TV time: Doctor Who, The Impossible Astronaut

This post contains spoilers for the New Who, 3201 "The Impossible Astronaut", so if you haven't seen that episode then you won't want read on...








Okay, that's enough space.
First of all, this isn't gonna be a recap, it's gonna be a review. If you haven't seen the ep then I'm not going to go into details about it. There are plenty of places online where you can do that like here or here. I really loved this episode. I figured out that the doctor at the beginning was a future doc before the characters did, but then again I'm sure a lot of people did that, too, so not gloating (although I did get it before someone else I was watching it with. now I am gloating).

The Silence are very scary. They look like they're the main character from The Scream, and they are bloody frightening. Luckily, I didn't think that the way they killed was frightening at all; rather, it was quite funny. I'm glad that they did that, because they would have been way scarier if they killed better.

I'm not sure if I believe that Amy is pregnant. It seemed like that's what the Silence in the white house bathroom was talking about, when he said that Amy needs to tell the doctor what he should know. There is some speculation that she just said that because she couldn't remember about the Silence and she didn't want to tell him about his future death. I guess we'll find out, and not a moment too soon!
Those don't sound like compelling theories - she doesn't wanna screw up the time line by telling him when he'll die, but she's fine with killing his killer? - But you never know with this show.

Mark A Sheppard is a glorious actor. I will shout his praises till the end of time; there is nothing that he can't do. I have a theory that Canton 3 is gay, because that's the only reason why his getting married would be against the law. Also, the way he was flirting with the doctor. Of course, I tend to believe that Sheppard's characters are always in flirt mode, so that could be just me. What does everyone else think?

Let me know what you all thought of this episode. Good, bad, ugly? Is Amy pregnant? Why are the villains called the Silence? Did Amy kill a child? Place your thoughts in the comments.

Kathy

Vote for me plz

Heehee. If you'll excuse the 'leet' speak up there, the People's Choice voting has begun for the Best Australian Blogs 2011. 


If you'll kindly follow thee link below, you'll find out how to vote for me. It doesn't take that long at all; they say 2 minutes but it's more like 1.5.

Thank you all for your support, and I look forward to writing more blogs for you all. 

Kathy

 

Everything I Learnt About Life I Learnt From TV

Part three: Babies

Image by noblec at http://www.sxc.hu/profile/noblec

Babies

This is a topic that scares most men and some women. They’re small, they require a lot of attention, and most of the time they smell. But regardless, a lot of people are having them.

According to the world’s most trusted resource for information, TV, while the women are pregnant, the men are having a freak out. As it turns out, having a human being growing in your womb has an effect on you. Who’d have thought?

Not men, apparently, who time and time and time and time again, never realise that their partner is going to be different. My question is, how? How could any person old enough to make a baby not realise that carrying one can cause you to act differently? When I was watching an old episode of 7^th Heaven, I was stunned at how a grown man - an Ob nonetheless – was so stunned at how his pregnant wife become so hormonal over the smallest things. If you’ve never seen a pregnant woman, they’re on the television so much that you would have had to have seen one at some point in your history.

It’s not just the ones carrying the baby who feel the hormones, though. Cam from Modern Family felt the pregnancy panic before baby Lilly was even in his arms.

So feel free to share any moments where you or your partner had a major freak out during pregnancy. You can post anonymously so they don’t find out :).

Kathy

License

Hi everyone, I know I've already posted today, but I'm just giving you all a heads up about the license agreement down the bottom. Basically: go nuts!
It's an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, which means you are LEGALLY ALLOWED TO 

• Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• Remix — to adapt the work

as long as you say that I was the one who wrote the original or who gave you the idea, don't make any money from it, and you share your new work with the same license. So feel free to repost anything I'm saying here in any way, shape, or form as long as you're not making money and you say you got it from me.
I'm working on a post where I talk about the idiocy stupidity oddities related to copyright and the every day person, and I'll have that up when I get the tone right.

Have fun,


Kathy

How to tell if you're a grown up

I was walking down the street a little while back, thinking about bills and when I'd get time to do the grocery shopping when it hit me: am I now a grown up? Aren't bills and grocery shopping the things that adults spend time contemplating? I turned to my usual source of information, and found the following ways to tell if you're a grown up. Give yourself a point per way, and see how many you end up with

1) you don't know modern lingo/you use it as a joke
with modern language changing so fast nowadays, it's easy to be left behind if you're not in the same circle as the 'youngins
Case in point, Phil from Modern Family: "I'm cool dad, that's my thang. I'm hip, I surf the web, I text. LOL: laugh out loud, OMG: oh my god, WTF: why the face."
The exception is Sheldon from The Bing Bang Theory, who matches all of the other grown up criterion: "I’m Dr. Sheldon Cooper, BS, MS, MA, PhD, and ScD… OMG right?"

