Strange days indeed.

Sometimes the Space Channel has some odd choices. One wonders "And what does that have to do with sci-fi, or even space?

- Laurie Smith, 2007 blog comment.

Oh Space, Space - why do you vex me so?

No, seriously, what were you thinking?  Today's lineup was one of the most marginal science fiction lineups you've ever programmed.  Okay, it doesn't include Jaws, but it's about on a par in terms of wondering what went wrong.

Let's look at the list, in no particular order:  Executive Action - fail, it's an action film.  Under Siege, ditto.  Under Siege II - see comment re: Under Siege.  The A-Team - already covered the last time you programmed it under the mistaken impression that it was science fiction (or maybe fantasy).  Face/Off - actually marginally science fiction, thank you.  Crank?  Hmmm....I'm going to go with action film again.  The Expendables - action film.  Expendables II...anyone in the audience?  Please, don't answer all at once - yes, thank you, action film.  Looper - FINALLY, an acceptable little time travel movie, which presumably made the program list because of Bruce Willis.

And the weird thing is that the rest of the week, before and after, is pretty good in terms of suitable selections - what happened today? 

For New Year's 2007, you showed Strange Days, a quirky but well done science fiction film whose pivotal action actually takes place on December 31st - why not make that a yearly tradition?  In fact, why not program the whole day with quirky little films, all of the wonderfully unique off-the-beaten-path movies* like Strange Days:  Dark City, The Zero Theorem, Code 46, Immortal, The Quiet Earth, Altered States, Solaris, Wizards, The Fountain  - have I got a full day yet?  Brazil, Soldier, Sunshine, Monsters - that should do it for a full programming day, one that might well attract some positive feedback from the critics. 

Admittedly, this isn't a list of movies that's going to attract the attention of the cool kids, but let's face it, the people who are watching Space on New Year's Eve are probably not the cool kids anyway.

Regardless - happy New Year, everyone!  One more step into the future...

- Sid

* This entire list is taken from two or three shelves of my DVD collection, and you know, "wonderfully unique off-the-beaten-path" actually covers quite a wide selection of science fiction movies - if not all of them.

Saint Nicholas?

There's a horror movie named Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everybody keeps invading you. 

The Doctor, Last Christmas

Christmas is a time of traditions, and as such I feel obliged to follow the Infinite Revolution tradition of posting a brief review of the Doctor Who Christmas Special.

Over time (no pun intended) I've found the holiday episodes of Doctor Who to be a bit uneven, with last year's offering quite definitely scoring as one of the less impressive samples. However, this year's special redeemed the shortcomings of Matt Smith's disappointing final episode.

Last Christmas offers a well-written scenario which prominently features Santa Claus, elves, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and alien monsters, and then cleverly integrates them all into the story in a logical, reasonable fashion which makes perfect sense in the context of the plot.*  This qualifies as good science fiction by my definition, in that it creates what seems to be an irrational situation and then explains it in a completely rational manner** without ever breaking the rules created by the storyline.

Last Christmas pays homage to several classic films, to the point of even listing them on screen for the less observant or knowledgeable members of the audience.  (If you're curious, yes, apparently Dave is forgiven.) To be fair, number five on that list should probably be Inception, but it may be that they were less eager to point out that particular influence.***

The episode also resolves the question of Clara Oswald's continued involvement (or not) with the Doctor, and manages to gracefully break the barriers to that involvement that were created in the final episode of Season 8.  Ultimately though, the episode's greatest achievement is in casting.  I mean, seriously, how can you go wrong by choosing an actor named Nick Frost to play Santa Claus?

Merry Christmas to all - once again, we're half way out of the dark.

- Sid

* In acknowledgement of previous complaints by my sister Dorothy, no spoilers here.

** Well, to be truthful, that's a bit strong.  It's not completely logical, but by Doctor Who standards it's pretty good.

*** That being said, series producer and writer Steven Moffat had damn well better not end the next season by announcing that it was all a dream, that will NOT go well for him.

Geekmas III: One to beam up, Scotty.

Pop quiz:  what makes for a good seasonal gift?

Well, it's not a bad thing if it's practical, but it can also be frivolous and entertaining, and obviously it should somehow be related to the recipient's interests. On that basis, I have to give my friend Colin full points for his choice of a Christmas gift this year:  the Star Trek Transporter Shower Curtain and Bath Mat combination.

It fits all the criteria - it's both practical and frivolous, it certainly reflects my interests, and it makes a decorative replacement for my previous plain white shower curtain, tying in nicely with my desire to come out of the geek closet.

I've seen Starfleet towels somewhere on line as well...hmmm...and, when you think about it, having a Star Trek themed bathroom would certainly put a different spin on the whole "to boldly go" thing.

Thanks, Colin!

- Sid

Geekmas II: Gimcrackery.

Every year my department at work has a pot luck luncheon combined with a Secret Santa gift exchange. One of my co-workers is very much a Christmas person, and as such invests a lot of time and effort* into decorating our boardroom and arranging the Secret Santa draw and so on. However, this year there was some discussion about the continuation of the Secret Santa tradition.  As someone quite accurately pointed out, “We’re all adults who make a reasonable wage, we can buy ourselves a $25 bottle of wine if we want to.”

