Nothing much to report on this one, but we went to Long John Silver’s for lunch today and, not only did we have really fresh fish and chicken, but James decided he was going to use a fork to feed himself.
You can also see Michelle her modeling her pirate hat.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Family, Kids, Restaurant
I didn’t write reviews for last season’s Doctor Who episodes, but there was one thing that’s been bugging me.
This year, as mentioned, Russell T. Davies has been trying to pummel us senseless with the constant and absurdly out-of-place Torchwood references. Last season we got Bad Wolfed to death.
In virtually every episode, the phrase “Bad Wolf” showed up. I can’t even remember all them, but here are just some samples:
Unquiet Dead: The psychic girl says Rose has seen, “The Bad Wolf” (when clearly Rose hasn’t)
Aliens of London: Bad Wolf spray painted on TARDIS by miscreant youth
Dalek: The Bad Guy’s helicopter is called “Bad Wolf” (note, Doctor and Rose never actually know that or hear the reference to it.
The Long Game: Network TV Station called “Bad Wolf”
Boom Town: Nuclear Reactor named “Bad Wolf”, in Welsh
Bad Wolf: Corporation called Bad Wolf,
Parting of the Ways: Playground chalk writing says Bad Wolf.
So, what’s the Bad Wolf? If you follow the episode it is finally revealed that “Bad Wolf” is the warning that Rose, with the help of the time vortex, sends back in time to warn herself and the Doctor about the Daleks.
Didn’t anyone ever notice that, as warning go, it sucked? How about this message: “The Daleks aren’t dead!” or, if we insist on the notion she was sending the corporation’s name as a warning about them, how about: “Bad Wolf Corporation are Daleks!” Why send herself a message that she knows she won’t understand? Or indeed, why send it to places where she’ll never even hear it? It’s just idiotic.
Clearly that wasn’t the original idea for Bad Wolf. We know that there were long negotiations to get the Daleks in the series and it seemed at one point that it wouldn’t happen. Perhaps there was some other ending, something that really did involve a wolf? The werewolf from “Tooth & Claw” perhaps?
We may never know until Russell T. Davies writes his memoirs.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who
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
Fear Her
by Matthew Graham
I had wondered how they ever managed to afford the obviously hyper-expensive Impossible Planet/Satan Pit episodes (especially after spending all the money on the horse in The Girl in the Fireplace) and this episode helps answer that question: This and the previous Love & Monsters were two cheapo episodes.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, at least not in the case of Fear Her.
The Doctor and Rose arrive in the near future to see the opening of the London Olympic games, but they arrive just one week after an alien arrives and possesses a young girl living on an ordinary street.
The alien gives her the power to capture people into some form of limbo by drawing them. As a negative side effect, it also allows her to create living things from drawings – the monsters in her dreams.
Ultimately the Doctor and the TARDIS are drawn into the other world and Rose is left to save the day. Fitting, I suppose that she gets one last chance to shine as a companion before “the end” of her time aboard the TARDIS.
It was a lightweight episode, but the pacing and acting were good. My main complaints dealt with the fact that although the Doctor got to talk and reason with the alien, he never bothered to offer to help it back to its family and the terribly corny ending where the Doctor must carry the Olympic Torch to the stadium and light the flame. (Was the torch made of wood? Did that constitute this episode’s Torchwood reference?)
My favorite moment in the episode was where the Doctor finally gives a bit of legitimacy to his relationship with his very first companion, Susan, who always called him “grandfather.” In an offhand comment to Rose (that really throws her for a loop) he states, “I was a father, once.” Once again, Rose realizes how little she really knows or understands about the Doctor.
The very end of the episode is also a little heavy-handed, with the Doctor “sensing” that a storm is coming, foreshadowing the Cybermen/Dalek war in the next episode.
I’m always amused by how writers have to try to work around things. In this episode, set at the beginning of the summer Olympic Games, the air outside on location is clearly very cold and everyone’s breath is obvious. When they arrives, the Doctor points out something is making it cold, and it later revealed to be the alien’s pod absorbing the heat; however, after the alien has gone home, everybody still appears to be freezing on that summer night.
The trailer for the next episode was significant enough to give it an entry of its own.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Review
What have the producers and writers of the X-Men movies got against Cyclops? Seriously, that character has gotten the shaft in all three films.
X-Men United is no exception and Cyclops really took it in the shorts this time.
Apart from that, it was OK. Too much Wolverine, again.
Great Falls Tribune => Mummified Brachylophosaurus holds secrets millions of years old
A couple months ago, I reported about Leonardo, the most amazingly preserved fossil. Leonardo mummified before fossilizing, making him an unbelievably preserved specimen, complete with tissue that normally does not fossilize, like his beak, his toenails, skin and even the contents of his stomach!
Now, they’ve begun the painstaking process of X-raying the entire mummy. With the technology available, it’s quite possible that the organs are still intact and can be revealed through the X-rays.
The Discovery channel is spending 10 months making a documentary on it. I can hardly wait!
Technorati Tags: Blog, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Paleontology, Science
BBC News => Ancient Web Spins Evolutionary Story
It’s been a good month for spiders trapped in amber… well, as much anyone can say you’re having a good month when you’ve been trapped in amber 100+ million years…
Earlier this month we reported that the oldest triue orb web spinning spider had been found in amber now the oldest actual silk web and prey have been found encased in amber.
From the BBC:
The find, described in Science, sheds light on the early evolution of spiders and the insects they fed on.
The web consists of some 26 silk strands preserved in a thin layer of amber together with arachnid prey.
Although it is not intact, enough of the web structure has survived to convince its discovers – from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, US – that it was probably a classical wheel-shaped, or orb, web.
It is possibly the oldest spider web on record; an earlier single strand of spider silk preserved in Lebanese amber has been discovered although it is unclear if this was part of a true web.
The prey found was a parasitic wasp.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Natural Sciences, Paleontology, Science
The Taipei Kid => Taipei Tops for Rudeness (WTF?)
The China Post => New Yorkers most polite, Taipei residents among the rudest
My wife brought a Chinese-language news article siting a Reader’s Digest article to my attention the other day. Apparently Taipei came out at or near the bottom in terms of the Digest’s rudeness scale for cities. The article she was reading was in Chinese, so there wasn’t much point in my blogging it – and naturally, I haven’t read it, but the China Post has reported on it in English. (Found this by way of the Taipei Kid.)
Apparently the folks are the Digest secretly followed people around and observed things such things as opening doors, saying “thank you”, helping people pick things up that are dropped, etc. – All definitions of politeness entirely by Western standards. I don’t blame the people of Taipei for being miffed about this.
My experience has always been that people – at least those that have any real reason to interact with me – are kind to the point of being almost annoying. They try to do everything they can for you, even if you don’t want them to.
As for complete strangers… well, they exist in a state of polite indifference, but none have ever been rude to me.
The survey is a crock.
