Category: The Unknown

Dragon Week: Cosplay

  • August 11, 2011

There’s dedication and there is dedication and then there is the level of dedication suggested by some of the following adverts, from early 1980s Dragon magazines:

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Or, if you are inclined toward playing a warrior:

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I particularly love how all you buy there is an instruction book. I wonder how many people actually responded to this ad and actually made armour?

For those perhaps not as devoted to role playing, they could still show off their fandom thus:

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Or via new-fangled (at the time) ‘holographic’ technology:

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As with all of these entries, I leave the best for last…

Suppose you didn’t want to dress as a thief, or wizard or even warrior. Suppose you’re true calling was something else. Something like this…

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“Wear this life-like dragon mask to all special occasions” indeed 🙂

  • Posted in Family
  • Robert

The Star, The Tower, Judgement

  • May 11, 2011

I recently started playing the amazing Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together remake for PSP. When I bought it, a freebie deck of Tarot cards came with it. “Why not”, I thought, “do my own Tarot?”

So I did. I shuffled the 22 card deck and went with the relatively easy 3-spread reading. This entails drawing 3 cards randomly, where the first represents the past, the second the present, and the third the future.

Here are my results:

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The Star (my past)

Keywords: Calmness, Tranquility, Hope

This card designates renewal of body and soul, and hope for the future. In the years past, it seemed, my future was bright!

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The Tower (my present)

Keywords: Chaos, Crisis, Downfall

This card is an ill omen, foretelling calamity. This is my present, thus the future looks grim.

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Judgement (my future)

Keywords: Forgiveness, Salvation, Absolution

This card may represent the imminent resolution of decisions delayed or put aside. It may also represent the return of old friends, or even old situations. However, some believe it represents a preoccupation with the past. This is my future. Will my future be my past?

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I am a man of science, and do not believe in mysticism. However I must be honest with you, my dear reader: before doing this reading I removed two cards from the set of 22.

  • Posted in Family
  • Robert

The Impossible Astronaut

  • April 28, 2011

This post is about the season opener of the new series of Who. Spoilers here for Australian fans, or those in America that haven’t watched it yet.

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The Impossible Astronaut was a strange episode, very unlike almost every previous Who episode ever. I left it strangely unfulfilled, but as I have thought about it these past few days I think my admiration has grown. From the start I loved it as a mad Doctor Who fan, but I think I thought it lacked the bang a season opener should have. I think I still feel that way, but as the episode has grown on me I can only hope it may have grown on others and when we all tune in for the conclusion this Saturday all our questions will be answered and (slight) doubts put to rest.

On to the specifics:
– Nixon was a bit crap
– Matt Smith was superb, especially as his older self
– The long shot of the Doctor being shot on the lake shore was one of the most cinematic shots ever in Who, with some very nice (and subtle) effects going on
– River knowing how to operate the TARDIS is always funny
– The Doctor calling River ‘Mrs Robinson” was even funnier 🙂
– On that point, there were a great many funny lines in this episode 🙂
– I don’t think the aliens are the best designed ever. They have that amateur ‘Buffy’ look to them 🙁
– The alien gimmick is fun though, and I expect quite scary for kids!
– They didn’t use America enough. Five minutes of external shots isn’t half as impressive as (say) the use of Spain in The Two Doctors or Lanzarote in Planet Of Fire
– Seeing Amy and Rory’s apartment was strangely satisfying. I wonder where they live?

And then the mind-bending stuff that made the episode grand for Who maniacs but just confusing for everyone else (major spoilers here):
– Doctor #11 lives for ~200 years? Of course he can’t (since he won’t die) but… but… what if?
– Think carefully about what River Song tells Rory. That she’ll die when the Doctor no longer recognizes her? Since we follow the Doctors time line, we’ve already seen that happen. Go and re-watch Silence In The Library: The Doctor doesn’t know her, and she dies at the end.
– Speaking of River dying, why’d she shoot at the astronaut? Why was she not surprised she missed? Who is that little girl? Who could she be, that the Doctor knew everything about her as soon as they met? What was it River said to Rory again?
– The ‘other’ TARDIS control room from The Lodger reappears. The aliens have a similar power to whatever was upstairs in that episode. Does this mean the aliens were upstairs, or something else is involved? Is it really another TARDIS? (hint: the BBC had a contest in 2009 in which children were invited to design a new TARDIS console room that was eventually used in the series…)
– Time lords can be killed mid regeneration? Unprecedented with regards to the Doctor, but I believe this may have been established (in a related sense) in Mawdryn Undead.
– With what he’s doing with the show, and time in general, I think it’s long past time Moffat dispelled the (legendary) Blinovitch Limitation Effect. Certainly the entire premise of this two-parter seems to violate it!

Ok, ok, time to take the anorak off and return to the real world.

Overall: I think it was a great episode albeit perhaps a bit off-putting to new viewers. I can only hope the charm of the characters and writing make them want to return to see how it resolves!