More interesting characters
I decided there was no reason I should limit myself to characters from tv shows still being made, so I began to think of more characters I like, this time from older tv series. Here’s my next list:
From the British tv series All Creatures Great and Small, Tristan Farnon, played by Peter Davison. This guy’s really got charm and like Jack Harkness he uses it to meet partners (in Tristan’s case, women only). I love the way he treats his university studies – casually, convincing his brother he passed exams he really flunked, but effortlessly re-taking the exams later and eventually graduating. Naturally he becomes a vet just like his brother. As most of you probably know, there’s a Dr Who connection, since Peter Davison played the fifth Doctor and his daughter made a guest appearance in one of the later seasons, playing another Doctor’s daughter. She’s also married to the guy playing that Doctor (Ten) in real life.
From the 1980’s cop series Miami Vice, Detective Sonny Crockett. This guy is really cool, dresses well, lives on a boat, and – need I mention that – he’s hot. I’m currently watching this series on DVD and I just love the music, maybe not the clothes as much, but the general atmosphere (though Florida wouldn’t be my first choice when it comes to vacations.)
From Star Trek – Spock – (though my favorite series were TNG and Voyager). Somehow, even when I was a little kid I always loved Spock. Dare I say that I didn’t think much of TOS and really dislikes Enterprise and the movie? Having said that, I feel I should also mention movie-Uhura. Spock and Uhura were the only good things about the movie (well, old Spock too).
Moving on to the 1990’s, there are almost too many people to choose between, but I’ll try to restrain myself.
Since you’ve probably heard of these people, I’ll just mention their names.
Fox Mulder from the X files.
MIchael Guerin from Roswell (I just love all that angst).
Now the earlier parts of the 2000’s (it’s getting easier to pick my favorites, since there’s so much less to choose between):
From Veronica Mars (excellent series, at least the first two seasons), Cindy ‘Mac’ Mackenzie. She’s a computer genius who helps Veronica on many of her cases. We should have seen more of this girl, she was great.
From Heroes – Hiro, of course, such a great guy and really sweet and kind of cute. I also can’t resist mentioning Peter Petrelli and Mohinder Suresh (who are really hot and of course interesting too.) Oh, and little Micah was really cute and a good actor.
And that’s it. For later favorites see the post before this. I’d love to hear about your favorites too.
Three interesting characters
I recently read a blog post on WordPress.com, where a guy was listing the three most interesting characters in tv shows. His choices surprised me a little, and I thought about which ones I find interesting (‘most’ interesting is hard to define).
Here is a list of three favorites from tv shows running today as far as I know.
From Downton Abbey: Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by Dame Maggie Smith.
She’s such a cool old lady, seemingly harsh, but it appears that she does have a heart somewhere, even though it’s hard to tell at first. I just love the way she can something mean in a really funny way.
From Dr Who and Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman. Don’t you just love the way he walks in his uniform jacket? He’s hot, funny and there’s also a bit of angst in his background.
After mentioning Jack Harkness, I just can’t pass over the Doctor himself. “My” Doctor is Nine, but I like Ten and Eleven too and I think I would have liked Five too, but that was way before my time. Speaking of the Doctor, I also have to mention some of his companions, Donna Noble, Wilfred Mott, Donna’s grandfather, Amy Pond and her husband Rory, even though they’re all by now ‘former” companions.
Then finally, a guy you won’t have heard of, but that I really like, Simon Freund from Anno 1790 (1790 AD), the Swedish historic cop series that showed up so unexpectedly when I’d more or less given up on tv. Freund works as a teacher for a Chief of Police in Stockholm in 1790. He falls in love with his employer’s wife and goes off to war, to die, but meets a medic, Johan Gustav Dåådh (‘Deede’) who saves his life and brings him back to his employers where Dåådh too finds work as a police surgeon. Freund is so sweet. When he notices his friend loves the same woman, it doesn’t ruin their friendship. Instead he tries to find Dåådh another girlfriend, but Dåådh arrives home too late for the ‘dinner for two’ his friend has plannned and finds Freund passed out drunk on the couch with the attractive young widow he found, leaning on his arm. Freund has had bad luck in love and has turned to religion and drink for comfort. He’s a Pietist. He carries around a pocket flask that Dåådh is constantly borrowing from him to disinfect wounds or anesthesize live patients (most of his ‘patients’ are murder victims).
