Two million units. That's the number of MASS EFFECT 2 video games EA / BioWare moved in the first week. Less than the first week, actually, according to CVG.Com. 

BioWare is incredibly pleased with itself, especially given the high scores the game has received across the board. I'm giving it a high score, too. If I could see. I'm bleary eyed. I don't think I've ever played a game so deeply and intensely as I have this one -- and I'm still not done yet.  I'm teaching on-line today, and wouldn't you know it, I'd rather be playing the video game. I gotta get to the end. I need my life back.

Note, it's possible that the numbers are slightly inflated. EA is reporting the sales figures from their internal accounting methods. It'll be a while until outside sources are able to confirm the numbers. I'm inclined to believe them that this was a big seller. It really is a great achievement in interactive entertainment.  If you are a SF fan and  haven't played yet, find a friend with an Xbox 360, camp out on their sofa, and start playing. 

Just remember to bathe.  

Source:  News: Mass Effect 2 does 2 million - ComputerAndVideoGames.com

UPDATE: Metacritic breaks down all of the reviews from across the interwebs for the game. It's amazing how well this thing scored and how consistent the praise is. (All the more reason to be slightly upset that there are no m/m romances in the game.) Click on: Mass Effect 2: Inside the Reviews - Metacritic

Ever notice how Chris Evans always manages to lose his pants in just about every movie he's appeared in?

I could be exaggerating a little bit, but when I saw the trailer for THE LOSERS, the latest comic-to-screen adaptation (though one that looks kinda fun), once again we have a seen where the E-man is discovered all but  nude.

THE LOSERS opens April 9th.

Source:  John Barrowman Comes To America ... For ABC | Airlock Alpha

Hmm. I wonder why this scene never made it to the big screen?

Tonight is the big return of CAPRICA, the BSG spin-off set 50-years before the Fall of The Colonies, and the farewell episode of DOLLHOUSE, the Joss Whedon thriller about mind-wipes and imported personalities. Sure, I know that CAPRICA had it's premiere last week, but since several million people had already seen the pilot, there was no real way to determine how the new series is going to do on a weekly basis. Tonight's the proof of the pudding, where we see if people love what the Powers-That-Be are selling or if the bitterness, the caveat emptor in light of the BSG series finale, turns people away. I'm hoping not. I liked what I saw of CAPRICA. I think it'll be a fun series, a must TIVO every week.

Also tonight, we get the series finale of DOLLHOUSE. The show has had a rocky road over the last two years. An interesting premise that seemed to have been fraked up in the development of the first six episodes, the series came to life once the Powers at Fox stepped away and let Whedon & Co. do their zanny best. I like the direction they took the series, especially this season. When Fox dropped the hammer the middle of the year and told the team to wrap up the storylines, the writers went ape-shit and took us down paths we didn't see coming -- but which totally made sense. We see how everything turns out tonight, flashing forward ten years into the future from the faux-finale of a few weeks back.  How will it all end? with a whimper or a bang? (I'm guessing a bang.)

I may have to put down MASS EFFECT 2 for a while and watch these eps live.... 

There's a reason it's referred to as "The Muppet Maneuver." 

Source:  9GAG - Kermit the Frog

 Source: First Scene From Second Ep Of 'Caprica' | Airlock Alpha

It was an interesting weekend for doorQiness. On Friday, SyFy gave us the brand new CAPRICA TV series, a pretty interesting exercise in world building life before the Cylons attacked and the remains of humanity fled across the stars in the Galactica. A couple of you expressed that you weren't going to watch it after the end game of the original series. For those of you who did watch it, what did you think?

There were other choices that night. The Haiti telethon was everywhere. It raised a reported $58 million for charity -- completely awesome. But you also might have found yourself wanting to get a bit bloody, as Starz' "SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND" premiered.  For me, it was all over the place. The eye candy was great but the dialogue was pretty awful. And the violence was so cartoony; I laughed when one of the gladiators got his legs chopped off.  Did anyone else catch it? What did you think.

And then there was LEGION.

Here are some caps from SPARTACUS, courtesy of Superherofan.Net. More at the link (NSFW).

 

 

 

I get sent stuff all the time: pictures, links, possible stories, latest discoveries -- and conspiracy theories, grand plots, and crazy "world changing" theorems. For the first bit, I'm appreciative. For the last bit, I never quite have all the time necessary to educate folks on critical thinking skills needed to navigate the pitfalls of putrid information. 

