The Doctor is back!

Its been a while since the Time Lord had graced our screens and tonight saw the return of the Doctor as the sixth series of Doctor Who got underway with the first episode The Impossible Astronaut.

The first episode took off with Steven Moffat doing his usual clever and confusing plotlines about the Doctor who appears to have died in front of his companions eyes at the hands of a masked astronaut, only to later have the Doctor reappear in a diner in Utah.  Of course we also have the return of River Song, who again mysteriously comes into play, as we are still left wondering who exactly she is?  Moffat almost seems to take delight in confounding his audience with keeping his character's secrets dark and hidden, and River Song appears to be as big a puzzle as the Doctor.  Although by the way in which she keeps calling the Doctor "sweetie" and "my love" I can only imagine that they both are a couple in the future (or the past).

Anyways the Impossible Astronaut was an enjoyable opener to the series, with Matt Smith again in fine form (even if he insists on dancing everywhere while parrots out his dialogue!) as the Doctor, and the foxy Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Rory, Amy's most unlikely hubby.  The episode had some fun moments, one of them being the Doctor materialising in the oval office of the Whitehouse where he stands making notes, only to have the president and his bodyguard turn around to see him, and the Doctor looks up and motions them to "carry on" as if he wasn't there.  The episode also had a nice nippy pace to it as things move along quite nicely, there are some scary looking monsters in it too, that appear to erase your memory of their presence when you move out of sight from them.  Being the first of a two part story (which is unusual for a season opener as they are usually one parters for the start of a new series) it makes for an intruiging episode next week.

So Doctor Who is back on screen and its good to see it again, and so far it promises to build on the excellent season that came before it.  And more to follow when the next episode, The Day of Moon, looms.

Oh and nearly forgot (this is two days later than posted!) Happy Easter!! (a belated one).  

Clay clay clay!

OK another post on that "sport" again here.  Don't worry the next one should be on Doctor Who as the new season starts tomorrow, yus!!!!

But for now, I've been watching the clay court season get further on its way as WTA Porsche Tennis Grand Prix from Stuttgart in Germany has been on this week, and has seen some more great tennis.  Being in Germany naturally there were a few home favourites playing, most notably was Andrea Petkovic (very nice!) who defeated World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki at the Sony Ericsson Open last month, as well as the returning from injury Sabine Lisicki who performed well.  From the start Petkovic (or Petko as her nickname is) had a tough first match against the Austrain player Tamira Paszek, even after the first set when she double faulted to give Paszek set point, Petkovic went over to her seat and started sobbing.  But she managed to turn it around and defeated the Austrain in 3 sets, after that match Petkovic faced Jelena Jankovic again, who got off to a confident start, but again Petko dug in deep and defeated Jelena in a 3 set match again.  When it came to the quarter finals, Andrea faced off Caroline Wozniacki  in a potentially thrilling showdown, and indeed Petkovic came out strong to lead 4-1 in the first set, but that's as far as she got as Caroline caught up on her and turned it around closing out the first set in 6-4, and demolishing her in the second with 6-1.  Well Caroline is the number 1, so she definitely proved it yesterday, in a way Caroline is similar to Nadal in her style of play, she's not as aggressive, but she definitely has the uncanny ability to break her opponent's serve like nothing else, and surely that will hold her in good stead for the upcoming slams.  It was shame that Petkovic didn't win as since it was her home soil it would have been nice to see her win and go through to take the tournament.

Yesterday also had another really good match between the Russian Vera Zvonareva and Aussie Sam Stosur, which seemed to start out as a walk in the park for Vera, as she comfortably broke Sam's serve in the first set and soon closed it out in 6-2.  However in the second set the momentum shifted and Vera's unforced errors started to rise and her serve crumbled which helped Stosur come back into the game and take the 2nd set in 6-3.  But in the 3rd and final set things got really interesting as neither player broke serve and they made it 6-6 all which went to a tiebreaker, in the tiebreak however Vera again quickly crumbled and Sam won it in 7-3.  I was quite pleased to see Sam win and she faces German player Julia Gorges tomorrow, I hope she wins and gets through to the final, however if she does there's a strong possibility that Caroline Wozniacki might defeat her (if she gets through as she plays Agnieszka Radwanska tomorrow).  I'm hoping Sam can win the title but again its hard to tell, but she has returned to form this week after a bad spell, so hopefully it will mark a great start to her clay season.

