• 14:32 4.5 hours till Doctor Who, not that I've been counting the hours down since waking up ;) #

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Well worth the wait I think :) My favourite of all the specials of this 'season' so far. Tennant and Russell T. I applaud you - I think this is a great beginning-of-the-end. ( I knew as soon as the episode made such a big deal out of )

As much as I don't want to see it end I cannot wait to see how it does now :) The teaser was great. Loved the Master in a hoodie - wasn't expecting that :) Simm vs Tennant - its gonna be good! :D

For the record, I actually like it :) Something ever so slightly retro about it whist being completely different to the current one.

Went to the theatre last night with missy_manic and Phil to go and see Speaking In Tongues. Yes, because John Simm is in the cast (sorry, we're that predictable.) But, actually it was a great ensemble cast - all were great performances and the play needs that to work. Under worse direction I think it could've easily come across as a bit arty farty and confusing but thanks to a great cast, and good use of the stage space - it made the multiple characters / over lapping dialogue easier to follow. It also helps that the dialogue within the play is good. I forget who the playwright is? That is pretty much all I can say without giving away spoilers - I know one person one my flist who has already seen it, and others who will be... (message to fearcat and redderz - JOHN SIMM AND A POLICEMANOFFICER'S NOTEBOOK ON STAGE. That is all ; )

Went to the stage door afterwards - because I already have an autograph and photo with Mr Simm I didn't want to bother him with another request so this time I was there to make sure Phil who is a massive fan got his opportunity to say hello and get a photo. And like an overexcited child (although to his credit remained composed in front of the guy) Phil was very happy that he got his photo as Simm obliged. I was actually dying to say to him 'I hope your evil at Xmas - in reference to Doctor Who but chickened out - saying the sentence out aloud, it just seemed too strange a thing to say! Instead I just thanked him for allowing me to take the photo of him and Phil. And that was that. Happy faces all around :)

Next month I go to see Kevin Spacey on stage at the Old Vic - seems so long ago since I last saw him act on stage so can't wait :D

If you are a Doctor Who and/or Star Trek TOS fan stop what you are doing and watch this now! This is a brilliantly well done mashup. The Doctor is transported onto the Enterprise...

Stolen from doctorwho. No spoilers and a great 20 minute interview with Russell T Davies and David Tenant talking about their final episodes of Doctor Who. I love them for getting excited in talking about what they've done without giving anything away!

Oh, ok so there was no big announcement, just preview clips of Tennant's last episodes of Doctor Who (Noooooo! don't go!....) that included the announcement of the return of you know who enemy of the Doctor (unless you've been even better than I have at avoiding spoilers, and I've been pretty damn good).

They talk a little about the last episode; and about showing it to the composer and how, halfway through the second episode, he started shaking and sobbing. Tissues, they warn, will be necessary.

Oh god. Its gonna be HORRIBLE!

From Panel write up here.

Also the Smallville panel - so they are going break their own rule by showing the tights this season? Though the descriptions sound more Matrix than Superman..... Yay! for Tom Welling finally appearing at a Con! And Johns writing an episode - that I would watch (though I am soooo far behind the seasons I don't think I'll ever catch up).

So, as usual Comic Con brings some exciting tidbits of info.

I cannot wait for Star Trek XI DVD. That preview got me way too excited. :D

Like the teaser poster but really want to see a trailer for Dead of Night (based on Dylan Dog comics).

Paul Gross has been at Comic Con for The Witches of Eastwick TV series (which I would love to say excites me, but I'm not sold at the moment). Gross fans - is his shirt really that bad?! I don't think it is (maybe I should be worried about my own fashion sense ;)

Also, General? Would you care to step outside? These Mattel figures of Superman and General Zod - I WANT THEM.

ETA: You've probably seen this by now but fangirls will be happy with Tennant/Barrowman especially:



Am more interested in what this 'special announcement at another panel.... *is curious*

Wasn't sure if we would make it but thankfully missy_manic felt well enough after hospital visit to go to London Film and Comic Con. I really hope that she does not have a repeat experience of what happened last time for her own sake and me as paranoid/caring friend spent today making sure she was ok hopefully without being too obvious about (will be if she reads this LOL). Was nice to bump into you justtracy :)

( Red Dwarf - Starbug Smart Car )

( Davros )

( Christopher Reeve autographs )

^ Pretty pricey. That said autographs without a memory don't have much appeal to me. I got to be in the same room as the guy before he passed away, that's a priceless memory :D

Today is also one of the last days before my cousin Juliet leaves for New Zealand - possibly for the long run. Whilst we usually only meet for family occasions I still wish her all the best and hope to see her soon. And i hope my mum was able to give her my card today. I will call and find out tomorrow.

