…. has not convinced me, I’m afraid.

For me Smith doesn’t embody the role the way previous Doctors have. (As far as the new Who is concerned I was never taken by Christopher Eccleston, either, come to that.)

The character of Amy Pond, however, makes for a cracking companion, not merely an adjunct but substantially more pro-active than those who have accompanied the Doctor before (including Rose Tyler) and capable of carrying a sub-plot without reference back to the Doctor but in this sense she was underused.

And once again, a la Russell T, we had her friendships and relationships as a focus of the stories.

Can we have a bit more universe spanning please and stop relying on entanglements such as these to create a sense of empathy and emotional impact?

Another quibble was that I wasn’t entirely happy with the story arc of the series. What with all the “will never have existed” malarky, it skirted dangerously close to “it was all a dream.”

I know it’s all fiction, but fiction requires rather more substantial backing than this, otherwise it’s not worthwhile people investing their time in consuming it.

World Cup, 3^rd/4^th place play-off, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth, 10/7/10.

This was a ding-dong encounter, end-to-end stuff, both sides managing to take the lead then being clawed back, one going in front again, the other hitting the bar with the last kick of the ball.

Enjoyable stuff.

I doubt the final tomorrow will be as good as this.

The ref ought to have sent off Germany’s Aogo for a wild, over the top challenge but, as it was the third place game, contented himself with a yellow.

Diego Forlan has looked better and better with every game he has played.

Like Georgie Fame’s Peaceful this is another one of those understated 1960s tracks. It was only a minor hit in the UK (see link below.)

98.6 on its release was considered by some to be the archetypical song of its time.

It’s also said (and mentioned in Keith’s Wiki entry) that its title refers to the human body temperature in degrees Fahrenheit. To my mind that allusion in the lyric is more than a little strained.

Keith: 98.6

I watched the first half of the game last night in the company of Onebrow. He asked me if I’d noticed that the foul throw no longer seems to be penalised. I told him I had and that it’s only outrageous examples that catch a ref or linesman’s eye nowadays.

I suppose it’s because a throw-in is supposed to be an advantage to the taker (btw a Dumbarton supporter laughs at any such suggestion) and so the officials let minor infringements go.

I also said what annoys me more is the consistent cheating indulged in by those who are awarded a free-kick anywhere outside the attacking third. (The refs are more stringent in that area.) On the award being given the ball has immediately been thrown, or placed, ten yards or more in front of where the foul took place. In some cases this has meant offences in a team’s own half have resulted in a free kick taken in their opponent’s. Another was given for a foul on the goal line and taken from near the eighteen yard line. These instances are surely not hard to spot.

All the teams seem to be at this. And don’t get me started on teams “stealing” yards at throw-ins, which is endemic in the professional game.

In this regard, congratulations to David Villa who, after the field invasion interruption just after the game started, did not lump the ball all the way back to Germany’s goalkeeper on the restart but played it a few yards to where Germany had actually had possession. He gets my “sporting gesture” award for this World Cup. (He’ll probably do a Hand of God in the Final now I’ve said that.)

Far too many (for which read: all) instances of giving the ball back in circumstances like these consist in negating, and more, any advantage the team in possession had at the time of the ball being put out of play.

I also note today that the BBC seems to think FIFA are going to introduce goal-line technology before the next Word Cup.

Parsing what Jerome Valcke says, “I would say that it is the final World Cup with the current refereeing system,” suggests to me that another two refs, one behind each goal line, as in the Europa Cup, rather than microchips in the ball, is what is in the collective FIFA mind.

World Cup Semi-Final: Durban Stadium, Durban, 7/7/10

Again not a classic.

Where were the Germans who swept aside England and Argentina? I can recall them having only the one chance; which fell to the wrong K, Kroos not Klose. Apart from that they were never given much of a chance to counterattack by a Spanish side who pressed them high up the park and didn’t allow them time on the ball.

So the Spanish 1-0 juggernaut rolls on. Three results in a row squeezed out now, three one-nils out of five wins in total. Yet Spain seemed to have less of an aversion to shooting in this game – even if most of their efforts went past the post.

There’ll be a new name on the Cup on Sunday. But neither of them has set the tournament alight.

It’ll also be the first time a European side has won a World Cup outside Europe. Previously only Brazil have won outside their own continent (if you count Argentina’s win in Mexico as being in the Americas.)

