Topics

1

Books & Comics / A call to the history buffs on the board.

« on: 19 November, 2010, 06:45:59 PM »

Help a fella out, will you?

I've been thinking recently that, for all that I consider myself a relatively intelligent bloke, as far as that goes, I'm sorely lacking in the old 'book learning'. I coasted through GCSE's, dropped out without finishing A levels and haven't looked back since.

So I've decided to add a non-fiction book to my rotation. As it stands I always read a scifi then a fantasy/horror, then a real world (thriller or historical etc.) and then repeat but I'm looking to add something a bit edumacational in the middle of that.

Ideally, to begin with, a history series. I was thinking a history of Britain, either a book per century or book per monarch type of deal.  I'm looking for something that can tread the fine line between being so dry and academic as to bore the layman, and being so dumbed down as to patronise anyone with half a brain.

I know from comments on various threads that there are a few on here that are quite well read in these areas and was hoping for some recomendations. And just to be awkward, nothing too obscure please, as I'll be relying on my local library to get them for me and they aren't the best.

Thanks in advance for any help (and I won't be offended if I don't hear anything straight away because I know we'd all rather be looking at a certain picture on a certain other thread tonight).

2

General / Andy Diggle Questions.

« on: 13 November, 2010, 06:18:34 PM »

Don't know if this should be in News or what ut I don't suppose it matters.

Anyway, Andy Diggle has set himself up a Formspring account if anyone is interested. At least, I think he's just started it.

I know when Al Ewing set one up and someone mentioned it on here (it might have been Trout but I can't remember for sure) it didn't get that much traffic so maybe no-ones that fussed but I just thought I'd mention it.

3

Help! / Pretty Rian Hughes Pictures.

« on: 24 September, 2010, 02:00:33 PM »

Can anyone help me out? I'm looking for a couple of decent pictures that show off Rian Hughes on Robo-Hunter. Preferably ones that won't get me shouted at for sticking them on a blog (new to this and not sure what is frowned upon).

 First thought was a Barney cover search but apparently he never did any. Shocking. I'm notoriously crap at Google Image searches and I'm in a bit of a rush so I thought someone on here was bound to have something easily to hand.

Pretty please? Individual panels or page scans or anything really that show off how good his stuff looks in colour. 

*fingers crossed*

4

Games / Getting caught up. Contains talk of OLD games.

« on: 14 August, 2010, 12:31:18 AM »

Well, I say old...

So the fact that I'm practically destitute and completely unable to afford to upgrade from the ps2 has been sidesteped by the fact that my nephew, with whom I am living, has just been gifted a 2nd hand Xbox360. And he's spending most of the school holidays staying with various members of the family so it's MINE for the duration.

I'd have preferred it were a ps3 of course, because I am a right thinking person, but beggars can not, as they say, be choosers.

So anyway, what games do I really need to catch up on now that I'm on the current generation machine? So far my list is:

Call of Duty 4 onwards
Arkham Asylum
Splinter Cell 5
RDR (possibly, not a huge Rockstar fan but this is getting raves so...)

Any other outright classics I need to play?  In the stealth action or fps genres mainly because I have Zero skills when it comes to Fighting or Driving games. Don't have the reflexes for them.


While I'm here, rather than revive an old thread about it - I picked up CoD4 as the first on my list. Am I alone in being massively dissapointed? What there is of it is fantastic but am I mad in thinking it was really fucking short? I'm utterly shit at these things and they normally take me forever to complete but this one was knocked off in a couple of days.

5

General / Long Live The King

« on: 03 August, 2010, 08:54:42 PM »

I mentioned a while back my obsession with the stats page and those *league tables* of most popular threads and most active members. This obsession has not abated and my nightly check has revealed that a long awaited event has finally happened.

Trout is now officially the most prolific poster on the board. Well, technically he's joint 1st with the legend that is paulvonscott but one more post and it's all his.

Maybe I'm the only one sad enough to notice. Maybe others have noticed but aren't sad enough to care.

Whatever, congrats to Trout. This can only bolster his claim to the throne.

6

Film & TV / Old news (possibly) about new Who.

« on: 24 July, 2010, 08:49:12 PM »

Who buys Doctor Who magazine? I normally don't, but I needed something to read in the cafe yesterday and it had Karen Gillan in a wedding dress on the cover. No brainer.

So apologies if this is old news but I've just found out that Matt Smiths 2pt Sarah Jane story that is due in the upcoming series is actually written by RTD.

Might be interesting to see how he handles the new fella.


