Doctor Who and Other Extremly Cool things
This friends filter thing is mostly working for me - I still felt a need to pair down, tho, so I have done a minor f'list cut. If you reading this were one of the chosen few - nothing remotely personal, I just find myself skimming instead of reading, and we never really talk, in comments or elsewhere. Mostly what I cut, though, was communities. I asked myself some hard questions, like "I have *no* free harddrive space, and thus can't download any music. WHY am I torturing myself with all the shiny?" and "I never read the posts on this comm, because I don't wanna be spoiled. Showing solidarity for non-incest fic and analysis in this fandom is commendable, but maybe I should take this off the f'list until I'm caught up enough to READ THE FRIGGIN POSTS???" and so on.
What's new with me:
Well, we got a late wedding present from my in-laws (why yes, procrastination does run in the family): a new 27-inch TV with lots of shiny bells and whistles, AND in exchange for our old TV, a new PS2 slim ceramic edition, with Singstar Pop bundle! (Translated out of VGamer: we got a new itty bitty white ps2 that we can play karaoke on!) For those of you who missed it, BTW, mike_mccall accidentally broke our PS2 when installing our new DVD player - which we got (with my xmas money) because our PS2 had stopped playing DVDs. Oh, irony! Anyway, we got addicted to Singstar thanks to christianmystic and dofunkychickens bringing it to my bday party, so that's all good. We also rented Justice League Heroes with the free rental we got for Spirited Away being scratched (boo hiss!). Anyway, JLH I have mixed feelings about: one the one hand, this format of game is occasionally frustrating, the plot not letting you pick what characters you go through what section with - though eventually you do get to pick, and that's why I'm currently running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal, who were my FIRST unlockable characters purchased with shield points - and we're also finding the difficulty level a bit brutal and unforgiving - on easy. On the other hand, these people are beautifully true to their source material, the sculpting and animation is perfect, on everybody and though the voice acting occasionally throws me because Paul Dini et al have trained me to expect these people to sound a certain way, it's still really very good, and the witty banter is nothing short of perfect - even on the unlockable characters; running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal sounds exactly like running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal - I had to put down the controller a couple times and just squee like a freak for a while. And while yes, you start playing Superman and Batman, and then move on to Martian Manhunter and Zatanna, and it's three levels before you get to assign heroes, you build up unlockable points very fast, so that when you get to that point, you can have as many as three heroes not on the starting roster to choose from (hence the running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal). The base lineup is the animated JL (as are the characterizations) - with the interesting twist of substituting Zatanna in for Hawkgirl. Aside from that: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, (Wally) Flash, and (John) Green Lantern. Hawkgirl is a purchasable character, as are Aquaman, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Green Arrow, and I think some others I'm forgetting. Purchasable alternate skins that function as other characters include Jay Garrick and Walter (!?) West. There are also a ridiculous amount of purchasable alternate costumes for the characters - including Diana's biker outfit, and Zatanna's wacky super-gypsy togs (last seen in identity crisis). My one qualm is that once purchased, the outfit activates on the next map - and then you're stuck with it, until you buy the old skin again. I suppose this is because changing skins actually affects your game stats (late silver age Zatanna, for example, has less health but WAAAAAY more energy). But still, I think these should be a function in place that stores the skins you've purchased and lets you swap them between missions. Anyway. They also pulled out all the stops and dragged some classic villains out: Braniac, Queen Bee, Killer Frost, Gorilla Grod, White Martians, and others I've yet to meet. It is a brutally addictive game, as evidenced by the fact I'm sitting here at work with 5 hours sleep. Ah, folly of youth.
