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Sunday 2 December 2018

Doctor Who 11.9 "It Takes You Away" Review

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The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) et al land in Norway this time; as Graham (Bradley Walsh) admires the fjords and asks if that is one in front of them.  He's always wanted to come to Norway, amongst other things and places.  The Doctor Sonics some sheep and says they're still in 2018 so they're lucky, the sheep aren't fighting humans yet as they will do so in the future.  That's all we need, as if humans being sheep isn't enough.  Perhaps that's one of their gripes.  Ryan (Tosin Cole) notices a cabin in the distance and the Doctor heads towards it, but it's been boarded up.  Yaz (Mandip Gill) pointing out it's been done that way for protection, to keep something out.  Ryan spots someone looking out, with his perfect eyesight, er which window/door was it?  Ha.  The Doctor has the Sonic on the go and they should check, just in case. 
(NB Justin Case - the name of my next character, it's so versatile!! ha.  Copyrighted to me and all that!) 

Inside they find Hanne - a blind girl and Graham offers her a pickled cheese sarnie - he keeps plenty of those.  After they've eaten Hanne (Ellie Wallwork) says her father, Erik (Christian Rubeck) is missing and the 'thing' takes you away.  As they hear noises, the Doctor takes drastic measures and says they should search around.  Ryan and Yaz find dead birds in the barn and bear traps, as the noise comes closer.  She says they should protect the house and sends Graham into the attic to act as lookout.  Wow must be a first where the attic wasn't as spooky as most are in real life and TV.  He looks at a mirror and finds he doesn't have a reflection, as Ryan heads up behind him and scares him, commenting they should know if they're vampires.  Graham puts his hand through and the Doctor pulls it out, once again using the Sonic.  Graham tells her he didn't get lured since he didn't offer it his credit card or anything.  She decides it warrants investigating, especially if her father might be in there.

The Doctor writes on the wall that Ryan should assume her father is dead, amongst other things and Ryan should stay behind with her, obviously she wasn't around when Ryan mentioned how Yaz was good with her and he couldn't be with children.  But suppose the writer wanted to explore that a little further.  As the three of them head through the mirror.  Did anyone think of the mirror in A-Ha's Take On Me video when the Doc put her head through and walked in, well I did.  (Uh-oh A-Ha being Norwegian too!  ha - sorry).  She ties some string around a rock as breadcrumbs to follow back (as I clearly said Hansel and Gretel last week).  Graham spots a light and they find a Grinch-y type hobgoblin creature with a hideous name akin to Rumpelstiltskin, but more Norwegian sounding!  Okay it was neither, but still anything would've been better than Ribbons of the Seven Stomachs (and what's with the number 7, mentioned twice in this ep.)  He will tell them if he saw her father and a monster but it will cost and they have nothing to trade.  As they also ask for the light. 

Ribbons (Kevin Eldon) then sees the Doctor's Sonic and agrees to tell them in exchange for it.  She wants answers first and he tells her he'll take them where he is.  As well as threatening Graham with a knife.  She  agrees but payment will be on delivery and he has to leave the knife.  Obviously he'll have another one.  As they carry the light, a red balloon lantern; a moth is attracted to it and Ribbons throws a dead rat at it.  He says he has meat to distract it otherwise it will signal to others.  He also cuts the Doctor's string.  As more moths do attack and the Doctor tells everyone to stand still as Ribbons told them to move so they mustn't.  Ribbons is attacked by the flesh eating moths and they leave.  Finding a way out of the mirror.

The mirror being a portal.  Did you notice the Doctor's and Graham's hair partings were now reversed as though they were in an alternate mirror image or reality and Erik's T-shirt lettering was also back to front.  He was hiding out here as he came to see Hanne's mother Trine. (Lisa Stokke) Telling them this is the only place he can be with her.  He left Hanne behind and Yaz and Graham both want to take a swing at him.  Trine tells them about their 'friend' who arrived here when they did.  Graham finds it's Grace (Sharon D Clarke) and they talk of her frog necklace that both he and Ryan brought for Christmas as they didn't consult each other and she loves frogs.  Also recalling she was killed by that thing on the crane.  Graham tells her he's been to another planet and he's seen things.  Funny she wasn't much interested in Ryan and of course if that was the real Grace, she would have been.  But also that Ryan didn't get to see her either.

Yaz and the Doctor notice the room is different and they can be seen in the mirror reflection.  The Doctor now gets it.  The cave was an anti-zone as Ribbons told them and it separates their universe from this world.  Also recalling what her fifth grandmother told her, she had seven of them and one said that one of them was related to the Zygons.  She told her about the consciousness, the Solitract which had to stay separate from their world.  Well, watch it for a better and more interesting explanation of this.  Meanwhile Ryan goes outside and finds the wire he found inside leads to a speaker which is playing the sound of the monster.  As Hanne knocks him out by shutting the door on him and taking the key to the attic.  She goes through the mirror and finds the others, after Ryan catches up to her and they pass Ribbon's DB.  However Ryan doesn't go through, typical.

