One post a day is my usual limit, but I had to break my pattern for this one. I have just read the best TV ratings article ever, and since it is from the folks at Blastr, you know it focuses on Sci-Fi programming at its core. Trust me when I say Craig Engler has nailed it with his very first blog entry! He covers live viewing, DVR counts, streaming, and downloads. He covers with and without commercials and why they count differently, and he explains why the different flavors of online viewing each get weighted the way they do. And since he is from Syfy, all his examples are shows we know, which makes understanding his explanations that much easier. I was part way through writing this article, and now I don’t have to; he did it for me!
The folks over at Robot Japan just held the 1st Robot Japan Dance Competition on Sunday, January 9, 2011 in Tokyo. This video has some clips from that contest, with several different entrants, and it is worth watching just for the silliness factor. There are a few worth noting for the skill and ingenuity that went into their construction and programing, mostly towards the end of the video.
And one of them, the Kabuki bot, is very reminiscent of the wonderful days when Steampunk Japan was created. From 1600 to 1900, from the Edo to the Meiji periods, Karakuri or Clockwork Dolls were designed and built, mechanical robots who’s movement and logic tree choices were based on mechanical programming rather than electronic. At the beginning it was imported technology, based on Swiss gearboxes (mostly watches and clocks with the occasional Mecha built into a cuckoo clock) brought over by Portuguese sailors. It didn’t take long for some truly smart artisans to grasp the basic principles and start designing their own, starting with a tea serving robot who would bring you your cup, wait while you drank, and take the empty back. To the best of my knowledge this was the very first practical implementation of household robotics in any form, and at the core of Japan’s current supremacy in the field; they have now been building them for 400 years, after all.
Thanks to Singularity Hub for the heads up on this one.
I loved season one and the first half of season two of Primeval, the Brit time travel show with the cheesy monsters. The second half of season two dragged a little, due to some poor plot line choices, most noticeable at the final episode. And the less said about season 3 the better, as they went desperately grasping after straws trying to keep the franchise afloat.
But it looks like they have found their way again with season 4, at least based on the first few episodes. They have re-introduced the dramatic tension from the previous seasons, and also re-introduced some of the core characters. After a year of living with Dinosaurs, Conner and Abby are both noticeably grimmer and much more focused then they used to be, which sets a new tone. The action sequences in the second episode of season 4 seemed much gripping than anything in season 3 as well. It looks to me like they have a decent shot at pulling it all off this time, and I do appreciate being able to see them on BBC America the same day they air in the UK.
Meanwhile, here is a Science Link that you might find entertaining, particularly if you are into molecular chemistry…
From the folks who created Life On Mars (the UK version, not the failed US attempt), a new show is coming: Outcasts. No word on the exact start date yet, but the trailer looks tasty, and hopefully BBC America will continue their recent trend of airing Sci-Fi in the US the same day it becomes available in the UK.
The live action version of Gantz will be on the big screen for one night only this Thursday, January 20th. It will only be at about 340 theaters around the US, so if you want to see if it is near enough for you to make the show, go to Fathom Events and enter your zip code. It will display a list of the closest sites and set you up to buy tickets. If you are not sure if this is a movie you want to see, check out my previously published review and then just buy the damn tickets anyways. The following day, also under limited release, the anime re-imaging of the second quarter of the story in the classic series Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance hits a select assortment of theaters across the country.
I didn’t find any new movies worth mentioning, but Roger Corman’s Sci-Fi Classics could be entertaining if you haven’t seen them. This set has 3 movies from 1957/1958, Not of This Earth which he remade twice afterwords, the first remake being Traci Lord’s first non-porn film filled with all the expected nudity, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and War of the Satellites. These have been unavailable to fans except for really poor copies for quite a while, and are worth studying for anyone interested in making good movies on extremely limited budgets. You should read Glenn Erickson’s review over at DVD Talk for a detailed understanding of what each of these films are.
I normally don’t talk about DVD production companies here, but I thought I should mention Shout Factory, because I really like what they are doing these days. They are the ones who are releasing Roger Corman’s Sci-Fi Classics this week, along with a TV program I had about given up on seeing on the shelves, Dark Skies: The Declassified Complete Series from 1996. Dark Skies was arguably the best UFO Conspiracy TV series ever made, as long as the argument was that the X-Files covered a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with UFO Conspiracies, so it lacked the same focus. So that’s two genre sets in one week that lots of folks, including myself, have been eagerly awaiting. And that’s not the first time they have done this; back in August I went absolutely nuts when they released Max Headroom, the full American series. I had given up ever seeing that one come out by the end of the ’90s, and because of the impossible licensing issues involved I still doubt we will ever see the UK version of the show, also staring Matt Frewer as Edison Carter, released anywhere. I believe I also mentioned them when I found out they were planing to release ReBoot this March, one of my favorite western animation series and a direct conceptual descendant of TRON. And if that doesn’t cement their geek cred, come April they are releasing The Ernie Kovacs Collection, containing the majority of the surviving footage of television’s first and most important genius.
There are a few other TV shows being released this week, including Merlin: The Complete Second Season, which is licensed in the US to air on NBC. I first stumbled upon this show while channel surfing, hitting a random episode somewhere in season two, and not being overly impressed. Then a friend of mine talked me into watching it with her starting with the first episode of season 1, which was streaming on Netflix. Surprising how a show makes so much more sense when you see it in order, and I was quite drawn in as they introduced the characters and set the premises. I will avoid going into any rants about how Fox used that fact to kill Firefly, or any comments about how you can watch Doctor Who in any order you like, since he isn’t doing it sequentially either. Not being a Horror fan, I don’t know anything about the show Nite Tales: The Series, but it is also being released this week.
For Anime selections this time around, we have Kampfer – Complete Collection, a bit of a gender bender of a magical girl story, and Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, where brain wiped assassins struggle to escape their masters and remember who they are. It is being released in two packages, parts 1 and 2, on the same day. It appears to have the better animation and pithier story, but I am not sure that trading the instant gratification of not having to wait to find out what happens is worth the higher price of having to buy two box sets at once. They should have included the option of a single Complete Collection box set at a reduced total price, for those who are sure they want the entire thing right out of the gate. If you don’t know if you want this in your collection, you can watch the subbed version online before making your decision.