Yeah so they made the best they could out of the new MK Dons venue but this is England and its not always warm so it meant that the balcony that was open to the air where the football pitch was *COLD* This is such a shame because normally I like to chill out and watch the cosplayers and general goings on but it was so cold I just had to keep moving along all the time. I felt a bit sorry for the VIPs - I hope they were warm/comfortable enough signing autographs all day! I noticed Marc McClure took to wearing a wooly hat to keep warm (kinda cute actually) - who can blame him. Leonard Nimoy must be one tough cookie to tough that out. I was kinda hoping I'd get a glance just to gawp stare in awe and watch the fans get their autographs but all the VIPs were in kind of mini tents so you couldn't see them unless you were up close in the queue. To be fair this might actually make it better for those that are paying to go up and get autographs.

The one part of the building that was completely indoors is where they set up all the stalls. Warmer so better (but when it got really busy it was HOT! (especially when your wearing a jumper cos the balcony areas were cold thanks to crappy British weather) Why hire a bigger capacity venue if your gonna cram all the stalls in an area that wasn't that much bigger to the original MK Centre venue?! That's my biggest gripe. It got really busy at lunchtime and it was a struggle to get to some of the stalls for sheer crowds. Kinda a victim of its own success. I think the event organisers utilised the space they had well but next year if the weather is cold they need to do think of an alternative somehow.

I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to bring my Superman DVD box tin for Marc McClure to sign so in the end I chose not to go to his stall. I did however get a kick out of the fact that the first thing I saw on arrival was a Star Wars stall that had a Falcon mural where you could take a photo of yourself "on the ship." I did a double take as I walked past because who was the geek getting his own photo taken in front of it - yep McClure! I don't know why but I got a kick out of that :)

Best costumes I saw included a Batman and Joker walking around, Rosarch, and The Doctor and Marty McFly :)

I bought some Star Trek stuff and one Doctor Who photo. Nothing major - I really wanted a red shirt Star Fleet academy tshirt but they'd sold out of all sizes except XXL. Instead I opted for a Spock Live Long & Prosper shirt.

( June 4th 2009 )

^ @ Udderbelly Comedy Festival bar. Went to see Mitch Benn. The guy is a musical poet. I do not understand why he is not mega famous because he's extremely talented at what he does. Sharp witty lyrics that are also very funny.





and for you Doctor Who fans:

stolen from doctorwho

In a recent UK poll Doctor Who was named the best sci-fi TV theme tune. Whilst it might be my favourite current sci-fi show, the best theme tune for me was always Quantum Leap. Someone's done a great mash-up of the two:



^ Love it :) Am actually waiting for someone to do this for Ashes to Ashes because every time I hear Alex's dialogue in the credits, I think of the Quantum Leap one.

Beautiful weather this weekend. Kinda wasted it on Saturday but today took a trip to south east London to visit Crossness Pumping Station at the suggestion of missy_manic It has beautiful iron work, and is being carefully restored. I will post pictures so you can see what I mean another time.

TV - yay! Spandau on Jonathan Ross didn't let me down, good performance. Looking forward to the tour now :) Love the 'true'/false quiz Ross did. Pegg's interview was a bit short :( But I LOL'd when he beamed down with Lady Ga Ga's tea cup (only makes sense if you saw the previous week's show). It sounds like Scotty Pegg has a scene with Spock Nimoy - now that *is* exciting, and I hadn't seen the clip of Star Trek they showed (being trying to avoid overkill on trailers/clips) :D

Non UK Pegg fans hope this works for you if you haven't found it online already:




And the BAFTA TV Awards tonight - YAY! for I.T. Crowd winning - so much for Graeham Lineham twittering that he wouldn't win! But boo for Peter Serafinowicz, and Doctor Who missing out :( (side note - David Tennant's sparkly Darth Vader t shirt worn tonight was really rather awesome) French & Saunders - I hope you never retire from parodies - they are the best.

Hope everyone is enjoying Easter :)

So Doctor Who - well it was all about the last five minutes for me and *that* message (under the cut - SPOILERS)

And Red Dwarf - oooh part 1 felt strange, I couldn't get used to the new glossy spaceship. But then came a line that made me chuckle...and (SPOILERS under the cut)

( Doctor Red Who Dwarf talk )

So over Easter on the telly we've got new Red Dwarf (looks more promising than I dared hope) and new Doctor Who to look forward to.

Then the following month Abram's Star Trek in cinemas. Love this TV spot:



Am reading that it has just had its first screening and is getting positive reviews. Here's a great non-spoiler review from Cinema Blend. I think I might try and stay away from the hype now though. I hate knowing too much about a movie before I've seen it. Which can be really really hard when your curious...

