F-ZeroOne
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Everything posted by F-ZeroOne
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On reflection, I think I might have over-reacted a touch with the "OHMIGAWDZ! SPOILERS!" link to the Christmas Who special - having watched it again, theres nothing in the trailer that hasn't leaked out somewhere else over the past few weeks, and the same information is available from the BBC Who site. Unless you're those types who sits in a sealed underground vault until broadcast day, I think most of you can probably survive following that link...
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Christmas 09, Doctor Who Special teaser, MASSIVE SPOILER ALERTS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSaMpxsYRFI...player_embedded Theres some... familiar... faces in there...
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Fourth series of Torchwood on the way, apparently: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2009/07/25/ex...-season-by-bbc/
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For a view of translation from the other side, I would suggest seeking out Terry Pratchetts "Discworld Compendium" or Jonathan Clements "Schoolgirl Milky Crisis", which highlight some of the challenges involved in translating. Although I will point out again that Wales is not in England, Del Rey, though it often stands in for it in Doctor Who. Edit: I've just realised I might be accusing Del Rey of the same thing I'm trying to defend! I don't read Japanese, and its possible the geographical error I'm talking about was made by the original manga creator. In which case, there is a classic translation dilemma: do you translate exactly what it says, and hear the cries of "Oh, noes!" from actual British people [1] or do you correct the error in translation and then hear the cries of "Oh, noes!" from the "translations must be 100% accurate at all times!" people? The various attempts to smash down on the import markets... [1] They exist, apparently. I'm told I might be one.
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Okay. I wasn't completely clear on what I thought you meant. Though, I suspect, given the choice, veterans of those campaigns could have withstood some media griping in exchange for a modern loss ratio...
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Whatever Yoshiyuki Tomino plans to do with Gundam next.
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Macross 7 is under-rated. Yes, it takes far too long to get going, the overall length needs to be trimmed by about ten episodes, its budget was probably about the same as what they spent on Mr. Kawamoris Pocky during the production of Macross Plus, and there are some characters who should never, ever have been been allowed to sing - but once it does get going, its actually not half bad, and its probably much closer in spirit to the original Macross series than Plus...
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Those weren't acceptable attrition rates, they were unacceptable and unsustainable in the long run. I'm not sure if you mean the planning factored in a loss rate the USAAF would have accepted, but that certainly wasn't the result they got. Missions like that forced a serious re-think of long-held USAAF strategic bombing policies, particularly on the issue of fighter escort.
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Some people would consider them so, yes - the earlier image you posted did appear on the BBC website, though; possibly that image of the new Doctor and new companion would be fairly safe as that image has already been seen in the general media. However, I've seen other images from the same series of photos that can be considered a major spoiler, and people can get upset about such things sometimes, so links may be safer overall.
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Part of the BattleTech canon is that there was a significant loss in technological skills which meant that much 'Mech combat took place at close quarters as, yes, no-one had advanced computer systems any more. Yes, the fact that they can still operate giant robots in the first place is inconsistent reasoning and many of the novels featured laser range-finders or the like... The real reason is to do with in-game scale; IIRC a typical BattleTech game-hex was 30 metres square and if realistic weapons ranges were used you would have needed a bowling alley just to account for short-range weapons. It is also, of course, the standard Mecha McGuffin to account for the use of giant robots over tanks etc... BattlleMechs are powered by nuclear fusion engines; I don't actually recall engine explosions being part of the game (just 'Mecha shutdown if enough damage was taken) but its been a loooong time since I last played and I could be wrong. Maybe it just looked cool. You could set off some mightily hurtin' ammo magazine explosions though (and because I just know you're going to point this out, yes, they did later develop blow-away ammo sections to disperse the blast... ) As for the ejection - er, next time, check for wind direction?
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I didn't notice it at the time, but now that you mention it... so, want to go munch on some puny humans?
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Children of Earth has proved very successful given its format, which might explain the rush DVD release. Also, theres a feeling among some UK fans that it was possibly intended to see off the Torchwood spin-off but that the generally rave reviews and relatively good viewing figures might force a re-think.
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The only British sitcom I know with a Trek obsessed member of cast was 2.4 Children; the Dad of the family had a rival who had a model of the Enterprise mounted on the front of his van. I also vaguely recall there was one episode featuring the family attending a wedding in Trek uniform. "You won't get it!"
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Its okay, I think we've all done it at some point... The last episode has just finished. I'm frankly at a bit of a loss for words; I think I can only say it was incredibly good. And, emotionally, also like getting punched in the stomach repeatedly by someone you love.
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That would be a nice unlockable, actually - "Congratulations, you have earned a voucher you can send away for the original game"...
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big F - you might want to watch the spoilers a touch. I know our cousins across the pond usually get the good stuff before us, but...
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Tonights episode was superb, some of the best TV SF I've seen for a few months. I was literally on the edge of my seat for the last half an hour...
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Incidentally, the Torchwood "Children of Earth" serial is doing very well, ratings wise - about six million viewers, which significantly hasn't altered much for each episode. For comparison, regular Who averages between about eight to ten million. It has also got very good write-ups in the newspapers. John Barrowman was complaining recently that he felt the lack of a full series seemed like a punishment from the BBC, but I feel he might be wrong on this one - two or three serials like this through a year might actually suit Torchwoods format better. Without trying to spoil things, the series feels very 50s British SF - all dark government cover-ups involving off-world threats. Theres a very Quatermass feel to it...
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Just noticed that in my post where I mention the "cast image" I typed "spoilers" instead of "specials". Oops...
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We're surviving. Particularly because the Torchwood five part serial "Children of Earth" is currently running all this week in the UK. Also, if a leaked shot I saw the other day of a possible cast for one of the spoilers is actually a real image... yes, the wait will probably have been worth it.
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And therein lies more weirdness. The UK comics featured heavily dinobot Swoop, who AFAIK, was never available in the UK (or if he was, I never saw him anywhere). In the UK-produced strips, Grimlock was a total badass who could go toe-to-toe with Megatron and answered readers letters. In the US strips, it was "Me Grimlock, me dumb". The contrast was even starker because in the UK comic, US and UK strips ran in the same issue. The UK strips got a supporting character and friend of the Dinobots called Centurion, who when last seen was melt-fused to Megatron and being dredged out of the Thames by Richard Branson. You'd think that would make a perfect statue piece (I guess Centurions character rights are held by someone else, though)...
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You can thank early 80s international toy merchandising for this one. This also puzzled me for years until I found out about Macross. Basically, Transformers proved enormously successful in the West, and Hasbro quickly needed more Transformers designs than the original Japanese, Takara-developed line could provide. They therefore sought licensing agreements with other Japanese manufacturers. I'm not entirely sure how they did it, but one of the designs they acquired was the Takatoku toys version of the Macross VF-1 Valkyrie. This was used as the basis for the Transformers toy Jetfire. A number of other Transformers designs were acquired this way, among them Roadbuster, Shockwave and Omega Supreme (the toy of which, in the UK, was actually released first by Grandstand in a competing toy line to Transformers...!) However, and again I'm not sure why (presumably because the anime rights to Macross were owned by someone else), they couldn't use the animation design of the Valkyrie, and had to come up with their own design for the actual animation. Some modern Jetfire toys pay "homage" to both designs with certain design touches. Why this design was called Skyfire in the animation and Jetfire in toy and comic form is one of those Mysteries.
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Hey, I just noticed - the F-22 has decided that the Typhoon is so awesome it wants to change its shape into one too!
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Let me guess, David - you got a .50 calibre surprise when trying a head-on pass?
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HEY! When did the Typhoon become PR whipping boy?! Thats it!