All Sewell That End's Well

Forgive The Tortured Syntax

There I was, sitting reading messages on Twitter - we'll come back to that - and I realised it was suddenly 12:13 and I'd not written a word of the blog.  What can I do? I pondered, and do you know what?  The Muse came through.  Thank you, Terpsichore.  Okay, we now need a click-bait picture to draw the unsuspecting public in.  Art!

     As you should surely know, we here at BOOJUM! are big fans of the BBC's premier drama-mentary, and the above serial matters because the Doctor has a couple of lines that limn the fifty-first century very succinctly.  At one point he mentions the 'War of the Icelandic Alliance", which implies that everyone's favourite Hot Geyser Land has become rather more influential in global affairs than the position it currently holds.  Art!

The seething metropolis that is modern Reykjavik

     There you go, two birds with one stone.  At another point the Doctor confronts future-war criminal Magnus Greel, and informs him that he (our favourite Gallifreyan) was ' - in the final advance of the Filipino Army on Reykjavik'.  This completely blows Greel's mind - never that steady at the best of times - because, as he blusters, how can a man of the nineteenth century know anything of the fifty-first?

     If only he knew.

     Now, to get back to Iceland, Conrad finally discovered the identity of a BBC Scotland thriller series which he saw decades ago: "Running Blind".  Art!

     Broadcast in 1979, it was set in Scotland, and Iceland, which was an exotic and little-filmed location at that time.  Conrad still remembers one line of dialogue from the hero, stating that he'd taped a pistol to the underside of their car to get it past Customs - but, thanks to the dreadful Icelandic roads, it had been torn off.  O well some lucky roadcomber will find it, I suppose.

     Incidentally, Conrad feels bound to point out that Iceland has not had a standing army since 1869, although their Coast Guard is especially large and well-armed, and yes, they are the only member of NATO without an army

     ANYWAY, whom is the dirty double-crossing rascal, the traitorous cuckoo in the nest, the sinister sleazoid <Mister Hand redacts a whole paragraph of witless wanderings>?  Art!

     Slade, played by none other than the wonderful George Sewell.  George was your go-to chap for any kind of 'heavy', on both sides of the law, from the Sixties onwards.  He even got a starring role in the television series "Special Branch", which would never happen in South Canada, because he wasn't especially handsome or pretty.  Art!

     And whom do we have here?  None other than George again, this time in "Remembrance Of The Daleks" where he is, again, playing on the wrong side of the law.  He played Ratcliffe, a British Nazi (booh!  for shame!) who is conniving with the Daleks to get hold of a horribly powerful Macguffin, the "Hand Of Rassilon" if memory serves.  Of course - obviously! - he comes to a particularly sticky end.  Heh.

     Now, you were probably expecting Conrad to finish this Intro right there by saying " - and this is where we came in"

     WRONG!

     For, as evidence that the Coincidence Hydra is still noseying around, who played Sir Taggart in "Running Blind"?  Art!

     It's not a good picture but it's all I could find at short notice.  This actor is Richard Hurndall.  Hang on, let me prod Art into conscientious diligence for once -

     Thanks, Art.  You can do it if you try.  O stop whining and put a bit of Sudocrem on them, cattle-prod burns aren't that bad, com

     ANYWAY you might be more familiar with Richard in another role, where he got wheeled in because the original actor had long since waltzed off this mortal coil.  Art!

     Yes, he stood in for the First Doctor.

     NOW I can end this Intro by saying "This is where we came in".

Conrad And His Magic Ball

Months ago, it was revealed that Perfidious Albion had supplied Ukraine with an unknown number of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, but had very sneakily - we earned that 'Perfidious' bit of 'Perfidious Albion' thank you very much - not broadcast this news to the world.  Art!

CAUTION! Do not try this indoors

     Consequently the Ruffians were hideously surprised by Things Exploding far beyond the range of the already-dreaded HIMARS.  The question was asked on Quora, "What will British Storm Shadow missiles mean to the war in Ukraine?"

May 15

Have you seen roaches scatter in a kitchen when the light was turned on?

That.

Rather more seriously, the Storm Shadow’s range put all the Russian logistics and HQs and SAMs across occupied Crimea in range. These are the same sites that had to be painfully moved beyond HIMARS range last year. It they have to be moved again they’ll be back inside Russia’ s borders, creating an incredible strain on supplying the front lines. It would be so disruptive the Russians may opt to simply sit and take the punishment, crossing their fingers that the Brits didn’t supply many in the first place.

It may open the door to ‘Other Parties’ being willing to supply a few hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles, with the numbers filed off, as with the Challengers.

     Note the date.  Well, after the devastating 'decapitation' strike on the Black See Fleet's HQ, I seem to have been correct for the most part, except that the Ukes are now going to be getting ATACMS, not Tomahawks.  Cue change of underpants time in the Ruffian army.  Art!

     This incident has, of course - obviously! - been completely ignored on Ruffian state television, because it's such a humiliating disaster for them.  Not only did the Ukrainians know exactly where and when the BSF HQ staff would be meeting, they used decoy missiles and a wave of sacrificial drones to completely baffle the Ruffian air defences.  

     

"City In The Sky"

Because you can never have too much of the Doctor and his companions, especially the attractive female ones 

     ‘How, exactly, do these sinister aliens move around and manipulate human beings, Doctor Smith?  Or do they look exactly like humans?’ asked another critic.

     ‘Any one of a number of methods.  Via projected encepholographic over-ride, which removes any need to move around.  Surgical alteration, if they firstly possess a humanoid form.  Remote controlled androids.  A robotic shell acting as a Trojan horse.  Holographic camouflage.  Refractive lensing.  None of which would be detectable to anyone.’

     ‘Except you!’ laughed a listener, shrinking a little when the diminutive man’s gaze swung upon him.

     ‘Except me,’ he agreed.  ‘Since I have experience of alien squatters moving into a depopulated Earth.’  Ace’s memory jumped back to sitting by the River Rowley, and mentions of an even more distant future where the human race slumbered in orbit, again.  The crew listening to him were puzzled by this remark.  ‘And nobody can deny that your second glider was blown up.’

     There came a flurry of speculation about that from mechanics, technicians and two of the arcology’s nuclear physicists, all trying to suggest reasons why the glider had been destroyed, until several dissenting voices interrupted, unhappy at the vicarious analysis of their friend’s deaths.  The Doctor paused to build up dramatic tension before continuing.

     Yes, he is a bit of a show-boater.

     Birdsweat!  Just checked the weather and it's gone from overcast to lots of rain.  Conrad is determined to get his afternoon constitutional into Lesser Sodom even at the cost of getting wet.  I shall remember to don shoes, not Skechers.

Howlingly Ironic

Given the above paragraph, at least.  For Lo! we have another Astronomy Photographer of the Year picture, so - Art!

Courtesy Eduardo Poupeau

     Yes, that is the surface of the Sun, with a solar filament forming the shape of a question mark.  Getting this image is both a matter of luck and patience, as these filaments have a very transient existence, so well done Eddy!  O and he took it in Argentina, because you can bet British astro-photographers would struggle to get a picture thanks to constant cloud cover.

Finally -

For Your Information, Conrad's annual diabetic check-up on Friday went well.  I know you worry about these things and I like to keep you informed.  Blood pressure good, blood sugar levels a great improvement, feet need moisturizer and Your Humble Scribe needs to lose at least two kilos.  That's the downside of working from home, no walking exercise.  Well, that's about to be remedied as I navigate down to Lesser Sodom in my kayak.

     Tally ho!