And that's 30...

Finally, the end of November arrives and with it, the end to my self-imposed obligation to post every day.

Hopefully, something good will come out of this in that I might use this blog more often after having posted every day for 30 days. But I can't say I'm not relieved to not have to post every day.

Also, with tonight we pass into December. Christmas build up can now start. I don't care that the stores started it late October. I don't care that the Christmas lights were turned on in town in late November this year and the Christmas park decorations are already out. None of that matters.

To me, Christmas has never started until December. The lights used to be tuned on about the 6th or 7th of December. The Late Late Toy Show aired in December, not November like it did this year. It just seems wrong to start the whole fuss so early this year, especially in a year when so many families are dreading the new budget and wondering how they'll even afford Christmas this year. But still the whole thing is relentlessly marketed at the kids, and you can't explain to the kids why Christmas can't be quite as big a deal this year.

To be honest, I'm not looking forward to it so much this year either. It's not the same when your not spending it with the whole family as usual. Even when the usual Christmas means being sick of your whole family by 3pm. This Christmas will be a quiet one, barely different from any ordinary day. But at least the odds of a snowy Christmas have gone up quite a bit, which is nice. If I can't spend Christmas with my whole family, a nice long walk in the snow would be a good alternative.

Anyway, to leave you all at the end of November with something amusing, here's some video footage of the best Fallout New Vegas mod ever. Gamer or not, take a quick look at this and tell me watching computer characters prancing about doesn't make you laugh. Hell, some of them have some serious moves on them. And it's given me some ideas, but more on those in a future post.

Scientists reverse effects of ageing in mice

A while back I read a speculation on a science blog that the first person who will live to see their 200th birthday is alive today. They went on to say there's a slim chance that the first person to their 500th birthday is already born. And there's a non-zero chance that the first person to live indefinitely barring accident is already born, and if he or she is not, they will be soon enough.

This week we apparently took the first step towards making this happen, as scientists achieve a partial reversal of ageing in mice. This breakthrough should have other benefits long before age reversing treatments - being able to preserve the lengths of telomeres should help solve some of the biggest problems in cloning technology where, as far as I understand it, some of the most common genetic problems clones have are due to their already shortened telomeres inherited from their DNA donor.

Even if they get this treatment perfected to the point where they can use it on humans, it doesn't mean longer lives but it hopefully will mean better lives. But it's undoubtedly a strong step forward in understanding an manipulating ageing. And maybe the first person to live forever isn't here yet, but I don't doubt they're not far off.

I have to ask myself if I'd want to live 500 years, or a 1000. Or forever. I don't doubt that at some point I'd get sick of it all, and the last thing this world needs is us all hanging around here forever. But I can't say I don't like the idea of living to see where the human races goes over the next 1000 years given how far we've come in the last millennium.

TRON-itized Classic Movies

I found these videos as entries to a contest where people TRON-itized classic movies, and they were amusing enough that  thought I'd share them.

First is Joe vs. the Volcano. This doesn't use a great scene but has reasonably good TRON effects applied:


Next, The Big Lebowski. This one uses one of the movie's better scenes but doesn't have fantastic TRON effects. Good effort though.


And, saving the best for last, Aliens. One of the best scenes in the movie and awesome TRON effects. No surprise that this one won the contest:

A great use for an iPhone

If any iPhone owner out there upgraded from the 3GS to the iPhone 4, here's a fantastic use for that old iPhone you don't know what to do with.

When life imitates art... or at least a bad comedy...

Today I lived a moment from some kind of sitcom.

I was sat around in the office getting a few last things done before calling it a day as a colleague just finished a phone call to someone else in the office. After she hung up, we starting chatting away with some of the others in the room and the subject turned to the behaviour of some of our past team members who still work for the company, though no names were mentioned. We talked for a few minutes about one particular incident that was pretty much unacceptable, and we all had a laugh at the co-workers expense.

Then I turned back to my desk to get some work done when my phone spoke up and a very nice sounding robot lady voice said:

"Message complete. Goodbye!"

There was a pause as everyone processed what had just happened. Then we burst out laughing. The timing of the phone speaking up could not have been better. We worried for a bit over whether or not we had just accidentally recorded us trash talking an unnamed co-worker on another co-worker's voice mail, but after ringing the person whose phone we left the message on and getting her to allow us to check her messages we found it had only recorded vague talking sounds and nothing could be made out.

Still, for a moment there I was worried I'd slipped into a universe which runs on sitcom rules. I'm not sure I could take that kind of existence to be honest.

Happy Turkey Day

Having just had a delicious turkey and stuffing sandwich for dinner, I was thinking I'd continue the American Thanksgiving theme and do a post about what I'm thankful for. But then it struck me as too much effort. Especially, when it's hard to be thankful for anything beyond the usual stuff given how uncertain things are in this country at the moment, and how our so called leaders have just promised a lot fo changes no-one will be thankful for.

So here's some pictures of rabbits celebrating Thanksgiving just because i love how much sense they don't make.

FYI, you might want to be careful doing any Google image searches for "bunny thanksgiving" with Safe Search off. I was not expecting that to show up.

What's with all the reboots?

What's with rebooting everything recently? There's the reboot of the Spider-man movies despite the last one only being 3 years ago. There's also talk of a reboot of the Fantastic Four movies rebooting, perhaps as an attempt to keep the licence reverting to Marvel but allegedly because the two movies were a flop. Shame, I kinda liked them.

But I digress. Back to the topic - reboots happen for many reasons, but usually because the executives making the decisions are the right age to be nostalgic for a property and the audiences they're selling it to are the same. That's probably the secret behind the success of shows like the new Battlestar Galactica. Though the same argument could be made for why the new Bionic Woman should have succeeded, but I guess that's proof a reboot needs to be good as well as tap into nostalgia.

But where I think it may have gone too far is this new reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It has every chance to be good, but that's not what has me puzzled. What I can't work out is why reboot a franchise that's only been off the air since 2003. It just doesn't seem nearly long enough for audiences to become nostalgic for the character. On top of that, the reboot only has the rights to the character of Buffy so none of the others from the show are going to appear in the new movie. So I was really puzzled.

But then the answer came to me: Twilight.

This has to be an attempt to muscle in on the market currently being sucked dry of it's lifeblood by Twilight. It makes sense that they'd do this, but it irks me a little to hear of the possibility of a character I spent 7 years watching to be turned into a Twilight rip off. Though by all accounts, this version of the character will be older - out of school and college apparently.

Which made me think that as much as I'm not liking what I'm hearing about the direction of the reboot - especially having the audacity to compare a script by an unknown to Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot - if they hire Kristen Bell to play Buffy, then all if forgiven. :)

Dara o'Briain on Metal Gear Solid

You would think that I might have a lot to say what with all the non stop happenings in Irish politics these last few days. Truth is I'm just left speechless by the sheer stupidity on display by our so call leadership.

So I've been cheering myself up watching a funny Irishman talk about matters close to my heart. Like video games.



And that all I have to post today. It may make for a sorry excuse for a blog post, but it's better than me inflicting my opinion about Irish politics on all of you.

The Walking Dead: Vatos

Holy shit. As a long term fan of the comic, I knew it can be a harsh story at times and that no one has plot immunity. And since Robert Kirkman is involved in the TV show and helping them create an adaptation of the comic that doesn't just slavishly follow the plot lines of the comic, I figured the show would be just as harsh. But I still wasn't quite prepared for it when I saw it. It was just ticking away happily and then wham! Bam! The cast is noticeably smaller!

Everyone who likes well written, reasonably well acted drama with a bit of action and a bit of horror should be watching this show. But fair warning - you better have some tolerance for gore, as while this show doesn't have a huge amount of gory scenes, when it does do gore it doesn't pull punches.