The Doctor tells Graham that isn't Grace and he says he needs to help Ryan.  Eventually realizing it's not her since she'd want him to help Ryan.  She wants Graham to stay here and the Doctor tries to convince him otherwise as Yaz is expelled back through the mirror.  The Doctor also tells Trine that Erik is worthless and she should keep the Doctor here since she's seen the universe and could tell her about it, getting Trine to expel Erik too.  Yeah - go be a father!  As their world begins to collapse she says she needs to stop otherwise both worlds will be destroyed.  The Doctor ends up in a white room where she sees a frog on a chair.  She likes frogs and so became one.  The Doctor tells her she needs to go back and the frog eventually lets her go; as the Doctor says they'll be friends forever.

Erik and Hanne will return to Oslo and Graham sits by the river.  As Ryan tells him he misses her too and calls him "grandfather."  Which took a while coming and Graham wants him to repeat it.  Funny part where Ribbons grabs Graham and he tells him he smells like wee and he replies it's not his.  Then again he does the same for a second time and Graham tells him he smells even worse!  As well as his other line of how some maniac could be keeping children's shoes, as Yaz remarks there are children's shoes in the cabin.

The anti-zone is a "protective buffer designed to keep threats at bay."  The Solitract, which is what the Doctor says she met as a frog at the end, is a "whole conscious universe" going back as far as ever, and it's alone.  Thus all the so-called 'subterfuge.' 

Guessing Erik didn't take Hanne with him as he was afraid she would recognize Trine for who she really is, as she did so when she heard her, okay that's a stretch, but as the Doctor says it couldn't stand the strain of having so many people here before it started to buckle under the pressure, so probably one reason why he didn't take Hanne there too.  It wasn't the life for a teen though was it, forever being around her parents in their own little world with nothing for her to do.  Also the frog probably alluding to another fairytale.  Though the Doctor meeting someone she knew would've been unlikely in that it would've been too rushed as a finale and also the flesh eating moths were most likely a defence for the Solitaract in not allowing anymore humans to enter the other 'realm' thus upsetting the balance and collapsing altogether.  That would've also taken out their own universe too.

An ep dealing with loss and facing up to it and on a jolly note, the Doctor says the sheep have vanished and are probably off plotting somewhere!

Saturday 1 December 2018

Wedding Poem

When I was born an age ago
I strived to achieve the best 
With each passing moment, day, year, I grew
I was nurtured, learned many interesting notions
Life was there for the taking, no longer limiting what could be dreamed, attained
Longing for something, someone to pull me out of that mire of loneliness
Someone with a beating heart, a ticking soul, some kindred spirit
Love was just a word
One syllable uttered to family, close friends
But that special someone was eluded, always excluded

Balancing all thoughts, pondering true affection, a momentary lapse in judgement 
Where fleeting consensus closed all doors to the possibility of tender thoughts
Every turning point, every fixed mark in the night sky was some distant star
Evading all depths of tenderness and finding that perfect soulmate
Carefree and loyal only to me

Reverence clutched at straws and banging fists at ghostly apparitions that teased a life so full of promise
Only to fall and falter by the wayside of endearment falling on deaf ears
Destiny shrivelled and did not grow as a forest full of trees
For the forest was dark and each one shrub was all the same deep down
That one bloom of a fragile flower trampled underfoot by folly and cruel treachery

No feelings of desire, longing or lust until I met you
That memorizing smile, the beating fastidious heart, memorable gazing eyes
Capturing my all, through me and into me, piercing my very veil of existence
Until the very core of those emotional feelings were no longer resisted
On bended knee I gave my all, swallowed pride and gulped with courage

Will you marry me?  Let us make whole and one this very lifeblood and 
Become we, not I, in this mortal coil make our special intimacy be realized and endure the oceans of our future waves yet to be made
Swing the pendulum of caresses, conjuring beautiful magic 
And a fate yet to pulsate with our monstrous desires 
Fulfil each day as a wondrous couple with resonating nuptials...

