TV Review: Doctor Who, Season 16

Following from seasons 12, 13, 14 and 15, Tom Baker reaches the Key To Time season. All stories here concern the Doctor's quest for the six segments of the titular key, along with new Time Lady companion Romana. And how are the episodes? Well...

The Ribos Operation - This is a nice little episode. Although the overall "save the entire universe" arc is introduced, the specific story here isn't saving the universe, or a planet, or even a city. It's just the Doctor and Romana trying to extract a segment while a pair of con men attempt to fleece a warlord out of some money. It helps a lot that the supporting characters - the con men, the soldiers, even the local "soothsayer" - are all well-written, engaging characters. A few dodgy moments with a man-in-suit-type monster aside, this is otherwise a good start to the season. Four stars.

The Pirate Planet - The first contribution to Doctor Who from "Hitchhiker's" author Douglas Adams, this one is perhaps predictably over-the-top. The pirate affectations are amusing at first, but quickly wear out their welcome. Beyond that, there's not much left to recommend. Two stars.

The Stones Of Blood - This one starts out as yet another of those evil cult stories that pop up at least once a season, and it's not much of an improvement (except for the great character of Professor Amelia Rumford). However, half way through it switches over to a parody trial held in hyperspace. I found it an interesting change that helped out the overall story. Again, the monster effects don't work out (how would they show walking stones, anyway?). Three stars.

The Androids Of Tara - A step backwards here, as the Doctor and Romana get involved in a medieval-type power struggle which really doesn't have anything to do with the overall Key to Time arc. It's a lot of mistaken identity and body doubles, and while Tom Baker seems to be having a good time, and there's a fairly charismatic villain, the whole thing seems to be a bit lightweight compared to the larger storyline. Nothing actively wrong, just not what the series needed right here. Three stars.

The Power Of Kroll - This one really didn't appeal to me much. Not too many of these characters are particularly bright; there's a group of evil corporate types led by a clear maniac battling a separate group of primitive natives following a vaguely-defined religion based on the creature Kroll who seems to be as likely to kill off its followers as its enemies. Meantime, we get the Doctor and Romana slogging back-and-forth across swamplands (which also results in K-9 sitting this one out), getting captured by one side or the other. At least the blue-screening in of the titular creature is done better than the Loch Ness Monster from a couple of seasons back. Two stars.

The Armageddon Factor - This one starts out almost as cartoonishly as The Pirate Planet, but once the Black Guardian's minion, the Shadow, is introduced, things look up. Here's a villain that seems to be up to the Doctor's level, recognizing his enemy's faults and capitalizing on them. There's a lot of balls in the air during the middle section here, what with a collapsing time loop, hostages, brainwashed allies, and a bumbling Time Lord assistant, but somehow everything manages to hang together. A good ending to an overall successful season. Three stars.

So the overall season-long arc turns out to be a pretty good idea here, even if the writers did forget about it at times. It's not the best Tom Baker season, but it's pretty solid. Next season: a new Romana, and a season with some great highs and deep lows.

Austin Radio Actually Improves

For the most part, Austin radio sucks. Massively. And it usually just gets worse. But in the last couple of weeks, it has taken a couple of small steps forward - and one giant step backwards.

First, the good news. KLBJ-AM (NewsTalk 590) and KZNX-AM (1530 AM; ESPN Austin) now have FM repeaters at 99.7 FM and 104.9 FM, respectively. So now both of those stations come in with better FM fidelity than before, and if that rumored FM iPod upgrade comes through, I'll be able to listen to those stations on my iPod as well.

Next, the bad news. I mentioned in an earlier post about the worst radio show I think I have ever heard not named The Alex Jones Show. It's the Charlie Hodge Rock'N'Roll Halftime Show. KLBJ-FM took the sidekick from its morning show and gave him an hour at lunch to do very lame skits, chat constantly about "Cougars", do stunts like Homeless Karaoke, and basically annoy the hell out of me. Well, the management has apparently decided that the experiment worked, because they've now given him four hours instead, from 10am until 2pm. During this show, they do fewer songs than usual, so as to give more time for that special Charlie Hodge brand of "humor".

So now, KLBJ basically has few to no songs playing from 6am until 2pm every weekday. It's almost like they are the MTV of Austin radio - just basically giving up on music. Just another reason for me to stay far away from that frequency.

Movie Review: Dragons Forever

And the rebooted Jackie Chan Film Festival kicks off - with a fairly lackluster effort.

