Miracle’s End

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Torchwood: Miracle Day is over…shockingly. After 10 episodes of ups and downs of varying quality, the end has come and part of me is thankful. I’m thankful we finally have closure to the series, as it’s all come to an end. But I’m not so thankful it ended flat on its face.

A few weeks ago I talked about how much I’m loving the new series. I wish I could continue to say the same. Most of that was based on the idea that they were setting up questions that would be answered in the final episodes, and while some of these questions were answered, the answers weren’t very satisfying. Continue reading →

Bad Miracle

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As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of Doctor Who. The storylines are surreal, the characters are fascinating, and the science is made up. Everything about it is great. But what I love the most about the Doctor Who franchise is that we get more, in Torchwood.

Torchwood premiered back in 2006, not long after the Season 2 finale of Doctor Who. The plot of Torchwood surrounds the Torchwood Institute, who investigate extraterrestrial phenomenon on Earth, and was formed in 1879 by Queen Victoria, which was, oddly enough, featured in the Season 2 finale of Doctor Who. That’s right, it’s a direct spin-off, they take place in the same universe, and they have had a few crossovers, which has been interesting. Doctor Who tends to have a lighthearted nature sprinkled with dramatic moments. Torchwood, on the other hand, has a dramatic nature sprinkled with lighthearted moments. The crossovers tend to gloss over these differences. But it is interesting seeing the characters of Torchwood in a different light. Though I particularly love it when Jack says “Hi” to someone and The Doctor scolds him for flirting.

But that’s not really what I want to talk about. Not specifically. What I really wanted to talk about was what Torchwood has done lately. After two years of typical Monster-of-the-Week stories, the third season of Torchwood was significantly different, a five-part miniseries regarding a single story. This was mostly because that season was significantly cut down from 13 to five episodes. They wanted Torchwood to remain awesome in spite of the cutbacks, and a major world-changing threat that would unfold over five episodes was the best way. Honestly I don’t think they could have done any better. Continue reading →

The Equestrian Incursion Part 1 (First Draft)

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Some may be confused by this entry on this particular blog. Allow me to explain. While I haven’t been the type to write FanFiction in recent years. I guess you could say My Little Pony changed that. I don’t know how crazy I’m going to get with this, but it’ll certainly be fun to find out. I recently discovered this is more fun than the normal crap I release, so expect the next chapter very soon. In the interim, enjoy the first episode of My Little Pony meets Doctor Who. No, that wasn’t my idea. Yes, I’ll pretend it is.

Note: After putting this up I realized something. This is looking at a rewrite. I wanted to make The Doctor’s so-far-nameless companion a capable assistant…instead I made him a cocky prat with superhuman intelligence. But until I actually do the rewrite (which shouldn’t take long since all I’ll be changing is the beginning and end), enjoy this piece of shit so you can laugh at how much of a ponce I am. I hate myself. Continue reading →

Friendship is Badass

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The 80s, a time of bad hair, loud music, and if you were a kid at the time, marketing. Toys were, for the first time, marketed as entire universes, and had narratives and conflicts. These were used to drive toy sales, by creating brands, and virtual monopolies, because while any company can sell you a doll, only Mattel could sell you a Barbie.

During these times, no company was better at it then Hasbro. Transformers, G.I.Joe, and My Little Pony were all popular cartoons, and successful toy lines, and they all had a universal appeal…well, except for My Little Pony.

Now, I’ll be honest, while I’m sure I watched all three of those shows, I don’t actually remember them. So the following paragraph will all be from information I got second-hand. So, while Transformers and G.I.Joe were actually watchable for anyone with a soul. My Little Pony was a different story. One dimensional characters, and flat, uninteresting plot lines, but with enough colour and shiny things to hypnotize the small minds of its target audience.

