Today, we've two new additions to the blog Hall of Fame: David Tennant and Joanna Page. No big reasons other than it seems odd for them not to be in it.
Anyway, there's now a little shrine to the blog gods in the sidebar. I'm not sure if leaving fish by the side of your monitor as a sacrifice is a good plan or not, but it's always worth a try, I reckon.
So that's seven of the 12 blog gods picked. Who will be the final five? And do you already know them?
Updates and related entries
June 21, 2008: Happy third birthday, The Medium Is Not Enough
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Having rewatched Edge of Darkness last week, and found that it's even better than I'd remembered it, I'd have to say that if Troy Kennedy Martin and/or Martin Campbell aren't on the list, it's a sham of a travesty of a list.
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Maybe, maybe. We'll have to wait and see. And maybe Joss Whedon will be on it. And maybe not.
But then again, look at the Olympians. As lists of gods go, it's one of the top. But what exactly did Hestia do? Can you name one even slightly interesting Greek myth featuring Hestia? No, she got there through nepotism.
So if they can do it, I can have a (potentially) rubbish list of blog gods if I feel like it. They'd still be gods. Plus there's always gods who didn't make the big 12 (Krakos, Zelus and Bia anyone?), demi-gods and Titans to figure in if anyone feels left out. Anyone want to nominate RTD as a titan?
May 19, 2008 | Reply
An expert writes: Hestia basically made the tea. Somebody has to.
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Depends on what you mean by "interesting". She got swallowed first and disgorged last by her dad, thus making her the oldest and youngest kid. And I think she nearly got raped by Priapus, but screamed and threw the cooking pot at him. Damn sight more interesting than what happens to me on a daily basis...
May 19, 2008 | Reply
The swallowing story was shared by all of her siblings (bar Zeus, of course), so it's not really something that can be claimed as uniquely hers.
Being nearly raped by a man with a giant penis is moderately interesting, but again. it's not really something that she did, more something that she endured.
Still probably not a good enough reason for her to wind up in the big 12, either. Aphrodite got up to all sorts of tricks (golden apple fun with Paris, fun with Adonis and Ares, et al); Athena was neverending stories from day 1; Hestia - throwing some pots (and making the tea)? Goddess of the Hearth - a sinecure if ever there was one...
May 19, 2008 | Reply
I hereby nominate Jonathan Meades. A man who reminds us what documentaries should be - opinionated, intellectual, individual, recondite, infuriating, but never less than stimulating. One of the few programme-makers who still has pretty much free rein over what he does in his shows - an essayist of the small screen par excellence.
May 19, 2008 | Reply
I would worship a goddess of tea-making any day. I see from Google that Hestia's Roman equivalent was Vesta, the goddess of matches and ambient ready meals.
May 19, 2008 | Reply
The Final Five? Frak! Are they going to be revealed as Cylons?
Are these living gods and goddesses? Those who've passed on need not apply? Because I was just curious as to what status Nigel Kneale or Dennis Potter might hold over there.
I once had a pantheon for great TV influences, States-based, with the likes of Chayevsky, Rose, Serling, and Kovacs. Had a lot more, far more than 12, but those I remember off the top of my head - and most of them gone before I compiled it. If I made it up now, I'd have Cuse & Lindelof on it (and probably remove David E. Kelley).
In the meantime, how about Steven Moffat?
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Ooh, at least someone got the reference... ;-)
Not wholly convinced about Steven Moffat. Much as I loved Press Gang and most of Coupling, I'm not as much of a fanboy about his Who work as others are, and there's always Joking Apart if you ever need to convince yourself that he has off-days too (not that it was awful). Oh yes and Jekyll.
Potter had so many off-days they almost cancelled out his on-days. cf Cold Lazarus. And while I can see what he was trying to do with Blackeyes, he just missed the mark so much you wonder if he'd been at the Stellas while writing it.
But Nigel Kneale. You might be on to something there, even if I've still got Murrain fresh in my mind... :-)
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Meades is polemical. If I agreed with many of his polemics, I might add him. I don't though. But once we get into purely polemical areas, we'll end up with Christopher Hitchens as a shoo-in, which doesn't seem appropriate for this blog, at least, much as I love him.
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Come now Rob. Only ONE woman in the list? Considering what a cracking companion she's making don't you think Donna ought to be there too in A Standing Up To Aliens (And That Includes The Doctor) Goddess Kind Of Way.
Failing that what's wrong with Hestia and tea making?
Speaking as one who makes many cups of tea....
May 19, 2008 | Reply
Do not think the fact that there's only one woman on the list has escaped my notice (although it's worth pointing out that one feisty blonde Welsh woman is easily the match of two Englishmen). The next two, whom I've already chosen, are women, if that's any consolation. Had I been planning from the very beginning to only have 12, I might have shaken the order up and thought a bit harder though.
As for Donna, I really don't know how to break this to you, but she's not real. She's a fictional character in a TV show. Only real people get into the blog pantheon. And Catherine Tate ain't getting in there. She's good, but she was in The Catherine Tate Show.
As for tea making, I don't think that's really Hestia's job. I do believe that both of Zeus's cup holders (Ganymede and Herakles' wife immortal wife) were the closest we ever got to official caterers on Olympus and neither of them were in the Olympic 12. That's the precedent anyway.
May 20, 2008 | Reply
Ganymede was more of a sexy waiter. Hestia boiled the kettle.
If we were allowing fictional characters as gods, I would be arguing for CJ from The West Wing, but we aren't, so I won't. Aaron Sorkin, though...
May 20, 2008 | Reply
Typical 700BCs over-manning. They're unionised, aren't they?
May 20, 2008 | Reply
"The next two, whom I've already chosen, are women"
I'm putting a fiver on Verity Lambert, and might risk a flutter on Delia Derbyshire.
May 20, 2008 | Reply
Ooh, I couldn't possibly comment - for now.
May 20, 2008 | Reply
Hmm... You have a pantheon to gods and goddesses. How was I supposed to know it was real? Don't suppose Agatha Christie would make the grade for services (or not) to literature? Thought not....