Friday, October 02, 2009

The Zygon Who Fell to Earth

Last night I listened to the last in the current series of the Doctor Who radio plays. This one was called "The Zygon Who Fell to Earth". In the story, the Doctor (played by Paul McGann) and Lucie (Sherdian Smith) arrive in England, 1984, to visit Lucie's Auntie Pat, only to find out that Auntie Pat's husband, Trevor is in fact a Zygon Warlord named Hagoth in disguise. Also there are another group of Zygons (a race of shapeshifting aliens) along with a Skarasen (a giant cybernetic water monster the Zygons keep as a pet) who want to recruit Hagoth in their latest plan to invade the Earth. It was a pretty good story.

I went in to work today, but I was only working for six hours. I left at around three. Even then there was barely anyone in the office when I left. I had about two hours where I was the only person sitting at the table, which wasn't too bad because I just listened to my iPod, and luckily there weren't any telephone calls. It was really wet today so I had to take the bus, instead of walking.

When I got home I watched Twilight Zone: The Movie from 1982, directed by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. I recorded it on video last night. It's basically a comilation of four self-contained stories, bookended by a prologue and epilogue. Three of the four stories are based on episodes of the TV series. The first story stars Vic Morrow as an angry, bigoted man who is finds himself taken back in time where he finds himself on the receiving end of violence and prejudice. The second story, "Kick the Can", stars Scatman Crothers as an elderly man who rejuvenates the inhabitants of an Old People's Home with the help of his magical tin can. The third story, "It's a Good Life", featured Kathleen Quinlan as a school-teacher who meets a young boy with devestating psychic powers who traps people in a bizarre cartoon-like world. In the fourth story, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", John Lithgow plays a nervous flyer who, during a bad storm, believes that he is the only one that can see a monster on the wing of the plane, tearing apart the engine. Mostly it is a good, if very uneven, film. It is pretty faithful to the style of the series.

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