Carnac the Magnificent: "Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, and Spacehunter."

"The question is: Name two great movies and a dog."

A recent successful bid on the Heritage Auctions website added movie posters for Silent Running, Outland and Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone to my modest collection. I received the package today, and I'm pleased with my purchases - well, mostly pleased, to be honest.

Silent Running? A favourite film for me, and a great transitional role for Bruce Dern. Outland - a well executed science fiction remake of High Noon, with a strong performance by Sean Connery.  Spacehunter?  Yes, well, Spacehunter...

As far as I can remember, Spacehunter wasn't in the original auction listing but seemed to make an appearance later, and there was never a photo of the poster, the image above is taken from another listing.  It's entirely possible that this item was grouped with the others so as to get the damn thing out the door, for all I know it had been collecting dust in the back room at Heritage for some time.

Faint praise aside, I have to admit that I did in fact see Spacehunter in its 1983 commercial release, back when the original Cineplex multiplex was located at the north end of the Eaton Centre in Toronto. This places me in elite company: the film only grossed $16.5M on a $14.4M budget.*  The film was produced using a two-camera technique called "Native 3D", and I do vaguely remember the 3-D effects, particularly the cyborg villain's metallic claws coming out of the screen.

On paper, all the pieces are there for a successful film.  The film was made in 3D as part of the shortlived craze of the early 80s, and has a reasonably noteworthy cast. Peter Strauss, who takes the leading role of Wolff the bounty hunter, was a workmanlike actor with a solid television resume and some previous big screen experience, and Molly Ringwald, whose appearance as Niki the Zone Scav is only her second movie role after Paul Mazursky's Tempest, went on to fame in the John Hughes trilogy of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. Ernie Hudson and Michael Ironside have supporting roles, and Ivan Reitman was the film's executive producer. 

Regardless, none of that was enough to save the film from mediocrity, and the result is one of those bad movies that isn't quite bad enough to have achieved cult status. 

Part of me says that it must be streaming somewhere, and that I should re-watch the film as part of due geek diligence, but I somehow can't bring myself to invest another 90 minutes of my life on the outside chance that it's not a bad as I remember.

- Sid

* I was honestly a bit surprised to discover that it made back its costs.

"Let's Twist again, like we did last summer."

Mrs. Flood: “Never seen a TARDIS before?”

Doctor Who, The Church on Ruby Road

Okay, so first we have Mrs. Flood, Ruby's TARDIS-aware next door neighbour, breaking the fourth wall in the 2023 Doctor Who Christmas Special.  Then there's actor Susan Twist, who has done one-off cameos in every episode of the new Doctor to date (plus one of the 60th Anniversary David Tennant episodes)*.  And, AND, if that wasn't enough of a slap in the face, there's that musical number at the end of The Devil's Chord featuring the lyric, "There's always a Twist at the end." 

Damn it, one of these women had better be the new Master.

- Sid 

*In case you somehow haven't picked up on this (for example, my wife suffers from face blindness, so it's not impossible), Ms. Twist appeared as Mrs. Merridew with Isaac Newton in Wild Blue Yonder, the third 60th anniversary special; shows up in the flashback audience in The Church on Ruby Road; was Comms Officer Gina Scalzi on the Space Babies space station; a canteen employee who dishes out spendy tea to the Doctor and Ruby at EMI/Abbey Road Studios in The Devil's Chord; the helpful Welsh hiker in 73 Yards; and, hard to miss, the face of the Ambulances in Boom. 

"Ch-ch-changes."

In recent years, the world has experienced significant disruptions—the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israel and Hamas conflict, extreme climate disasters, the surging cost of living, and global supply chain interruptions.

Predicting the next big upheaval may not be possible, but it is crucial to explore possible disruptions and anticipate potential future scenarios. Even seemingly distant or improbable events and circumstances can suddenly become reality, while overlapping disruptions can lead to compounded societal impacts..

Kristel Van der Elst
Director General, Policy Horizons Canada

Looking for ideas for an apocalyptic near-future novel?  Look no further, the Government of Canada has your back.  

Demonstrating admirable foresight, the federal Policy Horizons department has released a report detailing what they see as the top disruptions in Canada's immediate future. It's a sort of disaster bingo card listing 35 possible crises split into five categories, such as AI running wild, scarcity of vital natural resources, democratic systems breaking down, or an American civil war: and, as with bingo, there's a very real possibility of filling a row by having more than one event occur simultaneously, or for events to domino, one event precipitating another and then another.

