Freyburg

Our commentary on “Silence in the Library” was upstaged somewhat by one David Tennant’s decision to quit the role of The Doctor after the four 2009 specials. Fandom was agog, aflame and otherwise a-twitter with speculation on who the next Doctor will be, and we were no different, making this one of our longer prognostications. And we sort of stayed on topic every once in a while….occasionally. Also, as of next week we promise there’ll be no more political appeals to our American listeners, for better or for ill.

It was inevitable that the expanding world of online video would hit the wall that every other industry in America (and elsewhere) has run into, and with that decline has come rounds of layoffs. Revision3 has turfed three of their employees, including some TechTV alumni, and discontinued its distribution deal with Smashface Productions, the creators of Epic-Fu. Not to mention Seesmic, the video commenting service, though I’d contend video commenting is a dumb idea to begin with. Heavy.com, 60Frames…the list goes on.

But the difference between this round of cost-cutting and the tech bubble is that these companies weren’t throwing around masses of worthless stock and spending beyond their means, and the fact that the economic malaise isn’t isolated to the tech sector this time around. And online video is, at least for now, much cheaper to produce than regular broadcast television. Standout shows like Epic-Fu get their start through people screwing around with a camcorder, not a big production deal…so one way or the other, there’ll always be a place for online video. It just might not have venture capital attched to it.

Chris returned to the fold and lost no time flinging acerbic barbs in the direction of “The Unicorn and the Wasp,” quite possibly the low point of Season 4, and certainly a story we mostly ignored in our commentary. One can hardly blame the Three Who Rule for their disinterest, but at least there’s goings on in the Library (silent ones) to indulge in next week.

Yep, the other side of the coin has dropped and I’ve got another article up about Flash on the iPhone up at Mac | Life, this time accentuating the positives of Adobe’s graphical powerhouse on Apple’s iconic mobile device.

…is the title of my latest article over at Mac | Life. It’s already getting some vigorous debate from Flash defenders and detractors, so join in with your two cents, wouldya?.

Steven and Warren braved the depths of mediocrity in order to bring you “The Doctor’s Daughter,” one of the lesser lights of Season Four. But after six months since our original viewing, it must be said that David Tennant rises to the occasion and puts in some first-rate acting in an otherwise fourth rate story. Brace yourselves and listen, chums.

In a speech on Meet the Press worthy of Obama’s elecution, General Colin Powell explained that he feels Obama is not only a “transformational figure” but that Sarah Palin is not ready to be President of the United States (which is, after all, her job as VP) and that the Republican Party has swung too far to the right. Special mention should go to his addressing the insidious nature of calling Obama and Arab and Muslim. As Powell put it, it wouldn’t matter is he was, and if seeing Obama inspires some seven-year old Muslim American to someday become president, so much the better.

The NFB is branching out from Hinterland Who’s Who (actually, I have no idea if they have anything to do with HWW, I just love the music at the beginning of the mini-films) and other cold Canadian fare to present RIP: A Remix Manifesto. It looks like an interesting take on the copyright battle, though unfortunately there’s no way (as of yet) to view the whole film online. Here’s the trailer…

Rather than give you a ham-handed attempt at an explanation, I’ll let these notable personages take a crack at it..

and you can get much more information at the Creative Commons website.

With Chris still wandering around London without anything more than a 3G iPhone, it was up to Warren and Steven to again take the helm and offer the latest morsels of news about all things Who and bloviate on the Poison Sky, the second part of the Sontaran’s return to form. Though precious little was actually aid about the episode at hand, Warren did manage to transfigure the Sontaran war cry into OBAM-HA! surely a new rallying cry for these final days of the American election campaign.