Doctor Who episode rec: A Christmas Carol

  I just saw the Christmas special between series five + six. The Doctor is trying to crash a spaceship from crashing into an impenetrable planet atmosphere, killing everyone on board. There's a device that can let them through but the only one who can operate it is - well, he's a Scrooge. And that's kind of the point. The episode send this man on a journey modelled after "A Christmas Carol," and it's really well done with all the optimism and almost mythological quality you expect, only there's the Doctor and timey-wimey nonsense and the eternal optimism of the Matt Smith years thrown in there as well.

Plus, the Scrooge character is played by Michael Gambon, the Dumbledore of the later Harry Potter movies, and his younger self who also features heavily in the episode is Laurence Belcher, probably best known as the young Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Really, quite a gifted kid. And while Amy + Rory feature on the edges, this is really Matt Smith's story. Imagine Matt Smith and Michael Gambon engaged in an existential battle for an old man's soul, throw in a heap of Chrstmas spirit and faerie, and you've got the idea.

It's only $2 at Amazon, or free if you have Amazon Prime. Do check it out. I suspect it's probably free through Netflix as well, but I don't have that service, so I can't offer a link. (If anyone does find it there let me know and I'll post a link here.)  I liked it!

from the "so bizarre it can't possibly be real, and yet" file

A lawyer-friend sent me a link to this frankly hilarious court case summary out of Canada.

Morland-Jones v. Taerk, 2014 ONSC 3061 (CanLII)

One sample:

[6] The hearing before me started off with counsel for the Plaintiffs playing a short excerpt from security footage shot by the Plaintiffs several years ago, in which Ms. Taerk is seen performing a “poop and scoop” after a dog did its business on her front lawn. The Plaintiffs’ security camera shows her crossing the street with the plastic bag-full in hand, and then walking toward the Plaintiffs’ driveway where the garbage cans were out for collection. Although the impugned deed actually takes place off camera, Ms. Taerk can be seen moments later returning to her side of the street empty-handed.

[7] Apparently, much to the consternation of the Plaintiffs, she deposited the goods in the Plaintiffs’ garbage can. In doing so, she failed to walk to the back of her house to place it in her own receptacle like a truly good neighbour would do.

[8] The “dog feces incident”, as counsel for the Plaintiffs calls it, is a high point of this claim. At the hearing, it was followed by counsel’s description of a cease and desist letter sent to the Defendants in 2008 by a lawyer then representing the Plaintiffs, which describes what is now referred to by counsel as the “dog urination issue”. This letter enclosed photographs – apparently stills taken from the Plaintiffs’ non-stop video footage – documenting Mr. Taerk walking his dog and occasionally allowing it to lift its leg in a canine way next to the bushes lining the Plaintiffs’ lawn.

Really, the phrase "And it goes downhill from there" should not appear in a summation of an actual court case, should it? But as the subject line says, "And yet..."