Unfortunately for Sam she got beat in the semi finals as she lost to the Julia Goerges, as they both put in an excellent performance in a tight 3 set match which ended in 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 for the German.  It was great to see Sam Stosur get back into her game though, as this week she has had 3 great matches, which hopefully will see her do better by the time she hits Roland Garros.  The other semi final match of the day saw Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska face off in another tight high quality match, where Caroline battled to win in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 against the Pole.  Radwanska put in a gutsy performance and played an excellent match against Caroline, who did what she usually does when under pressure, gets out the spade and digs herself out of the hole, and Radwanska managed to save seven match points before succumbing to the World No.1.  But Radwanska is another player I'm beginning to admire, as she has a very creative game and can play some very unpredictable shots (one of which had to be the shot of the tournament, which she won the point after an epic 37 shot rally followed by a massive round of applause!) and can anticipate where her opponents will play, again being an unorthodox player is always a big bonus in tennis and Radwanska is another top player who is well worth following.  She has also already beaten Francesca Schiavone twice both at Stuttgart and Miami and she definitely shows more promise to beat the top players.  Her on court demeanor is also welcome change from some of the divas, screamers you might get in the game, as Radwanska just keeps a cool level head, so much so she rarely smiles on court, but off court she can't stop beaming, as her Australian Open drive video showed how sweet and fun natured she is. 

So the final between Caroline and Julia Goerges is on tomorrow, it should be a good match, even though the odds are stacked in Caroline's favour, Goerges has already proved this week she has the ability to take on the top 10 players, can she beat Caz?  Well.... as it turned out she could, as the German beat the World No.1 in a real upset victory of straight sets 7-6(3) 6-3, Goerges outclassed Caroline as a player in the final and gave her a right royal seeing to (in a manner of speaking!).  Overall though it was a not too bad a final but a bit disappointing as well, and while I was pleased to see the young German win the title, Caroline didn't play like the World No.1 at all, more like the world no. 500.  It was like Caroline had a case of the Andy Murray's and couldn't get it together at all, perhaps though fatigue of having played so many matches had started to set in, particularly after her gruelling match against Agniezska Radwanska the other day.  But her performance fell way short of the mark of what we have come to expect from Caroline as a player, and while she is the world no.1, when she loses in Premier events such as this, it does leave a question mark over her head, can she actually win a grand slam if she plays like this?  It is of course impossible to win every tournament though, but Caroline does have the tennis, the ability, the mentality and stamina to win a slam, but it remains to be seen if she can.  We'll find out one way or another, but if she faces more on form opponents like Goerges at Roland Garros for example, it will look unlikely she will win one.  Just like Andy Murray so far, he has all the ability in the world as his brother Jamie so rightly said, but can they win in the majors??? I hope so.  But well done to Julia Goerges for winning, she played a great tournament and truly showed that she has the pork chops to take on the top players, and she did succeed where Andrea Petkovic couldn't so far. 
   
Anywayyyy enough o that.

King of clay indeed!

That's the semi finals Andy vs Rafa match over, and as predicted Rafa defeated Murray, although it was hardly the straight sets defeat that we might have expected, quite the opposite, as it was turned into a near 3 hour battle with the first two sets being of the highest quality tennis as you can get, with the result 6-4 2-6 6-1 in Rafa's favour.  But unfortunately for Andy, prior to coming out on court there was a delay as it was heard that Andy had sustained an eblow injury possibly from playing earlier in the week, which sadly took its effect as the match soldiered on.  Regardless of that Andy came out to play after about a 20 minute delay to big applause from the crowd, followed by Rafa who had an even bigger applause.

For the first set I think Andy struggled to hold his service, and Rafa took an early lead to make it 4-1, but then Andy came fighting back to make it 4-4 all, before Nadal secured the first set 6-4, the first set being 69 minutes in length.  The second kicked in and the momentum suddenly swung drastically in Murray's favour as he battled it out with Rafa to break his serve, which he duly did and after that he didn't look back and ended the set 6-2.  But unfortunately in the 3rd, the pre-match cortisone injection Andy took for his elbow injury wore off and fatigue set in as Rafa resurged and took the concluding set in 6-1.  It was a shame it had to end on a disappointing note as for 2 hours and 30 minutes, it made for absolutely thrilling tennis.  But in the end Rafa is the king of clay and no matter what, no one can take him on it yet, Djokovic might pose a threat but I doubt even he can do achieve that yet.

So Rafa beat Ferrer in the final which was to be expected, athough I think it was a tough match which stretched to 2 hours 21 minutes, with Rafa struggling at times but coming through in 6-4 7-5. One thing is for sure, this week we have truly seen the return of Andy Murray, as his confidence levels on clay in particular have soared, and ok that elusive grand slam might still elude him yet, but at least he can take away many positives from this week's tennis.  The main positives being he played 4 excellent quality matches, and was only the second man after Novak Djokovic to be able to take a set off Nadal on the Monte Carlo clay in 2 years, which is no mean feat, another big positive was he won over the fickle Monaco crowd as he fought Nadal.  So its fine start to Andy's clay season, as long as he can keep it up that's the main thing.  

