A Very Peculiar Pachyderm…

The Empire Strikes Back is 45 today! And therefore also GODZILLAPHANT. 😁 After Mardji portrayed the Banthas, her movements served as reference for animating AT-AT walkers in stop motion. Animator Jon Berg: "I remember saying, 'This thing looks so much like an elephant, why don't we..." 1/3

The cowwect colour for monsters is gween

Literwery Giants!

This. But also Brown shouldn't have spent the previous three years as PM pandering to bigots and the decade before that in a Government that repeatedly said "bigots have a point" and brought in ever-harsher punishments for immigrants and refugees.

Doleful music plays. Sir Kier Starmer sings: “Oh, what happened to you, whatever happened to me?” Mr Gordon Frown joins in: “What became of the people we used to be…”

Apparently the only future anyone can come up with is looking to the past, so what does past me think of Gordon Brown?

We’ve been out to do the deed. Vote today. Your vote is important. Use it well.

Tonight we watched Doctor Who – Demons of the Punjab Yaz and her family, love and secret history at the heart of a heartbreaking historical story, Weeping Demons and all-too-topical relevance Tom’s May Challenge: on Earth but (mostly) not the UK, perhaps the Thirteenth Doctor’s best…

Subtext? What subtext?

Daddies!

I first saw Flash Gordon 1980 on the big screen in, yes, 1980, at a (long-bulldozed) Stockport cinema, then —Gordon’s alive!— OTD 2016 I saw it again at the (still-there) Plaza. One of the most entertaining films ever made …but I lost the ‘Bring your own BRI BLESSED’ prize to my friend Andrew.

OTD 1953: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming 00… 1! The 2006 Casino Royale movie is great. So great it started me on a ‘re-read of all the novels’. I zipped through this one (film surprisingly faithful) but stalled hard on OH F—K the racism next up …and that was it. But I love many James Bond movies.

It’s a bank holiday so obviously @millenniumelephant.bsky.social has us watching a James Bond film. Happy sexist misogynist dinosaur egg day.

Octopussy is REAL

Me! Also some special space people. Daddy Alex on the wonderful words and worlds of Mr Chris Boucher

OTD 2010 TRON: Legacy A movie of extraordinary vision and thrilling electronica score Want to read something brilliant? Insightful @millenniumelephant.bsky.social review: millenniumelephant.blogspot.com/2010/12/day-... Tron theology, and mythology, and why it’s this century’s best Star Wars film

You know, I think if I owned the rights to a century's worth of the most acclaimed films ever like The Wizard of Oz and 2001, plus all the most popular characters in cartoon history, plus Superman and Batman, plus tons of other stuff, I could probably make enough money I wouldn't need to sell it.

Down and safe! Standard by lots! #BlakesSeven at the #BFI

A living legend.

MILLENNIUM WILCOCK!

But also “Thank you for wearing your ID Cards – they’ll help to identify the bodies!” —Authoritarian trad. arr. Doctor Who

In case you need to hear it today: Being exhausted is completely valid. The world is exhausting and actively trying to wear you down. There is nothing wrong with you if you are feeling it. The wrong in this aspect is folks of the world trying to make you think this is normal.

If you're unsure if you've plugged your book enough: I've followed Dr Sweet for 10+ yrs, he became more famous when he (politely) destroyed Naomi Wolf in an interview I found out he'd a) written a novel & b) it was now that succesful show seeing this Jennie's been nagging me to watch it for ages

I mean, he could try not just implementing Farage’s policies to the point where it’s unclear what the point in voting for him is: either you like Farage’s policies, in which case you vote Reform, or you don’t, in which case why vote for a tribute act?

Utter hypocrisy and bandwagon jumping from the party that set up every asylum hotel and made them necessary by slowing down the processing of applications. The Tories are a joke.

