Review: The Angels Take Manhattan

Yeah, okay. You know the deal.













































Spoilers.




So, the fifth episode of Series Seven of "Doctor Who".


Set in New York, between 1938 and 2012, the Weeping Angels are back about their business. This time they've got creepy little cherub babies to add to the mix.

There's some kind of gangster in 1938 keeping a damaged Angel prisoner. He's mixed up with investigations of "statues that move", getting one private investigator killed in a really creepy way.

Flash forward to 2012. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are in New York. The Doctor is enjoying a book about "Molly Malone", a P.I.

Rory goes to get coffee. Creepy cherub angels zap him back to 1938.

While reading his book, the Doctor realizes the book is not fiction. It's a narrative written by River Song.

Rory is back in time.

The Doctor and Amy try to go to 1938 to get Rory, but there's a huge time-space whatsit preventing them from getting there. Meanwhile Rory materializes next to River Song. River is not sure why he's there and they're both taken to the gangster.

The gangster tosses Rory into a basement with more cherubs while he reveals to River that he's interested in angels for some weird reason.

Rory is not tossed back in time by the cherubs or killed, he's displaced near the same hotel where the P.I. at the beginning was killed.

Turns out the hotel is a "farm" of people caught back in time by Angels to feed them. Including one giant Statue of Liberty Angel.

The Angels want to add Rory to their farm. As part of that, Rory meets himself dying in the hotel, as does the Doctor, Amy, and River.

The Doctor and River determine that all this fixed-time getting created is making it impossible to save Rory unless somehow they create a paradox.

Rory and Amy jump off a building together, dying, and creating a paradox that wipes out the Angels.

Well, almost all of the Angels.

Flash forward to 2012. There's a graveyard there with a tombstone bearing Rory's name.

An Angel gets him. Amy, overwhelmed, lets the Angel zap her too.

Lots of angsty stuff at this point. Lots of driving the endless point home that the Ponds are gone and that the Doctor should not travel alone.

Why doesn't River hang out with the Doctor? Vague b.s. reasons. For the best, really. I'm tired of her.

It was a nice, if overdone, sendoff for Amy and Rory. Good-bye Ponds. You were good fun.

Adventures in Time Off

Having free time is not helping my diet at all. It's a good thing for me that the brewery's hours are not conducive to my destructive urges earlier in the week.

Where was I? Oh yes.

Hearty breakfast. By which I mean "heart-attack inducing" breakfast. That's really what I envision "hearty" meaning.

I love bacon.

Japanese for lunch. Including a small bottle of sake. The effects of said sake are in full swing as I'm typing right now, so please excuse typos.

And slurring typing.

At least now I have a kitchen sink. Yay for the plumber/maintenance guy!

So do I watch my Lord of the Rings DVDs or do I swap to my cheesy Japanese horror flix?

Decisions, decisions...

Adventures in Mundanity

Is "Mundanity" a word? Oh well. It is now.

• Breakfast while still navigating around my broken sink.
• Phone tag with the repair guy for the sink. Of course the hour he can be here is the hour I have slated for martial arts class. Figures.
• Negotiations for dinner turned into "second breakfast". I am becoming a Hobbit.
• Bought a 20-30 lb. container of propane for my gas grill. Carried it a quarter mile. Wow. That was a lot stupider than it initially seemed.
• Got a refill on my BBotE.
• Now I wait for the repair guy. Listening to the recently-discovered "30 Seconds from Mars".

Okay, shameless plug time: I've fondly noted my love for my Stein(s) of Science. While getting my BBotE fix, Herr Direktor intimated that there hasn't been a massive Oktoberfest run on his steins. Yet.

I wish to pimp these. You cannot see the velour hat I have adorned, but you can imagine it. I am now pimping Steins of Science. They are WORTHY. Sure, they're not cheap, but they keep your beer cold, they have massive carrying capacity, and they LOOK GODDAMN COOL.

In the interests of disclosure, I do not have a financial or compensatory relationship with Funranium Labs or Herr Direktor. I'm not getting anything out of singing the praises of the Steins or BBotE beyond the satisfaction of preaching of awesome in the world.

If you're a beer drinker, I highly recommend looking at your piggy bank and, if you can swing it, getting one. It'll make you feel good.

