So the release announcement for the Xbox One was yesterday, and I've had some time to look at the release coverage, information, and commentary that's flying around the Internet at the moment, and digest that into some thoughts that i'll now excrete onto this blog.Firstly, the elephant in the room for me was the way game licensing will now be handled on the new platform. I realize that details are contradictory, and even Microsoft seems to vaguely shuffling its feet on being 100% factual on this issue - now suggesting that the information released is a possible scenario, and not the final definitive argument.
I take serious issue with this licensing per gamer account model that they're shifting towards. Yes this will potentially kill the second-hand games market, and I'm sure its going to have ramifications for being able to take a game to a friends to play/loan, as well as renting games from third-party vendors.
I know that you can log into your account from a friends Xbox and probably play your game (after having to re-install it on your friends Xbox!), but given the misgivings out their about the need for an always-on Internet connection, I don't know how viable that is going to be. Not everybody has access to high-speed Internet still, and it's foolish to assume that one-size fits all. In Australia, it's still quite common even in the city to not be able to get DSL, and consequently there can be a hodge podge of satellite, mobile, wireless, and even dial-up still out there. A lot of those communication options are next to worthless for game playing, as the connection latency is far too high!
As to arguments that games should not be able to be sold secondhand as the product has not degraded over time, as the code is still the same, that's not entirely true. The physical delivery product - the game disc and case can get worn, the disc might be scratched, so it has suffered depreciation, but the game itself has less value over time, particularly multiplayer. An example of this is Call of Duty 1 - you bought it 2 years later second hand, Call of Duty 2 is available, and consequently no one is really playing 1 anymore, and there are no combatants on multiplayer. Therefore it doesn't have as much value as your not really going to be able to use it's full functionality.
I also believe that second hand has its place, as people will purchase games that they may not have otherwise. Games are very expensive to make, and I'm not begrudging the people that make the games any money (although we all know its primarily the publishers that make the big bucks! but that's an entirely different argument for another time), but they are also expensive to purchase, and I would definitely buy less games if they were all full price.
There has been times I have given a game a go because it was cheaper, and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. At the end of the day, money is still being made, so its a case of do you want to make some money through sales of second hand games, or no money? Some games are also not worth full price because of quality issues, bugs, etc. Sometimes these games do see some money once they get cheaper.
I think what Microsoft appears to be trying to do is move towards a licensing model, but the way it appears its going to be implemented seems to punish the gamer. Currently if I purchase a game on disc, and I run it within my gamer profile, its just me, using a single license/instance of that game at that time. I can not play the game, and give the disc to someone else in my house who can play it on another Xbox, or another family member can play it on their profile, but it's still only using one license - one instance used at one time. But under this new model, they're now saying i'd have to purchase additional licenses to install an instance of the game against additional gamer profiles. I've still only got the one Xbox that can play one instance of the game at a time though?!
Given that I have a family license currently with 4 online gamer profiles, this could get expensive fast if all the kids want to play the same game!
There has been some talk comparing this model with the iTunes model, but if you'll pardon the pun, its a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Yes you do purchase material against an account, which gives that account license to use said material, but we're talking about games worth a few bucks, not games costing $80-100+ each.And it gets worse once you start adding in DLC's, and the new licensing. Unless they're planning on dropping the upfront cost of the game to something more reasonable, its going to get punitive pretty quick.
How much pain this is all going to cause is still to be determined but I think Microsoft needs to tread carefully or it could seriously damage itself. If they set the licensing costs too high, I will guarantee it will hurt sales of the console and games. It already sounds like they're trying to distance themselves from it, and push the blame back at the publishers, with comments about "Not setting the pricing, that's up to publishers." It all comes down to what the consumer market can support, and people only have so much disposable income.
I guess it's a case of watch this space and see what officially comes out of Xbox closer to the release date.
Now to comment on the Xbox One itself. The under the hood technology is getting some nice upgrades which is great, but the black exterior box is pretty ho hum. Clearly they were intentionally trying to make it look like another set top box, in which case, congratulations mission accomplished. It's blocky and bland, and looks like it will be right at home with your DVD player, etc.
