BBC Announces 50th Anniversary Plans for Doctor Who....after, you know, somebody leaked them anyway.

Proving once again that while the Doctor can keep his secrets pretty damn effectively, the BBC has more leaks than faucet repaired by a blind three-legged hedgehog, the BBC has officially announced their full run down of all their celebratory programming for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary......hours after someone else leaked the whole damn thing.

Not to be undone, the Beeb confirmed that the title of the 50th Anniversary story will be "The Day of the Doctor." The special will run 75 minutes, and will feature a team up between the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and his predecessor, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). They also released this sweet-ass poster. Take a look at all the photo-shopped goodness below.

The special will costar Jenna Coleman as current companion Clara, Billie Piper (returning as the Tenth Doctor's companion Rose) and John Hurt. who Hurt plays exactly forms the central mystery of the special as in last season's final episode it was revealed (SPOILERS FOLLOW UNTIL END OF PARAGRAPH DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YA) that he is some sort of version of the Doctor who, according to the Eleventh Doctor "broke the promise."

Superman Won't Just Be Lifting Stuff In This Film

I've kind of been avoiding the massive deluge of Man of Steel stuff that is all over the interwebs right now. But I had to look at this new trailer, which seems to be 2 minutes of relentless action. It's sort of like Zak Snyder is mocking Bryan Singer's Superman Returns through marketing.

You remember Superman Returns, right? You know where Superman is a deadbeat Jesus-dad who basically spends the movie lifting really heavy things? Okay, I actually kind of like Superman Returns, but Man of Steel looks like a film that actually takes full advantage of 21st Century technology to tell the kind of big scale story the Big Red S deserves.

Check it out below:

Awesome-Sauce. Still think the costume looks.......really weird. Off. I think Supes really does need the red underpants. Otherwise he looks a little bland.

Also, Michael Shannon is terrifying. My favourite comment about him came from my friend Scofe who once told me, "I saw Michael Shannon on the street today. He stared into my soul."

Write Fan Fic? Amazon Wants to Help You Get Paid, Dawg

Yeah, you can't unsee this.

So, yeah, first off, let's get something out of the way here. I've written fan fic. I'm not proud of it, I didn't write very much, and it was a long time ago. If you know anything about me, you'll probably know what it was for. That's right, The Waltons. You can't know the thrill I got typing the words, "Goodnight, John Boy."

Up until recently, fan fic was the absolute literary gutter, just slightly above its more disreputable cousin, slash fic. The good fan fic was written by people that were talented writers, but fan fic really led nowhere, so one got the sense they were wasting their time. All the other kinds of fan fic are basically fan wank. That's where you get all that Star Wars meets Star Trek fan fic. Or Doctor Who meets The Dukes of Hazzard, etc.

But now, Amazon is taking things to the next level. They just announced Kindle Worlds, "a place for you to publish fan fiction inspired by popular books, shows, movies, comics, music, and games." Basically, they're starting a platform where people will be able to write fan fiction, submit it to Amazon, who will offer it for sale. They've gotten the license for properties owned by Warner Bros. Television Group's Alloy Entertainment. They produce shows like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and The Vampire Diaries. I'm thinking that last one will get the bulk of the submissions, all of them dealing with suppressed sexual desire and intense longing stares. The brooding. Oh, the brooding.

Beam Me Up, Scotty!........No, really!

Wow, this is kind of exciting. According to Fox News (not the best source, I know), scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland (how cool would it be to work there?) have successfully teleported information between two atoms over a distance of around a meter.

Click here to read the story, which contains an explanation on how they did it. I read it, and can honestly say there is no possible way I could ever summarize what is contained there. Seriously, when quantum physicists start talking mechanics, I basically just trust that what they're saying is the truth. They could be making it all up, as far as I know, and really, how would you prove them wrong?

So, basically, when am I going to be able to travel to Europe instantaneously? Get workin' on it, geeks, I got places to be.

RIP, NBC...

