SPOILERS FOR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
So I am currently re-watching Battlestar Galactica at the moment and i've just finished season 3, it has to be said that the finale for this season is the best finale ive ever seen on a TV show.
Especially the last 15 minutes.
I have never seen a show end on such a big cliffhanger as this, and one that the audience care about completely. In the final minutes of the episode, "Crossroads part 2" we find out 4 out of the final 5 cylons in an amazing theme throughout the 2 episodes (and by theme I mean both storyline wise as well as Bear McCreay's amazing version of "All Along The Watchtower", we see Gias Balter win his trial and that the Old Man voted for his aquittal, and finally we have the shocking reveal of Starbuck's return :O WTF? Is she a Cylon, WHAT THE FRAK IS GOING ON?
It leaves you with a sense of awe and it took me a few days to get over it, (after watching it again like 5 times), as well as the feeling of massive anticipation for the next season. I don't think a show since has had me GAGGING for the next season quite so much, Even Doctor Who i can wait for.
No other show has delivered that epic-ness and that amount of reveal in one episode and made it good (I mean lost had a few episodes towards the end with a lot of reveal, but they were all rather wishywashy and the episodes often suffered for it!)
So do you agree? What do you think is the best finale of a TV season ever?
Answer's in the disquis comment box please folks :D
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Which Cybernetic Life is the most Bad Ass?
Since the early days of metropolis right up to the modern era of Mechs on TNT's new Sci-Fi show Falling Skies, Humans have been fascinated with the idea of artificial life, robots, androids, cyborgs and so on. The idea of artificial lifeforms or technologically enhanced biological bodies has been one that has become its own theme in science fiction, one that so many books, comics, TV shows and films have picked up on.
Today I am focusing on 4 of , what I feel, are the worst of them all, the most terrifying and sinister. Of these four I want you to pick who you think is the most Bad Ass, so here I go.
So number 1 on my list today is:
The Daleks
The Daleks were created on Skaro by a man named Davros. They were a mutated descendant of the Kaleds, one of 2 species fighting a civil war on Skaro (the other being the Thal). Davros created them to be the perfect soldiers, ones with no emotion's and the only drive to conquer, or rather Exterminate. Over the nearly 50 year history of Doctor Who and the Daleks, we have seen them with a multitude of weaponry including the standard Gunstick (the whisk) used for exterminating and disintegrating, the manipulator arm (the plunger), mostly used for moving objects, connecting up to computer systems etc, but we have seen it used to smother peoples heads thus killing them. Extra's we have seen include flame throwers, claw arms equipt with blow torches and a machine gun. One Dalek is all it would take to destroy everything, the superior shielding on a Dalek doesn't let much past. This does however depend on the variety of Dalek you are dealing with as some have been shown to be rather easy to destroy, whereas other (such as the one in the new series episode "Dalek" have been virtually indestructible)
It's not though the weapons of a Dalek that makes them so terrifying it's their lack of emotions, the unwillingness to empathise or to sympathise, they are without a doubt pure evil and have no Conscience holding them back or forcing them to look back in remorse. The second most scary thing about them is that they fought the last great time war with the Time Lords and the only thing that could destroy them, also destroyed the Time Lords, the most powerful race ever in existence.
Dalek's have the uncanny ability of coming back, no matter how many times you think they have been destroyed, they always come back...
The second species on todays list are:
The Cybermen
The Cybermen, much like the Dalek's, have been shown in a vast variety. Originally they were created by a wholly organic species of Near-Humans who originated on Earth's former twin planet, Mondas. The humanoids turned themselves into Cybermen to survive our solar system when their planet drifted into it. The second version of Cybermen are from an alternate universe known as "Pete's World", these Cybermen are converted humans from that world. They were created as the ultimate upgrade of human kind. Much like the Dalek's often do with Davros, the Cybermen turned on their creator and "upgraded" him also. These Cybermen are fitted with emotional inhibitor's that prevent them from feeling any emotion. This lack of emotion, again much like the Dalek's makes them remorseful and quick to kill or "upgrade" any one they find.
