mockturle06 | one small leap...

I met The Shat. Okay, it was brief, perfunctory and business like, at a (shudder) a Star Trek con, but I reckon it still counts as a big tick off the old to-do list. I mean, come on, Captain James T Kirk, childhood tv hero. And he was funny, too, in a weird, hyper-real kinda way.

But in truth, I'm still squeeing over meeting Chuck's dad. Yeah, Scott Bakula was there, too, looking mighty fine and such the gentleman, taking my fangirl squee with enormous good grace. What a professional, and, I sense, a genuinely nice man. And a hottie. I am relieved he's still a hottie because, adore him as I do, the role of Stephen J. Bartowski wasn't doing him any favours, hotness wise (but apparently he's not a man to shy away from abominable on screen haircuts). So yes, girlie squee.

The Con? Boring as batshit for the most part, if I'm to be brutally honest (and as my Dept was just abolished, I feel like being brutal) until the main attractions arrived and my god, you could hear when Shatner entered the building. The man is nothing if not larger than life. Both actors were funny, generous and answered all questions put to them and I'm sure it's been covered in detail in other blogs so I won't hash over it here, but at least somebody asked Scott about Chuck.

Alas, it was a fairly pat answer about how wonderful the Chuck crew were, but as most of the questions were about Enterprise (yawn) I was just watching and enjoying the lad. There were, mercifully, a few Quantum Leap questions, how much he adored Dean Stockwell, how creepy it was playing Oswald, how the ending should be viewed as a happy result as Sam was the sort of person to want to keep on setting things right. If you say so, Scotty boy.

That was pretty much it. Autographs (yay), then a bus back to the city, picked up some takeaway (bad I know but I was tired and Himself was poorly) and a taxi home and dinner done happily all in time for a fine Saturday night's viewing.

Oh, I forgot, there was slight bemusement in the morning when I got onto the campus and decided I didn't need my map, I'd just follow the folks in the Starfleet uniforms. Yeah, I know, like, cringe. Ah well.

Anyhoo, telly. Spooks. My box set from Amazon only arrived the other week (they had to repost all my previous orders as all my mail had vanished so far this year until a great miscellaneous pile of it plopped down on the doorstep only the other week) so it's still sealed as I'd not had time to get to it before the ABC whipped it out, and the ABC are extraordinarily tardy about Spooks so that was a long wait for a dvd box set. Series 9, I think, and Harry gets dumped, has another hissy fake resignation fit, indulges in a minor bit of assassination and then decides to stiff upper lip it. I do love Harry, though. I always try to imagine what face he'd be making when I read about real MI5 stuff ups in The Guardian.

Anyway, we're on some cargo ship with Lucas being all grim and intense and oh, Mr Armitage is the hotness, but, wait, what's this, a new hot younger boy agent? Oh, Lucas, say it ain't so. Also, in well, not the most pat recruitment they've ever had in Spooks, but fairly clumsy, we have Ms Myles, last seen fang banging Mr O'Loughlin over on Moonlight. Older, and still with that bossy air of Head Girl about her, but I don't mind Sophie. And so it was onto the silly spy plotz etc and then suddenly, some old geezer was about to drop a bombshell re Lucas and whoops, my tv switched over to the programme I'd pre-set, just in case I didn't get back in time: White Collar.

Or rather, a teaser trailer of White Collar as between Foxtel going all blippy on me and Channel Ten interrupting just the marina scene alone for four lengthy ad breaks, well, I barely got to hear one complete sentence in the entire episode (thank goodness for the kindness of friends). So I can't really discuss the plot fairly, as the version I watched was just complete mincemeat, so I will just have to go with general impressions. It was kind of like an impressionist version, bits and bobs.

So...Matty is still very, very pretty, and Tim ain't doin' too bad, neither. Loved the breathy 'hey' when Peter answers the phone. I thought it was the missus, but nope, it's Neal.

Annoyed at the oh so forced introduction of Neal's 'girlfriend'. I realise they have to do this to hose down the bromance, but it's so darn annoying. Here you have a show with the most amazing chemistry between the two leads and instead of exploiting it and wallowing in it they'll just about do anything to kill it dead. I just don't get it, but clearly I'm watching it wrong. And she's such a pushy bitch, too. Hate. Her. Too bad Ms Myles was off doing Spooks, I could just about cope with Ms Myles as the bromance killing GF. Or Ms Piper. Or Ms Brown. Or Ms Shahi. You get the idea. I don't like the concept, but I really don't like the actress, so no sale, baby.

Anyways, things I liked? Let's see...

