Blink

19 06 2010

Last night my sister had one of her friends around – she is here to help celebrate my sister’s surprise birthday before my sister heads overseas for a couple of years. Before she leaves she is working her way through my Doctor Who collection and her friend and I got her to watch the awarding winning Blink, one of the best episodes of New Who around, and the first time we get to see the nightmare fuel Weeping Angels. And here is the Tv Tropes page on Blink for the episode in all its trope goodness.

She had seen the two-parter with the Weeping Angels from the fifth seasons and Matt Smith’s Doctor and said she had dreamed about the Weeping Angels after part one. No idea what Blink has done to her given it is a far, far worse bit of nightmare fuel. You have to love Steven Moffat for that – he really knows how to write those kind of episodes.

Apart from the Weeping Angles, the episode features one of the best bets of a wibbly wobbly timey wimey time loop event that has appeared in a TV show. Best leave if to The Doctor to explain it.

If I’ve scarred her dreams for life, I’ve done my job as a big brother.


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The Doctor Is Back

19 04 2010

The Doctor is back – and The Doctor is awesome.

The first three episodes of the new season of Doctor Who have come out, showing the new, 11th, incarnation of the Doctor and his new companion, and any concerns people may have had about Matt Smith in the role can safely be put to rest. Quite frankly, he is better than Tennant.

Yes, yes, I know all the Tennant groupies will take exception, but I never though he was all that great, much preferring the 9th Doctor – Eccleston – over the 10th. That may be because Eccleston was my Doctor.

When I was growing up I knew of Doctor Who, but rarely got to see it. My parents weren’t fans. So when NuWho started up, I was intrigued. It was the preview before the show even aired that really got me – and one line in it in particular.

“I’m the Doctor by the way, who are you?”
“Rose.”
“Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life.”

The line can be seen at the end of this clip.

Eccleston’ Doctor had a maniac, not-entirely-safe energy about him that I liked and I was saddened to see him leave after just the one season. Tennant couldn’t really fill that void, and he just didn’t have that same dangerous vibe about him. The new, 11th, Doctor so far has returned to being a proper doctor – an eccentric, slightly mad scientist Doctor. Having a sexy Scottish redhead companion never hurts either.

it also helps that Moffat is in charge now, the writer of the best NuWho episodes.


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Castle Renewed and the New Promo

1 04 2010

Castle – my favourite TV show currently showing – has been renewed for a third full season, which is excellent news. Ratings continue to improve and the show keeps on getting better.

And they recently released a promo clip for the show which showcases the show perfectly – sexy, funny and great acting.


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Six Degrees of Mass Effect 2 and the Singing Salarian

7 03 2010

Been a short while since I have had a chance to play ME2 but thought I should get around to posting some thoughts about.

I’m still a bit unsure of whether I prefer Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2. In some areas they made some big improvements, but in others they didn’t quite hit the mark. Plenty of others have talked about it before though so I’m not going to labour it.

I did enjoy the game. It was a different look at the ME world, had some great music and characters and left us waiting for the third, and final, chapter of the trilogy.

It is certainly best played with a save from ME1 – all the little bits and pieces that make it into ME2 that refer back to events in ME1 give it flavour.

On to other matters – six degrees of Mass Effect 2. Firstly one has to watch the following scene.

Apart from the amusement of the conversation, pay attention to the names given to the two recruits – Burnside and Chung. Short of a massive coincidence I know (and have worked with) the two people they are named for – Ken Burnside and Winchell Chung. The project was Attack Vector on which I helped design the background setting – a hard Newtonian science space sim. Apparently during the design of ME1 both of them gave some assistance to the designers via a mailing list I’m also on – sfconsim – and this easter egg was a way of thanks.

And one more clip, involving Mordin, one of the character in game. Probably my favourite and also has a huge fan base. He is simply awesome and quite complex all in one. The following clip is just a small display of his awesomeness.


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Putting the Plot Together

22 01 2010

When I started writing my current story I had no plot. In fact I had nothing. I just sat down one day and started writing in an effort to see what turned out. Now that I am returning to the story properly, I looked through the various plotlines trying to work out how to mesh them together. In the end some were set aside for use another day leaving just two main plotlines. It took some thinking and pondering of ideas to figure out a way to mesh them properly so they connected and told a single over-all story. It has breathed some fresh life into the story, now that I know where it is going and how it will end.

A trend of late in fantasy stories seem to be to churn out large volumes containing literally dozens of plotlines that seemingly have no connection to each other beyond being in the same setting. In the long run, ten books in, they may connect, but in the current book they may never meet.

If you look at Lord of the Rings, it had three main plotlines. The first was of course Frodo and Sam. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas made the second and Merry and Pippin the third. There were other, lesser plotlines – such as Gandalf, Eowyn, Boromir and the like – but they wove in and out as needed. Those three main plotlines kept touching on each other even when they weren’t connected and in the end of the story they formed the whole story.

If you look at the late Robert Jordan and the current Stephen Erikson on the other hand, they stuff their novels with so many plotlines and characters that it is a struggle to keep track of them all – especially when a book can go by in which the plots followed never once met up or even mention each other. They are like two or three different books cut apart and then pasted together.

I think initially that was a way my current work was going – but I have since changed it. Yes, there are other stories of other people I wish to tell in that setting, but I won’t mash them all up together. Instead they will follow separately, hopefully, in their own work so that their stories aren’t lost amongst all the others.