While I'm expounding on my opinions of things, here's what I think of things I've seen lately:
Meet the Robinsons mike_mccall and I rented this on a whim, cause it looked vaguely amusing - and fell in love, utterly. Yes, you can see the "big twist" coming a mile away, yes, the temporal mechanics are slightly off (when are they NOT? It still makes more sense than 'Father's Day' - or the Terminator movies for that matter) but on the whole, this thing is an Etherite's wet dream come true. I also absolutely love the villain - or villains, rather, and that was the twist I didn't see coming. I implore everybody I know to go out and see this movie if you haven't already. It's fun, it doesn't talk down, it's beautiful, it's hysterical, and it has a couple of really solid, really important messages: the overtly stated one of "keep moving forward, failure is the key to eventual success" and the implicit more subtle one of "it doesn't matter how much of a freak you think you are, somewhere there is somewhere you fit in, and people to love you for who you are" - which is the really important one, IMHO.
Voyage of the Damned
I have a new favorite Doctor Who Christmas special. I mean, I love Donna and always will, but Runaway Bride did have a couple of utterly cringe worthy moments in it - as well as reusing the #%Q&#%^@ing pilotfish, who I hated the first time round as making NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. VotD, however, I loved damn near everything about - even that they nicked the plot off of Poseidon Adventure and the setting off of Douglas Adams. Astrid was wonderful; Great Britain is apparently full of gorgeous pop stars who can also act, who knew? I liked her right off the bat for being cute and spunky - and utterly fell in love with her during the planetfall scene, where she's all "OMFG ALIEN PLANET THIS IS SO COOL!" because let's face it, it's what we would all do, even if we were in an empty street in the middle ofthe night. Oh, oh, I loved that old newsagent guy, and the idea that everybody has fled London because it's X-mas and we're due for an Alien Invasion - oh, meta. And I'm so very happy they didn't feel the need to destroy Buckingham Palace - just a quick fly-over. And I was just delighted by the queen coming out and waving - "Thank You, Doctor!" - because of course she knows who he is. Of course. Astrid's final fate I have mixed feelings about - on the one hand it was beautiful and heroic and fitting, and they didn't cheap out and bring her back; on the other hand, dammit, she was awesome! Stop killing off awesome companions before they really have a chance to BE companions! Of course, they did have to get rid of her since Kylie didn't sign up for a whole season, and it made no character sense for her not to go with him. Still, it's Lynda with a Y all over again, and that makes me sad. They'll both always be companions to me. (Remind me to expound further on that, sometime) Backtracking a little bit - they did a fine bit of world building in this one, especially tying the disparate parts of people's backstories: that this world has debtor's prisons is touched on in both Mr Copper's and the Van Houst(?) couple's stories. And what is seemingly just a detail of Banakafalatta's backstory (the cyborg prejudice) turns out to be central to the plot (Max's main motivation). And there was plenty of (not overdone!) referential silliness, and the Rose!Emo factor was almost non-existent and open to interpretation (as Martha!Emo or even Master!Emo as you prefer) anyway. All in all, well well well done. Especially the end - "Mr. Cooper, where are you going?" "Doctor, I have NO idea!" "No, me neither." Sets things up rather nicely, I think.
