The first recording today starts with the end of an episode of The Champions.
Next it’s a repeat of Space 1999 – New Adam, New Eve.
Media Centre Description: Intergalactic adventures of the space-travelling Moonbase Alpha team. An alien bearing gifts and claiming to be the ‘creator’ offers the Alphans a present they cannot refuse: a new Garden of Eden – Earth.
Recorded from ITV4 on Friday 26th September 2008 10:23
After this, there’s the start of an episode of The Professionals and the recording ends.
The next recording starts with the end of Rocket Boy.
There’s a trail for a new series of The Sarah Jane Adventures which is terribly exciting.
Then we have an episode of ChuckleVision – Et Tu Chuckle.
This one’s set in Roman Britain, and there’s an extending gag where every sentence ends with “us”.
They’re visited by Caesar’s wife who wants them to make a statue of Caesar. “I’d like it delivered by the end of the day and it’d better be good. Or you’ll both end up in the arena with the lion.” She’s very scary.
Paul messes up the head he’s sculpted, and Caesar’s wife is going to be coming back so they have to improvise by covering Barry in clay.
Everyone seems fooled by the subterfuge, allowing Barry to overhear Caesar’s wife and her henchman plotting to kidnap Caesar and take power themselves.
Caesar himself appears, played by Tony Aitken, who I think I remember most from N0 73.
Caesar and Paul are kidnapped and thrown into a cell.
Barry goes to find them, but keeps having to freeze. He fools everyone, and this centurion even hangs the cell keys on his hand.
They try the clay trick on all of them, and it almost works, until Barry sneezes.
Cue lots of running about until Paul is pushed onto a plank which catapults a statue onto Caesar’s wife and her goons.
Everything’s looking good for the brothers, as Caesar promises them untold riches, but the clay they’re covered with dries out and they can’t move.
Still, at least they’re still alive now, even if they can’t actually do anything.
Media Centre Description: Children’s entertainment with the Chuckle Brothers. Paul and Barry are stonemasons in Roman Britain. Courage is called for when they have to foil a plot to kidnap the great Caesar.
Recorded from CBBC Channel on Friday 26th September 2008 14:33
BBC Genome: CBBC Channel Friday 26th September 2008 14:35
The next recording follows on, and is another episode of ChuckleVision – Big Break.
The boys have been installing a snooker table in a very posh house. Paul is happy at the successful completion of a job without any breakages or damage.
They’re doing the work for Viscount Beauchamp (pronounced Beecham but Paul pronounces is Viss-count Bochomp). I was sure I recognised the actor playing the Viscount. At first I thought it was a slightly older Jeff Rawle, but no, it’s John Leeson, the voice of K-9.
They have to move the table into the basement. The room is a bit too small to usefully play.
Paul has a solution.
This was a supporting wall, and pretty soon, the house has suffered a little subsidence.
The boys try to help. Honestly, this compares favourably to Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
Paul drills a hole in the ceiling, but it drills a hole in the Viscount’s fish tank, so he improvises using a cue as a plug.
Barry brings some replacement lunch for the Viscount and his friends, who appear never to have seen fish and chips before. Barry has found a lovely tray hanging on the wall of the kitchen. “My auntie’s got a tray just like this.” “You’ve got vinegar on my Rembrandt.” “Sorry? Would you prefer tomato sauce?”
The makeshift plug doesn’t hold, all the water runs out of the fishbowl. The Viscount thinks Barry has fried up his beloved goldfish until he looks down the hole to see Paul standing on the snooker table. “It’s about this snooker game of yours.” “Yes.” “Erm, slight problem with the table, I’m afraid. Wouldn’t prefer to play something else, would you?” “What do you suggest?” “How about pool?”
I’ve no idea what the general perception of Chucklevision is in TV nostalgia circles, but these episodes have reminded me that when I watched it with the kids, I laughed a lot, and I still do. It’s just fun.