It's an interesting little document, which breaks out the various disruptions by likelihood, timeline and impact.  If you're interested, you can read it online at https://horizons.service.canada.ca/en/2024/disruptions/index.shtml#report, or download a PDF version.

The odd thing is that they're all negative, with the possible exception of the development of Northern Canada.  I realize that the document is intentionally biased toward the cautionary, but I'd love to see a companion document - Synergies, perhaps? - with 35 possible changes or developments that would improves lives and make the world a better place. Not that I'm against building shelters against the gathering wind - but you know, windmills are also a good response.

- Sid

"And honey...I know how I look."

Hello! I’m Steven Moffat and I’m back to write yet another episode of Doctor Who.

The reason I came back is, I thought, “What if you put the Doctor in incredible danger, in the middle of a battlefield, and you removed from him one thing that he always does, one thing that he always relies on?"

Steven Moffat, BBC interview

Donna Noble : He saves worlds, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures and runs a lot. Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved.

Doctor Who, The Doctor's Daughter

In a noteworthy return to Doctor Who as a writer, ex-show runner Steven Moffat gives us Boom:  an eloquent, well-written script, tight, emotional, loaded with clever exposition, and full of tension. It's a bit of a relief, really, after having a couple of less than inspired episodes to start the season off.  

As per his comments on the story, he wanted to take away the Doctor's ability to flee from danger - in other words, no running - as part of a situation where the danger was both immediate and terminal. The resulting man-on-a-land-mine storyline succeeds on every level.

The story takes place during a war - or does it? The Anglican Army, previously seen in A Good Man Goes to War, has established a beachhead on the planet Kastarion, but the Kastarions have proven to be an elusive foe. The Anglicans are supported by the Villengard arms corporation, which takes an oddly economical approach to combat: soldiers deemed not worth saving are euthanized by robotic AI ambulances rather than treated (in order to maintain predicted casualty rates), and instead of using explosives in its landmines, the Villengard version creates a chain reaction that uses the victim's DNA to create the detonation.  

As the Doctor and Ruby arrive on Kastarion, they hear the screams of a soldier being euthanized.  As they run to investigate, the Doctor steps on a mine: he manages to not trigger the explosion, but can't move without setting off the chain reaction.  The balance of the episode revolves around the trapped and immobile Doctor finding a way to disable the mine and save a wounded Ruby from being terminated. 

It's interesting to see Moffat working with the new Doctor's style as a performer.  For example, the Doctor delivers the following speech:

"I am a Timelord. I am a higher dimension life form, I am a complex space-time event. I am a much bigger bang than you bargained for. I am a lot more explosive than I look, and honey...I know how I look. Put a quantum chain reaction through me and I will shatter this silly little battlefield of yours into dust. All of it. In a heartbeat. Into dust."

It's hard to imagine any of the previous Doctors commenting on how explosive they look* - especially with the endearment of "honey" as a prefix.  But for Gatwa, it perfectly matches the persona he's using for the character, while combining it with a very Doctor-like warning about potentially destroying the arena.

Varada Sethu, who makes an appearance as Anglican Army soldier Mundy Flynn, is reported to be joining the show as a companion. Given that the episode features another cameo by Susan Twist, it's hard to say whether Sethu's appearance is just what it appears to be, a guest spot by an actor, or another piece of this season's big picture puzzle.  It could easily go either way - after all, Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan coincidentally appeared together in The Fires of Pompeii in Season 4 before making the eventual jump to Doctor and Companion.  Time will tell, as they say...

- Sid

* Okay, maybe David Tennant...

Although Mondays and Fridays get all the press.

"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I've just been reminded by a fellow fan that Thursday was the day that the Vogon Constructor Fleet destroyed the Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 

- Sid

And Now, For Your Viewing Pleasure, The Gay Black Scottish-Rwandan Libran Doctor.

Yes, the new Doctor is gay.  And Black.  And Scottish (again).  And Rwandan, which is new.  And a Libra. He may or may not be left handed, the Internet was not informative in this area.

And, honestly?

So what.

Good grief, Jodie Whittaker was apparently an actual woman - an actual woman - when she became the 13th Doctor, and she met another incarnation of herself who was an actual Black woman (with really great taste in vests) and guess what, the universe didn't come to an end.  (Well, thanks to Chris Chibnall it sort of did, but you know what I mean.)

