Gary returns to explain the import of the selection of the 12th Doctor Who, Norm learns about the modern waterpark, and Will explores the zipper method. All that, plus the latest on Oculus VR, what’s in the Xbox One box, Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, and a $200 sous vide Kickstarter. Enjoy!
One Day Builds
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
One Day Builds
Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
Video done broke.
Choose 720p, worked for me.
I never toast MY poptarts.
You’re right, that somehow fixed it.
OH YES! Gary Whitta in the house!
re: Doctor Who; I’ve always thought it was a brilliant idea never quite done right. It suffered from terrible writing at times (in the past). However the modern shows have put more emphasis on “grown-up” issues and philosophy which I like. It’s a shame you still have to dig through the scary monster crap to find the interesting stuff where the characters talk about the implications of what’s actually going on, but it is there. For me those are the best bits.
In fact in the “reveal” show one guy (Rufus Hound) put it in good words: “Scifi allows you to look at really human problems but with a degree of distance from it. So the Doctor’s able to talk to us about life and death, and meaning, what it is to be a child, what it is to grow old, what it is to be different. We’re able to understand all of those stories in a way that seems fantastic, but is actually able to define those things that are true of the human experience.”
That’s the thing: life, death and meaning. Those things mean more to me than the quality of special effects or how many legs the latest monster has.
They should show two versions of Doctor Who: a grown-up version (shot by default) which includes more emotional and philosophical content, and an edited cut-down version for the kids which just focuses on scary monsters and goofing around.
GARY LIIIIVESSSS
Chris’ Who was a survivor, a mass-murderer, and you could see that in bits and pieces of how he interacted with Rose and the others. David… he got darker as his tenure went on and as the companions changed, but he still tried to deny what he was (‘The Fury of the Time Lord’, go look it up on youtube) at times. Matt Smith’s Who was okay but, for my tastes, he was a bit too zany for my liking (though the Demon’s Run arc was great). That said… start with Tom Baker.
As a medical student who has seen and participated in his fair share of surgeries, I absolutely can’t play Surgeon Simulator for any stretch of time. I get a bad feeling in my stomach or something, but and can’t really escape from contextualizing it and comparing to the real thing.
I did push through and finish one surgery (the demo version). But it’s just feels too much for me.
Video actually starts at around 30 sec. mark.
Gary! <3
Will, Norm and Gary… you guys give crappy food way too much credit. Chicken and biscuits? Cheetos? I honestly think the stuff Gary loves is disgusting. Honestly. If that’s your favorite food in the world then I don’t know what to say.
The “next-gen” dilemma… It’s never too late to play a game. I go back and play old games that I’ve missed pretty regularly. I think it’s sad to focus on hardware/graphics so much and you will be disappointed by the next consoles if that’s your focus. Gary should definitely play Skyrim. There has to be tons and tons of great games that they haven’t played.
Yes! Chicken in a Biskit.
Skype is available on the PS Vita, no subscription service required.
http://www.skype.com/en/download-skype/skype-for-gaming-and-music/
Doughnut- Burger – Doughnut
AKA The Luther – This is so good yet so bad. Enjoy and Drool
Haven’t listened to the whole show, I just wanted to comment on something Will said about Breaking Bad. This is my interpretation, obviously. I don’t think the show is about the fall of a good man… I think if you go back and watch the show from the beginning, you can see Walt was never really a good man. I’ve always thought that was part of the genius of the writing.
Isn’t that what killed Luther? I can feel my arteries clogging looking at it.
I think for the good of the show, you need to capture Gary and lock him in a basement and bring him out as needed for the podcast…
just saying
Totally agree, that comment stood out to me as well. Breaking Bad is not about the fall of a good man. At most generous to Walt, it’s about the fall of an average man, but even that’s a stretch, I think. The personality traits that drive him further and further down this path all seem consistent with the man he was at the start of the show–pride, arrogance, selfishness.
As someone who got into Doctor Who in the last four or five years, I would strongly recommend anyone new to the Doctor start either with the Eccleston stuff, or if that’s not doing it for you (I’m not a huge fan of Eccleston’s doctor, and the budget was clearly pretty paltry at first too), start with Tennant. Better yet, before you watch any of the modern Who, watch “Blink,” an episode from the 3rd season of the rebooted series. It’s a tremendous episode, written by current show-runner Steven Moffat, primarily starring Carey Mulligan, before she was famous. It’s really great, and because it’s framed from the perspective of an outsider stumbling into the Doctor’s world for just one episode, you get a look at someone discovering the Doctor and learning about him and his world. It’s on Netflix Instant and Amazon Prime.
