Last night the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office Staff convened for the broadcast of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special. I would like to say that a lot of tequila was involved with the construction of these tweets, but there wasn’t. Sierra Nevada and a fair amount of Sauvignon Blanc were the main perpetrators. The rest was inspired by circumstance. And, possibly tequila happenstance. Enjoy.
We all know that there is exactly one event happening in geek fandom today… actually wait: let me check my news feed just in case Frank Miller’s been caught tazing a pack of hippies in Time Square… oh, look at that! Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are moving to New York from Boston. I had no idea they were even still here in Boston, but then again, I doubt they drink in the same shitholes we frequent. Actually they might, but considering our favorite bars specialize in the installation and maintenance of alcoholic blackouts, I would never remember anyway.
But other than that, the only event happening today is the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of The Doctor, which is simulcasting on your local BBC affiliate at 2:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. What time is that in your area? What am I, a Time Lord? Do your own damn math.
To commemorate the experience, most of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Staff will be assembling at the Home Office in about an hour, upon which we will be heading out to one of the aforementioned shitholes to drink lunch (and watch futilely for Gaiman, now that we know he lives here) before returning to the Big Screen to watch the show. And we will be Live Tweeting the experience via our Twitter feed.
So while we will be assembling those tweets into an actual post for posterity either later today or tomorrow (pending blood alcohol content), we hope you’ll tune into our feed and watch along with us. And by the way, the over / under time for the Tweet reading, “Are there four Doctors on the screen, or is the whiskey getting on top of me?” is 3:25 p.m.
Those of us who are fans of AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, and who attended the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, were shocked when, just a few days after the convention, showrunner Frank Darabont was fired from the show, after having been a big part of hyping the show at the con. Not only had Darabont’s involvement in the show been a big selling point for fans of the comic (many of who, like me, didn’t think any TV version of the book could capture the bleak near-hopelessness that the story sometimes carried), but giving Darabont the ick right after trotting him out to hype the show in Hall H just seemed crass. And sure, AMC and the production and Darabont himself all said at the time that the split was mutual, but the timing felt less like someone pursuing his future endeavors and more like some party threw some cash on Darabont’s nightstand and told him to clean himself up and watch so the door didn’t hit him on the ass on the way out.
But again, everyone, including Darabont, said at the time that the split was mutual… but that was 28 months ago. Now, The Walking Dead is on its fourth season and third showrunner, Darabont is getting ready to debut Mob City, a new crime show on TNT debuting in December, so… no hard feelings, right?
Yeah, not so much.
Editor’s Note: Regarding our “Strange Visitor” from yesterday, the vet said that he’s only a five or six month old kitten who, based on his weight and claw length, has probably lived most of his life on the street. So while we have reported the guy to our local Animal Control Department, it looks like he’s staying. His name is now Parker, after Richard Stark’s thief. Because he snuck in, he got food from us… and today when I locked him in the carrier box? He did his time like a motherfucking pro.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
It has been 13 and a half years since Preacher published its last issue under the Vertigo Comics imprint, and in that time, there have been rumors that it was gonna be adapted to some medium or another. For a while it was gonna be a movie, and then HBO had the rights for a while, and then, for a while, nothing. It is, after all, a hell of a property to try to adapt – an epic story covering decades, not to mention most of America, heaven and hell.
It takes someone with balls of stone and real vision for genre entertainment to tackle a property like Preacher. Which is why we can all thank God that apparently we have new involvement in the project by Seth Rogen.
You know, the guy who did The Green Hornet movie.
So I think I heard something about some video on the Internets today…
We’re a little late to the party on this, given that our Twitter feed exploded around breakfast time that this thing existed – funny story: my own brother gave away the Goddamned spoilers to me on this one, which is why he is getting a restraining order for Christmas – but the BBC has released a seven-minute mini episode of Doctor Who to fill in some of the blanks between the season seven finale (which showed us John Hurt as some Doctor or another) and the upcoming 50th Anniversary special (featuring, well, everybody) which will air simultaneously across the world – around 2:30 p.m. here on the American East Coast – on November 23rd.
The video is called The Night of The Doctor, it is set during the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and it features, well, The Doctor. Or one of them. And another one by way of spiffy computer graphics. And it not only fills in a few blanks for the upcoming The Day of The Doctor special, but a few blanks that have been kicking around for a few years now.
Yeah, I know that’s vague, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. I don’t want to descend to the level of my brother… not that I want to paint him as a bad guy or anything! Not when he’s gonna be spending the holidays at your house. You know, provided you live at least 300 yards away from me.
Anyway, why would I bother to spoil it? Because If you haven’t seen it for yourself, you can check it out after the jump.
