I've complained about cliffhangers before, but this one is directly related to Sherlock and the cliffhangers at the end of both series. I'm not going to spoil what happens, not least because I don't actually know.

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My sole post all week has been the latest Big Finish releases, which included the subscriber special The Five Companions. Which was fun - I want to see more of Ian and Steven teaming up now.

Friday was our work Christmas party, which I've only just recovered from. All I did was to sit around and talk (and stand for an hour) but I was tired from it I slept for 11 hours Friday night, still felt tired and slept for 10 hours last night. Now I don't feel tired.

In the work secret santa for the first year in I don't know how many, I didn't get a Doctor Who related thing. I got a rabbit instead. Which is good, because generally you can't go wrong with with rabbits. However, this one has a hole in it that you're clearly meant to put something in, but no one knows what. There was no packaging, so presumably my santa doesn't know either. The most suggested things at the party were mobile, iPod and remote control. I tried putting my phone in it and the hole holds together too well to get anything in there easily. So I am stumped.

There was also food, which I mostly couldn't eat. The chef wouldn't understand that I just wanted to know what was in it, I didn't care about contamination, which she was more interested in telling me. I don't think she wanted me to eat at all. Fortunately, I brought my own - I remember last year well when I got a salad.

I have things booked for January now. I am going to see the Gymnastics at the O2. It feels like we can't get away from that place. I'm also going to see Spamalot. For the third time. But the first and second times were on Broadway and in the West End, this one's in my nearest city.

I don't generally talk about Spooks much here because I know various people are behind or haven't seen earlier series and I hate to spoil people, or offer up temptation. The latter I discovered before series 8, so I read forums and therefore knew things I'd rather have waited for the episode to find out. But the last ever episode (sob!) made me want to talk about it. But I will endeavour to do so without spoilers. Read more...

Spoilers for this week's (last ever) episode.
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Spoilers for this week's SJA.

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Spoilers for this week's SJA.

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Last Wednesday I randomly got dizzy. Which is crap, but on the plus side, at least it wasn't this Wednesday, as that's when ballet starts again and I finished my Girl Saves Boy ficathon fic last Tuesday. Once I had the idea I sat down for an hour on Sunday evening, Monday evening and Tuesday evening and then it was done. Minus betaing obviously.

So my life for the past week has been very boring. Apart from discovering a big spider on my bed last night, which is the sort of excitement I can do without.

And Spooks is back, yay! Sadly only for six episodes. But this week's featured Dayna from Blake's 7 (I spent the whole of the first scene she was in trying to work out if it was her). When I went on the website to check the credits I realised I knew why I recognised Elena - she was the Borg Queen. Only First Contact was quite a long time ago.

This weekend I paid all my final bills for my old flat and then gave Big Finish all my money. Well, I bought the Benny box set that's out next month, the Jo companion chronicle and then thought I might as well buy the next Ian companion chronicle, even though it's not out until October.

I also bought a subscription to the main range. I ummed and ahhed over it for ages. I do want to listen to them all, so a download subscription would be fine for that. But I want to keep the Seventh Doctor and Ace stories on CD. Burning those isn't quite the same because you don't get the inserts and prettiness.

So my choices were to get a download subscription and then buy all the Seven & Ace stories on CD, or get a CD subscription and wonder what to do with the rest of the CDs. I ended up doing the latter since it'll work out cheaper in the long run. I made a deal with hhertzof to send her the Fifth Doctor CDs in return for books. Is anyone after any of the Sixth, Eighth or Seventh without Ace ones and wants to do a similar deal?

Yay for it being a three day weekend. Although that meant today was manic at work as we all tried to get stuff launched before the weekend. I am looking forward to three days off and watching Reading. Although it clashes with Doctor Who, so I'll have to tape them both.

Yesterday I managed to post my femgenficathon fic: Stuck With You, featuring Jo Jones née Grant.

I've been watching Downton Abbey too. I kept meaning to watch it, being as so many people talked about it, and then I heard there would be a second series in the autumn, so I thought I ought to get on with it. I was expecting it to be the usual serious period drama, but it's actually quite ridiculous and I am liking it.

I am all moved in. I just need to sort out the mess in the lounge and put up some posters.

I managed to move on a day when it rained pretty much all day. The removal men came, packed everything in an hour and a half, then moved it over to the house. It was so quick that my PVR hadn't lost any of its settings.

