Doctor Who: Time Passages.

As part of the celebration for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, the Radio Times magazine interviewed Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981.

When I saw the accompanying photos, I was so surprised by how changed he was from his appearance in the 50th Anniversary Special that I actually spent some time trying to confirm that the shots were legitimate, rather than some kind of AI generated extrapolation of how he would look.

I know that time has its way with us all, and after all, he is a 90 year old man. Regardless, there's a kind of sad irony that an actor made famous by playing a near-immortal time traveller would so obviously fall victim to the effects of days and years gone past.

- Sid

Éire 2023: Gnomic Statement XXI

"Klaatu barada nikto."

- Sid

Éire 2023: Sidebar.

While we're doing Game of Thrones quotes, this is one is a favourite - and so TRUE.

- Sid

"I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Heritage Auctions just notified me that my remote auction bid of one dollar made me the winner of a Star Trek: Generations movie poster in their weekly Sunday Movie Poster Auction.

The dollar price quickly becomes an illusion, as the house tacks on a $29 USD auction fee, but I have no regrets, it still feels like a score.

- Sid

(UPDATE:  And as of six months later, they have yet to charge me a shipping fee, which I feel DEFINITELY makes it a score.)

 

It's only a paper moon - or is it?

With just over a month to go until the release of the new Barbie film starring Margot Robbie in the titular role - the role that she was so obviously born to play* - it occurs to me that if Barbie Land exists, that posits the existence of a larger shared universe of Mattel toys - the Mattelverse**, as it were.

With that on the table, if there's a moon in the skies of Barbie Land - and we know that there is - then what would we find there?  Obviously, there would be a thriving lunar colony commanded by none other than the Mattel's Man in Space himself, Major Matt Mason.

Tom Hanks has mentioned his eagerness to star in a movie version of the Major's adventures, but given what we've seen in terms of how Barbie will address the dichotomy between the perfection of Barbie Land and feminism in the real world, how would a Major Matt Mason movie define itself in comparison to character studies like Disney's Lightyear?  Hopefully in the same way that Barbie will, by showing that imaginary characters can have their own worth in terms of the values that they offer to real people - and vice versa.

- Sid

* She does a pretty good job as Harley Quinn as well, actually - and if you want to discuss whether or not someone has range as an actor, these are the roles that you want to use as a yardstick.

** As opposed to, say, the Hasbroverse - Transformers and GI Joe - which already has a motion picture presence.

My girl Lydia.

If you know, you know.

- Sid

I, robot.

Yesterday I failed the I'm not a robot test on my iPad.

No matter what I did, it refused to accept my tapping finger to check the box in the window, but, inexplicably, Karli was able to complete for me without any problems.  And then she gave me a long, thoughtful look...

- Sid

 

AKA "Exploded".

"Rapid unscheduled disassembly" - if they weren't talking about the destruction of a $90M USD rocket, that would actually be a pretty funny way of saying that it blew up.

(Which looked like this:)

The SpaceX team considers the launch to be a success, and I can understand their position.  These are unmanned test flights, and as such having the launch vehicle explode (or rapidly disassemble, if you prefer) provides them with crucial information about their design and how it operates in practice - that's what testing is all about.

However, at $100M+ for the combination of rocket and launch, it's a bit of an expensive hobby.  Let's hope that Elon Musk is prepared to stay the course in order to ensure that future rockets don't disassemble when there's a crew on board.

- Sid

Putting the "fun" in Dysfunctional?

 

I am pleased to announce that, following a return visit to the innergeek.com Geek Test, I have leveled up.

My new score took me from being a Major Geek (with a score of greater than or equal to 35%)  to a Super Geek - greater than or equal to 45%.*

These may not seem like high scores, but given that the top score that can be achieved on the test is Dysfunctional Geek, with a score of  ≥75% I can only imagine what a full 100% score would look like - Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, perhaps.  And, let's be honest, as well crafted a character as he is, Sheldon would probably have a very short career in the real world.

- Sid

* If you're curious as to how I had increased my score, upgraded responses including naming a pet after a literary character - don't forget, Jack the Cat's full name is Jaqen H'ghar - and indexing a personal collection, among others.