If I were being charitable, I would say that the people who have expressed their outrage regarding the new Doctor's gayness/Blackness/Scottishness/etc.*(and the old Doctor's woman-ness, for that matter) just have too much time on their hands, but I suspect that the problem goes deeper than that.

But let's try to look at this rationally, as from within the Whoniverse - if you're a enough of a fan of the show to complain about it in the first place, you should be able to work within the framework of the Doctor's zeitgeist. 

Remember in Hellbent, when the 12th Doctor shoots the General?  Following their regeneration, the General has gone from being an older bald white man to a short-haired young black woman, who first comment is "Back to normal, am I?  The only time I've been a man, that last body. Dear lord, how do you cope with all that ego?"  This suggests that gender and race are known to be fluid through regeneration, although there may be some kind of bias, as demonstrated by the long run of white male Doctors (and female Generals, apparently). 

If we accept this to be the standard for regeneration, and recognize that Time Lord society may have a commitment ritual not unlike marriage (as per the 10th Doctor commented on being rubbish at his own wedding) then at any given moment, a Time Lord must be prepared to have their life partner come home as a completely different gender and colour after being hit by a bus or some mass transit equivalent on the streets of the Citadel. 

What happens then?  I suppose there's a possibility that Gallifrey has legislated a policy of instantaneous post-generation divorce - that, following their rebirth, it's a clean slate in all ways.  (Drastic way to clean up your crippling credit card debt, but possibly worth it.)  

More logically, I suspect that the Time Lord in question kisses their reborn partner on the cheek, joins them in cursing bus drivers in general, and asks them what they want for dinner.

Because, if your entire species is genetically coded to become a new person on a regular basis, then you'd accept that a new face is only that, a new face, like wearing a different suit or dress, and ultimately makes no difference in who the person is. And as such, your love for them would be constant regardless of sex, colour, or Scottishness - although that last one might be a bit puzzling to the average Gallifreyan spouse.

I haven't watched any of the new season that's just started streaming on Disney+ (although I hope to get a start this weekend) but the impression that I get from trailers is that the new Doctor and Ruby Sunday are having fun, that's there's singing and dancing and a jukebox on the TARDIS.  

And, honestly?

That's great. Fun is great. 

The Doctor has been through so much, it's been a grim time for the (sort of) last Time Lord, let's open things up, let's wear some period costumes and show Ruby dinosaurs and the Beatles and go behind the scenes at Bridgerton, let's have some fun while we save the universe - it's about time.

- Sid

* I suspect that they're okay with the Scottish/Libra etc. part, which is at least someplace to start on the road to tolerance.

Sadly, it's not bigger on the inside.

My department at work is doing some massive renovations to our space, so I've been temporarily relocated to an empty office in Accounting.  Frankly, I was touched by the greeting that they extended, how kind is it for co-workers to do something so personal?

- Sid

May the 4th: Welp, there it is.

"You know, I called him Mr. President, he said, "You can call me Joe".  I said, "Can I call you Joe-bi-Wan Kenobi?"  He liked that..."

Mark Hamill, White House Press Briefing.

If you were looking for an indicator of the massive degree to which Star Wars has penetrated the cultural matrix, look no further. 

- Sid

(And, as a bonus, here's Mark Hamill following up at the White House press briefing.) 

Or Bella Ramsey, if that's your thing.

I had to detour around the end of the world to get to work today - I hate it when that happens.

Apparently the apocalypse is being hosted in Vancouver for Season 2 of The Last of Us, which has been filming in various British Columbia locations since February 12th.  Fans of Pedro Pascal, keep your eyes peeled.

- Sid

P.S. Confirmed that it's The Last of Us - the contact e-mail on the shooting notification that we received is for megaswordprod@gmail.com, which, according to Wikipedia, matches the working title being used by The Last of Us for Season 2. 

A far green country.

Gandalf: I will not say "Do not weep", for not all tears are an evil.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

I'm saddened to announce that Jaq the Cat, aka Jaqen H'ghar, lost the fight and succumbed to stomach cancer early this morning.  Under the circumstances, it's tempting to quote something from Game of Thrones, but I would rather leave a gentler farewell to our little friend: 

Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.

Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it.

Pippin: What? Gandalf?... See what?

Gandalf: White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Pippin: [smiling]  Well, that isn't so bad.

Gandalf: [softly]  No... No it isn't.

Goodbye, Jaq.  Rest in peace, and may there be open doors, chewy grass, cosy blankets and fresh tuna in that far green country.

- Sid