Review

Easter Monday was a rainy day in Canada. As a result my kids were suffering from boredom. So we checked the local theater schedule. They convinced me and my wife to take them to The Croods. As the kids chose the movie, I wasn’t expecting too much from it and I certainly wasn’t expecting to write a review about it. However, the movie ended up being a nice trip to an amazing fantasy world, so I thought I’d share my thoughts about it.

Some technical specifications that may have affected my viewing experience: My kids barely understand English so we watched version with the French translation. I will not review anything related to the voice acting. As my dear wife cannot support a 3D movie without being sick, we chose the 2D version of the movie. So I cannot say a word about the 3d effects in the movie.  Finally, I ended up eating quite a bit of popcorn on account of having had a light dinner earlier in the evening.

As far as the story goes, I was expecting some kind of hybrid between Brave and Ice Age. We have all seen this: a teenage girl gets rebellious in a prehistoric landscape, sprinkled with action and jokes, nothing new under the sun. But I was pleasantly surprised. This is mostly a story about fatherhood. Yeah, there’s a rebellious girl and a love story, but that is secondary. The main story is really about a father who would do anything to protect his family and has to let his big girl grow up. But enough about the plot, All you need to know is that it was interesting enough, fun enough, and touching enough to be a decent family movie. My kids liked it and I wasn’t bothered by it during the viewing.

What is interesting in this movie, from a fantasy stand point, is the world they created for it, especially the fauna. Most of the species you could see in the movie are some kind of hybrid between two or more modern day species. Mix an elephant with a mouse or an elephant with a giraffe.  Combine a leopard with a bear and an owl. That’s just a small sample of the incredible animals the caveman family encounters on their trip. It’s where this movie shines. Instead of dragging us into another world of silly talking dinosaurs; it creates an original and exotic world that stands on its own. It is what amazed my inner child and surprised me more than once. These inclusions give the movie a unique artistic signature and literally steal the show by the end.

Finally, I would recommend the The Croods as a family movie outing, kids will be happy and, what proud parent would not do this for his offspring? Especially if it involves eating popcorn.

After two unsuccessful attempts to attend it earlier this summer, I finally went to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition in Montreal.

This exposition is presented as a exploration of what forges a person’s identity and uses the different characters of Star Wars to represent this. It’s divided into sections that explore these factors, and in each section, you build your character by responding to questions relative to your character’s identity. The first choice you make is the species of your character. From there you choose genes, parents, a culture, mentors, friends, events, an occupation, a personality, and values. From these choices you build an identity, and this experience is meant to give visitors some insight into how identity is formed.  I was very skeptical about this part of the exposition. If it were about some historic figures, instead of the fictional Star Wars universe, it might have been more interesting to me. Maybe if George Lucas had a Ph.D in Psychology and had made sure his characters were built to reflect the latest scientific research on the subject of identity, I could have better understood the connection. So, while some others visitors around me seemed to enjoy the character identity building, I wasn’t really interested in that part of the exhibition. I did design my own hero and I watched most of the videos on the subjects which were scattered all over the exhibition, but I skipped some in the end. It was not that boring and I would probably have watched all of them if I had had more time. However, there were so many other things I wanted to see.  Anyway, it was a good decision, because after two hours of exhaustive examinations of the other areas the clerks had to kick me out of the showroom because they were closing.

So, the quest to identity yourself as a Star Wars character is not why you should visit this exposition. The real reason to go is to see the impressive collection of original artifacts. Being in the same room with all these objects is something a Star Wars fan should not miss.

First, you can see at least one costume for each of the main characters. The Jedi Knight outfits are a bit redundant, but  Amidala’s dress is beautiful. The real treasures are the Stormtroopers, Bobba Fett, C-3P0, and Darth Vader. All are worth a lengthy examination.  And Chewbacca! You have to stand in front of his fur costume how realize how tall and impressive he is!

I was also quite impressed by the various artworks. They are meant show the progression of the characters identity when they were designed. My favorite was one showing Han Solo as a bearded lightsaber wielder. How awesome it would have been if Han had sliced first!

Additionally, there are many other props, like the ominous Meson Taloscope (Midi-chlorian analyzer), a carbonite frozen Han Solo, and Anakin’s full size pod-racer. But the things I found the most impressive were the starships and the starfighter models. The details on those! I would still be staring at them and discovering new features, if I hadn’t eventually been kicked out.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Star Wars Identities Exhibition and recommend it to every Star Wars fan. I will probably forget about all the identities theories, but will forever remember leaning toward an incredibly detailed Imperial Star Destroyer.

