More adventures in Vancouver

A few little things that I've discovered in Vancouver:

1. I walk past a building (two in fact) that were used in SG-1. This makes me very happy every day.

2. Not everyone in Vancouver is obsessed with science fiction even though I think they should be. I mean come on guys there was so much cool stuff filmed here. For instance, my friend was not excited at all by the fact that we were going across the bridge used at the end of Tron (the new one). Not at all. I was grinning like a loon.

3. The woods really are great fun to run around in and pretend you're on some far off planet.

4. People don't think it's all that strange when you want to dress up for Halloween (sort of) as a baddy from a TV series. Ok, so they don't actually know that you're dressing up as a Gou'ald, they just think you're being Cleopatra.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Amanda Tapping at the premiere for Random Acts of Romance. I did make the effort to go to the theatre and I even took a book with me to get signed. But it seemed that the VIPs had entered the building from the back judging by the big blacked out bus parked back there. I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world. I didn't get the chance to go and see the film at all in the end due to my new job.

Yes I have managed to find something working in a Halloween shop until the beginning of November which is really good fun. Being British I had never really seen how crazy people get over here for this holiday. At home, we're doing well if we even dress up. So amongst the many MANY costumes, I decided that I would do a Gou'ald as it's lots of fun and kind of glamourous. I even managed to find something to use as a ribbon device on my hand. I can't wait to get it all sorted out. I think it's going to end up looking mostly like Hathor due to my hair colour at the moment.

I think that's it for the moment. I've regressed a bit into reading The Hunger Games again, but I'm enjoying it mostly. I still find Katniss horribly annoying as a protagonist but hey that's not going to change any time soon. I haven't had the chance to see Looper yet even though it looks just plain AWESOME. Can't wait for that one. May have to save up a bit though, the cinema here is even more expensive than home.

A fangirl in Vancouver...

Another big break between posts but this one is very justified I feel... I have moved to VANCOUVER! I arrived last week and it's been a blast so far with few mishaps and a lot of fun.

I wanted to write this post to consider the fact that most people consider geek/nerd kind to be permanently indoors attached to some form of device connected to the internet. Well this is simply not true, travelling has been a desire of mine for a long time and I'm so glad that I'm finally here. But I think it's safe to say that I have not embraced the travelling lifestyle just yet - I just can't shake off my geeky tendencies. Which is to be expected of course.

Coming to Vancouver in particular is such a dream for me, as it is pretty much the home of all things sci-fi on TV or film. Stargate, Smallville, BSG, Once Upon a Time, Sanctuary all were filmed in and around Vancouver which means that you can't really go anywhere without seeing something that's been on screen. For example, I was walking along the sea wall yesterday and strolled past an area used in a Stargate episode. I would have fangirled if it weren't for all the people walking as well, apparently oblivious to the importance of said spot of grass.

This has been going on all week, I went walking on the North Shore near Mt. Seymour and spent most of the time looking for Jack's cabin or Sam's house or spots in the forest where various scenes from BSG could have been shot. Probably a little pathetic, but alas this is the behaviour of a fangirl on tour.

The other part of this is that I keep expecting to just bump into actors from these shows. I walk down the street expecting to see Amanda Tapping or Kristin Kreuk. Ridiculous right? Well it turns out that the new film that AT is starring in - Random Acts of Romance - is premiering right down the street from where I'm living. Which is a little bit exciting. As in a lot. I doubt that she's even going to show up but I think I'll probably be spending that evening around there anyway... Just in case you know.

So these kinds of things are constantly on my mind as I'm walking around and I think it's going to continue as I travel. So expect a lot more posts about who or what I've seen over the next couple of months. I'm hoping that I will meet some fellow geeky people to hang out with because I'm really starting to miss my friends from Edinburgh where they would understand my obscure references to things.

On another note, we're getting very close to the end of the Ponds on Doctor Who. I've never really gotten along with the Ponds. Well mainly Amy. I guess I will always be a Rose and Ten kinda gal. Rory I love and I will be very sorry to see the back of but I'm really looking forward to seeing how Oswin is worked in, she seems like an amazing character and I love what Steven Moffat is doing to keep us all guessing. Next week's episode looks amazing as a send off for Rory and Amy though, not least because River is back and she is awesome. The Weeping Angels have to be one of the best baddies ever conceived and next week seems to get right back down to the nitty gritty of what makes them so terrifying, harking back to the first episode which they appeared in, Blink.

So I have lots to look forward to in the next couple of weeks and now that things have settled down a bit, I will definitely be writing more.

Disappointment and Elation all in a week.

Real life has been a killer of late but no more! 6 weeks and 2 days until I fly off to Vancouver, I'm so very very excited.

Things that I've seen lately - TDKR, The Amazing Spiderman and probably a couple more that I'll remember in a minute. First of all, TDKR was pretty amazing. I wasn't blown away but still it was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. I'm still a Dark Knight girl at heart and I think I was always going to compare the two films unfortunately. The third felt like it was just moving from big set piece to big set piece, there were no fun and games in between. Although Anne Hathaway did try her best as Catwoman. And there were a few casualties along the way, the main one being the atrocious lack of screen time given to Cillian Murphy (one of my favourite actors) as Scarecrow. I would have loved to have seen more of his character as the judge in the people's court.

I really enjoyed Spiderman as well, not just for the utterly adorable Andrew Garfield. It did what it said on the tin and I found it far more likeable than the 2002 version. So YAY!

We've had a new trailer for Doctor Who over the last couple of days which looks amazing. I have never really been a fan of Amy Pond but I seem to be liking her more as the series go on. Shame that we're about to lose her, and Rory of course.

Ooh, big excitement last weekend as I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Roadshow with NEIL GAIMAN as the voice of the Guide. Unbelievably exciting to be in the same room as him, I was floating above my seat for most of it I think. It was really good fun, with the original cast there for the voices and some amazing sound effects and live music as well.

I think that's it for the moment, I will hopefully be writing something more serious soon, there are a few ideas percolating in my head mainly to do with the awesome novel I'm reading at the moment. But all shall be revealed.

I'm off out to a nerdy comedy thing. *sigh* I love nerds.

Is 50 Shades of Grey good or bad for fanfic in general?

I haven't posted in ages and I'll apologise for that. I start a month-long course tomorrow, learning how to teach English so I've been prepping for that over the last week.