I have tried very hard to appreciate the Tom Baker stuff, and I have enjoyed some of what I’ve seen of it, but there’s a lot of very dated stuff in there that’s really going to be a tough sell to someone who isn’t already a fan. I certainly understand why it’s well loved by those who grew up, but I think advising anyone new to the series to start with any episodes from the previous century is not likely to end up making a convert.
Will’s question to Gary about the Doctor’s defining characteristic made me realize that Doctor Who and Star Trek have a ton in common. I think the defining aspects of both shows are 1)a love of exploration and 2)a belief in the goodness of people. Although both have plenty of darkness and bad guys and conflict, love and peace always ultimately win the day, and both casts of characters are always finding new trouble because they want to explore the universe. They are both cool shows and cool universes. I’ll stop now.
Love the Norm groan right as the show ends. LOL
Shrdlu they did the The Sarah Jane Adventures for kids
Please tell me your pronunciation of “pollo” was ironic, Will.
Yeah & it wasn’t bad, I just meant I thought there was too much kiddie-style stuff in the main series.
I’ve watched Doctor Who since the 2005 reboot and would recommend starting with the Matt Smith episodes. I find some parts of Tennant really dry. Like that redheaded companion.
Wow. Listening to the Doctor Who primer is the first time listening to this podcast where I feel like King Geek. So here’s my 2¢…
I can tell you right now (echoing Gary’s view), if you didn’t experience Doctor Who as a kid, the old stuff will not hold up. Even the best of the Tom Baker episodes (IMO, the Gothic stuff like Horror of Fang Rock, Talons of Weng-Chiang, and Pyramids of Mars) are going to be hard to take. Not only are the sets and FX dated and extremely low budget (even for the period), but the fact that storylines are divided into four half-hour long (serialized) episodes means that Netflix binge-watching can be tedious. I was lucky enough to have caught some of the original Doctor Who episodes on PBS as kid (though I was always more fond of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, which is very similar in many respects).
I was an early adopter of the new series which started in 2005. The first episode I saw, by accident, was The Unquiet Dead wherein the Doctor travels to Christmas, 1869 to help Charles Dickens battle aliens who are re-animating the corpses of the recently deceased. Now, what part of that sentence doesn’t sound cool as fuck? Consequently, I’ve been watching ever since.
In many ways, the new series is just better television than the original. It’s no longer aimed squarely at kids but tries to appeal to a wider demographic. The format changed to the less serialized, more palatable hour-long, one-off episode (with the occasional two part-er). There are great episodes and definitely some terrible ones, but the writing is still pretty strong (if somewhat less daring than the original), which has always been the strong point of Doctor Who.
Love it or hate it, I think you need to test drive some of the new episodes (if only to maintain your sci-fi nerd cred) before exploring the original series. My suggestions for a good, isolated entry point would be The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, Blink, or Midnight).
fucking Smith how dare you tell Garry that he’s “too late” to play Skyrim or that he missed the “conversation” like that is EVER important.
Garry, play Skyrim. You don’t need to invest in that game, it’s very easy to pick up, play a quick quest, and then set the controller down (which I actually think is mostly the best way to play the game even on PC especially if you are going to just play it casually in your free time). It’s also as easy to play it for hours at a time if you’re home sick or have a free weekend. And never listen to Will. Which I’m sure you know already! 🙂
And shame on you for discouraging Garry, Will! Skyrim shouldn’t be missed by anyone. I played 300 hours since launch, and I still occasionally hop in to explore a bit. A couple of dungeons here and there, and it’s plenty enjoyable. You don’t need to spend 4 hours at a time in it, as the main quest still isn’t super important, and the small one off quests are much better.
The 2010 mini-reboot of Doctor Who (new cast and crew) with Matt Smith is the best starting point I think. They introduce key concepts with Matt Smith so it’s easy to follow, and more important the production values are MUCH better. Most of my friends who tried to start with the Eccleston era can’t get past the awful effects and cheesy production and gave up. Don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely brilliant episodes in Tennant’s and Ecceston’s run, but it’s a harder place to start since you have to swim through a bit of shit to get to them. Diving into such a show requires a smooth landing if people are going to stick around, and Season 5 of new-Who provides that. Once you’re hooked, going back and catching up from the 2005 reboot will be easier.
As for The Thick of It, it isn’t really “UK Humour”, it’s just well observed political situations with absolutely razor sharp dialogue and insults. It translates well to the US in Veep and In The Loop (both written by Armando Iannucci) with practically identical humour. You’ll not get a few UK-specific references, but it’s fine for the most part. “Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your sh***er with a lubricated horse c**k.” is universally funny.
