Mad Man with a Box

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About Mad Man with a Box

  • Birthday 06/12/1985

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The New Guy

The New Guy (1/8)

  1. Good mid-season stopper. I really liked Barry's character moments with his Dad, Joe, and Iris. The stuff with Reverse Flash vs Flash was pretty cool tool. They've pulled off some pretty awesome special effects for a TV series and we got to see that again. Eddie getting the You Know What scared out of him by Reverse Flash was pretty good too.
  2. A bit late to show here but I've been loving Flash! THIS, is like a perfect balance for a superhero show. I love that they've played up Barry enjoying that he has powers. I also like how he's motivated to do the right thing with his powers. Sure he wants to get his Dad out of jail, but Barry also naturally wants to help people. Call me old fashioned but that's what I like to see in my heroes. Generally I've found something to like in every episode. I can't really pick a bad one, just there's something that makes me smile for all of them so far. As it was said by many others, THIS IS A FUN SHOW. Also I love that they have Jessie Martian for the show. He does such a great job. I dig the supporting cast too. Knightwing can add me to the "I Like Cisco" club. I get why he would annoy people but to me I like how he just finds all of this awesome. Plus I do like a few of his one liners such as the recent, "Screw you Captain Boomerang." Wells is also a real intriguing character. I want to say he's Reverse Flash but that just seems a little too obvious, but who knows. He's got a nice mystery around him that makes watching the last few scenes of each episode always exciting or intriguing. Will be very interesting to see where he goes with his character. I think the Flash-Arrow crossover was a great success. There was a nice composite of the Batman-Superman dynamic with Ollie and Barry. I liked that they didn't go out of there way to make either character more wrong or more right than the other. Barry does need to realize that he can't luck out on everything, Ollie needs to remember his humanity. I also think the crossover was good as it now has me wanting to go watch Arrow. I liked what I saw there and now am interested in checking it out. Next week's episode looks like we'll get some great stuff for the mid-season break.
  3. I couldn't help but watch This Side of Paradise and wonder if this is where Shatner got the idea for the whole crew to turn against him bit for ST:V. Also wasn't this like the most passive aggressive mutiny in history? I felt like I was watching Kirk be a high school teacher trying to get a student to stop being dick.
  4. Hey guys, great episode. Mike, I re watched Space Seed and you'll be happy to know Uhrura did recognize the Morse Code when it started beeping. One thing I was wondering did either of you guys read the Khan books? There's a couple that are supposed to show how the Eugenics War factored into the real life events of our 1990s. If I recall what I know they change it to the E.W basically being a secret history, these things went on but were covered up by other events. There's also a book that's supposed to detail Khan's reign on Ceti Alpha V as well. I think I enjoyed A Taste of Armageddon more than you guys. For me I really liked this look at what happens when War becomes in a sense, too easy to wage. Again I turn this to my thoughts of the contemporary Cold War when this aired. Imagine the US and USSR agreeing to something similar, both sides end up in a war but to avoid the destruction of the planet agree to this computer system. I think there's also a subtext running through the episode of letting your technology getting out of control. This is linked into that Cold War fear that the systems the USSR and USA were setting up to try and mange the Cold War were possibly in the end, taking over themselves and at some point would get out of control (see Fail-Safe for probably the best exploration of this). The two sides in TOA seemed to have reached this point with their computers taking control of the war and now nobody has any idea of how to stop it. Finally I think the episode might have been commenting on the inherit craziness/logic of MAD. MAD or Mutual Assured Destruction was (and basically still is) the deterrence policy of the Cold War. Stockpile enough weapons that ensures even after a first strike, you can still destroy the enemy. Here in Taste, we have the two sides agreeing to what the rest of us see as a crazy way to wage their war. However to both of the parties, they see this as the only logical way to keep things going. Anyway enough ramblings on my part, great episode guys and keep up the good work!
  5. I dug this one. Clara getting to be Doctor basically, very cool.
  6. Hey guys as usual a fine podcast and if you count Galaxy Quest as a Trek movie, it ensures the odd number sucks rule stays true for the pre NuTrek films What do you guys consider the best Trek Courtroom episode? Every single series has had one if not more. Off the top of my head I can think of, TOS: Court Martial (duh), The Menagerie TNG: Measure of a Man, The Drumhead, Riker accused of Murder (sorry don't know the name), while not a courtroom one per-say I'd say The First Duty counts. DS9: Worf on trial for attacking a Klingon Ship Voyager: Death Wish (Quinn and Q) Since TNG has the most material to draw from I'm going with the Drumhead. Great look at the idealized Federation giving into its fears and paranoia plus good Picard Speech. Though Riker's episode also is enjoyable. I like that they do the multiple perspectives of events. DS9's episode with Worf was also pretty good. Though he's proven innocent, I love how Sisko gives him a dressing down cause even though he was proven right, Worf was also wrong.
