Your Doctor Who Infographic Of The Moment Is A Very Handy Doozy…

doctor-who-infographic-50th-anniversary Well, now – this is pretty darn cool. Thanks to the folks over at HalloweenCostumes.com for putting together an awesome infographic that you can use to get that person who’s not a Doctor Who fan either into the show and up to speed on a few fronts or at least understanding what keeps YOU watching year after year. You can check the whole thing out below the jump, as it’s really too long to post without taking up the entire page!
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That’s Right. Popeye Was A “Time Lord” Before The Good Doctor!

(thanks, cartunes1000!)

And he had a kind of cooler and stranger time machine, too! Yeah, you learn something new every day, kids. Granted, that’s also what you call “VERY desperately running out of ideas” in Cartoonland speak, so although this episode is hilarious (you HAVE to love how that “time machine” works), it’s clear that Elzie Crisler Segar was spinning in his grave when this 1960 cartoon popped up on the tube wherever he ended up when he passed on in 1934. Anyway, enjoy and yeah… you KNOW you want that Picasso/Dali-esque clock thing in YOUR living room.

As For The Doctor’s Future… “Who. Nose?”

 
KandorHmmm. So THAT was something, wasn’t it? For starters, the sheer amount of fan service was mind-blowing and yes, I ended up watching the episode again later just to pick up on a few things I thought I missed. Anyway, it was all good stuff: The Zygons were back after something like 38 years(!!), there were more than three Doctors in the episode (“No spoilers!”), the switches from comic to dramatic moods were perfect and that ending? Let’s just say that final Matt Smith episode coming up in December is probably going to help sell a LOT of Kleenex and popcorn. Or something like that. Actually, I’d not mind some Jelly Babies right about now. You can keep the fish fingers and custard. My only big geeky query is this one: So, since Gallifrey is now Kandor… will the next Doctor be wearing a cape (and boots) upon his entrance? Ah ha ha ha (and +10 if you get the reference without having to look things up)…

A Timely Reminder From The Beeb…

 
NO, not THAT one. The RIGHT one. In case you’re missing it, that worldwide telecast of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary episode will indeed be rebroadcast a few more times today and tonight before it most likely pops up on your Free On Demand channel if your cable box has that service. That is all you need to know in case you forgot the episode is on NOW (and is about to end shortly)…

So, What’s In That Breaking Bad: The Complete Series Barrel? Let’s Ask Vince…

 
*DING!DING!! DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!* Translation: Since Gilligan IS the Skipper, he knows it all. Check out the man himself unboxing the gift that keeps on giving, one of the best shows on TV and yeah, you want it even if you’ve seen every episode multiple times and can run lines with the family pet (who wants to bit the heck out of your foot for making him watch all that TV when it wanted to catch up on naps and playing with your shoe). I think I need one of these. Or one for each hand. I’ll give the second one away as a gift, you know…

What Type of Doctor Who Fan Are You? Dorkly Knows You All Too Well…

WHO_fans 
Okay, this new Dorkly strip made me chuckle a bit because I think I’m not on that list, but have been a few of those types over the years. Of course, if you’re not yet sucked into the surprisingly cool vortex that is Doctor Who, you still have time (see what I did there?) before tomorrow’s big event episode rolls in to shake things up on a worldwide level. It’s quite cool that BBC is running that episode simultaneously around the globe so everyone watching can have their eyeballs pop out of their skulls and roll around the floor at the same time. Of course, the sound of all those toilets flushing will make some people go deaf temporarily while the resulting pressure drop in water supplies around the globe may have drastic consequences (such as a TARDIS materializing inside someone’s living room), so make sure you have enough space for an extra visitor, I say…

Jimmy Fallon vs. Xbox One: The “Who”, “What” or “Where” Show Returns…

Yes, it’s usually pretty crazy on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but just what the heck was this confusing mess of a live demo? Yeah, the Xbox One has SO many things packed into that black box that it was hard to tell what was going on. I did note that Kinect wasn’t used for the menu navigation (as it seems to have issues with more than a few people in a room according to some early press), Forza 5 got a few seconds of play (not by Jimmy) that showed off some lovely visuals before things switched to the camera scanning Jimmy earlier (and making an awful likeness) and there was some playing of that new Kinect Sports game with Will Forte. Ugh. Meanwhile, that Microsoft rep was no Ron Popeil at all, trying to cram too much talk into a handful of minutes.