Also, the special effects are freaking amazing. Most of them are practical effects, or at least partially. Particularly impressive was the upper half of a zombie girl pulling herself along the grass. Instead of CGI, the crew did a full make up job on a young actress and used a bit of CGI to remove the lower half of her body. The combination of the two is just amazing. Here's a bit of an interview with one of the make up people, followed by a time lapse of the make-up being applied. Unfortunately, you don't see too much of the finished shot which is the really impressive part. But this still gives a good idea of the amount of effort they put into preparing the make up for the featured zombies on the show.

Exploding Things

It's time for some more YouTube videos - there's even a theme, as weak as it is: Explosions.

First, proving there is no limit to how stupid some people can be are two idiots setting off fireworks in the bathtub while they're in it.



And then there's the miniature cannon. I love this thing. I want one. I want all my friends to have one. Except possibly Johnathan. Or Noel. :)

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Earlier today I finally got around to watching the X-Files movie from about two years ago. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to watching it as I was a huge fan of the show for 5 or 6 years, and even after it all ended I eventually came back and watched it all on DVD later. And this movie was basically a better than average mystery of the week episode of the show, with a massive budget. But the more interesting aspect to this movie is practically an X-File on it's own.

How did this film get made?

After being stuck in development hell for 6 years, the movie finally went ahead and eventually released in 2008. The final episode of the TV show ended with a bizarre two parter on May 19th, 2002. It told the story of how Mulder was being tried for murder and ultimately sentenced to death, before fleeing the FBI and hiding out with Scully having discovered that aliens plan to colonise Earth and subjugate humanity on December 22nd, 2012. There's also some rubbish in there about the alien super soldiers infiltrating human government and more conspiracy stuff like that. So the show went out on a convoluted, hard to follow double helping of depressing conspiracy theory nonsense.

And maybe following that with a movie made sense at the time. Six years later, the X-Files was already part of TV history. A significant part, but it was over. The fuss people made over it - whether they loved it or hated it - was done. Why they chose 2008 to release a new movie is a case that it may actually take Fox Mulder to explain.

Still, the movie got made and while it did so-so in the US, it did well internationally. There may or may not be a sequel. Perhaps it's best not to. Chris Carter said that having done a one-off mystery movie, the next movie had to be about the mythology of the show. Coupled with the likely release date of late 2012 - the same time as the show's upcoming alien colonisation - I can see why he'd want to. But a movie like that would depend on even the hardcore fans still knowing the show's mythology in detail a full ten years after the show went off the air. I don't know if you can count on that - I watched the show religiously for 6 years. I later watched the entire thing on DVD. I played some - though not all - of the computer games which fleshed out the mythology a bit more. I still could not tell you exactly what the hell was happening with all if that crap when the show finished. What details I mentioned in this post came from wikipedia. I think a mythology heavy movie may be a mistake. But we'll see if it actually happens.

As for this movie itself? Entertaining, though nothing special. The two leads slip right back into the characters they spent 9 years playing on TV and the whole thing works about as well as the X-Files ever did. They have a suitable weird case involving kidnappings, psychics and fringe medical science. Oddly, the bizarre medical experiments involved are possibly the most believable mystery X-Files has had, as they are not too far beyond experiments actually carried out on dogs. They are still very far fetched, and real world medical science is still probably a couple of years to a decade off pulling the same trick off for real.

Still, the cast is good to great, and everyone involved gives it 110%. I quickly got drawn in and remembered why it was I watched these two characters every week for six years. I even cheered when Walter Skinner reappeared for his brief part in the movie. I don't know why I passed this one up in the cinema but it was a good movie for X-Files fans. I'm just still very surprised they bothered and I reckon if they try one more time to revive the franchise they'll find it's beyond salvation. Times have moved on - it's been ten years and we're all watching new things now.

And besides - for anyone who wants that kind of thing these days, I'm reliably informed that Fringe is the show of choice in today's crop of shows. If X-Files wants to be resurrected, I'm afraid it'll probably have to fight off the show it itself partially inspired to pull it off.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Game publishers hate me. They want to consume all of my free time. Despite my best efforts, my backlog of games sitting unplayed hasn't gotten much shorter, and today Assassin's Creed Brotherhood came out, which is by all accounts the best Assassin's Creed game yet.

And it's dragging me in. I don't want to do anything else. There's a big Gears of War event on right now that I want to go play in, but I'm having the hardest time pulling myself away from this game until some of my friends show up to play Gears with.

The game has an absolutely huge recreation of 1500's Rome to play around in, as shown in this glitch video here:




And that's enough about it for now. Even during this little time taken to write this short blog post, all I want to do is go back and play some more. So I will.

Hey Ash, Whatcha Playing?

Sitting in front of a computer, bored and seeking inspiration for a blog post, I stumbled across the video game themed web series Hey Ash, Whatcha Playing? I'd seen one or two of these before but I decided to watch a few more and they're a hell of a lot funnier than I expected. They're not all funny - it is a bit hit and miss, but some of them are pure comedy gold.

For example, Ash plays Professor Layton:



And Ash plays Puzzle Quest:



If you're bored with some time to kill, and enjoy the humour value in a borderline psychotic who lets video games influence her behaviour to a ridiculous degree, I thoroughly recommend these videos.

One step closer to Star Trek

Is there nothing those guys at CERN can't do? Not content with playing with anti-particles, they recreate the conditions of the Big Bang. But that's not cool enough so less than a week after that, they successfully contain anti-matter atoms.

Not just positrons or anti-protons, but freaking whole freaking anti-hydrogen atoms. This some serious Star Trek shit. If we can do this, we can potentially power ships with anti-matter / matter reactions ala Star Trek, and if we can do that (and are okay with decades or centuries long travel times) this whole freaking arm of the galaxy is within our grasp.

Mind you, we'd need to crack our power generation problems here on Earth first I guess in order to be able to produce enough anti-matter to fuel ships. Somebody better get to work on cracking nuclear fusion on a large scale. No pressure guys. :)

I, for one, welcome our new sheep overlords...

Remember what those characters in the Lord of the Rings movies went through to make sure that Evil never threatened the pure and good communities such as Hobbiton?

Well, I guess they forgot about the sheep menace.

I hope those Hobbits didn't suffer too much when the sheep drove them out of there.

This is what happens when you fight a stranger in the alps!

I k now that sometimes, a TV network wants to show a movie at a particular time. And maybe, there's some dialogue in that movie that's unsuitable for the time they've chosen. Sometimes, the cut that dialog. Not too bad, provided the line wasn't crucial to the scene. Sometimes, though, they dub it.

Here's some examples of dubbing I ran across which were just plain silly:

The Big Lebowski
John Goodman's character, Walter, is going nuts trying to force a confession out of a scared teenage kid. In this case, the ridiculous dubbing is at least done by Goodman himself. Shame the dialogue doesn't make any damn sense whatsoever when they got done with it.



Snakes on a Plane
Every one knows this one, but I couldn't not include it.



Die Hard 2
This is just plain stupid. The dubbed dialogue is awful, and the guy doing the dubbing sounds nothing like Bruce Willis.



Hot Fuzz
This TV edit of Hot Fuzz is just as funny as the original, but for the wrong reasons. At least this time, it was the director's choice to do it this way.



And if anyone wants to see more, you can see nearly 10 minutes of terrible dubbing and editing from Pulp Fiction here. I'm not embedding it as it's quite long and unless you know the scenes well enough to remember all the original dialogue, it's not as entertaining. Interesting that the editors miss Tarantino's character using the N-word though, given that they dub over so much other stuff.

Oh, and anyone who finds this stuff entertaining should definitely read this short interview with Edgar Wright about it, and the silly things he's done for the TV edit of Scott Pilgrim.

