Re: Torchwood: Children of Earth
On 25 Jul 2009, at 04:02, John Williams wrote: I just watched the 3rd season of Torchwood, which was a 5 episode mini-series called Children of Earth. What a disappointment. [snip] Then I looked at the Torchwood forum on imdb.com, and found that quite a few people posting thought Children of Earth was the best science-fiction they have seen in quite a while! One post even compared it to Firefly. Ouch. I quite enjoyed it. The ending was weak as usual for Davies. I'm trying to think of any good sci-fi on television recently, or coming soon, but the only thing I can think of is Dollhouse. Umm, and possibly A Game of Thrones, if it ever makes it to HBO, but that is fantasy, not science fiction. The pilot for _Virtuality_ was good, and they're still shopping that around looking for international partners so it may yet become a series. The trailer for the latest Stargate spinoff, _Stargate Universe_ makes it look like the best thing in that franchise for many years. In the new season TV the remake of _V_ starring Morena Baccarin and _FlashForward_ based on the novel by Robert J Sawyer both look interesting. _Lost_ and _Fringe_ both return. _Lost_ was excellent last season and I expect great things from the final season. _Fringe_ kicked up a gear with the twists and revelations at the end of the first season so it will be interesting where that goes. -- William T Goodall Mail : w...@wtgab.demon.co.uk Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ “Babies are born every day without an iPod. We will get there.” - Adam Sohn, the head of public relations for Microsoft’s Zune division. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Torchwood: Children of Earth
SPOILERS for Torchwood: Children of Earth below . . . . . . . . SPOILERS for Torchwood: Children of Earth below Here are just a few of the things that ruined the story for me: Hostile, bloodthirsty aliens show up and the first thing the government does is assassinate their elite special-ops team of alien experts, and destroy said team's base of operations which contains much technology and alien-fighting weapons. And the kill order goes through a politician's secretary and is sent by email, with a copy of the kill order kept in said secretaries sent-mail box. A pair of ordinary looking contact lenses have a built-in hi-def camera and an energy-source capable of powering the camera AND a high-power transmitter capable of undetectably transmitting video for miles (while being in direct contact with human eyes), but this technological wonder lacks a simple audio microphone. And the people who utilize this technological wonder can produce no other useful defensive or offensive weapons to help them against government assassins or hostile aliens, nothing except ordinary handguns and cell-phones. The government that assassinated their elite alien-fighting team just before encountering hostile aliens does virtually nothing to detect, locate, defend against, or attack the aliens that are demanding they be given millions of human children to be put to a fate worse than death. Instead, said government uses other special-ops teams to pursue the alien-fighting team members (who are still alive) and families of the alien-fighting team. Aliens with the capability to beam themselves down to earth from undetectable spaceships (and to beam millions of children back up), able to cause all the children on earth to simultaneously speak for them (or to each speak a different message depending on which country they are in), able to graft human children onto their bodies well enough to be used as something like an adrenal gland, and able to instantly synthesize out of thin air a deadly virus throughout a large government building...said aliens cannot synthesize a desperately-wanted chemical (or chemicals) for themselves. Every country in the world is instructed that they must provide 10% of their children to hostile aliens for either unspecified reasons or a fate worse than death, and this knowledge is somehow kept secret from most of the world's population, not mentioned in the news media. None of the other countries so informed decide to take action against the hostile alien confined in a well-known location, not attempting to capture, interrogate, kill, or bomb said alien. The prime minister of Britain, calmly working at his desk, has a trusted subordinate sent into his office, and casually informs him that the subordinate's two children will be given to hostile aliens to suffer a fate worse than death, and said subordinate will give a news conference saying how happy he is about this. The prime minister then continues calmly with paper-work at his desk. The subordinate, instead of trying to hide his family, calmly asks his secretary to submit the proper form to get a government handgun, then takes said handgun home and shoots his wife and children (one bullet each) and then shoots himself. The chief government assassin, who has spent the past several days abducting innocent women and children and killing everyone in sight, including her fellow agents, has a change of heart and asks one of her attempted-murderees to help her attack the aliens. The aliens who have an undetectable spaceship, and are able to transmit messages to all the children in the world and remotely-control the children to speak as they wish...said attempted-murderee having previously walked up to the alien with nothing but a handgun and declared war on the alien, then lamely shot a few rounds at the bullet-proof glass around the alien while the alien kills everyone in the building. The attempted-murderee, now that he is asked nicely by the chief government assassin, suddenly knows how to rig up a few pieces of equipment in a warehouse to transmit on the mysterious children-remote-control frequency to remotely kill all the aliens, even the ones on the undetectable spaceship, and all he needs is for his grandson to stand there and wirelessly resonate, shake, bleed, and collapse in order to accomplish this extremely timely alien-genocide. Personally, instead of pressing the KILL ALIENS button on my Harmony universal remote, I would have pressed the SEND JUNKIE ALIENS TO BETTY FORD button, but I suppose that might have over-stressed the government's universal health-care budget. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: Torchwood: Children of Earth
