Sherlock Is Back!

Warning! Spoilers ahead!
Okay, I think i'm calm enough to write a review of the long awaited third season of BBC Sherlock, kicking off with 'The Empty Hearse.' To say the least, I was excited for this, I've been a very passionate Sherlock fan since the first episode aired, and I've been waited for this since Sherlock fell to his 'death' two years ago. So yes, I was excited, getting to the point where I was literally warning everyone I knew for weeks that if they dared disturb me during this, I was going to be biting their heads off. I was almost unplugging the phone, to make sure nothing disturbed my enjoyment of this episode, which in hindsight, was a good idea, seeing as the phone rang half way through.
But anyway, back to the review of The Empty Hearse. The episode started where The Riechenbach Fall left off, with Sherlock on the roof of St Bart's, talking to John on the roof, before he jumped. Then, we saw how he did it, using a bungee cord and Moriarty's body disguised as his own to fool John into thinking he's actually dead, when in fact he's bounced back up through the window and KISSED Molly Hooper (lucky, lucky woman) before walking off into obscurity. So then it turns out that this is just a theory by Anderson, who's lost his job due to his obsession with how Sherlock survived the fall. Lestrade turns him down and tells him he's feeling guilty for being involved in Sherlock's death, but Anderson is insistent, Sherlock is alive, he believes in Sherlock Holmes! Lestrade remains suspicious and tells him Sherlock is dead, he fell to his death and there is nothing bringing him back.
We then see John standing at Sherlock's grave, holding hands with a mystery woman, before seeing Mrs Hudson, he hasn't been round very often, it's been too hard for him to come over, because he isn't over Sherlock's death. Mrs Hudson believes him and John announces that he's met someone, and he's planning on marrying them. Mrs Hudson takes this as John has moved onto another man, leading to a very funny 'I'm not gay!' conversation, though Mrs Hudson still believes that John and Sherlock were a couple. (Bless that woman, I believe they're a couple too.)
And then another person is introduced, someone is running through the woods, in tatty clothes and long, messy hair, there's a helicopter chasing them, as well as people on the ground! Eventually, the figures falls and gets surrounded, and we then see this strange man being tortured by a Serbian man. The tortured man's face is not shown, but it's clearly Sherlock, as he starts deducing things about his torturer, making him run off to see his wife in the act of cheating on him. There's been another man sitting in the shadows, who comes over, telling the tortured man in chains that there's a terrorist plot in London, and his little brother needs to come back to London. Finally there's a shot of the tortured man's bowed head, it's Sherlock, and he smiles!
Obviously Sherlock is straight back to London and as he talks to Mycroft, he has a moment of looking like Khan with his sleeked back hair, and we start to see the 'new' him. He's definitely more bulked up, and a bit more human as he talks about popping out of a cake to surprise John, though he's still Sherlock underneath, with his lack of understanding of John moving on with his life. We also see more of this new nature when he goes to tell John he's alive, and this is really where Mark Gattiss out does himself with his research into what the fans wanted with a hilariously funny attempt to surprise John, involving a ridiculous French accent and a drawn on moustache, ending with a 'long story short, not dead.'
Martin Freeman is amazing with his reaction to Sherlock being alive, he doesn't faint like he does in the book, but instead reacts violently three times, leaving Sherlock with a bust lip and a bloody nose. Mary is also an instant hit with me, as she is a bit cheeky, and instantly likes Sherlock, and is clearly good for John too. I immediately warmed to her, before the episode aired, I was unsure of her and whether she would come between John and Sherlock (I ship those two a ridiculous amount) but she proves within minutes of her first appearance that if anything, she'll push them together more, and maybe provide some sanity between the two with their hectic lives.
Now I won't give anymore away, you'll have to watch the episode yourselves, but it is brilliant TV, and well worth the wait. Season three is shaping up to be different to the first two seasons, Sherlock is very different, he's more human for sure, and now up for a laugh. Mary is taking up a bit more of John's time, but other than that, the show is essentially the same. Sherlock and John, solving crimes in 221b, Sherlock is still a (lovable) smart arse, John still sasses him, Mrs Hudson is still not their house keeper and Mycroft still sticks his nose in, but this feels more homely, big things have changed, but the show is essentially the same. Though it's slightly worrying over whether Sherlock is back on drugs again, seeing as he is so much more human, and having auditory hallucinations. And we have a new nemesis in our midst, but where would the series be without it?
But in all in all, the episode is well worth the wait, it's funny and sweet, and heart warming in places. I can not wait for more from the series, and as they said in the seven minute preview from Christmas; The Game Is Back On!

