text:
The 50 Year Diary - Day 803 - Vincent And The Doctor
Day 803: Vincent and the Doctor
Watching this series on original broadcast, my interest had dropped off a little bit by this point. It was nice weather out, I had a lot going on… making sure I was home on a Saturday night ready for Doctor Who felt like more of a chore than it ever had before. It didn't help that when I was catching up with stories like The Vampires of Venice and Amy's Choice, they simply weren't grabbing me in the way I hoped they would. Eventually, I'd stopped even trying to be home on time, and I'd simply catch up with the new episodes a day or two later on the iPlayer. The night this one aired, I happened to catch the first ten minutes while I was getting ready to go out, and couldn't help thinking that of everything for a good month or so, this was an episode I'd rather like to stay home and see as it went out.
Vincent and the Doctor is a very different kind of Doctor Who story, isn't it? When the series manages to pull in a writer like Richard Curtis, you very much think you know what kind of story you're going to be getting, but then this script goes out of its way to present you with something that completely goes against all your expectations, and really leaves you with a lot to think about, even when it's finished. It's a bold move, and one that I think is pulled off very well - managing to create something that's both deep and thought-provoking, while also having enough action and drama to keep you riveted throughout.
In many ways, this story takes lots of things that I'd enjoyed with the Unicorn and the Wasp, and filters them differently. Whereas the likes of Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, and Shakespeare were very sure of themselves during encounters with the Doctor (even if they tend to get that knocked during the course of the adventure, both Christie and Vincent are presented as being flawed. As being human, in fact. I also like that this tale doesn't shy away from showing what that can mean. There's no pussyfooting around the fact that Vincent's troubles and depression led to his suicide, and the story makes sure to portray that in a sensitive, yet hard-hitting way. Any's reaction upon reaching the gallery to find that Vincent still took his own life at a tragically young age is absolutely heart-breaking, and the Doctor's response is one of my favourite lines from Doctor Who. I could quote it verbatim at the drop of a hat, because it's so beautiful, and poignant, and very true;
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. Hey. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.
I don't want to dwell on the sombre tones of the story too much, though, because there's an awful lot of humour and levity sprinkled throughout the script which is far more what I was expecting to find from Curtis, and really helps to make the whole thing. For starters, I love the adaptation of the Unicorn and the Wasp gag, in which the titles of Christie's books being inserted into the script is substituted for visual gags based upon Vincent's work. The interactions between Vincent and Amy are wonderful, too.
I've very little else to say about this story, really, and there's so much to like that I don't really want to dwell on the few let downs (once again, the CGI seems to falter a bit in this one), so I'm going to leave it there for now. Not the kind of story that Doctor Who could tell very often, but one which works perfectly as a nice one-off.
The 50 Year Diary - Day 802 - Cold Blood
Day 802: Cold Blood
I've never quite known what to make of the 'new series' Silurian design. On the one hand, there's that image of a concept sculpt for this story in which the creatures look like an updated version of the ones we had back in Doctor Who and the Silurians, and I half think that I'd love to have seen that design on screen, but on the other hand, I do like the way these ones look - especially when the soldiers have their masks on, which is a lovely bit of design. I suppose my issue is that these are such a departure from what went before - a more drastic change stylistically than we've had for any other monster making the transition from the 'classic' era to the new stuff. I think I know what the answer will be, but what does everyone else think? Do you like the modern Silurians, or would you prefer something more 'traditional'?
If nothing else, I can't imagine Madame Vastra with the face of a 'classic' Silurian…
If there's one thing I really like about this story, it's that you're left not really liking lots of different characters. Right the way through, and especially in today's episode, I've found myself really irritated by the way that Ambrose has behaved. And yet, I think part of the brilliance in that is that she's behaved the way that most of us would do - out of fear, and selfishness, and sheer ignorance. There's something really nice about the idea of her failing to be 'the best Humanity can be', because I think many of us would fall into similar traps. And yet, on the other side of the fence, we've got Silurians that aren't the best that they can be, either. That said, I have to take issue with the Doctor pointing out that when he met Silurians before, the humans attacked and killed them… while conveniently neglecting to mention that said Silurians had just tried to wipe out Humanity with a big old plague…
Something else that I just wanted to touch on - how much I'd like some kind of follow-on to this one. The Doctor rigs the Silurian alarms to wake them again in a millennium, and we've even got a couple of guest characters readily built in for the revival. I'd be keen to see the two sides trying again in a futuristic setting, and perhaps seeing what kinds of struggles might crop up that time. In this story the talk is largely about making room on an already crowded planet, but in a thousand year's time, with humanity moving out among the stars… well, I reckon there's a story in there somewhere, and I'd be keen so see it.
The 50 Year Diary - Day 801 - The Hungry Earth
Day 801: The Hungry Earth
Ooh, I love the title of this episode. It's that great line from Frontios, isn't it, about the Earth being hungry? I bet anything that somewhere along the line either Steven Moffatt or Chris Chibnall had that in mind when it came to putting this one together. Like Day of the Moon, its one of those titles that really just chimes with me as being perfect. Speaking of which, this is the episode when I first decided that Matt Smith was a perfect casting choice for the Doctor. It wasn't actually the episode which convinced me, but rather the production of it. I've mentioned before that I tried very hard to avoid spoilers for this particular series, but the one bit that I did end up seeing was a short clip (no more than a minute or two) of Matt Smith pacing up and down outside the church used in this episode, obviously trying to learn his lines. It was being shared all over Facebook, and I ended up watching it. Instantly, there's something just so right about the way he moves. Little movements he makes with his hand, the look he gives when he's trying to concentrate… oh, all of it. From that moment on, we were in safe hands.
And I love the way that the Doctor is written in this episode. This is perhaps the first time all series that he's really been presented as being a madman, and that's largely because he's been thrown into a situation where his regular companion is taken away from him very early into the narrative, and he's left to try and prove himself to her boyfriend and a group of strangers who quite rightly think he's mad. The only thing which does feel like a missed opportunity is making not of just how young he is in this incarnation - it would have been interesting to see that as yet another obstacle that he has to overcome.
As for the episode itself, well this morning I couldn't have told you a thing about it. Nothing. Nada. I knew it was 'that Silurian two-parter' from Series Five, but I couldn't have told you anything of the story. As the episode went on, though, I found more and more of it coming back to me, and I found myself rather liking it, on the whole. Oh, it's not close to being a stone-cold 'classic' (and I'm not sure it has the atmosphere yet that prevailed the original Silurian origin story), but there's enough in here to enjoy. The introduction of the threat is nicely dealt with, and there really is a feeling of tension as they rush to set everything up in the short amount of time they've got (although we've got the same problem here - though not on the same scale - as with Victory of the Daleks: we're told there's only x number of minutes remaining, 12 in this case, and they get a lot done in that time. I get that making it such a short time frame is what helps to 'up' the tension, but I can't help think that it would have felt a little more believable had they had a half an hour or so…?)
The 50 Year Diary - Day 800 - Amy's Choice
Day 800: Amy's Choice
Some days, writing this blog is easy. Within a few minutes of the episode starting, I know exactly what I want to say, and as the episode goes on I simply find more and more that chimes with what I want to say. I enjoy days like that, because it makes going from the episode to the writing all the more fun for me.
I thought today was going to be one of those days, because almost immediately, I knew what I wanted to say: this isn't an episode that works in Series Five - it's one that would sit better in Series Seven. Lovely, simple. I could write about that without problem… but then as the episode played out, it became more and more apparent that I was wrong, and that point was almost totally shattered. So, instead, I'm going to tell you firstly why I thought this story would work better later on, and then tell you why it also wouldn't. If that makes any sense at all.
Largely, I didn't feel that this story sat right here because the whole premise of trying to decide which world was real simply rings hollow for me. Obviously, as a viewer, I know that Amy and Rory are going to be travelling with the Doctor for a while yet, so it was always going to seem obvious that the TARDIS-world was the real one, but… I think that's the problem. Had this been set during that first part of Series Seven, where there's a running theme of the Doctor coming back to visit the Ponds while leaving longer and longer gaps between his visits… oh, this would have worked wonderfully as a concept there! Has it really been five years since his last visit, and he's now checking in on a couple of Ponds who've settled down and are about to have a child, or has it only been a few months since their last adventure, and they've been caught in the TARDIS. Do you see what I'm trying to say? That feels so much better for me than what we're given here, because the last scene of the previous episode was about 'let's go and have some adventures', which makes suddenly coming to a situation where the Ponds have settled down feel wrong to me.
I was fairly set on this view for much of the first half of this episode (and, actually, I've not abandoned it completely. Despite what I'm about to go on and say, it would work better as a concept in that first half of Series Seven, where it really could be either of the two dreams, as opposed to so clearly being the one). As the episode went on, though, I finally picked up on that emotional core. The choice between the Doctor or Rory. Of course it's an episode that needs to sit here in series five, because it's the key moment for Amy's character, and she even makes a point of saying that she'd never been entirely sure that she was doing the right thing until this very moment. It's massively important that we get this character beat here so that she can go on to marry Rory at the end of the season. You can see the spanner in the works - on the one hand I really want to argue that this story is in the wrong place… but on the other hand it's in exactly the right place!
That's not enough to really save it for me, though. Despite the fact that there's a nice emotional heart in here, and it serves as such an important beat in Amy's story, I simply could not connect with things, and it does all come back to the fact that I never really believe in the threat. I'm sorry to say that I just don't get the love for this one…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 799 - The Vampires Of Venice
Day 799: The Vampires of Venice
I don't know if it's still a lingering hang-over from just how good The Shakespeare Code looked back in Series Three, but the location work for this story never really felt… right to me. Oh, don't get me wrong, there's some lovely footage in here, and some great locations used to represent Venice, but something feels… I don't know. Off about it all. Maybe it's because everywhere is quite washed out whereas The Shakespeare Code and The Fires of Pompeii really used colour to make a point in their locations? The Vampires of Venice always seemed to be a little beige by comparison. It also flags up a problem I had with Series Five at the time that I have to admit I've been somewhat struggling to find this time around - the feeling of things looking a bit cheap or empty on screen. I think I was probably recalling the Dalek spaceship in some ways, but the scene when the Doctor confronts Rosanna looks really bare. They've simply placed a throne prop into an otherwise empty room, and it just doesn't have the impact that the designs for those other historical I've mentioned did.
It's also a little bit of a shame that having gone all the way to Croatia to get some nice locations for bits of this story, it gets let down by some of the weakest CGI the programme has seen for quite some time. There are a few shots where water has been added in to represent the canals which really doesn't work (I still don't know if - five years on - we're at a point where realistic CGI water can be done on a TV budget), and the clouds during that final sequence are so laughably bad that I'm almost astounded they were actually signed off for broadcast. It's a good job that Doctor Who has a bit of a history of dodgy effects, because this episode certainly places on the scale somewhere quite high! That said, there's some nice moments where the human characters are morphed into their CGI counterparts rather convincingly, so perhaps it's just a case of the money being spent in different places?
All of this somewhat marry the story for me, because I'm too busy looking at elements of bad effects, or musing on how empty some of the shots look, to really get caught up in the events of the narrative. Oh, there's some very nice moments in here, and it feels as though the writing team have finally landed on the way to write the Eleventh Doctor (this is perhaps the first time that there have been sequences that feel tailor-made for Smith), but I'm just not able to get sucked into the tale the way I have the past week or so. It's not bad, but it's not good either - it's, again, just a bit beige.
If I had to pick a highlight from this story, then it would have to be Rory. First time around, I never really got the love for Rory as a character. H was alright, I supposed, but he wasn't anything especially special. This time, though, I can see that that's exactly his charm - he's the character that we'd all be if we were suddenly thrust into the Doctor's lifestyle. The Eleventh Hour, The Best Below, and Victory of the Daleks all went out of their way to make Amy look like perfect companion material, but this story does completely the opposite for Rory - making him a bit weak, and a bit silly, and a bit bumbling. His trying to fight off a 'vampire' with a broom, and making a mess of trying to get Amy into the school are exactly what makes him work - and I'm looking forward to seeing if I connect better with him on this watch through.
