PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Black Books Series 2

Series 2 of Black Books came out in 2002. I like the short 6 episode seasons that they do in the UK. You can watch a whole season in an afternoon. It's another set I got from the library. The show stars Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig as Bernard, Manny and Fran. Bernard is a broody annoying guy who likes his drinks and smokes. He's a bookstore owner who doesn't like customers. Mind you he doesn't like anyone much. Mannie is the store's employee and Fran is Bernard's best friend. They all have a pile of neuroses that you couldn't lift with a front end loader. Often their brains let them down in the critical thinking and they can do some monumentally stupid things. Smackably stupid. There are some good number of humorous situations, often involving hitting and fungus.

In The Entertainer Fran decides to learn piano so she moves one into Bernard's shop. Ya, sometimes it makes no sense but that's the style. It's hard and she gives it up after a lesson or two. Manny discovers he can play the piano, without lessons. He can play it the regular way with the keys and by using spoons to strike the strings from the inside the piano. Sometimes it gets pretty stupid but often the show is built on that stupid idea. Bernard gets hooked up with a pretty gal but that will self destruct before the episode is over. 

In Fever London is hot and Bernard's thought turn to a summer girlfriend. Fran's landlord pushes her wall further into her one room flat so he can add another small apartment. That wall gets pushed back and forth. I do like the surreal nature of the stories at times. Manny has some sort of medical problem that triggers at 88 degrees. Bernard doesn't believe him and keep turning up the heat. Of course it's real and there is some serious damage to the store because of it. Bernard looses his summer girl. Not that it's surprising.

In The Fixer Fran gets a job and loses it without ever knowing what her duties were. Bernard and Manny have to teach an illiterate thug how to read in two days or he'll beat them serious. I'm rooting for the thug guy at this point. Luckily they are saved even though they contributed nothing to that.

Fran finds she has some relatives in Blood. They like her because she has a car and will drive them around. She blows up her car to get rid of them. Fran is stupid but not as stupid as Bernard and Manny who try to re-invent the shop. First they turn it into a cafe then a post restaurant. They have a brief success then totally ruin it. All though this the guys keep hunting unseen creatures in the shop. They must have gotten them all as they never reappear.

In Hello Sun Fran takes up Yoga but it doesn't stick to it long enough for it to have any effect. Freud comes between Bernard and Mannie. Not surprising since the two of them are idiots. They seriously lack any sense at all.

A Nice Change has the trio planning a vacation to get away from the construction noise next door. They plan poorly and wind up with some cheap tickets that shunt them around from airport to airport for a couple of weeks. When they return home the construction is done and the place is a bookstore. End of series.

I'm still having mixed feelings about the series. There are some funny bits but the main characters are still pretty awful. The Brits seem to have a lot of them in their sitcoms and I find it hard to like them a whole lot. Sometimes it just wears a bit thin. 

The single disc has all six episodes with a commentary on each by the trio. I enjoyed the commentaries. There's a featurette and some outtakes. Not enough stuff to make me buy the thing but I still enjoyed it enough to put Series 3 on my queue at the Library.

Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple

I finally picked up the last of the four Miss Marple films that Margaret Rutherford did in the early 1960's. Miss Marple is another character created by Agatha Christie. I had read a few of the books but never got to be a fan. It had been a while since I had seen the other three films and that seemed a good reason to watch the whole series from start to finish. All the films were directed by George Pollock who also directed the 1965 film Ten Little Indians and episodes of Danger Man. Margaret Rutherford stars as Miss Marple and her real life husband Stringer Davis plays her friend Mr Stringer. Bud Tingwell plays Inspector Craddock. Miss Marple often disagrees with his conclusions and there's some tension in their relationship. Often the Inspector gets knocked out in the line of duty. The films are good murder mysteries with a touch of comedy. Miss Marple often finds the murders have taken their plans from the murders in the mystery books she and Mr Stringer have read. They are both avid fans of the murder mystery novel.