I'm not that fussed about the home entertainment aspects of it, as I've already heard that the TV portion of it is unlikely to be available outside of North America. I've already got an Apple TV which is fantastic as an entertainment hub, so I'm not going to replace that, but it has similar functionality and I can't use some of it because its US only. Annoying! It would be nice if Xbox (and other companies) made sure that they're devices started to provide the same level of functionality to all regions, especially since we pay more for the devices here than in the US!
I don't rent or buy movies on the XBox, because frankly, the system is too fiddly currently, and I don't like that you pay with Xbox points - show me the real world value please so I know what I'm paying for and exactly how much its costing me! I don't know if they've changed that yet or not, but I'd be interested to see. Still I probably won't use it unless they had some content i couldn't already access on iTunes.
Some of the features of the Kinect look useful, but I've had no great desire to purchase one or use it with the 360, and I think it's just a bit gimmicky. There hasn't really been any games for it that you absolutely have to have! So I'm not really that interested in it.
I'm glad they didn't change the controllers much. In my opinion, the controllers are one of the things they absolutely got right on the Xbox. It's one of the reasons why myself and others don't like playing the PS4, because the controllers on it are awful. The Xbox controllers are a delight to use, so if they've slightly improved that, but kept the same perfection to it, then that's a win!
I'll be keeping an eye on this from now on, and seeing what solidifies coming up to the release date later this year. I don't think I'll be rushing out and purchasing one from the go - I'll probably wait for the platform to mature a bit, iron out the bugs, address the things people hate about it (hopefully), and upgrade when the 360 finally shuffles off to the electronic afterlife.
I'm going to go on a bit of rant here for a minute or two. Language may be a bit harsh - I warn you now!
Okay fuck you CGU Insurance you lying pack of douchebags! In what fucking reality do you think it is okay to insure a vehicle, then refuse to pay out what is a reasonable value for the vehicle (or why not just fix the damned vehicle given that the market book value of the vehicle is still more than the repair!) The vehicle has been fully insured with you for at least 18 months (and previously had insurance for more than 10 years with you), so it's not like a significant amount of money hasn't been poured through your business.
To say that you won't pay out a fair Red Book value for the vehicle, and have deducted the remaining balance of the insurance for the year, for a vehicle we no longer have, because you have determined you don't want to fix is fucking outrageous! Despite evidence being provided that even the quote that the Assessor produced was too low, that a replacement identical vehicle with similar Km's could not be purchased from a Dealer or Private Seller for the money you were offering, you still would not relent. And then to come back with an even lower offer, due to your "deductions", add insults to injury.
So not only does my partner not have her vehicle, not have her freedom, not have the vehicle she worked blood, sweat, and tears to own, but you've stiffed us out of being able to replace the vehicle. A vehicle that I must point out was damaged not because of my partner, but because of a P-Plate drivers ineptitude! Your attitude has been less than caring, and you have not lifted a finger to be helpful in any way! You are a fucking disgrace! Your juvenile and condescending attitude throughout our dealings has been an insult! You have offered not one iota of assistance to us, including leaving us to attempt to retrieve items of equipment from the car, without any assistance, and "volunteering" the panelbeaters to assist us at their expense was extremely appreciated by them (i'm being sarcastic in case you don't get it). I'd point out the heartbreak, tears, stress, and absolute despair you have caused us, but I don't think you give a shit!
I will now retaliate with the only means I have left at my disposal - I will remove our business from your organisation. You will no longer receive one cent from us, and I will ensure that everyone I know, they know, and so on, NEVER takes any of their business to your satanic Insurance agency EVER again! You are the lowest form of life in the universe, lower than pond scum, lower than the base bacteria that formed in a rock pool aeons ago! Enjoy your pound of flesh! Fuck you!
Whatever you do, don't use CGU Insurance for your insurance. I've never dealt with a more unreasonable, money grubbing, soulless organisation in my life. These people could have repaired the car, which was not that badly damaged IMHO, and kept us as a customer. But their attitude and miserly approach has ensured I will remove our business from them, and anyone else I can enlighten. Please don't deal with these people - you'll only set yourself up for heartache!