This is another of the romantic-comedy-meets-action-film mashups that Chan did during this period, with more of an emphasis on the romantic comedy part. It's also another pairing with fellow "Three Dragons" Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao (last seen together in Wheels On Meals). In this one, Chan plays a womanizing defense attorney (and, naturally, martial arts expert) defending a sleezy corporation (you know it's sleezy, because its chief is constantly smoking a cigar). The corporation is being sued by a woman being affected by pollution from one of the company's plants. His brilliant plan: he attempts to seduce one of the witnesses against the company, while he also enlists Sammo to seduce the plantiff, and he also enlists his psychotic friend Yuen to bug the woman (in order to find out what, exactly? That's never made clear). He doesn't tell any of them about the other plans, and so they end up stepping on each other toes (both figuratively and literally).

Since this is a typical romatic comedy, no points for guessing that both Jackie and Sammo end up falling for their respective targets, only to have things fall apart once their schemes are revealed. Eventually, however, Jackie learns that his client is in fact a narcotics manufacturer, and so the three team up to attack the refining plant. It's far too late to save this film, though, as we've slogged our way through eighty minutes of pain to reach this point, and the eventually action payoff, while impressive as long as it lasts, is far too short. Even a return appearance by Benny Urquidez (also seen back in Wheels On Meals) isn't enough to fully redeem this one.

You may want to give it a shot just for the ending sequence, but be prepared to give that fast-forward button a workout on your way there. Two stars. Next up: Jackie gives the gangster genre a try in Miracles.

A History Of "Brilliance"

John Dvorak, reviewing the original Macintosh:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.

Sad thing is, he hasn't gotten any better with age. He's still technology's first name in "wrong".

Enter The Return Of The Son Of The Jackie Chan Film Festival

Way back in the depths of history, I decided to finally plow through my nearly complete collection of Jackie Chan DVDs. So I scheduled my own personal Jackie Chan Film Festival, and I've been posting my reviews of the films as I go. I got off to a pretty good start, but things stalled out a couple of months ago. Now, I'm going to try to resume the viewing and reviewing.

But first, a recap - here are all of the Jackie Chan films I've reviewed so far, in chronological order:

Master With Cracked Fingers - 2 stars
Eagle Shadow Fist - 1 star
New Fist Of Fury - 1 star
The Killer Meteors - 2 stars
Shaolin Wooden Men - 3 stars
To Kill With Intrigue - 1 star
Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu - 1 star
Magnificent Bodyguards - 3 stars
Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin - 2 stars
Snake In Eagle's Shadow - 3 stars
Drunken Master - 4 stars
Spiritual Kung Fu - 1 star
Fearless Hyena - 2 stars
Battle Creek Brawl - 2 stars
Dragon Lord - 2 stars
Winners And Sinners - 1 star
Project A - 5 stars
Wheels On Meals - 3 stars
Police Story - 4 stars
Heart Of Dragon - 2 stars
The Protector - 2 stars
My Lucky Stars - 2 stars
Project A Part 2 - 3 stars
Armour Of God - 2 stars
Police Story Part 2 - 4 stars
Twin Dragons - 3 stars
New Police Story - 4 stars
The Myth - 3 stars
Rob-B-Hood - 3 stars
The Forbidden Kingdom - 4 stars

Whew - but, I've still got a bunch to go. Here are all of the Chan films not included above, with boldface indicating the films I intend to review. The non-boldface films are ones I've seen before and don't particularly need to see again, but I may get to them if I have some spare time:

Dragons Forever
Miracles
The Prisoner
Operation Condor
Supercop
City Hunter
Crime Story
Drunken Master 2
Thunderbolt
Rumble In The Bronx
Jackie Chan's First Strike
Mr. Nice Guy
Who Am I?
Rush Hour
Gorgeous
Shanghai Noon
Rush Hour 2
The Accidental Spy
The Tuxedo
The Medallion
Shanghai Knights
Around The World In 80 Days
Rush Hour 3

Now.....begin!

Those Boardrooms Are Pretty Kinky Places

This Explains A Lot

Current status: sitting in corner, twitching nervously, wishing I could unsee this...



I'm not sure what's more embarassing - this video, the fact that they then went on to lose to K-State by 48 points, or their inevitable upcoming loss to Baylor.

Next time the Horns get me down (and I'm looking at you, Greg Davis), I'll just try to remember - it can always be worse. Much worse.