Daleks! Daleks! Daleks!

Okay, let me lay my cards on the table so you all know where I'm coming from. I love Doctor Who. I have been enjoying the programme since childhood - like so many of us - and I probably see myself as straddling both classic Whovian fandom and NewWho fandom.

[Of course, I could also see myself straddling the TARDIS's current incumbent but perhaps the less said about that the better, eh? For one, Marie would possibly kick me out the way first..., glasses flying off centre-right...]

Anyway, it's probably fair to say I love the entertainment of it and being a child at heart I'm prepared to overlook most of its worst failings from both the past and the present. (It's far too easy to see one or the other as somehow the perfect world, whether that's the days of black and white shuddery cameras and model effects, the more confident shift to colour filming and slightly less miniscule budgets with a long-term doctor to boot, the Eccles-cake return with budgets ahoy and a more mid-evening family slot, or the rising romance of Ten/Rose last season: each have ardent fans and their loathers who see one or more of the more recent incarnations coming after their own personal favourite - even if that was just the last series - as 'the end of Who' as they know and love it).

Which brings me to the latest two-parter and the latest season. So far the series has not yet failed to give me enjoyment and despite accusations of dullness, I have found it still thrilling and pleasurable. Mock me all you like, tell me I'm wrong (I know you think it), but I have enjoyed all the current series, including the most recent and largely reviled two-parter. I'm no slave to the concept of RTD is perfect and that New Who is perfect. I absolutely accept that there are flaws, some quite major and needing resolution fast, and that it has had some horrid frustrating weaknesses - made all the more infuriating by any sense of either history or love for its high points so far.

Neil accuses me of often living in a 'permanent present': he usually means in relation to food since I can rarely think beyond "what do I want to eat now?" But the idea possibly transfers to other consumption. Perhaps it comes from me having made my academic subject career out of being acutely and seriously critically analytical of culture. Explore strengths and weaknesses; make a case using evidence to back it up; take nothing for granted; be questioning at all times: all of these are laudable ideals. But somehow along the way I learnt a lesson from some of my colleagues and peers. They found that they could too easily lose their facility to just enjoy a text in the here and now for what it was (not what it could or should have been, or what it all signified). I think this reinforced me watching films and TV with a greater sense of trying to be entertained (if that was the appropriate response - although there is perhaps a whole different post developing Neil Postman's argument that TV is at its most dangerous when it takes itself seriously: see his still fascinating book "Amusing Ourselves to Death").

ANYWAY.

Back to Daleks.

I think that the internal dialogue of Stuart Ian Burns with 'Martha' over at Behind the Sofa summed up several of my points: we're all just a little bit over-Whoed. Even though actually we really LIKE being over-Whoed, our critical faculties are just a tad jaded by it all. All the information, the discussion, the expectations, the awareness of the past and the spoilers of the future. It's all just too much.

What worked: I liked the idea of going to New York, and - with their Deco-esque construction/visuals - the Cult of Skaro worked in that environment: shiny Daleks in that setting certainly worked for me. I liked the time link thing with Caan being, possibly, the lone Dalek survivor for the NewWho season 1 museum of Van Statten. I liked Martha doing the pig-electrocution thang, and I even liked the non-Dalek humans turning to say 'why'. I especially liked Daleks conspiring against each other. I liked brain-thingies being found on the floor, green and abandoned. And even if the resolution was specious non-science nonsense, I actually liked that the Doctor didn't immediately know what green brain jelly thang was. I liked that the Doctor took Martha somewhere he hadn't took Rose and I liked his (unintentionally?) wounding retort of 'maybe' (I'm torn between thinking he's just blind to Martha's interest or that he's deliberately retreated into himself to not make the same connection again. As if the writers/producers think that way). I also liked the Dalekanium references. I thought Mr Diagoras in his human state was fascinatingly more scary than in his Dalek state: more Dalek-like when fully human than when combined with Dalek Sec, so maybe something went more interestingly wrong when the two were added together? - a kinda double negative ending up creating a more positive, self-critical hybrid...?

