A couple days ago, I was lucky enough to stumble into a gift certificate. Now that I have Netflix, I don't buy too many new movies, so I thought instead I'd video game it up and play some stuff that I had wanted, but never had the drive, to buy and play before. 'Alan Wake' was at the top of that list.

Let's talk about something else for a moment. Let's pretend that you're in High School and single. You've been single for a while, and have almost given up on finding someone. Sure, there have been a few people who you've felt pretty close to, but nobody who is just PERFECT for you. One day you're eating lunch, and a beautiful girl shows up out of nowhere. She just enrolled in school, and lucky for you, she's available to hang out right now! You start to talk to each other, and you find out you love all the same things. You loved 'Twin Peaks'? I loved 'Twin Peaks'! You think Stephen King is pretty great? Yeah, me too, I don't get all the crap dumped on him! We're both fans of horror movies, and action movies, and we love suspense and mysteries and the supernatural and you're totally available?! It's love!

So you start seeing this girl a lot. The first night you hang out, she comes over to your place, and she says, 'Hey, I thought tonight we could stay in, order some pizza and watch 'Twin Peaks'!' This will be awesome, you think to yourself, so you guys do, and you have an absolute blast. Cue the next night, and she's over at your place again, and she has a pizza, and she wants to watch 'Twin Peaks'. That's cool, love that show. You work your way through the series each successive night, and each night, she brings pizza, and you guys just sorta hang out. You make it through the entire show, and the next night... she's at your door, and she's got pizza, and she wants to watch the first episode again.

'Hey, I know, let's go out', you'll say, but it falls on deaf ears. She really wants to watch 'Twin Peaks' and you simply can't talk her out of it.All of a sudden, some of the shine is gone, and what's left is this confusing pile of mixed emotions, where you know you're supposed to love something, but there's just one boring, repetitive thing holding you back. You've watched 'Twin Peaks' about five times all the way through. You're pretty sure that's enough.

This is 'Alan Wake' in a nutshell. It's got everything I should love, and I do love it. We both share a passion for 'Twin Peaks' (AW is absolutely shameless about stealing from the show), and I'm absolutely riveted by the plot. But the gameplay is repetitive.

Want to know how to play 'Alan Wake'? Do the interesting stuff, and explore for a little bit. Oh crap, now it's nighttime... hold down the left trigger, now press the right trigger twice. Do that again. And again. Yay, now move to the next area. Do it again. And again. And again. Hey, it's a new level! Let's explore some more, and now I took away all your items, and you're back to having no ammo. Start holding down the left trigger...

I mean, don't get me wrong, the experience is fantastic. Skulking through dark forests being absolutely terrified is great. The problem is, combat is ultra-repetitive. Ammo isn't scarce enough that it's really survival horror... and it's not action-y enough that it's a shooter. It's a survival horror game where you have to monotonously chug through enemies now and again to see some really pretty visuals and follow a really interesting story.

Honestly, the game is inspired. I especially love the 'Twilight Zone' knockoff TV show you can watch a couple times throughout the game. There are problems, however, that take the game from being absolutely perfect, to being pretty OK. The controls feel clumsy at times (something I attribute to Alan Wake himself, which causes me to frequently go 'OH ALAN, WHY DID YOU WALK OFF THAT CLIFF?'). The combat is boring after the first 100 guys you kill. And some of the enemies that start to appear mid-game are just obnoxious (highlight to read: The possessed poltergeist inanimate objects... they are awful. That first section under the train tracks on the bridge, where you have to fight like ten of them at once? Ugh.).

Overall I wouldn't caution anyone against playing 'Alan Wake'; on the contrary, I'd even recommend it. Just with a caveat, that you'll probably find the combat boring, and end up wondering, 'Why can't I just skip to the story parts?'

|

|

It's all fun and games until somebody remembers it's an 80's action movie.

|

Now, this is a subject that has interested me for some time. As many of you know, I got my B.S. in Psychology, and one of the awful, counterproductive pastimes of Psych students is to evaluate others for mental illness.

