Raven

Yep, Geoffrey Beevers in The Keeper of Traken.

Utopia (with Derek Jacobi) was excellent, the two episodes with John Simms were however - they got the character of the Master completely wrong. He is supposed to be Moriarty to the Doctor's Holmes, not the Riddler to the Doctor's Batman . . .

I watched that on Monday, very good! (even if the plot worked out in the same way as every other SG-1 time travel story!).

Surely the idea of taking part in a Secret Santa is that you will get something random, that is a bit of a surprise? If people are going to tell people what to get, why not just buy a book for yourself and save everyone the postage and hassle?!

Yes, between 8.00 and 8.30 (so I suspect it will be 8.25 . . .).

Granted, but sadly you get hit by a bus the next day. I wish purple elephant smiles!

Excellent!

Ark of Infinity? No, that's Doctor Who! It's The Ark of Truth!

They could always show it instead of that Strictly twaddle, I suppose . . .

I watched the last few episode of Stargate SG-1 on Wednesday night. It took a little getting used to, but I've quite enjoyed the last two series with Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Just the two TV movies to watch now . . .

*bump* Don't forget, Sunday Night, 7pm, BBC One!

It's been reported in several places that Fox are not picking up their option for any more episodes of Dollhouse, past the 13 they have already ordered for series two. Another Whedon series bites the dust . . .

This might help.

I've got a ticket sorted and a room booked for the night - I suppose I should book the 14th and 15th off work now!

You're the first person I know who has given that a positive review! (most I have seen have said that it is a one-joke book and that it gets old very quickly). On a wider note, I don't think there is anything wrong with telling a story from another point of view (after all, it is the bed rock of a lot of the mythological sagas that get published, so why should more recent novels and characters be exempt?). Granted, trading on an established name can be a quick way to make some cash, but done well I don't have a problem with it

I finished After the Quake, by Haruki Murakami this evening - a wonderful piece of writing. Murakami is fast becoming my favourite author.

Bosham, last Monday afternoon:

WoW = World of Warcraft LotRO = Lord of the Rings Online (yes, you too can be a Hobbit!) PvE = Player vs. Environment (which is basically you playing against computer generated characters as opposed to PvP which is Player vs. Player).

But WoW has the better all round package. I'm only a casual player (compared to most) and don't go in for any of the hardcore raiding experience etc, but the PvE side has always been more than enough to satisfy me, and the PvP side of the game is great fun! There's just so much you can do in this game, and if I do get bored (and I'll admit I do from time to time) I take a week or two off, it's no biggie. Different strokes and all that I guess . . .

Serenity: Better Days By Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews Mal Reynolds and his crew are back to their old tricks; getting the job done - in a round-about sort of way - and getting screwed come the pay-off, but this time they've come out of it with a sack of cash, so something, somewhere has to be very wrong indeed . . . The best praise I can give Better Days is that it is like reading an episode of the TV series Firefly in comic book form. Pretty much everything is here, from the fast-paced plot to the flippant comments and wry humour. If you enjoyed Firefly you should find this a diverting way to pass half-an-hour or so. Serenity: Better Days is set before the movie Serenity.

Another catch-up! (not sure you're going to like it Vanwa!): The Magicians’ Guild By Trudi Canavan In the Kingdom of Imardin The Magicians’ Guild controls the use of magic throughout the land; anyone found practising magic is compelled by law to join the guild or to have their abilities bound. By chance, the powers of a young girl are exposed and she is forced to go on the run, but with her powers growing beyond her ability to control them will she be forced to turn to the Guild she despises to save her life? By and large, and with the exceptions of Tolkien and Pratchett, I’ve always given fantasy books a pretty wide berth, because I’ve long held the preconception that they are generally riddled with cliché and a lack of originality. Having played World of Warcraft for the last four years, however - something that itself is riddled with cliché and a lack of originality - my feelings towards the genre have mellowed somewhat, so I decided to give this book a try after having heard a number of favourable reviews. Well, I guess some experiments work out, and some do not . . . The Magicians’ Guild is a very uneven, badly written and rather two-dimensional book, riddled with the cliché and lack of originality I was hoping to avoid. To start with, the writing style is poor; Canavan can’t seem to decide what tone to adopt and there is a curious juxtaposition between the nice (people sitting around being chummy over a cup of tea) and the nasty (the odd charred corpse or blood soaked floor etc). It’s an odd mix, and it doesn’t just stop at the plot; the characters are just as mixed up, with a villain who is just misguided and a hero who is happy to kill someone in cold blood. The overall effect of this is muddled; Canavan seems to be trying to have the best of both worlds, but ultimately this approach just doesn't work. Coupled with that there is a lot of repetition - I quickly grew tired of reading about people blushing or smiling after saying something - and Canavan also has an annoying – and distracting - habit of using made-up names for the common place along with deliberate misspellings of rather ordinary names (Sonea and Dannyl, for example). But all of this pales against my biggest complaint which is that for a large part of the book nothing happens! The first half of the book is a chase, and the second is largely comprised of people sitting around talking, but there is very little actual story during all of this - indeed, it’s not until the last hundred pages or so that anything like a plot actually starts to surface but by then it was all too late, I just didn’t care anymore. To be fair, some of the characters were likeable enough, but they were far from original (the street urchin who discovers magical abilities; the kind old wizard who acts as a mentor; the cocky young side-kick and the wise-cracking assistant – all nice enough, but they could all have come from anyone of a dozen other stories). I think the basic flaw in the book is the belief that sticking a map at the front, and calling a spider a "faren" is what makes a good fantasy story, and I’m sorry but it just doesn’t. Trying to create your own universe needs more than some unusual names, it needs good writing with strong characterisation and a coherent mythology; this book fails to deliver on all three. For me The Magicians' Guild just reads like a piece of fan fiction, and looking at the plot synopsis on Wikipedia for the next two novels only highlights to me how bad it can still get – suffice to say I won’t be reading any further. Edited for odd characters that crept in during the board upgrade!

Band of Brothers By Stephen E. Ambrose In the summer of 1942 a group of men came together from all walks of life, and from all over the United States, to become paratroopers. Many would wash out, but for those who made it through the fourteen gruelling months of basic training, the reward was a place in Easy Company; part of the American 101st Airborne. From D-Day to the capture of Hitler

Heads up for those who may be interested! Guardian Review Book Club with Terry Pratchett - Monday 14 December, King's Place, London. Get your tickets quick, they won't be around for long!

Listening?! I thought you were supposed to be reading them!

For anyone who hasn't read it yet, The Book People are currently selling The Writer's Tale for just