Okay fuck you CGU Insurance you lying pack of douchebags! In what fucking reality do you think it is okay to insure a vehicle, then refuse to pay out what is a reasonable value for the vehicle (or why not just fix the damned vehicle given that the market book value of the vehicle is still more than the repair!) The vehicle has been fully insured with you for at least 18 months (and previously had insurance for more than 10 years with you), so it's not like a significant amount of money hasn't been poured through your business.
To say that you won't pay out a fair Red Book value for the vehicle, and have deducted the remaining balance of the insurance for the year, for a vehicle we no longer have, because you have determined you don't want to fix is fucking outrageous! Despite evidence being provided that even the quote that the Assessor produced was too low, that a replacement identical vehicle with similar Km's could not be purchased from a Dealer or Private Seller for the money you were offering, you still would not relent. And then to come back with an even lower offer, due to your "deductions", add insults to injury.
So not only does my partner not have her vehicle, not have her freedom, not have the vehicle she worked blood, sweat, and tears to own, but you've stiffed us out of being able to replace the vehicle. A vehicle that I must point out was damaged not because of my partner, but because of a P-Plate drivers ineptitude! Your attitude has been less than caring, and you have not lifted a finger to be helpful in any way! You are a fucking disgrace! Your juvenile and condescending attitude throughout our dealings has been an insult! You have offered not one iota of assistance to us, including leaving us to attempt to retrieve items of equipment from the car, without any assistance, and "volunteering" the panelbeaters to assist us at their expense was extremely appreciated by them (i'm being sarcastic in case you don't get it). I'd point out the heartbreak, tears, stress, and absolute despair you have caused us, but I don't think you give a shit!
I will now retaliate with the only means I have left at my disposal - I will remove our business from your organisation. You will no longer receive one cent from us, and I will ensure that everyone I know, they know, and so on, NEVER takes any of their business to your satanic Insurance agency EVER again! You are the lowest form of life in the universe, lower than pond scum, lower than the base bacteria that formed in a rock pool aeons ago! Enjoy your pound of flesh! Fuck you!
Whatever you do, don't use CGU Insurance for your insurance. I've never dealt with a more unreasonable, money grubbing, soulless organisation in my life. These people could have repaired the car, which was not that badly damaged IMHO, and kept us as a customer. But their attitude and miserly approach has ensured I will remove our business from them, and anyone else I can enlighten. Please don't deal with these people - you'll only set yourself up for heartache!
It's not a very big section, being a recently subdivided ex-Queenslander block, and it has some potentially annoying restrictions on what can be built on there due to requiring a 'character' house, but I'm working through that. I figure at the end of the day, it's more about the living space inside the house anyway, than what it looks like from the outside. Although if it will be quite rankling if I'm locked into building an 'old lady' style house. I'll just have to get over it. Still it's an exciting time again, and its a significant step in getting my life back on track again.
So we went off for a weekend on Coochiemudlo Island, which sounded lovely. And probably would have been if the weather was better and not the current monsoon conditions we're getting. As it was, if your planning on going to visit there, you probably want to know some things:[1] Apart from the beach, there isn't anything much there. I'm told there's a 9 hole golf course, but if its raining you won't be using that. Its got plenty of beaches, which looked quite nice, although I hear they get jellyfish! If your stuck indoors, make sure you take something to do, otherwise its a trip back to the mainland for you! Thankfully that doesn't take very long, and the ferry runs pretty regularly.
[2] Not much in the way of food/dining options - take your own supplies with you. Otherwise it's a trip back on the ferry again. The closest thing we could find to a restaurant, was a kiosk with a barbeque behind it the would burn meat on demand, or a fish'n'chips shop near the beach. Functional, but not very romantic![3] But the worst thing was how utterly uncomfortable we were at the Seminara Apartments. The place was lovely, quite modern, and very tidy, but features one of the hardest beds I think I've ever had to try to lie on. The fold out bed/couch was missing its mattress, so it had no support or comfort to it either. We both felt pretty bruised and exhausted by the end of it - not the relaxing getaway we were envisioning. We certainly couldn't sleep in or relax, and were up every morning at 5. So I'd suggest taking whatever you need to be comfortable. If that means taking an inflatable mattress, or your own pillowtop, I'd say do it!
