Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Oh. Wow. So many things to love, so little space to say.

William and Walter put the dream team back together ("Look at this! Me and Belly collecting human tissue and fluid specimens, just like when we were kids!") Plenty of gratuitous polo necks and lab coats. Bell leching over Astrid and Astrid being totally creeped out. Lincoln being super-nerdtastic. A plot involving soul sucking vampires. Cow petting and drug induced giggling. "What are they saying in the background?" "I have no idea. They're doing that thing again where they don't finish sentences."

And Anna Torv (and her right eyebrow) shamelessly stealing every scene.

Despite my initial scepticism of central conceipt of season 3 of Fringe, it took me a mere episode and a half — enough time to see all the characters in action — to completely steal my heart. All over again. Now all I have to do is resist the terrible temptation to sit down and watch the whole series in one giant marathon session.

My only gripe so far? In 6955 KHz, Astrid fishes out a recording of JS Bach's The Art of Fugue but when she actually puts it on, it turns out to be the air from the 3rd orchestral suite. An unintentional slip or an intentional indicator of Walter's generally chaotic attitude to record keeping?

Apalapucia. Second destination for the discerning inter-galactic travel. Because No 1 is hideous. It's a set of lift doors. Amy has a twitter feed. Press a button: Sensible Rory picks green. Because what kind of tool picks red. Oh, Amy. That's who. Amy through the magnifying glass: "Time's gone wobbly. I hate it when it does that" Rory can't handle the hand bot. "Where have you been? I've been here a week!" "Two different time streams running parallel but at two different speeds. Amy, you're in a faster time stream!" But Amy's no longer in the Red Waterfall room: "It's never simple!" Infodump: the planet is under quarantine for a plague that kills in a day; the plague only affects two hearted races, so that's the Doctor out of things; Red Waterfall time is compressed; the time glasses sync up the two time streams; the green anchors can watch their loved ones live out their lives in a single day. Rory's right: it's horrible. The Doctor has a plan: hack the time glass and use the TARDIS to break through, while Amy hides in the facility and tries not to get killed by the handbots' incompatible drugs.

"Glasses are cool. Hello Rory cam." The Doctor has stalker gear? Two Streams looks a lot like an empty airport. Clom has a Disneyland? Killing with kindness? Thematic statement! So that's what the handbots keep in their heads. Welcome to Aperture Science. Time to escape through the vents. "Eyes front soldier!" Rory is distracted by the Venus de Milo meanwhile Amy checks out the freaky topiary in the garden. The AI isn't all that smart. But Amy is: she short circuits the handbots and works out a way to hide close to the temporal engines. The Doctor works out how to see everyone. "Are they happy?" "Oh Rory, trust you to think of that!"

Nice job on Karen Gillan's make up. "I think the time stream lock might be a bit wobbly" No kidding. Kendo Amy is hyper-capable and maybe not so keen on the Doctor as Original Amy. And also, seems to have been wearing the same trousers for the last 40 years. Maybe it's something to do with compressed time. "I don't care that you got old. I care that we didn't grow old together" Cast Away. "Survive, because no-one's going to come for you. Number one lesson" The Doctor homes in on the regulator valve. Amy wears the stalker glasses. "They look ridiculous." "That's what I told him. Still anything beats a fez, eh?" Drink! Rory can still make Kendo Amy laugh. Mime work. "Out of then and into the now!" The Doctor has a plan to create two Amy's but Kendo Amy spots the obvious problem: she'll cease to exist if they rescue Original Amy. Rory calls the Doctor on his slapdash attitude to travel.

Original Amy tries to convince Kendo Amy. Recursion. But this time it's different: "I'm going to pull time apart for you!" Kendo Amy wants escape on the TARDIS: "Can that work?" "I dunno. It's your marriage" I'm definitely in the demographic for this episode. Technobable! The though so powerful it can rip through time is the macarena? The echo is a nice touch. Temporal feedback. Original Amy's hockey skills come in handy. Time to route around. Teleports vs time jumps. Rory's discomfort at Amy's flirtation is nicely done. Kendo Amy kicks handbot arse. "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness" All the worse because the hanbots, unlike the daleks, really think they're helping — they just can't no for an answer.