 

The first film was Murder She Said... and it came out in 1961. Miss Marple sees a woman strangled on a train that is passing her train. There's no body and the police don't believe her. She starts investigating with the help of her friend Mr Stringer. They find a place along the track that appears to have had a body rolled down it. To investigate the big fancy house nearby she takes a job as a housekeeper. The family is a mix of people, some old and some young, and there's a killer among them. There's a lot of talking and stuff going on in the house followed by another murder. Eventually Miss Marple collects enough clues to point the way to the killer.

The second movie, Murder At The Gallop, came out in 1963. I don't believe Margaret quite lives up to the hype of the poster above. Her character is a better detective than Margaret is a comedian. There is some humor and there are a couple of murders. While collecting for charity Miss Marple and Mr Stringer call on Mr Enderby. He has a heart attack while they are visiting. Miss M suspects something is up and she goes snooping about at the reading of the will. Inspector Craddock catches her and sends her and Mr S packing. Before she got caught she had heard one of the family claim tha that the dead man was murdered. Next day that woman winds up dead, stabbed with a huge needle right though her favorite chair. Miss Marple goes to stay at the hotel that the visiting family is staying at. It's a hotel and riding school that's run by Robert Morley. He's funnier than Margaret. I'm just not going to let that claim rest. Miss Marple doesn't let the killer rest. She's on him right to the bitter end, even though it's nearly her bitter end.

 

Murder Most Foul came out in 1964 and Miss Marple gets involved with the world of the theater in this story. It starts with a murderer caught red handed. There's a trail and the jury deadlocks. It's Miss Marple, she's the last hold out. Of course she thinks the other 11 are wrong and she's right. And she's right, she is right. The trail leads to a theater company putting on a terrible play. She joins the group and sure enough that's right where the killer is. There's lots of the usual backstage theater stuff plus a bit of comedy and personal drama to keep me interested. All the movies have good production values and a good production manager. Sets and locations are interesting and varied.

Murder Ahoy also came out in 1964. It was the last of the series and we find Miss Marple on a ship in the harbour. She's just joined the local Trust that funds the training ship for deliquent boys. One of the crew is secretly using a few of the boys criminal tendencies to rob the local manors. Miss Marple comes aboard to inspect the ship for the Trust and because she wants to spend the night on the ship the Captain gives her his nice cabin. He's a bit of a comic relief machine for the movie. That night there's a murder and Miss M stays on. Still in the Captain's cabin. There's plenty of nice uniforms and nautical  terms enough. There's more skullduggery but Miss M figures out who's up to no good and catches the baddie. 

I find I enjoyed all the films about the same. They have a nice level of mystery, some slim amount of danger, a few laughs, fun characters and a nice wrap up of the crime. A good addition to the crime film collection and worth a look.

Science Fiction Sunday 213

 

I watched Doctor Who serial 37 - The Tomb Of The Cybermen today. It was a 4 part serial that aired September 2-23 1967. It's the first serial of the 5th season and it's got Patrick Troughton as the 2nd Doctor. Most of his work is gone and this serial was thought missing. It was found in 1992 in Hong Kong. The Tardis drops the Doctor, Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Victoria (Deborah Watling) on the planet Telos where they find a group of archeologists who have just uncovered the tomb of the Cybermen. The Doctor gets the door open. I would think he'd encourage them to keep it shut but I guess that would mean no story. Let's go in. They find a giant control planel and some other rooms. In one of them the Cybermen are stored in a freezer for survival. It's a pretty impressive set. That's it in the picture above. The thing was filmed at Ealing Studios as the normal studio had no room for something that tall. The outdoor stuff was on film too. They took the film and cut it into the taping of the episode. It was all pretty crude in those days. Some of the other DW dvds have featurettes and interviews that explore the technical aspects of the program. I find those rather interesting.