There’s been a lot of news out of Marvel Studios this past week or so, which would be exciting if it weren’t for the fact that every time Marvel Studios does anything it makes me want to excitedly haul out my wallet and throw more money around. The only reason we haven’t seen Thor: The Dark World yet is because it is the first Marvel movie since Iron Man to not play at our local theater, and because we were busy battling our own Godforsaken evil in the form of an angry hot water heater.
Last week, Marvel Studios announced that they were teaming with Netflix to put out four direct-to-streaming television series, based on Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones (or Brian Michael Bendis’s Alias if you’re nasty). They’re planning on doing a 13-episode series a piece, and apparently things are already approaching the pre-production stage, because there are reports that Marvel Studios is in talks with World War Z and former Buffy The Vampire Slayer writer Drew Goddard to write Daredevil.
The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special will be airing on Saturday, November 23rd, and it will be airing simultaneously around the world – about 2 p.m. here in Boston – which is a far cry from the days when the show rebooted with Christopher Eccleston back in 2005. Back then, no American broadcaster gave enough of a shit about Doctor Who to broadcast it in the United States until the Sci-Fi Channel picked it up 2006, causing Amanda to send me out into the darker areas of the Internet to, um, acquire them.
Needless to say, anticipation is running high for this special, which will include the Matt Smith, David Tennant and new John Hurt Doctors, along with Billie Piper coming back for the first time in years. So to stoke the flames, the BBC has released two trailers for the special, which you can check out after the jump. Go ahead and check them out; it’ll be much more fun and less fraught with potential lawsuits than trolling the places I had to back in 2005.
So, the BBC have released the official press blurb of the plot to the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special. It really is more of a tease than any kind of summary. Behold:
The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special. In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
Something terrible is awakening in London’s Nation Gallery… Uh-oh. Sounds like someone found that opened jar of Marmite Lance someone left under the heating grate in the Impressionists wing back in 1992. I knew nothing good could come of that. Impressionists, I mean. Give me a good Flemish still life, with flowers and table settings that are bafflingly photo realistic. None of this pixelated Water Lily stuff. Am I right?
Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh, right. Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary, a Marmite induced fever dream in which there will be multiple Doctors and murderous plots afoot in Elizabethan England. Aren’t there always murderous plots afoot in Elizabethan England on Doctor Who? How about giving Edwardian England a little love? Haven’t traveled there for a while? Oh well. At least we’ll finally see how John Hurt’s Doctor figures into this and we’ll get to see more David Tennant while finally bidding farewell to Matt Smith. These are all good things. Much better than Marmite. And Impressionists.
I need a nap.
Via Bleeding Cool.
I feel bad that I haven’t really been watching The Simpsons for a couple seasons now. Sunday night the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office DVR is set to favorite Once Upon A Time over The Simpsons and, while the former is not without its own flaws, it’s still new enough that I’m more interested in watching it instead of the over 20 year old animated series. And, I can usually find The Simpsons in various On Demand formats.
Besides, the best part of the show has often been the couch gag anyway. If I can find the couch gag on YouTube with relative ease, my needs as a viewer are largely met. Below check out this Hobbit spoofing clip from the upcoming episode “Four Regrettings And A Funeral”.
All that being said, I might check out this episode when it airs next Sunday, because it will be the bittersweet final appearance of Edna Krabappel, voiced by the late Marcia Wallace. It will also feature voice appearances by Rachel Maddow, Joe Namath, Gordon Ramsay, and Aaron Sorkin. I wonder if Ramsay is going to go all Kitchen Nightmares on Moe’s Tavern? Or I might get drunk and watch a DVR marathon of Bar Rescue, which is pretty much what that situation would look like anyway.
God knows that we have had our issues with some of the decisions that have come from the DC Nation partnership between DC Comics and Cartoon Network – we still bemoan the cancellation of Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and when it comes to replacing one of those shows with Teen Titans Go!, well, you know how we feel about that decision.
One bright spot to come out of last year’s cancellation turmoil, when both Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series were initially pulled from Cartoon Network’s schedule without notice toward the end of 2011 before running off their inventory of both shows, was the launch of Beware The Batman, the latest Batman animated show from Warner Bros. And while the new show really couldn’t hold a candle to the Bruce Timm / Paul Dini Batman: The Animated Series from the 90s, it’s certainly been entertaining enough to make a spot on our TiVo, and to catch at least half of the DC Nation shorts on a weekly basis. We try to catch the other shorts online, since there isn’t a force on Earth, including the marijuana that apparently allows most people to sit through it.
Well, that is we had Beware The Batman. Because in a case of history repeating itself, Cartoon Network has, without prior notice, pulled the show from their schedule with episodes still in reserve.
So… what the fuck, Cartoon Network?
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