Today’s been a comic-reading day mostly.
Over the Christmas break I’ve been re-reading comics that tie into the recent Doomsday Clock by Johns and Frank. As I always do – it’s a curse – I go back too far, really and also spend too much time reading criticism and interviews. Where I was reading Flashpoint (2011) a few days ago, I’ve now moved further back to DC Universe #0 where Barry Allen returns after a twenty-two year death and will work my way through Final Crisis (2008) and Flash: Rebirth (2008). Eventually I’ll have read up to Doomsday Clock and by then should have a better understanding of it. Or, by then, be completely fed up with it.
We watched the new Doctor Who episode tonight. It was better than I expected. No, not the story (though I did like the sequences in the alien forest or whatever it was) which stank. It was Sacha Dhawan’s Master who stole the episode. You could tell his character, O, wasn’t the endearing geek he presented himself. He had a full set of Fortean Times after all, which was a dead giveaway. When he revealed himself and showed off the real tissue compressioned O who he carried around in a matchbox, I thought it was great. The last couple of minutes made up for the tedious hour or so that preceded it.
Doctor Who just needs some good science fiction writers, that’s all. Or horror writers. I’d die for a Ramsey Campbell episode. I really would.
When you consider how inadequate Doctor Who looks alongside a programme like Lost in Space, you realise how badly the British show needs good scriptwriters. It’s obvious that Lost in Space has a much bigger budget. I don’t think money is the determining factor here, though. There are lots of expensive programmes that are just junk. Lost in Space is, like Doctor Who, character-driven. But it’s been written by people who can actually construct an engaging plot. Yes, there are dull moments in Lost in Space, but it never descends into the silliness Doctor Who gets caught up in. Maybe it’s British mainstream comedy. I’m not sure. Certainly, I’m enjoying the American series far more than any season of new Dr Who.
Alice worries we spend too long in front of screens. I’m not sure.
At the moment I’m trying to read 10% of a novel and 10% of a non-fiction book a day. Perhaps I should add that to my New Year’s resolutions. Last year I didn’t read nearly as much as I wanted to. I used to read quickly, but now seem to take ages reading. I wonder if it’s anything to do with my eyesight?
I also found out that Syd Mead, the futuristic designer of worlds like Blade Runner and Tron, has died. When I was a child, his visions of vehicles of the future and their environments was what I expected to drive and live in. I’ve never understood why cars look so boring when they could so easily look like a Syd Mead vehicle.
