Getting back to our guest announcements, we’ve got an excellent guest announcement coming later today!
We’re very close to our 350th guest announcement so we’ve got some very exciting guests we’ll be announcing soon. Tomorrow’s will be from a show we haven’t had a guest from yet.
We were recently offered the chance to interview one of the leads of the on-going Grimm series. The guest in question has also had featured roles in numerous geeky films and TV shows.
I’m looking forward to revealing who this guest is!
On the one-hundredth and eighteenth episode and next LIVE episode of the Everything Geek Podcast this weekend, we’ll be interviewing stuntman/actor Colin Skeaping! Colin is best-known for being Luke Skywalker’s stunt-double in the Star Wars Original Trilogy and playing Death Star Trooper Devin Cant in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. His other notable roles include a Pilot in Superman: The Movie, a Security Guard in Space 1999 and stunts in Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, Space 1999, Superman II, Superman III, Octopussy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Living Daylights, Batman and GoldenEye. We’ll be taking YOUR questions for Colin as well, so if you have any questions for Colin on any of his roles, please leave them in the comments or call-in when we look for questions or call-ins from our listeners on Channel1138! Colin’s full list of credits can be found here: Colin’s Credits Our Live Website
BlizzCon has started off with a bang, with Activision Blizzard officially announcing Activision Blizzard Studio. This studio has been set up with the intention of bringing a number of the studio’s video-game franchises into films and TV shows.
Inevitably, one of the first to be confirmed as being in development is a Call of Duty film series. The first film is expected to be released in either 2018 or 2019, with TV projects also in consideration which would begin airing after the first film.
No details on cast, crew or which era the films will take place in have been announced.
Activision Blizzard Studio’s co-president Nick van Dyk is quoted as saying the following:
“Activision Blizzard Studios has the unique advantage of starting with a library of world-class intellectual property that includes some of the largest franchises which have not yet been developed in film and television. Our library spans more than 30 years of global entertainment culture.”
Following the news that an international trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released in Japan, an international poster with a Japanese heading has been released as well.
The poster is similar to previous posters, but this one features villain Kylo Ren a lot more centrally than the previous posters.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be released in the UK/Ireland on December 17th.
Did you think that the official trailer a couple of weeks ago was the final trailer? We did, but a new trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has made its way online.
The trailer was released in Japan, but features the English voices with Japanese subtitles. The trailer includes new footage and dialogue that the previous trailers didn’t have.
Looks like director J.J. Abrams was wrong when he said the official trailer was the final trailer…
You can view the trailer below:
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be released in the UK/Ireland on December 17th.
It’s no surprise that The Big Bang Theory would pay tribute to the late great Leonard Nimoy. The only surprise is that it took so long, but the episode paying tribute to the Star Trek actor was worth the wait and then some.
In my opinion, the best scenes of the episode focus on Leonard Nimoy’s son Adam interviewing Sheldon for his documentary/Spockumentary. These scenes are packed with humour that I loved and the Star Trek references were excellent. This helped the episode feel like a classic episode of The Big Bang Theory. The documentary scenes also lead to Leonard and Penny finding out about the engagement ring that Sheldon bought to propose to Amy. It was entertaining to learn about the safes and security camera that Sheldon has (I especially loved Leonard and Penny’s reactions to the camera).
The scenes with Sheldon are also important and not just humour-filled. The other characters like Leonard and Penny are shown how Sheldon isn’t over the break-up with Amy, which is shown when he attempts to find and propose to her only to find her saying goodbye and kissing another man. I’m sure we’ll see more of that character at some point.
While not quite as entertaining, the scenes with Howard and Bernadette are also entertaining and bring up an important topic that I’m sure will carry on throughout this season. We’ve known for a long time that Bernadette doesn’t like children and therefore doesn’t want to start a family with Howard, but in this episode she decides to think about it. I’m glad that the writers aren’t rushing their decision as her dislike of children was revealed several seasons ago, so the writers can’t have her change her mind in one episode. We also see Bernadette looking to redecorate their house in the episode.
The episode features the return of several characters as well. Wil Wheaton returns as himself again and adds to another great episode, while we also see the return of Mike Rostenkowski (Bernadette’s father) who attempts to help his daughter re-decorate Howard’s house.
