Saturday, January 29, 2005

Shallow's data-crammed mind

In Code Blue - Emergency Prilicla has to persuade Khone - the pregnant Gogleskan with extreme personal space issues - to allow one of the crew of Rhabwar to examine it.

Only Danalta and the accident-prone Sommaradvan Cha Thrat, it transpires, are remotely acceptable to Khone. Prilicla is pleased, explaining to it that Danalta is a polymorph who can take any physical shape required for the operation - only to find that Khone also has a terrible fear of shape-changers.

Luckily, the Sommaradvan shape bears a comforting resemblance to clay dolls made by Gogleskan children - and so Mary Sue Thrat finds herself centre stage despite a distinct lack of other-species surgical experience.

I think Prilicla should have instructed Danalta to take the shape of Cha Thrat. Khone would have been none the wiser.

Still to come - why Mind Changer would be even better if, instead of being made to retire, O'Mara was ignominiously sacked from the hospital for all the abuse and bullying he's been responsible for over the years.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Shallow and the form letter

I submitted a comment to the BBC website, expressing support for the decision to show Jerry Springer the Opera. I got a reply today which assumed that I'd sent them a boilerplate religious extremist's complaint about the programme. Why did I bother?

Watching it on tape yesterday, I thought Act 1 was great. Act 2 was rather dull once I'd worked out where it was going. There was a very characteristic bit of Stewart Lee phrasing in one of the captions - 'This act contains mock-heroic language...'.

The whole show made me think about how Buffy the Opera would work. Unlike Once More, with Feeling it'd be set in the Buffy meta-universe, so you'd have Joss Whedon as God, Marti Noxon as the Devil and a Greek chorus of representative fans.

Update January 29th: I find that at least one other person had the same experience. With the BBC, not the Buffy opera idea..

Friday, January 07, 2005

Mellow Shallow

New chillout music is essential for someone with as many resentments as myself. Recently I tapped a fantastic new lode in Air's Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie. I have only one complaint. Alpha Beta Gaga on the latter album reminds me irresistibly of the theme music to the 80s arcade classic Dig Dug.