Sarah Jane Adventures - since my work schedule has been open to staying up till 4AM on weekends, I've been catching SJA pretty regularly - which is to say twice in a row. So here's my opinions on Revenge of the Slitheen: that was a LOT better than I expected from the title. I'm actually really really liking where this is going as a series. Maria's little recap at the start was just perfect, and I liked that they've established this is far enough advanced from Invasion of the Bane that they've settled in a bit, Maria and her Dad to the new house, Sarah Jane and Luke to being a family, yet not far enough that there aren't still kinks to work out. I'm fucking loving Luke's arc - and Sarah's arc, too. Luke really really sells the whole "born yesterday" thing, and in addition to the usual "learning-to-be-human why-are-farts-funny" jokes, the kind of mistakes me makes make sense, and he does learn from them, and has the emotional reactions that make sense for him to have. And then you have Sarah Jane, learning to be a mum, which isn't something she ever dreamed she'd do, and yet it in no way diminishes her awesome kick-ass independent femaleness. (As a side note - the oldschool who eppy that was on right before was Monsters of Peladon: giant green eye-headed Alpha Centauri with squeaky voices and medieval knights with laser canons and - most germane - Sarah Jane giving the Queen a lesson in Women's Lib. Watching these back to back is fascinating, as it really throws into relief the way Sarah's character has been assassinated developed. At the core, when Rusty's not throwing OMFG DOOOOOOOOOOOOOCTOR I CANNOT LIIIIIIIVE WITHOUT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU (seriously, what, is she the Master? XD ) in our face, she really is still Our Sarah Jane; tough, smart, independent Sarah Jane who never stays put when she's told, who never waits for the Doctor to rescue her, who can do anything the boys can, and I love her so so so so so much.) Getting back to Luke and how fucking awesome he is, when he said "Sarah Jane, I thin I made a very bad social mistake; I think I told the Slitheen how to destroy the world" - my heart just broke for him. Maria is still awesome, her mother still needs to be pushed through a plate-glass window on the top floor of Canary Wharf, and then there's Clyde: oh, I like. He's a vast improvement on Whatserface, Bubble Shock twit, though I have to sympathize with Sarah a bit: "oh, just bring the whole School round, why don't you?!" But he's smart (he figured out the vinegar! BRILLIANT!), and he's not overly freaked out by all this alien stuff, and he's a nice dose of snark, which every Companion team needs. Speaking of the vinegar thing - the way they dealt with this being the return of the Slitheen was perfect. The Slitheen don't know what happened to Blon and the rest of them, so they're taking revenge on the planet - and in such a way that it'll secure them financially too, which is right in line with their usual tactics. Sarah Jane doesn't get the info directly from the Doctor, or even from Unit, and thus there's stuff that she and her kids need to work out for themselves, though they do reference the one bit Sarah does know: the off-hand comment Rose made in School Reunion - trust Sarah to remember that and call it up when it's useful! I'm still tiffed at the lack of K9, because although Mr. Smith nicely fills the niche of Info Ex Machine (yes, yes, go on, get the jokes out of your system) he's not K9, and I miss my tin doggie. (I'm sure Sarah feels the same) One final comment, and that's regarding the Slitheen themselves: dear Christ, I forgot how scary those damn things are when they're out of their human fat suits. They're so incredibly alien, and there's something about them that makes them not read as people in rubber suits. I think it's the eyes, that hyper fast realistic blinking, and the way they move, and the teeth, dear god the teeth. Separated from the constant fat and fart jokes, Slitheen actually are quite menacing, and fitting to being the recurring villain of New Who. Oh, I almost forgot - the "are they evil or just bad people" dilemma from Boom Town made an appearance, and I'm more in line with Sarah than Clyde here - though am I the only one that noticed that while the dad exploded, the kid Slitheen disappeared with a teleport effect like the others? So he probably survived - and that makes me oddly glad, as he's really just a product of his culture, in a way. It seems pretty damn clear to me that the Slitheen are gonna be back and honestly - I don't mind too much. (After all, Raxicoricofallapitorious is fun to say.) Oh! How could I forget! Kudos to the writers for mentioning Unit and the Brigadier - and making it obvious Sarah has mentioned same to Maria and Luke - this makes me very very very happy. So in summation: good good show, keep up the good work, but needs more tin dog.
I’m still in bad need of catching up on SGA s4, Torchwood beyond s1 ep2, Numb3rs, Supernatural, and Arrested Development s2 (and beyond, natch), and it would be nice if I could see CSI and House in chronological order for the overplots. Ah well...
And you get a quadruple quote today, because... because.
[Wally] Man, the fur is flying - literally.
[Zatanna] Ugh, I hate animal acts.
-Zatanna and the Flash in Gorilla City, Justice League: Heroes
"...I can't help but think this plan was not very well thought out. [pregnant pause] ...master."
-Meet the Robinsons, recurring line
[Doctor] Mr Copper, where are you going?
[Mr Copper] Doctor, I have NO idea!
[Doctor] *softly* No, me neither.