Now, I'll be the first to admit -- this is sort of like picking at the lowest hanging fruit on the tree. Glenn Beck is, undoubtedly, either A) crazy or B) shrewd as hell. The man knows how to change his positions to maximize readers/viewers, and knows how to play on the emotions and fears of others.

But what if there's an alternate pathology at work here? What if Glenn Beck's bombastic personality and behavior isn't the culmination of media-whoring and grotesque pandering, but is instead indicative of something a little further below the surface?

Of course, I don't need to go far to establish the basis of my premise. In his very first book (The Real America: Messages from the Heart and Heartland), on the second page of the damn thing, Beck has the following to say:

But this is only part of it. Beck has also expressed thoughts that he might be obsessive compulsive, and that mental illness might run in his family. Now, mental illness is hereditary. We're certain of that. So what are the chances that Glenn Beck is also mentally ill; more specifically, that Glenn Beck is a paranoid schizophrenic who needs to seek help for his mental illness?

Now, what could lead a person to suggest paranoid schizophrenia? Well, take a look at Glenn on a daily basis:



Throughout those clips, Beck displays what could classically be considered paranoia. Further, if we combine this paranoia as a symptom of something larger rather than as a diagnosis itself, we see that paranoid schizophrenia could definitely fit. After all, Beck himself admits he used to be a self-medicating alcoholic (something which is very common among schizophrenics). But let's take a look at the facts themselves. According to the handbook for psychologists, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia must progress as follows:

Two or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period or less if successfully treated.

A. Characteristic symptoms:
   1. Delusions – Strange beliefs such as delusions of grandeur or persecution, ideas of reference (e.g., believing that TV newscaster is delivering a secret coded message).
   2. Hallucinations – Auditory, visual, tactile, gustatory, or olfactory
   3. Disorganized speech – Frequent derailment or incoherence
   4. Grossly disorganized behavior (e.g. wearing inappropriate clothing; inappropriate affect) or catatonic behavior (rare).
   5. Negative symptoms (alogia, avolition, affective flattening).

B. Social/occupational dysfunction:
Work, social relations, or self care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset.

C. Duration:
Continuous signs of the disturbance present for at least six months, with at least one month that meets criterion A.

D. Do not diagnose if symptoms are the result of a medical condition or pervasive developmental disorder.

E. Must rule out schizoaffective disorder and major depression.

Now, under subheading A, we see that we only need two characteristic symptoms in order to move on to the next section. But which two? I think, even based on the clip we watched above, it's safe to say that Mr. Beck experiences delusions. The idea that you are being persecuted and hunted, especially by the government, is a hallmark of paranoid schizophrenia, and truly helps to give some credence to this (amateur) diagnosis. But what other symptoms are available? Oh, how about disorganized speech.



But this is just one of Beck's many logical departures. Beck frequently displays a whiteboard or chalkboard on his show, which he uses to attempt to prove points. The arguments themselves are disjointed, illogical, and tenuous at best; at worst, they come off as flat-out nonsensical. But each is delivered with this sense of self-aware pompousness and gravitas, as if Glenn Beck is taking you by the hand and saying, Trust me, I believe this.

So Criteria A is taken care of; at the least, Beck displays these two characteristics (although arguments could be made for the others as well). Let's move on to Criteria B: interpersonal dysfunctions. Reading over Beck's employment history, it's not hard to read between the lines. Often, Beck leaves each successive career due to 'interpersonal clashes' and 'disagreements'. But the criteria is for decreased current performance... Beck hasn't done anything recently to cause a severe hit to his television program, has he? Oh wait... Beck has become increasingly unhinged, causing advertisers to leave him in droves, and causing him to search for alternate ways to make the big bucks (currently peddling gold exchange services, for instance). If this isn't a case of becoming 'markedly below what was previously achieved', I don't know what is.

So Criteria C -- for more than six months. Check! Go back and look at how long Beck has been ranting about threats against his life and a massive government conspiracy to discredit him. It'd been longer than six months, and his Criteria A symptoms have definitely been longer than a single month.

