I expect we’ll be getting more of these featurettes as we get closer to the release of Pacific Rim. In this latest one, we get an insight into how the Jaegers, the giant robots, are piloted.  Because they are so large, it takes two people to control a single Jaeger.  The pilots connect to the each other and the mech via the “Drift” which allows them to sync to the unit.  The pilots mirror the sides of a human brain, left and right.  While in the Drift, the pilots thoughts and memories are shared.  They are an open book to each other.  Piloting a Jaeger requires more than just skill.  It requires trust.

It’s a neat concept that I think will be the emotional crux of the film.  Can you imagine how fucked it would be if Asuka and Shinju had to Drift together?  But I’m not sure I like the two pilot idea.  I’m terribly biased by my love of Gundam.  In a Gundam, Mobile Suits are always piloted by a single individual.  More complex suits are piloted by New Types, evolved humans with expanded mental capabilities.  The idea that once we unlock the true potential of our minds, we can do just about anything is one of the basic themes of the Gundam universe that really appeals to me.  The New Type phenomenon is a great science fiction high concept that gives the audience hope for our species.

Now, who’s to say that one of these pilots won’t outgrow the Drift and go on to pilot a Jaeger by themselves.  I have to admit, that would be really cool to see.  And from a story stand point, the Drift also gives us more of a reason to give a shit about our characters.  The plot almost writes itself.

Still very excited to see this in theaters.

If you have not seen the season finally of Doctor Who, why did you click on the link?!  There are going to be massive spoilers throughout this review so come back when you’ve watched it.

Back?

Alright, let’s get into this.

Despite the glorious fanservice of all seeing all the old Doctors in the beginning, there was a lot of fist shaking in the Noguchi household while watching “The Name of the Doctor.”  I legit yelled at the screen when Jenny died.  And I threw up my hands when we didn’t actually get to hear the Doctor’s actual name.  But the final reveal just made my brain break.

Lady Vastra And the Scoobies

Lady Vastra, Jenny, and Strax are total scene stealers.  Anytime they’re in an episode, I almost forget that the Doctor is around.  A spinoff series starring just the three of them would be so much more enjoyable than Torchwood.

Being unconscious for the conference call was pretty fun.  It kind of reminds me of some of the scenes in the Sandman comics where people meet in dreams.  Of course, I always have difficulty remembering my dreams with any semblance of accuracy.  Maybe you remember shit better when it’s a conference call.

I’m sooooooo glad Jenny isn’t dead.  I almost walked out of the room at that point.  And though I suspect that Strax has had to revive Jenny more than once, seeing Lady Vastra freak the fuck out stressed me out.  Sooooo happy she survived.

Seriously, they need their own show.

Farewell Sweetie

We got some closure with River which was kinda cool.  Most of this half of the season, I had been wondering where River was.  We know that she spent some time with him after the Ponds left, but we never got to see it.  He seemed awful flirty with Clara so I suspected that River had already gone to the Library somewhere between the Ponds exit and Clara’s reintroduction and now we’ve got it confirmed.

It was nice to see River finally get her goodbye.

The Impossible Girl

We finally learn how Clara becomes the Kenny of this season.  I was slightly annoyed because I like a good mystery that I can solve.  I would have loved to have seen a montage of clues sprinkled throughout the season that would have built up to this reveal if I knew what I was looking for, but there was no way for us to figure out Clara until we see the shiny splintery thing.

I’m also a little annoyed at how easy it was for the Doctor to pull her back out.  Here’s a leaf. On the wind. Watch it soar.  And, oh, come over here and we’ll get you out.  There was such a build up to the whole, “OH IT’S GONNA KILL YOU AND SPLINTER YOU INTO A BAJILLION TIMEY WIMEY PIECES” that when it got all fixed with a leaf, I just kind threw up my hands.

Doctor Chest Burster

WAHT?!?!?!

