Saturday Night Showcase> Doctor Who Reboot

Can a show produced in AI still be a good story?

What if the story is written by a human, and it’s just the actors and sets/locations that are AI?

Doctor Who Reboot has all the failings of AI creation. The audio is too clean. Some of the dialog sounds off at times. The cinematography is often wonky. It’s proof that AI is not close to being ready to replace physical actors on actual sets or on location in real areas. What makes “The Curse of Kilmorag” worthy of examination is the story and the designs of the aliens included. The sets themselves look fine.

On the other hand, the episode is written by a human being, not a computer. Thomas Vittlowe of the YouTube channel The Unmade Season writes a story that seems to be bypassing the Ncuti Gatwa 15th Doctor in favor of his own, which isn’t a bad thing given the reaction to his time as the Doctor. We do see AI David Tennant, most likely the 14th Doctor (Tennant’s third face if you count the Metacrisis Doctor) given his outfit and the TARDIS still using the bland Davies 2 design. It’s better than his first one, but big and empty looking. I’ll take it over the “coral” console room or the deathtrap from Chris Chibnall’s run, but it’s still not that great.

The story finds the Doctor in the last moments of regeneration, still also regenerating clothes so we miss out on the wardrobe selection moment…again. His new form ends up in a Scottish version of Area 51, where aliens are being held, and suffering post-regeneration memory loss. Some scientist wants him to open “the box” (yes, you should know what he means) but the Doctor doesn’t even remember that, or his name. There are other mysteries in the village of Kilmorag, and someone there is looking to solve them. It will bring her into contact with the Doctor. If you can handle the limitations of AI photorealistic animation, you will find a good story here. If not, my apologies, but it’s still interesting. Enjoy?

(Don’t worry, I’m not going to make a habit of using AI stuff, and I’ll warn you before I do. I don’t hate AI and prefer the real thing, but imagine this if he could have afforded actors, location shooting, and actual sets.)

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BW’s Saturday Article Link> The Secret Origin Of Dungeons & Dragons

Not the cartoon, but the original game itself. In an exclusive interview with Robert J Kuntz, one of the TSR creators of the game formerly owned by Avalon Hill, Bleeding Fool contributor Chris Braly learns how the game was born. Kuntz goes over how meeting Gary Gygax at 13 and being part of his circle of players led to him being one of the game module creators for Dungeons & Dragons, how Hasbro’s Wizards Of The Coast (something they purchased) seems to be putting the original creators out of public knowledge if not outright attacking them falsely, and even rewriting the world, lore, and real world history of the game itself. If you’ve only heard current renditions of how things worked at TSR, here’s one of them telling their side of the story.

Some 9/11 Tribute Videos: 25 Years Later

Remembering 9/11

An old picture, but I’ve been a bit distracted lately so I didn’t even think about a new one.

I live in Connecticut. That’s close enough to New York City that it still hits what happened that day. I was on my way to work, hearing reports of planes hitting the towers. During my shift I heard rumors from customers, reports on the radio from delivery vehicles, and then got caught up when I got home. (It was a part time job.) Now it’s 25 years later and though off-topic outside of the changes made to storytelling during and even after the event–like removing shots of the Twin Towers or buildings exploding to not trigger people for awhile–it’s still something I felt like taking time to highlight.

If this isn’t something you’re interested in we’ll be back to normal operations tomorrow and there’s plenty of on-topic content to hold you over. This just felt important today.

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BW’s Daily Video> Hollywood Is Embarrassed By You

Catch more from Greg Owen on YouTube

 

What Lanterns Can Learn From Kamen Rider My-Th (And My Failed Comic)

There are two superhero shows that came out recently. Actually three, but we’re going to compare these two. Sorry, Ultraman Teo. I want to compare Greenless Lanterns and Kamen Rider My-ThLanterns comes from an American creator, My-Th from Japan. Japan makes what we used to, but still in a style unique to Japan. Yesterday I reviewed My-Th because it looks so cool. I still haven’t touched Lanterns because it does not. There shouldn’t be that much difference beyond the two countries and yet it’s there.

Both shows have hinted at a mystery with serious questions. Both feature something trying to be different from the predecessors. Both feature superheroes…allegedly. And yet I was more excited for a brand new property with a character that didn’t exist in public discussion until a month ago (longer if consider how long it took to make the promotional materials), while the show allegedly based on a childhood favorite has failed to obtain my interest.

So why does the Japanese superhero succeed in one episode where four episodes of the American series based on a long-standing character fail so miserably? And which of their arguments is giving me flashbacks to one of my own superhero sci-fi comics…and not in a good way, because it means the young amateur’s failure cause me to learned more than the supposedly successful older professional?

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BW’s Daily Video> Superhero Fatigue Was Never Real

Catch more from Snarky Jay on YouTube

 

BW Pilot Review> Kamen Rider My-Th

I don’t understand what Toei Tokusatsu World is thinking, or if it’s higher up at Toei itself. They want to get Kamen Rider to the US, and they partnered with Shout Factory to get Kamen Rider ZEZTZ to YouTube via TokuSHOUTsu, but didn’t stop YouTube from covering the stream now and then with their ads. Plus watching it that way meant the potential of accidentally spoiling yourself if you came in on the wrong time because the replay started right after the previous broadcast ended, meaning coming in at the start was difficult. Eventually they put episodes by themselves, which was the right thing to do. Sadly this hasn’t included the movie that along with the final episode passes the torch to the next series in the line.

So with the next show, that came out a couple of weeks after the last Kamen Rider series (good luck getting US TV to even do seasons right anymore, 8 episodes over 16 weeks if you’re lucky) they decide to post it to their own channel 2 days after the Japanese airing rather than continuing the simulcast with Shout Factory. Word is that they’ll only have it up for about a month before taking it down. It seems they still don’t know how to use their YouTube channel to get their shows to a larger audience and take all the ad revenue (minus what YouTube takes).

The new show is Kamen Rider My-Th, a double pun due to the mythology of the zodiac (the Chinese one, I believe) and that the hero’s theme is based around mice, as the franchise dropped the bug motif a long time ago. I can post the first episode, “The Mouse Meister & The Young Lady”, but watch it fast as it will go away in four weeks. A full review follows, so this isn’t a Saturday Night Showcase. It’s a short-lived bonus showcase unless they’re kind to the international fans and keep it up. As it is it was delayed by the posting schedule, so we lost a couple of days. Since this isn’t the English streaming service you’ll need closed captions set to English (or your language of choice, I guess) to follow along.

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