Okay, we've all thought about it at least once.

And now, a picture of Princess Leia choking Captain Kirk.  Here's hoping that you all enjoyed the last day of 2013 as much as Carrie Fisher did.

- Sid

P.S.  My god, it's like some kind of war between stars...you could call it a "Stars War"...

The Time of the Doctor.

Over the last few years, I've developed a seasonal tradition of watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Thanks to the 50th anniversary episode last month, it's been a bit Who heavy here in terms of postings, so I'll be brief about today's episode, which marked Matt Smith's final appearance as the Doctor.

What a stupid, stupid episode. 

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Sid

It was either this or the "Beginning To Look A Lot Like Fishmen" video*.

Hey, everyone, merry Christmas!  Having spent some time catching up on overdue blog postings (and thereby unintentionally irritating my sister, who would prefer that I not save them up - sorry, Dorothy) I thought I should post something suited to the holiday season.  It's not exactly a Christmas carol, but it's at least a seasonal song - sort of.

And again, a merry Christmas to one and all.

- Sid

P.S. My god, have you ever looked at Captain Picard's tea?  I like strong tea, but the liquid in his cup is jet black - it looks like he's drinking Guinness, for heaven's sake, not Earl Grey! How long does the replicator brew this stuff for?

* A very lyrically accurate but badly lip-synced musical version of H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".

Dark rites.

It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten.

H.P. Lovecraft, The Festival

I would be remiss were I not to recognize my co-worker Christi, worshipper of dark gods, fan of unhallowed music, and drinker of dead frogs, for her contribution to my holiday good cheer in the form of a handmade Elder Gods bookmark.

Interestingly, she randomly found the pattern online, and was unaware that the images are taken from the French Lovecraft-influenced comic strip, Goomi's Unspeakable Vault (Of Doom) written and drawn by French artist Francois Launet.

I've previously cited M. Launet's strip regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  As per that posting, if you're not familiar with the more esoteric* details of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, perhaps another comic strip would be more to your taste.

Regardless of its origins, the bookmark is a wonderful addition to my Geekmas haul - I hope you have a merry Ph'nglui and a happy Fhtagn, Christi!

- Sid

* Ha ha, trick question, all the details of the Cthulhu Mythos are more esoteric.

Tea As Regularly Determined In Strength.

From:  Chelsey
To:  Sid
I hope you liked the mug. I went on your like of tea and some side commentary about Dr Who. I asked a few people who said “Go with Star Trek” but felt that may be a bit out of my realm of knowledge. =)

Chelsey

With the holiday season upon us, my department at work once again conducted its annual Christmas pot luck luncheon and Secret Santa gift exchange.  Now, previously the anonymous Saint Nicks of my workplace have been thoughtful enough to show a strong sympathy regarding my area of interest - in other words, I've gotten a well-considered selection of geek-appropriate gifts, ranging from science fiction Christmas decorations to technological marvels from Wallace and Gromit.

This year was no exception - I received a marvellous Doctor Who TARDIS mug, complete with a small container of English Afternoon Tea (presumably to distinguish it from English Breakfast Tea.)  The mug is more than adequately large - I like a large tea mug - and the police box imitation is made complete by the addition of a removable lid.

I'm actually a little reluctant to actually use it as a mug, in case something unfortunate happens during the dish washing process.  On the other hand, it would certainly be pleasant to be sipping a mug of TARDIS tea during the Doctor Who Christmas episode this year, as Matt Smith performs his final turn as the Doctor.  I suppose that time will tell (so to speak).

- Sid

P.S. As you might gather from Chelsey's e-mail, my Secret Santa experienced fail on the "secret" part.  Chelsey is temping as an admin assistant with my department right now, and obviously suffers from the ongoing Star Trek curse which has afflicted so many of the people involved with that role. 

Is this really worth risking the life of your hamster?