 

The woman who financed the expedition turns out to be a rotter who, along with her cronies from The Brotherhood of Logicians, is planning to use the Cybermen and their weapons to take control of the Earth. Of course the Cybermen have their own plans and taking orders from humans is pretty far down their To Do List. They don't keep deals either. They're just dicks for the most part. There's plenty of running about as the various groups vie for the top of the food chain. Since it's his show we know the Doctor will come out on top. Some of the dialog and plot elements are not to my liking. Supposedly intelligent people act rashly or touch things that are obviously dangerous. Sometimes the survivors act surprised. It's annoying and it's on a lot of tv shows. Wait until I start complaining about the 3rd season of The Man From UNCLE. 

     

I was annoyed by the uncovering of the tomb during the first scenes of the archeologists on Telos. They blow the mountain side up. The film crew and cast went out to a real gravel quarry and the effects guys did a good sized explosion with smoke and dust etc. It loooked ok. The archeologists come from hiding to see what they've uncovered. That's them in the second picture, looking at where they blew up the hillside. They don't see anything. Disappointed they turn around to leave. They all turn to our right but one guy. He turns to our left. In the third picture you can see he's only turned about 45%. Look, he shouts. They should have noticed that. Were they so dumb they were looking in the wrong place or was it just bad writing? I don't know. I do know it pulls me out of the story. Even the long shot of the hill with the entrance to the tomb looks different from the place where the explosion happened. When they get to the tomb there is no rubble or gravel around. Totally blown clean I guess. I'm probably too critical. Some of the story was ok but I'm still thinking that this could have made a nice hour long episode instead of 4 half hour ones. The acting is about average for that series. The costumes of the Cybermen aren't too bad and a good part of the sets are ok. Production values would improve with time. Hopefully the scripts will too.

There are a couple of commentary tracks over the episodes and a whole second disc of extra featurettes. I listened to the commentaries at double speed. Just to get through them. The cast and crew talk about the making of the series and working at the BBC in the 60's. I find those bits fascinating. There's a nice history of the Cybermen. I think from seeing that I might like some of the color stories better. At least the production values get better. Still the story is important to liking a program. Everyone interviewed seems to like the serial much better than I do. Appearently it's a classic. I don't find it totally awful or anything but I certainly don't think the stories or the characters are as wonderous as they do. The Cybermen are a pretty good villian but from the featurette on their appearances in the series they just don't seem to be that great a villian. They all get a big F for Fail stamped on their heads for everytime the Doctor has come up against them. Might be a good thing, a show with just Cybermen wouldn't really have much plot or dialog.

Friday Night Movies 406

Our first feature is the 2012 Tim Burton film Dark Shadows. I thought it was fun to look at and it made me laugh. I can't remember anything much about the original 1967 Dan Curtis tv show the movie is based on. I know I watched some but the soap opera format wasn't something I was that interested in so I's pretty much sure it wasn't many episodes. The 5 day a week show ran for 5 years and 1225 episodes. Barnabas didn't appear until episode 210. There's a 128 disc box set of the complete series for $344 on Amazon right now. It comes in a coffin shaped box. Greg said he had watched the two Dark Shadows movies that were made in 1970. I might want to put them on my NetFlix queue but it's so full right now it won't be for ages until I see them. I think I'll just forget about it for now. Johnny Depp plays Barnabas Collins, the son of the man who founded the town of Collinsport in the mid 1700's. Daddy built the family mansion Collinswood where his now near grown son Barnabas has an affair with the maid Angelique. She's a witch who gets her vengence on when Barnabas rejects her love. First she kills his parents and then the only woman he loved. Angelique turns Barnabas into a vampire with magic which she also uses to turn the town against him. She's like a major bitch. The mob wraps him in chains and stuffs him in a coffin. They seal it with chains and bury it deep. He stays there until 1972 when some workers dig up the coffin. Sad for them, Barnabus is really thirsty. He returns to the family home to find his decendents in a sorry state. Angelique is still alive. She'd used her witchcraft to stay alive for all these years and to destroy the Collins family fortune. Barnabas knows where his dad hid some more treasure and he rebuilds the family's factory and home. There's a big fight with Angelique over the fishing contracts which leads to much destruction. Barnabas chomps down on some hippies. He's nearly buried again but his family helps rescue him. I thought there were plenty of laughs along the way. The effects, costumes, makeup were mostly pretty darn good. I thought the werewolf was a bit weak. There was plenty of great looking stuff up on the screen. Well worth a look for those who lean toward this sort of thing. If you know the kind of work Tim Burton has turned in before you won't be too surprised at what's on screen.