Original Amy is down for the count. Time to use the Mona Lisa as a weapon. Time to grab the girl and run for the TARDIS. Time to remember Rule 1: the Doctor lies. Hair splitting: is preventing someone's existence the same as killing them? Time for Rory to choose: Kendo Amy understands, because she used to be Original Amy, but she still can't forgive. She knows she's going to fight for her life, so she asks for her chance to escape to be taken away: "Don't let me in. Tell Amy, your Amy, I'm giving her the days. The days with you. The days to come. The days I can't have." And Kendo Amy is gone, as if she never existed. As always, the Doctor dodges the hard questions and leaves Rory to break the news, because although the Amy he betrayed never existed, he's still betrayed her one way or another...

Wheat field. Amy with a map full of arrows. We're crop circling. Should they be using an app for that? Mels' muscle car, in contrast to Rory's retro mini. "Doctor not following this. Doctor very lost..." Close your eyes and think of Dawn Summers. "Time travel. That's just brilliant" Thematic statement! "You've got a time machine. I've got a gun. What the hell. Let's kill Hitler!" Greatest line ever? Retcon. Amy's total confusion over Rory. Love the cut from the TARDIS model to the real thing. Temporal grace = clever lie. Hah! South Wales doubles for 30s Berlin. Complete with a shape changing robot full of miniature people and murderous antibodies. Someone's been reading Isaac Asimov.

The TARDIS interrupts the robot's mission. To kill Hitler. Oops. "Believe me, it was an accident" I love the read on that line. Rory punches Hitler and locks him in the stationary cupboard. So much for that. The tiny people reckon that the TARDIS is hiding a female war criminal. Mels proposes to the Doctor. "Penny in the air" She's Melody. And she's regenerating. Circular logic. "You got to raise me after all" Hello Alex. "I love it. I'm all, sort of, mature. Hello, Benjamin!" Someone's having way too much fun! "Oh, that's magnificent! I'm going to be wearing lots of jodhpurs!" Everyone else looks mildly appalled. The Doctor and River play I know you know. The sonic and letter knife duel is pure Harry Potter. "I'm a psychopath. I'm not rude." "Mummy, pay attention. I was born to kill the Doctor" Judas kiss. And, as always, she jumps out of the window.

Classic bit of nazi baiting. With added cleavage. "Can you ride a motorbike?" "I expect so. It's that sort of day..." The Doctor was killed on the shores of Lake Silencio? Clue there, I think. "Get me someone I like" Oooh, fan service. "Fish fingers and custard" Fancy nazi hotel, complete with Pachelbel's canon even though one of the scores quite clearly says "Johannes Brahms" on it. River makes an entrance and semi-naked people leave. "OK, I'm trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I'm really trying not to see this as a metaphor." So that's why River ages backwards. "You killed the Doctor. On the orders of movement known as the Silence and the Academy of the Question." Robot Amy infodumps. While the Doctor takes the time to dress up like Fred Astaire. "At least I'm not a time-travelling, shape-shifting robot operated by miniaturised cross people which, I have got to admit, I didn't see coming" You and me both. The cross people explain: they use time travel to extract and punish people who've done wrong and send them to hell. More infodumpage: the Silence is a religious movement; their core belief is that Silence will fall when the Question is asked; the first Question, the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight.

The robot sends river to hell and Amy triggers the robot's immune system. "You will experience a tingling sensation and then death" Ouch. The cross people have a Star Trek transporters. Time to escape through the eye. Now we know why River can fly the TARDIS. A word in private, presumably a confession of love, an identity is revealed and a sacrifice is made. Is it enough to balance the scales? "She'll be absolutely fine." "No. She won't. She will be... amazing" The Blue Book makes its first appearance and we know why River became/becomes an archaeologist: "I'm looking for a good man..."

Interview with Oswald Danes: de facto spokesman; shilling for the drug companies. Rex threatens Friedkin with a fate worse than death and wins the Red Phone. The cops can't afford run-on-flat tyres, it seems. Creepy mask people are creepy. I'm not sure the US-UK English thing really adds anything. Follow the money. Jack hangs a lantern on the dismemberment thing: something is willing people to stay alive. Esther cracks the case: Friedkin was protecting a dodgy warehouse. Gwen shows off her troublemaking skills: the tie grab is a classic. The warehouse is jammed full of drugs and also, apparently, a TARDIS. Phicorp: Kitzinger's company.