Ring true, ring fierce ecstatic happiness
Bringing to mind, to mortality an untold religion of infatuation
Passion strike deeply and entirely engulf this union of two
Of exceptional fondness and hold us faithful unto thee alone
Man and wife conquered only by us alone and by love endlessly

Wednesday 28 November 2018

Ghost Adventures 17.4 "Tintic Mining District" Commentary

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Ghost Adventures lately seems to get even more connected to other eps and investigations from the past and this one was no exception.  Some kind of weird synchronicity yes, but also as if the 'powers' that be (good or evil) appear to always lead them onto another case or location which has much more sinister happenings and occurrences, or more of a purpose to them being there.  It seems to find them out just to add a more darker gravitas to the investigation.  What started off as a 'simple' scratch simple, call it, straightforward investigation about another mining town, after an invite from the town of Eureka's Mayor, turned into something more prepossessing and evil.  With the paranormal investigator, telling them about the Fitch Mansion.  How he was attacked there and how there were some form of rituals taking place there.

Leading them to agree to a ritual with the owner, Billie and her friend, Ted.  Who already appeared to be 'crazed' out from whatever he's been conjuring, as she explained to Zak about his past behaviour.  It felt more than just coincidental, them ending up here of all places in the town.  Also if you are into rituals, not fully willing to talk about them once on camera, why agree to be filmed, or were they looking for new bait and initiations to join them?  You know, free advertizing for whatever they're into.
Then lo and behold we get Alaister Crowley again, as mentioned in the Westerfeld House ep (see link to my review below) and also Jay's reference to it in the Route 666 ep.

Jay and the others getting suspicious of this Ted with Jay adding that a ritual needs to be done properly; but it seemed Ted was either testing them (their patience?) or rather hoping something would go wrong deliberately, as Jay pointed out to him that he hadn't done the ritual right.  Yeah and that expression "moth to a flame" was shown physically actually taking place... as the moth was drawn to the candle flames but didn't burn or die.  then the stick figure next to Ted and how he knew it was there.  As well as him having a creepy look on his face when Zak played back that EVP with his name.  After he asked "what name are you connected to?"  I thought it said "Zak Bagans can ask that or can't ask that.."  It's three syllables.  At first it sounded like "summoned me" but he wouldn't and couldn't do that.  So it could be the entity was saying perhaps he was invited and only Zak can say why; or in the sense of being fooled into thinking this entity was manipulated by Ted to say this, particularly as he knew where the stick figure was exactly.  Plus the way Ted kept sniggering and laughing during the summoning ritual and afterwards.

Same with Billie telling Zak she couldn't sleep after their conversation and how he must've brought something with him.  Again kinda giving credence to the EVP of Zak somehow 'inviting' it.  At least that's my line of thinking and how I feel.  Billie's friend, who she said cut herself, but what was it with Ted wielding that knife behind Jay, it's even more suspicious of what happened to her girlfriend and cutting herself.  Did she cut herself willingly or was she made to do it?

Investigating the bank in town and getting the light anomaly on the stairs, I said it looked like it was going down the stairs too.  As well as the EVP with Billy after he was provoking there. Which sounds like, well what I heard, "I hurt this kinda guy tryin' to ? me up." The ? is something like 'beat' me or 'shame;' 'shit' me up? I need my headphones! The ? is more obscure sounding. Would explain the stuff being thrown or knocked over.

My niggle why they get reporters/journos on there who do very little and don't contribute much! Yeah it's for publicity, but do they really need credence from a sceptic, they've had years, ten to be precise; in proving the existence and amassing evidence!  Just like the one at Sailor's Snug Harbour  wasn't very good either and when they missed that glorious EVP, oh come on!
Where it says "unexplained laughter" the voice says "get the f**k out!"

Yeah going back a bit but I did tweet it then!

https://mila255.blogspot.com/2018/11/ghost-adventures-172-westerfeld-house.html

Sunday 25 November 2018

Doctor Who 11.8 "The Witchfinders" Review

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The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) ends up in medieval times or thereabouts as the TARDIS she says is sending them on unusual locations.  This time they witness a witch trial and a witch, so-called, being dunked until she drowns, thus proving she's not a witch.  What's the logic behind that anyway, you die, you're not a witch!  The Doctor reminding them not to interfere with changing history.  Though she did enjoy taking part in the apple bobbing, pulling out an apple.  Another thing she loves, of course this ep would've been more suited to Hallowe'en but never mind!  Getting back to the ducking, the Doctor dives in to save old woman Twiston, who says to her granddaughter that she will be with her through the wind, earth etc, a clue if ever there was one to what was happening, but she can't save her.  Lady Becka Savage (Siobhan Finneran) tells them she was a witch and the Doctor shows her the Psychic paper again (been using that quite a bit) to tell her she's the Witchfinder General.  In which case Becka suggests they should talk in private.  The Doctor agrees as long as there are no more deaths.

