Hello again

It’s been a while – exams and schoolwork have taken their toll, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on this blog. So, instead of doing lots of posts about small topics, I’d do a round up post of various different things.

Windows 8.1

The next versions of Microsoft’s main operating systems – Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 – are coming very soon, with so many changes that I can’t cover them here. Check out the Windows Team blog, The Verge etc. for more information. The public preview is shipping one week today (June 26), and will be available, free via the Windows Store, to all existing 8/RT users. The final version, shipping later this year, will also be free to the same customers.

Doctor Who

Matt Smith is leaving this Christmas! John Hurt is playing an as-yet-unknown (spoiler: it’s likely the ninth) incarnation of the Doctor! And series 8, with the 12th Doctor and Clara, is rumoured to start in the Autumn of next year with only 12 episodes. What’s wrong with the good old 13 episode series that started in April and ended in June, with no long breaks? The random scheduling is getting annoying.

Other

iOS 7 looks reasonable, except for the icons. Luther returns soon. Sherlock may or may not be broadcast later this year or next year.

Life

“Exams are over! Life begins…” (Pramface, series one episode one). Not quite. They’re technically over until November, but there’s lots of coursework and many internal ‘important’ exams to be done very soon. Plus, there are essays to be written and normal homework to be completed. It’ll only be over when school finishes for the summer… and the homework set for the holidays is out of the way. It could be worse. On the plus side, my GCSE ICT course has been completed a year early (AS time now), and a lawyer seems a potential career path. If you’re interested, my current A level selection is as follows:

• ICT
• History
• English language OR Business Studies (both are good)
• English literature

So, that’s the post. I hope that there will be more content on this blog regularly, but I’ll have to see. Thanks for reading!

It’s the Doctor Who series finale tonight!

Today marks the end of the seventh series of Doctor Who, and promises to reveal not only who Clara Oswald really is, but also the Doctor’s name (spoiler: the latter most likely isn’t actually revealed). Whether or not the question of all questions (Doctor Who?!) is answered, it promises to be a brilliant episode, one that will change the show forever. I certainly hope it does, because most of Series 7 has been quite disappointing. The first half was ok, but with only five episodes not much could be developed. The second half has been a bit longer, but apart from The Bells of Saint John and a couple of others, the writing hasn’t been at its best. Without the mystery of Clara, it might be the worst series in the recent years. I’m hoping that next year we’ll have a full thirteen episode run with no long breaks, a great story arc and two part episodes. One part episodes are good, but especially for finales they don’t allow writers to develop the story much.

So, make sure you’re watching BBC One tonight at 7pm! There’s going to be a clip from the 50th anniversary special featuring both the tenth and eleventh Doctors posted online straightaway afterwards, so head to the Doctor Who website once the episode is over.

Watch the TV trailer now!

Oh, and yes I’ve changed the theme of my blog. Thought it could do with a bit of a new look.

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Fourth series of Sherlock confirmed

Merlin to end after the current series

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s53/merlin/news/a440704/merlin-to-end-after-series-five.html

Still in shock! What are they going to do next, cancel Sherlock?!

Autumn TV is going to be very quiet from now on, especially as it’s rumoured that the current series of Young Apprentice will be the last. At least The Apprentice has been confirmed for two more series…

A dramatic poster from series 4. Good times. (Click to enlarge)

New Doctor Who video shows what happened to Brian…

A new video on the Doctor Who website (and on YouTube) shows how Brian finds out about the Ponds being stuck in the past and how they’re doing. Unfortunately, this was never filmed so the video consists of a storyboard with some text and a narration by Arthur Darvill, who plays Rory. You can watch the video below:

Merlin returns tonight!

Do you like Doctor Who? – Poll

A quick poll for this week:

The Life and Death of Doctor Who

Ok, that seems a bit dramatic. But it is kinda true. Look at it this way:

In 2011, Doctor Who had a full series (though it was split), plus a Christmas special. Not only that, it had three, yes three, spin-off shows (DW Confidential, Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood). 2011 was a great year for perhaps the best TV show in existence. As was 2005, 2006, 2007 etc.

