Geekmas 2018: State of Contentment.

https://scottpark.carbonmade.com/

Well, it's finally happened: I have everything I need.

Okay, maybe not everything, but when I sat down to do this year's Geekmas gift suggestions, I found myself unexpectedly at a loss. I have a ridiculous backlog of unread books, I'm a bit gamed out at the moment after spending a LOT of Wasteland time in Fallout 4 over the last year, I'm well stocked in terms of geek t-shirts, my toy shelf is full, I'm good for physical media - what's a contented geek to do?

Regardless of my state of satisfaction, my workplace Secret Santa draw is on the horizon, not to mention people who know me personally who will be Christmas shopping, so I feel obliged to offer some kind of guidance. Let's see what the marketplace holds...

Books
Regardless of the state of my unread book inventory, there are still a couple of things that I'd like to add to the stack, starting with The Fifth Season, the first book in N.K. Jemisin's award winning The Broken Earth trilogy. (If you're feeling spendy, all three, but Amazon.ca™ shows them at a somewhat pricey twenty-two dollars each - trade paperbacks, I assume.   After her epic awards speech at this year's Hugos, I'm more than a little curious to read some of her work.

Luna: Wolf Moon, by Ian McDonald, is actually a sequel request in more ways than one: tt's the follow-up to the excellent Luna: New Moon which I requested - and received - a couple of years back. There's a third book coming (there's a longer conversation we can have about the odd prevalence of trilogies in science fiction) but it's not out until March of 2019, so we can save that one for next year.

Not meaning to be a nag, but Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch, and The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson are still left on the list from last year.  And there's still that William Gibson book that isn't even supposed to released until December 25th this year...

Games

 

Let's see...there's a new Lovecraft-themed computer game out, Call of Cthulhu from Cyanide Studios, but the reviews have been pretty uniformly unfavourable.*  It's also not available on PC yet as far as I know, which takes it right off the list - sorry, not a console gamer.  I have much higher hopes for Frogwares' The Sinking City, scheduled to hit digital shelves in March of 2019 - it certainly has a much cooler trailer. It's apparently more of an open-world concept game that Call of Cthulhu, which critics describe as being more like the Chaosium™ tabletop RPG that inspired it - perhaps a little too much like it, based on the reviews.

None of which helps for Christmas 2018, unfortunately.  In anticipation of future purchases, perhaps a gift card for the Steam™ game distribution platform is the route to take for this category, although it looks like Steam™ wants you to set up an account before you can give someone a digital gift, which feels like a lot to ask - although it does go directly to the recipient's account, which is handy. The Steam website claims that Shopper's Drug Mart has physical gift cards, but the SDM web site only shows $50 options.  If that's a bit more than you wanted to spend, the easiest solution may be to just give me some cash with a little note that says BUY A GAME FROM STEAM WITH THIS.

Graphic Novels

Amazon.ca** - The Infinity Gauntlet, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Civil War, Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.: One Man Army Corps, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Knights Rising, Hellboy Omnibus Volume 1: Seed of Destruction.

(Drops mike, leaves stage.)

Blu-rays
Okay, fine, blu-rays, because they're relatively quick and easy, and generally not too pricey: Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the original Westworld, the 1982 cult classic The Sword and the Sorcerer (if you can find it), 12 Monkeys, or The Time Bandits.


Merch
For something local, The Storm Crow*** must have some kind of merch: hats, socks, mugs, t-shirts, something - XL for both of those last two, please, I like large cups of tea and loose t-shirts.  They don't mention it on their web site, but they may sell something over the counter at one of the two Vancouver locations: 1619 Broadway or 1305 Commercial Drive. (This is speculation, by the way, please don't send me angry comments complaining that I sent you on a wild goose chase - although they are fun places to visit.)
Finally, if all else fails, surprise me!  I usually don't recommend that as an option, especially for books, but people have managed to successfully purchase me geek gifts that didn't appear on my wish list in the past.

 As a guideline, I'm pretty old school in my fandom. I tend to take this all pretty seriously, and I lean toward canon, so no "Come to the dark side, we have cookies" t-shirts, not my gig. Think classic - or even vintage. Caveats: as much as I'd love some classic SF movie posters, I have no wall space for the things that I already have, so maybe skip anything in that category.

Good luck!

- Sid

* What I really want is the fascinating 2005 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth, which I played most of in a bootleg version many years ago but never finished - mostly because I didn't have any instructions on how the controls worked. (A little research reveals that an Amazon™ vendor would be happy to sell me the original game for $379.33. A little MORE research reveals that it's available on the Steam™ gaming store for $6.50 CAD - okay, never mind, I'll just download that sometime this weekend. Welp, so much for being gamed out...)