It's Criteria D and E where it gets tricky. Honestly, we can't rule out that A) Glenn Beck has some sort of physical illness which is impairing his judgment, B) he does not have a learning disability, or C) he doesn't have some other form of mental illness. He has admitted to depression in the past, which could definitely throw off Criteria E, but I feel that major depression isn't what's at work here. Glenn Beck is  likely much sicker than a depression diagnosis. Glenn Beck is probably a paranoid schizophrenic.

[Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. This is not medical advice. I am not attempting to defame Glenn Beck, simply to show how Beck's overall behavior tends to skew towards symptoms of a treatable medical diagnosis. Don't sue me.]

|

|

And on a somewhat related note to today's earlier Ask Austin, this is just incredible.

|

|

Turns out, you can't really see the difference unless I upload directly to YouTube. No editing? Ehhhh...

|

Let's say you have two Tesla coils, a Farraday suit, and the will to be a total nerd. What do you do? Recreate the 'Doctor Who' theme with ELECTRICITY.

|

It turns out YouTube is the largest online collection of people injuring their genitals in existence. I did not know this until YouTube recommended this video to me no less than three separate times. Now you get to watch too.

|

You need something to start your Memorial Day weekend right. This is it. Enjoy the worst convenience store robber in history.

|

I finally got a hold of a prototype Brickarms Retro Raygun, and now my tiny spaceman is awesome x100.

|

|

Soooo, I somehow convinced Sarah to purchase napenthusiast.com. Expect good things out of this!

|

|

|

To continue the theme. Hand-painted to give it that textured, faux-wood-y look... I think it turned out nicely.

|

While playing with my Doctor Who Lego last night, I had an idea... why doesn't this exist:

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I can't figure out why this hasn't already been milked and exploited? The obvious answer is, of course, that Doctor Who doesn't have the same international appeal as other franchises that have been adapted. In terms of an absolute perfect fit, though, the Doctor Who franchise and the Lego series of video games go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Overworld:
One of the hallmarks of the Lego series has been the overworld you can play in before choosing a level. In Star Wars, you had the Mos Eisley Cantina. In Lego Indiana Jones, you had Barnett College. In Lego Doctor Who, you could have... the TARDIS. While you could select missions from the central console, you could go anywhere else in the Lego TARDIS and play around. Mini-games everywhere, plenty of room to explore, lots of characters possibly wandering around... it's an ideal overworld.

Characters:
Every Doctor and Companion ever. The Lego series has been experimenting with increasing it's cast list from game to game; in the latest incarnation, there has to be no less than 60 different playable characters, so why not all eleven Doctors, their companions, and other story characters? Like Lego Batman pioneered, each character could have a single strength used to solve puzzles -- maybe the Fourth Doctor can use his scarf as a whip or rope, or tiny Lego Jack Harkness is invincible. The possibilities are literally endless.

Enemies:
Everything. As colorful as they come. A ton of The Doctor's enemies easily translate into colorful plastic enemies. Also, I want to be able to play as them after finishing their level.

Levels:
Here's where it could get fun. The main bulk of the campaign plays through the last few years of the Doctor Who revival, so you hit all the high notes. On top of that, however, make unlockable 'Classic' missions where you play as old Doctor/Companions. An unlockable 'Tomb of the Cybermen' where you explore the tomb, run from Lego Cybermen, and eventually escape. An unlockable 'Ark In Space' where you set up puzzles and traps to A) free people and B) destroy alien mosquito monsters. Any number of classic adventures naturally lend themselves to the puzzle game format, and the playfulness of Lego means it can be as family friendly as possible. Imagine the end of 'Earthshock' (with the Cybermen ramming the planet Earth with a space ship) done in classic Lego Video Game style... it'd be hilarious, and still stay respectful to the series.