Media Centre Description: Children’s entertainment with the Chuckle Brothers. Paul and Barry are installing a snooker table in the Viscount’s basement. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit so Paul decides to knock a wall down and chaos ensues.
Recorded from CBBC Channel on Friday 26th September 2008 14:50
BBC Genome: CBBC Channel Friday 26th September 2008 14:50
The next recording is Jimmy Carr: Stand Up. After watching Dara O’Briain’s masterful audience work last week, I found Jimmy’s humour just too offputting. His joke construction is often excellent, but the relentless need to be ‘near the knuckle’ just got a bit tiring for me.
Media Centre Description: Comedian Jimmy Carr takes to the stage. Recorded at London’s Bloomsbury theatre, his humour is based on his razor-sharp one-liners and often offensive putdowns.
Recorded from Channel 4 on Friday 26th September 2008 23:03
The next recording is another episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation I’ve not seen on the blog yet – Force of Nature.
The Enterprise is looking for a missing federation ship in an area of space full of tetryon fields, making warp travel difficult. They encounter a Ferengi vessel that appears to have lost power, until it fires at them. Their Captain accuses the Enterprise of disabling their vessel. “We detected what appeared to be a Federation signal buoy. When we approached it it emitted a massive verteron pulse. Our warp drive, our sensors our communications systems were all disabled. We assume we were the victims of a new Federation weapon.” “The Federation established this corridor to ensure a safe access through this sector. We have nothing to gain by mining it.”
There’s a subplot in this episode of Data trying to train his cat, Spot. I don’t understand this at all. Is training cats something Americans think people can do? It’s almost as mysterious as their inability to ever play darts properly in this show.
Continuing their search, the Enterprise comes across some debris that could be the remains of the ship, but then they are hit by a verteron pulse that disables their power systems. Then they’re boarded by two aliens. “What do you want?” “We’re trying to make you listen.” “You’re killing us.” Oh no, they have a podcast.
The aliens are brother and sister, Rabal and Serova. “Captain, according to our research warp fields cause a dangerous reaction in this region of space.” “Our planet is already being affected. We have measured large gravitational shifts throughout our system.” “If something isn’t done our planet will become uninhabitable.” Geordi responds “Captain, I’ve heard this theory before. Their research was evaluated by the Federation Science Council a few years ago. Quite frankly, it didn’t hold up.” So this is a global warming metaphor.
But when Picard suggests they submit a proposal to the Federation science council to study the problem, Serova takes matters into her own hands, takes their ship out into the unstable region and blows it up with a warp core breach, which has the predicted effect of creating a rift in subspace.
They have to travel into the rift to rescue the other ship, but while there, they get trapped and can’t use their warp engines to get out. So Geordi has to do some quick calculations to use the deflector shields to surf the distortion waves in the rift.
Once they’re out of the rift, Rabal shows some of the predictions from the new data they have. I guess this is the 24th Century equivalent to the Hockey Stick climate graph.
Picard has more self reflection than most people. “You know, Geordi I’ve spent the better part of my life exploring space. I’ve charted new worlds, I’ve met dozens of new species and I believe that these were all valuable ends in themselves. And now it seems that… all this while I was… helping to damage the thing that I hold most dear.” Geordi is optimistic (because this universe really is optimistic). “It won’t turn out that way, Captain. We still have time to make it better.”
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series about the crew of the USS Enterprise. An alien brother and sister resort to desperate measures to prove their theory that warp drive is destroying the universe.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 27th September 2008 00:38
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 27th September 2008 00:40
There’s more environmental issues in the next episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Inheritance. Two geologists from the planet Atrea have come to ask for the federation’s help. “Captain, the situation has worsened since my husband and I first contacted you. The molten core of our planet isn’t just cooling– it’s begun to solidify.” “Our gravitational field has been affected. Seismic activity has increased by a factor of three.” “If the cooling continues at this rate Atrea will become uninhabitable in 13 months.”
