The Blog to Nowhere

- Hmm, I haven't posted here since New Years. Haven't felt very chatty, I suppose.

- Saw Captain Marvel this weekend. I quite enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say it's in my top three Marvel movies. I am excited to see more of Carol now that her origin movie, so to speak, is out of the way. Just some quick thoughts:

( Spoilers for Captain Marvel )

Once again, the latest Avengers movie is out the same weekend as the comic book expo. I have no idea when I will have a chance to see it.

- Oh, and speaking of the expo, they announced Catherine Tate as a guest again. She was supposed to appear last year, but had to cancel, so it's great that she's free to come back. I can finally wear my femme!Ten cosplay for the main reason I put it together: to get a photo-op with Catherine. The expo also announced Jennifer Hale as a guest. She voiced Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, and she's also a pretty prolific voice actor, so I'm super excited to see her. If they got Mark Meer to come back and the two of them did a panel together, that would be so awesome.

I finally got to see Avengers: Infinity War. I swear, it felt like the movie came out ages ago and it took me forever to get to a theatre. I guess it only felt that way because everyone was talking about it and I absolutely did not want to get spoiled ahead of time. So, was all of the hype worth it?

( Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War )

Man, there's so much to absorb and unpack with this movie. No wonder people are seeing it multiple times. I think I will have to go again just to catch all of the things I missed the first time.

I only meant to pick up one new TV show, Star Trek: Discovery, but I somehow ended up with two more. One by accident and one because, well, there's nothing else to watch on Fridays for now.

All of the CW DC superhero shows are back this week, so they'll get a separate post, but in the mean time, my thoughts on three new TV shows: Star Trek: Discovery, The Orville, and Inhumans.

( Spoilers for the first three episodes of Star Trek: Discovery )

( Vague spoilers for The Orville )

( Spoilers for the first three episodes of Inhumans )

Can't wait for the CW DC shows to come back. The crossover sounds truly epic this season.

<------ Wrong team, I know, but it's the only Marvel icon I have.

Finished watching The Defenders. That's the fastest I've ever watched a Marvel Netflix show. Granted, The Defenders is like 1/3 shorter than a typical Marvel Netflix show so that probably helped. But the show was pretty good and it did compel me to keep watching even though I should have been sleeping or doing other things.

( Spoilers for The Defenders )

I hope they have another season of The Defenders. What's the point of having all of these shows in the same universe if they can't occasionally cross over? The CW DC shows do it all the time.

The next show up is The Punisher, but I don't know if I want to watch that one. When is the second season of Jessica Jones? Better be next year.

- I did a locked room yesterday for a library fundraiser. The twist? You're not locked in one room with one small team. You're locked in the library with 50 other teams. So that was interesting. You can see the other teams while you're running around, so you can kind of glean what the clue is from where people are milling around. At the same time, you can be led down the wrong path if people are milling around the wrong place.

My team did make it out, but after the allotted hour and half, but we were 14 out of 50, so that's not so bad. Top 15! I liked this locked room better than the last one I did. The library one was more word based, so I could actually figure out some of the clues. There was obvious stuff, like figuring out a message made up numbers. The numbers were 1 through 25, so it was obviously the letters of the alphabet. Then there were passwords you had to figure out from jumbled up letters and once we figured out that all of the passwords were book themed, that was easy to do.

The other cool thing was how the library used the library system to provide clues. Like, we had to check out a book and the result on the screen provided the password. Another time, we had to look up fake authors in the catalogue and the names of their books were another clue. The very last thing you had to do was return all of the books you collected during the night and library had programmed all of the RFID tags in the books so they were sorted into specific piles with corresponding letters. If you collected all of the right books, then the letters made up the word of a cryptex that got you out of the library. It was really clever. The library said they're doing another locked room in September and there are going to be 1000 participants, so roughly 200 teams. My friends and I are eager to try that one when it rolls around.

- I saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this weekend and it was really fun. I think it was a little too long, but there was a lot going on so you need that time to service everything. I think that the first movie is the better movie to watch when you need something zany to unwind with, but Vol. 2 will still have you laughing hysterically.

( Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 )

I think Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is one of those rare movies where I would gladly pay the money and watch it again in the theatre. There's just so much to see that one go isn't enough.

- Looks like it'll be raining in Cardiff for most of my vacation. :-P I know the UK isn't known for sunny skies, but come on. I want to take pictures of places where Doctor Who filmed and I don't need a wet camera.

My rushing around day was yesterday, so today was a lot more chill. At least, as chill as it can be for a Saturday.

( Chill Saturday details behind the cut )

Tomorrow is the last day. There's a few more panels I want to check out, but I'm also debating whether to get Nathan Fillion's autograph again. I have a Mal action figure that's begging to be signed. I guess I'll decide in the morning.

- I had some free time so I decided to watch the first episode of season three of Star Trek: the infamous "Spock's Brain". People always say it's the worst episode of TOS, but honestly, it wasn't that bad. Granted, I haven't seen every episode of the series yet, but when compared to what I've seen so far, I can say that there are worst episodes than "Spock's Brain".

Yes, the main point of the plot involves an alien race removing Spock's brain so they can use it to run the systems of their underground city, and yes, Spock's body lurches around with a fetching motor control device on his head, but it's not the weirdest plot ever. How often do we see stories where humans are used like batteries to power something? I think the episode gets a bad rap because everyone just giggles when they hear the words "Spock's Brain" and it's hard to be objective. Seriously, I wanted to laugh each time the phrase "Spock's brain" was used in dialogue.

