Category: Television

Coach Trip: One of the best TV reality formats yet!

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 9, 2010

I’m currently addicted to the Channel 4/12 Yard Productions Coach Trip, a reality TV show that combines a Big Brother style game show format with travelogue.

Here’s an example of what makes this show fun to watch:

and it gets better – here’s when things really get out of control!

I’d really like to see 12 Yard go that extra mile (boom boom!) and take the show to the US – from New York to Los Angeles – since the previous four series have remained firmly in Europe and a little bit of Africa and Asia. Perhaps for series 5, eh?

In the mean time, all four series are available on 4oD, YouTube or SeeSaw.

Film studios forming online distribution alliance?

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 5, 2010

I was intrigued by this article from Ars.Technica about Apple’s potential plans to introduce “cloud” storage to the iTunes ecosystem.

As the article suggests, Apple may either allow iTunes customers to store backups of their purchased music, movies and TV shows so that they can recover them should their computers and own backups fail (after all, while the cost of storage is coming down all the time, there are few households with decent fault tolerant SANs), or to stream the content direct to the desktop, iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. I’d go for the former – one can recover purchased Apps from the iTunes Store but not music, films or TV shows. This necessitates that one has a bloody good backup plan in case of failure. I myself backup to blank Blu-Ray media, external hard drives, and online backup services such as SquirrelSave (UK) and Backblaze (US).

However, the article suggests that as far back as 2008 (it may be nearly two years ago, but that’s an age in the digital era), the major film studios (NBC Universal, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Fox) got together to flesh out something called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE for short). This is a system that intends to implement some form of universal DRM that would allow any device to play digital content such as video or audio. Thus iPhones, Android devices, Chrome OS netbooks, etc. could all play the same content across all these platforms, yet the content provider keep a tight leash over when the content is played – and by whom. The studios would be free to negotiate their own price points, terms of access, etc – something that they’re currently restricted by when using a third-party CDN such as iTunes.

I’m not certain DECE will be a success. It would require a complete industry acceptance of the system. Look what happened with HD DVD and Blu-Ray: studios such as Warner Bros., Paramount, and NBC Universal all initially supported and backed HD DVD over Blu-Ray. Fox was one of the few studios not to. Arguments over the technical details soon started to cause drifts and eventually the format lost out to Blu-Ray. The same could go the same way of DECE unless EVERYBODY agrees on how it is to work.

In short: Hollywood is unable to get together to agree on anything. It’s history of petty squabbles, fierce competition and greed has resulted in a horrible experiences for the consumer who ends up paying the price because nobody seems to be able to agree to anything. Will DECE produce something viable? Might do, but given the dominance of Apple and iTunes – it may be too little, too late.

‘av-at-her – The Cylons are coming: Caprica has great potential..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 3, 2010

I’ve just finished watching (and yes, the irony is that this too is a Universal product – through their ridiculous SyFy brand) the pilot of Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica and I love it.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The pilot starts to unravel how the Cylons eventually gain consciousness – the seeds are firmly planted in this two-parter. BSG’s battle between “the one true God” and the polytheism is in full force here, with supporters of monotheism advocating violence against non-believers (to the point whereby a student walks onto a train with explosives and detonates – killing all – including Joseph Adama’s wife and daughter and Daniel Graystone’s only daughter).

Daniel Graystone is the billionaire technologist who eventually creates the Cylons. At the time of the deaths, he has already developed a robotic solider for Caprica’s military although it has no AI and performs badly during tests. Graystone is after the Holy Grail – artificial intelligence – but is years away from developing it himself. A rival company, based on the planet Tauron, has already developed such a device but has yet to develop the physical hardware/robot body for it. Enlisting Adama’s help, thanks to his links with the Tauron Mafia, he obtains the only artificial intelligence CPU in existence.

Prior to all this we learn that Graystone’s daughter, Zoe, has been developing a virtual avatar capable of independent thought (i.e. AI) using an interconnected virtual reality system where teenagers hook up to go to parties and perform all sorts of outrageous acts – all carried out in this virtual world. After Zoe is killed in the train blast, Graystone learns from Zoe’s friend about the avatar and proceeds to combine it with the AI CPU into his new robotic solider.

From here we’re given the impression that Cylon’s eventual independent thought stems from Zoe. Oh, one other thing – Zoe was/is a supporter of the “one true God”.