But this is really the b-plot, because the human scientist, Juliana Tainer, has a surprise for Data. “Data?” “Yes, Doctor.” “Do you have any idea who I am?” “You are Dr. Juliana Tainer.” “Oh, you lost all your early memories. We thought you would, but we couldn’t be certain.” “Have we met before?” “Oh, Data, I was there right at the beginning on Omicron Theta. I helped create you. And now… look at you.” “You were a colleague of Dr. Soong?” “I most certainly was… and I was also his wife. In a way, I suppose you could say I am your mother.” Uh oh. This could be emotional.
We learn about Data’s early days, things he has no memory of, like his reluctance to wear clothes. Her shame at having to leave him on the planet when the crystalline entity attacked. And why she left Dr Soong. “We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.” “What do you mean?” “Oh, I realized he loved his work as much as he loved me… maybe more. Oh, there we were stuck out on this planet in the middle of the jungle with no one else to talk to… no… life. It just wasn’t enough. That’s why I left.”
I get a bit teary when Data tells Juliana about his daughter Lal. “She only lived a short time” cuts deep.
They bond over music.
She confesses that she’d lied earlier when she told him there wasn’t enough room for him on the escape pod. “I didn’t want to bring you with us. I was afraid if we reactivated you you’d turn out like Lore. I made Noonien leave you behind.”
The work on reliquifying the planet’s magma core continues, and there’s some drama on the planet’s surface, leading to a shocking revelation that Juliana is not quite who she claims to be. She’s an android, slightly more sophisticated than Data, and able to pass as human even with medical scans.
While she’s unconscious, Geordi and Beverly examine her. Geordi finds a holographic information module, and Data takes it to the holodeck. It’s a holographic recreation of Dr Soong, and he tells Data how he created the android when his wife was injured during the crystalline entity attack, and scanned his wife’s brain to copy her memories. She doesn’t know she’s an android. “Then you never told her the truth? Why?” “There was no reason for her to know. I wanted her to be happy. I wanted us to be happy. And we were… ( sighs ) …for awhile.” “What happened?” “I made a terrible mistake. I never really… let her know how much I loved her. So she left me. The real Juliana would have left, too if she had lived.” He asks Data not to tell her the truth. Data struggles with this.
In the end, after consultation with the rest of the command crew, Data reactivates Juliana. “Data. What happened? The last thing I remember was jumping off a cliff.” “You were knocked unconscious by the fall. You broke a bone in your arm but Dr. Crusher repaired it. Everything is fine.”
When the Enterprise is ready to leave, after fixing the planet’s geological problems, Data says goodbye to Juliana. “When will I see you again?” “Perhaps I can visit Atrea on my next leave.” “I would like that very much. Well, I’d better be going.” “There is something I think you should know. My father told me… that he had only one great love in his life and that he regretted never telling her how much he cared for her. I am certain he was referring to you.” “That’s nice to know. On Atrea, there is a saying that a child born from parents who love each other will have nothing but goodness in his heart. I guess that explains you. Take care of yourself, son.” “Good-bye… Mother.” And I’m crying again even just reading that.
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series about the crew of the USS Enterprise. A routine mission to save an endangered planet brings Data face to face with a woman who claims to be his mother.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 27th September 2008 01:18
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Saturday 27th September 2008 01:20
Here’s the ad breaks in Space 1999.
Adverts:
- trail: England v Republic of Ireland
- Pure video game
- Emirates
- Fentons Solicitors
- Pot Noodle
- RSPCA
- RED Driving School
- National Accident Helpline
- Churchill Insurance
- T-Mobile
- trail: Jericho
- Visit Scotland
- Homebase
- Peperami
- Bensons For Beds
- Yell.com
- Alliance and Leicester
- Churchill Insurance
- Appaloosa in cinemas
- trail: UEFA Champions League
- Wario Land The Shake Dimension
- Morrisons
- Vision Express
- Alliance and Leicester
- National Accident Helpline
- moneysupermarket.com
- Homebase
- trail: England v Republic of Ireland
- trail: ITV Football – Gary Oldman
- Fentons Solicitors
- Lombard Direct