We watched the first Daimajin movie on the Mill Creek BlueRay that is so cheap right now. I had watched them just a month ago on a sunday morning.

Nights On A Tuesday Afternoon

 

You probably know this song. Night In White Satin by The Moody Blues. I liked it when I heard it in the 60's. I'm somehow drawn to a certain type of singer, a certain type of voice, and I liked the sound of Justin Hayward's voice in this song. I had to look up his name. I might have know it when I was trying them out on vinyl. I had a single of the song that I played a lot. I never got into singles, they were too much trouble to play and albums lasted nearly 20 minutes a side. I'm lazy and as soon as I got a cassette recorder I recorded all my singles. Cassettes were 30 to 60 minutes a side and later players played both sides without me having to get out of my chair. Damn, I'm loving that.  

Other than really liking NIWS I never got into The Moody Blues and their first 3 or 4 albums drifted away when I needed some space. Records are bulky and heavy. After a few listens some records are done being heard. Time to trade them in for some new music. I did not like moving my friends record collections. That's some back breaking shit. Moving music from albums to cds to MP3s sort of makes sense. I like that you can put a huge collection in your pocket. I don't care for the degraded sound but the technology was developed before the advent of huge cheap hard drives. Maybe it will get better again. Probably not. Oh well, I'm not buying MP3's anyway. I've made a few of my own. Just to have some songs on my pc when I didn't want to go get the cd. Hey, it's in the other room. If I can't be lazy in my own house, what's the good of being home. I have thought about getting voice recognition software so I can yell at my computer to put some music on. It just seems wrong.

 

A couple of days ago this song, Tuesday Afternoon by The Moody Blues, popped into my head and I went looking for it on YouTube. I've listened to it several times and while I like parts of it quite a bit I don't like it as much as Night In White Satin. I listened to that song a few times too. I find it haunting. Tuesday Afternoon doesn't quite reach that level. Sadly none of their other songs make me want to listen to them. I tried a few on YouTube but never made it through one of them. I'm just not that much of a 60's Progressive rock kind of guy but I do like these two works.

They did a short piece on MPR this morning about collecting music and they interviewed a teen girl who uses YouTube as a music source. Not so much to look at the video but just to listen to the music on her iPod. The teen girl was talking about listening to The Hollies and I haven't thought about them in a long long time. I went looking on YouTube to see what I might like. You should know Bus Stop from 1966. Give it a spin below.

 

Try Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress, or Too Much Monkey Business, Stop Stop Stop, Jennifer Eccles, On A Carousel, The Mighty Queen, and anything else that you might find on YouTube. They had some good songs that I haven't heard in ages.

Holes

 

I found a copy of Holes on YouTube. I'd already seen it, more than a couple of times and really liked it. So I thought I'd post the movie and pass on a recommendation for anyone who might have missed this 2003, better than average, Disney live action movie. It's adapted from Louis Sachar's book of the same name. I read it after seeing the movie. I really liked it. I didn't care for the novel's sequel much. I got rid of my copy.

 

Shia LeBeouf is Stanley Yelnats IV. He's from a long line of Stanley Yelnats. Three generations live in their rundown apartment. Stanley shares a room with his grandfather. The men have a curse on them. It was a gypsy curse and you know how those suck. While walking down the street Stanley sees a pair of sneakers get tossed off the overpass. He picks them up to take home to his father. Stanley III is played by Henry Winkler. He's an inventor and one of the things he's working on is a sneaker deodorant. Since the sneakers have a nice pong to them Stanley takes them with him. Unbeknownst to him the sneakers have a story and that story puts Stanley into Camp Green Lake. There's no lake, just desert, and holes. Lots of holes. 