But one thing about history and human nature, is that we never expect anything to really change, and sometimes we resist or deny it. This is what causes some conspiracy theories to develop. So when I first heard about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the new My Little Pony TV series, I was skeptical. I thought it would have the same amount of appeal the old series had, that being zero. Continue reading →

Gas and Dash and Cash

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It’s funny how protective we are as a society. We have laws requiring people to wear seatbelts, even though the only practical consequence to not wearing a seatbelt is severe injury to one’s self. We have laws prohibiting drug use, even though the only real consequence is addiction and destitution, same with gambling. Of course taking drugs and not wearing a seatbelt are very stupid things to do. But you know what else is stupid? Drinking to excess, eating fast food every single fucking day, and watching Jersey Shore, all of which are perfectly legal.

In reality these laws only exist to protect people from themselves, and to be honest, I’ve never been afraid harming myself, I trust myself, and if I do harm myself, it’s my own damn fault. But unfortunately many think the government needs to act like our parents and protect us. This month I’m turning 25, I don’t think I really need a parent to tell me what do any more. I’m at the age where it’s no longer necessary. Continue reading →

Destiny’s End

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Last month, I had one of the saddest days of my life…okay, that’s a lie, but shut up, I’m trying to make a point here. For you see, last month featured the series finale of Stargate Universe.

Stargate is a franchise I’ve loved for the past ten years. I remember watching SG-1 when I was younger, fascinated by how they took a modern-day setting, with relatable characters, and merged it with interstellar space exploration. While other shows like Star Trek and Star Wars had awesome space battles and encounters with alien races, they lacked relatable characters. Even though Captain Picard was human, he was a human from 300 years in the future, after human society has undergone several changes. Still relatable, but not by much. Plus, while there were many human characters in Star Wars, they weren’t humans as we know them. They were humans in the sense that they looked human, but they were not from earth and had no concept of any element of human society as we know it. About as human as a Time Lord. Again, not very relatable. Then, there’s Stargate. Where three out of the four main characters weren’t simply relatable, they could be people we know.

Plus, Stargate stayed grounded, because of the designated plot generator, the Stargate. Even though it’s a science fiction about space exploration, the main characters never really needed to go in space, and rarely did. They sort of skip past that. The show was more about guerilla warfare than anything else, at least during the early seasons. As I’ve said before, in season six they got the Prometheus, and that dramatically shifted the series. But it still remained good, and remained alive and breathing for the past 14 years. A terrific run. But now, with the cancellation of Stargate Universe, the franchise is over, and it’s not coming back. Continue reading →

History Is Ours!

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You know, I didn’t think this would happen…at least, not this quickly. It’s surprising how much things can change in a month.

It can be quite exciting when a party achieves a major victory, and quite depressing when a party has a great fall, and both are a very big deal, and can change everything for that party. So it’s even more exciting when it happens to five parties at the same time.

Any Americans out there might be confused. “You have more than two parties?” they might say. Yes, we do, we have five. The Liberals, the Conservatives, the New Democrats, the Greens, and the Bloc Quebecois, and two Mondays ago, it was an exciting night for all of them. Continue reading →

Requiem for a Minority

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So, once again, it’s election time in Canada, or as our Prime Minister Stephen Harper calls it, “a dangerous and unnecessary exercise”…apparently, because the only source I have on this is Rick Mercer, but I’m going to go with it because it sounds like something he’d say. I’m sorry Stephen, but in case you were unaware, Canada is a democracy, and in democracies, we have elections, especially when the government is found in contempt of Parliament.

I’m not surprised Mr. Harper would say something that asinine, because he’s a politician. You see, all politicians are the same, they want power. When they don’t have power, they try to get it, when they have it, they want to keep it. If this wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t be politicians. Okay, maybe some get into politics to do some good, and do what they think is right, in fact it’s likely most of them are. But the ones that get into power, don’t get there by accident.

But no one likes to lose power. It’s for this reason King John of England signed the Magna Carta while someone held a knife to his fucking throat. So those in power try to subdue any opposition, assuming they can get away with it. This is why Republican politicians will criticise Obama for being too secretive, when he’s doing the same damn thing Bush did, which they gave him a pass on. So, predictably, this isn’t the first time Harper has tried this, only last time he was a bit more ballsy about it. Continue reading →