So these are the three most interesting characters from currently running tv shows that I could think of. Which ones do you find most interesting?
Quote about bookshelves
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
– Anna Quindlen (The Times, 1991)
Dr Who Meme
I found this on Tumblr and I thought I’d share it right away, it was so much fun (and I really need fun right now).
This is how you do it:
Your job is now your Time Lord name. The last digit of your phone number is the current regeneration you are in. The nearest clothing item to your right is now the most notable item in your current wardrobe. The last person you texted is your current companion. Your favorite word is now your catchphrase.
The Writer
7th regeneration
Short blue skirt
My sister Gabriella
Books!
Kafka quote
I found this on WordPress.com and I kind of liked it.
“The limited circle is pure.”
—Franz Kafka
It’s always some comfort for someone like me, who’s constantly alone and lonely.
Doctor Who revisited
Three years ago, I posted a review about Doctor Who, after watching part of season 1. I just reread it and I must say it was sort of funny. After having spent many evenings of happy watching, I have a rather different view of the series. I think it’s time for a new review.
Three years ago, and a bit more, Swedish tv aired season 1 of the new Doctor Who series. My dad had watched some episodes of the older series (not sure which ones) on the Sci Fi channel (I know it’s spelled differently now, but it looks ridiculous, and anyway it wasn’t called that back then). I hadn’t been particularly interested. What little I’d seen looked decidedly odd, compared to Star Trek and Star Wars, which were pretty much the only experiences I’d had of science fiction on tv and/or in movies.
Then three and half years ago, roughly, the new series came out. This time, I was definitely interested. Some of the things I said in my earlier review still stands. I don’t like all the episodes, but despite that, I won’t hesitate to say that I love the series. By now, that first Doctor (for me, that is) Nine, has been replaced by Ten and Eleven. I like them all, so it’s hard to make a choice and anyway, they’re all the same Doctor.
I think what I’ve seen so far of Eleven is from one season (apparently season 5).
Fortunately, my sister has a friend who’s given her two DVD boxes of Dr Who, so we’ve been able to watch the whole series in peace and quiet at home. Almost every time I sit down to watch it, I think that my dad would have loved it. (Actually, I do that a lot. Every time I see or hear of something I think my dad might have liked, I think about that. I kind of hope that somehow he does get to see those tv series, movies etc.)
So what can I say about the series? First of all, it is very different from American tv series, but I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. I like many different kinds of tv series and movies. Put simply, Doctor Who is about a lonely alien, the last of his species, who travels the universe in his space/time ship the TARDIS (acronym), that looks like a blue phone booth, looking for distractions, but who also lends a hand when someone – mainly humans – are in danger. To cure his loneliness he picks up human companions and lets them travel with him for a time.
I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen the series (or the whole series, as far as I’ve seen), but I thought I might just mention some favorite episodes.
The first episode of series 1 (Rose) is pretty good (The Doctor saves the Earth from an invasion of mannequin dummies…). I also like The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances (About an eerie child who asks everyone “Are you my mummy?”) .
From season 2 I have several favorites, starting with New Earth (set in a futuristic hospital, where humanized cats care for the seriously ill, if you know me, you can probably guess what I like about this episode), then The Idiot’s Lantern (perhaps a warning about watching too much tv?), The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit (a double episode that can be quite scary at times, introduces a couple of great characters that I wish would return and also an interesting new species, the Ood) and finally Fear Her (about a scary child who likes to draw a lot).
In season 3 I particularly liked Smith and Jones (a hospital is moved to the Moon by some kind of intergalactic police force chasing an alien wanted for murder), Gridlock (very interesting idea and some adorable kittens, I’m a sucker for those), 42 (again with a promising new character – who hasn’t returned so far, and a fast paced plot: find out what’s wrong with a cargo ship and what’s killing its crew members before you fall into a sun all in 42 minutes) and Blink (very, very scary – keep an eye on those statues and never blink, even for a second).