The 50 Year Diary - Day 798 - Flesh And Stone
Day 798: Flesh and Stone
Yesterday, I mentioned that the Weeping Angels were progressed quite nicely in this story from what we were given in Blink, and watching it again now makes that even more obvious. Have to admit that when this first episode went out I wasn't overall keen about the various additions made to the 'lore' of the creatures, but the more I've thought about it over the years (and especially in re-watching this story in the last couple of days), the more I can't help but notice how clever it all is especially when the Doctor realises what's happening to Amy;
A living mental image in a living human mind. But we stare at them to stop them getting closer. We don't even blink, and that is exactly what they want. Because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind.
I don't think I've ever appreciated before just how much scarier that makes the Angels. We've spent three years by this point thinking of them as being so easily defeated by simply being watched, and then this story comes along and makes even that part of their danger! Brilliant! It's no wonder they've caught on as being the monsters of 21st century Doctor Who with gimmicks like these.
Something else which didn't particularly work for me first time around which I've loved today is the sequence in the forest where we start to see the Angels move. I'm not entirely sure why, but when this was first broadcast, something about that moment felt really off to me. I sort of felt that seeing the statues move somehow lessened the fact that they can move so rapidly when we're not looking. Actually, though, it's really creepy, as they all start to realise that Amy can't really see them. The fact that they start to move so slowly really helps to enhance the terror of the moment for me. It also sort of brings back to something I read recently which I'm starting to think may have been a real missed opportunity - in the original script for The Time of the Doctor, when we get that great shot of all the spaceships gathering over Trenzalore, there was supposed to be a brief shot with the shadows of the Weeping Angels flying past one of the ships. That, for some reason, has always struck me as very scary, and this sequence certainly plays into that same area.
There's something in this story that surprised me first time around, and it's done it all over again here - the Doctor starting to work out the mystery of the crack so early on into the season. When I got to see the scripts in the build-up to broadcast, I was only able to read as far as this one (and just outlines of everything to follow), and it struck me as being strange then. Throughout the Russell T Davies years, I'd become so used to the underlying mystery being teased across the series and picked up again when the finale rolls around. Now, suddenly, we've had a few weeks of the crack being very heavily used in the final shots of stories, and suddenly the characters are given the chance to use it! The crack - the running theme for the series - is integral to the whole plot of the episode! The Doctor even gets to work out what it is and start describing it.
There's also that wonderful moment of the Doctor coming back to speak to Amy (who can't open her eyes) and having his jacket on. The script specified that this was the Doctor from the finale (and the other scripts all featured bonus scenes with various characters who'd be integral for the opening sequence to The Pandora Opens), but I have to say I did enjoy the sheer fury that this moment caused on the forums at the time! People were so convinced that it was a massive production error, and a sign that the new team weren't paying enough attention… oh, the fun when all was revealed a few weeks later and the humble cake had to be passed around at quite some speed…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 797 - The Time Of Angels
Day 797: The Time of Angels
When it was first announced (In Doctor Who Magazine, possibly?) that the Weeping Angels were to be making a return for Series Five, I can distinctly recall in-depth discussions with a friend about the ways they could be reintroduced. In the end, we decided that the story 'had' to revolve around Wester Drumlins - from Blink - being renovated. The new owners, or possibly the workmen on site, would move one of the four statues in the basement out of position and the Angels would be free to roam once more. If I'm honest, I think this discussion mainly stemmed from the fact that we genuinely wondered what the Doctor's back-up-plan would be if such an event happened. I don't think either of us expected what we actually got from this story - an adventure which takes what we know about the Angels from their first outing, and goes on to develop that, and add new facets to them. I'm sure I'll come back to this more in-depth with tomorrow's episode.
I can also distinctly recall being a bit non-plussed that River Song would be making a comeback. As I said a few weeks ago, I'd simply not taken to her during Silence in the Library, and the prospect of having her come back to the programme didn't particularly excite me. Somehow, though, I completely bought into her from the second she appears in the story - which is right at the start, before the opening titles have even kicked in. Watching it again today, I can't help but think that it's because she's just so much fun in that scene. Flirty, dangerous, packing weapons, and using that very Steven Moffat trope of playing with the format of a Time Travel programme to summon the Doctor. The way she catches his attention here is so much better than simply sending a message over the psychic paper, and I love watching both halves of this little narrative play out in tandem. Hello, sweetie!
It also doesn't hurt that Alex Kingston and Matt Smith have such a great chemistry together from the off. Oh, sure, David Tennant played opposite Kingston very well, and when I watched their two episodes recently I was completely won over in a way that I simply wasn't in 2008, but there's something about the way that matt behaves when they share the screen together. I'm wondering if it's simply because I know that it's these two who'll go on to play out the rest of the Doctor/River relationship, or because something just works between them, but it's already a great dynamic that I can't wait to watch evolve over the next month.
On the subject of which… we're four episodes in, now, and i've not really mentioned Matt Smith's performance as the Doctor. I'd love to say that I've been waiting for today as this episode contains the first scenes he filmed and thus made a fitting point to bring it up, but if I'm honest it's simply because he's so recent in my mind as the Doctor that I sort of forget that I've not mentioned it! Frankly, he hits the ground running, doesn't he? He's fabulous in this episode, and by the time he gets around to stories like Victory of the Daleks he'd really nailed down the way he wanted to play the part. There's something about his energy that really resonates with me, and simply makes him feel like 'the Doctor'. As his era originally played out, I couldn't help thinking that his performance lost something from Series Six onwards, when writers stop writing simply 'the Doctor' - which Matt then filters in his own unique way - and start writing 'the Doctor as played by Matt Smith'.
Everything started to feel a little bit more forced as his tenure went on, whereas here he's fresh, playing it the way he thinks is best, and perhaps mores than any Doctor since Tom Baker, you get the impression that he's simply opening his mouth and surprising even himself with the way he's choosing to do certain scenes. I can't say that I was against casting someone so young as the Doctor (but, equally, I can't say I was overjoyed by the choice - I just sort of felt nothing), but when you watch him even in his earliest episodes, you completely understand how he changed Steven Moffat's stance on wanting to cast an older Doctor - Smith is just so right for this part. I'm actively anticipating the chance to watch him develop the character now, and see if I was wrong first time around about it feeling more forced as time went by. I really hope I was wrong, because he's won me round all over again, now…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 796 - Victory of the Daleks
Day 796: Victory of the Daleks
I think it's generally accepted, now, that the Paradigm Daleks were a mistake, isn't it? I'm speaking specifically the design of them, not necessarily the idea of introducing a new type of Dalek. When I went off to see the scripts for this series early in 2010, someone showed me a photo on their phone of one of these new Daleks, and I honestly thought they were joking. Surely not? By the time they made it onto screen a few months later… nope. Just didn't quite sit right with me. The 2005 design of Dalek manages to take the initial shape of the original, and update it convincingly to look like a little tank. It somehow manages to look exactly the way you always thought the Daleks looked, while also presenting a perfect step forward in the design. The Paradigm models feel like someone has set out to keep something that's vaguely shaped like a Dalek, but at the same time is altered just that bit too far. Over the years, I've seen people claim that this or that is what makes them simply fail to work, and I've seen plenty of slight tweaks to this design which do, somehow, make a world of difference. Perhaps the most telling thing of all, though, is that this model goes on to make a cameo briefly in the next season, and play a small part in Asylum of the Daleks (alongside many of their predecessors), and then that's it - over and done with. In years to come, I suspect this will be looked back on in commentaries with the same kind of bile as Colin Baker's costume is these days…
But are they the sole reason that this episode generally doesn't fare too well with fans? It placed at number 193 out of 241 stories last year when Doctor Who Magazine did their poll of people's favourites (though, in fairness, five other Matt Smith-era stories rated below it). Well, I'll be honest. I was expecting to write this entry very much from the stance of 'the new Dalek design is a big factor, but the episode is just generally rubbish, too'. Actually, though, it's a bit more complex than that.
The first fifteen minutes or so of this episode are brilliant. They're dripping with just the right kind of suspense - we know that Bracewell's Ironsides are Daleks, and therefore that they're evil and probably up to no good, and the Doctor knows that, too… but everyone else simply can't see it. The stakes are raised by the fact that we also know that Churchill is right; if these Ironsides are willing to serve the Allied forced, then the war could be over in a heartbeat. When we get as far as the Doctor asking for Amy to tell the Prime Minister about the events of The Stolen Earth and she doesn't have a clue what he's on about, the mystery is only heightened. The stakes feel high because it's the world vs the Doctor, and the Daleks are there for good measure. That sense of unease and intrigue runs right through the first third of the tale, up to about the point that Bracewell is revealed to be a robot (Oh, and actually, isn't that a brilliant moment? No, we created you! Wonderful!). All of this is heightened with some really brilliant direction by Andrew Gunn which means we often got shots of the Daleks gliding past in the background, and there's simply no other word for it - they're skulking. Little glimpses of the eyestalks twitching, and tiny movements that make it absolutely clear that they're watching the Doctor, and biding their time.
After that, though, my interest more-or-less completely dropped off, and that seems to coincide with the arrival of the new Daleks. Now, it's not entirely down to the appearance of the new guys (I'll get onto them in a moment). After that Daleks have teleported up to their ship, all the tension and dread simply evaporates. Suddenly, where everything felt like the stakes were high and there was a lot going on, I find my ability to believe in the story wavering. The absolute pit of the problem has to be the moment we're told there's only ten minutes until German bombers reach London. Fine. We're then remind (a few minutes into this) that Bracewell had plans for 'Gravity Bubbles', which would put a plane in space, though he reminds us that it's only a theory. Fine. It's all science-fiction nonsense, obviously, but I'll buy it. But then, as the planes reach the East End of London (presumably around about that previously mentioned ten-minute-mark), Bracewell arrives to announce that they've put the Gravity Bubbles into action, and the planes are ready to launch.
I'm sorry, what? I get that Bracewell is Dalek technology, and therefore the Gravity Bubbles are probably Dalek in design, too, and thus he's able to cobble it together quicker than usual, but the implication is that he's managed to take it from a theory of something that could work and put it into practice across three planes in under ten minutes. I probably sound ridiculous complaining about something so trivial, but it lets down the entire episode massively for me, because it feels completely false.
The same is true, then, of the later revelation that Bracewell is a bomb. It feels as though the script was finished before someone pointed out that they were running five minutes short, and thus needed to stretch it out a little bit longer. Nothing feels real (or, at least, as 'real' as can be expected in a story about robots from oder-space hiding in the Cabinet War Rooms can), in the way that those first fifteen minutes did, and that's a real pity.
As for the new Daleks themselves… well, I don't think it helps that they arrive on screen at the same point the episode starts taking a nosedive. They suffer simply by association, because it feels like they show up and a promising episode goes to the dogs. But, equally, the design really is rubbish. I've already praised the direction in this episode, and I think it's fair to say that it does a wonderful job of making the old Daleks here look like metal. The single bronze one on the ship looks lovely, and the two Ironside models are great. They've possibly never looked more like metalling beings. But then the New Paradigm turns up, and the daleks have certainly never looked more like they were made of plastic! It just helps to show up the flaws.
Oh, I could go on all day with a back-and-forth on 'things Victory of the Daleks gets so right' vs 'things Victory of the Daleks gets so wrong'. Seriously, I think I've made more notes about this episode than any other in ages. I've not even begun to mention how great it is when the New Daleks destroy their predecessors because they're inferior (and the fact that it's a great little nod to the Daleks destroying Davros back in the day - the new breed will always destroy their creator, because they've been designed to think they're superior), or how rubbish bits of the Dalek ship look - even if I completely get why it would be so empty. In the end, I think Victory of the Daleks needs another couple of drafts. Also, an extra fifteen minutes or so. Give it room to breathe a little, so that we don't have to have ridiculously complex inventions made reality in a handful of minutes (seriously, even an earlier line in which Bracewell said 'we've got these in development right now' would have made it better! It would have made the drama more real, too, in the sense of 'In theory these work, but we're still only half way through!'), and then try something a little more traditional with the Dalek revamp… This really could have been a classic. Possibly the biggest missed opportunity that the 21st century Doctor Who has ever had.