In my opinion, this is easily the best episode in the ninth season of The Big Bang Theory so far. I usually judge The Big Bang Theory episodes by how much I laugh during the episode, and this episode kept me laughing throughout. On top of that, it was great to finally see the show pay tribute to Leonard Nimoy, his son Adam Nimoy guest stars and Wil Wheaton and Mike Rostenkowski’s returns were great to watch. An excellent episode of The Big Bang Theory.
The latest episode of Star Wars: Rebels features more connections to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well as connections to its own first season.
The episode sees the return of fan-favourite Star Wars: The Clone Wars character Hondo Ohnaka to the Star Wars universe, who was one of my favourite The Clone Wars supporting characters so it was a delight to see him in Rebels (along with a The Clone Wars Season 1 theme accompanying him in his first Rebels scene). Just like in The Clone Wars, Hondo adds a lot of humour and entertainment to Rebels.
We learn very quickly that Hondo lost his entire crew to the Empire. Hondo is now in possession of the Broken Horn (previously Cikatro Vizago’s ship) but Hondo is in trouble with the Empire and needs help. A disgruntled Ezra Bridger (exhausted from Jedi, weapons and ‘scrubbing’ training) hears his distress signal and decides to help, ending up in them going on an adventure.
Not only does Hondo appear from The Clone Wars, but there are several Rebels connections as well. The planet Garel (previously on seen in last season’s episode “Droids in Distress”) makes a reappearance, as well as characters like Azmorigan and Cikatro Vizago.
I have to be honest, Azmorigan was one of my least favourite characters in the first season of Rebels. There are numerous reasons fans may find him unlikeable, but for me it purely comes down to the fact that he isn’t very intimidating and you don’t worry about the heroes overpowering him (even when it’s only Ezra, Hondo and Chopper facing him and his soldiers). James Hong does a terrific job as Azmorigan, but if they want to really make him feel like a villain the writers will need to make him a bigger threat, as right now he just feels like a comic-relief bad guy.
Cikatro Vizago’s appearance in this episode of Rebels was very interesting. Even though Hondo said that he won the Broken Horn in a game of Sabacc, it’s revealed that Hondo really stunned Vizago and put him in a cell. I have to say (and I thought this was mildly amusing), it was really interesting to see both Hondo Ohnaka and Cikatro Vizago in scenes together. After the first episode of Rebels aired, a lot of Star Wars fans compared Vizago to being the Rebels version of Hondo Ohnaka, so it was interesting to see dialogue between the two (including both characters being disgusted at a fair deal Ezra was offering). I have to be honest though, after Vizago stated that Ezra owed him a favour last season, I was hoping it would lead to something big, but I honestly felt like that continuity was forced into this episode and I think the Rebels writers should have left that plot-point for another episode.
As this episode was focused on Ezra Bridger, I have to talk about him. While I feel like this is an episode that should have been done earlier in the show (this episode makes him seem like a bratty kid again), the episode does make it feel like Ezra has completely moved on from who he was once when he compares himself to Hondo, realising that he is on a better path now.
In my opinion, this was another solid episode of Star Wars: Rebels without being outstanding. The return of Hondo Ohnaka from The Clone Wars was a treat, while the returns of Azmorigan and Cikatro Vizago from the first season of Rebels were also nice to see. Seeing Ezra reflecting on how he could have ended up like Hondo was an interesting aspect of the episode. My criticisms of the episode are that the episode felt like it was a story that should have been told earlier in the show and the fight scenes felt sluggish (particularly the fighting against Azmorigan). Hopefully we see more of Hondo on Rebels, but it’s more likely that we’ll see Azmorigan again…
The latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D features a shocking reveal that was surprising to everyone… except me as I speculated it on our podcast two weeks ago.
I should say the following before getting fully into the review- I don’t mind if certain things happening aren’t surprises to me (meaning I’ve predicted them), but if the reveal is handled expertly it can feel like it doesn’t matter if you already predicted what will happen or not as it will still impress you.
Understand what I mean? Let’s continue with the review.
The episode carries on right from where the episode two weeks ago left off, with S.H.I.E.L.D reacting to the attempt on Andrew Garner’s life. Garner is revealed to be alive (note the minimal injuries) and S.H.I.E.L.D learn that Werner von Strucker was responsible for Garner’s near death.