You may check out some of the photos I took during my visit. bitmask also visited the exposition last April, and you can see his photos here. If you want to see the exhibition with your own eyes, the show will be in Montreal until September 16, 2012. It will be in Edmonton, Canada, from October 27, 2012, to April 1, 2013. Note that this exposition is quite popular and I had to buy my tickets a day in advance to finally see it.

Some of the regulars of the Scifi.StackExchange main chat room (Mos Eisley) got together to enjoy (and mock) some Star Trek. The first episode we watched was And The Children Shall Lead, which is considered one of the worst episodes from the original series.

Star Trek TOS – And The Children Shall Lead.

The USS Enterprise arrives at the planet Triacus. (Stardate 5029.5) TangoOversway: Oh! Cool! Remastered FX! OghmaOsiris: The Ship is with updated graphics, right? TangoOversway: Yes, all space shots are remastered. And cool 70s jumpsuits — before the 70s!	They arrive on the planet’s surface to discover the people are dead and dying. Jack B Nimble: I would have committed suicide if I’d been wearing those clothes too. Keen: Why doesn’t the Federation ever establish colonies on planets with plants? OghmaOsiris: I like that people of the future kept the cool Mod look Keen: Week in week out, rock planets.
Professor Starnes delivers several mad ravings before succombing to madness (of the space variety?). OghmaOsiris: WATCH OUT FOR THE GUY IN PINK Nurses of the future will kill ya Jack B Nimble: Kirk’s bad acting killed him. Keen: Do people serve in the Federation so they don’t have to wear those terrible jumpsuits? OghmaOsiris: They sign up and put their name in for a lottery. The ones with bad luck get the red shirts. Another clown school drop out	Spock attempts to take readings from the planet. Jack B Nimble: This planet gets terrible reception Keen: Hit the TV, that’ll fix it!
To the surprise of the crew, all of the children are alive and unaffected by whatever travesty occured here. OghmaOsiris: Play with us….forever and ever! Keen: Kirk is not amused by your playtime shenanigans Jack B Nimble: Some of those kids look a little old to be playing ring around the rosy Keen: Space children are stunted developmentally. TangoOversway: Kirk is upset because he feels the shenanigans are his privilege.	The opening credits. Jack B Nimble: Did I just hear a split infinitive? TangoOversway: Oh, remastered theme song, too! OghmaOsiris: HA! I actually laughed when I heard the theme music start to play lol What happened to the Theramin?
The Enterprise crew buries the dead. Jack B Nimble: Lining up the tomb stones with the mounds would have been too hard. Keen: Looks like they turned everyone into tiny piles of dirt. OghmaOsiris: Why wouldn’t they bury their people back on earth? Keen: Did they steal the dehydrating weapon from Batman?	The children continue to display no remorse for death of their parents. McCoy speculates they are suffering from amnesia due to the tramatic event. OghmaOsiris: Children these days No respect, I tells ya Keen: In the 2100′s, we kids respected our elders! OghmaOsiris: Damnit Jim! Keen: We also starved to death when our parents died and left us behind…. Jack B Nimble: I forget, is McCoy a medical doctor or a phychiatrist? OghmaOsiris: I like how a “Doctor” in the future meant an expert in every medical field ever Keen: Haha, what the hell kind of flag is that?!
Kirk starts to feel anxiety after entering the cave. OghmaOsiris: “Someone messed with my presets…” “MCCOY!!!” Keen: Kirk’s going to start dancing…. OghmaOsiris: The LSD is kicking in TangoOversway: I’m getting a feeling of anxiety from the writing in this place.	Spock continues to scan the cave to try and determine the source of the anxiety. OghmaOsiris: Silly humans. Jack B Nimble: It must have been convenient for the tv crew to have Spock carrying around a DAT tape during all the filming.
The children have been brought aboard the Enterprise. Nurse Chapel offers to give the children ice cream. Keen: Does that girl have flowers pinned to her dress? I guess the tailors were also high in the 60′s. TangoOversway: That wasn’t a computer lady. It’s Nurse Chapel. And she was married to Gene Roddenberry at the time. Keen: Exactly, she was the computer in later Treks. OghmaOsiris: You mean the voice of the computer? And Luxuiana Troi TangoOversway: Oh, the voice work. She was the computer in this series, too. Jack B Nimble: After serving with Captain Kirk she requested to be turned into a mindless computer. OghmaOsiris: Dr. Sung helped.	They (the children obviously) are treated to ice cream while the crew tries to figure out what happened. OghmaOsiris: So there WERE replicators in TOS Keen: And spanking them didn’t calm them down, Jim! OghmaOsiris: Now he’s a pediatrician… Jack B Nimble: The drugs seem to be working though. OghmaOsiris: “God I hate kids…” Kirk sleeps with her in 3…2… Keen: The computer lady made a terrible mistake when she fed all the kids only ice cream. Good luck keeping the kids calm now. OghmaOsiris: This episode is like a Benneton ad… Keen: On the other hand, being able to just eat ice cream for meals is another sign that the Federation is a utopia. Jack B Nimble: Without gaining any weight.
