The London Addendum.

The Scottish Chronicles VIII.

London, England

Travel diary - June 26, 2013:  after finding the abandoned TARDIS in Glasgow, used same to travel to London.  Unfortunately, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong with the already damaged camouflage circuit...

- Sid

P.S.  Please note the inclusion of feet - see, it is possible to educate people, even Campbell Brothers.

"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"

Something I omitted from the preceding post about Castle Doune is the unique view from the walls.  Gazing out from the battlements, one is presented with an epic panorama of verdant Scottish countryside -  and, of course, the occasional band of knights in search of the Holy Grail.

Wait, what?

That's right  - not only is Doune Castle historically noteworthy for its reconstruction by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and Regent of Scotland; for its ownership by the Earls of Moray; and for its representative 14th century architecture, but it was also one of the primary locations used in exterior and interior shots for perhaps the only historical fantasy/parody/comedy film in captivity*, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

Interestingly, Doune was not one of the original shooting locations for the 1975 movie, but shortly before production began the Pythons received a letter from the Scottish Department of the Environment, responsible for historical monuments at that time, informing them that they would not be allowed to use any of the castles to which they had requested access.  Apparently there was some concern that the locations would be used in a fashion "inconsistent with the dignity of the fabric of the buildings", and as a result the crew was forced to rely on privately owned structures such as Castle Doune.**

Inconsistent with the dignity of the fabric?  On the contrary - it is a proud and humbling moment to stand in the room where Zoot's twin sister Dingo announced that there would be oral sex after the spanking, to walk the floors upon which the knights of Camelot sang about spam (a lot), or to climb the stairs that Sir Lancelot climbed in his furious and bloody quest to save the captive princess - er, prince.

Regardless of the opinions of the Scottish government in the 1970s, I guarantee that far more people have been to visit Castle Doune as as a result of its association with The Holy Grail than would have otherwise have chosen it as a vacation stop - present company included.  There's even a set of coconut shells available in the ticket shop, for those members of the faithful who have made the pilgrimage to Doune solely in order to be able to trot back and forth in front of the castle while a faithful minion clatters the shells together.

My minion and I didn't enjoy that particular experience, but I will admit that it was difficult to look over the edge of the parapets without briefly thinking of bad French accents, hamsters and the smell of elderberries - not to mention giant wooden rabbits.

- Sid

* Anyone who wants to add Your Highness to the list can just leave now. 

** The castle is now under the stewardship of Historic Scotland, the successor to the Department of the Environment.

...in a storm of swords.

The Scottish Chronicles VII.

Castle Doune, a strongpoint for the Earls of Moray during the 17th century Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

- Sid

...as kings clash...

The Scottish Chronicles VI.

Castle Campbell, the seat of power in the Lowlands for the Duke of Argyll.

- Sid

Let the game of thrones begin...

The Scottish Chronicles V.

 The Royal Great Hall, Stirling Castle, Scotland.

- Sid

"Hail to thee, blithe geekette! Nerd thou never wert."

The Scottish Chronicles IV.

After a lengthy walk from the train station to our hotel in Stirling, and an even lengthier uphill walk to Stirling Castle, Colin and I sought refuge in the lounge bar at the Portcullis Hotel for a pint and a bite before visiting the castle, where it was our pleasure to be served by a shy young geek - a geekette, perhaps? 

We didn't seek specific information as to her area of geekness, the poor thing was disturbed enough by my request to photograph her.

- Sid

"I am definitely a mad man with a box!"

The Scottish Chronicles III.

Glasgow, Scotland

Boy, is this going to make the rest of the trip easier...

- Sid

P.S.  This photo resulted in a spirited debate with the photographer responsible.  I think that feet should be included in shots like this, apparently he does not.  We welcome your input.

I has a disappoint.

The Scottish Chronicles II.

The Parish Church of Tron in Glasgow is a modest example of early 19th century ecclesiastical architecture, but really, wouldn't it be cool if it looked more like this?

- Sid

P.S.  By the way, you may gather from this posting that I am in fact on site in Scotland.

The Scottish Trip.

The Scottish Chronicles I.

Later this afternoon, I'll be boarding a plane headed for Toronto, the first leg in a two-week vacation trip to Scotland, land of haggis, Scotch, kilts, and woad.*  As a bonus, I will have the unique privilege of travelling with one of the infamous Campbell brothers - yes, Cloin Campbell has decided that a visit to the auld sod (or by the auld sod, more accurately) is long overdue, and as such he has decided to make the pilgrimage to the homeland of the Campbell Clan.  He is certain that he will be greeted with open arms once his relatives are informed of his identity, although if I were him, I would more realistically keep an eye out for a carefully tied noose, all things considered.  

