Joan on Graham

Love her or hate her, anyone should be so active and adventurous when in their seventies.
Joan Rivers knows how to poke fun at herself (those Geico commercials - "this face has seen more knives than Benihana" Ha!), and she's still quick-witted and bitingly funny.
Joan was one of the first comedians that I related to - and I had her routine on cassette.
I still quote from that cassette: "I have more chins than the Chinese phone book!"
Joan is on The Graham Norton Show tonight, on BBC America, and I'll be tuning in to see how she and Graham get on. Also on the show tonight: Alicia Silverstone - should be an interesting hour!

Oh Possums!

Quicksticks, be sure to grab your gladiolas and tune into The Graham Norton Show tonight on BBC America, as everyone's favorite Gigastar will be making an appearance.
Yes, I'm talking Dame Edna, people. Don't make me smack you upside the head with my rhinestone glasses.
I adore Dame Edna - so freakin' funny! I cherish her DVDs (The Dame Edna Experience) and I've seen her LIVE, too. Alas, our seats were too far back to catch any glads thrown from stage.
But it was the best one-woman show. Ever.
And I've seen Lily Tomlin onstage, too, Possums.

The Doctor Returns!

Tonight is the season finale of Torchwood on BBC America, and last night was the season premiere of Dr. Who on the Sci-Fi Channel.
I must say that overall, I love Torchwood (and the witty, charming, and hot John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness) just a tiny bit more than Dr. Who, but last night's Titanic episode "Voyage of the Damned" was just simply out-standing science fiction television.
David Tennant clearly relishes playing The Doctor, and even though this episode was missing the fabulous Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, the charismatic, energetic Tennant had some terrific guest stars backing him up in this standout show. In the premiere, the TARDIS is hit by a giant space-faring cruise ship from another galaxy, visiting Earth for a Christmas holiday. The ship is unfortunately named "Titanic."
The Doctor finds himself as a stowaway on the ship, which is helmed by a delightfully mad Geoffrey Palmer, who played the earnest Lionel Hardcastle on As Time Goes By. It was fun to see this actor as a single-minded baddie, and he clearly enjoyed the jaunt.
The Doctor encounters a lovely cocktail waitress, played by Kylie Minogue, who reminded me of a younger Linda Evans in this role. The Doctor is quite taken by Kylie's character Astrid Perth, as is a sea-urchin-headed, red-skinned cyborg-dwarf (hey, gotta love sci-fi!). Just before a meteor shower not-so-acccidentally rams the ship, a la, the original Titanic's iceberg, The Doctor and Astrid get to go to England on Christmas Eve, along with a few other rag-tag cruisers who become unwitting heroes when disaster strikes.
Clive Swift, from Keeping Up Appearances - he played the long-suffering husband of Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "Booo-kay") - is a total hoot in the role of Mr. Copper, an Earthologist who has all of his facts garbled. He believes that the population of the UK worship a great red god named Santa who has giant Claws, and the populace goes to war with Turkey each holiday season and eats the native Turkeys for Christmas dinner! Mr. Copper and The Doctor have some great moments together, and at the end, this old alien scientist gets to retire to Earth with The Doctor's blessings. You can tell the codger wanted to hop into the TARDIS and travel the galaxy with our favorite Time Lord, but The Doctor says he travels alone. Yeah, if the scientist had been some young nubile waif, I'd bet he'd have sung a different tune!
All in all, this was a fabulous episode. I don't want to give too much away, but the only thing missing was Martha Jones! (The Sci-Fi Channel website says Martha returns later in the season, so stay tuned!) If you didn't see "Voyage of the Damned" - try to catch this one in a repeat!

A Day In The Death

Last week on Torchwood, Dr. Owen Harper came back from the dead. Or at least his body did...
This week, Jack took Owen off duty to "find out what you are." He replaced him at the Hub with the fabulous Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman - I hope if The Doctor has a new companion on next season's Dr. Who, that Martha gets to come to Torchwood full time!).
Owen, for being a re-animated corpse with no heartbeat and no breath (how can he talk if he has no breath? I had the same quibble with Spike over on Buffy/Angel - how could he smoke if he had no breath... but I digress...), he has a great deal of emotions still. "Chill," Jack commands an over-wrought Owen, to which he replies, "Jack, I'm dead. I'm permanently chilled."
The "possessed by Death" theory from last week's episode was cast aside, as Martha proclaimed Owen 100% human. While he may be human, he has no use for the mundane accouterments of daily life that "living" humans need, so Owen goes home and throws out everything from his cheese in the fridge to the toilet paper (hope none of his co-workers come over and have to use the loo!).
The first half of the episode rather dragged on, as Owen confesses all these goings on in flash-backs to a suicidal woman on the anniversary of her husband's death. The second half, however, gets a jump start as Owen jumps into the Thames (for 32 minutes) and while the first half of the episode was rather Jack-less, our Captain Harkness gets to make a funny crack about Owen in tight jeans to start off the Owen-re-joins the team storyline. You see, the Torchwood team is trying to infiltrate the home of Britain's version of Howard Hughes - a millionaire recluse with a thing for alien artifacts - and the home is guarded with body-heat-sensors. Since Owen has no body-heat, he is the perfect walking corpse for the job.
Instead of just a break-and-enter snatch-and-grab story, the producers of Torchwood give us a few touching scenes where Owen actually tries to save the dying recluse, and where the alien artifact is liberated instead of destroyed. All-in-all, the episode's second half redeems it, for it was entertaining and compelling.
Previews for next week look like a good monster-got-me-preggers episode for Gwen & Rhys' wedding day!

42 & Scarecrows

This past weekend, BBC America's Dr. Who had an encore presentation of the episode "42" as well as a new episode. I think "42" may be the best scripted hour episode of a television series so far this season. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman shone in this tight, fast-paced drama about being trapped on a doomed spaceship being pulled into the gravitational forces of a star.
There were no cheesy aliens, only great CGI and lighting effects, and the compelling pace of the show was fraught with tension.
The only thing I had to laugh at was that Agyeman's Martha Jones was able to get 3 cell phone calls to her mum back in London - from the outer reaches of the galaxy - that is some wireless service!
To sum up that episode, as Martha said, "Very hot!"

Which brings us to the scarecrows...


The scarecrows are from the first part of "Human Nature/The Family Of Blood" in which a "family" of aliens is after The Doctor and he goes in hiding as a mortal human in 1913. I shall reserve my judgment of the episode until I see part 2 next week, but I will say that these alien-animated scarecrows are the creepiest evil television minions since the straight-jacketed mental-ward-escapees from the "Hush" episode of Buffy.
Maybe it's because I still have nightmares from watching 1981's Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, but scarecrows creep me out. And these straw-stuffed creatures on Dr. Who are down-right scary.