Kirk questions the oldest boy (Tommy) about the cave and death of his father. Tommy talks back to Captain Kirk. Keen: Kirk’s never going to get the truth out of this ginger. Jack B Nimble: Lousy redhead is a trouble maker. OghmaOsiris: Ginger on the loose	After the adults leave, the children gather in a circle and begin to chant. Jack B Nimble: Oh I see, they are a coven of witches. OghmaOsiris: Light as a feather stiff as a board….light as a feather stiff as a board…
Gorgon, a shimmering figure, appears as a result of the chanting. He tells the children no one will tell them where to go or what to do anymore. Keen: So the villain [of] this episode is Bloody Mary? Err, I guess it’s evil Pavarotti. OghmaOsiris: Chef Boyardee! Is he wearing a couch? Keen: “no one will tell us where to go” except me… Jack B Nimble: The writers were only able to come up with two descriptive nouns. Friends and enemies. Keen: Sounds like the kids joined a cult. Jack B Nimble: The friends of our enemies are not in fact friends but enemies of the friends which we think are our enemies while also not being friends.	On the bridge of the Enterprise. Sulu: “Maintaining standard orbit, Captain.” OghmaOsiris: Oh myyyyyyyy Keen: Finally we get to see the bridge crew! Chekov, say ‘nuclear wessels’! He didn’t associate it with that godawful purple jumpsuit? OghmaOsiris: I swear, when I watched the TOS movies, they made EVERY possible excuse to make Chekov say wessles
The bridge crew examines some of Professor Starnes’ tapes. “I’ve felt a certain growing feeling of uneasiness.” Keen: I think that’s a clear sign of a mentally imbalanced person. Jack B Nimble: He should be most uneasy about his outfit. TangoOversway: Glad I have the Writer’s Guide to show he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Is that pink, puse, or purple? (His outfit, that is.) OghmaOsiris: Muave Jack B Nimble: TangoOversway, The answer is “yes.” Keen: In all these videos he’s standing in front of the sky or rocks. Did they not have housing?	Tommy suddenly appears on the bridge. “Captain, after we leave here, can you take us to Marcos Twelve?” Jack B Nimble: Here comes fists of fury. OghmaOsiris: rock paper scissors, shoot! GINGER Keen: Did…did that ginger just [obscene gesture] away the scientist’s video… OghmaOsiris: So, what does Spock…do? Keen: Make Sulu say ‘Oh my’. OghmaOsiris: I know he’s science officer, but it seems that McCoy is doing all the science Jack B Nimble: As with every military vessel, children are allowed to roam around care free. Jack B Nimble: Even on the bridge. Keen: Worked for Wesley on the Enterprise D. Wait, no it didn’t. It proved to be a terrible idea.
More children appear on the bridge and through a series of hand gestures are able to hyponotize most of the crew. Sulu causes the Enterprise to break orbit. Jack B Nimble: Sulu is stoned at work again. Keen: That ginger’s making obscene gestures again. Jack B Nimble: These are the children of the corn. OghmaOsiris: And, all the other crew who are watching what the kids are doing just stand there, lol Jack B Nimble: Hopefully Spock will jetison them into space. Keen: It’s the only logical thing to do.	Down in Engineering another kid influences the crew. Mister Scott walks in and discovers the ship has left orbit. OghmaOsiris: Red shirts. OghmaOsiris: Death in 3….2…. Keen: Red shirt on red shirt violence! NO ONE WINS. Keen: Oh man, Scotty put the smack down on that red shirt. I was hoping for an insta-kill. OghmaOsiris: I like that hitting someone in the back knocks them out Keen: When you can do that, who needs a Vulcan Neck Pinch? TangoOversway: Because when they use a neck-pinch, it’s non-violent and Vulcans are pacifists.
In Kirk’s quarters Kirk, Spock, and McCoy continue to review the professor’s log. “I’m being influenced to do things that do not make sense.” OghmaOsiris: Was the music part of the record? Keen: Spock’s got quite the mancrush on that guy. TangoOversway: Whatever overwhelmed them was probably the bad writing. Keen: Spock was practically shaming Kirk into being a better scientist. Now McCoy’s an anthropologist. TangoOversway: It’s a slash thing. And McCoy leaves like a hurt puppy with his tail between his legs.	Kirk orders two red shirts to beam down to the planet, a planet to which the Enterprise is no longer in orbit. Keen: Yup, Kirk just offed two red shirts by spacing them. Jack B Nimble: Transport them into space! TangoOversway: What’s weird is the transporter room wasn’t always purple. Keen: TangoOversway, It’s another sign that everyone’s high. OghmaOsiris: Dead and they didn’t even get a moving part Jack B Nimble: Transporter operator “We don’t need to initiate a beam before energizing. Energize away!” TangoOversway: They’re not dead — they haven’t been in space even 25 seconds. Keen: I was hoping they’d show the two dead guys out in space when Spock turned on the viewscreen. TangoOversway: Quick, Spock! Beam them back aboard! OghmaOsiris: So… the computer didn’t tell them that there was no planet for them to beam down to? TangoOversway: The Angel kept them from seeing it. Keen: They’re red shirts, you can only allot so much time trying to save them.
