I've been annoyed this week. Annoyed by stupid decisions. Not mine, but companies selling technology.
Firstly, vodafone. They do a pay and go dongle that to my mind was the best package on the market if you wanted to have some broadband on the go. £15 bought you 1Gb of data and that stayed on the account until you had used 1Gb of data, regardless of whether you used that in a week or 6 months. For someone who uses the mobile broadband on an infrequent basis this is brilliant. Unfortunately they've now stopped this and, like all the other providers, that £15 now expires after 30 days. To compensate, they've upped the amount of data that you get, so £15 now gets you 3Gb. Which is obviously helpful to the person who uses it now and again so 1Gb would last them a couple of months. I should point out that if the dongle was bought and activated before last christmas it'll still be on the previous plan. So ultimately this new plan doesn't affect me directly. Except for the little issue that I currently have on dongle shared with my fiancee. It is not being topped up often as we don't make a lot of use of it. But it's great to know it's there and we can use it, whether it's weekly or monthly, which frankly depends on the week or month. However, what if it starts to become common that we both need it on the same day? What then? Because I can now no longer go buy a spare dongle without needing to top it up every 30 days!
I understand from a business perspective that Vodafone would naturally be more inclined to have people topping up more often. It's a shame though, because they were the only providers for those of us who want to occasionally use the interweb out on the road. I certainly wouldn't want to have to top up every month only to see half my credit disappear unused because I didn't need to log on that often this month.
What's more aggravating is hearing of a case where someone still on the old plan of non-evaporating credit was told by Vodafone that the new terms meant she had lost her remaining balance. Which muddies the waters a bit. Are old plans being altered to the new one? If so why haven't Vodafone informed customers. It took a lot of searching to confirm the new plan, I'd have thought that if they were changing existing customers to this new situation that there'd have been some outrage. (Possibly no-ones been able to express their outrage as their credit's gone?!) If they haven't automatically changed people over then why would their customer services say they had? It's a frustrating mixed message. I've been trying to contact Vodafone myself to clarify, but not had a response as yet.
Now, silly tech decision number 2 this week. My brother recently got a Blu-ray player. He already has a surround system, so was looking forward to getting this wired up for some hi-def, awesome sounding viewing of Die Hard. But couldn't seem to find the digital in socket on his surround. So this week I popped round to his to have a look.
Yep, there's no digital in socket.
Who makes a surround system but doesn't let you plug in other sound sources? Who?? Phillips do.
Yes he can plug in stereo phono's but that's kind of missing the full range available. The system is capable of Digital DTS 5.1 as it has it's own inbuilt DVD player with this capability. And it's a recent system. I've had a Blu-Ray player longer than this system's been built. They really thought that no-one would want to plug a blu-ray in? Seriously? It has an HDMI out and upscales. So clearly they thought this system should appeal to people with a desire for better than DVD quality. But adding one extra optical in socket was too much?
I mean I understand if you go and buy one of those £15 DVD players in the supermarket that you shouldn't expect a digital out socket. But if you're buying a surround sound system, do they really think that you'll never want to plug in another source??
I suppose you could say that careful inspection of the specs before purchase then buy a system that does have it, etc. It just seems like such an obvious inclusion on a surround system though.
Anyway, that's my rant over. I actually feel a bit silly about the surround one, as it's more about my own assumptions than a real fault on Phillips part. I have a Phillips surround system myself and love it.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Sunday, 14 February 2010
I want to be a superfast blue hedgehog. No, I'n not on drugs, I'm from the 90's...
Last week I had a serious nerdgasm over the news that Sonic 4 was coming out this summer! Sonic 4!?!? True, I'd not really played any Sonic game since 3+Knuckles, but I knew they'd existed. I did a little research and discovered that generally, all the games since then were considered to be rubbish and that the addition of other characters beyond Tails and Knuckles was universally blamed. (In some cases also Tails and Knuckles, but hey if you want to stay on the one game forever that's fine, but I loved 2, 3 and 3+Knuckles.) This short but awesome trailer certainly awoke my 90's nostalgia.
Now anyone who knows me well would say that I'm not that big a gamer. (It's probably not the first thing they'd say, comments about stupid jokes, inappropriate comments and questionable personal hygiene would come first) I have a PS3, but it's more of a Blu Ray player in my hands. Some guitar hero, the occaisional demo of somthing and a little lego star wars. Oh and that Batman Arkham Asylum game, that kicked ass. But I'm not that big into the gaming. However, back in the 90's me and my brother had a megadrive and we frakking loved Sonic the Hedgehog. 1 through 3+ Knuckles, those games got the most time on our system. And when I had a Gamecube, I got the Sonic Mega Collection to relive those wonderous days. And that game, that port of 10 year old games from another console was my most played disc on the gamecube, eschewing all the new latest advancement in games.
And now I'm doing it again! Cos after I heard about the impending Sonic 4, I had to dig out the GC disc and controller and popped it into the Wii. Had a mammoth session playing through and lotsa fund having a Sonic 3+Knuckles runthrough as Tails. I always preferred to play Tails. I also followed Robin in the Batman mythos. It's probably a deep seated psychological thing that I identify with the sidekick. I imagine it's a self image/confidence thing. Shit! Shit, I think I'm the sidekick! Great! Frakking great! I've doomed myself to be Watson! Robin! Tails! Speedy! Bucky! Kid Devil! Wait, definitely not that last one...
