Raven

Make love, not war! Boobies! (admit it, you blushed!).

Spoilers Kell! @BigWords:

Sex scenes aren't always pornographic and, conversely, I've read some very descriptive sex scenes that have been far from a turn on (not because they are badly written or anything, but because they are a part of story and arousal just doesn't come into it). Sex is just a tool (no pun intended), it is part of life and it can be used to enhance a story or detract from it. When it is used by a good writer it can help a story and when it is used by a poor one it can screw it up (no pun intended). Sex itself isn't the problem, bad writers are. And remember folks, without sex none of us would be here!

Join us, and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete!

Had a thought, and here they are: 1. Takahashi After Dark, by Haruki Murakami After Dark was the first Murakami novel I read, and Takahashi just stole it for me. There's nothing particularly amazing about the character, but his laid back manner has a definite charm and it just makes him very cool indeed. It's the only time I can recall finishing a book and being genuinely disappointed that I would never read about a character again. 2. Jack Coker The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham Wyndham wrote so many wonderful characters, but everyman Jack Coker is my favourite. He is an old head on young shoulders, who has a practical, no-nonsense approach but there is also a streak of back-talking cheek thrown in. If I was facing the end of civilisation, I couldn

I think , as far as I can tell.

The titles of the first three episodes of the next series have been announced. I won't post them here - to avoid spoilerage for some - but I must say I do like the title of episode 3!

Ah, you found them! (I went looking for them last night and failed!).

Asteroid Collision! Very cool!

I think that was pretty much the general feeling; a missed opportunity.

By and large, the books I tend to read don't have much sex in them (Wyndham and Wells weren't exactly known for their sex scenes!), but that's not really by design and I don't usually have a problem with a bit of rumpy-pumpy when it occurs. Murakami uses sex like a sledge hammer; it's usually quite graphically described and raw, but I've never found it over the top or out of place. On the other hand, a few years back I read a road-accident of a book called Succubus Blues, by Richelle Mead, and the sex in that was just boring (to the point that I skipped over the last couple of encounters entirely). As others have said, if it is a part of the plot I don't have a problem with it but if it pulls you out of the story it shouldn't be there.

Just finished Unseen Academicals, very good! (review up soon). Did anyone see Terry giving the Dimbleby Lecture this evening? I was still reading and missed it, but I intend to catch it on iPlayer at some point.

I'd add Life of Mars to the list of "fantastic" drama series, the first series was one of the best pieces of television for years. It's not recent, but if you can track down a copy I highly recommend the Channel Four series Ultraviolet as well. A vampire story that never uses the "V" word that is streets ahead of the emo tosh being pumped out now. On the comedy front I can recommend The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, the short lived but quirky The Class and top of the pile Futurama!

Dreadful film! Deep Impact was miles better, but that's not saying much!

This bad boy was on my desk at work when I got in this morning: 1

Now that's a damning statement, if ever I head one!

As I said, the CDs I have been buying are full cast dramatisations of original Doctor Who scripts, and they largely feature four of the earlier incarnations of the Doctor (as played by Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McCann). Of those I can highly recommend the Peter Davison stories Creatures of Beauty and Spare Parts, two very good stores, and also the Sylvester McCoy story The Harvest. There are over 150 stories to choose from though, and I only have half a dozen or so, so I can't really recommend any more than that. Of the book adaptations they have done of New Who stories, I've only heard The Stone Rose, which was given away free in the Radio Times a few years back, and that's okay.

I've not seen Pan's Labyrinth yet, but I have it on my

I used to buy the Terry Pratchett books, as read by Tony Robinson, and I used to have quite a few science fiction novels on tape as well, but it's not something I've really got into on CD (I've now ditched most of my tapes). I do have a small collection of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures, but they are full cast dramatisations of original scripts, not audio versions of books (if you like classic Doctor Who, however, I thoroughly recommend them!).

Having grown up in the west country I've been there quite a few times, it is very nice.

Waaaaay back in the mists of time, I was once signing up for a Babylon 5 forum board and couldn't think of a name. At the same time I was watching the Simpsons, the one where Homer recites Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven and the rest, as they say, is history. Quoth the Raven: Eat my shorts!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Pretty much by-the-numbers plot wise, and you could see the end coming a mile off, but no less enjoyable for that. Very intersting look and feel from Del Toro as well.

As someone who didn't get on with the first book (I haven't read any further) I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

A cheese sandwich and a packet of crisps.

Some bad news for you, ole chap; it looks like No. 5 is going ahead, according to some comments Ford made recently. I saw it in the cinema and thought it was pretty poor, but I recently re-watched it on DVD and didn't find it so offensive. It's not a good film by any means, I think the best term to use would be "unnecessary". I was just coming to post that I watched this last night, and thought it was a load of ole pants! It looks very pretty, but there is no story and the acting was terrible - I guess I may have been missing the point of the film (i.e. giant robots clobbering each other!). I can't shake the feeling that someone just remade the much better Small Soldiers, but with bigger robots!