Vera doing Doctor things before heading of the NIH. Catholic doctor is very Catholic [question: do contraceptives still work on Miracle Day earth? If they do, then doesn't that do for Dr RC's objection?] . Kitzinger uses klutziness to horn in on the conversation. Juarez doesn't have time for the waffle. "FEMA's a pot of glue that still thinks it's a racehorse" Nice line. And nice recruitment drive. Oh Rex, you just know you're going to be disappointed. What, no mention of ECHELON? Esther quotes Frost and a has Doubts. Sulking and casual sex: how to save the world, Torchwood style.

Rex recruits Vera after revealing the Awful Troof about Phicorp. Jack drunk-dials Gwen but Gwenie's all not-Skyping with her family. Meanwhile Kitzinger recruits Danes, after he gets dumped by the cops. She certainly gets around. The camera contacts make their appearance: "They're the only bit of Torchwood tech I kept." as we discovered back in Children of Earth. "Anyone going on this mission has got to be me" Because sharing contacts? Gross.

Ultra modern corporate headquarters packed full of over-achieving nerds? Check! Faux bathroom break to admit accomplice through a side door? Check! Tantalising distraction from main mission? Check! Sinister side-meeting with Sinister executives? Check? The plan is to legalise the distribution of all pharmaceuticals without prescriptions? Even the poisonous ones? WTF? Universal, access all computers USB? Check? Near miss while snooping out the enemy's office? Check! And suddenly the Red phone is Ringing.

"Let's find out where the hell Jack went." To banter with Danes, apparently. Who has learnt something about roughing people up, thanks to his not-friends in the police. "I'm not calling for free drugs. I'm calling for free access to drugs... government has abandoned us. And I'm thinking of companies like Phicorp. They'd never abandon us, because they need us." What a wonderfully cynical sales pitch to close on.

A lot to like. The mix of US and Welsh locations and stars worked rather well. I liked the characters — especially the brash Rex Matheson, who seemed to get most of the best lines — and the sheer creepiness of Bill Pullman's performance as Oswald Danes. The central conceit was intriguing (if apparently incoherent) and I liked the episode's willingness to explore some of the grotesqueries inherent in the idea — the post-explosion autopsy was particularly unpleasant.

I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.

A reprise of Dr Who catchphrases past. The acid finally comes in handy. "It's just so inspiring to hear me say it!" Narcissism much? I knew the shoes were going to be important! Just what is Jen painting? Acid + stone = poison gas. Check. "I think I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle" Foreshadowing. Jen has been turned to revolution by memories of previous incarnations. Amy is very confused about identity theory. "Being almost the Doctor is like being no Doctor at all" Callback to Human Nature. "There can be only one!" The Doctor's not a Highlander fan. Silver eyepatch lady. "It's a time memory. Like a mirage. Nothing to worry about" So. Not. True. Amy accidentally spills the Impossible Astronaut beans. But to which Doctor?

"You can't fake a burn" But you can fake an entire person. Jen plays the feeble female card and Rory falls for it. A million gallons of boiling acid? Check! The two Miranda's prove they're identical. "The eyes have it" So that's what Jen drew. Creepy. As is her extendo-jaw thing. "How long have we got?" "An hour? Five seconds? Somewhere between" Oh Rory, you are far too trusting. How come the phone works, when the link to the mainland doesn't? It's curtains for Jimmy: "I'm quite hansom from this angle!" Great last words. Except for Jen, all the gangers are very human: even the sacrifices are split between gangers and humans. The Doctor pulled the old switcheroo! And Amy fessed up to the wrong one! "It may not be the end" Leaving open the possibility of an Anubis Gates resolution. Glass and steel offices are still popular in the 22nd century.

Recap of the Doctor's original offer of fish and chips. "Shenanigans" The Doctor wanted to know how to block signals to the flesh. "You haven't been here for a long, long time" Since the end of the The Impossible Astronaut. And we're in silver eyepatch territory.

"I only wish I could go in your place... No I don't, because it's really going to hurt." Very Gaimanesque. The Doctor's mail face is a delight. Time to leave the universe and get soul snatched. Ten years on and we miss Douglas Adams as much as ever. Love the glowing washing machine. "Keep back from this one. She bites" "Do I? Excellent! It's like kissing, only there's a winner!" Suranne Jones is beyond superb, both here and throughout. And also super cryptic. I love Auntie and Uncle's accents. House, though, is HAL level creepy. Auntie has mismatched hands — never a good sign. Nice gibberish. "You want to be forgiven?" "Don't we all?" Thematic statement! The bogus errand is totally bogus. Oh noes; misled by mail spool. Amy cracks the bogus errand.