(Oh, it was heading for at least an '8' with that first third! I'll stop banging on about it now, though…)
The 50 Year Diary - Day 795 - The Beast Below
Day 795: The Beast Below
Every so often in this marathon I find myself approaching a story that I just know I'm not going to like. Usually it's because I've seen it before and it's left a less than favourable taste in my mouth. When these episodes come along (thankfully, it's a rare occurrence), I find that one of two things happens. Either the episode ends up being even worse than I remembered (as was the case last week with Planet of the Dead, which went from being one I didn't remember fondly to being one that I really didn't enjoy), or it swings the other way and ends up being rated probably a little above what it deserves because I'm so taken aback by the fact that I've enjoyed it. I'm pleased to say that today's episode has fallen into the latter of those two categories.
I wasn't at all expecting to like this one. First time around it felt like crashing back down to Earth after the highs of the previous week's massively confident start to the new regime. Since then it's simply occupied a place in my mind filed away with other stories that I never really intended to watch again in a hurry. But actually, there's quite a decent little story tucked away in here! Oh, sure, it's not ever going to win prizes as being the greatest episode of Doctor Who ever made, but it's a perfectly serviceable one to pass 45 minutes, and if we take Series Five as being intended as a new start for an audience unfamiliar with Doctor Who (which is certainly what the production team seem to have been thinking in places), then it provides a crucial tent-pole in that regard.
We're introduced to the idea that the Doctor is a Time Lord and the last of his kind. There's none of the mystery built up around it that we had in The End of the World, because it's not needed - from the point of view of an established audience, we already know what happened (roughly). From a new perspective the description of the Time War as 'a bad day' simply fills in enough to keep the conversation moving. The story gets a little less subtle towards the end when trying to about the point about the Doctor and the Star Whale being very similar (they make the point twice in the Tower of London, and then just in case you don't get it, Amy comes to find the Doctor again and spell it out as plainly as she can), but on the whole it works.
There's also some rather nice design work in this episode to help set it apart from the tone of Doctor Who from the last few years. One of the things that felt a shame first time around was that this story didn't feel like it was following the same fresh new look established with The Eleventh Hour, and while it's certainly true that this is perhaps less honed in places, it certainly does have its own unique style, and it's really rather lovely. I'd never noticed, for example, the way that the elevators are designed to resemble the London Underground - right down to the tiling on the walls outside them. That's a nice touch.
And while I'm on the subject of design, I'm going to mention it, because I know I'll never get around it it otherwise: the new TARDIS. I remember not being all that fussed on the white window frames and shade of blue on the exterior when it was first revealed. I didn't dis*like it, I just didn't particularly love it, either. Now, though, I have to confess that I really *do like it. The interior… maybe it'll grow on me this time around, but I was never that fond of this console room. Something about it just felt that bit too much like a set, in the way that the previous version of the room didn't. It just doesn't quite gel with me in the way that the coral did immediately. Not to worry, though, because the greedy Eleventh Doctor gets two console rooms, and his next one is much more up my street…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 794 - The Eleventh Hour
Day 794: The Eleventh Hour
In the weeks leading up to the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour, I couldn't have told you the last time I'd been more excited for the start of a series. I'd largely managed to avoid 'spoilers' throughout the 2009 filming, so the trailer released after David Tennant's departure really did a good job of whetting my appetite ready for the new run. But then, in early 2010, I was working on a project which meant I had to be completely up-to-date with Doctor Who, so that the material would still be relevant by the time it hit the shelves. This meant having to do the most exciting thing in the world - go and be locked in a room at the BBC and read some of the scripts, as well as a general outline, for Series Five. All that work avoiding spoilers was for nothing, because this was the ultimate spoiler. I found, in the long run, that it hampered my enjoyment of several episodes on broadcast, because I'd spent months imagining them one way in my head only to be disappointed when they were presented differently on screen.
Largely it's because I couldn't have predicted the unique way that matt Smith would play the part, and I don't think any of us could have predicted the huge shift in tone that the series undergoes from this episode on. Just look at that long shot which looks around Amelia's garden before leading us to the scared little girl in the house. It's like a film! And it doesn't stop there - Adam Smith is one of my favourite Doctor Who directors, and I wish he'd come back to do more than the handful of episodes he was responsible for in this series. The rest of the episode looks completely unlike anything we had in the Russell T Davies era - it properly starts out confident and strong, proclaiming itself to be the start of something new.
Even to this day I can't decide wether that's the best thing or not. Everything has changed at this point. New Doctor. New Companion. New Man-In-Charge. New TARDIS interior. New TARDIS exterior. New Sonic Screwdriver… before the series is out we'll be able to add New Daleks to the list. This is getting on for as bigger a shift in direction as the one between Seasons Seventeen and Eighteen in the 'classic' run, and I don't think we're a million miles away from the big change of Seasons Six to Seven. In some ways, I like that it's such a confident casting off of what went before - a programme in a new form which is proud to stand up and be its own thing. On the other, as the original broadcasts played out, I couldn't help but think it came across as a bit of a middle finger to the five years immediately preceding it, almost as a 'you did it wrong'. With hindsight, I think it works, and it's certainly not any kind of disrespect to the things which came before. It's simply Doctor Who reinventing itself almost totally, which is just what it's good at.
So, as for The Eleventh Hour as an episode… oh, it's good, isn't it? I'd spent so long dying to see what it looked like on screen and then in the run up to the broadcast, I found myself booking a date for the same evening. Even as it was being arranged, there was a little voice in the back of my mind that said 'You can't see her that night! That's the start of the new Doctor Who season!'. Oh we've all been there. And what do you do? How do you choose? I went for the simple option - have your cake and eat it. Let's get pizza at mine and watch the new series of Doctor Who. Yes, that's romantic. I'm not entirely sure if she was at all keen on Doctor Who by the time the episode had finished (she certainly hadn't been before hand), and was probably a little put-off by the fact that the date ended early so I could sit and watch the episode again later that night (I know, I know, priorities), but she did return for episodes sporadically throughout the rest of Series Five, so it wasn't a complete bust!
Oh, but it was good. Immediately after broadcast, the figures of the Eleventh Doctor (in a two-pack with a 'raggedy' version) and his new Sonic Screwdriver were released. I'd managed to pick up my figure earlier in the day and took great delight in adding him to the shelf alongside all the other Doctors. Matt Smith had won me over completely, and we were standing at the dawn of an exciting new era. That's the best feeling in the world…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 793 - The End of Time, Part Two
Day 793: The End of Time - Part Two
I can't make my mind up as to wether the Tenth Doctor era has gone by quickly or not. I've spent more episodes with David Tennant's Doctor than I have with any other since Peter Davison, but in some ways it feels like this Doctor has only just arrived on the scene. In others, it feels like he's been around for ages. When I think back to specific episodes - anything from Series Two, for example - it feels like a lifetime ago, and the fact that Tennant physically aged quite a bit in the part makes that feeling all the more pronounced. On the other hand, it doesn't feel all that long ago since he was promising trips to Barcelona, or bringing down Harriet Jones' government.
But there's no denying what an impact the Tenth Doctor made - had the profile of the programme ever been higher? Even now, with the show simulcast around the world to the biggest possible audience, it doesn't feel like it's at quite those dizzying heights of around 2007/2008, when you could barely move for Doctor Who. It was on the cover of the Radio Times every other week. The shops were stuffed with products of every kind. There were two sister shows running throughout the time of the year when the main show wasn't… and everyone, even people who didn't watch Doctor Who seemed to agree that David Tennant was one of - if not the - best Doctors ever.
And after all that… oh, I still can't help but think that this finale is just a bit nothing for him. As with yesterday, I've found a lot more to enjoy in today's episode than I was perhaps expecting to, but something about it just doesn't gel with me. I wasn't all that connected to the episode while watching, and nothing really spurred any particular excitement in me. I think it's still the hangover of that feeling in 2009 of being a spectre at the feast, just wanting this Doctor to hurry up and clear off so we could get to the new chap. It certainly didn't help that immediately after the broadcast of this episode a trailer for the upcoming Series Five appeared on the BBC website, and it was fifty times more exciting than anything which happened in this story.
Something I am pleased about, though, is that I've changed my mind about the sequence of the regeneration itself. For years now - ever since broadcast, really - I've thought that the Doctor should rage at Wilf, the final words of the Time Lord Victorious. He should scream, and shout, rage against the dying of the light, and then when Wilf tells him to simply go… he should. Okay then. You're right. My life is more important than yours. See ya! I always thought that he should go and get his reward at that point. Venture off and see all his friends one last time. Martha, Mickey*, Jack, Sarah Jane, Rose… all those shining people who kept the Lonely Angel going. Kept him fighting. And then he should return for Wilf, who's sad and alone in the booth, tell him that it's his honour to give his life for such a man, and then we should pick up with the sequence as seen. Largely, I think I'd always thought of that as a better narrative because it means we can have the Doctor regenerate in the box - the Doctor uncurls from that foetal position and it's Matt Smith! - but watching it today, I'm happy to admit that I was wrong; it works just fine the way it is, and the emotional beats hit at just the right points.
I've brought it up a few times in the last couple of weeks, but I can't let today's episode pass without giving one final mention… Bernard Cribbins really is wonderful, isn't he? Can you imagine that there could have been a version of Doctor Who where he only made that on brief cameo appearance in Voyage of the Damned and then that was it? Horrible thought. A real pity that he had to step back into the programme in circumstances where another actor had passed away, but what a tribute to give - one of the best performances the show ever has. I'm so glad that he was given such a prominent role to play in these final episodes of the era, getting to really showcase his range and make you laugh out loud ('God bless the cactuses!') and tear up ('I don't want you to die!') in equal measure. He really steals the show from Tennant in his final episodes, and I don't think anyone could mind.
And now, we're off into a bold new era! At the time, I found the Matt Smith years (well, the first couple, at least) far less to my liking than the previous few years of Doctor Who had been, and I've never really gone back to give them a second chance. With the exception of tomorrow's Eleventh Hour and the 50th Anniversary special in a few weeks, I've never rewetted any of this era, so it's like seeing it fresh and new, which is a very exciting thought.
It also means that I'm drawing to the very end of this mammoth project, and so I need your help! I need to decide how I'm going to be ending things. The original plan, way back in January 2013 when The 50 Year Diary kicked off was to stop with the 50th Anniversary. Nice and neat - hence the name - to cover every story from the programme's first half-century. But then Matt Smith went and left just one episode later, so I thought I'd include that one, too, just to round off the era nicely. But now I'm wondering - with Series Nine only a few months away, and having enjoyed Series Eight so much when it was broadcast last year, do I carry on for an extra fortnight and do those episodes, too? That way, I'll have covered all the episodes of Doctor Who. Let me know which approach you'd rather in the comments; do I finish with Time of the Doctor, or Last Christmas?
*I'm trying not to complain about the things I'm not so keen on in today's episode, because it's nice to keep things a bit nicer for a Doctor's departure, but I have to grumble about the Mickey and Martha pairing. Not because I've specifically anything against the two of them getting together, but because it's just another notch in that belt of Martha's character being a bit rubbish after Series Three. She first gets engaged to a bloke she met in an alternate timeline for about 24 hours, despite showing very little chemistry with him in the first place, and then suddenly ditches him to marry a bloke she aired only a couple of scenes with in another episode (did Micky and Martha actually speak to each other in the Series Four finale?). It just felt so odd at the time, and it still doesn't sit right five years on…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 792 - The End of Time, Part One
Day 792: The End of Time - Part One
At the time, I recall being really disappointed with David Tennant's exit from Doctor Who. I mused the other day that knowing almost a year in advance who his replacement was going to be and only having a few scattered episodes here and there (of varying quality) meant that by the time this two-part story rolled around I was just ready for the new Doctor. The regeneration was just another thing in the way of getting on with something different, and frankly more exciting. Then this story aired, and I wasn't keen, and the same was true for almost my entire circle of friends. The general opinion among us was that the brilliant Russell T Davies era had gone out really feebly, and it was a pity after five years which had brought us some really brilliant television.
