It’s possibly a tad embarrassing as a self pronounced sci-fi nerd to admit that the current series of Doctor Who has passed me by without a glance, mainly because my housemates hate it and I can never be bothered to argue the point. So imagine my glee this evening apon their announcement of decampment to the local ale house to discover that BBC3 was showing four back to back episodes leading up to tommorow’s end of seson finale. What I discovered was four fantastic episodes of brilliantly scripted and tremendously well executed slabs of classic sci-fi nonsense about young girls kidnapping people through the medium of crayons, Peter Kay doing his best Fat-Bastard-from-Austin-Powers impression and truckloads of Cybermen. Excellent.

I also noticed that there appears to be a new series of The Shield that has started on Five. Unfortunately I came a bit late to the party with this show, and as much as I love it, I’ve still yet to see season three, which has inexplicably recieved no region 2 release on DVD. If anyone has any idea when this is coming out, please let me know.

At this point I’m sure many of you would point out that I can easily download such episodes. This is true, but I’m not a fan of illegal downloads of any kind. I have never downloaded a CD in my life, mainly because a lot of the music I like is made by small bands who struggle for funds. I mean, Metallica is one thing, but if I were to keep downloading things like Today Is The Day or Bossk (whose excellent ep is currently delighting my ears) or Knut, how are these bands supposed to survive? And besides, I like my DVD shelf, all nicely lined up and pretty. It’s not the same on a computer. Now I am slightly hypocritcal in some respect, because I will gleefully borrow CDs off of a friend to listen to on my MP3 player. but if I really like them, I will then go and buy them. And besides, I’m a big fan of packaging, lyric sheets, and with DVD’s, special features. Maybe I’m just old fashioned that way.

Before I go, I’d like to point you in the direction of one of the funniest flash animations I’ve seen in years. If you don’t find it raises even the slightest of chuckles, then you have no soul. And isn’t it great that poking fun at Bush just never grows old? John Culshaw was interviewed on Jonathan Ross tonight, and he said that come 2008 there will be a big comedy hole where he used to be.  I tend to agree.