A new tee, Torchwood, and other things 'n' stuff...
Here we have a San Diego Comic Con exclusive by virtue of having not been put up for sale at Offworld Designs' website yet. And before anyone asks, someone had already done the Ferrari logo (grin). Besides, I like how this one turned out. In trying to come up with this design, I think I've come to the conclusion that the current incarnation of "My Little Pony" has struck such a chord for the same reason Stephen Fry gives for why he likes ABBA: It's better than it needs to be. At the very worst, MLP (and a lot of other beloved cartoon shows) just had to be a half-hour toy commercial. But Lauren Faust and those who worked with her were allowed to put a little more creative muscle into the writing and visuals. The same can be said of the original Transformers shows and comics, where (along with a lot of admittedly dippy ideas) some nifty concepts were allowed to make it to the final result. A relatively obscure toy called "ROM: Spaceknight" led to some really fun comic books and one of the scarier aliens in the Marvel Universe. And speaking of MLP, I don't suppose anyone has told the BBC about Doctor Whoves, have they? I could really see Moffat or Davies pushing to at least get something done for the next Red Nose Special or perhaps an odd quasi-reality sequence for a Christmas special. :)
We're staying in the Whoniverse, as the second "Miracle Day" episode of Torchwood has aired. Without spoilerizing it for anyone, we were introduced to a CIA director played by Wayne Knight, better known as Newman on "Seinfeld" and Dennis Nedry in "Jurassic Park." He doesn't get to exercise any of his comedic chops here, however, which I think really works. Expecting someone to be funny can be kind of unsettling when they aren't. The plot is advanced a little, and we learn more about what the "Miracle Day" effect does to people, though nothing about the underlying cause. There's also at least one creepy scene involving this effect, though the one from the first episode still trumps that. The episode also introduces us to a few new characters that hint at other players in whatever is going on, but, again, we're still mostly kept in the dark. With ten episodes in total, I figure this isn't unreasonable to expect. The show seems to both plod (in a good way, I suppose, as I want to find out more about what's going on) while doing things at a hectic pace (a race against the clock reminiscent of "Apollo 13," for example). Gwen gets a little overexcited and scream-y in one part, but that's just a minor complaint. I like where this is going thus far, especially with the reaction to the "Miracle Day" itself by those in the medical profession, having to re-think the way care is administered.
During the Steam Summer Sale, I picked up Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and after I decided it was going to suck up too much time (not to mention disturb me with the way faces were rendered in that game), it hit me that fantasy, science fiction, westerns, and a lot of other adventure-y stories rely on a lot of the same stuff that makes me love the games/novels/movies they're based on:
1. There's a frontier, unexplored place, or demarkation where characters go to define/remake themselves. In the nuclear wasteland, it's, well, the nuclear wasteland, or at least, the "rumored" settlements and places beyond where the regular people aren't willing to venture. The Western has the last outpost, beyond which is unsettled (by guys with spurs) territory, and fantasy has other nations, many not governed by humans. In most of these cases, communication between zones is slow, difficult, or nonexistent, which lets one's past not get in the way. In this day and age of computerized records, undeletable postings on social networking sites, and digital photography, this is, quite often, an appealing concept.
2. Free stuff abounds, or at least, enough to make it worth the trip. From the lost idol of Lucaspeelbarg to a buried military bunker full of Tesla-Tech(TM) Death Cannons, somewhere there's a trove of cool stuff to be re-discovered and put to use. This is pretty much essential to games (unless you play a thief, of course), but a lot of stories use this macguffin to run their railroads. Sure, there may be people "owning" the things the hero(es) need at first, but there's usually something lying around that can solve that problem.
3. The free stuff is often leftovers from a previous civilization, conveniently deceased, or mostly so. Someone had to build all those ruins, tombs, cities, or crashed spaceships, or there just wouldn't be any point in donning one's power armor, chain mail, or leather hat to go out and get it.