This episode definitely falls into the category of "so bad it's good" rather than "oh my god, that was so boring I wanted to rip my eyes out".

- I finally got around to finishing my Jessica Jones infinity scarf, so I'll be going as her to my friend's Halloween party. Such an easy costume; I love it. I'll definitely have to wear it again during one of the days of the comic book expo.

- I've been working a temp job for the past couple of weeks and my manager said people totally dress up on Halloween, so I get to go into work in costume on Monday. That'll be fun. This will be the first time I've worn a costume to work. I'm thinking I'll go with my Fourth Doctor cosplay, since it's quirky enough that it doesn't look like my usual work clothes, but it's also comfortable to sit in. My co-workers and I have chatted about Doctor Who, so they will totally recognize the outfit.

- I've been so busy, I never got around to writing about the rest of Luke Cage. Sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as Jessica Jones or season one of Daredevil. It was definitely a slow burner. Even towards the end, I didn't feel a huge sense of urgency.

( Spoilers for Luke Cage season one )

Iron Fist is up next and then The Defenders. I'm really looking forward to The Defenders. DC has had some great success teaming up the Berlantiverse superheroes, so it's about time Marvel got in on that action.

Still sorting through my photos from the Star Trek con, but in the meanwhile, here's some of the non-Star Trek things that also happened over the weekend.

( Marvel's Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. )

Back at the con, they have something called the Signers' Room where some of the guests can set up a table and sell their own photos and do autographs and selfies and generally just meet fans. I wandered in there to check it out and I walked by a table set up for Cas Anvar. He didn't have much set up yet and he wasn't there himself, but he had a sign showing the things he's been in. I noticed he's been in The Expanse and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (but no Star Treks) and moved on before I could really dwell on it.

But then it hit me as I left the room. Cas Anvar is in The Expanse? Wait, that name sounds kind of familiar now... So I dug out my phone and did a quick Google search. And what do you know. Cas Anvar plays Alex on The Expanse! I rushed back to the Signers' Room the first chance I got and Cas was there talking with people. Turns out he was there because he's the reason Kirstie Alley was attending the con. He knows her and talked to his agent and his agent talked to her agent and etc. He ended up getting a table because he has so many genre related things on his filmography.

( Meeting Cas Anvar )

Oh yeah, I also bought an old school TARDIS key for my Fourth Doctor cosplay. So yeah, it was a multi-fandom weekend.

- Upfronts are going on right now so there's a constant stream of news about new shows for the fall. MCU took another hit as ABC didn't pick up Marvel's Most Wanted, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off with Hunter and Bobbi. The two of them were written out for nothing. Fingers crossed that the writers can figure out a way to write them back in. So the only thing left on the books for the TV side of the MCU is Damage Control, which I think is still in development, and Cloak and Dagger, which is going ahead on Freeform (formerly ABC Family).

I don't think Damage Control has much chance of becoming a series. DC's Powerless on NBC, which got a series pick-up, pretty much has the same premise: a workplace comedy about a company that cleans up after the superheroes. The only difference is the roster of superheroes that cause all of the destruction. I think Marvel is happy with the success of their Netflix shows, so the stuff on network television takes a back seat.

Oh, and Hayley Atwell's new show, Conviction, got a series pick-up. The name of her character? Carter Morrison. Carter! Just rub it in, ABC. I read that the show is going to film in Toronto, so that's the one small upside; Hayley in Canada.

- And they're remaking MacGyver. :-P The pilot got a series pick-up. No thank you. The 1980s version is perfectly cheesy and fun and the stakes were never too high. And the mullet! What will the show be without the signature MacGyver mullet? If they must redo everything, at least keep the science plausible. While some of the stuff Mac came up with it wouldn't work in real life (thank you Mythbusters for testing some of his ingenious lash ups), the ideas had a basis in real science. I hope the writers remember that when trying to get Mac out of a jam. Hmm, I wonder if Richard Dean Anderson will have a cameo...

- One more episode to go for Legends of Tomorrow.

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 1x15, "Destiny" )

- Started my second Fourth Doctor scarf commission last week. My arms and wrists are already getting sore. Maybe I need to do stretches before I start knitting for the day. But I can't wait to finish this thing. I can move on to other projects that are much smaller.

- I think I caught Alan Tudyk's cold. :-P My throat is starting to feel sore, which is usually not a symptom of my seasonal allergies. I'm pretty sure I know how the germs got transferred, too. I had lunch after getting Alan's autograph and didn't wash my hands before eating. I basically swallowed the germs. Dang it; I knew I should have brought hand sanitizer. On the other hand, these are celebrity germs.

- Got my tickets to see Captain America: Civil War on Friday. I doubt Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will have a big tie-in to the movie, but I want to see it regardless just in case there is a reference. Though, the latest episode did have a passing reference. I wonder if this means the movie is already happening?

I haven't been watching any of the Civil War trailers, but I did fast forward through one while watching one of my shows and I noticed something:

( Wild speculation regarding a shot from a Civil War trailer )

- The Flash had an odd line in the latest episode.

( Spoilers for The Flash 2x20, "Rupture" )

Ooh, Kevin Smith is directing next week's episode. That should be good. The guy is a big DC fan.

- I got around to watching the Legends of Tomorrow from last week and one of Ray's lines made me giggle. At one point he says "... reverse the polarity of the dwarf star matrix." Too bad Rip wasn't around to hear the line. I would have loved a quippy comment from him about how the line makes no sense.

- And yeah, it's May the 4th. Do Star Wars related things, I guess.