Flash! Aaaarrghhh!!!

Hello again!
Today I want to talk about TV. 'N' stuff. Let's start with the TV. Well, to cut a long story short, I failed epically at getting into Lost, but Heroes proved to me that American TV can actually be quite good, so I felt like jumping on the bandwagon for the latest creation - FlashForward! The premise, as you may already know, is that everyone (or supposedly everyone) in the world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, in which time they all have visions of their respective futures. When they wake up, it's up to some random guy to piece all the visions together and decide how it happened. It stars Dominic Monhagan from LotR, Jack Davenport who was in Pirates and some other stuff, Alex Kingston who was in Doctor Who and looks set to return (more on this later) and the brilliant John Cho who was Sulu in the latest Star Trek. He's my favourite character, even if he does die in the future! Or is asleep, that would be anti-climactic.
Overall, I'm very impressed, although in my opinion the Future seems to be unfolding a little too fast. I've no idea how long this series is, but at the rate they're going, they'll struggle for content if they want to string it out beyond the Line of Acceptability at 13 episodes. And what about the second series? Do they blackout again? Does the future not happen? The effects were pretty awesome as well, clearly taking a leaf out of Heroes' book with the explosions etc. The bit at the start where he stood on the car reminds me of when Hiro sees the world splitting (BRAINWAVE!!! Stay tuned) at the start of Series 3. So no, this is not a rival to Heroes yet, although it's still early days.
Plot is something I'd like to focus on. Notice that all the plotlines and little references all tie together and crop up again and again. Recurring mentions of circus-related stuff? Check! Strange David-Tennant-kind-of-lookalike who doesn't know what a hamburger is but seems oddly pivotal? Check! Mysterious accomplices whose faces have yet to be revealed? Check! All the elements seem to be vital, although I fail to understand some things. Surely the "pigeon" references in Episode 2 relate to the one that flew into the window in Episode 1? Right? And I thought D. Gibbons was a jazz composer. I'm sure there's a Dave Gibbons Band out there somewhere!
What all this means is that I've started to view the Doctor Who scripts as a bit... naf, I guess. A prime example of this is the Bad Wolf plot. They spend a whole season building up this recurring theme, even give you TWO cheesy flashbacks for those who weren't listening the first time (And yes, I did get most of them!), and in the end it's just a "Meh, it's this... sort of... thing... which does... stuff." If that's honestly as clever as they can be, then they've got no chance of rivalling the likes of Heroes and FlashForward. Personally, I think the writers are the problem. Steve Moffat's episodes, I had no problem with. It would take a true genius to come up with the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey plot of Blink, and the two, seemingly parallel, worlds of Silence In The Library seriously baffled me, and had me speculating all week! THAT is good writing. THAT is Heroes writing. Unfortunately, the rest of it wasn't quite up to scratch.
And by means of something which in no way resembles a segway (technical term, not an actual Segway), I'll now say "It's a good job Moffat is becoming head writer for the next series!" which will lead me smoothly into my next point - The ALL NEW Doctor Who logo. If you haven't seen it, it's on the website. The first thing that springs to my mind is this: Retro. Far from being the sleek, new and easily recognisable logo of series 1 through 4 (plus specials), this TARDISy (that will have to be a new word for when the next Series comes in) logo will have customer peering ever more intently at merchandise which was once a vivid bright orange. Clearly, the Doctor Who team know when they've been Tangoed! With a logo which draws on the era of Sylvester McCoy (possibly?), a new sonic screwdriver much alike to the 4th Doctor's, and a more 'classic' Tardis design, could this mean a return to the Old Skool ways of the 20th Century? Will we start to see plastic rocks and aliens made of plasticine battling with increasingly boffiny Doctors? More importantly, has the Doctor fixed his Chameleon Circuit?? How else could he redesign the TARDIS?
With everything changing in Series 5 (Or do you have to call it Series 1 now? I'm confused!), I have to admit I'm becoming increasingly dubious about the fate of Doctor Who. But, if nothing else, at least Karen Gillan is looking good... as... a policewoman.... *blushes*. She'd better be clever as well, mind you. I'll trust the Doctor to choose the right ones.
Aaanyway. Sorry this is a very TV-oriented post, but for once I'm feeling passionate about TV. It doesn't happen a lot, but it would seem there is some entertainment to be gained from that mess of wires and boxes after all! So, Heroes-wise, I wasn't going to go over it today, but I've just had an Epithany.... Epiphany.... However it's spelt. And that is this: Anyone in the loop will have seen the Volume 5 trailer on YouTube (or the website, if you live Stateside), and it's very interesting and a lot of stuff happens. What matters is the last clip which shows a presumable villain, called Samuel, filling his brother's grave telekinetically. His power is moving the ground. Now, call me slow, but I didn't appreciate the full significance of this until just now. Surely, anyone who can move soil can split it apart as well. Hence, the Earth cracking in two! That future is still a possibility! Those amazing graphics could still reappear! En plus, now that we know Hiro's current instability with Time Travel, it's easier to understand why Ando was shooting him with the lightning - To enhance Hiro's power back to normal! Simples!
I know you're all completely lost, but that's my epiphany for today. On a completely different note, Avril Lavigne and her former husband Deryck (From Sum 41, apparently) have split up. It's sad, but maybe it means he won't have as much influence on her next album as he did the last. In theory that's a good thing, but we'll have to wait and see, I guess. Shame that even the entertainment industry, the ones we can usually look to to be cheered up, is going through a pretty tragic time at the moment. Or maybe it's always been like that. Ah well, celebrities everywhere, for one night only, you all have my condolences. Good night!

Jack