The list goes on… 🙂 Season 4: Partners in Crime (Donna returns looking for trouble, hoping to find the Doctor, this time a warning about quick weight loss schemes?, I’ve never seen any fat look so cute though LOL), The Doctor’s Daughter (fascinating idea, terraforming and instant non-sexual reproduction, among other things) and finally The Unicorn and the Wasp (where Donna and the Doctor meet Agatha Christie and try to solve a murder mystery in a British manor house).
Somehow season 5 seems quite different, with a new Doctor again. The Beast Below (welcome aboard the starship United Kingdom where something is not right, don’t ride in the elevators at least not when a frowning face is staring at you) is really interesting, and so is The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone (again, really scary, with those nighmarish Weeping Angels – to watch or not to watch?). I also like Amy’s Choice (I do love Amy’s guy Rory, he’s such a sweetie). I can’t quite make up my mind about The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood (don’t dig too deep, you never know what might turn up). In a way they’re really fascinating, but in other ways – well, as I said, I’m not sure. There are parts of those two episodes I like less.
All in all, it’s been absolutely thrilling to have these Doctor Who marathons. I can’t wait to see the next season.
Info about veganism
Very useful resource site.
Mediateque?
The other day I went to look at a new school building around here. Actually, it was my old school – though of course a new building. Esthetically this new building can’t be compared to the old shoebox-like one where earlier students – me included – went. Unfortunately, there are other things that are even worse than when I went there.
Sure, there were plenty of table tennis tables and a couple of game tables – tables with games painted on the tabletop. I’m sure that kids who like that sort of thing will be pleased about that. In the schoolyard there was even a swing. (For teenagers!?) The classrooms are well lighted and spacious and look as if they’ll do nicely for whatever subject will be taught in there. I saw nice looking rooms for woodwork, needlework, home economics, art and music. So far so good, right?
However, from a friend of a friend, I’ve heard that the actual teaching is poor and the so called mediateque (?) really turned out to be a disappointment. When I walked in, I expected to find a well equipped computer room/media room. What I found was a so called library with a couple of book shelves and a table with four (?) computers. There were even almost as many in the needlework room. If I’d had to go to this school, and believe me, I’m happy not to – I had a minor anxiety attack as soon as I walked through the main entrance, because of less than pleasant memories from my school days – I would have been extremely disappointed in the library/mediateque. I would most likely have gone through the books that interested me in a few months. And then – for the rest of my three years there, what then? The town library?
Not good! If that’s the way all schools at this level (roughly junior high) are, I feel sorry for the girls (and boys) who are like me. Although I probably would have anyway. But still, a well stocked library would have been some consolation.
Historic cop series
This week I watched the first episode of Swedish television’s new historic cop series. Yes, you read that right. It’s a historic cop series set in 1790. Hence the name which means 1790 AD. I’d read a bit about the series and to my disappointment, it was mainly negative, but actually I was quite impressed.
The episode started with a scene of carnage from one of the wars (Sweden-Russia). There’s blood everywhere and a medic is doing his best to save lives. He asks one of the officers for help (at least I guess he is one, but he could also be a messenger, in any case not an ordinary foot soldier).
A moment later they’re attacked again and hit by cannon fire. The medic finds the other guy in a pit on top of dead and dying soldiers. The injured man begs the medic to take his dead body to a certain police commissioner in Stockholm. In the end, the guy survives and the medic takes him back to Stockholm. It seems he’s tutoring the children of his employer.
A high ranking police officer is murdered and the medic is enlisted to find out who and what killed him, more or less against his will. The only reason he agrees to stay is that the police commissioner’s wife begs him to.
After an initial setback, he manages to solve the case, is given the late police officer’s old job and his new friend becomes his ‘sergeant’
Maybe I’m a bit influenced by my years of fan fiction writing (and reading), but I could detect definite slash vibes between the two main characters. LOL. On the other hand, there’s supposedly something between the medic and his employer’s wife. Platonic though.
This town…
Yesterday when I was on my way to the bank (to get an electronic ID) a couple of people positively glared at me and my sister, who was walking with me. One kid actually laughed at us. What’s wrong with this town and the people in it? That sort of thing never happens anywhere else. Not even in Stockholm, where people are said to be really snarky and rude, especially to visitors and tourists.
On the bright side, someone finally called us on our brand new cool Skype phone. It was a wrong number, but it was kind of fun anyway. (Pathetic? Probably. Sigh.)