Anyway, that's enough complaining. I think if the weather had been nice and we were able to get outside, we'd probably have enjoyed the beach, and walking the island. We had a few hours of sunny weather when we first arrived, and did manage to walk part way around the island which was quite nice. It's not very big, and I think you could probably walk around it in an hour.The people were also quite friendly, and were happy to talk with you. Little things were quite nice, but overall I think Coochiemudlo needs some effort to be come a proper destination for people to go too.
I haven't played any of the other Modern Warfare series so far, mostly just confined to the historical ones - World at War, Airborne, Black Ops. So far the campaign has been a ton of fun! The missions have been very exciting with a good mix of things to do - lay mines on a submarine and infiltrate, escape on an inflatable boat, fend off terrorists on a plane as it crashes, pilot a Predator drone, and fight through New York streets!
The only frustration I've had so far has once again been the multiplayer. Don't get me wrong, its very well done and tons of fun - if your not playing against people that are so far ahead of you in levels that they are virtually invincible. Its pretty frustrating to spend multiple games dying repeatedly, especially when you emptied your entire clip into the other guy! I get up, run about and die. Rinse, lather, repeat! All I seem to be doing is levelling up the other guy, acting as cheap cannon fodder! Why don't they match you up with people your own level, until you climb up the ladder a bit.
I also find you don't end up getting much support from your teammates. Often they just bugger off, and its an every man for himself situation. I don't know if there's better ways to encourage teamwork - although the assisted bonus is a nice touch if you help a teammate kill an enemy. I get the assisted bonus a bit, but its mostly just me trailing around behind people - not any real cooperation on their part.
I ended up giving up in disgust with my last batch of multiplayer, because any fun was just sucked out of it! The other guys were shrugging off a crap storm of lead from me, and would put me down with a single shot. Sometimes I wouldn't even see it coming from way across the map, or else they just bombard you with Predator drones over and over. First game out, I got stuck with people that were level 50+ with access to all the goodies!
I had wondered if there was any cheating going on, as I did have problems with this in Black Ops. There was an online douche who had some kind of cheat in effect, that would let him kill all the players in front of him, all across the map with a single press of the trigger - no aiming required! A lot of the players stuck together and kicked him out, but its a shame the game makers can't do something more to stop this kind of douche baggery that goes on.
I'm going to try doing the training levels for a bit and see if that levels my player up so that I can withstand multiplayer a bit better. If not I think i'll just go back to playing the campaign alone. I've just finished the mission with Makarov's shipment in Africa thats gone missing. I'll hopefully get some time to continue on with the shipment arriving in London tonight.
Amy and Rory, River Song and a mysterious man each receive an envelope, numbered 2, 3 and 4, containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue. This strange summons reunites them in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret the Doctor's friends must never reveal to him. After they meet up, they find a fourth envelope in a restaurant, sent to the Doctor, who joins them. Placing his life entirely in their hands, the Doctor agrees to join them on their mission. Their quest lands them in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former-FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III, in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.
6.2 Day of the Moon
The second episode of a two-parter, the FBI are looking for River Song, Rory and Amy. The world has been occupied by aliens that leave your memory the moment you stop looking at them; the Doctor and his companions can trust no one.
6.3 The Curse of the Black Spot
Aboard a 17th-century pirate ship the Doctor needs to win the trust of Captain Avery as his friends start to be influenced by a beautiful Siren (Lily Cole). Can the Doctor save them all before they fall for the siren's song?
6.4 The Doctor's Wife
In the hope of finding another Time Lord, the Doctor responds to a distress signal. Greeted warmly by Auntie, Uncle and Nephew, Idris' welcome is unusual.
6.5 The Rebel Flesh
On 22nd century Earth the Doctor finds humans using clones to perform dangerous tasks.
6.6 The Almost People
Continuing the story started in "The Rebel Flesh", the insane half-human, half-flesh mutant Jennifer is looking for revenge.
6.7 A Good Man Goes To War
In this mid-series finale, Amy is held captive on Demon's Run and the Doctor assembles an army of allies to recover her. Meanwhile, River reveals her greatest secret to the Doctor.
6.8 Let's Kill Hitler
The TARDIS crashes in 1938 Berlin where River Song tries to kill the Doctor.
