weblog January 10th, 2007
Dear God. All this sucking up to you, America. Free Trade Agreements. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Showing The World According to Jim on our televisions. And still, we don’t get the Apple iPhone at the same time as you bastards.
What was it all for, I ask myself? What was any of it for?
The iPhone looks awesome. It’s arguably the One True Video iPod (but with a small hard drive and battery life). The interface looks sweet as. It has wi-fi. It can tell when it’s on its side. And they won’t be releasing it in Asia until 2008. Oh, how I am fuming. It wouldn’t be so bad, but we only just started 2007! Gaaaaah!
Steve Jobs doesn’t care about Asian people.
The Apple TV is less exciting, but far more available. I’ll have to do some investigating into what sorts of video can be played and streamed, but it seems like a nice alternative to an actual media centre PC.
Oh, woe is me. The One True Video iPod Slash Phone has arrived and I’m not one of the chosen ones.
Meanwhile, Canadians have sneakily been showing Stargate without telling me. Sneaks!
We had our first ever (and most successful) review-a-thon last Wednesday, in an attempt to catch up on Battlestar Galactica. You’ve seen the partial fruits of this endeavour. As the review-a-thon drew to a close, Andy told us he had done two reviews himself, and promptly went to sleep. It’s been a week now. I’m not calling him a liar. I’m calling on you, the people, to bash down his door with flaming torches.
I mean, the door to his room. Not the front door. That might irritate Jackson. Try to keep your wild cries and angry chanting to a minimum as you enter the house.
I’m not addicted to these new asterisks. I could stop any time I wanted.
Posted by Tom Charman to apple, iphone, tv | 12 Comments »
weblog December 30th, 2006
Major Doctor Who geek-out post, here. You’ve been warned.
It’s been known for some time that Paul Cornell, writer of many Who books and the man who brought us the Time Dragons (I refuse to call them reapers) in season one, would be contributing a two-part script to season three.
Somewhat later, and I don’t know how, the rumour was that this script would be an adaptation of what was arguably his best novel, ‘Human Nature’. These rumours were stoked when the girl from Spaced was announced as playing a character called Joan — the name of the main character in the book. Now that a truckload of other actors have been named, all with the names of other characters, it almost seems certain.
This is awesome for at least two reasons. One; the story itself is a fantastic one, and quite an emotional one for the Doctor. There should be tears jerked, is all I’m saying. And two; the key child role in the story is being played by Thomas Sangster, the kid from Love, Actually. Which has instantly put to rest my fears of child actors. Robin Hood fangirls (and I know there’s one of you around somewhere) will be happy to note that it looks like Will Scarlett is in it too.
Adapting an old script has happened before; ‘Dalek’ in season one was in many ways a retelling of the same author’s audio play ‘Jubilee’. But that didn’t bother me as I’d never really been sucked into the audio plays. The books are different though — I like to think of them as having actually happened. In order to maintain my personal continuity, I’ve decided that something that happened in the Time War must have screwed around with time so that ‘Human Nature’ never happened in the first place, but now it will.
Ahem.
So, anyhow, look out for episodes eight (‘The Family of Blood’) and nine (title as yet unknown) next year. They should be great.
Posted by Tom Charman to books, Doctor Who, tv | 11 Comments »
weblog December 24th, 2006
The Queen has a Christmas message, Dame Edna has a Christmas message. And so, I thought, us happy folk at atypicalreview.com should have a message too.
Unfortunately, I only thought of it on the night before Christmas, and I’m tired. Visions of sugar plums and all that. I’ve made the upsetting discovery that I’m hopeless at wrapping presents. If I tell you that, does it count as a message? Probably not. Not a very exciting one at any rate.
Let the message, then, be “I want turkey” and leave it at that. Oh, and something about goodwill, and peace, and love. If everyone could make it a target this year to kill one person fewer than they did in 2006, the world could be a better place.
Posted by Tom Charman to christmas | 1 Comment »
weblog November 21st, 2006
This just in; Ian Thorpe has retired from swimming, at 24 years of age. I’m sure he’ll get murdered in the press — they’ll call him lazy, pathetic, a disappointment. But I for one know that if I could have retired last year I would have. The daily grind is getting to me. My 3-day weeks are wearing me down. The pressure of updating a website on a semi-regular basis. All the television I’m forced to watch.
Like Thorpie, Torchwood is also failing to live up to expectations. I’ve fallen behind on reviews mostly due to rehearsals for the Revue that happened on the weekend, but also because they’re not that exciting. I don’t enjoy writing negative reviews much, and I’ve got at least two that I need to do to catch up. It’s not the worst show ever, but it suffers from a strong case of “what the hell are we trying to do?”
