Doctor Who - New Series, new species part 5

Well I thought I'd have one more bash at this before Christmas, so I'll do my best to give as much info as I can on the species that appeared in the Doctor Who cartoon miniseries The Infinite Quest. Details on all the species featured are sketchy, most don't have names and some have only one individual to represent them, but I'll do my best anyway with the material I've got.

Baltazar










Baltazar was a pretty cool villain, a great take on a pirate scourge of the future. His end was a bit anticlimatic, with the quest of this evil genius turning out to be nothing more than a fool's errand. With many of the new creatures featured there's pretty much zero info on his species, I guess they just had no time to cram that kind of info into into the individual shorts.

Baltazar was a powerful pirate lord of an undefined species in the distant future. He had a typical humanoid frame and could almost be taken to be human where it not for his plan to annihalate the entire human race for profit! Baltazar seemed dependent on technology, notably a strange breathing aparatus - it's unlikely that this was for hazardous atmospheres as he wore it on his own ship so it could just be a personal health issue for him, possible related to his metallic claw hand. Little else points to his identity other than that he constructed a ship susceptible to bacteria and had an affinity for the robotic bird species Caw belonged to - even designing his ship after one - what this tells us about him is unclear.

Caw









Caw was an interesting one with his shifting loyalties an curious design. I wasn't too keen on the sentient robot at first, but then my enthusiasm for the upcoming Transformers flick made me give them a chance!

Caw, and his son Sqwak belonged to a species of robotic birds that had their own civilization in the distant future. Despite their robotic natures they posessed many signs of life (intelligence, eating, growing, offspring) to qualify them as a sentient species. They were dependant of gold for life and were thus obsessed by it, the promise of gold enough to sway their loyalty. They grew from small creatures that could fit in a hand to a human sized bird in a few years, provided they had enough gold to keep their reactors burning. They come from the planet Pharos, which was swarming with similar mechanoids when the doctor visited it so the species may be "Pharosians" or something similar but this hasn't been confirmed.

Animated Skeletons










I'm not sure if these qualify as a species but they're probably worth a mention. I get the feeling they were put in just so the crew could make a "skeleton crew" gag. However their desire for skin made them interesting enough to watch.

In the future on the planet Bouken where war was always close over dwindling oil supplies humanity found a solution to crew employment. they were able to reanimate skeletons so they could think independently and serve without needing to spend money and food and comforts. Captain Kaliko, a pirate fighting the powerful oil firms, employed a crew of these forms. However she found a downside to them, the temptation of getting a new fleshy body was enough to tempt away these servants.

Anuran










The Anuran known as Meergrass was an interesting character, but I'm probably the least interested in his species as he was essentially a "green human" (my term) - a character shoved into a lizard suit just to make things a bit more interesting - though I suppose it made sense since he was supplying arms against humans.

Meergrass belonged to a saurian species known as Anurans from the water covered world of Anura and was a weapons dealer. He had no interest in war, only in getting paid and so turned his back on those he was supplying when they refused to pay, leaving them unarmed. It hasn't been verified whether this is exemplary of his species, or just good business sense.

Mantasphids











This species were probably the most interesting of the bunch, moving from good guys to bad guys and back again. I liked the perspective on what resources mattered with them ready to fight a war over something considered distasteful to humanity and humanity struggling to get light and heat, which the Mantasphids created naturally.

Mantasphids were an insect species that invaded the world Myarr for the resources, particularly animal dung, which contained the nutrients that they needed. The species varied in size from miniature insects to the queen which dwarfed a human. They despised the "fleshy bipeds" (also known as humans) that occupied the world and engaged in war against them for the resources they needed. It took the Doctor's intervention to broker peace between them and humanity so they could share resources for each other's mutual benefit.

Well that's it, like I said it's sketchy, but the best I can do under the circumstances and I hope it's been interesting enough. There'll be another Vehicle of the week coming up soon and I've spotted a few draft articles from my co-writers so hopefully things will keep going.

