Contrasts

Yesterday, I woke up following a strange dream which placed me in a strange, cartoonishly colourful, unnamed American city, near the launch site for a space shuttle. I was there with my old mate Paul and, with the shuttle due to launch in only a few minutes, we were looking for somewhere with a view. Paul's preferred location had a large building between us and the view, but he assured me we'd see plenty. I wasn't convinced. Even less so when I heard the launch, but saw nothing but the building.

So I started dragging Paul off to find somewhere higher, with a real view (just like everyone else in the city). Along the way, I saw a flash in the sky. This turned out to be the shuttle doing a fly-by over the city (though, by this time, we were high enough up that we could see it was flying below the level of some buildings. I commented on its magnificence as it flew away, then carried on climbing.

I have no idea what I was climbing, but we passed people stood of the roofs of buildings, on scaffolding, on advertising hoardings, and even on a construction crane. The people on the crane seemed to be having a party. One of their number ran down the arm of the crane, intending to jump down to a nearby building (perhaps the one I was on, or its neighbour), but missed his footing and plunged straight down. As someone screamed, a girl who was lining up a photo turned around just too late to see that she was right at the edge, and fell after him. More people screamed. Paul and I kept on climbing, and I briefly considered jumping after them. As I looked down and saw them falling away, I remembered that one tends to be fully conscious most if not all of the way down, and I really didn't want that.

Overall, yesterday was very summery. Bright sunshine, blue skies, slight breeze... and very warm. It almost seemed to be the beginning of summer. Not so, however, as today we have grey skies and we've already had some rain, with the likelihood of more to come.

Doctor Who was very good. I'm tempted to say that it was the best story so far, across all four series. The return of the Sontarans has been very well thought out, their characters are believable, and their plan quite menacing. Some of the dialogue was very well done, particularly the exchange between the Doctor and Donna's family (Donna's mother complains that the Doctor has blown up the car, Donna says "Not now, Mum," and her mother retorts "Oh, should I make an appointment?"). Oddly, it did (well, more accurately, Doctor Who Confidential did) leave me thinking that, when the Doctor next regenerates, he should turn into Bernard Cribbins...

Also watched the opening episode of the fourth (and final) season of Battlestar Galactica. All I can say is "wow". It's set up so much potential for this run of episodes, and I'm really looking forward to it all. All the subtleties and complexities are so far removed from the original feel-good sci-fi action show.