Number6's Journal

Right now, I'm really enjoying Avatar: The Legend of Korra (I refuse to call it TLAB). Especially what glimpses we saw at the end of the last episode that I hope will get far more detail. But instead of talking directly about Korra, I want to talk about what might potentially come After Korra.

Okay, it's just started really, and a little early to make predictions or even be thinking about the far future... But I'm still marvelling over how we actually got a sequel, and it's not only very good, but also very different from the original series, when it struck me... "Wouldn't it be cool if we somehow got a complete cycle of Avatar stories, one for each element, each in a somewhat different genre?" Immediately after, I thought... "Never going to happen" (at least, as animation), and yet, the thought of "But what if?" persisted. I mean Korra takes place 70 years after Airbender and has appropriate technological jumps (it's a sort of a bit of 1920s vibe), so it only stands to reason that if they made yet another sequel, it would be another time jump.

So, here are my (not especially novel) ideas of what they might do with Earth and Fire avatars... ( Read more... )
Anyway, in my head it's all pretty cool.

But enough about Avatar. What else is there?

Well, right now, Game of Thrones, but I don't feel especially talky about it. I still really enjoy it, but it's just one of those things I don't really need to converse about a lot, partly because of worries of "okay, most of the story has already been told in advance, I just don't know it yet", so it's hard to speculate or anything without looking like a fool or having people give spoilers. But yes, I do very much like it.

Other than that, not much, a couple shows running out the clock, a couple that I don't care enough to talk about, and then it's just the wait until the next new thing's on.

So let's talk about the next new thing. It's almost time for the networks to announce their schedules for the next year, and while we don't have the list of shows, we do have lists of PILOTS that the networks have been considering.

Not every show that winds up on the schedule will necessarily come from this list (and certainly, most of the shows on this list won't be on the schedule), but it gives a sort of early peek at what I MIGHT be interested in. I don't have an easy link to all the pilots there are, I looked through a bunch of sources and made notes of which ones I might be interested in, or that are in my wheelhouse but I'm unsure about. So that's mostly going to be genre-stuff - SF, Fantasy, etc.

But pilots of note that are vying for spots next year that caught my interest:
( Read more... ) So, not super encouraging. Two worth an automatic check-out, one I'll probably look at mostly due to comic-loyalty, nine that I might look at if the trailers will look good, but I'm leaning towards passing on. And that's of the stuff that holds even the slightest interest to me at all. Everything else proposed is snoozeville. But that's just the main networks.

One cable network that has announced a bunch of upcoming shows in development is Syfy. Alas, it's no longer the Sci-Fi channel, either in name or in spirit, really, but at least it has a couple SF shows, movies, and miniserieses on the slate. Full announcement is here, (and far too much is lame reality shows), but I'll list a couple potential highlights behind the cut.
( Read more... )

A little bit with potential, and actually a better odds than all the mainstream networks, although not all of this is necessarily due for next year.

We'll see how things shake out in a few weeks when everything gets officially announced.

(Some of this post has been written months ago, I procrastinate)
So, I'm not especially happy with my life. This should be no surprise, I've been this way quite a while. And although evidence suggests I'm incapable of fixing it on the large scale, I decided recently that I should try some targetted changes and small goals, each able to make me feel marginally better about my life. Some are resuming old efforts that I've slacked on, some are new, some are quite silly. It hasn't made a measurable difference in my life so far, but I'll keep trying, because it's better than just doing nothing.

In any event, in recent months I've ( Read more... )

Mini-Goals For The Future

Some of these are thing I might get to, some are pie in the sky things. I mix them freely.

( Read more... )

"Let's Kill Hitler" was on and it was... not really what I expected. I think overall I liked it, though.

Some spoilery thoughts.

( Read more... )

I had a Doctor Who dream again, one of those dreams where it takes the form of an episode. And of course, as is not unusual for me, after waking up I stayed suspended in a half-awake half-asleep state trying to make it better.

( Read more... )

In short, I should TOTALLY WRITE FOR DOCTOR WHO.


Oh, and in other news, I hope everyone who is/was in the path of Irene makes it through okay. I don't get much besides local news anymore, and even that I tend to miss on the weekend, so I don't know exactly how bad it's gone in various places, but, well, I'm hoping it's not too bad.

Fate as 4 dimensional bugswatter

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but, well, here's another.

So, the 80s have been strip-mined for material for a while. Remakes, reboots, reinterpretations. The latest (as I start this), is the release of the first look at the new Thundercats cartoon.