Vehicle of the Week 7 - Pillar of Autumn

This week's vehicle represents the Science Fiction world of HALO, which I have blogged about before. This greatly thought out game, which was used to launch the X-box way back when, has infuriated me due to the difficulty in getting it, especially with Mr Gates using the success of the games to try and force players to buy his latest operating systems or consoles. But nonetheless I played and thoroughly enjoyed both games and I'm eagerly looking forward to the release of Halo3 and Halo Wars to see the conclusion of the exciting and mystifying war.

Pillar of Autumn
















Halcyon class cruiser
Length: 1,170 metres
Speed: Slipspace drive installed
Weaponry: Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, mutliple missile launchers
Affiliation: United Nations Space Command
Captain: Jacob Keyes

This ship has it all. Power, armamaents, a cool design and above all a very cool name. How the crew came up with Pillar of Autumn as the name for the main spaceship (in fact it's the only named spaceship in the first HALO game) I have no idea, but it works and makes the imaginitive names of other genres look like they were drawn out of a hat without thought. The design is great too- far more boxy than many would dare to design, but it works the whole ship looks like a weapon...which it is! Lastly an added bonuc to understand a ship is being able to walk around it - something HALO gives right from the start as you gun your way past alien boarding parties to get to the bridge, which is unbeliavably cool. From the glowing information panels to the gun turret you have to climg down to it feels like a real space ship right through, as computer games will inevitably be a much bigger part of how Sci-Fi expands I think the Autumn sets the bar fairly high.

The Halcyon class cruiser was outdated by the time war between humanity and the union of alien races known as the Covenant broke out. Had the war not put all humanity in great danger the class would have been decomissioned before one Halcyon and it's crew would play a critical role in the war. The design was succeeded by the Marthon class which had a similar design but greater firepower and durability, but the need for resources kept several Halcyons on the front line, fitted with hasty reconstructions to make up for design flaws. These ships, while outdated and in some ways flawed, served well during the war.

The Pillar of Autumn, refitted for war was stationed at the colony world of Reach, and was one of only two ships to escape when it fell, carrying a very precious cargo - one of the Spartan 2 super soldiers known as the Master Chief. Protocol demanded that the ship make a random Slipstream jump to protect Earth's location, but the ship's onboard AI engineered the jump so that the ship came out near an alien artifact she'd heard of. The ship came out by the planet of Threshold where instalation 04, otherwise known as Halo was located. Fighting off a far superior force as well as boarding parties the ship managed to crash land on the installation - a large, inward facing, ring covered in luch terrain and dotted with strange temples. Fighting broke out as the survivors of the ship fought against alien invaders and then a new parasitic threat known as the flood which posessed members of both races turning them into horrific soldiers. The Master Chief realised the full scale of the threat and uncovered the mystery of the flood, an ancient race and the most dangerous threat in the universe. So he initiated the Autumn's last act in the war - self destruction to destroy the installation and end the threat of the Flood as well as taking out a large portion of Covenant troops.

But then, Halo was known as Installation 04 for a reason...

My thanks to the Halo Wiki which I've basically plaguerised!!

Doctor Who - New Series, new species part 4

So this is the last one for this series of Doctor Who, though I hope to make one for the Infinite Quest series too. I'm planning to do a bunch of articles on Star Wars Legacy and then some on the Science Fictioney aspects of Lost once I've caught up on series three. So let's have no more ado eh?
















Weeping Angel

The Weeping Angels were brilliant in my opinion, and it was great to see how such a simple device - moving a statue (actually a person in a very detailed suit) closer all of a sudden to scare the living daylights out of you. It's a testament to Sephen Moffat's (writer of the Gas Mask boy episodes and also the new series Jekyll) ability to put the Doctor Who audience back behind the sofa where they belong. The concept behind them was great as well, a really good SF device.

The Weeping Angels were an ancient race, from the dawn of the universe and were a bunch of ruthless, though at the same time merciful, killers. They fed of potential energy, and they found a good way to harvest this was to find a victim and shunt them into the past living off the energy that resided from the life they should have lived. This method of killing was cruel, though often the victim would find satisfaction and happiness in their new life.
Evidently not all their victims were so pleased with this idea so the Angels created a defense called quantum locking. whenever a living being saw them, they would instantly turn into stone, which meant they could not be killed. As soon as a victim looked away or blinked they could move with incredible speed to attack. This defense had a drawback, meaning that they could never look at each other or be locked in stone for eternity, a fate that met four angels who tried to cross the Doctor.
