Geeky loveliness has had to take a bit of back seat over the last few weeks unfortunately. I managed to watch Prometheus and I've watched the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender which was fun. But more on that in a bit. The time travel fic is not going so well. There is a definite sense of writer's block when it comes to that fic and I'm not sure if it's to do with the time travel bit or whether it's a general inability to write with everything that's going on IRL at the moment. I posted another fic that I wrote in the space of a couple of days and has been floating around on my computer with nowhere to go. Here's a link if you fancy a read. It's SG-1 S/J of course.

In other news, all I seem to have heard about over the last couple of weeks is 50 Shades of Grey. Now this is an interesting story (not the book but the story behind the book). As you may know, this started off as Twilight (bleurgh) fan fiction and then got picked up by a publisher and with a few changes to the names of characters it was turned into a book - nay a TRILOGY. I have what can only be described as mixed feelings about the whole thing. After reading a synopsis of the book I decided that it would most definitely not be my kind of thing. I really don't mind a bit of smut but this just sounded horrifying to me. I'm all for expressing sexuality etc. but that amount of it and the story between the two main characters just didn't appeal to me. My flatmate read a sample of it and also mentioned that it was about the most badly written thing she'd ever read. This is unfortunate because I feel it's going to reflect badly on fanfic writers. Not only is the book mostly sex, feeding into the myth that all fanfic is sexualised slash!fic, it is terribly written, also feeding into the idea that all fanfic is badly written tripe. Neither of these things are remotely true about fanfic. A huge amount of fanfic is beautifully written and wonderfully creative, allowing people (as I have said before) to explore a universe and set of characters in a way that is very personal and expansive. We are the ones who are lucky enough to be allowed a glimpse into that person's view of a universe we all love. I think I may be a little spoiled by the Stargate fic universe because it does seem to be populated by a very high proportion of very good writers. Why aren't these people being published? Why is it the rubbish ones that are? I have read a couple of snippets from some interesting articles about the book and people seem to think that it could be good for feminism. Having been brandished as "mummy-porn", it seems to have opened a world of sexuality to some women so that they are far more comfortable talking about their own sexuality with other people. Nothing seems to be taboo after this book. Which is great. The more open people can be about that kind of stuff the better, I think. Although, I still have serious concerns about the level of writing and also what it means for the fanfic universe.

Moving on from that, I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender last week and I've finished it already and moved on to The Legend of Korra! I have enjoyed both series enormously, particularly Avatar. As I wrote on my Twitter feed, I immediately became a Aang and Katara shipper (SPOILER) and thank goodness there was confirmation at the end of the series because I might have cried if I'd found another series sans-confirmation. I even went so far as reading some Kataang (as it's called I think) fanfic this morning and was surprised to find some rather touching little stories. Obviously with the continuity of their story in Korra, I am even happier. I did feel slightly sorry for my friend, who was watching some of Avatar with me, as he bore the full brunt of a fangirl attack at various points (SPOILER ENDS). I would recommend both series to people whole-heartedly; they are thoughtful, clever and - as all good entertainment should - deal with some of life's big issues. Even though they are aimed at children, the series don't talk down to their audiences - the issues are dealt with in a mature manner. Korra deals with issues as modern as terrorism as well, something I found very interesting.

I'm not sure when I will get to post next. I'm sure something will spark off some ideas and I'll find time to rant about something else. Hopefully the time travel fic will have progressed. I really really hope it does. Anyway, leave a comment if you have an opinion about 50 Shades, it's nothing if not provocative.

Why is it so hard to get time travel right?

So I went to see Men in Black 3 with my mum last night. It's kind of a family thing as we've always watched these films together since the first one came out when I was little. Anyway, I enjoyed the film quite a lot. It was good fun, the pace was kept up all the way through and I swear Josh Brolin is some reincarnation of Tommy Lee Jones (can you have a reincarnation if you're not dead? Probably not.). There was humour in the right parts and enough touching scenes for Will Smith to show that he can make himself cry like a real actor. All of these things I appreciated. Apart from the time travel.

I have always been a little skeptical of films and shows when they start using time travel. Men in Black films are not particularly known for their complicated and intricate plots so when I saw that time travel was going to be a major plot point, I was concerned to say the least. Because time travel takes a lot of explanation and exhibition. There are rules that need to be discussed, some sort of technology that needs to be explained yadda yadda yadda. It all gets a little tiresome. But it all started off well in MIB 3, the idea was simple enough - beware of spoilers from now on by the way - Boris the Animal went back in time and killed K before he could arrest the earlier version of Boris. So J has to go back and stop future Boris from killing past K. Ok, maybe not so simple but it seems like that in the film. And this is where things start going a little... wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. The more I think about it the more annoyed I get with the plot. I know I probably shouldn't think too deeply about such a film but I say if you're going to use time travel try and do it in some sort of logical way. The main point that really got me ranting (much to my poor mum's annoyance) was a point in the final couple of scenes where J uses the time jump device to jump back 30 seconds in order to outsmart Boris and win a fight. A simple enough - and well-used - trick you might say. Well, yes, BUT in the scene, J jumps back with Boris and they find themselves in exactly the same positions as they were 30 seconds before except J now knows what Boris is going to do so he can beat him. But he's in the same body, as is Boris. Yet earlier in the film it's been shown that when one time jumps they don't re-inhabit their own body, they appear as a separate entity. So how can J just rewind time and re-inhabit his own body? The rules have already been set earlier in the film and this is a giant flout of those rules.

I probably didn't explain that very well but I doubt that I'm the only one who has noticed this. There were other issues, like why doesn't J remember K's face during his life after he meets him on the beach as a boy? Why doesn't Boris just use his own time-jump device to jump back again before he's killed? NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE EXPLAINED! And a child would notice them.

But this was really just an example I wanted to use. For me, there are very few programs or films that 'do' time travel well. There tend to be holes in the logic in just about every plot that you look at. The example that really comes to mind is SG-1's 'Moebius' episodes at the end of season 8. At the end of those episodes, it appeared that we had 3 different timelines. Do the original team end up dying back in Egypt 3000 years ago? Or is the team that we see at the end of the two episodes the one that continues in the show? If we go by the fact that they have the ZPM then it must be. But isn't that rather sad that we've lost the original team in  Egypt somewhere? In their timeline at least. There were so many questions surrounding those episodes that we never got answers to. I get that they were a bit of fun and we got to see the actors stretching their legs a bit but I wouldn't be much of a nerd if I didn't ask these questions would I?