Okay, I'm done.

Review: The Power of Three

So, episode four of series seven of "Doctor Who".




Spoilers.


































Okay, let me preface this by saying I overall liked this episode. Just. It wasn't as bad as "A Town Called Mercy" but it wasn't as good as the other two.

This episode was clownish and a little excessive in the comic relief, but had the entertaining part of doing things from the perspective of Amy and Rory, rather than showing how they're sucked long with the Doctor.

The menace - the Shakri - was pretty cool. Kind of liked that. And I loved the new scientific adviser for U.N.I.T. Go shout-out for the Brig! Kind of hope she's a recurring character.

Overall, a bit on the goofy side but fun.

Very corny ending but I've seen worse.

EDIT: okay, I ought to summarize a bit, if just to earn the spoiler tag:

Amy and Rory are relaxing, getting into the groove of "real life" and reflecting on whether or not they want to continue doing side trips with the Doctor across time and space.

Heavy-handed foreshadowing of the eventual exit of the Ponds from the show.

Individually, Rory and Amy find themselves getting more enmeshed in their real relationships. Rory gets full-time nurse work while Amy gets involved as a bridesmaid with a friend's wedding.

Cue the weird.

Strange black cubes start appearing all over the world. They don't do anything. They're inert and mysterious.

The Doctor, popping in-and-out of the life of Amy and Rory, starts to investigate the mysterious small black boxes to no avail. He does get the attention of the re-organized U.N.I.T. under the direction of their scientific adviser, Kate Stewart, who appears to know all about the Doctor.

U.N.I.T. supports investigating the cubes but the cubes just sit there and do nothing.

Even Rory's dad, Brian, determinedly watches the cubes, but nothing happens.

The Doctor, fed up with patiently observing the cubes (this incarnation clearly has ADD) leaves to go travel for a bit. Amy, Rory, Brian, and the rest of Earth watches the cubes then slowly forgets about them to get on with everyday life.

Months pass. The cubes are paperweights, garbage, and novelty items. Nobody gives them much thought, save Brian, who studiously maintains a very boring log on how the cubes don't do anything.

Until they start to do stuff.

The cubes start to act odd, each doing different things (taking tissue samples, shooting lasers, playing music, etc.). The Doctor, having returned in the meantime, starts to poke around.

Meanwhile, a creepy little girl with a cube watches as weird men with cubes in their mouths abduct people from a hospital.

Cue more weird.

Turns out the cubes and the little girl are all constructs of the Shakri, a race that "cleans up infestations" and they've decided to kill off the human race before we get off-planet and start creating trouble.

Cue corny speech from the Doctor about how good humans are, how he likes us, blah-blah-blah. We've heard countless variations of the same speech over and over, so nothing new there.

Hand-waving sonic screwdriver magic wand b.s. The Shakri are anticlimactically defeated.

Brian encourages Rory and Amy to continue to travel with the Doctor instead of succumbing to the lure of "real life".

Cue very, very unnecessary and corny line about how cubes are the power of three while the Doctor poses with Amy and Rory.

All-in-all, the episode was rushed and choppy. The villains were kind of cool but defeated far too fast. The foreshadowing is about as subtle as a nuke.

There were elements I enjoyed and I have to say I'm still liking Chibnell's efforts as a writer, but it was not an exceptional episode by any means.

Unsurprising

Spoke too soon, I guess. My sink still isn't repaired and I don't have any kind of ETA. Guess the landlord had bad info from the plumber. Gosh, I'm glad I've been hanging out at my apartment for two days now instead of going out and doing stuff.

Amazing how inconvenient it is to not have a kitchen sink.

Irritating or fortuitous?

The lack of a kitchen sink is most annoying.

That said, this just encourages me to not eat at home.

This is not necessarily a good thing. This is not necessarily a bad thing...

A few bits of random stuff

1. My landlord rocks. With luck, I'll have my sink issues resolved today. If not today, then likely tomorrow.
2. Brewery food makes for a delightful lunch.
3. I love good beer. Just thought that bore repeating, ad nauseum.
4. I have ingested a lot of bacon today. This, to me, is a good thing. My arteries may disagree.