And now we’re in 2012, there just isn’t as much Doctor Who stuff as before. Firstly, there are no spin-off shows whatsoever. Below are the fates…

• Doctor Who Confidential – price cuts
• Torchwood – low ratings, American version didn’t work
• Sarah Jane Adventures – Elisabeth Sladen passed away

It’s not just that – Doctor Who starts in the Autumn this year, and, from what is currently known, there will only be about 7 eps., inc. the Christmas special. The remaining eps. are going to be next year. In case you didn’t know, it’s Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary next year. We were told that the BBC were fully committed to the big event. What a way to celebrate – less episodes. And did I mentioned that there’s no planned 2-parters for this year (or next)? I like 2-parters! You can have longer stories!

So though people are saying that Doctor Who’s going to keep being on our TVs every year, I’m worried about it. True, it has good ratings (bad ratings killed it off in 1989), but they’re not that amazing now compared to other shows (e.g. soaps get way more, X-factor gets way more, even Sherlock - which is amazing – is getting the same viewings). I really hope that DW survives for many more years. But, to be honest, it’ll need more eps., and at least one spin-off show to do that.

Merlin Series 4 – the two-part series finale – Review

When I saw the trailer for The Sword in the Stone – Part 1 I wanted it to be next Saturday (aka. 17 December 2011) straightaway. It was amazing, and the episode lived up to it. You can view the trailer below:

And the exact same for part 2:

I’ll stop talking about the trailers now, though, and talk about the actual episodes, which were by far the best in Merlin Series 4. Maybe in all of Merlin – they were that good.

If you’ve read my other Merlin Series 4 reviews, you’ll might know the basic plot – Morgana tries (and suceeds) attacking Camelot. But it’s more than that. Just reading that description would make me think it was a repeat of last year’s finale. It wasn’t, though.

These 2 episodes pack everything that’s good about Merlin into, well, 2 episodes. There’s funny moments, great acting, an amazing plot and an interesting kind-of cliffhanger. I’ll give you an example of ‘funny moments’ – Arthur is made dumb by a spell cast on him by Merlin, and it’s really funny watching him, for example, hug trees and wear simple clothes. Great acting… well, everyone does great acting in Merlin, but Katie McGrath is really good as Morgana. And as for the cliffhanger…

Morgana’s just been stabbed (it seems fatally), and she’s staggering around in a forest. Then the dragon that Merlin saved earlier in the series comes and appears to breathe life back into her…

And then episode ended with the simple words: Merlin Will Return. I can’t wait! Does this mean the dragon will become evil? Will Morgana return? So many questions!

Doctor Who: The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe – Review

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone (actually, as I write this, it’s Christmas Day), I can’t believe how fast 2011 has gone. And I present to you today a review of the Doctor Who Series 7/2011 Christmas special.

I’ll start by saying Doctor Who certainly knows how to do Christmas specials. This is the seventh Christmas special (eighth if you include the 2010 New Year special), and each one has been amazing. My favourites are:

• The Voyage of the Damned (2007)
• The End of Time (2009)
• A Christmas Carol (2010)

You may notice that this year’s episode isn’t on that list. It isn’t that it’s a bad episode. Not at all. There isn’t a single episode by Steven Moffat that isn’t great. It’s just that, well, the plot is perhaps too simple. Last year’s was complicated, and sad, yet happy at some places. It had also got some amazing music. This year’s was kinda predictable, the music was good but not amazing, and not complicated.

Enough of the negatives. On to the positives – Amy and Rory are back! I probably should have put a spoiler alert before writing that. Ah, well. The only thing that’s sad about that is that you know those two are going to come to an unfortunate yet unknown end in the next series. And also that the Doctor left it two years before coming back to them.

Overall, a good, reasonable episode. Worth watching, but not my favourite episode by a long shot.

I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas (if you celebrate Christmas, if not than I hope you’ve had a great holiday). I’m now an owner of a Kindle, which I now think is this future of reading, though my family disagree. Have a great new year, and I hope 2012 is a good year for you all!