Ben Brown: "But did you say anything or throw anything that might have made the police view you as a threat?"

Jodi McIntyre: "Do you really think that a person with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair could pose a threat to police who are armed and armoured?"

Seriously, the BBC asked a person who had explicitly already mentioned that he cannot move his own wheel chair if he threw something at police, and suggested that he might have been "rolling towards" the policeline, which is about a hundred yards away, and therefore have seemed like a threat that justified being dragged across concrete.

Of note is that if you watch the larger video over at the BBC, watch at 00:28, where you can see one of the police officers who attacked Jodi being pulled away by his jacket by other police officers in the classic "leave him terry he's not worth it!" motion generally reserved for the mates of drunk idiots who've started a fight in a pub.

Ben Brown is of course the reporter who asked protesters on thursday "why are you starting fires? What does that achieve?" to which multiple protesters had to try to explain the concept of it being cold, in parliament square on an unusually cold december evening.

There is at least one petition going round asking for Ben Brown to apologise for his disgraceful behaviour, though emails and phone calls to the BBC would also be nice.

Alright, but marred by a music department that, having been given a show that rarely uses background music, PLAYS ALL THE MUSIC IT DOES GET LIKE THIS TO THE DETRIMENT OF WHAT PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY SAYING.

I am not getting the slashy vibes between Detective Aerostat and H+W, and H/W only works when they both have the option of riding an Aerostat when the other one gets mean.

Non-white characters in a show set in london consist of a bitchy and slightly melodramatic detective who hates holmes but who holmes only acknowledges exists when he needs to get at as her lumpy-faced and dimwitted bf (who is of course white, as per standard BBC policy), and a therapist of watson's who we see for almost a minute and who doesn't get much of a chance to act.

Luthor is better.

Who looks at hallucinogenic lipstick and doesn't think "this needs to be more sonic?"

The goddamn River Song, that's who.

spoilers below.

( Hello Sweety! )

well that was over surprisingly quickly - best episode yet, but I needs MOAR! Will be very interested to see how Moffat handles the opening of the next episode seeing as how RTD's run largely involved sudden Agatha Christie style deus ex machina being used to quickly deal with the cliffhangers - will moffatiem be different? Need to watch it again to allow the slashgoggles get a proper bead on amy/river as well.

A very good episode, chills that multiplied, characterisation was very good, plot holes minimal (so far) and well placed lulz - nothing to really go against this show at all.

So next week will suck! /fannish optimism

The quartermass experiment is not just a classic of british sci-fi - it's one of those things that entered the mythology of british fendom, which at this time, when most Doctor Who fen don't even remember Bertie Basset or that the Master was a furry at one point, means that I implore everyone who has access to the BBC iPlayer to watch The Quatermass movies.

I'll be frank with you; The first is not particularly good. It's basically a competent version of Night of the Blood Beast but set in london, and utilising the fine stable of RADA Actors who managed to get A*s in all their "staggering around and leaning on things" classes. Quatermass is unlikable and a dick on the scale of Ten at his worse, and most of the plot is conveyed via telephone and never quite managed to be tense or exciting (after all, the alien menace would, if left for a week or so, be very easy to deal and not be all that threatening anyway).

Nice use of a octopus though.

It's notable to a modern watcher because the zoos are abominable (tiny cages and all the animals pace back and forward like abused bears) and the finale relies on the fact that back in those days, TV shows, if they were recorded at all (the original quatermass serial wasn't, though that's not that great a loss by the looks of things), were recorded from the live performance rather than pre-recorded - though one is, I assume, not supposed to think too hard about why the BBC is broadcasting a live documentary about the renovation of an abbey at 8 o'clock at night.

Quatermass 2 however is what went down in fandom history - politicians are melted, slightly dumpy men attempt to be action stars while wearing gimp masks, "Sid James: character actor" makes a contribution to the plot, corpse robbing occurs at the slightest excuse, awesome special effects, graphic portrayal of an ordinary st. patricks day in rural britain, and of course social commentary involving the insularity and paranoia of wartime britain getting turned on the communities that rely on it.

And the finale is the classic doctor who scenario of a bunch of people getting stuck in a small room surrounded by baddies, with one coward who wants to just do what the evil guys want, an angry guy who's confused and/or drunk, some assistants and The Professor who knows the plot - and they have to save the world, defeat the bad guys, avoid being eaten by a hideous monster and if they can't do it all in ten minutes they're all going to be blown up anyway!

They're a very interesting counter point to the notion that once-upon-a-time british sci-fi was this super classy thing base around ideas and drama rather than explosions (even if Wells' War of the Worlds, which was explicitly taking its cues from the scenery destruction pr0n of the less skiffy invasion novels of the period, kinda already does that).