2) you live independent from your parents
this doesn't mean physically or financially independent, but that they don't have any real say over what you do. You get a point for this one if you don't have to tell them where you're going or who you're going with, just that you're going out and will be back late will suffice.
Case in point, Jimmy from Raising Hope. But then again, his parents aren't really grown ups either...
Exception: Ray from Everybody Loves Raymond. He may get a point in every other category, but he still listens to his mother on everything.

3) that music is up way too loud
if you've ever said this without a valid reasons, eg you're on a train or trying to study, then I'm afraid this gets a point.
Case in point, the Rafters from the first ep of Packed to the Rafters. Going next door in your night gown to turn off the music means that you're a grown up.

4) you have a bill in your name, and you are expected to pay it.
half points if it's a mobile/cell phone bill. three quarters for a credit card bill, full points for electricity/water/gas bill.
Case in point, Ashleigh from Greek. She got in a bit o' trouble when she realised she had to pay back her debit card bill, and fast.
Exceptions: any of the Leverage team, because I doubt they would have any bills in their real name. Same goes for the Winchester Brothers from Supernatural

5) you have cleaned a house
not just cleaned your room or shoved stuff under your bed, but actually used a mop or bucket or vacuum to clean more than just one room.
Case in point, Stephanie from No Ordinary Family. Though she can clean incredibly fast, she still cleans and therefore gets full points for this.

6) you go grocery shopping
not just milk at the corner store, but actual groceries from a supermarket. Bonus points if you have had to wait in line at the deli counter.
6.a) you found it exciting/awesome/nifty/epic/sweet as, brah when you find a special.
Case in point, Cam from Modern Family. He just goes crazy when he sees a bargain.

7) you realise your parents aren't all they're cracked up to be
some of us realise this sooner than others, but there comes a time in everyone's life when we find out that our parents aren't superheroes like we always thought they were.
Case in point, Frasier in Frasier. He realised this when he was quite young, and his father couldn't work out the tax on some dinner bill.

Well, I scored... Never you mind. I guess the point of this is, it doesn't matter what you score here, because it's how you feel on the inside. If you honestly feel like you wanna straighten up and fly right and get a serious 9-5 at a tax firm or something, then do it. If you wanna spend your time surfing off the coast of Oahu, then if you're not hurting anyone it's okay by me.

Supanova Pop Culture Expo day three

Day three was better organised than day two. I'm not sure if the organisers realised how many people were still coming after Christopher Lloyd pulled out; but come they did. Day three had lines set up in better places, and more control over the Tom Felton autograph line.
First stop of the day was to get an extra photo token, because after seeing her talk the previous day, I needed a photo with Katee Sackhoff. Then it was over to waiting in line for autographs because Katee wasn't doing her photo's until later. Tom's auto was first, and I was blown away with how amazing and generous this guy is. He is a true professional, and people who say otherwise are lying. He greeted everyone (well, every woman) with "hello darling", and he thanked them or waiting so long to meet him. He joked about the things people had asked him to sign, and clarified that when he said "I'll sign anything", he meant any phrase.
Then it was time to once again say "helo" (haha I am so funny) to Tahmoh. Again, he was so warm and generous, and I was able to stay for a minute or two and chat with him. I was the first in his line, so we talked for a little while things were getting set up, but then I left so as to not use up all of his time and to avoid acting like a weirdo.

 

Next, my group and I grabbed some lunch, then it was time for my photo with Katee. I wanted to be all cool and suave in it, but she threw me off when she thanked me for coming out! Usually, patrons thank the guests, and then they say "no, thank you for coming out", but straight away I got a genuine, heartfelt "thank you so much", like Katee was more excited to see me. I hope I stammered a decent reply before wondering off to the Tom Felton panel. I didn't think I'd get in, with a line that looked like this from my vantage point.

 

And it apparently stretched for a kilometre! I didn't get a shot of the line behind me unfortunately, but it went all the way behind the Commerce building and towards Gregory Terrace! Luckily Zeppy was minding a place in the line, so I didn't have to go to the back. With this many people, it's no wonder that the talk didn't start on time; but the volunteers did such a great job of getting almost 900 people into the room, so well done to them! Unfortunate we had to leave before it ended to get to the Tahmoh talk, but what we saw was great. 

Tom joked about different wizarding innuendo's that he had been told, and apparently someone that very weekend had said "if you show me your wand I'll show you my snitch". Lovely. He also said that we missed the entire cast and crew greatly, and that he had to start talking about something else before he started to cry. 

The Tahmoh talk was great, and once again he was very playful and energetic. People asked how he felt about his Dollhouse characters progression and he said that the producer was scared when he told him, but Tahmoh liked it and the twist at the end. I asked him a similar question as to the day before; did he take any souvenirs from the DH set, but they were onto it and he only got one tailor made suit. He loves him Mortal Combat work and is very proud of it. 