Since I've moved in I've discovered that the shower is a trickle (although I think that might be because the shower head is tiny and useless), the light switch in the kitchen is upside down, the oven doesn't work unless you set the time and the smoke alarm just outside the kitchen (which has no door) is really sensitive.

I also have internet, courtesy of BT Openzone, which I have paid for, but it's better value than dial-up or 3G. It is a bit slower than I'm used to, but far faster than the alternatives. At least it exists, which is great.

While I unpacked I listened to The Rocket Men (Big Finish Ian companion chronicle) which I thought was quite clever. And has jet packs in. Once I've had this month's credit card bill I will be giving Big Finish lots of money for a monthly releases subscription, the Benny box set and the Jo companion chronicle coming up.

I've also been watching Game of Thrones this weekend, since I promised people at work I'd marathon it this weekend. I don't know if I'll finish it though, since I'm only halfway through and it's already mid-morning on Sunday. But so far I am enjoying it, with the aid of a character and actor guide. I spend half the time watching it checking who the characters are and then going to imdb.

I had no idea so many actors I knew were in it. I am less keen on all the sex and gore, but I do like the sword fighting. I definitely need to read the book to understand what's going on - the episodes don't make it clear how much time has passed, which has been confusing me. So far I like Ned Stark dealing with his daughters making his life complicated. Which is much more interesting than him dealing with politics.

It turns out that the theatrical version of Yes, Prime Minister is on at the Apollo between now and mid-September. And The Guardian likes it, so it must be good. It doesn't have the original actors in it, obviously, but it is written by the original writers.

Does anyone want to come and see it with me on a Saturday matinee?

After taking a few weeks off to show live Indian cricket, ITV4 is now showing Quantum Leap. Although when I discovered it was on they were partway through season 3. Which was perfect because seasons 1 & 5 were the only ones I'd seen all of. They only showed it Tuesdays-Fridays, now they're showing it on Mondays too, so I keep missing them.

They stopped just before the last episode of season 4 (A Leap for Lisa) which is my favourite, so that felt like a long wait (especially when I didn't know if they were going to continue). Now they're onto season 5 I'm hoping once they get to the end of that they'll go back to season 1 so I can see the rest of the episodes I've missed.

But having seen so many episodes in a relatively short period of time it's interesting to see just how different season 5 is. I'd decided to miss the strange ones (Lee Harvey Oswald, Evil Leaper stuff and the Sammy-Jo Trilogy) because I didn't like them enough to watch a second time.

Then I watched Star Light, Star Bright, which (sort of) had aliens in it. I looked through summaries for the rest of the episodes and they nearly all have something strange in them. I can see now why it was cancelled because it's just not as good. But I can also see why they did it - there are an awful lot of episodes and only so many different things they can do. If they hadn't changed it a bit it would have just got boring anyway.

The annoying thing is it suddenly occurred to me, back in season 3, what happens to the people when Sam leaps out and they go back to their lives? From The Leap Back we know that Sam remembers his leaps while he's leaping, but once he stops he forgets. And leaping swiss cheeses your memory anyway. So I'm fine with the idea that once they go back to their lives they'll forget everything they saw at PQL.

So these people go back to their improved lives and are expected to know what happened to them while they were in fact in the Waiting Room. Definitely so in the one where he's an actor playing a doctor where Sam says at the end that he'll always remember being kidnapped. Except that the actor wasn't, it was Sam. The actor has no memories of the event.

So how does that work? Won't people be suspicious that this person started acting oddly (when Sam leaped in) and then acted differently oddly (when Sam leaped out)? What if that person destroyed whatever it was that Sam fixed in their ignorance? And why am I only thinking about this now and not when I originally saw Quantum Leap back in the mid-90s?

Right at the end of the news on Radio 5 at 6pm on my way home, I heard that Taggart has been cancelled. The BBC report makes it sound hopeful that it will continue, but I can't tell if that's realistic or just STV trying to sound optimistic.

It's so annoying that ITV have now got rid of half the crime drama I watch. Admittedly, all the good crime drama is on ITV, but it seems like they're on a mission to get rid of all the good stuff they show, so they can show completely rubbish instead.