With the holiday season fast approaching, I was browsing around on Amazon.ca for possible gifts, and decided that I might buy a copy of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross for a friend of mine.  When I entered "atrocity archives" into the Amazon search engine, I was astonished to find that in addition to two options for the novel I was looking for, there was a short list of what I can only consider to be book spam:   

• 100 Unexpected Statements about the Atrocity Archives: A Laundry Files Novel
• 100 Statements About "The Atrocity Archives: A Laundry Files Novel" that Almost Killed My Hamster 
  
• 100 Provocative Statements About "The Atrocity Archives: A Laundry Files Novel"

and so on.

Just out of curiousity, I clicked on a couple of the links for more information.  Sadly, there was no explanation of how literary criticism might kill one's hamster, but the "100 Unexpected Statements" page was a little more forthcoming:

In this book, we have hand-picked the most sophisticated, unanticipated, absorbing (if not at times crackpot!), original and musing book reviews of "The Atrocity Archives: A Laundry Files Novel". Don't say we didn't warn you: these reviews are known to shock with their unconventionality or intimacy. Some may be startled by their biting sincerity; others may be spellbound by their unbridled flights of fantasy. Don't buy this book if: 1. You don't have nerves of steel. 2. You expect to get pregnant in the next five minutes. 3. You've heard it all.

Okay - a 44 page collection of book reviews by other people on sale for $10.28?  Seriously?  Who in their right mind would buy one of these things, and why in the world does Amazon provide these clowns with a venue in which to sell them? 

Regardless, I harbour no ill-will towards our friends of the animal kingdom.  I would like to express my best wishes to the hamster, and I hope that he or she is doing well after their near-death experience.

- Sid

Now that I think about it, I could have gone to Portland.

So... all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will - where do you want to start? 

The Doctor, The Eleventh Hour.

Seattle?  I picked Seattle?  I mean, Seattle is nice and everything, how could I not like a city with something called a Space Needle, but that was the extent of my desires?

- Sid

"Big, weird questions."

 

Science fiction asks big, weird questions.
These questions involve incredible if not impossible things: futuristic technology, aliens, giants monsters, intelligent robots, people with amazing powers, and more. 

This exhibition explores a few of these big “what if” questions. For each, we present a variety of works by writers, filmmakers, artists and other creators who answer them. Their answers can be equally big and weird, also starting, serious, astounding and funny. 

Because anything is possible in science fiction, there are an infinite number of answers to these questions. 

As you encounter the questions, ask yourself what answers you would give. 

And a last question: who cares? What do stories about other worlds have to do with us? The fact is, all the bizarre stuff in science fiction is a metaphor for real stuff. In other words, science fiction warps reality in order to reveal the truth about it. 

Brooks Peck, Curator, Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

I recently paid a visit to Seattle - it's been a few years since I've been down, and as such I decided that a quick trip across the border was long overdue.  I quite like Seattle:  I like the general feel of the city, the architecture is interesting, I enjoy the Pike Place Market, and, of course, it's impossible for me to visit Seattle without making a stop at the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Museum, located at the Seattle Centre in the distinctive EMP building designed by architect Frank Gehrey.

It would have been quite easy for the museum to be nothing more than a catalogue of leftover movie props, but the curators have certainly done their best to offer the public a thoughtful, balanced range of representation that deals with both the literary and visual aspects of the genre.  They've been well supported in this by the wide range of items that have been donated or loaned to the museum by the science fiction and fantasy community over the years.

For example, whereas the current Fantasy exhibition includes costumes and props from films such as The Wizard of Oz, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Snow White and the Huntsman, it also offers the original manuscript for Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, along with her notes for the development of the Earthsea series, and samples from the manuscript for The Lord of the Rings and a handwritten chronology created by Tolkien as a guide when he was working on the trilogy.  It also features original illustrations by Pauline Baynes, whose paintings and drawings perfectly defined the world of C. S. Lewis' Narnia.

The individuals involved in presenting the exhibits are obviously creative and innovative people.  The video narrative that accompanies the Fantasy exhibition is shown on two overhead globular screens - the eyes of a gigantic inverted dragonfly.  Interactivity is provided by a world-building tool that allows users the opportunity to draft maps of their own fantasy worlds and add them to the catalogue of previous creations by other visitors.