Anyway the expectations of it being the match of the tournament thankfully largely lived up to its expectations even if it did trail away towards the end.  Unfortunately due to Andy's elbow injury he has had to forgo his participation in the Barcelona open this week as he's been advised to rest by the doctors, which is more than fair enough, the Barcelona tournament is a small fry one anyway so its best that Andy saves himself for Madrid in May to give himself the time he needs to recuperate.  Let's just hope for Andy's sake that this elbow injury doesn't become more serious as it can be one of the more troublesome injuries a player can get.

And that's enough fer noooow.

Here'sssssss Andy!!!!

Welly well, Andy Murray has just furthened his highly impressive winning streak at the Monte Carlo Masters today as he ruthlessly defeated the unseeded Federico Gil in straight sets, in a crushing score of 6-2 6-1, his efforts today were so good he even managed to convert yesterday's boo-ing crowd into a cheering one.  Andy has undeniably bounced back exceptionally well from his slump earlier this year, and has even changed his attitude as he has now become a believer like Novak Djokovic.  In fact I wonder if he had gotten his hands on some Djokovic juice somewhere and taken a swig!   Perhaps Andy in his post match interviews has started to sound a little bit cocky, but I think its morely that he's just got his confidence back and he's now looking forward each match he plays.  One thing for sure is he is starting to play like the world no.4. 

But a big mountain of a challenge faces him tomorrow afternoon as he takes on Rafa for their 14th meeting, and naturally Rafa leads the head to head win 9-4 in his favour against Andy.  But one way or another I think hopefully we will be promised one hell of a match, without a shred of doubt it will be tough for Andy but I'm certain in his current form he can push and test Nadal to his limit.  But whether or not he can beat Rafa on clay is not certain, in fact it seems far more certain that Rafa will beat Andy.  But if Andy can dethrone the king of clay, there is no limit to what he could achieve, he could even threaten Djokovic in his current form, however I don't see that happening just yet if at all.  Doing well at a clay tournament is one thing but defeating the world No.1 on his best surface is quite another.  But I'm sure tomorrow will promise to be the match of the tournament, although it could be a disappointing fairly easy straight sets defeat for Andy or it could be an out and out battle, like their epic match at the ATP World Tour Finals last year.  In Andy's current form I hope its the latter, but its hard to tell. 

So I'm really looking forward to tomorrow with baited breath as the cliche goes, as we await the potential dream semi final against the two titans, the world no. 1 versus the british no.1.  It remains to be seen what will happen. 

So bring it on!

He'ssss back!!!!

Its good to start a post on a positive note, and this one is definitely a positive un, as I'm really pleased to report that Andy Murray has finally broken his near 3 month long losing streak at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters today.

Andy who had ensured he got plenty of training time in on clay courts, made the training pay off today as he defeated Radek Stepanek in straight sets 6-1 6-4, a very impressive result and return to form.  I hope Andy can keep it up for the remainder or for most of the tournament that remains, although I couldn't watch the match in my work, I was avidly following the results on the computer, and even by the scores at the beginning I could register just how determined Andy was to break his opponent, which he did early on, after that he never looked back.  I could also see in reading his post match interview that Andy sounded a lot more confident, the win definitely gave him a much needed boost, and it also showed he was determined to improve his clay court game, we could also be looking at him reaching another French Open quarter final this year like he did back in 2009 if he keeps up this level of play.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves yet, Andy has won just one match so far, if he could go as far as to win the Monte Carlo title, which I doubt to be honest as he's no Rafa on clay (not yet!), then it could leave a possibility of reaching the French Open final maybe?  But again that's an awful lot of supposing based on just one impressive match.

What would be great though is if Andy can keep up this current level of intensity then he will certainly do some serious damage throughout the tournaments on all surfaces.  Also perhaps he might develop an incredible winning streak of his own like Djokovic sometime this year.  The reassuring thing is though Andy's results saw him get back to the form he was at during the Australian Open, where he was demolishing players left right and centre, it was incredible.  Perhaps he can go one more and win that elusive slam this year?  I don't think he'll do French Open, but perhaps if he maintains his current form maybe Wimbledon could be on the cards???  Again its way too early to tell how things will pan out for Andy, I just hope this is the start of a great turn in his career.  He also said in his post match interview that he trains and practices hard, and he believes in himself.  Its the belief part he said that sounds like a turning point.  Djokovic said the same thing and its payed off, just maybe this could be Murray's turn?? I hope so.  

Even last year when Andy went through a losing streak after losing at the Australian Open, he started to snap back into shape by the clay season, perhaps the change of surface is just what the doctor ordered after all!  Tomorrow he faces Gilles Simon in his 3rd round match, which will be a tough one no doubt as Simon is no pushover (the man took Federer to a 5 set match during the Australian Open earlier this year).  But Andy in his interview sounded quite confident that he has a good chance of winning, which reminds me of one of Andy's best traits, he is always honest about what he says or thinks, he never falsely bigs himself up or slags off his opponents or shows them disrespect, quite the opposite.  He openly acknowledged the difficulty he faces with Simon and has done so with previous players, which shows he does respect other players.