So I was pleased to find that today, there's lots that I've found to enjoy about this one. The Doctor arriving on the planet of the Ood at the start (still not quite as impressive as the matte shots, but certainly a more interesting area than the basin of 'snow' the TARDIS put down in during Series Four), and the fact that he's spent such a long time running away from his summons (I really wish they'd gone with the suggestion Davies makes in The Writer's Tale, though, that the Doctor should emerge from the TARDIS with a few flecks of grey in his hair, as though he'd done anything and everything to put off this moment). In fact, everything on the Ood planet is rather nice, and I love the design of the 'Elder Ood'. it serves as a nice way of bringing the audience up-to-speed with the events of the Master's last story, too, while making it feel part of the narrative.
For some reason, last time around, I took issue with the Master's resurrection, but I can't for the life of me remember why, and I can't say I've got any problem with it here - again it's something I've rather enjoyed. And then there's everything between the Doctor and Wilf, and that beautiful moment where the Doctor ruminates on the fact that people have had to wait centuries to meet him again, and then Wilf manages it in a single afternoon, as though he's drawing all the threads together in his own mind…
But not everything is working for me, and I'm perhaps not surprised to find that the same things are bugging me this time around that did last time. The biggest one has to be the Master's 'superpowers', for want of a better word. I just find that they're taking me out of the narrative every time they crop up. It's not the skeletal part which bothers me (last time, I know I wasn't keen on that, but this time around that aspect kind of works for me), it's the mega jumps which are causing me an issue. It's most distracting just after an incredibly powerful scene between the Doctor and the Master, in which our hero realises that the drums in his foe's head are real… and then the Master uses his energy to propel himself into the air like Iron Man. The entire beauty of that scene was completely shattered for me by that final moment. I've not even got an issue with the Master going berserk at that point - it's very in character for this incarnation - but the 'flight' just doesn't work for me at all I'm afraid.
The other thing that I've always found so off-putting that I can't help but look out for it and notice it even worse now if the Vinvocci make-up. For some reason, the green of the faces was added digitally on this occasion instead of as regular make-up, and it doesn't match with the bits of prosthetic at all. It really stands out like a sore thumb, and it's a real shame that such a botched experiment occurs in - of all episodes - David Tennant's final story.
Oh but enough with the whining, because you know what? That moment at the end, with the big speech about the return of the Time Lords, where we pull back from planet Earth and pan round to see the Narrator, catching sight of a Gallifreyan collar only a fraction of a second before he announces who they are… it's so beautifully executed, and is probably the best cliffhanger of the entire Russell T Davies era. Now that's one to go out on…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 791 - Dreamland
Day 791: Dreamland
Much like The Infinite Quest alongside Series Three, I never really paid all that much attention to Dreamland. Because I'd taken a bit of a step back from Doctor Who in 2009, I'd missed a lot of the build up around it, and I have to confess that the broadcast completely passed me by. I picked up the DVD not long after, intending to give it a watch, but it's simply sat still in wrapper on the shelf for the last five years. There was something quite exciting about unwrapping it for the marathon today - it's like finding a missing episode and getting to experience it for the first time.
I'd been warned earlier this week not to expect too much, and especially that the animation in this one was 'atrocious', but actually I have to say I'm rather fond of it. Certainly, I prefer it to the style used for The Infinite Quest, and there's something about the likeness of the Doctor in this one which really works for me. I don't know if I can claim that it actually looks like David Tennant, but it certainly looks like the character of the Tenth Doctor, and that's good enough for me. Oh, sure, there's a few ropey moments scattered throughout - the way that doors open, or any time we get a look at character's feet while they're walking, for example - but on the whole I was hooked in enough to not really bother about that.
Which is the real point with this one - the story captured me enough to make me overlook the fact that I was watching an animated Doctor Who episode, and instead just allowed me to enjoy a fairly decent Doctor Who story. I won't say it caught me right away - the first ten minutes or so proved a struggle, and I did almost think I was just going to give up half way and write about the fact that I was bored. Once things were properly underway, though, I suddenly found myself really captured - and enjoying it!
Oh, sure, the story is a bit simplistic in places (and more than a little bit clichéd), but that kind of works with the style of the whole piece - it's a little bit of light entertainment before we head off for the Tenth Doctor's final stand. A good way for him to have a nice simple adventure before the end. Plus it's ignited an interest in all that 'UFO' nonsense again, and I've spent the last couple of hours enjoying increasingly outlandish 'alien' sightings on the internet, so that's helped to pass an afternoon when there's probably real work I could be getting on with.
What's been most interesting, though, is thinking about the fact that this episode could very easily be made live action these days. In 2009, this likely would have felt a bit large scale to pull off in 45 minutes live-action, but almost all the elements have since turned up in the programme proper. The 'American outback' setting (complete with diner), the standard alien based on 'Greys'… even the giant insect creatures could be pulled off now in more-or-less the same way the robots were created for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship - it's interesting to look back and see how far we've come in such a sort time.
But I can't put it off any more. Finally, from tomorrow, we'll be headed for The End of Time itself…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 790 - The Waters of Mars
Day 790: The Waters of Mars
Oh, this felt more like it. After my disappointment in Planet of the Dead, I'd sort of drifted out of Doctor Who during the middle months of 2009. Oh, I never packed it in completely, but I rather avoided keeping all that up-to-date with the latest news and trailers. A lot of that had to do with avoiding spoilers for the upcoming Eleventh Doctor era, which began filming in the middle of the year (I failed spectacularly at this, as I'm sure I'll discuss in a few days). It meant that I didn't see a trailer for this one until a few days before the broadcast, and if I'm honest, I wasn't really all that bothered by the prospect of incoming Who. By this point, I sort of just wanted the new Doctor to start already - knowing that Tennant would be leaving and Smith replacing him so far in advance, and without having many episodes to bridge the gap just made it feel like an incredibly long and drawn-out process!
When I did get to see a trailer for The Waters of Mars, though… oh, it looked interesting. It completely piqued my interest and got me excited for broadcast - everything a trailer was supposed to do. And then the episode aired, and I thought it was good. It was very good. I even recall being a bit annoyed with the friend I'd watched it with, because they fell asleep about three minutes int (it had been a long day), but all was forgiven when he caught up with the episode a few days later and text to say how much he'd enjoyed it.
The thing that really gets me - above and beyond the design, or the casting, writing, direction, which I'll come to in a moment - is the idea at the heart of this one. We're so used to there being moments in history that the Doctor can't touch because they're part of established events - we had one last season in The Fires of Pompeii, for example - but I don't think we've ever had a story quite like this one, where we're visiting the future, and the Doctor's unable to do anything because it's just as fixed as any of those things from our history that we know so well. Something about that idea really chimed with me, and I loved the way that they chose to demonstrate the situation, with the flashing up of news reports. It's simple, but it's very effective.
And on top of that, the Doctor goes and flaunts the rules anyway, by making changes to the events! Oh, that's when The Waters of Mars kicks into gear. Oh sure, there's lots to really enjoy before then, but once time itself stars fighting back against the Doctor and he simply rages his way through it… that really struck me, and it's what made the episode for me. I mused a few weeks ago during Utopia that there's something great about David Tennant's darker side as the Doctor, and we get to see it properly unleashed here. After which, we get the perfect example of that 'hubris before the fall' that I was so keen on finding during Tom Baker's tenure as the Doctor. The Doctor goes too far. He breaks all the rules. That's not what does it, though. What makes it all the worse is that he then gloats about it. Look at me! Look how clever I am! And right then, when he's king of the universe, and teetering dangerously on the brink of tipping over into total darkness… Ood in the snow. What an image. Came as a total surprise to me, and I love it. Such a great way to end it.
I risk here simply pouring all the praise on those last ten-to-fifteen minutes of the episode because they're the bits that really make it for me, but I can't let today's entry go by without at least touching on the rest of the story. I rather like the Flood - they're the scariest monsters that the Russell T Davies era creates (take that, Weeping Angels), and probably about as far as you'd dare push it for the programme at that point. These days, with a slightly later time slot and seemingly a different intention at where the show is pitched, perhaps they'd go further, but I look at some of the scenes with these 'Water Zombies' (for want of a better phrase), and I'm genuinely surprised they made it through into the show as it was in 2009. And these are the toned down version!
What makes them all the more scarier has to be the direction of the episode. Those first two transformations we see, where the focus is on a character in the front while we don't quite get to see what's happening to the other person in the background is ten times more effective than simply showing it happening. We get a great impact when that does happen with the Doctor discovering a 'conversion' in progress, but that's been shot in its own way, and the horror is simply ramped up by the confirmation of what we thought we saw on the two occasions before.
So, on the whole, I think The Waters of Mars is largely made by that last quarter, but there's plenty of merit to be found in the rest of the story, too. One of the highlights of the Tenth Doctor era for sure - and the perfect way to gear up for the big finale ahead…
The 50 Year Diary - Day 789 - The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
Day 789: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
I'm sure I must have mentioned it at some point before now, but I really enjoyed The Sarah Jane Adventures. For a long time, I would say that the average quality across the show had a better 'hit-rate' than Doctor Who did - there's no episodes of this show that I think would rate below about a 5. For a long time, I seriously considered the idea of watching all of The Sarah Jane Adventures in tandem with modern Doctor Who, slipping it into the gaps between seasons as it was originally broadcast, and watching how everything ties up (for example, there's a story just a few episodes before the one I've done today which serves as a follow up to Dreamland, which I'll be watching in a few day's time), but then I'd feel like I'd have to include Torchwood in the marathon, too, and it all just gets a bit messy. As such, I decided to limit myself to just doing the two stories in which the Doctor himself makes an appearance in Sarah Jane's world.
What's impressive is that despite the sheer presence of David Tennant, he never manages to overpower or steal the show. This is very much an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures which the Doctor happens to appear in, rather than a Doctor Who episode that's been misplaced over to its spin off show. And yet, there's still something that feels so right about having the Doctor pop up in this corner of his fictional universe - especially in the year where Doctor Who was so massively absent from TV screens. When the programme tried it again a year later, bringing the Eleventh Doctor into Sarah Jane's world (and with Jo Grant, to boot), it just didn't have the same impact that we have here, and that's a pity. I'm sure I'll look into that more in a few weeks, as I'll be including Death of the Doctor after Series Five of the 'parent' show.
One of the things that this story does especially well is in pairing the Doctor largely with the young cast of the programme - Luke, Clyde, and Rani. It's always a thrill to see the Doctor and Sarah Jane reunited, but there's something extra special about seeing these new characters become a part of his world. Oh, sure, he got to speak to Luke on a screen during the last season finale, but there's something jus that little bit extra special about seeing him trapped with the three of them in a single second of time. It also means that something different is being done with the idea of the Doctor and Sarah meeting up again, and it avoids simply becoming a rehash of their other recent reunions.
That doesn't mean that Sarah Jane is left out of the story, though, and watching this episode back now I'm really floored by Elisabeth Sladen. When she pops up in Doctor Who during this period, she absolutely shines, but she's really just one of many. Especially by the time we reach The Stolen Earth, she's fighting for presence against so many other characters. This programme, though, is absolutely justified by the performance she gives here. Oh, there's something beautiful about watching her and Peter fall in love. I remember complaining at the time that we should have seen those dates (or at least the secrecy aspect to them) played out more in the four episodes preceding these two, but watching it again now I'm happy to say that I was wrong on that. It's written - and performed - so neatly that I completely buy the pair falling for each other. A large amount of the credit for that has to go to Sladen, because she sells it all so well, even when watching Sarah Jane fall in love isn's perhaps something we're used to seeing.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that they only go and get Nigel Havers in to play her hubby-to-be! Doctor Who has never been afraid of going for big names in the casting - especially at this point in its history - but I love the fact that the entire Who franchise had such stature by 2009 that you could get actors of this calibre to appear in a couple of episodes for CBBC! I've not really said an awful lot about these two episodes in particular - rather spent my time simply praising The Sarah Jane Adventures as a show - but I'm not sorry about that, because I'm just glad to have an opportunity to rave about it. If you've not indulged in this part of the Who universe before, please give it a go - some of the strongest material ever is tucked away across these five seasons…