Also, when interviewed about The Big Bang, Moffet is asked "what has or hasn't happened in the Doctor Who universe....Are all bets off as far as Doctor Who history?"

His reply will answer some questions about his motivations in writing this storyline I think.

" ....all bets that we feel like ignoring are off. The increasing problem in Doctor Who is that the people in the show live on a completely planet from us..... Without being too explicit about it, we can have characters surprised at the existence of aliens again....a way for us all to justify continuity errors to ourselves, so we can sleep at night."

Pretty much confirming what a lot of us speculated at the start of the series really.

7

Film & TV / Sherlock

« on: 15 July, 2010, 06:30:32 PM »

Is this on anyones radar? Apparently it's due to start a week on Sunday.

I sort of heard about this a while back, heard it was a modern update and shrugged it off. Sounded a bit meh! Then when I read that Steven Moffat had a hand in it my interest was peaked but I heard nothing more for ages.

Now I find out that Mark Gatiss is Co-Exec and wrote one of the episodes. I have to say that the idea is definitely growing on me.

8

Creative Common / A thing wot I wrote

« on: 11 July, 2010, 01:08:58 AM »

Right, so here's the thing. I don't normally post in the creative common area of the board for the simple reason that I'm intimidated by all you talented bastards and don't really feel qualified.
    I've been writing for years. I alternate between occasional attempts at future shock submissions to ideas for screenplays. The future shocks are inevitably binned when complete for the sin of being shit. The screenplays don't even get that far, as I never seem to finish them. It is this seeming inability to follow through on my ideas and produce a finish product that has lead me to give up on the (far fetched) idea of ever making any money from writing.
    I still do it though, because even though I never get anywhere with my projects, the thought of not writing just seems wrong. The ideas keep on coming, it'd be wrong to not at least try to do something with them.
     Now, while I've entered a few short stories on here, I already know my prose is shit, so not doing particularly well on them is no huge blow to my ego but when it comes to my scripting  I've only ever shown my work to one person.He didn't rhapsodise about it, always had notes, but he was never particularly brutal either. I'd like to think that was because it wasn't totally shit, but I'm sure it was more to do with the fact that he was a mate and had to see me every day.
     I know that a lot of artists have posted their work on here for critiquing purposes but I've not seen it done by writers, other than he who must not be named and critiquing wasn't really his motivation. Thats obviously because writers need to protect their ideas in a way that artists don't. However, since I write purely for my own amusement and have no illusions of either a) ever selling my work or b) my work being particularly worthy of theft, I have decided to post a scene from the screenplay I'm currently lying to myself about being determined to finish. Feel free to mercilessly rip it to shreds. I'm not completely happy with it myself, so I'll be interested to see if you all have the same thoughts as I did.
 
I should say that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to the formatting of scripts or the technical language of film,which is why there is none, so it's realy just story and dialogue that I'd appreciate comments on.

I should warn you that I'm copy/pasting from celtx and it doesn't translate very well. Apologies. Here it is:

EXT. forest clearing. day

SARAH sits on a log. She is very still, staring at the ground, lost in thought. KARL enters the clearing behind her, reaches out to touch her shoulder. She starts, but seeing that it's him she relaxes.

SARAH
Hi.

KARL
Hi.

SARAH
What are you doing here?

KARL
Wondered where you'd got to. Saw you talking to Kristen then you just disappeared. You know, it's not really safe to be wandering around alone. You don't know what's out here.

SARAH
I just needed some time to think that's all. Some of the stuff that's going on, it's all a bit...

KARL
Yeah. I know what you mean. It's all gone a bit Langoliers.

SARAH
I was gonna say Lost.

KARL
Well yeah, but that's because you're culturally stunted.

She laughs and moves across, allowing him to sit down. They cosey up to each other and he takes her hand.

KARL
Look, I know things haven't been great between us lately but you can talk to me you know. You don't have to go through all this on your own.

SARAH
You know something? The plane coming down, what happened to David and Simon, even those things, whatever the Hell they are, I can handle all that. It's like, it's so ridiculous, you know, so weird, you just have to go with it. Because if you really think about it for a minute, let that stuff get a hold in your head, you'd just go completely fucking insane.

So I'm not thinking about any of that. I'm thinking about the real world, the world I'm hoping to God I'm going to wake up to any minute now. And it turns out that world is just as fucked up as this one.

KARL
I don't know what you...

SARAH
It's Kristen.

KARL stiffens a little, gives her an appraising look. She doesn't notice.

SARAH
(continued)
She's been seeing someone.

