The parties involved were Network Rail, trying to ensure the station would be fit for purpose for the 21st Century, the architects trying to impose their vision, and English Heritage, trying to preserve the historical character of the building.

It’s easy to dismiss the efforts of English Heritage as pointless bureaucracy, forcing developers to jump through hoops to get their projects approved, but a cursory examination of any city in this country will show why they’re necessary. It is in the instincts of architects to build things which they believe are beautiful, and which fit with the prevailing architectural fashions; by and large they have no care for the old.

Because of this, all across this country perfectly good old buildings were torn down and replaced. An example highlighted in the programme is the old Euston Station: it, along with its fabulous grand arch, were torn down and replaced with the 60s monstrosity we see there today. The same wanton architectural vandalism, veiled with the name of progress and modernism, is visible up and down the country. It’s almost impossible to count the number of town and cities where the heart and soul of the place has been torn out, replaced with weather-damaged concrete boxes, decaying in the rain.

I dread to think of the fate that could have befallen King’s Cross if they were allowed to just tear it down entirely. Maybe what they would have replaced it with would be as beautiful as the current Victorian train-shed with its towering brick facade, but there’s no guaranteeing that. There’s certainly an argument for little-c conservatism in the treatment of our built environment, and that’s without consideration for preserving buildings solely as important cultural, architectural, and historical artefacts in themselves. Whatever is done with these buildings could last lifetimes; we have a duty to treat that responsibility with the respect and caution it deserves.

I want to make it clear that I’m not opposed to architectural progress. I’m actually quite a big fan of the modern style of having lots of glass and metal. My only concerns are that we not get so carried away with ourselves that we trample all over our past, and that we have concern for what these buildings are going to be like, 30, 50, 100 years down the road. My favourite way to go is where modern additions are brought into an older building in a way that’s sympathetic with it; like the fantastic new roof over the British Museum.

This was the most satisfying thing about the programme; the architect backed down from his plans to demolish the interior features of the building, and submitted a new design that incorporated them, and merged them with the modern to create a design that worked with a balance of the new and the old. He realised, to only slightly paraphrase his words, that other people could be right. It made me feel altogether rather happy.

Doctor Who was on again on Saturday, so if you haven’t watch it yet, spoilers abound in the next paragraph or so. Then I’m going to talk about the finale of Skins, so if you haven’t watched that either, you might as well give up now.

It was set in Pompeii, and featured Caecilius and family, which will be intimately familiar to all of you who’ve studied Latin at any point in the past. Overall, the plot was fairly good, I thought, and the conclusion suitably heart-wrenching; but the dialogue wasn’t great, and despite having a fantastic set, the direction felt very constrained. Bonus points to the special effects guys, the pyrovile that rose up out of the grate in Caecillius’ home was completely the most awesome thing ever.

The lighting effects in the little prophecy scene went completely over-the-top, although I did love the way the camera tilted over to one side as things got progressively weirder. The content of the prophecy itself is interesting too – “She is returning” presumably a reference to the return of Rose; the mention of the Doctor’s name having something to do with the Medusa Cascade, which was mentioned by the Master in last year’s finale. Also interesting was how the Shadow Proclamation was mentioned in connection with a planet going missing, just like last week. This also happened in the very first episode of the new run, with the Nestene Conciousness losing a protein planet.

If this pays off, that’ll be a very long set-up.

Skins. I’m not sure what to think of the last episode, which will be the last ever with this cast. Their futures are all left very open, we don’t know if Tony & Michelle will stay together, or if Sid will find Cassie in New York. The stunt driving sequence seemed entirely unnecessary in terms of story progression. It seems to exist solely for the purposes of filling time; in story terms, it acts only to give the episode an early Tony-Sid bonding moment to set up their later teary parting of ways. The actual plot effect of the sequence itself is immediately undone, with no further consequences, which seems extremely lazy to me. It feels like a later addition to fill some time, while other much-needed sequences are entirely missing, like a Sid & Cassie reunion, or a few moments longer to linger on the departure of Maxxie & Anwar (oh, and James, who is given too little time to matter at all, but too much for the amount he impacts the story, paradoxically).

In all, considering that this is supposed to be the last time we’ll see these characters, it’s not a satisfactory wrap-up of their stories. I think, anyway. I guess one could argue that in real life, things are rarely as cut and dried, and life is generally raggedy and nonsensical, with no dovetailed openings or closings, and that Skins for the most part has stuck pretty faithfully to that; but it just feels unsatisfactory.

Pictures of the Serenity and Firefly DVDs in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station. This is so many kinds of awesome.

You have 5 major skills: agility, driving, explosives, strength, and firearms. Agility makes you faster and lets you jump higher, driving lets you drive faster and with better control and causes some vehicles to get upgrades, explosives make explody things more potent, strength lets you beat people up with greater effectiveness, pick up and throw heavier objects, and have more health, and firearms enables you to shoot more accurately.

Rather worryingly, you level up most of these skills my killing gang members. For some inexplicable reason, running people over makes you a better driver. I don’t even pretend to understand. I mean, I can understand blowing people up or shooting them makes you better at exploding or shooting… Agility makes far more sense, because you level that up by collecting green Agility orbs which tend to be found on the roofs of buildings and the like.

Anyways, it comes with access to the Halo 3 Multiplayer beta, and I was going to play some tomorrow. Except the beta ends today. Oh well.

In other news, I watched the new episode of Doctor Who that I managed to miss by going to Sarah & Sarah’s party. It’s called “Blink” and it’s astonishingly good. For a series about a time traveler Doctor Who has surprisingly few stories in which time travel is a critical element; this episode has a healthily non-linear storyline and monsters which were terrifying not because they were revolting or exploited cheap shots like being alien or murderers or the like, but by playing on a very primal fear of malign entities moving out of sight. I can see this being horribly frightening for children, this could make a lot of them afraid of the dark. Along with the last two-parter the quality of the writing has been phenomenal.

And the actress who played the lead part isn’t half bad looking neither, which helps.

Lost > Heroes.

Wow.