So Andy is off to a good start at Monte Carlo and its great to see him winning again, it was long overdue and this could well be the start of a very good season for him if he can keep it up.

And on his second match against Frenchman Gilles Simon he secured another win as he beat Simon in straight sets 6-3 6-3, another fine result.  The only problem for Andy was though towards the end of the 1st set, Simon twisted his ankle and called for a medical timeout, after having the ankle bandaged up he continued playing only to have Murray close out the set.  In the second set Andy took advantage of Simon's limited mobility by doing a sequence of drop shots, which met with a lot of distaste from the audience who jeered at him for it throughout.  Despite his unpopularity with the crowd, Andy took the pasting with humour as he just smiled as they kept on, which is about the best thing he could do.  But to be fair to Andy, he just did what he had to do to close out the match, nothing less, also the French have a reputation as being booers anyway so no biggie really.  David Ferrer at the Australian Open  for example ruthlessly defeated an injured Nadal when they played in the quarter finals, tennis players don't do it to be nasty, they just play to win, which is something Gilles Simon said in defence of Andy today "you play to win".  Fair enough.  Anyway Andy's next game sees him reach his first ATP Masters quarter finals of the year against Federico Gil who beat another Frenchman Gael Monfils today.  It should be a tough one, but hopefully Andy will come through (whether or not he gets booed again is not so sure!).  One way or another he's got his mojo back.  

So that's all fer now.

The dangers of Facebook

I've been on the popular social networking site Facebook for almost two years now, and it can be a lot of fun to use, you can use it to hook with some new people and make friends and also it keeps you updated on social events etc.

But there are times where it can feel quite invasive, you have to be careful about what you post up on it and sometimes you can find yourself opening a can of worms.  One seemingly harmless quote or post can be taken the wrong way or can lead a big argument between Facebook friends, and quite often I feel I need to be wary of what I might post myself.  It can be fun to post up about your day, but when you meet with people and they ask how what you did went, it almost makes you forget that you did it, and that makes you suddenly think "shit, I wonder if should have let people know that!".  As an example in work one of my colleagues caught me going on my Facebook page and as a result they asked me to add them in, which is fine, but it can be a bit embarrassing at times, as then they can access all your info on the page, see embarrassing past photos (e.g. a pic of me when I did Abigail's Party where I grew a big tache for it!  I went pure red when they saw the pic lol!).    

I also know some Facebook friends who have closed their accounts now and then either to get away from potential social awkwardness or annoyances or for other personal reasons, as despite the fun of it, it can also be a stressful tool if used or taken in the wrong way.  Other times people can use it as a direct means to get in touch with you maybe when it doesn't suit you which can also be a bit annoying.  But I guess therein lies the hypocracy for users of Facebook, if they use it often they must expect people to get in touch with them, even if it is at an inconvient time.

It can also at times bring out a different side in peoples personalities, as when you meet someone in person you think "they are a nice person" but when they go online and you post to them, they sound like a different person entirely, and at times not in a good way, in fact I think it can bring out the worst in people at times!  When people can hide behind their words I guess that is when they can say what they either really mean or say what they want to say but not in person.  And I won't say anything in particular but there are some people on Facebook that can get on my tits!!!  Which again highlights the negativity of the site itself, it opens as what Peter Mannion from the tv comedy The Thick of It said "the shit room".  

Anyway regardless of that Facebook can be fun and a good social outlet, but it can be one you have to be weary of.  In a way also like this Blog, I use it as a private diary in a way, but I also realise other people can read it too, so I have to be even careful of what I put in this post too!  But I'm not pointing the finger at any one person though, this is just a generalisation of my thoughts on Phizogbook and social network sites in general, so use them with care, its like safe sex with condoms, one might get through! ;-) 

And on that thought I will say nae more (cause I've said enough!).

Wasted light???

Just finished listening to the Foo Fighters latest album Wasting Light, which I bought day at HMV, and to be honest I thought it was a bit of a disappointment.  Dave Grohl seems to have taken the approach of going back to his rock "roots" so to speak, but unfortunately despite a few standout tracks it just sounds like a bland generic rock album.

The first song on it "Bridge Burning" is a fairly good opener and gets your hopes up that this is going to be a good album, and the excellent first single "Rope" is a great second that backs this up.  But unfortunately after that the album takes a dive in quality as "Dear Rosemary" is a rather dull sounding rocky lullaby.  "White Limo" however is very good and very catchy too.  But the album again takes a dip with "Arlandria" and "These days", they both just sound like very average MOR rock, the sort that the Foo Fighters really shouldn't be aiming to put out.  "Back and Forth" is an improvement and offers quite a good chorus riff and "A matter of time" is easily one of the strongest songs on the album, which almost sounds reminiscent of Biffy Clyro with its slight angular quality.  If they had chosen to go down the angular route a tad more it would have made it a more exciting and interesting album to listen to, but as it stands its half a good album, and half a mediocre sounding one, which by the way also has too many "ooohhhs" over-dubbed on it by Dave!  And mediocre is not a word I would normally associate with the Foos.

