Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor

He’s no Chewy, but I really like Matt Smith who is to play the Eleventh Doctor. He was great in the largely gash Party Animals, and great in the wonderful Ruby In The Smoke.

A bit of me is weirdly disappointed that we don’t get the first black Doctor, as would have happened with either Chewy or the favourite Paterson Joseph, just because I’ve been expecting it since those rumours started swirling. They did a pretty good job of keeping Matt Smith under wraps, including what I’m guessing was some complicity on the part of Paterson Joseph to spread false rumours about himself. Certainly there were a lot of signs that it was going to be him, including at one point his co-star ‘accidentally’ spilling the beans, so either it really was almost a done deal or those hints were on purpose.

By contrast, the only real clues to Matt Smith was his sudden popularity on the Betfair betting market in the last two days. Having spent a probably unwise amount of time using this site to bet on the U.S. Presidential elections, I thought myself enough of an expert to discern that not enough money was changing hands to indicate any real trend – more likely a new rumour, or possibly his agent stirring up interest. Epic 2009 fail.

Also, I fucking heart this picture.

Matt Smith is the Eleventh Doctor

He looks proper, and a bit dark and mysterious. Someone called him Byronic, which I also like. I love David Tennant, but part of the reason I wanted Chiwitel Ejiofor was I thought he might play him a bit more mysterious and alien, like back in the old days with the dodgy costumes. Then Steven Moffat can live up to my unreasonable expectation that he’ll be the new Philip Hinchcliffe, they’ll do an episode where Sutekh comes back, and everything will be fine. Good.

yes YES

I am not given to hyperbole, EVER, but if Chiwetel Ejiofor is not announced as the Eleventh Doctor tomorrow then I DON’T KNOW WHY I AM EVEN ALIVE ANYMORE!

I love you Doctor Who. You raise that eyebrow, you sexy bitch.

Obama vs. Microsoft

I am very tired, but I want it to be noted that the smartly turned-out Republican consultant on CNN (missed his name – he has a moustache) just explicitly compared Barack Obama to open-source software.

He has possibly been influenced by CNN’s earlier unveiling of their eyelid-peeling ‘hologram’ presentation of guest speakers, which was just beyond parody/belief.

A little bit of history

Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States. I’m mildly drunk in the very early hours of the morning. These are both achievements.

McCain just conceded, and now we’re all waiting on the victory speech.

That was a long two years. I am happy. Good luck to President Obama: and please, don’t disappoint too much.

Classic Penny Arcade

I’ve occasionally been a bit worried that Penny Arcade is going off the boil. I’ve been reading it almost since it began (9 years and 340 days ago) and it hasn’t been making me laugh like it used to. Achewood has since taken over as my favourite strip, and I think xkcd is probably vying for second place.

This, however, is a new classic.

Happy 10 years when it comes, Gabe and Tycho.

Daily Show ranks thin

Having already lost Samantha Bee and Jason Jones earlier in the week, Rob Riggle will also be leaving the Daily Show to head for CBS. I’m more bothered by this than I was about the first two, I think, and he’s only been there since 2006. (Apparently – I’ve only been watching it since 2006, ‘cos it’s only been on British TV since 2006.)

So that leaves John Oliver, Aasif Mandvi and new guy Wyatt Cenac, who I’ve thus far not warmed to all that much. I’m hoping that Kristen Schaal moves up to become a regular, since her bits tend to break free of the ‘generic Daily Show correspondent’ a bit more than the others usually do.

Bye Rob, and Samantha and Jason.

Take, on, me

Adam Buxton wins Thursday.

Really?

No, really?

Vice-presidential debate

Biden put in a good performance, and won this debate. He generally managed to keep a leash on his monologues, though that didn’t always translate into succinct points. But he came across as intelligent, compassionate and experienced. Obama won’t be worried.