It doesn't look too bad, actually, based purely on look. Anime-esque, of course, which is not my favorite style, but I can live with it. But this is not about that.

The Thundercats peeks are what got me thinking along the "What I'd Do With..." lines. What would I do, if I could take an abandoned property from the 80s and remake it for the modern age.

The hard part would be choosing one that's not already been done, but surprisingly, I do have a choice, one that would have been in my top 3 even if I didn't limit myself in that way.

Dungeons and Dragons.


As usual, this is partly planned, partly extemporaneous thoughts, so sometimes I'll state an idea and then decide against it later, or come up with something on the fly and then get really excited about it. I should also not that I specifically decided NOT to try to rewatch the series in preparation for writing this. Last time I rewatched this it didn't live up to how awesome it was in my memories (production values and animations and stuff mainly), and I didn't want to suffer that again. Also, it would take a lot more time than I was willing to invest. So, although I did research, it was mostly reading up on fan sites, wikipedia entries, and such. Consequently, some of what I say might not be strictly speaking, correct. If I was doing it for real, I'd probably immerse myself much more in the original series, but for the purposes of this, my faulty memories and internet research are good enough.


As I see it, we have three basic approaches, and I'll deal with each in its own section:

1) The Reboot

This one, we do basically what Thundercats looks to be doing... taking the general premise and characters, but updating it and making a few changes.

So, the changes: ( Read more... )

So, that's option one. Option two is...

2) Dungeons & Dragons: The Next Generation
(maybe we could call it Advanced Dungeons & Dragons!)

This one's pretty self-explanatory. The original series all happened, and at some point, they came home, grew up, and (some of them, at least), had kids. When their kids are teenagers, they find a portal to the Realm, and begin having their own adventures. Presumably we'd have Hank and Sheila's kids, maybe one kid of Diana and Eric, and a couple who are just unrelated. I imagine Hank and Sheila's kids being the nucleus of the show, which allows us to bring their parents in later.

So, the details:( Read more... )

You know, I'm actually loving this setup. If I wasn't creating it, I'd totally watch it. Well, I suppose that's not saying much because if I didn't like it I'd hardly be doing it, but, still. Obviously the main characters need to be fleshed out more, but in terms of general concept, I like. Even if we did have Rusty the Team Pet.

But, since many things come in threes, there's still a third option to if I had a chance to make a modern Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. This one is more pet-projectish. It's:

3) The Throw-it-all-out-but-the-title-and-a-concept-or-two
And probably won't even keep the title.

But let's strip down the Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon) concept to it's most basic level, IMHO: It's about a bunch of modern teens travelling through a fantasy universe.

If that and that alone was the directive for creating a show, I wouldn't reboot Dungeons and Dragons, or make a sequel (well, maybe I would, I'd probably have trouble deciding, honestly... but let's say for whatever reason the other options are off the table). I would look to my all-time favorite campaign setting, one built around magic portals and the idea that somebody from ANYWHERE could wind up there.

That's Planescape. For those who don't know, it was an AD&D 2nd edition campaign setting, based around Planar Travel. ( Read more... )

Anyway, it would focus on a group of kids on Earth who open up one of the only portals to Sigil. I'm thinking we have some of the characters have a family history... their parents came from the outer planes and settled on Earth because it was one of the safest places, there are only a handful of portals there, and the keys are very rare. More details behind the cut.
( Read more... )

So, there it is. 3 Dungeons & Dragons style shows for the modern age. Which would I choose, given the choice? I think.... it's between the Next Generation, and the Planescape-style one, because I could make it more mine. I'd probably choose Next Generation to WATCH, and Planescape if I was going to create one.

But I wouldn't turn up my nose at watching or producing any of the three options. So, if you run a network and happen to have the license to produce such a show... please, hire me and give me a show-runner position! Or steal my ideas and give me something good to watch.

And if you don't, just comment, if you feel so inclined.

(As usual, the WIDW tag contains all the prior installments of What I'd Do With...).

