The Medium is Not Enough

Douglas Adams once wrote about an Electric Monk. The idea of the Electric Monk was that it was a labour saving device. As Adams put it, just as a dishwasher is there to wash dishes so that you don’t have to, and a video recorder is there to watch TV programmes so that you don’t have to, so the Electric Monk believes things for you, so that you don’t have to.

That was in the 80s, of course. Cross out video recorder and replace it with PVR and you have the 00s truism. Still no Electric Monks though. Curses. I really would like to believe ITV will get better one day – or at least have someone believe it for me.

Sitting on my PVR/Apple TV are the Christmas editions of Extras (I’m a third of the way through it and not enjoying it tremendously) and To the Manor Born (haven’t watched it but I’ve heard terrible things about it) to name but a couple, as well as a multitude of movies that I thought worth watching. I didn’t have to watch much of The Mothman Prophecies to realise it wasn’t, but I’ve still to make that determination on a number of things.

Plus I’m still glad to have Firefox, Quatermass and the Pit and Hawk the Slayer there, even if I’ll never watch them. That’s nostalgia for you.

In part the reason everything’s sitting there unwatched is because some mad fools bought me DVDs for Christmas/birthday, so I had too much to watch. It’s also because I’m not spending all of Christmas watching TV, even if it is the complete box set of Airwolf or Ulysses 31 (or, and don’t go too wild, Artemis 81. I do put some odd things on my Amazon wish list sometimes).

But I did watch a little. And even though it’s a good fortnight on, I thought I’d leave a couple of thoughts for posterity on Christmas with Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal’s Perfect Christmas Dinner and Doctor Who‘s Voyage of the Damned (other reviews are available and have been for a good long while now).

Continue reading “Christmas tele”