The Weekend Of Fandom

Well this weekend has been one for the books hasn't it? First of all, on Friday, The Hunger Games - Catching Fire came out, and then on Saturday the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who special was shown, AND Sherlock season three went from being up in the air for air dates to COMING SOON. Guess what? I saw both... twice. Simply because both of them were THAT good! I loved both immensely, but today I want to focus on Doctor Who, as I am a very, very big Whovian.
Now I will come right out and say it, I haven't watched Doctor Who since David Tennant left. I'm sorry, but it's not because I'm a petty person and my childhood ended the day he regenerated, it's because I don't like Matt Smith as The Doctor. To me, The Doctor should have this... presence, if you will, that commands respect and shows that it is The Doctor in charge, and to me Matt doesn't have that. In my personal opinion, I find him more of a whining child trying to pretend to be a big tough man when he isn't that in the slightest. Now that's just my personal opinion, if you like Matt, awesome, go ahead! Personally for me, I don't like him, so I have mostly skipped out on the last few seasons of Doctor Who.
But that didn't stop my interest in the show, I still love to watch the old seasons with David Tennant and Christopher Ecclestone, and have long awaited the 50th to relive my childhood. I got so excited for it I dug out my sonic screwdriver, Doctor Who bedsheets and old TARDIS tshirt, and spent an entire week practically bouncing in excitement for this. So as you can imagine, by the time Strictly ended on Saturday, I was nearly wetting myself with excitement, I nearly unplugged the phone to make sure I wasn't disturbed, and boy I was not disappointed!
Okay, that's a slight lie, at first, I wasn't all too impressed, possibly because it was all about Matt and I was getting bored of his acting, but when David turned up, I was SOLD. Possibly because I would accept David at this point in any shape or form in this show, but mainly because David is an amazing actor, and I do really love his work. Anyway, as soon as David turned up, mass fan girl squeals erupted from me and for me, that's when the 50th got interesting. I couldn't believe that David Tennant hadn't played The Doctor in years at this point, from the second he walked on screen, it was like he'd never left. He walked on screen, with all his carefree fun attitude, with that hint of power and commanding nature that has resonated with me for years.
We got to finally see why Queen Elizabeth 1st hated him so much, as we saw in The Shakespeare Code. So many questions got answered, and so many laughs were to be had (personally, any joke at Matt made me laugh... sorry). Things like The Doctor's getting trapped in the prison cell and nobody checking the door until Clara burst through and such had me giggling to myself the whole way through.
But oh the ending, the ending, finding out about the Time War, and setting up the Christmas special, which I'm not going to be spoiling, in case you haven't watched it yet. But wow! And the appearance of Peter Capaldi for a full 8 seconds had me, and the rest of the nation for that matter, screaming in excitement. (I'm all for his Doctor, from the one line he said he looks incredible) and the appearance of an old Doctor too was all a pleasant surprise. Overall really, the 50th is something that is not to be missed, I absolutely loved it, and it sets up so much for the next few seasons, that will change The Doctor completely. I for one can't wait!
The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of Rose Tyler, though Billie was fantastic as The Moment. A stand out moment has to be David Tennant's last line, a repeat of 'I don't want to go' had me nearly in tears all over again, but I feel like it was poignant to his regeneration, repeating his last line as The Doctor, sort of foreshadowing his own death.
Overall, an amazing 50th anniversary, there were a few moments where I was doubting the story line, but it still have me gripped throughout, and it was lovely to see some old faces, and some new, and to relive my childhood again. Good job Moffat!
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Now as an after thought... Sherlock trailer straight afterwards. Was SO not expecting it to be confirmed as 'coming soon.' and so after all the emotions of the 50th, that ended me so much I barely knew what to do with myself for the rest of the evening! Good job BBC, now hurry up and give me my Sherlock! I NEED TO KNOW HOW HE SURVIVED THE FALL!