Holy moly these are amazing, this is the first time I made them so they are a bit messy but of so delicious. I was inspired after eating at a raw cafe and wanted to get into making raw desserts. This snickers slice is clean, raw, paleo and a healthy treat!
Soak the dates and peanuts in a bowl of water for at least 30 minutes. Drain.
Dates and peanuts soaking. This makes it easier to blend.
In a blender mix the dates, peanuts, coconut, cocoa and coconut oil until its a thick chunky paste.
This may take a few goes.
You may need to stop and push down the sides.
Press the mix into a baking-paper lined tray.
Base! Press down firmly and evenly.
In a bowl mix the two peanut butters and peanuts, if the peanut butter is very stiff warm in the microwave for a few seconds.
Spread the peanut butter mix evenly on top of the base.
Lastly melt your dark chocolate on a low heat and pour over the peanut butter layer.
Place in the fridge and leave to set for at least 30 mins or until the top looks hard.
Thin layer of dark chocolate.
Remove from the fridge and take out of the tray.
Cut into squares and eat!
Note: You can use any nut butter (such as walnut ) and nuts in this, I went with peanuts so its like a snickers bar. It is also not necessary to have different sorts of nut butter. I prefer natural peanut butter but the Kraft gives it a nice salty flavour.
these raw snickers bars are really good. Only trouble is, it's hard to stick to only one piece.
This is yucky actually - Snickers Bars contain Pam Oil. Is there an alternative bar to use?
Bars in it, the flavours are just the same.
I'm going to try and make these in a muffin tin. I might also use a food processor for the first layer. The big challenge will be eating only one a day. They look yummy!
Yes! I was thinking of making circle ones too and a food pressesor would be much easier I wish I had one! Enjoy.
How is this slice raw if it is using the baking chocolate on the top? Can you suggest another alternative than baking chocolate to use?
You can make your own chocolate.
Thanks Jac. You don't have a recipe for clean chocolate by any chance?
I've never made it before if i do I'll let you know!