She takes them to her house and Graham (Bradley Walsh) recognizes they're in Lancashire as he sees Pendel Hill - scene of the witch trials.  He's been on the walk and he didn't see Bilehurst Cragg (apt name!) which they suspect means Becka must've done something to erase it from existence.  When they reach the Hall, Yaz (Mandip Gill) decides to check up on T but she didn't think of that before she came all this way.  When she finds her she's burying her grandmother and she gets attacked by a tendril (which reminded me of that scene in Supernatural season 13.17 The Thing ep with Dean (Jensen Ackles) and the tentacle! ha.)  Yaz beats it away with a stick.  At the Hall, they talk of what they are doing and Becka has killed 35 people by accusing them of being a witch.  They're interrupted by King James I (Alan Cumming) who was watching them out in the woods wearing a mask.  He looks at the Pyschic paper and tells her it reads Witchfinder Assistant, thus Graham must be her boss - being a man!  He says it's a flat internal structure where everyone has a job to do.  The Doctor confessing if she was a man she could just get on with the job and not have to defend herself or be seen as a useless woman. "These are hard times for women.  If we’re not being drowned, we’re being patronized to death."  James takes a shine to Ryan (Tosin Cole) who says he's in paperwork.  Which makes him like him even more!

When they get a chance they sneak out and search Becka's room, where she finds books on Satan, and plenty of hankies.  As Ryan finds an axe under her bed.  Thus there's more going on here than meets the eye.  As Yaz finds them and tells them about the tendril.  The Doctor analyzes the mud on Yaz's clothes and concludes it's just normal mud.  But she goes to see Willa (Tilly Steele) who tells her that her grandmother was a healer.  The Doctor saying she's a doctor too.  She's too frightened to face Becka as Yaz tells her a story about being bullied at school by Izzy and she just had to put up with it.  Willa can face her fears and face up to Becka or she can help them.

James shows Ryan and Graham his witch hunter box of gadgets and body parts and shows off the pricking tool which hits the mark on the witch and draws blood.  Ryan tries to talk him out of anymore killing; but they're not successful.  Though he gives Graham his former Protector's hat, who betrayed him and so he shot him, as well as giving Ryan all seeing eye to keep an eye on him.  They head out to the woods to find some more victims and as the Doctor searches in the mud which she finds is alien, she finds an alien species of some sort, Yaz and Willa point to her grandmother who has risen.  The Doctor adding it's the alien form "filling" her body, as she demands the thing she found and eats it.  More turn up.  The Doctor concluding she wants to fill her body too, but can't have it.  The others hear screams and find the Doctor.

As they follow after them, James arrests the Doctor for being a witch and being behind it.  She talks to him about seeing many things and she could tell him all about it if he gives her back her wand - the Sonic.  But he refuses, even mentioning his mother again.  As he did when he spoke to Ryan about her and how she died when he was young; being beheaded.  As well as Guy Fawkes trying to kill him, though he's not mentioned by name.  Ryan adding he lost his mother and Nan too; but they weren't killed, which makes things different.  However the Doctor tells James how he could've seen his mother if he wanted to, but he didn't. 
 "You can’t go hurting people just because you’re scared to face up to the darkness inside you, you have to be better than that."  He doesn't give in to her and the Doctor finds herself in the dunking chair.  As she tries to reason with Becka and find out what happened, she finds she can't.  Becka's eye bleeds and she doesn't have a hankie either.

The Doctor is dunked and finally Witchfinder Graham tells him to stop it.  When he does, the Doctor's vanished and comes out of the water later, saying she got some tips of getting out of chains from Houdini.  Becka tells her how she cut down the tree on the hill as it was obstructing her view and then she was afflicted by something she thought was the work of Satan.  She changes into the true alien, the Morax.  They were locked in the hill where the tree was and the tree was the lock keeping them in.  Which wasn't that hard to figure out.  They must fix the lock again to keep them in as Becka tries to revive her king.  The Doctor lights up torches from the fire which will stop them, as Willa wants to help.

The Doctor saves James from being killed and he burns "the witch" Becka as he puts it.  Thanking the Doctor for saving his life.  He wants Ryan as Protector, but Ryan replies he will be keeping his eye on him, as he returns the eye to James.  The Doctor telling James she doesn't want word of what happened here getting around and he agrees.  Explaining why there wasn't nay mention of Bilehurst Cragg.  He also sees the TARDIS along with Willa, who is going to become a healer too.

Oh what another Doctor Who baddie with a name ending in an "...ax"  Not very original! Neither was this Lady of stature actually chopping the tree down herself, otherwise she wouldn't have gotten others to do the dunking and also done that for herself too.  James preferring to travel incognito and Becka having a copy of his treatise 'Daemonologie' in her room, was willing to accept him for who he was and to undertake his work with him.  Though James was flawed in that this Lady was more acceptable to him in carrying out the killings, yet the Doctor as Witchfiner General was too serious a role for a woman to undertake.  Class differences there seeping through like the thinly veined mud aliens.  Those vampires from Doctor Who in Vampires of Venice the women being 'filled' by the Morax really weren't ha!  Siobhan Finneran of course was the dastardly O'Brien in Downton Abbey.

