10 million people tuned in to watch the new, long awaited series of Doctor Who on Saturday. Of those, only about 6 of us seemed to be ‘bloggers and written a review on their weblog. Sort it out people! You’re geeks - stop trying to have a life and watch some low budget British Sci-Fi for a change.

LivingTV (or UKTV or UKTV Gold or Dr Who TV or one of the 90 billion channels that are now fed into my living room) had a Dr Who retrospective on Saturday. All day. It was interesting to dip in and out of in between whatever other chores I was doing as they showed episodes from nearly all the incarnations from Hartnell through to McCoy. The two things I thought were a) hasn’t Colin Baker aged really badly and b) they were like all BBC sci-fi, not as good as you remembered. Mind you, having met a couple of people who used to be involved in things like Blakes 7 and the like, I can totally understand that. Put it this way, unlike American TV shows where they could get divert budget from one episode to fund another, the Beeb used to say “Here’s your wardrobe and make up budget, all £7.94 of it. Spend it wisely.” Now if you only had 2 people to dress then that’s great - you had nearly £4 per person to spend. But if you had 10 people to spend it on, you didn’t get any more and you only had less than 80p to spend on each actor. BBC Sci-fi was a lesson in making do with what you’ve got and doing epic storylines with no money. Fortunately, in a lot of cases, the writing was good enough to hold it all together.

Now, back on topic. Yes, I watched the 9th reincarnation of Doctor Who. I liked it. It made me laugh and, above all else, entertained me. Christopher Eccleston was charming as the geeky new doctor who might have a relatively normal and trendy dress sense but has a maniacal twist to his alien eccentricity that totally sets him apart from his predecessors. He’s a doctor who actually looks like he’d enjoy a pint down the local (or, judging from the near permanent rictus grin that smacked of drug addled lunacy, down the local nightclub). The script made him laconic and not very prone to tedious exposition. Well let’s face it, apart from his new assistant, who doesn’t know about his Gallifreyan heritage. He was given some cracking dialogue too. The exchange between him and Rose’s mother was brilliant:

Billie Piper’s turn as the Doctor’s new assistant was surprisingly competent and she proved herself capable as an actress and on a par with the experienced Eccleston. Most of the episode focused on us finding out more about her and her motivations (which isn’t surprising considering the episode was titled “Rose”) but her defining moment comes during the rather lacklustre climax to the epsiode as brightened by Rose’s rallying cry as she attempts to save the day:

This is definitely a Doctor Who for the new millenium and it embraces the information age with gusto. It is self referential and witty in the same vein that marked out Buffy The Vampire Slayer from most of it’s ilk (although whether it will retain any of the Pathos which juxtaposed the humour and pop culture in-jokes of Joss Whedon’s creation is yet to be seen.) It still retains the camp and over the top nature of the old series (listen out for the Avengeresque riff during Rose’s heroine dash at the end) and the slightly ludicrous aliens (seeing Rose’s boyfriend getting eaten by a rubbish bin was hysterical) but rather than pretend it’s something it’s not, it embraces it with gusto. In the words of the new Doctor himself, “Fantastic!”

As predicted, slight problems with keeping count of the calories over Easter. Yesterday (Tuesday) I weighed in at 14st 13.5lbs - a whole 1.5lbs heavier than last week and more or less back at my starting weight. Not so good.

However, yesterdays return to the normal* (very limited) calorie intake coupled with a 5 mile treadmill workout at lunchtime means that this morning I am down to 14st 11lbs. So a pound loss in a bad week.

Most of the problem comes from the infusion of that nectar of the Gods, alcohol. A quick one or two glasses on Sunday quickly turned into one or two bottles. Each. So let’s do some maths:

If the wine was 12% then a standard bottle has 90ml of alcohol which equates to 71 grams (the specific gravity of wine being 0.789). At 7 calories/gram, a 750ml bottle of 12% wine has 497 calories. That’s more or less a meal. So 2 bottles is 1000 calories and that’s on top of any meals and let’s not forget the hangover munchies the next day.

Bugger. Better try harder this week.