The only issues are:

1) Is it REALLY a good idea to insert the AI CPU through a mouth slot on the Cylon? Shouldn’t it be difficult to get in and out in case somebody decides to sabotage or hits the thing repeatedly in the “mouth”? Seems a silly place to put one of the most essential components of your advanced robot.

2) Graystone didn’t seem to do much reverse engineering of the stolen AI CPU. We assume he has had to do something, because it’d be bloody foolhardy to insert a CPU into something without actually knowing how it works..

3) The Cylon’s voice. Similar to that of the original series, although we hear the robotic undertone mixed with Zoe’s voice (which actually improves it – I found the electronic voice of the original Cylons a bit difficult to understand at times due to heavy voice processing, and why the hell create a robot force with speech impediments?). Graystone’s house robot/PA has a very clear human voice (albeit still a little bit processed). Does Graystone intend to remove humanity from it’s military robots (aka the Centurions)? A bit ironic, then, given that he’s trying to create a robot so that he can give his “virtual daughter” a physical body.

I will be looking forward to watching the entire series when I can get my hands on it (iTunes).

The call of *COUGH* Hulu

Posted by Martyn Drake – February 10, 2010

Well, I had to sneak that one in.

This blog post has nothing to do with great old ones, but plenty of current great ones.  I’m currently playing with SeeSaw, an IPTV platform which was previously known as Kangaroo, the controversial video-on-demand system which was blocked by the Competition Commission back in 2009.  Kangaroo was then sold to Arqiva and has been since become SeeSaw.

Having been given a beta invitiation, I’ve had relatively short amount of time to give it a spin.  It’s not without it’s problems, but looks promising.  I’ll give a more informed opinion once I’ve had a chance to play around a bit more.

What about Hulu?  What about Canvas?  Well, at this point my head is spinning with all these different systems and I’m not one to be confused easily.  All I want is a open standard platform which I can watch what I want, when I want, and in a format of my choosing.  I don’t care how it’s done, I just want it to work without too many (if any) restrictions.  The day Murdoch and chums play nicely with the Beeb, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will be the day I’m tap dancing naked to work.

The BBC asks: So you think you can dance?

Posted by Martyn Drake – January 17, 2010

No.  I KNOW I can’t dance.  Next, please.

TV shows we used to watch as kids – part one – Rolf’s Cartoon Time (& Club)

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 11, 2009

When I mean we, I’m referring to most of us in our late twenties and early-to-mid thirties. This week, I’d like to look at one of my favourite shows as a child, and that was Rolf’s Cartoon Time on the BBC.

What I loved about this show was that Rolf would show PROPER cartoons, as made by multi-award winning animators back when cartoons were lovingly created. Animators such as Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Hanna-Barbera (to an extent – I thoroughly dislike most of their stuff from the late 50s and 60s, such as that of the Flintstones and Scooby Doo, but their earlier work with Tom & Jerry was superb).

As a kid I really disliked most of that 13-frame a second nonsense commissioned by toy companies just to sell their products (namely anything from Mattel, as one good example). It was sloppy, uninteresting and little thought went into them. But the classic cartoons from Warner Bros., MGM et. al were works of art. They made me laugh like a loon (along with the rest of the family) and were just the most entertaining thing on TV.

Rolf eventually went over to CITV for his Cartoon Club, which I fondly remember as actively getting kids to try their own hand at animation. It also sparked an interest of mine in ray tracing and computer animation as Rolf would occasionally feature short CG films from around the world (particularly from Pixar who were producing a lot of their famous shorts at the time, such as Tin Toy). This was way before Toy Story. I seem to recall they even featured Ray Harryhausen helping kids to animate on one of the shows. Hugely inspiring stuff.

Stop the X-Factor from killing our music industry!

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 6, 2009

Let’s get some things straight.  In terms of the X-Factor charity single, I don’t give a monkey’s bottom that it’s for charity.  I will not buy it.  I donate directly to charities without giving credit to anybody else.  That said, this is the only avenue for some people to donate or give something to charity.  In my case, I make it a point not to buy charity singles made by the equivalent of human Muppets who are being manipulated from underneath by greedy showbusiness agents and record executives.  If you were thinking, “well – at least the charity single gives the charity much needed PR!”  Well, unfortunately the majority of these charity singles are made for already well established charities. :\

What I don’t like about the X-Factor is that every year it’s poisoning the charts with utter nonsense.  For starters,  rarely do we see a winner who has not attended a talent school (Olly Murs being the only one in the final that hasn’t).   It makes me wonder if established artists who have spent years, decades even, in the business from even bothering to release a new single at Christmas because (a) most of the younger generation are buying the newly released  X-Factor single or (b) everbody is buying compilation albums of Christmas classics (of which are mainly made up of previous X-Factor Christmas singles).