Areas of forgiveness: I can forgive wobbly sets (jeez, when I think back...) and I can forgive even wobblier accents/dialects/verbals (sorry Talllluhhhhallejuah, or whatever the hell she was called) because Who isn't coming fresh to either of those. (And those who point out that the show has bigger, fabby budgets nowadays simply can't have it both ways on how money is used/not used and reliance on imagination is diminished these days). I can also forgive some of the weird leaps of events - like the 'lost' scene of resolving Laszlo's pig heart failure - because it clearly jars more obviously nowadays due to the shorter episode lengths. Meandering multi-part episodes, and let's be honest some of the FOUR-part stories felt like drawn out crucifixtions, never help a story and some of the jumps and narrative leaps here were at least intended to keep the story moving (even if they ended up making some of the story make no sense). I think there could have been a tight single 45 min episode in here, though it would probably have needed a different writer, and a different team not driven to the 'early series two-part requirement'.

Which brings me to ...

What annoyed: this list could end up being longer than either of the above. And I don't want that. Others have put their comments in and have said it far more wittily and eloquently than I ever could. As I have often said, I can read a bad review that is written with wit and panache and even if I totally disagree, I can still enjoy and respect it for what it is. I can totally see where much of the criticism is coming from (and I especially thought that Ian Hocking's comment in Marie's post on DiM that as a kid's show the audience is more forgiving than it was for Torchwood was very telling. It probably also says something again about my mentality being immaturedly prepared to 'go-with-the-flow')

Still. First off, let's say that the Radio Times cover really didn't help. I wasn't entirely against it by the end of the DinM episode, but by the conclusion of the EoftD, I safely believed it had meant the show shot its bolt.
Music - what in parts has been a delight in the new series (the Xmas Invasion song remains the pinnacle of Murray Gold's work for me) has now become such a parody, it's hard not to believe that the National Orchestra of Wales are not intent on multi-handedly bringing Who into disrepute. One more choral over-drive of 'Daleks' and I may be forced to find a way to listen to the dialogue and special effects sounds without the bloody music channel kicking in.
Dialogue - there was some clunking lines that the cast had to deliver. They're well documented elsewhere. I prefer non-shouty Doctor direction/dialogue and I'm sorry but DT is capable of more than fun versus shouty. But he has to have both the words and the direction to make that possible. More crucially though, if Martha keeps being given little more than mopey dialogue about the Doctor not noticing her then someone will be getting a sharp letter. I know they probably think her quick (sonic speed?) falling for the Doctor reflects how quickly some people fell for Le Tennant, but really that's just lazy. Pay attention to the character you're working with: Rose's intense feelings for the Doctor at least took some time to develop. At first Rose was just travelling for the heck of it. And anyway, you can't displace mopiness onto a new character just because you're tetchy about the Doctor being seen to be missing Rose. And Martha might be training to be a Doctor, but that least means some A level sciences: the conducting of electricity aside, we've scarcely seen recognition of her education and training. Use it please!

An aside point: I know it's not going to happen but I wish this was being broadcast in the winter months. A dark bleak winter's evening as opposed to - literally - the glare of summer sun - would provide a much more conducive backdrop for watching this programme, even in its full-on faults zone.

So that's my remarks. Again, like my feminism rant below it possibly wasn't worth waiting for. I'm knackered from writing and I STILL owe a serious amount of writing up to lovely Chrissie. And each day I keep thinking of new posts I want to write. I'll try and get onto them asap folks, really I will try. But you're all doing such a good job without me.

Daleks to come - honest

Keep the faith folks: you ask for a Dalek post, I will give you a Dalek post (what was that I was saying about saying yes/no?)

But it's 10.45pm and I still have posts in stages of completion and writing as well on our trip to Derby, springtime, dyslexia, why I hate Garry Richardson, and that aforementioned Dalek post.

I will try and promise the Daleks are next. I mean, I'm not still frightened of the last one left...

(Like that will ever be the case...)

And for the record and a hint, I'm STILL not as negative as many others have been. So there.

Gig review: Death Vessel / Low at the Rescue Rooms 25 April 2007

Although lovely Mike has already remarked on this event, and provided his own review of the gig, it's still worth me putting my two-penneth in, right?

Anyway, bearing in mind that Cloud and I were in a spirit of despair at the philistines of the East Midlands rejecting the chance to see Einstürzende Neubauten at Rock City, 'low' was probably a good way to describe our mood as we went to see the maestros of Minnesotan slowcore. At first we got in a muddle over the venue - we were convinced it was the delightful Rescue Rooms but then we realised the tickets said Rock City, only to find it WAS the Rescue Rooms as Maximo Park were filling the larger venue. [In light of the EN cancellation, that would have been weird to find Low selling out Rock City!] Still, after that minor hiccup, we got ourselves in the right venue and settled in a corner with a good view of the stage.