So, major reason for synthetic meat is that raising cattle is the least efficient use of natural resources, and more destructive to the environment than if you let the land go fallow. Cattle require huge amounts of land and produce comparatively (to other options) little food product. World hunger is unlikely to be solved by this due to basic requirements to produce it. This will almost always be a first world product.
One of the interesting things is that the percentage of people in North America who have tasted natural beef is very slim, and mostly limited to people who have eaten beef outside of the US. Everything from steaks to chuck is modified greatly during the entire cattle raising process. From birth to market, there’s someone modifying the taste of the meat. Even if they aren’t injected with artificial products, we’ve genetically altered beef through selective breeding and convoluted genealogy mapping, and we’ve developed breeding and training techniques to modify the taste of the eventual product. That said, most of the meat you find in the US is modified directly by the processing plant to change the taste dramatically.
On the Doctor Who stuff:
Technically you can’t “go all the way back” at the very least not legally. There were a number of episodes that have been completely lost due to fires and accidents. If you’re going to start from scratch, I’d suggest starting with the Christopher Eccleston stuff. It’s still fairly corny, but if you’re someone who can’t quite get that, jump forward to the David Tennant era episode “Blink”, then go back. Some of the bad stuff in Eccleston’s time is excellent because of how he plays the doctor, and it’s still important because it serves to set up the doctor and a lot of the plot for the next three seasons.
The companions exist because they give the audience an in to someone who’s completely alien and completely understandable, but only through the interactions with other people. Understanding the doctor isn’t about him being a fish out of water, in fact he’s completely capable no matter where he is, it’s about the fact that he’s a closed off person and tries to run and hide rather than confront himself. The companions tease that out of him, bit by bit.
Vincent van Gogh episode of Doctor Who is another that can give you a taste without getting into series subplots or spoilers for the most part. Blink and van Gogh are two that most everyone can understand right off and enjoy.
One of the little things that I enjoy is that you never know what may become important later. Some of the sub plots have spanned years before you get a real taste of them. You find yourself looking back or grabbing a DVD to look for it. Some graffiti on a wall, the name of a ship, a turn of phrase. This is not a 100 million dollar scifi movie, enjoy it for what it is.
As to the older shows, it is like going back and watching the first Star Trek series. Not everything is as smooth, writing of the era as well as acting styles are different. Yes sets are a tab bit flimsy at times but its fun. There are also stories that will touch on the newer series as well as returning actors reprising rolls from the original.
Well that may be fair, but don’t tell him not to go into it because it’s too much of an investment. Let him figure out if he likes it. It’s an awesome game and he should at least give it a chance if he wants to. Worst case is he doesn’t like it and moves on!
can’t chromecast from iOS Chrome, at least not yet. I gotta believe Google has a revision in Apple’s hands that does.
I just don’t have laptops in my TV room. Ever. So my Chromecast is gathering dust.
edit: enjoyed Gary’s take on Doctor Who _almost_ enough to start watching it. Still came a bit short for me. My gauge for sci fi is spaceships, lasers, robots and it sounds like Dr Who fails on all 3.
I think that Californians’ disdain for Five Guys only exists because they’ve been spoiled with In N Out. As someone who lives in Montana and only gets to eat In N Out once or twice a year when I visit the in-laws on Salt Lake, Five Guys is pretty awesome.
Here’s some info for next time you guys go to a public pool. The smell of pool water that we attribute to chlorine does not actually come from chlorine. That typical pool smell comes from chloramines. The most common chlroamine product in pools come from the reaction of chlorine with urea. Yup, urea from pee and sweat. Chloramines also burns the eyes worse than chlorine, it’s actually the main culprit for stinging your eyes.
For Doctor Who, I would say to start with specific episodes and see if you like it.
I would recommend season 5 episode 4 and 5: The Time of Angels, and Flesh and Stone (2). The alien enemies in those episodes are “quantum creatures”, when you see them they stop existing, but will mess you up when you stop looking. It’s quite scary.
This was a great podcast until Gary started talking about his wifi woes… I cannot take the opinion of someone about technology issues that uses a Time Machine as their primary router. Please turn in your tech credentials at the door.
It’s really simple now days to get a POE WAP, plug it in and run it through the attic or under the house or whatever and get it where you need it. Bitching because Apple doesn’t get you the coverage you need in your house is like bitching that your Hummer doesn’t get good gas mileage. What were you expecting?
Gary, gotta agree at least tongue in cheek about Trek. For a show founded on inclusion and nominally about unity, the roster of the crew member names alone (especially of the named Redshirt X’s) reads like some Anglo xenophobes dream world. It’s not even representative of a current British directory let alone America, let alone a unified Earth…unless Trek’s Earth IS that xenophobes dream world.