As writers seem to have less fear about using time travel is it necessary for them to set out the general rules that they're going to use with the time travel technology? Does the person using it go back or forwards in time as an entire entity or do they simply re-inhabit their own body? Obviously if they're going far enough back they can't inhabit their own body. But what then? Are there moral issues involved when you're changing someone else's reality? This was broached in Stargate: Continuum and it wasn't something I'd really considered before, but was interesting nonetheless. We obviously have the comical side of it as we see in Back to the Future with Marty and his mum. There was a nice little nod to that film in MIB 3 by the way.

I think as people become more stringent about what they expect from shows, writers are going to have to become more intelligent about using time travel and the set of rules they use with it. I realise that the exhibition and explanation of these rules wouldn't make for captivating viewing but I think they're necessary for a satisfying experience. You want to come away from seeing something saying "that was really clever" not "why did he do that?" or "he could have just done that instead".

I will give it the writers of MIB 3, there were a couple of lovely touches, such as the alien "Griffin" who could see all the possible timelines and their outcomes at once. He was a wonderful character and a really interesting addition to the story.

In future (no pun intended), I would love to see a well-thought out story that makes it clear what is and isn't possible with time-travel in that universe. But I think I might have to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to this. So... I will attempt to write a short(ish) fic for SG-1 that includes an element of time travel and see just how difficult it is to do and to do right. I will keep you posted. This could take a while...

What is too far when it comes to fan fiction?

I've seen a couple of posts on Gateworld today about people having their fics taken down on fanfic.net and even their whole accounts. As such, there doesn't appear to be a reason behind it so far and people are starting to wonder what the cause of this sudden purge is. Is it due to adult/mature content? Not enough disclaimers or something else?

Being fairly new to this whole world of fanfic, I haven't really seen one of these purges before. Apparently there was one a little while ago on ff.net to do with mature content in stories, but things have backed off a lot lately.

But how does the argument go when it comes to fanfic about what is acceptable and what is not?

I think the outside world sees it as a dark, seedy world of slash!fic and desperate teens writing scenes full of lust and sex. But I think the reality is quite different to that. My personal experience with it certainly is. I ventured into the world of fanfic (as I've already mentioned in a couple of posts) due to a lack of confirmation when it came to Sam and Jack at the end of season 8 of SG-1. I'd seen a couple of vids showing the moments between them but there was still a big question. So when I discovered hundreds of stories from different people around the world showing the possibilities of what could/might have been, I was blown away. There were some that were better written than others. In the end I wrote my own fics, finding it let me express my creativity in a way I hadn't been able to do since university. And I met some lovely people too. So in my eyes, fanfic is definitely not a bad thing. Most people just want to explore their favourite shows/books/films in a different or their own way.

There is a lot of mature stuff out there. A LOT. But there's a lot of it that is very well written, whether it be violence or sex. I think it could be seen as a little weird to people outside of the world but with the rise of graphic sex and violence on television and in films, is it really that surprising that it would pop up in fandoms as it has been, I suspect, for years? The internet is surely the one place where we should be able to express ourselves fully without fear of reprisal from anyone. There is of course the question of intellectual property when it comes to fanfic, but I think most studios are happy enough as long as people don't claim that characters are their own. Most people will put up a simple disclaimer at the beginning of their stories or on their profiles. However, there have been worrying cases of people writing stories about actors as opposed to characters that they portray. I say worrying as people seem to be unable to grasp the difference between reality and the imagination. Can we judge this though as taking things too far? For me the answer is yes. Fanfic is about putting characters in situations and seeing how they would react. It's pure imagination and taking a show/film's universe to places that probably aren't possible on TV or on film. The stories about the actors in reality include their families, friends and in this particular case, sex.

So how is this stuff monitored? How is it censored? Well, mostly it is down to the author to self-regulate. On ff.net, the author sets their own rating and this is the case on most, if not all, sites. On ff.net, M-rated stories don't appear in the normal lists unless you specifically search for them. So if adult-themed stories are the reason for this latest purge, surely it is up to the site administrators to set better guidelines or better safeguards when it comes to the very graphic content. Are they trying to protect kids? Because I think that whole idea is a bit of a fallacy. Kids, teenagers particularly, will find this stuff if they are really looking for it. It's curiosity and I think a lot of the time they will scare themselves with what they find and back off. If not, then maybe the parents should be keeping a closer eye on what their children are looking at online if they don't want them to have access to that kind of content. Having come to fanfic later than some, I think I've approached it with a level head and been able to judge for myself when something has been taken too far. But I would worry that some teenagers might not be able to see the subtle line between taking an obsession beyond that land of make-believe.

I realise that it must be weird for actors to see characters they have brought to life being used in some of the ways they are in the world of fanfic. Books are obviously less of an issue as the characters are just that, characters. But what if that book is made into a film or TV series? The actors are then linked with these characters and it could be that that is how a fan would picture that character. Said fan then writes a really graphic sex scene involving that character. The actors face/body is then what the readers imagine in that scene. Wouldn't that be strange? But people have sexual fantasies about celebrities all the time. They are, mostly, seen as beautiful people and men and women alike will fantasise about them. So how is fanfic creepier or more sordid? If anything it's surely less creepy if the story uses the character as opposed to the actor in 'real-life'. And so we come back around to that story I heard about that was written about two real actors. At best it's slander and at worst it's behaviour indicative of someone who blurs that line between reality and imagination.

So, to sum up, I don't have an issue with fanfic that's graphic. Life is graphic, as are a lot of the films and TV shows we see at the moment. I do have a problem with fic that confuses reality with imagination. That could cause offence to people who are just working, trying to portray a character in the best way they can.

Sites shouldn't be censoring fic. Yes, there should be accurate and timely warnings about what is featured in a fic and in part this is up to the authors themselves. If a complaint is received by the site admins about a fic, then it should be followed up and the author should be included in the discussion. Not all fics are going to please everyone. But the wonderful thing is that people can also choose NOT to read something. And so although I find the "real-life" fics disgusting and degrading and it would be very interesting to speak to the author about their motivations, I realise that they are out there but choose to not read them or support them in any way. The internet is full of crazies. It doesn't mean you need to interact with them.

I think I learnt my morals from sci-fi...