Futurekind

The futurekind, were simple and obvious and yet somehow they worked. They presented a very obvious threat and the time old "what humanity might become" angle. Yet they coexisted with good old fashioned humans in the last days of the universe which made it more interesting, especially as they seemed to have a loathing of their possible progenitors.

The futureking were a race that existed in the closing days of the universe, living on the dead world of Malcassairo. Seemingly a deviant of humanity it was feared that they were what humanity might become if they did not escape to Utopia. Primitive creatures they resembled humans in everything except their sharp predatory fangs, but despite a very likely conection they loathed humanity and visciously hunted them down, the humans holding them off in armoured silos with what remained of their formerly advanced weaponry- which still bested the crude weapons of the futurekind. After the humans left for Utopia the fate of the futurekind is unknown.
















Malmooth

Cantho and her long lost race where quite cool, a reminder that there is a vast universe out there with all sorts of weird and wonderful beings interacting with humans. With her being the last of her species that was an obvious connection to the Doctor who turned out not to be the last member of his. The animatronic head and curious verbal rules made her an interesting addition.

The Malmooth were an insectoid race living on the planet Malcassairo in the final days of the universe. They were humanoid in body structure with a hard shell outer casing and flexible mandibles on their heads. They lived in giant warrens built into the natural rock formations of the planet. They exhibited curious social rules where each sentence had to begin and end with the first and last syllables of their name- presumable this made all Malmooth names two-syllabic. By the end of the Utopia project only one Malmooth remained, the scientist Chantho, and unfortunately the race ended completely when the Master killed her too. It is unknown whether the extinction of the rest of her species had anything to do with the arrival of the Futurekind...or even the humans.

Toclafane (human-cyborg mutation)












The Toclafane were a good addition to the show, particularly after their true nature was revealed. Their childlike nature made them intriguing as well as creepy, and to reveal that they were in fact the remnants of humanity made them extra eerie.

Named after a fairy tale moster of Gallifrey, the Toclafane were in fact the remnants of humanity who participated in the Utopia project. They found that the planet had no hope for them so they encased their heads in metal bodies, arming themselves with slicing blades and powerful laser beams and also creating a hive mind. The Master found them and, with the help of a Paradox machine they started to wipe out and subjugate the population of 21st century Earth. The only vulnerability they showed was to lightning, which could disable their electronic components. The Toclafane threat was eventually stopped with the destruction of the paradox machine the fate of the Toclafane and of humanity remains unknown.

Well that's your lot for this series, hope you enjoy it - I've certainly had fun doing these. Again I'd like to thank the Tardis Wiki which has been invaluable in reminding me of stuff I'd inevitably forget, as well as the official site for the great pictures.

Vehicle of the week 6 - The Nebuchadnezzar

First a quick apology for the naff picture, which is probably just a wirfeframe or concept art model. For some reason, decent pictures of the ship were pretty hard to track down, I guess the Matrix franchise is better known for its bullet time moves and nifty sunglasses than it is for it's futuristic vehicles.

The Nebuchadnezzar















Mark III Hovercraft
Manufactured USA 2069
Weaponry: EMP (possible machine guns)
Affiliation: Zion
Captain: Morpheus

I suppose this ship is here as much as a representitive of the Matrix franchise as of anything else. You can't think of modern science fiction without including in your thoughts the Matrix trilogy...or at least the first Matrix film!! While the focus on the films are on the digital world from which they take their name, the "desert of the real" does play an important part in the stories too. In fact once I'd gotten over the special effects, the complex storylines and the ambiguous philosophy I actually found myself more interested in the real world than the digital one. The fact that so little is known about it is strangely what drew me to it - that's partly how SF draws me in - the less I know the more interested I am!! And it's also hard to deny that it's a pretty darn cool design - these futuristic hovercraft floating on repulsor pads through ancient sewers hiding from squid-like robots - you can see the appeal can't you?!!

