The trouble is, when you listen to Hoch's story, it really does sound like the cast and writers were acting like a bunch of racist douchebags behind the scenes, so you have to wonder.

Somehow, it only just now registered with me that they're trying to pass off "J. Peterman" as a latino named Jacobo in this episode.

That's Ovaltine. Which they should call Round-tine.

It does sound like there's been a bit of a renaissance in fantasy lately—I hear good things about Sanderson's own work, Steven Erickson (though the one and a half books of the Malazan series I've read didn't blow me away, though they're clearly a step up from the usual fantasy dreck), and Ian Abercrombie, and I…

I can see why fantasy tends to sprawl, what with all the world-building, and I'm not automatically opposed to it, but fantasy writers do need to rediscover the art of a tight, elegant short story or standalone novel.

It's not you, it's what all his "fans" keep saying. That's got to fuck with your head a little.

Tolkien may have founded the genre of modern epic fantasy, but he also left it with a lot of very bad habits.

I really don't like it when people compare Martin and Jordan. Martin has his flaws, but he's telling a gripping, propulsive story that actually moves forward; it sounds odd to say for a vast fantasy series like this, but it's actually pretty tight, narratively speaking. When I finished Game of Thrones I immediately…

By that logic, no episodic TV series has ever been better than a movie.

But by the same token, being told "HURRY UP AND FINISH AND THEN YOU CAN DIE" isn't the kind of thing that would make me want to keep writing.

I actually quite liked the episode with Data becoming a schizoid Mayan emperor—"Masks", I think it's called. It's extremely atmospheric, even creepy at times, and something about the idea of an entire pantheon of gods being transformed into multiple personalities fighting for control of an android is fun in a berzerk…

Of course, this supposed "stripper" spends all her time onscreen wearing more clothing than your average lumberjack. Which kind of bugged me, I mean, if you're going to make the character a stripper, don't wuss out on it.

A lot of the later 2D Disney movies could qualify (though none of them were outright flops). In addition to Treasure Planet there was Atlantis and that weird-ass one about the talking cows.

Yeah, Mouth of Madness is one of Carpenter's best, and definitely puts the lie to the "hasn't made a good movie since 1988" line.

The thing is, turning Halloween into an anthology series is actually a really good idea. Too bad the movie was apparently so awful.

Stick out?
"But a giant guy smelling of pond water and looking like a reject from the New York Rangers is bound to stick out in New York."

Having only seen the Sontarans on NuWho, I found them to be rather charming and memorable (if "charming" is the right word for a bunch of fanatical militarists). They are, of course, dopey looking, but that's actually part of what makes them work, to me—they're so blind to their own ridiculousness that it goes past…

SPOILERS!

The thing is, the show kept coming up with possible love interests for Angel; Kate in seasons 1 and 2, then Gwen, then (SPOILERS) werewolf girl. It really felt like the writers had a long-term plan for Kate, scrambled to find replacements for her (the random redhead who became Holtz' apprentice was pretty obviously…

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