KARL
So what? I keep telling you, she's not your responsibility, you can't keep winding yourself up about her.

SARAH
(defensive but resolute)
She's a good kid, I like her. And her Dad treats her like shit. God knows I can relate to that. I worry about her that's all.

KARL
Fair enough. But so what if she's seeing someone? That's what teenagers do.

SARAH
He's a lot older than her.

KARL
She told you that?

KARL gets up and moves away from her slightly to stand against a tree.

KARL
(continued)
How old exactly.

SARAH
In his 30's. It's sick Karl. But she can't see it, she loves him.

KARL
I don't really...I mean...is it though? I mean, you might not like the idea but she's 16. Technically she's legal and the guys doing nothing wrong.

SARAH
Except she's been seeing him for years. Since she was 13 she says. Anyway, she only had her birthday last month and she's 3 months gone.

KARL changes his demeanor completely. He becomes very stiff, his movements restrained, his voice cold.

KARL
She's pregnant?

SARAH
Yeah, and she's terrified.

KARL
She should be.

SARAH
What? What are you...

KARL
3 years of trying and now she does it. She always did have crap timing.

SARAH
(realisation dawning)
My God. It's you. You're...

KARL
Shame, I reckon I'd have made a good Aunt.

SARAH
Aunt? What are you...I don't believe this. I can't...


KARL
Will you shut up, I'm trying to think.

SARAH
(vehemently)
She's a kid.

KARL
Yeah, and I felt bad about it for a while. I'm not a pervert, I don't get off on that stuff, if she'd been older I'd have still... I seduced her for the same reason I seduced her mother.

SARAH
Her mother? Jesus!

KARL
Watch your mouth. And yes, her mother. I needed to father a kid into that family. Preferably more than one. I'd already wrapped the mother round my little finger, figured I'd have Kristen as well, once she was old enough to conceive. Increase the chances. I have to say though...

He moves back to SARAH, leans in close. She shrinks from him but he grabs her by the hair.

KARL
(continued)
Once I got past the whole age thing, I really kind of enjoyed myself. Oh, the things she would do. Puts your pathetic frigid fumbling to shame.

SARAH
(whispers)
I hate you.

KARL
Really. Oh well, can't be helped.

SARAH
(shouts)
I hate you.

KARL
You said.

He pushes her to the ground, turns around, begins to walk away.

KARL
You know, you should see this as a good thing. Put us behind you, move on with whats left of your...

She grabs a rock, starts running towards him. He spins, disarms her and wraps her in a clinch from behind. She struggles, attempts to fight him off.

KARL
(laughing)
This is fun. Where was this fire when we were screwing? Can't stick around to take advantage though, got things to do. Gotta go and check on Grace. I have big plans for her.

SARAH stops struggling, going limp and beginning to sob.

SARAH
(whispering)
You're sick. A sick, twisted... You're a monster.

KARL stops laughing, snaps her neck, lets the body drop to the floor.

KARL
You have no idea.

9

Film & TV / Whos Birthday

« on: 05 July, 2010, 07:57:34 PM »

Right, this may be old news to those of you who scour 100+ sites a day for the slightest tidbit. On the other hand I may have dreamed it because I can't remember where I got the idea. Anyway, I'm sure I've heard some vague rumors that the beeb are contemplating a possible multi Doctor story to celebrate the 50th anniversary during the 2013 season. If true it's heartening to see them confident of the shows longevity, if nothing else.

Even if it's total bollocks though, it got me to thinking.

I've been going over it and I don't know how I feel about a traditional multi Doctor story. All I'm seeing are problems. All of the originals have aging and/or being dead problems hampering their suitability (except McGann who isn't really 'iconic' enough I wouldn't have thought) and also have the added disadvantage of the newer audience probably not caring about them in the slightest.

If we discount them though, we are left with Ecclestone and Tennant. I'm assuming that Smith will still be current. Given Ecclestones ambivalence  I'd be surprised if he was up for it so we're left with Tennant. Smith/Tennant in a Two Doctors situation is hardly an earthshattering concept to me I'm afraid.

What do you think? Will they do a multi Doctor? Should they? If not, what would be the best way to celebrate?

Can I just say, for some reason, typing 2013 in a near contemporary context felt weird. Sounded weird when I read it back too. Still seems like that should be the far future. Maybe it's just me.

10

Film & TV / A Matter of Life and Death

« on: 04 July, 2010, 01:59:25 PM »

Don't judge me, but I've never actually seen this. I know it's regarded as something of a classic by critics and film student types but what do the peeps on here think?

