Highway To Mars

Almost Human is a futuristic cop show good on the entertainment but doesn’t add much to our understanding of it’s subject matter – robots. Robots in the Almost Human world come in two forms, the ken doll and the human lite. The ken dolls are dumb and disposable, the human lites like data, just want to be like us. The crazy part is the ken dolls are seen as the upgrade.

Once you get past the fact that it essentially promotes robots as slaves (note the central robot is black) the relationship between Dorian (the robot) and Kennex (the human) is charming and fun. Kennex is an arse and Dorian points it out to him all the time. What makes it work is the fact that Dorian is very likeable and you quickly jump on his team over the humans. There are not many likeable humans to be found.

As a cop show it’s pretty weak but hey the kennex/dorian odd couple seems to make up for it.

I am a fan, I love it in spite of the things that grate with me. It’s no Tommorrow People or Fringe but it is fun in a way Agents of Shield isn’t.

Every now and again there is comes along a movie that disappoints, not on content but because it shows off everything that science fiction can do and then gets put into the bucket called niche market. This is what happened to Her, in my neck of the woods at least. Where Gravity with all its whiz bang effects and Sandra Bullock heavy breathing got the wide market play, Her was screened in Art house cinemas. Yet Her is not only way more relevant to the world we live in it asks questions we are ridiculously close to asking ourselves in real life.

Her tells a simple love story, boy falls in love with girl. That is where the complications start, because the girl is virtual and we never get to see her. Where big budget sci-fi would take this into an effects laden world of the computer, Her brings the computer to ours. She is part Siri, part HAL, funny, provocative and in her own way sexy. While that could get more than a little wierd, Spike Jonze keeps it to the point, what do relationships look like in this new world of technology, where do we find connections and what happens when a computer wants to go on self improvement drive.

I really hope her takes out academy awards, it would be a huge vindication for the medium of Science Fiction as a valid storytelling device and hopefully offer a grown up alternative to the dumbed down big effects fare that bring in the big bucks but drag down the genre as a serious medium.

There are some faults, the realisation of Samantha is inconsistent and the logic of the progression of the AIs while idealistic and fine for storytelling purposes is not entirely consistent with the world we know.

Still, it’s not meant to answer every question but to shine a mirror back at us and asks the most poignant question of all.

What would you do?

Christmas wouldn’t be christmas without the Doctor Who christmas special. Yet they have been a variable fare of the year for the post Christmas Diner, some have been a pretty good accompaniment to the meal but some have been pretty meh. We have had a “first” doctor story for a christmas special with tennant and now we have had a “last” doctor story with matt smith. As with anything Moffat does there will be those that love it and those that loathe it, we enjoyed it and The Apocalyse and I agree that this was a pretty good ending to Matt Smith. There will be those ready for Smith to go, I am not one of them, I have enjoyed every minute of his time as the doctor, even if I haven’t enjoyed every story. Moffat as a story teller has ambition beyond the resources at his disposal, so we had an awful lot of data dumping as a means of storytelling. After three years that gets a bit old, most people want the story to show on screen not be told the story by the characters. Still as the Day of the Doctor demonstrated, Matt is an electric performer and holds his own against the best. That will be what we miss the most.

Speaker for the Dead is the best book I have read all year bar none. If there was a book that I could say encloses all that is Science Fiction and Sci-Fi in one book this is it, or probably more accurately the Enders Game/Speaker for the Dead duo is it. Between the two, man that’s some ride. Unlike Enders game there is no big twist, it sets up a situation then patiently through Ender Wiggin pulls it apart until we the reader understands it as well as he does. Along the way we are asked some uncomfortable questions of ourselves, how do we see ourselves, how do we see others and how do we see truth. It will be a good while before I read a book that tops it.

Regardless of what you think of the Author, Orson Scott Card can tell a heck of a tale.

Everyone does christmas shows don’t they? Well I am not big on christmas and I think that instead of soppy feel good stories we need some good old fashioned time travel, Deloreans and rock and roll. This is one of my favourite movies ever but rather than cover it myself we “borrowed” an episode from fellow martians Gareth Edwards and Dan Viera where they covered the series way better than I could earlier in the year. So as if you need in excuse put in your Back to the Future DVD this christmas eve and head back to a time where people had big hair and there was no swearing.

This is the third of Iain Banks Culture novel series. True to it’s title Use of Weapons explores how just about anything can be a weapon, a look, a kiss, a chair, a gun, a missile. In one direction (moving forward) the novel follows the attempt of Dismet Sma to bring back into service Cheradinine Zakalwe, a military commander who the Culture have maintained for over two hundred years, calling on him when they need to impact a battle or war. In another direction (moving backwards) the novel explores events in Cheradinine’s life back to the first war he was involved in. The two timelines come together at the end with devastating effect. Like all of the Culture Novels it’s stand alone and while it helps to have read other novels in the series if you simply extend earth empires of the past into space for the most part it’s easy to understand the universe.

Books vs Movies is always hard, especially when the book is one of the most celebrated books in all of science fiction. Hard as I try, I can’t avoid comparing the two. However that aside the reality is the movie is good, for the most part it maintains the core of the story and makes about as good an account as could be done in two hours. On the other hand, great it is not. Where movies such as lord of the rings dared to stretch out the length of the movie in order that the story be told to the satisfaction of the makers (at no small risk) Enders game like so many book adaptions is cut to length and in the process some things are lost. Were this lord of the rings length, chances are this could have been a great film. Instead, it’s simply a good film that is well worth the watch. At some point though I do hope that someone in the SF movie universe will have the bravery to take the risk and do a story like this some serious justice.

The Apocalyse joined me to watch both versions of Carrie in a single day. Both versions are awesome, the 1976 version gets it about bang on for me but the modern version has quite a lot to like, not least Chloe Grace Moretz. We both love the story, this is undoubtedly one of the best of the novels by Stephen King and it’s stood the test of time.

The martian household has been looking forward to catching fire and we were not disappointed. Katniss is the unintended hero, her actions starting a fire in the community that she can’t control. I enjoy the fact that for once the hero isn’t trying to be a hero, she’s simply out to survive in a horrible world and that mere act of survival is interpreted by all and sundry as defiance. I also enjoy the fact that sometimes her actions have tragic consequences for others. In reality, people aren’t following her, they are following what they see in her. The downside of this is we don’t get to see a lot of the secondary characters that no doubt get more time in the books. All in all I want to read the books having watched the movies, hopefully there are a lot of small gaps created by the time limitations of the movies that will be filled.

Rating “B” Grade movies is hard at times because it’s hardly fair to compare them against modern, slick, well funded productions. This movie I looked at as a developing film, the acting isn’t fantastic but still there are some gems. The indians in the movie provide the conflict and emotional release and to be fair, Apesanahkwat is da man! I just wanted to go rewatch Northern Exposure after watching him in action, he is obviously having a blast. The Sasquatch are believable for the most part though inconsistent when it comes to their fear of the light. Beyond that though, the white folk are either the kind you want to see eaten or are eaten. I do recommend watching it and supporting the creator Wes Sullivan, he has worked hard and stuck to the task even though at times not had a lot to work with. Dammit, Apesanahkwat needs to be more movies.