11 Doctors, 3 Masters, but only one Brigadier!

The Geek world mourned today at the news of the death of Nicholas Courtney, the man who played the famous Brigadier Sir Alastair Lethbridge-Stewert, a commanding officer in UNIT (Originally the United Nations Intelligence Task force and now the Unified Intelligence task force)

Appearing periodically in the series from season 5 to 13, and reappearing the series 20th Season - and more recently in the Sarah Jane Adventures. Appearing alongside every doctor from Hartnell to Mc Coy he appeared in over 100 televised epsiodes with 5 different Doctor's

Having served in the military himself he portrayed the stalwart commander with a plomb in both the TV shows and the audio plays.

It would be a fitting send off to have a 21 gun salute of 'Five rounds,, rapid'

Nicholas Courtney passed away on 22nd of February 2011 after a short illness

X-Men: First Class

So the X-men: First Class has been on the cards for an absolute age in one form or another.  Rumours of the Magneto origins, Xavier origins movies have circulated the web since before the Wolverine movie was a twinkle in the plot writer’s eye. 

Set in the 60’s when Magneto and Xavier were both young men before all of the issues arose that eventually made them arch enemies.  While the plot has been left pretty oblique, I can only assume that ‘First Class’ refers to the beginnings of the X-mansion and the institute. 

I am concerned that there will be a lot of plot holes or things that don’t match with the Xavier we have been presented with in the previous films.  For a start Scott, Jean, and the others who formed the first class of X-men in the comics knew Charles when he was bald, even in the Wolverine movie Charles, although he can still walk, is bald.  I wonder how much of Jean and Scott’s back story, if any, will be shown. 

Moreover, if Emma is supposed to be the White Queen already she is going to be significantly older than Scott and Jean.  I know they aren’t sticking to the comics verbatim but at the same time the Emma/Scott/Jean triangle was a major feature of quiet a few of the comic runs.  While I think, January Jones will make a credible Emma Frost, she certainly has the 60’s movie starlet to pull it off I am worried that some elements of the movie will become a little like the overly cheesy hero shoes from the same period – especially since many of the characters will have costumes much like the ones from the comics. 

There were lots of debate over the role of Xavier and Magneto – at one stage there was talk of using the software that is used to age the faces of missing children but in reverse to make Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart look younger – which is a touch odd in itself and despite the general concern over the people that have been cast I think the line up looks pretty good.  Despite the few age issues I have. 

At the moment the line up appears to be (Left-Right):

Micheal Fassbender : Eric Lensherr

Rose Byrne : Miora McTaggert

January Jones : Emma Frost

Jason Flemyng : Azazel

Nicohlas Hoult : Hank McCoy

Lucas Till: Alex Summers

Zoe Kravitz: Angel Salvadore

Jennifer Lawrence: Raven Darkholme

James McAvoy: Charles Xavier

(Not Shown)

Kevin Bacon: Sebastian Shaw

Oliver Platt: Man in Black

As a massive fan of Oliver Platt I’m incredibly glad that he’ll be appearing in First Class, although my internal type cast means that everything he appears in should simply be as varying shades of Porthos! He is capable of more than that I know but I find I don’t care – I simply want the sash that was a gift to him from the Queen of America.

Due to be released on the 3^rd of June 2011 First Class is set to be the first of a new trilogy directed by Donner.  I don’t want to judge the series too harshly just yet but there will be more details as I get them!  A few more stills attached! 

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EDIT:

HERE IS THE TRAILER! HERE
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Geek Decorating

 When I talk about Geek decorating, I don't mean geek feng shui, or how to make your house look bigger on the inside, I mean the actual decor! What's the geekiest item you have in your home? Captain Kirk cardboard cut out?  Fantasy wall art? Doctor Who bed spread?  The topic of geek decorating came up in a conversation recently as to how deeply you hide your inner geek or how proudly you display it.  My current level of geek display equates to my DVD's on display, Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies wall art, and some full size Cybermen masks.  Which is all fairly tame – especially when compared to my friend whose home is bedecked with swords, spider man comic book art, a hand drawn star trek caricature of him fencing Captain Kirk and a telephone in the shape of a TARDIS (granted I gave him that).  

I blame my own lack of geek interior decorating on the fact that as a student I don’t have a space of my own, I live in one room of a rented house, with no living room.  So I don’t have a lot of scope for decorating, and my parents refuse to allow me to redecorate the Victorian dining room to resemble Ten Forward.  

However, I have recently received from serious inspiration as to what I would ‘like’ to do with my home the minute I get one.  One my unfailing fencers revealed recently she has a ‘secret room’ in her house –hidden behind a door.  ‘So What?’ I hear you ask, well here it is -->

THATS RIGHT! It's Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite as a door!  It was custom made to replace the original and while it doesn’t look like a door (which is rather the point) It does look EPIC! 

BUT WAIT! There is more! The room itself is her  own little geek haven for gaming and what not! And its protected by her other major geek displayed item is the 7 foot Warcraft Orc that stands behind the sofa!

I have however, warned her that should the door go missing that those pesky mandalorians do look a lot like 5 foot female law students! XD

From what I can tell the prop itself can be bought from suppliers like THIS ONE and it then has to be altered to be a door -the amount of work and the detail involved is amazing! 

My jealousy is utterly unending! If there was ever an inducement to PhD study and becoming a lecturer then this is it!  More than that it is a truly proud display of geek pedigree and a way of judging  the geekiness of your friends – if they realise what the door depicts or can indentify the orc as Warcraft rather than LOTR then they can be considered fairly hardcore.  

So there it is viva geek decorating and heaven help anyone I end up living with because I've just been given something new to aspire to!