Hello obsessives!

I notice from my WordPress stats that since I wrote about the West Wing my hits have rocketed past all previous records in the space of 48 hours, all of them from livejournal posts sharing any new items of fan fiction, YouTube clip videos, and blog discussions, etc, that have appeared each week on that theme. Now, obviously I am about to attract another deluge of these people by tagging this post with the name, so I just thought I should say:

It’s just a TV show. For your own good, just go outside for a while.

Doctor Who etcetera.

Firstly, apologies (again) for later-than-promised updates. Keeping up with all of Euro 2008 for the CDB Pod means about five hours of my day have to be devoted to that (it’s such a hard life, eh?), which has cut into time for the CDB Desk. Fear not, however, as I’m here to cover some things I’d been wanting to, but for the rest of the championships I’ll probably only have time to review Doctor Who each week. So, in about two and a half weeks, I should be able to settle in to a decent steady rhythm on both blogs. Go me.

So, better start with the Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead two-parter that aired over the last two Saturdays. And wasn’t it bloody brilliant! Coming just after the news that writer Steven Moffat is replacing Russell T. Davies as showrunner from season five onwards was released couldn’t have been a better time – we’ve been reassured completely with these two episodes that the show is in safe hands.

Where to start? The shadow monsters, the Vashta Nerada, were genius, playing tricks with lighting rather than huge special effects for maximum scare value. That throwaway line about being able to see the Vashta Nerada as the specks in sunlight was typical Moffat, finding little ways to terrify small children, like he did with statues in last season’s stunning Blink.

I guess we’ve also been successfully hoodwinked, myself included, by the line in Planet of the Ood warning that “the Doctor’s song must end soon”. Originally, as documented here, I’d thought that meant imminent regeneration for the Doctor, but no – clearly, the word song had a capital S, and I’m hugely looking forward to seeing River Song’s next (or technically first?) appearance sometime in the future. Is she a future companion, or, seemingly more likely, a future wife? Brilliantly played by Alex Kingston, her death scene in particular was heart-wrenching.

My favourite episode of the relaunched series ever? Probably.

A quick word on the Britain’s Got Talent and Pushing Daisies finales – I might have done more if I’d had time closer to their broadcasting, but such is life – rather good. I’d been rooting for dance group Signature in BGT since their audition (if you haven’t seen their first audition, YouTube it. It’s hilarious), but considering some of the dross that was in the final (Cheeky Monkeys anyone?), George Sampson was a worthy winner. I may now tune in for 2 minutes of the Royal Variety Show later this year (OK, no I won’t). Pushing Daisies has flown by, though, and I will be tuning in to season two (that’s assuming ITV don’t drop even more episodes). I’d like to see them pushing the format as much as they can, though, as I suspect more of the same may grow tiresome very quickly – mind you, I said that about the series as a whole after watching the pilot, so…we’ll see. I’m still, of course, in love with Anna Friel.

A post on…Thursday?

Shock! Horror!

That’s right, after weeks of intent but no end product, here I am categorically not talking about Doctor Who. Yes, even the big behind-the-scenes news. I’ll save that for another time.

So what’s been interesting in the world of all things un-Doctorly over the last couple of weeks?

Well, the US Presidential battle quite definitely isn’t. Goodness me, it’s still not over! I’d never realised previously just how insane the US electoral system is, but I sure as hell see it now. If there are any Americans reading this, please tell me you’re bored of it too, or I shall be forced to abandon all hope for your kind.

The quality and quantity of bizarre news has been dropping recently, as well. The most interesting thing I’ve come across on that front is a chain email I received highlighting a “study” done in which two mobile phones are placed either side of an egg and call each other. After 65 minutes the egg was cooked. I’m sure that isn’t recent, though. If any readers can prove to me that there’s a really good slice of weird news this week, I want to hear that too.

I suppose I should touch on Eurovision, as well, though I’ll do a full entry on that topic after the show proper on Saturday. For the first time ever, though, there are not one but two semifinals, the first of which was on Tuesday night and the second is tonight, and though I was initially reluctant to watch any more than the final, I did end up sitting through the majority of Tuesday’s showing, which, for better or worse, allowed me to get my first look at the notorious Irish entry.

It’s difficult to convey quite how mad Dustin the Turkey’s act was merely with words. If you haven’t seen it, http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z28STzFIFBU <- there’s a video. I have no idea why it seemed to be received with boos the other night – I would have expected shocked silence – and though I’m glad this means that the UK now cannot lose to a puppet, I think I’m sorry to see it not make the final.

Well, it’s not as much as I normally squeeze out, but this should at least be a healthy kick up the backside to spark some more frequent updating around here. There’s a new sheriff in town. (or something like that.)