Wine and Who in Broadchurch

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, I just got sucked into life and TV.  Friday my boss had a bottle of wine to get rid of and I was the only one to show up so the two of us sat in his office and finished it.  Needless to say I was in no frame of mind to write a blog post after that.  (Did I mention I have the best boss in the world?)

 I did manage to finish the Broadchurch series on Netflix.  It stars David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame of course) only he gets to use his natural Scottish drawl.  Can I just say I absolutely LOVE when he gets to talk naturally.  His Scottish accent isn't so thick that he's hard to understand, but it's there enough so that it's noticeable and truly a pleasure to listen to.  The show itself is also fantastic and I highly recommend checking it out.  There is an American version on Fox called Gracepoint, however after watching a trailer for it, I can't recommend it.  David Tennant stars in it as well, but he has an American accent, and he just sounds like he's labouring with it.  Don't get me wrong, I love David Tennant, but it just seems like his performance is so much more muted when he has to do the American accent.  I'll never understand why they didn't just leave him Scottish (or English, we know he can pull it off from Dr. Who).  Also, from what I saw, it is literally shot for shot the same show, so try and get your hands on Broadchurch if you can.

The husband and I went to the local comic shop today, just to see what they had in stock.  I was so excited to see David Tennant's Sonic Screwdriver (not the actual one, replica of course), and it took everything I had to walk away.  I plan on going as the tenth doctor for Halloween next year so I will definitely be picking that up.  They also had lots of Dr. Who merchandise like Dalek cups and an inflatable Dalek.  There is a Tardis keychain I definitely want.  Also, once I get my PhD I'm going to go and get either a coffee cup or a shirt that says "Trust me, I'm the Doctor."

Some Things Are Just Better Live

What Am I Listening To?

I usually listen to video game music when I work/write but lately the Sherlock soundtrack has been what's been making my brain work.  It really is a fabulous soundtrack, and it's really nice background music.  I'm still revising my short story for the contest in January, and I have at least one more story to get working on, so I think there's plenty more Sherlock music in my future.

David Tennant Goes to the Tardis in the Sky (in Dr. Who) (spoilers!)

So I finished David Tennant's run on Dr. Who yesterday.  He was absolutely marvelous as the Doctor, and I'm going to miss him dearly.  At the same time, I'm really looking forward to seeing Matt Smith as well.  This is also where Steven Moffat takes over as head writer.  Moffat gets a lot of hate on the internet over his writing on Dr. Who, so I'm actually eager to see if it's as bad as everyone says.  I absolutely love his writing on Sherlock, and in fact, his writing is why I ever gave Dr. Who a shot.  I needed something to fill the space in between Season 3 and 4 of Sherlock (stupid successful Cumberbatch and Freeman), and I found out Moffat wrote for Dr. Who as well so I gave it a shot.  Thank goodness I did.  It seems most of the hate on the internet is from Moffat not really sticking to Dr. Who canon, so considering that I don't actually know much canon, I shouldn't have too much trouble with it.

These last two episodes were the definition of an emotional rollercoaster.  The Doctor has had his death predicted to happen in this episode, and they use that against you the whole time.  There are multiple times where you are going "okay, this is it, he's going to go" and then something will happen and he'll recover.  Even at the end, when he is for sure going to regenerate, you still hold out hope that maybe, just maybe it will be okay.  And the Doctor's last line as he regenerates "I don't want to go."  just had me in tears.  My heart broke so many times over the course of this episode and I loved every bit of it.

I really hope they keep up with the story arcs the way they did in Tennant's time.  I loved finding out things in early episodes were really important in later episodes (the hand, the Ood etc).  Also, the love story between the companions and the Doctor really got to me (specifically Rose).  I have to admit though, it always sat wrong with me that the Doctor's "double" went off with Rose so she was no longer looking for the real Doctor.  I understand the logic of it, and it was a nice way to give Rose a happy ending, but my heart broke for the real Doctor.

Overall I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with Matt Smith and how his Doctor is different than Tennant and Eccleston's (I wasn't fond of Eccleston's).  I've put a link below to one of David Tennant's video blogs he did while he was filming Dr. Who.  They're really interesting to watch and really give some insight into how the filming works.  For some reason Blogger won't let me find the first one, so you're stuck with the one of Billie Piper's last day.  Seriously check the rest out on Youtube though.  I'm a sucker for behind the scenes stuff, I often love it more than the actual movies (looking at you Hobbit).

