SJA: The Eternity Trap

Basically... I enjoyed that!

SJS and co go to a haunted house... spooky! Although there are no such things as ghosts... not that the scientific explanation wasn't much more than hand waving anyway, and may as well have said 'ghosts' for all the explaining it did. Still, there are no ghosts in the Doctor Who Universe (fortunately, we can ignore the Ghosts of N-Space) and I'm sure that final obligatory shot was nothing more than a residual imprint from the stone tape (which got namechecked).

Haunted houses are always fun, and this reminded me of the haunted house mod I had just done the day before in my roleplaying (am tempted to turn this into a mod, but there are some parts that would not translate well). It was scary in concept, but not so much in execution (possibly to not scare the kiddies too much). Nicely done, without getting too ghastly. Clyde's continual bad jokes helped stop the tension building too high, and I mean that in a good way, this is supposed to be a light series not a horror/thriller show.

A lighter cast this time, with no Luke (had to do his GSCEs). Toby Silverman was an interesting character, although I'm not sure he'd survive in a larger role. Callum Blue was largely hidden behind a long wig, so much so that I completely failed to recognise him (otherwise seen in Dead Like Me and Secret Diary of a Call Girl). Donald Sumpter was a nice cast choice, but didn't really seem to get into the part.

On the whole, a good pair of episodes. While not brilliant, a cut above the general fare.

Next week: back to generic looking episode...

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Singing Sparkly Vampires

What could possibly make Twilight bearable? Making it into a musical! Part 1 sets things up, but it isn't until Part 2 that we get Edward.

Go check out the installments of Twilight - The Musical!

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The Internet is for... you know

You've all seen it, who hasn't? It's hilarious! Those WOW characters telling us what the internet is for...

But have you seen the original? It's from the musical Avenue Q.

Why not take some time out of your day and find out that Everyone's A Little Bit Racist. Or that If You Were Gay. And that It Sucks To Be Me. Or more!

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Still Hungry?

One documentary I just caught was Food, Inc. It's a detailed look at where food comes from in America, looking at cattle, pork, chickens, corn, soybeans, and how corporate America has taken over and controlled it all, brought in a processing like mentality and dictates pretty much how everyone eats, regardless of buying fast food or from the supermarket.

Now, what I was watching, I applied the first rule of documentaries: not everything you see is the truth. Parts of it are undoubtedly true, but I'm not taking anything I saw at face value.

That said, it's a pretty ugly view of the food industry... for the people involved. For the corporations, where money is everything, everything is working fine. It's not nice, but this is how capitalism works, and if people vote with their dollars, it will change. But only if people care enough.

I emphasized America above as it isn't exactly the same here in New Zealand. Now, I'm no food expert, and have only what I bothered to google to find out, but we don't have a heavily subsidized corn industry here. We don't corn-feed cattle (we grass feed!). We... well, we probably do use pesticides as much, and have an organic industry relatively as strong as over there. What else we do or don't have I'll let enthused commentators post on.

(On the organic front, I don't listen to their 'anti-pesticide', etc, diatribes. We've been cultivating so much food ourselves that the food in the organic farmers hand is just as modified from "natural" as genetically modified food, just that GM'ed food is more direct about it.)

Interesting documentary, although not quite as impactful here. And, afterward, I went out and had chicken for dinner.

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Rogue Trading 1

[As threatened, we have started a Rogue Trader campaign, which I have no knowledge of. Since none of us had a manual, we spent the first few hours generating our character. Yay us!

I had the idea I wanted to be a Navigator. From there, I worked out, using the matrix, the rest of my character path, namely that I am from an Imperial World, am a Savant, am Chosen by Destiny, had a Dark Voyage, and am seeking Prestige.

However, then I find out that Nagivators are Mutants. And I am from a Renegade House, which is extra Mutant! Turns out I have a bloated form and membranous growths. Lovely...

Characters are:
Darius, a Rogue Trader
Sebastian, Navigator [Me!]
Juron(?), Arch-Militant
(can't recall), an Explorator

And then we started the adventure...]

We docked at Port Wanderer, on the edge of the Koronus Expanse, and receive word that someone that worked for our Rogue Trader's family was here and wanting to talk to us, meeting us in the market area. We head in, with the gun guy looking for a new pistol. He does find something useful for him, and we find our contact.

He had an item handed down from the grandfather of Darius, which he handed over to Darius, which promptly opened up revealing an astropath stone that I could use to find some lost ship of booty he told us about (I didn't pay much attention). However, as he did that, a bird that belonged to a woman that was following us swooped in and grabbed the stone. The indecency!

Everyone else responded with guns, but I tracked the bird, which dropped the stone (it being too much for its delicate body). Not that I got there first, mind you, but I was the one that grabbed the stone... and got a vision of a starfield for my trouble. Not that I know where it was. That would be something we could track down after we left the area, along with everything else. Our future adventure awaits!

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The Fourth Destination

Part of my science fiction education is about learning about the intent of the story. The bulk, however, it about the spectacle. While it's not science fiction in any interesting sense, The Final Destination (aka Final Destination 4) is certainly spectacle over anything else.

Certainly the plot is nothing original. Some people die, only they didn't due to someone getting a premonition, then they are killed off one-by-one in weird ways in the order they should have died. And they seem to escape, until...

Frankly, that could have been any of the movies. So let's talk interesting deaths instead! The scene is set with the opening titles showing (in x-ray vision) various deaths from earlier movies (which I recognised, sad to say), and then the new death kicks off at a car rally. To be honest, when seeing these gruesome moments, there is only really one reaction: laughter. It is so over the top, clearly so, that just give in a chuckle it up. When someone dies by a spinning tire knocking their head off, why not smile?

That said, this movie, like the prior ones, does push some deaths out too far. And by too far I mean boring. What happens to Hunt? Meh. And what happens to the mum is just a "get on with it!" scene. Sigh. So much death, so jaded.

Oh, yeah, and this is 3D as well. Can see some moments, but didn't do much for me.

This is definitely one of the shorter movies around at the moment. Amusing, if you like spectacle, but look for no substance here.

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SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

My main issue with this story isn't Tennant, but the other recurring role...

Hey, it's the guy that was missing from last week! Yes, it's the Trickster. Note: that's pronounced. "Yes, it's <heavy sigh, continue in despondent voice> The Trickster."

But, this is the Wedding of Sarah Jane, so we should be happy for her. And Nigel Havers is a heck of a catch. But, to be honest, I think Clyde was on to a more interesting story if it turned out he was a con man. But this is SJA, so there are monsters involved. Moreover, this is the middle story so the Trickster is involved.

Really? I think we're done with him. If there is a series four, please, no Trickster. Please. Pretty please?

But, hey, at least there's the Doctor. Erm... yes... it was Tennant's last recorded acting as the Doctor, and I wouldn't say he phoned it in. But I might say he shouted it in through a megaphone while passing by in a car. Not his most valued portrayal, and, of course, he can't overshadow SJ and the kids.

Ah, well, let us bask in the presence of Nigel Havers. Good casting choice there.

Next Week: Oh, look, SJA meets The Stone Tape!

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