TM2YC

Continuing the watch through of Delgado vs Pertwee serials, I've finished 'Colony In Space'. It was fantastic not-stop thrilling entertainment with plot-twist after plot-twist across an epic 2.5 hours. I enjoyed the heavy political overtones provided by a giant unfeeling Mining Corporation's employees being so evil they make The Master (With his new plan of universal genocide (A plan that The Doctor is tempted to go along with btw!)) seem mild in comparison. It's the old western story of cowboys and Indians versus corrupt rail Barons transposed to space. Occasionally the plot relied on contrivance to satisfy the episodic structure but overall the 1st class writing was what set this serial apart.

The best thing was Bernard Kay's character, Caldwell. A basically decent guy who is on the wrong side. You really felt for him everytime he was forced to do something against his nature and rooted for him when helped the good guys in some small way. It was a rollercoaster performance that left me with a lump in my throat when Caldwell thinks he's caused the deaths of a whole group of people (It was all written on his face).

I also greatly enjoyed Pertwee busting his 'Venusian Aikido' moves at least twice in each episode.

"Hiii!"

xhonzi said:

CP3S said:

xhonzi said:

I love that there is a portal gun in that picture.

Ah, but can you ID all of them?

(I can't, but I bet we could.)

 Nearly ;-)

Left to right

Portal Gun
Raphael's Sai
Legolas' throwing dagger
Bilbo's/Frodo's Sting
????
Highlander's Katana (It's worth about a million bucks)
FF7 Cloud Buster
Gandalf's Glamdring
????
????
Conan's Atlantean Sword
????
The Bride's Hitori Hanzo Sword
FF8 Gunblade
Maximus' Gladiator sword
He-Man's sword
Rayne's sword
Leonidas' Spartan Blade
Lightsaber (Not sure whose?)
Ash's Chainfist

I can almost picture the last 4 but my memory fails me.

Testament to fantasy artists and designers across the decades never failing to come up with distinctive and evocative designs. But they neglected these legendary blades:

Hawk's mindstone sword

Ogami Itto's dotanuki battle sword

The Green Destiny

Nemesis' 'The Sword Sinister'

RicOlie_2 said:

That wasn't in a theocracy, and it wasn't fine for Hitler to make a decision like that. It is contrary to the Christological law which superceded the Mosaic law.

 I'm not comparing the two naturally, only making the point that if something is morally wrong now, it was always morally wrong, regardless of what laws used to say.

RicOlie_2 said:

Yes, but only members of that theocracy. I think that the stoning might have been to make up for the sin so that the person wouldn't end up in hell, but of course that's just an opinion.

 Like how the mass murder of millions of Jews, socialists, Homosexuals, the Disabled and Gypsies was cool because German law said it was legal in the late 1930/early 1940s in that particular state?  Now of course it'd be wrong but then it was fine?

TMBTM said:

Last rumor: Judi Dench as Mon Mothma

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/65823

I don't think it's true cause: 1, she's not looking the part, IMO. and 2 the original actress is still alive and acting as far as I know.

But I think she could be okay in a SW movie.

 Hope that's not true. I hate when a role is recast when the original actor was available.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Truth be told, I didn't like Thor very much.

I guess that's due to the writing more than the directing, though.

Problem was that although Branagh could direct actors and comedy like nobody else (Those parts of Thor were on fire) the action set pieces and the whole look of the film were off. Which was probably down to his inexperience in that type of film. For example all the costumes looked like plastic which a fantasy Director would have spotted. Note that all the Asgard costumes were resigned for Avengers by a Director who knew his stuff and all looked real. But overall it was a win because despite some flaws I left Thor with a big grin on my face.

Bruce Boxleitner as an older General Kenobi during the Clone Wars...

^ I'd be geeking out so much I'd probably have an aneurysm ;-)

Plus anybody else remember walking out of the cinema after TPM thinking "George, why in heaven didn't you cast Haley Joel Osment as Anakin!?!"