Moving on from my traumas, I notice that Sonic 4 is Episode 1. Awesome! So we can download it in chunks and play through them ending up with the full game later? Works for me, I tend to be busy so time to actually play this will be limited. I did laugh at the comments on various blogs expressing rage at this episodic format. Apparently this is an epic fail and Sega are practically peodophile war criminals for doing this. Man, I thought I had a crazy excitment for a new Sonic game! Well, hopefully things won't be quite as bad as they seem, I am remaining excited.
Of course, back in the 90's young lad as I was, there was also a comic book of Sonic's adventures to read. When I say 'young as I was', I still read comics now. After all, Geoff Johns is writing them, it would be stupid not to read them. But back to the Sonic Comics, (actually called Sonic the Comic! Brilliant!) these were reasonably entertaining comics, written largely for kids, but with a sufficiently complex storyline (time travel, planetary takeover and resistance movements) to keep me mildly interestd. While surfing the net on my renewed Sonic Buzz, I discovered the comic had gone on for a while after I'd stopped reading but ultimately folded. However there was an online continuation! Yep, right here, and it's not too bad. I've only read the one story, but it was kinda fun. I think it'll amuse me here and there on work lunches at least, largely on the nostalgia side of it. Makes me wish there could be more classic comics continued on like this if suitable talent could be found. I'm thinking Eagle mainly.
Now anyone who knows me well would say that I'm not that big a gamer. (It's probably not the first thing they'd say, comments about stupid jokes, inappropriate comments and questionable personal hygiene would come first) I have a PS3, but it's more of a Blu Ray player in my hands. Some guitar hero, the occaisional demo of somthing and a little lego star wars. Oh and that Batman Arkham Asylum game, that kicked ass. But I'm not that big into the gaming. However, back in the 90's me and my brother had a megadrive and we frakking loved Sonic the Hedgehog. 1 through 3+ Knuckles, those games got the most time on our system. And when I had a Gamecube, I got the Sonic Mega Collection to relive those wonderous days. And that game, that port of 10 year old games from another console was my most played disc on the gamecube, eschewing all the new latest advancement in games.
And now I'm doing it again! Cos after I heard about the impending Sonic 4, I had to dig out the GC disc and controller and popped it into the Wii. Had a mammoth session playing through and lotsa fund having a Sonic 3+Knuckles runthrough as Tails. I always preferred to play Tails. I also followed Robin in the Batman mythos. It's probably a deep seated psychological thing that I identify with the sidekick. I imagine it's a self image/confidence thing. Shit! Shit, I think I'm the sidekick! Great! Frakking great! I've doomed myself to be Watson! Robin! Tails! Speedy! Bucky! Kid Devil! Wait, definitely not that last one...
Moving on from my traumas, I notice that Sonic 4 is Episode 1. Awesome! So we can download it in chunks and play through them ending up with the full game later? Works for me, I tend to be busy so time to actually play this will be limited. I did laugh at the comments on various blogs expressing rage at this episodic format. Apparently this is an epic fail and Sega are practically peodophile war criminals for doing this. Man, I thought I had a crazy excitment for a new Sonic game! Well, hopefully things won't be quite as bad as they seem, I am remaining excited.
Of course, back in the 90's young lad as I was, there was also a comic book of Sonic's adventures to read. When I say 'young as I was', I still read comics now. After all, Geoff Johns is writing them, it would be stupid not to read them. But back to the Sonic Comics, (actually called Sonic the Comic! Brilliant!) these were reasonably entertaining comics, written largely for kids, but with a sufficiently complex storyline (time travel, planetary takeover and resistance movements) to keep me mildly interestd. While surfing the net on my renewed Sonic Buzz, I discovered the comic had gone on for a while after I'd stopped reading but ultimately folded. However there was an online continuation! Yep, right here, and it's not too bad. I've only read the one story, but it was kinda fun. I think it'll amuse me here and there on work lunches at least, largely on the nostalgia side of it. Makes me wish there could be more classic comics continued on like this if suitable talent could be found. I'm thinking Eagle mainly.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Moon
Recently I was talking about the return to the moon being cancelled. Staying loosely on the moon subject, I recently watched Moon, the film.
Wow! Seriously, wow! It is major awesometimes. I don’t want to go into too much detail, because quite honestly you should go an watch it, I’m don’t want to spoil any of the amazing experience of this film.
A few things I can say about it though.
Sam Rockwell. I’ve only seen him in too other films, Galaxy Quest and Hitchhikers Guide and in both those films he’s struck me as generally amusing. In this film, he’s fricking amazing. His character has to spend some years as the sole human manning an outpost on the moon and the difference in his portrayal from the freshly arrived on the moon point to the man his characters become after 3 years there is incredible.