I ask cos it's on this afternoon and I can't decide whether to give it a go. It's on Film4 which means adverts, which always pisses me off with films and I have other stuff that I shouldbe getting on with but...

Anyway, is it as good as the hype?

11

Film & TV / Where can I see this?

« on: 22 June, 2010, 12:31:12 PM »

Rennaissance. The little one off they did with Moving Wallpaper series 2.

I'm sure it's knocking about on the web in various very obvious places that I have nevertheless managed to not find.

There doesn't seem to be a series 2 DVD and it's long gong from itv.com so far as I can tell. I don't really do online telly but I'm assuming stuff only stays up for a few weeks? I couldn't find it anyway.

I know this is old news but I didn't watch it at the time cos my laptop struggles and I assumed there'd be a dvd. I kind of need to see it to cross it off the list. It's taunting me.

Anyone help?

12

Film & TV / Who would you like to see in Who?

« on: 05 June, 2010, 09:23:44 PM »

So after Dickens in Series 1 and Shakespeare, Christie and now Van Gogh in subsequent years, I got to thinking which other artistic types might be ripe for Who use.

My first thoughts were Lovecraft and the whole Cthulhu side of things and Shelley/Frankenstein, perhaps dealing with the night in question.

Then I realised that these were pretty obvious and therefore cliched and wondered what others thought. Who would you like to see next year?

13

Film & TV / Todd from Neighbours in fantasy serial?

« on: 19 May, 2010, 10:32:53 AM »

I need some help. I realise this will mean nothing to people not of a certain age but here goes.

I've been thinking a lot over the last couple of days about the 90's version ofThe Tomorrow People, starring Kristian Schmid. It got me thinking about a serial, of which I have only the vaguest memories, in which Schmid played a teenager who gets stuck in a paralel world and has to do battle with these wizard type dudes. I think there was also a subplot about his mates in the real world hanging around the spot where he crossed over.

I may be mixing up 2 or 3 shows here and it's entirely possible I've got the wrong actor but I don't think so. It would have been either just before or just after he did Tomorrow People. Anybody have a clue what I'm talking about?

14

General / Did I dream this?

« on: 15 May, 2010, 06:21:13 PM »

Early on in my reading of 2000ad there was a series called Janus psi, written I think, by Alan Grant. between my paper round ending and getting my first proper job I had to take a small break from the Prog and when I came back Janus was nowhere to be seen.

Within one of the stories I read there seemed to be an indication that Psi Division was up to something very dodgy that the rest of Justice Department would come down on them like a tonne of bricks for. I think there was even a scene where the head of the Division contemplated having to silence Janus if she came to close to revealing the truth.

I haven't thought about this for years but it just poped into my head while rading the Psi Files. So my question is, did I dream it, or did it actually happen. And if it did, was there a resolution during my brief hiatus or was it just dropped?

15

Off Topic / The Impossible Quest

« on: 12 May, 2010, 08:26:36 PM »

Okay, so, I've started a blog.

 Actually, I've had one for getting on to a year now, but I only really set it up on a whim and never really knew what to do with it. I mostly went on their every few months to whine self pityingly about my life in a slightly forced 'jolly' way to convince myself that contrary to all the indications, I wasn't as depressed as fuck.

Anyway, I decided that it needed a focus and a theme and something that would force me to write about something more positive. Something that I might actually be willing to let others read. That's right, it didn't have a single reader because nobody knew it existed.

It took me a while longer to actually come up with something until I realised that the answer was staring me in the face, right there in my sig on this board. I would write a blog about my quest, my impossible quest, to watch every single episode of every single sci-fi show ever made. Or as near as I can with no Sky and a severely depleted DVD budget.

In the end I decided to start from scratch with a dedicated blog and posted my first little bit of stuff up their today.

It's a bit rambly and unfocused and I warn you that the subject matter is a little naff - just the luck of the draw that I was watching rubbish when I decided to do this - but hopefully it will get better as it goes on.

I've no idea how to post links but if anyone is interested it's at theimpossiblequest.blogspot         Comments welcome, if you can be arsed.


And if you want to point and laugh at a grown man whining like a 13 year old kid who hates his mam and wants to die, I'm man enough now to let you look at faplad.blogspot as well.  Thats the original I talked about earlier.

Oh, and apologies to crazyfox, who asked for a link when I was rambling about this shiit on Twiitter last night.  I didn't get back to you, for the reasons at the top of this post. Didn't think I could explain it in 12 words or less over there.