Palin was clearly extremely nervous at the start, and simply recited memorised points by rote, regardless of whether or not they were related to the question. She also turned on the insufferable ‘folksy charm’ in the opening half hour in a way that seemed very manufactured. But she didn’t screw it up, and proved that she could in fact speak in full English sentences. She gained confidence as she went on, though the recitation of memorised lines was clear throughout.

No real gaffes from either party, though there was a slightly scary moment towards the end when it looked like Biden had finally lost his patience with Palin. He pulled it back, though, and really came into his own towards the end. The candidates were friendlier towards each other than Obama and McCain, doubtless aiming to avoid the ‘eye contact’ ‘controversy’ of last Friday.

CNN’s test groups (represented by a green line for male viewers, and an orange line for female viewers) seemed to favour Biden fairly consistently, and were more intermittently favourable towards Palin. She dropped a fair bit on Iraq. Both candidates seemed to do better with women.

The end result? This vice-presidential debate was, most likely, as irrelevant as they always are. Neither candidate screwed it up, and that was all they could really have done to change things. But it was more interesting than last Friday’s, and I have to admit I’d rather listen to Biden talk than either Obama or McCain. We’ll see what CNN thinks. (They mainly follow my lead.)

Bullshit asteroid heads for earth

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, a little over a month before the election. According to Michael Tomasky at the Guardian (a journalist who I like, but whose increasingly wild-eyed attacks on the McCain/Palin beast make me fear for his sanity if they end up winning) thinks this is a pretty big deal.

“This is pretty huge news. That’s a battleground state with 17 electoral votes — a big prize. If McCain isn’t going to compete there, he’s going to have carry all of these other battleground states: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. That’s assuming he can’t flip any other blue states… It must say something not only about what his team thinks his chances are there, but also about the financial state of his campaign.”

Obama has sustained a comfortable and stable lead in the polls for some time now, and the general thinking seems to be that the closer you get to the election, the less unlikely such a lead is to be overturned. (This combined with the fact that a bunch of states apparently allow early voting, so the effects of this lead should already be having an impact on the final result.)

A not-particularly-interesting debate last Friday did nothing great for McCain’s hopes – most of the talk has been about his apparent anger and refusal to look at his opponent. Not exactly the stuff of serious political discourse, but it’s the topic just the same. And tonight comes the vice-presidential debate, with the very real possibility of Sarah Palin cementing the idea that she is simply not in a position to lead her country as it needs to be lead.

The point is, it looks very bad for McCain, and in just a couple of hours time, it’s entirely possible that it’s going to get worse. Either of the toothy gaffesters could drop a bombshell in the debate (Biden has form) but if it’s Palin, the ship starts sinking faster. McCain knows this, and has obviously known for some time, or he wouldn’t have diverted his top campaign staff to train her up, or have been so ruthless in keeping Palin away from any and all reporters. (A situation that, mercilessly, he couldn’t maintain.)

And at the same time, he clearly knows things need to change, soon, if he’s to have any chance of turning things around. His fellow Republicans have been urging him to draw blood for a while.

So if he does have a magic bullet – or a wrecking ball – I think we’re going to see it very soon. Like, tomorrow soon, or the next day – soon enough that a disastrous performance by Palin will be forced out of the news cycle. If she pulls it off, great, but I can’t imagine that a campaign that’s clearly so worried about its VP pick will leave her to define the race for another week.

What could it be? Something nasty. I’ve been surprised by how relatively light the attacks on Obama have been over the past few months (the appalling “teaching sex ed to kindergarten” ad aside) – maybe they were feart of opening themselves up to charges of racism.

No longer, I think. His choice of Palin, his imaginary suspension of his campaign – even, if you’re to believe Mr. Tomasky, his love of high-stakes gambling – reveal a man who’s willing to make desperate plays in desperate times. I daren’t speculate as to what the next one might be, but have faith that a bullshit asteroid is already on its way: it’s on a direct collision course with Earth, and McCain’s frozen grin is emblazoned across its side.

In shit.