Karma and Time Off

The start of a personal holiday. Time off. Rest.

A nice, fattening breakfast out. Chill time.

So of course my sink breaks and starts leaking.

Good times.

Rejection has never felt so good

Those magic words: "You are dismissed from service."

It really was the best decision, all things considered. Some things are hot buttons. This was one of mine. Funny how life works out.

Rule One

You do not talk about Jury Duty.

That's what the judge says anyway.

Still undergoing the joys of jury selection. I think that's all I can safely say without violating the rules.

In other news, BART was in rare form of fucked-up today. Perfect timing, BART!

Oh well. In the interests of silver linings, I've met some truly fascinating people in the last nine hours. And there's some smokin' hot attorney ladies at court. Just sayin'.

Wait. Was that too much info about jury duty?

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!

Goddamnit. Have to report for jury duty tomorrow. Crap.

Hopefully they'll dismiss once I'm there.

Yeah, that'll happen.

Another Week Begins

I ranted a bit more on my previous post about the abomination known as "A Town Called Mercy" (this weekend's episode of "Doctor Who"). Read at your own risk.

Yes, I'm still angry about it.

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I get to find out if I have to serve jury duty tomorrow. Whee.

---

If jury duty is foisted upon me, I'll be out of the office for the rest of the month. If not, I'll be out of the office for the rest of the month, just a few days later.

The difference is going to be how I spend my time off. *sigh*

---

In other news, I got my "atomic clock" working properly. I managed to reset the time and it synced up with whatever the hell it's tapping for info in Colorado. Weird issue.

I know you were desperately curious.

Review: A Town Called Mercy

You know the drill.

Spoilers.


































Okay, still there?

So "A Town Called Mercy". The third episode of the seventh series of "Doctor Who".

And the first one I didn't like.

Set in an "Old West" town in the United States, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory pop in the middle of a scattered mess of a plot involving a cyborg gunslinger, a fugitive alien war criminal, and a lot of uncharacteristic nonsense.

I'm honestly not sure I want to get into the plot too much. It's too... just... ragged, random, and jarring.

Toby Whithouse wrote some episodes of "Doctor Who" that I truly disliked. "The God Complex" and "The Vampires of Venice". I can now add "A Town Called Mercy" to the list.

What a waste of Ben Browder in a role.

[EDIT: updated 9/17/2012]: I owe this episode a bit more than "I didn't like it" as a review. Since it's pretty much aired everywhere, I'm going to get into more detail.

The ep starts off randomly. A cyborg ("the Gunslinger") kills some guy with a weird squiggle on the side of his face (Doctor Who is taking makeup tips from "Star Trek the Next Generation", I guess). The Gunslinger ominiously tells his victim that he has one last person to kill: "the doctor". Yes, I didn't capitalize that on purpose.

Cue credits. Next thing you know, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are in front of an old western town circled by a ring of wood and debris. No sign of the TARDIS. No segue getting our trio there. They're just plopped in midway.

Our plucky TARDIS gang wanders into town and meets the locals. When the Doctor introduces himself, the locals ask if he's an "alien". When the Doctor admits to such, they toss him out of the town anxiously.

In the distance, the Gunslinger starts ominously teleporting into view. Slowly. A few yards at a time.

The Doctor is brought back into the town's "safe zone" (demarked by the debris line) by Isaac (Ben Browder), the town's sheriff. Isaac knows the Doctor is not the Gunslinger's target.

They go to the sheriff's office where they find the true "alien doctor" sought by the Gunslinger: an alien named Kahler Jax (Adrian Scarborough). Jax is of a race called the Kaher (see what they did there?) who are famous for their building skills. Jax has even added electricity to the town (named Mercy) years too early for the timeline and saved the folk from an outbreak of Cholera.

Isaac intends to save Jax from the Gunslinger's tender mercies.

The Doctor finds Jax's crashed spacecraft and accesses the ship's archives.

Turns out the Gunslinger wants Jax dead because Jax was one of the medics who made him into a cybernetic killing machine.

The plot falls apart from there.

The Doctor quickly opts to try to kill Jax by giving him over to the Gunslinger.

Isaac disagrees.

There's contrived conflict as Rory sides with the Doctor's un-Doctor-ish behavior while Amy wants to protect Jax.