Wired.com has a fantastic article up right now called Fitting Network TV for a Toe Tag. It's both funny, true and contains some of the best ideas on how TV as an industry is changing and will have to adapt to the way we consume media.

Seriously, it's a great article. As a sample, here's a quote from the section dealing with how the major networks, in trying to be all things to all people, are losing out to specialty cable networks with niche programming. It refers to Steve Koonin, Turner Networks president, presenting his fall line-up for the year and totally schooling the four major networks:

"Koonin was brilliant," says Brian Terkelsen, of the brand consultancy MediaVest. "In my opinion, that was the turning point. We'll all look back and say the one riff that he did onstage that week shifted everything for cable and broadcasting. What he did was, he got up there and said, 'If I were to tell you the story of two networks, and one had a talking car and a steroid in a unitard who was beating up an average guy in a game show, and the other had an Academy Award-winning actress in her second season and a Golden Globe winner in her fourth season, which would you think was which?'" Koonin then unveiled slides of the cheesy shows—NBC's Knight Rider and American Gladiators—and the classy ones: TNT’s Saving Grace and The Closer. Point made, brutally. "If anybody in the room didn't think, 'Holy shit! It's all changed,'" Terkelsen says, "they’re morons."

Pwned.

Scientists Find Weird-Ass Chemical on Mars

According to this article, NASA has found evidence of a chemical substance in the Martian soil.

From the article:

NASA scientists said on Tuesday that the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected the apparent presence of a chemically reactive salt called perchlorate in the Martian soil. Perchlorate is a toxic material that's used in rocket fuel, but the scientists said its presence doesn't lessen the possibility that Mars has or once had some kind of life on it.

The article goes on to focus mainly on how the presence of perchlorate does not preclude the existence of life on Mars, which seems to skip right over the fact that Martian soil could possibly be used as rocket fuel. We should just rename that place "Chevron" and start trucking Martian rocket sand back here by the truckload.

The Dark Knight continues to rake it in...

It's only been in theatres for 10 days, but The Dark Knight's domestic box office total now stands at $300 million, the fastest a movie has ever reached that total.

Ka-zam.

Yep, it's safe to say that this will be the movie business story of the year. What's most interesting to me is that an almost opressively dark and uncompromising film connected this much with audiences. Looking at it on its face, it would seem to be a tough sell to an audience from a studio's point of view.

First, it's long. At 152 minutes it's quite a bit longer that studios like. Shorter run times means more showings per day, yes, but studios also point to market research that says that audiences don't like long movies.

Second, it's grim. The story line takes itself and its chracters very seriously. It's clear that Nolan wanted to tell this story with as real stakes as possible, namely; if a guy in costume was working as a vigilante in your city, and a psychotic criminal with no scruples whatsoever became fixated on said vigilante, very bad things would happen and it would be a good idea to move. Not cartoony things, but actual bad things. The film doesn't shy away from this in any way. The Joker may be entertaining, but he's also honestly terrifying. Part of it is certainly the performance, but a lot is in the writing. You actually have no idea what he's about to do next.

Finally, its complex. It has a deliberate commentary to make on escalation of force, on the cost of an orderly society, on terrorism and the world we live in.

God, it makes Iron Man (which I enjoyed a lot) look like a kid's cartoon.

So, why has it clicked? Well, because of two reasons, IMO. First, contrary to the beliefs of the studios, audiences aren't dumb. They know quality when they see it. If a movies' good, they'll accept 152 minutes of grim, complex stuff. Second, Nolan and company didn't completely go art-house here. There are still some great action sequences throughout that are customary for a big summer blockbuster, and these sequences are exceptional.

Will The Dark Knight change the way blockbusters are done? Probably not. The main ingredient to its success has been its quality. The buzz, fanboys, and Ledger's death may have gotten people in the door, but it's massive success is due to its quality. That's much harder to replicate.

(and on a lighter note: I believe the poster above is a fake. So much for trusting my veracity)