The latest episode of Pokémon XY focuses on the bond between Serena and her Braixen in a very interesting way.
I have to be honest right away, I’m still 50/50 on what I really think of this episode and that may come across in this review. I think there are reasons this episode is necessary but at the same time I also didn’t think it was really good.
If you’ve been keeping up with recent episodes of Pokémon XY, you’ll know that a few of the recent episodes can be described by some fans as ‘filler’ episodes but were still entertaining in their own way. This episode was decent with a couple of slightly major things happening but I don’t remember really being entertained much during the episode.
I don’t want to appear critical, because this is a Serena-centric episode and Serena is my favourite character from the XY series. It’s definitely my least favourite of the Serena-focused episodes (most of which have been excellent). However, I do also think it’s necessary in its own way. Why? Ever since Serena caught Pancham I’ve felt that Braixen (at the time Fennekin) hasn’t gotten as much focus since Pancham joined the group. Considering the unique bond that trainers share with their first Pokémon (Ash and Pikachu being the obvious examples), I’ve been surprised at the lack of personal moments between Serena and Braixen since Pancham became part of the team. That’s why I consider this episode necessary because it does show they still have a strong bond (which is why Braixen is so upset that the branch broke).
The episode had other good moments as well. I liked the role that the writers gave James in this episode. While bizarre, the idea of James’ bottle cap collection and Braixen’s choice of branches did have similarities (does a collectors pickiness count?). I was very surprised by the brief flashback of James’s house and his mother’s voice being heard (she’s not seen on-screen). A nice surprise in the episode that I wasn’t expecting.
After Braixen’s branch broke during practice for the next showcase, Serena goes to see a tree surgeon called Woodward (am I the only one who didn’t know there was such a thing as a tree surgeon)? Woodward was a nice character even though he was unable to fix Braixen’s branch (with Braixen forced to get a replacement- though with an added ribbon). During the time with Woodward, he challenges Serena to a Pokémon battle- her Braixen against his Gallade. After Team Rocket arrives and are quickly sent blasting off by Serena, the battle continues with Braixen learning the move Fire Blast. Complete with a new stick and move, it’ll be interesting to see what the writers do with both in upcoming showcases.
In my opinion, this was an average episode of Pokémon XY. While it was a necessary episode to develop Serena and Braixen’s partnership again (as well having Braixen get a new stick and learn a new move), I felt the episode was slow-paced and not as entertaining as recent episodes- which saddened me as Serena is my favourite character from XY and I usually really enjoy the episodes that focus on her. The role James played and the flashbacks that focused on him were a nice touch to the episode.
My rating: 6/10
By Ruari Williamson
Note: How did the group not notice James taking his disguise off before joining Jessie and Meowth in the motto?
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
The latest episode of Doctor Who finally reveals the question that Doctor Who fans have been asking since the casting of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor- why does the 12th Doctor have the same face as Lobus Caecilius from the Series 4 episode “The Fires of Pompeii”?
Not only does the episode answer this question, but is an all-round excellent episode. It features the long-awaited debut of Maisie Williams as Ashildr, interesting villains in Odin and the Mire, features flashbacks that would excite any new-Who fan and re-introduced the concept of immortality (last seen with Jack Harkness). All of this is done in the first episode of a two-parter, making you wonder what they’re saving for the next episode…
Maisie Williams’ Ashildr is a very complex character and goes through a lot of character development in her first episode, and by the time of her death (the episode title refers to Ashildr) we’ve seen a significant change for the character and Maisie Williams portrays the character perfectly in her Doctor Who debut, ranging from her foolishness in declaring a war on the Mire (who she had just witnessed killing some of her fellow Vikings) and up to her death and resurrection. The Doctor’s decision to resurrect her was a brave move on his part, and you can tell that he worries if he made the right move as it’s revealed that she is now immortal. As The Doctor says, being immortal means just watching everyone else die. It will be interesting to see how much Ashildr has changed when we see her in the next episode. Note: It looks like fan speculation that Ashildr was a returning character (Susan or Jenny being the obvious suggestions by fans) was wrong and she really was a new character.
Odin and the Mire provided interesting villains for this episode (with their feeding off of Vikings adrenaline and testosterone being very creepy), but if I had one disappointment with this episode it was that I felt both Odin and the Mire got a bad send-off. It was an interesting decision to write them out of the episode the way they did but I think they went overboard on the idea of writing them out by way of humiliation, ending up with them me just not being able to take them seriously anymore (though even with their helmets off the Mire did look intimidating). Hopefully they will also return for the next episode and provide a more serious threat. After all, they did kill most of the villages best Vikings earlier in the episode.