-Doctor Who, Voyage of the Damned
[Clyde] Oh man, the whole world's going to end!
[Sarah] No, because we're going to stop them!
[Clyde] What, the four of us, with squeegee bottles full of vinegar?
[Sarah] Yes! Do keep up!
-Sarah Jane Adventures, Revenge of the Slytheen
What's new with me:
Well, we got a late wedding present from my in-laws (why yes, procrastination does run in the family): a new 27-inch TV with lots of shiny bells and whistles, AND in exchange for our old TV, a new PS2 slim ceramic edition, with Singstar Pop bundle! (Translated out of VGamer: we got a new itty bitty white ps2 that we can play karaoke on!) For those of you who missed it, BTW, mike_mccall accidentally broke our PS2 when installing our new DVD player - which we got (with my xmas money) because our PS2 had stopped playing DVDs. Oh, irony! Anyway, we got addicted to Singstar thanks to christianmystic and dofunkychickens bringing it to my bday party, so that's all good. We also rented Justice League Heroes with the free rental we got for Spirited Away being scratched (boo hiss!). Anyway, JLH I have mixed feelings about: one the one hand, this format of game is occasionally frustrating, the plot not letting you pick what characters you go through what section with - though eventually you do get to pick, and that's why I'm currently running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal, who were my FIRST unlockable characters purchased with shield points - and we're also finding the difficulty level a bit brutal and unforgiving - on easy. On the other hand, these people are beautifully true to their source material, the sculpting and animation is perfect, on everybody and though the voice acting occasionally throws me because Paul Dini et al have trained me to expect these people to sound a certain way, it's still really very good, and the witty banter is nothing short of perfect - even on the unlockable characters; running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal sounds exactly like running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal - I had to put down the controller a couple times and just squee like a freak for a while. And while yes, you start playing Superman and Batman, and then move on to Martian Manhunter and Zatanna, and it's three levels before you get to assign heroes, you build up unlockable points very fast, so that when you get to that point, you can have as many as three heroes not on the starting roster to choose from (hence the running through Gorilla City with Ollie and Hal). The base lineup is the animated JL (as are the characterizations) - with the interesting twist of substituting Zatanna in for Hawkgirl. Aside from that: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, (Wally) Flash, and (John) Green Lantern. Hawkgirl is a purchasable character, as are Aquaman, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Green Arrow, and I think some others I'm forgetting. Purchasable alternate skins that function as other characters include Jay Garrick and Walter (!?) West. There are also a ridiculous amount of purchasable alternate costumes for the characters - including Diana's biker outfit, and Zatanna's wacky super-gypsy togs (last seen in identity crisis). My one qualm is that once purchased, the outfit activates on the next map - and then you're stuck with it, until you buy the old skin again. I suppose this is because changing skins actually affects your game stats (late silver age Zatanna, for example, has less health but WAAAAAY more energy). But still, I think these should be a function in place that stores the skins you've purchased and lets you swap them between missions. Anyway. They also pulled out all the stops and dragged some classic villains out: Braniac, Queen Bee, Killer Frost, Gorilla Grod, White Martians, and others I've yet to meet. It is a brutally addictive game, as evidenced by the fact I'm sitting here at work with 5 hours sleep. Ah, folly of youth.
While I'm expounding on my opinions of things, here's what I think of things I've seen lately:
Meet the Robinsons mike_mccall and I rented this on a whim, cause it looked vaguely amusing - and fell in love, utterly. Yes, you can see the "big twist" coming a mile away, yes, the temporal mechanics are slightly off (when are they NOT? It still makes more sense than 'Father's Day' - or the Terminator movies for that matter) but on the whole, this thing is an Etherite's wet dream come true. I also absolutely love the villain - or villains, rather, and that was the twist I didn't see coming. I implore everybody I know to go out and see this movie if you haven't already. It's fun, it doesn't talk down, it's beautiful, it's hysterical, and it has a couple of really solid, really important messages: the overtly stated one of "keep moving forward, failure is the key to eventual success" and the implicit more subtle one of "it doesn't matter how much of a freak you think you are, somewhere there is somewhere you fit in, and people to love you for who you are" - which is the really important one, IMHO.