^ He was the right age and could actually act. He auditioned but didn't even get a callback.

It would be interesting to see a list of who auditioned for all the roles in the PT, to see if there were other better options. A lot of the discarded OT actors are known but they only confirm how great the OT cast was.

NeverarGreat said:

I've realized that there's potentially a major problem with omitting the end of ANH and a lot of the Hoth material: these are the only times when Han demonstrates his friendship with Luke, first by returning to help in the battle of Yavin, then in searching for Luke on Hoth. This is a problem as Luke's major motivation for leaving Dagobah is that his friends are in danger.

This is true. Unless his reason for leaving is the death of Yoda? Instead of ESB Yoda trying to disuade Luke, ROTJ Yoda tells Luke to go confront Vader. It doesn't matter from Han's perspective since he actually has very little to do with Luke after they all leave Hoth in the rest of ESB and ROTJ anyway.

Very nice work on Slave1, it looks like a minature shot now as you intended. Agree with the above about the blurring needing some further tweaking as you suggest and watch that the film of water on the landing pad doesn't lose all the shine.

When they bring The Master back I wonder if it will be Simm. If not I was thinking who would work well up against Capaldi. Going Route1 with it, perhaps somebody from 'The Thick Of It' like Roger Allam who is brilliant in everything.

He's got a decent international profile thanks to small parts in Game Of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean and V for Vendetta.

TheBoost said:

OBI-WAN37 said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Oh yeah you're right there's hardly any CGI in the PT and it all looks stunning. I've just removed my eyes and given them a proper telling off for lying to me all these years.

Knowing this fact really makes me appreciate how agile pensioners like Christopher Lee and Ian McDiarmid really where. They must have done some Yoga training because their bodies twisted and bent into shapes that you'd think were impossible. Neato! (Also the puppeteering on general Grievous was sick!).

 Did you not see that thread I linked? http://boards.theforce.net/threads/practical-effects-in-the-prequels-sets-pictures-models-etc.50017310/ It proves that there are a lot of models in the PT. I would suspect that that battle in AOTC actually did use some models, you can see a model AT-TE in the thread I linked, not to mention models of Mustafar, Naboo Royal Cruiser, a HUGE miniature city of Mois Eisley,the streets of Coruscant, that thing in the second picture down, the huge Geonosian arena, the corridors of the Jedi temple, the huts of the tusken raiders, the podracers, naboo, Kamino, the place where Anakin and Obi-Wan fought Count Dooku, the Trade Federation interior, life-size podracer, some different costumes for the aliens on Mustafar, the Podracer stadium, the AAT, Feluccia, the hanger in the Invisible Hand, the Jedi Temple, a life-size Naboo Starfighter, C-3PO half-built, what seems to be half of a life-size podracer for Sebulba, several places where Anakin and Obi-Wan fought eachother, and this is probably only a fraction of the stuff they actually used.

I have to agree.

 To be fair, there is LOTS of great sets, model work, and masks/makeup in the PT that everyone seems to overlook in all the CGI hate.  The puppetry that realized half done 3PO was really cool. 

It's noteworthy for fandoms self-evaluation that there's sure been a lot of shit slung at "Puppet Yoda" from a group (us) that supposedly appreciates that type of thing

 Yes but everything was bad about the PT. The sets looked fake, the costumes looked fake, the wigs and beards looked fake (They sometimes did on the OT too though to be fair, I'm talking about you General Madine), the props looked fake and the lighting looked fake (And often was).

Every pixel of those things was smeared over with a vaseline like layer of digitally colour corrected to f*ck awfulness that made everything look fake. Which is probably why some overestimate the amount of CGI in the PT... but there is still a ludicrous amount of it with no good reason.

The same in Indy 4, where Lucas managed to perfect a post-production treatment that transformed live action footage (That I know to be real) to look like bad CGI. It's quite impressive in a strange way.