The flashbacks featuring David Tennant’s 10th Doctor were an excellent and surprising inclusion into an already excellent episode, and it was these flashbacks that revealed the reason Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor has the face of Lobus Caecilius. Back in “The Fires of Pompeii”, where the 10th Doctor meets Caecilius, he can only save one group of people and he chooses Caecilius and his family- leading the 12th Doctor to realise that he choose that face as a reminder that he can always save people. This leads to him having the belief that he can save Ashildr after she dies, and he does succeed. I have to be honest, ever since it was announced that Steven Moffat intended to have a story-line where there’s a reason the 10th Doctor chose that face, I was worried that it wouldn’t work and the idea would be full of plot-holes. Fortunately, this series has shown a large improvement in Moffat’s writing (and his ability to not make reveals obvious) and in the end I’m very pleased that we got an excellent reason.
Even though I touched upon it when talking about Ashildr earlier, I will add that with immortality being back in Doctor Who it will be very interesting to see how they use it with her (I doubt she’ll be getting a spin-off series and dying every episode). Alas, you never know…
Even though the episode ends with The Doctor and Clara leaving in the T.A.R.D.I.S, we know with the next episode being the second of the two-parter that we’ll definitely see the events of this episode carry into the next episode.
In my opinion, this was an excellent episode of Doctor Who with near-perfect writing. I’ve been very impressed in the consistency of this series so far, and once again we’re treated to another outstanding episode. Ashildr was an excellent addition to the show, the flashbacks of the 10th Doctor were a nice inclusion and the re-introduction of immortality is going to make for some interesting things in the next episode. Odin and the Mire were great villains, and while I wasn’t happy with the way they were written out it doesn’t change the fact that this was a near-perfect episode in my opinion.
My rating: 9.5/10
By Ruari Williamson
Note: Even though I haven’t had any problems with the sonic sunglasses, did anyone else half wonder if they were broken to appease the fans who had been hating on the sunglasses?
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
Following the reveal of the new official poster for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, three new short teasers for the film have been released online.
You can watch all of the teasers below:
The teasers are short and sweet, but they don’t make the wait for the next full trailer any easier to bare for a lot of fans.
Lucasfilm and Disney have released the new poster for the highly-anticipated Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, confirming recent rumours that a poster was coming and a trailer would follow the day after. The trailer will air during Monday Night Football on ESPN.
A lot of characters and ships are included on the poster, including several we’ve had a number of looks at already. However, the poster does give the first (real) glimpses at Lupita Nyong’o’s character Maz Kanata and Starkiller Base. We also see Leia Organa featured on a The Force Awakens poster for the first time.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will be released on December 18th.
Thoughts on the poster? Does it make you even more excited for The Force Awakens?
Today I attended Invasion Dublin at the National Show Centre in Swords. This is my report on the event.
This was my fourth time at the Invasion Dublin event (and my sixth Invasion convention overall) and once through the doors it had a very different vibe than usual. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of the National Show Centre because of its location, it has a lot of space and I feel like this is why the organisers held the event there (instead of the RDS which they usually use). It certainly felt like fans had more freedom to walk around and even when the event got busy it didn’t feel overcrowded, so there was a really positive side to using the National Show Centre for the event.
Invasion has given fans the opportunity to meet great guests from the films over the years and this year was no different. In attendance were Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Sean Crawford (Yakface) and Tim Dry (J’Quille), who all happily signed autographs for fans. I met both Mayhew and Baker (I’m pictured at the top of this article with the latter) and got autographs from both of them. I had been wanting to meet both at previous conventions but was unable to do so because of budgeting, so I knew I had to take this chance to meet both of them when there were only a few guests attending. I think €30 was a reasonable price for both of them (though the former was also charging for table pictures which I won’t pay for). Not a criticism against Invasion as it’s out of their control but it’s been troubling this year seeing this overseas trend coming into the Republic of Ireland this year (you may have heard of Troy Baker and others doing this at other Irish cons this year). Nevertheless, it was a delight to finally meet both of them and add their autographs to my collection.
As always, the costumes and props from the Emerald Garrison were detailed extremely well. However, I don’t remember seeing any new costumes or props that really stood out and while I was admiring the detail on most of them, I don’t recall very many being new which was disappointing. I think the Dewback may have been new (or it made its debut at Invasion Belfast earlier in the year) but I felt like I’d seen all of their other props before, and only the costumes based on Expanded Universe characters looked new to me from the Emerald Garrison. The outstanding quality of the costumes and props is still ever-present with the Emerald Garrison though, but I would have liked to see some more new costumes and props.
There was a nice selection of stalls selling Star Wars merchandise as well, but unfortunately I didn’t have any other money to spend after buying the autographs from Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker, which was very unfortunate as one stall in particular had numerous rare figures at great prices (I was eyeing up a The Clone Wars Commander Fox for €20). I was surprised that their wasn’t more merchandise from The Force Awakens but stalls can only bring what they have… having said that, if I had more money I definitely would have bought a few figures from the stall with the rare figures.