Peter turning instantly to Neal for help. To his credit, Neal didn't make too much of a meal out of this. For Neal, anyway.
Peter on the horse. I mean, that was fun, but it's Neal's giddy reaction that really sells it. Bonus inclusion of pet names. Best of all, Neal only has eyes for Peter. Take that, pushy purported GF.
Neal's look of stunned admiration as El takes charge. Honestly, Neal shouldn't be that surprised by now, but he does seem to like authoritative women, that boy.
Peter and Neal tossing ideas back and forth. So wonderful and all too rare on a show where it should be the centrepiece.
Neal in the casual gear, though the Gatsby look he was rocking down by the marina was working for me too. But I liked the leather jacket. I also loved the no leather jacket. Bit chilly when they filmed it, hmmm? (I wasn't looking, I swear...)
Peter out of those gawd awful checked business shirts (I have to iron over a dozen of same every week so I loathe them with a particular passion).
Neal et Peter, just a scene with the two boys. A rare treat.

Things I didn't like:

That insurance investigator woman
Nazis! Why did it have to be Nazis? It's the 21st century, dudes, change the record already. I would have rather it have been Aleister Crowley's best dinner set of evilness, if they really have to go silly (and it seems they do) rather than tired old Nazis. White Russians would have made more sense, and been more intriguing, they could have thrown in Reilly, but no, we have Nazis. I await the sieg heiling monkey with trepidation.
Mozzie (a very little goes such a long way)
That insurance investigator woman

But that just me being grumpy (on top of everything else today an ovarian cyst just burst, ow, and that'll learn me to unleash the fangirl squee at my age, so not happy right now), on the night itself I was still fizzing over having met Scott Bakula and a surprisingly decent episode of Spooks and I had a grand old time. It's just unfortunate that White Collar is like most modern films: fun while you watch it, but when you think back upon it in the cold light of day you realise it was of very flimsy construction indeed. Sort of like seeing a fairground in the daylight. Ah well.

Shows that do stand up to repeat viewings however were oddly programmed for Sunday afternoon. First up was Chuck which is a very, very silly show but I just adore the attention to detail (Sarah using the cocktail swizzle sticks to pick the locks), the arch injokes and, even in series four, the clever way ordinary Buy More stuff ends up saving the day in the big spy movie scenes (in this episode, Chuck's self help book for couples averted nuclear armageddon). Cute and silly yes, but the detail, the confidence and verve of the writing and acting, and, most importantly, they way they've somehow managed to keep one foot still firmly planted in reality, really sells it and makes it funny. Like last week, the Buy More subplot with the product launch? I once had a friend who managed a book store and they never got books for book launches, so that was spot on. It sells the silliness, if you know what I mean. Also, I just heart Chuck bigtime. It's such a sweet, goodnatured, charming show, much like Chuck himself.

Another show, where the very best episodes tend to start out in normality and they go to the wildest places, is Doctor Who. Sunday night's was one of the best ever: monsters, madness and Vincent van Gough (with my beloved Tony Curran as Vincent, and it's Tony Curran month because he was in Primeval last week and Pillars of Earth next week, go Tony!). I adore that episode so much. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, and bonus Bill Nighy. I love all the paintings being referenced, I love the invisible monster, I love Amy, I love Matt's Doctor, I love the bittersweet ending. Love, loss, madness, and death, and all in a supposed kid's show. This was so beyond other so called shows for grownups. At least one of my shows is giving me exciting and layered grownup stories about art history.

Another show that makes me laugh and cry is Being Human. Series three has been cracking so far, and last Friday's ep with the Welsh zombie was so silly and yet so heartbreaking. Damn.

I don't think a USA show has ever made me laugh or cry, but I guess it's not that sort of channel.

One show that did make me laugh out loud, and for all the wtong reasons, was Hawaii Five-0 (or, as a friend described it, the story of how Danny Williams teaches wooden plank Steve how to be a real boy).

Okay, so you know we have this ongoing drinking game where we score if one of our favorite tropes shows up, like the diplomat's kidnapped daughter, or a warehouse full of dummies, or the old shoot out in a mirror hall? That sort of thing. Well, last night's ep was a very sloshed affair as is was a full WIN with the tropes as they had my very fave Clemens device of opening with an amnesiac girl in her nightie wandering dazed through a field (cf Professionals, Dangerman, etc). Yay! Drinking game high score!

Sorry, been hanging out for that trope for a while, as I've been awash in warehouses full of dummies and shootouts in mirrored galleries of late (though it was a pinball arcade in Primeval but we counted it as it was near-as-dammit).

Castle, that giver of dummy filled warehouses and mirror hall shootouts (they love a trope) did a very silly, very lame X Files ep but I appreciated the Firefly shoutout, as always.

And that's pretty much it. Tonight? Well, I'll tell you about tonight tomorrow. Meanwhile, this little Twitter exchange amused me:

Simon Pegg: Well wasn't I a lucky boy yesterday. After arriving in NZ I went to visit a little friend who lives in a very small house. #perksofthejob.
Mark Gatiss: @simonpegg Tell him to get the hell back to Cardiff!