Random Funny Stuff

Not really in the mood to blog about much tonight, but I do still owe a post.

So here's a funny thing or two to entertain you.

A quote from today's wanderings as myself, Denis and Noel entered the lingerie department of a store to find the girls:

Denis: "Quick, we're entering the women's underwear section. Close your eyes!"
Noel: "Denis, this is last part of the store you want to be groping your way through!"


And also - have a funny Muppets video:

Halo Rube Goldberg Device

No lengthy posts today, as I'm quite tired from my nephew's birthday party.

Instead, here's a video of a crazy contraption put together in Halo Reach's Forge mode. It's very clever but it must have taken FOREVER to put together.

Star Trek TNG - Haven

Originally aired: November 30th, 1987

Seems I had this episode mixed up with another. This episode does introduce the first lady of Star Trek to TNG, but it's about Deanna Troi's arranged marriage, not Lwaxana's. Hmmm.. perhaps I should refer to Majel Barrett as the second lady of Trek. When she was cast, she was Roddenberry's mistress, not his wife. Anyway.

Standard enough opening to this one - the Enterprise arrives at a beautiful planet for short R&R. Perhaps the crew needs it after the stress of that mining disaster rescue. Picard muses about the urban myths about how this planet can heal, and mend souls and broken hearts. Is that right? Urban myth? Should I saw galactic myth? Anyway, Data dumps all over Picard's poetic indulgence pointing out there's no evidence for these myths. Lieutenant Command Buzzkill reporting for duty, sir! Picard says these myths endure because they sometimes come true. Those are the kind that last all right. Along with the ones about waking up in a bathtub full of ice, missing a kidney.

Riker's in his quarters watching a hologram recording of some scantily clad women playing harps. Really Riker? Surely you've got better things to do in your free time. At least wait until your next holodeck reservation comes up and do it properly. Turns out he was called to the transporter room because an unknown object is beaming up from the planet. Do all Federation ships accept unknown incoming transporter signals? I'm also disappointed at the lack of O'Brien in the transporter room but we haven't seen him since the pilot I think. It seems they do wait for approval from the surface before the materialise the object which turns out to be a silver travelling case with an animated face in the side of it. A simple special effect which would most likely be done with too much CGI today, but whether you CGI it or do it practically, it looks stupid because the idea is stupid. Troi arrives in time for awake and deliver a message to her that her mother and Troi's future husband's family are arriving soon. What the fuck? Is that how Betazoids send messages? What's wrong with a video call, or an email? Talking fucking suitcases? Stupid. Troi seems pissed at this message, but Yar doesn't care as the suitcase pops open and spills jewels all over the transporter pad, which are apparently wedding gifts for Troi's upcoming ceremony.

I'm already bored by this episode. It's clear that Troi won't be marrying and leaving the ship to settle down so I'm not clear on why I should care. Anyway, Troi has apparently been living in denial that this marriage would happen. But apparently it is happening, and she's pissed. Riker seems pissed and Troi tries to comfort him. I think she actually called him Bill rather than Will there. Unusually for this show's early days, the scene with Riker and Troi is rather subtle. I suspect rather than artfully hinting at their previous relationship, it's just that the writers hadn't decided what it was yet and so avoided specifics. And now, about an hour after the talking suitcase, Troi's husband and his family are here. If they're already here, then I have to wonder again - what the fuck was the point of the suitcase? The Millers seem like nice people, and are pleased to see Troi. Well, all of them bar her husband anyway who's the typical shy nervous guy. The whole thing seems just as awkward as an arranged marriage between two people who've never met would be. The Millers leave and Troi seems puzzled that Wyatt, her future husband, seemed disappointed when he saw her.

Troi warns Picard about her mother, just before she beams in with Lurch in tow. Seriously - Hr. Homn is played by the guy who played Lurch in the Addams Family movies. Lwaxana immediately starts being both arrogant and also an overbearing mother, complaining that Deanna is talking out loud rather than telepathically. She asks Picard to carry her bags, despite how heavy they are. That results in an argument in the middle of a busy corridor, and somehow Lwaxana manages to pretend like none of it is her fault. Actually, this scene is very well done - it gives a great sense of the ship being full of people with a busy corridor full of people passing by and rubbernecking at the argument. Most corridor scenes on this show are fairly sparsely populated. Lwaxana talks on and on and on without listening to anything anyone says, until Deanna telepathically shuts her up. So far this episode's had a few good character scenes but a dull as dishwater plot. I'm going to skip over a lot more detail than usual I think for this one since it's all so boring.

The Troi family bickering finally gives way to a proper scene where Lwaxana opens up to her daughter a bit and empathises with her over this arranged marriage. It seems the room's father tracked down Lwaxana and reminded her of vows made years ago. Deanna herself is uncomfortable with the vows, but is still willing to honour them.  If TV has taught me anything, arranged marriages never work out. And TV would never lie to me, would it?

The local government calls upon Picard to intercept an unidentified, unresponsive ship entering Haven's planetary space. Despite knowing better, I briefly hope this episode will be livened up with a space battle. Meanwhile, Troi's talking to her future husband. Jesus" I didn't recognise him until know - it's a young Rob Knepper - a.k.a Samuel from Heroes, or Simeon from Stargate Universe. It's weird to see him play a good guy. I'm so used to him as a character I like to hate. He looks so young! Deanna seems to like him despite herself. She seems to be trying to make an effort to get along with him ,but he seems as disappointed to be in this situation as she is. She congratulates him on some of his artwork but his room is full of sketches of some other woman. She realises that Wyatt expected Troi to be the woman he's been seeing and drawing since he was a kid. He though Troi - being Betazoid - had been telepathically reaching out to him. He reluctantly seems willing to put his fantasies about this mystery woman behind to try to make a go of it with Deanna. Jesus, everyone in the future is sooo well adjusted and healthy. I don't know many people who'd take being forced into a disappointing marriage by their family this well.

Picard is busy making a log entry about his misgivings about Betazoid marriage tradition, and is slightly upset to lose a valued crew member. What's the matter Picard? Worried you'll have no-one to state the obvious? The unidentified ship limps toward the Enterprise and slower than light speeds. It's apparently a Tarellian vessel. They're supposed to be extinct so everyone's shocked to see one of their ships. Picard seems concerned that the Tarellians will try to destroy them, or Haven. Can one small ship be that much of a threat to the Federation flagship or the entire planet below them? Typical of Picard in a crisis - he calls a meeting. And apparently, yes - the one ship is a huge threat. The Tarellians fought amongst themselves until one side use a biological weapon on the other resulting in all of them becoming carriers of a deadly virus. Now I get the threat. They are supposed to have had the equivalent of late 20th Century Earth tech, which seems enough for the bio-weapon, but then apparently some of the survivors managed to infect other worlds. How did they do that with 20th Century tech? They'd be lucky to get out of their own solar system. The other survivors were hunted down and wiped out after that. But it seems at least one ship survived.

Picard is torn between his duty to protect Haven and his duty to render assistance to the Tarellians. He asks the crew to help come up with an answer to this situation. With the crisis looming, the crew do what anyone would in this situation. They go to a pre-wedding party. At the party, the wedding couple's parent fight over the arrangements, but what has me entertained is the way Mr. Homn is draining glass after glass of booze, while Data watches with curiosity. Picard steps in to try and end the fight and succeeds in at least making them put it aside during the party. They have dinner, where it seems that either the costume department haven't come up with dress uniforms yet or no-one bothered to wear one to the party. Mr. Homn is still putting the drink away like mad, and Data is just standing there watching him. I did wonder why Data wasn't at the table with the others, but at this early stage I guess he hasn't learned to fit into human customs enough to want to join them at the dinner table. Riker seems a little jealous of the slowly growing friendship between Troi and her husband-to-be. The man may be capable of acting after all. Data inquires about Homn's drinking but doesn't get an answer from him.

