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Update #Sandy Aftermath Day 4:
Still no utilities & minimum connectivity. Lost my big colorful pond fish. No power to run filter. Pond water has been stagnant water for days and has filled with hurricane debris.

Update #Sandy Aftermath Day 4 Supplemental: Tired. Still hand bailing water out. Tired. Local sewage facility had major failure. Tired.

You know, until I bought the DVD I don't think I actually saw "Planet of Giants" before now.  Back in the early 1990's when my local PBS station decided to show all the Hartnell/Troughton episodes, I think I actually missed this one.  It was like watching it for the first time. Certainly it plays like a whodunnit but overall it was pretty easy to watch. Some of the Hartnell stories tend to drag for me.

In some respects this is a pretty good story with the sets that have been increased in size.  I liked the little tender moment in Part One between the Doctor & Barbara where he apologized for being so rude. It kind of set the tone for later Doctors who expressed sincere concerns about the fate of their companions.

Reading the info text it shows how old the show is when one of the actors is shown as being born in 1899. 

I have to agree with Chase that the story has a sort of "Twilight Zone" feel.  This is one of those early stories that utilized the resources of its shoestring budget to their max and pulled off an above-average final product.

The Cultdom Collective Podcast

Cultdom Special Edition: Cultdom Operator

Special episode of Cultdom Collective hosted by Rand al’Thor.
In mid-2009, Victor Surge posted images to the SomethingAwful forums of a tall and slender man haunting various individuals. All investigations were hushed.
Some years earlier, college film student Alex Kralie abandons his student film, “Marble Hornets”, and disappears altogether.
Later, Alex’s friend and fellow college film student Jay goes through the tapes left behind from the Marble Hornets film project, and begins uploading any strange footage to YouTube.
On 23 November, 2010, Jay wakes up in a hotel room, with no memories of the past seven months of his life. There is only one other guest in the entire hotel, a young woman named Jessica.
Since then other stories have cropped up around the Internet of lives devastated by a tall, slender, faceless figure in a businesssuit: Noah Maxwell, whose cousin Milo dies of a drug overdose, and soon Noah finds himself targetted by a “Mr. Slim” and a character known as the Observer; a group of friends who start up a prank fitness series featuring a friend dressing
up as this entity which attracts the attention of the real thing; a young man in New Jersey who starts hearing strange noises in his house and learns of a former owner, Mark McComber, information that leads him and a friend to discovering a cult that worships a certain tall, faceless man.
These are just some stories that have surfaced concerning an entity commonly known as the Slender Man.

Direct Link to MP3:-

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-54821/TS-682002.mp3

Subscribe on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...t?id=324932943

Cheers, Mike (Rand__alThor) with thanks for Ian & daveac

After finding a do-it-yourself 'rejuvinating' shower kit (insert do-it-yourself or Ikea joke here) the foursome decide to put it together. But in basic Red Dwarf fashion they put it together incorrectly and are sent back in time.

Now that they are back in 23 AD they have to make a lemon battery (it's like a potato battery) to power the remote for the shower so they can get back. However they meet someone special from that time - Jesus.

When they get the remote working they accidentally bring Jesus back with him.

Opinion:

The idea seems like a good one but it doesn't quite ring true - at least to me. Maybe I got overexposed to the show because I had been playing old episodes of the show since the series returned. It's not a bad episode but it felt a little 'off'.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

Basic synopsis:

Lister celebrates "Father's Day" by sending himself Father's Day cards to himself since he is his own father (See the episode "Ourbourus" (season 7, episode 3) )

Rimmer points out how bad a father he is because he left himself under a pool table in his past - abandoned. The drunken Lister solemnly realizes that Rimmer might be right, so when he wakes up he finds a video for him to play.

The video Lister begins a regime of "tough-love" as suggested by the ship's dental-bot. The results of this is calamitous (in fact dangerous) and spurred on by the new ship's computer Pree (installed by Rimmer and Kryten).

Running gag: "Chinese whispers"

My opinion:

Though not as light as the opening on the series it is still a good episode but the darker nature merits it a 3.5 out of 5.

What was missing from "Back to Earth" has come back - the cast seen re-energized and back to doing something enjoyable, and it shows in this episode. This series starts with the cast "back in from".

I can't say much about this episode for fear of giving away too many spoilers, however this is a Rimer-centric episode and it focuses on his family relationships.

The basic story is this:

The crew of the ship find a derelict ship the "SS Trojan".  While examining the ship, Rimmer inadvertently brings a ship near, that carries one of his brothers (who also happens to also be a hologram), and with him comes a robotic simulant.

Meanwhile Lister and Cat try to buy an automatic-stirrer from a shopping network and are on hold for almost  the entirety of the episode.

Returning gags from previous series:

Rimmer continues to fail his officer's exam.

Rimmer's jealousy of his brothers causes him to do crazy things.

Overall: A good episode. The show is back to it's basics and it feels like "Red Dwarf" again. On a scale of 0 to 5 - I give this episode a 4.

The Cultdom Collective Podcast

Cultdom Epi.172 – Dr Who Series 7 So Far

Delayed one week due to the Fiftieth anniversary of James Bond – today we assess Doctor Who Series 7 Episodes 1 to 5

Direct Link to MP3:-

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-54821/TS-669999.mp3

Subscribe on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=324932943

Cheers, Ian & daveac

The Cultdom Collective Podcast

Cultdom Commentary: Doctor Who – The Angels Take Manhattan

Dave, Mike and Ian are just finishing up writing funny messages on some Ming Vases when Perry G. stumbles in and wrecks the lot. As punishment he is sent back in time to 1938 to help the boys with this weeks Commentary: Doctor Who – The Angels Take Manhattan. Series 7 Episode 5

Direct Link to mp3:-

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-54821/TS-672605.mp3

Subscribe on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=324932943

Cheers, Ian, Mike, Perry G. & daveac

The Cultdom Collective Podcast

Cultdom Interview – Huston Huddleston ST:NG Bridge Restore

Huston Huddleston on the Star Trek Enterprise D Bridge Restoration Project and a request for your support.
Project info:- http://newstarship.com/ Facebook Page:- https://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseRestoration

Direct Link to mp3:-

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-54821/TS-670740.mp3

Subscribe on iTunes

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=324932943

Cheers, Ian, Mike & daveac

On a whim, I went to the old Podshock website. Planet of the Dead had six pages of discussion. :)

http://gallifreyanembassy.org/portal/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=12&showto...

The current season doesn't even have threads created to discuss them in. Not that I feel this season has had anything really worth discussing. IMO it's the weakest season since the revival.

At least we still have Podshock to give a more in depth examination of the new episodes.

However we still don't have that many discussing them here on the forums. What a shame.