Watched the brief two episode 'The King's Demons' from Peter Davison's Doctor. I used to have this in my VHS collection but unlike most of the others, I hadn't seen it in years. The production values were excellent with exciting jousting scenes and quality costumes and sets evoking medieval England.

I'd clear forgotten that it serves as the prelude to the 'Five Doctors' special and could be watched together with that as one extended Doctor vs Master story (Although the android 'Kamelion' is strangely absent from the 2nd story despite being aboard the TARDIS during the entire special).

It was great to see another duel between the two foes so soon after the one in 'The Sea Devils' with two different actors playing the parts.

OBI-WAN37 said:

imperialscum said:

Wolfman said:

Best you stay over on TFN where you can all have a group hug about it.

I am sorry but you don't seem to understand the mind of an average prequel boy. They get very little satisfaction from agreeing among themselves on "how great the prequels are". Their mind is ravaged by the fact that a lot of people hold a bad opinion of the prequels. The most satisfaction they get from attacking those people.

 Why are the people who always claim that the prequel trilogy sucks always so rude about it? I wasn't rude to anyone here. I challenge you to look through any of my posts and find one rude remark. Chances are, you won't. And yet I'm getting tons of people being rude to me. And by the way, it seems to me that people who dislike the OT are the people who feel a need to try and be rude to prequel trilogy-lovers for no justified reason. I don't appreciate it. Another thing I don't appreciate is all the prequel trilogy-haters stating their opinions as if they're fact. They hardly ever say "in my opinion...", or even "I think...". 

 I think, in my humble opinion you've been talking out of your arse

DuracellEnergizer said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

 I did wonder if The Strokes were aware of that scene when they designed the album cover, I'd guess they were and that was the joke... afterall who hasn't seen that film?

Since I don't get the reference, I obviously haven't.

 We were talking about Rob Reiner's "Rockumentary" 'This Is Spinal Tap'. Oh boy if you've not seen that you're in for a treat. In 2011 a poll of comedians in Time Out magazine, it was voted the funniest film ever made (IMO it isn't but it's up there with the very best).

This purports to be the unreleased cover for Tap's 'Smell the glove' LP:

and this is the original Strokes LP:

and this is the type of real Metal LP cover that both (?) are taking the piss out of:

Then watch the "Real Spinal Tap", the documentary 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil', it gets quite emotional. Highly reccomended.

I may of used the analogy before but saying there are more models in the PT is like saying there is more sugar in a lemon than in a strawberry.

Bingowings said:

Bobbi Flekman said :

Ian, you put a *greased naked woman* on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?

 I did wonder if The Strokes were aware of that scene when they designed the album cover, I'd guess they were and that was the joke... afterall who hasn't seen that film?

What makes my mashup worse is whose glove it is ;-)

Oh yeah you're right there's hardly any CGI in the PT and it all looks stunning. I've just removed my eyes and given them a proper telling off for lying to me all these years.

Knowing this fact really makes me appreciate how agile pensioners like Christopher Lee and Ian McDiarmid really where. They must have done some Yoga training because their bodies twisted and bent into shapes that you'd think were impossible. Neato! (Also the puppeteering on general Grievous was sick!).

As if to prove your point here's the second OT battle from ESB being shot...

and here's the second PT battle from AOTC being shot...

I can only apologise...

"This little story a long time ago"

One more LP mashup and my SW wallpaper shall be complete (Evil laugh)

You know until I read that post ^ I hadn't thought about the problems of the main crew being constantly refered to as Commander and General etc by the rest of the Rebels. Not such a problem with Lando since we see how his field-promotion comes about but without the Yavin Battle, medal ceremony or anything, taking Luke, Leia and Han as credible leaders is an issue.

btw not sure if this is a possibility, I'm just shooting from the hip here. Could the (Unused) battle of Yavin footage be used as an opener? Remove all shots of Luke and it could be a last ditch assault on the Death Star to buy Leia time to escape on the Tantive IV. Remember before Luke hits the sweetspot with the help of the Force there is a heck of a lot of missing and dying from the various Rebel pilots. It might just be possible to use the shot from ROTS where Vader and Palpatine are looking at a half finished DS to be a shot of them watching the battle from the bridge of the Stardestroyer that soon pusues Leia. This would nicely foreshadow the Emperor watching the Endor assault later on. Plus when cut with the Yavin footage it'd help sell the fact that the battle is taking place above the same half-finished DSII we are gonna see at the end.