World Cup Semi-Final: Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, 6/7/10

Despite the scoreline this wasn’t a classic. Semi-finals rarely are.

I thought Uruguay were shading it till van Bronckhorst hit his wonder strike. Holland took control for a while but the kerfuffle before the double booking seemed to benefit Uruguay who had much the better of the remainder of the half. Forlan’s goal was also well hit but yet another of this tournament’s goalkeeping misjudgements.

Uruguay were looking more menacing in the second half too; until the Dutch goal – at which van Persie was quite definitely offside. However I suspect that after Suarez’s handball in the last game Uruguay were never going to get the benefit of any close decisions in this one. They were then hit with a sucker punch via Robben’s head and suddenly Holland began to look a team. The game was effectively over.

The well worked free kick for Uruguay’s second came too late but showed Holland can be panicked at the back. A few minutes earlier and who knows…?

Corgi, 1971, 160p.

Sturgeon is famous for his Law which originally was a riposte to the complaint that “90% of SF is crud” which he reformulated to “90% of anything is crud.” Which is to say it is unfair to criticise SF by its worst examples while praising other areas of endeavour for their best.

I remember Sturgeon’s story Microcosmic God with affection so when I saw this volume in a second hand bookshop (yes, they still exist) on the other side of town I bought it. Starshine contains six stories published, I assume, in the early 1960s. (The copyright date is 1966.)

From a 2010 perspective this is not vintage stuff. Things have moved on since these stories were written. They come from an era when the idea was all in SF and show no indication that the New Wave would ever happen (despite Wikipedia citing Sturgeon as a precursor.) I doubt they’d be published today. The stories are for the large part told, not revealed, and there are prodigious info dumps or lumps of exposition. The characterisation is crude, too.

Only the last in the collection, How To Kill Aunty, survives this treatment. That story is not SF but rather a mainstream tale of repression and revenge.

Starshine is a historical curiosity only, not one to be recommended as an introduction; either to the SF field or to Sturgeon’s work overall.

Not quite the sort of thing you expect to see in a Fife fishing village but I suspect this is from the heyday of the railways when such buildings sprang up all over the place. It is away from the harbour a bit, on the road leading east, so it doesn’t affect the quaintness.

It’s not high Deco but is clearly of that stamp. The windows are modernish replacements and detract from the look somewhat. They make the building look as if its eyes are poked out. Typical pastel and white colouring, though.

This is the view from the east.

And the west.

That flat roof must be a nightmare in the Fife climate.

Here’s a link to the hotel’s website. The blue looks a bit bluer in their photo….

Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, 3/7/10.

World Cup history was going to be made whoever won this match. In the end it was Spain who got to their first ever semi-final.

For all they played quite well tonight (and might have won but for the penalty save) I couldn’t keep from reminding myself that Paraguay had got this far by virtue of only one victory in the whole tournament – against Slovakia. Spain now have four; but have looked far from convincing. Once again, and like Argentina earlier in the day, their players continually took wrong options, held on to the ball when they should have passed and generally kept running into defensive walls.

The first half was dire, the second (pac̩ the assertions of Hansen and Dixon) not much better Рthough we had the mad three minutes with three penalty attempts and a third award denied.

Four South American sides in the quarters but only one survives to the semis; and that the team that came fifth in the Conmebol qualifiers, and had to beat Costa Rica in a play off, to wit Uruguay.

Puyol again looked vulnerable, as did Piqué. Germany could mince them.

Greeen Point Stadium, Cape Town, 3/7/10.

A triumph for teamwork over individualism. The Argentines believed in their own abilities too much, kept the ball when a pass was on instead and ended up smothered by a German blanket. (Spain might be able to pass their way through this sort of defence; but I have my doubts. They don’t have enough width – as neither did Argentina.) The Germans knew exactly what to do when they had the ball, passed into the correct space and had scalpel-like precision when it mattered.

The turning point was really the first goal, a bad one for Argentina to lose as it gave the Germans extra belief – and something to hold on to. Without it, the first goal in the second half wouldn’t have been such a blow to Argentina. 1-0 down was perhaps doable, but not 2-0.

There are only two former winners left in it now. What odds would you have got on one of them being Uruguay? And neither being Brazil nor Argentina?