Cowell, Sony and ITV are polluting the UK Christmas charts each and every year and I, for one, would like to see our music industry become a proper music industry again and not some form of evil experimental lab for Cowell and his cronies.  This year I’ll either buy Rage Against the Machine, or Rolf Harris.  Just because.

Speaking of currently competing X-Factor contestants, there seems to be a camel missing a toe.  Stacey, please give it back to the poor creature.  Or at least wear something a bit more modest forcryingoutloud.  Goes to show that nothing changes in Essex :\

My dear fellow LOVEFiLM subscribers..

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 3, 2009

I would be very grateful if you didn’t treat Blu-Ray and DVD disks as strange silvery identity discs from the future (or more specifically, a really bad 50’s B movie!)

What do I mean by this?  Well, the shear number of discs (especially Blu-Ray) that I receive from LOVEFiLM that come with fingerprints is enough for me to start up my own criminal forensic and ID lab.  The result of grubby paws manhandling these discs has the effect of making the movies I watch stutter and, on more occasions that I would like, completely stop.  I then have to get out the old cleaning cloth out and give the disc a good rub in the hope that all that grease and muck will come off so that my (well, my employer’s) not-exactly-cheap Blu-Ray reader/writer can continue reading the disc.

Sometimes a disc is so badly scratched I wonder if the previous subscriber has been using it for darts or frizbee practice.  Or if their cats have vented their own opinions on the film that you’ve recently watched.

So, my fellow LOVEFiLMers, let’s make our combined movie watching experience as pleasent as possible so that we can ALL enjoy our rentals and not have well-known (and up and coming) actors start shuddering like badly manufactured clockwork toys.  Imagine if BAFTA sent out used screeners in which a performance is being judged?  I doubt people like Daniel Craig would get much praise if he, as Bond, started developing a really nasty stutter during an interogation scene.

That, and I’m blooming fed up of sending back bad discs having really looked forward to watching a particular title.

I’m a celebrity.. let’s eat Ants (& Dec)

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 26, 2009

Us Brits are apparently a nation of animal lovers.

Yeah, right.

Why, then, do we enjoy watching “celebrities” eating kangaroo bottoms and various other disgusting parts of animals that, let’s face it, are NOT necessary to eat?  How many animals died in making I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here over the numerous series that it’s been on air?  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not an animal liberation person, a vegetarian, a vegan or anything that would imply that I don’t eat meat.  Far from it, I love my pork, bacon, chicken, fish, etc.  But what I don’t understand is how animal parts from creatures we would not normally find on a typical menu at a Harvester pub restaurant chain are on the menu for a TV show.  There’s no point in it.  If you really wanted to gross people out, you might as well make the celebrities eat raw cabbage and drink sewage water.  Or alternatively they let the celebrities eat human flesh.

Then there are the games in which insects, arachnids, snakes, furry animals of all descriptions are groped, prodded and disturbed for the sake of entertainment.  Do spiders really like being subjected to some of those “celebrities”?  I think they’re rather eat their young.  Oh, some of them do.

And of course, if that weren’t enough, there is the carbon footprint of flying everybody over to Australia, building and maintaining the sets, cameras and other equipment.  All of it not cheap in terms of cost, and certainly not cheap in terms of the environment.

Then again, it wouldn’t be the show it is today if it were shot in Croydon on a backstage, using glove puppets as replacements for the animals, or marzipan kangaroos doodahs for the bushtucker trial.

X-Factor, Simon Cowell, John & Edward & Lucie

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 10, 2009

It must be said that Simon Cowell is no fool.  He still has all three acts still in the game.   The rest of the judges are bleeding contestants.  John & Edward, the most unlikely stars of the show, are still in the competition, but have now become pawns in the ultimate game of showbiz chess.  We had initially speculated that J&E are only in to save the better acts during these live shows, but we did NOT expect that they were being used to eradicate the better singers so that when J&E eventually go, only the survival of the fittest (that being Cowell’s bunch) survive.  Jedward are NOT going to win this competition.