6.9 Night Terrors
Eight-year old George is so terrified he can't sleep. His parents are unable to help, and the Doctor answers George's plea.
6.10 The Girl Who Waited
Amy is held in quarantine and Rory must free her. Unfortunately, Rory finds himself face-to-face with a future version of her, driven by anger, hatred and disappointment for both him and the Doctor, and Rory must make the biggest decision of his life.
6.11 The God Complex
The trio arrive at a hotel where the layout of the rooms keeps changing. It also contains rooms that hold the greatest fears of each visitor.
6.12 Closing Time
The Doctor visits Craig and meets the Cybermen again.
6.13 The Wedding of River Song
The Doctor travels to Lake Silencio, Utah to his death. But something is wrong with time.
The on location shooting in America looks good, with some great looking scenery.
Took the kids to Underwater World in Mooloolaba the other week as a treat for the Christmas holidays. Hadn't been there before so was somewhere new for me too. It's quite a long drive to the Sunshine Coast, one I haven't done myself before either, so I felt it was quite an achievement to get there in the first place (yes some mental high-fives were given!).The drive through Mooloolaba was terrible, with slow moving traffic. I don't think the fact that there is one road along the point helped the problem much. Also there was not enough parking near the event, but thankfully we got something along the roadside and only had a short walk back. Driving home again in the afternoon proved to be not much better either.
Underwater World itself was quite reasonably priced compared to the tourist traps on the Gold Coast - except for food, take your own or go hungry.
There's all the usual highlights, pet the starfish (surprisingly they're quite hard), sharks, rays, moray eels, fish, alligator, plus an enormous frozen Hammerhead (certainly put things in perspective! - don't think I will ever get in the ocean in Australia). The seal show is worth a look, especially to see the seals being trained and some of the tricks they can do.
The failing TARDIS crashlands outside the house of seven-year-old Amelia Pond (Caitlin Blackwood), who welcomes newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor into her house to investigate the crack in her bedroom wall. He must use the TARDIS to regulate its engines, and promises he will return in five minutes which Amelia waits for. However, the TARDIS takes him twelve years into the future, where he joins the adult "Amy" Pond and her boyfriend Rory Williams in capturing the shapeshifting alien known as Prisoner Zerowho has escaped from the crack in Amy's wall and the failure of which will lead to the destruction of Earth by the glactic police force known as the Atraxi. After the Earth is saved, the Doctor tests the newly remodelled TARDIS and accidentally returns for Amy two years later in her timeline, the night before her wedding to Rory, and where she joins him for the promised travels of space and time.
5.2 The Beast Below
The Doctor takes Amy to the distant future, where they explore the Starship UK, a spaceship holding the population of Britain (with the exception of Scotland) after they fled Earth due to dangerous solar flares. They discover that the ship is guided by a Star Whale, who is being tortured out of fear that when let to make its own decisions it will abandon them. Believing that the future cannot go on this way, the Doctor prepares to render Star Whale brain-dead so it will continue to operate the ship but not feel it; however, Amy discovers that it is willing to serve the ship as it could not stand the children crying because of the solar flares.
5.3 Victory of the Daleks
The Doctor and Amy respond to a call from Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) and visit him during the London Blitz, where he has employed "Ironsides", a scientific creation of Professor Bracewell (Bill Paterson) but which the Doctor recognises as his arch-enemies the Daleks. The Daleks reveal their plan to detonate a device built around Bracewell, who is revealed to be an android, and destroy planet Earth. As the device begins to activate, the Doctor and Amy convince Bracewell that he is human, which deactivates the device.
5.4 The Time of Angels
River Song (Alex Kingston), a woman from the Doctor's future, summons the Doctor and Amy to help her and Father Octavain (Iain Glen) and his group of militarized clerics destroy the last Weeping Angel in the site of the crashed ship Byzantium on the planet Alfava Metraxis. However, it is revealed that all statues in the stone labyrinth where the ship has crashed are Angels and are becoming more powerful from the radiation leaking from the ship. As the Angels surround the group and several clerics are revealed to be dead, the Doctor destroys the gravity globe that had been causing the labyrinth not to be affected by gravity.
