Tuesday, January 29, 2019

From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: Father's Day"

...I just...

I see things like this, and I wonder why I even bother, really. I didn't think that there were actually episodes of Doctor Who so bad that they'd cause you actual, real physical pain, but we're here now. This is real and it is happening. Father's Day.

Absolutely...freaking...astounding.

If Dalek is the best episode of the Christopher Eccleston series, then Father's Day is the absolute worst. I know that some people hate the first two-parter, Aliens of London and World War Three for a bunch of ridiculous crap with the Slitheen and the finale Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways for it's various problems that we'll be getting into when we get to those episodes. I even agree with quite a bit of it. But this...this is the absolute pits. The bottom of the bottom of the barrel.

And it's not even a Russell T. Davies episode. That's what absolutely kills me. It's Paul Cornell, who would go on to write the spectacular Human Nature and The Family of Blood in Series Three (admittedly based largely on his novel of the same name as the first of the two episodes) and had done several things in Doctor Who spin-off work - such as the creation of Bernice Summerfield and several spin-off novels and audio plays that I've mentioned in previous reviews.

It's just disheartening to see him turn out a clunker like this, and I really wonder how much it has to do with him and how much it has to do with Russell's interference.

With that settled, let's get this over with.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Shut the Hell Up, Bill Maher 2: Electric Bugaloo"

Because, y'know...sometimes, people just can't leave well enough alone. After all, why bother, right? It's not as if Stan Lee isn't around to defend the legacy of his work or anything- OH WAIT!

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: The Long Game"

Simon Pegg has a good turn as the Editor, as a pro to this episode.
This episode exists for a grand total of two reasons: 1) for Adam to depart and 2) for us to get a sneak preview of the location where the finale is going to be set. That's it. Why? Because Russell T. Davies had not yet crystalized the "every single episode has to lead into the finale in some way" thing that Steven Moffat would later pick up and roll with (aside from the Bad Wolf meme, but we'll get to that in Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways) but he was working very, very hard on it. Or, perhaps, he'd had enough meds to think that we'd hate Adam and that would keep people like me from hating on Rose.

What he didn't count on is that I am perfectly capable of doing both things, just for different reasons. And with that, let's get into it.

Friday, January 18, 2019

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal"

Now I know what you're thinking. "Hey, Madcap! Why aren't you reviewing Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow? They were the first ones to come out and were the start of the whole worldwide phenomenon that has taken the world by storm!" Well, voices in my head that are somehow also reading the things that I type, I may indeed get to those games at some point in the future. However, the reason I chose the second trilogy of games - known as the Second Generation - is for two reasons. 1. It was the generation that I was most involved in as a child. While I caught onto Pokémon when it took the world by storm in the 90s, I didn't really play much of the First Gen at least not in the traditional sense. I mostly just messed around and didn't much care for completing the game itself.

Second Generation, though, was where I really hit the ground running. Gold Version in particular, since it was the first of the three I played, holds a special place in my heart. I built the team that I then had to recreate in HeartGold (RIP, originals due to battery life) and stomped through not only Johto, but also Kanto to take on every trainer, best every challenge, and be the best like no one ever was.

The second reason is because of a ROM hack that I'm going to be taking a look at at some point in the future, one that I've taken quite a bit of enjoyment from after having it recommended to me via e-mail. More on that later.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: World War Three"

...seriously. Why this episode? What did humanity do that was so bad that they deserve this as a two-parter? I mean, there is really nowhere to go but up after last time, but geez!

Monday, January 7, 2019

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "A Wrinkle in Time" (2018)

Oh, I've been looking forward to this.

And by "looking forward to this", I mean "tearing apart a movie that took a spray shit all over one of my favorite books from my childhood". Spoilers follow after the jump. You've been warned.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: Aliens of London"

Happy New Year! I hope you're having a much better time than I am, because I had to sit through this piece of garbage. And it is garbage, there are no two ways about it. Aliens of London was one of the first three episodes of the revived series of Doctor Who produced, the other two being it's second part World War Three and Rose. As such, there's a lot of Early Installment Weirdness as, behind the scenes, the cast and crew were still trying to find the voice that the show would eventually have.

Not to excuse the crap we're going to see, because we'll be seeing a lot of it.