While J&E are still popular (or at least notoriously popular) with the public, they’re going to be bumping off people like Lucie, Lloyd, Joe, Stacey and co. until Simon Cowell’s three acts make it through to the finale.  Cowell is using the twins to his absolute advantage.  He must have known that the public would have preferred (for whatever crazy reason) John & Edward.  With Lucie now out, that brings down one of the better contestants quickly.  Don’t forget that the X-Factor is a competition between singers AND the judges.  And the judges want to win just as much as the contestants do.

I also wouldn’t weep for the losers.  They’re got enough exposure to make it on their own.  Once the contracts that bind them to the X-Factor run out, they’ll be snap up sure enough if showbiz still thinks they’re got what it takes.  There are no real losers here.

Daily Mail probes BBC’s CIN Around the World in 80 Days..

Posted by Martyn Drake – October 22, 2009

This Daily Mail article about the cost of producing Children In Need's Around the World in 80 Days only reinforces my opinion that it is an ineffective and very expensive excercise in raising money that's not likely to yield the BBC and Children in Need much return.

If you want a REALLY good travel show from the BBC, I highly recommend Charlie Boorman's From Sydney to Tokyo: By Any Means 2.  Now THAT's how it's done.  Almost missed the show as it wasn't being promoted very well in the iPlayer.

Stargate Universe: It’s very good, but take the camera folk off the caffeine!

Posted by Martyn Drake – October 19, 2009

I've been a huge fan of Stargate since the original Emmerich and Devlin movie first came out in the cinema back in the mid 90s.  When Stargate SG-1 first came to our TV screens a few years later, I even wrote an email to Centropolis Entertainment to ask if David Arnold was being brought back to do the music.  I was rather shocked to receive a reply from Dean Devlin (producer and co-writer of the film) telling me that they had nothing to do with the TV show and that should it should be boycotted.

A decade or so later, with many awards under it's belt and with one spin-off series completed, the Stargate franchise has spawned another new show: Stargate Universe (or SGU).  Having watched three episodes of this new show, I have to say that while I am very impressed with the storyline and am intrigued by the new characters, it's got a few things to answer for.

Firstly is the inevitable comparison to that other dark, nitty gritty sci-fi drama series, Battlestar Galactica.  Extensive use of hand-held cameras, darkly lit spaceships, in-your-face fight sequences, etc.  Then there is a similarity to Star Trek Voyager, in which a starship is hurtled thousands of light years away from home.  But this is Voyager done right – the crew are stranded on a deserted spaceship with very little provisions and very little air.  They most constantly find ways to replenish their resources otherwise they'll die.

What I dislike about this show in terms of technicality is the hand-held camera shots.  I kind of got used to these kind of shots in BSG, but coming from the Stargate stable which has traditionally relied on dollies, steadicams, cranes and tripods, this new shooting style is somewhat off-putting.  And some of the shots have been so far over the shop that one's eyes have tended to tire having the focal point judder about too much.  One's head doesn't jerk about like that, so why a camera should do so, I really don't know.  I know hand-held shots are supposed to provide a fresh and dynamic look to the drama (as if you were watching a news report from a war zone, for example), but all it does is wish somebody would spend some money on cameras with image stabilisers (or tripods, dollies, steadicams, etc.)  This technique is used by too many dramas at the moment, and I'm getting mighty tired of it.  I just think that this is not the right main shooting technique for this kind of show.

On the plus side, the visual effects are excellent.  They integrate exceptionally well into the live action and serve the purpose very well indeed.  I expect we can look forward to some pretty specatacular stuff later on in the season.  Also excellent is the cast, with Robert Carlyle heading up the team.

If they can only introduce a little more stability on the shots for future episodes, SGU has a great future and will continue to support the show.

BBC’s new Around the World in 80 Days = expensive advert for Children in Need

Posted by Martyn Drake – October 17, 2009

Bring back Michael Palin, all is forgiven!  Not there was anything to forgive in the first place!

I recently began watching the BBC's new "travel" series, Around the World in 80 Days.  But hang on, didn't that Michael Palin do all this back in the late 80s?  Yes he did, but this is a new endeavour designed to bring in money for BBC's Children in Need appeal.