First up was Death Vessel. Now I have to admit I knew nothing of this artiste prior to the gig (even that this was the support act). So when a lithe, but delicately muscular figure with long dark hair came to the stage with just a mandolin-esque shaped guitar I wasn't sure what I was expecting. As the powerful folksy, bluegrass guitar work began, so did an incredible falsetto pitched vocal that seemed defy the usual physics of singing. This, it turned out, was the stipped down Death Vessel, since the band is effectively driven by Joel Thibodeau. That's right, Joel. As one bloke said when eagerly buying up their album from the cd stand at the end of the support set, "that was a guy? I just spent the whole set convinced it was a girl... I kept thinking PJ Harvey...".

It wasn't hard to understand why he had not spotted this (though why it perhaps mattered is another story); certainly, Cloud and I had had the benefit of our location in the venue to make it easier to see or at least read it was a male vocalist. But what an amazing voice. Joel never spoke until right at the end of the set, where his infintesimally lower pitched spoken voice just about gave the game away: his delight at the reception he'd stirred reflected genuine surprise and his humility drew even more raptuous cheers. Listening back to the album "Stay Close" with its built up band sound might have been too much of a contrast to his solo performance at the Rescue Rooms. Actually, barring some obvious moments that could not be replicated (a duet track - Mandan Dink), the gig gave a very accurate reflection of the album. And it was particularly wonderful to hear such a clear and unfuzzy performance where the subtleties of lyrics - even if abstruse in construction - could be heard. A worthwhile and rather stunning support.

And so to Low.

We have to acknowledge the George for our introduction to Low. It was his championing of "(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace" that first turned us on to the band:



What can we say? We were suckers for the lo-fi, post-rock beauty of their vocals and music. Even as the band upped the gears for more recent albums, they have retained all the power and magic of their earlier works. We were really chuffed to be getting the chance to see them live.

It was, as we hoped, a delight. From Sandinista, Belarus, Dragonfly, Murderer and Violent Past from the new album, through Sunflower, Two-Step and Dinosaur Act plus more from the past: there was active guitars and subtle percussion, delicate harmonies and powerful vocal deliveries.

And what more could we have wanted on a hot April evening than for a band to half-begrudgingly, if ultimately beautifully, succumb to a recklessly time-of-year-inappropriate request for "Just Like Christmas"? With the inclusion of "...Amazing Grace" as a hymn of romance for the room to well up in tears to, it was a stunning evening.

One bloke near us asked his friend how it compared to him seeing the band previously: "the best" he proclaimed without hesitation, and that's just as it should be. All that and a 'bloggers corner' too! Brilliant.

Feminism, blogging and the art of saying no

Here's the thing: some weeks ago - and thanks to the vagaries of net provision, working hours and sheer idle ineptitude on my part it has been weeks - I wrote a forward hinting post regarding feminist blogging. It was prompted by Amanda at Pandagon's thoughts on the topic and was subsequently reinforced by Ilyka's Pandagon post about women saying no. Back then, I indicated that these had spurred some thoughts in me and, whilst they're probably no longer that interesting, I thought I had better post them. It's not as if they can become irrelevant or out-of-date, but merely that events have overtaken things somewhat and other topics are pushing to be written about (not least of which, Daleks. Go figure my logic in that prioritising...).

Anyway, here I am presenting the musings that were originally pondered some weeks ago, first written some weeks ago, had a troubled gestation period during which Joe prompted for its posting, needed some serious editing for coherance, and which - in a neat twist - found an interesting echo in Lynsey Thomas's piece in the Guardian for Saturday 28 April 2007. So, with some updating, here are my thoughts:

***

The original prompt for Amanda's post was a male blogger writing about his response to and wish to engage with the feminist blogosphere [scroll to second part of his post]. And yes, I know, that term 'blogosphere' isn't well liked or accepted, but lets let that one go for the moment. Anyway, his gist came down to him wanting to read more personal narratives, the day-to-day engagement with feminism, rather than more theoretical, ideological, distant analyses in the vein of political writing. The strict binary that his remarks suggested exists is problematic in itself of course since rarely are sites an either/or. Amanda Marcotte's valid risposte was that whilst there was some legitimacy in seeing personal narratives as more engaging and illustrative of contemporary women's relationship, debate and their living with feminism, writing about issues from the personal perspective presents its own difficulties. One of these comes with the perils of blogging, its openness to comments from all and sundry and how certain topics can be almost guaranteed to set off some vile commentators. The example Amanda talked through was around pornography, but it could easily have been around any number of other topics. I'm a pretty small scale blog, but sometimes - as any trawl of site visits and searches can reveal - you can easily draw the ire and some seriously nasty comments on all manner of subjects.