Look, if you’re trying to sell an all-in-one living room dominator/media center/juicer to the non gaming public and it indeed does WAY too much for a mere under five minute demo… you need a longer sales pitch. I don’t think that sloppy mess last night was selling any consoles to anyone who wasn’t already buying one because other than Jimmy drooling about the new controller too long, it really didn’t show off much other than pretty visuals and a lot of “wait, what was that?” before it ended. Eh, whatever – we’ll see what happens when the system rolls out later today. Or: yet another midnight launch I won’t be going to cover because it’s all hype and the REAL proof is a few months down the road plus when the post launch titles start dropping into stores…

I Dream of Tee Vee #2: Speed Racer, Menace to Motorsport!

 
Even as a kid, the opening credits to Speed Racer had me cracking up each time I saw Speed pretty much commit cartoon vehicular homicide on a daily basis when he rammed a fellow driver through a guard rail and sent him sailing off the track and crashing into the background (check out that evidence above). What I didn’t know at that time was that was the US version of the credits and in Japan, Speed was even more of a merry murderer. Granted, the other guys he kills in the original opening sequence below kind of deserve it for shooting at him and his shiny, gadget-packed Mach 5 (do you know how much it costs to replace that fancy curved windshield?). But I’d have simply dialed up the track police or something, pointed my car cam their way and shown what was happening rather that destroy a priceless fossil and kill them outright.

 
Of course, the body count on that old anime was hilariously large in just about every race to the point that I’m surprised whatever body that sanctioned those events wasn’t sued by next of kin and spectators who may have been “wiped out” in a wreck or by flaming debris flying into the stands. Just Google up “Mammoth Car” and see what I mean. I’d post part of that episode here, but I don’t want you kids up past your bedtimes. It IS a school night, you know…

A WHOLE Week of Doctor Who? Apple Sales Will DROP Drastically!

EDIT: Edited!

No, not those popular (but slipping in sales as of late) fruit-named hi-tech devices of many uses, but the more popular (and slipping off a tree branch, so get with the dodging, Newton!) fruit that makes some great pies, sauce, leather and other stuff you might not enjoy if other things were labeled as such. Crow pie is terrible, Kudzu sauce? Nasty! Llama leather? Awful AND it makes you seriously gassy! Anyway, next week should be pretty hard on Whovians who haven’t yet invested in that digital delay device or happen to have BBC America on their Free on Demand service in case they miss anything thanks to actual work or play activities. My own schedule suggests I’ll be playing catch up unless I go and “EXTERMINATE!” a few tasks early. I probably won’t break my routine all that much, as that tends to do nothing but make time holes in a few areas where I don’t need them (or have had to do a simple patch job that doesn’t need any further fiddling.

Jimmy and Ice-T Put The PS4 On The Hot Spot…

Alright, it’s a given: CUTE ROBOTS SELL CONSOLES. And SUPER-cute virtual robots you can play with and/or kick around the room? When the audience goes “D’aaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!” more than five times a minute? Yeah, there’s Christmas in a box for Sony right there.

Okay, despite my occasional cranky side acting up from time to time, I’ll have to admit that Jimmy Fallon always gets me excited about gaming despite me having a longer history with them than he has. Granted, it’s his great enthusiasm for the medium and NOT his play style (that tends to lean towards the “Boy, do I suck at these games but I’m having FUN!” although he did beat Ice-T at that Pong variant) that’s hard to fake. And yep, game companies love him, Conan and anyone else they can get a console and controller to. Of course, none of them love ME, but that’s more my fault than theirs at the end of the day. Oh well, we’re workin’ on it… we’re workin’ on it. I’m thinking of writing a fake e-book (not really) called “How To Get The Respect You Deserve Without Being A Total Ass or Total Suck-Up” but we’ll say no more about that unless we want to be called a total ass. Or a total suck-up. Not too good at either of those, but I can swing both ways once I take some lessons. Is the Learning Annex still open here in NYC?