Cyberclogs

Well Xmas TV has been a bit crap as to be expected of late, but there are of course a couple of decent things here and there.

I can't fully say one of them was the Doctor Who Christmas Special, Voyage of the Damned, it was OK, fairly entertaining, but it slapped of more silliness, cheesniess (if there is such a word!), and some rather poor writing. As a bit of plot, The Doctor lands the TARDIS in a space cruiser called the Titanic, where humans of different classes are on a voyage to Earth, and the ship is manned with golden robots, and a demented Captain (Geoffrey Palmer) who crashes the ship into three meteors, leaving things rather damaged, and the Doctor, with the aid of waitress Astrid Peth (Yes Kylie) to save things.

To be fair there are some fun moments in here, the Doctor makes fun with the whole disaster movie setting and turns things round just when you think there's no going back or hope (well OK he is the Doctor!). I also liked the theme of how Earth's Christmases are always bad, as they've had 2 alien-invaded Christmases in a row, so the people evacuate and go to the country to get away from it all. Its nice little bit of ongoing continuity. But the writing I have to say here is pretty naff, Russell T Davies, might as well have phoned the script in for this one. It features some of the worst dialogue I've heard yet in the programme especially Astrid's line "Things aren't so bad for Cyborgs. Cyborgs are getting equal rights now." Not to mention that bit towards the end with the Queen!! I mean come on!! The whole episode kind of left me feeling dissapointed it was entertaining I guess, but it just felt a bit lazy and lacklustre, come on Russell you can do better. Ahh well the trailer for the next series looked OK, essentially more of the same, but I just hope the dynamic of David Tennant and Catherine Tate doesn't ruin or make the show excessively comedic and camp again.

The other thing I did watch which was a bit more successful in my view was the Christmas Extras Special, which follows Ricky Gervais embittered character, Andy Millman, who is possibly England's grumpiest man, who is just not happy with his fame, mainly because he plays the lead part in a crass, broad comedy with catchphrases. The public love it or rather the wrong demographic of the public love it, which leaves Andy even more bitter and cynical, he wants to do something that will allow to flex his creative acting muscle and gain respect and integrity. But of course after he quits the show things kind of go pear shape for him, not to mention, his hapless but sweet friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen) who struggles far more to get any decent work as an extra, and also decides to give up and goes for any manual labour job on the go.

There are as usual some good fun cameos in here, especially Clive Owen, who plays a big headed exaggerated version of himself, and George Michael, wandering around Hampstead Heath looking for you know what, even Gordon Ramsay makes an amusing appearance. But the show has an underlying theme of poignancy running through it, as it really focuses on the struggle of coping with fame (for Andy) and the struggle of just hanging on (for Maggie). To be honest though I never really liked Andy Millman's character much in the show, he's usually very unpleasant and nasty to most of the people he meets, and he comes across as being too cynical and bitter for anyone to actually like him. David Brent I always found was a far more sympathetic and likeable character, as he did say offensive things, but at heart all he wanted was to be liked. Andy at heart wants to be left alone, yet ironically he also wants to be famous and rich, but he finds he can't have both. To be fair Andy does have some redeeming value and his friendship with Maggie is what keeps the show going, and keeps him from being a total twat. The show of course is also splendidly backed up by Stephen Merchant, who is hilarious as Andy's incompetent agent, and Shaun Williamson, playing a failed version of himself. There's a bit worth watching where they sell a mobile phone to a customer in the Carphone Warehouse!

Anyways that's it for now on the TV reviews. I'll wait and see if there's anything else on worth watching.