GeekiN Episode #83 – Catching Up
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
We had a lot of catching up to do for today’s episode. Clocking in at two hours and fifteen minutes, we tried to cover everything big we missed while we were not recording.Interested in what all is contained in this episode? Just keep reading!
- Black Friday
- NXE Launch & Impressions
- Xbox 360 sales
- Google Android Phones
- iPhone new update and podcasts
- WoW Expansion
- Star Trek & Race to Witch Mountain Trailers
- New Doctor
- “New” Television Season – Chuck, Heroes, Terminator, Etc
- Fable II and Fallout 3 DLC
- Geekshow.us is looking for writers for the site.
Lots of content, lots of discussion, and it helps set us up to a return to form for next week. We’ll return to covering the new news. Make sure you guys give us some more questions to answer on the GeekiNbox.
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Tagged under: Apple iPhone, Black Friday, GeekiN, GeekiNtertainment, Google Android, NXE, T-mobile G1, World of Warcraft, Xbox 360
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Book of the Month
Y The Last Man Vol. 5In this final Deluxe Edition hardcover collecting Y #49-60, Yorick and Agent 355 prepare for their ultimate quest to reunite the last man with his lost love, while the person, people or thing behind the disaster that wiped out half of humanity is revealed. Then, Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to its dramatic, unexpected conclusion.
One thing you missed in the G1 vs. iPhone discussions is that the G1 comes with a full qwerty keyboard whereas the iPhone is a touch screen.
Also you don’t need a MAC to write an application for Android because you can write them in the Java language.
That’s a good point. I’m a fan of having the option of an actual keyboard. Plus, I really love the way the phone flips open. The only two things I don’t like about the G1: 1> No Multitouch technology enabled on it, though it is apparently built into the OS. 2> The only way to get the phone into landscape mode is to bring out the keyboard. There needs to be a rotation sensor like the iPhone and iPod Touch have where when you turn it on it’s side, it rotates to landscape. However, I think I’m a bigger fan of the G1 than the iPhone, if for no other reason that the Google Suite of products being integrated and the platform being open.
Glad to see someone enjoyed that conversation…
I’m putting forward my support for Kingdom Hearts, both games in the series were really fun. You’d probably get a bit more out of them if you’ve played the Final Fantasy series as well as seen the Disney movies featured in the game but you’ll enjoy it either way. And if you are picking up a PS2 you could always get Final Fantasy too.
I played them quite a while ago so if you’re used to 360 graphics, they may look a little dated but they’re definitely amongst the best looking games on the console. The first one has a bit of an annoying camera control (using the shoulder buttons rather than the right thumb stick) but they cleared that up for the second one.
They also just announced the previously Japan only PS2 remake of the GBA game is coming to the rest of the world. So maybe by the time that comes out you’ll have caught up with the series :)
@SaberJ: Have you caught up with Supernatural yet? So far this year, it has been the best show on TV.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles started out as a good show, and it just keeps improving as it goes. I’ve really been enjoying this season, especially the Summer Glau-centric episode you mentioned during the podcast.
I’m about halfway through the first season of Supernatural. Had to take a break when the new season of everything started back up. Now I’m just waiting for a break to start back into it. Though, I am cheating with Jeremiah. I started into that because I wanted something I could watch on my own. But then my wife got into it too. So there went that.
I need to finish listening to the entire podcast before I start posting comments. It seems like you already answered a question about Supernatural during the show.
Man, you are at the tipping point for Supernatural. It was pretty good for the first half of the first season, but it really starts jumping up in quality right about the halfway point onwards.
Yeah, I had got to a good point in the series (Where they go back to their house) when I stopped. Rest assured, I am enjoying it, and I will be continuing on with it. It’s just not quite to the point where it trumps everything else yet.
I could not agree more on both show. I was just liking TSSC when the season started and was sure it was at a peak. It has surprised me week to week, I enjoy every episode more then the previous. My roommate does not watch the show and actually asked me how it was possible for every episode of a show to be my new favorite.
Same goes for supernatural. its the only show I know of that has been on for this many seasons and has not let up. we are in the fourth season and have (to me at least) yet to hit a low point. And when they step out of the mythology for an episode and lighten it up we end up with something as interesting and entertaining as a living manic-depressive-suicidal teddy bear or aliens who abduct people and make them slow dance to Elvis songs.
