F-ZeroOne

Thanks! I hope no-one thinks I'm making fun of depression, though; a close relative suffered for a while so I know its not a nice thing to go through. Yep, Tomino did Turn-A - and he excelled himself with it. Despite all the flak it got when the concept art first appeared, its actually quite possibly the best Gundam series, and a truly excellent science fiction show in its own right. The whole Turn-A design is incredibly clever - its still going to be talked about when the last Strike-Aelie-Wing-Zero-Freedom-Wotsit is gathering dust in some Bandai warehouse somewhere; meanwhile, the 30s-style setting gives the show a timelessness that will mean its never going to look out-of-place. I loved the cow episode; and its typical of Tomino, highlighting the plight of people caught up in a conflict they just want to live through. Family is also an important Tomino theme; many of his series revolve around a dispossessed bunch of people finding themselves bonding into a substitute family during a conflict - the crew of the White Base being perhaps the most famous. Going on to Ideon - I really wish it was a show more people would see, though I admit its formulaic episode structure makes it a bit of a trawl (its always worth bearing in mind with these older series, though, is that they were never designed to be watched in blocks of several episodes, but as a once-a-day or week treat), but Evangelion suddenly looks a little less clever once you've seen it, especially the movie. I've also recently been discovering the various series spawned from Time Bokan, and while also repetitive (being originally aimed at children) they do give an impression of being a "missing link" in a Western fans perspective of anime; the mad-cap antics of shows like Excel Saga suddenly make a bit more sense...

Try Ideon next. Especially the movie. Then you'll know why Tominos earned the moniker "Kill 'em all!". Believe or not, hes actually said in an interview that he truly believes humankind is wonderful. Hes got a funny way of showing it at times... Apparently, Tomino suffers from mood swings. Whens hes depressed, we get Zanbot-3, Ideon and V-Gundam. Whens hes happy, we get... er... the first half of ZZ Gundam. This is why it is important that Tomino is kept miserable. Happy Tomino is not a good thing for mecha shows. After V, though, apparently he changed his medication, or read some self-help books, or got a girlfriend, or something, because we then got Turn-A Gundam which manages to be a happy Tomino show that doesn't suck.

As always, Drifand, you make me want to run to my toys and get them to defy Gravity like you manage to! Love the pose you have the Ota Unit 2 in in the group shot, I must try that with my Ingram!

Good grief... it actually has poseability... (actually, I like these figures a lot, for all the mickey-taking I've been doing). Not exactly Who news, but the BBC is launching an iPlayer Channel for the Wii - this basically means you can watch Doctor Who after broadcast on your little white box. In the UK at least. Sorry, but no word on international launches of the service yet... now if they can also figure out a way to make the Wii controllers interactive with the programme...

I'm not really old enough to remember much of Space: 1999 apart from the "really cool bits where the Eagles blow up!", nor the Who episodes he wrote. but by most accounts it sounds like we've lost a good talent.

Russell T. Davies gets a fair bit of stick, but he does know a trick or two and the "thing" at the end of the new seasons first episode was a brilliant way of making something most people know still make most people sit bolt upright. I also loved the opening sequence in the office. Edit: action figures of the Weeping Angels? Action figures? With cool standing-still-as-a-statue feature?

They've done a couple of World War II games. You can get the demos on XBox Live. Going by the demos, they're... okay. Nothing special, a couple of nice ideas, and the later second game is rather improved (even in the demo) over the first.

It might be good, but I'd like to bet its not going to have an entire fleet of fighter planes riding into the final mission with all the pilots singing their lungs out, or a continuing theme of unrequited love between a wingman and his AWACs...

Okay, you've piqued my curiosity. What made 80s baggage handling superior to 00s baggage handling? Stringfellow Hawke popping up in Airwolf and Copperheading any stray bags?

Peter F. Hamilitons "Nights Dawn" trilogy is pretty good. Also, Alastair Reynolds is one to watch out, SF so hard you could use it to armour a Gundam. And another vote for Iain M. Banks; Use of Weapons has one of the best endings I've ever read, but I'll also add a vote for "Excession". Its a universe where twenty-kilometre long sentient spaceships go round with names like "What Are The Civilian Applications?".

"Blink" has basically been getting raves everywhere. Its just one of those spot-on perfect Who stories. What was even more incredible was that it was preceded by "Human Nature/Family of Blood" which were very nearly as perfect. The writer (not of Human Nature/Family of Blood), Stephen Moffat, also wrote "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" and "The Girl in the Fireplace", which possibly makes him the Hayao Miyazaki of Doctor Who. You may be excited by the fact that he has also written a two-parter for the new series as well...