A Conversation on Women with the Department Head

I have had concerns for a while about the amount of female faculty in the Biochemistry department (we have 0) and I finally decided it was time to bring my concerns to the department head.  Let me be clear, I never thought that this was an intentional thing, I didn't have images of the professors sitting around a table with steepled fingers thinking of ways to keep women out.  I just assumed that it was the usual excuses, women took time off to be pregnant so they were less productive, they looked after kids more leading to less productivity etc.  I've always felt like the lack of women in our department suggested that in order for me to have a chance at (the very limited) faculty positions that existed, I would have to be above and beyond any male candidate.  What I found out however, was an excellent surprise.  It turns out that the department had attempted to hire multiple women, and had even offered multiple women positions within the faculty, however the women ended up getting better offers elsewhere.  It seems that there are so few women applying, that they are actual more valuable (the department realizes the need to have at least one woman on staff), leading to them being able to get offers better than what our university can give them.  Our university does have recruitment issues.  It's a small university in a small, expensive city.  The climate is also not very good, so there are other factors besides the compensation leading to attracting and keeping good candidates.  All of these factors are leading to the fact that it's proving very hard to get a good woman candidate here. 

One thing that the head did tell me was that a lot of women are leaving academia at the post doc level (honestly probably where I will be leaving as well).  He couldn't tell me why women seem to leave in droves at this point, and I'm not really sure either.  Personally I can't see me persuing an academic career for multiple reasons: long (very long sometimes) hours, no regular schedule, low pay, no stability etc.  I like research a lot, but I don't love it enough to deal with all the factors you have to in order to have a successful academic career.  This is on top of the fact that the Harper government has absolutely decimated science funding.  Even well established researchers are having trouble coming up with money now, and I can see many departments shrinking if things keep going the way they are.

Overall I was really happy that I went and talked to the department head.  I've always had respect for him and it really made me feel better to know that they had been trying to hire female faculty members, and that it was an issue he was aware of.

Monday

It's a Monday and I need to spend some time editing my short story (hoping to submit it to a contest in January), and possibly starting up a new one that's been gnawing in my head, so low amounts of posting today.  Have a cute Sherlock vid that I love to make your Monday better!

My Review of Martin Freeman on SNL

So the wonderful Martin Freeman was on Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night.  I absolutely love Martin as an actor, I've seen him in Sherlock (of course), The Hobbit trilogy and the British version of The Office, and I've loved him in them all.  Overall I'll say I was very disappointed in this episode of SNL but it really had nothing to do with Martin himself.

 First of all, a disclaimer:  I don't watch TV.  I have the internet and Netflix, so the cable TV format is something I am not used to.  One of the biggest turn offs that SNL had for me was just how many ads there were!  They would do one skit, then go to a few minutes of ads.  I think if you timed it, it was 50/50 content to ads.  (At least it felt that way!)  My second huge complaint overall was the fact that I felt Martin just wasn't used very much.  They had one spectacular skit (more on that in a moment) and then for the most part he either wasn't present or he was a character with few lines.  I would have liked to have Martin well.. act more.  Also, the lack of Sherlock jokes was a disappointment as well, but I honestly didn't expect too much to be done there.  I don't think Sherlock is popular in the States (or Canada for that matter) and any reference to it probably would have gone over a lot of people's heads.

The best skit of the night bar none was the Hobbit/Office crossover.  The inclusion of Gollum and some of the best known gags from the Office (like the stapler in the jello) really worked very well.  I truly enjoyed this skit, however I wish it wasn't the first one I saw, as it really gave me hope for the rest of the show, which was misplaced.  Worst skit of the night went to a parody of a morning show.  The whole skit was the two hosts making sexual and homosexual innuendos at each other, with brief cuts to Martin being awkward.  It just really didn't work for me.

As I said, overall I was really disappointed in the show.  Martin Freeman is a funny guy, I laugh more watching interviews with him than I did during SNL last night, and I just wish they had let that shine through more.