Effects. In a world that’s increasingly CGI, it was nice to see some model effects for a change. And flip, they are awesome model effects. They looked absolutely awesome. There’s a lot been said about the 70’s sci fi look of the film, and it does have that sort of feel, but hey it looks awesome. It doesn’t feel like a film that’s been made to echo the 70’s look at all, it all looks brilliant and happens to evoke some of the design of films like 2001. For the record, I watched a DVD copy, I imagine the High Definition looks incredible.
The Robot. There’s a robot on the moon base. Instant 100 points! And it’s voiced by Kevin Spacey, which adds yet more points. It’s a brilliantly well done robot, it looks like a realistic possibility as they’re not trying to do a robot on legs or tracks that’s free roaming. It’s also got a brilliant ‘face’ with a little screen displaying ‘smiley’s’ depending on how the conversation is going which are brilliant. And it’s motivations are suitably ambiguous for much of the movie.
So hopefully I’ve not spoilt anything there, and if you get the opportunity you should totally watch this film. And do it soon, there’s follow up on the way!
Wow! Seriously, wow! It is major awesometimes. I don’t want to go into too much detail, because quite honestly you should go an watch it, I’m don’t want to spoil any of the amazing experience of this film.
A few things I can say about it though.
Sam Rockwell. I’ve only seen him in too other films, Galaxy Quest and Hitchhikers Guide and in both those films he’s struck me as generally amusing. In this film, he’s fricking amazing. His character has to spend some years as the sole human manning an outpost on the moon and the difference in his portrayal from the freshly arrived on the moon point to the man his characters become after 3 years there is incredible.
Effects. In a world that’s increasingly CGI, it was nice to see some model effects for a change. And flip, they are awesome model effects. They looked absolutely awesome. There’s a lot been said about the 70’s sci fi look of the film, and it does have that sort of feel, but hey it looks awesome. It doesn’t feel like a film that’s been made to echo the 70’s look at all, it all looks brilliant and happens to evoke some of the design of films like 2001. For the record, I watched a DVD copy, I imagine the High Definition looks incredible.
The Robot. There’s a robot on the moon base. Instant 100 points! And it’s voiced by Kevin Spacey, which adds yet more points. It’s a brilliantly well done robot, it looks like a realistic possibility as they’re not trying to do a robot on legs or tracks that’s free roaming. It’s also got a brilliant ‘face’ with a little screen displaying ‘smiley’s’ depending on how the conversation is going which are brilliant. And it’s motivations are suitably ambiguous for much of the movie.
So hopefully I’ve not spoilt anything there, and if you get the opportunity you should totally watch this film. And do it soon, there’s follow up on the way!
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
If Wallace and Gromit could get there...
I was a little disappointed to read this yesterday:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8489097.stm
While I was no big fan of the Bush administration, I am a big fan of the space program and the idea of a new round of visits to the moon,had got me quite excited. So I was keeping an eye on the latest news of the Constellation program and the Ares rocket and Orion craft.
While there's a general feeling that the program is flawed in trying to re-create past glories of moon landings, I'm a bit disappointed that we aren't doing a bit more on the moon.
For a start, could there not be another moon landing to try and silence those who still insist on saying the original landings were faked? (Why? Why are you so determined to see a great achievement of humanity's ingenuity and spirit pissed on?) Admittedly it's a large and costly venture to prove a point to a small group, but hey, what about going there to lead onto bigger things? We all want a moonbase! Dude, we so do! Tell me you wouldn't consider taking a holiday in a bio-dome on the moon? It'd be like CenterParcs! But on the fricking moon! Well if we want to see that as an affordable option in our lifetimes, NASA have to get up there more!
Now I also see from the story, that this will lead to a longer life for the International Space Station. Which is a good thing, to my mind it seemed a bit odd that for all the time, money and effort it took to build, why would it then have such a limited lifespan? There's a lot of stuff that could be done there, just in the field of scientific experiments for a start. Then there must be many practical applications for future projects. For instance, a orbital re-fueling facility is on the cards? ISS must be a good starting point to develop something around that. Even if it becomes the little shop, so an astronaut can pick up a paper and a pasty when he re-fuels.
The general upshot of the story is that NASA is going to be given a lot of money, not to continue it's own projects, but to incentivise private groups to develop technologies. This interests me. In the current economic climate (crap! I was so sure I wasn't going to ever say that in a blog about being a nerd!) many companies are going to be somewhat reluctant to invest too heavily in something like this. I mean, it's difficult to sell them on the idea of exactly when and how they'll ultimately profit from it? Space tourism? I realise that with the Space Shuttles retirement due and no replacement craft in development, NASA is going to need some lifts up to the ISS, so without private sector involvement, they'll be reliant on the Russian space program.
What concerns me about the idea of private companies being asked to get involved and develop their own space program is that in films, it's a bad thing. Weyland Yutani? Yep, 'The Company' from the Alien films! Those dudes would casually endanger innocent lives to get themselves crazed killing machine aliens!
In fact sci-fi is littered with examples of corporate interests in space travel leading to evil. Hey, who are those guys helping Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels? The Trade Federation? The Banking Clan? What about the Slitheen family in Doctor Who? Casually disregarding all life on a planet so they can sell it for raw materials.
