Hitler's opinion on the new Star Trek film

I enjoyed this Youtube clip (courtesy of an anonymous commenter on The Busybody):



(Alternative rant here). I am pleased to find myself on the other side to Hitler. I have seen the film twice so far and loved it and even phoned in to the CIA Podcast for the first time to enthuse about it a couple of weeks ago (ep. 98). The film reminds me of the way that new Doctor Who manages to reboot the franchise while at the same time embracing and celebrating the past. Now our kids like Star Trek and Doctor Who, and we can enjoy them with them. Happy day! (Getting their interest in classic Trek and classic Who is not quite so easy, however).

The subtitled Hitler rant above is a good effort but it is not quite as good as the piece on the finale of Torchwood Series 2, which I blogged last year. Here is that piece again, now relocated. Warning: strong language and Torchwood spoilers:


Watch Torchwood Series 2 Finale Upsets Even Hitler in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Hitler annoyed at Torchwood Series 2 Finale

This is fantastic. It will only make sense if you are up to date on your Torchwood. Warning: Torchwood Series 2 spoilers and strong language:


Watch Torchwood Series 2 Finale Upsets Even Hitler in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

(H. T.: Patrick Raiford)

(Update: 28 May 2009: link above refreshed).

Heroes / Torchwood Crossover Trailer

This is a twenty second gem from BBC2 last night. Heroes reached the end of its first series in the UK (we are about ten episodes into the second season in the US, in what may turn out to be the end of the season because of the writers' strike), and it broadcast this nice crossover trailer, advertising the forthcoming second series of the fantastic Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood:



We are particularly looking forward to the second series of Torchwood in our house given the news that there will be a pre-watershed family-version repeat. I don't think our kids have quite forgiven us for not letting them watch the first series, as if it were our fault that it had all that adult material in it. Now if they could arrange pre-watershed edits of all thirteen episodes of the first series, they will be even happier.

Max Headroom Broadcasting Hijack, Twenty Years on

Over on Targuman, Chris Brady links to an interesting story on Retro Thing about a TV hijack that took place twenty years ago in Chicago. In the middle of an episode of Doctor Who (a repeat, because it's a Tom Baker episode long after the Tom Baker era ended in 1981), a character wearing a Max Headroom mask bursts on screen. Apparently, the offender has never since been found, nor has he come forward. Here's some Youtube footage of the event:



If you'd like a slightly better quality of video, but without the translation, go to FuzzyMemories.TV. And here is a CBS News report about the incident:

Rory Bremner does the Archbishop

The new series of Bremner, Bird and Fortune is better than ever. This Sunday Bremner did several short sketches impersonating the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and it's a remarkably good impression. Here he is comparing himself to Doctor Who and the Anglican Church to the TARDIS:

Father of a teenager

I passed an important milestone recently and became the father of a teenager. We couldn't resist going back to Harry Enfield's Kevin for a good laugh, and reassuring ourselves that things could never be this bad:

Laurel and Hardy Impersonators in Harlem

One of the highlights of our trip to Harlem, GA was the presence of Laurel and Hardy impersonators Jamie McKenna and Bill Leavy. Viola took some video footage of their ad hoc performance in the Laurel and Hardy Museum and I have uploaded it to Youtube (my first experiment in doing that). Here is the clip. It is just under three minutes long and is their performance of the classic "Trail of the Lonesome Pine". You can hear us giggling quite loudly. Watch out especially for the moment where Hardy looks at Viola's camera and says "Thank you very much":



In the unlikely event that you do not know the original, here are the real Laurel and Hardy performing the "Trail of the Lonesome Pine" from the film Way Out West (1937). (This is a coloured version; the original was in black and white):



Here is a second short video (3 minutes) of the Laurel and Hardy impersonators performing on Saturday, this time a song called "Kitty from Kansas City":

Those Star Trek Red Shirt Casualties

One of Eddie Izzard's many hilarious routines focused on the poor "Stevens" in a red shirt, going down to the planet with Kirk, McCoy and Spock. It was, of course, inevitable that the said Stevens would be the one not to return to the Enterprise. Here he is on YouTube, doing his stuff about Star Trek (Stevens in the red jumper at about 4'50"):



Well, one sometimes wonders if the memory distorts these things. Were there really more red shirt casualties on Star Trek than there were mustard shirt and blue shirt casualties? On Locusts and Honey, Red Shirt Casualty Statistics, John links to a great analysis of this question:

Analytics According to Captain Kirk
By Matt Bailey

. . . We need to segment the overall mortality (conversion) rate in order to gain the specific information that we need:

* Yellow-shirt crewperson deaths: 6 (10%)
* Blue-Shirt crewperson deaths: 5 (8 %)
* Engineering smock crewperson deaths: 4
* Red-Shirt crewperson deaths: 43 (73%)

So, the basic segmentation of factors allows us to confirm that red-shirted crewmembers died more than any other crewmembers on the original Star Trek series.

However, that's only just simple stats reporting - ready for some analysis?

There's lots of it -- and some great tips for avoiding death if you ever find yourself stuck in an episode of Star Trek wearing a red shirt.