CRRRRS 488 Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Silo

By Roy Mathur, on 2023-05-26, at 23:19:52--00:32:00 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show, Listen

Fluffy Slippers

My old fluffy slippers had holes in them, but I finally found new fluffy slippers.

I cannot tell you enough how important soft fluffy slippers are to my mental health, but like Doctor Who, they are.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Paramount 2023.

Chris Pine, widowed by evil cultic Red Wizards and fallen on hard times, struggles to provide for his daughter. Together with his friend Holga, they turn to thievery, are caught and sent to prison. They escape intend to retrieve his daughter. They head to Neverwinter, and then things go pair shaped.

Chris Pine is Edgin; a bard and ex-spy, Michelle Rodriguez is Holga; a barbarian warrior, Justice Smith is Simon; a really terrible sorcerer, Sophia Lillis is Doric; a shapeshifter, Hugh Grant is Forge; a conman, and Rege Jean Page is Xenk; a paladin sworn to do good. 1In short this is Dungeons and Dragons The A-Team, with Chris Pine as the man with a plan.

For me, Chris Pine and Justice Smith stand out for their highly comedic acting. I am especially drawn to the incompetent Rincewind-like wizard, played by Smith, who I always assumed was English, but is, in fact, American. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Stuffed full of DnD fanservice and lore, it is an enjoyable film, though a little over long.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

In this Marvel Studios 2022 Christmas Special Peter Quill is sad, so his alien crew throw him a Christmas he'll never forgot, on the space station Knowhere. Mantis and Drax also go off on a side-quest to Earth to procure the perfect present for Peter: his childhood hero Kevin Bacon.

The best bits are all Mantis and Drax. The club scene when they get blasted is delightful (and very familiar to me). There's also the scene in which they discover that Kevin Bacon is an actor, not a real life action hero, and are utterly revolted and start fake-gagging like children.

Silo

Self-publishing sensation Hugh Howey's Silo book series adapted for screen and released on Apple TV in 2023.

With no memory of why they descended, humans live in a highly stratified society, sheltering from the toxic surface, in an underground city. Things start happening, when the sherrif digs into his wife's apparent suicide, after she volunteers to exit to the poisoned atmosphere.

A repressed human civilisation beneath the earth is nothing new in genre. E.M. Forster short story The Machines Stops; one of my favourite short stories I remember from school, George Lucas's fantastically dystopian and adult debut THX 1138 (1971), City of Ember (2008) adapted from the YA novel The City of Ember (2003) by Jeanne DuPrau are but three, though the last Sdoes shared a striking resemblance to the last; even in terms of the sets and costumes.

Great cast, including, David Oyelowo and Rebecca Fergason, also an executive producer of the show, and someone I find it hard to wrench my eyes from. Blimey.

The fact that the drama is very tense, even with such a simple premise, is more a testament to the overall production.

Classic Doctor Who on Everything Except BBC iPlayer

A while ago Russell T. Davies said something about how both Old and New Doctor who should be available on BBC. While New Who is on BBC iPlayer, Old Who is available on the ITV's ITVX streaming service as a premium BritBox add-on, the same as it is on Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video. Old Who and New Who will also be on Disney+ later this year.

None of this old cult geek stuff (not just Doctor Who, but Blake's 7 and others) are on iPlayer because Beeb want to make money on it through their BritiBox partnership with ITV. They did the same before the internet with VHS releases, etc. the crus of the matter is I think they should make it available to UK customers as licence payers at no extra cost. I never thought it particularly fair to have to pay twice.

Doctor Who New Who Obsessive Rewatch

As well as rewatching Old Who for the revisit, I've been rewatching much of New Who again. While I don't talk about it as much as I talk about Old Who, it's become my comfort food lately.

You see, I had a few bad days. Too much off-time meant that household admin went down the tube. I recovered, as I usually do, by rewatching a lot of New Who, which is why I had a little hiccup in producing that massive upload of audio I promised, and you are listening to now and over the previous two classic Doctor Who revisits.

As well as buoying the spirits, and renewing my respect for Steven Moffat's writing (why were some fans so hostile?), I discovered that the delightful Orla Brady, Picard's Romulan girlfriend, played Mother Superious in The Day of the Doctor 50th Anniversary Special (2013). Doctor Who: it's cheaper than therapy.