Isaac winds up getting killed by the Gunslinger, who demands Jax or he'll kill the whole town.

Isaac, with his dying breath, makes the Doctor the town sheriff and asks him to keep everyone safe.

Okay. Pause a minute. There's nothing saving this town from the cyborg killer. The cyborg killer actually made the debris line around the town. He's a "good guy" in that he doesn't want to unnecessarily kill innocents. He's got high-tech targeting and all that fun stuff. He can teleport and shot energy beams.

WHY THE HELL IS THIS CHARACTER PLAYING WEIRD GAMES WITH THE PRIMITIVE EARTHLINGS???? WHY NOT JUST GO INTO THE DAMN TOWN, OFF JAX, AND BE ON HIS MERRY WAY TO CYBORG ORGY-VILLE OR WHATEVER???????

There is no answer for that.

The Doctor proves he can mess up the cyborg Gunslinger using his sonic screwdriver. So why not incapacitate the cyborg? Who the hell knows?

Why does the Doctor suddenly get into homicidal mode so quickly? There's an off-the-cuff comment that he's been "traveling alone for too long" but there's no indication how long Amy and Rory have been with him this time. Seems the Doctor hasn't really been alone, so... wtf?

Long story short, Jax sacrifices himself. The Gunslinger remains as a guardian of the town in perpetuity as some kind of "legend" watching from the distance.

Toby Whithouse should be banned by law from ever penning another television script for "Doctor Who" for the rest of eternity.

Thus endeth my edit and the balance of my opinion on this travesty of an episode.

Wibbly-wobbly time

I have one of those "atomic clocks" that syncs with some ultra-precise clock out in Colorado.

Today, it went wonky. It's running a good 20 minutes fast.

First time I've ever seen that happen. Threw me completely off this morning. Thought I was running 20 minutes late. By the time I hopped out of the shower and turned on the news, I was... well, surprised is an understatement.

"Pissed off" works.

Thank goodness I still have some BBotE left. I should place another order soonish. Hm...

Today's Teefury offering is "Call of Snoopthulu".



Clever, eh? I'm tempted, but I have a ridiculous number of t-shirts already.

Cable

Say what you will about Comcast, but I have had nothing but positive experiences with their customer service people.

And I'm sure it's a difficult job being polite and helpful to testy TV viewers.

So close yet so far

Friday, I can almost taste you!

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To do list today:

1. Throw down with Comcast's billing department over their bullshit.
2. Final pass on kitty-sitting.
3. Laundry. It's always a good idea.
4. Cooking, baking, and (horrors!) cleaning. Ugh.
5. Try to watch my recorded shows. If I lose cable, I'll have plenty of time, I guess.

---

I appear to have wrenched my shoulder last night. When thinking back on how/when this happened, the list of culprits is pretty long. Hm. That does not please me.

Wednesday Thoughts

I thought it was Thursday when I woke this morning. Imagine my disappointment.

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Cat sitting (after a fashion) today. Should be a hoot.

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Met a self-imposed deadline yesterday at work. I'm so giddy that I made it that I'm actually finding it hard to focus a day later. That's a bit counter-productive, I imagine.

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Successful dental visit that doesn't require a return visit for cavities. Yay!

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Oddly enough, one of my teeth hurts now. Or maybe it's my jaw. Either way, I'm sure it's my hypochontria at work.

That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

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If all goes well, I'm going to be putting in two and a half hours into martial arts this afternoon.

I should point out that two and a half hours of martial arts will not necessarily end well for me. Especially the stuff we're practicing. Oy vey.

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I'm really finding myself irritated that it's only Wednesday.

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I've thrown in the towel on "Libriomancer". It's just not doing it for me. Oh well.

I'm re-reading Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker". That's good fun.

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An unanswered email is making me sadder than I expected to be. Funny how that works out sometimes.

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Still kinda giddy over "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". I really wasn't expecting to enjoy that "Dr. Who" ep at all.

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Successfully resisting the siren lure of the Nax. So far.

Let's face it. Two hundred and twenty bucks for a "zombie killing" tool that would get me arrested in about twenty seconds is just not a good investment.

