On Kim Jong-Il and Idiots

A brief missive from the blogging wilderness:

Today is a special sort of a day. Today you may get incontrovertible proof that some people you know are total idiots. Because today some people, in the wake of his death, may feel lead to defend Kim Jong-Il. They may well feel that he represented some sort of realistic alternative to the capitalist liberal democratic model of statehood dominant in much of the rest of the world. If they believe this, then they have fallen foul of the empty politics of symbolism. They see problems in capitalism, yet are unthinkingly embracing an alternative that is far, far worse. If they defend him, then they have shown their commitment to evidence free idealism over actual engagement with reality. In short, they have shown themselves to be absolute idiots.

Because Kim Jong-Il really was a vile human being. He exploited his father's personality cult to propagate a regime that is virtually at war with its own people. He led the world's sole remaining Stalinist regime committed to an experiment with a whole nation that not only failed, but failed decades ago - leaving many starving and a whole people brutalised and brainwashed. If this is the socialist future, then we'd be as well to consign it to the past as soon as we possibly can.

In short: Kim Jong-Il is dead. While it is impossible to say what happens next, at this point the only appropriate response is good riddance to bad rubbish.

RIP Lis Sladen

Obviously, I notice the passing of Doctor Who stars. And each one is saddening in their own way. But the death of Elisabeth Sladen combines sadness with shock.

But in death we should celebrate life, and note that Sarah Jane Smith is probably the most iconic of all the Doctor's companions. After all, she was the one who was nearly brought back to ease the transition between Tom Baker and Peter Davison. She was the first one to get her own spin-off series (seriously, she was the star, not the frickin' robot dog). She was the one brought back into modern day Doctor Who. And she was the one who got a second spin-off series - which was one of the best, and most engaging, shows on television.

And the credit for that must go to Lis Sladen. Because on paper, Sarah Jane Smith read like just another attempt to create a new style companion for the Doctor: a feminist journalist. Coming after the co-opted Cambridge professor and the ditzy girl with connections, but before the lyotard wearing savage. Yet Lis Sladen took the material she was given, and created one of the most real people ever to travel with the Doctor. Someone inquisitive, loyal, determined, argumentative and very, very human. And years later, when Sarah Jane Smith came back, Lis Sladen continued to make the character real, changing her from the sparky, spikey, confident young journalist into an often sad figure, who never truly emotionally recovered from travelling with, and then being unceremoniously dumped by, the most amazing man in that fictional universe.

So rest in peace, Lis Sladen. The world is full of celebrated actors who are praised from the rooftops for various performances. And at this moment we should praise Lis Sladen to the hilt. She managed to take a paper-thin characer designed to play second fiddle to Jon Perwee and Tom Baker and turn it into so, so much more. Which is a massive tribute to her formidable skills as an actress.

RIP Nicholas Courtney

Or, if you don't know who that is, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. And if you don't know who that is, go away and watch some more classic series Doctor Who.

Doctor Who's story is full of heroes. Some of them are clear and easy to acknowledge. Pretty much anyone who played the Doctor becomes a hero, sometimes because they were just great at it, sometimes because the odds were stacked against them, and sometimes because they were great at it and the odds were stacked against them. Furthermore, some companions become legends. Other heroes are, at least outside of the introverted and sometimes strange world of Doctor Who fandom, are relatively unsung. The brilliant Nicholas Courtney would be one of those. Because his portrayal of the Brigadier - a regular of the series in the early 1970's and an occasionally recurring character (and general legend) through the rest of the series - was always entertaining, watchable and pitched perfectly, no matter what the script was like or how big or small his role was.

And if you still don't know why, I'll hand you over to Steven Moffat, Chief Writer and Executive Producer of one of Britain's most successful TV shows:

'I only met Nicholas Courtney once and very briefly - but he was as kind and generous and funny as his reputation suggests. And on screen, his perfectly pitched performance as the Brigadier carved a very special place in the history of Doctor Who. Not just because he could be grave and funny at the same time, and wise and silly in the same moment, and not just because you could still love him when he was clearly in the wrong, or because he could point a gun at you and still somehow twinkle - but because out of all the people the Doctor has met, in all of space and time, Nicholas Courtney's Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was the only one who was ever his boss.

Somewhere out there, the Doctor just got a little lonelier.'

RIP Dino De Laurentiis

As a producer, he was just as capable of making absolute rubbish as he was making works of genius, but his name is on many striking films that the Hollywood mainstream would not have touched. His impact on the career of David Lynch would be reason enough to celebrate his life and career; the fact is that there is much more to him than that is a testament to just what he managed to achieve during his life.

RIP indeed.

In praise of Michael Foot

Here's an example of Brown getting something right:

Prime Minister and Labour leader Gordon Brown led the tributes, describing Mr Foot as a "man of deep principle and passionate idealism".

See, I'd agree with that. Foot was a man of deep principle and passionate idealism.

Of course, what Foot believed in was abject nonsense. It was the sort of cliched left-wing bilge that should be abandoned once someone moves beyond the naive surroundings of student union politics. His ideas were soundly - and rightly - rejected by the British people in 1983.

But at least Foot stood for something. Anyone who has studied Foot knows why he wanted to be Prime Minister, and knows that it was for ideological reasons, rather than ego or personal gain. In fact, in some respects, British politics in 1983 represents something of a golden age, in that the Labour and Conservative parties were headed by ideologues passionate about a particular vision of the future for Britain. Compare that to now, when the leaders of the party have no political ambition beyond the extension and perpetuation of their own political power. When Foot lost, he could at least say that it was a honourable defeat. He fought for what he believed in and failed. Which will be a damn sight better than whoever loses this coming election will be able to claim - mainly that they fought to win political power for themselves, and failed to achieve even that.

Foot came from a different era of British politics - when it was more about ideological debate than a popularity contest between pointless party leaders. So rest in peace, Michael - but let's hope the idea of genuine conviction politicians isn't also dead and gone forever.

Another RIP

Hang on, I thought he died years ago. I thought that Christopher Lee killed him by burning him in a giant Wicker Man.

Bad taste jokes aside, RIP Edward Woodward.

RIP Barry Letts

It is probably safe to say that not everyone will know who Barry Letts was. However, to anyone who knows their Doctor Who (no pun intended), Barry Letts is an immediately identifiable name. Although, in fairness, his career encompasses far more than the time he spent as the Doctor's producer.

Still, it is as producer of Doctor Who that I best know of him. And whilst his tenure as producer of the show was not a personal favourite - it was the Pertwee era, where the Doctor became a moralising, preening grandmother - he was instrumental in securing the Doctor's future outside of the 1960's and some crucial enemies had their debuts under Letts - including the Master and the Sontarans. And, perhaps most importantly, he was responsible for the casting of one Tom Baker in the show's lead role - clearly one of the most important decisions ever made in the history of the programme.

Letts will be remembered as one of the crucial figures in the history of Doctor Who; and everyone who watches and enjoys the show now owes a substantial vote of thanks to the late Barry Letts.

RIP Troy Kennedy Martin

But how can you have an obituary of him and not mention the traumatic yet great series Edge of Darkness?