Dirk Gently: Series 1 (2012)

TV series review: Dirk Gently: Series 1 (2012), directed by Tom Shankland

The pilot episode of Dirk Gently left me cold, but as a big fan of everything Douglas Adams, the news that they were making a whole series (well, okay, only three episodes) was still more than welcome.

And this time it actually worked - hooray! What I really didn't like about the pilot and wanted them to have done differently ... was done differently. That is, they weren't trying to adapt either of the two books, they just took the character of Dirk Gently (Stephen Mangan) and let him do his own thing. Have plots specifically written for this series. Thank you!

Okay, they've still got Richard MacDuff (Darren Boyd) as his bemused sidekick, which is a step away from the books, but in keeping with the pilot episode, and I don't really mind, to be honest. At least they're not trying to be creative with the books and make a complete mess of it.

Janice the surly secretary (Lisa Jackson) is back, and Richard's other half Susan (Helen Baxendale) shows up in the periphery too. And then there's DI Gilks (Jason Watkins), who, for lack of a better way of putting it, is to Dirk and Richard what DI Lestrade is to Holmes and Watson in Sherlock. Sort of.

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams (1982)

Book review: Life, the Universe and Everything ([1982]) by Douglas Adams (The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, Wings Books, 1996)

Everything important and then some is examined in this third book, when Arthur Dent and his companions find they must avert Armageddon and save the Universe for life as we know it (or think we know it!).

The interesting thing about Life, the Universe and Everything is that it actually has a plot, and a fairly coherent one at that. Arthur and Ford are still on prehistoric Earth and not having a great time at that. Arthur considers going mad roundabout the time Ford detects a weak alien signal of some sort. They end up finding a sofa, and once they catch it, end up in modern day London. At Lord's Cricket Ground, to be precise.

There, they encounter some strange, white cricket-playing robots with murderous intent and also ... Slartibartfast, the Magrathean who won awards for his fjord work on Norway on Earth 1.0 (book 1). Slartibartfast has come with his cutting-edge starship Bistromath (to all intents and purposes an Italian bistro, because numbers in a restaurant is a science all of its own), and with it, he manages to whisk the two weary space travellers away in the hunt for the five parts of a cricket gate.

The cricket gate, or rather, the key to the lock that imprisons the planet Krikkit (a planet whose people were so bent on destroying the rest of the universe when they discovered they were not alone that they had to be locked away for good), is scattered over the universe and it would be a lot better for the universe if the Krikkit robots didn't get hold of all the parts of the key first. The Krikkit wars were pretty darn horrendous and the fact that cricket is a perfectly ordinary pastime on planet Earth (not to mention there's a country with the same name as one of the galaxy's worst curse words) just shows how ridiculously behind and tactless we are on this planet.

Friday fancies

On the train back from work, I saw a guy who seriously looked like Sam Neill. He had glasses and reminded me a lot of this piccy here (from Sirens). Put a smile on my face, that did. Think he got off in Hucknall, so if you look like a '93 Sam Neill in glasses reading this and live in Hucknall - you rock!

Pixar/Disney have announced a Monsters Inc. sequel, apparently. Don't really remember the first one, but it was cute...? The One Show's resident grumpy Brummie Adrian Chiles is defecting to ITV, gasp! How very dares he! Top Gear will be getting a US spin-off. Well done! Top Gear is a brilliant show. I know it's about cars, but why watch it for the motors when the guys are hilarious? Not many people would try to make a rocking chair and a blender from a V8 engine... ;)

One American remake that apparently isn't going ahead at the moment is Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off. They were making an American version? What on earth for? I mean, the original wasn't that brilliant... John Barrowman aside. Loving him! He auditioned for the part of Will in Will & Grace once - he didn't get it because they thought he seemed "too straight". Barrowman is homosexual, and he's rather flamboyant and, well, gay. Instead, the role went to heterosexual Eric McCormack... So how'd they work that one out? There was also something on the BBC site mentioning a Torchwood musical, and that Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (of ABBA fame) had been attached to it. Please tell me that was a joke! Björn & Benny - yes please. Torchwood musical? Why d'you want to go and do something like that? Because John Barrowman is a singer and a musical actor as well as a handsome TV actor?

Oh, we've been watching the V remake, with Inara and Wash from Firefly and Juliet from Lost amongst others. Didn't see more than a few minutes or so of the original, so don't have any preconceptions. All I knew was it's alien reptiles posing as humans, and that's about it. Oh yes, and the Sci Fi Channel is now Syfy in the UK as well. Sigh. The new Doctor Who is up and running - and it's looking good! I thought I wouldn't like the new Doctor, but Matt Smith is really rather enjoyable and Karen Gillan is gorgeous. Even though I loved the tenth doctor, the eleventh isn't so bad. The first episode cracked me up, when he was trying all the different foods. Fish fingers with custard. I don't think even my custard afficionado squeeze would be into that.

Lost is progressing at a leisurely pace. Not sure I like the new Claire and Sayid, though. She's still going on about that blasted baby and Sayid is just... weird. Good thing I'm liking the "new" Sawyer, and that pilot guy is surprisingly dishy. Apparently there's just three episodes to go before we hit the big finale. Are they really going to be able to wrap up all the big questions in that time? What's the deal with the Egyptian statue? It's all still up in the air at the moment. The finale is out in America in a month, with the UK to follow suit.

Guess who were on the front cover of the latest Sky magazine, btw? Richard Armitage and Orla Brady! As it's the May issue, it has three pages on Strike Back. There were short interviews with both of them.

"If this whole British Army thing doesn't work out, you can always join my private army.
It's perfectly normal to stare at my half-naked body there. In fact, it's a prerequisite."

If I can find the right leads to the scanner, I'll scan it in. If not, there will be photos, unless someone else scans it in before I get around to it. Richard talks about being exhausted after the training and how he learned how to break someone's neck with his bare hands - and thinks that's a bit scary. Aww. It's basically the stuff that's not mentioned in the interview on the Sky1 Strike Back site. It also has a photo gallery, and other bits and bobs. OH, SNAP! And wallpapers! :D The premiere red carpet gallery has lots of RA pictures as well. Porter mania begins 5 May at 9pm on Sky1.

UK media have reported about the Hitler Downfall meme, because the company behind the film have made a move to remove them off the net. Good luck with that. I've actually got Der Untergang, but haven't seen it yet. Will get around to it at some point.

Et finalement, Sky1 have made another Discworld adaptation: Going Postal, showing in the end of May. I haven't actually read that book, so it'll be interesting to watch. Really enjoyed Hogfather and The Colour of Magic; they were very well done, so Going Postal should be a good watch as well.

Have a nice weekend!