So, I try not to play too much Left 4 Dead 2 because I think when I do it eats a bit into my writing time/morale. However, this weekend I made an exception, and managed to get an achievement I never imagined I'd get. "Still Something to Prove", where you have to beat every (original) campaign on Expert difficulty. And expert difficulty is HARD, particularly when, like me, you play with the bots (who are very stupid. Seriously, if you're in the middle of a fire patch and go down, the bots will run in and try to revive you, burning off all their health and going down too). So how did I manage? I cheated! Well, not really. For those who are unaware, each week Valve schedules a "mutation" that you can play, which slightly alters the game rules in some fun way. I used the current one for the achievement. ( Read more... ) And yay, Achievement unlocked. That's 61 out of 65 achievements for the game done. One more remains likely very difficult (win an expert campaign in 'Realism Mode', mutations don't help with that), another which is very difficult because it involves talking to people to set it up (start a 4x4 team and win a game of scavenger or vs), and two others that require very specific circumstances (in versus, revive a dead survivor with a defib after entering and leaving the safe room, and, in The Passing, playing Versus, Charge a survivor through eight wedding chairs). The last two probably would work great if I could coordinate with somebody to get the achievement through somewhat 'cheap' ways of "I'll help you if you help me", in a private game of versus, but again, unless I have someone I already know well who wants to do that, I probably won't be able to ask.

Anyway, that's how I spent much of my Saturday morning/afternoon when I probably should have been writing. Oops. But I felt okay on making the exception because, on the writing angle.. I'm not back, per se, but I have, for the first time in quite a while, had a story idea that I really like. It's not 100% there yet in conception, but enough's there that I can start and see where it goes. Oddly, it was provoked by a dream, and when I was thinking about it afterwards I connected it to an idea I had a long time ago with no 'story' attached. The idea is sort of 'whimsy' SF (that is, something weird and inexplicable happens that changes everything, that really doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny on its own, but I try to treat it seriously), which is nice because it fits well with not only the fact that it came from the dream, but also the dream itself (which had sort of a romantic (not in the sense of a love story, but a romantic spirit), almost poetical quality rather than being a straight narrative). So I'll be working on that. I had other ideas I liked but haven't quite grabbed me, but at least it's a good sign, hopefully I'm crawling my way out of the idea desert.

Back to games for a moment, since I've been seeing a lot of commercials for Kinect, which I don't plan on buying in part because I really don't have room to jump around. However, I like the idea. I think MY main problem, other than the space issue, is that for most of the uses of it I've seen, it's best for sports or dance games. And I'm sure it'll do well for that type of thing in the marketplace, but for me, personally... BORING. I like adventure games, fighting games, zombies games, something that takes me out of the real world. For me to consider the Kinect, again, space aside, I'd need some seriously cool things you could do in these kinds of games. But in any of those types of games, 'movement' is going to be an issue. You might be able to punch out somebody on the screen by making a punching motion, or fire by making finger pistols, but how to you move? Walk in place? How do you turn? Those are the questions they'll have to solve in a way that feels organic and natural. (I should note that in this section of the post I'm talking ENTIRELY out of my ass. I've never even played with a Kinect. These may be relatively solved issues in practice. I'm just discussing the issues I see with the concept as a way to have fun and explore what I might do with the problems.) I don't like the idea of walking in place, it just always feels wrong, unless they add a treadmill, and turning is the big problem. I'd actually rather they regress a little, and add a simple controller that JUST controls your movement, and is held in one hand (or, you could do something where, say, one finger is monitored distinctly from everything else. If, say your pinky is extended, it means move forward, and other positions mean other movements like turning). Less immersive, but better at controlling, I'd think. Oddly enough, I could see a game involving climbing as the main movement element doable (climbing in place seems to be more natural than walking), some kind of Monkey-man game?

The other option is to make games designed around sitting down or standing in a fixed position. So some general thoughts on the matter, nothing really structured, just whatever comes to mind, I'm bored:
( Read more... )

Anyway, on to TV. Walking Dead is still moving well, probably the show I'm most excited about, even if there's only 3 episodes left this season (rassum-frassum). Stargate is second, and Caprica's last 2 episodes ever. Fringe is on the plus side still. Everything else is... pretty blah. At best, the kind of show I still enjoy as a diversion but don't care about enough to miss if it was suddenly gone, at worst I'm actively disappointed by.

I really need there to be some really cool TV shows again, something I can geek out and obsess over. This year was almost a total bust for that.

I've officially given up on The Event. For those that don't know, I don't have cable, I either get stuff through magic, or watch TV over an antenna signal. I get most network shows through one or another Canadian channel. However, when I change channels, I often have to adjust the antenna a little for a relatively clear picture and sound. It takes maybe 20-30 seconds unless my antenna's having a really bad day.

Last episode of the Event, I had a choice between watching the Event and gettimg up to adjust the antenna, or leaving the TV on the channel it was already on and watching whatever. I changed the channel, but did not adjust the antenna. Apparently, I would rather watch The Event on a blurry TV full of static sound. Or, rather, I'd prefer to hang around reading random things on the internet while it played in the background. This is not a ringing endorsement of the show by any means. I officially do not even care about the Event enough to adjust the antenna, so obviously, from now on I'm not even going to bother changing the channel. Sorry, show, you should have been better and stop trying to be Lost with all these flashbacks to the lives of boring characters.