The last few days haven't really been much fun. I've been wrestling with the unpleasant situation two of my closest friends have put me in and it's made me realise a lot of things not only about them but about myself too.

Friend one is my flatmate and closest friend. Friend two is a fairly new friend but also close. Friend one and friend two have hooked up on a couple of occasions now. Not a problem. Except friend two has a girlfriend already and friend one knows this. Yet she's let this continue knowing full well that friend two is unavailable. Not cool, I said. Not cool at all.

I don't want to bore you with any more detail (there's a lot of detail). My main problem with this is the cheating bit. Yep, it makes me pretty angry. Not "Hulk smash!" angry. But angry enough. And the reason for this? They don't really see too much of an issue with it. And don't really want to do much about it.

This all led to a big argument between me and friend one. I mean an hours-long argument. It sucked but did make me realise how different my morals are from other people's. Especially friend one's morals as it turned out. And I came to a conclusion as to why this might be. I seemed to have learnt my morals from sci-fi.

I tend to see things in a very black and white way. Right and wrong. If you doing something right - YAY, the Earth/universe is safe again! If you do something wrong, you need to fix it. If you've wronged someone, you need to fix things with them, either with the truth or by finding some way to right it. These are simple rules and if you look at a lot of sci-fi this is what you see. Even if the righting part isn't easy or means some sort of self-sacrifice. In Stargate, the main characters are forever sacrificing themselves so the world can stay saved. In Star Trek, Janeway enforces the Prime Directive even when her crew is thousands of light-years away from the Federation. In comics, superheroes stand for everything that is right and yes they get it wrong sometimes but they will always endeavour to right that wrong. In Doctor Who, the Doctor is always urging us to do the right thing.

So I guess my question is, why is it so wrong to think like this? Why can't we apply these kind of rules and morals to our real lives? People will say that things aren't as simple as that, that you can't be that naive but I say why not? If you do something to hurt someone, make it up to them. Be honest as much as possible. Don't intentionally set out to hurt people in the first place.

Of course we always have our morally questionable heroes in sci-fi - Mal Reynolds for one. But isn't he always as honourable as he can be? He does bad things but he either rights that wrong or owns up to it. The example that's really sticking in my head at the moment is Kara and Lee in Battlestar Galactica. We are desperate to see them get together but when they eventually do get some action it's when Kara and Sam are together and Dee and Lee are too. So they are both cheating. Is it ok for them to be together because we know they're in love? No is the short answer but we're happy for them none the less. Until Kara gets an attack of conscience and runs off and marries Sam. She does the right thing so I'm happy for her, there's even a bit of sacrifice we all know it's wrong for her and Lee. But it doesn't stop there, they carry on cheating until it comes to the point of them needing to leave their partners to continue their relationship guilt free. Things do stop though when Kara admits she doesn't believe in divorce and Lee won't cheat on his wife anymore. We want them to get together but understand that their morals won't let them. And let's face it, BSG was about the best sci-fi show around for showing humanity in all its glory. Or not.

This question obviously extends into other areas as well, not least religion. And it has been dealt with in various ways but that's not my point.

I want to know why friend number one thought I was being judgmental for thinking about what they'd done by my own set of morals. I think I was waiting for some sort of reaction from them that would show me that they regretted what they'd done and had realised what a horrible thing it was. But I haven't got that reaction from either of them. And because of this, my view of them both and their morals has shifted. Probably towards the worse. 

I'm sorry for the ramble but I needed to say this. I will continue to try and do the right thing in my life. I hope you do to.

Spinward Fringe and a New Tattoo.

I bit the bullet. I was so taken with the kodama tattoo idea that I went ahead and did it. Here's the result:

I'm really happy with it and think it's very very cute. This one hurt a lot more than my previous one. There were points when I was very glad I was lying down. The after care is a bit more awkward with this one as well. I had some funny incidents today at work when I was sat with my trouser leg rolled up and various people walked into the office. I can't say that the placement of the little guy was my idea. It came from an image I saw on Google so all credit goes to whoever put that up. Yay!

I wanted to write a little bit today about a series of books that I've been reading for about a year. They're called Spinward Fringe (there's a blogspot here) and are written by an author going by the name of Randolph Lalonde. If that's his actual name then I am seriously impressed. The books are all available for a very low price on most e-readers and some of them are available in print but cost a lot more. The first three books are free as the collection "Origins". The series then goes on as Broadcasts 1,2,3... up to 6. The books are in sub-trilogies as well. I'm currently (very eagerly) waiting on Broadcast 7 which wraps up the Rogue Element Trilogy. The interesting thing about this series is that they have been pretty much only published off the author's own back. And they have been consistently on the sci-fi top-sellers list on Amazon.

As books they are seriously addictive. I gobbled them up as quickly as I could when I first read them. The plot whisks you along quickly from book to book and before you know it you're at the end waiting for the next book. Like I've been for the last year. The characters are engaging and well written, with a strong leader in Jonas Valent and enough love interests and character interaction to keep everyone happy. The baddies are bad and the goodies are ultimately good but not without a few moral wobbles along the way. The sci-fi aspect is pretty standard with bits and pieces inspired from various other movies, TV series etc etc. But in a good way, they're not copied, they're just made use of in the background to enhance the action.

I think the thing I really enjoy about this series is the normality of parts of it. There are some lovely stretches of the books where the crew is training or building up a new ship. These are the bits that get glossed over in series or films. But because they're books, we get to see all the day to day stuff; where the characters sleep, how they work together, how they relax together. I miss these scenes in TV series and films. It's almost as if these bits are fanfic of the main story. We get to see couples yelling at each other, making mistakes and living. The characters aren't perfect heroes and they don't always behave how the stereotypical characters in some shows or films do. They feel very real to me and I love them for that. I love Ayan's intelligence, I relish all the fights between Stephanie and Frost and the build up of Laura and Jason's relationship. There are some HUGE twists as well. You are always kept guessing.

This series proves what can be done when someone is truly talented but maybe hasn't quite been found by the big publishers yet. The rise of e-readers has something to do with it. The internet a lot to do with it. But it's wonderful none the less. Some of the production value is lost yes, but the fact that the author can keep writing these books is fantastic. It would take a lot for me to stop reading them, even the occasional spelling and formatting error haven't put me off.

The books are easy to read and follow. There are a few big issues raised but they don't quite hit you in the face like in some other sci-fi series. They're there if you go looking; corporate greed, what counts as human and the question of artificial intelligences, but you don't need to think about them if all you're looking for is a good story. And a good story it is.