TSSC has definitely improved, and it has become my current favorite show. Although the last episode I saw (”Complications”) was a bit weak – I’m getting tired of the ease with which they send people back and forth in time. But overall it has gotten better and better.
In Complications, they went so far as to suggest that continuity can be broken by the existence of alternate universes populated by the same time-traveling characters. This seems to violate an implicit “single universe” premise that has guided Terminator continuity. It also means the world can’t be “saved” – rather only the distribution of saved vs. unsaved world among all the co-existing universes can be tipped more in favor of saved vs. unsaved worlds. I don’t like this development, as it seemed a cover for bad writing.
I totally agree with Randy that the “Cameron” episode (”Allison from Palmdale”) was the best of the season – they put a real mind-binding twist on the her origin story and the origin of all assassins. The “Military School” episode (”Goodbye to all That”) was also surprisingly good, and showed that the Derek character can carry episodes.
BTW, if you want to see a interesting time-travel movie that explores the issues with cause-and-effect continuity is broken, check out “Primer.” Made for $7000 and shown and Sundance, it is maddeningly effective with a real geeky back-story.
That bothered me a lot on that episode. If you watch the first movie just as it is (without thought of T@ or the show, etc) at no point is the timeline changed. It’s a total closed loop- Kyle and the Terminator were always meant to go back in time. (Even though Kyle says that possibly there are other timelines than the current one he also cavceats that speech with, “I don’t know tech stuff” which makes him an unreliable character)
And oh my eyes just went cross-eyed.
Personally, I don’t want the world to be “saved” (Obvs just in context of the show) because frankly… that’d be kind of boring. It’s one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of T2 (basically I think it’s lots of shiny and cool effects- but the story isn’t nearly as good as the first one)
I think “Goodbye to All That” has been my fave episode thus far this season too (though I enjoyed the Cameron one as well) simply because I was blown away yet again with BAG. Who knew the actor from such fine TV movies as “Unwed Father” and “She Fought Alone” would be that damn good.
Anyway- awesome show guys. Glad as always to hear you back in action. :P
I had problem with the revelation in complications also. I really hope they don’t move the show into a multiverse world. I mean I’m sure they could make it but its fine as a single timeline reality. Personally I think the show just works better if they are working to keep the footing they always were going to have. I like the idea that we are just seeing the events that led to doomsday. If they actually go along with the idea that they CAN change the future I will be less impressed. But it will be the first step that moves the show in a direction I don’t like.
@ ‘Who knew the actor from such fine TV movies as “Unwed Father” and “She Fought Alone” would be that damn good.’
haha I couldn’t have put it better. I am constantly impressed with the guy.
@MtnMeister
that is the third time this month that I’ve heard someone suggest ‘Primer’. I think I’m going to have to check it out.
I would like to point out at this point that while it’s completely likely that TSCC is in fact going in that direction, it is equally unlikely that it is not. The ONLY evidence that we have that it might be comes from some story that Jesse is telling. Derek jumps to that conclusion. But we’ve already seen that Jesse very likely has some sort of ulterior motive for being around. It is quite possible that she wants to manipulate Derek in a certain way.
However, with all that said, and coming from a person that has never been a big fan of the Terminators (They were solid, but I don’t put them on my greatest movies list), I have one thing to add. The Mythos of the movies has always been that terminators have come from the future to kill John Connor. Why? To change the future and ensure that he never starts the resistance. Now, I would assume that the humans could make the guess that by going into the past you can change the future, even if it’s not possible. However, I imagine that the only reason the machines would attempt this is if they had evidence to believe that it could actually work. Thus, the whole storyline is based on the idea that changes in the past can in fact change the future.
Now, the weird issue of multiple timelines existing at once? If that’s true, which I still have my doubts based on it’s source, is a little over complicated. I don’t know that I would have a problem either way, since it’s not really changing the story so much as adding to it. After all, it may not have ever happened in the movies, but then again, the movies were about 90 minutes long each. The series has easily eclipsed that. They have bigger stories to tell. They are already a larger part of the story than all of the movies put together. I’m not going to complain if they have to reach a bit to continue telling a good story. So long as they don’t end up writing themselves into a corner with time paradox crap, I’m fine with it.
