Videobloggery: No Fish on Youtube!

Chris's video went up a bit late, but mine is on time:



Can't wait for the Twilight videos next week!

Please comment, rate and subscribe.

Videobloggery: It's Business Time

Chris began his punishment, but he has no idea what lies in store for him when he uncovers his true punishment!



Please, please, please comment and rate. I will love you forever.

Why I Suspect Karen Gillan is Romana

My insinuation on Twitter that the Doctor's new companion for 2010 will be a Time Lady was half-joking, but of course that means it is half serious.

Karen Gillan, who is 21, will be playing the companion to the Eleventh Doctor, portrayed by Matt Smith, the youngest actor ever in the role at 26. news is weeks old, of course, but it's something that people are still buzzing about. Personally, despite the fact that I know nothing about her except that she's gorgeous, I have some reservations about the casting choice myself. This is for two reasons: First, that I fear a TARDIS full of youngsters will be overpowered by youthful romantic angst and sexual tension, and second that I was hoping that the show would be going in a bold new direction, and a young female companion is hardly that.

But that changes if she's not human.

Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but I have a feeling that there's something significant about the fact that we haven't heard anything about what the character's name is yet. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I tend to think that something is being kept from us, that a name would blow wide open. Which is why, to return to the point, I think she might be a Time Lady, specifically one of the two we know.

I'd really be more willing to wildly speculate that it's Romana before Susan. Bringing back the Doctor's granddaughter now, with the youngest Doctor ever, is perhaps a bit too bold. Romana, on the other hand, would be another story. My tweet got a response from @dubbayoo, AKA Chris, one of the hosts of the podcast Radio Free Skaro. "Definitely get a Romana II vibe off her." I agree. And that's not all I'd like to get off her (okay, fine, no more of that). Not only does she seem a fit for the character (pictured at left played by Lalla Ward in the character's second onscreen incarnation), but I think the time is right for Romana to return. That would take the show in a direction it hasn't been in quite some time. The interesting thing about the dynamic between the Doctor and Romana is that, unlike the Doctor's companions from Earth, Romana doesn't need to have everything explained to her by the Doctor. In fact, it's often the other way around. It seems to me that every newly-announced companion is touted as "finally the Doctor meets his equal." Romana would be the only really genuine fulfillment of that promise, and it would be a great way to start the new era of the show off with something truly different from what's come before.

Is this idle speculation, signifying nothing? Probably. Okay, definitely. But regardless of what Karen Gillan turns out to be, I guess I should give her, and Matt Smith, and Steven Moffat, the benefit of the doubt with regard to the show's new beginning. While I'm sure I'll be sad to see the end of the David Tennant/Russell T Davies era this winter, I also can't wait to see what's in store next spring.

Videobloggery: The Machine Apocalypse

FINALLY, Chris posted a videobloggery, and a damn good one.

I, of course, had to respond in kind.



Drop your comments and ratings over there.

Star Wars Novel Reading Order

This is mostly just something I'm doing for some of my friends that are just getting into Star Wars novels, but I figured I'd post it here so anyone can see it. If you're a novice to the Star Wars Expanded Universe who just happened to find your way here via a misguided google search, feel free to take (or leave) my advice. Alternately, if you're a veteran Star Wars EU fan, feel free to curse my name for leaving The Glove of Darth Vader off the list.

Most Star Wars books can be read in any order you want, because a lot of books are standalones and a lot of series are self-contained. That's not to say they don't refer to one another, just that you (usually) shouldn't worry about not reading a book because you haven't read all the books "before" it.

The exception to this is that all of the books from the "New Jedi Order" series onward really ought to be read in strict timeline order. Other than that you can (mostly) go wild, but I think what follows is a fairly good order. I'm dividing up the reading order into "phases" just so you can understand why I'm giving you the books in this order.

Phase One: Stover
Phase 1 consists of books written by Matthew Stover. I think Stover's one of the best Star Wars writers, and I think these books will help you get a little bit of a flavor for the Star Wars Universe. I'm recommending that you read Stover before Zahn but you don't have to. You can skip him if you really want or read him later.

Shatterpoint - This novel about Mace Windu is set during the prequel trilogy, between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Revenge of the Stih Novelization (optional) - I'm making this optional since if you've seen the movie you know the story, but the book is way better than the movie.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor - Skipping ahead, this is set about a year after Return of the Jedi. It's all about Luke, but it picks up some of the threads from Shatterpoint (you'll see). Also, even though it was written 17 years after the Thrawn Trilogy (see below), it sets it up kind of nicely.

Phase Two: Zahn
The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is basically the foundation for all of the other books after it. Zahn was the first author allowed to write books set after the movies, and so he's responsible for a lot of the characters and history post-Jedi. A word of caution: Since he's writing in 1991, and the prequels weren't released until 199-2005, Zahn makes up some stuff about the Clone Wars and the Jedi Order that later got contradicted.

The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) - Set a few years after Return of the Jedi. Basically sets up the post-Jedi EU.
Hand of Thrawn (Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future) Ten years after the Thrawn Trilogy, and continues some of the threads.
Survivor's Quest - A few years after that. It continues some more of those threads...
Outbound Flight - Okay, this jumps waaaay back to the prequel trilogy, before Attack of the Clones. It's a prequel to the rest of those books and it finally gives the backstory that's hinted at in them. It also kind of sort of hints at the New Jedi Order stuff...

Phase Three: The New Jedi Order and beyond
This part's simple. This is the "continuing story" of the Star Wars universe. Unlike the rest of the timeline, the New Jedi Order series and the stuff after it is supposed to be read in order. You might want to start by reading Rogue Planet by Greg Bear, which is during the prequel era and introduces some important plot points. After that, though, it's all in order: Read Vector Prime, by R. A. Salvatore, and from then on just read the next book in the timeline, skipping the e-books (unless you really want to read them). You can find the timeline in the front of most Star Wars books, or you could just look at the Wikipedia list here.

Other Stuff
Aside from my advice that the New Jedi Order and what follows should be read in order, pretty much anything is fair game whenever you feel like it. If you've read all the Stover and Zahn stuff I recommended but you'd rather not commit to the 19 books of the NJO, and you want something a little less monstrous to read, look around and see what else is out there that sounds interesting to you. There's tons of books, and I haven't even mentioned the comics yet. Well, now I have.