Eventually, the subject of the Tarellian ship comes up. Dr. Crusher and Wyatt start talking shop about the virus the Tareliians carry. Way to bore the shit out of everyone else. Homn is striking a gong every time Lwaxana eats. Before long he's striking it whenever he drinks as well. I think I'd drink as much as he does if I worked for Lwaxana too. Picard warns Data that he's hovering over everyone and it's disturbing. Data just seems to want to stand back and observe the human interaction. I think all the attempts at one-upping each other between Lwaxana and the Millers and the relationship triangle between Riker, Deanna and Wyatt have him fascinated. Oh, and Homn's alcohol abuse must be entertaining too. Lwaxana takes it a bit too far when she telepathically sets her pet plant that's been wrapped around her arm on Mrs. Miller. Then Riker decides he's had enough and leaves, while Data is watching all of this happen. Data needs to learn some subtlety, but instead he asks Lwaxana to elaborate on Betazoid weddings. That's when it comes out that everyone goes naked at Betazoid weddings. Lwaxana takes the opportunity at everyone's shock to get some digs in at the Millers and Homn is getting ridiculously pissed by now. It's like a running gag taken far, far beyond where it should stop. Like Sideshow Bob and the rakes, or Peter Griffin and his fights with the guy in the Chicken Suit. But then Deanna loses it and storms out, trashing the gong on the way. Data asks everyone to keep bickering, as he finds it intriguing. Subtlety, Data. Look it up.

Riker's run off to the holodeck, and he's using to sit in the middle of a sound stage dressed only somewhat convincingly like a desert, complete with the same cricket sound effect every TV show ever has used for night scenes. In fact, it reminds me of many of the alien planets on the original Trek. You'd think that twenty years on they'd do a more convincing job of making a sound stage look like a real desert world. Or just film in the fucking desert for an hour or two. Deanna joins him there, and they talk a bit about their past relationship. She gets all superior, claiming human males cannot separate platonic love and physical love. Riker seems to be about to tell her that he's never stopped loving her when Wyatt butts in. Deanna lays all her cards on the table, following through on Betazoid's claimed total honesty, and tells Wyatt that she cares deeply for "Bill". So I was right - she did call him that earlier. It doesn't suit him. Riker doesn't seem to want to deal with this conversation and leaves. The bridal couple talk about the wedding arrangements. Apparently after Deanna left, people managed to find a compromise about how to run the wedding where only a few of the people involved are naked. They actually manage to convince me that there's some chemistry between the two of them, and it looks like there might be a happy ending to this story after all. Time for a complication methinks.

Oh yeah - the Tarellian ship. Forgot about that. The ship is apparently receiving Picard's messages but not responding. Haven's government is freaking out as the Tarellians are near transporter range. Jesus - did the fleeing plague victims form a 20th Century tech world who took years to travel to Haven at sublight speeds stop to buy a transporter system somewhere? Haven begs Picard to take aggressive action against the Tarellians. As soon as the ship enters transporter range of the planet, Picard grabs them in a tractor beam and stops them from beaming down. Data thinks they might all be dead from the plague on the ship, but they finally get a response from the plague ship. To the surprise of none of the viewers, but much to Troi's surprise it's the woman that Wyatt has been sketching all his life. Wow - the Tarellians dress like rejects from an Original Series Trek episode.

Apparently the woman was standing in front of the viewscreen purely for the shock factor when the signal came through as she is quickly pushed aside by their captain, who asks to speak to Wyatt. Conveniently, but also logically, Dr. Crusher and Wyatt must have been on their way to the bridge already and step out of the lift just that second. The Tarellians recognise him, and he recognises the alien woman right away. The eight remaining Tarellians confirm to Picard that they still carry the virus. They look healthy for plague bearers. Maybe it's not active or something, but for a virus that killed all but 8 of their entire species, and wiped out a few other worlds too, it doesn't seem to have harmed them a bit. Except maybe their fashion sense. Picard thinks they may have come for Haven's legendary healing properties, and it seems they want to settle on some out of the way unpopulated island somewhere and not bother anyone. Picard promises to pass on the message to Haven's government. Wyatt doesn't seem to have gotten over the shock of meeting his imaginary girlfriend.

Wyatt goes to talk to Lwaxana to ask about how the two of them could have known each other across all that distance and despite having never met. Lwaxana tries to tell him what basically boils down to "she's your soul-mate" before going back to preparing for the wedding. Wyatt legs it to sickbay where he's putting together the medical supplies for the Tarellians and also steals a hypospray. He goes to see his parents and Deanna to say goodbye. To no-one's surprise he's going to go live (and presumably die) with his plague ridden imaginary girlfriend. To the shows credit, there are no long, drawn out speeches about why he must go. he simply says goodbye, and walks away.  Wyatt jumps the transporter operator with the hypospray and beams himself over to the Tarellian ship. It does appear they have transporter tech over there as he arrives in a transporter chamber, Outside are loads of framed sketches of him. The Tarellians are waiting for him, and claim to be just as stunned that he's real. But they say that once they realised he was real, they knew he would come.

The Millers harangue Picard to beam Wyatt back but while the crew are explaining that Wyatt can never return, the Tarellians all to ask that Picard release the tractor beam and they'll leave as they have what they came for. Ah, fuck. Wyatt and his new girlfriend speechify about why he must go with the Tarellians. I thought we'd get away without any of that. At least they keep it short, and the Tarellians leave. The Millers leave, having lost a son and not gained a daughter. I can't imagine they're all too happy. Lwaxana, however, thnks she can salvage the trip by getting married - to Picard, or Riker perhaps. Deanna doesn't react well to that. But Lwaxana and her giant of a manservant leave anyway, with Homn speaking for the first time to say thanks for all the booze. He's funny, that Mr. Homn. Everyone seems stunned that he can speak, and it's a little amusing. The ship heads away from Haven, and on to their next mission.

I'm not sure what to make of this episode. Moderately entertaining, but it's not even remotely sci-fi. The bit about Wyatt and Ariana being joined somehow and seeing each other all their lives long before they meet is just made up romantic fantasy. The show never even tries to explain it other than the rambling of a crazy old Betazoid woman. Other than that it's a personal drama about an arranged marriage. At least we got some good character development for Troi, Riker and even a bit for Data out of it.

Next: The Big Goodbye. The first holodeck malfunction episode. Oh goody.

Star Trek TNG - Hide and Q

Originally aired: November 23rd, 1987

Straight into the action on this one as the Enterprise is off to answer a distress call for medial aid, after having temporarily ditched Troi on some planet somewhere. Some mining operation blew up, injuring people - possible as many as 500. And the plot doesn't waste any time throwing complications in their way - 2 hours out from the mining colony, the ship detects a forcefield in their way. And it's the same field Q used to to block them back in the pilot. What a shock, what with Q's name being in the title of the episode and all.

Q appears as an energy globe thingy on the bridge to taunt the crew and Worf, for the first of many occasions, leaps over the tactical console to threaten an alien invader with a phaser. Q will have none of their urgent rescue mission, saying he has important issues to discuss such as the realisation of humanity's greatest dream. And the he finally takes human form, dressed as an admiral. After the credits, Picard sums up what's going on in a Captain's Log for the sake of anyone just tuning in. And yet he continues his conversation with Q as if there had been no interruption, calling him out on dressing as an admiral. So when exactly did he record the log we just heard in voiceover?