Ironically, it's Star Trek that has a rce most obsessed with business and material wealth that don't make them evil! The Ferengi were I guess, supposed to be the big villian of The Next Generation, but ultimately turned into almost a comedy race. Deep Space Nine made more of them and did very well in depicting them as a society based on wealth and acquisition without making them evil. Though ulitmately they had to show the Ferengi as a race, start to show the signs of obtaining a new direction that would probably lead them more towards the Federation.
It's partly a reflection of the times I guess. The late 70's and early 80's was the same time Lex Luthor stopped being a mad scientist and became a businessman, that's when the first couple of Alien films came out and it went on from there. The Ferengi came from a very 80's idea (like most of the early Next Generation stuff) too.
Hey, look, I went off on a tangent! I was just musing on the Constellation project's cancellation and managed to end up talking about the attitudes toward 'businessmen' in sci-fi!
So in summary, sci-fi has told us that businesses are bad and I think we should go to the moon!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8489097.stm
While I was no big fan of the Bush administration, I am a big fan of the space program and the idea of a new round of visits to the moon,had got me quite excited. So I was keeping an eye on the latest news of the Constellation program and the Ares rocket and Orion craft.
While there's a general feeling that the program is flawed in trying to re-create past glories of moon landings, I'm a bit disappointed that we aren't doing a bit more on the moon.
For a start, could there not be another moon landing to try and silence those who still insist on saying the original landings were faked? (Why? Why are you so determined to see a great achievement of humanity's ingenuity and spirit pissed on?) Admittedly it's a large and costly venture to prove a point to a small group, but hey, what about going there to lead onto bigger things? We all want a moonbase! Dude, we so do! Tell me you wouldn't consider taking a holiday in a bio-dome on the moon? It'd be like CenterParcs! But on the fricking moon! Well if we want to see that as an affordable option in our lifetimes, NASA have to get up there more!
Now I also see from the story, that this will lead to a longer life for the International Space Station. Which is a good thing, to my mind it seemed a bit odd that for all the time, money and effort it took to build, why would it then have such a limited lifespan? There's a lot of stuff that could be done there, just in the field of scientific experiments for a start. Then there must be many practical applications for future projects. For instance, a orbital re-fueling facility is on the cards? ISS must be a good starting point to develop something around that. Even if it becomes the little shop, so an astronaut can pick up a paper and a pasty when he re-fuels.
The general upshot of the story is that NASA is going to be given a lot of money, not to continue it's own projects, but to incentivise private groups to develop technologies. This interests me. In the current economic climate (crap! I was so sure I wasn't going to ever say that in a blog about being a nerd!) many companies are going to be somewhat reluctant to invest too heavily in something like this. I mean, it's difficult to sell them on the idea of exactly when and how they'll ultimately profit from it? Space tourism? I realise that with the Space Shuttles retirement due and no replacement craft in development, NASA is going to need some lifts up to the ISS, so without private sector involvement, they'll be reliant on the Russian space program.
What concerns me about the idea of private companies being asked to get involved and develop their own space program is that in films, it's a bad thing. Weyland Yutani? Yep, 'The Company' from the Alien films! Those dudes would casually endanger innocent lives to get themselves crazed killing machine aliens!
In fact sci-fi is littered with examples of corporate interests in space travel leading to evil. Hey, who are those guys helping Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels? The Trade Federation? The Banking Clan? What about the Slitheen family in Doctor Who? Casually disregarding all life on a planet so they can sell it for raw materials.
Ironically, it's Star Trek that has a rce most obsessed with business and material wealth that don't make them evil! The Ferengi were I guess, supposed to be the big villian of The Next Generation, but ultimately turned into almost a comedy race. Deep Space Nine made more of them and did very well in depicting them as a society based on wealth and acquisition without making them evil. Though ulitmately they had to show the Ferengi as a race, start to show the signs of obtaining a new direction that would probably lead them more towards the Federation.
It's partly a reflection of the times I guess. The late 70's and early 80's was the same time Lex Luthor stopped being a mad scientist and became a businessman, that's when the first couple of Alien films came out and it went on from there. The Ferengi came from a very 80's idea (like most of the early Next Generation stuff) too.
Hey, look, I went off on a tangent! I was just musing on the Constellation project's cancellation and managed to end up talking about the attitudes toward 'businessmen' in sci-fi!
So in summary, sci-fi has told us that businesses are bad and I think we should go to the moon!
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Adventures in Linux: Chapter 2: Installing
Man, my Adventures in Linux series has had a slow start... I've actually had half this one completed in a file for months and never got round to finishing and posting. Until now! Of course, now I have a million other posts to do with stuff like printers, video and upgrading to 9.10. So expect those to be done by 2015... at which point I'll need a break to go to cafe 80's on my hoverboard!
So, (way back in the distant days of last June) I’m ready to try Linux. I visited the Ubuntu site and downloaded an installation disc image, burnt it to CD and powered off. I restart the machine, boot from the CD and prepare to begin the installation. Ubuntu will install itself onto a seperate partition to Windows.