I really liked the kids that play Stanley's fellow inmates. Sigourney Weaver is playing that villian she does so well. There are plenty of other great supporting cast members. Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Siobhan Fallon and Patricia Arquette. Keep an eye out for Dule Hill and Eartha Kitt. I know, this movie has some cool people in it. It was direted by Andrew Davis. I haven't seen many of his movies. I did like The Fugitive. He directed Collateral Damage right before Holes and The Guardian right after but nothing since 2006. Louis Sachar wrote the screenplay and he did a pretty good job. Worth taking a look at.

The Graham Norton Show - Comic Book Men

On Demand has been running The Graham Norton Show again. It's from BBC America, though I don't actually watch it on that channel. I usually gather up 4 or 5 episodes on a disc and then watch them with the finger on the FF button. Skip through the commercials and the guest or two that are less interesting. Currently the 12th season is on and there have been some entertaining guests. Arnold Scharzenegger, Michael Palin, Daniel Craig, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Radcliffe, Martin Freeman and Matt Smith on the shows through Christmas. Graham's opening bit of comedy is often a bit weak but it's the guests that I have just enough interest in to keep coming back for a few more shows. Besides the people you've heard of you can see lots of Brits that you might not have heard of. I have no idea who many of them are until I look them up on the Internet. Like Sarah Millican or Paul O'Grady. Both in comedy, touring and tv. They aren't usually on my tv but they are well enough known in the UK. Usually I get a few laughs in each show. The conversations are more lively, perhaps from dumping eveyone down on the red couch and making them talk together. I'd recommend it to those who like a bit of silly with their chat shows. Beats the pants off of Letterman and no one wants to see him with no pants.

Comic Book Men has been running it's 2nd season on AMC for a couple of months now. They changed the format of the program. The first season was 6 hour long episodes and the 2nd is 16 half hour long episodes. The content hasn't changed much. The guys sit around the comic shop chatting, periodically someone comes in to sell them some stuff, occasionally they buy it, once in a while they make an on screen sale. The products that come in are often the most interesting part of the show. There was a giant Darth Vader helmet from some promo display. That was kind of neat. But once you have it, it will continuously remind you that it's pretty darn big. There are plenty of action figures and comic book hero inspired games. One guy brings in a case of Kryptonite Pet Rocks to sell. Kevin Smith, visiting his store, buys Walt a cherish piece of his childhood when someone comes in to sell off his copy of a Marvel play set. That sad thing on the right is the play set. It doesn't show the Marvel characters paper cutouts that you populate it with. Brian O'Halloran, star of Clerks, drops by the store and Ming gets him to help out when both Walt and Michael are out sick. They don't have much by way of guests but Stan Lee drops by and the guys bow down. Occasionally there is something funny but mostly it's about the same each week. There is a podcast that is goes along with it. It's where Kevin seems to be moving as a creator. I listened to the ones last season haven't heard this season's shows yet.

 

Honey West

 