Dexter: The Finale

I have just finished watching the last episode of Dexter (late, I know, but school has been getting in the way of my TV watching schedule) and so I thought I'd do a review of it, because I have a lot of thoughts on the ending.
Now, the first half, I loved, I loved it to pieces. It was another classic Dexter episode, with the added 'Oh no, is Deb going to die?! I don't want Deb to die!' because, personally, I loved Deb. She had her short comings, her love life being one of them (because I don't care her and Dexter weren't related, her being in love with him was WEIRD and a bit incestuous, and so gave me the creeps) but overall, her character I enjoyed watching (maybe because she stood up for herself and swore a lot, unlike a lot of conventional female characters on TV).
Another thing I loved, was the suspense of whether or not Dexter was going to kill Saxon, and if him, Hannah and Harrison would get out of Miami without being caught. I was routing for the three of them to get out alive, and for Saxon to end up in a body bag. One last kill, for the greatest TV serial killer I've seen. And the kill, oh the kill was perfect! Watching Dexter stab Saxon in the neck, slightly symbolic of how Dexter has knocked out previous victims, was brilliant, and had me whooping at my screen in joy... and then the show went a bit down hill.
Now, I understand why Angel and Quinn let Dexter off for killing Saxon, because Deb was their friend, and in Quinn's case, lover. They wanted revenge for Saxon putting her in the hospital, fair enough. That bit I dealt with, and kinda agreed with, because where would the fun be if it was Dexter's own friends catching him out after a kill like that? At least when Deb found out, that had been a dramatic in-the-middle-of-a-massive-kill reveal! But, then, when Dexter got to the hospital, that's when I started to switch off and get very disappointed. The flashback to Harrison's birth was all very sweet and lovely, a nice reminder of where Dexter has come from, but as Dexter said goodbye to Deb before turning off the machine, I was a bit disappointed. To me, it felt like Dexter gave up a little on her, and was getting rid of her so he could get out of Miami with no ties there.
So as he carries her onto the boat, I'm still not feeling any kind of emotion as to his actions yet. For me, it was all a bit too symbolic of Dexter's old life, saying goodbye to the old, and hello to the new. And then, Dexter said something I can not forgive him for. He said he had to leave Hannah and Harrison forever to protect them from him. The line is so cliche and reminds me so much of Edward Cullen I nearly slapped my hand to my head screaming 'moron!' Yes Dexter, you are a dangerous serial killer, yes people around you die. And yet, Hannah can look after herself, and you've done a fine job of keeping Harrison out of trouble for years now, this does not mean you get to up and leave them! Deb died because she was a cop, doing her job, not because of you being a serial killer! She was recovering from the trauma of finding out who you are, but Hannah already KNOWS who you are, and Harrison needn't find out. So there is no need to leave them to live by themselves.
But, being the big 'hero' if you would call Dexter that, he drives towards the storm, and dumps Deb into the sea, again, symbolic of his other kills. She sinks, which wouldn't actually happen, as bodies float in water, but never mind, Dexter is still alive, mourning his sister. So, what does he do next? Drive towards the storm, facing certain death. At which point, I am screaming at the TV again 'NO DEXTER! GO BACK! GO BACK TO HANNAH AND HARRISON!' which of course, he doesn't hear. Someone invent a TV show where you can personally choose what the character does, please?
Anyway, so flash forward to Hannah and Harrison, who are looking at the news on the internet, where there's a report that Dexter is dead. She's upset, but she hides it from Harrison, and takes him out of the cafe, never to be seen again. We all think its over, but then we see a lumberjack yard, what's going on here then? We see none other than Dexter! He's alive! Woooo! But wait, why is he there, is he on a kill mission? What's going on? Why is he hiding in a room, which looks a bit like his own room, and why does he have a beard?  There is no-one talking, not even Dexter's voice over, or Harry, his Dad who guides him on these things, talking. Not even a bit of music, just the sounds of the construction site outside. Dexter sits down, and stares at the screen for a few seconds, then the screen goes black. No explanation on what's going on, where he is, how he survived the storm, nothing. Just the lumberjack yard and the beard. Leaving a lot of questions. And naturally, I was not impressed.
I wanted a big, fantastic, mind meltingly awesome ending, where either Dexter get's his comeuppance for being the real Bay Harbour Butcher. Or maybe him actually getting away with Hannah, living a normal life with her, as she seems to calm his 'Dark Passenger.' But no, we got Dexter 'protecting' the ones he loved, by hiding away from them. With no explanation as to whether or not he still was killing (he proved in an earlier season he couldn't stop, so was he still killing, if so, was he still following the code, and if that was true, how was he checking these people were bad people?) how he survived the storm on his tiny boat, that clearly got smashed up, as we saw in a previous scene, or anything of the sort. I would have taken watching everyone die in a mass shoot out, or something similar over the ending we got. I'm highly disappointed in the ending, and I really wished it had been better. Dexter had been such a good show, that I had highly enjoyed watching, but this ending just wasn't up to par with the rest of the show.