Monday 19 November 2018

Supernatural 14.5 "Nightmare Logic" Comments

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Not sure if some things here resonate from 2.20 ep of Supernatural What Is And What Should Never Be... since in that in the commentary to it, I alluded to Dean (Jensen Ackles) not having any wish granted and was just fodder for the Djinn to feed off in his alternate reality, there was nothing alternate about it in the longrun; but mostly what had gone before and plenty of wishful thinking on his part.
I also wrote of how everyone was forcing Dean to stay in that fantasy world of 2.20.  But Dean is the only one who can end this nightmare.  As I opted to use nightmare as opposed to another word as that's exactly what it was for him: a nightmare.  Almost never ending as he was made to relive this world where nothing was real.  Then here they used Nightmare Logic in the title.  Gosh was that my subconscious foreshadowing to season 14 (I wish! ha).  Actually what was with the title Nightmare Logic?  More logical to assume Dean is still reliving the 'nightmare' of having Michael inside his body.  That perhaps Michael is still there, or was there something more such as the Djinn trying to manipulate him into believing he saw something scary or nothing at all remotely about Dean or Michael?

The silly part of my thinking was that it was somehow some allusion to his experience in 2.20 and that somehow something that happened there will become an offshoot of this here?
I recall Jensen in one interview commenting on 2.20 where he said "...it [Djinn] basically gets its hands on me and sucks out what my innermost desires are..."  A mirror image repeat here since the Djinn did appear to do exactly that again here in 14.5 as he sees something drastic, or could it have been something else.  Something you're not quite sure about as far as Supernatural goes.

And ending with "...Dean's desire is that this life would have never happened for them, that they would have lived a normal life..." and what if this was possible.  One day, what if?  That's one question always asked and wonder if one day it may get to happen if the show ever draws to a close.
John Shiban on 2.20 remarked how this ep was  "a big twist in the whole genie idea."

Also in the previous ep to this Sam (Jared Padalecki) is on the phone talking about the knife dipped in lamb's blood and in this ep this is what they need but don't have to kill the Djinn.  Obviously it was always the nurse there was something surefire creepy about him, as well as him disappearing, conveniently when Dean was talking about Dad and his past.

Sunday 18 November 2018

Doctor Who 11.7 "Kerblam" Review

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The Doctor (Jodi Whittaker) receives a parcel courtesy of a Kerblam delivery robot and inside finds a message "Help Me."  She doesn't know where the message came from, other than assuming someone from Kerblam sent it, or who it's from as she's got TARDIS problems to fix.  Inside she finds a Fez as was Doctor Eleven's (Matt Smith) fave mode of headgear!  As Ryan (Tosin Cole) looked like he wanted to burst the bubble wrap.  So millions of galaxies far away and the good ol' fashioned bubble wrap is still in use!  She takes a detour to the planet and they end up going undercover as workers there.  All having to go through the mot so rigorous process of not being interviewed or anything, just going through some personal checks as they've come in by a special ship.  As the Doctor shows Judy (Julie Hesmondhalgh) the psychic paper and she knows the First Lady in person.  Thus getting more approval for the job.

They are each assigned loops which are colour co-ordinated to show what department they will work in, with the Doctor getting the janitor's position (which she should have taken with hindsight as she could've gotten everywhere without being noticed) but doesn't realize that until the end.  She swaps with Graham (Bradley Walsh) who had the purple packaging loop as did Ryan who says he's a dab hand at this after working in a store selling trainers.  Even saying they used to end up putting all sorts of things into the trainers, though he doesn't get a chance to expand on this.  At the packing site, they meet Kira Arlo (Claudia Jessie) who is content with her job, more like overjoyed really as they can't find much work and at least 10% of the population must be employed.  The rest is run by robots and is automated.

Yaz (Mandip Gill) works with Dan (Lee Mack) as he shows her the ropes and also his poster on the wall for being best employee.  He sent it to his daughter for her to put on her wall.  She sent him a necklace with 'Dad' engraved on it.  He doesn't get to see her much; but he takes two shuttle trips a year as they're expensive and he's saving for her to go to uni and get a better life than him and not end up working here.  As they speak they are constantly interrupted by the bot telling them to save the chitchat for their social time and to get on with it.  Yaz gets an order which is an antique lamp but Dan says he'll take it over for her cos she'll get lost there, as other workers have and he'll never see her again.  Juss like them.  Yaz decides to follow and sees one of the delivery bots make him vanish and then two come for her.