Q babbles on a bit, but seems taken with Riker. But Riker tries to give him a piece of his mind about the interference with the rescue attempt. Q brushes it off with "You species is always suffering and dying." That got a chuckle out of me - he honestly seems to not give a crap about the troubles of lesser races. Oh look! Worf's going to menace Q again, but Picard stops him. Damn - thought we would get the first Worf Effect there. Q insults Worf for a laugh before the conversation turns serious again. Picard tries to get Q to agree to a cautious conversation after the rescue, but Q wonders why Picard won't trust him. Picard rants at him and Q just mocks his outrage. Got to love the cockyness of an all powerful godlike alien who knows these primitive space faring monkeys can't hurt him. Q tries to remind them that how they handled the events he put them through at Farpoint have impressed the Q and they should count themselves lucky.

Q gets bored of talking to Picard and talks to Riker who claims not to have time for games. Q latches onto the word game and teleports the whole bridge crew away for a "deadly game". Data fills us in that they could be anywhere real or even unreal, and Riker seems eager to take part in whatever challenge lies ahead. Meanwhile Picard seems cut off and alone on the bridge. Even the lift doors won't open. What's the matter Picard? Not willing to exert yourself and open them manually? Or is it that they won't have built those access panels into the bridge set for another couple of seasons? On the planet Q appears to the crew in what I think is a Napoleonic era costume.Q says that the games a species plays and how they play them is very revealing, and Data encourages Riker to take part to gain information. Riker sits with Q as they drink some lemonade, and Q reluctantly provides drinks for the other too. Worf, eager to piss off a freaking god, pours his drink away. Attaboy Worf. One day you'll start thinking with your brain rather than your muscles, when the writers finally get around to trying to write an episode centred on you.

Riker comments on Q's fascination with human past - which, given the era the décor is from, is reminiscent of Trelane from the original Star Trek. That must be a deliberate reference, and the link between Q and Trelane is something that Peter David picked up and ran with in a novel once which was a hell of a good read. But Q wants to talk about the future. Q talks about how special humans are, and dear god, it's another Humans Are Special moment. I know it's practically the defining theme of Trek, but give it a rest already. Q starts to talk about the game, and Riker wonders where they are. Data fills in that all the props and décor around them are Napoleonic. Woo! My tenuous grasp on history actually got it right this time. Q makes fun of the humas, explaining that there's no point in a test of strength or intelligence as we have none to speak of. But he wants to give them something with high stakes, as the greatest possible future is the prize. So something disastrous is required if they lose to balance it out. The game is called "Can any of you stay alive?" Worf wants to know if the game is fair, and Q tells him "fairness is such a human concept" and tells him to think outside the box. John de Lancie comes through again when he delivers the next line wonderfully - "This game shall in fact be... COMPLETELY UNFAIR!". When Yar objects he teleports her to the penalty box where she's safe until someone else is sent there and then she'll cease to exist. DUN DUN DUN!

Meanwhile on the ship... Picard sits around alone and bored. He tries to make a log, but the computer won't respond. But hey! Tasha's there now, but she's in the penalty box. At least she can chat to Picard while she's there. She knows what will happen in case of another penalty, and she's not taking it well. Picard tries to comfort her, and I can see why he makes such a good leader. It'll be a while longer on the show until the characters are really established, but every so often a glimpse of who they'll grow to become shows through. Q arrives to mock Picard for his compassion, but gives in and releases Yar from the penalty box. Picard and Q banter back and forth a bit, before Q lets slip that the point of all this is to test Riker. Picard seems delighted that Riker will trounce Q, and they up the stakes. Riker beats Q and Q leaves humanity alone forever. Q beats Riker, and Picard loses his command. Q seems sure he'll win.

Back planetside, the crew are watching Worf in the distance. Apparently the VISOR gives Geordi telescopic vision. Wherever Worf is going, he's encountered some beast-men in French soldiers uniforms patrolling their camp. God, this game is taking forever to get moving. Q and Picard still debate Q's methods for testing humanity and Picard wants to know why not just talk instead of playing games. Q thinks Shakespeare has explained it all already - "All the galaxy's a stage..." Picard immediately corrects his misquote.

Q retorts with some Macbeth:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Picard continues the Shakespeare discussion by replying with some Hamlet, and another trademark Patrick Stewart Speech:

"What he might say with irony, I say with conviction: What a piece of work is man. How noble in reason how infinite in faculty. In form, in moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god."

Picard sees that as the future of humanity, and thinks Q is worried he might be right. Q disappears, seemingly unable to continue the debate.

Down on the planet, the enemy soldiers approach. Wow - we're halfway through the episode and Q hasn't even sprung his real plan yet. The crew seem puzzled that their opposition are armed with muskets while they still have phasers. Paranoid, he test fires his phaser, and Worf springs out of nowhere screaming "Drop your weapons!" Poor guy seems disappointed that it his own side that fired. Even Geordi seems amazed Worf came out of nowhere. But they're out of time - the soldiers have arrived. Data turns around for a second, and when he turns back it's Q in Data's uniform and Data's make up, who seems to have done this solely to surprise the humans and deny them Data's help. The soldiers open fire and it turns out their muskets are energy weapons. Awesomely stupid. I love it - phaser muskets. Seems like the beast soldiers die easy enough though, but there's loads of them. Q says Riker's only chance to save the others is to send them back to the ship, if he uses the power of the Q which he has given Riker. Then he pisses off and returns Data. Riker looks thoughtful and then teleports the others back to the ship. The forcefield around the ship fades, and the ship's systems come back online, though the rest of the ship is unaware there was a problem. In fact, the ship appears as if it has been travelling toward the colony this whole time, or time was frozen or something.

The crew Riker beamed back return and manage to evade the question of what was going on - probably just to avoid boring the viewer with a recounting of what they just saw, though it makes no sense not to fill in the captain on what transpired. Picard wonders what Q wants with Riker, expositioning out loud for everyone. Down on the planet Riker seems amused with what happened and calls Q a joke. Q tries to encourage Riker to use the power, but Riker wants to know what Q wants from them. Q dodges the question, and tries explaining that he returned to the Q Continuum after Farpoint and they discussed their realisation that humanity will only get better and stronger until one day they may surpass even the Q. As a result, they decided to study humanity and invite Riker into the Continuum so that they may learn from humanity. Riker says he wants none of it as he doesn't even like Q. More Humanity is Special bullshit. Q says Riker'll miss him and disappears. In return more of the ship's crew appear on the planet - including the captain and Wesley. Geordie seems pissed to be back there, and then more soldiers appear. This time, the crew have no phaser, and the soldiers are attacking.

Worf goes batshit berserker insane and gets his ass kicked and is stabbed through the gut with a bayonet, and killed. Off to a good start in this fight then. Wesley runs to his aid, gets attacked from behind and gives us the single greatest moment of Season 1, if not the entire run of this show.

Die, Wesley! Die!

This pisses Riker off enough to throw up a Q style forcefield in front of the soldiers, shocking the rest of the crew, before he takes them all back to the ship with the dead amongst them resurrected. Picard realises Riker has been made a Q and doesn't look happy about it. No one on the crew seems to know what to do, so Picard plays it straight with Riker, admitting he has no clue how to handle this. He says what Riker has been offered is close to immortality. Close to? I think you'll find it probably is immortality, Picard. Anyway, he seems concerned that if Riker doesn't want this, the power may still be too much a temptation, so he shouldn't use it at all. Riker seems to think he's up to the task of not using this power. Picard says that's enough for him but I'm betting Riker slips inside of 3 or 4 minutes, tops.