The companion display for the Icons of Science Fiction is based around an exploration of the what-if questions that have always represented the best of the genre.  What if we could explore the universe?  What if you had super powers?  What if you were going to live the rest of your life in space?

Once again, where it would be easy to simply examine these questions solely based on examples from movies and television, the Icons exhibit cites references from novels and comic books as well, providing a well-rounded and thought-provoking look at the building blocks of science fiction.

Originally the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame was its own little piece of the action, and frankly I miss the original entrance with its cheesy alien spaceship.  They were amalgamated with the Experience Music Project in 2011, and I'm not sure that the SF portion has benefited from the change - I seem to recall the original exhibition as being larger and more elaborate than the current facility, and it definitely featured a more prestigious array of exhibits.

Past glories aside, I still enjoyed my visit to the museum.  As I've already said, it's obvious that the people behind the scenes are making every effort to go past the veneer of dragons and robots to look at the ideas behind fantasy and science fiction, and in my opinion, successfully accomplishing that goal.

The funny thing is that I'm not sure I can recommend the Science Fiction Museum to people who aren't already fans in some way. Think about it:  would you seriously recommend that someone visit the Louvre in Paris if they'd never heard of Leonardo da Vinci or the Mona Lisa?

- Sid

"Attack ships on fire..."

 

I have to admit to one distinct disappointment with the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who - I was underwhelmed by the mundanity of the weapons used by the Time Lords in their final struggle with the Daleks.

During the scenes showing the battle for Arcadia, as the Daleks strafe the ruined city and rumble through its shattered streets, the Gallifreyan soldiers seem to be fighting them with what are admittedly advanced weapons of some sort - lasers, plasma rifles, some form of energy weapon - but, when it comes right down to it, nothing extraordinary, nothing startling.

I've discussed the possibilities of a time war in the past, but let's apply some of those ideas to the milieu of Doctor Who.  Imagine a fleet of TARDISes*, freed from the humble illusion that cloaks the Doctor's home: gigantic constructs, armed and armoured for an ultimate war, powered by the energy of the universe itself and equipped with weapons created by a race that has mastered time and space, flickering in and out of existence as they strike in an instant and then vanish back into the time stream. Imagine a soldier wielding the Gauntlets of Rassilon, annihilating their foes with a gesture, or resurrecting fallen comrades with a touch of the hand.**

Logically, the Time Lords don't even need to restrict themselves to their own inventions - after all, they can choose from an arsenal which encompasses the entire span of history, find a shield against any assault within the blink of an eye, and discover an antithesis to any defense raised by their enemy.  When you consider all of the possibilities open to time travellers, it's surprising that the Daleks appear to be winning.

Which, come to think of it, is a damn good question.  Why are the Daleks winning? 

- Sid

* TARDISI?

** Okay, you got me.  They never definitively said that the Resurrection Gloves from Torchwood were in any way connected to the Gauntlet of Rassilon, but they do look surprisingly similar.

What am I missing here?

 One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong,

Can you tell which thing is not like the others

By the time I finish my song?

Sesame Street

Another rainy Saturday afternoon in Vancouver, a good day to stay inside and perhaps watch some television, do a little channel hopping.

Let's see...what do we have?  Channel 32 appears to be in the middle of showing all of the Star Wars prequels, with Attack of the Clones currently up; there's The Mummy Returns, not as good as the first Brenda Fraser/Rachel Weisz teamup, but okay; History is showing the over-the-top apocalyptic extravaganza 2012, TCM has The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, one of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion masterpieces, which also features Doctor Who alumnus Tom Baker; Tomb Raider is on channel 47 for the Angelina Jolie fans in the audience - and what is Space showing?

The A-Team.  Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton Jackson.  Based on the TV series of the same name.

Seriously, people, where does this fit in your programming mandate?  Right beside shark movies?  SHOW SOME SCIENCE FICTION, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE.