Random note: In the flashbacks of the attempt on Garner’s life, did anyone else think the inclusion of a random S.H.I.E.L.D agent was weird? A random note for a random moment…
With the revelation that von Strucker was responsible, Melinda May and Bobbi Morse (the latter finally getting back into the field) search for him to find information on the whereabouts of Grant Ward. Meanwhile, Daisy Johnson, Lance Hunter and Mack try and discover who Lash is in human form.
As far as characters that stood out in this episode are concerned, I have to say it was great to see Bobbi back in action. In my opinion, she was one of the best additions to the cast last season so it has been disappointing seeing a lack of her in action so far this season.
If this is to be his last episode (the ending of the episode makes it unclear), I will be sad to see Werner von Strucker leave the show so soon. I was disappointed that his father, Baron Von Strucker, got so little screen-time (and an off-screen death) in the Marvel films so I was hoping to see Werner be on the show for a while, but the torture and stabbing at the hands of Kebo and HYDRA means it’s unlikely he survived.
A character that featured in von Strucker’s scenes is a character called Gideon Malick. When it was announced several weeks ago that Powers Boothe was joining the show, a lot of fans wondered if he would be playing his character from The Avengers- a member of the World Security Council. This episode revealed that Malick was indeed the same character and is now part of HYDRA. Even though he promises to help von Strucker, he ultimately betrays von Strucker and HYDRA comes in to torture him. Hopefully we’ll see more of Malick at some point as his character was very complex in this episode.
Lastly, Andrew Garner is a character that garnered (see what I did there?) a lot of attention in this episode. While a lot of fans were surprised by this reveal, as I said earlier I wasn’t surprised as I had already predicted this was the case- Andrew Garner is Lash. As von Strucker is dying he tells May how Garner transformed into Lash, and through flashbacks we see exactly how he survived the explosion two episodes ago. I know some fans are against Andrew as Lash, but I’m keeping an open mind so I can wait and see if it’s a good move by Marvel. There’s a lot of story to be told from this reveal, we’ll just have to wait and see if Marvel handle it well. The reveal does explain why Lash hasn’t attacked Daisy, which had raised a lot of questions as Lash was clearly on a hunt for other Inhumans.
The post-credits scene features a phone call with Daisy and Lincoln Campbell, before Daisy runs into Andrew briefly (with Daisy unaware about who Andrew really is).
In my opinion, this was another outstanding episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While I predicted that Andrew was Lash, I thought the writers handled the reveal expertly. It was great to see Bobbi back in the field and fighting again. Gideon Malick was a very interesting character to explore and I hope we see more of him in the show, and I’m curious to see how S.H.I.E.L.D will react to the revelation that Andrew is Lash.
The latest episode of The Walking Dead is an interesting one. It was one of the most anticipated episodes for a number of fans but couldn’t have come at a worse time for other fans. It’s also the first episode of The Walking Dead to be told as a narrative, with Morgan Jones recounting his story between the episodes “Clear” and “No Sanctuary” to the member of The Wolves he didn’t kill.
That’s right, the episode focus on Morgan Jones. Morgan has built up a significant fan-following over the years since his debut on the show, but there are a couple of reasons this episode couldn’t have come at a worse time for some fans. For starters, Morgan has recently been against killing people as shown in recent episodes, but also because of the uncertainty surrounding what really happened to Glenn (though some fans need to realise the writers were never going to reveal that for a few weeks). In contrast to a number of fans, I was still intrigued to see a Morgan-focused episode and I firmly believe Glenn didn’t die so I didn’t have any reservations going into this episode.
We knew going into this episode that we would see the story of what happened to Morgan between the episodes “Clear” (Season 3) and “No Sanctuary” (Season 5), and in my opinion it was very different than I expected. In “Clear” we saw a very insane Morgan who was trying to recover from his son Duane’s death (to the point where he didn’t recognise Rick Grimes at first) and the episode shows that he was still insane for a time, still looking to ‘clear’ and killing anyone that got in his way (sound familiar?) but by the end of the episode we see how Morgan changed into how we see him at Alexandria.
The Walking Dead has introduced us to many excellent characters, but Eastman is easily one of my favourite one-episode characters in the show. John Carroll Lynch brought us a character who I think will be remember for a long time to come (even though this was his only episode on the show). We learn that Eastman is responsible for Morgan using peaceful ways to fight (the use of Aikido) which is used with the intention not to kill people and that Eastman is the reason why Morgan (in the present) believes that all life is precious.