And even though it looks from the outside like an ensemble show, it’s miserably failing on such things, partly because it keeps insisting on only having one plotline to sustain you for 50 minutes of runtime. This sort of thing works in Doctor Who, partly because you’ve only got two regular characters, and more because the adventure genre’s really good at stringing excitements together in a row. Putting five cast members together running through the same plot just gets dull. Let’s have multiple cases in an episode please. Or something.
At least some of the characters talked to each other this week. That was nice.
Putting on the Revue was something of a disappointment too — not that anything was wrong with it, particularly, but the fun of putting on a musical, putting all the songs and scenes together and getting something bigger and cooler as a result is completely missing from stringing a bunch of unrelated songs together. Of course, there was a lot less effort involved, too, but I’m left feeling like I paid half price for something a quarter as good.
Everyone online is talking about how good the new James Bond flick Casino Royale is, but it’s not out here for another two weeks. You’d think I’d be used to this sort of crap, but I’ve grown accustomed to getting everything at the same time as everyone else in recent years, for one reason or another.
Not everything’s disappointing. Battlestar Galactica continues to rock. There’s a Christmas special of Doctor Who around the corner. The next Harry Potter film looks like it might be better in film-form than in book-form.
Retiring at 24. Jealousy just doesn’t cover it.
Posted by Tom Charman to james bond, swimming, Torchwood, tv | 5 Comments »
weblog November 15th, 2006
Bit quiet around here, eh? Don’t worry, we’ll get back on top of things soon. There’s plenty of stuff to review, but we’re just busy. There’s a revue being put on by the Leonardian Players so we’re taking a bit of a break. Andy isn’t in it but he’s waiting for us to fill in the gaps in the Battlestar reviews. The idea is that we’re taking turns — the further idea is that Jackson will be one of the “we” in this case. This would make it a crazy 9 reviews for him on ATR which I’m not sure the universe is ready for.
Some quick summaries since I can’t quite review them yet — Children of Men is awesome. The Departed is good but not quite that good. I won’t say any more lest I run out of things to say in any reviews which may or may not get written.
While I’m here, may I voice my concerns over Premier Bracks’ desire for new weapons for police? Clearly what our boys in blue need is more weapons. They’ve been doing such a bang-up job with the ones they’ve got. And in general, I dislike grandstanding over big manly words like “tasers” and “semi-automatic” when you know perfectly well that you don’t get to choose how your funding will be spent.
This is irritating because I’m normally a bit of a labor voter (after Greens of course, my responsibility as a young idealist). But I’m vaguely tempted by Ballieu this time around, in part because he sounds like a library but probably mostly because I just like changing stuff around. It’s lucky I’m not in charge.
… oh, and by the way, the details of the Revue:
The Off-Broadway Lounge
Friday 17th November & Saturday 18th November
8:00pm
TC Woolhouse Theatre
St Leonard’s College
163 South Road East Brighton
Tickets $15 at the door
Posted by Tom Charman to leonardian players, politics | 7 Comments »
weblog October 24th, 2006
Please everyone stay calm. I have called this press conference because there is some urgent news. As you all know, this is what a nuclear silo in the middle of launching ICBMs looks like.
We’ve been examining maps and found this. Yes, it’s what we’ve feared. It’s an active silo preparing to launch.
Many of you hoped this day would never come. I assure you that counter measures have been initiated. You should send your loved ones to small inland cities. Our simulations show that these will take the least damage during the oncoming war. I hope you all are prepared and have appropriately stocked shelters.
Some of you have asked about getting help from other nations. To those people I quote the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates: “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more, no less.”
There’s time for one last question, you at the back. What’s that? Ah, no, I don’t think they’re too bouncy. There’s no such thing.
Posted by Andy Cocker to breasts, games | 3 Comments »
weblog October 17th, 2006
Argh. Two weeks without the internet! How on earth did I survive? Well, alright, I saw plenty of the internet, but that’s not the point. The point is, it wasn’t on tap at all times. The point is, I couldn’t possibly have been paying much attention to ATR. But this will change.
I don’t know why the notables on the front page stopped turning up. It’s something of a mystery which I’m hoping a fresh install of SimplePie will solve in a “I never quite worked it out” sort of way. They’ll be back soon in a slightly expanded way, with yet another subtle tweaking of the front page. It’s amazing; once you get bored of the shiny factor, sliding review titles suddenly seem massively pointless.
I also don’t know whether Torchwood, the new Who spinoff, will be any good, but early signs are encouraging. SFX Magazine have a little run-down of all the characters which is one of the most encouraging things I’ve seen. Early vibe seems to suggest it’ll be a little like Angel (Whedon’s shows are a major influence according to Russell T. Davies) but with aliens instead of demons, brits instead of yanks, and added swearing.
This encourages my fervent hope that one day, I will see an episode of science fiction telly where something horribly wrong, life-threatening and scary happens, and a character says simply, “Fuck”.