The weapons of the Cybermen have included electrified hands, wrist blasters, the ability to fire darts from their mouth's and they have been shown to use large blaster weapons as well.
Perhaps not as sleek and elegant as the Daleks, the Cybermen have always had a large force and have also accord in 2 universes suggesting that they be an inevitable evolution of humanoid kind, or at least a backwards one.
As I am writing this I cannot decide who to put third and last as I both love and fear these species the same. They are both terrifying and deadly, but these two also have more human characteristics that makes them both more cunning the the 2 previous entries, but also more relate-able in some ways.
Still I have to choose so, the third entry is that of:
The Borg
Relatively speaking, little is still known about the Borg, we think they originated in the Delta Quadrant as that would make the most sense as that's where the bulk of their territory is, we know they assimilate species and technology in order to add there "distinctiveness to [their] own", we know they have tried to assimilate Earth on several occasions and failed. It is clear that the Borg, like the Daleks and like Cybermen were originally a humanoid species with no technology in their bodies, it would seem through experimentation that they developed technology which they implanted into their bodies, eventually forming the Hive mind, the collective. They have been around for "thousands of centuries" making them one of the oldest species in the Galaxy.
The Borg arsenal is probably the most awesome (and i am not using that word in the "OMG its so awesome" way). Because of the assimilations of countless species and technologies they have a unique ability to adapt to almost any form of assault, the weapons they have access to is only limited by the number of species they have assimilated. They are almost unstoppable, only cunning and often an ex Borg drone on your side is the only thing that will keep you alive.
The scariest thing about the Borg though, isn't the technology, isn't the adaptability or even the way they look. It is the sheer numbers of them, they number in the trillions with millions of ships spread across a third of the Galaxy. They are the sort of enemy where you can sit there and think what is the point in fighting, we will never beat them! That is why for me, they are probably the scariest species in science fiction.
Finally though, the last entry goes to a species I love, one that also scare's the crap out of me, but one i am extremely fascinated by. After all they are our great great great great times a million grandparents:
The Cylons
That's right we are related to toaster's. But before they spawned a new species with old style humans, they were a Bad Ass species that really scared the shit out of people because, they won.
So a little history on the Cylons and humans. Humans originally evolved on a planet called Kobol, they formed 12 tribes, they then got lazy and built cybernetic lifeform nodes to do the heavy lifting and dirty work. These first gen Cylons evolved (if you can use that term) into human form Cylons, these human forms became the 13th tribe of Kobol, and for a time it was good until the centurion style Cylons rebelled, thankfully they were defeated. At some point these human forms left Kobol and left the "real" humans behind. They went to a planet they called Earth. Skip forward and the human form Cylons have only gone and made the same mistake the human did, they made centurion style Cylons to do the heavy lifting and dirty work and so the cycle began, these centurion's rebelled and destroyed Earth and the human form Cylons, except for 5 individuals who resurrected. After a long journey these five found the 12 colony's of man, the Humans on Kobol had left and settled in a new star system. Once the five individual's arrive at the new system they discovered that these Humans were at war with, yes you guessed it, a new form of centurion Cylon they had created. The 5 only existing human form cylons brokered a peace with the new Cylons and convinced them to leave the colony's in peace, in exchange they would make them human form cylons and give them resurrection. After 40 years of peace, the children of humanity came home to the colony's and wiped them all out (bar some little rag tag fleet of less than 50,000 people).
Now there are different version of the Cylons clearly, however most of things in common. So the Centurion models all tend to be tall, strong fitted with guns to them, or at least carry guns. They are also tough to destroy needing more than often, high explosive rounds to kill them.
There are Basestars, Raiders, heavy raiders and a number of other support ships etc, these are all alive. Most of them, including the centurion's (those under the command of the latest human forms) do not have any free will and are treated more like pets or slaves.
The most destructive and powerful version of the Cylons though, is the human form. They use infiltration, seduction, mind games, religion and so much more to destroy you from within.