I have to admit, I have mixed views on the way Eastman dies. I will admit it was unnecessary that he got bitten by a Walker protecting Morgan (who recognised the Walker as a man he had strangled to death earlier) and I wish he died in a different way than to a Walker bite, but we do get several heartfelt scenes with him before his death so Eastman does get a nice send-off.
The final scene in the past shows Morgan seeing a sign for Terminus, revealing how he was following the marks as seen at the end of “No Sanctuary”.
The way the writers handled the story of this episode was very interesting, especially with the narrative technique they employed. The episode opens with Morgan speaking to an unknown person, before Morgan’s story is shown. The last few minutes return to the present where it’s revealed that Morgan was talking to the member of The Wolves he tied up. The Wolf reveals that he has blood on his side (though it’s unclear if it’s from a Walker bite or a cut). Morgan locks him up, before the episode ends up with Morgan hearing Rick yelling to the residents of the Alexandria Safe-Zone to open the gate.
In my opinion, this was another solid episode of The Walking Dead. While it’s easily the weakest of this season so far, it was great to finally get an episode focused entirely on Morgan Jones. It was definitely a necessary episode to see what had changed him since “Clear” in Season 3. We also learn how Morgan found out about Terminus and that he didn’t kill The Wolf at the end of this season’s second episode. Eastman is easily one of my favourite one-episode characters that the show has given us.
The latest episode of Doctor Who acts as a sequel to the events of the 50th anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor”, where the humans and Zygons made a peace treaty so both races could live their lives in harmony. This episode shows the Zygons breaking the peace treaty and invading Earth.
The episode features the return of UNIT, Kate Stewart, Osgood and Jac (Kate and Jac had already appeared this series in “The Magician’s Apprentice”). I’ve always liked UNIT and it was great to see them make a full return in this episode.
I have to be honest though, I didn’t like that they didn’t give us a clear answer on which Osgood was killed in the Series 8 finale (human or Zygon). I understand what they were trying to do in the context of the episode (making it harder to tell who is human and who is Zygon), but I felt like they ended up making it too complex and I think that the writers should’ve just given a straight-forward answer to the question.
Getting to what I really liked about the episode, I really enjoyed how the opening sequence of the episode used footage from “The Day of the Doctor”. As mentioned in the first paragraph, this episode is like a sequel to the events of that episode so it was a great idea on the writer’s part to include footage of that episode in this one.
From a certain point of view, this is technically the second companion-lite episode of the series (and both of those episodes airing back-to-back). In a shocking twist, it’s revealed that Clara Oswald was turned into a Zygon (when she had been trying to help a little boy earlier in the episode) and so we see very little of Clara in this episode. Instead, most of Clara’s screen-time in this episode is really her Zygon duplicate going by the name “Bonnie”. Doctor Who has had some surprising twists in its run but this one had to be one of the best, in my opinion.
Regardless of whether you are or not a fan of Clara, it has to be said that Jenna Coleman looked extremely convincing playing the evil Zygon duplicate. Coleman hasn’t had many opportunities to play villains in her career but I think casting directors will note that she can play bad characters very well. I’m looking forward to seeing more of “Bonnie” in the next episode of Doctor Who.
The ending of the episode sees “Bonnie” firing a missile at the airplane that The Doctor and Osgood are in, with a promise that the plane will never land. The Doctor’s situation seems hopeless, so we’ll have to wait and see how he gets out of this dilemma, considering that the situation has already seemed hopeless twice in this series alone- “The Magician’s Apprentice” and “Under the Lake”.
In my opinion, this was another excellent episode of Doctor Who. I really liked that the writers decided to expand on the events set-up in “The Day of the Doctor” with the Zygons inevitably breaking the peace treaty. The Zygons are interesting villains and it’s great that they’re finally getting their own episodes on the modern series. It was great to see the return of Kate Stewart, Osgood and Jac along with UNIT. The revelation that Clara is now a Zygon was a shocking twist and the episode ends on a major cliff-hanger with The Doctor in peril. How will The Doctor and Clara get out of this mess? We’ll have to keep watching to find out…
My rating: 9/10
By Ruari Williamson
Random note: Anyone notice the similarities between Norlander’s transformation to a Zygon in this episode and Kate Stewart’s in “The Day of the Doctor”? Both make a reference to getting into character before transforming. Coincidentally, the former transforms into a Zygon in front of Kate in this episode.