Wait a minute, though - for that matter, why in the world is the History Channel showing 2012?

- Sid

Skatethulhu?

My co-worker has unexpectedly accessorized her Cthulhu idol...isn't this a bit hipster for an Elder God?

Or maybe Great Cthulhu picked it up from Bart Simpson...

- Sid

The line in the sand.

And now, the Geek table at Chapters, displayed for your shopping pleasure under the calm gaze of Spock, the patron saint of geeks.  Halo book - check. The Art of World of Warcraft, check, a superheros book, check, a guide to Klingon, the Doctor Who Vault, a book on droids, a Neil Gaiman novel, the Steve Jobs bio, the Hitchhikers Guide box set, the big book of Lego™ minifigures...

Wait, what?

Is Lego fandom a geek thing now?  Do I need to add the dimensions of the standard Lego block* to my catalogue of trivia?   Hmmm...you know, I try to keep an open mind in terms of these things, but I think I'm going to draw the line on this one and say "no".

Having drawn the line, I acknowledge that it's a bit of a blurry one.  The current public face of Lego is strongly associated with comic book kits and science fiction sets, which has spawned the odd offshoots of Lego video games and animated programs that feature blocky superheroes or Star Wars characters with square bodies and cylindrical heads. 

Regardless, Lego is a medium rather than a genre, and as such I find it difficult to add it to the list of geek pursuits simply because that medium has been applied to Batman.  I don't deny the collectibility of Lego, but ultimately ANYTHING is collectible, and I think there's a fundamental difference between collecting mint condition Kenner Star Wars figures and, let's say, old license plates or glass insulator cones, and in my opinion, Lego qua Lego doesn't really make the cut as a geek/fan item.

But, I have to be fair here - for all I know Spock would have loved Lego, which, after all, is typified by a sense of order and logic in how the pieces are designed, created and ultimately fit together.  There's a Vulcan philosophical concept known as IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination - can you think of a better way to define Lego?

- Sid

*  A "classic" four-knob brick is 31.8 mm in length, 9.6 mm in height, with an additional 1.6 mm of height for the knobs, and 15.8 mm in width.  Some sources cite a knob height of 1.8 mm, and I gather this is a contentious issue.

Gnomic Statements IX.

 I've recently found myself inexplicably performing the Picard Maneuver a lot at work.

- Sid

"Frozen in an instant of time."

Great men are forged in fire.  It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.

Whatever the cost.

The War Doctor, The Day of the Doctor.

The 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who is quietly brilliant. It is a reflective, ambiguous story of regret, resolution and redemption which cleverly relies on the mechanics of time travel to cut the Gordian Knot of the Time War.  It's also very much an episode for fans, loaded with references to past episodes and past Doctors alike, a fitting tribute to a half century of the Doctor.

John Hurt does excellent work as the War Doctor, a jaded, aged figure who has seen so much suffering perpetuated in the name of war that he is willing to sacrifice his own people along with the Daleks simply to end the collateral damage being inflicted upon a helpless universe throughout all of time and space. And even at the last, when he has seen how two of his future selves have suffered over the centuries as a results of his decision, he still chooses to endure the same punishment in the name of peace.

His weapon of choice is the Moment, a device of such power and potential that its operating system, played by Billie Piper, has achieved sentience - and developed a conscience. As such, it stands in judgement of anyone who choses to invoke its destructive potential.

As part of that judgement, the Moment opens portals in time and space in order to show the Doctor the effects of his choice on his future selves - the Moment having decreed that his fate for making that choice is that he will survive the experience, and be forced to live with the memory of the fall of Gallifrey.

The episode cleverly raises the question of consequence and responsibility.  Does the Doctor's regret for causing the death of billions of children create a better man as a result?  Would the Doctor be as compassionate, as heroic, were it not for the shadow over his past?  As the War Doctor observes, "How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?"

Ultimately, those future selves join the War Doctor in that final decision to activate the Moment, a decision which is made "not out of fear or hatred.  It is done because there is no other way."  The last minute alternative which presents itself revolves around the centuries of regret which have passed since the use of the Moment, and ingeniously echoes an earlier plot point regarding time travel to change the fate of both Gallifrey and the Doctor.

