This year is the 30th anniversary of Mario who is the symbolic character of Nintendo. To celebrate it, We made an music videos which recorded 30 years of Mario’s history in cooperation with the about 40 Japanese creators.

“Nooo” is about all I can say. It was enough to make me cancel my Bluray pre-order (for the 2nd time). Thing is, I don’t mind that Lucas wants to update these films to keep the special effects looking good, not so dated. But this clearly is another case of Han shoots first syndrome. Changing a beloved scene, for very different reasons. Either he thinks audiences are too dim to gage what’s going on in Vader’s mind as he looks at his son writhing in agony, or he wants to somehow mirror (and justify) the same terrible “Nooo” we got at the end of Episode III.

Anyhow, what do I care. Well, I do, and here’s the worst thing. The original pretence for the tinkering that started with the 1997 Special Editions. Fixing the old special effects that were out of date. Still has not been done properly. As I watched the Death Star run in Return of the Jedi on the new Bluray release, what do I see? BOXES!! Yes, boxes. As the TIE Fighters fly down the tunnels, in a couple of scenes these are clearly visible, STILL.

I’ve adjusted the levels slightly in these pics to make it apparent, but it is clearly visible in-motion. I wouldn’t mind this so much if so much effort wasn’t being spent on parts of the film which is not in need of tinkering. sigh

Of course none of this would matter if we had multiple versions of Star Wars available with each release, as has been done with Blade Runner, Lord of the Rings, etc. Any large movie studio would have done this. I guess being the biggest independent film-maker in the world has it’s advantages…

Outside Aperture

Portal: No Escape

A Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg.

The game is played on a 20-foot monitor, comprised of 18 LCD displays tiled to create an astonishing 8160×2304 resolution screen. I hope Lucas will be in touch about hiring this guy. Star Wars games have been hit and miss since the 90s… mostly miss I think. This looks promising, and could be adapted for tablets, but if Lucasfilm saw this they’d most probably be wanting to sue his a$$ unfortunately.

Doctor Who is back…

and it’s well and truly made a break from the RTD era. Only two episodes in, series 32 (though they persist in calling it series 6!) is definitely darker in tone, there are plot threads carrying on from past series’, and more “WTF!? moments” than ever before.

The modern Who has always dropped clues to what would come to pass in the finale of that year, and it had become a bit tiresome, and overdone. Even last years ‘cracks in time’ started to feel like this. But now, we have threads continuing from last series, and even earlier, and more being woven in to the story. Doctor Who feels more like an ongoing epic saga, than ever before.

The most significant event at the start of this series, in The Impossible Astronaut, was witnessing the 11th Doctor’s death. A final death, with no apparent hope of regeneration. If that wasn’t huge enough, at the end of last week’s follow-up, Day of the Moon, right at the end of the episode, we see the mystery child in the spacesuit, starting to regenerate!!!!!

So, who is this child?

It’s established that she is human, but no ordinary human. She knows that she can regenerate when she’s dying, though the process seem new to her when it starts, so it is likely the first time it’s happening to her.

Regeneration was not something Gallifreyans are born with, in Doctor Who of old. It is an ability given specifically to Time Lords. The Doctor initially had 12 regenerations, as we learned during the Tom Baker years. During his time as The Doctor, we also learned that The Master‘s regenerations had expired requiring him to ‘steal’ other peoples bodies. Although later on, in The Five Doctors, he was offered the chance of more regenerations as a reward from the Time Lords. So it seems to be a technological process, not one that a Time Lord is born with.

In modern Who however, in The Doctor’s Daughter, we see that the regeneration ability can be hereditary now, in some way. Also, The Master, now has fresh regenerations, as he changed from Derek Jacobi to John Simm with ease in Utopia.

Is the girl The Doctor’s offspring? We know the Doctor had children in the past, his first incarnation travelling in the Tardis with his granddaughter, Susan. Could it be any of his family (including Jenny from The Doctor’s Daughter)? So many possibilities there, but I don’t think Steven Moffat would go down that road. Jenny certainly could return at some point, Moffat even asking for that episodes end to be altered so she survives, but I don’t think she’ll return as a child, or as anyone else for that matter.

