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| Monday, November 18, 2013 10:44 PM |
| Remembrances of Futures Past |
 by Fëanor |
My brother and I grew up watching Doctor Who on NJN. It was definitely one of our favorite shows. This was back before DVRs and On Demand when the only way to catch a show was to be lucky enough to turn to the right channel at the right time. The Doctor seemed to appear at random times so it always felt like a wonderful stroke of luck to flip over to PBS and find the blue police box fading into view with that signature groaning sound, instead of Nova or a nature show. Science fiction adventure with monsters and robots and time travel and silliness? It was the greatest.
When they brought the show back in 2005, we were both pretty excited, although I think my brother more than me. He'd become the bigger fan for whatever reason. I tried to keep up with it, but what I saw didn't really blow me away, and I ended up spending my time on other things.
Then poppy got interested in the new show. We watched a few episodes together and soon we were hooked. We're maybe a quarter of the way through the second season now. We're watching it the way you watch shows here in the future - multiple episodes at a time, streaming on Netflix.
The other day poppy and I were talking about the show, trying to figure out what it is we like about it so much. Of course, there's great writing and great acting. David Tennant is tremendous and is probably my favorite of the modern Doctors. The effects are even pretty good, which is something you definitely could not say about the original show; it was made on a shoestring budget and it showed. The monsters, weapons, and sets were infamously lame. Even on the new show some of the computer effects leave something to be desired. But the physical objects they've crafted are amazing - like the clockwork robots with creepy human face masks, ticking gear-filled innards, and saws that flip out of their arms.
Still, none of that is what makes the show truly great. What makes it great is the Doctor. The Doctor, and the host of totally normal people who are always there to help him save the universe.
Even though, as poppy pointed out to me, the show is really more properly categorized as horror than sci fi (a fact I realized was true with some surprise), it is also extraordinarily optimistic, with a wonderfully positive view of humanity. As the Doctor himself says, in 900 years he's never met anyone who wasn't important, and the stories bear out that theme. There are no unimportant characters, and in fact some of the most important characters are the most ordinary, normal people you could imagine, who simply see what has to be done and step out from the background to do it, saving themselves and the Doctor too more often than not.
The Doctor is a man whose true name is a secret, but who's chosen to call himself a healer. That's very important. That's how he sees himself. He arrives in the midst of chaos and trouble and he fixes things. He is the champion of the common man, the protector of the innocent, a radical pacifist who destroyed a weapons factory and replaced it with banana trees, and who goes into battle with nothing but a fancy screwdriver.
But like some real doctors, he can be arrogant, and he can be accused of having a God complex. He sees himself as the ultimate moral arbiter, the judge, the jury, and sometimes even the executioner. This conflict between his self identity as a healer and savior and his occasional habit of murdering his enemies is one of the central themes of the new show.
We meet him at the beginning of the series as the lone survivor of a huge and apocalyptic war, a war which he personally ended by destroying both sides. He's become a man capable of doing terrible things in the name of peace. But then he meets a woman named Rose and for once, the healer himself is healed. She reminds him of the difference between right and wrong, reminds him that there are things worth dying for, but very few things worth killing for. At the end of the season, he's given the same choice again: end a war by slaughtering both sides, or let the bad guys win. Be a killer or a coward. This time, he makes the other choice. "A coward any day." It's a powerful moment. His growth and change is nicely underlined by the fact that after this choice, he literally becomes a different person.
Doctor Who is a show that has the courage to never back away from the hard questions, to never let its heroes off easy. When the Doctor decides to return a criminal to her homeworld to face justice, she points out that that "justice" will be a cruel death, and that he must take responsibility for it. In the end he manages to avoid killing her, even after she betrays him, and instead gives her a second chance at life, quite literally.
The Doctor is not a human being, but he loves humanity, and he and his stories are deeply human, deeply moving, and full of bittersweet wisdom. |
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| Wednesday, May 16, 2012 03:05 PM |
| Recyclotron |
 by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Animated GIFs (Not), Art (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Diablo (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Hulk (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Superman (Not), Toy Story (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
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| Wednesday, January 25, 2012 03:39 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Piggie!
- I'm a big fan of early filmmaker Georges Méliès, especially his celebrated Le Voyage Dans La Lune. Well, that film has been restored with a new soundtrack by French pop duo Air! Here's a clip.
- I feel like I've seen this before... but anyway, it's still cool: 48 years of Doctor Who in about 10 minutes.
- You can download a free copy of the game they played in The Last Starfighter right here! It's a PC-only exe, by the way; sorry, Mac-users. I haven't played it yet, but I will! (Via)
- Well, Liam Neeson was at least on the set of The Dark Knight Rises. And he may have a cameo reprising his role as Ra's al Ghul. Which would be AWESOME.
- You can now purchase this great Hellboy/Peanuts mashup.
- I enjoy this Adopt a Dire Wolf T-shirt. It supports a good cause!
- Via Warren Ellis, "Indonesian man arrested for kicking woman he thought was a ghost." And really, from the way he describes it, I might have kicked her, too. But more likely I probably would have just run screaming.
