[an0n]

Why do you people have such a goddamn fetish about the LOTR books?

I'm like half-way through ROTK and I have to say, it's pretty ****in stupid.

It reads like one of my primary-school stories from when I was 7.

War starts, big battle, start losing, start winning, losing again, stupidly over-powering reinforcements arrive, start winning again, win abruptly and suddenly with little descriptions as to how or why! Repeat on larger scale.

And the subtle homosexuality running throughout is just about unbearable.

See, most people think Tolkien never had any real women in his books (and when he did, they were warriors) because he had little experience in dealing with women in his life. But it's for a completely different reason; He was as gay as Virtu in a ballerina's dress.

A bunch of guys - out in the woods - wielding their weapons - horses and dwarves thrown in for some sick fetishist measure.......

And there always seems to be some valiant struggle to get inside some small circular structure filled with warm, welcoming 'goodness'.

[Dark_4ce]

heheheheh... I guess you can "interperate" the books that way if you wish.

[Stryke 9]

I think it's because he makes up Elvish in the books, and ****e like that. Most of the real LOTR fans are drawn from the same crowd that learns to speak Klingon.

Honestly, between LOTR, Dune, and the supermarket checkout counter my faith in peoples' ability to discern good writing has just entirely dissapeared. People are stupid, and deserve nothing better than the filth they keep swallowing on TV.

[Dark_4ce]

Thats exactly why I suggest people read "Greyfriars Bobby". Now theres a wovely wittle thtoory. Or if you feel like something more amusing, "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". Though both books have absolutely nothing in common, they're still good reads. But alas, I am also suprised at the fact that people can still read in this day and age, with the TV on 24/7.

[Stryke 9]

Were my roommate not going to object at great length, I would have shot my TV long ago. Never turn the blasted Satanic little device on, certainly.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Were my roommate not going to object at great length, I would have shot my TV long ago. Never turn the blasted Satanic little device on, certainly.

It's your own fault if you never bother to tune into the programs that are informative and educational.

Even in America PBS shows some of the shows from the UK that are well worth watching. First time I went to the US they were showing a program I'd caught in the UK following the route Alexander the Great took through Persia and India. Learnt more from that one program than I did in 3 years of history classes.

In the UK the situation is much better with programs on science and history getting prime time slots fairly often.

[Stryke 9]

Was sitting here not working on a paper today while my roommate watched the Nature Channel, and it dawned on me after a few minutes that the lecture they were doing on some wild bird was done in reality show form, with them daring naturalists to go harass the bird without getting an eye pecked out or something.

Like hell I'm going to give TV a chance.

[Impurial]

TV is the Devil!

The Waterboy, I think.

[Stryke 9]

Best thing I ever saw on a TV was the way a cathode ray tube implodes when set alight

Me.

[an0n]

Originally posted by karajorma
It's your own fault if you never bother to tune into the programs that are informative and educational.

Even in America PBS shows some of the shows from the UK that are well worth watching. First time I went to the US they were showing a program I'd caught in the UK following the route Alexander the Great took through Persia and India. Learnt more from that one program than I did in 3 years of history classes.

In the UK the situation is much better with programs on science and history getting prime time slots fairly often.

The one good thing about being forced to pay License Fees. By forcibly sucking cash from everyone who owns a TV, the BBC are legally obliged to provide educational, informative, original and entertaining television.

Unlike Channel 5 who just show porn to rake in cash and ITV who show ****ty soaps to draw the mindless masses.

[diamondgeezer]

I have a TV for the purpose of watching Star Trek, SG-1 and the 'rasslin. I see no reason why I should pay the license fee (well, other than the big fat fine, of course)

[an0n]

It is a bit annoying to be forced to pay it, but it is educating people, so even if you don't go watch TV it's still having the effect of improving exam results and making the people who plague you each and every day a little smarter.

And BBC News 24 is probably the only impartial news service left in the world, so that alone is worth the fee.

[magatsu1]

Originally posted by an0n
It is a bit annoying to be forced to pay it, but it is educating people, so even if you don't go watch TV it's still having the effect of improving exam results and making the people who plague you each and every day a little smarter.

' must be watching a different BBC than me. Red Dwarf aside, of course.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by magatsu1
' must be watching a different BBC than me. Red Dwarf aside, of course.

Well if all you tune into is Eastenders and Fame Academy then yes

BBC2 tends to be the more educational of the two channels but even BBC1 tends to do stuff that is presented in a more viewer friendly way but is still pretty educational (e.g the recreations of the last days of Pompeii or the building of the pyramids they did a while back)

Yeah there's a lot of crap on BBC but there is some pretty decent stuff on there. Even something like Time Commanders which is unabashedly early evening light entertainment is full of historical information.

[kasperl]

time commannders is great.

all the stuff the BBC does on history is fantastic, really. it is better then most Discovery stuff, and it is waay better then anything we get on our own national TV. we only get BBC 1 and 2 though, and the sounds on 2 seems a bit bad, but that might be our own cable company.

[karajorma]

I bet you Total War : Rome sells double what the other two games sold in the UK.

I love the show but I can't imagine Creative Assembly complained about the idea of making a show based on their engine which would effectively give them a 45 minute long advert on BBC2 every week

[Gloriano]

So was thread about Lotr:TTT EE or about other things;)

anyway TTT ee got good extras

[pyro-manic]

Never actually seen Time Commanders - when's it on?

And TV is crap. The only good thing on at the moment is Little Britain. Brilliant stuff, but then Mark Gatiss is involved. American TV (what I've seen of it) is even worse - it's about as low-brow as you can get for the most part, and seems to trade solely off human misery....

As for The Two Towers, I haven't even seen it yet, but I couldn't forgive them for leaving out the Old Forest, Barrow Downs and Tom Bombadil from the first one. That messes up the whole flow of the film - it's like Bree is just next door to the Shire, and Rivendell is just down the road from that. Screws up the whole scale of the thing. And it moves a bit too fast - the Moria bit makes it seem like they're only in there for an afternoon, when it takes 'em about five days in the book.

[Stunaep]

well, they do say "it's a five day journey to the other side". And what can you expect from a three hour film.

Oh, and watch the EE.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by pyro-manic
Never actually seen Time Commanders - when's it on?

Mondays at 6:45. They originally put it on in a serious history program slot at 8:00pm to attract the history buffs and then they moved it to the "yoof" slot at 6:45 to get all the younger people.