Similarly their fourth album One by One, which has some good strong tracks (namely "All my life", "Low", "Times Like These" which they all play to this day) also fell foul of this problem too, as it had featured some average numbers by their standards too, even Dave Grohl in the ensuing years regarded it as his least favourite as he felt they rushed it.  I wonder if he will feel the same about Wasting Light?  And this album has a similar feel, it doesn't feel like a carefully crafted Foos album, it just sounds like they went into the studio and layed down some tracks and thought "yep, they'll do".  This is a shame after their excellent Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace album, and "Rope" promised a great deal as the first single from Wasting Light, but about half of the album falls way short of the mark.

Perhaps in time I might regard it a little differently, it might be a grower, but as it stands at the moment, I think the Foo Fighters can do much better.  So for me its a 6/10.

Goaf and T

Just watched a little bit of the US Masters Golf from Augusta Georgia, the UK, or Ireland's great white hope (so to speak) Rory McIlroy, was in the lead by -11 up until yesterday but today he's had a sad reversal of fortune, and has dropped to -5 under par, so his chances of winning the Masters has gone.  It reminds me of another British player of a certain other sport I can't stop yacking on about, i.e. Mr A Murray, it sounds like he has folded under the pressure of the event, which is a real shame.  So at the end of the tournament, McIlroy dropped to -4 having lost a huge 8 stroke lead, with the South African player Charl Schwartzel taking the green jacket and the championship.  Well that's golf and that's life.

I vaguely know the feeling as I used to regularly play golf, and the literal truth of golf is when you go out to play no two days are ever the same.  One day you might go out and play really well and other days you will play like shit.  Not that I ever could claim to be anywhere near a good player, cos I wasn't as I just played for the fun of it, and now and then I still get a game (in fact I was hoping to get one today, but my Dad's course was booked full alas, lovely sunny day too!).  In fact I was so naff at golf that I usually could never get a par, I've probably only had about 3 or 4 pars in my life, having played at Dumbarton Golf Club for almost 8 years on and off now, the best I usually managed is regular bogies or double bogies, 5s and 6s at the par 4s, which is ok I guess, in fact I was quite pleased when I got that!  But again after time I could hit my drives quite well, got decent distance, and every now and then I could play a decent fairway game too, but my short game was where it fell down, approaching the green was always a bloody nightmare lol!!!  Despite that golf is always fun and definitely the most enjoyable game I've pertaken in playing.

Right now some of the "T" stuff.  I was following the Charleston Family Circle Cup final tonight as Caroline Wozniacki faced off the unseeded Russian player Elena Vesnina.  As predicted Caroline won the match, but to be fair although it was a straight sets win, it was not a bad final, Vesnina made Caroline work for it a bit, pushing long rallies and pushing her shots out wide to make the World No 1 run for it, the final result being 6-2 6-3.  I was hoping for a tighter final though as Caroline had quite a tough journey to get there.   As in her path to get there she had two real battles against firey tempered Barbara Zahlavova-Strycova which went to a tight two set tiebreak 7-6 7-6, and the other which must have been the match of the tournament against Yanina Wickmayer, which went to 4-6 6-4 6-4 for Caz.  But overall I'm starting to become more impressed by Caroline Wozniacki, she is world no.1 and yeah okay she hasn't won a slam yet, but I think its just a matter of time for her, more so than Andy Murray.  Caroline who is only 20 years old has already won 15 titles, which by any standard is very impressive indeed, mentally she is also very strong, and if she has a minor tantrum, it passes and she gets on with it, and overall she's got the game and the tennis, so I've got to take my hat off to her (if I had one).  She also believes she can win one, as with Andy he's not so certain, but she too will have to hold her nerve in the events, which is easier said than done. 

Anyways Andy Murray faces Monte Carlo Rolex Masters this week, and in his bye into the 2nd round, he will face either Marcos Baghdatis or wildcard Radek Stepanek.  And the winner of the match was Stepanek, which could be good news for Andy as he has a 3-1 win-loss ratio with Stepanek, but it could still be a tough match for Andy, so he will have to be on the top of his game for the 2nd round, the only trouble is we don't know what state his game will be in.  But Andy has also said that he ensured he got a good start before the clay season began as he practised for two weeks on clay courts after his defeat at Miami, I hope it pays off for him to some extent.  So its about time he had a bit of luck thrown his way, and it would be a further damning shame to see him lose 5 matches in row since January.  So here's hoping Andy, all the best for you m'lad, I'll post up more after his match with Stepanek which will be on Wednesday 13 April, so fngers and toes crossed, fifth time lucky!!!  And on a weird note of conicidence Rafa and Andy both haven't won a title for 6 months, very strange eh??? But I'm sure this one will have Rafa's name on it.  