The Dreaded Fanfic Rewrite...

The time has come for me to stop avoiding the task of rewriting my first fanfic. Granted I've only written 3 so far and first stories are never meant to be good, but I got to the point where I couldn't bear to have it against my name (or pseudonym). So I removed it from fanfic.net (shameless plug, sorry) and decided that I wouldn't repost it until I was happy with it. This has turned out to be an epic feat of procrastination - I was a student just last year - and it seems I haven't lost any of my skill in its practice. I've been through the story and marked the bits that need work which is the easy part. It ranges from odd words here and there to huge great swathes of prose and plot points that are disastrous. I wrote it with a vague idea of where I wanted the plot to go and from there wrote chapters at a time. This led to some 'interesting' situations with massive errors that I made in one chapter and having to rectify them desperately in the next chapter. It wasn't pleasant and meant that I have always researched EVERYTHING that I use in a story since. Thankfully the person who had noticed a massive mistake I'd made in the background to the story was kind enough to PM me about it rather than writing it on the reviews page, for once my embarrassment was avoided in public.

My idea is to work round these points and work some things into the story in a slightly different way. There are also some character points that need work. It's an interesting aspect of fanfic writing - do you write it all beforehand and post periodically or do you wait to see people's reactions and ideas in order to continue the story? For me, I wasn't sure people were even going to read my story and to be honest I really didn't know where it was really headed. I knew what I wanted to achieve with it but getting there was a whole other ball game.

I was watching the first show of Sword and Laser on the Geek and Sundry channel on YouTube this afternoon (really fun and light-hearted show about sci-fi and fantasy books) and the author Scott Siegler they were interviewing was discussing his new book. He'd originally released it as a chaptered podcast and written it week to week. He said he really enjoyed going back and working all of story into a novel as it allowed him to write in a load more foreshadowing and to play with the plot. I immediately thought of my rewrite and how it would let me tweak until I was really happy with it. If, I can move my ass into gear to DO it! The trouble is I'm not quite sure just yet how to tweak it. I'm still really happy with the length and the general feel of it (vague points I know but there has to be something positive right?) but the characterisation and background just isn't quite there and I think I'm waiting around for inspiration to strike. Which might not ever happen. Guh. But then I'm waiting to do this to get my juices flowing to write my next fic as the muse (as they say) is being particularly churlish and uncooperative at the moment. It's a vicious circle.

So I think I've said about as much as I can for this procrastination effort. I'm going to write now. Honest. Right now. This minute.




Oh look something shiny...



Frak.

Robocop!

Haha, that title makes it sound like a musical. "Robocop!" coming soon to a theatre near you...

I went to an Edinburgh Science Festival event last night which was a screening of the '80s classic "Robocop". There was a short Q&A session before with a science fiction writer called Justina Robson. I personally had never seen this film before so I was quite curious.

The atmosphere was great when we walked into the cinema, the Filmhouse in Edinburgh is great for stuff like this, the old-style screens are wonderful. Plus the fact that you can take alcohol in is always a plus.

It was so much fun. It wasn't what I was expecting at all. I mean, up until about 2 hours before we went I was sure that it was Arnie who was in it. The blood and guts was great with so much sugar syrup. I was also really impressed with the make-up - even with the resolution of a modern projection system the make up for Murphy still held up to scrutiny. The moment when the baddy had his arm blown off didn't though. There was some serious arm pumping = arterial fountain of blood. Still we were all laughing so much by this point it didn't matter. Another interesting thing to see was some stop motion animation. The robot that tries to take down Robocop was animated this way and it was a little jarring but surprisingly, looked kind of wonderful. There were lots of intricate bits that were working in unison on the model. The stop motion used at the end for a certain character's death however did not look good, and earned a huge cheer and clapping from the audience.

My friends and I were a little baffled by how they were going to have a discussion about the human/cyborg issue as the plot isn't the most complex (neither are the characters) but I guess it does deal with some interesting issues in terms of (and my English lit teacher will be so proud of me for this) man's inhumanity to man. The baddies are completely ruthless and there are a lot of times when people die and other, supposedly, normal people really aren't that fussed. Is this the future we're heading for? But we do see a nice turnaround when the police start standing up for Robocop when he's being attacked by the hit squad. That scene is interesting for me too in that as soon as we get a glimpse of Murphy's eye under the vizor of his helmet, we immediately start feeling sympathy for him and scared for him. Before that point he is just a cyborg, we struggle to see the humanity or something we recognise about ourselves in him. As Justina Robson pointed out before the film started, there is a fantastic scene where Murphy takes off the vizor to reveal what's underneath and Lewis (his female partner) doesn't flinch or shy away as his face is revealed. She just sees him and the humanity that his face represents.

Speaking of Lewis, she is one kick ass female character! And we all know how I feel about strong female leads! She is defeminised a lot in this film, made to seem like one of the boys in the precinct but she is wonderfully strong and funny. Most of the female characters in the film are either whores, winos, horrendously vacuous or working for the baddies - something else that Justina pointed out. At the beginning of the film she is the hard, slightly cynical one out of herself and Murphy (who's optimistic and cares for his family hugely) but by the end he is the one devoid of emotion and she is the one who cares for him and looks out for him. For me, that character development is wonderful.

So I think I've prattled on long enough. It really was a lot of fun to watch, it would be great to watch more films like this in a cinema with an audience, it really adds a lot to the experience, I would recommend it to anyone if they get the chance. My friend and I were saying it would be fantastic to watch "Alien" in a setting like that. Watch this space...

Hunger Games and New Tattoos

I finally got to see the Hunger Games last week which was as good if not better than I was expecting. I would even go as far as to say I thought it was better than the book. Shall I explain why?

For me, the book came across as typical teen-fic/angst fare. Let me be clear, this is not a bad thing. But sometimes it feels a little bit like fanfic where two characters are kind of forced together. In the book, there is a huge emphasis placed on how Katniss feels about Peeta (and Gale). This is understandable after the author decided to go with the first person present perspective. What the film allows for is room for the themes and societal injustices to come through. For me, in the book, their relationship was cloying, it was too much and overshadowed everything else that Katniss should have been feeling going into the Games. Jennifer Lawrence, in the film, allows the other fears Katniss has to come to the fore; will Gale be able to look after Prim, what will happen when she enters the Games, etc etc. The particular scene that has stuck with me since seeing the film is when she sees Cinna for the last time before entering the arena. You could see her physically shaking and there was no other indication of her fear but that action struck me as being more powerful than anything she could have said.

