SGU, Doctor Who, and more
"Stargate Universe" aired part one of its two-part season finale, and the baddies are the Lucian Alliance, who we last saw (other than in the episode preceding this one) back at the series premiere. They not only provided a threat to the cast, but also gave Lou Diamond Philips' character a way to be a regular cast member without having to do the ol' body-swapping thing. We're also probably going to get to see at least one new "named room" on the Destiny at some point (if not, I'll be sorely disappointed) since we have characters wandering around the ship who are lost. They're dangling the "beauty and the fat-nerd-guy" possibility out there. Just remember fellow hefty geek-guys: All it takes for a cute gal to love you is to have her get shot in your vicinity followed by you dragging her through parts of a starship that haven't seen living people in a bajillion years. Piece o' cake. :)
I may have finally been disappointed in an episode of "Doctor Who." In looking up scriptwriter Richard Curtis' history of work, I can kind of see what might have got off the rails a bit. Curtis was able to pull off the historical drama stuff pretty well, but the sci-fi aspect of the episode was pretty tacked-on with very little consequence or interest other than "find the weird thing and stop it." This made the transitions kind of clunky, as if I were switching back and forth between the SyFy channel and some kind of period drama on Public Television. On a completely technical note, there's a chase scene with the Doctor in an alleyway that just seemed like it was shot incorrectly. Either his pursuer was moving at a snail's pace, or the good Doc can really accelerate between dramatic pauses.
So not a bad episode, but it's not going down as one of my all-time favs. And the mention of the sonic screwdriver (as well as its performance) seemed geared to make up for its nigh-omnipotence last week. And if you know who the episode is about, you might find this clip from the comedy quiz show Q.I. interesting.
And a quick run-down of superhero movie bits: no Joker in 'Batman 3,', the Green Lantern logo posters look pretty cool, and a 'Deathly Hallows' teaser aired during the MTV movie awards.
Mark your calendars and look at your local PBS listings: Video Games Live will air a 90 minute concert on certain stations. I wonder if they could tie it into the "rumble" function on my game controller so I can get a little extra force-feedback from the more powerful movements?
Tune in next time where I bravely post my entry for this fanfic contest. I'm sure it could've used some editing by a third party, but the only available people I had either couldn't get over the painting (my wife) or couldn't read (my kid). Anyway, these links are made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you:
- If you'd like a bit of retro gaming (and don't mind downloading an executable), here's a clever re-do of 'Donkey Kong' to make a game that more resembled the cabinet art. And the re-done music is pretty nifty, too.
- This has been making the rounds as the visual version of the 'Wilhelm Scream': Apparently, one prop newspaper is used over and over again in films and TV. I wonder what it says? "Groundhog Day happens yet again," perhaps? :)
- This clip's been passed around a lot, too, but just in case you haven't seen it, this drummer is at the wrong gig. Fast-forward to about :40 if you want to avoid the over-enthusiastic lead singer's introduction of the band covering "Sharp Dressed Man."
- Just recently unearthed, fossils of the Mechazoic Era.
- 2D platform game lovers step right up for Hot Ninja Moon Moon. If you find a level filling up with ninja masks... you're doing about as well as me.
- Patrick Stewart got knighted recently. I would like to believe that it happened like this.
- I hope to hear this at some convention this summer: Robot Pirates. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of RAM.
- "Projection Mapping," or the projection of images onto an irregular surface (usually a building) has resulted in some cool effects, but this one is currently the best I've seen yet.
- Slow-mo eye-candy: Lightning at 1,000 images per second.
- From the "thank goodness this wound up on the cutting room floor" files comes a scene where 'The Goonies' tangled with a giant octopus. Maybe they're saving it for the rumored sequel...
- Fire up your latest install of Java for the newest version of 'Dust'. More of a particle toy than a game, it's fun to "paint" with, especially if you've rigged parts of it to blow up when exposed to fire...
- Or there's mindless side-scrollin' Gnome-ercide in Gnomergeddon. Defend your town for 20 days from the Gnomish onslaught.