Category: General

The trailer for Army of Ghosts at the end of Fear Her is worth a little speculation.

Basically, we see the Doctor captured by Torchwood and their meddling bringing Cybermen to Earth for an invasion. Along the way we also see an “army of ghosts.”

What’s important are some of the less obvious things. It’s no surprise, but we briefly see Mickey, Jackie and Rose’s father standing behind the Doctor, clearly demonstrating that these are the Cybermen from the alternate universe and that Mickey is coming home. Perhaps the alternate Earth wasn’t named Earth, perhaps it was named Mondas – Earth’s “twin planet” from The Tenth Planet.

Rose clearly states that this is her last story to tell, and we’re given a replay of Satan’s words about her dying in battle. A lot of people jumped on that statement during the Satan Pit. I tend to agree with the Doctor, he lied. Why? Because if he could see the future, he knew he would die at Rose’s hands and never escape. That’s the problem with writing characters who can see the future, and it often trips up writers who don’t consider it thoroughly.

Does Rose die? If so, how can she tell us it is the last story she’ll tell. My guess is that it is Jackie’s death coming, not Rose’s, and that Rose, Mickey and her father will ultimately have some reason to stay together and leave the Doctor – but that’s pure speculation.

If you’ve been watching “Totally Doctor Who” you might have noticed in the animation at the beginning of the show the Cybermen are blasting away with arm mounted guns, none of which are seen in Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel. In the trailer for Army of Ghosts Cybermen both with and without arm weapons are clearly shown.

Finally, of course, the trailer clearly reveals a Dalek weapon blasting both humans and Cybermen. (No Daleks are shown, though) We also see the Doctor carrying a weapon-like pack that has what appears to be a Dalek sucker-arm on it.

This is the second time the Daleks have come back from non-existence. It’s time to restore the Time Lords and, most importantly, the Master.

It looks like it might be an exciting season finale, I just hope Russell T. Davies didn’t write it – but I’m sure that he did. 🙁

I still wonder why imdb.com at one point was listing Terry Molloy as Davros in this final two-parter?

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Doctor Who, Review

Michelle recently had her 4th birthday.

When she was born, we had a tree planted in our front yard, and each year we’ve taken a picture of her with it. This is the first year I’ve actually stitched them all together to see how times flies…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Family, Kids

BBC => Doctor Who ReAnimated

Cool news out of Great Britain today, the classic 2nd Doctor 8-Part serial, the Invasion, has been inconveniently missing parts 1 and 4, preventing it from being released.

Now, the BBC has had an outside firm create animated episodes 1 and 8, using the original soundtrack, so that they can complete the serial and release it on DVD.

There’s a teaser trailer on the website, it looks interesting, although a bit too much like a Flash animation. Hopefully it will be a fully-animated version and the trailer was just designed to be stylized.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who

BBC – Doctor Who => Bye Bye Billie

Award-winning Piper to depart at the end of series two.

Billie Piper is to leave Doctor Who in the nail-biting series two finale.

I must say, they did a much better job hiding Billie’s departure than they did Ecceleston’s. Rumors surfaced earlier that Piper was leaving at the end of New Series 2, but they were followed with an announcement (obviously a smoke screen) indicating she was staying into the third season, and then things were in the air.

As mentioned in some of my earlier reviews, it really felt to me as if they were setting Rose up for an end this year, but I speculated that it was just left over scripts from a time when they thought she was leaving. They made a good tactical move and they fooled me.

Rose has been a little annoying this year so perhaps it is time for her to go.

Now I wonder if the horrendous spoiler listed on IMDB’s listing of Doctor Who’s series finale is really true? (There was an earlier one that was even worse than this spoiler, but that has since disappeared.)

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who

Monday was Michelle’s first day of “real” school, sort of.

The school year technically starts in August, but they also hold summer school, so we decided to get her a head start (and, for my wife’s sake, get her out of the house) early.

It’s an all-day school, so by the time she got home on her first day, she was out for the count. The family had a quiet day and a quiet evening, how refreshing!

We think she likes school. She doesn’t kick up a fit, seems to anticipate going each morning, but the best we get out of her are question and answer sessions like this:

“How was school?”
“OK”

or

“What’d you do at school?
“I went swimming, and ate and did stuff.”

or

“Did you meet any new friends?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
“What are their names?”
“I don’t know, but they don’t know my name, either.”

They’ve been giving writing and other simple worksheets during the day, which she brings home, graded. So far she’s nailed them all. Guess we’ll have to wait for some feedback from the school.

The Taipei Kid => Ick

Nothing pairs with a pizza like some bone-handled sausages. To quote from Cathy Dennis’ 1991 hit “Just Another Dream”, this combination is matched up like sugar for a cake. Is this for real or is it just another dream?

In 2001 when we went to Taiwan they had a new novelty food item, street vendors were selling hot dogs and sausages with handles, rather like a corn dog. The novelty that made it uniquely Taiwanese (and probably proves Taiwan has no board of health) was that the “handle” was an old chicken bone.

When we returned in 2003, they had disappeared completely. I assumed this was because somebody had died eating that utterly unsanitary snack.

Now, it looks like they’re back and being served by no less than Domino’s Pizza.

Salmonella on a stick! How quaint.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Food, Taiwan

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been going through my old material and adding into YouTube.

Here then, is the first installment of the pilot for Fusion Patrol: 1999

Technorati Tags: Blog, Space, Video

In the world of video podcasting, one podcast stands head and shoulders above all the rest: Tiki Bar TV.

Even if you aren’t an alcoholic, it’s funny, irreverent and extremely well put together.

(And, if that’s not enough, Lala is extremely well put together, too.)

But there’s something disturbing about their latest episode, Space Cadet. There’s just enough disturbing similarities between this episode and our Fusion Patrol: 1999 episode, The Last Pizza to make me go, “hmmmm.”

And it’s not just me, several people have contacted me about it since the episode aired.

Plot-wise, there’s really no similarity, but the premise of the Tiki Bar being sent into “The Outerspace” and even the use of a same joke/pun just seem too coincidental. The video for FP: 1999 has been on the net for years, so it is conceivable that it’s been seen. Doctor Tiki seems so competent and reassuring, I’m sure it must be a coincidence, right?

Of course, that movie, Zathura, about the house being blasted into space seems mighty suspicious, too…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Conspiracy, Space, Video

Lesson 2, Defense with a Remote Control, Armchair Ninja style.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Video

I was digging through my old Fusion Patrol video material (for reasons that will become clear in a later post) and decided to post a few “classics” to youtube.com.

This is a test of the simplest and shortest one I could find to see if the embedded player works.

So, here is the Armchair Ninja, teaching the Seated Horse stance.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Video