A special mention here to my favourite Cylon and main reason the colony's were so easily destroyed, Caprica 6 who used seduction and sexuality against us.
Petty children come back to kick their parents out of their homes, thats how one could look at the Cylons.
Eventually as we know the Human Form Cylon's (or at least some of them) joined up with the humans and eventually settled on a new lush planet, they all called Earth, this being around 140,000 years ago.
OK, so ive delved into the 4 of what I think are the most Bad Ass artificial life or cybernetic life out there, the question is, who do you think is the worst? who would you least like to run in to when piloting your ship around the galaxy?
create free polls | comment on this
Today I am focusing on 4 of , what I feel, are the worst of them all, the most terrifying and sinister. Of these four I want you to pick who you think is the most Bad Ass, so here I go.
So number 1 on my list today is:
The Daleks
The Daleks were created on Skaro by a man named Davros. They were a mutated descendant of the Kaleds, one of 2 species fighting a civil war on Skaro (the other being the Thal). Davros created them to be the perfect soldiers, ones with no emotion's and the only drive to conquer, or rather Exterminate. Over the nearly 50 year history of Doctor Who and the Daleks, we have seen them with a multitude of weaponry including the standard Gunstick (the whisk) used for exterminating and disintegrating, the manipulator arm (the plunger), mostly used for moving objects, connecting up to computer systems etc, but we have seen it used to smother peoples heads thus killing them. Extra's we have seen include flame throwers, claw arms equipt with blow torches and a machine gun. One Dalek is all it would take to destroy everything, the superior shielding on a Dalek doesn't let much past. This does however depend on the variety of Dalek you are dealing with as some have been shown to be rather easy to destroy, whereas other (such as the one in the new series episode "Dalek" have been virtually indestructible)
It's not though the weapons of a Dalek that makes them so terrifying it's their lack of emotions, the unwillingness to empathise or to sympathise, they are without a doubt pure evil and have no Conscience holding them back or forcing them to look back in remorse. The second most scary thing about them is that they fought the last great time war with the Time Lords and the only thing that could destroy them, also destroyed the Time Lords, the most powerful race ever in existence.
Dalek's have the uncanny ability of coming back, no matter how many times you think they have been destroyed, they always come back...
The second species on todays list are:
The Cybermen
The Cybermen, much like the Dalek's, have been shown in a vast variety. Originally they were created by a wholly organic species of Near-Humans who originated on Earth's former twin planet, Mondas. The humanoids turned themselves into Cybermen to survive our solar system when their planet drifted into it. The second version of Cybermen are from an alternate universe known as "Pete's World", these Cybermen are converted humans from that world. They were created as the ultimate upgrade of human kind. Much like the Dalek's often do with Davros, the Cybermen turned on their creator and "upgraded" him also. These Cybermen are fitted with emotional inhibitor's that prevent them from feeling any emotion. This lack of emotion, again much like the Dalek's makes them remorseful and quick to kill or "upgrade" any one they find.
The weapons of the Cybermen have included electrified hands, wrist blasters, the ability to fire darts from their mouth's and they have been shown to use large blaster weapons as well.
Perhaps not as sleek and elegant as the Daleks, the Cybermen have always had a large force and have also accord in 2 universes suggesting that they be an inevitable evolution of humanoid kind, or at least a backwards one.
As I am writing this I cannot decide who to put third and last as I both love and fear these species the same. They are both terrifying and deadly, but these two also have more human characteristics that makes them both more cunning the the 2 previous entries, but also more relate-able in some ways.
Still I have to choose so, the third entry is that of:
The Borg
Relatively speaking, little is still known about the Borg, we think they originated in the Delta Quadrant as that would make the most sense as that's where the bulk of their territory is, we know they assimilate species and technology in order to add there "distinctiveness to [their] own", we know they have tried to assimilate Earth on several occasions and failed. It is clear that the Borg, like the Daleks and like Cybermen were originally a humanoid species with no technology in their bodies, it would seem through experimentation that they developed technology which they implanted into their bodies, eventually forming the Hive mind, the collective. They have been around for "thousands of centuries" making them one of the oldest species in the Galaxy.