In such an overheated atmosphere, even presenting the personal angle around particular debates such as porn can spur barbs and torments that overshadow the positive responses. Seasoned blog veterans may be able to brush the worst vileness away - or at least convince themselves they are unhurt by it. But smaller-scale blogs may find themselves stung. It can be less painful to be less contentious, to be less emotionally open about issues affecting our lives as women. How often do we hear phrases like "you're taking this too personally" in response to a criticism or comment made, especially when the implied or explicit suggestion is that any expression of feeling is clearly too much feeling?

As Amanda goes on:

... the thing to realize is that when we're intimidated away from telling our stories by the abuse and sexist stereotypes, we've been deprived of feminism's best rhetorical weapon. Stories are how people link the personal and the political, which is why our political enemies are hell bent on depriving us of those stories.

Of course, as she concludes, "... the telling stories thing is easier said than done". Perhaps this is why a number of explicitly feminist blogs do focus on commentary on current events, activism and/or ideology; to engage otherwise leaves them open to (accusations of) vulnerability or the dangers of writing purely personal confessionals that do little other than lay out the difficulties of life without considering the tangled motivations - both social and personal - as to how and why those difficulties arise.

The thing is that whilst I read several collective and feminist orientated blogs (Pandagon is just one of them), I am personally drawn to those blogs which rarely explicitly cite the concept of feminism but which are inherantly engaged with feminism. The very issues that challenge women in day to day existence; that force the politics of daily life to the foreground; that demand feminist awareness even if the word is not used.

Interestingly, something I have occasionally done is go through posts I have enjoyed reading and save the text, annotating it where it engages with debates key to feminism and its discourses. Whether it is around how we dress, how we work, our responses to representations of women on TV, our relationship to our bodies, our ways of dealing with emotions (bereavement, pregnancy, being single, being in a relationship, being angry, being happy) --- all of these engage with core debates from feminism. Dressing for whom? For the pleasure of whom? are you comfortable, or agonisedly on display? Can we get the time off we need to deal with family crises, caring duties? Why are the caring duties largely women's anyway? What about how work deals with male involvment with caring? How seriously are workers taken if alongside caring they also want to advance a career? What if we do/do not want to advance our careers? What should our relationship to work be? How do we deal with the behaviour of those above us? [I'm noting here the age-old debates about female dominated work environments and female bosses being rarely devoid of the same difficulties as mixed-sex ones - including why women bosses are often seen as harder, often more unsympathetic, or unable to be heard over male voices]. And that list just raises issues arising from the first two topics. But what those questions highlight is that it doesn't have to be an overtly feminist blog to be engaging with feminism or usefully contributing to feminist discourses. The debates of feminism are everywhere in the lives of women (and that also goes for those who actively disavow feminism as irrelevant to them - sadly, that would include many of the students I encounter).

Anyway, in a round-about way, thinking about what feminist blogging would, should or does like, also drew me to Ilyka's aforementioned post on 'saying no'. For surely one of the ideas underpinning both Amanda's post and the responses it drew in the comments box centres on the socialised difficulty of women saying 'no'? To be able to say 'no', to be able to express our discomfort - with porn for example - involves dealing with so many ingrained attitudes which historically have been socialised into many women that it can hurt to even confront the possibility of saying no. To be able to recognise our own feelings as ones which need us to say no, and then to actually say it.

Ilyka wrote:

I’ve been caught in the first trap, the fear of saying “no,” dozens of times–someone close to me asks for something they don’t particularly need (or don’t particularly need from me, specifically); I hesitate just a second too long; having hesitated, I then get anxious, because now it looks like (dear heavens!) I might have been thinking of saying That Word; and so to cover up for it, I shower the other person in an effusive “yes.” Yes, of course! I only paused for a second because [some bullshit reason].