#000044 Color wallpapers: Daisies ReWalls Daisy Margarita Blue Flower Pictures For Desktop. Christmas Tree Holiday Winter Wallpaper Pictures Free. Dahlia Photography Blue Gorgeous Stunning Orange Flowers Nature Fowers Single Flower Macro Beautiful Vibrant Picture. Mountains Winter Snow Trees Landscape Tree Nature HD Pictures. Misty Blue Forest Premade Stock III Deep Nature Dual Wallpaper. Christmas City Cities Lights Holidays Water Fullscreen Wallpaper.


text:
Nicolás Lemery, (nacido el 17 de noviembre de 1645 en Rouen y fallecido el 19 de junio de 1715 en París), fue un químico francés, primero en desarrollar teorías sobre la química del ácido-base en el año 1680. Clasificó las sustancias en tres grupos: mineral, vegetal y animal. Describió el método para obtener ácido sulfúrico. Explicó los incendios subterráneos, terremotos, truenos y relámpagos.

Biografía

Nació en Rouen el 17 de noviembre de 1645. Fue hijo de un abogado protestante, procurador del parlamento de Normandía. Inició su formación como aprendiz de farmacia a la edad de 15 años bajo las órdenes de un maestro boticario Pierre Duchemin, de su tío materno, que se comprometió a darle "bebida, comida, fuego, cama y aposento y mostrarle el mencionado arte y oficio".

Lemery aprendió las operaciones farmacéuticas durante los seis años que permaneció como aprendiz en la botica de su tío y, a continuación, realizó el tradicional "compagnonnage", un viaje de estudios que permitía a los aprendices completar su formación visitando boticas de otras poblaciones de su entorno, se dirigió a París, donde trabajó con Christophe Glaser, quien en esos años se encargaba de las clases de química impartidas en el jardín botánico de París.
Más tarde se dirigió a Montpellier y pudo seguir algunos cursos de su prestigiosa facultad de medicina.

Tras su paso por Montpellier, Lemery se dirigió de nuevo a París en 1672 para colaborar con un distinguido boticario de la familia real que le permitió disponer de un rico laboratorio y comenzar a impartir unos cursos de química que pronto le harían famoso. No solo asistieron a sus clases los aprendices de boticario o los médicos y los farmacéuticos en ejercicio, como había sido habitual en las décadas anteriores. También figuró entre sus oyentes algunos representantes de la nobleza parisina, incluyendo un notable grupo de damas de la corte, tal y como remarcaron algunos asistentes sorprendidos ante lo que no tardaría en transformarse en una de las características de la ciencia de la Ilustración: la amplia popularidad de las demostraciones experimentales. Aquí obtiene el título de maestro de Farmacia en 1674 y el cargo de boticario del rey. Esta última circunstancia le permitió tener su independencia económica y crea su propio laboratorio en un sótano en la Rue Galand, donde impartió numerosos cursos de química.

Para mejor dar a conocer sus lecciones de química, Lemery publicó en 1675 su "Cours de Chymie", obra que durante más de cien años constituyó la suprema autoridad química en Europa. Este libro tuvo un enorme éxito: según Fontanelle, era " una ciencia totalmente nueva que salía a la luz y que despertaba la curiosidad de las mentes", una ciencia finalmente desembarazada de toda referencia a cualidades ocultas, de toda jerga bárbara y tenebrosa. Se vendió siempre según Fontanelle, como si se tratase de un libro de galantería o de sátira, y se tradujo al latín, alemán, inglés, español y al italiano.
Se hallaba entonces Lemery en la cima de su gloria científica y económica, por eso rechazó el ofrecimiento del elector de Brandeburgo para ir a Berlín como catedrático de química. Más pronto empezó a sufrir persecuciones religiosas por su condición de protestante, con la prohibición expresa de dedicarse a la enseñanza y ejercer la farmacia. Marchó en primera instancia a Londres, de donde regresó en 1683 para doctorarse en Medicina en Caen al final de ese mismo año.

Se dedica entonces a ejercer la medicina en París, hasta que el edicto de Nantes extiende a los médicos protestantes la prohibición de ejercer su profesión. Con 40 años y sin recursos económicos, Lemery no tiene otra alternativa que convertirse al catolicismo con toda su familia, y así en 1686 el rey Luis XIV le permitió restablecer su laboratorio de química en París y reabrir su botica. Esta última circunstancia no sin una fuerte oposición de sus colegas.
En 1699 se reorganiza la Academia de Ciencias de París, Lemery figurará entre los académicos asociados, anunciando su proyecto de estudiar a fondo el antimonio o estibina en busca de medicamentos útiles, que culminará con la publicación de su "Tratado del antimonio"(1707).

Murió unos pocos años más tarde el 19 de junio de 1715 en París, tras sufrir fuertes ataques de parálisis y apoplejía. En el elogio fúnebre que le dedicó Fontanelle, secretario de la Academia de Ciencias, reconocía de Lemery que: "La mayor parte de Europa aprendió química de él, y la mayoría de los grandes químicos franceses y extranjeros le habían rendido homenaje por sus enseñanzas". Fue un hombre de incesante actividad, sabiendo solo de su puesto, junto a la cama de sus pacientes.

Algunas Ideas

Lemery se opuso a la alquimia y expuso muchos de sus trucos, el lo llamó " el arte sin arte", el principio de la mentira, el medio labor, utilizó el término mendigar.
Él definió la química como " un arte que enseña como separar las diferentes sustancias que se encuentran en un compuesto.
Él reconoció 5 principios, 3 activos ( espíritu del mercurio, aceite o azufre y sal) y 2 pasivos ( agua o flema, y tierra).

Lemery usó la teoría corpuscular como base para decir que consideraba que los ácidos, uno de los principios activos, estaban formados por un conjunto de partículas puntiagudas en movimiento, mientras que los álcalis poseían zonas porosas que las puntas de los ácidos podían penetrar. Como resultado, los ácidos quebraban la resistencia de los álcalis y ocurría una violenta reacción.

Lemery realizó una serie de experiencias, que en su conjunto fueron habitualmente designadas por los autores del siglo XVII como la experiencia del "vulcán" de Lemery. En la presentación inicial del trabajo de Lemery en las Mémoires de la Académie des Sciences francesa, se afirma
que el mejor método para explicar la naturaleza es hacerla representar, esto hace posible producir en laboratorio los mismos efectos a través de causas semejantes. En verdad Lemery no realizó una sola experiencia, como recientemente se ha afirmado por los autores que lo citan, sino un conjunto de experiencias diferenciadas por la introducción de algunas alteraciones en las condiciones experimentales. Lémery publicó sobre estas experiencias un trabajo titulado "Explication physique et chymique des Feux souterrains, des Tremblemens de Terre, des Ouragans, des Eclairs & du Tonnerre". Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Année M. DCC, avec les Mémoires de Mathématiques et de Physique pour la même année. Ámsterdam: Gerard Kuyper, 1700 (publicado en 1706), pp. 131-142, del que existe traducción española de Cándido Manuel García Cruz en:en: https://candidomgc.wixsite.com/blog-personal [traducción Nº 6] y [artículo Nº 45]; http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/1576-7914/article/view/cuadieci201516311337.

Referencias

Químicos de Francia del siglo XVII
Químicos de Francia del siglo XVIII
Fallecidos en París

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


And our bright and shiney home so far away.
Though I try to cheer my comrades and be gay [chorus].
Cheer up comrades they will come!
In the Free Lands of our own beloved homes!
And they swept us off a hundred men or more.
And we heard the cries of victory o'er and o'er!
When they come and open wide the Iron Door!
When we think of seeing home and friend once more.
Shouting the battle cries of freedom.
And up with the Stars.
The Flag that makes us free.
They hadn't seen in years.
Of His Terrible Swift Sword.
By the dim and glaring lamps.