I really liked Taggart - it was different from the other murder mysteries. It was on after the watershed for a start, so it was always more horrid stuff. The thing that sticks in my memory was when Taggart was still alive and the victim was a man whose parachute cord had been cut. He'd fallen through a greenhouse and his head ended up on the other side of it to his body. It was the one time I remember Taggart being a bit not wanting to be near the crime scene too long, but the doctor was quite excited by the whole thing.

(Although ITV4 does show The Professionals and The Sweeney, which if I didn't have a job I'd totally be watching every day, but as it is I can't keep up. But it comes to something that you have to go and watch stuff from th$e 70s and 80s in order to get decent crime drama.)

I am, amazingly, up to date on Midsomer Murders! Well, until tomorrow. I struggle to get round to watching it because I have to cross stitch while it's on (or watch it in bits) because it's just so slow. I wish they only had an hour and Taggart had their two hours back. But aside from that I am liking the new bloke. Although the last episode was like a Drop the Dead Donkey reunion - it had Alex (with dark hair), George Dent and Dave in it.

Then Lewis, of course, keeps on having people in who've been in other things. I spent the whole of the last episode going mad over the psychiatrist's assistant. It was only after I'd finished watching it that I looked it up on imdb, which thankfully is up to date on the cast per episode. So then I found out she was Jasmine in the new Reggie Perrin.

On the subject of murder mysteries, on the advice of hhertzof I think it was, I tried an episode of Castle. And it turned out to be good! This is unusual because American cop shows spend too much time on soapy stuff and not enough on the crime. But Castle have got the balance just right - which is quite impressive given that they have 10 minutes less than an hour long program on ITV.

And lastly, Red Dwarf is coming back. I'd be excited about it if I knew it was going to be good. But the three episodes they did at Easter a couple of years ago were not that great. I can't decide whether I want more Red Dwarf, or I'd rather it died if it wasn't going to be good. Although it is going to be on Dave, so it will be shorter by definition. Mind you, I'd love to go to a recording, even if it wasn't very good.

After a week of doing not a lot except for a bit of work and watching a lot of Stargate and Quantum Leap (and not a lot of TV - I have now have three episodes of Taggart, two of Midsomer Murders and two of Being Human to watch), I am finally pretty much better. Better being a relative term.

Although I am really annoyed that as of Tuesday, the channel that showed Chuck and Leverage to those of us without Sky or cable, is now only for people who have Sky or cable. And I suspect the chances of either of those two programmes being on Freeview are small. So annoying. The stupid thing is it would be cheaper to buy them on DVD (never mind rent) than to get Sky just to watch 40 episodes. Or in my case, not quite get round to watching for ages.

On the positive side, this week I have been working on my Big Bang fic. I have 3000 words - of plot notes. But I found last time that if I write down exactly what's in each scene it makes it easier to write the scenes. And it's easier to move them around at the plotting stage than at the writing stage. Now that's done I have 30 scenes. I ought to start writing on Monday really. It's just that the first 13 are from Jack O'Neill's point of view and I've not written from his point of view before. Although I have now watched so much Stargate that every voice is starting to sound like him.

I really enjoyed Dirk Gently on Thursday night. I hope it gets a whole series. I knew from the many interviews and articles about it that they weren't going to follow the book (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) so I was pleasantly surprised by the number of book references in there. Including the ones that weren't involved in the plot but were little things that you'd spot if you knew the book.

And I can't really say any more than that without spoiling it.

The end of the series! Which is just as well now that Edwardian Farm has started on Wednesdays and what with SJA as well I haven't had time to watch it until the weekend. SPOILERS Read more...

The good part about watching SJA on a Wednesday is that I got to see part 1 with no annoying CBBC logo, which was a definite improvement. SPOILERS
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After having yesterday off it was so weird to be at work while it got dark - whereas everyone else had had that weirdness yesterday. And then I had to drive home in the dark and I'm not used to driving in the dark. And the small car park we have where the likelihood of hitting someone is about 90% has no lights. So that was fun. But then tonight's social got cancelled, so I watched SJA. And now there be SPOILERS.
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I was going to write a review of this episode when I saw it, or last weekend, but didn't get to it. And I've been writing an episode tag and I wanted to check a few details, so I re-watched bits of this Monday and Tuesday night. And now I'm awake stupidly early, I thought I'd write it up now. And include the odd detail that came out of the BFI panel which I couldn't say before because they would have been spoilers. SPOILERS. Read more...