OH GOD, I POPPED ITS HEAD LIKE A MELON WITH A CROWBAR AND IT'S STILL COMING

Last night I popped up to Forbidden Planet on the way home in the company of fencingsculptor. I’ve been meaning to wander up there for a couple of weeks, but since mrtonylee was doing a signing, it occurred to me last night would be an appropriate time to catch up on what’s out there and give a little moral support to a chum – not that he needed it; I am rather glad we got there early, so didn’t have to queue like mad men, unlike those who came later.

Tony was signing copies of issue #1 of the new Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who mashup, Assimilation², featuring the crew from the Enterprise D and the Eleventh Doctor against a Cyberman/Borg alliance. I’m not sure, but no doubt I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Tony is the lead writer on the project (there are three writers, including him) and probably not the plotter. I think that Tony provided dialogue for the Doctor and the Ponds and provided stylistic input on the British side of the endeavour.

Whatever the level of input, it works. The dialogue is top notch and reads like words the eleventh Doctor and co would use. The art is marvellous – it would, I think, pass the very strict ellefurtle test that demands that drawings of real people should actually look like them as photographically as possible.



It is not possible on the basis of the first issue to comment on the handling of Picard and Co as they don’t really feature in the early part of the story, which is only setting things up.

But it looks very promising and it’s worth having for the Who dialogue and art anyway.

In addition I picked up the a couple of issues of Dan Boultwood and Tony’s Baker Street Irregulars and have them signed, a copy of Charles Dexter Ward - a graphic novel adapted from the Lovecraft story of the same name, and volume 1 of the collected Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 in hard back. I tried buying it in monthly instalments when it started a couple of years ago, but got pissed off with the erratic distribution and variant covers, which meant I ended up with multiple copies of some issues and none at all of others.



I can now sit down and enjoy the first half of the official continuation of the TV series co-written by Joss Whedon and hope to God that I don’t miss the second half…

Stop. Stop it NOW!

At this very moment in the atrium, there is being held a "Big Jubilee Lunch Party". It's a bring your own affair, though you can buy cake and possibly, just possibly a glass of cheap wine. There is a live, or at least half alive band playing some sort of music. Up here, from through the glass a floor up, I can hear the drums (Oh, God the drums, the infernal drums...)and what I take to be the occasional flute. They might be pan pipes, actually. I suspect that were I to look, I should see a bunch of munters playing the sort of crap that got them booted out of the Andes in the first place.

I am against office celebrations on principle.

I am happy enough to go to the pub for celebrations with colleagues from time to time, Christmas, weddings, birthdays, retirements etc, but any attempted social that takes place in the office building is an abomination, full of forced chit chat with people you know little and care for less. You cluster into small groups with the few people you actually know and speak to the smaller number you actually like about how little fun you are having.

So stop it, please just let it end.

The very attempt at jollity at work demeans the purpose and act of going home and enjoying your free time!