The sad truth behind their observation is that it can be very difficult to buy a small gift for someone that you only know through work, which leads a lot of people to fall back on alcohol, the gift that keeps on giving.  I've been quite fortunate - my public reputation as a geek has done quite well by me with Secret Santa, as I’ve pointed out in previous postings.  This is the first year that I’ve received anything close to a duplicate of an existing possession – I received another figure from the CubeBot line – but that was followed up today by what I assume to have been the contents of a late-arriving parcel.   Coincidentally, when I came back to my desk after discussing the efficacy of the Secret Santa concept, I discovered a Doctor Who Floating TARDIS Pen on my desk.

Now, let’s be brutally honest.  The little collection of pop-culture geek gimcrackery that adorns my computer desk at home would be considered trash by most people, a pointless collection of dusty toys.  But for me they all have little stories. There are icons and memorabilia from my longstanding hobby, echoes of my childhood that would otherwise be forgotten, and, in the case of things like the Doctor Who pen, some of them represent a little bit of recognition from someone who has gotten to know me well enough to get me a little piece of shared memory – even if it is in secret.

Thank you, Santa.

- Sid

P.S.  The licensed manufacturers of this pen have a lot of confidence in their product, even if they've taken a slightly old school approach to it.  The packaging includes a twelve month guarantee for the pen, which is a long time to expect a pen to survive.  Surprisingly, pen owners seeking restitution cannot simply send an e-mail, but must write a letter - presumably using another pen.

* Time and effort which does not receive enough acknowledgement - thanks again, Meadd!

"No, you'll shoot your eye out."

For fans of A Christmas Story, I give you Superman #14, with an ad for the infamous Daisy Red Ryder Cowboy Carbine on the back cover, "ready for Christmas".

- Sid

The Infinite Reference.

 After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy in August, I made the following comment:

To my educated eye, it's not so much a movie as a huge teaser for Avengers 3 - and yes, I realize that the second Avengers movie isn't even out yet.

and posted the following comic book cover:

 

Since then, Marvel Comics has boldly announced its Cinematic Universe movie lineup all the way up to May of 2019, which includes, among other things, the third Avengers movie, the two-part Infinity War.

All evidence indicates that the Infinity War storyline is going to deal with Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet - kudos to me for figuring that out in advance.

Patting myself on the back now out of the way, let's look at the logistics.  In my August post, I also listed a lot of the background information that I felt Marvel would need to deal with in order to lay the groundwork for the epic struggle that will take place with Thanos the mad Titan.

Guardians of the Galaxy makes a good start on that process.  We finally get some more information about Thanos, who makes his first appearance in the end scene from the first Avengers film, we meet his daughters Gamora and Nebula, we are introduced to the Kree*, and generally get an introduction to the universe that lies beyond the boundaries of our solar system.

However, if they want to stay close to the original plot of the Infinity Gauntlet story, there is still a lot of ground to cover, and that's what four of the other seven movies in Marvel's post-2015 lineup will probably be taking care of.

One of the central characters in the Infinity Gauntlet story is Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Stephen Strange**.  Check, the Doctor Strange film, starring noted otter-lookalike Benedict Cumberbatch as the Sorcerer Supreme, is scheduled for November of 2016.  In May of 2017, we'll see the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, which will undoubtedly continue to explore the extraterrestrial milieu introduced in the first film.  The first Infinity War film will debut in May of 2018, followed by Captain Marvel in July.

Captain Marvel is an interesting character - or characters, more accurately.  The original Captain was an officer in the Kree military who later gained cosmic awareness, battled and defeated Thanos, and then died of cancer.

However, during one of his adventures on Earth, he was caught in an explosion with a U.S. Air Force officer named Carol Danvers, who gained super powers as a result, eventually joined the Avengers as Ms. Marvel***, and later took over the name of Captain Marvel after his death.  In fact, over time three or four different people have used the name, but I gather that the movie version will feature Ms. Danvers in the titular role.  This confuses me a little, since the cosmic awareness Captain Marvel is the one who spent the most time dealing with Thanos, Gamora et al. It will be interesting to see how they reconcile the different versions of the character.

Following Captain Marvel will be The Inhumans in November of 2018, paving the way for the second Infinity Wars film in May of 2019.

This particular part of the lineup was quite a surprise to me - the Inhumans, leaders of a hidden race of experimental superbeings created by Kree experiments millions of years in Earth's past, have always been somewhat marginal characters in the Marvel Universe.  On the other hand, so are the Guardians of the Galaxy, and that gamble worked out very well for Marvel.

Personally, I would have replaced The Inhumans with a movie featuring Adam Warlock: the gold-skinned character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who was recreated as a tortured anti-hero by Jim Starlin in the 70s and was a pivotal element of the Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet plotline.  There are a couple of visual references to Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy during the scenes that take place in the Collector's lair.