Back on the bridge Gorgon appears to everyone. OghmaOsiris: Witches! TangoOversway: OghmaOsiris, don’t give them that much credit! Keen: Who you gonna call? OghmaOsiris: Couch Boyardee is back! Jack B Nimble: I say they self destruct the ship and call it a day. Keen: It’s the only way to be sure. OghmaOsiris: Make them take the Kobiashi Maru 8 year olds obviously know how to pilot a ship	Sulu (and others) are hypnotized and begin to see some of their fears. Keen: No, not the space swords! Noooooo Jack B Nimble: Our ship is no match for giant swords. OghmaOsiris: A fencer’s worst nightmare!
Ohura sees herself aging in a mirror. OghmaOsiris: MY hAir Keen: Where did that mirror come from?! Jack B Nimble: Ohura is so vain, to have a mirror right at her station OghmaOsiris: And they were worried about having a woman on the bridge… TangoOversway: And it could have been done so much better — no mirror until the kids do their stuff. Notice there’s no mirror in the shot where Kirk is there. Just in the close up. Keen: This entire episode could have ended in 5 minutes if Kirk had simply spanked the evil out of all the kids. OghmaOsiris: No belts in the future.	Kirk struggles with Sulu in an effort to return the ship to the planet. Keen: Why don’t they mind control Kirk? Jack B Nimble: Were those swords digitally remastered? OghmaOsiris: Seriously, why doesn’t Sulu figure out that flying swords in space isn’t that scary? Keen: He’s got a crippling case of space-swordphobia. TangoOversway: Because Kirk is just so awesome you can’t mind control him. Oh, wait.
Kirk attempts to confront Tommy. Jack B Nimble: Why doesn’t he punch the redhead in the face? Keen: Kirk, just backhand the ginger. OghmaOsiris: Right in the nads. Keen: Kirk’s really got to go to the bathroom. Excellent, this is Shatner’s time to AAAACCCCTTT!	KIRK “I’m losing command. I’m losing the Enterprise. The ship is sailing on and on. I’m alone. Alone. Alone. I’m losing command.” OghmaOsiris: I love you Spock. Jack B Nimble: Kirk’s mind and ego is so fragile. It’s just sad. Keen: He stops hugging Spock as he ‘regains command’. Jack B Nimble: Forever lost? In Space? That is the wrong TV show Scotty OghmaOsiris: Scotty looked better fat with a stache lol
Kirk attempts to reestablish control of the bridge. OghmaOsiris: Kill the children! Especially the ginger! Jack B Nimble: I was in favor of killing the children from the moment I saw them. Keen: YES, SPACE THE CHILDREN! OghmaOsiris: These boots are made for walking. Keen: It’s a shame this is a space ship and not a democracy. TangoOversway: Idiot ginger. Horizontal stripes make you look fat — oh, wait, he’s beanpole thin, he needs to look fat. Keen: Kirk, spin the chair around, make the ginger dizzy! I’d be afraid to be seen if I dressed like couch boyardee too.	Gorgon appears. Spock plays back another recording of the people on the planet. Keen: Evil always gets the cool clothes. Keen: It’s a good thing all Federation officers receive top-of-the-line hand to hand combat training, or that could have been ugly. OghmaOsiris: I’m glad Spock kept that recording on a flash drive. It really saved the situation Keen: Muumuus still don’t look good 200 years from now. Jack B Nimble: I guess we won’t use the giant view screen.
Life as it was on Triacus. Keen: What the, they have a space igloo! TangoOversway: See- there’s housing there, in the background! Keen: How do they all live in that tiny thing? TangoOversway: That dome, that’s barely taller than the kids, can house an entire family. Jack B Nimble: This is a very close community TangoOversway: They’ve used domes like that for sets in other episodes. I think they usually were above a stairway leading into the ground or something like that. Jack B Nimble: I’m disappointed only two redshirts have died so far. But I’m also elated they were killed by Kirk.	After being reminded of their lives with their parents the children breakdown into emotional wreaks. McCoy “They’re crying, Jim. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s good to see. “ Keen: Nothing makes McCoy’s day quite like children crying. Jack B Nimble: Thanks for your opinion “doctor.” OghmaOsiris: Now he’s a nanny