_Lost_ and _Fringe_ both return. _Lost_ was excellent last season and I expect great things from the final season. _Fringe_ kicked up a gear with the twists and revelations at the end of the first season so it will be interesting where that goes. I have to agree with John, Torchwood was a disappointment. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, I just expected more since the entire season consisted of only 5 episodes. I had hoped for more science fiction. Instead, I think they were going for the shock value of the storyline. I agree with John about Lost. Personally, I think the last season will either blow viewers away, or it will be lame. I hope they don't follow the trend that's developed in the last few years of taking 8 month mid-season breaks. Lost did that and it REALLY annoyed me when Battlestar Galactica did that. As for Fringe, it was just ok, until the last few episodes, then I was blown away. I'm very much looking forward to the next season. I'm a Eureka fan. I love that show even though it's silly and campy. Warehouse 13 - After two episodes, I'm not impressed or hooked yet, but I'll give it a few more episodes. I've also been watching Primeval on BBC America. SciFi Channel just started showing it. I didn't care for the first few episodes, but became hooked as the story arc developed. Of Course, BBC didn't renew Primeval and tonight's cliffhanger episode will be the series last episode. I have high hopes for Stargate: Universe. I just hope the commercials don't show only the best parts of the show. I miss the days of Farscape. Gary ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
RE: Torchwood: Children of Earth
I hope they don't follow the trend that's developed in the last few years of taking 8 month mid-season breaks. Lost did that and it REALLY annoyed me when Battlestar Galactica did that. I thought that was due to the Writers strike? Simon ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Torchwood: Children of Earth
Gary said: I've also been watching Primeval on BBC America. SciFi Channel just started showing it. I didn't care for the first few episodes, but became hooked as the story arc developed. Of Course, BBC didn't renew Primeval and tonight's cliffhanger episode will be the series last episode. The BBC didn't renew Primeval because it wasn't a BBC series: it was made by and shown on ITV in the UK. Apparently it was ITV's attempt to counter the success of the revived Doctor Who but was somewhat less successful in the ratings. Rich ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
The Poop on the Kindle
So who has a Kindle (I know someone mentioned them before), how do you like it and what do you read on it? I just got one today and am attempting to download the NY Times (free 14 day trial) right now. It seems like it's taking a long time... Doug ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The Poop on the Kindle
On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Doug Pensingerbrig...@zo.com wrote: So who has a Kindle (I know someone mentioned them before), how do you like it and what do you read on it? I just got one today and am attempting to download the NY Times (free 14 day trial) right now. It seems like it's taking a long time... I have a Kindle DX. I'm pleased with the display size and contrast. I am less than pleased at the navigation, which is klunky, but I knew that before I bought it. I don't read any newspapers on it, since I tend to get my news from the web with a computer. I read mostly fiction on it. My library of paper books takes up a lot of space, and I wanted to reduce its size, or at least stop its growth. Unfortunately, few of the science fiction books in my library are available in Kindle format, less than 1 in 5. Fortunately, most new releases come out in Kindle now, but often delayed some time after the hard cover is released. I'm not sure why your download is taking a long time, unless it is a problem with the NYT system. When I download books over the cell network (Whispernet), it generally only takes a few seconds, never more than a minute. My Kindle is able to get a 3G connection with 4 or 5 bars in my home. Does yours have a similar signal? ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The Poop on the Kindle
John wrote: I have a Kindle DX. I'm pleased with the display size and contrast. I am less than pleased at the navigation, which is klunky, but I knew that before I bought it. I don't read any newspapers on it, since I tend to get my news from the web with a computer. I read mostly fiction on it. My library of paper books takes up a lot of space, and I wanted to reduce its size, or at least stop its growth. Unfortunately, few of the science fiction books in my library are available in Kindle format, less than 1 in 5. Fortunately, most new releases come out in Kindle now, but often delayed some time after the hard cover is released. I'm not sure why your download is taking a long time, unless it is a problem with the NYT system. When I download books over the cell network (Whispernet), it generally only takes a few seconds, never more than a minute. My Kindle is able to get a 3G connection with 4 or 5 bars in my home. Does yours have a similar signal? They talked about the whispernet in the instructions I've read so far, but I didn't realize exactly what it was. Before I got the thing I assumed that downloading was via the computer/net. Silly me. I just downloaded a book and it seemed to load pretty quickly. Is there any free content? The instructions said there was some sort of pdf translation software but implied that it wasn't free and that it didn't always work right. It also said something about being able to load your own documents. Doug RTFM maru ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: The Poop on the Kindle
On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 9:16 PM, Doug Pensingerbrig...@zo.com wrote: They talked about the whispernet in the instructions I've read so far, but I didn't realize exactly what it was. Before I got the thing I assumed that downloading was via the computer/net. Silly me. I just downloaded a book and it seemed to load pretty quickly. The default is to download over the cell network (I don't like to call it by the saccharine whispernet), but you can choose to download book files to your computer and then transfer to the kindle via USB. Is there any free content? There are free books available on amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1248584530/ref=sr_st?rs=154606011page=1rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133141011%2Cn%3A154606011bbn=154606011sort=price There are other sources as well, just google free kindle books The instructions said there was some sort of pdf translation software but implied that it wasn't free and that it didn't always work right. It also said something about being able to load your own documents. The Kindle DX can display PDF files -- just hook the USB cable to a computer, and the Kindle DX shows up as a MSC device. You can drag book files, PDF files, etc. I believe the Kindle 2 allows you to transfer PDF files from the computer vias USB after filtering through a translation program. Or you can pay a fee for Amazon to translate the PDF file and download it to the Kindle 2 over the cell network. But I'm not positive about any of that (one reason I got the DX was so I did not have to bother with that) ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
