TrueGentleman

Now the competing tabloid Daily Mail is reporting this story, which the whole Internet seems to be picking up. This may be the first time in a long while that the Sun got a Doctor Who-related rumor right.

Incidentally, Georgia Moffett's mother is the actress who played Trillian on the television version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A geek pedigree doesn't get much better than a Whovian-HG2G crossover.

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Originally Posted by GreySquirrel Its getting harder and harder to get names that don't require odd punctuation or deliberate misspellings and the like.

Odd punctuation and deliberate misspellings are warning signs, though not deal-breakers, in my book. The real-world analog is trying to impress people by wearing bootleg Nikees from the Phillippines, sporting a Shenzhen-manufactured Pradda handbag, or listening to a knockoff Hiphone NaNo.

From my own experience, I've found that only the most obvious puns and wordplay have been reserved and allusions, whether to the real world or mythology, still work in lesser-known cases - which is fine. If it's a must-have, then coming up with a variation on the theme will do. Someone beat me to the Archer's Paradox as Paradox Archer, but I can make do with Archer Paradox for my TA/Arch Defender alt. Likewise, there was no way Karloff would be still available, so I named my neck-bolted brute alt William Henry Pratt after the actor's birth name instead of trying to misspell it Karloph or Karlofff or Karl-off. Real satisfaction, however, comes from creative exercise that won't be confused with anyone else's work. Variations on the name/theme for my main, True Gentleman, aren't likely to be taken for another player in this City of Alts, e.g. Gentlemandala, Gentlemandroid, Gentlemanhunter, Gentlemanpower, etc.

As for expiration dates, NCSoft would be working against its business interests if it added disincentives for players to return to the game (especially in the wake of Going Rogue). From a marketing standpoint, attracting return business, however old, is always easier than trying to find new leads. Besides, it's always pleasant to see a veteran from CoH's early years post on the board to ask if it's worth reactivating their old character, even if it's Captain Ersatz or Fail O'Suckyname.

It's possible that they're following the lead of Alan Moore, who, in the above-mentioned second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, imagined Wells's Martians as originally invaders of Mars, not from. In his overstuffed scenario, the native Martians from other science fiction stories - primarily Edgar Rice Burroughs's and C.S. Lewis's, in addition to allusions to lesser-known authors' works - have been fighting a collective war against the tripod invaders and have nearly won when the book opens. While the natives believe they're on the verge of driving out the invaders, the tripod "Martians" are not so much retreating as preparing to launch their invasion of Earth in what will be Moore's take on The War of the Worlds.

We'll see if this steampunk anime is able to come up with anything as interesting, should they be intentionally using the term "interstellar".

Orson Welles's radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's classic novel aired in 1938, so you're still in the wrong era. Pedantry aside, it's significant that the broadcast caused such panic during the jittery pre-WWII years, just as George Pal's 1953 movie version was released during the similarly jittery early phase of the Cold War. Likewise, Wells's novel was published at the apogee of the British Empire and the colonial era, just before the second Boer War and World War I would bring down its confidence as devastatingly as Wells's Martians. Placing any of them in the wrong decade wrenches them from their historical context, which is vital to appreciating even science fiction.

Orson spins in his grave every time misspells his name the same way as H. G.'s.

It's up again.

While we wait for the double-post on the 11th Doctor, the supplemental material How To Get Into Doctor Who In One or Two Easy Steps and From Bow Ties to Sneakers: Fashion Tips from the Doctor are pretty good.

UPDATE: And now the two-fer for the 11th Doctor has been posted: Mark Waid: Fezzes Aren’t Cool and Tara O'Shea/Lynne M. Thomas: Chicks Dig the Eleventh Doctor.

Because I'm Clever is up.

EDIT: And here are the links to Seven (The Tea is Getting Cold) and Eight (His Humanity Proven).

Another one of my favorites, particularly for the character of the ironically named Clementine and Kate Winslet's performance. Her line "Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. But I'm just a ******-up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours." blasts the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope into the dust. Ramona's not quite as wise, nor as self-destructive, but she similarly resists Scott's attempts to cast her in this role in their relationship.

Also, they share the habit of regularly dyeing their hair strikingly odd colors.

Ah, perhaps then you're a connoisseur of Metacritic (which gave it an aggregate rating of 69%)? My point in citing these somewhat arbitrary numerical averages is that the critical consensus was, broadly speaking, in the movie's favor and not, as had been suggested earlier, a comparative flop among reviewers.

Although I'm no accountant for taste, I follow a selection of simpatico if fallible reviewers when it comes to films. They also enjoyed SPvtW, though not unreservedly either. Of course, if all that matters for a movie is the tally of eyeballs, then aesthetic judgments are beside the point (hoorah for the ephemeral Expendables in that case).

