The Waters of Mars; Edward Woodward

[infinitemonkeys]

I thought The Waters of Mars was really good. Fantastic, in fact, if you're happy to do some Olympic-level handwaving about science and suchlike. And what's more, good and dark, in the more interesting sense of the word. It wasn't dark for the sake of it and it almost entirely escaped from the "woe is me, I am so emo" vortex. I can't believe they

Comments

[timesink]

Boyzone or Ronan Keating,

I don't even know who those people *are*, and that interview is still heartbreaking.

Also sad: Edward Woodward. I watched every episode of The Equalizer back in the day, and he was awesome. Hey, it's on DVD. Hmmm.

[infinitemonkeys]

It is heart-breaking. I always thought Boyzone were a drippy knock-off of N*Sync but you wouldn't wish what happened to them on your worst enemy. He was only 33 and he seemed like a very nice lad.

As for The Equalizer, it would be interesting to see how it's aged. I just watched the titles and the theme music is still excellent.

[timesink]

As for The Equalizer, it would be interesting to see how it's aged.

Yeah, that's why I hesitate sometimes to go back and revisit things I haven't seen in a while. Sometimes they don't age well (hello, Star Trek TOS and your crazy attitudes towards women!). But I might still love them anyhow.

[veejane]

I am impressed -- I've heard the name of the capital of Dagestan on the radio but have never seen it spelled out. (Whereas, I saw Ljubljana in print a whole bunch of times before someone obligingly pronounced it for me.)

I love Edward Woodward! In that way that if I were to be walking down a dark alley, and see him at the other end, I would run toward him rather than away. I think I first saw him in Breaker Morant, about which I understood exactly nothing although looking back at it I have to imagine its politics were more than a little bit dodgy. I just remember him and Wossname the Actual Australian, the tall froggy dude, how they held hands on their way off to be executed.

[vonniek]

Bryan Browne! Who I also liked quite a bit once upon a time. I haven't rewatched Breaker Morant in ages but Edward Woodward was lovely in that. It's the role I remember him the most in, rather than Sergeant Howie in Wicker Man.

[infinitemonkeys]

I still can't spell the capital of Dagestan automatically, I have to try to spell it and then look it up. Then try again. Luckily, we have the Eurovision song contest to help us with tricky European names.

I've never seen Breaker Morant and now I wish I had.

[vonniek]

Lindsay Duncan was fantastic through and through. I want stories about how Adelaide went from that 10 year-old girl to where she was here. I want stories about her daughter and her (presumably) broken marriage. I want stories about her relationship with the people on her base, especially about the marvellously fraught-seeming dynamic between her and her second-in-command. What a companion she would have made.

I enjoyed the last two specials for the fluff they were, but this one was on a whole another level.

Questions about Spooks -- I have watched the first 15 minutes of 8x03 (the one with the panic room), which made its way to the usual places on Friday night, and now I'm hopelessly confused about the schedule. I know the episodes airs on two different channels on different days -- is this the one you're talking about in the previous post? Or is it the one after that?

[infinitemonkeys]

Yes to all of that. I loved Adelaide.

I read that they had dialogue implying that Adelaide and the second-in-command had a bit of history between them, and that Adelaide had been using a bit of don't ask, don't tell with the relationship between Yuri and the wet-as-a-haddock geologist too but it all went on the cutting room floor.

The Spooks schedule is this: first-run Friday nights on BBC3 but not on the iPlayer; then repeated again on Wednesday on BBC1 and on the iPlayer thereafter. So 8x03 is the latest ep, and will be on BBC1 on Weds, then on Friday we get 8x04.

[vonniek]

I read that they had dialogue implying that Adelaide and the second-in-command had a bit of history between them

Yeah, you could glean something like that from their interaction. I actually liked that it was not explicitly spelled out.

Thanks for the info on the Spooks schedule! That clears things up. You've just made me very eager to pack it up at work early and go home so that I could watch the rest of the episode.

[leiliaxf]

oh! "The Wicker Man" freaked me out when I first saw it...oh, some time back in the 70s?? I was just a kid and it was very very creepy to me (especially Christopher Lee in drag and the whole "chop chop! chop chop!" thing with the crossed swords.

I'd even blanked on the name of the movie until I'd picked it up on DVD and watched it. When they got to the "chop chop!" part I about screamed. *shudder*

The remake was abominable, btw.

[infinitemonkeys]

I heard that the remake was all about "oh noes evil wimmins will end us all" so I didn't bother. The original Wicker Man is crazy and excellent and still pretty creepy when you're an adult.

Re: remake

[leiliaxf]

yeah, pretty much. Neil LaBute misogynistic bullcrap and Nick Cage overacting.

It was on cable and I was bored. Never a good combo.

[laurashapiro]

Excellent write-up, with bonus points for evil chutney.

[infinitemonkeys]

Thank you. I am in a state of wibble about the final two episodes. Such potential to be awesome, such an appalling precedent already set by RTD.

[laurashapiro]

I'm fully expecting the usual RTD combination: 60% awesomesauce + 15% Rusty's-crush-on-the-Doctor + 5% Tennant gurning + 20% last-minute epic fail.

If it doesn't have a Tinkerbell moment, I'll be very surprised indeed.