OK I'll keep it fairly short and stop there.

A Who post!

Another post I think was in order after the latest slogathons, as I've been talking nothing  but tennis, tennis and more tennis.

So here's a bit about something else, Doctor Whooo.  The new series starts in two weeks time just before Ester so I'm rather looking forward to it as I'm all the other fans are, with the quirky (well I guess they all are really!) and excellent Matt Smith returning as the Time Lord, and the foxy Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, along with Arthur Darvill as Rory, Amy's unlikely hubby and the saucy Professor River Song (Alex Kingston).  This series should provide more background info about River and how she knows the Doctor (so intimiately it seems!) and why exactly she has what appears to be his 500 year diary!  So look forward to seeing it unravel and there will be more posts on that soon.

Further to that I also got the Doctor Who Revisitations 1 box set, featuring three very good stories, The Talons of Weng Chiang, The Caves of Androzani and Doctor Who The Movie.  I already own these stories on DVD, but the main draw to the revisitations is of course more extras of which there are plenty for each story.  Talons is of course one of Tom Baker's all time classics and I already watched it quite recently, which is a great story, although it does have that stupid giant rat, and Androzani for that matter has that stupid Magna creature in it (both of them guys in rubber suits, or one furry and one rubber!).  Which was the only shame about the classic TV series, due to its budget even the great stories were marred by the production values at times.  But they are both classics that see the end of two eras, Talons the end of the Peter Hinchcliffe producer era, which was arguably the best of the whole series, and Androzani saw the end of Peter Davison's era, which saw him go out on a major high.  Its just a pity after that Doctor Who took a big dip in quality as Colin Baker's era started, and its not that I don't like Colin as the Doctor, its just the stories were shit, if he had better stories then he would have been just as watchable as the other Doctors.

Talons speaks for itself, minus the giant rat, it features some terrific performances, John Bennett is great as Li  S'Hen Chang (with some great make-up too, you can really believe he looks oriental!).  Christopher Benjamin who is terrific as ever as the flamboyant theatre owner Henry Gordon Jago, and Trevor Baxter as the reserved but game Professor Litefoot, and Michael Spice as the scary Weng Chiang, replete with freaky looking mask covering his twisted features, gives a booming performance.  Of course Tom Baker is on top  form as usual and Louise Jamieson gives quite a spirited powerful performance ("Die bent face!!").  Robert Holmes dialogue is wonderful here as it always is with some terrific lines throughout (the Doctor: never trust a man with dirty finger nails! Jago when he goes to check out his creepy cellor: When I do something I'm a man of character and determination. Casey, after you!") and David Maloney brilliantly directs the story, and the sets and period dress are just great.  Overall it stands as one of the best stories of its time.

The same for Androzani, again written by Robert Holmes, it was one of the last stories he wrote for the show, as he was brought back in for the last Peter Davison story, and it saw the fifth doctor go out on an all time high.  The story also features a really strong cast with Christopher Gable as the masked, twisted yet sympathetic Sharez Jek and Maurice Roeves who is great as Stotz, the mercanary.  The only slight weak link in the cast is John Normington as the megolamaniacal Morgus, who hams it up to the biggest butcher's shop there is, although he's so hammy you could say he was magnificently awful, especially the way he delivers his dialogue, turning to the camera "the spineless cretins!!".  Peter Davison is also very good in his last story, he plays the Doctor with a good mix of humour, seriousness and a great sense of desparation as the clock ticks for his life and Peri's as they have been infected with spectrox toxaemia.  As Matthew Sweeting so aptly puts it in the Androzani DVD documentary, the Doctor for once isn't trying to save the universe, he's trying to save his companion's life.  Which leads me to Nicola Bryant as Peri, while she isn't the best actress in the show (although she has done well since, and she has aged very well indeed!), she is ok, but mainly what we remember is the scene where she props up the Doctor as he collapses in the TARDIS at the end and we can see her impressive cleavage as she leans over!  Anyways it is a great story.       