I had seen the Honey West series as a teen but had no recollection of it. It wasn't that high up on the list of dvd sets I wanted to purchase. That made it a perfect candidate for NetFlix. I watched it the over the last few days as the discs came and went. There aren't that many shows, only 30, and they're aren't any extras to speak of, just a few commercials from the era, a few stills from the show. This half hour crime drama first aired September 17 1965 and it lasted until April 8 1966. Aaron Spelling produced the series and patterned it off of The Avengers. He even tried to hire Honor Blackman. She turned him down and Anne Francis got the part of Honey West. She first appeared on Burke's Law in 1965 and got her own show that fall. Honey has taken over her late father's detective agency and runs it with her partner Sam Bolt who's played by John Ericson. They have a modern office in a building and behind a secret door is Honey's apartment. Her aunt lives there and she has a pet ocelot named Bruce.  Each week the duo seem to bungle their assignment and have to fix the problem. It really wasn't every week but it was often enough that I started to notice. Like the show it emulates it's got pleny of spy gadgets, odd, goofy or interesting costumes, and occasionally a silly premis. Unfortunately the scripts didn't support all those bits and pieces and pull it all together. Occasionally there's an interesting or odd guest star, Joe Don Baker, Maureen McCormick, Michael J Pollard, Kevin McCarthy, Wayne Rogers and Dick Clark are the ones I know. The scripts are as mixed a bag as the actors. Some are much better than others but even at their best they're aren't that great. It fails to capture that spark the The Avengers had, that's for sure. Even at the current price of 12 bucks on Amazon I don't think I'd bother picking this set up. I've seen them and this post should remind me to spend that 12 bucks on something else.

   

I had to snap some pics of the robot killer from The Fun-Fun Killer episode. It's been created by a murderous toy maker. Sadly the robot turns out to be the a guy in a suit. They catch him with a big magnet. It's all pretty stupid. The series rates a 7.3 on the IMDb, not deserved at all, but none of the single episodes rates more than a 6.7. There's only one that high and 3 over a 5. Most are 2s and 3s. The robot episode was a 2.6 and I saw one that was a 2.1. Oh, well. Can't have great tv all the time. No one would ever get anything done.  

Science Fiction Sunday 212

Since it came as a three pack, and I have a lot of building to do today, I figured I would watch the first three Doctor Who serials. With pie breaks it's taken me more than 12 hours. An Unearthly Child is the first and it aired November 23 1963. The 4 part serial ended December 14 1963. It was written by Anthony Coburn and directed by Waris Hussein. They shot a pilot episode and it had some technical problems. The BBC had a few changes in mind and they asked for a second go of it. The Doctor was made less cold and harsh. They changed the staging of some shots. Some bits of costuming were replaced. There are commentaries, with producer Variety Lambert and director Waris Hussein, on the pilot and the 1st and 4th episodes that explain a lot of these changes. 

I might have have seen these programs but I don't remember anything from them. I got this bit from the Wikipedia about the series on the CBC.

The series made its North American premiere in January 1965 on CBC with the broadcast of William Hartnell's first 26 episodes, fourteen months following their first airing on the BBC. The CBC did not renew the program and it would not reappear on the network for 40 years.

I thought that the reason I didn't become a fan of the show was that I didn't care that much for it and quit watching it. I might have liked it more if I'd had more exposure but the CBC took care of that. Here's another odd bit from the same Wikipedia article.

Doctor Who had an early Canadian connection. The series was conceived by Canadian expatriate Sydney Newman while he was the BBC's Head of Drama. The series may have been inspired by a short-lived segment (canceled because parents complained that it was "too frightening" for their children) on the Canadian version of Howdy Doody. It featured a surprisingly similar character, a puppet called Mr. X who travelled through time and space in his "Whatsis Box" teaching children about history. Newman oversaw this series while working as a programming head for the CBC. Newman maintained a guiding influence over Doctor Who until he left the BBC in 1967.

Weird. Well, one thing leads to another, huh.

The first story, An Unearthly Child, starts in a typical London school in 1963.  An unusual girl leads two teachers to ponder on her personality. Susan is real smart about science and history but totally ignorant about common place items like the value of money. Her teachers try to visit her at home. Instead of a house or apartment they find a salvage yard and a Police Box. They have a confrontation with her grandfather and force their way into the Police Box when they hear Susan's voice coming from inside. Oh, oh. It's all big inside and confusing. There's plenty of yelling. The cabby old Doctor gets tired and  sends the Tardis into the past. Then they have to figure out how to survive being kidnapped by stoneage cavemen. William Hartnel is the First Doctor, Carole Ann Ford is Susan Foreman, Jacqueline Hill is Barbara Wright and William Russell is Ian Chesterton. Back in the past they get captured pretty quickly and they nearly get killed a couple of times. They bring fire to a tribe that lost it, as well as the concept of strength through numbers and stoning. People love stoning. When they finally escape they take the Tardis to an unknown planet where they first encounter the Doctor's longest running foe. I enjoyed this serial more than some of the ones that have come after.