Oh, wait, I don’t have partitions. In fact, I don’t know a lot about partitions. Or setting them up. Maybe there’s something in the installer that will do it for me?
Hurrah! There seems to be! Brilliant. So what are my choices?
I can either install over windows, but that would defeat the dual boot option. Or it will set itself up on a new partition. Lets go with that!
Right, I want my Linux partition to be large as I hopefully will end up using it more than windows. So I set the utility to half the disc, 100GB for Windows, 100GB for Linux. It warns me it’ll take a while, which seems fair to me. However, after about 45 minutes, it all crashes. Oh.
I try it again, this time I allow a smaller partition for testing purposes. Just 20GB for Linux. So it goes through fine and Ubuntu installs! Hurrah! Right time to see what works.
Hm, the screen resolutions not great, and I don’t seem to have option to change it to anything else. Interesting. So I better figure out how to install my wireless adaptor so I can search the web for a solution. Oh, it’s installed. Log into my wi-fi. Hurrah! That was easy!
I do a search on my monitor type in Ubuntu. It's an HP w1907v. My search quickly turns up this blog which has someone with a similar situation. Right, so apparently I have to modify my xorg.conf file. Ok, how do I get to that?
Turns out I need to use the terminal. So I start that and I quickly find out about the 'sudo' command, which I need to prefix my commands with. Ok, so 'sudo gedit/etc/X11/xorg.conf' seems to work. Asks for my password and then opens up the xorg.conf in a text editor. Ok, so far so simple. I make the advised changes, which to my relief are really straightforward. You make a new subsection in the file and instruct it with the resolutions. I do this, save the file and restart the machine.
On restart the screen resets itself a few times, and is still at a low res setting. I go to check what I've done, as I do this I get a window pop up asking if I want to activate some drivers for my graphics card. I do. I restart and now my screens fine! Hurrah!
For some time I assumed this was due to the xorg.conf alterations, but recently it occured to me that maybe it was activating the nvidia drivers for my graphics. I'm thinking the latter as on re-installs, I haven't modified the xorg.conf and once the drivers are on the screen resolution is fine.
Next time: Getting my IPod working
Friday, 15 January 2010
Top Ten TV of the Decade
With the end of a one decade and the start of another, I wondered if there was a blog I could do that would reflect on this last 10 years in an original, exciting and thought provoking way? Turned out there isn’t, so I put together a list of the best TV shows of the last 10 years in my humble opinion. I had started this in December, but Christmas distracted me and it wasn’t until @nathwilson set me the task of listing my top 5 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation that I remembered to re-visit this. I also took the opportunity to turn it around to him as a question, and he was still able to put up a blog before I finished this one! Anyway, onto the list!
10 Heroes
I know, I know, it’s gone completely off the rails since series 2, but man, remember how good series 1 was? Remember? It was so new, fresh original and exciting and had everyone raving about it. For that one series of enjoyment, it scrapes in. I’m a generous man.
9 The IT Crowd
Computer geeks! I can't say enough good things about this show, it's brilliant! And scarily accurate, as someone who helps people with their computing, it's bizarre how ridiculous the queries are when someone can't use a compewter! Favourite moments would have to be when they present Jen with a little box with a light on, claiming it's the Internet, and disguising a fire with an old monitor housing to pass it off as a screensaver. Oh, and anything Moss says. Ever.
8 Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
A comedy entry (that is an entry that is a comedy show, not an entry that I'm joking about), and a show that, the first time I watched it, made me laugh constantly from beginning to advert break and then through the end after adverts. A beautiful parody of cheaply produced horror and over inflated egos with an extra dose of silliness.
7 Being Human
This one just makes it in because it was only just in this decade. But it was absolutely brilliant. Like Doctor Who and Torchwood, it has a uniquely British charm and humour, but then get’s very dark and dramatic. It’s a skillful production that balances both as well as this show does, to sell you the idea of a vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a house dramatically and build in humour at the daftness of the concept, it’s genius.
6 The Big Bang Theory
How can you not love this show? Enjoyed by nerds and non-nerds alike, for me and my nerdy ways it’s a view of what my life could be like as a sitcom. Also if I were American. And a physicist. Apart from those details it’s exactly the same! Oh, and not so many people fall for my classic pranks.
5 Torchwood
I like Torchwood. Obviously, as it’s in this list. I know that not everyone rated the first series, but hey, there are some classics out there that had absolutely appalling first series and went on to greatness. And there were some pretty good episodes there. A pterodactyl fighting a Cyberwoman? How is that not brilliant? Yeah, some episodes weren’t as good, but I think the end of the series paid off the characters failings from those shows. And then the second and third series just got better and better.
4 Dexter
Came in a bit late to this one, but I love it! It sounded ridiculous to me at first, how can they keep a story going about a serial killer? But they can, and they do it well. Having the killer target only killers and try to adhere to a code to turn his urges to some sort of use is the most fascinating part of it. TV where I root for the murderer is unusual but with Dexter you can make whole series of it.
10 Heroes
I know, I know, it’s gone completely off the rails since series 2, but man, remember how good series 1 was? Remember? It was so new, fresh original and exciting and had everyone raving about it. For that one series of enjoyment, it scrapes in. I’m a generous man.