I'm looking forward to David Tennant 60th Anniversary Specials later this year, then Ncuti Gatwa's regeneration, but I am definitely not enjoying all the coverage. It's difficult to avoid even if I don't follow many people on social media because the algorithms keep trying to shove teasers, trailers, and other spoiler content down my throat. The same goes for the next Indy film and the current Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Doctor Who Lore: The Doctor's Descendants

The Doctor's family has been covered in prose and other media, but sticking to the canonical TV series, in Death in Heaven, which I rewatched recently, Clara, pretending to be the Doctor, tells a group of Cybermen:

Well, gentlemen. Where to start? I was born on the planet Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm a Time Lord, but my Prydonian privileges were revoked when I stole a time capsule and ran away. Currently pilot a Type 40 TARDIS. I've been married four times, all deceased. My children and grandchildren are missing, and I assume, dead. I have a non-Gallifreyan daughter created via genetic transfer. How much more do you need? I'm the Doctor.
Providing she isn't polishing the truth to convince the Cybermen, it succinctly tells us about the Doctor's descendants.

One Foot in the Grave

Other than Who, I caught up and watched all of the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990--2000).

If you're in mid-40s or above, or enjoy series like Peep Show, this comedy about the grumpiest man in the known universe might appeal to you. That may seem like a strange comparison, but it started off as a light slapstick sitcom, with the odd bit of reflection into the human condition, but became increasingly demented as the series progressed.

It is a very funny black comedy and, while most UK viewers will know about it, I also recommend it to those outside the UK, and would be interested to hear their opinion of the series. I should warn you.

Best episodes? Hearts of Darkness (1993), The Wisdom of the Witch (1995), Starbound (1996).

Nokia 6.1 Plus

My mother's phone died. It consistently crashed throughout it's lifetime, then it stopped screencasting, then the battery wouldn't hold much charge, and finally the USB port was wrecked and stopped transferring files.

Of course, it's 63GB used out of 64 GB total storage of mostly photos hadn't been backed up for ages. And so it fell to me as family tech support to be the data retrieval expert. An elastic band to hold the cable, a spare hub, and much patience, and I got the phone charged to 60%, at an absolutely agonising rate of 1% per hour. I also bought micro SD, transferred the data, and wiped the phone.

Lesson? Back up your stuff! How many times have I said this? Secondly, never ever buy an utterly uselss Nokia branded smartphone designed by those imbeciles at HMD Global Oy in Finland.

JVC HAS160 Flats

The JVC HAS160 Flats are my favourite headphones. They sound great and I've used many pairs of throughout my life.

That is the problem. The reason I've used so many is because they break so easily. When the last pair broke recently, snapping like a thin dry twig at the joint of the earcup and headband after I sat on them, in exactly the same way are as the pair before, I thought that's it, no more.

Beyerdynamic DT150

I now use Beyerdynamic DT150s in the studio, but I only have a pair of Bluetooth JLab Rewinds for casual use, so if anyone can suggest a pair of light on-ear cans, please let me know.

Shure SM7B

After much experimentation, since 486 I have permanently gone over to the Shure SM7B. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

Changes to How I Make the Podcast

In addition to equipment tweaking, I've tweaked a my Audacity settings recently; namely noise reduction. I've also now fully described the negative eq curve for attenuating overly bright sections.

If you are interested in the technical aspects of how I make the podcast, click on the podcast link on the website and scroll down the page.

Bell Moto-9 Mips

Update from 485: I finally did get my helmet.

I'm breaking it in by wearing it indoors while rewatching old Doctor Who for the revisits.

That MRI

I saw a physio and he told me that apart from a slight bulge in my spine---irritation perhaps---I'm absolutely fine and should partake in more physical activity.

So really, apart from Tourettes, getting older, and all that blokey stuff like ear and nose hair, I'm peachy.

Madness Lies Within this Dread Dwelling

Remember the maniac in the attic? Remember how a few years ago, I discovered a drawer I hadn't seen before? Earlier today, I discovered a suspicious switch on the wall abutting the ceiling outside one the main bathroom. What the hell is it?

I need not even tell you that there is also a puddle of water that occasionally mysteriously manifests at the foot of the utility room door. Poltergeist?

Prosaic or Satanic? I suspect the latter, while my mother favours a more scientific explanation... or gnomes. Where's an occult investigator when you need one? Summon the Duke de Richleau at once, Fygor! (Igor/Ygor/Fritz).

I could start a paranormal channel with all the weirdness going on here.