Alphabetical thing: Bushey

Bushey station is out in Hertfordshire, in zone 8. It is served by misleadingly-named London Overground local trains from Euston to Watford, and London Midland semi-fast mainline trains to Tring. Other mainline trains pass through without stopping.

The Overground platforms curve away from the mainline at Bushey, as the local line heads off to meander through Watford town centre. A very long and gloomy foot subway links the two halves of the station, and there are two exits too.

What's immediately outside the station? The smaller exit (ironically near the much busier local platforms) leads to a quiet approach road, with steps up to a public footpath where you can look down at the station.

The main exit has a pleasant clock on the roof of the station building, but the surrounding road junctions, rail bridges and and flyovers are a lot less pleasant.

Is it near Bushey? No, that's a couple of miles away. The station is actually in a village called Oxhey. It even used to be called “Bushey & Oxhey” until it was renamed in the 1970s. (No, I don't know why they didn't rename it Oxhey, but we've already seen how station names have no connection to real geography!)

The signs outside the local church, park, and fishing bait shop all leave you in no doubt what this area really is.

Alphabetical thing: Burnt Oak

Burnt Oak Underground station is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line, the stop before Edgware itself. There are two tracks with an island platform, and steps leading up to the ticket office.

What's immediately outside the station? Watling Avenue, as full of downmarket, cheap-'n'-cheerful shops as the streets round Buckhurst Hill were full of expensive, upmarket ones.

Is Watling Avenue part of Watling Street? No, but it is just round the corner from it. This obviously confused the original builders of the Underground station into thinking the area must be called Watling:

But in reality, Watling is as imaginary an area as Brondesbury.

Thankfully one street (well, a back lane actually) round there has a much more accurate and less confusing name:

Alphabetical thing: Buckhurst Hill

Buckhust Hill Underground station is on the Central line, out in zone 5, near the London/Essex border.  There are two platforms linked by a footbridge leading to a Victorian station building from when this was part of the Great Eastern Railway.

What's immediately outside the station? There's an Indian restaurant called Chutney in the station car park. (Curry and a station - two of my favourite things combined!)

A short walk away, round the back of the station, a foot subway runs beneath the tracks. This was once part of another entrance to the station, now disused.

Is it near any bucks? There certainly seems to be a lot of big bucks around here. In contrast to East London and Essex's usual chav image, this area seems to very nouveau riche, with Waitrose, independent boutiques, and small tea shoppes. Not an Icleand or a pound shop to be seen.

The Eleventh Hour vs. the Eighth 90 Minutes

I watched the new Doctor Who episode “The Eleventh Hour” last night.  Judging from other on-line reactions, I seem to be in a minority in that I didn’t enjoy it all that much.

Maybe it would’ve worked as a two-parter, but the trouble was, it was trying to do far too much in one hour: introduce Matt Smith’s new Doctor, introduce the new companion, introduce the new semi-regular supporting cast, introduce the new TARDIS interior, establish the rest of the new set-up for this season, and do a story about chasing an escaped alien villain that can take the form of an unconvincing CGI snake.

Now normally I have a soft spot for Dr Who stories whose only failing is that they accidentally try to squeeze in far too many potentially good ideas to do any of them justice.  I’m more willing to forgive these types of stories than those with hardly any ideas but lots of padding, which tend to be more popular among mainstream DW fans.  After all, I'm the only person who’s willing to say a good word about “Fear Her”!

So why didn’t I like this one?

Possibly because it was practically a remake of an earlier Dr Who story.  Paul McGann’s only televised episode as the Eighth Doctor struggled to introduce the new Doctor, introduce the new companion, introduce the new potential semi-regular supporting cast, introduce the new TARDIS interior, establish the rest of the new set-up for his potential future series, and do a story about chasing an escaped alien villain that can take the form of an unconvincing CGI snake.  Both stories even had scenes where the Doctor gets his new costume from a hospital locker.  Coincidence?  Unlikely!

Now, although I've got a soft spot for it, the Paul McGann episode is a bit of a mess.  In fact it's one big mess.  It tries to do too many things in just 90 minutes and never manages to do any of them properly.  So why did Stephen Moffat think it would be a good idea to try squeezing it even further down to just one hour?  It’s hard to forgive him for trying something that he should’ve known would never work.

If that wasn’t bad enough, “The Eleventh Hour” dumbs down the previous episode.  Paul McGann’s new companion was a medical doctor; Matt Smith’s is a stripogram.  Can’t have the viewers identifying with a moderately intelligent human character, can we?  And while McGann’s big action sequence  was a chase scene that fitted neatly into the plot, the sequence of Smith clinging to the flying TARDIS was just random and didn’t serve any purpose at all.  And at least McGann didn’t spend 10 minutes of trying on different shoes for comedy effect before finally finding the ones that fit perfectly.

OTOH if I'd never heard of McGann’s brief stint in DW, then maybe I'd see “The Eleventh Hour” as just a well-meaning attempt to do an episode that just happened to pack in too much stuff.
 
So, maybe the real problem is with me.  In many ways, I’m more of a Dr Who historian than a normal fan.  Perhaps it’s even time for me to quit watching new DW episodes altogether.  After all, I’m not exactly their target audience.

Alphabetical thing: Bruce Grove

Bruce Grove railway station is on the Seven Sisters branch of the East Anglia route. There are two platforms with steps down to the ticket office and exits at street level.

What's immediately outside the station? The old station buildings, which for some reason are on the other side of the road from the actual station itself. Maybe the station was originally there, but was later moved to bring it closer to the railway...?

There's road called Bruce Grove, which seemed to have tractors driving along it when I visited. No, I don't know why.

The road is home to imaginatively named shops like Bruce Grove Fish Market, Bruce Grove Cosmetics, and Bruce Grove Supermarket & Meat Market...

...and the Tottenham Trades Hall. However, since it's boarded up, I assume trade wasn't so good. Maybe it would've been more successful if they called it Bruce Grove Trades Hall instead.

Did anyone called Bruce Grove ever live there? I don't think so, but according to a blue plaque on the boarded-up Trade Hall, someone called “Luke Howard, Namer of Clouds,” lived there. It turns out that “Namer of Clouds” is a description of his work as a meteorologist, and not a Native American tribal name!

Alphabetical thing: Brondesbury Park

Brondesbury Park station, like neighbouring Brondesbury, is on the London Overground's North London Line. The two platforms are linked by a footbridge leading to the ticket office.

There's a really nice, traditional station clock set into the footbridge. It probably looked even better before the overhead wires went up. I'm not sure about the cycle racks on the platform. Are cyclists supposed to carry their bikes through the ticket office and down the stairs to leave them there? Not surprisingly, no-one seems to have bothered doing it.

What's outside the station? Vicwardian terraces, with the Imam Khoei Islamic Centre looking strangely at home amongst them.

Is it near a park? Yes, it's very near one.

But the park's not called Brondesbury Park, but Queen's Park. The same Queen's Park which also has its own station named after it elsewhere! Once again, there's nothing to indicate that anywhere called Brondesbury really exists outside the over-worked imaginations of Victorian railway planners.