"The Eleventh Hour" and the return of Doctor Who

As the Good Ones among you O Constant Listenerz no doubt know, DOCTOR WHO has most recently returned with it's new series (numbered 5th, 1st or 31st depending on who is doing the reckoning). Although the first appearance by Matt Smith (the Doctor; specifically the Eleventh Doctor of the title, witty eh?) and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) was better than we Heretics had hoped, the episode itself was not altogether wonderful. Something was missing. I found what that something was when I read the following review. We thought best to share it, from IMDB poster pstancer in Hong Kong, "In the first episode, the only black face belongs to a Rottweiler!":

The first thing I noticed with the new Doctor Who is that the only black face in the first episode belongs to a Rottweiler. And that the only sexual reference is a heterosexual one.

Is Steven Moffat, the new Producer, trying to make a point here?

While I sometimes tired of the histrionics of Russell T Davies's plots, I could always chuckle at the thought of middle-class parents cowering behind their sofas while their children were entertained with stories of black/white/gay/lesbian/alien love-triangles, and heroes drawn from the Daily Mail's hate list: single mothers on benefit; gay ex-servicemen; chavs and hoodies a.k.a the working class. Even his first timelord came from that little know northern suburb of Gallifrey: Salford, near Manchester.

Contrarily, Mr Moffat's first solo-offering seems to hark back to days of old. All the episode was missing was some understated misogamy [I think pstancer meant misogyny here, but I am not certain], the Brigadier, and morris dancers dancing around a maypole on the village green, and you have a rehash of the 70's classic: The Dæmons.

Hopefully I am prejudging, Steven Moffat did create Captain Jack in "The Empty Child" back in Series 1. Already there is the hint of child abandonment for young Amy Pond, and maybe she has a whole Belle-De-Jour back-story from her "kiss-a-gram" days? Doctor Who meets Pretty Women anyone?

So despite what I have just said, sheepishly, I would say the omens are good. Karen Gillan and Matt Smith can certainly act and have a curious chemistry - hopefully more Mulder and Scully than Romeo and Juliet - and with Moffat's fine pedigree of past episodes (Blink/ Silence in the Library) it would appear that we have an exciting journey ahead of us.

*

The immediate next episode-- "The Beast Below" --is both better and less stark white-on-white. We are ever hopeful. Also, linguistically interesting is how very Canadian Ms. Gillan/Ms. Pond's accent is most of the time.

DO NOT READ Dan Brown

From the Telegraph comes a list of 20 very compelling reasons not to read the work of Dan Brown. He will not be reviewed on Heresy Québec. Ever.

Jumping to the good stuff. Well not really. The #1 and my personal favourite:

1. The Da Vinci Code: Title. The Da Vinci Code.

Leonardo’s surname was not Da Vinci. He was from Vinci, or of Vinci. As many critics have pointed out, calling it The Da Vinci Code is like saying Mr Of Arabia or asking What Would Of Nazareth Do?

Go here and read the rest of the list.

The Heresy Québec Review of the Marilyn Manson concert in Ottawa

For context read Lynn Saxberg's review in the Ottawa Citizen of Marilyn Manson's September 21st concert (here!) also the Calgary Herald review (here!), by Heath McCoy, of the September 11th show which is noteworthy because moral panic arose during the last time Manson performed in YYC.

I think Lynn Saxberg is a bit harsher than I was in my evaluation. Perhaps it is because I actually enjoy Manson's work and "art" (if you will). To a point. The concert opened late, but solidly with "We're from America",... and then spiralled into one of the most poorly orchestrated spectacles I have had the misfortune to attend. My beloved sister had described the Edmonton show to me and had lead me to hope that it might improve. I was really looking forward to his encore of Patti Smith's "Rock N Roll Nigger" a standard in his recent tours. (I love how McCoy can't even properly use the word "nigger" and has to instead write "n**ger" cuz changing the name of the song and replacing letters just makes all those years of slavery and oppression just melt away.) There was no encore. It seems as though the entire tour was lurching into the banal space of post-rock mediocrity and more importantly, from my myopic perspective, that the Ottawa show was the worst of the lot.

Upon exiting the Scotia Bank Überdome (or whatever the fuck it is called) I was struck by the fanboys and their overheard wankery: "That was so awesome!" And the perhaps more adulterated, "Well, at least he came to Ottawa." To the drooling first dyad I wanted ask, "Were we at the same concert?" I chose not to on the grounds that they were likely 13 and had no basis for comparison. I was reminded of the line from the Dayglo Abortion's "Black Sabbath", "he'd probably love me if I pissed on his face..." (Although the fan wankery is reversed there, the principle applies.)

I think even the over abundance of police were bored. Clearly their time was wasted in preparation for the rioting that just doesn't ever seem to happen moral panics be damned.

Mr. The Engineer made an excellent (and telling) observation: Tori Amos' performance was actually more transgressive. Perhaps that is the most salient point here. When a balladeer is more transgressive and much better an entertainer over all then perhaps the shock-rocker needs to fade back into obscurity and count the money received from residuals.