So before the revival of the series, I always thought that The Doctor was his name.  We had a few examples of Time Lords who were just named by their titles, The Doctor, The Castellan, The Master.  We’ve also had named ones like Romana and Rassilon.  So I always assumed that some Time Lords are just named The Something while others have names.

Ten and Eleven introduced the idea that the Doctor has an actual name which is an interesting thing to play with.  Of course, we’re never going to learn it, but it’s a neat mystery to hang in the air.

Which brings us all back to the character that John Hurt is playing.  The Great Intelligence says that the Doctor will be known by many other names before the end including The Valeyard.  The Valeyard is all of the Doctor’s evil bits combined into one and occurs somewhere between his twelfth and final regeneration.  Is John Hurt the Valeyard?

OR is John Hurt the version of the Doctor who ended the Time War between regenerations 8 and 9?  I’m calling him Doctor John from now on.  Did he have to become Doctor John to do what he did to end the Time War?  If so, that technically makes Eccleston Ten, Tenant Eleve, and Smith Twelve. SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!!!

But the REAL question is will we fucking find out in November with the 50th or will we get more questions to lead into the eighth season?  At some point, I’m going to run out of patience with all these new questions popping up.

I haven’t been keeping up with my Doctor Who episode reviews which I never thought would happen. Dalek Clara totally hooked me.  I was sad to see the Ponds go, but I was ready for some awesome adventures with Clara.  Now to be fair, we’ve had some really fun episodes with her.  She’s proven to be quite witty, brave, and able to out-talk the Doctor.  But part of her hook was the mystery of her existence.  And though we’ve seen Clara prove to be an excellent companion, in eight episodes, we’ve learned nothing further about what makes her so “impossible.”  It’s a little frustrating.

I’m assuming they’re saving up any big reveals for the 50th anniversary.  But it just makes the rest of the season feel like filler.  I also kind of feel like Dalek Clara and Victorian Clara did a lot more in their brief appearances than Companion Clara.  It feels like Companion Clara just follows along with the Doctor and does what he tells her whereas Dalek and Victorian Claras were more than willing to ignore him and do their own thing.  I’m fully confident that Dalek and Victorian Claras could save themselves.  Companion Clara, I’m not so sure.  Also, Companion Clara got upgraded to be super computer genius smart.  Yet we haven’t seen her computer her way out of anything save for that first episode.  Sure, a computer isn’t going to be useful against Mr. Sweet back in the Victorian era, but certainly she could have used a terminal to mess with the Cybermen.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still enjoy the hell out of the show and this has been a fun season.  But it just feels like there’s something missing.  Next week is the final episode of this season and it looks like we’re going to be learning a lot about the Doctor’s past.  I’m hoping we’ll also learn something about Clara.

I’m not really a fan of unboxing videos, but this made my pants all crunchy.  I hope we get to see more of Daft Punk’s secret lair in whatever videos are shot for their upcoming album because it looks like a lot of fun.  Definitely has a classic 70s sci fi feel to it.

All these teaser videos, releasing “Get Lucky” early, the postering campaign, everything they’ve done in anticipation of the album release has built such great anticipation for the thing! May 21 can’t come soon enough!!!

Did you see it?  Alright, you can stay.  I’m not going to do a full review but I will talk about two specific aspects of the movie that I thought were absolutely brilliant, Mandy and Pepper.  First up, let’s get this Mandarin discussion out of the way.

Hi, I’m Trevor.

I’ve never liked the Mandarin.  He’s a terrible caricature of an “Oriental” villain from period of time when the “Far East” was a thing to be feared and mocked.  The Mandarin is fucking awful and hearing the news that he would be the villain in Iron Man 3 made me bristle a little.

When word dropped that Ben Kingsley was going to play him, I thought it was an interesting choice.  Normally, you’d expect me to rail against the white washing of a clearly Chinese character.  Yes, I know Kingsley is part Indian, but when was the last time you met a Mandarin Indian.  Still, since I didn’t give a shit about the character to begin with, I didn’t really give a fuck about ethnic authenticity.