"Ah, it's my thief. It's about time." Love the dialogue. Also the acting. "When you stole me. And I stole you." Fan service. Green glowing console: that can't be good. It isn't. "And we're in the TARDIS, so we're safe." Think again. The tragedy of mortality. "Do you have a name? 700 years; finally he asks!" Hah! They really are like a married couple. House is a sadist? Colour me unsurprised. "So entertain me. Run." Love the junkyard vista. So that's what the TARDIS corridors look like.

"You have never been very reliable... You didn't always take me where I wanted to go!" "No but I always took you where you needed to go" Thematic statement? Ah bulkhead doors: the staple of every SF chase sequence. "I wanted to see the universe so I stole a Time Lord and ran away." M. Gaiman, with this fan service you are really spoiling us. Disturbing graffiti is way disturbing. Rory is dead again. Foreshadowing? "Which one's Amy? The pretty one?" The TARDIS has a thing for Rory! Love the way the lighting changes as the POV switches. It's something nasty in dark 2.0. Crimson: is that the Soviet flag? Recursion. House knows some nasty tricks. But so does the Doctor.

"I just wanted to say hello. Hello Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you." I seem to have something in my eye. Eyes. Damn it.

The goggles are terribly steampunk, especially with the rest of the costume. "The only water in the forest is the river" Foreshadowing much? "I should probably make you two a new bedroom" "OK, um, Doctor, this time could we lose the bunk beds?" It's a miracle Amy managed to get up the duff, what with the ladders and all. "Are you there? Can you hear me? OK. The Eye of Orion, or wherever we need to go..." Because it couldn't really end any other way.

I really loved Tony Palmer's Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter, a biopic of Gustav Holst that combined interviews and music to paint a portrait of the composer's life. The interviews with various knowledgeable figures were perfectly judged and the archive contributions from Imogen Holst were absolutely invaluable — as was the joyous performance of the First Suite for Military Band with an extremely cheerful Imogen conducting.

Although there were occassional musical omissions — I'm not quite sure why The Hymn of Jesus didn't make the cut — the performances were consistantly excellent. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of Holst's setting of This Have I Done for my True Love and the (new to me) setting of Psalm 88. I also liked the intriguing Beni Mora but I wasn't entirely convinced of the need to give it a soft-core backdrop!

I've always loved Holst's music. I remember the first time I heard Mars. I was seven. I loved it so much, I pursuaded my parents to buy a copy of The Planets — Karajan's 1981 recording; one of the very first CDs they bought. I was amazed to find that it wasn't just Mars, there were six other wonderful pieces just waiting to be discovered.

I also realised, long after the event, that almost all the hymns I loved singing at school were either by Holst or Vaughan Williams. I particularly remember the excitement of a school Christmas service at the local church and the music teacher playing the decending figure at the start of Personent Hodie on the organ (Clare Choir make a far better job of it than we ever did!):

Thanks to Palmer's film, knowing what I might be missing, I think I'll make an effort to track down some of the less well known bits of Holst's output.

I've finally found the time to sit down and watch Paul Nurse's excellent exploration of public hostility towards science in general and climate science, AIDS and HIV, and GM crops in particular. Nurse is a fantastic presenter: enthusiastic, sympathetic, but still willing to challenge and criticise where necessary. The most impressive moments come in an interview with a climate sceptic, who Sir Paul reduces to incoherence spluttering by suggesting that the man's attitude to the concensus view of climate change is exactly like that of a cancer patient who decides to ignore the established medical opinion about his treatment in favour of treating himself with a homebrew remedy.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with some of the statements in the program, particularly those that suggest that science stands completely separate from politics. Maybe, in an ideal world, it does, but we need to accept that scientists are people and people are political — as Berlin says somewhere, politics is what happens whenever two people's views cannot be completely reconciled with each other. I definitely agree with Nurse's point that scientists need to promote their work more widely and engage with the public understanding, but I was surprised that, apart from a brief throwaway remark, he didn't argue that science should be more heavily promoted and taught in schools.

Minor quibbles aside, it was a quite superb bit of programming — a sign that there's life in the old Horizon yet. As Tim Dowling said of it in the Guardian, it's a pity it's one show and not a four year degree course.