The other episode we watched that evening was Space Seed, which Netflix incorrectly classifies as a prequel to the Wrath of Khan. That is like saying Batman Begins is a prequel to The Dark Knight. Stay tuned (the correct frequency is 7) to your inter-webs to catch the transcript from that episode.

Here is a preview: “Khaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnn!” (Not actually in that episode.)

All images pulled from TrekCore

Three representatives from Stack Exchange (Abby, Katey and myself (Brett)) traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina this past weekend to participate in HeroesCon. HeroesCon has a reputation for being one of the friendliest and most fun comic conventions in the United States. We were pleased to find out that the reputation was an understatement! The creators in attendance were all super psyched to be there and the floor was gently packed with enthusiastic and outgoing fans of all ages and fandoms. Even Saturday, usually the biggest day of any convention, managed to feel vibrant, crowded and alive without approaching the mosh-pit levels of closeness that the bigger conventions lean towards.

People line up to spin the wheel at Spandex City

Stack Exchange’s adventure in Charlotte began on the Thursday night before the convention with a SciFi.SE-sponsored pre-party held at local comics shop, Spandex City. This event saw the debut of the now-infamous Stack Exchange Spinning Wheel. How infamous is it? I’ll be getting to that in a bit, but if you went to HeroesCon, odds are you saw (and probably spun) the wheel. While some of the store’s regulars enjoyed some righteous barbecue (from Charlotte’s own Lancaster’s BBQ), the Stack crew asked people questions from our site about their favorite science fiction and fantasy franchises. Game of Thrones? Harry Potter? Legend of Korra? Batman? Questions about all of these and many more were asked that night and throughout the weekend. An answer (note that we did not say right answer) allowed the participant to spin the wheel and win a prize. There was a healthy assortment of SciFi.SE bags, shirts and stickers there for all the winners; some lucky people even won 3-day passes to HeroesCon and comics. Spandex City was super generous with their time and space and we were incredibly thankful for that. The pre-party event went over well thanks to Spandex City’s great environment. If you’re in the Charlotte area, do yourself a favor and check them out! You can watch a video about the event here.

Katey watches the wheel spin

The big event itself started on Friday and lasted until Sunday. We expected that our table, located at the far end of the convention center floor on the edge of the artists’ space, would get some foot traffic. We really expected to spend the entire weekend shooting video content for our YouTube channel (StackHQ) with one person left behind to work the spinning wheel. That…didn’t exactly happen. Little did we know, but people love spinning wheels. And I don’t mean a passive love, I mean an all-consuming and incredibly active love. The kind of love that leads to repeat visits and waiting in long lines. Because we had long lines. For the better part of two days.