The Daleks is a 7 part serial that aired from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964. It was written by Terry Nation and C E Webber and directed by Richard Martin and Christopher Barry. The Doctor and the gang go exploring on the planet Skaro and find a dead city. The Doctor tricks everyone into going into the city; putting them in danger of course. They find the place is filled with radiation so they need some drugs from the Tardis. Susan goes to get them and the crew are captured by the Daleks. Susan meets some humans living on the surface away from the city. The Thrals are pacifists who Ian stirs into battle. They wipe out the Daleks and the Thrals are in charge. As the Tardis leaves there's an explosion and everyone is knocked out. This is one that seems a bit long winded and draggy. Especially in the last half. It might have been better to let it play out in 4 episodes rather than the 7 it has. We almost see a Dalek but it's only his little pinky. Don't worry, they'll be back to Exterminate!

 

The third serial was a two parter, The Edge Of Destruction, and it aired Feb 8 & 15 1964. The whole story takes place in the Tardis. This was to keep costs down. The cost of an episode was budgeted at about 2500 Brit Pounds which was under $7000 back in 1964. That didn't go that far even back in those days. The Doctor and the gang wake up from the explosion and everyone acts strangely. They nearly kill each other before they figure out what's going on. Turns out they were on the way to the end of time and the Tardis was trying to communicate with them. Too bad they didn't think of an easy way for the computer to talk to them. You know, like a screen with a read out or a printer or something. The Doctor fixes the switch causing the issue and everyone makes up. Not a bad episode for one stuck in the Tardis. We do see a bit more of the ship.

There are a few extras. Here's the list from Amazon:

• Commentary by producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein, Christopher Barry and Richard Martin, actors Carole Ann Ford and William Russell and moderator Gary Russell.
• Pilot Episode - a 40-minute unedited studio recording, including outtakes
• The featurettes "Creation of the Daleks," "Doctor Who: Origins," "Over the Edge" and "Inside the Spaceship"
• 30-minute condensed version of the lost 7-part story Marco Polo
• Episode 2 of The Edge of Destruction in Arabic
• Production note subtitles
• Still galleries.

Not a bad bunch of stuff. I enjoyed the commentaries pretty much. The featurettes repeat some of the material in the commentaries but that's to be expected. The Pilot Episode was pretty interesting to see. Marco Polo would have been the 4th episode but the tapes were wiped. This shortened version is made up of some video and audio clips that work to condense down the story. It works fairly well to give you an idea of what the episode was about. I didn't listen to the Arabic track. Not even for a second. I skipped the info track but looked at the still galleries.

The list doesn't mention the comedy sketches that parody the making of the series at the BBC in the 60's or the theme music and credits video. The theme is always enjoyed and the sketches, produced for a BBC Doctor Who Night, were funny. David Williams and Mark Gatiss are in the sketch in the link above. Williams was in Little Britian, which I haven't seen. He's been in some episodes of Doctor Who also. Gatiss has acted in The League Of Gentlemen, Sherlock (which he co-created and played Mycroft Holmes) and Doctor Who. He's also written Doctor Who novels. All in all a jam packed set. It looks like the thing is out of print at Amazon and people are asking a lot for copies. Good thing I don't need to buy one.

Carry On...2

      

Carry On Cowboy came out November 1965 and the gang moves to the American west in the 1880's to make fun of Cowboys and Indians. You can just imagine. You'll have to since I couldn't find a copy for you to watch.

