Category Archives: television

TV shows, TV technology and the ways the medium is changing…

Happy Miracle Day!!

Can’t wait until tonight! Been waiting a year for more Torchwood after their (way too) short 5 episode mini-series last summer. Originally a more mature Doctor Who spinoff (scramble the letters for the anagram). It was previously on BBC but it looks like Starz is running with Torchwood now.

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Gwen Cooper, guns and a happy baby.
What more can you ask from the 21st Century*?

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Capt. Jack Harkness, always the flirt. Even after falling off a building.

Gwen is pretty much a street cop gone super-duper secret-agent. The baby is new, I assume hers and Rhys (her husband) but she might just be rescuing it. Capt. Jack, well let’s just say he’s pretty hard to kill, and decided that Earth is his favorite planet to live on. And the flirt part, he’ll flirt with anything, any gender, any species; not sure how much they’ll follow through with this, since it appears they’re moving to America, I’m treating it as a reboot.


Available in HD.

I actually saw this trailer in the theater the other day. Not in a sci-fi show, but before the new Woody Allen movie…

* “The 21st Century is when everything changes…” although I’m not sure if they’re still following that theme.

Today to do list…

Lots of little things to do.

I’ve gotten two 8+ hours of sleep this weekend! Usually I get 11-14 on Friday and then nothing good on Saturday. If I can do this again, I’ll be up early for the sunny day tomorrow and maybe be on track for the rest of the week!

  • Go out to breakfast. Why? Because I never do… Done: Big Boy buffet, a little disappointing, but they had great dessert!
  • Bike ride: Not sure where though. All the Hines Drive entrances are closed from flooding and I’m sure even more so today. Done: I couldn’t really go as far as I wanted, I parked at HFCC and biked over to Hines Drive but the police made me leave…
  • sunwithclouds.pngBut the weather reports are so conflicting on if it’s going to be nicer this morning or early afternoon. Result: It was nicer than it was supposed to be for longer than it was supposed to be!
  • Clean my house (more).
  • Home Depot to replace one of my room darkening blinds, it’s in pretty bad shape. Done: And I even hung it.
  • Dry cleaners to drop off two things to get fixed: a shirt that had a piece of tape (or something) stuck to the back and a belt loop on one of my better pairs of jeans. Done: Dropped off at the Wash Haus which has the best customer service.
  • Costco: I need a bunch of stuff, but the other stuff takes priority. I can do it after work on Tuesday if I don’t do it today (I assume they are closed Memorial Day). Done:
  • Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series BBC Warner

  • Watch Doctor Who Confidential (the making of). I want to see what everyone was thinking about the bomb they dropped on us at the end. Done: Not a lot of insight, but it makes me the that it (I’m avoiding spoilers) has only been since the beginning of the season (and not longer).
  • Watch Doctor Who again. Now that I know the ending, and I’ll have seen the making of, I’m ready to pay more attention. Done: Caught a few things I hadn’t before, understood a bunch of things that I caught before but didn’t understand the implications. Enjoyed it again!
  • Kick myself some more that I never realized that Amy has been wearing the same plaid shirt all season (see Doctor Who above). Done: Duh!!!
  • Coca-Cola is on-sale at Kroger, 4 for $10. I really need some cans and bottles! Done: Actually decided to go back get even more.
  • Maybe:

  • Set up that scanner that I keep meaning to set up. But that just sounds like a distraction from cleaning.
  • Tomorrow:

  • Dearborn parade in the morning.
  • Bike and blade multiple times for the rest of the day. Not sure where. I can’t imagine Hines Drive will be any more open then.
  • Torchwood – Miracle Day

    Finally, a preview for Torchwood: Miracle Day. The Torchwood Encyclopedia Gary Russell

    What happens if all of a sudden, everyone stops dying? How long until the world isn’t big enough to support it? Four months! I’m not sure if I agree with that time-line but that’s not really the point, it’s a mystery and they need Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper to save the day!!!

    Watch the Torchwood preview in HD.

    Looks like Starz is picking Torchwood up, not sure if it’s taking place in the US or not. Starts July 8th, 2011! I can’t wait :)

    Doctor Who “Space” and “Time”.

    So as part of the Red Nose Day fundraiser The Doctor had a short appearance on the show Comic Relief.

    The big bonus is he left two short 3-minute episodes behind! One called “Space” and one called “Time

    They’re incorrectly both labeled “time”.

