Clear Skies machinima creator Ian Chisholm gives us some insight into his upcoming threequel Clear Skies 3, due out this summer. Our resident Portal expert Juan breaks down Portal 2. We delve into what makes geeks nostalgic for the past. And we run down the week in geek, including a Happy Days lawsuit, Starblazers’ return to TV on SyFy, some thoughts on Your Highness, and lots more. Special thanks to GWC uber-blogger Shooter who sat in with us this week, bringing his unique perspective (and some great news) to the cast!
Shooter!!! You are Awesome sir. And now I have to watch some Meg Ryan movies 
Starblazers is coming back to TV? Gotta listen to the cast!
Just started the cast but I have to “pull a Sean” an chime in to defend City of Angels. I have always thought of CoA as one of the best love stories in cinema. What is wrong with something being depressing? That is exacTly what makes this movie special. The loss of someone you love so much to sacrifice everything you know and be reborn into a new life is incredibly tragic. It is heartbreaking to loose anyone we love and only natural to be depressed and morn for that loss. As Cage moves through his grief he still affirms that his decision to become mortal was worth it just to touch her once. In the end he is able to cherish the (very little) time he spent with her and was able to continue move on into his new life. It helps to remind us about the things in life that are truly special.
That’s just my opinion. If you are down on it, I think it’s worth another shot. 
I love this arc, because it’s gotten me thinking about the shows, books, and movies that got me into sci fi, and Voltron and Doctor Who were both important parts of this young geek’s life. Plus, I can’t believe that Voltron is going live! I know that’s one movie I’m going to have to see in the theater.
I watched Doctor Who as a child when it aired on PBS, and I’ve got to go with Tom Baker as the best doctor—the man was just so funny and charming. And if I had to pick a companion, it would be Leela. I thought that it was so cool it was that there was a “primitive” warrior woman thrown into the Doctor’s high-tech world, but she could still hold her own against aliens with far more sophisticated weapons. And from what I can remember, she was never a damsel in distress and even saved the Doctor’s life a few times.
Ever since the discussion about Star Wars porn (and probably before, who am I kidding) my mind has gone straight into the gutter. Everything said on the 'cast has become loaded with double meanings.
“and you can’t reach around and show somebody how to play . . . show them how to move the stick and push the buttons right . . .”
Sean
I used to be so pure, like a glass of water in Eddie Murphy’s hand, and now the innocence is gone. Long gone.
Just started the cast but I have to “pull a Sean” an chime in to defend City of Angels. I have always thought of CoA as one of the best love stories in cinema. What is wrong with something being depressing?
Uchiha Daiske
I liked the movie right up until the end, and even though having a depressing ending is a vaild artistic choice . . . I don’t know, it just didn’t work for me. Maybe it’s because the way she died was so stupid. Maybe it’s because American movies tend to have happy endings and when that doesn’t happen, it just feels weird. I remember being so shocked when I started to watch anime and foreign films at how often everything would go wrong. Did you ever see Berserk? It ended so badly that after finishing that series I didn’t feel right for days!
I used to think having a happy ending every time was unrealistic, but after seeing a few tragedies I realized that I don’t care. If I want real life, I’ll go outside. But in this movie/show/book things should end with the good people alive and happy.
Haven’t finished the cast yet, but I loved Silverhawks! d:
The downside to me was Silverhawks was Thundercats in space. Same animators, production, and voice actors. d: The music was similar. Even the way the main bad guy had two forms was similar. After Silverhawks was Bravestarr which was actually different, but could still be considered Thundercats in the West. d:
K. Finished listening. I saw Chuck’s twitter announcing the cast. But, I misread it and thought CS 3 was actually out and started searching for it until I reread the tweet. d:
This is the post Chisholm was referring to:
http://forum.galacticwatercooler.com/showpost.php?p=202810&postcount=35
I wonder how ATGreat must feel knowing his/her post influenced what happens in CS 3. (:
I dunno if anyone read the EVE forums. But, there was a thread urging CCP to give Chisholm access to Jessica.
Here is a short video from another well-known, popular EVE fan after he got his hands on Jessica. He now works for CCP making cinematics and trailers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXWf-l71MY4&hd=1
Nostalgia for me would be shows like Manimal, Automan, Captain Power, Streethawk, Misfits of Science, Airwolf, etc. Movies like D.A.R.Y.L. And, cartoons like Voltron, Star Blazers, Mighty Orbots, the He-Man and She-Ra movie, M.A.S.K., Jem and the Holograms only because they came on before M.A.S.K., Spider-man and his Amazing friends, and Superfriends (the one with Firestorm).
A lot of that stuff I prolly can’t watch now. We frakked the first episode of Voltron before Dr. Who. I was cringing at some of the dialog. But, hearing Optimus Prime outweighed that. d: Still, I’m looking forward to the Voltron blog post.
For Audra and flying movies, I wonder how she’d feel about Miyazaki/Ghibli movies like Porco Rosso and Laputa.