Where this program fails is in the direction and editing.  The format concentrates almost entirely on the travellers and Children in Need, and glosses over the places they're visiting – which kind of misses the point when it comes to travelling in the first place.  While Messrs Mack and Skinner ARE very entertaining, we barely have time to take in the places they're visiting or the people they meet along the way.  Yes, they've got a strict time-scale to get the travelling done, but Michael Palin and his team managed to strike a good balance when they did it the first time around.  The most we get to see is the Crown Prince & Princess of Serbia.  Everything else is too much of a blur and utterly forgettable.

Unfortunately Around the World in 80 Days just comes across as an expensive exercise/advert in getting more money for Children in Need (a worthy charity, of course) whereas the budget for this show might have been better spent putting it directly into the CiN collection tin.  This series is just not as inspiring as the one Michael Palin brought to us back in 1988.

The future’s bright, the future is non-scheduled broadcasting (aka Video on Demand)

Posted by Martyn Drake – September 21, 2009

When I read about Simon Cowell getting all upset about pitting X-Factor against Strictly Come Dancing, my thought was "how old fashioned".  In this day and age, more of us are watching television on Sky Plus boxes, on the various online "catch-up" services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player or 4oD.

Scheduled broadcasting is so 20th Century.  Our lives are getting increasingly busier and we often do not have the time or inclination to rush home to stick the television on and sit glued to the TV watching X-Factor.  And there are those that like both X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing but obviously can't watch both at the same time.  PVR (personal video recorders) and VoD (video on demand) services are becoming increasingly popular ways to record and watch television programming at the viewer's leisure rather than at the convenience of the broadcaster. 

Additionally, BitTorrent has shown that there is a huge demand for episodic drama from around the world – feeding people's needs for programs either before they've aired in their own country, or for those desperate to catch-up without waiting for it to become a re-run on come out on DVD.  Unfortunately using BiTorrent in this way is completely illegal.

Additional benefits of (legitimate) video on demand include greater statistics and tracking of viewing habits, including audience ratings, etc.  Advertisers can get interactive with the audience by inserting links directly to web sites for those viewing on a computer or set-up box which connects to the Internet.

So is linear/scheduled broadcasting dead?  Not quite.  Some genres suit themselves nicely for this type of broadcasting.  Live sport, for instance, and home shopping.  In fact, any live event at all. 

TV is changing, and I don't think that Simon Cowell has much to fear from broadcasters airing popular programs live at the same time.  Not unless he's into the sports or home shopping markets.

Could the TV license fee form part of council tax or income tax bill? NO! NO! NO!

Posted by Martyn Drake – July 4, 2009

According to the Daily Mail, the BBC Director General Mark Thomspon has suggested that the TV license fee could be scrapped and instead funded through council or income tax.

No, no, no, no, NO.

TV is, and always will be, a luxury item.  It is not essential in the daily lives of millions of people.  It is entertainment.  It should not, and must not be made compulsory for those that choose not to watch TV.  Taxation is there to pay for the essentials of running the community and country.  Watching TV must be about choice.

The problem is that the BBC, who has produced a wonderful video on demand system through their iPlayer system, doesn't seem to know how to best get money from those of us that have done away with TV (and therefore the TV license) and have gone online to watch shows through video-on-demand systems such as the iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Catch-up, etc.  Fox's Hulu is set to join the UK VoD revolution later this year too.

The BBC could (and I've said this before) restrict iPlayer to those holding a TV license – in that you have to authenticate yourself as a license player before watching programs whether it be live or not.  Or perhaps they could have a separate iPlayer license.  No full TV license would be required, but you'd have pay a small monthly or annual fee to gain access to watch programs (live or otherwise) through the iPlayer service only. 

Either way, the BBC has got to find a better solution to the TV license system as it currently stands.  But it must not involve being made compulsory through taxation.  No way.  And neither must the TV license be shared by commercial broadcasters such as ITV or Channel 4.  If they can't raise their funding through advertising, then that's their problem.  Not ours.

Journalists and the BBC

Posted by Martyn Drake – July 2, 2009

Full credit to my wife for spotting that the Daily Mail made the
mistake of referring to the BBC as being funded by taxpayers.  Of
course, this is not so (although one could argue that any MP who is
claiming their TV license fee on expenses IS making us fund the BBC through
tax!).  The BBC is funded entirely by the optional TV license fee.
 Having a TV is a personal choice and is not something that is being
forced upon you, quite unlike paying tax.