5.5 Flesh and Stone
In continuation from "The Timeo of Angels", the group finds themselves thirty feet above at the opening of the Byzantium, which they enter to try escaping from the Weeping Angels. A crack very similar to the one in Amy's bedroom appears in the interior of the ship, which the Doctor discovers erases persons and objects from existance and was caused by an explosion on 26 June 2010. Meanwhile, it is discovered that a projection of an Angel had entered Amy's eye after she had looked into an Angel's eye in the previous episode, and the Doctor intructs her to keep her eyes closed. As the gravity fails, the Weeping Angels fall into the crack, erasing them from history and from Amy's eye, and the Doctor takes Amy to her house on her request. He resists her attempt to seduce him and descovers that the day of Amy and Rory's wedding is 26 June 2010.
5.6 The Vampires of Venice
The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to 16th century Venice as a romantic date, where they meet a man named Guido (Lucian Msamati) whose daughter Isabella (Alisha Bailey) was entered into the House of Calvierri, a school for girls. Guido is distressed because Isabella did not recognise him on the street and bore vampire-like fangs. The Doctor, Amy and Rory investigate the school, where they discover that the city's patron, Rosanna Calvierri (Helen McCrory), is a race of vampiric fish from another planet and has sealed off Venice in attempt to overtake it and make it a place for her race to live after they fled their planet because of the cracks in the universe. She transforms the girls admitted to her school into her race and has ten thousand of her children waiting in the water. Despite the Doctor's reasoning, she activates a storm which will flood Venice, but the Doctor deactivates the device and she sacrifices herself. As they leave, Amy asks Rory to stay and travel with her.
5.7 Amy's Choice
The Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves travelling between two realities; in one, Amy and Rory are happily married but are being pursued by elderly people possessed by aliens, while in another they are in a powerless TARDIS that will slowly crash into a cold star which will freeze them to death. A man known as the Dream Lord (Toby Jones) says that he has put them in this trap and they must decide which is real and which is fake and die in the false one to wake up in the real reality and escape the trap. When Rory dies in the future reality, Amy decides that it must be fake because she does not want a life without Rory. At the conclusion it is revealed that psychic pollen had entered the TARDIS and caused the dream state, and the Dream Lord is revealed to be a psychic manifestation of the Doctor's dark side and self-loathing.
5.8 The Hungry Earth
The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in Wales in 2020, where Dr Nasreen Chaudhry (Meera Syal) and Tony Mack (Robert Pugh) are drilling into the Earth for a mining experiment. Mack's son-in-law, Mo (Alun Raglan), had previously been dragged below the ground, which then happens to Amy. The Doctor discovers that reptilian humanoids the Silurianshave been disturbed by the drilling project and reach the surface, where they kidnap Mo's son Elliot (Samuel Davies). Rory and the Doctor capture one known as Alaya (Neve McIntosh); the Doctor instructs Rory, Tony, and Mo's wife Ambrose (Nia Roberts) to leave Alaya alone as anything done to her may been seen as an act of war. As a Silurian is about to vivisect Amy as he had done to Mo, the Doctor takes Nasreen on the TARDIS below where they discover an immense Silurian civilisation.
5.9 Cold Blood
Amy and Mo escape and discover Elliot is being held in an observation chamber. The Doctor is captured and ordered to execution by Alaya's sister Restac (Neve McIntosh), but Amy and Mo interrupt the trial. They contact Rory, Tony, and Ambrose to inform them they are sending a transport up for they and Alaya, the completion of which will leave them all free to return to the surface. However, Ambrose had killed Alaya out of revenge and they return her body to her people. A deal is made that the Silurians will hibernate for a thousand years as humanity was not ready to share the planet with them. As they leave with Elliot, they find a crack in the cavern which the Doctor reaches into to investigate and pulls out what is later revealed to be a piece of the TARDIS. Before they leave, Restac shoots Rory and he dies and is consumed by the crack, erasing him from existace and Amy's memory altogether.
