Recovery position

[alexsarll]

Finally saw Daniel Kitson last night, after having been raved at about him by at least three mostly separate sets of comedy chums for, what, a couple of years now? It was a self-confessedly shambolic preview of his new show, 66a Church Road, and one which will probably bear scant resemblance to the finished product, but yes, he is very funny. I am, however, more mystified than ever as to how come so many girls I know have crushes on the guy.
I went to see him at Battersea Arts Centre, of which I've similarly been long aware - but that utilitarian name never filled me with enthusiasm. I hadn't expected something so grand, murals of burning skies behind a grand staircase down which people sweep to the strains of Mono because someone who works there knows exactly what incidental music sets their space off to its best advantage. I'm now kicking myself that I never went to see The Masque of the Red Death while it was there - but that's London for you, isn't it? The man who is tired of London is tired of life, but look at that the other way round and it's a reminder that in London, you always end up missing out on something.

I know I'm not the first to say this, but who would ever have thought that a Doctor-free, Donna-heavy Doctor Who episode, and one flashing back to her debut in The Worst Who Story Ever at that, could be as good as 'Turn Left'? I still worry, though - the over-egged ending was its weakest moment, and while the Next Week trailer was arresting...well, on paper and even on clips, 'Doomsday' looked arresting, and look what a pig's ear that was.
I worry even more about the point that Lawrence Miles made - we watch this bleak vision of what would happen in a world without the Doctor, and we forget that there's another parallel without a Doctor, one all too close to home.

'Freebooter' and 'freelancer' are pretty much synonyms, aren't they? So why does 'freebooter' sound so much more dashing when boots are, in and of themselves, far less exciting than lances?
(This thought occasioned by doing the Salisbury quiz for the third time, with the third totally different team. And less than spectacular results, but that's by the by)

I've liked most shows I've seen James Lance in, and ditto Nicolas "Nathan Barley" Burns. They've worked together before, to great effect, as support in the Stephen Fry PR-com Absolute Power. So surely I ought to be glad that they're reunited in a sitcom about a bar for off-duty superheroes, particularly given what a rich source of comedy such settings have proved in comics?
Well, I would be, but it's on ITV. And given the near-infallibility of ITV's reverse Midas touch lately, that pretty much guarantees that it will make My Hero look like JLI.

Comments

[azureskies.livejournal.com]

I worry even more about the point that Lawrence Miles made - we watch this bleak vision of what would happen in a world without the Doctor, and we forget that there's another parallel without a Doctor, one all too close to home.

Well... yeah, but this world doesn't have big nuclear spaceships crashing out of the sky, or rhino policemen taking hospitals to the moon, or that kind of thing, does it?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, but we do have a lot of the problems for which that stuff can serve as metaphors - self-loathing religious nutjobs, over-mighty enforcers of an alleged overall law who end up trampling the innocent, atmospheric pollution...and, lest we forget, a mysterious shortage of bees.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I basically found this week's Who really quite scary and upsetting for basically just that reason. Humans essentially FAIL. Especially whoever it is who has a car alarm going off outside my flat right now. Cvnt.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I am sure some people would argue that just as the beasties tend to be metaphors for our problems, so the Doctor is a metaphor for the best of humanity. I disagree. That's the plot of Quatermass, in which the hero is human. The Doctor is Future Science Jesus, a superhero, a godling - all the things we could really do with but sadly don't have.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Aye. And even if he were a metaphor for the best of humanity, in the real world the best of humanity tends not to succeed in spite of being outnumbered by the worst of it, on account of it isn't distilled into one semi-immortal super-genius, but is spread out across lots of fallible humans and that, many of whom are unable to do much with their bestness for one reason or another (being surrounded by bastards with more power, usually).

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Well, quite. I am prepared to believe in an awful lot of crazy things, but the best of humanity outbalancing the worst, without outside context problems? Come on, I have my limits.

[diamond-geyser.livejournal.com]

Ahem. Have been banging on a bit about Daniel Kitson since 2001. I think the fact I needed to write this down proves I am best. Well, better than wiggly beetle backpack that only looks alarming in the Making Of sequences. (Well done, Anyanka trickster insect.)

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone is claiming the christmas cracker-style prank toy beetle was the episode's high point - although by tying back to The Sarah Jane Adventures, it did make the hardcore geeks among us very happy.