Honestly, this game basically writes itself. It'd be a great way to introduce new audiences to the series (and classic episodes), as well as a springboard to actual Lego Doctor Who products. What sucks is that this will basically only live in my imagination, but if I ever stumbled into some degree of authority, rest assured this game would be on shelves immediately.

|

(Click for bigger)

|

If there's one thing I love, it's crossing my hobbies over. So what happens when my insatiable love for 'Doctor Who' overlaps with my lust for Lego? Why, Doctor Who Lego, of course! Here we have the Tenth Doctor and Rose trapped by some terrifying(ly cute) Lego Daleks. Oh noes! Once again, click for gigantic (big enough for wallpaper, if you want to show your good taste off or something).

|

So I was playing around with my Green Grocer set earlier this evening when it occurred to me that I could make an awesome 'Singin' In The Rain' photo. I used the prototype for my Tenth Doctor figure, gave him a hat, and voila! Click for gigantic (big enough for wallpaper, if you want to flatter me or something).

|

|

So I was thinking about the 80's, and how awesome they probably were. Awesome fashion, awesome music... and then I realized that the 80's probably weren't as awesome as I had thought. So I went looking for some proof that maybe the 80's weren't totally awesome. And I found it.

From a little movie called 'Teen Witch' comes the most awkward song and dance number since... well, some other awful song and dance number from an 80's movie. Anyway, enough of me, let's watch this video and feel bad about our cultural past.

|

|

Let's all listen to some Lady Gaga unplugged! They come in two varieties today:

Girly pre-teen boy covering a track for a talent show:


Lounge singer version:

|

Four weeks in to the season and we're a decent chunk through Moffat's first series. So far the show's been exciting, if not a little weak in parts, and this first of a two-parter does offer something difficult to mess up -- Weeping Angels. They were a great villain in 'Blink', and now they're back with another episode of their own. But how does the episode stack up? As always, I'm lazy, so let's make a list.

AWESOME: Amy! Even if you dislike the rest of the episode, it is a pretty great chance to just look at Amy and think, She's much less obnoxious than previous companions. I'm actually a fan. Karen Gillian does some good work as Amy; she straddles the line between 'Yeah, I'll go along with this' and 'Maybe you're just being stupid' nicely. The character's also more consistent than previous companions, which is another benefit.

NOT  SO AWESOME:Reusing backgrounds. Dear BBC -- I know you're located out of Wales. I know you guys have to try and shoot locally. I know you're located on a wee island country, and there's only so many places you can film. That said, I really appreciate that you're trying to be less obvious, but the opening shot on the alien world is very clearly the same beach where Ten said goodbye to Rose. Maybe if you hadn't filmed half a dozen scenes from that same angle, you'd be able to get away with it. As it stands, you tried to play it close to the chest, but it was still relatively apparent. That, and, it looks like we're conceptually reusing sets as well. The temple in this episode looked a lot like the temple in 'The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit'. I understand that it's tough to make cavernous indoor temples look different, but the shot of the group first seeing the large open space looked just like the one from 'The Impossible Planet', but with some statues scattered around. Not bad, it just takes a little of the magic away.

ON THE FENCE: River Song. This was originally going to be a blog where I complained about River Song, but that's boring, and probably unfair of me since this is only her second appearance. That said, I dislike the character. Russell T. Davies had Rose as his insert character, and it feels like Moffat has River Song. She's got all the quirky dialogue, the inexplicable rapport with The Doctor... she's the Mary Sue of Who. OK, maybe that's a little harsh, but hear me out. I can appreciate the whole 'Maybe she's bad!' thing they've got going on, but the continual cute wink-winks directly into the camera, and the 'Ooh, spoilers!', and the 'We're married... MAYBE! TEE HEE!' thing is more obnoxious than fun. After this episode, I feel confident in making the following predictions about River Song. One, she's probably a Time Lord. This explains some of her more ridiculous aspects (floating through space into the TARDIS, knowing how to fly the TARDIS, familiarity with and usage of the Sonic Screwdrivers, knowledge of High Gallifreyan). Two, she's evil, and will probably try to kill The Doctor or something. That's why she's been in jail and why she doesn't want to go back. Three, she's probably The Rani. They have the same bouffant hair-do, and since The Rani's TARDIS has a fully functional chameleon circuit, it could really be anywhere. AND, since The Doctor seems to be splitting time, time itself might be all wonky and he doesn't recognize the presence of another Time Lord. Regardless, Moffat's gonna need to pull out something big with River Song in order to make her tolerable. And please, don't have her be The Doctor's wife, that's dumb.