Speaking of LOST, I watched "New Man In Charge", the DVD epilogue to the series and... well, it doesn't change much. I wish it had been left in the premiere, but only because that would have hopefully less time spent on the crap we got and at least given us a COUPLE of answers. But it didn't do enough to make me feel at all better about the series or to convince me to buy the DVDs ever. The show is still tainted for me by them having 2 years to wrap up a show, and giving us what they did. (But, if nothing else, unlike the Event, I actually gave a damn what happened and what the characters lives were like).

Finished: A Fire in the Sun, by George Alec Effinger (reread)
Started: The Year's Best SF 6 (short story collection (reread)

A Fire in the Sun was enjoyable, but not quite as good as When Gravity Fails. Still, it made me eager to find the third book in the series.

Finished: Excession, by Iain M. Banks (reread)

Don't have much to say to it. Even though it's my second reread I found I didn't really know or want to pay attention to what was going on in a lot of places. Fun despite it, but I think I have to be in a particular frame of mind (and hyper-attentive) to appreciate this, even though, oddly, it's one of my favorite of the Culture books.

Started and Finished: The Fabulous Riverboat, by Philip Jose Farmer (Riverworld book 2) (reread)
Started: The Exile Kiss, by George Alec Effinger

Yeah, I didn't intend to read more than the first volume again, but I ran out of new books. As usual, good idea, kinda iffy execution. A couple notes though (with an eye towards adaptations). ( Read more... )


Video-gamewise, I've been playing L4D2 of course. Some general thoughts... ( Read more... )

What I want to see in L4D3 (eventually, aside from fixing a couple of the problems mentioned above): ( Read more... )

And for an amusing link of the day, though you may have already seen it: "Jane Austen's Fight Club"

At work somebody saw me reading the first Riverworld book and asked me about it, and when I was trying to describe what it was about, I mentioned that it's probably in the Top Ten "Big Ideas" in Science Fiction, although, unfortunately, the story doesn't quite live up to the idea.

Now, I sort of said that as a flippant way, not really knowing what the others were, but it got me thinking. What would you say are the Top Ten Big Ideas in Science Fiction?

I think the qualifiers must be: 1) It should have been either created or popularized by pretty much one person maybe two, through some kind of visionary leap (Space Travel doesn't count, since there were stories before we knew that Space was an airless, impassable void... Time Travel might because for all of human experience man has only gone one way). There might be other examples before or after, but you should be able to point to an originating source of the TREND with some sort of authority. 2) It has to have been widely imitated since (which MIGHT leave Riverworld out, but we might be able to slip it in under a wider category... or, maybe the top 5 would have to be, and from 5-10 might be specific ideas that are unique and specific enough that it's hard to imitate, or ripe for exploitation but yet hasn't happened yet). 3) It has to be a science fictional idea, as opposed to a fantasy one (for example, Time Travel through 'magic' might have been done before Wells, but to qualify for the list we're looking at the Science Fictional view of Time Travel).

Here's what I've come up with (this is an unordered top ten... or at least Top 5, because ordered "Top" lists always tend to annoy me)...

1) Time Travel (originator/popularizer: HG Wells)
2) Alternate Universes (Murray Leinster)
3) The Singularity (Vernor Vinge)
4) Zombie Apocalypse (George Romero and/or Richard Matheson... a bit iffy... I'd give it to Matheson, because his was more deliberately science fictional, I Am Legend's plague being caused by a virus... the big idea here being a a world-destroying virus that turns people into monsters and the victims of the monsters join the horde... really there's elements of both)
5) Artificial Intelligence/Robotics (Karel Capek)

We might be able to squeeze Riverworld either under the 6-10 rule, or as a general "Everybody In History Returns to Life together", though I'm not sure that's been especially widely imitated (Some Singularity fiction proposes the idea of everyone being simulated after their death, but other than that I can't think of any good examples... I do think it's RIPE for exploration).

Any other examples people on my flist can think of?

Finished: Nebula Award Winners 27, (short story collection)
Started: Machines That Think (short story collection)
Finished: The 1982 Annual Year's Best SF, (short stories)

Since the last two finished books are short story collections, I'll deal with them as one, because it's pretty much the same. It's okay, but no standout. There were a few more iffier stories in the 1982 collection, and fewer 'wow, that was good' ones. The Nebula collection also had a couple interesting essays (including one discussing pretty much each SF movie released in 1992 in detail). So a bit meh, over all.