Little details are known about the history of the Mark 3 Hovercraft, in fact, so much of human history is lost that little is known about the origins of the Hovercraft altogether. In the late 21st century man's technology had developed and spread with cities the size of small countries sprouting up and man grew rich and lazy by the efforts of it's latest creation - AI. Fully self-controlled robots built man's civilization for them, and man flourished. It is quite possible that during this period that the Hovercraft were built, and maybe they were even built by the Machines - a Machine owned company VersaTran are known to have used (and possibly developed) the hover "pad" technology in a line of vehicles inclusing floating cars. Eventually the machines took freedom for themselves and established their own civilization - 01. When the economy of 01 overpowered human settlements due to the tireless and flawless workmanship of the machines, humanity declared war - and lost! Most of what happened next is known only to the Machines, but after that the Hovercraft found their way into the hands of the resistance fighters who would build the city of Zion.
The Mark 3 Hovercraft is a sturdy design, large but still manouverable. From what has been seen it seems to be something of a midway ship, in between Niobe's nimble Logos and Roland's bulky Mjolnir. It was big enough to hold at least 10 crew, and small enough to be run by four. One other Mark 3 is known - the Pequod, captained by Flint, who lost it to a Sentinel attack. If the naming plaques have been read correctly, then there were at least 11 of this type commisioned, how many were in the service of Zion over the years of the resistance is unknown.

The Nebuchadnezzar will never be forgotten as long as a remnant of humanity remains free. An old Hovercraft, from the time when humans actually knew what year it was. It served the forces who resisted the Machines, and eventually became the ship of Morpheus, a revolutionary Zion leader who fervently believed in the prophecy of the One, who would come to end the war between man and machine. Eventually Morpheus found him and brought his ship close to the machine power plant to bring Neo out of the Machine's clutches. Neo trained aboard the ship and eventually came to believe in himself too. The ship suffered heavy damaged as Neo was in the Matrix and they couldn't activate the EMP for fear of damaging his neural jacks. Eventually it was repaired and returned to service. It convened for a council of captains about the machine invasion of Zion, Morpheus wanted a ship to stay for word from the Oracle, but his own needed charging. The ship then took them to the Merovingian, the Keymaker and then the Architecht where the prophecy was revealed to be false. Soon after, the Nebuchadnezzar was destroyed by Sentinels, and its crew were taken on board the Mjolnir until the war came to it's true end.

SPOILERS HERE

Morpheus was given another ship, the Nabonidus which he commanded and eventually took himself on a campaign to free Neo from the clutches of the machines, or at least bring his body back to Zion. This endangered the truce between man and machine and he was turned away by Zion. Soon afterwards Morpheus was killed and the Nabonidus disappeared. Much later the Nabonidus' signal was detected and Morpheus made appearances at various times. "Morpheus" was revealed to be a ruse by The General to make war begin anew, but the Nabonidus still hasn't been found so...

SPOILERS END

So that's the Neb, see you next week!

Star Wars Legacy - series review (SPOILERS!!)

I recently got my hands on a copy of the thirteenth issue (finishing the second story collection) of the brand new Star Wars Legacy comic series. The series has messed with my brain by not only bringing a new vision to Star Wars, but also on occasion being exceedingly complicated to get my hands on, more than once have i thought I'd missed my chance only to find that a reprint had been made or that the delivery was late or that there actually was one issue buried under a pile somewhere!

This series is the boldest move in Star Wars since George decided to make the prequel trilogy. Set almost 140 years after Episode 4 the series builds a new Star Wars universe with all new characters, an all new setting and a fantastic storyline. Some hated it before it even was release, others were disapointed with some issues, many more absolutely love it and it is easily the biggest selling Star Wars comic series of current times. Created by fan favourites John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, creators of the Republic (later Clone Wars) series, whose character Aayla Secura so impressed Lucas that he put her into episodes 2 and 3, the series was taken on faith because of the great work of it's creators.