Sadly, Ralph Campbell will be unable to join us on this journey of discovery.  Until the authorities have stopped the manhunt** his bad back gets better, Ralph is reluctant to travel.  As a result, I'll be sitting in as an honourary Campbell brother (if we can use the word "honour" in relation to the Campbell Brothers) for the duration of the trip, a proud and awful responsibility.  I feel a bit as if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have just rung me to ask if I can sit in for Pestilence over the weekend.*** 

Seriously, though, it should be a great trip. Colin and I have travelled together before, and had a lot of fun doing it.  He's very excited - he's never been over to the UK, and isn't sure if he'll find an opportunity go again, so it's a milestone trip for him.  We're starting in Glasgow, spending some time touring around Stirling (located near the site of the historic battle of Bannockburn), then going to Edinburgh.  From there, we'll head down to London for the last three days, because it seemed a shame for Colin to not see the City when we're so close.  We'll also be making a brief stop at York, so that I can once again walk the Roman walls around the city in memory of my mother and grandfather, who used to do the same walk almost every day when they lived there.

Research for the trip has been fascinating.  Scotland offers a wealth of history and legend - we'll be visiting abbeys and altars, bastions and battlefields, castles and cathedrals, and perhaps a standing stone or two. When examining maps, I was enchanted by the Celtic poetry of the towns: Kilsyth, Falkirk, Fintr, Oldmeldrum, Findhorn and Nairn, like names from a fantasy novel; and was amused to discover that Argyll is close to Paisley, which, unless you're looking at Cloin's wardrobe, it really isn't.

I'm hoping to report in once or twice during the trip with appropriate postings, but can't guarantee anything, given the dubious track record of my travelling companion.  After all, if things work out the way I'm afraid they might, not only will I not have my iPad and internet access, they'll probably take my shoelaces and belt as well - right after they take our fingerprints.

- Sid

* We're renting a car, which will require that we drive on the wrong side of the woad.
 
** In this case, the authorities are everyone from the Vatican Guard to the Fashion Police - Ralph proudly cuts a wide swath.

*** Actually, it's more like Harpo and Groucho have asked me to replace Chico for a few hours, but you get the idea.  Certainly an awful responsibility, if maybe not that proud.

Gnomic Statements VII.

Honestly, could you not have worn flats, Erica?

- Sid

Star Trek: The Next Imitation.

Christopher Pike: That's a technicality.

Spock: I am Vulcan, sir. We embrace technicalities.

Christopher Pike: Are you giving me attitude, Spock?

Spock: I am expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously sir, to which one are you referring?

Star Trek: Into Darkness

I freely admit that when I headed over to the Scotiabank Theatre last night to see Star Trek: Into Darkness, it was pretty much out of a sense of duty.  I was disappointed by the first movie of the Abrams reboot: too many holes in the plot, the alternate future concept didn't work for me at all, people kept beating Kirk up, and the engine room looked like a brewery. Frankly, I expected more of the same with Into Darkness, but I've had an unused twenty-five dollar Famous Players gift card floating around since Christmas, and this was probably my only chance to see this movie on the big screen.

To my mild surprise, I found that in some ways I very much enjoyed Into Darkness. It still suffers from the same sort of issues and inconsistencies as the first film, and the art direction still isn't working for me (in other words, the engine room still looks like the factory floor at Molson's) but they're starting to establish the elements of character which were the greatest strength of the original series.

One of the brilliant things that Gene Roddenberry did in Star Trek was to create the triangle of Will, Logic and Emotion represented by Kirk, Spock and McCoy. By splitting these personality traits between three characters, he gave the writers of the episodes an unprecedented tool for externalizing and verbalizing the debates and conflicts between these aspects of the human soul.

The fascinating thing about Into Darkness is that we begin to see the development of that three-sided synergy, but it's not between Kirk, Spock and McCoy - in the new version, Uhura is well on the way to replacing the good doctor in that part of the triad.  In the original series, it might not have worked, but the introduction of the romantic relationship between Spock and Uhura allows her access to the dynamic between the two men, and that relationship also lets the writers introduce a completely different level of interaction between the characters.  Spock's feelings for Uhura could humanize him in a way that would have been impossible in the original series, and force him to accept parts of his personality that otherwise would never be allow to surface.

They'll have to be careful, though, or else the Spock/Uhura relationship will be separate from the Spock/Kirk relationship, hereby losing the strength of the original combination.  Can Uhura become Kirk's confidant and friend in the same way that McCoy did? It seems far more likely that she'll need to create a different framework for interacting with the captain.

So far there's no suggestion that the triangle will become a square, that McCoy will emerge as an equal in the interaction of the main characters. There's a bit of an attempt to place McCoy in his original role, but it's not maintained throughout the course of the story - it's almost like they're doing it because that's the sort of dialogue that was written for the character in the original series.