Graham meets Charlie (Leo Flanagan) who shows him what sort of work to expect and during the break they all meet up, with Kira and Charlie being friendly with each other, as he has a crush on her, which Graham tells him is obvious.  The Doctor meets with the manager and tells him how to be more respective of the workers.  Later they decide to break into his office and find that he has files that are locked and has a record of the missing workers, a paper trail.  As they hid in the panel earlier, until he left.  Julie catches them and they show her his paperwork.  She is adamant it's not her behind it and she should've known of this on the system but their names aren't there. The Doctor tells Graham she needs the plans of the place and Charlie knows they have some in the museum. 

Two bots take Kira to the dispatch floor and tell her there's a gift for her.  As Yaz, Ryan and Charlie go and look for her.  Ryan taking them through the delivery chute as it's the best way to get around.  They get to Kira but it's too late as she opens the box and finds only bubble wrap inside it.  She plays with it and pops it as Charlie tries to get her to stop.  She gets blown up.  The Doctor works on the first original bot and asks it to retrieve and deliver information for her.  Finding out the message was sent by the system itself.  As they head to find the others, Graham, Julie and the Doctor find the other loops and realize the workers were 'liquidized' by the system.

The Doctor then spots all the other delivery postmen bots.  It's as though they're an army.  Which is exactly what Charlie says they are and he has activated them to all activate at the same time, which is where the power was being drained to, with the momentary power shortages.  The Doctor realizing they are carrying bombs to kill the customers.  As she uses the original bot to reprogramme them and make them open the parcels and blow themselves up.  With Charlie not wanting to leave there.  Graham tells her to get them out of there as the Doctor takes the head of the bot and uses the Sonic to transport them away.  Helen says they can work here if they want to but the Doctor says they're freelancers.  As they leave, Yaz wants the Doctor to take them to Dan's home planet so she can return the necklace to Dan's daughter.  As Ryan stops Graham from playing with the bubble wrap.

With their piercing blue eyes, the bots managed to be suitably sinister in that puppet sense of the term and reminded me of those robots in Doctor Twelve's (Peter Capaldi) ep 10.2 Smile where the expression on their faces would tell you what would happen next, i.e the robots who communicated by emoji. 

This was another humanized story which deals with robots taking over jobs from humans and of course there's Julie's constant reference to humans as 'organics' until she finally changes at the end.  However was she not a human herself.  Charlie being an anti-tech terrorist who hopes his attack will ensure the people wake up to what's happening around them.  Which backfires as firstly he loses Kira and them shows little remorse for his actions, as he's still determined to proceed with the imminent action in the killing of others.  Claudia Jessie making another appearance after her excellent turn in ITV's Vanity Fair as Amelia Sedley.

Saturday 17 November 2018

Ghost Adventures "Graveyard of the Pacific. Cape Disappointment" Review

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"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains,
and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time."
                                                                           -HP Lovecraft

The last episode in the four part special and in some ways the best was saved for last.  This had a spectacular story and especially so close to Hallowe'en: that of Mary and her husband, Alexander, lighthouse caretakers who lived in the caretakers cottage.  Apparently Mary had an unfortunate death, was she killed, fell or committed suicide, at the edge of the cliff.  However they decided it was an accident as "accident" came through towards the end on the voice recorder.  Something I must admit was hard for me to agree with in lots of ways and for many reasons.  Yeah occupational hazard here.  If it was an accidental death why so much mystery, if that's the right word, surrounding it.  I mean, her letter saying her husband, "man was reading a paper in the next room..."  As if she was either setting him up for some sort of a fall, or if he really was a dark monster after all, exuding negative energy now as a spirit still haunting and subjecting others to turmoil.  Or she was giving up her meds to get better without them.  Thus perhaps she was disorientated, but why go near the cliffs?

As the psychic Wendy also felt a negative male energy stating it could be Alexander, as well as the spirits of Native Americans still haunting their lands!  Zak sent in Aaron to carry out a spirit box session to see if he could get any results and he got a female voice as soon as he entered which said "someone coming..."  As well as a male voice "you'll see."  Only heard the 'see' bit, but then that could have referred to 'sea' as opposed to the other visual see.  They went to the ship, The Columbia which was the last vessel to sail and carried out further research.  Before heading out to their lockdown.  When Billy was playing back the spirit box voices and Zak heard :" someone's coming" which to me sounded more like "I've ended it"???  Zak lost his temper and threw the Mel Meter across the room.  Before storming out.  He said that Mary's husband was channelling him and told Jay to get out cos he was questioning him and asking what happened to him.  The other voice is "I'm helpless" not "what happened!"