It's not like I'm an expert on critical thinking, either. I get tripped up all the time. But I've always thought that since I love aliens, UFOs, the X-Files, magic, ESP and the like, it behooves me to at least try to figure out what's real and what is, really, just fiction. I love fiction. I write the shit for a living.

But with a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask when someone - a site, a news story, a friend or one of a chain email -- makes a radical, incredible claim. 

It's pretty simple, too. It involves asking yourself 10 questions about the claim, ten touchstones to help guide tease out the silliness from the sublime.  It's actually based on Carl Sagan's idea that "Extraordinary Claims require Extraordinary Evidence,"  a pretty simple idea when you think about it.

Here are the 10 Questions: 

1. How reliable is the source of the claim?

2.Does the source make similar claims?

3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?

4. Does this fit with the way the world works?

5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?

6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?

7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?

8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?

9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?

10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?

And here's Shermer himself to talk about this guide in more detail:

I can't be the only one so obsessed, right? Right? 

Here's the Official Launch trailer for next week's MASS EFFECT 2. I mean, you know, if you haven't seen any advertising, commentary, reviews, previews, or general "SQUEEE" comments from bloggers, announcers or gamers, gay or straight.

Like me. 

Oh, and isn't that a pretty phallic gun in that screen shot above? I'm wondering what Sheppard is trying to prove.

Okay, this actually looks cool. But it's SMALLVILLE. Will I be disappointed? Will it collapse under the weight of weak writing, acrid acting and general lunacy so common with this show, or am I going to cream my doorQyshorts?

Behold, the trailer for SMALLVILLE: ABSOLUTE JUSTICE, featuring the first ever TV look at the Justice Society of America.

Yeah, it's another MASS EFFECT post, but you'll like this one. I complained pretty bitterly about ME 1's lack of m/m romance options; BioWare is pretty good about spreading the love around but it was shameful that they didn't include that option -- due to developer "uncomfortableness" -- in ME 1. Though there's been lots of questioning about the upcoming MASS EFFECT 2, it still doesn't look like the male version of the main character is going to get to mac it down with any of the male teammates in the game.

But reality isn't an obstacle for determined game players, at least as far as MASS EFFECT 1 goes. One gaymer who goes by the name of lasangreal on YouTube, set out to do a little retconning of his own, altering game files and render mechanics to give the first epsiode in this fun game the gay romance option it rightly deserves. (Well, except for one brief moment, but you do what you can.) 

Check it out, the Gay Romance From Mass Effect 1 you should have been able to see:

And in case you are interested, here's how the original scene played out:

As we celebrate the momentous life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, and as many wonder if the gay community needs it's own MLK to finish the job of securing Gay Equality or if his inspiration alone is enough, I just wanted to point out that, among the many great things the man did and was, he was also a big fan of STAR TREK, and instrumental in getting Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura, to stay on the show.

Here's an excerpt from Nichols recent interview with  journalist Savas Abadsidis where she explains how she made one of the most important choices of her life:

One of the organizers came up to me and said that there was someone who wants to meet you; and he says that he’s you’re best, biggest fan and I’m thinking it’s a Trekkie! [laughs] and so I said certainly and I got up and turned around and maybe 10 or 15 feet coming towards me I see Dr. Martin Luther King and I remember thinking whoever that little fan is, he’s going to have to wait, because here’s Dr. King, who walks straight up to me with this big, magnificent smile on his face and says, “I’m the fan!” because I’m sort of looking around for someone else, and he says, “I am your best fan, I am your biggest fan!” and I...I was at a loss for words, and if you know me, I am never at a loss for words.

I just couldn’t say a thing and he began to tell me how important my role was, what an inspiration it was. And you have to understand we were in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, people were regularly being attacked by dogs, and marchers were being hosed on the television every night, real life things, and here I am in this futuristic thing on TV and he was so complimentary, he told me “I was so important and the way you have created this role,” and I am just looking at him and looking at him and I remember I just kept hoping he’d never stop talking. Because his voice is just, you know the voice. And I finally just start saying, thank you so much Dr. King and I am shaking his hand and still shaking from nervousness and I said thank you so much and I am really going to miss my co-stars.

