(September 22 – 28)

This week’s writing efforts have solely comprised more work on the new short story. I’ve got a good feeling about this one – which more or less translates to me enjoying writing it. It combines a lot of the things that I most enjoy: oddball humour, a slightly dark and twisted view on things, and some satisfying ewww moments.

I suspect work on this one will wrap up next week.

Watching

Continuing with the Elderbeast’s goal of watching all of the films in the IMDB top ten, I was very excited to introduced him to 12 Angry Men over the weekend as I’ve not watched it myself for many years (indeed, my bluray copy was still in the wrapper). I deflected an initial comment along the lines of “but how can it be good if it’s in black and white” and we got stuck in. Obviously it remains a masterpiece, and the Elderbeast remained absorbed throughout. Excellent.

I love films that revolve around locking a group of diverse characters in a room and seeing what happens. Because the premise forces the writer to focus on character rather than plot, films like this usually end up being pretty rewarding (although 12 Angry Men is, of course, in a class of its own). 

Friday’s horror film was a Netflix oddity called Munafik 2, which I had hoped would fit into the line up of pretty cool international horror movies we’ve delved into from time to time. While it had its moments, it turned out to be more of religious tale featuring some (admittedly very effective) supernatural moments. It’s certainly unusual, as a Western viewer, to be exposed to a story that is so thoroughly steeped in Islam as this one was, but we figured no different than The Exorcist, which is obviously a heavily Christian film.

The weekend also delivered a viewing of Aliens with my Awesome Partner, which was naturally awesome. Nuff said.

Reading

This week I delved into a set of Doctor Who audio dramas I picked up on Audacity, collectively known as The Nest Cottage Chronicles. These particular stories, released by the BBC in 2015, marked the first time Tom Baker properly returned to the role of the Doctor since leaving the TV series in 1981. The entire saga comprises 15 tales, running more than 17 hours and was an absolute bargain given I was able to grab the whole collection with a single credit.

While the production and performances are uniformly good, there’s a curious narrative choice made to tell the stories in flashback. In short, this means they revolve around the Doctor sitting there and telling his companion about things that have happened in the past. While those past experiences are all fully recreated via the magic of full-cast audio, it stills keeps me, as a listener, one step removed from the events. It tends to emphasise that these events are happening to someone else, rather than allowing me to be some sort of omniscient observer passively participating in them. Odd choice. Not sure if I like it.