The sound man also saying their mics were affected by static and Zak eventually got rid of the bad spirit.  Before he headed back to Deathman's Hollow as the bodies of the ship Vandolia's crew were washed here; with Billy and Aaron.  Jay investigated the lighthouse with Aaron.  Zak thought he saw a dark shadow there but couldn't confirm it was paranormal or debunk it either way.  As well as seeing a light out at sea which could have been anything.  Inside the lighthouse Jay was using an old ship's radio from the 1950's which would have been used by ship's captains and he got a sound coming through akin to perhaps a distress signal.  Which I thought was pretty cool especially since that mysterious light seemed to have shown up at about the same time at sea.  SO could this have been a downed ship reappearing.  Or just some from of light phenomena which had nothing to do with spirits.

Aaron getting a voice as soon as he entered the Northhead Lighthouse and feeling like someone followed him up the stairs.  Male voice says "need to know."  The male voice said "the sea," not "you'll see."  Which is more about where she 'fell' and that voice sounds female, not male to me.  As Aaron is about to ask probably if that's where her life was ended.    This is deffo not 'coming', it's a 'd' sound not an 'in' or 'g' ending on the word!
Kinda spoils your enjoyment if you cling to a word or phrase the first time it comes through and then don't go back and decipher it fully even when it's been enhanced cos that does not sound like "someone's coming" at all and why say someone if everyone is saying it was her husband,

Later on the "you got it" sounded like Aaron so much that we thought it was him who actually said it and not some other male voice. The female voice in the lighthouse says "I'm back here."
Most of it doesn't make sense; it's as if something was pissing them about an distorting the real facts of what happened.

Friday 16 November 2018

Don Carlos - Rose Theatre, Kingston

                                                 Image result for don carlos tom burke
Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, is set in the Spanish Court during the 16th century, but to me it seemed no different than watching, say Shakespeare's Hamlet, in a tale involving so-called incest,
deceit, misunderstandings, manipulations and lies.  A tale most will hold synonymous to society today. 
The very first production staged by Tom Burke and director Gadi Roll's  theatrical company, Ara is a monumental production in itself. 
Don Carlos (Samuel Valentine) heir to the Spanish throne has feelings for his stepmother, Elizabeth (Kelly Gough) who share similarities in their free thinking of humanity and basic rights.  Carlos's long time friend, Posa (Tom Burke) who hopes to get Carlos to focus on the happenings within the Netherlands.  He's up in arms as Elizabeth I of England takes in the Dutch people and leaving the Netherlands to its own devices. 

The ending where King Philip (Darrell D'Silva) shoots the Marquis Posa as he takes on the responsibility and fault of being the one who wrote the letters to Elizabeth and not Carlos.  Carlos being distraught over his death, that of a great man and visionary.  Then the King is counselled by the Grand inquisitor (cue Tom again) wearing dark glasses and portraying a feeble man. 
[Of course the upshot of this is you can interpret this how you want, it doesn't necessarily follow you have to think along the same lines as everyone else.  But it was rather funny and perhaps my imagination playing on overtime; but I thought the Inquisitor was actually Posa in disguise and had been playing the king for all those years.  Especially since he came across as being rather full of himself, as if he did get one over him after all.]

Until Carlos decides he's leaving and says his farewells to Elizabeth.  A shot fires out and Elizabeth is dead!!  Of Course the Inquisitor is the direct opposite of Posa and regards religion in all its esteem, did he talk the king into actually ridding what he may deem "enemies of the state" of Spain (its Inquisition) and their thoughts of freedom.

But were they really in league with each other, Posa and the king, the king and the Inquisitor in getting his own way and disposing of the Queen, his wife, so he could now be free to marry the Princess, as was the implication there were letters passed between the two and perhaps they were having an illicit affair too.  Much deceit in the form of the courtiers too and the king's subjects and direct, loyal staff.

The costumes are very modern and dark and the stage is sparse; which is fine as the object is to focus on the dialogue at hand - of which there was plenty and not really the surroundings.  Tom Burke gives his usual performance of 100% and forgoes the role of Carlos for Posa which does do him justice in how he portrays the man trying to help his friend and steer him away from trouble when he could be so good for the Spanish throne in the future.

The rest of the ensemble cast includes Alexandra Dowling (Tom's co-star in The Musketeers - where she played royalty) as Princess Eboli. Jason Morell as Domingo, Vinta Morgan as Alba.

Many people I believe found it hard to stomach as quite a number left in their droves during the interval.  The play was long at about three hours, but I really don't know what they were expecting when they bought tickets, though granted some may have had trains to catch.  Others I suspect wanted the novelty to watch Tom (aka BBC's Strike) in person and didn't expect the heaviness of the script.  Though to be honest, yes there were loud moments, but I disagree it just all involved 'shouting' on the part of the cast, as some people have said.  If you put your mind to it, there was nothing difficult to follow or understand about it, still enjoyable viewing none-the-less!
Funny moment when Tom overstepped his mark on the stage at the end during the curtain call and applause!