5.10 Vincent and the Doctor
When visiting a museum, the Doctor finds a creature in the window of a church Vincent van Gogh's The Church at Auvers, and the Doctor takes Amy back to meet Vincent (Tony Curran) and defeat the evil creature. Welcoming them, van Gogh works with the Doctor to find the Krafyis, a lost and blind alien whom only van Gogh can see. Van Gogh kills the creature, though he empathises with its pain. Before leaving, the Doctor and Amy take van Gogh to the present where he discovers that people will admire him, but Amy is devastated to learn that he still committed suicide.
5.11 The Lodger
The TARDIS dematerialises with Amy still inside, leaving the Doctor stranded in present-day Colchester. He tracks the disturbance that caused the TARDIS to behave that way to the second floor of a flat, where people have been persuaded to go up to but have never come down. The Doctor rents part of the downstairs apartment occupied by Craig Owens (James Corden), a man who wishes to confess his love for his close friend Sophie (Daisy Haggard). When Sophie is lured up to the second floor, the Doctor and Craig enter it and discover that it is really a TARDIS-like spaceship disguised by perception filter and has been luring passerby to find a suitable pilot. The fact that Craig does not want to leave counteracts the ship's protocols, and this breaks the ship's hold on the house and allows the TARDIS to land. On the TARDIS, Amy discovers her engagement ring from Rory.
5.12 The Pandorica Opens
River Song summons the Doctor and Amy to 102 A.D. where she shows them a painting by Vincent van Gogh that depics the TARDIS exploding and contains the co-ordinents ofStonehenge. Underneath Stonehenge, they discover a prison box called the Pandorica, which is fabled to contain the most feared criminal in the universe. However, it is revealed that the Pandorica is empty and an Alliance of the Doctor's enemies arrive to put him in the Pandorica as the deadly cracks in the universe were linked to the TARDIS. The trap, which was constructed from Amy's memories, also contains an Auton version of Rory, who shoots Amy. Meanwhile, the TARDIS took River outside Amy's house on 26 June 2010 and explodes, causing the cracks to widen and the universe to begin erasing.
5.13 The Big Bang
The Doctor from the future gives Rory his sonic screwdriver and Rory uses it to get him out of the Pandorica; they place the dead Amy in the Pandorica, which will force her to stay alive once her DNA is given in the form of seven-year-old Amelia in 1996 who places her hand on the Pandorica by way of instructions left by the Doctor. As the universe is collapsing, the Doctor rescues River from the time loop in the exploding TARDIS and realises that if he flew the Pandorica, which contains a restoration field, collided with the exploding TARDIS it would restore the universe as it should have been, though this process erases him from history and closes the cracks. However, Amy is able to bring him back at she and Rory's wedding due to something the Doctor told her as he was being erased, and the newly wedded couple continue to travel with him.
The little fella's wanted to go fishing forever, and despite telling him how boring it is, he will not be talked out of it. So we got him a fishing rod and kit for his birthday. First trip out, we caught nothing, except for the cheeky crab that snipped off his hook and took it and the bait. An elderly man caught a shovel-nosed shark which he bought over for us to have a look at, but Beeb didn't want to touch it.Second trip out he caught a small whiting fish, which we released. Unfortunately we were too busy panicking about what to do with this fish that was flopping around, that we forgot to take a picture of it - at least until we'd thrown it back over the dock and it had swum away.
He's starting to get a lot better at casting now, but there's still the odd one thats a mystery. Somehow he managed to throw it out 90 degrees to us so instead of it being out in front, it was way down the jetty to the right, and then in the water. Luckily it missed all the people, and nobody got hooked on it.
This is a really cool video. The animation is really well done. Check it out!
First interview with Matt Smith, the new Doctor, and there's also been a few new clips and trailers for the upcoming new season.
Went to Alexandra Heads on the Sunshine Coast yesterday. First time I've been to the Sunshine Coast since we moved over - it's been over 3 years. Kind of similar to the Gold Coast, but without all the high rise buildings. I'm informed it's also less snobby - the people did look to be nice and normal. Quite a nice beach, although I didn't get in the water - still a bit unsure with all the killer jellyfish and sharks. Mostly just watched the people, and made sure Beeb didn't drown. Stupidly, I sunscreened myself before I took my shoes off, so I had very burnt feet later that night. Pretty much screamed like a little girl this morning when I had to put my shoes on for work. That'll teach me to be more careful.