Long Time, No See!

Well hello, long time no blog! I've been busy moving house, and going to concerts, AND going to school, its been hell. I managed to break my hairbrush in half, lose half the TV shows I've recorded onto DVD, my mum has lost her necklaces, and every five minutes, we lose more things. Literally, the amount of times I've put something down, turned round, turned back round again, and lost the thing I put down is ridiculous! It is infuriating to have that happen repeated, but on the plus side, all the boxes are now unpacked (albeit, not in the right places yet) and we generally know where most things are.
But on the whole, the last few weeks of my summer holidays were fun, I shot an air gun, an air rifle, and a bow and arrow in Devon which was pretty fun. The video where I talk about that is here:
I Shot A Gun!
Other than that, I spent a lot of time unpacking, and writing all the time. I've come up with even more book ideas, for completely different universes, and started developing rough ideas for each, which had occupied my time when I haven't been dying from exhaustion in school, which has also been quite fun if I am completely honest. I'm having more fun than I did last year, because I'm not doing chemistry, which has taken a load of worry off my plate. But now I have to make my way round history and the 'extended project' to work around instead. I've got my research going for the project, which I've already said is on Joss Whedon and his work, but other than that, I haven't properly started yet. But its only a few days in, so I haven't properly had time to get started doing some proper research yet.
But apart from that, i don't have much to say, until next time i get five minutes to blog about something, bye!

Toolroom Skills Challenge

I haven't written a blog post in ages! Sorry about that guys, I've been busy with a skills challenge and started to pack to move house, so I thought I'd write a quick blog on the skills challenge, cause it's the most interesting thing thats happened to me in the past few weeks.

Every year at school, we have something called a 'Skills Challenge' for the year 12's, at the end of June, after all the exams. Every year 12 student is brought in during the holidays, and get split into seven teams of eight or nine students. Each team is then given a challenge by a local company to fix, this challenge isn't something random, it's usually a problem that the company would face during the year at some point. Be that figuring out how to get students involved in a running club, or getting young people into work, anything like that. Most students dread it, and just wish they could stay at home to enjoy their holidays. Admittedly, I was one of those people, but, I was proved wrong in the end.

The first day, we were introduced to our 'employers' if you will, and it turned out to be pretty cool. My group were hired by Toolroom Records, a dance record company that resides in my town. They aren't as big as Ministry Of Sound or anything like that, but they do sell to over one hundred countries, and turned over 1.2 million last year, which isn't bad for a small record label that hires twenty people in the middle of Maidstone.

We were given the challenge of designing and marketing a dance compilation album. Of course, my whole group almost literally jumped into action, getting so excited over this. We were making a dance album, we had twenty grand to spend on marketing too. Basically, we were kids in a toy store. But, it didn't mean we didn't take things seriously. By day two, we almost had an entire album planned out. We were conducting research into the three names we'd chosen (Decade, Fusion, Transition) an album concept (celebrating Toolroom's 10th year in business, mixing old and new music together in the album) and a possible idea for an album cover (Toolroom's house colours melding together like paint mixing).