The line grows

HeroesCon was our test run into exhibiting at a convention, so we didn’t quite prepare for the massive crowds we received. We had to ration our t-shirts and bags so as to not run out on Friday, although by Sunday all the t-shirts were gone. The same was true for the stock of comics we brought to give out alongside our stickers. Three trips had to be made to the show floor to find more comics for the prize wheel. Thankfully that wasn’t a big problem, although getting receipts from vendors at a comic convention proved more entertaining than I could have predicted. We did learn a few things from working the wheel nonstop for two days:

• People love spinning wheels (this cannot be reiterated enough)
• Regardless of the answer given, the spinning wheel is a fun introduction to our site that leads to many smiles and much swag
• Give away most of the bags and shirts on Friday so that people will be using them all weekend long; by Sunday we became known as the “bag people” because of the high number of our bags on the show floor
• It takes 3 people to man the booth; 2 to ask questions and 1 to wrangle the wheel’s line
• People care way more about trivia than swag, although swag is super awesome too; people came back multiple times JUST to be asked more questions
• Ask kids softball questions and be super awesome to them; they have parents attached to them who will probably like the site if the site’s representatives make their kids happy
• We need some banners: one that clearly states that the table is a SciFi.SE jam, and another that features a call to action about the spinning wheel (“Can you answer our questions?!” or something)

Since we didn’t get a chance to leave the table for the first two days of the con, we decided to shut down the spinning wheel and make video content our main priority for Sunday. My main goal with HeroesCon was to create video content that could live on the internet forever and reach a wider audience due to having informative content with creators that people care about. The success of the spinning wheel got a bit in the way of that, and led us to learn a few facts about creating video content at a convention:

Best-Dressed

• Try to bring enough people to a convention so that 2-3 can work the table and another 2-3 can hit the floor to get video content. If only 2-3 people can go to a con, set up a spinning wheel schedule so that all 3 days are relatively equal parts table-sitting and video production.
• Schedule interviews ahead of time! I had gotten permission from a few comic creators before the con to interview them, but the fluidity of our agreed-upon time led us to spinning a wheel for two days straight. Approaching all your people on Sunday? Not the best idea.
• Don’t bank on Sunday. Creators are tired by the last day of the con!

• Joe Quinones & Maris Wicks: In this interview, we asked the interviewees what their favorite sci-fi or fantasy property was and then centered the interview around discussing that question.
• Question in Conference Room B with Dean Trippe: This is pretty much the same as what we did with Maris and Joe, except with all of the fun dressings of our web series. Plus the more conversational nature of QiCRB allows the conversation to go in different places. This isn’t just a question-answer interview, it’s a discussion.
• Kelly Sue DeConnick: This is the main type of interview I want to do. I want to find the writers and ask them questions about the work they have created. Kelly Sue DeConnick is about to take over writing Ms. Marvel (now Captain Marvel), so who better to ask the one Ms. Marvel question on the site? Stack Exchange prides itself on getting expert-level answers, and in sci-fi and fantasy it doesn’t get more expert than the writers themselves.

By the end of the show we made a lot of new friends, came up with a lot of ideas to improve our future con presence, gave a few hundred people hands-on, in-depth experience with SciFi.SE, and created internet content that can be shared and enjoyed until the internet cracks in half. It was a lot of fun! For more photos from HeroesCon, visit the SciFi.SE Facebook page, or keep an eye on our Flickr.

Thanks to Dean Trippe, The Nerdy Show and Flame On! podcasts, Scott C., Kelly Sue DeConnick, Joe Quinones, Maris Wicks, Spandex City, Whitney Cogar and HeroesCon for a great weekend. See you next year!

All the movies:

• Magically gifted children age at an extremely inconsistent rate. (They aged 6 magic years in 10 human years).
• All the students immediately outgrew their wizarding robes after the second year, the robes will rarely be seen again.
• Harry Potter is the only one who gets into trouble for using magic outside of Hogwarts.
• 16-year-old Voldemort looks nothing like 17-year-old Voldemort (or 11-year-old Voldemort for that matter). If George Lucas had been involved this would have been fixed by the third release of the DVDs.
• Most of Griffindor (a house based on bravery) is comprised of students too afraid of their own shadows to be of much use half of the time.
• The “good enough” mentality is just as strong in the magical community.

