And it's only November

Winter hasn't even really started yet --- at least no snow and the temperatures haven't gone below 35 --- and I already have SAD. I know it, because I'm lethargic and depressed over stupid things like the cousin/roommate not wanting us to adopt a cat that looks like Hitler. You know, he's right, Veda is a one-cat pet and if it looks like Hitler, well chances are it will want to take over the house, maybe even the house next door. The cousin/roommate is right. But it bums me out. That and our non-traditional Thanksgiving plans, which were my idea because I like Indian food and the restaurant we go to has the best, but ... wah, no turkey with family ... and Christmas will be alone --- see? stupid stuff that last week I was totally fine with, this week, with the gloomy dark weather I'm just like mush on the couch. Meh, everything sucks.

So what better than to rent some great television shows from Netflix! Yesterday we got Taggart (although it's the new, non-Taggart/non-Jardine shows, so we haven't watched them yet because I don't want to be ... well, depressed about it, I guess) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

The first couple of episodes were lackluster, with the exception of the giant jellyfish that sucked in the Neptune submarine, because that was kind of cool, but the stories were sort of blah. Then we watched an episode called Doomsday.


Wow. Crisis of conscience and executive error leading to nuclear war --- far out! I felt better already!

Admiral Nelson (Richard Basehart) turns the key on the fail safe

Some guy is getting glass picked out of his eye while enemy cruisers drop depth charges on the Seaview; Lt. Commander Corbett struggles with the reality of launching missles -- DUDE, it had everything but the bloodhounds nipping at their rear-ends. It even had this delightful little moment where the "polywogs" are initated into King Neptune's realm.

In fact, the first few minutes are tense with a countdown to zero and everyone sweating bullets, and you figure on an episode called Doomsday that something really heavy has happened or will happen, and it turns out that it's a countdown to crossing the equator. My grandfather did it on the Indianapolis with Roosevelt leading the ceremony, so it was kind of sweet for me to see the television crew going through it on the Seaview. They don't complete the ceremony because of the alarm bell and one of the polywogs is the guy who can't fire his missle ... what do you suppose that means...?

The last episode, The Invaders, was a little dreary apart from the special guest star, Robert Duvall (his name spelled as "Duval" on the credits), who played this alien? ancient mystic? founder of Atlantis? I don't know, because I kind of lost interest early into the show. It was just not up there with Doomsday for excitement.


But Duvall was awesome in his skull cap and white makeup. No part too small for the full fisted performance of a thesbian master. He made the others look a little silly --- I know! and he's the one in the skull cap and funny clothes and they look silly! Crazy.