However moving onto Doctor Who The Movie, which saw the resurgance of the series albeit for a short time, where Paul McGann stepped in and played the Doctor in fine style.  Paul with his scouser accent brought a nice touch to the Doctor, where he also infused it with some of his neurotic character from Withnail and I, and gave the story some romantic overtones.  This in fact proved to be quite controversial at the time, where the Doctor has a romantic attachment to his new and rather fine looking companion Grace (Daphne Ashbrook) and sees the Doctor kissing his companion for a change, and not in a platonic way.   At the time I thought it detracted from the movie, but in retrospect I don't think it did it any harm, as since in the new series, the romantic overtones have always been brought into the show, especially with David Tennant who had to have at least one snog per series!  Another potential contentious issue was having the Doctor's arch villain the Master, be played by an American actor, Eric Roberts (brother of Julia), but from the get go I thought he was excellent as the Master.  He brought a sly charm to his portrayal as well as a real sense of menace and danger, it also saw some rather violent scenes in the show (Bruce the man who's body the Master has taken over, at one point chokes his wife to death (not seen of course), and breaking Chang Lee's neck, the boy whom the Master uses to do his dirty work).  Although a fair criticism raised at the film from some fans was that it took a bit too long for Paul McGann's doctor to come into the show, as its only about 86 minutes long and he doesn't appear for the first 25 minutes!  But it did also feature a nice swansong for Sylvester McCoy's doctor, who I always thought was underrated, and it showed him bow out with dignity, it was also a shrewd move I thought from the producer of the movie Phil Segal to include Sly into the show to justify his reason for regenerating into Paul McGann.  So overall it was a very entertaining TV movie, but sadly I think due to poor ratings the American networks wouldn't take it on for a whole series.  Ultimately a lot of good US series have missed out or been cancelled due to poor ratings (Futurama, Family Guy which were of course brought back, Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to name a few), which shows the networks know hee haw about quality TV!

Anyway Doctor Who Revisitations 1 is well worth buying and they of course will be "revisiting" future stories as well, the second set features two not so good stories though: Resurrection of the Daleks (crap Peter Davison story replete with some disco death dancing from the dalek victims!) and The Seeds of Death (one of Patrick Troughton's most boring stories) but does have the very entertaining Jon Pertwee story Carnival of Monsters.  So in future there will be further good Revisitation box sets coming out, so worth keeping the eyes peeled for them.

And I'll leave it there, and no tennis mentioned! Wow!!!

Ok time to start a new paragraph

Ok the last post was getting ridiculously lengthy so I've decided to start another one.  And yes its about a certain game where two players hit a ball back and forth around a cement coat surface with lines either side and a net in the middle. 

So getting right on to it, the Sony Ericsson Open 2011 men's semi final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal was a bit of a letdown.  What I hoped to be an exciting battle turned out to be a simple straight set win for Nadal winning 6-3 6-2.  I was hoping it would be more of a fight from Federer but I guess he is now finally getting past his best, he is still more than good enough to take on the players ranked underneath him, but he's no longer the top dog for sure.  However speaking of the two top dogs, I think that Rafa and Djokovic have been playing so consistently well throughout this tournament together that its going to be hard to call who will win this time.  Because if there is one man who is capable of ending Djokovic's winning streak, that one man is Rafael Nadal.  Rafa certainly proved tonight he still very much has an appetite for destruction by dismanteling Roger's game so convincingly, he is for sure still the world number 1.  So I think Rafa might be out for revenge this time against Djokovic, it will be a tough match to call this time and who knows might win this time.  Djokovic could be a firm favourite, but judging by Nadal's performance tonight its not so easy to tell.  One way or another, any disappointments that came before at Miami, will be made up in the final.  And Djoko although he could beat Nadal, this time I think Rafa will be baying for blood.

In fact I think overall the women's tournament has actually been alot more exciting in Miami, more lengthy battles with plenty of upsets, especially with Caroline Wozniacki going out in the 4th round, Jelena Jankovic in the quarters, both fell victim to Andrea Petkovic.  And now we have the two champion screamers Sharapova and Azarenka in the final, which could make for a very interesting and also very loud match.  But disappointment reared its head again as it was largely a one sided match with the odds firmly stacked in Azarenka's favour who defeated Sharapova in straight sets 6-1 6-4.  In the first set Sharapova just couldn't get anything going at all, and made a big number of unforced errors and double faults, continually trying to play cross court shots and hitting them wide or into the net, and for most shots Azarenka had the answers.  In the second set things improved for Sharapova although it took a while as she was 0-4 down, but she managed to break back and make it 4-5 before she sunk more forehands and handed the championship point to Azarenka.  Overall it was a bit of a letdown but the match did show some signs of promise and there were some excellent rallies in the second set once Sharapova found a little bit of form, but Azarenka despite her ridiculous grunts (they can't be real surely!) was the better player on the day and played very well throughout the tournament.  Its usually the same when you have great expectations for a match it can be a disappointment, but if you have no expectations, like with the Wozniacki vs Bartoli final at Indian Wells, I expected little from it, but it turned into one of the best matches of the year so far.  And overall women's tennis is in a more interesting place just now, as there is no one dominant player overall in all surfaces, Caroline Wozniacki is fairly dominant in hard court but not on other surfaces and last week she proved she wasn't infallible on hard court.  So it leaves plenty of room for other great players to win the tournaments and mix things up. 

