Category: Sci-Fi

In need of a blog post, Who to turn to?

I have several posts in draft form, but they haven’t come together yet. Besides being busy with real-life stuff, I’ve had my mind on things other than this site; although I did update WordPress to the current version, and for the first time I was able to take advantage of the automated update script, so it took all of five seconds, with no ill effects, as far as I’ve noticed. Amazing.

The Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, is available on Netflix HD streaming. I’ve watched half a dozen installments from the first season, and it looks and sounds great, but so far I’ve been slow to warm up to the series. I’m doing better getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and Karen Gillan as the new companion, Amy Pond, is definitely a major asset to the series. So, stuck as I am for a blog post, I’ll embed these webisode videos that Bismo pointed out to me.

Season 5 of Doctor Who isn’t available for free on Netflix yet, but Amazon has it. Paying $12.87 to buy — not just rent! — all thirteen episodes is a bargain, but with a $10 credit from a previous purchase, I procured it in HD for only $2.87. A measly 22-cents per episode! And as Bismo has seen, played with the Roku HD-XR on my Panasonic 720p projector, the picture quality is stunning. Who needs Blu-ray? Who doesn’t.

Demon run

Here’s a 50’s sci-fi/horror movie I’d never heard of, but to my surprise Eric knew what it was in an instant — Night of the Demon. It’s also known as Curse of the Demon, and we caught only the last few minutes of it on Turner Classic Movies, so I’ll be watching it here for the first time. But first… It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is on again. But why does Charlie Brown keep saying, “I got Iraq?”

A 50’s X-file

Minutes ago, on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), I finished watching a movie that I’ve wanted to see for years and years — X the Unknown. It’s from Hammer, the English studio that’s best known for its Gothic horror movies with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. X the Unknown is a typical “monster appears and must be destroyed” flick, but with an intelligent script and understated performances, it’s way better than the plot would suggest. Here’s the whole movie.

Whose theme is Who?


Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

I’ve been trying to get back to Dave Dexter, Jr. and the Beatles, but I got distracted by a renewed interest in the fascinating history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme. This is Delia Derbyshire’s stunning, shimmering production, which includes the famous sound effects for the show.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JUL/DoctorWho1963.mp3]

Snippets of sounds and music by Derbyshire and the workshop have been collected by the BBC into a Flash player that you’ll find at this link. It’s all too easy to make the sounds overlap, so be quick with the stop button, and watch out for the clips that loop. Here is Murray Gold’s fantastic, powerful arrangement and orchestration for the new Doctor series in 2005.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JUL/DoctorWho2005.mp3]

If this subject is of any interest I’ll let you find the same sites I’ve been looking at, but one favor I should do for you is assemble the pieces of a 2003 BBC documentary on the Radiophonic Workshop, called The Alchemists of Sound.