AWESOME: Doctor dialogue. The Doctor has some great zingers and character moments in this episode, including one very rambly exploration of the phrase 'needle in a haystack'. The tone is good, and the lines/characterization is nice, and The Doctor is already very well-defined four episodes in. They didn't even need a 'THE DOCTOR IS REALLY SAD' moment like they had with Nine in the first Cassandra episode to flesh Eleven out.

NOT  SO AWESOME: More Moffat-isms. Steven Moffat, when will you stop stealing from yourself?! You're a talented fellow, so let's cut out the little winks and nods to what you've already done. Oh look, a ghostly communicator relaying messages from the dead! Let's steal that from 'Silence In The Library'! Not to mention the entire episode is mashing up two of your older ideas (River Song and the entire Weeping Angels premise, with the flickering flashlights and the Angels themselves and all). You do awesome stuff, so actually go out there and do it! Quit copying your old ideas and riding on your laurels, you hot dog!

ON THE FENCE: Future foreboding. Good in some cases, irritating in others. The idea that maybe River Song's mission is less innocent than it originally seems? Awesome foreboding! Having her read off a list of stuff they've done, or do? Less interesting. To the episode's credit, I think we avoided a lingering shot of a crack in the universe, although I'm sure that's coming next episode since it's technically the end.

AWESOME: All that spooky stuff that was an awful lot like 'The Ring' and existed solely to get Amy in trouble when The Doctor couldn't help her... all that was awesome. Great scene, very suspenseful, a little funny, and even filled in some plot holes from the previous Angels episode. Maybe was a little too close to 'The Ring' for my liking, but hey, everyone's entitled to borrow a good idea now and again.

NOT  SO AWESOME: The whole pre-credits thing. Just... awful. Femme fatale River Song blasts out of a spaceship airlock with her tiny pistol/blowtorch, and gives a deadpan wink into the camera? The whole 'sweetie' thing? Groan. The last few episodes have had great openings; this one's more meh, nay, even eye-roll-y than the others.

ON THE FENCE: "You've made another mistake. Do you want to know what that mistake is? That mistake is the second mistake you've made, and it's a bad one. It's one involving me. I am The Doctor. It's a mistake involving The Doctor. It's not this one, awful, clumsy line to end out the episode. No, you could have had a succinct zinger, but instead opted for this rambling, repetitive, seemingly dramatic sentence. But as I was saying... uh... The one thing you don't want to do, ever, really ever, even if you have to, on your mother's life, definitely not, very bad things, is to put something in a trap. Put what in a trap? Put a person in a trap. But who is that person? That person is me. The Doctor. You don't put The Doctor in a trap." /fires a gun, something explodes, roll credits

|

Damn you, Eurobricks!

I need to find a way to acquire an unopened box of these bad boys. I can't even begin to imagine all the awesome fun I could have with this spread...

Austin's Lego friends, I know some of you read this awful blog. Any of you guys had any luck trying to procure an entire box? Send me an e-mail or something...

|

Elements of a great prank:

1. Unexpected set-up
2. A dark, spooky night
3.A skeleton rigged with animatronic jaws mounted on a bike frame

This has all of those things! Personally, I feel a little bad for a couple of these people, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying.

|

I'm pretty sure everyone has days where they feel like they're going crazy. I feel like I'm going crazy today. The difference is, I know why I'm feeling like a nutter. Let me give you a timeline of my last twelve hours.

10:00 PM - Decide to go to bed, but don't. Start listening to a podcast.

10:14 PM - Podcast ends. Still don't feel tired. Start playing with Lego figures on my desk and drinking the rest of my bottled soda from earlier that afternoon (this was a terrible idea).

10:45 PM - While watching YouTube videos, realize that I should get in bed so I can watch a movie before bed.

10:48 PM - In bed watching a documentary.

12:00 AM - Documentary still going. Still not tired. Decide to finish documentary.

12:20 AM - Documentary ends. Not tired, but decide I need to try and get to bed anyway.

12:25 AM - Turn off TV. Lay in dark.