Still, I again point out that people should wait until we get an answer for sure before throwing your opinions behind one of the (IMO) least trustworthy characters on the show. With all that said, it’s a minor flaw at best, IMO, even if it’s true. And it doesn’t really degrade the experience I’ve had in season 2. And yeah, Goodbye to All That was also a fantastic episode. Particularly because they let up a little on all the whining that John had been doing. I still haven’t watched last night’s episode. My current priority sits at: Chuck, Heroes, Terminator. So I’ll be checking that out probably today.
Wayne….actually at least one WalMart in Kentucky closes. The Bashford Manor one on Bardstown Road in Louisville (near the PodCulture studio) closes at midnight every night.
Randy…..you mentioned that you thought that the various Star Trek series didn’t add anything to the franchise, as they were just variations on the same theme. I have to disagree. (When it comes to Deep Sapce Nine at least anyway)
DS9 showed us a side of the Federation that was not the above-board-squeaky-clean image we had been shown before. We got to see the grim-gritty side of things. We had seen Captains play outside the rules before, but until Sisko we really hadn’t seen one resort to underhanded tatics to get what they needed. (He tricked the Romulans into joing their side during the Dominion War)
Also this was really the first time we got to see an over-arching story arc for a Trek series. Rather than the magic reset button being hit at the end of every episode, we got to see a wide variety of characters grow and develop over the run of the show. (Who would have thought at the start that Nog of all folks would have joined Starfleet for example)
All of this (to me at least) made DS9 the best Trek series! (Well behind TOS anyway)
Uh…guys…..you both DO indeed know someone with a PS3. Christina and I have one at our place. :P
You guys do know that Paterson Joseph is NOT African-American, right? Randy said that he was, but that’s not remotely true. He’s actually British. I don’t think the BBC would ever consider casting an American as Doctor Who. I’m sure it was just Randy using the term as a description for all black people (not in a racist way at all of course) without actually considering what the term means, but I thought it needed to be mentioned :)
Good point about the “source” of the multiple universe possibility, Randy. Jesse is clearly manipulating Derek in some way. Despite the sudden ease of time travel in the TSSC universe, it is unlikely that it is so easy she could gain access to such an important device (a time machine) to simply go AWOL. Someone sent her, and she is clearly on that mission.
Nevertheless, all the time travellers show the writers are getting sloppy, lazy, or desperate – and they could invent multiple universes to make dramatic events things easier by making them independent of continuity. Sarah could die in a season finale only to live again in the timeline we most relate to. Writers do get sloppy – just look at the Heroes morass.
I dislike plots involving multiple universes, because the consequences of actions and events become unimportant – in another universe the world goes where our favorite character lives, etc,
I have to admit that Jesse manipulating Derrik about the whole thing never crossed my mind. At this point its actually the most likely story.
I have to say that at this point even though the idea of a multiverse timeline is unappealing to me I do have faith in the writers. to be honest they have not let me down yet so they don’t have to prove themselves. I guess I shouldn’t complain before I see where they are going with it.
Brad: That wasn’t quite what I meant by not adding anything to the Trek universe. I agree, DS9 is one of the greatest Trek series (Behind TNG, though, not behind TOS :P ). I meant that they didn’t really have anything to add to the franchise as far as new ideas went. They stuck it on a space station, and hoped for the best. Nothing innovative there. Luckily, the story telling was strong enough to carry the series along. However, it’s time frame, it’s slow pacing, etc was enough to keep viewers away for the most part.
Concerning the PS3…Well then, I know one person. However, the fact that I didn’t even know you had one speaks my point just as clearly. :)
Doctor: Yeah, that was a case of me forgetting to detach the “American” part. I often forget to do that when discussing things outside the country. :)
MtnMeister: Heroes has gotten sloppy. But think that’s an exception rather than the rule, personally. That’s why most people steer clear of time stories. It takes a lot of work to write them well. Still, I feel that Terminator is one big time plot anyway, so nothing about this current storyline bothers me. It’s what I knew I would get when I signed up. You can’t tip-toe around in the this story without dealing with time quite often.
Time plot stories are always complicated, that’s what I liked about the indie film Primer – it refused to wrap things up neatly. It also made the film unbelievably confusing!