** Or, locally, on the second floor of Chapters Indigo at Broadway and Granville,  Golden Age Collectibles downtown on Granville, or The Comicshop on 4th Avenue in Kits - but that would have messed with my flow.


*** I see that they've opened a Storm Crow on Church Street in Toronto, the Storm Crow Manor.  My sincere congratulations to the owners - New York, you're next.
 

"Man of Tomorrow"

I don't normally discuss the scheduling of blog postings - this is a hobby, not a profession, it's not like I'm being forced to meet a quota - but I have to admit that I'm pleased to have caught up with myself in terms of retrograde updates.  Almost all of the Honeymoon series sat in draft while I got back in sync with Pacific Standard Time, attended plays from our two season's ticket theatre subscriptions, studied for (and wrote) a midterm exam for the BCIT continuing education Occupational Health and Safety course that I'm taking, started studying for the end of term exam on November 22nd, and completed the final assignment.  In other words, it's been a busy time.

Sadly, there were some casualties in the interests of moving forward:  I abandoned a couple of posts about Ireland, my Jodie Whittaker debut posting was a bit rushed, I didn't say anything about the Venom movie, there was no Hallowe'en posting, and a couple of other possible topics just fell by the wayside.

However, I'm finally back in sync with real time as opposed to cooking the books in terms of blog timestamps.  It's good to be back in the future - have I missed anything?  Cold fusion?  World peace?  Damn...I bet Trump's still President, isn't he...

- Sid

 

"I’ll be fine. In the end."

Jasmin: Hold on there, madam. I need you to do as I say. This could be a potential crime scene.
The Doctor: Why are you calling me “madam”?
Yasmin: Because… you’re a woman.
The Doctor: Am I? Does it suit me?
Yasmin: What?
The Doctor: Oh yeah! I remember. Sorry. Half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman.

The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Doctor Who

On Sunday, October 7th, the long anticipated moment finally arrived: the debut of the new Doctor, as portrayed by Jodie Whittaker.

I wish I'd enjoyed it more.

It's a reaction that has very little to do with Ms. Whittaker's performance, but rather the material that she's given to work with. After all, this wasn't just her debut as the new Doctor, but also the first episode with Chris Chibnall at the helm as the new showrunner - and in this case, as scriptwriter.

 

And that's really my problem with the first episode, I just didn't like the script. The story is somewhat confusing and held together with the thinnest of plot threads, without ever really taking off as the adventure it's clearly supposed to be.  Admittedly, some of the regeneration episodes have had less than brilliant plots in the past: the new Doctor's first appearance is often more of a character study than a fully featured narrative, intended to showcase the changes caused by the Doctor's rebirth.

Previous first episodes for new Doctors have always given the new actor a definitive moment in which they establish themselves in their new role: Christopher Eccleston's speech about being able to feel the motion of the planet as it travels through the cosmos; David Tennant's rant about not knowing who he is, followed by an object lesson regarding the kind of person he has become; Matt Smith's decision to "put on a show" (one of the better regeneration episodes, in my opinion); and Peter Capaldi's musings about his regeneration and where the new faces come from - not to mention the poignant exchange at the end of the episode when he says to Clara, "You can't see me, can you. You look at me and you can't see me."

 

Unfortunately, Jodie Whittaker never really seems to get that moment.  Regardless, I'm impressed by her take on her new role. She's bold, sincere, confident, determined, and definitely in charge, in spite of her post-regeneration confusion - all good traits for the Doctor - but I felt that it was more her performance than the script that was driving my perception of the new Doctor.

The new companions provide adequate foils for the new Doctor's struggle to embrace her new self, although I'm curious to see how things work out for all of them in the long term.  As the first episode clearly demonstrates, it's not a safe lifestyle choice - collaborating with the Doctor can have fatal consequences.

All that said, I'm going to give the new creative team some rope, with the possibility that the Doctor's development will be a bit slower and more nuanced than past regenerations.  Really, I'm just going to trust the Doctor's explanation:

"Right now, I’m a stranger to myself. There’s echoes of who I was and a sort of call towards who I am. And I have to hold my nerve and trust all these new instincts. Shape myself towards them. I’ll be fine. In the end. Hopefully. I have to be. Because you guys need help. ‘Cause there’s one thing I’m certain of, when people need help, I never refuse.

"Right. This is going to be fun!"

Let's all hope so.

- Sid

P.S. The good news is that this was the most watched episode of Doctor Who since the first 2005 Christopher Eccleston reboot episode. It will be interesting to see if the momentum continues as the season moves onward, or whether it was just the curiousity value of the new female Doctor.  As per the standard joke, time will tell.