The Borg arsenal is probably the most awesome (and i am not using that word in the "OMG its so awesome" way). Because of the assimilations of countless species and technologies they have a unique ability to adapt to almost any form of assault, the weapons they have access to is only limited by the number of species they have assimilated. They are almost unstoppable, only cunning and often an ex Borg drone on your side is the only thing that will keep you alive.
The scariest thing about the Borg though, isn't the technology, isn't the adaptability or even the way they look. It is the sheer numbers of them, they number in the trillions with millions of ships spread across a third of the Galaxy. They are the sort of enemy where you can sit there and think what is the point in fighting, we will never beat them! That is why for me, they are probably the scariest species in science fiction.
Finally though, the last entry goes to a species I love, one that also scare's the crap out of me, but one i am extremely fascinated by. After all they are our great great great great times a million grandparents:
The Cylons
That's right we are related to toaster's. But before they spawned a new species with old style humans, they were a Bad Ass species that really scared the shit out of people because, they won.
So a little history on the Cylons and humans. Humans originally evolved on a planet called Kobol, they formed 12 tribes, they then got lazy and built cybernetic lifeform nodes to do the heavy lifting and dirty work. These first gen Cylons evolved (if you can use that term) into human form Cylons, these human forms became the 13th tribe of Kobol, and for a time it was good until the centurion style Cylons rebelled, thankfully they were defeated. At some point these human forms left Kobol and left the "real" humans behind. They went to a planet they called Earth. Skip forward and the human form Cylons have only gone and made the same mistake the human did, they made centurion style Cylons to do the heavy lifting and dirty work and so the cycle began, these centurion's rebelled and destroyed Earth and the human form Cylons, except for 5 individuals who resurrected. After a long journey these five found the 12 colony's of man, the Humans on Kobol had left and settled in a new star system. Once the five individual's arrive at the new system they discovered that these Humans were at war with, yes you guessed it, a new form of centurion Cylon they had created. The 5 only existing human form cylons brokered a peace with the new Cylons and convinced them to leave the colony's in peace, in exchange they would make them human form cylons and give them resurrection. After 40 years of peace, the children of humanity came home to the colony's and wiped them all out (bar some little rag tag fleet of less than 50,000 people).
Now there are different version of the Cylons clearly, however most of things in common. So the Centurion models all tend to be tall, strong fitted with guns to them, or at least carry guns. They are also tough to destroy needing more than often, high explosive rounds to kill them.
There are Basestars, Raiders, heavy raiders and a number of other support ships etc, these are all alive. Most of them, including the centurion's (those under the command of the latest human forms) do not have any free will and are treated more like pets or slaves.
The most destructive and powerful version of the Cylons though, is the human form. They use infiltration, seduction, mind games, religion and so much more to destroy you from within.
A special mention here to my favourite Cylon and main reason the colony's were so easily destroyed, Caprica 6 who used seduction and sexuality against us.
Petty children come back to kick their parents out of their homes, thats how one could look at the Cylons.
Eventually as we know the Human Form Cylon's (or at least some of them) joined up with the humans and eventually settled on a new lush planet, they all called Earth, this being around 140,000 years ago.
OK, so ive delved into the 4 of what I think are the most Bad Ass artificial life or cybernetic life out there, the question is, who do you think is the worst? who would you least like to run in to when piloting your ship around the galaxy?
create free polls | comment on this
Friday, 8 July 2011
News of the World Close Down: The right thing to do?
Everything that the NoW has done has been despicable, there is absolutely no denying that. Hacking victim's family's phones, military widow's phones etc, everything they did was unthinkable.
