Savage Popcorn

When religious leaders start talking about “religious rights” what they are generally getting at is that they want special exemptions from the sort of normal inquiry that might expose their beliefs for the hot air that they are. No such beating around the bush though for Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor who is demanding that the BBC should suspend its impartiality rules when it comes to religion, and just be biased in favour of Christianity.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said: “Cardinal O’Connor speaks like a classic demagogue. His desire to have no contradiction to his message is authoritarian and anti-democratic. Religion already has hours of time of TV and radio in which no-one is allowed to question or comment. Thought for the Day is one such slot, where preachers of all hues are allowed to make blatantly political pitches for religious points of view, and no-one is allowed to interrupt. Mark Thompson’s enthusiasm for the Catholic Church is beginning to suggest that his approach to religion is not entirely balanced or objective. If he listens to the Cardinal, he risks undermining the BBC’s precious heritage of trust as an impartial voice for the whole nation – not just the Church.”

Joss Whedon is one of the better writers working today and I’m more than happy to admit that, when I heard that the creator of Buffy and Firefly had signed up to write Dollhouse – a science fiction series that will star Eliza Dushku - I was more than a little enthused.

Not as enthused, however, as the people behind Dollverse. This – as you may have guessed – is a fan site for Dollhouse, and there is nothing wrong with that. What I do find a bit strange is that this is a fan site for a TV series which not only hasn’t been aired yet, but one which hasn’t even started shooting.

A tad premature, perhaps?

Question: What do Tony Hancock and Jesus Christ have in common?
Answer: They’re both rhesus positive

A court in Paris has ruled that contestants in l’Ile de la Tentation, the French version of Tepmptation Island, should be treated as employees and are entitled to full employment rights.

The three participants who brought the case have each been awarded €8,176 in overtime after the court determined that they had effectively worked 24 hours a day for the entire 12 day period. They were also awarded €817 each for not being given a holiday, €500 for unfair dismissal, €1,500 for the wrongful termination of their contracts and €16,000 in damages for being employed illegally.

Television executives sought to play down the ruling, claiming that it would not apply to other shows. But Maître Assous said: “From now on they are going to have to apply the full employment legislation. The right to strike, for example, is enshrined in the constitution in France. That means that a contestant in a reality TV show can legitimately go on strike.”

I’d quite like to see reality show contestants go on strike - anything that might kill off this dire genre has to be worth a try. Where is the National Union of Uninteresting Celebrities when you need it?

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.

- Douglas Adams

30 years and two days ago, the first episode of the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy radio series made its début (via). The radio series led to the book, the TV series, a game and – eventually – the film.

So raise a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster to the late Douglas Adams for 30 years of some of the smartest and most timeless comedy we have seen. And then consult your Guide to locate the nearest voluntary organisation to help you rehabilitate afterwards.

Taking its cue from the hugely successful Masters of Horror,Masters of Science Fiction is a six episode TV series of standalone films, each one based on the SF genre’s most celebrated short stories.

Introduced by none other than Professor Stephen Hawking, the films include Harlan Ellison’s The Discarded – a story of despised minorities forever adrift in the darkness of outer space. Also in the line-up is Robert A. Heinlein’s Jerry Was A Man which raises potential issues atound civil liberties and genetic engineering.

Although it’s an American series, the joy of DVD means that we will be able to see it on this side of the pond on Monday. Go check it out.

A few years ago, while sitting in a pub and talking about reality television and how low it could go, I came up with Psycho Survivor. The set-up would be the same as Survivor - several people trapped on an island - but with one important difference. One of the contestants would be a violent psychopath with access to a cache of weapons. The contestants would then have to identify and evict the psycopath before it was too late…

Of course, such a show would be beyond exploitative and you would have to be slightly drunk to even consider mentioning it. However, having just seen the extended preview (via) of The Moment of Truth, I am now now claiming copyright for Psycho Survivor and will be suing for compensation when - as seems to be increasingly inevitable - it eventually gets made.

And before anyone asks, both Kinji Fukasaku and Marc Evans thought of this first. But I’ve never claimed to be original.

Kermit the frog takes on Once In A Lifetime (via)

You can’t be a rational person six days a week…and on one day of the week, go to a building, and think you’re drinking the blood of a two thousand year old space god.

- Bill Maher (via)

Someone with far too much time on his hands has started compiling a Flickr archive of The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek TOS (via).

Check it out if you’re as sad as I am.