Yesterday was a happy enough afternoon's couch-potatodom. The Scottish Cup final was on. In the last few seasons there have been a few underdogs pitting themselves against the Old Firm duopoly; with Gretna, Dunfermline, Queen of the South and Falkirk all putting up a decent show. Yesterday we had Dundee United and Ross County filling out Hamden Park. They are two clubs I've rather a soft spot for, mainly as their fans have always been decent sorts. Ross County is based in Dingwall, a tiny Highland town, but when they played Stenhousemuir in the second division they always seemed to bring along 3 or 4 times as many fans as Stenny could muster. The have moved on upwards and are not that far away from the Premier league. This season they have had a fantastic run in the cup, dumping Hibs and Celtic out in the process. Dundee United played East Stirling in the cup last year - also at Ochilview. As you can imagine, they brought a fair contingent of fans along and the local ASDA car park was heaving. I took my mother-in-law along to the shops but had to park at the far end. I went to fetch her back a few minutes later to find that two lads in tangerine football shirts were helping her carry her shopping back to the car. That sort of thing really makes an impression.
In all fairness, the final was not a classic. Both sides looked very cagey and very much at the end of a long and tiring season. However, after an hour Dundee United scored with a brilliant chip and the game came to life for the last half hour.. It ended up 3-0, which I think was a fair score. Amazingly, this was only the second time that United had won the cup. Anyway, that's United in next year's Europa League and 50,000 people trying to fight their way back through the A80 road works. I imagine that both sets of fans will remember the day for a long time.
On to the evening and the latest episode of Doctor Who - Amy's Choice. This was a cracker of an episode although it looks like it was filmed on a budget that would not have been out of place in the 1970's. When the show was first devised in 1963 it was envisaged that the format should allow for any sort of Sci-Fi story to be told (as well as purely historical adventures). Here we had an episode that takes place purely in the minds of the main protagonists in what reminded me of the very best of Philip K Dicks mind-messing novels. The characters are trapped between two possible realities. One where Amy is married to Rory and seriously up the duff (which takes the Doctor ages to work out), and the other where they are trapped on the Tardis falling towards a frozen Sun. They must decide to die in one scenario - if it's the fantasy one they wake up in reality, but if it's reality then they are dead!
That is not, in fact, what Amy's Choice is really about and when we do find out it really pays off the character development from the last few episodes - no doubt to the annoyance of the Daily Mail. I also loved the look of the pretty English village gone wrong - very Shaun of the Dead. If I had any complaints it's that the resolution to the episode was very abrupt. It seemed like a massive MacGuffin at first but that assumes that MacGuffins are a bad thing whereas Alfred Hitchcock, who devised the term, built an entire career with the technique. In fact it is essential to the whole concept of the episode that the Sci-Fi element is inconsequential and frivolous, as it is the introspection of the characters that is the driving force of the story.
I'm going to watch the episode again tonight to see if it still all makes sense - I really hope it does.
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Funnily enough, I didn't see the Scottish Cup Final - I saw a bit of the English one and, as a neutral, would have probably preferred the underdog to win - but I couldn't get excited enough to watch the whole game.
ReplyDeleteAmy's choice sealed it for me for Matt Smith as The Doctor. His performance was brilliant and what he has done with the character (obviously with Moffat) is magnificent. Toby Jones was good too - hopefully we will see some more of him.
I had decided early on that the "reality" in the Tardis had to be the fake one - there is no way they could jeopardise the impregnability of The Tardis. Then they went and killed off Rory in the other reality. Two excellent storylines well executed. The end was a bit RTD and over too quick and the English village looked very Welsh - the castle sort of gives it away - but apart from that - keep up the good work!