(Reference: Allied Domecq wines

The other part of the conversation I had with my friend (and bear in mind we are absolute film geeks) was about how the recent UK film “28 Days Later” bore more than a passing resemblance to Day of the Triffids and several other films. I’ve always claimed that you could take pieces from other films, put them together and you’d have this film more or less in it’s entireity. Let’s take a look:

• Opening scene in Animal Labs: 12 Monkeys (stretching it a little perhaps)
• Jim waking up in an empty hospital: Day of the Triffids
• Jim wondering the streets of an empty city: The Omega Man
• Raiding the supermarket: Dawn of the Dead
• Escaping the city in the taxi: Escape from New York
• The Road Trip: Blade Runner (escaping to better things)
• Road block: Mad Max
• City on fire: Independence Day (clutching at straws on this one)
• Chained up Zombie, Slightly loony army commander: Day of the Dead
• Taking Jim out to the forest to shoot him: Miller’s Crossing (even though that’s gangsters and not zombies
• Fight in the Stately home: Resident Evil (the game, not the film)
• Escape to new life: Day of the Triffids again

The saving grace is that Alex Garland prefaced his screenplay with an acknowledgement that although it was an ‘original’ screenplay, lots of ideas were lifted from elsewhere. The hero, Jim, for example is named after J.G.Ballard who wrote several science fiction novels as well as more straightforward fiction. Serena, the heroine if you like, is explicitly stated as being black as a homage to George Romero’s Dead trilogy where the lead characters are all black.

Of course, while I enjoy the film a lot (particularly the opening scenes of the empty streets of London) none of these references help in making it scary. Let’s face it, Shaun of the Dead is a scarier film than 28 Days Later. (Anyone else notice the subtle dig at 28 Days Later at the end of Shaun of the Dead by the way? If not, listen carefully to the news broadcasts. Only one other person and myself “got it” when we saw it in the cinema. Or perhaps we were the only ones to laugh?)

The BBC’s marketing plan is clear. With the advent of a new series of CGI enhanced Dr Who about to hit our TV screens (that’s tomorrow for those who haven’t picked up on this), Auntie has obviously decided that now is a good time to scour the archives in search of all those old forgotten classics. In my excitement about the release of Day of The Triffids, I rang a friend and we reminicsed about old TV shows from the early 80’s and he mentioned that he’d tracked down the book of one that has also never been seen since; The Nightmare Man.

This is a series from 1981 that I think I only ever saw one of and it scared the crap out of me. So much so that I never watched any more of it but what I did see was burned into my brain from then until now. So I checked Amazon and sure enough it’s coming out for sale on the 4th April aswell. I can’t say I know much about it beyond the fact that it’s an adaptation of a Russian novel and is about a series of brutal killings that take place on a remote Scottish Island so it might be one to hire rather than buy.

Woah! I can’t believe it! One of the programs from the BBC that scared me more than anything else as a child (hey, I was only 8!) is being released on video next month. The BBC adaptation of John Wyndham’s classic novel “Day of the Triffids”, out on 4th April and available from Amazon for £9.74. (Incidentally, buying it from that link will earn me commission which will go to my movie making enterprises - but more of that later.)

Unlike the 1962 movie version with Howard Keel and Janette Scott, this adaptation is much more faithful to the original book. Like all pre-CGI BBC productions (and I’m thinking Blakes 7 and Dr Who mainly) this suffered from budgetary constraints and will probably look a bit dated and cheap these days. I don’t know - I haven’t seen it in over 20 years. It’s never been repeated to my knowledge - certainly not more than once.

But I never forgot the shuffling plants and their incessant clicking, the blind people wandering the streets or the post-apocalyptic visions of London. This was proper, intelligent sci-fi and even if you don’t buy it, you should watch it once just to see a classic bit of 80’s UK TV history. (Of course, it’ll probably turn out to be shite and I will retract this statement if that is indeed the case).

Gordon posted a rather informative link in his sideblog which I thought was worth mentioning here. It’s a beginners guide to running a 5k. It has some very good advice and provides a two month training plan but I know it would drive me nuts. Then again, I’m not exactly a beginner.

One thing I would add to it as a piece of motivation, however, is enter a 5km race. Now racing and being competitive may not be your thing but that’s okay. There’s quite an atmosphere at these events and to be entirely honest, the only person you’ll compete against is yourself. If you’re concerned about how serious people are about it, look for a “Fun Run” because it will be entirely that. You’ll get the serious runners but you won’t see them for dust. Everyone else running will be like you and only out for the hell of it and you’ll find lots of people egging each other on.

