Podcast - This Is Only a Test

Episode 66 – The Podcast Before the Apocalypse – 5/19/2011

On this week’s episode Norman is glad he skipped the iPad 2, Gary marvels at Netflix’s dominance over piracy, and Will wonders why anyone watches Stargate. All that, plus the latest on Windows Phone 7, Amazonian tablet rumors, the problem with meaningless specs and another edition of fake outtakes. All that in this value packed edition of This is Only a Test!

Comments (37)

37 thoughts on “Episode 66 – The Podcast Before the Apocalypse – 5/19/2011

  1. so many penguins, its somewhat telling! I’ll be listening to this on my way…..somewhere…. tomorrow

  2. I had to skip directly to the outtakes when I saw there was Stargate discussion.

     
     Read this and this to try and see what a Stargate fan sees. Also, yes, you’re old. Thanks to Norm in attempt to defend the series.
  3. Why do people watch Stargate? Because every episode features Macguyver going to an alien planet and wasting fools with a P90. That’s TV GOLD if I ever saw it.

  4. Great podcast again this week, guys. I have to admit though, the second the Stargate bashing started I just shut off the podcast and skipped the rest. Hope I didn’t miss anything awesome!

  5. I had to skip directly to the outtakes when I saw there was Stargate discussion.

     
     Read this and this to try and see what a Stargate fan sees. Also, yes, you’re old. Thanks to Norm in attempt to defend the series.

    woah, there’s a Stargate discussion!?  I’m there! 😀

  6. Good podcast this week. One thing I wanted to add would be that fact checking does not ruin the podcast. In fact, it actually makes you sound less ignorant about the topic you are discussing when you are unsure. Also, the audio questions were messed up in the mix. 

  7. Will! Stargate is just the absolute best! You just have to start at the original movie and work right into the series from the start, it’s an incredibly rewarding show to the loyal fan. I absolutely LOVE everything about SG-1 and Atlantis. It was just so perfectly aligned with my Sci-Fi and history/archaeology love. By the end, the cast has such an impossibly good chemistry, it’s just fantastic. I can’t gush about it enough.

    Edit: After coming in here to make my obsessive fan statement without reading the rest of the comments, I was glad to see that virtually every other comment was about how they love Stargate too. It’s kind of just a show you have to have someone introduce to you though.
  8. Hell yeah!

    Will Smith: Stargate hater

    This is what happens when you hate on Stargate. You’re forced into wearing a penguin costume.

    Right on, brother.
  9. Torrenting is practically idiot-proof these days. Even teenage girls with Macbooks whose Internet time consists solely of Facebook, Youtube vloggers and PerezHilton know how to torrent TV shows and movies.

  10. Im not sure if you hear the questions louder when you play them while recording, but the volume for the questions is really low and sometimes inaudible.

  11. Farscape was shot in Australia, not Vancouver which is why the Peacekeepers sound like sound like Paul Hogan.

    Also glad to see the large number of Canadians in the question section.
  12. So everyone seems to be saying that if you pay for a service, like Hulu Plus, you shouldn’t have to watch commercials… and yet I never hear anyone complaining about paying ridiculous cable prices and have to sit through the commercials.  Is there really a difference?

  13. What the hell.. Will, really? Judgeing by one episode. Also turning 30 quote does not apply to a show that started in 1997. Compared to the crap I have seen from the era and more modern. Complaint about made up vocabulary, when StarTrek has possibly more. The lexicon has been around much much longer 60s, late 80s. As canadian scifi goes stargate is god tier. It is not really that campy but it doesn’t take it self that seriously. Thy do have 4 or 5 episodes in which they go full campy and forth wall breaking as well. These were only special occasions.

    Typed from iPod. Oh well I don’t hold a grudge but you can’t judge a 500 episode+ franchise by one episode. Which might have been from shitty season5.

  14. Well, he at least tried so I have to give him credit for that.  They should’ve had me on the podcast to defend it 😉

  15.  

     

    the spinoffs do a good job with “ok we are out here stranded surounded with alian tech” kind of mystery witch complements the first series well

     

     

     

    Are you saying capitalism good or bad. cause you are sometimes capitalism bad witch is disturbing.

    Also rippin on stargate after 10 seasons of the original series and 5 of the first spinoff. thats like a jock coming into a computer store and saying star trek sucks

     

    And to all the haters of SGU in the world. take your story snobbery and shove it as far as it will go.

    SGU has some redeeming quality and when the writers reached out for audience feedback and things to work on or change they listened. Season 2 was by far less crap and shitty cop-outs to artificially develop the characters. The communication stones specifically changed to actually being plot important. I will miss stargate while it’s gone. It won’t be forever though. Then again some of the elements did not leave entirely. Very annoying melodrama which is not why I ever watched stargate when I was a child. I am not fond of drama unless it’s doctor who style. I haven’t watched tv(as in personally chosen) since I got my iPod in 2007. Coincedentally the same year I got high speed Internet.