12:30 AM - Become acutely aware that I'm laying restlessly in the dark. Decide to check my e-mail, just in case.

12:50 AM - Back in bed after no new e-mails. Try to listen to some music, but nothing's calming me down.

12:55 AM - Fall asleep for a microsecond. In that second, I think that it's been hours, and it's now 7 AM and I need to wake up. I decide to wait for my alarm to go off (several hours early).

1:10 AM - Kathy gets up to go to the bathroom. I can hear her walking in the kitchen above me. I again think that it's 7 AM, and that my alarm didn't go off. I panic, and hop out of bed, and look at my clock. Still not 7 AM. I walk back to my bed in absolute darkness, and near my bed, step on something small and crunchy on my carpet. I cringe and hop in bed, hoping it wasn't a spider.

1:11 AM - Think about if it was a spider I stepped on.

1:14 AM - Still thinking about that spider.

1:25 AM - Decide to maybe get out of bed, turn a light on, and see if it was a spider. Realize that in order to get to my light, I would have to walk past the offending space again. Stay in bed and pull the covers up over my face.

1:30 AM - Have an idea for a short story. Start writing it in my head. Try to come up with character names, but all that's coming is awful puns.

1:45 AM - Still hearing awful puns in my head. At this point, I'm past that point of tired exhaustion, and have entered restlessness.

2:00 AM - Actually fall asleep for the first time of the evening. Dream that I woke up, went to the bathroom, and saw a spider the size of a salad plate on the floor.

3:10 AM - Wake up thinking about that spider. Lay in my bed wondering if it was a spider.

3:15 AM - Decide to check. I find a flashlight in my drawer next to my bed, and shine it in the offending area. It's a Skittle (WTF).

3:16 AM - Lay in bed and tell myself I'm an idiot for dropping a Skittle on my floor. Debate if I should eat the Skittle. Think it's some sort of delicious irony if I do.

3:17 AM - Try to find the Skittle on the carpet. I shine the light in the area where it was, and the Skittle is gone. Proceed to freak out.

3:18 AM - Realize I was shining the flashlight in the wrong area. Skittle's still there. I decide not to eat it.

3:30 AM - Fall asleep.

4:50 AM - Wake up by accidentally gouging myself in my left eye with my thumbnail.

4:51 AM - Wonder if I'm going to go blind from gouging myself in the eye. Debate getting out of bed to see if my eye is bleeding. It's not, but it does hurt really bad.

5:00 AM - Fall asleep.

7:00 AM - Alarm clock goes off. Lyrics to song from my playlist: "Baby, you're driving me insane / Baby, you're driving me insane / You shake me up so bad / The worst I've ever had / Baby, you're driving me insane".

7:-- whatever. I get ready and drive to work in a blur, like I'm an observer sitting on my shoulder. I don't actually recall driving to work, getting here, or sitting down. I also drank a Coke within the span of about five minutes this morning, as evidenced by the empty can on my desk that I don't remember being there yesterday.

I'm freaking out, man. I need more sleep.

|

All right, I'm hard at work trying to build a mini-fig scale TARDIS, but in the meantime, I thought it might be good to throw up a picture of my Lego mini-fig Doctor and Amy. I want to find a more sweater-like top for Amy, and I'm still not sold on the Doctor's hair, but I think it's at least recognizable, and looks kinda cool. They're all stock parts, which contributes to the niceness, with just some minimal lighting effects in Photoshop. Doctor Who and Lego -- two great tastes that taste great together.

|

If this charming and nerdy story doesn't warm your heart even a little, you're sort of a jerk.

"Thursday was shaping up to be just another school day for 13-year-old Erik Martin, but then something extraordinary happened: Spider-Man called.

Spider-Man happens to be one of the few people who knows that Erik, too, has a secret identity — he's Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil with light.

And Spider-Man needed Erik's help.

Erik, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle."

The Seattle Times | Local boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day

|

And this will be the second best Doctor Who related video of the month.

|

This is the best Doctor Who related video you will see this month. Two notes, make sure you're all caught up through Tennant's run before you watch, and there is some brief strong language, so don't go showing any youngsters.

|

So we're off to a new episode, and Daleks! DALEKS! Their episodes in the most recent Who have either been awesome, or terrible -- which one will this be?