Posted by Tom Charman to Torchwood, tv, website | 4 Comments »
weblog October 9th, 2006
EVIL CHILD GENIUS FORMULATED MASTER PLAN FOR WORLD DOMINATION WHILE PLAYING VIDEO GAMES. Hmm, that might be too long.
The computer games industry needs to learn that making games about guns and cars are not a good idea. They should have seen the trouble Rockstar had with GTA last year, so it astounds me when a company makes a self prescribed genocide simulator
Sure the developer, Introversion, has given the game beautiful vector graphics, a haunting sound track and addictive multiplayer but that’s no excuse for them teaching our children that genocide is ok. The game could have been about lawns, weeds and drops of Roundup and still have been as fascinating.
It’s only a matter of time before a crazy lawyer catches wind of this game, or some kid makes their own bomb from materials bought online and bombs their school to teach the bullies a lesson.
How about TEENAGER USED GENOCIDE SIMULATOR. Yes that’s more catchy.
Posted by Andy Cocker to armageddon, games | 2 Comments »
weblog September 26th, 2006
I’ve done it, I’ve caved. Too many people with too many DSes and it all got too much for me.
Look at all the white shiny things. Now all I need is the iPhone and the OTViP which should be out any day never.
Also, I saw the Opera DS Browser which might be coming out soon here, too. In a way, the DS is an investment; if I can browse wireless networks with it, I’m less likely to get seduced by a laptop. Also, BioWare is branching out to the DS, so I’m guaranteed at least one good game in the future.
What impresses me most about the DS though is just the ease of multiplayer. To be able to sit down with one copy of Starfox or Big Brain Academy and play a game with five of your friends, with only a very small waiting period is really amazing. And, Mario is surprisingly addictive. Excuse me.
Posted by Tom Charman to apple, games, Nintendo DS | 5 Comments »
weblog September 1st, 2006
“Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they’re looking to make.”
“Cigarettes in space?”
“It’s the final frontier, Nick.”
“But wouldn’t they blow up in an all oxygen environment?”
“Probably. But it’s an easy fix. One line of dialogue. ‘Thank God we invented the… you know, whatever device.'”
— Thank You For Smoking
Ah, technobabble. Also known as ‘phlebotonin’ if you’re a writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m sure that to the casual viewer, all technobabble is equal. I know that when I watch House, I have no idea what they’re talking about half of the time, and it doesn’t bother me at all. As long as they don’t go on too long about it.
A big discussion blew up about technobabble, and Samantha Carter’s propensity for it, earlier in the year when we saw Stargate SG-1‘s wannabe epic, ‘Ripple Effect’. Interviews such as this one with Claudia Black have revealed that the SG-1 creative team are more focused on making sure that the plot is well-established than putting character moments into stories; not a bad thing in itself, but sometimes it feels like the show has become hyper-focussed on trying to make ultimately nonsensical science make complete, unassailable sense. Why bother?
‘Ripple Effect’ is a good case in point. For a parallel-universe episode to spend a quarter of its length on making sure that their universe jumping plan was explained to the letter seems peculiar for a show clearly targeted at regular science fiction viewers. On occasions, like in this season’s ‘Insiders’, it almost feels like background characters are there to say what the writers think internet fans are going to pick holes in. “But what about that device in season four that did this?” “Doesn’t that contradict season six, episode twelve?” If the characters are going to have mind-numbing debates on the internal continuity of the show on screen, what does that leave the fans to do?
Compare this to Doctor Who, which cops a lot of flak amongst its fans for doing exactly the opposite. In ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’, an alien intelligence went about through televisions, sucking the faces off people. The Doctor’s plan involves taping the consciousness on a videotape, but because it isn’t divulged until later, the climactic scenes become rather confusing. Oh no! Random thing has gone wrong! Oh yay! Random thing has been fixed! Phew!
This sort of thing would probably be over the head of Joe Normal regardless, just like the big, dramatic arguments about potential cures in House are only exciting to me because everyone’s acting like they should be, rather than because I understand what causes which symptoms. But for a sci-fi audience, just a little touch of technobabble can make them feel a lot more involved.
Technobabble has its place. Economically used, to smooth the discrepancies between the real world and the fictional world, and to ease the objections of people who actually know something about the science you’re fudging. If you’re Douglas Adams, not that anyone is these days, it can even be almost poetic. I don’t think it’s offensive to non-geeky viewers, but by the same tack, I think in many cases, especially Stargate‘s, large swathes of it become about satisfying Stargate nerds as opposed to science nerds. That’s when it becomes a mess — because let’s face it, the only people who give a crap are probably going to find a hole in it anyway.
Posted by Tom Charman to Doctor Who, house, Stargate SG-1, tv | 7 Comments »