9 The IT Crowd
Computer geeks! I can't say enough good things about this show, it's brilliant! And scarily accurate, as someone who helps people with their computing, it's bizarre how ridiculous the queries are when someone can't use a compewter! Favourite moments would have to be when they present Jen with a little box with a light on, claiming it's the Internet, and disguising a fire with an old monitor housing to pass it off as a screensaver. Oh, and anything Moss says. Ever.
8 Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
A comedy entry (that is an entry that is a comedy show, not an entry that I'm joking about), and a show that, the first time I watched it, made me laugh constantly from beginning to advert break and then through the end after adverts. A beautiful parody of cheaply produced horror and over inflated egos with an extra dose of silliness.
7 Being Human
This one just makes it in because it was only just in this decade. But it was absolutely brilliant. Like Doctor Who and Torchwood, it has a uniquely British charm and humour, but then get’s very dark and dramatic. It’s a skillful production that balances both as well as this show does, to sell you the idea of a vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a house dramatically and build in humour at the daftness of the concept, it’s genius.
6 The Big Bang Theory
How can you not love this show? Enjoyed by nerds and non-nerds alike, for me and my nerdy ways it’s a view of what my life could be like as a sitcom. Also if I were American. And a physicist. Apart from those details it’s exactly the same! Oh, and not so many people fall for my classic pranks.
5 Torchwood
I like Torchwood. Obviously, as it’s in this list. I know that not everyone rated the first series, but hey, there are some classics out there that had absolutely appalling first series and went on to greatness. And there were some pretty good episodes there. A pterodactyl fighting a Cyberwoman? How is that not brilliant? Yeah, some episodes weren’t as good, but I think the end of the series paid off the characters failings from those shows. And then the second and third series just got better and better.
4 Dexter
Came in a bit late to this one, but I love it! It sounded ridiculous to me at first, how can they keep a story going about a serial killer? But they can, and they do it well. Having the killer target only killers and try to adhere to a code to turn his urges to some sort of use is the most fascinating part of it. TV where I root for the murderer is unusual but with Dexter you can make whole series of it.
3 Battlestar Galactica
Back in the 90’s I loved a little show called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was all the wonder of Star Trek but done a bit differently. One of the key writers on that, and Next Gen before it was Ron Moore. He then went on to re-make a 70’s series that I’d sporadically looked at, mainly for amusement and made the most kick-ass epic adventure.
2 Firefly
In some ways, its a good thing that Firefly was cancelled after only a season. That way I can look upon it as a near-perfect series, there was never a bad episode! That’s an awesome achievement in itself even for just a single 13 episode run actually. But there is no episode of this show that I couldn’t put on anytime and enjoy. Characters that are interesting and instantly likable, each with their own distinct development. Add to that a spaceship, some gunfights and the occaisional explosion and bam, brilliance in a 13 episode set.
1 Doctor Who
The show that’s had the most impact on me this decade. Easily. It’s just blown me away, from it’s return, which I was sceptical about. While the modern effects and better budgets and costumes are all very nice, the best thing is that the show’s stayed true to it’s original spirit. It’s retained it’s unique charm and humour and has stayed very British, which is especially nice when we have very little sci-fi here.
I really wrestle with putting 24 in, it had an excellent first three series, but I haven't enjoyed it as much from series four onwards. Series seven came close but then lost it. And if my logic of including Heroes based on early greatness get's it into the top ten, then how come not 24? It just comes down to my personal feelings then, I can watch bad Heroes much easier than I can watch bad 24.
Star Trek: Enterprise has a reverse effect, it started bad and then the last series got really good. I wanted to put it in, it was the main Star Trek of the decade. But I decided against it, even when it was at it's best, it wasn't any comparison to the first three Treks to me.
Finally, there's the shows from the last decade that I didn't watch and ought to! Based on what I've been hearing from people, I really should have watched:
Supernatural
The Wire
House
True Blood
Lost
I've started on House and The Wire! Though there's a new decade starting, what sort of TV are we going to have now? If I repeat this blog in 10 years, what shows will I be raving about then?
Probably still Doctor Who and Being Human!
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Top 5 Next Generation Episodes
@nathwilson set me an interesting question the other day. When I say interesting, I am assuming the reader is a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation. If not, it’s less an interesting question, more a nerdy question. But hey, that’s still good! The question was what are my top 5 episodes of Next Generation? Ooh, that is an interesting question. 178 episodes made, and narrowing that down to the 5 very best? Well, that sounds like a blog post to me!
For the purposes of this list, we’re counting 2 part stories as one story. Redemption counts as 1 whole story, regardless of whether I would rank Part 1 as hugely better than Part 2. Or vice versa. Obviously this reduces the total of choices from 178 so it’s more like 168, but that’s still a large amount to choose 5 from. So I had to do some serious thinking. (Thinking, not drinking!)
On my first pass at this, I narrowed it down to ten episodes. That’s a good result for picking favourites out of one hundred but still twice what I need. So I know have to think about the best ones of this lot. Still, it means that I then have 5 more episodes for an ‘almost made it’ list.
