Month: October 2006

I guess I should do the polite thing and give fair warning that this post may contain plot spoilers so if you don’t want to have any preconceptions or knowledge of the show prior to seeing it, you’d probably best ignore this post then.

Personally I have been eagerly awaiting this series since it was announced back during season one of Doctor Who. I had some pretty high hopes regarding it based on my prior enjoyment of both the new Who series as well as the character of Captain Jack Harkness. After doing a fair amount of intarweb research I came to the conclusion that I probably wouldn’t ever see the episodes here in North America due to the generally puritanical views of US TV networks when it comes to sex, violence and naughty language coupled with the fairly small targeted audience that the show was likely to have here. Nevertheless, I used all my l33t haxx0ring skillz (in other words I did a search for Torrent files) and tracked down the first three episodes of the series.

I just finished watching them today and I’m not quite sure how I feel about the show yet. There is a great amount of potential there, but I’m not sure if it’ll be tapped properly. I like what I see enough to see more but I was honestly dissapointed in some ways of how things were approached and dealt with. Admittedly though, I’m only 3 episodes in and things could change.

Compared to the first episode of Doctor Who, it’s a lot slower paced and a fair bit darker and more mature in both theme and subject matter but there are still enough throwbacks to the parent show to keep things interesting and while the Doctor is an established character (regardless of incarnation, there are certain things you have come to expect from him) the characters here are still developing and establishing themselves so in a sense it has to go slower and I’m okay with that, I just wish at times that it wouldn’t go quite as slow as it has.

Now beyond that, there are some fun bits and some odd bits, and some touching and down to earth bits and some throwaway bits and they’re all sort of tossed in there without much coherency. Okay, so no alien tech is supposed to leave Torchwood, and yet every single character to date other than Ianto and Jack have seemingly taken objects home with them. They apparently have the worst security imaginable. And what the hell is up with the pterodactyl? At least we got to see what happenned to Doc #10’s hand after it was cut off by the Sycorax leader.

By the 3rd episode things seemed to be coalescing somewhat and I’m definitely intrigued with next week’s Cyberwoman episode. I think the potential is there for it to be a good show but I have a feeling it won’t last too long. Overall I give it a 7 out of 10 with the strong possibility to score higher based on future episodes.

As it’s almost All Hallow’s Eve once again, I thought I’d repost a couple of creepy little tales from the archives to help get you in the mood.

First up is the creepily compelling tale of The Dionaea House. And of course, who could forget the tale of The Cat with Hands.

As my good buddy Count Floyd would say… OOOOOooo! Scary Stuff Kids.

Oh and on an aside, the Dionaea house story has apparently been optioned into a movie and renamed to Sanctum so as “not to spoil the story or give away plot details with the title”. Quite frankly, the Dionaea title has much more weight and creepiness factor in my books than “Sanctum” *insert scary incedental dum dum dum sound here*. But what the hell do I know, I’m just one of those crazy moviegoers who actually has more than two braincells to rub together.

Anyways, enjoy.

… exploring the galaxy, one gate address at a time.

I lubs lego and the people that turn my childhood toy (ok, it’s one of my adult toys too, shut the hell up) into interesting pop culture references that I know and love.

I’m almost tempted to dig out all my old lego and recreate that just for the absolute sheer hell of it.

“Sometimes the faster it gets the less you need to know, but you’ve gotta remember the smarter it gets the further it’s going to go!”

Jan 14th, Rexall Place. On the Floor. Row 17! YARR BILLY!!!

My Internet pre-sale ticket buying foo is strong!

This guy is amazing. That’s just too cool. I don’t particularly care if he has autism or not, that’s an amazing feat of skill and talent, however you slice it.

This is a pretty inventive and fun commercial, the clown kind of baffles me though.

… but apparently, I’m still addicted to WoW. Guess it really is a drug. Once you try some you’re hooked.

Well on your way! You are 69% Addicted!

You play a lot, and you’re starting to get hooked. Keep it up and soon you too will be part of the ever-growing group that is totally addicted. Or, see the warning signs now and get out while you still can!

The World of Warcraft Addiction Test

If you’re like me, you probably missed the recent Southpark episode featuring World of Warcraft, either because you were too busy killing boarsor you’re Canuckian and don’t get Southpark at the same time as teh damn yankees.

So for your viewing amusement, here’s teh linkage.

Enjoy.

Here’s a stupid little random internet meme for random times.

Hit shuffle on your iPod/MP3 player and then list the first ten songs that play.

Here’s mine (3 times for variety)

# – Song – Artist – Album
1. Sell My Soul – Midnight Oil – Diesel And Dust
2. Jerusalem – Sinéad O’Connor – The Lion And The Cobra
3. Me Wise Magic – Van Halen – Best of Van Halen
4. Phenomenon – LL Cool J – Phenomenon
5. Right Place, Wrong Time – The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies – Big Wheel
6. Dance, Dance – Fall Out Boy – From Under the Cork Tree
7. Cars – Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle
8. Come As You Are – Nirvana – Nevermind
9. Radar Love – Golden Earring – Moontan
10. Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) – Don McLean – Rearview Mirror

# – Song – Artist – Album
1. Space Lord – Monster Magnet – Powertrip
2. Brand New Day – Sting – Brand New Day
3. Creep – Radiohead – Pablo Honey
4. Lonely Day – System of a Down – Hypnotize
5. Miss Murder – AFI – decemberunderground
6. Kick Out The Jams – Bad Brains (feat. Henry Rollins) – Pump Up The Volume Soundtrack
7. No Shelter – Rage Against The Machine – Godzilla Soundtrack
8. Sometimes – Midnight Oil – Diesel And Dust
9. Radio Waves – Roger Waters – Radio K.A.O.S.
10. Mrs. Robinson – The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray

# – Song – Artist – Album
1. Hip To Be Square – Huey Lewis & The News – Fore!
2. Baby Have Some Faith – 54-40 – Fight For Love
3. Blister In The Sun – Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
4. Take The Long Way Home – Supertramp – Breakfast in America
5. 40 Miles of Pain – Captain Tractor – Bought The Farm
6. Rockstar – Nickelback – All The Right Reasons
7. Where Have All The Good People Gone – Sam Roberts – The Inhuman Condition
8. South Side – Moby – Play
9. Maddest Kind Of Love – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
10. The Sound Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel – Wednesday Morning 3 AM

So, my tastes are suitably eclectic. YARRR!

You are a bitch.

The End.

—–

To make a short story long, apparently my mockery of Booblestar and then my renouncement of said mockery has come back to bite me in the arse.

I was watching season 1 yesterday and went to put the last disc into the player so as I could enjoy the last episode and the special features and when I pressed play, the disc spun up with a horrible grinding sound, as if someone had put the disc through a cross-cut paper shredder. The disc wouldn’t read. I took it out and popped it in my computer and the same thing happened. I took the disc out and looked at the bottom and discovered the reason. There’s a little bubble/defect at the very beginning of the disc that’s preventing it from playing. WHEEEEEEEEEE. No biggie I think, I’ll just dig out the receipt and exchange it.

In retrospect, that was easier said than done. First, I realized that I didn’t have the receipt anymore. Second, when I went back to the store that I bought it, they didn’t have a replacement and neither did any of their other outlets. Though they did make the effort to call around to find out who did. Now I’m on their call list for when they do get one in…

Arrrrgh. And all I wanted to do was finish so as I could catch up on Season 2 and then start watching Season 3 while they were being aired. Le sigh.