    It also tells up that the next episode of Doctor Who will be on Easter. I’m not sure if this is a special, or the start of a new season, but either way, I’ll be happy!

    Digital VCR at 20,000 feet

    I’m not sure what kind of playback unit this is, probably digital, but it doesn’t look like it. The screen was only about 4 or 5 inches diagonal and had some kind of touchscreen interface. It looked like it was ancient and belonged in a rack in an old TV studio.

    Now while I’m picking on it, I do realize this was probably pretty cool technology when it came out. But these days the could probably just be using a $200 iPod touch for it. That’s probably 15 pounds they’re not flying around for hundreds of thousands of miles a year (a month?). And while they’re at it, ditch these old TV monitors (that weigh a ton) and put in some cheap LCD screens that barely weigh anything…

    Watch in HD

    The audio isn’t that great, I’m kinda hoarse and the plan is kinda noisy.

    Please note, I shot this with my iPhone on the plane, uploaded it to YouTube (via GoGo) and typed this text and posted it while sitting on a plane. That is so cool (IMHO).

    I remember when Kerri Strug won the gymnastics Gold medal in the olympics.

    So the other month I did a post about “Where were you when _______ happened..?” and mostly the things we remember in that kind of significant way aren’t very positive things (usually disasters or death). So I’ve been thinking of a few non-negative “where were you?” things and thought that I might use a few of those for a few blog posts.

    Landing on My Feet: A Diary of Dreams Kerri StrugI’m not a huge sports or olympics person but I remember being home watching the Olympics. In particular (at the time) I do recall thinking the Canadian coverage was so much better than the US coverage. Now that I look it up, I didn’t even remember that was the year they were in Atlanta, so that’s even weirder that I remember that about the Canadian coverage, but that’s how I remember it.

    I remember the one time she did the vault where she hurt herself*. Then she went again and while it was perfect she had to stand there on one foot and you could really tell that she hurt herself. She literally crawled away and they at some point Bella carried her around and that was one of the photos you saw over and over again for the next few weeks. It was the Olympics, and with prime-time television coverage delays I don’t really know how “live” it was but to me it was (actually I think I caught this before before it played on the US feed, because I remember talking to my Mother about it later).



    Here is the direct link to the video

    I’m not sure what it is that I remember, the determination, the way she did the bowing to the crowd on only one foot (it was like a scene out of a movie, but real) or what. But it’s just one of those events that really stuck in my head.

    * Now that I watch it again, I really thought she hurt herself more on the first vault.

    Doctor Who 2010 premier dates

    I was just wondering when the new Doctor Who 2010 series was going to start this year and this trailer comes along for me today. It’ll start on Easter (April 4) in the UK and on April 17th on BBC America; I’m assuming it’ll trail a few weeks behind for the rest of the season.

    Here’s the direct link.

    This isn’t really a normal trailer/preview as it’s a little surreal in the way it goes in the middle, it almost reminds me of a candy or gum commercial. But it makes the series looks fun.

    The new Doctor Who is Matt Smith

    While I’ll sorely miss David Tennant, it’s time for the newest Doctor to take over the show. Matt Smith will star as The Doctor on Doctor Who this spring (April or May?) and I’m ready to see where they take the show.

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    While at first glance it appears that it’ll be a younger doctor than usual that’s not all that’s changing. Russell T. Davis stepped down as Producer/Writer and it’s now Steven Moffat at the helm in charge of everything and and (I’m assuming) writing episodes. It’s enough if a change where I guess they decoded to change the Dr. Who logo this season. Here’s a mini-preview of the 2010 season:

    View the above preview on YouTube.

    I’m not too keen on his new trademark call of “Geronimo!” but maybe it’ll grow on me; but since it actually means “One who yawns” and nothing particularly British, I’m thinking it won’t.

    An assumption being made is that this is more of a reboot of the character since the actors and person in charge is changing. So that means (to me) there won’t be much (any?) crossover between the 2005-2009 Doctor and the new one. If so that means no Rose, Donna, Martha, Mickey, etc. Although since Steven Moffat wrote “Blink”, I wouldn’t mind seeing Sally Sparrow again. The real question (to me) is what about Capt. Jack Harkness from Torchwood, Steven Moffat originally wrote the episodes that introduced him. And Torchwood is still running…

    Any thoughts? Or rumors?