That's a really strangely mature, sober, and sane analysis for me. Is this what being an adult feels like?

I don't like it one bit.

---

Still absolutely loving my Discrete Messenger Bag. THAT was money well-spent!

Sure, it's put me in debt and was kind of ridiculously-expensive, but I still regret nothing.

Aaah... there goes that "grown up" feeling. Right out the window. Oh my. Made a little splat on the ground outside. Sorry 'bout that.

Messenger Bag

I admit I let myself be lured by this, mainly because I've been lusting after this for a long time and it suddenly came back up on the all-too-brief sale list.

Yes, I got an ITS Generation 2 Discrete Messenger Bag.

I've swapped out my Saddleback for it over the last couple of weeks, mostly as a test run. My thoughts:

• It's certainly a lot lighter than my Saddleback. That's kind of a "duh!"
• This bag has a ridiculous number of pockets. Seriously. It's unreal. No what's unreal is that I'm using all of them.
• I love the zipper access to the internal compartment without having to open the flap. Nice touch!
• The water bottle holders are generous.
• There's elastic band/webbing underneath that works perfectly for storing a medium-length collapsed umbrella.
• Seriously. The number of pockets is just unreal.
• Slings nicely across the back.
• One of the internal pockets is padded nicely should I decide to carry my laptop with this bag.
• WORTH. EVERY. PENNY.

I'm undecided if I like the Discrete Messenger Bag more than my Saddleback. I mean, they're really just very different bags.

The Saddleback is mostly-indestructable leather. Heavy as hell, but has great carrying capacity and is pretty much indestructable. Getting into the bag is a hassle, as the Saddleback uses straps, but that's never really bothered me.

The Discrete Messenger Bag is lighter, but still feels pretty solid. Looks different, of course, but that's the point. The Discrete Messenger Bag looks just like a standard laptop bag whereas the Saddleback looks like something Indiana Jones would cart around.

There's advantages to both. Thankfully I have all the time in the world to play with favorites or switch out as I desire.

Good lord, I've become a purse-person.

Adventures in Late Night Riding

I spent Saturday at a friend's house gaming. Good fun.

I have a few mild concerns as to the disposition of some folks in that area as they may interact with parked automobiles, so I was reluctant to drive to my friend's house.

Good thing I'm within bicycling distance.

So I rode my bike to the game and enjoyed a nerdy afternoon while gorging myself on entirely too much food. I really need to get this gluttony thing under control. Fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies are my crack cocaine, man.

Wait. Getting derailed. Hang on. Let me get back to my point.

So as games go, it got out kind of late. It was dark by the time I left (as I'd expected). I hopped on my bike and adopted my normal early-morning strategy on the same route: I stopped only when necessary (meaning there was traffic in the way).

All the same, it was an eventful ride.

The cars were less of an issue, though there were more than I'm used to, so that was a bit of a worry. No, my issues were mostly the people walking about. Lot of 'em just popping on-and-off the sidewalks.

When I'm on my bike and trying to hug the side of the road closest to sidewalks so as not to get mauled by a car, I find I get displeased when some dumbass steps out in front of me.

I don't think that's an unreasonable reaction.

My favorite encounter was a point when I was stopped at a stop light in front of a liquor store. A drunk or high fellow stepped forward, slurring his words, and insisting I let him ride on my handlebars for a few blocks.

The thoughts that churned through my head were:

• He was as heavy as I am. Why the hell would I want to double my energy output for some drunk dumbass on my handlebars?
• He'd crush my bike light if he sat on my handlebars.
• I wouldn't be able to see around him if he were on my handlebars.
• SERIOUSLY??? What are we? Ten years old? Who still does this?

Needless to say, I refused and set out on my merry way.

I think I made better time going home than I usually do on that route. Or time was weird for me as I'm unused to riding on that street in that direction.

Okay, now that I've written the story out, it's less amusing than it sounded in my head.

Review: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

I really need to learn how to do those damn cut-outs for spoilers.


Fair warning: spoilers follow.




































Okay, that ought to do it.

Still there?

The second episode of Series Seven of "Doctor Who" was entitled "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and it is true to its title.

It was written by Chris Chibnall, who has written a few tepid "Doctor Who" episodes ("Cold Blood" and "The Hungry Earth") as well as some "Torchwood" stuff.