As The Doctor is doomed to die, is the girl him? Is this a rebirth of sorts? Hard to say.
There are strong hints that it is Amy’s as yet unborn daughter, but if so, how could she regenerate? Is Amy a Time Lord? Is there a Fob watch in her house somewhere? Is the girl Amy herself, regenerating into a young Amelia Pond?

I’m leaning more towards a connection with Amy somehow, as there’s something amiss with her pregnancy, and the Silence were interested in her, and the girl. Did they need them to pilot their proto-Tardis? That would indicate that they must be Time Lords, but I think the girls regeneration is the result of something else.

The Silence are referred too as parasites, super-parasites even. They use other peoples technology, they have no need to make anything themselves. So, I personally think that the Silence took regeneration technology from the Time Lords, and it was not compatible with their own biology, so they used a human. But I don’t think it could have worked on an ordinary human, it had to be someone different. Maybe there’s more to the “time head” thing, as we’ve never had an unborn child in the Tardis. Also, the Silence held Amy for several days. What were they doing with her? And why did a Silent want Amy to tell The Doctor she was pregnant?

So I think the girl is probably Amy’s daughter (though I still have a feeling it could be Amy herself), a human child altered by having travelled through time while unborn, given the ability to regenerate by the stolen Time Lord tech.

Plausible? I could be way off. Hopefully we’ll find out before the years end.

via SPOnG.com

This year is also the 25th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. Hopefully there will be some appropriate cash-in from Nintendo for suckers like me to purchase.

Scroll down for a video of this paintings creation in fastforward.

The character of Qui-Gon Jinn only existed due to one of the major revisions made by Lucas to the Episode I storyline. This being the decrease in Anakin’s age from around 13 or 14, to 8, thereby also making Obi-Wan Kenobi younger in the process, making him an apprentice. I think this was also one of the major flaws of the film’s story, but due to this change, Lucas felt the need to add a new leading Jedi, and Qui-Gon Jinn was born.

His death at the end of the film left many fans puzzled, as to why he didn’t disappear like Obi-Wan and Yoda did. Lucas said this would all be explained in Episode III. In fact, he said things like why C3P0 did not remember the events of the Prequels would be a minor point, and the ‘Jedi Disapearing’ issue was a major thing that would be revealed.

Disappointingly, this was not the case. All we got, was a brief mention from Yoda right at the end of the film. Something about talking to Qui-Gon and finding the path to immortality. What!?!? This tacked on non-explanation just added to the hurried pace of the films’ ending.

Really though, there was a scene that was to take place with Yoda and the disembodied voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, revealing how Qui-Gon had discovered this power. The scene of course was not filmed, but here’s how it played out in the original screenplay:

222 INT. POLIS MASSA-OBSERVATION DOME-NIGHT

On the isolated asteroid of Polis Massa, YODA meditates.

YODA: Failed to stop the Sith Lord, I have. Still much to learn, there is …

QUI -GON: (V.O.) Patience. You will have time. I did not. When I became one with the Force I made a great discovery. With my training, you will be able to merge with the Force at will. Your physical self will fade away, but you will still retain your consciousness. You will become more powerful than any Sith.

YODA: Eternal consciousness.

QUI-GON: (V.O.) The ability to defy oblivion can be achieved, but only for oneself. It was accomplished by a Shaman of the Whills. It is a state acquired through compassion, not greed.

YODA: . . . to become one with the Force, and influence still have . . . A power greater than all, it is.

QUI-GON: (V.O.) You will learn to let go of everything. No attachment, no thought of self. No physical self.

YODA: A great Jedi Master, you have become, Qui-Gon Jinn. Your apprentice I gratefully become.

YODA thinks about this for a minute, then BAIL ORGANA enters the room and breaks his meditation.

BAIL ORGANA: Excuse me, Master Yoda. Obi-Wan Kenobi has made contact.

Other than adding in a line where Qui-Gon says “more powerful than you can possibly imagine”, I think this scene would benefit Episode III and the entire Star Wars Saga greatly if they put it back in the film. And here’s to the point of writing this, the fact that Liam Neeson showed up at LucasFilm to record some voice overs for Qui-Gon in a cartoon, gives me hope that this scene, or a version of it, will appear in the Blu Ray version of Star Wars Episode III. I mean, why would he just show up to do a few lines in a cartoon? Really!

And while he was there I hoped they fixed the badly edited, and partly faked, Qui-Gon voice over from Episode II as well.

Here’s hoping.