Jim and BacktoFrankBlack go all Podcasty!

BacktoFrankBlack: The Millennium Group Sessions, hosted by Troy Foreman and co-hosted by myself, good old Jim McLean, is now available for free download via BacktoFrankBlack.com AND on ITunes!

To download from BacktoFrankBlack.com

• For the enhanced image podcast (with some pretty exclusive photos) for Itunes and Ipod lovers (sound and images also works on apple quicktime - this version will also play as a simple audio recording): Click here! (15MB 60 mins)

• For a high quality podcast (no images embedded into this one): Right click here and select "save link as.." (60MB 60 mins)

To download from ITUNES

• To subscribe to the Itunes podcast, simply load up the Itunes store on your Itunes application, search for BacktoFrankBlack and wait for the podcast to pop onto the list. Then click "subscribe" - you will need to sign up to a free Itunes account to do this - but Itunes does run a great service for podcasts of all types (including our friends ThaDarkSideVibe and Spooktalkular)

BacktoFrankBlack: Millennium Group Sessions 01 - Pilot/Pilot

In the pilot episode, Troy Foreman and Jim McLean give you, the potential very dear listeners, information about the campaign's background, news updates on the campaign and the cast/crew of Millennium and a frank, informal chat about the pilot episode of our favourite TV show. (60mins)

This free podcast is available on a fortnightly basis via ITUNES. We'll naturally update you all on information on the podcast from this blog as well.

With ITUNES, anyone who has an Itunes friendly account will be able to subscribe easily and download the podcasts as they are released. We recommend the ITUNES friendly enhanced podcast because each episode will have its unique set of images to accompany the chatter!

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In related news, I've just finished recording a podcast with the wonderful Spooktalkular team that will be released later this week. It was a great little session between myself, Troy Foreman (of BacktoFrankBlack/ThaDarkSideVibe) and Spooktalkular hosts Frank and Laura. Watch for further updates - it really was a lovely chatty session. Informal and a lot of fun!

Farewell Geocities and the Golden Age of the Internet Hippy

It seems Geocities has had its day. Commence the jeers, cheers, sneers and general derision for a web host that really did mark the golden age of the amateur on the then labelled "Internet Superhighway".

Yes, the amateur was then in full force on the digital dial-up highway. He didn't have a car per se - because cars cost money. He preferred to sit on the hard shoulder with his flask of weak cordial. A presence - perhaps sometimes a hindrance - to the baby-boon commerce of the Internet.

Geocities will be remembered primarily for its banners, very short bandwidth and welcoming arms to the unqualified, thrifty web-designers. Pop-ups were abound, as were flashing tickers, animated Spider-Man gifs, neon green hit counters and of course, ugly "comic sans ms" font. They were "teh" terrible of their time; scorned for their cheap (and by cheap I mean free) offerings, laughed at by passers-by who soon learned to expect better.

But then, they were also so very wonderful. They really were the epoch of fan-free-fun on the net, before the hosts and servers who allowed these fans to have so much fun realised they had no revenue to let them do it for free. Soon enough all free web hosts would be filled with banners and Geocities was forced to offer more popups. The service became even more unbearable - quite surprising it has survived this latest commercial age of the Internet for so long.

However I would liken this era to a music festival - where everything is amateurish, muddy and generally awkward yet occasionally the province of something quite cool, nifty or informative. If you sifted through the oddball crap on Geocities you would find some interesting facts and cool gubbins. Who can forget searching through Geocities (or its rival, Angelfire - still alive) for landmarks dedicated to your favourite shows? The slow download their 600x480 wallpapers? The strings of wav files that would be composited onto your Windows 95 desktop theme? It was simple. It was a laugh. It was the age of the Internet Hippy.

Furthermore, as a web designer born from that era I owe a lot to the simple builders of Geocities and Angelfire. I built my first website on Angelfire (a band site). I built a massive LEXX resource called "The Squawkers Guide to Lexx" on Redrival (before it was forced into the banner revenue game). I built "EagleKen's Lonely Homepage" (a site dedicated to Gatchaman/Battle Of The Planets) on, well, it might have been Geocities - I really can't remember. I know the first illustration platform back at Uni was on Geocities - and was proof that if you knew a little about webdesign, you could create a simple, inoffensive Geocities site.

But like so many, I grew up. On leaving Uni I had transferred to the big boys with a decent paid webhost and domain name. Fan sites, those half-assed shrines of naff, began to die out as the truly dedicated upped their game and forked out a little for bandwidth and those who couldn't be arsed, well, time sapped the fun of the fan-shrine from their dial-up connections...

.. or took their design talents to the early days of MySpace. Another story perhaps.

But there are still some good Geocities websites out there. May I recommend you to my favourite Geocities site, dedicated to a film with very few sites to its names but surprisingly many more fans than you'd expect (I work with two colleagues who have separately confessed their love for this particular movie in the past few months). The film is called The Black Hole. The site is here. Enjoy this nostalgic slice of the Internet-as-it-were before it is as-it-isn't in the very near future.

Podcast Interview with Moi

I took part in a rather enjoyable informal chat with the host of ThaDarksideVibe podcast, Troy Foreman to chat about Millennium and BacktFrankBlack. It was an Easter Monday affair and I must confess to not being on the ball as I should. Naturally I'll blame my infamous dodgy memory (as those who know me can attest to), and my recent drug addled recuperation from my wisdom tooth extraction (which those who know me will attest I stopped taking the pills earlier this weekend and expose this bogus excuse).