By the way from now on if you see the words Star Wars Legacy - assume there'll be spoilers!!!

Our first glimpse of the new galaxy showed the Jedi Academy, now on Ossus instead of Yavin 4, being attacked by a new form of TIE fighter and an army of stormtroopers led by red and black painted Sith. A man bearing the name Skywalker stood atop a pile of slain stormtroopers and was finally taken down by force lightning. The Empire declared victory over their former allies, the Galactic Alliance, but no sooner had the Emperor accepted the victory speech than he was cut down by the fearsome leader of the Sith, Darth Krayt.
The story moved on seven years, when Cade Skywalker a Jedi survivor had abandoned his name and taken the life of a bounty hunter. He lived a dangerous life, Jedi had high bounties on their heads and the Sith were contstantly hunting for them. Meanwhile the Emperor had survived by means of a double and was now leading a rebellion against the Sith. Cade and he collided when he ran into his daughter, after being forced to turn over a Jedi to protect his identity, the Sith chased them and they were drawn into a conflict. Cade had to use the enormous healing power he posessed to save the princess before safely escorting her to the stronghold of Bastion.

The story then hopped back to reveal the beginnings of the story from the Emperor's perspective, showing his innocence in the murder of the Jedi and the details of his escape from the Sith. The we jumped forward again to the Sith hunting for Cade, and discovering a meeting for an alliance between the Emperor and the remainder of the Galactic Alliance, the meeting was disrupted, but Cade escaped...because the Agent hunting him was in fact his mother!!! Cade did in fact return to Ossus, and found some fellow Jedi there, as he trained he found something else - Yuuzhan Vong!! The Vong were now allies of the Jedi and revealed that they too were in hiding from the Sith. After training and resolving some of his issues, Cade decided to right the biggest wrong he'd made by rescuing the Jedi he'd turned to the Sith, he was given a mechanic to accompany him - R2D2!!

And in the latest issue, the Sith send Darth Kruhl to assasinate the Emperor, who proves he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve and beats the Sith Lord in lightsaber combat.

Though it has had the odd disapointing moment in it and there are some things I would have done differently (personally Id've change the stormtroopers into something else as well as a few other things) this series does succeed and makes an exciting addition to the Star Wars saga. I do like the fact that they have been realistic about the 100 year time gap, something peeople are often unable to do for some reason, and they've advanced the technology etc. without going nuts - they've changed things around, but still payed homage to the style and innovation of the originals.

Over the next few weeks I plan to do a number of articles covering various aspects of Legacy, characters, organizaytions, ships etc. This series is the most exciting thing in Star Wars at the moment and I'm chuffed about everything that happens in it so expect to be hearing a lot more about it as long as I keep buying the issues!!!

Vehicle of the Week 5

Hell's Anvil

Well I was inveitably going to do some vehicle from Star Wars, though this one is drawn from the expanded universe, specifically the computer game Bounty Hunter and its novelistation. The game follows Jango Fett as he progressess from his usual bounty hunting to compete in the 'ultimate hunt', a hunt for the wayward dark Jedi known as Komari Vosa, former student of Count Dooku and now leader of the mystical alien assissns known as the Bando Gora. Jango's arch rival and fellow Mandalorian is Montross and where Jango has Slave 1 (after replacing Jaster's Legacy) Montross has the Hell's Anvil.

I chose this vessel because, well, its cool and was something of a turning point in slave circuit technology in the star wars universe. The vessel is 50 meters long and roughly 80 meters wide which is huge for a vessel piloted by a single being. One of Correllian Engineering Corporation's KR-TB 'Doomtreader' line, the vessel was originally designed as a freighter of sorts with minimal crewing needs. Montross, after aquiring the vessel customized the vessel with CEC's latest 'upgrades', a slave circuit system that enabled a single computer to run the entire vessel and the beck of its master. For its size the vessel is incredibly fast (evident by the size of the engines) and sports unique weaponry. Rather than standard laser weaponry, KR-TB's were eqipped with low yield solar ionization cannons (in the case of Hell's Anvil, these armaments were modified to increase their energy output tenfold). These weapons bypassed standard deflector shields and melted durasteel, they were in essence weaponised welding torches with great range.

