Author Archives: W. Blaine Dowler

As you may be able to tell, my formal training is not as a writer. My degrees are in physics and education. In my day job, I work in supplemental education, which is why my productivity is lowest when report card season hits.

Warner talks home video

Home Theater Forum had a chat with people from Warner
Home Video the other day, which has been transcripted
over at this
digital bits page. The article is huge, so I
can’t cover all of it, but some genre notables
mentioned as being on the schedule include The
Flash, Witchblade, Smallville:
Season Four, Lois and Clark: The New
Adventures of Superman, Superman serials
from the 1940s, King Kong (finally! Yay!),
Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 3, a new
release of The Wizard of Oz, possible special
editions of the Batman and Superman
films, Poltergeist, and a lot of animated
titles. (When asked about “Tiny Toon Adventures,
Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Road
Rovers, the Quick Draw McGaw Show, the Son of Kong,
Mighty Joe Young 1949, John K. and Spumco’s Yogi and
Jetsons shorts, seasons 2 and 3 of the Jetsons,
Flintstones on the Rocks, Ralph Bakshi’s Hey, Good
Lookin’, the unsold pilot of ‘Gizmo and the Gremlins’
and/or Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs,” the answer
was “YES.”) They also discuss several non-genre
releases, including a second Film Noir box
set, which really catches my attention.

Ecclestone quits Doctor Who

Eldhrin
writes, The BBC is reporting that Christopher
Ecclestone has quit filming the second series of
Doctor Who, quoting fears of being typecast and
new projects he wishes to attend to. Talks are under
way with David
Tennant, currently considered likely to be the
tenth Doctor. Billie Piper is expected to stay on as
Rose. Could the good reception and huge audience of
the new series have put Ecclestone off? Hopefully
he’ll stick around long enough to film his
regeneration, otherwise they’re going to have some
seriously knotty scriptwriting to do. And let’s hope
that the tenth Doctor lasts longer – he’s running out
of regenerations.

Brannon Braga Speaks at Claremont College

shayward
writes, Read the transcription here.

Among other things, Braga feels that Star Trek is
still about examining the human condition, that
Enterprise is a character-driven show that maybe
didn’t click with audiences, and is generally
uncertain about why Enterprise failed.

Braga also claims to have a photographic memory when
it comes to continuity and knows all of the
episodes. I suppose the latter may be possible.
There is a subtle but important difference between
ignorance of continuity and blatant disregard for
continuity.

Doctor Who: Rose

Eldhrin wrote us a review of the first episode of the new Doctor Who series. There seems to be minimal spoilage here, so feel free to check it out even if you haven’t seen the episode. If you are concerned about spoilers anyway, know that it received 30/42, with 5/6 in the Overall category. Those of us in Canada can catch this on the CBC on April 5. If anyone knows about the US air date (assuming they’ve set one), please let us know.
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Weekly Comics Discussion – Wednesday, March 16, 2005

This week, I’ll be taking home Ultimates 2
#4. Other available items of interest include an
assortment of Green Lantern action figures, the
Ultimate Nightmare TPB (which I’ll try to
review “soon,”) new issues of Ultimate
Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men, a new
issue of Exiles and a new Fantastic
Four Marvel Masterworks collection. Complete
listings are available here.