If you completely swapped out the audio in this shot ^ you could have the Emperor saying anything (We don't see his lips I believe?) using borrowed dialogue from ROTS.

"We must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end. First, I want you to go to the Jedi Temple. We will catch them off balance. Do what must be done, Lord Vader. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the Dark Side to save Padmé"

^ There's probably lots of other dialogue options but that was the first that came to mind.

Also another thought. This ^ could be used to introduce the idea that Tarkin is the Captain of the Stardestroyer while Jerjerrod is the Moff. That's if there is footage of Peter Cushing you still wanted to use? Tarkin turns away at the end. Could it be because Vader just told him to "lay in a pursuit course"?

I did add a "LOL" to end which was a subtle hint that I was joking.

Bingowings said:

Watch The Clangers instead I love nature programs.

Yes, that bit was awesome LMAO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOK1YdWalOw

'Terror of the Autons' was fun but flawed. The Master lays a series of schemes within schemes and traps within traps for The Doctor like a blueprint for the Batman/Joker tussle in TDK.

Having read a lot of Sherlock, I most enjoyed the three way Holmes/Watson/Moriaty dynamic that the writers had deliberately developed for The Doctor/The Brigadier/The Master in episode 3. And the seeing the first scenes between The Doctor and The Master was great. The Doctor's almost petulant irritation when The Master is first mentioned by a third Timelord was lovely. I like moments when we are reminded that despite the character's and the actor's age he is something of a rebellious teenager in Timelord terms. At one point when things aren't going his way Pertwee remarks...

"What's wrong with being childish... I like being childish"

...and has a bit of a sulk. It's one of the unique things about the character.

Onto the bad. New companion Joe is very weak and flimsy here and in a funny scene The Doctor tries to have her fired from UNIT. She obviously gets more serious later on, as she seemed totally different to the Joe from the later 'Sea Devils' and 'Day of the Daleks' serials. But the worst thing is the experimental Chroma-Key video effects. They are so bad that at times they don't just look unrealistic, they verge on the psychedelic. They are used in almost every scene, even when they don't need to be to create 'virtual sets'. I'm not sure if this is down to limited budget, an air of free experimentation of just not giving a shit. I supect it's a little of all three but whatever the reason, it's very strange. Hopefully it doesn't get used this often in many other Pertwee shows.

^ This looks pretty bad as a still (And this is one of the better shots) but in motion when the foreground and background are moving slighty out of time it's something else. And finally the ending is awful as after the thrilling cat-and-mouse games run out of steam The Master just gives in after one sentence from The Doctor. Still overall a good four episodes.

Time for some Peter Davison and Tom Baker before I watch more Pertwee I think.

RicOlie_2 said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

In all seriousness, I'd like to ask...

What is the point of Religion?

I've never understood what the practical benefit is of believing in something that by default has no proof behind it (That's what faith is). I'd be genuinely interested in how and what it adds to life that many consider it worth spending time, effort and money on?

 Alright, let's assume there is no evidence either for or against religion (I think this is slightly unfair because I believe that there is evidence for my beliefs, but there is so much room for debate in that area that I will ignore that for now). So, what could possibly be good about it? I'll list some reasons in point form (the numbers have nothing to do with importance):

Thanks for the response :-)

RicOlie_2 said:

1. Hope: religion often provides hope in an afterlife.

 As I said above, I can totally see that hope is a postive factor. But it's always struck me as arrogant that almost all religous people imagine that they will probably go to heaven and that their loved one will definately go to heaven (I'm sure there are many exceptions, but this is the norm). It's more realistic to suppose that an eternity of hellfire awaits 99.9% of people because the chances of going through 50-100 years of life without sining in some way is unlikely. So for those prepared to flatter themselves without sin, I can see heaven must look a very appealing reward at the end.