All in all, I think I’ve covered some of the great things you could see but there is something I want to highlight that concerned me going into the convention: Buying tickets for a certain number of hours at the convention. Regardless of your preference, when you buy tickets for a convention you’re usually able to stay as many hours as you want (I usually stay at conventions all day as I’m usually very busy at conventions and trying to get a lot done) so I seriously hope more conventions don’t start doing this. I was very surprised when I found this out, with both Saturday and Sunday having two sessions (morning and afternoon). The worst part was (and I can testify to this as a regular Invasion-goer) I still had to pay the same (or a similar) amount as I have done for Invasion’s in the past, but this time I would only be allowed to attend for three hours. Whether you end up leaving after one hour or six hours, you should always have the choice of how long you want to stay (I think pre-booking the Sunday afternoon slot was the best option for me going into the convention).
The thing that also surprised me (though I can’t remember if this was just before Peter Mayhew’s Q&A or the quiz) but the audience was asked how many were attending Invasion for the first time and only a couple were attending for the first time of that crowd. I was really surprised that so many had still so willingly bought the three-hour tickets (I think there was a full-day ticket option but I never saw that on the Invasion website) but even if so, I really hope that tickets for a certain number of hours don’t become a regular thing at conventions. The schedule of events for the two days was the exact same for the mornings and afternoons as well.
I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to be as critical as possible, so to sum up Invasion Dublin once again proved to be another great day out (especially if you had children with you), getting to meet Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker was amazing (and both were really nice) and the costumes, props and merchandise were great. However, the three-hour tickets are a concern for me as I feel like they could become another unpopular trend at conventions. We’ll have to wait and see.
By Ruari Williamson
*The opinions in this article are of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.
UPDATE: A member of the Emerald Garrison has informed that the Endor Bunker at Invasion was also a new prop (I must have confused it with the 501st Ireland’s Endor Bunker as I did see it but didn’t realise it was new). The member also informed me that the day was split into two sessions (the morning and afternoon sessions I alluded to) to give members of the Emerald Garrison a sufficient break in costume- doing so made sure they could avoid having less characters strolling around the convention. Thank you to the Emerald Garrison member for the explanation.
In the latest edition highlighting an interview of ours we recommend you listen to, we recommend you give our interview with actress Chloe Bennet a listen.
“Join hosts Ruari, Lawron and Al in this special guest interview with actress Chloe Bennet, best-known for playing Skye/Daisy Johnson in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Hailey in Nashville. In the interview they talk about how Chloe decided she wanted to become an actress, how Chloe was initially cast as Skye in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, when Chloe discovered that Skye was Daisy Johnson from the comics, whether Chloe believes the hint of Skye becoming a leader figure for the Inhumans in the Season 2 finale makes it more likely more that she will appear in the Inhumans movie, what Chloe had to change in her performance when playing Skye as a human to playing her as an Inhuman, Chloe’s own ideas of what Skye’s parents would be like before they were introduced, Chloe’s upcoming acting roles and other projects, Chloe’s advice for anyone looking to get into the acting industry, Chloe’s funny behind-the-scenes stories, Chloe’s actors and actresses that she would like to work with, Chloe’s thoughts on Skye’s character progression throughout both seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Chloe’s personal favourite moments in both seasons, Chloe’s thoughts on the changes in Skye’s character between both seasons and how Chloe feels to be part of the new and fast territory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the comics.”
You can listen to both parts of the interview below:
Be sure to leave your feedback on the interview and enjoy!
On the one-hundredth and fifteenth episode and next LIVE episode of the Everything Geek Podcast this weekend, we’ll be interviewing actress Gabriele Fritz! Gabriele is best-known for her work as Nymphadora Tonks’ Picture Double on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Her other notable roles include Audrey Heller’s Aide in 24, Elaine in Mile High, Kate Smith in Modern Toss and Space Operations Manager in The Grand Tour. We’ll be taking YOUR questions for Gabriele as well, so if you have any questions for Gabriele on any of her roles, please leave them in the comments or call-in when we look for questions or call-ins from our listeners on Channel1138! Gabriele’s full list of credits can be found here:
Simon Pegg has announced via Twitter that filming for the latest Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond, has officially wrapped.
The film now moves into the long stage of post-production, where the world of Star Trek will be created and mastered to couple the footage they have just finished.
Star Trek Beyond is set for release on July 22, 2016.
In response to rumours earlier this week, FOX has confirmed that they still have the rights to The Fantastic Four.
These rumours circulated following the announcement that an X-Men TV series was in the works at FOX’s network. It was believed that the rights to Fantastic Four were exchanged for the TV rights to X-Men, and that Marvel were to release a Fantastic Four movie in 2020. These rumours have been debunked as FOX has owned TV rights to X-Men for years.
FOX still plan to release a sequel to The Fantastic Four, despite its box office disappointment.