Either way, we myself and Troy have a good 45 minute natter across the seas on the subject of Millennium. We're looking at the possibility of working with Troy again on a podcast dedicated to BacktoFrankBlack - time will tell whether that idea comes to fruition.

I'm talking to horror magazine Rue Morgue on doing a small feature on the campaign along with Lance Henriksen. Again, early stages - for those who wanted to hear what I think without actually having to hear me. I understand such a perspective totally - you have my sympathy! In the meantime, support Troy's podcast and suffer my dulcet tones on the following direct MP3 link!

Download the podcast directly (MP3)
Visit ThaDarksideVibe

BacktoFrankBlack offering an X-Files book prize!

BacktoFrankBlack is giving away "The Complete X-Files: A guide to the Myth and the Movies"
by Matt Hurwitz and endorsed by Millennium creator Chris Carter to TWO lucky winners who can offer a humorous caption to the following picture:

Email BacktoFrankBlack.com your suggestion before the end of Friday, (update: they've announced their winner - check their blog!) to win a hardback copy of this fantastic X-Files book! Third place will get a copy of the indie movie Millennium Apocalypse (region 1).

Worth a try, n'est pas?

Click here for BacktoFrankBlack.com's entry terms and conditions

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead

Cut to the Chase Meridian : can't say I enjoyed this.

Planet of the Dead is a story that very much relies on the audience falling for the Doctor's one-off companion, Christina (Michelle Ryan). If you didn't fall for this cat-woman homage, there really wasn't much else in the episode to engage you. The other characters (who as usual for RTD, felt authentically British) were relegated to the bus leaving us with Christina and the Doctor - oh and some flies. Hate to sound stuffed with snark, but the flies carried more charm than Christina. Really - they were great!

Cards on the table - I hate sounding like a grumbler, but (and there's always a 'but') can we have a female character that doesn't have to constantly compete with the Doctor for the audience's attention? It seems each companion has to spar with the Doctor to prove they are made of equal awesomez as the 900-year-old Time Lord. When one goes, the next has to come and fill those same shoes. Having the occasional companion look the Doctor in the eye is super - having companions occasionally do this makes that moment stand out more, but it seems each companion or major female guest star has to find a way to do just this. So by the time Christina appears ready to prove how she's not going to be ordered around by a very competent and rather superior being, she's sort of lost the dramatic edge.

I suppose we should blame society and our churlish, sexist social regime that we have to constantly reminds ourselves exists no more by adding aggressive or challenging female role model to buck past trends (which on consideration, isn't exactly a bad thing). It's just in way, this ideology limits the female character types to fulfil the companion role. I mean, men can be charming like Captain Jack, or eccentric like Malcolm (Lee Evans), UNIT's scientific advisor, or just excitable like Adam (Dalek) without having to prove to the Doctor - and through the Doctor, the audience - that they are valid, contemporary role models. In a way, it seems lead female characters are pigeon holed as bolshy and confrontation to prove they are no longer being pigeon holed as weak and submissive. Is there no middle ground?

In fact, I think this episode would have been far better with just the Doctor and the bus load of Ordinary. Yes, the Ordinary were far more likeable, believable and enjoyable to watch than Christina. We had a spectrum of London types and they were all very well played. They rooted the audience in the dilemma very well indeed - unlike Christina's character who was a boob laden pastiche on Bond and Thomas Crown - who just dragged you away from the tension. She was too unbelievable.

What? Unbelievable for a man travelling around time in a police box? Yes, sir - unbelievable. One oddity is something an audience can invest in. We can accept a Doctor, or a James Bond or a Batman. But when they have an equally unbelievable sidekick, who is just as amazing, it starts to become a little farcical.

Strong sidekicks aren't always a 'no' of course - in the right context they can be beneficial to a story in my humble ungodly opinion, but I think the desperation required to sustain the situation in this particular tale required the supporting cast to be believable - and that includes the companion.

I'm sure many people loved this Special - which is great. I'm not here to berate RTD's production (or personal talent) as crikey, they don't half get enough flack from fandom as it is. I just feel I have to be honest and say this didn't fulfil my Doctor Who criteria. But given I'm neither The Family or The Kids - the two key demographics for this story, I'm not the stat type to take priority. I'm just saying as a member of the audience, I found it slow, predictable and, thanks to Ryan's character, slightly cringe worthy. It's a ghastly thing to say when people have worked so hard and I don't mean to smear any of the cast and crew's talent, but it just didn't work for me. Heck, I found Lee Evans Malcolm enjoyable - and he's a gent whose on-screen presence normally drives me to the ceiling (as did his father, Norman Wisdom). I didn't enjoy the lame robbery opening (can we not put Mission: Impossible behind us now?), the barren middle bit (barren for those of us neither lusting or loving Christina and the Doctor's dynamic) or the triumphant ending (that felt smug and superfluous). Though I have to say the portents of things to come were very exciting - matched with a wonderful shot of brooding Tennant.

So a little disappointed. I'm a big fan of the New Who productions, so if you are just reading this blog on a random web-surf, don't mistake me as someone who generally whine about the show (yet persists in watching it so they can whine some more). Loved the last season so perhaps I just don't do Easter Specials! And for the first time, I have to say I really didn't enjoy Gold's soundtrack - dear lord, I've fallen right off the Who bandwagon this time. Someone hoist me back up.

Well. Thirty minutes and its Red Dwarf. Let's see if the night continues this trend. I hope not!

EDIT: Who writer Lawrence Miles has far more to say on this topic and more candidly. Have to say I find myself agreeing with his points and feeling utterly awful for doing so.