Montross was killed on the moon of Bogden, home of the Bando Gora and what became of this vessel is unkown. Few were aware of the existence of the moon (as was seen with the diffuclty Jango had of locating it) and the Bando Gora were left crippled and aloof with the loss of their leader and did not employ advanced technologies themselves. It is likely the vessel is still sitting the graveyard-esque environment the makes up the moons surface which is littered with the ruins of an ancient civilization and constant darkness. Regardless, the vessel marks one of the earliest applications of slave circuits to small vessels. Becon calls had been employed as far back as the sith wars, however the intelligence of the system in Hell's Anvil and its abilitiy to think was so advanced it begs the question was this truly a starship or had it become a droid of sorts?

Vehicle of the Week 4 - Serenity

Serenity














03-k64-Firefly class transport
Weaponry: None
Affiliation: Independants
Captain: Malcolm Reynolds
Two shuttles located on the wings

Since the series Firefly was cancelled, and the franchise has yet to gain the worldwide domination that it deserves, this ship and it's wonderful crew may have passed you by. It's a magnificent ship, what's great about it is the love the crew have for this cranky, slightly weird looking ship, and as you get to know them you start to fall in love with it too. Created by Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as part of a new TV series that would take a new look at the possibilities for the future. Whedon admits that the ship is inspired by the Millenium Falcon and you can certainly see the Star Wars influence there, Star Wars broke away from the smooth gleaming creations of SF and created ships that looked weird, had angles instead of curves and needed a good kick to get them started, well that is very much Serenity!! But Serenity differs in some ways too, firstly it's large enough to be home to the crew, whereas the Falcon was always a transport no mater how much they loved it. Secondly this ship has no weapons, it's a cargo hauler - the crew have to find their own ways of fighting through situations, which is more often than not!

The 03 Firefly class was produced may years after humanity left Earth that was and spread out into the stars, colonising and terraforming the worlds they came across. The 03 was the latest and last model to come out and featured a great many improvements. The engines were placed further away from the main body, allowing for greater rotation giving better manouverability, it also allowed a shuttle to be placed on each "wing." Fireflies had a number of nooks and hidden storage spaces that made them a prize to smugglers. Many looked upon the Firefly as junk, being a worthless ship made of second rate parts, but those more in the know would recognise a Firefly for it's durability, as long as you looked after it a Firefly would just keep on going, no matter what parts it was made of. Despite the durability, the class fell out of use and there were only 40,000 or so by the time Mal Reynolds bought Serenity

Mal bought Serenity in 2512, shortly after the war with the Alliance, which he lost. Displaced and now an ordinary man he sought a crew to make a living and stay out of the Alliance's reach as long as possible. He persuaded fellow soldier Zoe to join him, they aquired a gifted pilot and mechanic, Wash and Kaylee respectively, persuaded gunman Jayne to join them after a hold-up, earned a degree of respectability by letting "companion" Inarra to hire out one of the shuttle. Mal kept to the fringes, avoiding the civilized planets, doing dangerous, difficult and on the odd occasion legal, work for various contacts, building up a reputation as a good businessman who could get the job done...eventually at least.
Things changed when they took on passengers for extra profit. "Sheperd" Book proved to be a help in the kitchen and a susprisingly good with a gun for a preacher. It was fugitives Simon and River that created the most difficulty as this meant they had to be extra careful in avoiding the Alliance, and their inexperience with the ways of the fringe made them vulnerable, though they did prove themselves valuable members of the crew - Simon's skills as a doctor proving useful after the more risky missions! Things eventually boiled down into a confrontation with the Alliance as River's tormented mind lead them to a deadly secret. The crew created a large space battle between the Alliance and the Reavers, twisted feral men that were in fact a result of Alliance tampering. Serenity flew through and exposed the truth they'd just learnt, shaking the belief of the Alliance's leaders. After that the damage to their ship was replaced, though nothing could replace the loss of Book and Wash, and the Allaince was no longer chasing them, they were free to continue living.