I forgot the hawk was named Tally! Hehe, reminds me of my puppy Tally now! After seeing the opening for the first time in prolly 15 years… I need to get that show again!
Automan!!! I LOVED Automan! A show that got cut before it’s time!
This is not Claudia Black as awsome as she is. Dr./Proffesor Riversong is played by Alex Kingston
You are absolutely correct. Please don’t hold Sean accountable for the error. I had unintentionally misled him earlier in the day and never confirmed it before the podcast.
~Shooter Out
Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
No, I haven’t seen Berserk, sounds like one to add to the list. Chrono Crusade also had a sad ending, great show.
Maybe it is how (not why) she died that is causing the reaction. It was a bit contrived but I never really focused much on it, I was anticipating the fallout. In many ways the story is similar to Titanic (The male and female roles are reversed). In Titanic we don’t really know who will survive in the end and if one of our characters die it’s more believable based on the situation. In CoA, her death feels completely avoidable. Perhaps it’s even her fault and we don’t want to blame her because we come to care about her through the coarse of the show. Cool insight. 
Portal 2 is amazing, the story can’t be explained with the right meaning, it is something that just has to be experienced. It has some of the best voice acting I have ever heard in a game and the dialog is just as great, Stephen Merchant steals the show as Wheatley. The level design is amazing, expertly introducing the mechanics and quickly has u “thinking with portals”. The new mechanics also slot perfectly with the original physic based mechanics of the first game, I had thought that they might make the game over encumbered, but Valve certainly proved me wrong.
After the single player is complete, coop begins and the game puts you to the test. It’s clearly meant to be played after the single player, not only because of the story line, but because the developers throw you into the deep end, adding a second portal gun and the ingredients for havoc.
A seriously good game.
On a sort of related note, there is actually an interactive Super 8 trailer in the Portal 2 game extras, it’s definitely interesting.
“On a scale from one to ten, think of me as an eleven.”
Automan was awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever try to watch it again, even if I could find it, because I want to remember my childhood love for this show and not have to measure it against my adult standards. I wanted a Cursor of my very own.
“Cursor… autocar.”
On of my childhood hobbies was making my own games and writing my own books. At one point I made an Automan board game, an Automan choose-your-own-adventure book, and a comic book called “The Return of Automan.” I still have that comic in a box in my closet somewhere.
This really happened…leap to the two minute point
Holy crom! I loved that show…and yet totally forgot I watched it! Must have gotten mashed into the Voltron / Thundercats / Gummibears / Ducktales part of my brain.
Yeah, if Berserk was one of your first anime series, and you’re a westerner, it can leave you messed up for days. Took me two days to recover myself. d: I did not see that ending coming.
Chrono Crusade is indeed a great series. Loved the ending despite it being sad.
I saw Berserk around a time when it seemed like all anime I watched had unhappy endings. Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Escaflowne, X movie, Toyko Babylon, etc. I was like, what the heck is going on in Japan that I can’t get one happy ending? d: It was just coincidental choices with a stretch of unhappy endings. d:
I wouldn’t if I were you, but you’re going to anyway. d: I doubt I could rewatch Thundercats.
I’m glad to see more Automan fans. (:
Random information:
The ST:TNG game was for both the Genesis and the Super Nintendo. The clincher for it was that they were the same game with slight variations. At the time I got Nintendo Power and I was trying to follow its helpful walkthrough. No Go. It turns out the SNES version was the same story, but the level layouts were different.
Why this was I’ll never know, but I never completed the game. sigh
Ok I just needed to jump in here and defend my boy Matt Smith. I really think that you should watch the entire 5th season as well as the start of the 6th because not only has the writing and story telling improved, The companions are amazing, the acting is great and the chemistry between all the actors is fantastic. Besides all of that Matt Smith is perfect for the role in my opinion. he has the most fantastic mannerisms and way of speaking but i think my favorite part about him is his ability to really show how old the doctor is. Matt truly pulls off the old man in a young mans body better than anyone. There are times when he is goofing off and being doctory and he seems so young and then in the next scene you can really feel the weight of all his years on him.
I get the Tennant love that everyone has. I LOVE david tennant so much and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Ten, because really by the end of the david tennant specials he was the only thing that kept me watching. I just think that Matt Smith has brought something different enough to the role that by the end of the 1st episode of series 5 i wasn’t comparing him the Tennant any more, he came into his own faster than Tennant did and owned the part.
I think that the general awesomeness of series 5 has maybe coloured my opinion because The doctor had some fantastic things to do as well as some fantastic relationships with other characters. Right now I’d be really hard pressed to name a favorite doctor because I had so long to get to know tennant, But I think if season six is as awesome as season 5 was and if Matt Smith continues to be amazing then he may be come MY doctor.
And that was my really long winded way of saying, Sean you should give season 5 and Matt Smith a chance because they are AWESOME!
Is it just me, or did Ian Chisholm use “someone on the forum?”