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Batman (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Hellboy (Not), Links (Not), Mashups (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Song of Ice and Fire (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Warren Ellis (Not) |
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| Monday, September 12, 2011 12:26 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Egon 4-evah!
- Yep, been there, done that.
- This styrofoam cup art is pretty awesome.
- Mr. Hipp does it again with a couple of amazing Lord of the Rings pieces.
- A huge timeline infographic reveals what the future will be like, according to films. (Via)
- io9 offers you the chance to vote for the greatest use of pop music in all of sci-fi and fantasy. IIRC, I picked "You Could Be Mine" from T2, "Mad World" from Donnie Darko, "Johnny B. Goode" from Back to the Future, and "Day-O" from Beetlejuice.
- io9 has also collected for you the most amazing space pictures of 2011.
- Doctor Who My Little Ponies!
- What if Darth Vader's infamous "Nooooo!" were edited into other classic movies? In that same vein, here's Star Wars before and after blu-ray-ification.
- The first two episodes of a new Fringe web series.
- The trailer for Luke Cage! (OK, not really. Sorry to disappoint you there.)
- I usually avoid reposting Blastr's top ten lists, because that's all they ever post and it's kind of sad (although I don't have much room to talk...), but this one is rather fun: fake TV shows inside of real TV shows. Itchy & Scratchy is a classic, of course, and All My Circuits is always hilarious.
- Apparently carrots are only orange for political reasons.
- More of Sucklord's fantastic custom action figures.
- Cool piece of art created with tape. Also, Olly Moss' scary/funny Pikachu, and Kate Beaton's more accurate version of the Cheesecake Factory's logo.
- Lovecraftian lollipops! They're unspeakably delicious!
- Huh. Threadless is doing a pretty cool new thing.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Books (Not), Business (Not), Clothes (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Food (Not), Fringe (Not), Ghostbusters (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), Parenthood (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Space (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Wednesday, September 7, 2011 12:34 PM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Hey, remember when I used to post to this here blog thingie?? Thought I'd give that another try...
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Batman (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Cosplay (Not), Costumes (Not), Craft (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fast food (Not), Futurama (Not), Links (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Photoshop (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Web comics (Not), Wonder Woman (Not), Zelda (Not) |
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| Monday, June 20, 2011 09:47 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Art (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Commercials (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fantastic Four (Not), Game of Thrones (Not), George R.R. Martin (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Links (Not), Mashups (Not), Music (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), TV (Not) |
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| Wednesday, April 20, 2011 09:49 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who, has passed away. Sadness. All the old Doctor Who actors seem to be going away.
- io9 gives us a glimpse of what Star Trek TV shows by William Shatner and Bryan Singer might have been like. Shatner's sounds awful, but Singer's has promise.
- Check out this cool 30-second ad for X-Men: First Class. This movie could work after all!
- This Super Punch link roundup includes the imaginary menu at Guy Fieri's Passover dinner (the article's pretty harsh to poor Guy Fieri, whom I rather like, but still pretty funny), as well as links to all the character fatalities, stage fatalities and babalities in Mortal Kombat 9. Not that Mortal Kombat was ever subtle or tasteful, but man, they've really gone overboard with this one. All the characters are constantly covered in blood and gore, all the women have huge breasts and skimpy clothing (even the four-armed monster woman!), and pretty much every fatality involves gory dismemberment. Ugh.
- Pretty cute Super Mario Bros. wedding video. (Via)
- Another Super Punch link roundup brings us an Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince-themed Slanket, and a Tron vs. MCP animated gif.
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| Tagged (?): Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Food (Not), Links (Not), Mario (Not), Mortal Kombat (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Trek (Not), Tron (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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| Friday, January 21, 2011 10:52 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Evan Shaner wishes a happy birthday to Comic Twart by posting a representative image for every theme chosen in the blog's first year.
- Dan Hipp illustrates one of my favorite moments from Return of the Jedi.
- Somebody made a board game version of a tower defense game. Sounds like it's pretty cool, too.
- Baby-sized TARDIS! I feel like Griffin should have one of these.
- I've been reading a collection of old Russian folk tales, so it was interesting to find this post about an upcoming novel that re-envisions the stories of old Russian folk figures. You can read an excerpt here. It takes the elements of Russian folk tales - the repetitions (often in threes), the moments of sudden and inexplicable magic - and analyzes and re-imagines them in the context of communism and socialism. It's absolutely fantastic.
- Now that a mad scientist is cloning a woolly mammoth, io9 has suggestions for some other extinct animals we might want to bring back.
- Fringe fans just have to love this "Walter is my homeboy" T-shirt. Because you know what? Walter is my homeboy.
- Good news, everyone! NBC has ordered a pilot for Ron Moore's police show set in a world ruled by magic - Precinct 17.
- Sounds like Marvel is once again making an attempt to turn Black Panther into a movie.
- The bikini- and carnage-filled trailer for the DVD/blu-ray release of the modern classic, Sharktopus, complete with catchy beach rock theme song.