Yeah, these are all definitely the same person.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

• The Sorting is not conducted in alphabetical order – what kind of system is that? Oh, and you’ll never see another Sorting.
• It is okay for teachers to play favorites, particularly Heads of Households.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

• Children get injured constantly at Hogwarts and no one raises an eyebrow, but as soon as a few students get temporarily petrified, the future of this 1000-year-old institution is in jeopardy.
• Sometimes the students age in reverse order.
• Hagrid’s home (and really all of Hogwarts) is ridiculously overrun with spiders, at least until it no longer serves as a plot device.

Beginning of movie, middle of movie, end of movie.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

• I don’t know what Dumbledore was doing during Harry’s second summer break, but he must have been hitting the gym or something. He started the third year looking like an entirely new man.
• Malfoy is the only student to get injured for which there appears to be consequences to the staff and other involved parties.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

• For some reason everyone decided that 70s long hair was cool. The girls, the guys, everyone.
• Harry only uses magic four times (in a movie about wizards).

You can tell Harry is the chosen one by the way his hair flows in the wind.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

• Despite the looming threat of Voldemort’s return, everyone managed to find a barber shop over the fourth year summer break.
• Harry is a rage-oholic who likes his rage-ohol shouted at, not stirred.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince:

• Harry has apparently become homeless and now lives in a dirty subway tunnel.
• All of Harry Potter’s problems from the previous movie would have been solved if they just looked in his memories.
• The Slug Club sounds even worse when spoken aloud.
• Any fool could look at 11-year-old Voldemort and know he was going to grow up to be a mass murderer.
• They should be brewing gallons of “Liquid Luck.”

That is the look of a well balanced kid.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2:

• Harry doesn’t like other people taking risks for his sake. He’d rather let Voldemort just win already.
• Despite being free for 5 years, Dobby continues to wear the same tattered rags. His only addition is a pair of shoes. Yeah, that’s all you needed Dobby.
• The Weasley’s rebuilt The Burrow to look exactly like the old one did. That means their shabby house is by choice and not by circumstance.
• Every wizard’s house is apparently located in the middle of some huge empty field (except Snape’s).
• Even though people Disapparate together (holding hands) they rarely Apparate near each other.
• Harry is a wizard who never seems to think of magic as a solution to a problem. He’d rather jump into a freezing pool of ice water than cast a spell to warm the water first.
• Everyone is from Godric’s Hollow (which Harry didn’t know). It is apparently the source of all wizarding families.
• Gringott’s is probably not where you want to bank anymore, because they lost roughly 100% of their staff as a result of Harry’s break-in.
• Based on the number of people who died on that bridge, there can’t be all that many wizards left.

This post made possible by a grant from SciFi.StackExchange. That isn’t just a plug at the end of a PBS show, it’s the truth. Something like a ba-jillion years ago (Nov 15th 2011) I was one of the recipients of the Complete Collection of Harry Potter on DVD. I chose DVD because a) I didn’t have a BluRay, and b) I am not forward looking.  I received this grant on the promise to help promote Harry Potter questions and answers on the site.  Thanks to my contributions (and maybe others, I’m not keeping track) as of the writing of this post Harry Potter is the #1 tag on SciFi.StackExchange.

When I was a kid, I regularly read Whizzer & Chips and Buster and occasionally read of the Disney comics, but I never got into the DC/Marvel worlds – probably because they were too expensive and I was quite happy with books.  Over the years I occasionally flicked through a comic, and I was vaguely aware of the major storylines, but never a regular comic reader.  Over the last month, I’ve tried out the comic world. more »

It’s the new year, which means the winter breaks for TV shows are coming to an end, and the mid-season shows are starting up.  Here’s a quick rundown on what new science fiction and fantasy shows will be premiering in the US this mid-season.  For a reminder of which shows started back in the fall, be sure to check out our post from last fall. more »

The Dark Mirror and Blade of Fortriu are the first two books in Juliet Marillier’s Bridei Chronicles.  In The Dark Mirror we see the rise to kingship of Bridei, a 6th Century Pict as well as his relationship with Tuala, his half-human foster-sister, and in Blade of Fortriu two of the minor characters from Mirror, Ana and Faolan take center stage  in a story that mostly develops their own backgrounds and futures, with one of Bridei’s significant battles forming a secondary backdrop story.