  7. Having missed out on Who for a bit finally got caught up. Caretaker was fun for the interactions between Clara, the Doctor, and Danny. It's always fun to put the Doctor out of his element a bit so having him at Clara's school worked for me. Kill the Moon was pretty good with most of my love coming from the final scene. I'm glad Jenna Coleman has gotten to stretch her acting legs this season and is now a well rounded Companion (to me at least). Mummy on the Orient Express, pretty good as well. I'd say I didn't like it as much as Kill the Moon but had some classic Doctor moments. Clara and the Doctor trying to fix things was nice and I'm intrigued by the ending with Clara's final decision. So far Series 8 has been very good IMHO. I really like the dynamic the Doctor and Clara have going, along with how they've handled Danny. One thing that I'm little disappointed by is a lack of explanation about the Promise Land. It feels like the whole Mr. Saxon thing again. They keep dropping it but not really explaining things. Series 5 did the crack thing well showing it early on but then gradually giving us more about it. Here it just feels like we keep referencing it and nothing has been explained. Still there's five(?) episodes left so time to start filling in some.
  8. If I was ranking episodes thus far for Series 8, 1. Robot of Sherwood 2. Deep Breathe 3. Listen 4. Time Heist 5. Into the Dalek (Even with my extra Dalek bonus points...something about this one quite doesn't work)
  9. I liked the episode but thought maybe they should have been a bit more conventional with the set up. One of the perks of a good heist film is to see the planning and the team coming together. I think they should have showed the Doctor recruiting people, coming up with the plan, trying the plan something goes 'wrong', and we see the twist the Doctor planned in. But it wasn't too bad. Though was furrowing my eyebrows at the end,
  10. Next week's episode looks fun. Has Doctor Who ever done a heist episode before (like during the classic series)?
  11. I can see what you mean Dan. I feel the same way about most book adaptations into film. Some of them work out pretty well where you can get the gist of the story and its feel into a movie. Two of my favorite examples for that are The Hunt for Red October and Jurassic Park which both changed things along with leaving things out but the core story was there and gets the 'feel' of each book down. Other books should never be condensed to a two hour film, they need a series or mini-series to really flesh out the concept. Band of Brothers did this perfectly while we see what happens when you try to condense something like World War Z into a film, it just doesn't really work. Speaking of miniseries, I think Trek would be a good vehicle for that. Especially if your trying to get it back on the air. As a side note of that idea, what about doing Star Trek on cable like AMC, FX, or HBO? I think it could be a good evolution for the franchise and maybe get us another quality show.
  12. Between actual reading and listening to audiobooks in my commuting to my second job, I've racked up a bit of a list. Command Authority by 'Tom Clancy' and Mark Greaney Read this one all the way back in Jan. It's the last Clancy title to be published right before his death however he didn't write it. I'm a big Clancy fan and when you've read a dozen of the guy's books you know how he writes. The second writer mentioned Greaney wrote the whole thing. I didn't like it at all. While it was slightly prophetic in guessing about tensions between the Ukraine and Rusisa, the story does little with the premise. I mean how do you make a book about a Russian invasion of the Ukraine, boring? It also tries to weave in a stupid retcon adventure of Jack Ryan Sr. which takes away from the action going on in the 'present day'. You'll have a chapter (which are ridiculously short, I mean four pages for a chapter what the hell?) that follows the present day storyline and then suddenly cut to the past with Jack Sr. and there's no good transition. In addition to that the book just...ends. No real resolution of the storyline, just a 'hey we didn't win but we didn't loose'....huh? By that point I was just reading it to finish the thing. Divergent by Veronica Roth I had to read this one for a class I was co-teaching in. It's your basic young adult novel of the 21st Century. Set in a dystopian Chicago, it features a main protagonist girl who of course is alienated with her current life. When she takes the big choose your future test of course she is one of the special 'Divergent' people. If you've seen or read any YA novels of the last ten years you see where this is heading. She meets a tall dark and handsome type with a mysterious past, theirs a rebellion, she must play a role....and yadi, yada. I mean the book's okay but it's just really generic when you get down to it. I didn't think the social conflict in the novel was as compelling as the one in the Hunger Games series nor do I think it got enough set up. Like my previous book this one just ends and since its a YA novel it must set up a sequel. I've wondered would I have liked this more if I hadn't read the Hunger Games series before this but in the end I think my opinion would be the same. Doctor Who: Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale The Tenth Doctor runs into a group of Dalek bounty hunters. They are fighting in the Human Empire's war against the Daleks, getting paid for every Dalek eyestalk they bring back. When they capture a Dalek, the Doctor learns of a Dalek plan that could threaten the entire universe. However the group is really heading into a trap that will make them (shocking) prisoners of the Daleks. I LOVED this one. I've listened to a few Doctor Who books and this one is probably my favorite. While I have a soft spot for the Daleks, this one doesn't need those bonus points. It's got some great moments with the Doctor and Daleks who in turn are plenty evil and threatening. Nicholas Briggs does the narration for the audio version so you get the classic Dalek voices to go with his others. He does a good job distinguishing the characters from one another and does a decent Tenth Doctor. If you haven't read or listened to this one I highly recommend it. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey Aliens have arrived awesome! They begin killing us, not awesome. The Fifth Wave is another YA tale but at least breaks the mold in a few places to be interesting. It follows Cassie, her brother, and the boy she had a crush on as the three try to survive an alien invasion. The aliens conduct their assault with five waves. One, an EMP which fries most electronics. Two dropping kinetic energy rods on fault lines to create tsunamis and earthquakes, wiping out anywhere with a coast. Next they unleash an Ebola like virus which has been modified to be very contiguous. Finally after all that Cassie learns that there is a Fourth Wave, humans seeming to kill humans and they have alien tech. Yet we eventually learn there is a Fifth Wave and the truth of it is...well not that shocking. Overall I enjoyed the book but feel the first third is way stronger than the rest. Cassie's story about the alien arrival and everything that happens later is fairly excellent. Although a bit slow I really enjoy getting Cassie's thoughts and feelings. There's some especially nice stuff about her growing to be more angry with her Dad who was one who thought the aliens arrival would be a new dawn for humanity. The book suffers from trying to introduce too many POVs in my opinion. Everything (except one part oddly) is told in first person. So we begin flipping between Cassie, Sammy her brother, and Ben the boy she likes. While if done one at a time it might have been better I find the jumping around to be headache inducing. Stick with one character please. The aliens plot also gets a bit too long to be revealed, however credit to the author for having IMO a nice idea for how the aliens work. I do recommend it for a read (or listen as I was doing both). Doctor Who The Silent Stars Go By by Dan Abnett This one features Amy, Rory, and the Eleventh Doctor arriving on a very cold and harsh world. They encounter Morphric Settlers who after generations have been working on terraforming the planet for human colonists. However something is wrong and rather than getting nicer, the winters are getting worse. On top of that people have gone missing, a monster in green armor chases Roy, and the Doctor of course must save the day. This is a great story which had the Eleventh Doctor meeting up with the Ice Warriors again. It was written before the episode 'Cold War' though so the Ice Warriors hold onto a few of their Classic Series traits. It's a fun read (listen in my case) with some moments for everyone to shine and a twist you probably won't see coming. I recommend this story as well. Battle for the Falklands by Max Hastings The Falklands Island War is one of those odd ones in history. It didn't need to be fought, turned usual military theory on its head, and remembered as one of those head scratches asking; why the hell did this happen? Max Hastings does a great job looking at the historical, political, and military sides of the conflict. Although written not too long after the war the book is very detailed. Hasting is able to weave the story so that you find it all very interesting and excited to keep reading (listening in my case). Now I am a history major and military history buff so my enjoyment of this might be clouded a bit. Hasting though focuses not just on the events but does spend plenty of time exploring the people involved. His focus is primarily on the British side but there are some bits gleamed from Argentinians along with Americans (working to try and prevent the war as the US was in the uneasy position of having two allies fight). If your a history fan I do recommend checking this out. Foundation and Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov I read these based on the review done of them on SF Debris. In the waning century of the Galactic Empire a brilliant scientist, Hari Seldon lays out the groundwork to prepare for the coming galactic collapse. Using the science of psyhcohistory Seldon is able to predict a possible path that will reduce the barbarism of the post empire time from 30,000 years to a mere millennia. To do this he establishes two foundations on 'opposite ends' of the Galaxy. Through these the Galaxy will be saved and a new Second Galactic Empire will arise. Told through a series of short stories, Foundation is a classic of science fiction. I LOVE this series. It's surprising as unlike many science fiction works there is hardly any focus on action. Sure wars occur and major events are playing out but most of the book is people discussing things. Asimov himself actually could never understand why people enjoyed the series as much as they did. I think its because we see such smart, if not brilliant characters as work. The series also looks at the power of the individual versus the forces of history. Do the times shape the man or the man shape the times? If your a scifi fan you've got to check them out. Currently I'm reading Second Foundation which covers the fallout of the end of F&E and the questions raised by it. I'll post my thoughts here when I finish.
  13. Based on what you guys talked about with which movies feel like their series, isn't it a good thing the films moved away from the feel of series? Some of the Trek films I find the least enjoyable are the ones that feel like an episode (and in most cases a bad episode) of the show. I'd say the TOS movies are less guilty of this than TNG. TNG had three movies that felt like episodes and bad ones at that. Generations is nothing more than an expanded episode. Insurrection is the MOST guilty of this (even more so that they already did that plot with the Native American settlers on the planet that ended up in Cardassian territory). Nemesis is less so but again it feels like a bad episode trying to be Wrath of Khan and failing miserably. Wrath of Khan is epic and feels like a classic piece of fiction, something you never quite got with TOS. Balance of Terror is pretty close along with a few others but Khan just feels bigger, feels deeper, and feels like TOS grown up. Same for Undiscovered Country, its darker, more mature?, and explores areas that we never would have on TOS or TNG. Hope my ramblings there made sense.