And at this his face totally changed, and he said “What are you talking about?!” and so I told him I would be leaving the show, because [I'd been offered a Broadway show]; and that was as far as he let me go, and he said, “STOP! You cannot! Do you not understand what you are doing?! You are the first non-stereotypical role in television! Of intelligence, and of a woman and a woman of color?! That you are playing a role that is not about you’re color! That this role could be played by anyone? That’s not a black role. That’s not a female role! A blue eyed blond or a pointed ear green person could take that role!” And I am looking at him and looking at him and buzzing, and he said, “Nichelle, for the first time, not only our little children and people can look on and see themselves, but people who don’t look like us, people who don’t look like us, from all over the world, for the first time, the first time on television, they can see us, as we should be!

As intelligent, brilliant, people in roles other than slick tap dancers, and maids, which are all wonderful in their own ways, but for the first time we have a woman, a WOMAN, who represents us and not in menial jobs, and you PROVE it, this man [Gene Rodenberry] proves and establishes a precedent that validates what we are marching for because three hundred years from today there we are, and there you are, in all our glory and all your glory! And you CANNOT leave!”

And I did not leave. 

JustJared reported that SUPERNATURAL star Jared Padalecki is also in the running to wear the skimpy loin-cloth for the updated CONAN: THE BARBARIAN movie.

If so, it might explain why no decision has been made on casting Kellan Lutz or Jason Momoa in the role: arguably, Padalecki is better known as the lead of a popular TV show, though both Lutz and Momoa have followings from their own (supporting) roles on TV and film. 

Plus, Jared might look better all bronzed up and wielding a broadsword. 

One sticking point on his acceptance of the role might be his impeding marriage to long-time girlfriend Genevieve Cortese; he'd been planning on a ceremony right around the same time CONAN is looking to start filming.

If he was gay, he wouldn't have this problem. He wouldn't be able to marry his beloved in California, so that'd keep his schedule open for filming.

 Source:  Jared Padalecki: Conan The Barbarian Competitor — EXCLUSIVE | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jared Padalecki, Shirtless : Just Jared

Scion is a new doorQ.com member, who stumbled over us on YouTube. He's a 24-year-old Portuguese VFX artist, with some crazy cool videos on his YouTube  channel. 

He was messing around the other night in AfterEffects and created a trailer for doorQ.com. It's really cool and it's gotta be one of the best member gifts the site's ever gotten.  

Check it out: 

As a little proto-homo-doorQ teen, one of my favorite novel series was Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter of Mars." Today, the live action version of the film began principal photography. For those of you who never cracked this book, Civil War era soldier John Carter is scientifically / magically transported to the dying world of Mars, otherwise known as Barsoom to the various locals, and gets involved with political intrigue, alien romance and high adventure. The perfect stuff for a rainy Saturday afternoon. 

JOHN CARTER OF MARS is being directed by Jim Morris, the famed animator / director of WALL*E. This isn't an animated movie, though. This is all live action. All amazing vistas realized through CGI. All actors tearing through the wounded Martian landscape. Given the magic of AVATAR, and of Morris' own WALL*E, I'm really curious to see how this turns out. 

 

You've got Willam Dafoe in this asTars Tarkas, the fierce and powerful Martian Warrior, though you'd be forgiven for thinking that "fierce" and "powerful" are only properly used as adjectives for drag queens. Or Lady Gaga.  Tarkas is also green, 8 feet tall, sports four arms and big, bug like eyes.  Na'vi indeed, right? 

John Carter is played by Taylor Kitsch, of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and X-MEN fame. Could they could have picked a better representation of my adolescent imagination's image of what a stalwart and heroic god is supposed to be than Kitsch-as-Carter? Don't really think so. It's a great choice for the movie... as long they don't frak things up.  

 

Unfortunately, one thing they won't be doing, one thing that kept that proto-homo-doorQy-teen-imagination as equally engaged with visualization, is having Tars and Carter battle evil Martians in-the-buff.  Loin cloths for everyone this time out, unfortunately. Naked heroes? It was right there in Burrough's description terribly exciting for a horny, closeted 13 year-old: hot naked guys conquering an alien world rocked at that age.

Okay, it still does.

Source:John Carter of Mars fires up in London! New details | SCI FI Wire

I was texting "Haiti" to 90999 this morning, contributing a small amount of money to the relief efforts in what's probably one of the worst natural disasters in decades, when I realized I have all of you readers and members out there. Several thousand, according to various meters.