The themes raised by the books are valid ones, of course they are. BUT, the teen angst present in the books swamps these themes, making them seem trivial in comparison to the romantic feelings that Katniss is struggling with. Using the medium of film, the audience can see the backdrop more prominently to the Games. The massive social inequality, the ridiculous lives of the people of the Capital and the true ruthlessness of the President.

I thought the acting in general was fantastic. Jennifer Lawrence was the epitome of Katniss. She was stronger if anything, she didn't seem to have the self-doubt that troubles Katniss through the book but I think that's probably because we don't get the inner monologue present in the book.

There was one bit that had me lol-ing though (and I wasn't the only one in the cinema); when Katniss decides to find Peeta, she finds him "camou-ed" up and hiding in the stream, which should be quite a touching reunion, except the make-up is hilarious. I audibly snorted in the cinema earning myself some rather unhappy looks from the nearest fangirls. No disrespect to my own kind of course. Further to this incident I refer you to this meme.

Leaving The Hunger Games on a light note...

I've been starting to think about getting another tattoo. I got my first one a few months ago and it's very small:

But I'm really happy with it. I got the symbol for infinity as a reminder to myself of infinite possibilities and that I can do anything I put my mind to. Also it's nice and geeky although I'm starting to get sick of all the people who ask me what the number 8 means to me...

Anyway, I've been thinking for a while about another tattoo on my other wrist. As I may have mentioned before, one of my favourite books is "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. After finishing the book, I couldn't get the image of Easter's tattoo out of my head. She has a tattoo bracelet of forget-me-nots on her wrist and I love this idea. Of course in the book it's ironic, because she's the god that is almost forgotten, overshadowed by the Jesus fest that goes on in Spring. I was looking into the roots of the word 'easter' and found out that it comes from the Germanic god of fertility and spring. She was worshipped as she brought new life and vitality in the springtime. i.e. eggs and baby cute things. It's really funny that it should have been smushed together with the religious symbolism. Easter really is the most mixed up holiday there is. Anyway, after looking into this a bit more, it really cemented my thoughts on getting this tattoo as I know it will remind me of this kind of symbolism (fertility, rebirth and life NOT the religious zombie stuff) as well as the wonderfulnous that is the Gaiman. So without further ado I give you the rough design I drew a couple of weeks ago:

I would prefer the blue to be more like this but I didn't have a pen that was the right colour. I'm not sure when I'll have the nerve to do it. Or the money for that matter, but I'm hoping it will be soon. It's going to be very visible which is my main issue, I need to get over the fact that my parents/grandparents/possible employers will be able to see it.

On top of this idea, I was watching Princess Mononoke today (go and see it NOW, it's wonderful and beautiful and great in general) and I got the idea that the little 'kodama' spirits would make a very cute tattoo too.

So that might happen too. This tattoo thing is horribly addictive.

That's it for now I think. I might try and post on a more regular basis but my travel planning is stepping up so I might not have the time. I hope people enjoy these rambles. I do.

The Gorn, Spiderman shower puffs and Doctor Who Monopoly.

I wanted to write a quick piece about a few things that have happened over the last couple of weeks. I feel like I should be writing more but I seem to barely be finding time to myself at the moment. But that's boring - on to more interesting things!

It was my birthday last week and my friends, as usual, came up trumps with the geeky stash. Over the past few years I have received David Tennant as Doctor Who posters, Star Trek (TOS) keyrings and many other exciting things. This year I got my very first Star Trek TNG comic.

As you can see it's a late TNG storyline. It's set before Nemesis as far as I could tell because Data was present. I don't read a lot of comics but the characterisation as far as I could tell was not brilliant. It was a bit typical of the later movies actually; a lot of focus on Data and Picard with the other characters reduced to parodies of themselves. Riker in particular. As I've said before, I don't like bashing things so we'll move swiftly onto the positives. The artwork in this issue was beautiful, as you would expect in the first issue of a series. There was a brilliant little 'case file' in the back of the comic that explained how the creator had gone about drawing the Gorn and building up the mythology of the race and the background. Clearly, a lot of thought had gone into it. This made me enjoy it all the more. Going into the Gorn aspect in more detail, my friends hadn't heard of the infamous Gorn fight scene in TOS. This is alluded to in the comic and I loved that. Here's the clip if you've not seen it:

This is just a taste but as you can see it has to be one of the worst fight scenes in sci-fi history. The scene has been alluded to numerous times by various other shows (including Star Trek:Enterprise, see the episodes "In a Mirror, Darkly"). Anyway, the creator of this comic creates a whole back story to the Gorn species which makes the whole thing seem not so silly. I'm very appreciative of that and I think it works.

Other geeky things that have occurred this week:

I got a new shower puff:

You like? I do feel a little bit weird using Spiderman to wash myself but oh well, it was like 50p or something!

I got a retweet! Yay! By the lovely Geek Syndicate. (I'll add there website to the list at the side when I've finished writing this.) I used my personal account so I won't go into too much detail but I was excited. Those guys are lovely.

I'm getting WAY too excited about the Hunger Games. I've promised my flatmate that I'll go with him to see it next Saturday but I might have to go for a sneak peek on Friday. SFX have been running daily interviews with cast and crew, you can find them here. I have tended to scoff Twilight fans (which is what many are comparing this to) but NO LONGER. I have officially turned into a fangirl when it comes to this film. Although it seems I've become obsessed with Jennifer Lawrence as opposed to a male lead. This was proven in a pub quiz a couple of weeks ago when she was the answer to a question and I was the only one who knew that. Out of all the people on all the teams. Not a fangirl wannabe for nothing you know.

I played a lovely game of Doctor Who Monopoly with friends the other night. We had extra points for DW references made throughout the game. Someone suggested adding an infinity mirror to the inside of the box to make it look (altogether now) bigger on the inside.

I finished Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds as well. The ending was breath-taking in its scope and themes. I was blown away and when I find the time, I promise to put up a short post/review about it. I'm trying to find the time to write a review for The Time Traveler's Wife as well but that's for other reasons.

Fun and geeky japes this week. Apologies for dodgy photography, it's really not my forte.

