Colds, Timelords, and Spooks' Last Hurrah

So much for writing an entry every day

I got the great-Canadian, common cold.  I manged to drag myself into work  the last couple of days, but fever and chills knocked me down with the one-two punch.  I even opened my windows to cool down a little bit.  I want to sleep, but I don't feel like sleeping.  I figure try to hold on until later and knock off in the early evening.

Between guzzling orange juice and Tylenol Colds and Sinus, I laid on my couch to catch some stuff on Netflix.  I actually watched an episode of Dr. Who with Tom Baker as the forth doctor.  This was the 'gateway' doctor into the whole universe.  The way people speak about David Tennant, or Matt Smith, is the way people speak about Tom Baker's run as The Doctor.  I watched the episodes making up The Ark in Space, featuring the late Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.  Yes, the effects seem corny and there are guys in bug suits, but I felt like a kid again with the suspense in the episode.  Plus I can now watch the thing without the PBS pledge drive breaks.  (Something that  happened often watching Doctor Who as a kid.  One hour long episodes took me about twice that and into the wee hours.  Still worth it.)  Here's a funny piece of irony--Netflix recommended the classic Who episodes based on putting Firefly on my viewing list.

Does The Doctor and Malcolm Reynolds have something in common besides played by guys I go fan girly over?  I feel too congested to figure that one out. (By the way the Doctor I do fan girl over is David Tennant.)

I checked out my TV and Netflix and feel like watching nothing.  To make up for not writing yesterday, I will write plenty.

Let's start with the last episode of Spooks (MI-5 to us North American lot).  I mean the last one.  Ever.

Obligatory spoiler alert: If you haven't seen it and don't want to get spoiled, then don't read any further.  If you read any further and still complain then I have to wonder what's up with you.

I knew Tom Quinn would return courtesy of Anglophenia, my favourite go-to blog for British shows.  The news just confirmed a sneaking suspicion someone from the earlier season, you know not dead, would somehow come back in some capacity to help Harry out.  It figures Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen) would come back.  Tom gave Ruth a second chance after finding out she was sent to spy on Section D on behalf of GCHQ.  In turn, Ruth remained fiercely loyal after he left.  Harry may have decommissioned Tom, but it doesn't mean he left the spy game for good.  I figuregoing into private security means you have a little more control over your conscious.  (When I say little, I mean 'very little, this is the spy game after all.)


I can imagine Harry thought of Tom first and foremost to get close to the Russian leader responsible for Ruth's death.  As we learned from Adam's death and the shooting of Arkardy Katchimov (still the coolest spy name on TV in my books), hurt someone close to Harry and you pay the price.  In the case of Ruth Evershead, it was closer than any section chief.  Although the cameo was a microsecond, Tom strolled to the gate soon after the Home Secretary mentioned Harry would 'call in an outside agency' to do in the operative who set the events of Season 10 in motion.  I imagine the conversation would do something like 'Ruth's dead' and Tom asking who and where to do the deed.  It was heard to watch the end of a series many of us just started watching thanks to Netflix or DVD marathoning, but the ending salvaged an uneven season in the final series.

Going up against Downton Abbey didn't help either.


However it's still a fun series to watch since we know the plots are outlandish.  Do people watch 24 for realism?  (Although the torture scenes are a little too true for comfort.)  The show exhibited some gallows humour the 24 writers should take a lesson or two, and featured some tortured heroics by a trio of very fine-looking gentleman.  (Sorry Dimitri even if they gave you 10 episodes you had some big Lucas-North-sized shoes to fill, plot twist not withstanding.)  A tip of the hat to Spooks aka MI-5, you will live on in reruns, Netflix, and streaming sites.