So if you haven't had a chance yet, take a moment and donate something, the cost of a comic, a ticket to film, even if it's just what you'd spend for a Coke in the soda machine, and help our relief efforts in dealing with the tragedy down there. I just did the 90999 SMS message, sending "Haiti" and $10 bucks to The Red Cross' relief efforts.  I'm going to donate a few more bucks, once I'm assured that Visa or Amex isn't going to take a cut of the money. I'm hoping you guys will, too.

Here's a link to the Red Cross.

Don't let dickheads like this: 

This is not exactly SF / Fantasy / Horror.... unless not waxing is counted as a horrendous feat that slays the soul... but it is cute never the less. Keifer Sutherland, of 24 fame, lost a bet and the results are dragalicious.

We all know Matt Smith is cute. The joke going around is "Is the new DOCTOR WHO a twink?" Your definition of "twinkness" may vary, and it is a fun question, but the real impetus behind such questions is trying to predict what this guy is going to be like week to week zipping through time and space.

Here's one more piece for you for your predictions, a recent interview with Smith about a short film that premiered at Cannes this past summer. 

Exterface are two 24-year-old French artists, Julien and Stéphane, who create some pretty wild imagery, especially of  he male form - its desires and meanings.

By their own account, they attempt to manipulate the images of various guys "... exposing them, stripping them until they are lost between coloured light and darkness."

Hey, folks. Quick little FYI.

The Federal Court is hearing arguments over the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the law that removed the right for gay people to get married. The YouTube recordings of the proceedings were blocked by the US Supreme Court while they have time to review the law, so there's no visual record of what's going on. But, through the power of Twitter and blogs, you can keep up with the blow-by-blow of the trial on-line.

Check it out here:   Prop 8 Trial Tracker

It's pretty cold in space.

What men do for warmth, stories are written over. 

In honor of DEMONS getting the best  debut of any series of on BBC America -- which might have something to do with the Tennant DOCTOR WHO episodes getting the best ratings ever for BBCA -- I give you more images of Christian Cooke, the quite bewitching lead of the show. I've pulled them from gallery Superherofan.Com's gallery devoted to him. 

I'm not really spoiling anything to tell you that there's only one season of DEMONS. The series didn't do well enough to earn a second batch of episodes -- which, if you watched the pilot, isn't that surprising. These are the only shirtless adventures of Cooke we'll get. But, he has moved on to another series, a sudsers called TRINITY, which is fortunate for us, as he takes even more off in that show, as the image below reveals.

Check out the rest of the images at the link. The second episode of DEMONS airs tonight at 10PM on BBCA. 

After being the tough antagonist on the Civil War story arc and going underground with the Dark Reign storyline,  IRON MAN is getting a reboot -- literally -- in the pages of the comics. As part of that revamp, Marvel has released this image of the new armor Tony's going to be sporting, right around the time IRON MAN 2 hits movie screens this summer.

Amazing how the comics' IRON MAN revamps his suit at the same time his movie counterpart is....

It's a newer, sleeker, more techno-savy version, something series writer Matt Fraction says Tony Stark would "covet." He's not the only one. I know it's only a comic and only a movie, but I'd really prefer to commute to work in red and gold Power Armor than my convertible Mustang.  And I love my Mustang.

Source:  Marvel Unveils New Iron Man Armor - ComicMix news

The BBC has released an official wallpaper of Matt Smith as the Doctor. The image includes the new logo and, it looks like, the ever present illumination of the sonic screwdriver.

Sound waves turned into light? Sounds like a bad Chain Reaction to me.

(Your groans are applause enough.)

We are a finite species on a fragile world.

There are so many nights I wonder if we'll make it to another morning.

So, who do you want on top, Neil Patrick Harris or John Barrowman?

There's currently a battle raging between Mondo Mos for the title of Greatest Mo of The Century.... well, actually, it's a competition between Harris and Barrowman for AfterElton’s Man of the Decade title. I liked my title better. 

The voting, like the candidates, has been hot and heavy, involving fans and celebs on either side of the pond. Over here, backing Harris, Nathan Fillion, Alyson Hannigan and Jimmy Fallon have been motivating their fans and twitter friends to vote for that horrible Doctor.