The brilliant final solution involves cameos by all the Doctors, including a quick glimpse of the next one, and the episode ends with a brief, exceptional appearance by Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor.  Baker, now 79 years old, may or may not be the most popular version of the Doctor, but he very much set the standard by which the others were judged. It was a wistful, enigmatic performance with just a hint of the unpredictable character he once played, providing a wonderful capstone to a well written and well directed episode.

Regardless of Hurt's masterful performance as the War Doctor, I do wish that they hadn't confused the issue by introducing a new regeneration into the Doctor's lineage. In a perfect world, I would have loved to have seen Christopher Eccleston return for the anniversary - as would most other fans, the writers, the producers, and in fact almost everyone except Christopher Eccleston himself, which pretty much short-circuited the process.

But failing that, why not use Paul McGann as the incarnation of the Doctor responsible for the end of the Time War? He's well established in canon; he did an acceptable job in the 1996 movie version; he's done a variety of audio performances as the Eighth Doctor; and he was obviously willing to be involved, as demonstrated by the YouTube prequel* showing his transformation into a young John Hurt.

That prequel showed a very different face to the Eighth Doctor than the one that we'd seen in the movie: the romantic, fanciful character has long since lost his innocence, and is willing to suffer in order to deliberately regenerate as a warrior. That disappointment and sense of loss and change could easily have been used to show the evolution of a Doctor who is willing - and able - to commit genocide to save the rest of the universe.

Regardless, there is a much more fundamental issue with the introduction of another regeneration into the lineup. Doctor Who canon clearly states that a Time Lord only has 13 incarnations available, after which their next encounter with death would be permanent.

Until the anniversary episode, Matt Smith was the 11th Doctor, and Peter Capaldi on deck to be number 12. With the addition of John Hurt, Mr. Capaldi is now the 13th Doctor, and the clock is ticking - so to speak.

- Sid

* I have to  give the BBC full points for the two supporting minisodes that they released on YouTube - The Night of the Doctor and The Last Day.  

Or "Geronimo" if you prefer.

Dalek, sonic screwdriver, and ... allons-y.

- Sid

The Day of the Doctor.

 "We are here!  We are here!"

Doctor Seuss, Horton Hears A Who.

All the Whos down in Whoville, the tall and the small...

Hello to the fellow Whovians in the audience - twenty minutes to the fiftieth anniversary broadcast of Doctor Who:  are we all ready? Have you gone to the toilet?  Have you put on your fez, scarf, or sprig of celery, depending on your favourite Doctor?  Do you have your sonic screwdriver in hand?

One of the key reasons for the longevity (no pun intended) of Doctor Who is the flexibility of the concept.  Each of the actors who has portrayed the renegade Time Lord has brought something different to the role:  the Doctor has been a father figure, a comedian, a sage, a scientist - and today, if the intriguing online prequel episode is a reliable guide, we meet the Warrior.

The Doctor has always had a sort of fragile, contradictory covenant with the concept of non-violent solutions - he won't even accept the phrase "we'll kill them" as a metaphor for success at football - but he is also responsible for ending the Time War, apparently by wiping out both sides of the conflict, the Daleks and his own people, the Time Lords of Gallifrey.  I'm hoping that today's episode will shed some light on how all of that came about, how the Doctor was able to reconcile all the elements of his character in order to commit genocide - twice.

Ooops, nine minutes to go, off to the telly - more to follow.

- Sid

"Clear skies with a chance of satellite debris."

Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón's homage to mass and inertia, is a great movie.  Sandra Bullock gives a gripping performance as orbital disaster victim Dr. Ryan Stone, supported by scripting and direction that combine to present an intimate, emotional experience against an epic backdrop. The film beautifully balances and contrasts the awesome beauty of planet Earth as seen from orbit with touches of humanity: country and western music, bits of everyday life like chess pieces and pens, and the crying of a baby over a radio.