Til next time folks, keep squeeing!

(Don't worry that's not a catch-phrase and it definitely won't be used again. I promise.)

Twitter! Being Human! Revelation Space! Everything's more exciting with an exclamation mark!

So I've entered the Twitter-sphere (see left), this account will follow lots of cool sci-fi people (from Star Trek cast members to Simon Pegg). I have become a big Twitter addict over the last few months (on my personal account) and I think if it's used by the right people it's a great way of working out who's fun and keeps you up to date with things in a variety of genres/areas of life in general. I'll also be following a few people who I really respect from GW. They tend to be people who are great writers. As I've written about before, I dabble in the fanfic arena to some success (I'm definitely getting better) but there are others out there who consistently blow my mind with their story-telling abilities. People who dismiss fanfic writers as crazies are missing a trick. Some of the detail and imagery that people create in their stories is unbelievable. I have heard a couple of success stories of people being picked up by TV shows as writers, but these are VERY few and far between. So go out and read some fanfic, there is a lot of stuff out there that isn't so good (like mine) but there is also some gorgeous stuff. Writers tend to crave validation so leave a review if you liked something. Try http://www.fanfiction.net/ to begin with. It's definitely not perfect but there's a huge amount of material there and you will find something from your favourite show. So give it a go, you never know, you might like it.

On to TV. This week I've been watching Once Upon a Time, Being Human (the British version) and The Walking Dead. Last week's episode of Once was wonderful. Robert Carlyle FINALLY got to stretch his acting legs in an episode that took a twist on the story of Beauty and the Beast. This episode was produced (or directed) by Jane Espenson - of Buffy fame - and if you knew where to look there were clues all over the set and story. There were also lovely little jokes alluding to the Disney version of this story as well, like the chipped tea cup. Carlyle's performance was mesmorising and this episode reaffirmed my faith in the series. But, and it's a big but, this week's episode was awful! The fairies and Grumpy storyline was incredibly weak. And I don't like bashing things so we'll leave it at that. The real question this week was what has happened to Prince Charming's ex? And why is the Queen trying to incriminate him? Over the last few episodes I have been really enjoying the little glimpses of Jack's cabin (from SG1 and of particular importance to S/J shippers). First time I saw it there was a loud "squeeeeee" and then of course I had to rewind the scene over and over to 'check' that it actually was the cabin *sigh*

I have been enjoying Being Human quite a lot this season. I haven't taken the time to watch the American version yet. It does have Smallville and BSG-alumna Sam Witwer in but that doesn't necessarily make me want to like it any more. The British version is full of dark humour and some brilliant pieces of casting. Even with the monumental shift in characters for this season, I think the writing is speaking for itself and the fact that the new characters are so original means that it doesn't feel tired. Tom McNair (Michael Socha) is particularly good. The actor's sister (Lauren Socha) is in Misfits and it seems the acting ability is hereditary as the guy who plays Tom is fantastic. He has these great dead-pan moments that work very well with the writing. The story arc for this season has to do with the new baby and an older version of herself trying to kill her from the great beyond. Add to that the fact that the prophesied nemesis of the baby could already be in the house and you get a season that is leading towards a fantastic series of twists and turns before its end. I cannot wait.

I'm still catching up on The Walking Dead. I have stints of watching two or three episodes at a time as they are usually too angst-filled for me to last much longer. Even though I love the angst. Ohhhh yes. However, this does mean that after the particularly good episode yesterday that I couldn't read my Twitter feed this morning as it was too full of SPOILERS! Grrr. I hate it when people do that on Twitter/Facebook. Have some respect people! Rant over. Anyway, another thing I love about TWD - Bear McCreary's music. He is a genius.

Moving on. I've been reading the first in Alastair Reynold's Revelation series of books - "Revelation Space". It has been a great read and as I haven't got to the end yet that is all I will say for now. I'm planning on writing a review when I'm finished. This book is about 2000 pages long and I'm pretty sure the other 5/6 books in the series are about that length too so they will keep me going for a while. Good thing I have a Kindle. I wouldn't have room in my flat for all of them!

That's it for today's ramble. Follow me on Twitter for little nerdy gem.



 Do it... Do it... Do it!

Death Star Canteen and beyond

There a few things I want to mention in this post. First of all, I've come to the conclusion that everyone is a geek in their own way (sung to the tune of "Everyone's a hero in their own way" from Sing-Along Blog of course) and that I really REALLY want to go to a convention.

I feel my geekiness has taken a real step up over the last few weeks and I'm not quite sure why. I don't know whether it's a general acceptance of my true nature after I finished uni or what, but I'm much happier to accept that side of myself. Finding people on the internet who have similar interests to me has definitely helped but I've also been exploring a more creative and romantic side through fan fiction. This has come as a bit of a surprise as I've never really been particularly creative. I've always seen myself as more of a scientific and logical person. However, as I've been planning for my year away, it's become more apparent that I do appreciate love and kindness in people around me. I'm starting to get sick of self-obsessed and selfish people. Anyway, I digress.

The reason I say that everyone is a geek in their own way is due to a realisation that nearly everyone I know has something they are vaguely if not very obsessed with. It's interesting and has made me reassess how I judge people and if I should judge them at all. The answer being no of course. The problem is that most people will not readily admit what they're obsessed with and this means that they have issues when other people have these obsessions. It has been observed the world over that nerds are lovely. There's a reason that sci-fi actors are (mostly) happy to meet fans time and again in a multitude of rather unglamourous places. Amanda Tapping has always said (I'm paraphrasing) that the fans make her job amazing as they are so nice and friendly.

And this brings me onto my next point. I REALLY and I mean REALLY want to go to a convention. I was keeping up the SFX Weekender over Twitter and their website last weekend and looked like so much fun. One of my favourite tweets was about a guy dressed in a Darth Vader costume standing up in the canteen and proclaiming that his tray was wet. Apparently the whole canteen cheered and applauded. If you haven't seen the Eddie Izzard Darth Vader bit (especially done in Lego) you can find it here. Still makes me laugh and I've seen it dozens of times.

Anyway, back to why I want to go to a convention. The chance to be around people who get all the geeky references in things (like Paul, where I was laughing all the way through the film and none of my friends got it :( sad times) and have a similar outlook to you would be brilliant. Maybe I'll get the chance when I'm travelling round Canada and America. With any luck.