Now Rupert Murdoch has closed down NoW, what i am asking is, was it the right thing to do. Other than the victims, the people i feel most sorry for are the good honest employee's of NoW who have now lost their jobs and livelihoods. Murdoch has closed down the NoW to take control of the story, he wants to make the decisions, not anybody else. In doing so he has allowed hundreds of people to lose their jobs.
what should have happened is that the people who were responsible for these acts should have been discovered and brought to justice, not the innocent people who did nothing wrong.
It comes down to the old phrase, don't tar everyone with the same brush.
Now Rupert Murdoch has closed down NoW, what i am asking is, was it the right thing to do. Other than the victims, the people i feel most sorry for are the good honest employee's of NoW who have now lost their jobs and livelihoods. Murdoch has closed down the NoW to take control of the story, he wants to make the decisions, not anybody else. In doing so he has allowed hundreds of people to lose their jobs.
what should have happened is that the people who were responsible for these acts should have been discovered and brought to justice, not the innocent people who did nothing wrong.
It comes down to the old phrase, don't tar everyone with the same brush.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Transformers 3 Review (Spoiler Free)
Ok so below is my review of Transformers, its as spoiler free as possible but read at your own risk :D
Ok So first thing i have to say about Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is that it was frigging awesome, best one of all 3. The CGI was fierce, the storyline was suspenseful and dramatic and literally kept me on the edge of my seat for 2/3's of the movie. The cast (bar one exception) was fantastic including the yet again amazing Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky Every movie I see him in I love.
He can play funny and serious all the same sentence.
Also in this years cast was the ever so talented Mr Leonard Nemoy,
who i must say did an absolutely incredible job as Sentinal Prime
(I also loved all the Spock references and jokes throughout the film). The whole storyline
involving Sentinal Prime is interesting and shocking and also very human.
Now as i have said the movie is amazing, i love almost every part of it (and I especially
loved seeing the Witwicky parents again which i always love), however one major downside
for me was that of the new love interest Carly, played by the untalented Rosie Huntington-Whiteley,
If you ask me, which i know you didn't but im going to say it anyway, she should stick to her
day job as a model. Throughout the movie i could not get a beat on who she was supposed
to be, i mean yes she is Sam's girlfriend, but who is she, what does she like. I don't
know if im being over critical because i like Megan Fox and her character Mikaela Banes, but it just felt as though Carly had literally been thrown in as a replacement
for Megan's character.It didn't seem right that she was Sam's motivation in the movie,
as we haven't seen there relationship grow as we had his and Mikaela's.
Other than that though the film was superb, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone!
Overall I would give the film a 9/10, this is based on my 7/10 for the first and 8/10 for the 2nd.
Ok So first thing i have to say about Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is that it was frigging awesome, best one of all 3. The CGI was fierce, the storyline was suspenseful and dramatic and literally kept me on the edge of my seat for 2/3's of the movie. The cast (bar one exception) was fantastic including the yet again amazing Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky Every movie I see him in I love.
He can play funny and serious all the same sentence.
Also in this years cast was the ever so talented Mr Leonard Nemoy,
who i must say did an absolutely incredible job as Sentinal Prime
(I also loved all the Spock references and jokes throughout the film). The whole storyline
involving Sentinal Prime is interesting and shocking and also very human.
Now as i have said the movie is amazing, i love almost every part of it (and I especially
loved seeing the Witwicky parents again which i always love), however one major downside
for me was that of the new love interest Carly, played by the untalented Rosie Huntington-Whiteley,
If you ask me, which i know you didn't but im going to say it anyway, she should stick to her
day job as a model. Throughout the movie i could not get a beat on who she was supposed
to be, i mean yes she is Sam's girlfriend, but who is she, what does she like. I don't
know if im being over critical because i like Megan Fox and her character Mikaela Banes, but it just felt as though Carly had literally been thrown in as a replacement
for Megan's character.It didn't seem right that she was Sam's motivation in the movie,
as we haven't seen there relationship grow as we had his and Mikaela's.
Other than that though the film was superb, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone!
Overall I would give the film a 9/10, this is based on my 7/10 for the first and 8/10 for the 2nd.
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