Across the pond, Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Ross have weighed in with their legion of supporters, getting folks to vote for Barrowman and to follow all of the shenanigans over twitter, at  #biggaybattle.

But the real question is where do you fall? Do you want the hunktastic Barrowman, singer of songs ans slayer of Daleks, to capture the top spot or do you want the golden goodness of Harris, he of Howser fame and internet geekdom, to surge all the way to victory? Make your voice known  here.

The choice, my dear doorQs, is yours.... 

Source:  Neil Patrick Harris on John Barrowman: “I’ll happily stand right behind him…”

STAR WARS maestro George Lucas did a round with John Stewart, discussing his love of films and his legacy with that franchise that many of us wish he'd stopped working on after RETURN.

Interestingly, he notes that there are three generations of SW fans, those who came of age watching the original trilogy, those who encountered the sequel films first and those who now have THE CLONE WARS as their entry point in the SW universe. He states that every group claims their own movies or TV shows as being "the best" and tend to regard the other series as not quite as good.

And, you know, I'm willing to grant Lucas that point. I teach First and Second in an after-school program two days out of the week. Their love for CLONE WARS is incredible. From backpacks to playground play, everything is about clones, Jedi and evil robots. It's pretty amazing to behold. I'll also be honest and say that I watch CLONE WARS every week. I found the movie that came out last year tiresome and boring, but in 18 minute animated chunks it's really pretty fun.

No, story and character wise, CLONE WARS isn't better than the original trilogy -- it isn't even better than the sequel set. Episodes 1, 2, and 3, aren't consistently better than 4,5 and 6. While parts are good, and 3 is a far better movie than 1, they still aren't as well written as the first three. But I will say that all the series are really fun, really an experience that does transport you to another world and another time, even if you think, as I do, that there are better encounters with that time and space than others. 

For a lot of people, JJ Abrams Trek is their TREK. Davies' DOCTOR WHO is their WHO and the current iteration of V is the only one they've ever known. I can argue why one version might be structurally or thematically better than another, but in terms of enjoyment and the ownership of that enjoyment, such statements fall pretty flat. 

Lafayette is getting a love.

Kevin Alejandro is joining the cast of TRUE BLOOD,  GregInHollywood.Com reports. Alejandro will play Jesus Velasques, an orderly and son of Alfre Woodward's Ruby Jean Reynolds. Alejandro was last seen -- if you can call an NBC series cancelled before the ordered second season ever aired -- in the police procedural SOUTHLAND.*

He's got a good SF pedigree, having also appeared in GEMINI DIVISION, KNIGHT RIDER and ELEVENTH HOUR.  Greg reports he's going to be in just about every episode of TRUE BLOOD, so I imagine we'll get to know him very well. 

*True, the second series was picked up by TNT, but still..... 

Source: Kevin Alejandro has been cast on HBO’s “True Blood” as the sexy love interest for Lafayette 

My MASS EFFECT 2 obsession continues. 

(It'll end on the 26th when the game comes out. Deal until then.)

Here's the Gamestop trailer for the game, showing off what special fate befalls the badguys.

It's funny. Trust me. 

A friend sent me a quick reminder that DEMONS, the hunky-male, English take on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, gets underway tonight, after the final episode of WHO.

About a young man who learns he's the last descendant of Van Helsing, the famous vampire hunter, he spends the next 13 weeks slaying all manner of supernatural beasties. Shirtless.

Christian Cooke stars as the young, buff hero. 

Here's a preview:

DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME Part Two airs tonight on BBCA. I caught it last night and it's a fun and sad conclusion to David Tennant's run as you know who.

Much of the plot is rather "light" -- it rolls briskly from point to point, satisfactorily if not impressively -- but the character moments truly sing, bringing a tear to the eye. The last 20 minutes are pretty much all character. It's what saves the show and makes it truly great. 

There are many things to watch out for in this episode, homages to other shows, a certain name that comes out of left-field and makes you go "Shit!" and a cause that had a terrible effect on all of Time. I think you'll also enjoy the last five minutes, too. It bodes well for the future.

Speaking of the future, if you are interesting in sneaking a peak at Matt Smith's take on the good Doctor, I've embedded a trailer for the new spring episodes of DOCTOR WHO. Moffat is a great successor to Davies and Smith looks like he's going to do fine in the roll.