It’s somewhat ironic, therefore, that commercial broadcasters want a
slice of the TV license fee for themselves.  Particularly when you
consider that the big commercial broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4
and the rest actually cost the TV license payer even MORE money than
the BBC, since commercial broadcasters are funded from advertising.
 Who pays the advertisers?  We do.  We buy their products.  We use
their services.  Well, those that pay the TV license fee and have
televisions, anyway.

If there is anything or anyone that’s failing commercial
broadcasters is the ad agencies themselves.  Have you seen any REALLY
good TV commercials recently?  Something actually SELLs you the product
that you go out and buy it just as soon as you can?  No, neither have
I.  Ad agencies are running out of ideas and have been producing lame
and uninteresting adverts for quite some time now.  The recession may
play one part in nobody spending money, but I can assure you that while
agencies continue to pump out over the top and ridiculous adverts –
nobody is going want to buy whatever the heck it is they’re trying to
sell you.  A gorilla playing the drums?  Do be brief.  Those people
that are already eating Cadbury’s chocolate are going to be doing so
anyway.  They don’t need a man in a monkey suit to convince them it’s
still okay.

Going back to the TV license; while I have no real strong opinions
on how the TV license is spent (other than it must NOT go to commercial
broadcasters for the reason I’ve specified above), TV license payers
are not shareholders.  And yet we have the BBC Trust to ensure that
certain standards are met and that the TV license represents value for
money.  And TV license payers have no say in who gets to decide all
this.

What a thoroughly strange way to organise and watch news and entertainment.  I am still very glad not to own a TV.

Updates, etc.

Posted by Martyn Drake – May 13, 2009

Have just returned from two weeks away. 

We set off to Dubai for a week before heading to Tobago for another.  Photos of which can be found here (Dubai) and here (Tobago).  I'm in the process of sorting out the video, but here are a couple of simple shots taken from the Dubai Mall: Bagpipes, Dancers, Carnival.  Jennifer and I both had a wonderful time, and it's regretful that we're now stuck with rain all week after two weeks of glorious sunshine.

Work-wise, I've taken delivery of a Dell XPS M1730 laptop that consists of a 2.80Ghz Core 2 Extreme processor (overclockable through BIOS to 3.4Ghz), 6Gb RAM, 640Gb disk space (2 x 320Gb 7,200RPM hard drives in hardware RAID 0), Blu-Ray reader AND writer, 2 x NVIDIA 9800M GT 512Mb graphics cards in SLI configuration.  It's a wonderful system except that bloody Dell have supplied both a 7,200RPM 16Mb cache hard drive and a 5,400RPM 8Mb cache HD instead of two 7,200RPM drives.  What's even worse is that the primary drive is the slower 5,400RPM model.  I'm also a bit miffed that although they supply 800Mhz DDR2 memory, but the chipset only supports up to a maximum of 667Mhz thereby squeezing more money out of the punter who sees no additional benefit. 

Generally it's a very impressive rig, but it's let down by Dell's incompetence.
Am awaiting the arrival of Adobe Creative Production Premium suite for Windows to go with the laptop as I'm in the process of doing a lot of video editing and encoding for work at the moment.  The irony of this is that Adobe After Effects includes software from my previous employers who made me redundant.
My boss, Kate Craig-Wood, is interviewed by CNBC here which features me in a cameo appearance as "engineer who plugs in SSD drive into server".  Speaking of Memset, we have some very, very good miniserver pacakges at the moment.  Prices are incredibly competitive in my opinion.

Red Dwarf Back to Earth: The Good, the Bad and Budget

Posted by Martyn Drake – April 12, 2009

The Good

The show looks great having been shot on Red One digital cameras.  Makes a massive difference even in standard definition.  Hope they bring this out on Blu-Ray and even consider showing it at special cinema screenings to take advantage that they shot this in 4k resolution.
Everybody's back in character, just like the old times.  Honestly, it doesn't feel as though they've ever been away for over a decade.  Good to have the Boys from the Dwarf back.
The visual effects.  From what I gather, the VFX guys pretty much did this for free (or at least, for very little money), and yet the quality is very good indeed – it more than serves the purpose.

