Forgot to mention...

Had another short story published this year-- this one.

Knocked for a Loop

Looper: Time-travel action film in which a man has to shoot his older self, but his older self escapes. Not bad for what it was, i.e. a pastiche of more original and better films, but I'm glad I saw it for free on an airplane rather than spending money on it.

Man With A Movie Camera: Experimental postmodern Russian silent film. Strangely hilarious despite this.

Dredd: Rather good take on the Judge Dredd comics, with the ultraviolence and sense of urban despair of the original, and surprisingly feminist for a mainstream action movie. Extra kudos for not casting Lena Hedey as a libertarian.

Dark City (Director's Cut): Fantastic neo-noir paranoia piece, picking up on the experimental sociology and psychology of the mid-century to question the nature of identity and memory. Amazing that the whole thing was done using mostly modelwork and conventional animation as well-- very little CGI.

Movie count for 2013: 4

Belated 2012 Capsule Movie Review

The Crazies: Entertaining horror film about a small town where people start inexplicably going mad and government forces descend to contain/conceal the problem. Unfortunately too many unrealistic and implausible aspects for me to enjoy it thoroughly.

Movie reviews for 2012: 81 (saw this one in 2012 but forgot to include it in the last post, therefore counting it here).

The Repeated Meme: Walking in the Air

Doctor Who: The Snowmen

Central premise recycled from: Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, arguably.

References to Moffat’s Back Catalogue: Moppets and urchins, love interest for the Doctor (and the Doctor’s disgust at “kissing”), Sherlock Holmes in the Moffat/Gatiss interpretation. “Don’t Blink”/“imagine them melting”. The frozen pond. Returning characters from “A Good Man Goes to War”. Zombies with catchphrases. Saving the day with Wuv. Will young Digby grow up to be Uncle Digby in "The Doctor, the Witch and the Wardrobe"?

References to Other People’s Back Catalogues: The Rose and Crown,“from beyond the grave!” Deadly water from “The Waters of Mars”. Considering that Henry Lincoln’s somewhat litigious, it probably wasn’t a great idea not to credit Lincoln and Haisman for The Great Intelligence.

British Christmas Children’s Classic Being Ripped Off: The Snowman.

Oswin [or whatever her name is this week] Dies Due To: Gravity.

Gratuitous Plot Hole of the Week: We never do actually find out how Strax got revived.

Cliche of the Week: a two-fer, as Clara shuttles between feisty barmaid and feisty governess stereotypes.

Murray Gold’s Festive Number One: He doesn’t get to do one this year. Budget cuts?

Nostalgia UK: Festive Victoriana, detectives, amusing manservants. One of the Moppets is named Digby (q.v. Digory Kirke of The Chronicles of Narnia). Sherlock Holmes jokes get thoroughly done to death. Not entirely sure if it counts as nostalgia, but Madame Vastra and Jenny have suspicious overtones of the circle of aristocratic kinky lesbians in Tipping the Velvet.

Continuity Frakup: How did Clara get her shawl back after leaving it in the Tardis? Has she got two identical ones? And sorry, but “The Web of Fear” took place in 1975, not 1967.

Oswin’s Job This Week Is: Governess and part-time barmaid.

Doctor Who! Said by Clara before the titles have even started, then again by Jenny, then by the Doctor himself.

Hats! Comic Victorian chapeau and comic deerstalker for the Doctor.

Small Child! Three at the start, two later on, armed with anachronistic teddy bears.

Item Most Likely to Wind Up as a Toy: The Snowmen obviously, though a novelty Great Intelligence snowglobe would also seem a logical item for the adult market. Unfortunately, though, word on the street is that Worldwide are cutting back on the merchandise this year, so we may have to wait a long time for our 14-inch dress-up Madame Vastra (customise a seven-inch Silurian With Hooters and Honkers if you’re desperate).

(Extra thanks to Matthew Kilburn)