Though it was music featured in a very different TV series shown that same evening that so terrified and appalled yet fascinated me it became a life-changing event…

OTD 1987: Star Cops – A Double Life Self-perpetuating, cascading grudges add character to the revenge plot And though it couldn’t be more obvious whodunnit, naming the man with the perfect alibi “Albi” is funny “No two performances are identical” [But spot yet more awkward stereotypes]

the funniest thing about this is that labour have since fully embraced transphobia and women... women have fled to the greens and the lib dems. supporting trans ppl does not ostracise women. supporting the teeny, tiny, cabal of loud mouthed transphobic bigots in our media ostracises women.

Sigh. Daddy is always doing that.

There are billions of stars in our galaxy. If our closest neighbour has a system that could support life, it adds weight to the idea that the universe is teeming with life. In turn, that's evidence that FTL travel is impossible.

Happy birthday, Wanda Ventham! A brilliant actor and iconic screen presence, three times a Doctor Who guest star – her Image of the Fendahl forever seizing my awe, fear and imagination – and so many others from Colonel Virginia Lake in UFO to Only Fools and Horses…

OTD 1985: Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) At No.3, Kate Bush’s 2nd-biggest hit …Then 22 years later, No.1 all round the world! A momentous, magnificently record-smashing record I once wrote about a secret meaning: loveandliberty.blogspot.com/2012/08/runn... But it probably is about shagging.

There’s renewable energy ads and there’s mother**cking wind farm ads. This, blissfully, is the latter.

OTD 1987: #StarCops Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits If you think this episode title’s dated and ’80s, try docking at the Space Station Ronald Reagan… Probably my favourite episode at the time, with terrific lines, suddenly more pacy and energetic direction and non-stop cynicism.

Happy International Non-Binary People’s Day! (Celebrated on this day as it’s the midpoint between International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day. Gender can be more fluid than one point, but calendars are like that) Love to all my enby friends and theys and thems.

The colour of your skin has no bearing at all on whether you are British (or any other nationality). There are people who disagree, and there's a name for those people: racists.

At one point Robinson asks Josh why the Liberal Democrats don't have as much impact on the news as Reform UK does. This betrays such a lack of self-awareness on Robinson's part that you can probably see it from space.

I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator I'm the fear addicted, the danger illustrated Hey, hey, hey I'm a fire starter, twisted fire starter Hey, hey, hey You're a fire starter, twisted fire starter Hey, hey, hey I'm a fire starter, twisted fire starter

OTD 2007: #DoctorWho Last of the Time Lords The Master at full power Tennant suffering captivatingly Martha striding the Earth, then leaving the TARDIS with her head held high! 3 glorious episodes, still for me the greatest New Who finale …But I can never resist then watching Flight of the Darned.

Post your favorite Doctor Who. Wrong answers only.

IKEA knows its customer base

OTD 1966: #DoctorWho The War Machines The show’s first full-on modern Earth story – the Swinging Sixties Glorious trailer image: Hartnell hero shot Deadly new menace of the future: the Internet Cute new promise of the future: companions are sexy now. Hello, Ben and Polly!

It’s not just New Who with awesome penultimate cliffhangers… OTD 1967: #DoctorWho The Evil of the Daleks 6 Building up to the very first blockbusting season finale The Doctor faces the Emperor Dalek – but who’s beaten who? www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ-G... —in thrilling animation on Blu-ray & iPlayer

*Well, one of ’em. From another point of view, Atlantis toppled 3500 years ago—today! **Listen to their subconscious

OTD 1972: #DoctorWho The Time Monster Episode Six The Fall of Atlantis!* Three stories after Doctor Who’s first non-binary character, one week after establishing the Doctor as gender-fluid**, the series’ first gloriously gender-fluid titan. As Andrew Skilleter illustrates.

OTD 1991: #DoctorWho The New Adventures begin One of Doctor Who’s greatest feast days and most marvellous eras Far more than just a lifeline—exploding with creativity, new vistas, new writers (many would go on to TV New Who) Telling extraordinary stories I loved them then and love them still.

There is an elephant in the room…