Not really putting him in my list of favorites for "Doctor Who" writers.

This ep redeemed him in my eyes.

So on to the spoilery stuff.

The Doctor is in ancient Egypt and hanging out with Queen Nefertiti when he receives a signal. He quickly leaves, but Nefertiti accompanies him. The Doctor does a stopover in Africa(?) where he picks up his friend, the big game hunter Riddell (played by "Sherlock" actor Rupert Graves) before picking up the Ponds.

A slight snag: Amy and Rory are getting a visit from Rory's father Brian. And Brian gets pulled along on the trip.

The "gang" winds up on a derelict spacecraft on a collision course with Earth. The Doctor is going to try to stop the ship from hitting the Earth before the Earth's forces blast it with missiles.

Oh, and the ship has dinosaurs on it.

Hijinx ensue.

Turns out the ship is Silurian in origin. There's no longer Silurians on board, though. A disreputable sort of fellow named Solomon (who looks human, but apparently isn't) and his bickering robots took over the ship and removed (read: killed) the Silurian crew. He's planning on selling the dinosaurs.

There's a bit of back-and-forth as well as some father-son bonding with Rory and Brian.

Of course, things end pretty much as one might expect. It's a bit darker than the re-imagined "Doctor Who" has generally been in that the Doctor gets pretty hard-core, albeit justifiably so.

Personally, I liked the episode a lot. I enjoyed the pacing, the plot, the twists, and the fact that there was a truly despicable villain in the core of the story. One of my complaints about the revived series is the lack of truly despicable villains, especially under Moffatt's reign.

This episode brought some of that magic back.

Good job, Mr. Chibnall. I hope your next endeavor is just as solid.

FireF*CK!!!

Somehow Firefox, while updating, just blew away all my add-ons and went to a default factory state.

Re-installing all my add-ons is a pain in the arse.

Oh well. At least I didn't lose bookmarks and all that.

Mewling

I love that word. "Mewling".

Two and a half hours of my martial arts class last night.

I am not mewling right now. I am straight up whining.

I was all set to man-up and ride my bike to work today. The weather report made vague noises about the slim (10 to 20%) chance of rain/thundershowers.

I wimped out. Drove in.

For the best, really. My muscles hurt in a bunch of really interesting ways. Especially the legs.

Got an elbow hyper-extended a bit. Tender. But the knees and legs. They protest. Oh do they protest.

It's of interest to me (and slightly disturbing) that I'm enjoying this semester so much.

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I remain unjustly-accused of placing a "Weeping Cherub" on my friend's doorstep. The mystery remains: who really performed such a devious act?

I am enjoying the unearned notoriety. I can't help but laugh whenever the topic arises. That said, I saw a photo of... it. Creeeeeeeeeeepy.

Don't blink. For the love of all that is holy, DO NOT BLINK!

---

I'm trying to hack my way through "Libriomancer" by Jim C. Hines. It got a solid review on either BoingBoing or io9, so I got it when I picked up "The Apocalypse Codex" by Charles Stross.

While I was engrossed in "The Apocalypse Codex" from the first page, I am finding myself having difficulty with "Libriomancer". It's a neat concept. A certain type of magic user can reach into books and pull stuff out to perform magic. It's got all sorts of clever refs to modern science fiction novels. The main character is a geek. Very clever.

It's not grabbing me.

Hines's narrative style is very good. The main character is likeable. I just can't get drawn into the story. It could be the overused trope of "vampires vs wizards" that Jim Butcher has already covered (and better, in my opinion). It could just be the forced-feeling matching between the main character and the badass Dryad character.

Or it could just not be my cup of tea. That would make sense, really. I'm more of a coffee drinker.

Witch... what?

Saw this on Topless Robot.


I gotta say, I'm kinda with the Topless Robot commentary. I honestly can't tell if this film will be awesome or an atrocity.

Or both. Could be both.

State of the Badass Address

Someone did an article on which president would win if they were all in a giant knife fight.

I'm finding myself drawn to the conclusions. Not sure I think the Bushes would join forces, though.

Protestations of Innocence

I have a somewhat-unearned reputation as a bit of a prankster.