In fact, that sort of homage to the original made the whole thing a bit strange as far as I was concerned.  Watching Into Darkness was like watching a really well done fan tribute to the Sixties version, one with a huge budget, loaded with all the right references, and with professional actors doing brilliant impersonations of the people who originally performed the roles. There were several times last night when I found myself thinking, “Wow, this Quinto guy just did a great impression of Leonard Nimoy, that was bang on!" and the manner in which Karl Urban is channeling the ghost of DeForest Kelley is more than a little eerie.

Similarly, they chose to rework one of the original episodes, albeit in the rebooted universe.  What if they continue to mine those episodes for future movie concepts?  It would be an awful temptation to rework classic scripts like The City at the Edge of Forever*, Amok Time, Balance of Terror, and so on, but I think that would be an unfortunate error.  To make the reboot succeed, they're going to have to take a fresh look at the universe created by Gene Roddenberry, and also allow the actors some freedom to make the roles their own, rather than just imitations of the original portrayals.

Which is as it should be.  Reboot or not, shouldn't they be boldly going where no one has gone before?

- Sid

* And get their asses sued by Harlan Ellison.

July 23rd, 2013:  comments closed due to just ridiculous spamming.  I'd love to blame Eastern Europe exclusively, but there's some air conditioning company in the States that seems to be a frequent flyer as well.

Hero's Journey.

I saw IM3 a few days ago. I thought it was okay. Wasn't as good as I had hoped. The Avengers has set a bit of a high water mark for me.

- IR Science Correspondent D. Hides

Okay, here's why I didn't like Iron Man 3: because of the same things that I didn't like in Iron Man 1.

Ah - you'd probably like a little more information.

I have a very fundamental expectation for movies based upon comic books: I expect that the good guys will beat the bad guys, and I expect them to beat the bad guys because they are in some way better than they are.  I realize that this is a simplistic approach, but let's be honest, at their most basic level that's what comic books are about, the good guys beating the bad guys.  The good guys may suffer setbacks and difficulties (this is called plot) but when it comes right down to it, we all expect that ultimately the Batman will foil the Joker's villainous plans and send him back to Arkham Asylum.

Last year I read the first draft of my friend Annie's fantasy novel, and among other questions that she had for me when I finished, she asked me who my favourite character was. I gave it a little thought, and somewhat reluctantly announced that it was one of the supporting characters, because her part of the story struck me as more interesting than the main character's - she was the one who risked her sanity in an attempt to discover her friend's fate, she was the one whose father may or may not have been the fallen hero, she was the one who ended up with a boyfriend at the end of the book, etc.  Annie somewhat stiffly replied that she would have a problem with the (eventual) publishers of the book if they demanded that the hero have the most interesting journey in the story. 

I thought it prudent to move on to other topics at that point in the conversation (Annie is a little volatile when it comes to discussions about her writing), but really, isn't the hero supposed to be the person who has the most interesting journey?  Certainly not the only interesting journey, but the most interesting?  I would think that by definition that's how you recognize the hero - the person with the most interesting journey.

On that basis, I'll reluctantly give the role of the hero in Iron Man 3 to Tony Stark, because he probably has the most interesting journey, but the flip side of that coin is that it's not really a heroic journey.  If anything, it's a journey away from heroism:  Tony Stark doesn't rescue the President of the United States, he doesn't save his beloved from certain death, and he doesn't defeat the villain.  For a comic book movie, these are odd decisions to make, because (trying to avoid spoilers here) the President is rescued, his beloved does escape death, and the villain is defeated - just not by Iron Man.  The first Iron Man movie suffers from a similar problem, in that ultimately the Ironmonger isn't really beaten by Iron Man.

However, I'm willing to entertain the possibility that there's an attempt to do something more complex in IM3, based on the amount of personal development that Tony undergoes in this film.  The Tony Stark that we see at the start of the movie is in serious emotional and psychological trouble, to the point where the armour has become Tony's refuge from the outside world.  It's interesting to see how over the course of the film, he spends less and less time within that protective shell, and has to rely more and more on his own abilities. At the end of the movie, he has an epiphany:  that being Iron Man, being a hero, ultimately has nothing to do with wearing high-tech armour.

But if that's the purpose of the exercise, Iron Man 3 is a failure, because the journey that precedes it doesn't involve Tony Stark being the hero either.

The quote from my friend Donovan at the start of the posting becomes relevant at this point. What made The Avengers a better movie?  The same things that made Captain America and Thor better movies - the heroes win by being better than the villains, and by a willingness to sacrifice everything, including their lives, to save others. The odd thing is that in The Avengers, Iron Man is that hero - how unfortunate that he couldn't be that hero in Iron Man 3 as well.

