‘An Adventure in Space and Time’ review

An Adventure in Space and Time/BBC

Continuing on with the Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebration is the BBC’s docu-drama, “An Adventure in Space and Time,” which chronicles the start of Doctor Who.  Unlike the actual 50th episode, this special aired a day early in the United Kingdom (Thursday, Nov. 21) and then in the U.S. (Nov. 22).  And unlike the 50th, this was almost wholly a testament to William Hartnell – the First Doctor.

Well shot and seemingly plucked from the 1960s, “Adventure” is a perfect lead-in to the 50th.  The actors and sets recreated what I’ve seen of Classic Who and what I know about it almost perfectly.

Celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th – on Google

Google has joined the Doctor Who 50th anniversary action with a timely logo and pixelated adventure.  Check it out here.

Matthew Cruickshank

Just click on the “play button” in the logo and select a starting Doctor so you can fight Daleks and Cybermen across England and into the cosmos.  It’s cute and just the sort of thing I want to see in the days leading up to the 50th.  Not that you could tell I’m a Doctor Who fan from some of the posts on this blog.  These must be trying times for non-Who fans though.

According to the artist’s blog, Matthew Cruickshank, the mini-game and design was also helped by engineers Rui Lopes, Corrie Scalisi, and Mark Ivey.

Cruickshank sums it up nicely on his website by saying: “The Doctor Who doodle started life as a request from a fan at Google. It seemed daunting- 11 Doctor’s, 50 years of adventures, countless enemies and time travel!

Matthew Cruickshank

But we loved the idea of science fiction, technology and fun coming together, so we set about creating a multiple level game. The game was always a simple premise- those dastardly Daleks have stolen the Google letters and we need Doctor Who to retrieve them.”

Musings: Mojang and Twitch streaming snapshot released

Mojang released a snapshot today that allows Minecraft players to broadcast directly to their Twitch.tv account. The partnership was announced at Minecon and I think is a great business venture for the gaming public.

Minecraft/Mojang

Connecting Mojang and Twitch accounts is easy as long as you already have one of each. It took me under 30 seconds and was just a matter of logging into Mojang and connecting to Twitch under “view account settings.”  From within the game itself, players can access the broadcast details like frame rate and settings, as well as how the Twitch chat appears on their screen.

I don’t usually check out the Minecraft snapshots themselves, waiting until the complete update is ready for release, but I am intrigued enough I may try it out sooner.  However, streaming specifications are new to me as well.  Overall, I like to see this sort of partnership working.  Twitch is really one of the best resources in the Let’s Play niche, so it makes sense they would work with a game developer to provide direct “one-click broadcasting.”

One downside, and another reason I’m personally hesitant to load it up and stream, is that this will likely create a slew of new gamers producing video content regardless of its quality  Still, all around good news.

‘Doctor Who: The Light at the End’ review

Doctor Who: The Light at the End/Big Finish

“What’s so special about the 23rd of November in 1963?”

A question, asked by Nyssa, that is answered by Big Finish’s Doctor Who 50th anniversary story “The Light at the End.”  In celebration of the show’s big milestone, Big Finish brings together Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, and several of the actors who played their companions.

Similar in vein to the television serial, “The Five Doctors” (which marked the 20th anniversary at the time), someone attacks the Doctor through several of his incarnations all at the same time.  Big Finish spoils its fans for the 50th with a story that lands on the fittingly named “23rd of November.”

Spoilers ahead, sweetie.

‘Pokemon Origins,’ a tribute to the games, available online

Pokemon Origins/The Pokémon Company International

It’s been years since I watched a Pokemon episode completely.  Since the release of “Pokemon Origins” in Japanese I’ve tuned into an episode or two I found on cable, but wasn’t motivated to watch past a few minutes.  The last scene I remember had something to do with Ash and crew in fake afros.

Well, the official English Pokemon website is finally streaming the first episode of “Origins” dubbed.  I’ve been a good boy and not looked for a fan subtitled version of the miniseries since it was first released.  It was worth it for the nostalgia.

The English dub isn’t that bad and easy to overlook considering how much this series pays tribute to the original Pokemon Gameboy game (just hearing that music gives me goosebumps).  No Ash here, the main character is Red.  And the graphics are more polished than the regular anime.

For “old time’s sake,” I recommend checking out the first episode of “Pokemon Origins.”

Musings: Preparing for the Doctor Who 50th – Part 3

What better way to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who than to explore the extended adventures of one of the show’s most loved companions: Sarah Jane Smith?

