.hack//Liminality (2003)

.hack//Liminality (2003)

4 episodes of varying lengths (45 mins or 30 mins long; 132 minutes in total)

A small but significant number of players have fallen into a coma while playing a game, an MMORPG titled The World. While the bodies of the afflicted lie in a hospital bed their online avatars have gone mysteriously missing. A group of concerned Player Characters band together to find out if there's a connection and, if there is, how to reverse the process so that they can get their friends back.

.hack// is a huge franchise. I've played games, read novels and manga, watched multiple anime (series and films) and own soundtracks. Sometimes the works are standalone and sometimes they aren't. The .hack//Liminality OVA requires knowledge of the larger universe, specifically the first four PS2 games (info HERE) to understand its history fully; the events that occur in the games are happening concurrently with events in the real world, although the main characters in each aren't the same.

ICO: Castle in the Mist (2008)

ICO: Castle in the Mist (2008)

Author:  Miyuki Miyabe  |  Translator:  Alexander O. Smith  |  Page Count: 370

'Whatever it was that dripped from the cage, it was blacker than pitch, the colour of melted shadow.'

The story as presented in the ICO video game (2001) was purposefully vague. It encouraged players to speculate about the backstory of the characters.

The act of filling in the blanks gave rise to a more personal experience for the player, making us not just the protagonist but also the teller, the narrator of the story as it was being lived/directed in real time.

Reading someone else's version of those same events, comparing and contrasting them with your own, can be an interesting or even rewarding undertaking for some folks. But when put into context, isn't a published version of such simply fan-fiction being sold at RRP?

Regardless of whether or not that's a fair assessment, I made sure while reading to judge the work for what it did well (or otherwise) with regards world-building, characterisation, etc, and not for being different to my own interpretation of the game's story; to have did otherwise would be a disservice to everyone involved.

Hawk the Slayer (1980)

Hawk the Slayer (1980)

Dir. Terry Marcel

A cheesy Sword and Sorcery flick that I loved as a kid. I'd a recorded-off-TV VHS copy back in the day, but times have changed and I no longer have a VHS player, so I bought it on Blu-ray and treated my memories to a rewatch in 1080p.

It borrows plot from quite a few different sources, including Tolkien, the Western genre, and a well-known sci-fi film that I refuse to name (hint: it rhymes with bar wars).

John Terry is Hawk, a leading man with an impractically-balanced magic sword, but the script doesn't push him to the fore like you might expect. If you were to add up his screen time, it's probably not much more than some of the other heroes. He's too phlegmatic to be considered charismatic, so it's not much of a loss.

F for Fake (1973)

F for Fake (1973)

Dir. Orson Welles / François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and Gary Graver (uncredited)

In Orson's own words, it's a "film about trickery," which is something that's explored in both the subject matter and through the medium via which it's presented.

Part documentary, part biopic, and part essay on the nature of what's real and what's fake, the film twists viewer perceptions while remaining wholly faithful to its own agenda, whatever that may be at any given time.

Its carefully constructed randomness is anything but. Hiding insight inside of hindsight, at times it's as frustrating as it is revealing, but about what exactly is something that's very much open to debate. Ultimately, it's a work made and narrated by Orson, but might be more about him than anyone else featured in it, real or constructed.

NOTE: depending where you look, or which edition you prefer to own, it's variously listed as having been released either in 1973, '74, or '75. The earliest screening date I can find is 1973 (San Sebastián Film Festival), so I went with that.

Supernatural: Season 02 (2007)

Supernatural: Season 02 (2007)

22 episodes, approx 42 mins each

It starts at the exact point that Season 01 ended, putting the brothers in a real world, relatable problem but with a freaky twist.

Some weighty decisions that will have consequences further down the line are made, adding a layer of hurried danger that continues in the majority of what follows.

There are still plenty of standalone episodes included, but the Yellow Eyes story arc is in the spotlight more, even though there's technically less episodes in which it takes actual centre stage. What I mean is that the Yellow Eyes influence is better integrated into the season as a whole, in a more unified manner, whereas previously it felt like a revolving door schedule whereby it was Yellow in one week and then out the next.

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

Doctor Who: Sylvester McCoy (1987-89)

The Seventh Doctor | 42 episodes, approx 25 mins each.

Given the name of the blog that you're presently reading it seems fitting that I should give Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy's incarnation of Doctor Who a post of his own, seeing as how he was the Seventh Doctor and, as it was believed at the time, the last.

But you can't keep a good Time Lord down, and it turned out that he was merely the last incarnation in what's since become known as the 'Classic Era' of the show, which began in 1963 with English actor William Hartnell.

McCoy's introduction was atypical in the series history because he was introduced at the beginning of a new season (Season 24), rather than at the end of a previous one.

But that's the only noteworthy aspect of his arrival. The actual regeneration scene, in which he transforms from a fatally injured Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is damned awful.

The Physics of Star Trek (1995)

The Physics of Star Trek (1995)

Author: Lawrence Krauss | Page Count: 188

'Thanks to Albert Einstein and those who have followed in his footsteps, the very fabric of spacetime is filled with drama.'

It's common knowledge that Star Trek not only 'boldly' ignored the laws of grammar, but that it wilfully ignored the laws of physics, too, However, in some instances the real-world science behind the fictional quick-fixes is surprisingly close to the TV show technobabble. Most fans will know why transporters were introduced, but not how they would theoretically work. TPoST provides answers.

It doesn't set out to debunk or discredit TV writers — it's not trying to achieve credibility by standing on the ashes of others — instead it aims to inform and explore the reality of what would be needed to achieve the life-changing physics used in the show. It's not just another boring cash-in book designed to milk the wallets of every weak-willed Trek fan ever.