Archive for the ‘The World of Me’ Category

How to enrage the Internet Pt.1: Re-design a Dalek

This Dalek appears with its ‘election special’ counterparts  in this week’s edition of the Radio Times. There has been no official confirmation that this new ’2010 Dalek’ is the genuine article but already the Internet is hailing this new design as the worst thing to happen in the world, ever! We’ll just have to wait until the broadcast of this week’s episode, Victory of The Daleks, to find out if the world does actually come to an end or not.

Unlike the rest of the Internet, I quite like the new-look Dalek.

I thought that I would wait for the second episode of the new series of Doctor Who to air before I passed any judgment. The first episode of a new series Doctor Who always focuses on introducing the new characters rather than entertaining the viewer with a good story; it isn’t until the second episode of the series that the we get the exposition out of the way and learn how event through the series may unfold.

I needn’t have waited. The series opener was fantastic!

In this fifth (or thirty-first to be precise) series Matt Smith is the eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan is the companion, the TARDIS has been redecorated, the theme tune has been updated and the show has a new head writer/producer in the form of Steven Moffat. That’s all you need to know, that and the fact that it is bloody brilliant!

Matt Smith’s doctor looks too young for the role, looks too weird, acts and dresses as an old physics teacher (one that can run and jump around), pulls silly faces, is clumsy, doesn’t like apples and is possibly channelling Patrick Troughton. Everything that the Doctor (who is an alien after all) should be.

Karen Gillan’s companion, Amy Pond, is Scottish, a kiss-o-gram, sassy, sexy and possibly as mad as a sackful of snakes – everything a Doctor’s companion should be.

The TARDIS has regenerated into a time-spanning amalgamation of useful junk and bric-brac, like a high-tech antique shop powered by a nuclear reactor with see-through floors. Everything a… you get it by now.

So everything has changed. Or has it? It’s still modern Who yet somehow more like a fairytale, possibly due to the bright colours of the show’s appearance on BBC HD. In recent interviews head writer Steven Moffat admits that Doctor Who IS made for children and is nothing but a fairytale. He adds that although a fairytale sounds weak and insipid, fairytales are actually scary, dark and terrifying, and everybody loves those. As someone who grew-up watching Tom Baker’s Doctor I can agree with this, but I’ll admit that in my young childish mind I was more scared of Baker’s face looming out of the time vortex in the title sequence than I was of the Daleks!

Speaking of title sequences, I seem to be the only person on the Internet who likes the new version of the theme music.

Doctor Who is back, and better than ever!

The new series of Doctor Who starts this weekend on BBC1. I think there may be some sort of religious festival taking place too.

It would appear that a high ranking executive at the Tesco chain of supermarkets is an avid reader of this very web-site! I’m certain of it, why else would the supermarket giant suddenly start selling the legendary Marmite Cereal Bars?

Look, here’s the proof:

You have no idea how difficult it is to take a photo in a supermarket without looking as if you are up to no good

A few aisles over from where the above photograph was taken, I stumbled upon these jars of wonderment:

In my basket are two jars of a new undiscovered flavour of Marmite – Marmite XO; a Marmite made from a much stronger recipe. Wow! It’s a yeast-overload! Vegemite, Marmite Cereal Bars and Marmite XO all sold in the same store!

I can report that Marmite XO is very nice! It isn’t amazingly super-strong when compared to the standard recipe but it does have a certain zing to it. At £3.99 per jar I’m not exactly consuming it like a yeast-obsessed loony, but it is making my breakfast-time toast a pleasant wake-up call.

Note to ASDA – if I do not see any new Marmite products on your shelves by the end of the week, I may have to go elsewhere for my weekly shop!

Dear Shops-that-are-not-Waitrose,

Please stock Marmite Cereal bars.

My nearest Waitrose is in Marlborough and I can no longer justify the 26 mile round trip just to stock up on Marmitey goodness.

Yours Sincerley,

Nige.

or…

Dear Waitrose,

Please open a branch of your store in Wootton Bassett…