Started and Finished: The Peace War, by Vernor Vinge
Started: Nebula Awards Showcase 2007, (short stories)

The Peace War was not Vinge's best, but then, it was one of his earliest. I still enjoyed it, but I felt a bit disappointed just by the comparison. I do think the idea was pretty cool (back of the book type spoilers behind cut, along with more detailed thoughts). ( Read more... )

What else have I been doing lately? Not a whole lot, really. Starting another extra-depressive phase, as I usually do after Xmas. Have managed to keep up with my writing, even if nothing's really caught my mind on fire. Watching a bit of old movies. Some quick thoughts (spoilers behind cuts)

V For Vendetta: I liked most of it, but a few of my favorite bits from the GN version seemed to have been missing and ( Read more... )

Wanted: Stupid, but kind of fun in a 'silly actiony' sort of way.

Push: Surprisingly good. It was a little rough over all. It felt like there was a really good movie struggling to get out of there, and it never quite managed it, but it did a pretty good job of setting up an appealing world and even throwing in some cool twists. If you're a fan of 'people with powers in a realistic world', I recommend at least giving it a look. I've heard some people are eyeing it as sort of a Heroes style TV series, and I'd certainly be willing to give that a look. I especially dig the ( Read more... )

Terminator Salvation: Hmm. Kind of mixed. I really think Terminator works best when you leave the post-apocalypse off-screen. Because when it's off screen, you don't have to wonder, "gee, why haven't the machines just won already, because they clearly could." And they don't even do obvious things like ( Read more... ). There were a few nice surprises, though. Anton Yelchin gave a good performance, and there were a few decent plot twists, ( Read more... ).

I wonder a bit about "where do we go from here" with the Terminator franchise. I mean, I think it's obvious that they're probably going to make more, and they'll probably make more in the post-apocalypse world, too. But like I said, that doesn't really work for me. To me, Terminator isn't about what happens after Judgement Day, it's about a crazy story nobody else will believe, it's about races through city streets full of people completely unaware of what's going on, it's about contemplating destiny vs. free will. The series maintained this, even at a low budget, the new movie doesn't really, it's just "another post-apocalypse". Now, there might be neat things to be done with the idea of expanding beyond the traditional war, making peace with factions of the machines, but if it's just war war war, YAWN.

Another option is just a straight up reboot. This could be doable. Killer robots are still pretty far away in the future, so you can start from scratch and make a new Terminator sent back to kill Sarah Connor, only in the present day. Plan it out a little more in terms of what the sequels would and could be, and while they might never match the original, they might catch some of the spirit. Might be heresy to some of the fanbase though.

I'm going to go suggest 'balls out crazy choice #3'. Take the Terminator franchise SIDEWAYS. Posit that, in addition to their studies of time travel to prevent their destruction, a desperate Skynet launched another initiative... to break into PARALLEL WORLDS. One where Judgement Day never happened at all. The goal being to recreate Skynet in the new world, with each Terminator carrying a piece of it in their skulls. You can include time travel, so they show up in the "present day" instead of alternate 2027s. You could possibly even include John Connor, as a person living an average life with no idea why people are trying to kill him (or, if the reason Judgement day was averted was because of T2, knows, but was certain he averted the apocalypse), just because they have leftover program. Otherwise, you'd probably focus on new people who are in danger because they found out, or members of the resistance who want to make sure Skynet doesn't spread and create an unassailable base on another world to continue the fight on their world. Yeah, okay, so it's a bit silly and goofy and hard to pull off, but I kind of like the idea of a franchise just randomly taking a step to the left (and then a jump to the right).

Anyway, I think that's about it. Time to eat, I think.

Yep. I'm done. 50,000 words, in 14 days. Almost 13 days, but I figured I'd save the last 350 or so for today. Not a full NaNoWriMo of course, because it wasn't one novel, but it was almost that. All but about 10k I worked on a single project, albeit it one I'd thought about for a while and written a tiny bit on before.

( General information on what I was writing )

As for some lessons learned from this go around... ( Read more... )

A more prosaic lesson I learned is that my keyboard is worse off than I thought. Every so often the Alt key seems to trigger on its own while I'm typing, sending me into the menus of my Word program, or, at best, making it so what I type doesn't shut up (because it's waiting for me to click back in the window that I somehow navigated out of). Very distracting. :P.