The Bad

Plot line feels very similar to the film version of the League of Gentlemen: Appocolypse, in which the characters from the show become self-aware that they are fictional characters and attempt to seek their creators.
Each episode is far too short for a commercial TV station, with abrubt endings after the first two parts, and commercial break getting in the way of allowing the plot to flow along.
It feels like one long, very expensive advert for the TV channel: Dave.  There's multiple references to Dave (owned by UKTV) in the story.   The fact one is watching this on Dave makes it somewhat redundant mentioning it.  If you'd buying the DVDs, why do you want to pay for a glorified commercial?

The Budget

For what they've achieved on a low budget – to produce 90 minutes of filmatic sci-fi comedy/drama is most excellent.  Plot issues aside, this I think, should be considered a great success and hope that it leads on to a proper TV series (or film, or mini-series) with a larger budget.  Imagine what they could do *then*!

Doctor Who: Planet of the badly modelled CG bus

Posted by Martyn Drake – April 12, 2009

Planet of the Dead was okay-ish, but what really stood out for me was the badly modelled CG bus that looked dreadful when you put it against real backdrops. 

I expected the Mill to produce higher quality modeling than that even on their budget and time constraints.  It made Thomas the Tank Engine seem real in comparison.
Hell, even the visual effects of the new Red Dwarf: Back to Earth "mini-series" is better – with better quality visual effects provided mainly by volunteers, and on a budget far less, I'm sure, than Planet of the Dead. 

Is the BBC beginning to get a bit stale?
It didn't help that the script was pretty flat to boot.
I'm also getting a bit fed up of Doctor Who's campy monsters and the silly masks from Neil Gorton and his team, whom I know can do better work than that.  It's getting back to the Space Precinct days.  Why can we, the British, not afford quality science fiction drama like the Americans and Canadians produce?  We do have the money to do it, I'm sure, but why aren't we commissioning decent home-made stuff?
Look, I know Doctor Who is technically a kids show (but then again, what would you call the Sarah Jane Adventures – a show for toddlers?).  However, it'd just be nice to have a proper mainstream sci-fi show just for adults.  I don't particularly think Torchwood can be considered that.  It still gets too campy at times.

Of cat shaving and Ultra-Walruses with embarassing pasts..

Posted by Martyn Drake – March 27, 2009

I've been a huge fan of Douglas Adams as long as I can remember – possibly even longer than that.  Ever since I started watching the BBC TV series in Primary School and then consequently reading the Hitchiker's "trilogy" in secondary school, I thought Douglas Adams was the very best writer in the history of the universe.  Hell, when I broke my wrist and had to have the bones reset, I refused to be wheeled into the operating theatre until an episode of the TV series I had been watching on the ward's TV had finished.

So imagine my delight that a journalist by the name of Neil Gaiman had come along and wrote a biography of Douglas and his work which came out in 1993 (shortly after  I had finished secondary school and was enrolled in college).  The book was called  Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it gave accounts from the people involved in bringing Hitchhiker's to the many mediums for which it has appeared.  It is also one of the funniest books I've ever read.
I decided to revisit the book this week, and still find it extremely funny, entertaining and altogether one of the best factual/biographical books I've come across.  It is genuinely laugh-out-loud in places – especially the chapter on Letters.  And yet, it is also a poignant reminder that Douglas has gone – so has Geoffrey Perkins – and we are not likely to ever see their like ever again.

That said, Stephen Fry (who is also closely associated with Douglas Adams) is currently undertaking a TV series of Last Chance to See which was originally a radio series presented by Douglas and Mark Carwardine.
It would be nice to see Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy updated with everything (the good and the bad) that has happened since 1993, including the film (which I enjoyed very much, to my surprise) which Douglas had been working on for well over a decade.  There is always, however, the Salmon of Doubt which continues the story of Douglas Adams a little bit further..

Douglas Adams is still my favourite author of all time – his work is infinitely re-readable (although I did struggle through Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency initially), and will continue to remain so.
Note: Back in secondary school, I theorized that Slartibartfast probably had a brother.  His name would have been WankyFuckBollocks (I blame Ben Elton and Alexi Sayle who were heavy influences on me through their shows on TV at the time) and was the less popular son of the family.  The thought was dismissed immediately by my peers, and I could see their point.

Update: You can play an enhanced version of the text adventure game, with graphics supplied by Rod Lord (whom I graciously had the chance to talk to back in my days at MPC as he was working on the MINT TV adverts with MPC doing some of the post-production stuff) over at the BBC's Hitchhiker's mini-site.  When asked, "who is Douglas Adams?", the game replied: "That's not a person!".