The other thing to note is that when I pick my favourites of something, the results tend to vary on my mood. So it may well be that 3 months down the line I might have a different opinion on some episodes. With this in mind I’ve tried to think of episodes that I’ve been consistently able to watch over and over again as well as ones that have had a particular impact on me so hopefully this is the most consistent version of my list.
5: Conspiracy
I first got into Star Trek when BBC2 showed the first season of TNG. I instantly loved it, and at that young age didn’t have the same discerning nature as I do now. Looking back as an older man, I don’t enjoy that many of the first season episodes. But Conspiracy I always loved. It’s a proper high stakes kind of episode, with Starfleet being infiltrated and a starship destroyed early on. Then there’s an old admiral who can beat Worf up and it seems slowly that everyone is being taken over, even Riker! Then yay, Riker faked them out! Plus then they shoot a dude and he blows up! Brilliant!
4: Q Who
I knew I’d have a Q episode in here. Q is awesome. And of course, this episode introduces us to the Borg! I remember being properly freaked out by the Borg. Back in TNG days you see, the Borg where a really tough, damn near unbeatable villain. In later years they decided they were too tough and reduced themselves to a level that could be beaten often by Kathryn Janeway and an Intepid class starship. But don’t get me started there... This was the Borgs big debut and it was awesome. The scary cube ship, the way they just beamed onto Enterprise and ignored everyone, then became impervious to phasers, the casual dissection of a chunk of the saucer section, the self repairing ship, the Borg baby. Man, it was a hell of an episode and had a complete feeling of the Borg being unbeatable and there was no way out. And there wasn’t a way out. The crew weren’t able to pull a solution out at the last minute. Picard had to admit to Q he wasn’t ready for anything and Q pops them back to Federation space. And we all know then the Borg are coming... Brilliant!
3: The Pegasus
I always enjoy this episode. It starts nicely enough with the Captain Picard day bit, which is one of those little scenes I always enjoy because there’s no serious crisis yet, they’re just hanging out. Maybe that’s weird, but I do like those bits. Then the overall story is awesome. The idea of the secret experiments is cool, then the mutiny and the cover up make it all very mysterious and adds a layer to Starfleet that’s different to what we’ve seen before. And of course it gives Picard the opportunity to tell everyone off for breaking treaty’s and being underhanded, which is also brilliant as it involves Patrick Stewart talking. And it adds a very different layer to Riker, making him more than the guy who makes dramatic statements while putting his feet up on the furniture next to Data.
2: Chain of Command
Man, I can’t say enough good things about this episode. It has two of my favourite things about TNG in it. One is a good look at the way things work on a starship, in this case through the disruption that a new captain is causing when Jellico takes over. The other is Patrick Stewart talking! Seriously, the guy is brilliant. And not only that, he’s talking to David Warner! Two Shakespearean masters doing Star Trek scenes together? If that’s not a nerdgasm, you’re dead inside! Or not a nerd. And not just any talking, Picard’s being tortured. Actually tortured. This is a pretty dark and grim story. And it’s absolutely marvellous.
1: The Best of Both Worlds
Ah, the Borg again. Having spoken about Q Who I’ve kinda covered my feelings on the Borg, back when they were tough. This one differs slightly as this time the crew does have to solve the problem themselves. Oh, and the Borg got Picard and assimilated him. It’s an episode that’s just constantly exciting all the way through. It totally wins on ‘can watch over and over any time’ count. And when I was a kid and it was first on I had Borg based nightmares the whole week between part 1 and part 2.
For interest, the other 5 that didn't make it are, in no particular order:
Parallels
How can you not love Parellels? A Worf episode with a really good sci-fi concept, awesome humour, alternate visions of the Enterprise and crew and a regular character death? (Ok, an alternate regular character, but still)
Starship Mine
It's Die Hard on the Enterprise with Picard. Just so awesome. Sometimes Trek tries an episode that's a different style and this is one of those cases where it just pays off perfectly.
Gambit
The two parter where we find out at the start that Picard was killed off screen. No-one believes that, but we're not meant to! The fun is in the discovery of what has happened to him and this story is just that, fun! It's pretty much a romp, with space pirates, guys trying to infiltrate the pirates and always staying just the right side of ridiculous.
Relics
Scotty! It's just so awesome to see him! And such a awesome little tale of the engineer who's out of his time and can't keep up, but comes through in the end. Though it seems daft to send him off in a little shuttle at the end, he's surely going to get himself into trouble...
Tapestry
Q again, with a pretty deep tale about what happens if you did manage to undo the mistakes of your past. Marvellous for the concept and definitely for the Picard and Q exchanges.
I can't believe I didn't mention:
Well I only had so much room, but I did give thought to Unification, Yesterday's Enterprise, 11001001 and Captains Holiday. Also all excellent episodes but not quite in the ten.
For the purposes of this list, we’re counting 2 part stories as one story. Redemption counts as 1 whole story, regardless of whether I would rank Part 1 as hugely better than Part 2. Or vice versa. Obviously this reduces the total of choices from 178 so it’s more like 168, but that’s still a large amount to choose 5 from. So I had to do some serious thinking. (Thinking, not drinking!)