Then the trailers hit and I couldn’t stop laughing.  Every time I saw him or heard him I thought, man, how the fuck am I going to take this shit seriously?  He looks like the third member of LMFAO, he sounds like a fucking idiot, his rings are cheap costume jewelry.  Is this really the big bad of what could potentially be the biggest comic book film yet?

AND THEN TREVOR!!!!

Holy fuck, what an awesome reveal!  The trailers had me completely fooled and I fucking loved them for it!  I loved how meta it was.  The trailers make it seem like he’s our big bad.  We barely see any of Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian in any of the trailers.  Yet he turns out to be the big bad!  The trailers hid it from us just like Killian does in the film.  Oh, so brilliantly meta!

That turn alone would have made my film.  But it’s really Pepper Potts that had me cheering in my seat.

So Violent!

Though Pepper has been established as one of the most intelligent women in the Marvel movieverse, in the first two films she is very much the damsel in distress.  And even though we finally get to see her in the armor (damn the trailers for spoiling that moment), she was still distressing pretty hard throughout the film until the last awesome reveal of her Extremis powers.  God, such an awesome save!

The best part is that she has to become the ultimate trope, the trophy damsel, in order to turn it all on its head.  If Killian hadn’t kidnapped her as his prize and given her Extremis, Tony would be completely fucked.

I’m so glad neither of these reveals were dropped in any of the trailers.  I thought those turns really elevated the story telling and made for a much more compelling film.  Now I want to marathon all three to see it all come together.

In the mean time, you can check out the progress on my top tier reward.  I’m painting a guitar body and documenting the process on my instamess account.  I’ve always wanted to customize and build guitars so I figured I’d use this is an excuse to get started.  This is on a dinky style body that’s back routed for humbucker/single/humbucker pickup configuration.  I’m painting with softbody acrylics which means they are water thin and fairly transparent, so it’s lots of layering.

If someone actually buys this thing, I might do some more.  I’ve got two spare bodies that could be customized.  One of them, I plan on actually turning into a guitar.

Holy fuck, this thing looks intense!

I thought the first Thor movie was a lot of fun.  The chemistry between Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth was adorable.  And, of course, Tom Hiddleston as Loki absolutely killed.  I’m excited to see Natalie back although it looks like we’re being set up for ALL THE FEELS.  Dammit, trailer, you giveth and then you taketh away!  But at least we have some Asgard Bros action to look forward to.

I’ve fallen behind on my Doctor reviews and I apologize for that.  I’ll get to them, maybe in a batch or something, but I’m still watching the show and keeping up with it.

So, the BBC dumped a whole mess of posters for upcoming episodes including this one for “The Name of the Doctor.”  And lookie whose name is in the credits!  That’s right, River is back.  I suspect that we won’t actually learn the Doctor’s for real name, but I have a feeling this episode is going to be legendary.  Clara and River in the same place can’t be good, especially not with all the flirting between Clara and the Doctor.  By the finally, I fully expect the TARDIS to be a Snog Box.

I’m also looking forward to “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS.”  As big as it is on the inside, we rarely get to see much beyond the control room.  It would be really cool to see all the crazy passages and hidden rooms that are flitting about in there.

From: Bleeding Cool

It’s been an awful week so I was overjoyed when I saw that the radio edit of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” off their upcoming Random Access Memories is up on iTunes.  I’ve been rocking that shit all morning and even created this horrible tribute piece.

Thank you, robots!  This is exactly what I needed to close out the week!

No matter how many times I hear bits a pieces of “Get Lucky,” I still fucking love it. Such an amazing groove that just gets into your soul.  There’s something magical about it and listening to Pharrell talk about the collaboration makes it sound like a religious experience.  Love it!

Man, if there’s a special edition of this thing, they have my money!