The Sarah Jane Adventures/BBC

Most of my friends who watch Doctor Who have also seen its more adult spinoff Torchwood, but when it comes to the show’s other sister series it seems I’m the only one who has seen it.  The Sarah Jane Adventures, originally airing in 2007, features Lis Sladen as the Doctor’s former companion after the events of “School Reunion.”  It was created to be a related program aimed at children.

That you probably already knew, but I’d bet you didn’t know the series was just as good if not better than the accompanying main program.  The episodes might have been written for children, but The Sarah Jane Adventures featured themes and scenarios far more mature than non-viewers realize.

Musings: ‘The Night of the Doctor'(s)

I woke up to find a fantastic new Doctor Who video was released by BBC in conjunction with the 50th anniversary next Nov. 23.  The existence of this minisode wasn’t a surprise, but everything it contained was!

Watch it here:

When Paul McGann came onto my screen I nearly fell out of my chair (plus the Sisterhood of Karn).  This finally contradicts all I’ve heard about no Classic Who Doctors being a part of the 50th – and one of my biggest complaints.  What really made me happy was just the mention of several of the Doctor’s audio drama companions.  Still, it would be disappointing if this was the extent of it.

I’ve recommended the Big Finish range of Doctor Who adventures before and the Eighth Doctor stories are some of the best.  Especially when it comes to his series with companion Lucie Miller.

All in all I am excited to see a Doctor outside of Eleven and Ten (and John Hurt for that matter), but I still have some reservations about the anniversary episode properly covering Classic Who.  Also, still not 100 percent sure about this Hurt Doctor.

Musings: ‘Thor: The Dark World’ review

Thor: The Dark World/Marvel

The Avengers’ movie universe keeps the thrills coming in this year’s final Marvel movie: “Thor: The Dark World.”  Preceded in the same movieverse as “Iron Man 3” earlier this year, this series hasn’t let me down yet.  Honestly though, as a huge Marvel fanboy it takes a lot to disappoint me (I’m looking at you “X-Men Origins Wolverine.”  At least “The Wolverine” made up for that flop).

But back to “Thor.”  I was 100 percent in love with this movie.  By default, Thor isn’t one of my favorite characters (didn’t hate the comic book character, but didn’t love him either).  But I wholeheartedly embrace him now thanks to the movies.  As with “Iron Man 3” we get to see some of the characters post “The Avengers.”

Musings: Jane Austen MMORPG

Ever, Jane/3 Turn Productions

It shouldn’t come as a surprise by now that I am a Jane Austen fan as well as being into video games.  And it turns out there two are increasingly less mutually exclusive than I thought.  After logging out of “Jane Austen Unbound” (the Facebook game in which I am inching towards level 28), I saw a post about “Ever, Jane”: A MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) that is in the works.

Like many potentially future games, it’s being funded through a kickstarter campaign.  I wouldn’t have written about it, but a very limited prototype was available to play.  Basically, the premise is: you’re a Regency era man or woman who is trying to gossip/network your way to the top of the social food chain.  Essentially go from a Lizzie Bennet to an Emma Woodhouse.

Musings: Scary horror anime

One of my all time favorite genres is horror and I love several bloody and gruesome anime/manga that I just had to share.  Now, I admit I have been very remiss in offering many Halloween themed posts this month, but these spooky suggestions are some of the best I’ve watched.

Blood: The Last Vampire/Production I.G

Blood: The Last Vampire

Just watch the 2000 animated movie and nothing else.  Certainly not the 2009 live action film or the fluffy anime series “Blood+.”  Both of those really depressed me because I expected so much more.  When it comes to the manga, “Blood: The Last Vampire 2000” isn’t bad, but I also wasn’t too impressed with the light novels.  I only just now learned about the “Blood-C” anime/manga so won’t bother offering an opinion on that.

Back to the original anime movie.  Saya serves the protagonist, bordering on anti-hero.  Though possessing the body of a teenager, she’s a trained killer of Chiroptera (this story’s vampire) at the behest of the government.  Saya is deployed to a U.S. military base in Tokyo posing as a transfer student because there have been reports of Chiropteran activity. As a bonus touch, it’s set right around Halloween.

“Blood: The Last Vampire” is dark and bloody.  It’s gorgeous art helps play up the the idea that even innocent things can have a terrible dark side.  It’s just too bad the spin-off media hasn’t lived up to the original movie.