But I’ve been caught in the second trap even more often, where I unthinkingly say “yes,” and only afterwards let my real feelings bubble up to the surface, and realize, “I don’t want to do this. I should have said ‘no.’”

I wouldn’t be too surprised if incidents like that help shore up the women-can’t-make-up-their-minds trope, either, because there have been occasions on which I’ve reversed myself just in time, just at the last minute, to say, “Wait–I meant ‘no’.” What looks like indecision or flightiness to an outside observer, though, is actually delayed recognition of feeling on my part. It isn’t that I have suddenly and arbitrarily changed my mind; it’s that I didn’t bother to consult my mind in the first place.

I think this is a powerful demonstration of why we need feminist debates, feminist ideas, experiences, to be presented and explored and considered. But it is not without difficulty, and it is one I feel quite powerfully. Emily Jane writing in the comments to Ilyka's post remarked that "socialization... teaches us to undervalue women's time and commitment". In being 'giving' of her time, in saying 'yes' to every event and activity, she actually made herself undervalued by colleagues; now she does none of the extra activities or tasks, even those she previously enjoyed doing to help others, but she has now got the respect of her (new) colleagues.

Whilst part of me wants to cheer for her new-found respect in having learnt to say no, there is another part of me whose heart sinks at how this perpetuates the need to be ruthless in order to be taken seriously. Is there not a way in which we can learn to say 'no' sometimes without abandoning others to their fate, usually failure (who the hell would read exams to a blind student if someone doesn't say 'yes'?). Perhaps part of my desire to engage with the debate of 'saying no/yes' comes from my own struggles with the action. It's a contradiction born from the fact that saying 'yes' can often mean not being taken seriously whilst saying 'no' can sometimes cut us off from the very positive actions with which institutions and individuals should engage. Can there really only be one way to 'be' successful in the world? Does it have to always mean trampling, not accommodating, not helping others?

Ultimately of course one of the reasons why the 'saying no' debates is important to feminism is that often it is bound up with subjugating what we want to please other people: the idea of 'everyone else ahead of ourselves'. Whether we like it or not it is often perceived as a feminine trait; correspondingly it then becomes a feminist debate. Lynsey Thomas doesn't mention feminism in her piece in yesterday's Guardian Work supplement, but when she writes about her deep-seated and life-long (destructive) desire to please others and make then happy, I not only recognise something of myself but also mentally added my usual feminist debate annotations to the article. For the crux is that in saying 'yes' we often succeed only in making others happy: whilst that can provide second-hand happiness to us, the effect it can have on our self-esteem and therefore on our ability to ever say 'no' can be immense. Once the habit of saying yes is there, how can we achieve a comparable happiness in saying no since that at least suggests the probability of making someone unhappy? For women to learn to say no successfully is hard, and part of that is around how saying no is perceived. Responses to a woman saying no often fall into either "that's hard", as in unfeminine [negative sense] or a desexed sense of respecting being "appropriately tough on others" [positive sense]. Can there only be self-sacrifice or the sacrifice of others?

What we have to do is learn to live with ourselves, but also recognise that we have to fight to change the systems that rely on us saying yes and exploit our guilt when we say no. That means challenging assumptions that a well-placed 'no' does not make us arrogant and mean (pace Alix's comments in Ilyka's post) and that systems of work which demand, say, unreasonable flexibility need to change for the good of everyone (not just the person put under pressure to say 'yes').

And it also means we have to think about why saying 'yes' rarely stimulates the need to expand on why we say yes, but saying 'no' will almost always demand an explanation as to why, an unburdening and justifying of the action (as per thinking girl's comment in Ilyka's post). What we have to learn is to be comfortable in our saying no as well as yes, and to recognise where the difference between the two may demand changes not just in ourselves but also in the world around us.


I'm done. I can't even think straight to edit this damn post no more. Was it worth the wait?

[Apologies for typos, blogger spell-checker keeps wibbling]

Blogs to come: yes, yes, I know some of these are long promised but bear with me

My computer has been giving me gip.

Blogger has been giving me gip.

Work has been seriously giving me gip. [On which front there's a post in that: mostly positive in terms of me still actually having work.]

So:

Feminism [I need to update, polish and upload - subject to comp/blog problems]

Death Vessel/Low review

Daleks [I'm holding fire until after I see tomorrow. Suffice to say I'm no where near as negative as some have been, but it still needs to convince]

Dyslexia and Julie Burchill

And lots more I have forgotten because fatally I did NOT make a note on my phone reminder system to nudge me and keep a record. Doh.