These stories are based on real historical characters (e.g. Bridei I of the Picts), with more overt magic than stories like Stewarts’s Merlin stories, but still maintaining a generally realistic feel.  This is a form of historical fiction that I particularly enjoy, although not knowing much about the history of the Picts the relationship to real history mostly passed me by.

The central characters of The Dark Mirror are compelling enough that I enjoyed the novel, although the outcome is never really in doubt to the reader, and of little doubt to most of the characters too.  The story never truly captivated me, however, and felt slightly rushed at times, moving quickly from age to age.  The quirky cast of characters that educate Bridei as a child were all interesting, but none very fleshed out (I got the impression that they might be recognisable characters from Pictish history, but I wasn’t able to verify this).

I expected more of Bridei (especially given the name of the series) and Tuala in Blade of Fortriu, although Marillier’s sequels often leave behind the central characters of the previous stories.  Bridei and Tuala do feature, but are decidedly minor characters.  I found the story of Ana and Faolan less interesting, with Ana’s development particularly dull (although the characters note how much she has changed, I didn’t see much change at all), and Faolan’s background less interesting than Mirror suggested it might be.

A love triangle features strongly in Blade; I don’t have any objection to this trope in general, but it wasn’t well done here.  Other than his magical nature and exceptional good looks, there was nothing appealing about Ana’s other beau, even though it was obvious throughout that she would end up with him, rather than Faolan.  Perhaps there’s some sort of redemption and superior love waiting for Faolan in a later book (the end of the story suggests that he might feature centrally in a later novel in the series), but I was rather unsatisfied that he came out of the triangle so poorly.

I’d recommend reading The Dark Mirror, at least – it works well as a standalone novel – and would recommend Blade of Fortriu to anyone that enjoyed Mirror.  However, if you’re new to Marillier, I’d suggest starting with the superior Wolfskin/Foxmask or the Sevenwaters novels.

The Movies StackExchange site is now available to the public.  If you’ve got questions that need answering by a film expert, then this is a good place to ask.

There don’t seem to be many sci-fi or fantasy movie questions yet, but if you’re particularly interested in or expert in film, then you might want to keep an eye on the questions there (if you’ve got an account on our site with at least 200 reputation, then if you associate the two accounts – you’ll be prompted to do this if you use the same OpenID – then you’ll start off there with 101 reputation).

If you’ve got a question about a science fiction or fantasy movie, where do you ask that question, now that there’s both sites?  Consider who you would like an answer from: an expert in science fiction / fantasy, or an expert in movies in general; different types of questions will suit each site.  Some questions will be perfectly acceptable on both sites, and in those cases it’s up to the asker to decide where they’d like to ask (in general questions won’t be migrated between the sites, and duplicates may exist on both sites, as long as they are not exact duplicates).  You should definitely not post the same question on both sites, however.

Also, don’t forget that there’s a similar site for the written word, Literature, where there continue to be a reasonable number of science-fiction and fantasy literature questions, aimed more at a literature audience than a sci-fi/fantasy one.

“You’d love this,” said Scott. “I know you liked ‘Transmet’–” that’s the sprawling journalist-meets-dystopia Transmetropolitan “–and this is even better. And the art is amazing.” With this recommendation from my comic shop, I picked up the first and only “Planetary” collection: All Over the World and Other Stories.

Over the years, I read the rest of the stories Warren Ellis and artist John Cassady created about this team of “mystery archaeologists”. The titular team operates in a world complete with analogs to copyrighted pulp-fiction heroes. The series is a single story formed by the intersection of pocket-sized tales, and contains some of the best writing in superhero comic books. (Don’t even try to call “Planetary” a graphic novel; the story’s too firmly rooted in the pulps for that.)

The story was continued in the second book, The Fourth Man, which had a detour into Elijah Snow’s past as well as a reinterpretation of the entire story to date. However, the story wasn’t even halfway finished when Ellis seemed to lose interest in the tale, and Cassady–then becoming more well-known–started taking on other projects. Whatever scripts Ellis tossed his way probably ended up on the back end of the priority queue.

It was a decade after the release of the first issue that issue twenty-seven ended the story. The last few issues seemed fairly anticlimactic, but was that because they were of lesser quality? Or did our waiting months and sometimes years in-between issues rob us of momentum?

Huge spoilers below, yadda yadda. more »