h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/4565339.stm
for John Barrowman interview....

Oh, Mina, you so *should* have kept watching?


>> Am I the only one hoping for Captain Jack to die a slow, painful death?

No! I want him oiled and brought to my tent! He's great eye candy, and a real excuse for stuff that takes the p**s out of gun-fest SF! Plus - as GB said - a cute butt! Thank you RTD.


>> Big Brother is mind numbing dross for the plebs and the Weakest Link makes me physically sick

But that's the bloody POINT! We are becoming more and more gladatorial, sucking people into reality tv, and screwing up their
psyches. I won't rant about it, but there is some very very disturbing stuff consumed in the name of entertainment. We are rats in a trap, pressing the buttons and pleasuring ourselves to death. It isn't even that complicated a point to make, rather trite in its own way - but it does say scarily unpleasant truths about us. I was glad to see RTD make it so blatantly. Shame it seems to have been too blatant for some.



>> "Captain Jack's hidden weapon"
>> No wonder he walked like John Wayne



I loved the power of the Dr saying 'no' to the either/or proposal. Shame he backed down and explained himself really, the ambiguity was much stronger.

Ben

Well said B

Bread and circuses, that's what democracy gets you. But the fact they used gameshows in existence made it seem rather stupid. I would have preferred something new, like Rollerball or so.

When did Rollerball come out? The mid-70s?

The point is that the reality TV and the game shows and indeed the makeover shows *are* destructive and damaging, and we do degrade ourselves by watching them.

In the 19th C religion was the opium of the people. These days it's tv. It numbs our pain. It's addictive. It stupefies us. It keeps us from hearing the sounds of our own thoughts.

Oh. Bother. I said I wouldn't do this particular rant and I have. Well, a bite-sized version of it anyway.

But the point remains that RTD decided to show us ourselves in our own terms. Cool dude that man.

Ben

Traveller in Time without a clue
"I think they did a great job in showing the 'reality' shows! I have seen glimpses of the actual shows, never bothered to try and figure out what they are about.
There was just enough information to get an idea how they worked/ will work.

I vote for 'Rose' as beeing the 'Bad Wolf' character

Did she actually ever deliver the collected money from the first episode?"

Ben we think we love you, in quite a powerful and nonsexual way(which is unusual for us). Thou art a soothsayer and veritas is the word thou spake!

Just for all the fans of bookmarks!

Ach, you can love me in a sexual way too, PollyandCass.

B

>Nothing is more scary than the mind numbing, nonsensical vitrifying crap that these programmes signify.<

Ben's already said it, but you think maybe that was the point? Jeez, talk about missing the point...

Just brilliant. The turning of the script on a knife edge from uneasy humour to full out extraganza justifies the rest of RTD's salary in one go.

Best moment for me was undoubtedly;

"But you have no weapons, no defences, no strategems."
"Yeah, and doesn't that just scare you to death?"

Whoever it was that wanted odds on a Viz Doctor Who piss-take, I don't think you'll get very long odds- DW was on the cover of Viz last week

Right then. That was brilliant. I didn't enjoy it properly the first time, due to being a lot tired and a bit pissed, but on re-watching. .

Is that the first time this series we've seen the Doctor be violent towards a human?

The Doctor's committed genocide before, he tried it with the Daleks (at the behest of the Timelords), and he succeeded with the Vervoids.

"They survived through me". I've been racking my brains trying to identify that voice. I've heard it before, and was anyone else sad enough to know that Rose was on a Dalek ship before we saw Daleks, just because of that sound effect?

<>

*Puts hand up*

Who else stood up and said "Wow! They've got the old sound effects!" and got strange looks from the non-Whogeeks in the room?

Now that's interesting.

Kerr, whose ness outshines mine by several miles thinks thats an 'old' voice, not just the updating of Davros' whinging tones, which is what everyone else is assuming...

For what it';s worth, my thoughts are in the spolier thread.

hands up*. Although actually it was more of a eye roll and a sigh.

I missed confidential on Saturday and thought never mind, I'll watch Sundays. Shame I never realised that Sundays and the Friday repeat is half the length of Saturdays.

If people are transmatted to a separate place, how come the emotional pile of dust after they have gone? Or are they going to a very dusty place?

Maybe the transmat (they called it a transmat not a teleporter! Woo!) leaves behind all the dead skin and dandruff...

Handy!

>>Maybe the transmat (they called it a transmat not a teleporter! Woo!) leaves behind all the dead skin and dandruff...<<

Oh boy - I want one! Gimme gimme...

Watched the confidential again to see if they still blur Capt. Jack's buttocks yup

[thinks] Why are all the gorgeous ones gay?

I thought it was good once they escaped, though didn't get why Lynda (with a y) explained the gameshows saying things like call my bluff with guns. Surely she should expect the doctor to know that they had guns?