Voyage of the Damned
I have a new favorite Doctor Who Christmas special. I mean, I love Donna and always will, but Runaway Bride did have a couple of utterly cringe worthy moments in it - as well as reusing the #%Q&#%^@ing pilotfish, who I hated the first time round as making NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. VotD, however, I loved damn near everything about - even that they nicked the plot off of Poseidon Adventure and the setting off of Douglas Adams. Astrid was wonderful; Great Britain is apparently full of gorgeous pop stars who can also act, who knew? I liked her right off the bat for being cute and spunky - and utterly fell in love with her during the planetfall scene, where she's all "OMFG ALIEN PLANET THIS IS SO COOL!" because let's face it, it's what we would all do, even if we were in an empty street in the middle ofthe night. Oh, oh, I loved that old newsagent guy, and the idea that everybody has fled London because it's X-mas and we're due for an Alien Invasion - oh, meta. And I'm so very happy they didn't feel the need to destroy Buckingham Palace - just a quick fly-over. And I was just delighted by the queen coming out and waving - "Thank You, Doctor!" - because of course she knows who he is. Of course. Astrid's final fate I have mixed feelings about - on the one hand it was beautiful and heroic and fitting, and they didn't cheap out and bring her back; on the other hand, dammit, she was awesome! Stop killing off awesome companions before they really have a chance to BE companions! Of course, they did have to get rid of her since Kylie didn't sign up for a whole season, and it made no character sense for her not to go with him. Still, it's Lynda with a Y all over again, and that makes me sad. They'll both always be companions to me. (Remind me to expound further on that, sometime) Backtracking a little bit - they did a fine bit of world building in this one, especially tying the disparate parts of people's backstories: that this world has debtor's prisons is touched on in both Mr Copper's and the Van Houst(?) couple's stories. And what is seemingly just a detail of Banakafalatta's backstory (the cyborg prejudice) turns out to be central to the plot (Max's main motivation). And there was plenty of (not overdone!) referential silliness, and the Rose!Emo factor was almost non-existent and open to interpretation (as Martha!Emo or even Master!Emo as you prefer) anyway. All in all, well well well done. Especially the end - "Mr. Cooper, where are you going?" "Doctor, I have NO idea!" "No, me neither." Sets things up rather nicely, I think.
Sarah Jane Adventures - since my work schedule has been open to staying up till 4AM on weekends, I've been catching SJA pretty regularly - which is to say twice in a row. So here's my opinions on Revenge of the Slitheen: that was a LOT better than I expected from the title. I'm actually really really liking where this is going as a series. Maria's little recap at the start was just perfect, and I liked that they've established this is far enough advanced from Invasion of the Bane that they've settled in a bit, Maria and her Dad to the new house, Sarah Jane and Luke to being a family, yet not far enough that there aren't still kinks to work out. I'm fucking loving Luke's arc - and Sarah's arc, too. Luke really really sells the whole "born yesterday" thing, and in addition to the usual "learning-to-be-human why-are-farts-funny" jokes, the kind of mistakes me makes make sense, and he does learn from them, and has the emotional reactions that make sense for him to have. And then you have Sarah Jane, learning to be a mum, which isn't something she ever dreamed she'd do, and yet it in no way diminishes her awesome kick-ass independent femaleness. (As a side note - the oldschool who eppy that was on right before was Monsters of Peladon: giant green eye-headed Alpha Centauri with squeaky voices and medieval knights with laser canons and - most germane - Sarah Jane giving the Queen a lesson in Women's Lib. Watching these back to back is fascinating, as it really throws into relief the way Sarah's character has been assassinated developed. At the core, when Rusty's not throwing OMFG DOOOOOOOOOOOOOCTOR I CANNOT LIIIIIIIVE