Thermal

I post this segment up from the more modern (i.e. colour) Twilight Zone movie, as my wife has never seen it, and describing the gremlin on the wing segment gave her the chills!

You can see the first 10 minute part here, to see the setup and the gremlin tearing bits off the engine, but if you want to go straight to the part where the passenger goes out the window and meets the gremlin, watch away…….

This was an amusing ‘TV-film’ as I recall, although some segments were better than others. I’ve only recently found out, that the actor Vic Morrow was killed filming this, along with 2 child actors. They were filming a scene with a helicopter which flew too low to some pyrotechnics which went off, knocking loose the tail rotor. This then decapitated Vic and one of the children, before the helicopter crushed the other one. Horrible…..

Don’t have nightmares…….

I wouldn’t call myself Steve Coogan’s biggest fan, although parts of Alan Partridge were sheer genius, especially when he was living in a Travelodge-style budget hotel. It probably reminded me too much of my own life at that time, what with working away from home so much. But I have developed a soft spot for his latest series, Saxondale. The simple tale of a world-weary 1970′s Metal roadie, coming to terms with being a middle-aged Pest Controller in the 2000′s.

No big belly laughs, but some excellent observational comedy, coupled with some excellent moments where Tommy Saxondale has just had enough…

Now who hasn’t ever wanted to shoot some annoying so & so in the kneecap?

With the fourth and final series of Battlestar Galactica on it’s way this Autumn (enough with this ‘fall’ nonsense-what if you live somewhere with no trees?) I need to ask: Who’s going to watch it?

I still have to speak in riddles due to Pinksy still not having seen the third series, but whereas last year I couldn’t wait, this year I’m not that bothered at all – the last season finale almost completely ruined the show for me – too many questions that either can’t be answered or won’t be answered – there’s at least one character revealed as a Cylon, who cannot be a Cylon, unless we completely ignore their backstory. Bah.

I guess I’ll watch it eventually, just to see what happens, but I get the feeling that Ron Moore will play the smartarse and give us one of ‘those’ show endings, where you wish you just hadn’t bothered.

On a lighter note, here’s Robot Chicken taking the ‘frak’ thing a little further….

Apologies for the title, I’m trying to get some relevant keywords in…..

Dear lord, this one was top quality: Deluded, abusive, talent-less and and a face like a bulldog chewing a particularly unpleasant wasp…..

“Can I have a microphone? He’s just holding a stick over me….”

I feel sorry for some of the people who appear on this show, as they’re obviously not all there, or it’s their last shot at any kind of fame, but people like this get all they deserve. The scary thing is, there’s an increasing number of cretins like this in the UK, who think they’re top notch and the world owes them a living. Truth still hurts though…..

I try not to watch anything involving Simon ‘High-waistband’ Cowell, or Sharon ‘hic’ Osbourne if I can, but the audition stage of the X Factor is always good, if you enjoy watching mentally ill people makes fools of themselves on TV. Hey, the Romans had lions & Christians, we’ve got this.

Anyway, there was a sparkling debut from young Zoe last week, and it was truly terrifiying:

Oh nooo! Noooo waaaay!

Parents! Crush your children’s dreams now, before they reach this stage……

Bear Grylls, no not a wildlife barbecue (bet he’s never heard that one before) is a complete lunatic, but makes the kind of TV you can enjoy watching when safely tucked up in your suburban living room.

Check out his website for detailed information, but this is a man who climbed Everest at the age of 23 after breaking his back in 3 places, whilst serving with the SAS, and now gets parachuted into remote areas of the world and has to escape them for shows on Discovery, with only a knife, water bottle and full camera crew

Being the kind of milksop who gets nervous in the back garden at dusk, I always enjoy watching someone risk life & limb in hideously dangerous parts of the world, and Bear is obviously a double-hard bastard with what he’s done in his life. That said, should I ever get stranded in the wild, I’d rather have Ray Mears in my backpack: Bear was in the jungle last week, and spent the night laying directly on the forest floor getting soaked. Ray Mears would have constructed a 4 poster bed with nightstand and matching wardrobe out of leaves and beetle spit in the same time

If you want to see what Bear gets up to, check out the clip, interspersed with the comedian Harry Hill making some sage observations. Ladies, Bear gets naked about half way through…

For Bear’s next trick, he’s going to fly over Everest in a paraglider

There’s an old-school Dr Who reference for you. Mmm, Peri….

Anyway, what do you get if you cross South Park with Dr Who? This:

Created by an artist named Cyberbeagle, and found here, where you can view a larger version.

Here’s a question for you Dr Who anoraks out there (Pinksy, I’m looking at you), I seem to recall the Dr can only regenerate 12 times: If the the level of success is maintained, but the thesps keep leaving to avoid ‘getting typecast’ what do they do then?

I don’t watch a great deal of TV (let me qualify that-I watch hours of rubbish, but there’s very little I make a point of watching), but two shows that I really like are the new Battlestar Galactica (well, right up to the series finale which has probably killed off the chances of me watching it again) and Scrubs.

Always, consistently, funny I love the whole show, but have special regard for the quality of rants by Dr Cox (John C McGinley). I have always wanted to go off on someone the way he does. Although, in this clip JD gets his revenge…

Oh, I’m really feeling old now – The Simpsons are 20 this year! Mind you it feels like longer, as Sky One in the UK show about 25 episodes a day, every day (although it also seems like it’s the same 10 episodes on rotation), from now until the end of time.

Anyway, the BBC have this little Simpsons quiz you may want to try – I managed 8/10, I got the first and last questions wrong. I never realised that blue wasn’t Marge’s natural colour….

Things have changed!

Braniac is a light hearted ‘science’ show in the UK, where they basically carry out experiments in blowing stuff up. Think Mythbusters without the science.

This clip shows them playing with Thermite, which burns at over 2000 degrees celsius, and all of the way straight through a cars engine.

Don’t try this at home?