4. Nearly all of the story setups I mentioned are post-apocalyptic for somebody. For Gamma World tales, it's everyone's apocalypse. For Westerns, it's the Indians, be they more recent or the ancient temple-builders in Central America. For the Indiana Jones stories, its whichever culture that built the final trap-filled shrine that holds the mystic artifact (I refuse to include spaceships in that, by the way). Fantasy novels seem to always have a seemingly middle-ages society living among the ruins of a once-great ultra-fantasy civilization. "Wheel of Time" has what its characters called "The Age of Dreams," "Dragonlance" largely took place after a god-caused cataclysm. "Game of Thrones" is in a post-magic post-dragon world (though that doesn't remain the case) with hints in old records that humanity used to live alongside more supernatural creatures and know a lot more about things than it does currently. In all cases, this provides handy "lost" locations that could have something that does a little more than put some jingle in someone's jeans.
Science fiction has a lot of this these days as well, from the Ancients in "Stargate" to the First Ones from "Babylon-5," and any number of what I usually call "Big Idea" books that require cosmic-level actors to do things like move stars around or try and destroy humanity via time travel or something. In a way, it kind of takes the responsibility for not having to explain a lot of things, like:
- How a Macguffin works.
- How the Macguffin was built.
- How such a Macguffin could land in the hands of our hero(es) who aren't amazingly advanced which helps us relate to them better, probably.
- Failing at the above three, which is usually the case when trying to describe something like warp drive using current scientific knowledge.
So in a way, I've found that a lot of the stuff I enjoy in fiction, at least as a setup, is pretty much a bad History Channel documentary about the lost continent of Atlantis. At least I'm in good company, right? :)
Something else I like is free video games. Here's what might be the next Minecraft (you never know) for those interested in rocketry: The Kerbal Space Program. At the moment, this program is very much in Alpha. Reports of bugs, over-use of memory, etc. abound, but it's at least virus free. Anyway, you basically get to build a rocket and launch three hapless little green guys (hopefully) into orbit. Just using a straight booster and space capsule worked well for me, but that's boring, so one is tempted to try new designs. This often results in stuff like this (apologies to any Cosmonauts; I didn't pick the title), which is often hilarious, except for your Kerbal rocketeers. Check the forums for mods and extra pieces for your rocket projects.
I close with some good news I wish I could've alerted everyone to when it was happening, but things appear to have worked out awesome anyway. Tarol Hunt, creator of the "Goblins" webcomic, had just days to raise the down payment on a house he and his family was renting that was being foreclosed on. All the relevant links are here, but suffice to say, it had a happy ending! I can't believe that I need to not only get out of my house more, I need to get more out of my browser bookmarks...
Speaking of which:
- So Ricky Gervais filmed something he says all us nerds should love, and it includes Darth Vader and C3PO. Scroll to the end for him appearing in a Doctor Who "clip" with David Tennant.
- Watch it while you can: the bootlegged Avengers trailer.
- In case the previous clip was yoinked and you need some uplifting music, Weird Al and Collegehumor present "And The Band Played On," a moving vignette from the history of the Titanic.
- As someone who isn't exactly svelte, it warms my heart to see a story where being fat saved a cat's life.
- Run from the Sun is one of those "outrun the approaching doom" games (in this case, the sun), but this time you're a rocket ship that has to launch itself from planet to planet without missing or taking too long to launch.
- Just in case you were waiting for the complete set, this page has all of the dwarven company from the upcoming "Hobbit" movies. Thorin looks a bit like a short Klingon, don't you think?
- An older cat video has started making the rounds again, culminating in an animated GIF that inserts the hyperactive Persian into the Star Wars universe.
- And speaking of animated GIFs you'll probably see more of, here's one of a stickman trying to get somewhere. I hope he makes it someday.
- The videos for the "Cold Steel" sword company have long been a study in swords vs. low-budget advertising. Some thought to set some of the footage to a parody version of the song, "Girls on Film."
- Some animation for you now, starting with Wild Casting, a take on the MGM lion. Next, a Harry Potter spoof that excels in technique, though the (violence warning) content might be a little puerile. Still, Say the Magic Word shows off some promising chops.
- In case anything in the above caused a rise in blood pressure, let kittens on a DJ turntable scratch the tension away.
- Remember that episode of Star Trek where Q made Wesley a full-grown man? Wheaton needs to re-shoot that scene with dialogue about becoming a writer, celebrity, and geek icon.
- One of Freddy Wong's less violent (and probably more complicated) computer-aided videos, Big Blue Ball machine. This man must be studied and cloned.
- Physics puzzle fans should have a good time with Torniko. Power up and launch your spaceship to collect stars on each level without getting shot, spiked, or otherwise destroyed on your way to the exit.