Carry On Screaming! came out in August 1966 and they're making fun of monster movies. I made the guys watch it at Friday Night Movie and they all fell asleep. Now that's a recommendation, I must say.

Don't Loose Your Head is the December 1966 Carry On film and it's set during the French Revolution. I don't know much about French history. I learned most of what I know from watching Start The Revolution Without Me and that makes me think it was a pretty hilarious period. I seem to remember reading that lots of people were laughing their heads off or something. The French Aristos are losing theirs to the guillotine and Brits Sid James and Jim Dale decide to come lend them a hand. Thus the Black Fingernail is born. SP like he travels around the countryside fighting the revolution and helping some lord or another.

   

Follow That Camel came out September 1967 and it sends up the French Foreign Legion. Jim Dale is playing cricket when he's falsely accused of tripping a man. Humiliated he leaves to join the FFL. The man who accused him, feeling guilty, shoots himself after he hungs himself. Just before he dies he confesses that he lied. Jim's girl goes off to find him. Jim has appeared in several of the Carry On movies and in the last few years he's been the voice of the Harry Potter audio books in the USA.

Carry On Doctor came out December 1967 and it puts the gang into a hospital. Jim Dale is doctor and he's a bit of a goof. Hattie Jacques is the Matron and Kenneth Williams is the Head Doctor. They have it in for Jim and the naughty nurse played by Barbara Windsor. Frankie Howard is one of the patients. He was only in two Carry On movies.

Carry On Up The Kyber was released September 1968. There's an anti-English rebellion going on in the Indian province near the Kyber Pass. There are plenty of jokes about tiffin and what the Highland soldiers wear under their kilts. Thankfully we don't see it.

      

Carry On Camping came out February 1969 and it's got Sid James and the gang camping in a field.

Carry On Again Doctor came out in August 1969 and the Carry On gang is in hospital again. Jim Dale is Doctor Nookie and he's a bumbling boobie who's a bit of an ass. You can tell I've been watching too many of these movies, huh. The Head Surgeon is Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims is his rich patient. Barbara Windsor plays Jim's love interest and she has quite the costume on when they first meet. Hattie Jacques is Matron again. Jim gets in so much trouble that they use that to send him off to the south seas to be a missionary doctor. Sid James is the local guy who runs the tiny clinic. He's got a weight reducing juice that Jim takes back to England to open a clinic around. Sid follows to get a cut of the action.

Carry On Up The Jungle is a March 1970 movie and Frankie Howerd is a jungle adventurer. I can't believe it either but he's giving a lecture with lantern slides which turns into a flashback of his trip. Sidney James and Joan Sims are a couple of the people on the safari. Bernard Bresslaw is the head barrier and Terry Scott is the Jungle Boy. Charles Hawtry is Joan's husband. He'd been lost in the jungle and thought dead. She finds him living with a tribe of women who don't have any male children. The males of the expedition become studs to the tribe and soon have to much of a good thing. Frankie Howerd has been in several movies but only 2 of the Carry On series. He's been popular on Brit tv and had shows in the 1960's and 1970's. I used to see him on the CBC when I was a kid. You can see him in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Up Pompeii.

   

Carry On Loving was a September 1970 release and in this one we find Sid James and Hattie Jacques running a dating agency. They have a fake computer that hides Hattie picking names at random. Richard O'Callahan is new to the series. He takes over for Jim Dale who left the series. He plays the young man who comes to the agency and Hattie hooks him up with Joan Sims. Sid's got a thing going with Joan but she isn't interested in him anymore. Kenneth Williams plays a married councilor who isn't married.

Carry On Henry came out in February 1971 and it's put the flame of humour under the bum of Henry the 8th and cranked it up to 11. I'm lying, the movie isn't that good. At least you can see it for free.

On average I don't think they are as good as the first third of the series. There are still plenty of laughs but they are broader and familiar. That didn't keep me from plowing through the lot of them. You could see a lot worse. You might want to space them out a bit. I'll link up the rest next year. Give you a chance to recover a bit.