But the really impressive thing about Gravity, the thing that really caught my attention?

It's not science fiction.

The settings of space shuttle, International Space Station and Soyuz flight module are real settings; the spacesuits are real spacesuits, with clumsy gloves and fogged faceplates; and the dangers being faced are real dangers, no more fictional than the perils of being killed during a bank robbery or waking up in a burning house.   

Yes, we as a species have now reached a point in time where it's possible to make a 90 minute movie, set in space*, in which the heroine narrowly escapes death by satellite debris impact, lack of oxygen, zero-gee combustion, freezing, explosive decompression, and burning up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere, and it's not science fiction. In fact, when it finally dawned on me that I wasn't watching a science fiction movie, I was almost embarrassed, as if I had gone to the theatre under false pretenses. 

 And the next step?  The next step is we start shooting on location...

- Sid

* Okay, near-Earth orbit if you're going to be picky.

Location location location.

And now, a call to action.  I'm in the very early stages of negotiating a joint steampunk costume-and-photoshoot project with a friend of mine - and I mean VERY early, to the point where I'm thinking in terms of the spring or summer of 2014 for actually taking the pictures.  However, if this goes ahead, I see it as being a lot of fun. I imagine the results as being very earth-toned, relying on stripes and ruffles, stockings and short jackets, decorative brass accents, hats with veils, and perhaps a bit of copper pipe here and there– for the steam, you know…

I'm a big fan of environmental photography for things like this - I think it would be a huge tragedy to invest a great deal of time and effort in evoking the alternate history of the British Empire in the form of a costume, only to document it in front of an eight foot roll of white seamless paper in a studio. So, I open this up to those blog readers who live in the Greater Vancouver region: where should we go to photograph the eventual results, if any?*

I realize that the nature of the costume will play a part in the choice of a location.  An intrepid aviatrix would call for a completely different situation than a daring explorer, scientific detective, or corset-clad assassin.  But let's not limit things at this stage, let's start by casting as wide a net as possible - where are the best rivets, girders, gears, locomotives, and arcane engines in the Lower Mainland?

Oh, and just for the record, I don't think that we're going to take the route of creating a steampunk courtesan's costume.  Very little challenge to that, in my mind that just means adding goggles and subtracting clothing, which would make for a completely different photoshoot.  Certainly interesting in its own way, but not what we're after.

- Sid

* See above re: VERY early stages.  Life is full of change, and the whole thing may fall through.  Don't worry, if something does come of this, I do plan to post the results here, with the permission of my collaborator.

Better late.

I had a birthday late last month, albeit a somewhat unacknowledged one - the usual suspects did step up to the plate, but at least one very good friend did absolutely nothing to acknowledge the date, about half of the people I work with didn't sign my card, and the birthday cake showed up about two weeks later along with a bunch of other cakes for people who had also been left at the altar, so to speak.

However, I'd like to acknowledge a couple of thoughtful late-breaking gifts that did a lot to make up for the shortfall.

About a week after my birthday, the vice president of my department walked into my office at work and presented me with a present, accompanied by the slightly diffident comment, "Sorry it was so busy last week, here's your gift.  Don't try to get it back into the box." 

Now normally birthdays are only celebrated at my workplace with cake and off-key singing, so I was quite touched that John the VP had decided to do something a little special.  John is a decent fellow to work for, which I have not always found to be the case with people who have ended up a few rungs above me on the ladder of success.*

His advice was absolutely correct.  My gift was a Cubebot, and as the photos above indicate, it had been carefully constructed so as to start out as a cube, but it might have been a bit challenging to return it to that state after unfolding it.  (Which is apparently what you're supposed to do with it - it's as much a puzzle as it is a person.)

I'm not entirely certain that adding the word "bot" to a product name automatically qualifies it as a robot, but the elastic articulation that keeps Guthrie (my Cubebot's name, according to the web site) together has been very cleverly engineered, and as such I consider him a more than acceptable addition to the gallery of science fiction figures who stand watch over my iMac.