I got my photo with Katee and I signed, and I managed to not be a total fool this time, and I actually made her laugh. 

My shirt says "nerds need love too", and both she and Tahmoh really liked it. 

We did some shopping and browsed the convention floor a little more. It was still very crowded, but not as much as it had been previously. Then before we knew it, 4:15 rolled around and it was time for the Katee talk. She entered from the back instead of the front, and because Zeppy was on an aisle seat he high-fived her as she walked past-way to go Zeppy!

She started off by saying "you're all so lucky to be here", and we all laughed. She went on to explain that she's usually normal during 9-5, but after that she goes crazy, and because it's midnight in America we have her at crazy time. She laughed at herself when she realised how her opening comment sounded, and that got the ball rolling. The first question was about the religion in the show, and she answered it with grace and humour, careful to make sure everyone knew her opinions and beliefs were just hers, and that she didn't want to push them on others. Her favourite colour is green.
She talked about her opinion of what went wrong with Bionic Woman, and she mentioned how awkward and funny it was to shoot her BSG sex scenes. Tahmoh crashed the panel part way through because there was no one in his line. Katee mocked him for it, but he said everyone was either with her or waiting for Tom.
Someone asked who would win in a fight between Starbuck and Helo-Starbuck because she would shoot him-and between Katee and Tahmoh. She said Tahmoh would because contrary to popular belief she is really a girly girl who hates to break a nail.
I asked if she would be interested in doing BSG: The Musical, and she laughed because that was a common joke on the set, especially imaging all of the cylons

That was the end for Day Three and for Supanova Brisbane April 2011. Hopefully I'll be going to two more conventions this year, but that will depend on time and money.
I hope you all enjoyed this, and feel free to post links to your own convention run downs in the comments. Special thanks to Dan, Quinny, and the rest of the Supanova team for another truly wonderful weekend.

Kathy

Supanova Pop Culture Expo day one and two

Supanova is a really big part of my life. I've been going every year for the past five years, and every year it has been awesome. The guests, the fans, the costume, the environment... it's so exciting and wonderful.

Supanova is a pop culture expo, so that means that it's not just sci-fi, but anime, fantasy, wrestling, and novels as well.If you haven't been to an expo before, it really is an experience you've been missing. It's been dubbed nerdvana, and it really is. Geek heaven is also another term that's touted around, but basically an expo is a place where people who love anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy, and who play games can get together and talk about their love without being mocked.
 
This year Supa was three days, 1-7 Friday, 10-6 Saturday and Sunday. I went in the afternoon on Friday to check it out and have a look inside. And I bought things. They also revealed their big announcement: that Supanova will be doing 6 shows per year, and one on the Gold Coast!!! This will be in conjunction with the Gold Coast Film Festival, so the GC SN will last for a week. GC SN will be in April, and Brisbane will be moved to November. To get people ready for this change, there will be another SN in Brisbane at the end of this year. Christopher Lloyd, who had to pull out at the last minute, is coming back then to make it up to the fans. He'll also be doing a special "I'm sorry" tour in Melbourne for those guests, too!


On Saturday I saw Tahmoh Penickett and Katee Sackhoff in a BSG panel. They were amazing together, just incredibly friendly and awesome. They were really good friends on the set, and this friendship has continued well beyond the finale. They talked about silly things that they did on set to ease the tension, and about how the actors whose characters were revealed to be cylons felt. They also revealed that they took their flight suits without knowing they were allowed too. Katee stuffed hers into a cooler bag. She asked for her helmet, but they sent her "Kat's" instead. Not cool. Tahmoh tried to take a raptor, but they caught him.
The best bit, though, was the atmosphere. These two are genuine friends, and it's amazing to see them together. It's like watching two old friends catch up.

This was taken from my iPhone, so it's pretty bad quality. 

Tahmoh is the one in the hat, The other is Katee

Peter Williams talk was very entertaining. I was a bit worried about all of the Stargate questions, but he took them all in stride. He talked for a bit about the asteroid Apophis and when that will be heading to Earth, and funnily enough he seems quite happy about it. But then again if you had an asteroid named after a villain that you played, you would be pretty excited and pleased with yourself, too.

I also had a photo with Tahmoh on Saturday, and this was great. It was over quite quickly, and I was so nervous I didn't really say anything special to him. I asked him for a hug and he opened his arms wide and said "get on in here". He kept his smile on his face the entire time, I think because it would have been too hard to swap between normal smile and photo smile.

The most annoying thing about Day Two was the crowd. T here were just so many people; someone said about 30,000 but I'd wager there would be more around 45,000 in total. It was incredibly busy and quite suffocating at times, but it was really awesome to see so many people come out and join in the Supa fun.

So that's it for Day One and Day Two of Supanova 2011. I'll put up Day Three soon.