Daily Archives: December 17, 2011
Biff Bam Pop’s Holiday Gift Guide Day 17, Part 2 – Doctor Who Series 6 on DVD and Blu-Ray
A caveat: this gift is for the Whovian on your list, and the Whovian alone. While some series of the reboot of Doctor Who can be seen without prior knowledge of the series, they are few and far between. Realistically, you can only start with series 1 or series 5. All you need to know for those two are that there’s this alien who’s called The Doctor, and he travels through space and time in a blue box. 2-4, plus the specials, all build off the first series, however, and this latest installment builds off series 5.
This is the second series with the eleventh Doctor, portrayed by Matt Smith, and it has some of the best episodes since the show started up again in 2005. Neil Gaiman even wrote an episode! (it’s fantastic, and in places you can hear Gaiman’s voice in the dialogue – not so much with the Doctor and his companions but with the rest of the cast) Admittedly, the series is not perfect, but it has a very captivating arc from the very first episode that permeates all thirteen episodes.
In short, how does The Doctor face a fixed point in time, his fixed point. From the first episode to the end the viewer continually asks themselves “How is he going to get out of this?”
The series arcs twice, too. This had to do with the way it aired on the BBC: it aired in two halves. It spirals towards an epic mid-season cliffhanger (and revelation, let me tell you), and then it heads back to the start. Yes, space and time isn’t fixed – wibbly, wobbly, timey-wimey (ok, so that was a 10th Doctor reference, but it still fits). The series is also very much about the Doctor and River; Amy and Rory (the Doctor’s current companions) are in more of a supportive role. Many series of Doctor Who deal with the Doctor and his relationship with his female companion, but this one is anomalous. Amy and Rory are important, and they’re by no means forgotten, but this series is about so much more than unspoken crushes.
The series is available on DVD and Blu-ray, the second of which I believe is a first for a Doctor Who series’ initial release. Exciting! Not only can the Doctor travel through time, but he can do it in high-definition.
So why recommend a series of television as a gift for which you must have prior knowledge? Because I refuse to admit for an instant that our readers are devoid of Doctor Who fans. The thought is ridiculous.
Motley Crue’s The Dirt 10th Anniversary Edition Winner Announcement!
Congrats to Amy Mech from Toronto, Ontario! She’s won a copy of the 10th Anniversay edition of Motley Cure’s The Dirt, courtesy of our friends at Harper Collins! Don’t forget, you’ve got a chance to win Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series on DVD all weekend long!
Biff Bam Pop’s Holiday Gift Guide Day 17 – Give The Gift of Game!
We all have that one friend, the one that is so hard to buy for because all they do is sit around and play video games. Well this year, why not give them exactly what they want by buying them a game from Steam!
Now I know that Steam is normally thought of as a way to get games for yourself, but you can give games to others just as easily! By “gifting” games, you can purchase the game on your own system and virtually send it to another Steam user. Just add the game to your cart as usual, and then simply select “Purchase as Gift”. It’s that easy! It’s all the fun of giving without the horrible wrapping jobs!
So many to choose from!
Think that they’ll enjoy slaying dragons in the mystical realm of Skyrim? Steam has it. Think they’ll want to become a feared assassin like Ezio in Assassins Creed: Revelations? Steam has it. Punch out the joker in Batman: Arkham City? Steam has that too! Even Modern Warfare 3!
They even have easy to read system requirements underneath each game that tells you (or the gift receiver) if you have the system requirements to actually play the game.
So this Christmas, instead of giving the gift of lame, give the gift of game! (pretty much an example of the gift of lame right there.)
