It’s a good location if your economy depends on trading and sailing ships. It’s why the British set out to take over the Dutch colony in the first place. If you’re a wizard trying to hide an entire society it doesn’t make a lick of sense.

I knew this thing was going to be a shambles the moment I read the phrase: ‘no-maj’

Not to mention that in 1693 New York was a small town on the bottom of the island of Manhattan. Its population was still largely Dutch, why on earth would you headquarter your supersecret government there, when there’s a massive unexplored continent to hide away on?

That’s all well and good, but shouldn’t she be available to captain a starship on Bryan Fuller’s new Star Trek show? Unless he manages to get Angela Bassett of course.

I’d love to see a comparison to developments in agriculture elsewhere in the world, because this kind of ‘there is no alternative’-reporting comes across as nothing so much as justifying agribusiness. There’s a human and environmental cost to this loss of jobs and farmland. Simply saying the economy favours larger…

Not being an American this seems strange to me, but is the argument here: ‘I can’t vote for this candidate, because someone was mean to me on twitter?’ There’s a lot to unpack here, not the least of which is that nothing that happens on twitter is actually important. I’m sure these guys are assholes, but how does…

I always thought W Morgan Sheppard had the perfect craggy, gravelly quality to play Wednesday. He even has a glass eye. But he’s probably too old for it. Ian McShane would be perfect though. I can see Brian Cox doing a good job with it as well. I wonder if Stellan Skarsgård might be a good choice too.

Phil is the best, and I’m not just saying that because he used to catsit for me.

Well, I guess so. But Neil Patrick Harris just seems too much of a nice, attractive, people pleaser to succesfully do the combination of sinister, manic and pathetic to play Olaf. As well as too young? I picture someone like Michael Keaton or Peter Capaldi as the perfect choice.

It doesn’t seem wholly unimaginable that Lucas’ feelings about selling of his creation have changed after seeing the new movie. The way it recycles so many things from the original trilogy and gets praised for it must irk him to some degree.

I’m dreading that’s the case, because it just seems too ridiculous. But considering that in Star Wars you had star ships named Star destroyers, it could just be another case of the bad guys using some intimidating hyperbole. It could just be a planetsized military base.

Or Benjen Stark?

Ian McShane as the Hound? It’s possible, but considering that this season will have flashbacks, I wonder if he might not be a very suitable Robert Baratheon?

Excellent idea, Stephen Fry has called him the best of the late night hosts and Americans love being told they’re wrong by Brits.

I think I remember John Hodgman being a huge fan of Qi and possibly trying to set up an American version, but that could just be my memory prioritising my fantasies over reality. He was however a guest on one episode, and would probably be the best presenter of a US version that I can think of anyway. It certainly…

It doesn’t actually say whether this will be set in the new continuity or not, but considering Kurtzman’s involvement one can only presume it is. Well, good. The new continuity allows for an updated look and a lot more creative freedom. I do hope however that they won’t try too hard to come up with some new concept.…

If we go with a traditional interpretation of the character, yes, absolutely. And they could simply stick her in a tux, I think it would add a nice layer of irony to the proceedings. But you could easily tweak the whole thing to make it more specific for ms Cox. The point of Frank’nFurter is to confront the normals…

I, for one, can’t wait to see Abrams make them go underwater next.

I can’t help but wonder what the Harry Potter films would have been like if Dumbledore had been played by Patrick Stewart.

Star Trek on ice!