RicOlie_2 said:

2. Happiness: religion and prayer have been shown to increase happiness in multiple studies.

 Again I can see that praying to a diety to not kill your family every night must give comfort to those who delude themselves into thinking that God cares. If a massive natural disaster happens and you are the only survivor it wasn't prayer that saved you, it was just random chance. The giant incomprehensible randomness of such events must be scary to some who lack the inner strength to face them alone, so they prefer to see the hand of a guiding force. Much the same as blowing on a pair of dice might make you feel that it helps your luck.

RicOlie_2 said:

3. Explanation of the supernatural. This is a reason people adhere to religion, though it may not really belong in this answer.

 There is no such thing as the supernatural and as such I do not require a God to explain it. But if one is the sort of gullible person to believe in ghosts, spirits and fairies... I can see how beliveing in a greater force isn't such a leap beyond that.

RicOlie_2 said:

4. Unification: this is debatable, but in theory, if everyone followed one religion there would be a lot fewer problems in the world, depending on the religion.

 Not really, since everybody would just start bickering about wearing the wrong colour hats instead. Sadly it's human nature to fear that which we see as different.

RicOlie_2 said:

5. Community: by sharing beliefs and meeting every so often, communities of people are formed and people have a chance to meet with people who share their beliefs.

 Again I can totally see that benefit. But beyond the same thing you'd get joining a book club or sewing circle, I don't know. This very wonderful online forum that we are all using to discuss SW and the like is a great community but I can't see how praying to the http://originaltrilogy.com domain name every night would make my life any better ;-)

RicOlie_2 said:

6. It explains the origins of the universe (science does this, but it doesn't give a very satisfactory answer).

 It doesn't though. An athiest believes that before the universe their was void, a thiest belives that before God there was void. I fail to see the difference, neither explains the transition between nothing and something any more than the other.

RicOlie_2 said:

7. Religion gives life meaning and purpose in a way that cannot be without religion.

 If you don't think there is meaning enough in the smile of a loved one, the roar of an Electric Guitar, the sunlight through a leafy canopy, the smell of a strawberry or the sound of a church choir etc etc then that's a shame. This planet is plenty enough wonderful for me without having to wish for anything greater. To use a couple of clichés, I'm too busy 'taking time to smell the roses' and 'waking up and smelling the coffee' to have precious time to waste on praying to a being that may or may not be there, about a second life that may or may not exist.

RicOlie_2 said:

I could continue were I allowed to take things as they are and not ignoring evidence for and against religion.

 Feel free, but for the original question I was only interested in understanding how it improves people's lives. The whys and wherefores weren't relevant.

It makes way more sense if Owen was a strong willed and angry character in the PT. If he had taken Luke into his care after all Luke's family were killed messing around with those suspicious Jedi sorts, then Ben having little or nothing to do with Luke would have made sense. If Owen had forbade Ben from seeing Luke, Ben's next best option would be to build a hut in the hills nearby and keep watch. As for Leia, maybe she was hidden away as planned before Owen interceeded.

SilverWook said:

One Grevious concept drawing shown on the ROTS DVD was a creepy, malevolent looking kid in a floating chair, with IG-88's for bodyguards. I found it far more sinister than the character we actually got. ;)

http://youtu.be/tBOoZ5Tuh2o

 LOL That's pure George, condensed ^. Video starts with George having no f*cking idea what Grevious is gonna be like, then a young artist draws a sketch that is basically the complete character as seen in the movie and suddenly bam! cut to George saying I came up with that, it was my idea!.