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A Blast From The Past

15 01 2010

Back in the day when I was young, one of my favourite TV shows was Danger Mouse. On a whim I looked it up on youtube last night and was surprised to find just how awesome it still is.

Here is one of the episodes – The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemea – made even more awesome by a Doctor Who reference.


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Mass Effect 2, Voice Actors and Musings on Old Saves

11 01 2010

Even though I knew Mass Effect 2 was being released just around the corner (as in just over a week now), I hadn’t been paying it all that much attention.  I enjoyed Mass Effect 1 and am planning on getting the sequel, but as matters stand at the moment, I’m going to have to wait until it comes down in price to be able to afford it.   So there wasn’t much point in looking at it too much or I’d just torture myself.

But something I did stumble across (and alas had me looking into the game more than was good for me) was the following video showing who is doing voice acting in the sequel.

Martin Sheen.
Tricia “Number Six” Helfer
Michael “Colonel Tigh” Hogan
Carrie-Anne “Trinity” Moss
Michael “Worf” Dorn

And Adam “Jayne Cobb” Baldwin. No one knows yet what part his character plays, or if you can have them as a team member, but if they are you know I’m going to have them permanently on roster. Teaming up with Jayne Cobb? You betcha.

And here is the trailer for the game.

One of the interesting things about ME2 is that you can import saves from ME1 and events that transpired in it affect the ME2 game. A character dies in ME1? They aren’t around in ME2. The choices you make at the end of ME1? They carry over – so the council may be dead or alive.

Only two of the six original team members are available to team up with again – Tali and Garrus. Its a shame that Wrex can’t be a team member, but given what can happen in ME1 with him, you can see why.

In preparation for when the game does come out, I am working on a couple of saves, getting them set up perfectly to export over.

Playing the game again makes me want to work on some SF stories again one of these days. Many years back I came up with a SF setting that I have planned to write in for some time, but it has always been far down the list of things to do. Maybe one of these years I’ll get back to it.


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Some More Doctor Who Treats

8 01 2010

Just a few more videos of Doctor Who related material.

The first is a sketch from the 2007 Comic Relief featuring Catherine Tate and David Tennant. Its a bit meta in relation to Doctor Who, but the funnier for it. I must admit that when Catherine Tate was announced as being a companion of the 10th Doctor, I was a little sceptical at the time, but I must admit that that opinion changed during the course of her time on the show – and I was a little sad at the way her character departed the show.

And now for something completely different. No, not Monty Python – it is still Doctor Who related. The Doctor Who theme on electric violin. If anything sounds like a Chaos Noise Marine, then it is this.


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First Trailer For The Next Doctor Who

3 01 2010

With the airing of the second part of The End of Time, the curtain has been drawn on David Tennant’s time as the Tenth Doctor. Now it is the time of Matt Smith as the newest, Eleventh Doctor. It also marks the end of Russell Davies as being in charge of Doctor Who, and Stephen Moffat taking over. Given he is responsible for the best episodes of the New Who (Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) this can only be a good thing.

The BBC have released a short trailer for the upcoming season on Doctor Who and it looks to be a lot of fun.

The Weeping Angels are back!

Of course, as with every other time the Doctor regenerated there are those complaining the show is ruined. Ruined! The Doctor changes – that has always been the way of it. I much preferred Eccleston’s 9th Doctor to Tennant’s 10th but it didn’t stop me watching and enjoying the show. And for those complaining that the preview shows The Doctor firing a gun and hitting someone and complaining that is is un-Who, go back and watch through the various Doctors. They’ve used guns and fought before. Despite the Tenth Doctor being a technical pacifist, the very first time we meet him he fought a sword duel and dropped an alien off the top of a spaceship to his death. Give Matt Smith a chance and remember – he won’t be the last Doctor either.


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Goals for 2010

2 01 2010

After last years effort, I’ve decided not to make nay new years resolutions this year, but instead set some goals I’d like to achieve. Okay, there isn’t much of a difference, but goals don’t feel as binding as resolutions. At least that is what I tell myself.

1. Write every day.

I find writing a bit like rolling a stone – once you’ve got it up to speed it rolls along, but if it isn’t moving, it takes some effort to get it rolling again. Stopping for any amount of time is a dangerous thing. One day becomes two becomes a week and before you know it you haven’t written in months. I may need to change my schedule a bit by doing some writing first thing in the morning before anything else. The goal would be to try an aim for a minimum of 1000 words a day. In theory it shouldn’t be too hard.

2. Stick to a novel and finish it.

Last year I worked on at least four different novels, and not surprisingly none got completed, even though a lot of writing got done. Two of them had the first draft completed. The problem was I kept moving on, getting new ideas and wanting to work on them. So this year I plan to choose one story and see it through to the end before starting a new one.

3. Write more short stories.

Last year I did manage to write a fair number of short stories, but quite a few of them were reworking of previous draughts and ideas. This year I want to pick up the output. What I’d like to see is trying to get a new short story written every fortnight (though one a week would be nice.) The stories would mostly be expanding on the current storylines, of Nhaqosa the Minotaur, the Cahuac Cycle, Cara’s Choice and Primal Tales, but with additional ones making an appearance.

4. Blog more.

The last couple of months saw little in the way of blogging done. I’d like to pick up the frequency of posts, and to make them more interesting. Also to comment more elsewhere on other blogs and forums, and also to twitter a bit more – though for that I’d have to learn to blather on a bit more.


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