Eventually, we decided on using the name Fusion, as we were fusing two ages of music, to bring older dance tracks to a newer audience, as our target market was sixteen to eighteen year olds. Then, we had to decide on how we were going to market it, in the most interesting ways possible. So, we came up with the ideas of doing a flash mob, and a silent disco. Both would be filmed and put on YouTube, in the hope they would become viral among the target market, so we could advertise our album to a huge market in a quick space of time. We also went with the traditional YouTube advert, twitter promotion, billboard adverts, and things like this.

Toolroom really liked all of our ideas, and at the end of our two weeks, we had an album and a marketing plan, and as we presented it to a group of judges, we got through to the final! We came third in the end, but, we had a great time in the end, and learnt a lot about the world of dance music, something we hadn't really been involved in before. Toolroom, thanks for the opportunity!
Oh, here's a picture of our final product if you're interested:

Well its been a while, hasn't it? But I've had a few stressful weeks, with exams, family issues, and house hunting. So in six weeks I'm moving house, not very far from my house now, just ten minutes down the road in fact, but it means I'm getting back virgin media tv/phone/broadband, and a dishwasher in the kitchen. There's nothing I hate more than slow internet, terrible TV and washing up, and just by moving ten minutes down the road, it all gets fixed, thank god!

But anyway, I've also finished my exams two weeks ago, which is another good thing, so I've got more free time on my hands again. I don't think I've done well in psych unit 2 though, which is a problem. But I just blanked the entire thing, because I've had some problems and ended up focusing on them instead of the actual exam. But its over now so I can't do anything about it now, I'm sure I'll have done fine... hopefully.

Though, in better news, I've levelled up in life! A couple of weeks ago, when I saw Star Trek, the boy I went with actually asked me out! I couldn't believe it, and he's really so sweet and he's awesome and kinda nerdy like me.... and I almost killed him by introducing him to Sherlock... whoops. I made it up to him by introducing him to Dexter though, so its all good I think.

I think thats about it for now though, there's not much else I can say about anything. So I'm going to go back to watching St Trinian's 2. Here's my new video about Doctor Who here if you missed it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKlzGYTMb58

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

Well I've just come back from seeing Star Trek Into Darkness for the second time. I watched it last week for the first time with a friend (now boyfriend) and just watched it with my mum, so I thought I'd give it a bit of a review.
Now admittedly, I did originally watch it because of Benedict Cumberbatch, as I am a big fan of him, and have been since Sherlock series 1. And because of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (fan of them both since Just My Luck and Heroes - and because they're hot... don't think I'm weird/perverted, I generally can not help but think they're all fit) but after watching the film, I found that there was so much more to it than hot actors.
I would go into detail about the entire film, but I feel like that would be boring, and would spoil the film for others, but i will say this. As someone who hasn't seen any Star Trek previously, not even the previous film, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew the basics of the story line of the Enterprise, e.g., Kirk being the Captain, Spock his first mate, identified by his pointed ears and blue jumper. All other characters I easily picked up on along the way too, which was a relief as I would have been very confused otherwise. The film itself was very good,  with an easy to follow story line, with lots of action scenes, some funny moments to lighten the mood of the film, and some incredible CGI as well.
The make up was very good on the aliens involved, and the sets were very realistic. The actors themselves were very, very good too, I can always trust to have a good performance from Benedict, but what really blew me away from was how different he is from Sherlock. He looked almost like a completely different person from the skinny detective, in this, he was muscular, excellent in combat. Though he was still very intelligent, and did a very good job at playing a bad guy, something I haven't seen him do previously. All with a very sexy voice that just drew me in and made me hang on his every word.
Chris Pine was also a very good Kirk, he was slightly cheeky, but commanded respect and was thoroughly believable as the captain of a ship. He took the role in his stride, and portrayed his love for his team and his ship very well, and had me routing for him, despite me slight biased for Benedict's Khaan. The same can be said for Zachary Quinto, his portrayal of Spock had me captivated too. He played the idea of a Vulcan with emotions perfectly, though i was reminded of Castiel from Supernatural, though it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as both characters are not used to feeling emotions and such. I will admit that I started shipping Kirk/Spock by the end...
In summary though, Star Trek Into Darkness is a very, very good film, so go out and see it as soon as possible!