Category: Culture

The Name of the Doctor

They're about to reveal Doctor Who's name. Here are some thoughts . . .

We’re just about up to the final episode of the current season of Doctor Who.

The title of the episode is “The Name of the Doctor,” and it promises to reveal the Doctor’s actual name, something that has never been revealed in the 50-year history of the show.

We’ll apparently learn the Doctor’s name–and why he’s kept is secret all this time–at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, when “The Name of the Doctor” airs on BBC America (or a few hours earlier, if you’re in the U.K.).

Here are a few thoughts . . .

 

Will They Really Reveal It?

I’m guessing that they will.

This runs the risk of taking an element of the mystery out of the show, but they’ve been teasing the audience with the idea for some time, and recently they’ve ramped that up in a big way.

With all the teasing, with titling the season’s final episode the way they did, and with putting “His Secret Revealed” on the promotional poster (above), they’ll have a lot of hacked off fans if they fail to deliver.

 

How Might They Cheat The Audience?

I can think of at least a couple of ways.

KEEP READING.

What to Make of “Two and a Half Men” Star’s Outburst?

Angus T. Jones denounced his TV program as "filth" and urged people not to watch it. What are we to make of this?

A few days ago a video went viral in which Angus Jones of the sitcom Two and a Half Men called the show “filth” and urged people not to watch it.

Then there was a day where neither he nor the show’s producers could really be reached for comment.

I said to myself, “Desperate, back-stage damage control discussions.”

Now Angus Jones has come out with a kinda, sorta apology.

That didn’t take long.

Here’s the story . . .

KEEP READING.

Something Wondrous This Way Comes

Author Ray Bradbury has died in Los Angeles at the age of 91.

Bradbury is often referred to as a science fiction author, though he wrote much more broadly than that, including works of fantasy, mystery, and horror.

His titles include some of the best-known in the history of speculative fiction, including:

He worked in both short story and novel form. Many of his stories ended up in film or television form, including episodes of the Twilight Zone and his own Ray Bradbury Theater anthology series.

He is credited by some for having helped bring speculative fiction new literary respect due to his evocative, lyrical writing style that brings out the emotion of a situation rather than just focusing on technology or common fantasy tropes.

One of the things that stands out in Bradbury’s fiction is the way he juxtaposes the normal and the fantastastic. This happens across genres in his works.

KEEP READING.

Greydanus on The Lorax

Sometimes “family” films are a blow to the thorax.
So what shall we make of that film called The Lorax?
Is it preachy green screechy? Or will it be cute?
Should we shell out our greenbacks? Or give it the boot?

Have the producers delivered a definite plus?
Or should they admit they’re “Despicable Us”?
They must be concerned what the critics will say:
“Will they slam us? . . . Will they pan us?”
“And what shall be written by Steven Greydanus?”

Thoughts on Re-Watching Star Trek

BridgecrewSo… why did they need a helmsman *and* a navigator on the Enterprise (NCC-1701)?

Surely the degree of computerization in the 23rd century would be such that after the course is "plotted and laid in" all you'd need to do is set the speed and push "Boldly Go!"

Further, the ship should have been able to run on autopilot for lightyear after lightyear between stars.

And what's with all this staff on the bridge?

You only need a watch officer and maybe a petty officer to monitor the ship's functions, right? (That's assuming the petty officer *isn't* a ship's function; it really should be an AI.)

And why do we need a full-time receptionist?

Sulu, Uhura, and the gang must have been bored out of their minds.

Waiting for the Kindle Fire

Kindle-Fire-home-3A while back I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire from Amazon, and now it's about to be released. Amazon says it should be shipping in 2-3 days.

I'm very interested to see it. I've used Kindles for a long time–ever since the Kindle 2 added text-to-speech functionality (the absence of which kept me from buying the first generation Kindle). Overall, I've been quite impressed with the experience, and I enjoy using my current Kindle–and its associated apps. I spend at least as much time using Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac as I do the actual Kindle itself. On the computers I appreciate the search and note taking functions, and on the device I appreciate text-to-speech.

So my prior experiences with Kindles has me looking forward to the new version, which is billed as a major upgrade. It's color, has a touch screen, and is supposed to have a very fast web browser.

The shift to color and the touch screen puts it in competition with Barnes and Noble's Nook, which I also have and am not as impressed with, though in part that may be because of the trouble I've had getting my books formatted for it, which was much more difficult than getting them formatted for Kindle.

I might like the Nook more if I used it just as a reader, but I don't. I find myself using Kindle for reading and research purposes.

A device that I don't have (yet, anyway) is the iPad. I already have an iPod Touch (which I use to do my square and contra dance calling), and an iPad is basically a giant iPod Touch. That means that the price point for an iPad is too high for me. I've certainly been tempted by the larger screen, but I can't justify spending that much money just for a larger screen (and a few specialized apps that only work on the iPad).

If the price comes down on iPads in the future to where I can justify the price, I'd love to get one, but we ain't there yet.

The Kindle Fire, though, seems to be Amazon's answer to the iPad–at least in broad terms. It's going to allow ebook reading, web surfing, music and video playback, and Droid apps. 

It's also vastly cheaper than an iPad.

The new software they've designed also means that it's likely to affect how ebooks, such as The Fathers Know Best and Mass Revision, will display on it, so between the price break and the need to check out how my books format on it, I decided it was worth the price, and I pre-ordered one.

I'll let you know how I like it!

The demand for these is supposed to be high, though, and they're shipping on a first-come-first-served basis, so if you think you might want to get one–either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone–you might want to go ahead and order.

There is also a new generation of more traditional (and even more inexpensive) Kindles, too, so if you aren't interested in the Fire right now, you might want to . . . CHECK THEM OUT.