Vee

The immortal Marcia Cross (MP, DH, OLTL, EON) is appearing on FOX's primetime country soap Monarch. No, I don't watch it.

Does Dawson's Creek count as a primetime soap? I think so. Anyway, this was classy:

A shot I haven't seen of Gatwa and Gibson:

Two recent losses - - both have surprise cameos playing Among Us over Zoom with Daniel Craig in Glass Onion.

Noah Segan (ex-Connor Lockhart, DAYS), a regular collaborator of director Rian Johnson, appears in Glass Onion just as he's done in all of Johnson's films.

Not an actual lost film (or real at all), but a hilarious social media phenomenon that even its alleged director, Martin Scorsese, has gotten in on the joke for: Goncharov And yes, this part is real:

I thought Carl had improved a lot in recent years, and he was a foundational part of the show who was always intended by the creators to go on. I thought it stripped a key piece of the core out of the show. I also had zero interest in Negan's 'redemption.'

Imagine showing up to troll people about 40 year old magazine articles on Falcon Crest on Thanksgiving.

She'll be fine, she's just staying for a little more physical therapy, but thanks. Watch Andor!

Agreed. Scott Bryce was more than capable of playing the cold, scheming Craig he returned to deal with in the late 2000s. He was effective at that onscreen. The problem is the show was utter hackwork by then and gave him nothing else to flesh out, so when he attempted to at least layer the character again within the performance beyond the poor writing Chris Goutman would not tolerate it. Hunt Block was very good within a specific range, but Bryce was a chameleon.

Still the best show of the year, and so relevant for now. With a parent in the hospital over the holiday, the finale was especially resonant for me.

Meanwhile:

I need to review this for details on whatever the hell happened with Jared and Natalie's storyline in 2009. John Brotherton does have a great anecdote about how a major primetime casting director told him that any time they need to recast for a TV show or pilot quickly, their first call is 'my soap opera rolodex,' because daytime vets can execute quickly.

The thing about Heather Tom as Kelly on OLTL is both she and Dan Gauthier as Kevin did end up being popular with the audience. Fans were not pleased when Brian Frons cut them both. Kelly as a character hadn't really been popular since the late '90s, after Nathan Fillion left as Joey and once Kelly did the hit and run that killed Blair's baby. Her pairing with Timothy Gibbs' Kevin under JFP was also extremely unpopular and turned the audience off of both characters. When they were reintroduced in 2003 it was a departure, but Michael Malone and Josh Griffith made a bold move: They leaned into the problematic nature of the characters' changes instead of trying to whitewash it all. Kevin and Kelly under JFP in 1999-2001 had been, put simply, pious hypocrites who had left Joey out in the cold to have an affair and present their romance as a great love story. (They were so widely disliked that when JFP left and Gary Tomlin took over the show didn't bother giving Tim Gibbs, playing a core character, an onscreen exit.) When they returned as played by first Gauthier and Tracy Melchior (almost certainly a placeholder for someone) then Tom, they were the same: Pious hypocrites who had parlayed their social standing into political prominence. The difference between the two creative regimes was the writing treating them much more honestly. Kevin and Kelly in the post-JFP 2000s were treated as a dysfunctional, messy relationship from the jump. I enjoyed Heather Tom immensely in the role because of who Kelly was and because she and the writing leaned into it; Kelly was a self-pitying hypocrite, running from a troubled family and childhood, who hid behind her social standing to get what she wanted or what she thought she wanted (Ace). Fans also loved Gauthier as Kevin because he sold the truth about who Kevin had become; a smarmy political scion who deep down was going to be broken apart by events both of his own making and beyond his control and be rebuilt as a character. It was only when Kevin and Kelly were taken apart and deconstructed by the events of the baby switch storyline that they became sympathetic and viable again. They became OLTL's answer to Alan and Monica Quartermaine and, before their ignoble exit, were a popular pairing together with the audience, who decried the actors' firings. The complete antithesis of where they'd started under JFP with Tim Gibbs and a perhaps less enthused Gina Tognoni. OLTL tried to bring Gina back later and simplify the character bringing Kelly back to 'her roots' as a carefree screwball comedienne. It didn't work over a decade later, with Gina having since played a much more complex, nuanced dramatic role on GL as Dinah Marler. Nobody bought it and the return failed. But the one moment she really worked when she came back in 2010? The few days they gave her with Dan Gauthier.

I keep wondering about Evil of the Daleks, which was fully animated and released commercially not long back (I need to watch that). Or the key episode of the The Tenth Planet, or even DMP. Tennant and Tate: More Gatwa and Gibson: And a big BF audio multi-Doctor story, including Eccleston: Georgia Tennant posts a BTS shot of her husband with some of their kids on-set:

It's that time again, BTW - more word of missing episodes allegedly discovered in Australia. As always, a grain of salt is required but they have recovered or otherwise recreated/restored a remarkable amount of Second Doctor material in recent years. I would've put Gatwa up front here, but I guess they're trying not to let the cat out of the bag on his costume. It is a great image.

I doubt it.

59 years. Another big one to go. And speaking of Elisabeth Sladen, I've never seen this. @DRW50 I've never seen Tom Baker near tears.

A pretty remarkable fall for a widely-loathed boss among retail/park staff: