Nerd Babble

A Few Things Whovian

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 04:37:00 +0000

Unless you've been avoiding the Internet, or just plain don't care (honestly, even if you don't care, you've probably still caught wind. The Doctor is kind of a big deal these days), you've probably noticed that the next incarnation of the Doctor from Doctor Who has been announced and it's none other than Peter Capaldi.

We're going to cover a few Who-things now, so keep up.

First up, Mr. Capaldi. I personally like the choice. He seems like he's got some great range and I'm excited to see the Doctor not be a young guy for the first time since the 2005 relaunch. I also think it'll push Moffat into some better writing because he won't be able to hit a block and then say, "Okay Matt, jump around and act crazy to kill some time." Not a knock to either one (I adore Eleven), but it seemed the longer Smith was around, the more Moffat used his energy as a crutch to take up run-time. Additionally, one of the strongest parts of the Tennant-Tate year was the fact that there was zero romantic tension, something that New-Who has leaned on a bit too much. In fairness, Eleven and Clara have largely avoided that, but I think we can be sure that 55-yr old Capaldi and 27-yr old Coleman won't be pulling the TARDIS over to do any smooching.

But it's not a woman/minority! I know, that's really the news here. Another white guy. Personally, I wasn't in favor of a woman, just because I'm a guy, and I like identifying with the Doctor as a guy. I know that's unfair and there's plenty of female Whovians who would love the opportunity to identify with a female Doctor, and their opinions are no less valid. But that's how it worked out this time (and all the other times I guess. Maybe some day). That said, there were two or three black actors I was really in favor of, which in-and-of-itself is a sentence I hate. I really would just rather say, there were other actors I was in favor of, but the nature of the thing is that everyone was really hung up on what the race was going to be. So there it is. There was also a Tom Hiddleston that I was really in favor of, but we can't all get what we want, can we?

If you're curious, my ideal Doctors were as follows

Tom Hiddleston
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Benedict Cumberbatch (Total pipe-dream, I'm aware. Doesn't make the idea any less awesome.)
Idris Elba (Who rumor has it, may have actually turned down the role.)

Finally, the numbering. We did a lot of talking about the Twelfth Doctor. In fact the BBC promoted it that way, with their groan-worthy "Clock striking Twelve" campaign. All of the rumors about John Hurt's Doctor however, and even the dialog in his initial appearance (with Eleven recognizing him), suggest that he is a past Incarnation of the Doctor. Most rumors point to him being the new Nine. Eight is the only Doctor we never see regenerate into his next incarnation, so that's really the only place he could be wedged in. Likewise, we never see the beginning of Eccleston's Doctor. So Hurt would be the new nine, Eccleston the new Ten, Tennant the new Eleven, Smith - Twelve, and Capaldi - 13. Alternatively, He could be the 1st Doctor, before he began calling himself 'The Doctor'. Either way, renumbering is required, unless they don't go in either of those directions. Which would put us right up against the old 12 regenerations rule. Obviously they aren't going to end the show after 13 Doctors (whether Capaldi is truly the 12th or slides to 13 after the 50th), but the canon is against them. They can either choose to ignore it and continue on (which would upset a lot of fans), simply change the rule (which would upset a lot of fans), or have the Doctor acquire some more regenerations (which would upset a lot of fans). Your move, BBC.

Some Notes: 1. For those who don't know, the old rule is that Time Lords have 12 regenerations each, so 13 Incarnations. There's been a few story lines about The Master using up all of his and getting some more, so there is precedent for extending that. 2. I understand wanting to announce Capaldi officially before the secret got out, but now I have to wait until November for anything Who-related and that's just cruel. 3. I would love if Capaldi sported this killer facial hair on Doctor Who.

Creeds and Killers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 04:15:00 +0000

Assassin's Creed has been a series that has packed a lot of surprises. Many of them are the kind none of us every expected. I'll throw out a quick spoiler alert here but since the game is half a decade old I feel like you're reading at your own risk here. The first spoiler was that the game was not straight historical fiction as some of the first trailers led us to believe, but instead a sci-fi heavy outing using genetic memory and a precursor civilization to tell an epic of human survival.

The second surprise was that Ubisoft would stop in the middle of their numbered trilogy to give Ezio his own trilogy. Most surprising to me at least is that at no point has it felt like they're playing for time. I've grown to really love Ezio as a character and his own trilogy-within-a-trilogy has done a lot to flesh out both his and Altair's characters and really set us up for a great finale.

I just finished Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I took it down to the wire, of course. I'm now prepped and ready for Assassin's Creed III to drop on Tuesday. I ended up really enjoying Revelations, despite some issues. The first issue is the fact that Ezio is like 60 and running around on rooftops and parachuting from towers to save damsels in distress. The second, is that by the end of the game you're doing all of this in damn-near full plate armor. The effect is so jarring that I ended up switching back to one of the early-game armors that was much lighter just so I could continue to suspend disbelief. It's not even believable for a man in his prime to lug that much weight across rooftops, let alone one of Ezio's...experience. The revolutionary setting gives me hope that Connor won't be swinging through the trees in full plate by the end of Assassin's Creed III.

The last problem I had with AC:R was that it moves a little slow for awhile. But boy howdy does the finish make up for it. The back third of the game is a treat. Some of the best sequences the series has offered up so far, including turning a carriage chase, generally one of my least favorite parts of the Assassin's Creed series, into one of the most fun AC moments to date.

I'm even more excited for ACIII now that I'm caught up. Tuesday can't come soon enough.

Some Notes: Ezio will probably go down as one of my favorite all time video game characters, and Connor has some serious work to do if he hopes to displace him as my favorite AC protagonist. Not bad for a guy that I didn't even like in his debut game.

Now That's Good Televison

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 02:59:00 +0000

Tonight I continued my time honored tradition of discovering a wonderful show long after most of the world has already discovered it. Tonight's installment is The Newsroom, speaking of course of the HBO drama from Aaron Sorkin, not the Canadian comedy from the CBC.

Normally I wouldn't talk about just some new show that I liked, but this was the first show in quite a while that actually wowed me. I've enjoyed previous Sorkin shows, perhaps not as much as I should, but still found them to be entertaining and usually quite thought-provoking, especially considering the rest of the TV fair that's out there. The Newsroom really grabbed me though, much moreso than his previous offerings. This is a little surprising for me. My gut says I should enjoy The West Wing the most, given my poli-sci background. But The Newsroom. Just wow. If the opening scene (which most people have probably seen on YouTube or around the web, it features Jeff Daniels detailing the decline of America as the supposed "Best Country in the World") doesn't grab you and get you thinking, good luck finding anything on TV that does.

It's the kind of show that will inspire kids to be news anchors. Or at least it might, if it wasn't on HBO and they were allowed to watch it.

Full disclosure, all of this gushing is following my viewing of the first episode. I'm at least level headed enough to get a few more episodes in before I write up a more thorough entry for the recommendations page. But I've got a good feeling that my feelings on it aren't really going to decline.

Some Notes: I'll just stop making promises about posts, okay? It should be clear that I'd really like to maintain this blog, but life keeps standing in my way. I'll continue to work on it. Hopefully we'll get there someday.

Housekeeping

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Just a quick bit of house keeping. Firstly, the site has gone through quite a few different looks in the last couple days as I settle on something I like going forward. Large changes should be done, but there may still be a couple of coloring and font changes coming. Nothing that's a particularly big deal. I'm very picky when it comes to this sort of thing and I change my mind a lot, so this sort of thing is to be expected.

Secondly. I've been away from the blog for quite a long time, so the recommendations page had gotten quite stale. That is now partially rectified with a new recommendation that I won't detail here because then you won't click through to that page. And that's just lazy.

There'll be a couple more coming in the next week or so, as I work myself back into regular blogging and keeping this site up to date. Enjoy.

Some Notes: Updates will hopefully be more regular going forward. I'm not going to get into saying every certain day of the week or anything, but hopefully there should be something new to take in at least once a week, though there'll probably be exceptions to that.

New to Who

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:17:00 +0000

Yesterday, Chris Hardwick posted this video encouraging folks to post their New to Who stories on Twitter. If you're having trouble keeping up (which by now you should've watched that video, that's the story of the first time you experienced Doctor Who.

I tweeted mine earlier, but I wanted to post a longer one, and you can't stop me.

Doctor Who was something I didn't even become tangentially aware of until my senior year of high school. Even then it was a weird British show that a friend's dad watched. This was a time when the relaunch had just happened. David Tennant had yet to play the Doctor. It was still years before we would find out how cool bow-ties were. I never watched it, and I didn't think I was missing a thing.

Once David Tennant took over and the relaunch started to tick up in popularity here in the States, I had friends who started to talk about it. Once I joined Twitter, I started to hear more and more about it. It seemed like something a fine upstanding nerd like myself should at least be aware of. I began to become aware of it. I didn't start watching it, by through wikipedia and the like, I gained a basic understanding of who the Doctor was and what the idea of the show was so that I could be respectable in polite nerd conversation.

In 2010 I signed up for Netflix. While searching for things to watch, I saw that Doctor Who was on there. I decided the 2005 relaunch would be the place to start and the 9th Doctor became my first Doctor. But my New to Who doesn't end there, because quite frankly, I didn't love what I saw. I enjoyed it well enough, but the show struck me as, for lack of a better term, incredibly British. The production values seemed low. Some episodes took me several sittings to get through. Then came the Parting of the Ways. The series one finale. Then came David Tennant. It took me 30 seconds to love the Tenth Doctor, and I've been hooked ever since.

I had worries that I was only a fan of the Tenth Doctor and not really a fan of Doctor Who, but then I reached Matt Smith, who, though I scarcely thought it possibly, I love almost as much as David Tennant, sometimes it's even tie. I've since rewatched the 9th Doctor's run and, with more Who under my belt, I love it. I can't believe I ever didn't.

My friend once described Doctor Who as "Saturday Morning cartoons for adults." I don't know if he was trying to be complimentary (I suspect he wasn't), but I honestly can't think of a more appropriate and loving term for what has become one of my favorite franchises of all time.

Allons-y.

Some Notes: We went old-school for the Doctor Who logo. Vintage is cool. Sorry for being slightly long-winded. A writing mood hit me and it was a favorite topic. A wordy perfect storm. Hopefully it won't be close to a year between posts again.

A Doctor Wedding Reception

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:55:00 +0000

--Spoilers for Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song to follow. If you'd like a quick look at what I thought with no spoilers, skip ahead by clicking here. --

This year was a first for me. After spending the last year watching all of the Doctor Who since the 2005 revival, I had finally caught up enough this fall to actually follow the show when it returned from hiatus. I've talked before about the benefits and disadvantages of watching a show during it's airing vs watching it all later, but I enjoyed being able to stay current on Doctor Who.

Staying current allowed me a spoiler free experience in watching last night's season (or series, if you prefer) finale, The Wedding of River Song. Here's what I thought.

Presenting, Your
Holy Roman Emperor, Winston Churchill

The show has obviously been building toward this episode since The Impossible Astronaut and, insofar as resolving River's relationship with the Doctor, since The Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead. Looking back, I have to wonder how intentional River, who was eventually captured and used by the Silence, first appearing in an episode with "silence" in the title was. We've all been wondering how the Doctor was going to cheat his death that was fixed in time. I don't want to get wrapped up giving a scene by scene recap of the episode though, so lets just hit some high points.

Eye-Patch Lady, Madam Kovarian, has been recurring all season, seeming very strange with her eye-patchiness. Last night, we were finally treated to an explanation to those pesky eye-patches. Promos for last night's episode showed all of the principal characters sporting similar eye-patches. I don't want to brag, but at that point I was pretty sure I had figured out the purpose of them. They were indeed (*Spoilers*) designed to allow people to remember the silence after they stopped looking at them!

Since River's first appearance, I haven't really been a fan of her character. I felt the that the show was forcing me to immediately fall in love with this character I knew nothing about. I was always interested in her story, but didn't like her. I didn't like the hints that she was the Doctor's wife. I didn't like the special place that she held in the show despite the fact that she came out of nowhere. Last night finally resolved the mystery of River Song. She did indeed get married to the Doctor. Out of necessity. In an aborted timeline that never existed. Sure, as Amy pointed out, they all still remembered it, so it still happened for them, but it's enough to make me feel better about the whole thing.

The oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. Did anybody not think it was going to be about the Doctor? I don't think so. Making the question, "Doctor Who?" though? Well played Steven Moffat. Well played. I had already started assuming it would hinge on the Doctor's true name, but to actually phrase it that way was quite fun. I can't wait to see where they take that set up when the show returns, though I'm pretty skeptical that after all of this time, they're just going to tell us his name.

Spoiler free thoughts resume here:

What's most important is that last night's episode was satisfying. Series 6 was often chaotic. For the most part it was complex and exciting, but at times it became confusing, twisty, and well....wibbly wobbly, and timey wimey. As with all time travel stories, I always wonder if there wasn't a simpler way to fix all that, but Moffat wrapped all of the important threads up while leaving an interesting set up for the next series. The show has been criticized at times for being overly complicated just because they wanted to, so it was really important that they found a satisfying conclusion to all the twisty-turny plot points this season.

Some notes: This sadly leaves us without any Doctor Who until the Christmas special later this year, and without another series of Doctor Who until fall of 2012. The good news is, I'll soon have a Sonic Screwdriver. It's a small consolation, but it helps.

Tom Brady Casts Magic Missle for 1d4+1 of Damage

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:54:00 +0000

Of course Tom Brady gets extra dice
because of stats bonuses.

Fall is finally upon us, and that means all of the major American sports that aren't baseball (or currently striking, I'm looking at you basketball) are finally starting once more. As a nerd with an inclination toward the sporting world, this also means it's time to get my fantasy sports teams in order. This, of course, led me to an interesting realization. Fantasy Football, and indeed, fantasy sports in general are possibly the greatest trick ever pulled on society.

Suppose I told you that I spent the week looking at the stats of my team (party) in order to choose the best combination to defeat my opponent. There's skill involved on the player's part to be sure, but a large amount of luck also goes into being successful (a roll of the dice you might say). I'm either talking about Dungeons & Dragons or Fantasy Sports.

Certainly a nerd was behind the creation of this wondrous past-time, but it has grown so much farther than that. It's hard to watch a football game without the commentators, at least one of whom is certainly a former player himself, talk about the fantasy implications of that game, and likely mention their own fantasy teams. In fact I would wager that a majority of serious football fans have at least one fantasy football team. While certainly not as popular fantasy football, fantasy versions of other major sports are constantly growing in popularity as well.

How did this happen? Surely, no one sat down a jock and said, "I know a way to take this game you love to watch and play, reduce it to a collection of stats that you have to constantly watch, force you to monitor off-field trivia, and constantly monitor trends beyond game-time happenings. Large parts of it will require you to be on the internet." Somehow though, we've captured a large sector of the otherwise non-nerd community with an activity that is quite distinctly nerdy. Huzzah for us.

Mysterious set-ups aside, I think the answer is obvious. Being a nerd is nothing more than loving something so much that you want to know everything about it (note, something not someone, that's stalking). You can be a nerd about anything. There are sports nerds just like there are comic nerds, computer nerds, and movie nerds. It's obsession in a way, but less creepy. But just as socially awkward. When people love sports, tracking all of the stats is an inevitable extension of that and once you track all of those stats, you're going to want to do something with them. Fantasy sports are simply proof that anyone can be a nerd, and one more example of the ways that being a nerd is cool.

Some Notes: I hope those of you that are less inclined toward sports made it through this post. It's obviously less about sports than it is about one more way in which I am nerdy. Hopefully you found it interesting, because I'm here for entertainment. For those of you who also play Fantasy Football, I bet my team is outscoring your team.

Blu-ray Blues: A Star Wars Tale

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:44:00 +0000

The release of Star Wars on Blu-ray is practically upon us and it has created some mixed feelings. This should be a joyous event. This is my very favorite fictional property of all time, being released in the very best quality available to home viewing audiences up to this point. I should be thrilled. Instead, George Lucas has gone all Special Edition on us again and forced new changes to the movies I love.

I think they're stupid, but that's not really the point. My greatest displeasure from this whole ordeal is that there is quite simply -nothing- that I can do about it. I want to watch Star Wars in high definition. If I want to do so, I must give George my money. Every time this happens I run into this problem. And this is why George doesn't care. There's tremendous fan outrage every time he tinkers with the Original movies or makes a new movie that people don't like, but guess what? Everyone (including me) still fills his pockets with infinity billion dollars and the cycle continues on. There's no alternative to Star Wars. This isn't a, "computer manufacturer A has upset me for the last time, so I'm switching to computer manufacturer B" sort of situation.

There's really nothing similar to the sort of thing that George has been doing to Star Wars over the years either. It's fascinating, really. The only thing that comes to mind is the 20th Anniversary Edition of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. For those who don't know what happened, a number of "politically correct" edits were made to the film upon it's release. The changes were mostly improving special effects with more modern technology. The most controversial change however, was digitally replacing the guns carried by federal agents with the far less threatening walkie-talkies because the original seen bothered Spielberg. And who can blame him, right? We wouldn't want to teach our children that federal agents carry guns. The difference of course is that Spielberg realizes that enough was enough. Here's Steven on the digital alteration of movies:

"If 1941 comes on Blu-Ray I’m not going to go back and take the wires out because the Blu-Ray will bring the wires out that are guiding the airplane down Hollywood Blvd. At this point right now I think letting movies exist in the era, with all the flaws and all of the flourishes, is a wonderful way to mark time and mark history....George [Lucas] goes his own way and I respect him for it, but my new philosophy on this is to let sleeping dogs lie."

I'm glad at least Mr. Spielberg feels this way. I wish he would lock his friend George in a room until he agrees. But when it comes down to it, they're George's movies and he can do whatever he wants to them. When the movies are released on the next format, more changes will probably happen until 20 versions down the line George will re-release the the original theatrical versions and they will be totally unrecognizable to those poor future audiences, with the layers of digital retouching finally peeled back.

Until then, George will get my Blu-ray money. And starting next year, George will get my money for Star Wars in 3D. Because I love Star Wars too much to ever say no.

Some Notes: The above Spielberg block-quote is from an article over on Ain't It Cool News which you can find in it's entirety right over here. Star Wars will be available on Blu-ray disc on September 16, 2011 and will be available in separate Original and Prequel trilogy box sets, or a Complete Saga boxed set. Finally I commend myself for using the word 'forced' in the opening paragraph and not making a Force pun. Hah, Force Pun would be the worst Force power ever.

Is this how time normally passes? Really slowly?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:57:00 +0000

The Doctor hates linear time.

I've said it before. I'm rarely on time when it comes to being interested in things. I am not a nerd hipster. Try as I might, it's just impossible to catch everything when as it comes out.

This, of course, has some pretty serious benefits that may not be readily apparent. If said interest is in serial form, then there is zero wait time between new installments. Reading a comic series while it's current? Hope you're cool with the month-long gap before the next issue. Watching a show? Have a good week. Hope the show isn't on hiatus.

I read the entirety of Y: the Last Man years after it's run. Yes, I am horribly late on a fantastic series, but I read all 60 issues at my leisure. No publisher-enforced delays.

I watched all ten years of Stargate: SG-1 after it had finished. Those silly cliffhangers that SG-1 loved for it's last 5 years? Yeah, I've got the next episode right here. Let's just keep going.
There are, of course drawbacks. If you haven't seen something other nerds have, they'll look down on you. And nobody looks down harder than nerds. It's a fact. If it's something short, like say...oh off the top of my head, Firefly, then it is gone far too quickly. All 14 glorious episodes of that wondrous show passed my eyes within one short week, no new content to follow. Re-watches, my only solace.

If you're up on your trends, then of course you get the much sought-after social marker of "in the know." God forbid one is "out of the know." Such a fate is too terrible to consider. So you're securely in the middle of the know. What do you get for your trouble? Some conversation. But you're a nerd. So who is talking about this thing that won't still be talking about it whenever you get around to catching up? What else do you get? Waiting. Horrible, endless waiting. Watching a show at your own pace reveals amazing stories with thrilling twists. Watching them at the network's pace reveals cliffhangers and drawn out plots designed to keep you coming back. I'm not saying they magically get worse live, but the cliffhangers hurt more that way. They hurt me. It's the difference between, "I can't wait to see how this ends," and "TELL ME HOW THIS ENDS NOW!"

I'm impatient. I live in the magical land of the internet. Things show up when I want them, sometimes materializing at my whim! What do you mean I can't have the next episode of Doctor Who until -next- Saturday? Why not? You have to make it? I didn't ask for your excuses!

I've had both of these relationships with the wonderful Doctor Who. I've spent the last year watching the show on Netflix and finally caught up. This is the outcome I sought, nay, longed for. To be current in Doctor Who. Now that I am, I'm irritated at the (totally reasonable, mind you) week long wait between episodes. I'm like the Girl in the Fireplace, with the Doctor popping into my life when he can, with me stuck on the slow path.

Some Notes: The post name is a quote from Vincent and the Doctor, the tenth episode of Doctor Who series 5. That episode is also the source of the Eleventh Doctor picture gracing this page. The scene in question can be found here! I linked TV Tropes in this blog, an action for which I am very sorry. I hope you are able to salvage your existence from that glorious time-sucking vortex. That is of course if you even made it this far after following that link. Finally, comparisons between myself and Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson extend no farther than the stated slow path existence. I hope my pseudo-historical rantics (ranting antics!) have both confused and entertained you.

Nuka Colas For Everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Awhile back, A tremendously well done fan film called Fallout: Nuka Break hit the internet. For the uninitiated, it was based on the video game series Fallout. It was phenomenally well done, and if we're being honest, likely the closest we'll ever come to seeing good live-action Fallout.

A lot of people said a lot of really nice things about it. The people behind it, Wayside Creations, immediately started taking donations in the hopes that they would be able to make a series of it. It would appear that they were successful, because low and behold the first episode of the spankin' new Fallout: Nuka Break series has hit the internet.

I'm of course telling you about this primarily because it's awesome, and as a nerd it is my duty to tell you to go with all haste to watch it. I'm also telling you about this because a couple of very surprising things have happened here:

People got together and made a very good fan film that could believably happen in the universe that it is set in.
They asked for help in funding more of it, and actually received it.
They then promised more content and delivered it.

I don't know how much time you spend around the internet, particularly the subset of internet fandom that puts out fan made productions (I understand that it's a place most people try to avoid), but that's not how things normally go down. On that list of surprising things, #1 is a rare enough feat indeed. Good fan films happen, but they are normally off just enough that you can't picture them as part of the established fiction.

As you go down the list, these things just get more and more rare. I can't tell you how many times I've come across good fan productions that promise more, but deliver only websites covered in permanent "Coming Soon" banners.

This certainly isn't always the producers fault. Funding dries up, ambitions exceed means, these things happen. That makes what Wayside Creations is accomplishing a truly special feat and I'm very excited that they are able to do it. The more quality original content that is produced for the web, the better. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer video game.

On a completely unrelated, but still related note, there have been additions to the blog page! Now available for your clicking pleasure is a suggestion box page, which will explain itself when you get there, and a recommendations page, which I'll update every few weeks with two or three things that I recommend. Links to both pages can also be found in the navigation bar up at the top of the page.

TARDISes Are Forever.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:57:00 +0000

Can we all just take a moment to consider this possibility: James Bond is a Time Lord.

Here's what we know. James Bond has been kicking villainous ass since the 1960s. He looks different every few years. This leaves us with only a few possible explanations.

One (which was almost included in a line of dialog in one of the films to make it canonical) is that 'James Bond' is in fact a code name taken by every 007. This would mean that every different Bond we see is just that, a different 'Bond.' It's specific non-inclusion in the movies though means this is not the case. It also doesn't make sense because events clearly transcend the Bonds, like Moore's Bond taking revenge on Blofeld for the killing of Tracy Bond, who actually married Lazenby's Bond.
The second is that all of the different looking Bond's are simply the same man and are perceived as such by all in universe characters. We, the viewers, are the only ones who see any difference at all, whether it be in physical appearance or personality and mannerisms. The films also exist on a sliding timeline, with time being relative to Bond. Therefore James hasn't been a spy for close to fifty years, thus explaining why he isn't a doddering, denture-wearing old person. The Marvel Comics universe operates on a similar timeline, which is why Spider-man is only in his thirties, despite being active since the 1960s in reality. (This is probably the explanation most of you accept, but phooey on you.)
The final possibility (no, there are no others besides these three) is that James Bond is a Time Lord, like the Doctor himself. This would explain the constantly changing appearance, as well as account for the personality differences that each new Bond possesses, like Moore's cool intelligence and humor compared to Dalton's...well...Dalton-ness. Consider:

007 is known to constantly travel with companions, rarely undertaking his adventures alone.
He frequently travels in a vehicle that is more that it initially appears to be, and is bigger on the inside. (Cars cannot hold that much armament under the hood and still fit the engine inside. It's just science people.)
He uses technology that, to most people, seems to be science fiction.
He, like all Time Lords, speaks in a British accent.
He travels through time. (Albeit slowly...and in a straight line. I'm reaching now, but stay with me.)
I once heard him say, "Come along Pond." (Okay, I just made that one up. We're done now.)

Obviously, the evidence is clear, and it is conclusive and irrefutable. I for one will enjoy the James Bond series even more now that I know James's clever little secret.

If you're looking for reasons that this posts exists, I have none, other than that I've been watching way too much Doctor Who lately and happened to read an update on the next Bond movie. Things collided in my brain and spewed forth the word monster you see before you. And that sounded disgusting.

Some notes: The title is obviously a Diamonds Are Forever reference, my personal favorite Bond movie, followed closely by Goldeneye (space lasers FTW!). I debated in my head what the plural of TARDIS should be, so I asked the Internet and it responded the way it usually does, by giving me too much information. It was between TARDISs, TARDISes, and TARDI (or TARDII). While I enjoy 'i' as a pluralizer, TARDISes sounded better in the title, so that was the winner. I also thoroughly apologize for the gap in posts. I have no excuses.

Odds and Ends

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Bit of a scattered post for today, we're gonna cover a few things. There's been a lot of first looks hitting the internet, so lets proceed and get our first looks at them.

First up, the first photos of "Catwoman" in The Dark Knight Rises have gone up online. I put Catwoman in quotation marks because...well, you'll see. Anyway, here she is:

Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman

I'm pretty underwhelmed by it, much like I have been with the few shots we've seen of Bane. This may be an interesting character that I'm looking at, but it's not Catwoman. I don't like it, but I didn't like Spider-man's new movie threads, and those are growing on me, so we'll see.

Speaking of new movie threads, next up is Superman. Earlier in the week, The first pick of Henry Cavill in the tights came out and it's predictably darker and very, very Zack Snyder:

Henry Cavill as Superman

I feel pretty good about this. It's a good look and my initial reaction to it is actually better than when I first saw Brandon Routh in his Superman duds. It looks like him and Andrew Garfield's Spider-man shop at the same fabric store, but that's not surprising. If I'm looking for problems, it seems like there is an awfully large amount of cape happening here, as it's bunched up behind him on the floor. My real question is whether or not they've retained the red underwear-on-the-outside look or if they've dropped it the way the DC Relaunch has, as it's not really clear from this picture. Overall, I like what I'm seeing here and hope for a clearer shot soon.

Lastly, Sony announced that they've set a release date for The Amazing Spider-man 2, May 2nd, 2014. Nevermind that the first film is still almost a year away, Sony is planning for success. I think it's a bit premature, but come on. Green Lantern wasn't exactly a financial success (though I enjoyed it) and Warner Brothers is planning a sequel anyway. Sony has to keep the Spider-man films coming or they'll loose the rights back to Marvel and they are certainly not going to follow a reboot with a reboot, so a sequel was inevitable for anyone paying attention. I don't see a reason to make noise when they announce it.

Photo sources:

SuperheroHype: Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman

SuperheroHype: Henry Cavill as Superman

Alliterative Aliases Are Abundant

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:53:00 +0000

If comic books love anything, it's alliterative names. Matt Murdock. Clark Kent. Lois Lane. Lex Luthor. Wally West. Reed Richards. Bruce Banner. Peter Parker.

They of the alliterative names now have a new playmate on the playground: Miles Morales.

Miles Morales will be taking up the mantle of Spider-man in Marvel's Ultimate Comics imprint. Miles Morales is half-black, half-hispanic. The media, totally diligent and certainly not in anyway sensationalist, caught wind of a couple key phrases and is turning this story into something of a circus. Those phrases are: 'Spider-man is dead' and 'Spider-man is black.'

Lets clarify The Amazing Spider-man, that is the Spider-man whose adventures are printed in the mainstream Marvel universe and have been published there since the 1960s is fine. He is still Peter Parker, and he is still alive. The deceased web-slinger in question is Peter Parker of the Ultimate line, which began publishing in 2000 and became Ultimate Comics in 2009. There, Peter Parker was killed and is being replaced by the equally alliterative Miles Morales.

Frankly, this is a decision that I hate. I don't hate Miles Morales. I know nothing about Miles yet. I'm sure he's a wonderful lad. But he's not Peter Parker. And Peter Parker is Spider-man. When Joe Quesada ended the Peter/Mary Jane marriage with the controversial One More Day event, he told us that we could instead read Ultimate books where Peter and MJ were still together. Well now I see a Marvel Universe were the marriage was disolved and an Ultimate Universe where Peter is dead. What now Joe? What do I do now. But that's more bitterness about One More Day than it is disapproval for a new Spider-man.

Maybe I just don't see the need to replace Peter. Maybe I just haven't gotten over the untimely death of a character I've actually read since his beginnings in 2000. Either way, I'll give Miles a fair shake and I hope he's successful. Meanwhile I'll continue to hope that someone sets the Peter/MJ fiasco in the mainstream universe right eventually. I hope he feels right as a replacement, since to my knowledge he has no connection to the previous web-head.

From where I sit, Ben Reilly (not a clone in the Ultimate universe, but a research assistant to Curt Connors who had access to Peter's DNA and could've used it to give himself powers) would've made more sense. He is also black in this universe and was a prime suspect for the new Spider-man when the rumors started that the new web-slinger was black.

Speaking of the race, while it's great that Marvel is going with a minority (even if he has no previous connection to Peter at all), can we all promise to stop saying: "Miles is the first minority Spider-man to be published." Somebody should tell Miguel O'Hara that. Because I bet he's pissed that people are forgetting about him.

In all seriousness though, for all the people saying that Marvel is pandering to minorities and the politically correct crowd, settle down. That may very well be the case, but they also know that without good stories behind him, Miles Morales won't amount to anything. They won't try to sell books based on his race alone. If a character being a minority meant that people bought the books, Miguel O'Hara would be a household name. Likewise, if they had made Spider-man white again but told poor stories, the results would be just as poorly received.

At the end of the day, whether with Miles Morales or whatever new Spider-man they might introduce in the future, it won't matter if they're black, white, latino, asian or otherwise. Gay or straight, man or woman, etc, all that will matter is this: Do they capture the hearts and minds of a generation and beyond like Peter Parker did? It's that connection that matters and if Miles Morales can inspire people with stories of great power and great responsibility, then come on Miles. Let's see what you've got.

Wherein Introductions Are Made

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:26:00 +0000

I'm new to this whole Blogger thing. I started this as a continuation of a previous blog I was writing over on Tumblr. I was enjoying writing it, but Tumblr just didn't feel like the right fit for what I wanted to do, or for getting much of an audience. If you stumble across this blog, feel free to check out http://nerdbabble.tumblr.com/ to get an idea of what you can expect here in the future.

Beyond that, regular (to semi-regular) updates should begin tomorrow. I hope there's something here for you to enjoy.