This entire process has been a field day for long-term comics fans. As this posting makes clear, Marvel been loading up the movies to date with all kinds of overt and covert references to what's going to happen - provided that you're in a position to recognize them.  However, not all of the Easter Eggs are part of the game.  For example, I'm completely confident that Howard the Duck isn't making a return to the big screen.

- Sid

* In case people weren't paying attention, Ronan the Accuser, the villain in Guardians, is a rogue member of the Kree Empire.

**  In case people weren't paying attention in The Winter Soldier either, Stephen Strange is one of the people that Jasper Sitwell lists when discussing Zola's Algorithm in the rooftop scene.

*** Ms. Marvel is currently a 16 year-old Pakistani-American girl from New Jersey named Kamala Khan, Marvel's first Muslim character. Times change.

A Brief Experientially-Based Explanation of the Appeal of Video Games.

Friday was a long day in more ways that one.  I worked late on Thursday and came in at six this morning in order to have printed material ready for a project that had been delayed until Monday - no one had bothered to inform me.  I spent four hours in a meeting to get additional material for a training manual from someone who had not bothered to look at the first draft, and as such they spent the entire meeting just reading the existing content.

Finally, as I was getting ready to leave at the end of the day, I received a trio of rude and accusatory phone calls from our dispatch centre demanding an explanation as to why they hadn't received the posters that I had promised them on Thursday, if in fact I had actually done them at all. We tracked the courier slip and discovered that the package had been signed for at 1:30 on Thursday.  This was followed by an apology-free call from the centre in which I was told that the person who signed for the delivery had never bothered to open the box.

I think I'll be Batman for a while.

- Sid

Gnomic Statements XII.

You know, Emilia Clarke does look like the young Linda Hamilton!

- Sid

Geekmas.

It’s December 1st. American Thanksgiving and Black Friday are now behind us, I received my first Christmas card last week – apparently the holiday season has arrived, and with it, the challenging question of gifts for geeks such as myself.

Between Secret Santa at the workplace and my friends, I felt that there were enough people seeking guidance for holiday gift buying that some hints regarding affordable stocking stuffers would be useful.  I’ve split the options into four convenient categories:  books, movies, mugs, and hats.

To avoid overlap, if you do plan to purchase one or more of these items for me, just leave an anonymous comment with your choice of gift, and I’ll remove it from the list.  (If you’d like me to buy YOU one of these items, leave a comment with your name included.)

Books
I don’t usually recommend books as one of my gift options, but conveniently there are a couple of things unpurchased on my books-to-buy list.  The Peripheral, William Gibson’s new book, is currently out in hardcover, and I was intrigued enough by Sebastien de Castell’s presentation at the Vancouver Writer’s Fest that I'd like to read his book, Traitor’s Blade.  In addition, the fourth James S.A. Corey Expanse book, Cibola Burn, is also available.

Movies
The Evil Doctor Smith has already requested a short list of gift options, and called dibs on my top two blu-ray* choices, Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past.  However, there are still some options out there.  For example, I don’t have any of the Star Trek movies on blu-ray.  (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are covered, thank you.)  My movie collection also lacks many of the classic SF/horror films such as Them**, The Thing (the black and white version, that is), The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and so on, although I did just buy the original Michael Rennie version of The Day the Earth Stood Still.  The Keanu Reeves version?  Perhaps less interested.

Mugs
I have a fairly large collection of souvenir mugs – after all, if you’re careful, a good mug will last for decades, failing unfortunate dishwashing accidents.  However, only a couple of my mugs are SF or fantasy related, which offers a wide open field for gift giving.  To avoid duplication, I already have a classic logo Doctor Who mug and a large TARDIS mug from last year’s Secret Santa.  The TARDIS mug has actually never had tea in it, I view it as more decorative than practical – there’s a reason that there aren’t a lot of square mugs out there.

Hats
Because I’m bald, I’m a dedicated hat wearer, generally in the style that I think of as baseball caps.  I’ve never gone looking, but there must be someplace out there that sells hats with Starfleet logos and the like, they can’t all be sports related.  Bonus points for hats duplicating actual hats worn in movies, such as Con-Am 27 or Nostromo caps. Nota bene: I do NOT want one of those Jayne Cobb Firefly hats, that’s not my style at all. Oh, and fabric all the way around, please, no meshbacks. Too much rain in Vancouver for that.

This list is designed to max out well under the fifty dollar mark per item.  However, if someone has a desperate desire to spend $120,000 USD on a 105 inch Samsung UN105S9W TV set for me, I will not stand in your way.  Happy holidays!

- Sid

* Yes, I realize full well that physical media is dead, thank you, but I still like blu-ray.  The resolution is good, video streaming lag isn’t an issue, and you don’t have to wonder whether or not something is available on Netflix.

** Giant mutant ants, 1954. Scared me to death when I first saw it on TV at the age of ten.  Features a Who's Who of actors who went on to greater fame in other roles:  James Whitmore, Fess Parker, James Arness, and a brief uncredited speaking role as an Army sergeant for one Leonard Nimoy. Coincidentally, James Arness also appear in the titular role of The Thing.