Heads up: the latest, fourth season of the new Doctor Who begins this Saturday, 5th April, 18:20 GMT [1]. Also, David Tennant is everywhere at the moment, so downloaders might want to watch for this Fridays edition of the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show. [1] Of course, "Time" is a big ball of wibbley-wobbly timey-wimey... stuff...

The first, PAL DVD Gunbuster release was described by a fellow anime fan as having been butchered by barbarians... It was at least subtitled, but that and the fact that it was available was about all it had going for it...

You could borrow one of ours if you like. Not exactly aircraft related, but the grand opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow has turned into something of an - ahem - plane crash. Staff problems, computer problems, cancelled flights and the main sticking point, luggage handling problems. Not, as BA themselves have said, "their finest hour"...

One book I had described the Swordfish as "beautifully ugly". I think that sums up all three of the above, and the Beaufighter was a prize-fighter. Yes, it had a bashed-in face but it hit you back harder than anything else around. I like it quite a bit. I take your Bison and respond with this - literally - ugly Duckling:

Actually, the Hunter and the Vulcan were mostly of a similar time period to the Victor and Lightning. And with Spitfires, I guess it depends on what Mark you're talking about - I think the Mk. IX is the most elegant of the breed, but the later Griffon-engined marks can best be described as "beefy", and the original Mk. I had a faired-in canopy that to me seems less fitting for the lines than the slightly later bulged one. The bumpy Lightnings and Victors were later Marks too.

Ah, sorry - I can only blame tiredness. I thought it didn't look right but I couldn't think why...

Okay, that does it. I can put up with just about any amount of flak over the Typhoon... but British planes... ugly? Them thars fightin' words. Granted, the later models of the Victor and Lightning did have a few bumps, but when they originally appeared in the skies people thought that the Future had arrived. The Victor was part of a trio which included the Vulcan and Valiant, and we also had the Canberra and the Hunter. Theres also the Lancaster, Mosquito, and Sea Fury, from the W.W. II days. Okay, granted, there is the Fairey Gannet clause, but if you don't mention it we won't mention the X-32... Edit: Ah. Thought of the supreme example of modern jet fighter ugly.

I was joking. We Brits never get to have anything nice. *sniff* Edit - er - the Typhoon is actually in service, with several countries, at least. I'm not sure how up to date the Wikipedia entry is, but the Su-37 seems still to be largely a development article...?

What can I say? Theres occasionally a diamond in the rough... And I bet I can name one category - protraction of development. Sorry, I actually quite like the F-22 (not as much as the YF-23, though) but I couldn't resist!

Interesting little tid-bit about about the A380: it seats gazillions of passengers but only has 15 toilets. According to a journalist, there were always queues of three or four people the whole way to Singapore... Northrop-Grumman are submitting a design for a stealthy UCAV: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,164650,00.html They will no doubt build the greatest UCAV the World has ever seen, one that looks like a Ghost fighter or something, and then lose the contract to someone else. This is Northrop, the company the defence establishment loves to ignore. The Typhoon Tranche 1 recently completed its required weapons clearances i.e. it can now drop bombs. Heres some more Typhoon sucking the rain from the Welsh skies: http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/attachmen...mp;d=1206231304 With an American at the controls, no less. He said "The Typhoon is the number one fighter aircraft of the modern world. F-22s suck. Nyah-ya-ya!". Possibly. Edit: Northrop spelling. Sorry, Mr. Northrop. Hope you didn't spin too many times.

Nice shot of a RAF Typhoon being awesome. 'bout time we had one. http://www.eurofighter.com/medialibrary/de...mp;MediaID=8050

My favourite Clarke story was "Hide and Seek", which was perhaps very typical of his short work - a tale of a single spy outwitting the heavily armed space cruiser sent to capture him, it combined a science lesson, innovative vision (television guided missiles and electromagnetic cannons), humour (its one man running around a ball - how hard can this be?!) with a slight twist at the end. As mentioned, there are a couple of anime connections - leaving asides appearances of satellites, space elevators and, of course, 2001 references - Clarkes White Hart Inn appeared in an episode of Kimagure Orange Road, and he once met Mari Iijima, the singing Saviour of Humanity. Presumably invading UFOs trembled in terror at this match-up. He also had at least encountered Gundam and was impressed by the non-giant robot technical aspects of it. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Edit: its been pointed out to me that the original quote I used was something of a major spoiler, so I've fallen back on the line everyone else will be using... My apologies if I spoilt anything for anyone, it was truly unintentional.

Gawd, haven't you people ever heard an Eye of Harmony before?

You should know by now, after all, we make all the best movie villains...