But overall I felt the Miami men's tournament lacked the same excitement, also probably in part due to the absence of an on form Andy Murray, which might also have a bit to do with that as well, as having the Briton in any tournament is always worth a watch, well when he's on form that is!  And Djokovic's undeniably impressive but now almost unceasing winning streak throughout this season, leaves no room for unpredictability.  When we hit the clay season I think more variety will be injected into the proceedings though of who will win and won't.  In the end it can be more an exciting journey of how they get there rather than the final outcome.

And thankfully in the end the men's singles Sony Ericsson Open final was the magnificent match we'd hope it would be.  It stretched out to an epic 3 set battle between the top two world players, as Rafa and Djoko had slogged it out in a battle to the last breath, which ultimately saw Djokovic prevail after a suprising tiebreak upset (something which I thought was always his weakness no less!!!) the final result being 4-6 6-3 7-6 (4) for Djokovic.  The fact that the man came back from being 5-1 down in the first set to Nadal and then turned it around in the second set onward was just incredible and reminded me of Federer in his heyday.  It once again showed that Djokovic is the player to beat, and let's face it no other player is going to stand a chance on hard court unless he is injured (or a grand slam for that matter).  Also Djokovic has on top of winning 24 matches since the beginning of the year, he has also only dropped six sets in all, which is pretty damn good! Murray in comparison has only dropped nine as has Nadal for that matter, but then he hasn't won 4 titles since alas, nor has Nadal for that matter so they have that in common at least!  Regardless of his loss, Rafa has had a great start to his season after his disappointment of losing out in Australia due to his hamstring injury, reaching two hard court 1000 Masters series final is still no mean feat.  In fact it was bizzare, because for once in so many moons, Rafa was the underdog and I was really hoping he would win as he had never won at Miami before, but in the end Djokovic has proved time and time again that he's master of the hard court now. 

But it remains to be seen if Djokovic can carry on his incredible success to the clay court season and defeat Nadal there, if he can, there is no stopping him at all, even Rafa has tipped Djokovic as the future number 1.  What we do know is Rafa gave his absolute all in this final match, he threw the kitchen sink, table and fridge at him, and yet still Djoky won, although I think towards the very end Nadal was pretty tired.  But the only man that can get under his skin is Nadal, and this could really be the case when it comes to clay, as Djokovic showed signs of frustration in both Indian Wells and Miami when he lost the first set in both finals.  

In retrospect I think the ultimate turning point for Djokovic was when he beat Federer in the US Open semi final last year, and then Serbia won the Davis Cup which I think was the icing on the cake.  One thing is for sure and that is its Djokovic's year.  So with the clay season coming we'll see how things pan out for Djokovic and Nadal, whatever way it goes, there is a new rivarly in town, and it no longer involves Federer.    

Anyway the clay court season is up next and gets properly under way with the Monte Carlo Masters which starts next Sunday. And I've just read that Andy Murray has accepted a wildcard entry into the Monte Carlo tournament, so will it be a fourth loss in a row????  I sincerely hope not, but let's face it, if he got trounced on hard court, what will happen to him on clay, his least preferred surface???  He could end up losing 0-6 1-6 in the first match.

I just hope Andy can finally start to turn it around, God if he could at least win one match (or a set even!) in Monte Carlo that would be something!  And its been just revealed that Andy might work with temporary coaches such as Darren Cahill and Sven Groeneveld as a temporary fix until he finds a full time coach.  At least this would provide Murray with some much needed training and advice for the season ahead.  Andy also said that he hopes to play better at Monte Carlo as he has been playing well in practice, and that he's not too worried if it doesn't happen for him next week, or in a couple of weeks, as it will come in time, which is the best attitude you can have really.  He also said in another interview that he felt he was trying to make too many changes to his game, experimenting with them, which he felt really put him off in Indian Wells and Miami.  In those tournaments Andy also said he didn't go into them with a clear mind and that obviously showed in his body language, and that he really needs to get back to the basics of his game.  Again if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  And its a clear mindset that Andy really needs in order to start winning matches again. 

And on another recent development, Novak Djokovic has just announced he has pulled out of Monte Carlo due to a knee injury, so that at least leaves other players a chance to face Rafa in the final!  Rafa might be disappointed that he won't be facing Djokovic, but I think its safe to say the Monte Carlo title will be his, mind you perhaps if Murray by pure chance plays well maybe he might be in the final with him, but he won't win of course, even if he get's that far!

And (another update here!) the tournament draw has just been confirmed for the tournament and I think Murray's first game is with either Radek Stephanek or Marcos Baghdatis again, who instigated his losing streak on the ATP circuit this year back in Rotterdam.  If it is Baghdatis he'll face, I hope Murray can get payback for his loss last time and make this his first win since defeating David Ferrer at the Australian Open in January.  Either way he's got a potentially very tough first match.  So Andy all the very best to you at Monte Carlo, and I hope you can finally put this losing streak behind you, even if you only win one match, that will be a victory of its own.

And on those revelations I'll leave it there.