I think my favorite time travel consequences story was an old Red Dwarf episode, where they go back and prevent JFK’s assassination – arguably a good thing. Well, the world goes to hell and WWIII occurs as a result. So they go back in time again, get the now-still-alive JFK involved, and convince the second JFK to to go back in time, become the second gunman on the grassy knoll to shoot himself to save the world. He pulls the trigger, and poof, JFK dies on schedule, the world is saved, and the second gunman on the grassy knoll goes poof! It was hilarious.
I think that overall, DS9 was/is my favorite Trek series. It had a great group of characters and some really good storylines throughout its run. I grew up watching TNG, so I’ll always like that crew to a certain degree, but that series hasn’t aged very well. There are certainly many standout TNG episodes, but as a whole, I think that DS9 was better.
I think TNG and DS9 aged much better than TOS did. Sad to say, but I thought that the point at which Roddenberry stopped being involved so much with TNG was a noticeable improvement. The episodes got quite a bit better. Higher quality, better character progression, etc. Not to say that he didn’t have some solid episodes. But his time on the show still felt a bit too much like TOS to me.
I still watch the occasional episode of TNG and DS9. TNG makes the better “pick up and watch” show, whereas DS9 is a better continuous plot line. The whole Klingon war, Federation with cloaking tech, etc. Excellent stuff. My biggest problem with DS9 is that I wasn’t a fan with most of the big races involved.
@ Saberj: When you have a franchise whose premise is exploring the galaxy, seeking out new life and civilizations and boldly going where no man has gone before, having the show set on a space station is a pretty big change. Not to mention the back story behind the station (Former Cardassian station that they trashed before abandoning it, a lot of the technology was not compatible with Federation technology) and the fact that a good part of the crew were from the Bajoran militia instead of the Federation, and I’d say it added quite a bit.
I’d also say that what kept viewers away, for the most part, was that nobody bothered promoting it, rather than pacing or time frame issues. Plus the fact that, unlike similarly mismarketed shows like Firefly and Veronica Mars, it predated the age of DVD. If they had aired the show at a decent time, given a bigger role to the Defiant in “First Contact” and replaced “Insurrection” with a TNG/DS9 crossover movie, the series, and the franchise as a whole, would be a lot better off.
@ MtnMeister: Haven’t seen that Red Dwarf episode yet, but “Primer” was, indeed awesome. If you want a really convoluted time travel story, read “The Man Who Folded Himself” by David Gerrold. It’s like every conceivable time travel plotline stuffed into a little over 100 pages.
@elim: “seeking out new life and civilizations and boldly going where no man has gone before” and “having the show set on a space station is a pretty big change” don’t really add up. When your show is all about seeking out new life and new civilizations, sitting around on a space station is a big new idea? Yeah, I suppose it is definitely a new concept and a new definition of “seeking”. But I’m still not sold that it added anything to the franchise. Again, don’t get me wrong. I loved the series. But the stories and the acting is what I came for. The setting was rather ho-hum. In fact, I thought the most unique and interesting part of the original setup, was the fact that the main character’s initial motivation involved his wife dying in the battle against Picard.
D69 received “good” ratings. So obviously, they marketed it quite a bit. However, the show was in syndication, so each market’s advertising and timeframe differed. However, unlike TNG, ratings were not so good as to warrant it having a good time each week, or even a consistent time in a lot of cases. However, part of all that can also be accounted to the fact that it aired during the same time that TNG was on the air, and then later, Voyager. So it was also possibly seen as “second Tier” Star Trek. I don’t think the franchise was ever strong enough to carry two concurrent series.
I really don’t think the series could have succeeded any more than it did already, honestly. The series was pretty hardcore with it’s stories. I think the reason that TOS and TNG were as popular as they were was because of the accessibility. All of the main characters were human or human looking. Worf was really one of the first visually different characters to be a main part of the story. And that possibly wouldn’t have happened, had it not been for Tasha Yar leaving the show. But even Spock/Data/Troy would appear human to a viewer that doesn’t know better. With DS9, the really didn’t make any allowances for that. They had the Ferengi, the Bajoran, the Changelings, the Trill, and then eventually Worf. I’m not saying that the cast made the series suffer. It actually made it quite a bit more interesting….for me. However, for those not into heavy sci-fi, it would make it even more inaccessible.
