Tag Archive: Dr Who


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Mark Fisher – 11th July 1968 – 13th January 2017

Today is Blue Monday according to the depression experts. Apparently, if you’re going to feel low any time this year, today’s the day.

I never set great store by such notions, more often than not such stories amount to nothing more than clickbait.

But the post festive gloom descended heavily upon me this morning when I woke to the sad and shocking news that music critic and modern culture guru Mark Fisher has passed at the ridiculously young age of 48. Continue reading

KAFKA, CAPRA AND CAPALDI

This might come in handy on the Tardis - Peter Capaldi with his Oscar statuette

This might come in handy on the Tardis – Peter Capaldi with his Oscar statuette

Before he was sharp-tongued media adviser Malcolm Tucker in BBC’s The Thick Of It and, more recently, being transformed into a gigantic (in global marketing terms) time lord as the new Dr Who, Peter Capaldi won the Oscar in 1995 for a quirky short film he wrote and directed called Franz Kafka’s It’s Wonderful Life.

This is one of a virtual treasure trove of 550 free movie listed on the Open Culture website.

Gregor Samsa post metamorphosis

In the film, we find K (Richard E. Grant) struggling to overcome writer’s block while writing the famous opening to his short story Metamorphosis.

He is distracted by a knife salesman searching for his pet cockroach and by the noise from a party downstairs attended by a group of young women who look like extras from Picnic At Hanging Rock.

Like Frank Capra’s feel good Christmas caper, it all ends happily as Kafka gets his inspiration and wins some new friends in the process (“call me F”).

Just like Kafka’s life it is dark, strange, surreal, satirical and short.

https://vimeo.com/57778076

In both The Gruffalo’s Child  and Dr Who (The Doctor, The Widow & The Wardrobe) a child follows tracks in the snow into a dark wood. They leave the safety and security of the ‘normal’ world, venturing away from the bosom of the family into an unknown zone.

As we know from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Blair Witch, Twin Peaks and X-Files you enter this sort of densely wooded area at your peril. They are often places of mystery and evil and more likely to be cursed than enchanted. As such, they are an effective metaphor for the shadow side of the human psyche while preying on our fear of things that go bump in the night and a hidden evil ‘out there’.

Since both these BBC ‘Christmas treats’ are tailored for a younger audience, the fear factor is mild and the endings are reassuring to the point of sentimentality. Continue reading

L.A. WITHOUT A CLUE

"No - I don't know what we're doing here either"

If you’re feeling generous you might describe the  adapation of Richard Rayner’s novel ‘LA Without A Map’ as  a cult movie.

It’s chief (only?) attractions are that it stars David Tennant pre- Doctor Who and features  a cameo role by Johnny Depp.

Continue reading