    Oh god I am ranting about my self. so I have only watched stargate, game of thrones, doctor who , torchwood and some anime.

    And some// super jail, the Colbert report, Tim and Eric, south park, the x files.

    To make this relevant to a tech topic. “cutting the cord” I feel will become the main way of life for the younger and younger people. I use my computer for every thing; all my gaming, school, movies, tv etc. Now reason one no one in my household has a tv bigger and not CRT then my 20″ LCD.

    For debate I payed 350$ candian in 2008 for the entire SG1 box set I just turned 18 at the time. I justified torrenting SGA from that purchase. By the time SGU started airing I had purchased seasons 1-4 of SGA. I considered this still contributing to the numbers for the franchise. If I had been employed I might have payed to view on iTunes which if more people had done maybe it woulda kept it alive. Which I doubt I blame the restructure of sci-fi channel. Sure they have to like many other cable channels to become less niche and hold on to their “audience”.

    I’ll format this post tomarrow. iPod grace please.

  16. Haha me too. Though I did learn that I memorized tv airing dates more then Norm. I do it with movies as well. Norm has the crazy model number memory which is amazing. The thing is I am afraid that I will forget tasks and things I want to get done or movies I want to watch. I email my self little notes. Internet is limitless nearly so I would easily never accomplish some thugs since I would just forget I even wanted to see more cohen brothers films for example. I have only seen Fargo haha… Now I’ve remembered again.

  17. Come on Will, you don’t have to like Stargate, but you don’t have to be an ass about it either. Clapping because the last Stargate series got cancelled… really?

  18. Man. I love Stargate SG-1, although it gets worse and worse as time goes on. Do not get the hate at all. Also, Babylon 5? Man. Babylon 5 is far from uniformly great, but come on…    Babylon 5 has a super-dull first season, but for the next three, it’s amazing.

  19. Thank you, fellow nerds and semi-nerds for agreeing on me as far as liking/loving SG-1 (or Stargate in general). Will didn’t have to like it, but watching one episode in the middle one random season of a sci-fi show and denouncing it the type of thing people think nerds do all the time.

    It’s also some of the reason why I sometimes have to grind my way through podcasts; I’m fine with people saying stuff I don’t agree with and having a fun discussion, but ignorant hatred is not fun to listen to.
    Oh well, the hundreds of hours of enjoyment that universe has given far outweighs Will’s terrible argument 🙂
  20. Reading through the comments I was worried nobody was going to step up for Babylon 5.  To be fair, that show has many flaws.  I saw the pilot when it came out and it was so terrible I didn’t give the show another chance until season 4.  Season 1 is quite weak.  The series’ acting was never amazing (or great, or even good usually), but it was even worse in season 1.  However, it still has the best writing and overall story I’ve ever seen in a sci-fi show.  I call complete and total BS on Will knowing exactly where the show was going.  The degree that future events were laid in for is unmatched. 

     

    Vir’s speech to Morden is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard on TV. 

     

    As for Stargate.  The “jargon” was one of the strengths of the show.  They had rules they mostly tried to follow, something I’ll say Star Trek was never big on.  One of the dumbest things about ST:TNG was the frequent invention of immensely powerful technology that never showed up again.  SG1 kept most of that around. 

     

     

    Netflix managed to get me to stop pirating anime at least .

       

    That’s kind of ironic, as anime has the best argument for piracy.  Translation quality.  Anime translations and subsequent dubs are often not what serious fans want.  They are simplified, censored, and often un-Japanified.  Fan-subs make an effort to preserve the real meaning, often having notes to explain the Japanese context needed to understand it.  If you don’t speak Japanese, piracy is often the best way to experience the show as it was intended.  You should still pay for it of course.

     

     

  21.  You’re right, it’s not super-intellectual, but nor is Star Trek, or really any TV sci-fi I can think of. I think the strength of SG-1 is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has a lot of the pulp sci-fi stuff Trek has, but it’s also a fun, action-heavy show, and even the most ardent Trekkie in the room has to admit that action was never one of Trek’s strong suits.

    Some of the arcs drag on too long (Anubis, yawn) but I enjoy SG-1’s standalone episodes much more than those of shows like DS9. I never watched much Atlantis, but I enjoyed SGU. As much as it pains me to say it, I think they were probably right to cancel it – the franchise had ran out of steam by the time it came around, and once it did, rather than finding a new audience, it split the existing one.
  22. Sorry to interrupt the nerd rage about Stargate but;

    What is the name of that Japanese thermos thing? I just can’t catch it when Garry says it.

  23. To answer the question, by now its likely too late, cash reserves are often kept in sweep accounts or T-Bills. T-bills are as safe as any bank account and about just as liquid.

  24. Norm’s description of Stargate was terrible! I love the franchise and he did not do it justice. I think Will might not think so poorly of it if Norm knew what the hell he was talking about.

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