In any case, I’m glad to see the series warrants so much attention and praise, considering it just got a small blurb on the episode. For those of you that are fans of the franchise, and haven’t made your feelings clear…How did you like the Star Trek movie trailer? Too big of a departure? Or pushing all the right buttons?
As a long time fan of Star trek watching the new tralier has left me wondering why? When I first heard about this new Star Trek Trailer I was excited, the teaser trailer on the beginning of Cloverfield got me even more excited. It wasn’t until I saw the promo shot for Kirk that my heart started to sink because in my mind it wasn’t Kirk. Now before everybody goes “its not meant to be the old Kirk but a new Kirk” I would ask those people to consider what they they were thinking when the new James Bond was going to be cast, were you worried on the casting or excited. Its nothing against the actors because I am a fan of some of them from other movies, its just when you have these characters in your mind for so long, you get this sense of whos right and whos wrong for the roles. Im sure everybody gets in that mind set.
Spock, Christoper Pike, Uhura and Sulu are well cast in my opinion, the others are just missing the mark. The images of the tralier have left me wondering what the hell? Starships being built on the ground, Scotty looks like he just jumped in from Mad Max 2. Why does Nero (Eric Bana) look like some dark elf sorcerer when he’s meant to be a Romulan. The klingons with the funny hats with ridges to hide the fact that in TOS they didn’t have ridges on thier foreheads. Or what about the fact that Nero’s ship looks like something out of the Cthulthu Mythos. It just looks a mess, it didn’t feel like or look like a Star Trek movie. If this movie didn’t have any Star Trek elements to it and was its own thing I think I would be impressed, but its not. The effects and action does look good but for me thats not what Star trek was about, for me it was always the journey of self-discovery and reaching beyond our limits both mentally and physically. This is not the feeling I got when watching the trailer. You might say the Kirk and Spock story lines have those elements but I wasn’t seein it.
Im sure people are excited for this next generation of Star Trek and I am happy for them, hopefully it will bring in new fans to the franchise and I can only hope that they go check out what has gone before. For me DS9, TOS and TNG are the best of what Star Trek can be, they had thier highs and lows but what TV show doesn’t, Voyager and Enterprise had some good episodes but I think they lost the plot so to speak near the end. Sorry to all those Voyager and Enterprise fans out there.
So yes I would say that this incarnation of Star Trek is for me a big departure of what has gone before, not to say that I don’t like change its just that this new interpretation of Star Trek is going down the wrong path. When it comes to Star trek movies you really have to brace yourself for some heartache. The Nexsus (Generations), The Great Barrier (The Final Frontier), Picards clone and Data’s other brother B4 (Nemesis), and the worst manaul control of a starship (Insurrection), these are just the most obvious that come to mind, Insurrection had more problems then that but you get the picture. Im sure thier are those that disagree and I respect thier opinions, but these examples show Trek going down the wrong path. Those movies are regarded as pale imitations of The Wrath of Khan, First Contact and The Undiscovered Country. Even The Voyage Home, Search for Spock and Star Trek The Motion Picture had thier charms, they weren’t great films but they stayed close enough to the vision of what Star Trek was for me to really keep them close to my heart.
On a side note I’d like to say welcome back to Randy and Wayne, I really missed Geekintertainment. thanks for reading :-)
Thanks for the input, Damien. I appreciate it. I was looking for some input from hardcore traditionalist, and you did a good job of pointing out that side of things. I agree with you on a lot of those issues. I love the casting, except for Kirk and Chekov. I also don’t like the way they took the Romulans. Let’s get the casual audience in by making the races look like they are from World of Warcraft rather than Star Trek?
However, I have a bit more faith in what JJ is trying to do with the movie. This is one trailer, and likely one that was targeted to those that aren’t fans of the franchise. I assume they think that they’ve already got the traditional fans. If nothing else, they will come to see how “bad” it turns out. But the traditional fans is who they have to spend marketing money and efforts on.
We’ll see how it turns out. Ultimately, I think that the movie can go down the wrong path, and still be a top 5 Trek movie. But again, thanks for the comments.
@Elim I’ll check out you recommended book. Thanks!
Even though I watch it for the wrong reasons, it is nice that One Tree Hill got a mention.
And those wrong reasons would be? ;)
Sophia Bush