- As the entire world knows by now, Anne Hathaway will be Catwoman and Tom Hardy will be Bane in the next Batman movie. It took me a while to mull this news over. I haven't seen Anne Hathaway in much. She seems a bit goody-goody to play Catwoman, but hey, she's an actress! She should be able to pretend to not be goody-goody, the way actresses do. Tom Hardy seems a bit of an odd choice, too, for a monstrous, wrestler-type villain, but Tom Hardy is awesome, and also pretty damn ripped, so I think he can pull it off. Plus, Christopher Nolan's instincts are pretty damn good as far as these things are concerned (anybody remember Heath Ledger, the best Joker ever?), so I'm cautiously optimistic.
- The 1600th episode of Laugh-Out-Loud Cats is pretty mind-blowing, you guys.
- Dark Horse/Mike Mignola need to hire Enrique Alcatena to draw a Hellboy book RIGHT NOW. I'm just saying. This guy is GOOD.
- Someone has invented a game that's a combination of bowling and billiards. That's actually kind of vaguely brilliant.
- Here's a video of someone throwing boiling water into the air somewhere where it's so cold that the water instantly evaporates (or turns to snow, or something - I don't know, I was an English major, not a science... guy).
- You can simulate a fake incoming call with Samsung phones? Hey, I have a Samsung phone!
- A guy attached a tiny video camera to some arrows and shot them with his bow! Nice!
- More and better images from the X-Men: First Class movie.
- Blastr has compiled an impressive list of 83 differences between Fringe's alternate universe and ours.
- Muppets inserted into 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Cinematical gives us a rundown of at least 13 movies that you can expect to see ads for during the Super Bowl.
- It sounds like Johnny Depp may be taking Robert Downey Jr.'s place in Sam Raimi's Wizard of Oz movie.
- Even for a non-American Idol fan like myself, this recap of the latest American Idol is truly entertaining. I love the quick, spot-on critique of those horrible Bing ads, too.
- Btw, don't worry, George Lucas wasn't really serious about that thing about the world ending in 2012. He claims. He probably just wants to make sure no one goes looking for his secret escape spaceship.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Batman (Not), Board games (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comic books (Not), Commercials (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Football (Not), Fringe (Not), Gadgets (Not), Gaming (Not), Hellboy (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Muppets (Not), News (Not), Oz (Not), Phones (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Sports (Not), Star Wars (Not), Super Bowl (Not), Technology (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not), X-Men (Not) |
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| Tuesday, January 11, 2011 11:31 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Books (Not), Celebrities (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fighting (Not), Food (Not), Links (Not), Mashups (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), Tolkien (Not), Video (Not), Wonderland (Not) |
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| Wednesday, December 8, 2010 09:53 AM |
| Recyclotron |
| by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- President Obama will be on Mythbusters tonight. GeekDad lowers expectations about the episode, but says it's still a good one.
- A set of photos of action figures of Doctor Who villains hanging out in various real-world locations. (Via)
- A kick-ass music video for one of the best tracks on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, "Derezzed." It features cyber-jousting! (In case you missed it, I named the Tron: Legacy soundtrack one of the top ten albums of 2010.)
- NASA's much-hyped arsenic life form announcement may have been a bunch of hooey. Disappointing!
- Somehow I only just realized this, but A.V. Club is doing a holiday version of Undercover. That means they're bringing ten artists into their weird little round room to cover ten holiday songs. Example: here's Kate Nash and her band doing a rather lovely cover of "Merry X-Mas Everybody."
- My friends, here it is, the pinnacle of our achievements as a species: the trailer for Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus. This film features Robert Picardo and Jaleel "Urkel" White. Astounding.
- Syfy must have liked the pilot for Alphas, that show about ordinary people who gain superpowers, because the network just ordered 11 episodes.
- December means lots of end of year best of lists. Here's A.V. Club's picks for the best music of 2010.
- Witness the ridiculousness that is a 149-hit combo in Super Street Fighter IV.
- Blah Blah Blah: The Video. A celebration of blah blah blah in movies and television.
- An impressive compendium of Super Mario glitches. Many are accompanied by handy animated GIF demonstrations. (Via)
- The "Song of Healing" from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, performed on wine glasses.
- Casino R'lyeh Cthulhu Mythos Poker Cards.
- Here are a couple of links that I already posted to Twitter, but couldn't help reposting here. First off, some fun travel posters for comic book cities. Next, some amazing casting news for The Hobbit: Cate Blanchett is returning as Galadriel, and Sylvester "Seventh Doctor" McCoy will play Radagast the Brown. Of course, the fact that Galadriel and Radagast are showing up means we're going to get to see the meeting of the White Council that happens "off-screen" in the book, during one of the various times that Gandalf splits from the company to do his own thing. I have to say, I am VERY EXCITED about this!! Plus, the Doctor is going to be Radagast! Awesome.
- A sampling of some of the great art up for auction on eBay in support of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
- Super Punch highlights some great photography, including these shots of weird mushrooms, and this one of coral.
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Christmas (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Links (Not), Lovecraft (Not), Mario (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), Mythbusters (Not), News (Not), Obama (Not), Photography (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Science (Not), Street Fighter (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), Tron (Not), Tron Legacy (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), Zelda (Not) |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