There's a reason you all come here, right? I mean, seriously, you could read Anna, Rob and Marie and have MUCH more fun...

Tomorrow I'm off to Derby

to walk the Silk Mill Workers procession with Neil and our friend Nick. [Note: that wouldn't be my first choice of link but I'm in a rush to eat and Google won't give me a better option!]

Gig disappointment: Einsturzende Neubauten cancelled...

Damn.

At least we still have Low.

Back (kinda)

Well, I'm just back into the swing of things at work and grateful for a lighter day of appointments given the number of emails waiting. Lots of stuff to field.

BAAS was, to put it mildly, an absolute BLAST. I had a great time - against a certain degree of expectation as our usual social catalyst wasn't going to be there much. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great time. Scarily someone said they knew I had a blog (they had found me via Norm) so will expect suitable chastisement for the frothiness of my blog as/when they may next drop by.

A special thanks also to lovely Matt_C (currently mostly busy at Fisking Central) who was an absolute dear when I wibbled just prior to going to conference.

Lots of stuff to potentially look forward to here: a post on feminist blogging as long promised (still subject to getting my own computer happy), updates on the TV that thanks to Neil's videoing I managed to catch up on, and some particular thoughts on Google and Wikipedia in terms of scholarship/research and teaching (spurred by an especially fascinating and heated debate from BAAS).

See you on the other side: it may take me a while to catch up with you all!

My computer is FUBAR with Blogger and now I can't load my files here either...

I hate to say this, but feminism is going to have to wait...

Anyone else having blogger problems?

I'm having difficulty unless I use HTML coding writing up posts with links and/or pictures.

And "Happy Birthday"....

... to this guy.

UPDATE: and this girl... AND Marie's nephew Sebastian...

"Striking looking, isn't he?"

Anyone else want to quote this line back at me?

Last night's McX-Files was sheer nonsense but for the brilliance of Robert Dunbar I'd have watched anything.

Video set for tomorrow. Will watch on my return from BAAS...

"And if you're as sorry as you say, Why didn't you just say no?"

Wow, if I ever needed a prompt to write that afore-mentioned post in response to Amanda's musings on feminist blogging, then having The Wedding Present's excellent track "No" come up on shuffle as I read Ilyka's Pandagon post on women saying no from the end of March must surely be it.

Feminist blogging

A really fascinating post from Amanda over at Pandagon on feminist blogging. The debate in the comments afterwards is worth reading too.

It's the sort of thing I really should come back to (since at the moment I have a head that feels like its been shot through with a drill - not alcohol induced I assure you), so I'm going to tag this for myself somewhere and try and write my own response/comment on it.

Watch this space.

TV BAFTAs 2007: Where's Who?

Don't get me wrong, I loved Life on Mars and am delighted to see John Simm getting a nomination nod for his glorious turn in the series (though why Glenister misses out is a bafflement: it's hardly his staple style performance of a role whereas you could say that Simm was doing what he does best: witty / angsty emotion).

But why no nod for Who in Drama Series?

Last year it was nominated and won; fine, no objections to that since the show had been fabulously reinvigorated by the arrival of RTD and Eccleston's Doctor/Piper's Rose. But those nominations were for NewWho Series one and were announced prior to the second series launching.

Now I know that NewWho season two was inconsistent (possibly no less so than the first, but it perhaps felt more inconsistent), but heavens to betsy. NOTHING this year in the acting categories (not even the Pioneer Audience Award) and scarcely a decent nod in even the BAFTA Craft awards?! Come on, Editing (fine), even Visual Effects (for The Mill): but really - was this not the series that gave us "The Girl in the Fireplace"?! I'm not asking for "Fear Her" to be rewarded as an individual episode (though it did have some nice hand and oral fixation moments alongside the briefly wonderful scribble monster). But surely something for writing, directing, could have been found, not least for GitF? They don't even get a nod for costumes or make-up! I mean, love or loath 'em, but surely the Cat Nuns deserved something for their pains?

After last year's hoopla success, is this really the proof RTD would hope to ignore that the backlash has well and truly started, or is it simply business as usual for the TV BAFTAs, returning to form after last year's glitch praised genre TV?