NEW DELHI: The entry of Reliance Jio has benefited consumers with voice and data rates falling sharply, said telecom minister Manoj Sinha, who added that the government will use the regulatory framework to ensure the telecom sector remains healthy.
Sinha told ET in an interview that the ongoing consolidation benefited the telecom industry and that the call drops situation had improved significantly.
Without naming any company, the minister alluded to the recent move by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to scrap Jio's Summer Surprise scheme - which was offering three months of complimentary services for one recharge - as an example of regulatory intervention.
"You would have seen that for the first time in the country, someone had to change their decision. In the beginning of April, a huge advertisement was printed, which Trai called out and said it was not right. So, I think Trai gave out that direction for the health of the entire industry,, Sinha said. He added that the intent of the government is not "to kill the industry and benefit the consumer,.
Sinha allayed fears that the rapid ongoing consolidation would lead to price increases over time and hit consumers, saying that most countries have only two or three phone companies and India was going in that direction. "There are several benefits of consolidation like improvement in quality of services,, Sinha said. "In any case, around five players will still remain. In the current scenario, Airtel, Reliance Jio, Idea-Vodafone, if their merger is cleared.
RCom (Reliance Communications) is also merging with a couple of players and then there's BSNL and MTNL. So, for healthy competition, four to five players are enough., Vodafone India and Idea are in the process of merging their operations as phone companies look for cost synergies by consolidating.
Sinha also played down consumer concerns over EMF (electric and magnetic field) radiation from telecom towers affecting health, saying that India's norms on this are much more stringent than elsewhere. "We have conducted seminars in various places,, he said. "The government is more active than telcos, and I want to underline that the emission norms in India are 10 times stricter than any other country and that radiation does not have any harmful effect on the human body.


text:
Quotes of famous people
SearchAdd quotesSign in / Sign up
Today anniversaries
Chester Bennington quotes
Birthdate: 20. March 1976
Date of death: 20. July 2017
Other names: Честер Чарльз Беннингтон
Chester Charles Bennington was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He was best known as the lead vocalist for Linkin Park. He was also lead vocalist for the bands Dead by Sunrise, Grey Daze, and Stone Temple Pilots. Bennington is widely regarded as one of the top rock musicians of the 2000s. Hit Parader magazine placed him at number 45 on their list of the "100 Metal Vocalists of All Time".Bennington first gained prominence as a vocalist following the release of Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, which became a commercial success. The album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005, making it the best-selling debut album of the decade, as well as one of the few albums ever to hit that many sales. Linkin Park's following studio albums, from Meteora to One More Light , continued the band's success. Linkin Park has sold over 100 million records worldwide making them the best-selling band of the 21st century and one of the best-selling artists of all time.
Bennington formed his own band, Dead by Sunrise, as a side project in 2005. The band's debut album, Out of Ashes, was released on October 13, 2009. He became the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 to release the extended play record High Rise on October 8, 2013, via their own record label, Play Pen, but left in 2015 to focus solely on Linkin Park. He also appeared in cameo roles in several films, including Crank, Crank: High Voltage and Saw 3D.On July 20, 2017, Bennington was found dead at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
Quotes Chester Bennington
We consider the quote as suspicious, we have no evidence supporting authorship
"You can close your eyes to the things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to the things you don't want to feel."
— Chester Bennington
Also attributed to Johnny Depp.
Feeling, Heart
Vasco Rossi18
Italian singer-songwriter
Тайлер Джозеф6
American singer-songwriter and record producer
Andrew Biersack24
American singer-songwriter
Lady Gaga55
American singer, songwriter, and actress
Demi Lovato19
American singer, songwriter, actress, and author
Miley Cyrus44
American actor and singer-songwriter
Billie Joe Armstrong26
Rihanna14
Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress
Jon Bon Jovi26
American singer and musician
Dolly Parton33
American singer-songwriter and actress 1946
Edgar Allan Poe119
American author, poet, editor and literary critic 1809 - 1849
Robert E. Lee55
Confederate general in the Civil War 1807 - 1870
Dogen34
Japanese Zen buddhist teacher 1200 - 1253
Another 65 today anniversaries
Quotes about a smile Quotes about sadness Quotes about love Quotes about family Quotes about life Quotes about happiness
Quotes about friendship Sad quotes Motivational Quotes Funny quotes Wise Quotes About Life
Latin quotes
Tupac ShakurAndrzej MajewskiSukavich RangsitpolLil PeepMichael JacksonBob Marley
Kurt CobainCassandra ClareVincent Van GoghMarek Żukow-KarczewskiMarilyn MansonP. C. Cast
HomeAbout usContactProtection of personal dataCookiesBecome verified authorAdd quotes
Beautiful quotes.
Share your passion for quotes. Join us.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home Archive 2014 Young Money
Issue 8 - Green
WORDS | Amelia van der Rijt
Unlike the US, Australia's money is different colours and sizes. This helps children learn, the visually impaired and just about everyone after a couple of drinks to keep track of their dosh. Soon, our money is going to change. Don't worry, a pineapple will still be a pineapple ($50) and the illusive hundgy ($100) will still be green but more bright and more difficult to counterfeit. So why is America's money all the same and made of paper? Is it consistency or Illuminati?
Though many people have wondered, we have no idea why the first printers of the American banknote decided upon the colour green. What we do know is that in 1929, when paper money was made physically smaller, it was decided that green should remain the colour of printed money for a number of reasons.Primarily, the reasons for keeping the colour were practical. For example, the exact shade was already available in a large quantity. Further, according to the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing, by 1929 green was associated with the strength and credibility of the Government. There was no one body printing money at the time, so all notes were green for uniformity's sake. But importantly, the particular pigment was resistant to physical and chemical changes, and therefore made counterfeiting difficult.
While the greenback has remained largely unchanged since its inception, Australian currency, on the other hand, has undergone frequent changes for a number of reasons. For the period directly following colonisation, bartering was generally used in place of any official currency – after all, the convicts did not need to be paid for their work. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains that rum was a popular bartering tool.
After Federation in 1901, Australia became responsible for its own currency, though the Commonwealth did not introduce its own coins until 1910. The first Australian notes were released in 1913, though the currency still conformed to the British system, also known as the sterling system.
Fifty years later, in 1966, the decimal system was introduced and the currency was forever changed. Soon after the switch from the sterling system, mass counterfeiting of the new ten dollar note was detected (we are descendants of convicts remember). Soon it was a challenge to find a shop or person who would accept a ten dollar note. It became important to develop banknotes which more strongly resisted counterfeiting attempts, and thus in 1988 we were the first country in the world to design and introduce banknotes made of polymer, able to withstand water and difficult to tear.
Australian banknotes incorporate a wide variety of security features to prevent counterfeiting. So how can you tell if a note is a fake? When you hold a note up to the light, a number of features should become visible, including the Australian coat of arms near the numeric value of the note, and a seven pointed star which can be found in diamond shaped patterns within a circle on either side of the note. The clear window should be resistant to scratching, and when held up to the light a sort of watermark within the window should display the value of the note (though the ten dollar note simply has a wave pattern).
The physical print of the note can also help with detection of counterfeits. The dark print on a note is actually raised, so you should be able to feel whether the note is genuine. The quality of the print should also be sharp and defined. The best place to check this is the microprint behind the portraits. And finally, if you have an ultra violet light handy, the serial number should fluoresce, and a patch on every note (except the ten dollar note) should illuminate the note's value. Note: anymore patches than that and you should be putting that note away and washing your hands, stat.
According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, these measures ensure that on average there are just 8 counterfeited notes per million in Australia. Compare this to the average of over one hundred counterfeited notes per million in the United Kingdom. But recently, a rise in the rate of counterfeiting has been detected, and as a result the Reserve Bank has announced that it will be updating security features, and introducing a new banknote design.
Project 'New Generation Banknote' aims to give our notes a more 'youthful' and 'energetic' design, and incorporate new security features. These new features have not yet been revealed to the public, though we do have some idea what the new notes will look like. The size will remain the same as the current bank notes, as will the colours (though they will be quite a bit brighter!) The people featured on the notes will also remain the same, though different portraits will be used. There was some consideration given to the idea that Queen Elizabeth II should be removed from the five dollar note in favour of an Australian such as Henry Parkes or Paul Hogan (kidding on the last one), but this idea appears to have been abandoned.
Australia is not the only country to consider updating its banknotes in recent years. Both Canada and Britain have decided to make the switch to polymer notes, and are currently effecting these changes. Britain intends to introduce a new five pound note, featuring Winston Churchillin 2016, followed the next year by a ten pound note featuring Jane Austen. In Canada, polymer notes have just been rolled out in order to reduce the enormous counterfeiting rate of 470 fake notes per million.
Though the United States has also continued to update its currency, particularly since 1996, it appears that US bank notes will continue to be printed on paper. Though new security features have slowly been added and notes now have a slight colouring, they retain the traditional greenback look. Even the new $100 note, first unveiled in 2010, follows in the footsteps of its forebears.
Australia's money continues to change and adapt to different needs while the US remains traditional with its all green, paper notes. Why the US remains resilient to this change is a question perhaps only Beyoncé knows the answer to.
You're a Wimp, Wilson! The Inextricable Ties Between Sports Culture and Masculinity
Q&A With Dr. Mehreen Faruqi, NSW Greens MP
Shop Art Theft: How can the Indies take back the Internet?
Pick Up Artists: When Seduction is No Longer Romantic
The Newcastle Writers Festival – The Grapeshot Edit
Enter The Unspoken World of Hentai