The main thing is that it will give you something to aim for and you’ll be able to get a proper recorded time for a measured distance. Completing it will give you a great sense of satisfaction and a bit of a buzz. (That’s the idea anyway.) If you do decide to enter a competition then there are two things you need to make sure you do:

1. Make sure that during your training, you run outside for some of the runs. It’s all well and good using a gym treadmill to do train on and the treadmill, although potentially dull, is great for getting to know what a particular speed feels like. But running outside is an entirely different matter and is generally harder to do but with greater rewards.
2. This is more important. Get yourself a new pair of decent running shoes. I don’t mean go down to one of those high street chains that will sell you replica football shirts and the flashiest, sorry, streetest branded trainers that’ll match your bling. I mean find a specialist running shop and go talk to the people in there. A new pair of running shoes are worth their weight in gold. Sure they’re expensive - you’re talking between £50 and £100 - but if you stick with your old daps that you’ve kept in the attic since school, or that pair of squash shoes with the hole in that were left over from the days you tried to keep up with your boss on the squash court, you will pay more than that in physio bills.

I’m serious about this. If you’ve been trying to run and finding that your back hurts or (and this is very common) your shins ache, then chances are you’re running in an old pair of shoes. Old trainers, especially ones that are well worn, don’t keep your feet in the right position while running and if your feet rotate in or out then this will affect everything from your ankle up. It’s biomechanics.

So save yourself the agony on both your body and wallet (most physios I’ve come across are between £35-£50 per session and it never takes just one session to sort you out) and invest in a new pair of running shoes before you even think about going running.

I’ve just re-read my review of Oldboy. What a load of crap. I really need to find my voice so that I can write reviews which sound, well, better educated and literate.

Never mind. I have the titles of three draft reviews sitting just above where I’m typing at the moment and I can practice on them.

We got our Sky installed yesterday and it’s nice to be able to watch TV without the snow for a change. Of course, I’ve now discovered the perils of 500+ channels after finding myself watching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation last night. What a disastrously poor film! Not that the first one was great but it was much better than this piece of shit. Of course it was good to see all the classic characters brought to the screen but what a waste. The direction was shoddy, the action was pathetic (apart from the mud fight between Mileena and Sonya Blade) The make up effects were terrible - Baraka looked like he’d just popped down to the costume shop to see what they had in.

Apparently the budget was 30 million dollars but I’ve no idea what they spent it on, apart from travelling to Thailand and Jordan. Everything else was so cheap. Effects? What effects? The game has better effects than the film! And what a waste of a story.

Now I know that this is a film from a video game and the rule is that flims with such origins have to be crap by law (although I did enjoy Resident Evil) but I love the Mortal Kombat games and have done since it was first released (more on that later). But this film is an absolute travesty. Still, there is meant to be a follow up this year which is being co-written by Drew McWeeny, better known as Moriarty of Ain’t It Cool News fame and hopefully with the leaps and bounds that CGI has taken over the last few years we’ll end up with something light years better than Annihilation.

We shall see.

I, ahem, forgot to weigh myself on Monday. Which is probably a good thing as I think the beer and pizza over the weekend didn’t help matters. Seriously though, Wales got the Grand Slam - what did you think I was going to celebrate with? Green tea?

Anyway, my weigh in this morning put me at 14 st. 12lbs. As it’s wednesday I should be about 14st 11.5 lbs so I’m more or less on target. This weekend is going to be difficult, with it being Easter. The chocolate isn’t too much of a problem as I don’t have a sweet tooth. It’s having roast turkey and all the trimmings, plus four days of invitations to the boozer which I’m going to have to be strong about. I can feel some lengthy runs ahead.

Training plan is same as last week with about 5kg heavier weights in each exercise. Still scuppered by a four day week though as don’t have access to a gym at home. Perhaps I can carry logs up a hill a la Rocky or something. Or possibly not.

We only gone and done it, boyos! 27 years of six nations pain leading to a climactic showdown against Ireland in the Millenium Stadium. The first time we’ve finished in the top three since Italy joined the championship and the five nations became six.

Despite an opening penalty score from Ireland, the boys in red dominated from the outset and punished their celtic counterparts severely for any of the mistakes they made and a marvellous opening try by prop Gethin Jenkins led to Wales notching up point after point (including a superb penalty from Gavin Henson from 52m - inside the Welsh half). Ireland pulled their act together in the second half but found the Welsh defence virtually inpenetrable and, despite a couple of well deserved tries, couldn’t impinge on the Welsh lead. Final score: 32-20 and the first Welsh Grand Slam since 1978. Cymru am byth!