People tend to look down on TV serials as compared to films; I think it's the notion that good art must be weighty and large. There are occasions, however, when you see a serial that really is astonishing. I've been lucky recently to see three of these. Some night, I shall watch all fo these in a row. To confirm the prevaling opinion that all scientists are trekies, the first one was "Sarek" from Star Trek—The Next Generation. The high point is that it allows Patrick Stewart to be terribly actorish on stage. It also features a bar fight and Wesley Crusher getting slapped my his mother; he could have done with more of this.

The second was a Hamish Macbeth episode that mentioned earlier, called "Wee Jocks Lament". It has everything that makes the series great — humour, sadness thrown together in a bizarre way.

Finally, and new to me, I saw "Aurora Borealis", which was the last episode of the first season of Northern Exposure. I've not seen this one before — I don't know when I started watching the programme. It's a masterpiece though. Three subplots tied together deftly and one of the most strange dream sequences of all time. Highly recommended.

Don't quite know why I ordered this DVD — I guess mostly because it's a bit of a cult classic and I wondered why. On watching, it became fairly obvious. It's gots lots of wobbly, hand-held camera moves (sorry, this still make me travel sick, even if they are cool), loud and occasionally intrusive background music, some cartoon segments. The premise is an old one — what if things were slightly different, pick your own alternative ending.

As a film, it's not bad; it's quite watchable, even exciting at points, but in the end, I felt that I was watching a music video rather than a film. It has become a modern, cult classic — I doubt that it will become just a classic.