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F-ZeroOne

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Everything posted by F-ZeroOne

  1. All the Top Gear presenters have made individual TV programmes on various subjects, and to a greater or lesser degree they're all fairly good presenters in their own right. May is probably the best, though when he jettisons his blokey-alpha male persona Clarkson can be pretty damn good (as when he presented a programme about his father-in-law, a Victoria Cross winner, or one he did on the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel - that was part of a poll-based series about the "Hundred Greatest Britons" and Clarkson was credited with near single-handely boosting Brunel to almost the top spot). Hammond is, er, the most prolific... The Hornby one was filmed semi-locally to me...
  2. I honestly can't believe that its taken this long for someone to think "You know what would work in 'Doctor Who'? Killer Snowmen!"...
  3. Actually, there was an armed experimental version of the SR-71 - the YF-12 (possibly its more accurate to say that the SR-71 was an unarmed version of the A-12/YF-12... ). Lockheed also considered fitting bombs to it...
  4. The demo is out on Steam. I haven't had a lot of time with it, but... It's not quite your Daddy's X-Com, but first impression is that's its going to be a very worthy heir. It's also every bit as cruel as you remember -something you'll learn in the *tutorial*!
  5. Alex Garland, who wrote the script, has stated that in early drafts Judge Death and the other Dark Judges featured. Then the budget intervened. Hes also stated that in a hypothetical sequel, he would like to have the Dark Judges make an appearance...
  6. Saw this the other day. Its very, very good. Also, very, very violent. I would really like to see a sequel.
  7. Er... it wasn't in the episode, it was a cross-dimensional joke...?
  8. "My girlfriend is a Dalek now, shes a Dalek NOW!" was dressed in a red dress when she wasn't clad in a metal cyborg killing unit. I think thats where some confusion is creeping in. The robots weren't so much "based on" as indeed played by the UK comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Mitchell does quite a few panel comedy shows in the UK, "Q.I" among them (he was involved in the infamous "giant tortoise" debate on that programme). The duo together are probably most famous for a comedy show called "The Peep Show".
  9. The first question I can remember asking my parents was "Who was the first man on the Moon?". I've always been a bit of a space cadet; Neil Armstrong was why.
  10. UK airdate for the new Who series has been confirmed - 1st September, 19:20 GMT. Spoiler follows for first episode title: There will also be a web exclusive mini-series following the homelife of the Ponds, called, um, "Pondlife" from 27th August. Not sure if that will be available in all regions, though.
  11. Aren't they making that movie? I think its called "Expendables 2"... And, oh, I presume following long established Hollywood tradition, Sir Patrick will be playing the bad guy?
  12. I'm going to be mischevious and point out that the Pixar movie "The Incredibles" features a giant robot (in fact, a series of giant robots) as the main threat quite a bit... Mind you, leading into whats said about a design tradition, the director of that film had previously made "The Iron Giant"...
  13. Wait, are you talking about a certain... half-breed with a grudge against against John Crichton? Because if you are... ewwwwwwww! I never got to see as much of Farscape as I would have liked, and what I did see was always out of order, but after a shaky start for the first few episodes theres no doubt it becomes one of the most "out there" SF series around.
  14. Its probably not entirely a coincidence that there was a twin-engined World War II fighter called the Lightning, either...
  15. So did I. I'll admit that the actors weren't well chosen, other than Angelia Jolie... I've probably been a bit harsh on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", but its probably because I only saw it all the way through for the first time a couple of days ago and its fresher in my mind than "Star Trek: V".
  16. 1) Prince of Space: early black-and-white Japanese superhero/Power Ranger-type movie. 2) Golgo 13 (the movie from the 1980s). When a fully nekkid woman is swimming across the screen and your entire attention is diverted to wondering how they did the water reflections then theres got to be something wrong with the film. 3) Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The SFX are excellent (for the period). The plot, on the other hand... its entertainment, Jim, but not as we know it. What would I wager? Uh, a drink I guess. They'd have to choose, I don't drink alcohol...
  17. We don't have any carriers yet (excepting a couple of helicopter carriers). We are bulding two - HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth (and no, its not named after any big-eared eco-friendly royals you might be familar with; theres been a "Prince of Wales" in Royal Navy service of one sort or another for centuries...!). They were being built with the F-35B in mind, but there was a U-Turn following a defence review and they decided to install catapaults. Then the cost of the installation rose (from a reported £400million to £2billion), so back to crossing our fingers reallyhard and hoping that F-35Bs can be made to work without bits dropping off etc. Its still unclear exactly how many carriers are going to wind up in service - due to budget concerns one of them was going to be mothballed almost from the moment it was built. Theres a hope now that if we do go for the F-35B then it might be possible to have both carriers in service as originally planned...
  18. Ta! The thing I found most amusing about the Gundam - this might depend on which train stop you get off at though - is that its sort of tucked round the back, almost like someone is ashamed to have it displayed in "full view"... I missed the event booklet...! One thing I forgot to mention is that before you enter the "Dome", you're given safety information using clips from the original series or SEED. Things like "No smoking or another Zaku will explode!"... I wasn't the only person smiling at this, though I was probably the only non-Asian in the queue... I was lucky enough to have a go on "Gundam: The Ride" when it was operating. That was great fun!