And they've arrived at the disaster struck mining colony. Rescue teams beam down, conveniently with Riker among them so he can see first hand how people are suffering. They find a handful of survivors who say all the others are gone. I hope they mean the other in this shaft or in this building, as it looks pretty bad if only 9 or 10 out of 500 survived. Geordie finds someone buried under rubble and Data starts to toss huge boulders like they were as light as tennis balls to find a crushed and dead little girl under there. Johnathan Frakes starts to impress me a bit, as he looks torn up inside knowing that he could bring her back but he shouldn't. Everyone else - especially Dr. Crusher - hams up the regret over not getting here sooner. Sure - the cute little dead girl gets you all upset. What about the other 485 dead people, Dr. Crusher? Data doesn't seem to know when to leave it alone and asks Riker about resurrecting the girl. Riker refuses, saying he promised not to use the power. When he gets back to the ship, he takes it out on Picard who tries to reassure him it was the right thing to do. Riker arrogantly "requests" a meeting with the Captain and the bridge staff. Looks like the corruption of power has started. Picard starts replying, but Riker strides off while he's on mid-sentence.

The meeting rolls around, and in the intervening ad break, Riker's gotten more arrogant, and is addressing the Captain by first name already. He tries to exclude Wesley, but Wesley points out he's on the bridge staff and stays. Hey - Dr. Crusher's here. Since when is she a bridge officer? Anyway, Riker tries to convince them all he's still the Riker they've always known. Just, you know, with godlike powers. Excellent speech Riker - you might have maybe convinced the village idiot. Can't you use your new powers to make yourself a better public speaker? Picard points out that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that Riker's behaviour has already changed. Riker tries arguing that the power can be used responsibly. No-one's buying it. Q appears right in the middle of things when the divide between Riker and the others has become a problem in the discussion, perhaps sensing that now is the time to strike to steal Riker away.

Q acts fairly entertainingly, playing the part of a monk, but Picard - understandably - doesn't want to play Q's games today. He tries pointing out Riker how ridiculous Q is, but Q counters by pointing out the scale of what they're offering Riker. Jesus, guys - when Trek gets into a talky scene, it gets a bit boring. I don't think they've got the pacing right here, and I'm just wishing this scene would move on to Riker making the inevitable choice already. Q tells Riker to use the power to give a gift to each of his friends, and Riker actually asks for Picard's approval. Maybe he's not all gone yet. Picard allows it, already suspecting how this will play out.

So Riker starts to offer gifts, at which point Dr. Crusher tries to leave and take Wesley with her. So Riker insists on giving Wesley a gift before he goes, and turns him into an adult - 10 years older - over his mother's protest. Way to go, Riker. What a dick move - "I just stole 10 years of your life Wesly, hope you like it." Asshole. Geordi seems impressed at how Wes will look in his mid twenties. You're in there, Wes.

Data's next, but he doesn't want what Riker is obviously going to offer him - becoming human. He seems to think that it wouldn't seem real to himself, and refuses. Riker seems a nit put out but picks on Geordi next and restores his sight. Geordi seems overwhelmed to be able to see everything normally for the first time. commenting that Tasha is as beautiful as he imagined. But ultimately he asks for the VISOR back, saying that the price is too high for him and he doesn't want to have to thank Q. So Riker restores him.

Riker seems to get desperate now - he thinks Worf needs ties to his own race, so he gives him a Klingon wife. Nice one Riker - conjure a Klingon woman out of nowhere and basically stuff her into an arrangemd marriage. He may as well have asked Worf if he wanted a sex slave. Worf seems excited, but when the wife attacks Tasha, Worf beats her up and refuses the gift, saying that the Klingon world is alien to him and he has no place for Klingon sex in his life now. Wesley butts in to say it's too soon for being an adult and asks to be restored, so he can grow up on his own. Q, getting desperate himself, pleads with Wesley to listen to Riker. But Riker realises Picard knew how it'd go, and confesses to feeling stupid.

Q tries to deny any wager, but Picard is counting on the other Q remembering that Q promised to stop bothering humanity. An ominous sound builds up as Q pleads with thin air for permission to try one more thing. Apparently, the Q aren't in a listening mood and zap Q out of there in a fairly painful manner. With him gone, the gifts fade too and Wesley is restored and the Klingon bimbo vanishes. Everyone is restored to the places they were in when they returned from the rescue mission. Data seems stunned that the Q can manipulate space and time with a thought but can't handle manipulating humans. And with that, the ship heads off on their next mission.

Not a bad episode. Weak in places, and with shaky acting but the actors haven't been playing the characters long. They're moving along towards what they'll become over the next 6 and a half years, but it can be painful to watch them now. It's also clear the this a pre-metaplot series. There's no arc story and knowing what happens with the Q later, it's clear that they didn't have this in mind back in this episode. The closest Trek will come to a metaplot any time soon is foreshadowing the Borg and the conspiracy worm things. But a solid enough story, though unoriginal. Well told, and watching John de Lancie chew the scenery for a while was fun. Even if some of that scenery was the god awful sound stage they used for the weird alien planet with the horizons that are only a few meters away.

Next up: Haven. The introduction of Lwaxana Troi and how she escapes her arranged marriage.

Fable III

Having played Fable back on the XBox and Fable II on the XBox 360, I enjoyed both, despite them being flawed games that never delivered what was promised by the developers. So when Fable 3 arrived I was hoping for more of the same. And it delivers on that.

So it's more running around, doing quests, killing monsters and listening to people talk with all sorts of English accents. And choosing between good and evil, as the series has had from the start.

So what's good about this one? Well, the voice acting cast is amazing. Freaking amazing. John Cleese as the butler, Simon Pegg as a fellow rebel, Michael Fassbender as the evil King Logan, Johnathan Ross and of course the always wonderful Stephen Fry as the immortal Reaver. All of them doing amazing jobs and giving it 110%.

What else? The game is fundamentally about overthrowing King Logan and ruling Albion in his place. And one interesting thing about it is that even after you've gone through gaining the support for the rebellion, the game's not over yet. A lot of games - or movies for that matter - would wrap up with the victorious crowning of the new King. Fable III has you deal with the aftermath. You must live up to the promises you made to get rebels on your side, and deal with decisions concerning the economy, rebuilding after the fighting and even matters such as regulation on alcohol purchasing. After one such decision, I ended up having to deal with the majority of my people wandering drunkenly around the streets and puking. The game does a reasonably good job of conveying the sense of responsibility of ruling the kingdom without being too boring or annoying.

And what's bad about it? Well, it's riddled with bugs. While I haven't run into anything too annoying or game-ruining, plenty of people are reporting online that they've lost save games or had to start all over again to get past a bug. The developer even set up a page for players to report bugs to their testing department. I can't say that I particularly enjoy the feeling that I paid full price for a game to be one of it's testers but then again I didn't hit a game breaking bug so it doesn't bother me that much.

The other thing that bothers me about it is that for the latest game in a series that made such a big deal of choosing between good and evil, there's not really much point in choosing evil in this one. The first part of the game has you trying to win support for your rebellion and you do so by saving people, fighting monsters and making promises to help. It's hard to enjoy playing a bad guy when you get sent off to clear out monsters and save people and cutscenes where you sincerely promise to do the right thing when you're king. Of course, your character could be lying but it doesn't feel that way. There is the occasional evil quest but only two or three in the entire game. It just feels like the evil path wasn't as thought through or fleshed out as it was in the last game.

In the end, it's an enjoyable game but not a great game. But as it apparently sold somewhere around half a million copies in it's first day on sale I think there's little doubt we'll see a Fable IV.

Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks

So after a long wait for the new Culture book by Iain M. Banks, I finally got done with it last night. I'd been so eager to get my hands on it that I had this ordered long before I even know what it was about. The words "Iain. M. Banks" and "new Culture novel" just triggered a "here, have my money" response.