Monday 12 November 2018

Ghost Adventures 17.2 "Westerfeld House" Review

                                              Image result for ghost adventures westerfeld house
Ghost Adventures still embarking upon the darker episodes in season 17.  As Zak says in this ep, they were drawn to this location of the Westerfeld House, San Francisco, California, just like some form of synchronicity, signs or clues, called upon by the spirits themselves and strange occurrences.  More than just a coincidence, yet there were some 'coincidences' which occurred here which could be termed allusions from past investigations and episodes.  Such as Goatman's Bridge - the Route 666 (2016) episodes and Raseda House of Evil (April 2016).  Particularly dark and compelling reasons for this investigation as it focused on the founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey.  The number of people who came to this house to perform rituals, including Bobby Boselie, the Helter Skelter Killer, and his connections with Charles Manson.  Bobby also lived in the house and left after fighting with Kenneth Anger and then associated with Manson.

Built in 1889, the house was home to a Hippy commune, Russian Tsarists.  A Russian colonel was assassinated when the house was a Russian Consulate.  Now owned by Jimmy.  Kenneth Anger, a filmmaker, who was associated with Anton also resided here.  His films showed Satanic rituals.  Zak explained to Jimmy about his museum and then noticing the seven foot tall model of the Westerfeld House in an antique store.  Cold spots around the house, the light switching on by itself were just some of the occurrences.  Including the table moving during an interviewing Kelly, whose girlfriend has nightmares.  He didn't talk about.  Also spoke with Lee, a tenant on the second floor.  Who told him about the influence of the house on people with drug addiction, or alcohol etc.  Zak is taken to the Tower where Anton kept his pet lion in the room, still visible are the claw marks.  The rituals took place there.

Zak also interviews Kevin via Skype.  Particularly about the ritualistic markings on the floor which were there before he arrived.  He did rituals where demons were called upon and felt them at the house.  Jay mentions the Thelema by Aleister Crowley.   He believed the theories Jay used at Goatman's Bridge and suggested they should do a ritual opening the Seven Gates.  Of course it's dangerous and Zak agrees to this but only opening a few gates.  Using a Sumerian book but not revealing its name.

Aaron feels he saw Anton, as a "white glow" in the same place where they felt the cold earlier on.  Billy's camera turns off.  Aaron also hears a deep man's voice, like a growl,"rarrr" that was creepy! Zak's walkie talkie goes off by itself.  Saw that orb/light anomaly when Jay turns around. Also there's a whisper, a disembodied voice it sounds female.  It comes through as soon as Zak stops saying, "light anomaly."  What's unusual is the voice is heard after the light anomaly goes in front of Jay and after he's already turned around.  Around the 23 minute mark, give or take ads.    Bummer but their loud music on that bit makes it alittle difficult to hear, will need enhancing!! Also the voice they hear downstairs says "'ope." After Zak tells it to make a noise.  Probably as in "nope" after Zak asks if someone is down in the hallway.

The ITC device in the Tower says:
"rage."
"living."  Billy also gets a reading in front of jay showing something was in front of him.  They carry out the ceremony.
"end."
"probably."
"around."
"passed" after Aaron says he can't go past it trying to go downstairs.Also capturing a light anomaly near Aaron.

Aaron's saying it to 'say your name'; "reply is "Sebastian."  You can hear the "tian" ending.
He asks: 'like what they're doing upstairs' when Aaron asks this, the EVP says "I don't..."  Not "it's over."  There's a clear 'd' and 'n' sound there.
One voice says, "what do you want?"
Second spirit replies "you" in a deep male voice.  The camera downstairs is knocked down.
Just before the camera moves, it appears there's something white that seems to obscure the doorway, see arrow, at around 33.5 minutes, but it could just be a camera frame as it's filming.


ITC shows opened gates: "2."
Zak: "this is the place where you will see will make us sick."  Zak says this like he's in a trance, almost subcomsciously.
SLS shows this figure on Jay:

ITC "spirit."  After Aaron and Jay see it on the rafters.
How was that anomaly shapeshifting into looking like a goat, it could've been a lion, or anything really.  I can't see it resembling  goat??

Zak's EVP sounds like: "I followed you up here..."  when he captures it on the digital recorder.

Jay is unable to leave the Tower along with Aaron, where Jay feels dizzy and something pulls his hair.
They close the three gates before leaving and get nothing further.  Though they did get psychologically influenced.

NB Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema: spiritual philosophy with its roots in Western esotericism.  "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  Love is the law, lover underwill."  Developed in the early 1900's by Crowley - English writer, magician and mystic.  As alluded to in Constantine 1.12 Angels and Ministers of Grace.

https://mila255.blogspot.com/2016/10/ghost-adventures-route-666-halloween.html