  19. Well, it seems a Prime Minister called Dave has decided that if the UK is going to have a plane called Dave - sorry, I mean, the F-35 - then its going to be the "B" variant after all. Just make it work, chaps, what?
  20. Turn-A is, by some accounts, the series that let Tomino finally overcome his decades-long battle with depression - this is why some of his earlier works are up and down like a yo-yo. Its still got some of his trademark narrative jumpiness - Tomino never can seem to let things sit still - but its probably his most balanced series since the original Gundam TV series (which I'm currently watching on DVD - isn't Bright just awesome...? ). Its a fantastic series overall, and really deserves to be known for being more than "just another Gundam series"... Tomino has always been a genius at creating worlds; one of the things thats striking me about the original series compared to things like SEED is just how detailed the setting its taking place is in, especially compared to other anime of the same vintage. I enjoyed SEED and Destiny (mostly, theres bits that made me despair for mecha fandom... ), but one gets the feeling that the reason UC stuff is so popular is because its setting is as solid as... well, an asteroid fortress.
  21. I got to visit the place a couple of weeks ago; this is my take on it (this was originally written for friends in e-mail so is a little more "Rage on!" than I would normally post here... ). GUNDAM FRONT SPECIAL REPORT! Not often one gets to be right at the beginning, or at least the day after the beginning. The giant Gundam statue - quite possibly the physical manifestation of Japans *third* religion - now resides in Odaiba, a bayside development which is perhaps the best place it could possibly be, because Odaiba *already* looks like a Star Trek set made real. Its now "part" of a shopping complex called "Divers City". Theres six floors of shopping, a couple of amusement arcades, the Gundam FRONT exhibition hall, and - for some inexplicable reason - a Maid Cafe (burn it with FIRE!). After taking several shots of what is as close to a religious experience as I am ever likely to get, I went to have a nose round. Theres a free display of Gundam model kits, and when I say "kits", I mean I think they have pretty much every damn Gundam model kit ever made, and then some. They even had the Flat from Turn-A Gundam and kits from Gundam X, and *no-one* remembers Gundam X. There was one exception - don't recall seeing any G-Saviour kits (Bandais ill-advised attempt to make a live-action Gundam movie), probably because Bandai is trying steadily to erase G-Saviour from existence. There is also a high fashion Gundam clothing shop. Yes, you heard that correctly and no, no-one appears to recognise the contradiction in terms. The rest of the attraction you have to pay for. Did I pony up my 1200 yen? No, I went to the Maid Cafe instead and let a maid write my name in tomato sauce across my food. LIKE HELL I DID. It starts with a movie in a panaromic dome. If you're not a Gundam fan, this will make no sense at all, consisting mostly of clips from the various series, plus some CGI recreations of famous Gundam battles. Theres an impressive sense of movement but one can't help but feel they could make more of the opportunity - a specially created short, for example. The exhibition hall itself, like most specialist Japanese exhibitions is fairly small. Theres a life size model of the cockpit section of some Gundam from Gundam SEED (it doesn't count), a wrecked Core Fighter, a model of space fortress A Baoa Qu, and the chance to get your photo taken with the Gundam character of your choice. I probably *should* have picked Loran Cehack from Turn-A, just to remind Bandai that it exists (I WANT MY DVDS, you... you... company!), but, you know... CHAR! CHAR! CHAR! More interesting are various articles from Gundam production, including opening storyboards for Turn-A Gundam (given all I've said about this, yes, well done but rather a bizarre choice - perhaps no-one will miss them?), Chars Counterattack (in which Amuro has such a different hairstyle compared to the final movie that I didn't actually recognise him at first), and most interesting of all, production sketches of the original designs for the iconic White Base, Zaku II and Gundam (before Tomino changed the design at a late stage and single-handedly nearly destroyed the Japanese toy industry - and not for the last time, either... ). There was also a frame signed by various Gundam staff, including a certain Kill 'em all Himself. And thats about your lot. The local UniQlo seems to have a nice line in Gundam exclusive t-shirts there (update: not that exclusive, I've now seen them at other UniQlo branches). Oh, theres a branch of the Gundam cafe there as well, but they only sell pre-packaged goods like cookies and some very nice-looking beam sabre umbrellas. Charmingly, their logo states Established 2010 until Universal Century 0079, which rather suggests a) they have a far-seeing business plan and b) perhaps they have some advance knowledge about the Republic of Zeon and its habit of dropping space colonies on people. Is it worth going out of your way to visit? Maybe not. The overall impression I got - especially considering that Bandai Sunrise must be sitting on a mother lode somewhere - is that a bit more could have been expected. The Gundam statue (prototype?) is definitely worth seeing though and if you haven't been to Odaiba before easily done as part of a trip (and at the nearby Decks shopping plaza, hidden on the fourth floor, is a gloriously 80s mini-Japanese retro arcade). The rest of it... well, I guess it depends if you find yourself NewType... F-ZeroOne. HASSHIN!
  22. IIRC, it was a gachapon like collectors/trading item. Thats one heckuva collection, Shaorin!
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