I'm not sure why. Sure I talk a good game of pranking folks, but I almost never stir myself from my lethargy to deliver on my grandiose plans.

Sloth is an important vice to me.

Over the three-day weekend, a fellow Whovian got pranked in an utterly-brilliant fashion: someone left a stone cherub on his doorstep.

What's the big deal you ask? Oh, I dunno... maybe he's just overreacting.

Regardless, I'm getting solid blame for this even though I was nowhere near his 'hood over the weekend. The height of the irony is that I was busy being a good little boy and checking in on an ailing-ish family member during the time this angel-placement occurred.

Or so best guesses go.

In terms of pranks, I wish I'd come up with this one. It's creepy and brilliant.

I must continue to protest my innocence in vain. *le sigh*

Mining the Salt

It was lovely to have a three-day weekend. Just lovely.

I took an Olympic Gold in slacking. That was simply delightful. Slept a ridiculous (indeed, almost appalling) amount of time. Loved it.

No terrible drama or news cropped up. Three days of solid bliss.

Wonder when/if that will happen again?

Review: Asylum of the Daleks

I really should learn how to do that cut-away link thing so people have to take an extra step for spoilers.

In the meantime... um... spoilers. Lots of dots to follow.
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Still there?

Excellent. So yesterday was the premiere of Season Seven of the revived "Doctor Who". The episode title: "Asylum of the Daleks".

Let me preface this by saying that I feel the Daleks have been done to death and should have been retired as monster/villains a long time ago. "Victory of the Daleks" from the last season (or was it the one before?) was terrible.

Killer salt-shakers. Seen it. Been there. Done that.

They sort of peaked out as the adversaries of the Time Lords in the Time War. Once you've gone there, you can't really bring them back with any credibility. I mean, Time War. Two godlike super powers duking it out.

If there are Daleks left after that, they sort of win by default. Nobody can really stop them. I mean, the Doctor can step up and do his thing, but in the grand scheme of things, he can't possibly stop them and still be the violence-loathing Doctor we all know and love.

*breathe*

Okay, to the ep. So the Doctor, Amy, and Rory are recruited by the Daleks to "save them". There's something on a planet known as they legendary Asylum of the Daleks where they keep their worst of the worst crazy types.

Why don't the Daleks, homicidal killer blobs that they are, just blast these crazies? Oh that answer was a good one.

Anyway, there's someone trapped down on the Asylum. The Daleks are afraid of that someone for very vague reasons. They want to blow up the planet housing the Asylum, but it's protected by a force field. So instead, they "volunteer" the Doctor and his latest companions for the honor.

Cue the creepy. Turns out there's nanites in the air there that will transform an unprotected person into a Dalek puppet (which is a surprisingly well-executed concept and rather disturbing).

Good thing the Daleks gave the Doctor, Amy, and Rory those oh-so-easy-to-remove-and-lose bracelets that protect them from the nasty nanites.

So what's down there? A rather attractive, fast-talking, souffle-making genius lady trapped from a crashed ship.

No, I have no idea how a spaceship got through the planet's force field. Clearly humans build better spaceships than Daleks do. Try not to think about it too much.

Why isn't she affected by the nanites while the other survivors (or their corpses) have been turned into Dalek puppets? (Oh, zombie Dalek puppets? Pure win.) That's a great question and central to the episode.

There's a side plot involving marital difficulties betwixt Amy and Rory. It's hammy and overdone, but the actors have such chemistry that I found myself dredging up sympathy for their situation. Hating the Silence all that much more now.

All-in-all, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. Moffatt made the Daleks a semi-cool foe again and the twists were very well-done. I liked the last bit, though it was also overdone. Enough with the big question already. We get it.

That last bit makes more sense after you've seen the ep.

I have more speculation I'd like to make, but it involves speculation further down the season and there's folks I know who don't want that kind of info polluting their mind, so I shall restrain myself.

Aaaah... Labor Day Weekend

Three days off. Started it properly with a good nine hours of blissful sleep.

Made a batch of cookies as a birthday gift. While they taste as good as expected, I think I didn't mix the baking soda properly. They aren't as intact as I'd like.

*sigh*

Nice, lazy day. As Saturdays should be.