Bit of ramble this time I'm afraid. Seen some exciting things sci-fi-wise this week, will hopefully find the time to write about them soon. Like the new Being Human. Wow.

PS, did I mention my crazy plan to try and get some work as an extra when I'm in Vancouver? Yeah, crazy.

Films to come in 2012.

So here's a post about some of the films I'm excited about for 2012 and some other little bits of gossip etc that are rather interesting!

To begin with there is of course The Dark Knight Rises. This is the culmination of Christopher Nolan's epic 3 part series on Gotham's own protector.

Trailer

Christopher Nolan has really come to the forefront of cinema over the last few years, with the Batman trilogy and Inception. Nolan seems to have used half of the cast from Inception again in this film. I personally, have loved all of his recent films. The Prestige is a few years old now, but follows Nolan's typical epic style in terms of settings and would be my recommendation if you're looking for more of his films. Tom Hardy reappears in this film as Bane and it's great to see him back as a baddie after his early (very young) appearance as the Remen leader in Star Trek Nemesis (not the best film I know but Hardy was a pretty convincing evil sociopath).

The next film that has me squeeing quite a lot is The Hunger Games. I read the books in about two weeks after I saw a trailer.

Trailer

There have been a lot of murmurings about these stories being a rip off of a Japanese book called Battle Royale, but I haven't had a chance to read that or see the film version of it yet so I won't pass judgement. The books of the Hunger Games are well worth a read if you have a few days to spare. The action is gripping and the relationships between the characters believable. My cousin and I had an interesting discussion over who we prefer out of Gale and Peeta but I think by the end of the third book it's an easy decision. Katniss is not an easy heroine to follow but as she grows as a character you come to realise why she does the things she does. Anyway, back to the film and from the trailer it looks like they've stuck fairly closely to the plot in the books. I'm hoping that this film is better than the abysmal I am Number Four. These books are more cherished and it seems as if they have taken more time to insure the actors are right for the roles. I loved Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men First Class and she comes from a well established background in film (I've read that her performance in Winter's Bone is fantastic) as does Josh Hutcherson and various other cast members. There will be huge debates over how well the characters compare between the film and the books and not everyone is going to be happy, I can also see the inevitable production of Peeta and Gale camps. With this set to be bigger than the final Twilight film this year, I just hope that it is everything people (and I include myself in that) are hoping for.

Thirdly, there is The Avengers of course! Having already explained in previous posts how much of a Joss Whedon fan I am, this is going to be a big deal for me (and a lot of other people too). This is not Whedon's only project this year (more on that later) but it is most definitely the most highly anticipated. I'm really not a comics person but I have enjoyed most of the Marvel and DC comics films of late. However, I was disappointed to discover the other day that the main focus of the film will be the Captain America character. Considering that the film brought out last year for this character is possibly the weakest out of those concerning the Avengers characters, this has led many to assume that this is due to some serious ego stroking on the director's part. Whedon himself has said that the reason for this is that Captain America is the one who has woken up in this new time and therefore it makes sense to shoot the film from his point of view. BUT, everyone knows which character has been best received and it has to be Iron Man with the wonderful Robert Downey Jr. There are so many other great characters in this: Samuel L. doing what he does best, Scarlett looking hot as and I could go on but I guess we'll all just have to wait and see what Mr. Whedon comes up with. I, for one, will be withholding judgement just because it's him and did I mention that I LOVE HIM! Here's the trailer anyway:

Trailer


Other little bits and pieces I would like to mention include the fact that filming has started on Star Trek XII, I'm sorry I refuse to call it Star Trek 2, because it really isn't. Someone asked me the other day if I was a trekkie or a trekker and I said can't you be both? I digress, the supremely talented Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as the villain which makes me more excited if that's at all possible.

What else... Katee Sackhoff has been cast in the next Riddick Chronicles film which again is very exciting. She announced it a few weeks ago on Twitter and I saw it on SFX the other day. I wasn't sure about Pitch Black but The Chronicles of Riddick was very good at being what it set out to be, nothing more nothing less. And I will very excited to see Katee kicking some ass again as she's kind of awesome.

On a slightly more artistic note, Joss Whedon has directed (and produced) I believe a film version of Much Ado About Nothing with some of everyone's favourite sci-fi actors (mostly from Firefly). I was lucky enough to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado last year in London and would be very intrigued to see how Whedon deals with the plot. See http://muchadothemovie.com for (not many) details.

I think that's about it for now. I will probably think of more things to say shortly. I always do.

What's been going on.

Thought I'd do a post about things I've liked lately and things I've discovered.

Firstly, I've started posting on Gateworld, and what fun I've had! I couldn't believe how nice everyone is over there. It's great to get to chat to people from all over the world who have the same interests and same sense of humour, in some cases, as yourself.

There's been a lot of great TV, particularly in the UK, on at the moment and I'd like to say a bit about that. The Misfits finale was unbelievably moving, Simon and Alisha's storyline has been one of my favourites on TV since they got together in series 2. And now with them locked in the never-ending time loop thingy it was beyond tragic!

Merlin also finished a couple of weeks ago. Now, this is one of my guilty pleasures as it is so ridiculous and over the top BUT completely addictive. The finale again was very good, with plenty of battle scenes and I really enjoyed the play on the Excalibur myth (or was it a play?).

What else... I'm really into Once Upon a Time, I like to play the game of spot the extra. There seems to be a group of actors who have appeared in nearly all the Canadian sci-fi/fantasy shows and OUAT is no different. Watching one of the new episodes I spotted Kelly from BSG (but he's been in plenty of other things too).

Big news for me this week was the end of Sanctuary season 4. After a great build up this season in the tense feelings between various characters (the episode in the caves was just a fantastic piece of writing of the relationship between Magnus and Will), the finale felt like a definite piece of wrapping up by the writers. The Sanctuary has been destroyed and Will and Magnus have come to what feels like a more equal point in their relationship. There are definitely questions still to be answered (such as what happened to Biggie) but with the fate of season 5 looking more and more gloomy, I think the final vision of the beautiful new sanctuary could be our last glimpse at this wonderfully original series. I'm really saddened by this, because, aside from the fact that I'm a huge AT fan, the series has been a breath of fresh air and it would be a great shame to lose another sci-fi series.

Think I will put up a post soon about some of the films I'm looking forward to in 2012 (oh I can't begin to explain how excited I am for this year!), I'm off to catch up on some more telly.