The connection was all but entirely on Knives's part, and kudos to newcomer Ellen Wong for selling that in her performance. Scott, bluntly, used her in passive-aggressive fashion. Cheering on the alternate ending misses the point of Scott finally levelling up to achieve the necessary balls and self-respect to admit to her that he treated her badly. The idea that in a "better" ending, he would then get back with her reduces her to the prize at the end, precisely the opposite of what Wright was critiquing in his portrayal of a video game-fueled protagonist.

One line of defense of SPvtW was that it was too cool for the arcade, that its target audience of gamers wasn't ready to follow the misadventures of a skinny, self-involved Scott Pilgrim and his indie-rock obscure object of desire when they were used to rooting for buff/well-coifed, uncomplicated heroes, manic pixie dream girls, and meet-cute hipster couples. At first, this line of argument seemed condescending, but it's turned out to be a persistent one.

Whew. I was afraid we were looking at a trifecta of departures.

Wright, at one point during the interview blitz, stated that his model for Scott was "Billy Liar" for the video game generation. Cutesy isn't part of his worldview, and even his version of quirkiness receives a lot of self-criticism (Spaced and Shaun of the Dead in particular). The mass audience may well want simple cutesiness and quirkiness, which may complicate Wright's career trajectory for the unclassifiable Ant-Man and the consipiracy-theorizing Them.

It's possible that this kind of movie just isn't to your tastes (nothing wrong with that - I prefer a dash of cynicism in my romantic comedies). As for character growth, Scott's Big Speech in the redo of the final fight certainly represents a degree, as does his reconciliation with Knives in by their tandem ***-kicking of Gideon Graves. The fadeout of "Continue? 5-4-3-2-1...", which implies that Scott and Ramona, although together, still have work to do, strikes me as the right note to end on.

Also, in the final book, Scott and Ramona head off to face the future together, although there was an unused alternate ending for the movie in which Scott hooked up with Knives again. Wisely, this was discarded. After all her character's growth (arguably the most in the cast), that pairing would have been the least satisfying. Her line that she's "too cool" for him was perfect.

Rotten Tomatoes' assessment (81%) begs to differ. As for the box office, it grossed over $47M worldwide, which on a budget of $60M is what Hollywood calls a "disappointment" these days while waiting for the DVD revenues to kick in. For a real flop, check out the earnings ratio for the critically reviled Jonah Hex, another summer comic book movie: less than $11M on a $47M budget, with little prospect of secondary revenues.

"Nothing desirable/sympathetic" is something of a blanket (over)statement. It misses entirely what distinguishes Scott and Ramona from all the cutesy rom-com couples out there: They're flawed in ways that are recognizably ordinary instead of unconvincingly wacky. Scott, a callow early-twentysomething, sees himself as the epic hero of his own video game-inspired story, even though he's second-string slacker compared to most of his social circle. Ramona, as she confesses, "may have dabbled in being a *****" and is only looking for a hassle-free rebound relationship with Scott, despite the truckload of baggage she brings. What they have in common is that they are both in need of some growing up, which they do. That kind of pairing doesn't make for a traditional romantic comedy - in some respects, it's as jaundiced about Young Lurv as 500 Days of Summer - but neither do video game-inspired post-Matrix martial arts fights.

My chief problem, after watching the movie again on DVD, is the pace of their romance. While the graphic novel series could play out over a year of ups, downs, and general meanderings in a hipster relationship, the movie version had to convey that in about a week yet couldn't turn it into a whirlwind love affair. That left the overall narrative unbalanced, with the fight plot driving the movie. Come to think of it, dramatic compression was likewise a problem with the Watchmen movie, another comic book adaptation that didn't perform at the box office at the level that fan enthusiasm forecast.

And yes, Michael Cera is a better whiner than a fighter, but by and large, his performance in the lead was solid.

Wait until you read the apologia for the Sixth Doctor.

Nonetheless, that highlights what I like about this blog series, and by extension Doctor Who itself: The franchise is utterly unafraid to reinvent itself regularly with incarnations of the protagonist that invariably are met with skepticism yet always win over at least a portion of the audience. Every Doctor is some fan's "My Doctor".

You're quite welcome. Here's a link to the series' table of contents that I just turned up.

Apparently you have not earned the Disappeared, Silent Witness, or Mercy Missionary exploration badges yet.

Only because Stanely Kubrick cut out the final chapter since he was working from the redacted American edition. Burgess's stage musical adaptation might be a place to start, but between Kubrick's direction and Malcolm McDowell's performance are hard acts to follow.

The Coens' True Grit worked mainly because they realized that John Wayne's performance was the only thing people remembered about the original, and they were evidently confident that although Jeff Bridges couldn't eclipse the Duke, they could do everything else better.

Here are the last two lines from the Console log immediately preceding the panic:
Looks like either Cider or ATI is at the root of the problem (I can furnish more information if it would help). I'm unsure if there's any course of action I can take to prevent this, though. Thanks again for your assistance with this nonetheless.

Sorry you couldn't get Pop Menu working. (I haven't attempted it myself yet.) At least now that you know the way OS X handles CoH's file structure, you can add things like Vidiot Maps and Badge Reporter (which I have gotten working myself).