The answer: pretty OK, I guess. Let's make a list or something.

AWESOME: Russell T. Davies is gone! Well, that's sorta good and sorta bad, but it means his favorite awful cliches are gone too! There's a moment early in the episode where Amy is walking with Churchill and sees a young, female officer who gives her a nod. Had RTD been in charge, that nod would have been a wink, and that officer would have been sure to let Amy know that she was a lesbian later in the episode. I have no problem with gay Doctor Who characters, but during RTD's run, everyone and their mother was gay, so it was nice to see somebody actually avoid the 'random minor character is gay, how progressive' trope Davies was so damn fond of.

NOT SO AWESOME: A few terrible lines of dialogue. A type 40 TARDIS? Great callback to the original series, but it seems out of place here. The absolute worst line of the night, however, goes to The Doctor and, "The end... the final end." What a stupid line. Let's talk about all those un-final ends. Or, let's start singing songs by The Doors. What a stupid line, ugh. "This is the second to the last end, Daleks..." or, "This is within the last ten the ends you'll ever have."

ON THE FENCE: The new Dalek designs. Nothing indicates that the show has changed hands from one creative to another like blowing up the previous version's Daleks and saying they were inferior. Some of the cosmetic changes to the Daleks could go either way -- their eye being all slanty and yellow, for instance, and the fact that they seem to be much fatter. I do like the paint job, though, but we'll discuss that in a few paragraphs. Will Nick Briggs still be doing all the Dalek voices himself? Will their voices change from Dalek to Dalek as the series goes on? Time will tell, I guess...

AWESOME: Jammy Dodgers! When he first held up the 'self-destruct key', I thought, 'Wait, is that a cookie?' Turns out, yes. There's something whimsical about holding genocidal aliens hostage with a cookie. It's silly, but completely within character, and I like it.

NOT SO AWESOME: The Doctor and Amy talk a bomb out of exploding by making it get all twitterpated over a girl. Even that sentence was stupid to type. I'm all for saving the day, but the whole 'We'll just convince the completely mechanical device in his chest to stop exploding thanks to some goooood feelings' twist was both out of left field, and kinda lame. And then they just sorta leave a world-shattering bomb to hang out for a while? Little careless, are we, Doc?

ON THE FENCE: Dalek hierarchy. See, I did like the color schemes, but I'm not 100% sure on the whole 'All Daleks are great, but some Daleks are a little greater' thing. It does fit with their insane fascist thing, but it could be either really great, or really awful. There's always been subdivisions within Daleks (like The Cult of Skaara, or the Emperor Dalek), but it's never been so prevalent. Hopefully it won't be a dumb copout.

AWESOME: Flying karate kick to a Dalek's chest. Totally out of character, but sort of a funny 'Wait, really?!' moment. This should probably be under 'Not So Awesome', but whatever, this is my blog, so it's going here.

NOT SO AWESOME: "Fancy someone you shouldn't?" Tee hee, now you look over at The Doctor and give a smile to the camera. Rose is in another universe, and you were 12 hours away from being married, so quit being a skeezemo and flirting with The Doctor. You can have a crush, you can maybe even light flirt, but when the subtext becomes the text, we've gone too far.

ON THE FENCE: Amy Pond saves the universe! Again! Actually, she seems to be making a trend of that. Not that there's anything wrong with it, since she's certainly nice to look at. It just seems like she's smarter than The Doctor occasionally, which makes it weird that she was a Kiss-O-Gram a couple of episodes ago.

ON THE FENCE: That stupid crack. We get it, plot significant! Maybe you should make it even more obvious than you already have. This could be redeemed by the ongoing 'Hey, how come Amy doesn't remember Daleks and stuff' plot, but come on, quit beating us over the head with it.

All in all, I wasn't disappointed. Not fantastic, but certainly not terrible. Side note, BBC: I do want to see more Spitfires in space. Make this happen.

|