Who, Strangers, Dragon Quest and “best at Mario Kart”

I must admit that I was very impressed by Saturdays Doctor Who “Tooth and Claw”. I wouldn’t, however, be surprised if the BBC got a ton of complaints for 2 reasons.

1. The show was less than complimentary about the Royal Family. Even suggesting at the end that they may now be a family of werewolves!

2. I’d imagine that for the younger audience, it must have been damn scary. The werewolf effects were really very convincing for a television show and although you never actual saw the werewolf kill anyone, this was implied numerous times off screen.

The episode was also noteworthy because it introduced the origin of the Torchwood (an anagram of something – think about it) Institute, which will eventually be the basis of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.

Films watched:
Strangers on a Train
One of Hitchcock’s earlier black and white films. Funnily enough, I was originally introduced to this by another film, “Throw Momma from the Train”, a comedy staring Billy Crystal.

This is one of my favourite early Hitchcock films, and it is quite dark and noir even for Hitchcock, but then again this was written by Raymond Chandlers, so this isn’t too surprising. Such a sublime idea for a story – two people meet on a train and discuss murder. One suggest the perfect crime, to swap murders, only one of the people takes it too literally.

This film also uses some remarkable and imaginative shots throughout. The most effective of which is, in my opinion, the shot of the murder. This uses the reflection by moonlight on the lens of the victims glasses, which have fallen to the ground, to display the scene as she is strangled.

It was a pleasure to watch this restored print of the film on my Plasma, it really was fantastic picture quality for such an old film.

7.5/10

Games played:
Dragon Quest VIII
I’ve been enjoying this immensely.

I’ve seen this game criticised in some quarters for being “boring”. Compared against Disgaea or even Final fantasy, the stats and options really are quite limited, but this doesn’t deter you from the game at least.

It occurred to me, whilst playing the game, that it has some element which are similar to Zelda, in both it’s style and also the way in which you explore the landscape. Also you are free to enter people house and smash/break vases or wooden crates to your hearts content with the intention of finding useful items or money. What is it with these relatively innocent games which condone pillaging innocent villagers? I’m sure that one of these days you’ll try it in a game, be it on the PS3 or Revolution only to hear the villager shout “Hey you” and club you over the head.

I took my new DS Lite down to my parents on Sunday and my sister had an extended go of Mario Kart on it (she used to be a fan of Mario Kart on the SNES). Elliot watched and cheered her on. Elliot also made a comment which made me both laugh and feel very proud of my little boy. It went a little like this:

Elliot: I think Auntie Lynsey is going to win this one.

Lynsey: Of course, Auntie Lynsey is the best at Mario Kart.

Elliot: No! Daddy’s the best at Mario Kart!

You just gotta love him :-)

Roz and I have also been trying potty training again recently, but I'm far too tired to go into that at the moment - maybe for another blog entry.