On my first pass at this, I narrowed it down to ten episodes. That’s a good result for picking favourites out of one hundred but still twice what I need. So I know have to think about the best ones of this lot. Still, it means that I then have 5 more episodes for an ‘almost made it’ list.
The other thing to note is that when I pick my favourites of something, the results tend to vary on my mood. So it may well be that 3 months down the line I might have a different opinion on some episodes. With this in mind I’ve tried to think of episodes that I’ve been consistently able to watch over and over again as well as ones that have had a particular impact on me so hopefully this is the most consistent version of my list.
5: Conspiracy
I first got into Star Trek when BBC2 showed the first season of TNG. I instantly loved it, and at that young age didn’t have the same discerning nature as I do now. Looking back as an older man, I don’t enjoy that many of the first season episodes. But Conspiracy I always loved. It’s a proper high stakes kind of episode, with Starfleet being infiltrated and a starship destroyed early on. Then there’s an old admiral who can beat Worf up and it seems slowly that everyone is being taken over, even Riker! Then yay, Riker faked them out! Plus then they shoot a dude and he blows up! Brilliant!
4: Q Who
I knew I’d have a Q episode in here. Q is awesome. And of course, this episode introduces us to the Borg! I remember being properly freaked out by the Borg. Back in TNG days you see, the Borg where a really tough, damn near unbeatable villain. In later years they decided they were too tough and reduced themselves to a level that could be beaten often by Kathryn Janeway and an Intepid class starship. But don’t get me started there... This was the Borgs big debut and it was awesome. The scary cube ship, the way they just beamed onto Enterprise and ignored everyone, then became impervious to phasers, the casual dissection of a chunk of the saucer section, the self repairing ship, the Borg baby. Man, it was a hell of an episode and had a complete feeling of the Borg being unbeatable and there was no way out. And there wasn’t a way out. The crew weren’t able to pull a solution out at the last minute. Picard had to admit to Q he wasn’t ready for anything and Q pops them back to Federation space. And we all know then the Borg are coming... Brilliant!
3: The Pegasus
I always enjoy this episode. It starts nicely enough with the Captain Picard day bit, which is one of those little scenes I always enjoy because there’s no serious crisis yet, they’re just hanging out. Maybe that’s weird, but I do like those bits. Then the overall story is awesome. The idea of the secret experiments is cool, then the mutiny and the cover up make it all very mysterious and adds a layer to Starfleet that’s different to what we’ve seen before. And of course it gives Picard the opportunity to tell everyone off for breaking treaty’s and being underhanded, which is also brilliant as it involves Patrick Stewart talking. And it adds a very different layer to Riker, making him more than the guy who makes dramatic statements while putting his feet up on the furniture next to Data.
2: Chain of Command
Man, I can’t say enough good things about this episode. It has two of my favourite things about TNG in it. One is a good look at the way things work on a starship, in this case through the disruption that a new captain is causing when Jellico takes over. The other is Patrick Stewart talking! Seriously, the guy is brilliant. And not only that, he’s talking to David Warner! Two Shakespearean masters doing Star Trek scenes together? If that’s not a nerdgasm, you’re dead inside! Or not a nerd. And not just any talking, Picard’s being tortured. Actually tortured. This is a pretty dark and grim story. And it’s absolutely marvellous.
1: The Best of Both Worlds
Ah, the Borg again. Having spoken about Q Who I’ve kinda covered my feelings on the Borg, back when they were tough. This one differs slightly as this time the crew does have to solve the problem themselves. Oh, and the Borg got Picard and assimilated him. It’s an episode that’s just constantly exciting all the way through. It totally wins on ‘can watch over and over any time’ count. And when I was a kid and it was first on I had Borg based nightmares the whole week between part 1 and part 2.
For interest, the other 5 that didn't make it are, in no particular order:
Parallels
How can you not love Parellels? A Worf episode with a really good sci-fi concept, awesome humour, alternate visions of the Enterprise and crew and a regular character death? (Ok, an alternate regular character, but still)
Starship Mine
It's Die Hard on the Enterprise with Picard. Just so awesome. Sometimes Trek tries an episode that's a different style and this is one of those cases where it just pays off perfectly.
Gambit
The two parter where we find out at the start that Picard was killed off screen. No-one believes that, but we're not meant to! The fun is in the discovery of what has happened to him and this story is just that, fun! It's pretty much a romp, with space pirates, guys trying to infiltrate the pirates and always staying just the right side of ridiculous.
Relics
Scotty! It's just so awesome to see him! And such a awesome little tale of the engineer who's out of his time and can't keep up, but comes through in the end. Though it seems daft to send him off in a little shuttle at the end, he's surely going to get himself into trouble...
Tapestry
Q again, with a pretty deep tale about what happens if you did manage to undo the mistakes of your past. Marvellous for the concept and definitely for the Picard and Q exchanges.
I can't believe I didn't mention:
Well I only had so much room, but I did give thought to Unification, Yesterday's Enterprise, 11001001 and Captains Holiday. Also all excellent episodes but not quite in the ten.
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