WITHOUT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU (seriously, what, is she the Master? XD ) in our face, she really is still Our Sarah Jane; tough, smart, independent Sarah Jane who never stays put when she's told, who never waits for the Doctor to rescue her, who can do anything the boys can, and I love her so so so so so much.) Getting back to Luke and how fucking awesome he is, when he said "Sarah Jane, I thin I made a very bad social mistake; I think I told the Slitheen how to destroy the world" - my heart just broke for him. Maria is still awesome, her mother still needs to be pushed through a plate-glass window on the top floor of Canary Wharf, and then there's Clyde: oh, I like. He's a vast improvement on Whatserface, Bubble Shock twit, though I have to sympathize with Sarah a bit: "oh, just bring the whole School round, why don't you?!" But he's smart (he figured out the vinegar! BRILLIANT!), and he's not overly freaked out by all this alien stuff, and he's a nice dose of snark, which every Companion team needs. Speaking of the vinegar thing - the way they dealt with this being the return of the Slitheen was perfect. The Slitheen don't know what happened to Blon and the rest of them, so they're taking revenge on the planet - and in such a way that it'll secure them financially too, which is right in line with their usual tactics. Sarah Jane doesn't get the info directly from the Doctor, or even from Unit, and thus there's stuff that she and her kids need to work out for themselves, though they do reference the one bit Sarah does know: the off-hand comment Rose made in School Reunion - trust Sarah to remember that and call it up when it's useful! I'm still tiffed at the lack of K9, because although Mr. Smith nicely fills the niche of Info Ex Machine (yes, yes, go on, get the jokes out of your system) he's not K9, and I miss my tin doggie. (I'm sure Sarah feels the same) One final comment, and that's regarding the Slitheen themselves: dear Christ, I forgot how scary those damn things are when they're out of their human fat suits. They're so incredibly alien, and there's something about them that makes them not read as people in rubber suits. I think it's the eyes, that hyper fast realistic blinking, and the way they move, and the teeth, dear god the teeth. Separated from the constant fat and fart jokes, Slitheen actually are quite menacing, and fitting to being the recurring villain of New Who. Oh, I almost forgot - the "are they evil or just bad people" dilemma from Boom Town made an appearance, and I'm more in line with Sarah than Clyde here - though am I the only one that noticed that while the dad exploded, the kid Slitheen disappeared with a teleport effect like the others? So he probably survived - and that makes me oddly glad, as he's really just a product of his culture, in a way. It seems pretty damn clear to me that the Slitheen are gonna be back and honestly - I don't mind too much. (After all, Raxicoricofallapitorious is fun to say.) Oh! How could I forget! Kudos to the writers for mentioning Unit and the Brigadier - and making it obvious Sarah has mentioned same to Maria and Luke - this makes me very very very happy. So in summation: good good show, keep up the good work, but needs more tin dog.
I’m still in bad need of catching up on SGA s4, Torchwood beyond s1 ep2, Numb3rs, Supernatural, and Arrested Development s2 (and beyond, natch), and it would be nice if I could see CSI and House in chronological order for the overplots. Ah well...
And you get a quadruple quote today, because... because.
[Wally] Man, the fur is flying - literally.
[Zatanna] Ugh, I hate animal acts.
-Zatanna and the Flash in Gorilla City, Justice League: Heroes
"...I can't help but think this plan was not very well thought out. [pregnant pause] ...master."
-Meet the Robinsons, recurring line
[Doctor] Mr Copper, where are you going?
[Mr Copper] Doctor, I have NO idea!
[Doctor] *softly* No, me neither.
-Doctor Who, Voyage of the Damned
[Clyde] Oh man, the whole world's going to end!
[Sarah] No, because we're going to stop them!
[Clyde] What, the four of us, with squeegee bottles full of vinegar?
[Sarah] Yes! Do keep up!
-Sarah Jane Adventures, Revenge of the Slytheen