've met. This is that list. I'll be adding to it on a regular basis (hah!), so here goes:

#followfriday
@jocassels My wife, other half, soulmate. She does some excellent Twitter doodles on Twitpic and is an enthusiastic tweeter.
@jessfaith Sports fan, octopus hater, vegetarian and philosopher. Jess' take on life is one of the funniest I've ever come across. She make me laugh.
@Captain_Razzle Lawyer, humanitarian and Doctor Who fan, probably not in that order. His dream is to keep 4 or more hens.
@VeggieV Allotment keeper, owner of rabbits, cats and #byron who has his own hash tag. Can riff to the tune of Go West for hours.
@nickpeers Fellow IT journo and partner in crime. We're still waiting for a successful heist, but it has to come some day. This time, next year, Rodders...
@QcattQ Maker of quilts, extreme quizzer, geek wannabe and mum. I'm told she also campaigns for decent public transport in her spare time, which makes her a goddess in my books.
@mattimago Part time geek and full time pedant. What Matt doesn't know about obscure grammar rules isn't worth knowing. Actually so's what he does know about obscure grammar rules.
@fraserke One time purple dragon, now a scuba diving dog, Karen loves animals and calls herself "A wondering oddity". President of the @jessfaith fan club.

There are many, many more so I'll be adding to this list in future.

Here's a few more to add to the collection
@widgetty who has the most beautiful lurcher called Selkie and is probably the best dog behaviourist on Twitter
@odarling who makes jewellery and occasionally puts the world to rights
@scolvey genius twub quiz host who came up with anti cheat technology that really works.
@emmythecat the first anipal I came across on Twitter who also has the same name as one of our cats
@stroopwaffle who runs the weekly contest to guess Jeremy Paxman's tie colour on university challenge. We'll get him one day.

Rest assured, there will be more to come.

And a few more people you might like to follow.

WAMCARE is an organisation that promotes awareness of ME/CFS and has some very active twitter members. These include @redtoffee, @perpetualspiral, @wiccan13, @nicolajanebaker, @wamcare, @yikesshaggy and @cfsweb. There's also @killandra, founder of the Blue Ribbon Campaign and @diamondie, a journalist who wrote Reviving the Broken Marionette, a book listing possible clinical treatments for the symptoms of ME/CFS.

Some more Friday follows for you:

The ladies of Twitter: They're flirty and feisty @MissHKS @EvilNanny, @Orchidflower.

Animals and animal related tweeters:
@frugaldougal one of the main architects of the world famous paw pawties that raise much needed funds for variuos animal charities. Dougal's not a well dog, but he still fights on tirelessly for all his anipals.
@MissPoofy, a very beautiful cat from Chicago who hosts a mean quiz. @yibberj2, a lovely lab who is also stateside.
@BugJemm who lives with five cats, despite allergies and @_cric_ who has a couple of moggies too.

Coffee Confusion

I'm one of the many people who gets terminally confused when ordering in a coffee shop. In general I want a normal white coffee, which seems to vary in name depending on when you order it. Some places it's an Americano, others a Flat White and some will give you this if you ask for a Latte. On occasion I've flirted with a cappuccino or gone for one of those iced hot chocolate thingies, but I'm always flummoxed by the terrifying demon of choice when all I want is a cup of coffee.

Lokesh Dakah clearly had similar problems and thus came up with a simple pictorial guide to espresso based drinks, rendering each one like this, and I use this example in the spirit of fair use:

Click the cup or go here to see the full guide. Sadly, it does come with a disclaimer: "Know that drinks might be prepared a bit differently coffee shop to coffee shop, and especially country to country." Still, it sheds a little light.