- Sid

And if it falls off, kick it.

(Button available on Etsy.) 

This week I was working on a brochure for someone in another department, and he seemed to feel that some sort of small talk was in order during the process of watching me make changes to the layout.  So, à propos of nothing, he asked if I had watched Does Someone Have to Go? on television the other night.

I replied, "No, what's it about?"

"Reality TV program."

Sigh.

"Dan, as you may have gathered from the "what did you do on the weekend" portion of our Tuesday departmental meetings that you attend, I write a blog about science fiction and fantasy for fun - I've been doing it for about seven years.  I own more than 3,000 science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, along with a selection of comic books, illustrated magazines, and reference material - not to mention the DVDs and Blu-rays. I've been a science fiction fan since I was about eight, but I like to think that I actually became a fan in the womb, in the same fashion that babies can get a drug addiction from their mothers, because my mother was a science fiction fan.  DOES THAT SOUND TO YOU LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAS ANY INTEREST IN REALITY?!?"

Honestly, give your head a shake, Dan.

- Sid

 

The Doctor-Daniel.

The BBC recently announced that Matt Smith, who has been skillfully performing the role of the Doctor on Doctor Who for the last four years, has decided to hang up his bow tie and fez at the end of this year.

I think that Smith has done a fabulous job as the Doctor, and I found that he brought a marvellous sense of reflective age to the character, an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that, at 26, he was the youngest actor ever cast in the role.  But, as always, people move on, and the inevitable scrum regarding the choice for the next pilot of the TARDIS has begun. 

Since the renewal of the series in 2005, there's been a lot of unnecessary secrecy involving casting for the part of the Doctor.  Let's be frank, the future of Western civilization does not hang on preserving the security surrounding this process. However, it's an obvious opportunity to capitalize on the massive fan interest by turning it into an artificial media event, complete with code names, secret casting locations, and coy hints about the final choice.

I suspect that there's been less speculation about Jack the Ripper's real name or the possibility of a second gunman on the grassy knoll than about casting choices for the Doctor - honestly, people, as per William Shatner, "It's just a TV show!"  Because of that excessive scrutiny, I think that every possible candidate, no matter how unlikely, has been considered and evaluated.  My god, it's possible that someone on an obscure forum somewhere has suggested that I take the job (I doubt I'd get it, they've been trending toward younger actors, but I wouldn't say no).

However, out of the myriad of names currently in the speculative hat, there is one in particular that I feel does deserve some discussion:  Daniel Radcliffe.

The erstwhile wizard has been cheerfully managing his transition into mainstream adult acting since the last movie of the Harry Potter franchise hit the big screen.  He's not afraid of his connection with Harry - he's happy to make jokes about it, but he's also aware that it's what put him on the map, and as such I think he's maintained a good balance between acknowledging that debt and wanting to seek new challenges as an actor. 

That quest to try different directions is very important for actors who have made their impact in genre films.  The industry is full of people who, having been involved in a successful science fiction or fantasy production, were doomed to never escape from beneath the shadow of that entry on their resume.*  As such, young Mr. Radcliffe might be understandably reluctant to undertake another iconic franchise. On the other hand, acting is a job like any other job.  If you want to get paid, you have to work**, and it must be tempting to trade in on one's popularity with the fan community to get a high-profile role like that of the Doctor.

But in this case, I think that Daniel would need to take a moment and consider the possible consequences of a decision to sign on as the Doctor.  I have this terrible mental picture of an international IT crisis as geeks around the world exploded or burst into flame or suffered from some other physical manifestation of nerdgasm as word spread that Harry Potter was going to play Doctor Who.  Oh, the humanity...!

Ahem. Or not.  I sincerely doubt that Daniel Radcliffe will pop up as the post-regeneration 12th Doctor - all other issues aside, their pattern is to choose successful actors but not necessarily high profile names.  Logic says that like every other television show in the world, Doctor Who has a budget, and in these troubled economic times, Daniel Radcliffe might well have too high price tag. The flip side of that coin (no pun intended) is that he might do it for fun, in the same way that Samuel L. Jackson begged George Lucas for a small role in a Star Wars movie.

Ultimately - time will tell.

- Sid

* In the unlikely event that Mark Hamill reads this:  Mark, I hope you get some screen time from Disney in the seventh movie.

**  Patrick Stewart:  fine dramatic actor, extensive resume in classic theatre, including a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Did he initially thank or curse his agent for signing him up for Star Trek: The Next Generation and then as Professor X, in the X-Men?

"Now with more chunks of real goblin steak!"

Ah, but the question is: by goblins, or with goblins?

- Sid

(Photographed at the Wolf & Hound Pub on Broadway.)