The second set of presents was courtesy of my friend Chris, who has done yeoman work in the past in terms of gift selection. This year he once again logged in with a t-shirt, one which celebrates the path through London's Underground from Neil Gaiman's classic urban fantasy novel Neverwhere, and a copy of Hanging Out With the Dream King, an intriguing compilation of interviews with people who have collaborated with Mr. Gaiman on comic books, graphic novels, musical projects, and novels.  The interview list reads like a sort of outré Who's Who: Dave McKean, Alice Cooper, Charles Vess, Toris Amos, Gene Wolfe, P. Craig Russell, Terry Pratchett, and similar luminaries from the other side of the creative tracks.

Chris was a bit concerned about giving me the book, because he'd found it used rather than buying it new.  Chris, as I said at the time, you can't imagine how little that matters to me.  I've received used books from other people in the past, and in every case I have considered those gifts to be a bit more interesting due to their pre-owned provenance.

And ultimately, it really is the thought that counts - thanks again, gentlemen.

- Sid

*  There's no flattery involved here - I'm pretty sure that John isn't one of the frequent flyers on TIR, and as such I think it's unlikely that he'll be reading this entry.  I think it's safe to say that John has much bigger fish to fry. 

Gnomic Statements VIII.

Honestly, I had no idea that Mormons weren't allowed to wear short shorts.

- Sid

 

This may not end well.

At any given time, Vancouver is standing in for a variety of locations for the purposes of television and movie production.  (As I've pointed out before, only rarely does Vancouver get to be Vancouver.) In fact, not long after I first moved to Vancouver, I was a bit puzzled during a trip downtown to discover that the area around Burrard and Cordova was littered with burned-out cars and destroyed police vehicles.  I was a bit less puzzled when I noticed that there were New York City subway entrances that didn't go anywhere on a few of the corners - when I finally saw The Fantastic Four, I immediately recognized the locations for the climactic battle with Doctor Doom.

Yesterday, I was dropping off some posters to be laminated at my print shop only to find some non-standard police vehicles blocking traffic on Hastings Street near Burrard, along with sidewalk "Volt" charging stations for electric vehicles.  (Coincidentally just around the corner from my initial encounter with leftover movie props from nine years ago.)

A little research revealed that these were probably from location shooting done for the upcoming J.J. Abrams/J.H. Wyman* science fiction police series Almost Human, set in 2048 Los Angeles, with Karl Urban and Michael Ealy.  I gather it's one of those human/robot partners scenarios, which would explain the "To Protect & Serve Man" tag** on the side of the SUV.

Any number of similar movies and TV shows come to mind almost immediately: Holmes & Yo-Yo, Future Cop, Mann & Machine, Total Recall 2070, and Alien Nation, both in movie and television form, with an alien partner rather than a robot just for the sake of variety.  Let's not forget Deputy Andy from Eureka, just to be thorough - and wasn't there an android cop in the 90s Tekwar series?  (I don't know if we want to drag Theodore Rex into this, where someone thought it would be a good idea to have Whoopi Goldberg play a futuristic cop working with a humanoid dinosaur.)

Unfortunately, most of these attempts at pairing carbon-based cops with silicon sidekicks have not been critical successes.  Maybe it's time for another approach to this?  Let's see...Matrix-style cops, where the partner is a virtual bot rather than a real one, and the human has to plug into the net to work with them?  Or have the robot cop actually be controlled by a paralyzed human detective, the next step for the Lincoln Rhyme novels by Jeffery Deaver?  Let's have both the cops be robots - let's have ALL the cops be robots - let's have all the criminals be robots - in other words, LET'S DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Sorry...honest, originally this was just going to be a short post saying that I'd seen futuristic cop cars yesterday.  Anyway - J.J, J.H.?  Good luck with your series, I hope that works out for you.

- Sid

* What, do none of these people have first names?

** Are they aware of the associations with the Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man?  Which turned out to be the title of an alien cookbook, for anyone unfamiliar with the script - probably not what they have in mind here.