Thankfully, it was well worth it. While not one of his best, Surface Detail is a fairly exciting and somewhat unpredictable adventure story set a few hundred years after the last Culture book. To begin with it's a revenge tale. An enslaved woman, back from the dead thanks to Culture technology, considers hunting down her former owner and murderer and taking revenge. While the Culture will not help her with this, a Culture warship is willing to bend the rules a little to see her on her way.

And while that's happening a war is reaching a climax. And this reinforces one of the things I love about the Culture novels. So many sci-fi books have amazing technology but never follow through on the logical uses and implications of the tech. But many civilisations in these books have the tech to capture and store mind-states so that people can be resurrected or live on in virtual worlds after death. And so Surface Detail picks up on uses of this tech brought up in earlier books to expand on this idea. Various civilisations had used this tech to create Heaven, and when their people die, they are uploaded into a VR Heaven. Eventually, over time, Heavens of different races were linked together.

And on the flip side, other civilisations used the same tech to create Hells to hold over people as a threat to get them to behave. Like Heavens before them, the Hells started to get linked together so the damned could be tortured by alien demons. And inevitably a conflict escalated between the pro-Hell and anti-Hell civilisations. But what with all concerned being enlightened space faring races, the war is to be fought in a virtual universe so no chaos or havoc is inflicted on the Real. And so, amongst a typical Iain Banks sci-fi novel, we have the War Between Heavens and Hells. To further complicate things, the anti-Hell side is losing and preparing to take the conflict into the Real as a desperation move to finish the war.

With all that set up, the plot begins to unfold in what appears to be an uncoordinated fashion. At first, I thought that the plot was just wandering or was simply set of unconnected stories. But as the story continues, the plots weave together in a somewhat coherent fashion. There do seem to be several loose ends or dropped plotlines, but nonetheless it comes together by the end.

Highlights in the book are some of the characters - the villain of the piece, Jolier Veppers, is an entertainingly evil son of a bitch. But best of all if you ask me, is the Abominator class General Offensive Unit Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints. This Culture warship is one of the biggest, baddest ships they have ever built and it's purpose - like all others of that class - is to sit around in space and act as a deterrent to prevent any other race starting trouble. The FOTNMC's excitement at the prospect of some idiot starting a shooting war is infectious and the moment when it gets to cut loose and do what it was made for for the first time in it's life... well, it was a thrill to read. And reinforcing that Banks also probably knew the FOTNMC was the best characert, when it's not part of what's going on, it's avatar - Av Demeisen - is usually somewhere nearby so we can get more of it/him in the story. Demeisen's a amusing little bastard, though if I spent more than a few days in his company I'd probably want to punch him in the face. Technically, the same exact character as the ship, Demeisen comes across a little different when left to his own devices by the FOTNMC.

The other major attraction for me in this story is that we get to see the Culture involved in an incident with other races who operate at the same level. There was the Affront back in Excession, but they were never much of a credible threat. It always seemed to me that the Affront might have caused some short term damage, but they'd never be a real threat. The other Level 8 civilisations in this book though could easily mess with the Culture and it's plans. The proverbial 800 pound gorilla finally has to deal with some other heavyweights.

The ending is a little weak, which surprised me a little. Endings are one of the hardest things to get right, but two or three times before Banks has knocked it clean out of the park. Endings like those in Use of Weapons in particular, but also Excession, Player of Games and Feersum Endjinn were amazing. This is a little weak. It's still a thoroughly enjoyable book - just not one of his best.

Though for long time Culture fans? The last sentence is a real shocker. In a good way. :)

LHC creates mini Big-Bang

I always see a a lot of articles about odd research and various experiments going around the world to the point where it's hard to get excited about some of the breakthroughs that happen.

Then there are days like today when I just can't help but feel excited when scientists at CERN recreate conditions from the freaking Big Bang. While the elusive Higgs-Boson hasn't shown itself yet, the fact that something like the Big Bang, a million times hotter than the Sun, has been artificially created under experimental conditions has me smiling.

On days like today - days when a bunch of scientists manage to recreate conditions like those that created everything that exists when all we have to organise it is a language long descended from noises primates used to tell each other where the best fruit was - I'm convinced that when we get our shit together, there's nothing we can't do.

And the LHC didn't end the world after all - always a plus.

Pictures from London 2008 trip

So finally I've gotten all my pictures from 2008 uploaded, now that the pics from when Bob, Sinead, Dave, Noel, Hazel and I went to London late in 2008. There's not too many of them but there all over on my Flickr page. I would have taken more, but we went to a lot of the same places that I went to on my London 2007 trip, so I didn't feel overly motivated to take pictures.

Now that they're all uploaded that just leaves Prague 2009 (when I took a handful of pictures), and London 2009 (when I took hundreds and hundreds of shots). Maybe someday, I'll get through my backlog and feel like it;s okay to starting taking pictures again.

Star Trek TNG - The Battle

Originally aired: November 16 1987

Ah, the second attempt to establish the Ferengi as the villain of the show. It works moderately better than the first, what with the enemy Ferengi actually coming across as somewhat menacing and willing to stop at nothing to destroy Picard. But overall, this seems to be the point where the writers give up on the Ferengi as the main villain and drop them back into the background to only be pulled out once in a while as a minor threat. We won't see them again as the focus of an episode until Season 3 and the rest of Season 1 and most of 2 will try to get by (with varying degrees of success) without a major villain.

The episode kicks off with the Enterprise meeting some Ferengi ship as ordered, and then having to wait for three days until the Ferengi to talk to them. Really, Starfleet? Are Federation types that passive that they'll sit for three days and wait with nothing to do? In the meantime Picard is doing what most men will never do and talks to his doctor when he's feeling ill. He complains of a headache and Dr. Crusher is amazed. Apparently people don't often get headaches in the 24th Century. Wonder how they managed that when the causes of headaches aren't fully understood even today. Picard blames it all on the stress of waiting for the Ferengi to do something. Picard seems pissed that his quick check-up with the doc seems to be turning into a proper trip to Sickbay but he's saved by the bell as the Ferengi call and he heads to the bridge. And with that little bit of foreshadowing and setup out of the way, the episode can get going.

Daimon Bok of the Ferengi seems happy to be talking to the Captain Picard, and wants to talk about a mutual problem in person. Unusually, Troi shows initiative and orders the communication suspended to warn Picard that Bok is lying about something. Given that the ships must be kilometres away from each other at least, I always find it amazing that she can sense what people are feeling at that distance. At least she sensed something useful this time and isn't just spouting the obvious. Armed with this warning, they choose to meet Bok on the Enterprise. While I agree that it's better than meeting on the Ferengi ship, I doubt the wisdom of inviting a strange, untrustworthy Ferengi aboard the Federation flagship. But whatever.

There's a few scenes with Picard in sickbay after all, but other than filling out the running time of the episode they serve little other than to repeat that Picard has a headache for an unknown reason. On the bridge, Wesley spots an incoming old Federation ship before anyone else having magically boosted the long range sensors, pissing off both characters and viewers. Picard lectures Wesley a bit, and then the Ferengi beam over - straight to the freaking bridge. Not only are they an unknown quantity, and untrustworthy, Picard has to beam straight to the control centre of his ship. Jesus. The Ferengi immediately ogle the women and try to purchase Data. Then the old ship arrives and it turns out it's been arranged by the Ferengi. Clearly they're not up to anything at all and it's a fantastic idea to have beamed them to the bridge. At least the crew are a little worried when the Ferengi claimed the ship is a gift from them, for the Hero of Maxia.