text:
HARROW AND SAFE HARBOUR ON HULU
Harrow starring Ioan Gruffudd, has premiered in the United States on Hulu.
Hulu, with more than 20 million subscribers, will be the exclusive US home to the complete first season, as well as future episodes of the series.
Harrow series 1 was produced by Queensland-based Hoodlum Entertainment with the support of the Queensland Government and debuted in Australia in March 2018 to critical and audience acclaim and received Australia's Logie Award nomination for Outstanding Drama series.
The series debuted in the UK in July also to great acclaim on UKTV's Alibi Channel. Harrow ranks as Alibi's #1 series this season to date and the #4 top series ever.
Ioan Gruffudd, Harrow
Harrow – Series 2
The Queensland Government will partner once again with Disney-owned ABC Studios International and broadcaster ABC Australia on the second series, supporting Hoodlum via their Production Attraction Fund.
The Queensland Government's investment in ten new episodes of Harrow will deliver further jobs, training and upskilling opportunities for Queenslanders, as well as broader economic benefits for the entire state.
The second season of Harrow goes into production soon in Brisbane.
Harrow is produced in partnership with Hoodlum Entertainment, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Screen Queensland. The series is created by Stephen M. Irwin & Leigh McGrath, written by Stephen M. Irwin, and its executive producers are Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield.
Harrow is the story of forensic pathologist Dr. Daniel Harrow, played by Ioan Gruffudd. Harrow's total disregard for authority and his unfailing empathy for the dead help him solve even the most bizarre cases. He is driven to give victims a voice and will bend every rule to get to the truth of what happened to them. But when a terrible secret from his own past threatens his family, his career, and himself, Harrow needs all his wit, wile and forensic genius not to solve a crime, but to keep it buried.
Hulu also streaming Safe Harbour
The US rights to Matchbox Pictures' Safe Harbour, supported by the Queensland Government, was also recently acquired by Hulu. This proves that Australian content is made to connect with an international audience. Safe Harbour originated from Queensland creatives Simon Kennedy and Phil Enchelmaier, and was picked up and developed through Matchbox Pictures as part of Screen Queensland's Enterprise funding.
The series was nominated for four 2018 Logie Awards including Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie, Most Outstanding Actor for Ewen Leslie, Most Outstanding Actress for Leeanna Walsman and Most Outstanding Supporting Actress for Nicole Chamoun. Hazem Shammas won the Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actor.
Produced by Matchbox Pictures with major investment from Screen Australia, SBS and with state investment from Screen Queensland. NBCUniversal International Distribution will distribute the series worldwide. Written by Belinda Chayko, Matt Cameron and Phil Enchelmaier, the series was produced by Stephen Corvini (Hyde & Seek, Schapelle) and directed by Glendyn Ivin. The show stars Ewen Leslie, Phoebe Tonkin, Jacqueline McKenzie, Leeanna Walsman, Joel Jackson, Nicole Chamoun, Hazem Shammas and Robert Rabiah.
AUSFILM APPLAUDS AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT'S SUPPORT OF THREE INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS: YOUNG ROCK, JOE EXOTIC & IRREVERENT
MY YOUNGER SELF: SCREEN QUEENSLAND
LOCATION SPOTLIGHT: FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND – SO MUCH MORE THAN A TROPICAL PARADISE
VILLAGE ROADSHOW STUDIOS ANNOUNCES INVESTMENT INTO THE FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY


As one of the few private health care facilities in Canada, Shouldice Hospital continues to set an example for Canadian hospitals and beyond. Its global reputation as presenting best practices in treatment and care attracts patients from across Canada and around the world to its medical campus outside Toronto.
Founded in 1945, Shouldice Hospital is the world's leading centre of excellence in abdominal wall hernia repair. Designed specifically to meet the needs of hernia patients, Shouldice is a fully licensed, 89-bed surgical hospital. Their specially trained surgical teams perform over 7,000 hernia repairs annually, with an unparalleled success rate.
Shouldice offers unique services through their concept to deliver "The Shouldice Experience." Everything about the hospital environment, from the estate-like setting and modern facilities, to dedicated staff and attentive patient care, has been carefully planned for ultimate comfort and convenience.
People travel specifically to Shouldice from all over the world because they know they can trust the hospital with hernia repair. Shouldice offers a complete and holistic recovery program so that all patients can resume their daily routines as soon as possible.
Shouldice Hospital is equipped with 5 operating rooms and 89 hospital beds.
The 10 full-time surgeons at Shouldice are leading industry experts in treating hernias.
All of the hospital's staff surgeons are licensed by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and some are also U.S. board certified.
Shouldice employs over 160 members of staff and the average length of employment in the hospital is 10 years.
The hospital was founded in 1945 by Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice and is still privately owned and operated. The founder's son, Dr. Byrnes Shouldice, and his family, continue to take an active role in managing the hospital.
Since 1983, Shouldice Hospital has been featured as an example of specialized excellence in the Harvard Business School MBA program.
Going into its 8th decade, Shouldice Hospital continues delivering the world's best surgical outcomes and patient experience in hernia repair.


COS – black draped neck cotton dress.
Here is a perfect little black dress. I love the draped neck.
A timeless design with considered details, this dress is made from smooth cotton with a touch of stretch. Cut for a straight fit with ¾ sleeves, it has a softly draped neck with a comfortable elastic detail, discreet side pockets and a zip fastening along the back. Back length of size 36 is 94 cm. Model is 181 cm tall and wearing a size 38.
COS – black fringed cape.
Wear it indoor or over your coat.
Designed to drape over the body, this cape is made from an extra-soft blend of wool and cashmere with classic fringed edges. Back length is 93cm. 92% Wool / 8% Cashmere. Product No: 0467055001.
COS – knotted leather sandals.
A sandal with a little more cover. Would go well in the city.
These slingback sandals are made from supple, buttery leather with a softly knotted design. A slingback style, they have open toes, elastic straps and rubber soles. 100% leather. Product No: 0663635001.
COS – textured leather shoulder bag.
Made from slouchy textured leather, this small shoulder bag has a cotton-twill lining with an internal patch pocket for functionality. Designed to be worn short over the shoulder or long across the body, it has a polished silver-tone zip and a long, adjustable strap. 17 x 23 x 8cm. 100% Leather. Product No: 0556899001.
COS – leather phone pouch.
Designed with a tubular leather strap, this phone pouch is made from flat, structured leather with three credit card slots on one side and a back opening for mobile phones on the other. 15.5 x 9 cm. 100% Leather. Product no. 0609432001.
COS – hard case leather bag.
This hard case shoulder bag is made from soft leather with a matte finish. A minimal design, it has a single lined main compartment, a small inside pocket and is closed with a leather strap with a magnetic push button. 27 x 19 x 7.5 cm. 100% Nappa leather. Product no. 0381175002.
COS – large grained leather bag.
A classic shopper style, this bag is made from soft leather with a grained texture. Fully lined with a cotton twill fabric, it has a small, inside zip compartment and concealed one on the outside. It is completed with hidden magnetic fastenings to close the bag and keep the side folds. 40 x 38 x 12 cm. 100% Leather. Product no. 0482278001.
COS – slip-on leather shoes.
An updated classic, these shoes are made from structured leather with a polished finish. Designed with gently rounded toes, they are completed with small leather stacked heels and elastic side details to slip on easily. 100% Leather / Product no. 0598934001.
COS – printed wide-neck dress.
Made from cotton with a multi-coloured, abstract print, this A-line dress has a wide neckline and narrow standing collar. Designed to slip on, it has rounded ¾ sleeves, in-seam pockets and a straight hemline. Back length of size 36 is 91 cm. 95% Pima cotton, 5% Elastane. Product no. 0545695002.


This fragrance oil by Natures Garden was created because the news on the street is that cupcakes are a hot commodity! In order to expand your product line, we have worked closely with our perfumist to develop an entire cupcake line of fragrances! You are going to just love our Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake fragrance! This fragrance begins with a creamy top note of coconut; followed by a warm middle note of buttercream; and well rounded with a base note of dark cocoa. Amazing! An NG Original Fragrance! A Best Seller!
NG Recommended Fragrance Usage: Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake Wholesale Fragrance Oil: The percentages listed below reflect our maximum suggested fragrance usage in the corresponding finished products. To review the actual IFRA Certificate of Compliance for this particular fragrance, please refer to the Fragrance IFRA Certificate link on this page.
Candles Use 5 drops of brown liquid candle dye per 4 pounds of wax or shred an ample amount of a brown color block into your melted wax. Never use crayons to color your candles as they will clog your wick.
Bath/Body Products Brown soap colorant. Never use candle dye in bath products.
Fragrance Testing -Performance in Various Applications- Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcake Wholesale Fragrance Oil: Note: Our testing notes should never take the place of your own personal testing. Always test fragrance in all applications. We do not take responsibility for our test results differing from your test results. Natures Garden is not responsible for any finished products made with our raw ingredients. Cold process soap testing was done by our staff using strict controls. Stick blenders can help to incorporate fragrance back into the soap in the event that it rices during the mixing process. Soaping at room temperature can help to reduce the likelihood of accelerated trace. Fragrances containing vanilla ingredients may discolor soap. Vanilla White Color stabilizer may help prevent discoloration due to vanilla. However, there are more than 40 ingredients used in fragrance manufacturing that may contribute to discoloration of products.
Soap (Cold Process Results) Perfect Pour. No ricing, no acceleration, no separation. Discolors to a dark chocolate color. Scent is strong!
This scent is scrumptious fragrance oil for soap. My melt and pour cupcake soaps have never smelled better!
Did not care for this fragrance in CP soap or soy candles. I felt the walnut fragrance was too dominant lending a bitter smell to the finished product, and the chocolate scent was too light. Overall very disappointed, but will try again with another chocolate fragrance.
Love, love this fragrance. The chocolate is strong, sweet, and creamy smelling with hints of cream cheese peeking through. Strong hot and cold throw in 464 soy wax.
This is very nummy. No issues in cp soap, discolors dark brown. Scent holds up.
smells like an awesome chocolate!
Turns brown in cp soap but smells like heaven! Chocolate heaven that is!!! Worked just fine in my soap!!
You will need a aerobics work out for this one!
Folks when you add Creamy Coconut, Butter Cream and Dark Coco together, you can throw the diet plan out the window! This fragrance can't help itself, it takes over and throws like it out of its mind in Candles, Soap, Shea Butter and even tries to climb out of the bottle its in! This one is a sure keeper, all the ingredients are correctly mixed so that not one will dominate. One minute you smell the Creamy Coconut and then the Smooth Dark Coco raises its head to tease the senses! Then, in the middle is the Butter Cream trying to keep both the Creamy Coconut and the Dark Coco in line. I've never been much of a Dark Coco fan, but I must admit that this fragrance overwhelms a body! I smell this and can't keep my head out of the Refrigerator!
Great in CP Soap - My Favorite Chocolate!
I LOVE THIS CHOCOLATE!!!! Used in CP Soap. I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but I LOVE this one! It is by far my favorite chocolate scent. Just a hint of sweet bakery notes. Behaves beautifully and dicolors to an appropriately chocolate brown. Definitely ordering more of this!
This smelled so good in 464 soy that I wanted to eat it! I use it in mini tart pie candles as the crust. I will definately buy more!