Déjà Vu

I remember years ago, reading an interview with Patrick McGoohan in which he told the interviewer that he had arranged to be out of the country the day that ITV showed the last episode of The Prisoner.

They didn't have an ending, see? Didn't know how to finish an increasingly surreal story line to everyone's satisfaction.

Apparently the ITV switchboard was jammed that night, people phoning in and demanding to know what was going on, and if they were ever going to get any payoff for watching 18 episodes of a story that just got odder and odder for no apparent reason. That must have been some series of phone calls, because there was no ITV network in those days, just a loose alliance of regional ITV companies, so depending upon where you lived in the country, Fall Out was transmitted on anyone of a number of dates from 1 February to 1 March inclusive. I think most of the country watched it on Sunday 4 February 1968.

That was my ninth birthday.

I remember thinking it was great, but without understanding what had happened; pretty much in the same way that I thought the Batman TV series was great when I was a kid, but didn't pick up on any of the knowing campness that made my parents laugh until I was older (and boy did it irritate me when they laughed!). I can remember Dad muttering about a 'load of rubbish'. I think Mum just got on with her knitting.

Anyway, 38 years later, The Prisoner is regarded as a classic, even if no-one understands the ending.

I'm not sure that LOST will hold up that long.

But at least they're not making us wait a year for the second season.

Déjà Vu

I remember years ago, reading an interview with Patrick McGoohan in which he told the interviewer that he had arranged to be out of the country the day that ITV showed the last episode of The Prisoner.

They didn't have an ending, see? Didn't know how to finish an increasingly surreal story line to everyone's satisfaction.

Apparently the ITV switchboard was jammed that night, people phoning in and demanding to know what was going on, and if they were ever going to get any payoff for watching 18 episodes of a story that just got odder and odder for no apparent reason. That must have been some series of phone calls, because there was no ITV network in those days, just a loose alliance of regional ITV companies, so depending upon where you lived in the country, Fall Out was transmitted on anyone of a number of dates from 1 February to 1 March inclusive. I think most of the country watched it on Sunday 4 February 1968.

That was my ninth birthday.

I remember thinking it was great, but without understanding what had happened; pretty much in the same way that I thought the Batman TV series was great when I was a kid, but didn't pick up on any of the knowing campness that made my parents laugh until I was older (and boy did it irritate me when they laughed!). I can remember Dad muttering about a 'load of rubbish'. I think Mum just got on with her knitting.

Anyway, 38 years later, The Prisoner is regarded as a classic, even if no-one understands the ending.

I'm not sure that LOST will hold up that long.

But at least they're not making us wait a year for the second season.

Toys

Carphone Warehouse are trying to give me a free mobile phone, but don't seem able to do so.

It wasn't my idea; for once I do not have that odd compulsion in the back of my head to go and trade in my phone for a newer model. This is probably because a)the model I have has yet to celebrate its first birthday, though it's only got a couple of weeks to go; b) there isn't a phone out there that I like the look of better than the Motorola V3 Razr, and c) I have, for the first time in years, been deliberately avoiding places such as the Carphone Warehouse simply so that I won't be tempted.

Most of you know that I am notoriously weak-willed in these matters, so avoidance of the outlets is vital.

I didn't particularly like the sound of the phone they were trying to hawk me, but since the only stipulation was that I stay with my current network for a further 12 months , which I was planning to do anyway, I reckoned that if they wanted to send me a free phone, why should I care?

Anyway, this morning I got a worried message from their sales rep saying that they had just had an email from Vodafone telling them that I am not entitled to a new phone until 4 March. Off, since I subscribe to O2, but there we are. What worried the rep, though, was the thought that I might already have received a new phone by courier. I haven't, and wasn't expecting to, really. Be interesting if one turns up, though!

In keeping with the trend for having toys put under my nose for consideration, for some reason instead of walking up a flight of stairs, or more likely just shouting, Beastie colonel_maxim emailed me this link to Swords Mart under the title 'shiny'. Ah, the lad knows me too well, and I have to confess to being tempted, though I can't help but wonder what sort of shoddy mess you can buy at those prices.

The real fun of the site though, comes from the occasional and consistently 'miss-spelt' sword names designed to avoid copyright issues. So they sell Nasril instead of Narsil, Sling, instead of Sting and so on.

My particular favourite though, has to be Rider's Stranger Sword. Quality, and only £20 or so.

Maybe not quality, then.

Toys

Carphone Warehouse are trying to give me a free mobile phone, but don't seem able to do so.

It wasn't my idea; for once I do not have that odd compulsion in the back of my head to go and trade in my phone for a newer model. This is probably because a)the model I have has yet to celebrate its first birthday, though it's only got a couple of weeks to go; b) there isn't a phone out there that I like the look of better than the Motorola V3 Razr, and c) I have, for the first time in years, been deliberately avoiding places such as the Carphone Warehouse simply so that I won't be tempted.

Most of you know that I am notoriously weak-willed in these matters, so avoidance of the outlets is vital.

I didn't particularly like the sound of the phone they were trying to hawk me, but since the only stipulation was that I stay with my current network for a further 12 months , which I was planning to do anyway, I reckoned that if they wanted to send me a free phone, why should I care?

Anyway, this morning I got a worried message from their sales rep saying that they had just had an email from Vodafone telling them that I am not entitled to a new phone until 4 March. Off, since I subscribe to O2, but there we are. What worried the rep, though, was the thought that I might already have received a new phone by courier. I haven't, and wasn't expecting to, really. Be interesting if one turns up, though!

In keeping with the trend for having toys put under my nose for consideration, for some reason instead of walking up a flight of stairs, or more likely just shouting, Beastie colonel_maxim emailed me this link to Swords Mart under the title 'shiny'. Ah, the lad knows me too well, and I have to confess to being tempted, though I can't help but wonder what sort of shoddy mess you can buy at those prices.

The real fun of the site though, comes from the occasional and consistently 'miss-spelt' sword names designed to avoid copyright issues. So they sell Nasril instead of Narsil, Sling, instead of Sting and so on.

My particular favourite though, has to be Rider's Stranger Sword. Quality, and only £20 or so.

Maybe not quality, then.

Public Service Announcement for geeks in the US and Canada

I expect those of you in North America who are interested have already downloaded the bit torrents of the first season of the relaunched Doctor Who.

If you haven't you might be interested to know that BBC Worldwide have licenced it to the US SCI FI Channel who will air it on Friday nights at 9.00pm from March, with an option on season 2 to follow. Details on the BBC Doctor Who website. Don't have your speakers turned up loud when you go there, like I did.

Public Service Announcement for geeks in the US and Canada

I expect those of you in North America who are interested have already downloaded the bit torrents of the first season of the relaunched Doctor Who.

If you haven't you might be interested to know that BBC Worldwide have licenced it to the US SCI FI Channel who will air it on Friday nights at 9.00pm from March, with an option on season 2 to follow. Details on the BBC Doctor Who website. Don't have your speakers turned up loud when you go there, like I did.