Here's the rest of my photos taken on my camera phone.

( March 18th 2009 )

Mmmm, cheesecake from Roxy's Deli.

( March 20th 2009 )

^ The Live Bait bar & restaurant where I met swankyfunk.

( March 21st 2009 - the geeky tour contains Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, The Boys references )


( March 23rd 2009 )
^ Surely the inspiration for Superman Returns scene in which Superman holds the Daily Planet globe.

Well thanks to a spoiler photo I just had to click to find out what is was from _faeriequeen regarding filming currently going on for the next Doctor Who special (not the Easter one, the final ones...) all I can say it Russell T. Davies .... YES!! THANK YOU. :D :D :D It's good for more than 1 reason too.

IT WILL BE EPIC EPIC TELEVISION.

:D

missy_manic I do believe your end of season 4 theory might be correct :D :D :D :D :D

ETA DO NOT READ COMMENT'S TO THIS POST IF YOU ARE AVOIDING SPOILERS.

So today was all about meeting swankyfunk but not until the evening so the rest of the day was spent getting the most out of our touristy tickets. Phil decided to buy a ticket for the helicopter tour. I decided against it - for one it was expensive $100+ , secondly I've seen Superman The Movie too many times to want to get in a helicopter to see the NYC skyline. (even if statistically its the safest way to travel). So we took the downtown bus tour and stayed on it throughout until we got back to midtown and decided to do the Top of the Rock (top of the Rockefeller Center). Wow! The views are fantastic. It has two advantages of the Empire State building - first you can see Central Park, second, you can see the Empire state building since your not in it. I took some beautiful photos only to accidently delete them later that afternoon :( What can I say I wasn't concentrating whilst using my camera but hey nothing replaces the experience. :) After that we took the subway to Grand Central Station to get some photos of what is a beautiful station. From there we met up with swankyfunk for some seriously yummy food @ Live Bait near the Flatiron building. So nice to get away from the tourist side of things, and I was happy to pass on my gifts of Doctor Who merchandise, jaffa cakes, and twiglets from this side of the pond. Great music, and conversation if thats not too cheesy a thing to say. I felt happily chilled out and relaxed afterwards. I have some photos of us at the restaurant but these are on my camera phone and I've yet to upload so will do that another time. We agreed to meet the next day at the hotel and to round off the day myself and Phil decided to do a night visit to the top of the Empire State building. I love the interior in the lobby so was sad to see it was covered in scaffolding at the moment. But hey the real reason is for the great view at the top. Before we got there however is security and god knows why but Phil kept setting off the metal detector alarm despite having no metal on him to his knowledge. Was a little worried they'd not let him up but eventually they allowed him to go through. I managed to *keep* the photos I took from the top and not delete these! See under the cuts.

( March 20th 2009 - NYC Day 3 )

( Grand Central Station )

( Question for Superman movie fans )

( Empire State Building - view from the top at night )

Flew from Heathrow to JKF. Me and Phil thought our seats were behind eachother but turned out our seats were together - hurrah! nice surprise :) On the plane watched an episode of Doctor Who and the movies Pride & Glory (violent! fell asleep through most of it) and How To Lose Friends & Alienate People - there were two extra scenes that were not in the UK theatrical release - One was an imagination sequence of Sidney getting applause from the office staff after telling Clayton 'won't you have to run that kind of decision through Eleanor first?' and at the 4th July party Sidney bumps into the actress Rachel Petkoff [sp?] but this time she ignores him. Oh and the whole 'Are you gay?' interview was cut out. I wonder if I was watching the US theatrical release? or if there's a version just for showing on airlines?! (I suspect not).

Arrived at JFK and in the space of 2 metres at arrivals exit got hassled numerous times by touts offering taxis/transportation. Thankfully we'd booked ours in advance. Got to hotel, checked in, ate and in the evening went to The View revolving bar @ Marriot on Times Square for the views...

( March 18th 2009 - NYC Day 1 )

This will be my last post for at least 5 days as in 11 hours time I will be on a flight to NYC *squee* I don't know if I'll get any access to a computer whilst am out there but it won't be my priority to be updating till I return. Gonna make the most of the time I'm there to sight see. swankyfunk looking forward to meeting up :D See you soon.

( March 17th 2009 )

^ The London Studios. Went to a filming of the Justin Lee Collins Show soon to be on ITV2. No idea who the guests would be beforehand but turns out we got lucky because we had two former Doctor Who assistants - Billie Piper and Catherine Tate :D yay! I've actually lost count of how many recordings I've been to that have involved Tate and/or Doctor Who in some form. Show was fun and amusing. Collins is a great host :)

Right back to finishing packing. See you all in 5-6 days time...