The truth starts to come out when Picard realises that nine years ago, his ship defended itself against an unknown ship and destroyed it - and it turns out to have been a Ferengi ship. Picard starts to have more headaches, but Troi senses something causing them. Picard finally realises that the old ship approaching is the old ship he was on at Maxia - the Stargazer. The other Ferengi are shocked that Bok is giving away the ship. Shortly afterward Picard is back in Sickbay and is remembering Maxia with ridiculous clarity. This leads to Picard recounting the battle of Maxia to his crew, but in doing so he keeps slipping back to that day as if he's reliving it. Maybe he's going senile? Long story short, he sums up winning the battle by using what's now called the Picard Maneuver. And I don't mean that thing he does when he tugs his tunic straight when he stands up from his chair.

No, the Picard Manoeuvre involved a tiny faster than light jump so that you arrive out of warp in the right position so that the light from where you are and the light from where you were arrive at the enemy at the same time, and you appear to be in two places. The enemy will probably be firing at your old position and you get the drop on him. A brilliant manoeuvre but it will only work once. Since it's now well known throughout the fleet - and presumably by Starfleet's enemies as well - all it would take is some small bit of code in a ship's targeting computer to defeat this manoeuvre. It only works when you surprise the other ship. Also, the show has repeatedly shown us ships using sensors to track other ships moving faster than light, so the trick shouldn't work in the first place. Which is where the climax of this episode falls apart - Riker acts as if they're doomed if the enemy ship uses the Picard Manoeuvre, but if you know the trick then you know which of the two ships to fire on - the one that wasn't there a second ago. So despite the mounting tension throughout the rest of this episode, it just didn't work for me as I kept wanting to smack the bridge crew for being so stupid.

Anyway, to pick up the pace of this post, Picard and crew take the Stargazer from the Ferengi and make sure it's safe for Picard to come aboard. And they do such a bang up job that when Picard goes to his cabin to reminisce an odd looking alien device hidden there powers up and his headache gets worse, and we're shown Bok back on his ship dialling up the power on a matching device and gloating about Picard's suffering. They all go back to Enterprise and take the Stargazer in tow. Picard gives Riker command and goes for a rest. And of course, his stuff from the Stargazer has been moved to his quarters including the alien device hidden there so his rest isn't all that restful. Data reports the logs from the Stargazer appear to indicate that Picard attacked and destroyed an ship under flag of truce and has the recordings to prove it. To their credit, the crew immediately assume it's a frame up job and set out to work out how the Ferengi can simulate someone else's voice. Em, guys? Data himself can speak using the voice of anyone he's heard. It's not that big a mystery. :) Nonetheless, they report it to Starfleet as per policy.

Riker compares notes with his Ferengi counterpoint. Bok has started spreading the altered story of Maxia on the Ferengi ship. During this conversation, the Ferengi says "I'm all ears." but it's okay, it's not racist (or speciesist) when he says it. Though the conversation does not go well. Picard's getting grouchier in the meantime as the pain gets worse. This episode got going for a while but it's slowed right down again as Picard agonises over Maxia and we occasionally see Bok gloating. Finally something happens when Picard wakes and hallucinates being back in command of the Stargazer about to pull his Manoeuvre. In the meantime Data has found evidence that the log has been faked. Picard dismisses everyone and order the Stargazer cut loose so her inertia will carry her along. Then we get more scenes of people waffling about what's happening and Wesley butts in to say that he detected transmission from the ship that match Picard's brain scans. Dr. Crusher and Troi take the evidence to Riker.

Riker discovers that Picard has left the ship. He's on the Stargazer where Bok is there to reveal that he's out for revenge for the death of his son at Maxia. Riker and the others discover the alien device on board, and rush to investigate. But in the meantime, the Bok has Picard convinced that he's back at Maxia and sets him off attacking the Enterprise. On the Enterprise they've worked out what the alien device is for and how it's been affecting Picard.The Ferengi first officer confirms that it's an illegal thought altering device. But by now Picard has fallen into the complete delusion that he's at Maxia and starts his attack. Riker realises Picard is about to use the Manoeuvre, and consults Data who says there is no defence. What was the point of teaching you about this attack at the Academy if there's no defence? So you know how fucked you are? Riker orders Data to come up with a defence. While they had this talk, the Ferengi first officer has taken command of their ship and arrested Bok.

Data comes up with the idea of looking for disturbances of the trace gases in space to spot movement of a ship under warp to get a small warning of where the Stargazer will reappear when it jumps. A good idea, but if your sensors can see the movement of the gases, then it should be able to see the ship itself for fucks sake. Either that or they won't see the movement of the gases until it's too late. Either way, the do this and plan to tractor the Stargazer when it appears and hold it so it can only fire in a limited direction and they can prepare their shields. The plans works and they open a comm channel to Picard and talk him down, and convince him to phaser the thought altering device. They all had lemonade. The End.

Seriously, after Picard takes out the sphere it's pretty much all resolved - Bok is under arrest and Picard is himself again and returns to the ship. All in all, an okay episode. There's nothing particularly sci-fi about it but then Star Trek was like that a lot of the time. Sometimes it was all about a strong sci-fi idea, and other times it was just an entertaining bunch of stuff that happened to the crew. If it wasn't for the implausibility of the Picard Manoeuvre being so feared by people who understand exactly how the trick works and can predict when the other ship is going to use it, I'd have liked it a lot more.

Next; Hide and Q, when the always awesome John de Lancie returns, Riker gets the power of a Q and Wesley Crusher gets killed.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...

But not because of anything to do with Catholics or terrorists.

Because it's my nephew Alex's 2nd birthday today! Happy Birthday Alex!

2 years ago, he was a tiny baby

But he was very quick to learn!

And even showed musical promise early on.

He's always been a pretty cool guy,

though he parties a little too hard sometimes!

And this time last year, his birthday party wore him out.

And late last year, he got a new member of the family.

But he's always been a loving big brother.

And he knows when to lie back and let
baby Fionn get into trouble by himself!

After 2 years with us, he's developed
his own unique way of seeing the world!

Happy 2nd Birthday Alex!

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Continuing the trend of old classic stories being recycled into modern entertainment, last month saw the release of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a video game remake of the 16th Century Chinese story Journey to the West, transplanting the story to a post-apocalyptic New York City. Three of the characters from the story made the jump to the new version.

And while the new version borrows from the original, there aren't too many similarities.Monkey, Tripitaka and Pigsy are all present, but Sandy and the Dragon don't appear. Monkey's staff, his "cloud somersault" and especially his golden headband all make an appearance. It's quite well done - it stands as a story on it's own as well as being a successful re-imagining of the original. No surprise, given it's story line is written by Alex Garland of 28 Days Later and The Beach fame.

Visually, it's stunning. The post apocalyptic New York is my favourite, as nature has reclaimed the city and there's a fantastic mix of rotting urban scenery mixed with the lush greens and golds of the forest that's slowly taking over Manhattan. Though I wish it had lasted longer, and shown us more of what was left of the city, the game hits the road and literally heads for the hill soon enough, and the scenery there is just as wonderfully done. Where the game drops the ball a little is the wrecking yard / swamp where Pigsy lives. That environment just seemed dull and repetitive to me, but thankfully you move beyond it quickly to another visually impressive set of levels leading up to the end of the game.

And as a game, it's... well no one part of it is exceptional really. The platforming is good and tightly executed but it's so intuitive to control it begins to feel unchallenging. You can't really make a mistake unless you try. The combat is basic, but works well. When you're under attack from all front it's does get stressful and exciting but most of the time you don't really feel in danger. The puzzle-type aspects to the levels are the best aspect of it all, working out how you need to proceed or how to bypass enemies and/or obstacles, but other games have done this better.

Where Enslaved really shines though is that it's whole is far more than the sum of it's parts. All these uninspired but well executed aspects of the game come together so seamlessly to make for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Coupled with a pretty engaging storyline and it's a game that'll keep you eagerly playing right through to the end. I can thoroughly recommend this game to anyone.