Alan Barnes

Fine, see that I care, it just leaves MORE WESTERNS FOR THE REST OF US

All American television comedies. Even that one you think I should try because it's different, no really. Even The Simpsons. Especially The Simpsons. I don't understand them, I don't like them and I don't care.

I thought you were unreasonably allergic to Westerns?

Excellent! Crossed over while I was FFWding through House that Jack... (not a chore). Thank you!!

Absolute LEGEND – it's the main speaking panel in 'Jack', gets loads of close-ups. An episode I've seen many times, no wonder it looked familiar!

Cheers. Here's one that I don't think is on your blog: the 'scaffolding' in Master Plan 2 turns up in Power 4 and also in Underwater Menace 2.

Could be either TBH.

Driving me mad: where else have I seen this very distinctive Underwater Menace panel? All help gratefully received, but I've made lots of wild guesses already. @doctorwhoprophunt.bsky.social ?@zoesfeatherboa.bsky.social ?

A British artist taking vintage synths to Vienna? It means something to me.

If you're not following Corruption of the Daleks - the latest #DoctorWhoMagazine strip from @senrabnala.bsky.social - then you're missing out on some absolutely TOP NOTCH #DoctorWho. This issue's cliffhanger... 😮😮😮 Absolutely sublime!

That was exactly what the style guide always asked for. The Mutants aka was only ever used as an absolute last resort - eg, lists.

Presumably the reason why Prince isn't on the list either. Surely 1999, or Purple Rain? But no.

... and Tom looks like Jimmy Cricket.

How Blake's 7, or specifically Paul Darrow, disrupts film editing theory.

Exactly. Once upon a time WHS shelves were the only advertising you needed. But what do you do when the billboards have gone?

We need mags in bookshops. Digest format. Compilation quarterlies with margins worth promoting. Lifestyle not so much, but sport, hobbies, entertainment, history could all work.

If it's one of the Paddy Russell episodes, it's No Such Thing as a Vampire! (The other PR exists.) SHRIEK!!!

Well that's made my day. So glad you liked it.

Cover art for DOCTOR WHO THE IMPOSTERS from Big Finish

JL2 The Imposters. Like the brilliant Kaleidoscope, this has a fun, bold, comic-book feel to it, that both captures S11 & brings its own wildly imaginative, witty, & eccentric style to it. Too many highlights to list in full; plot, ideas, twists, performances, production, all outstanding. Loved it.

The road to hell is paved by well-meaning cranks, as the saying almost goes.

Nothing more hilarious than handing Putin Europe on a plate by abandoning our independent nuclear deterrent, literally the only thing that makes us remotely significant in modern geopolitics. I despair. Often.

Economy of storytelling is the reason why Tintin remains hugely popular, and has translated so widely. Left to right, action carrying you from one panel to the next. Nothing flashy, nothing very close, largely flat with no clever angles. It's so simple, but so brilliant.

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.

It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

Bless you. I really enjoyed writing Witches - my only Adric!

I've often thought the world needs an index of pop video directors, locations, everything.

This one is bonkers even by my "standards".

Blimey, checked the BBFC website myself and the memory does indeed cheat. Certain it made me very uncomfortable on my own - and it only lost 18 seconds, so I daresay a lot of the sex and violence was still there!

... and we didn't even HAVE a phone.

I remember accidentally seeing this at the Barnet Odeon in February 1981, in a half-term matinee double-bill with Battle Beyond the Stars. I was 11. I hadn't realised it was a AA when I went in, I was genuinely terrified they'd phone my Mum when it finished.

I was reading a load of your archived Buffy episode guides just last night! (I've been watching Season 2 on for the first time...)